Useless Filth

Soleia pinched her lips tightly together, her thoughts running wild.

"Injured?" she echoed. "How?"

"We were camping for the night when we ran into some thornhounds," Ralph explained. 

"You're saying that someone who was able to defeat a dragon and return practically unscathed nearly fell to a thornhound?" Soleia deadpanned. The more Ralph explained, the more ludicrous she felt the story was.

"There was an estimated number of forty thornhounds in that one pack," Ralph said. "In comparison, there were only five men. It was a scouting team led by His Grace ahead of the rest of the battalion. Only the Duke and one other came back alive, and even he was badly injured, eventually succumbing to his injuries."

Ralph pursed his lips tightly together, causing Soleia to frown.

"What else are you not telling me?"

"That was where he met Miss Elowyn," Ralph finally said. That caused Soleia to look back at the stairs where the two had disappeared, her frown deepening the more he spoke. "She was the one who returned him to safety after he went missing for a month."

"But thornhounds don't usually linger around the southeastern side of Vramid," Soleia muttered under her breath. "How did they―"

One glance at Ralph and she knew her answer.

"She was with you guys the entire two years," she said in realization.

Ralph merely numbly nodded.

"And no one thought to tell me?" Soleia's voice shook when she spat those words out, betrayal clinging onto her every word.

"We tried to, Your Highness," Ralph said, troubled. "But by then, His Grace and Miss Elowyn…"

He trailed off, but there was no need for him to finish the sentence. Soleia could guess the rest for herself. One month was a long time, long enough for two fully grown adults to do many things that should never be spoken about in broad daylight.

"What took him a month to return?" Soleia asked shakily. "What were they doing this entire time?"

"His Grace had forgotten everything entirely when he first woke up, according to Miss Elowyn," Ralph said. "It took him weeks to even remember that he was leading an army to battle."

"And my father?" Soleia asked, "Did he know that the Duke could've been dead?"

"He commanded the battalion to forward to enemy lines regardless," Ralph said. "With His Grace gone, I was the next in command. And I did as told."

Soleia could only coldly laugh. Ralph spoke with such seriousness that she wondered for a second if he didn't realize the King was sending them all on a suicide mission. He never intended for them to return victorious. They were merely pigs for slaughter.

But they did. 

Now that they had defied all odds and returned alive, King Godwin would be even more determined to have Soleia guard Duke Elsher like a dog. Her father feared revolutions, and with the people's growing love for the Duke, his worry that the Duke would eventually lead the citizens of Vramid to revolt only grew with every passing day.

"He should've stayed dead," Soleia muttered under her breath, scowling. 

She had to think of a way to placate her father if he eventually came for her throat. While Soleia had no intention of speaking up for Duke Elsher a second time, his stupidity would eventually lead to her downfall, and she needed to find a way out.

However, before she could sit down and plan things out, she heard a loud crash coming from the direction of the bedchambers.

Soleia's head whipped quickly in the direction, her eyes wide with alarm. She had left some of her new prototypes lying in the bedroom as it was easiest to tinker with them there than in the study, which was crammed full of documents regarding the fief.

"What was that?" Ralph asked.

That was what Soleia intended to find out. She rushed up the steps and headed straight for the bedchambers, and when she finally arrived at the door, her heart fell to the pits of her stomach. It was as she feared.

Elowyn stood right at the vanity table, which had been temporarily used as a workstation for the last two years in the Duke's absence. On the floor was a pile of glass shards, metal parts, and splintered wood. There were papers scattered everywhere, and in the center of it all stood the culprit.

"Did you hurt yourself?" Orion worriedly asked Elowyn, her hand in his as he flipped it back and forth to check for scratches.

None of them paid attention to Soleia until she let out a choked cry.

"My prototype!" she cried out. "What have you done?"

Elowyn came forward and blocked Soleia's path. "I was just trying to―"

In her haste to enter the room, Soleia shoved Elowyn out of the way, and the latter cried out in panic as she fell. If it hadn't been for Orion, she would've crashed against the side table no doubt, but Soleia couldn't care less right now.

Ignoring Elowyn and Orion, she hurried into the room and knelt next to the parts. It had been ruined beyond salvation― if Soleia hadn't been the creator, she would've never been able to guess what it was beforehand even with the help of the manuscripts.

"This was supposed to help pay for next month's rations…" Soleia muttered under her breath.

"Are you done rambling?" Duke Elsher's voice pulled her attention away from the mess on the floor. When Soleia raised her gaze, she was met with his cold eyes. "Who gave you the right to put such useless filth in my chambers?"

"Useless filth?" Soleia echoed. Fury burned in her heart as indignation quickly filled her. "Useless? Filth? Have you any clue what you have just done?!"

She clambered onto her feet and strode forward. Before anyone could react, she raised her hand and landed a slap across Orion's cheek. A crisp sound echoed through the air as everyone present stilled. Orion's head veered to one side, his eyes wide with disbelief while his cheeks stung from the impact.

"You are broke!" she yelled, unable to tamper down the anger she felt. "There is no money left in your treasury and everything from the linens on the bed to the food in your mother's stomach are bought with the money earned from the things you've dubbed as useless filth! So how dare you!"

Similarly, red colored Orion's eyes as the jade pieces he wore began to lightly glow green. He raised his hand into the air, and what soon followed was a second slapping sound ringing across the room.