Cotton’s remark was quickly followed by a question from someone else.
“I wonder if Lady Sinclair knew, and went down there knowing this would happen.”
“It was kind of weird, actually. Did you read the article? Cherry Sinclair buying an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere like that?”
“Yeah, well, Sinclair’s always had a weird sense of direction.”
“Maybe she had access to some private plague dossier? I mean, there’s a lot of information that gets passed around at Sinclair’s clubs that you wouldn’t expect.”
“Maybe. She was always well-informed, and if Lady Sinclair was paying attention, the business was successful. She’s been devalued a lot, and she’s the heiress to the Sinclair family, so maybe the image we knew of her was all made up.”
These are the same people who, until things got to this point, had been gossiping about Cherry Sinclair harder than anyone else.
Aurora found it pathetic that they could change their opinion of Cherry at the flip of a finger, according to their own whims.
‘Maybe Lady Sinclair is just like me after all.’
The kind that loses itself in all manner of prejudiced gazes.
‘And besides, how I envy her being with Ethan Duncan Lancaster…….
“Ouch, you stepped on my foot, dear Cotton, what? Lancaster, what? Ouch……? Ouch……?”
Cotton deliberately stepped on Seymour’s foot while he was talking about Ethan. Seymour, who had been talking loudly without noticing, suddenly noticed Aurora and shut up in embarrassment.
Aurora’s expression once again sank into darkness as she worried about Ethan.
Kwah!
Just then, a loud bang came from somewhere. It was coming from the middle of the street.
Tadadadadadang!
Ta-da-da-da!
Gunshots echoed down the street.
“Oh my God, they must have come to rescue us!”
“We’re alive! Oh, God!”
The crowed cheered, clasping their hands together in hope.
‘But what if it’s not the rescuers?’
And at this point, Aurora was the only one with such a realistic concern.
The gunshots got closer and closer to the salon, and with each shot, the young people waited excitedly for the strangers.
When the gunfire finally stopped in front of the salon, the door burst open with the sound of fast footsteps running up the stairs.
The uniforms of armed Royalist soldiers were the first to be seen, and they quickly entered the salon, guns drawn and aimed at the young men, and soon stood in formation.
The soldiers were anything but clean. Rather, they were ghastly. They were covered in blood and looked like messengers from hell.
As the jubilant youngsters paused, horrified at the sight of such murderous behaviour, a man walked through the ranks of the soldiers.
Black boots and white trousers, an equally white uniform jacket with ornate knots of gold thread and golden shoulder epaulets.
Aurora looked at the man’s face.
Snow-white silver hair, framed by piercing blue walls. The gold earring in his left ear jingled as he moved.
The man whose face remained untouched by the chaos was none other than Theodore, Crown Prince of Graydon.
” How in the world could His Royal Highness the Crown Prince be here…….”
Crown Prince Theodore scanned the area, ignoring Cotton’s mumbling.
“I’m not in a position to make formal introductions, so I’ll skip introducing myself, I hope you’ll understand me.”
Unlike Prince Lloyd, Theodore was a polite and gentlemanly man, with polite manners that came naturally to him.
“Of course, His Royal Highness!”
Lady Cotton exclaimed, and Theodore’s gaze turned to her for a moment. He scanned his surroundings calmly.
“What happened outside? Are all the monsters gone?”
“When is the situation going to be cleared up?”
“I want to go home, eek!”
“You’re here to save us, aren’t you?”
The youngsters, who would normally have been too afraid to speak under the crown prince’s watchful eye, asked questions in fear.
But Theodore didn’t answer. He didn’t sound particularly threatening, but his overbearing aura was so overwhelming that the young people soon fell silent.
Out of the corner of his eye, Theodore spotted a young girl sitting in silence.
Flowing silver hair, mysterious purple eyes. A face that bore no resemblance to the sharp-tongued Ethan.
After stared at her for a moment, Theodore looked back to the centre of the room and spoke calmly.
“Massive unrest is spreading across the country. But don’t fear, the Royal House of Greydon has declared martial law and is successfully controlling the situation. Your Royal Highnesses will be asked to follow the military’s instructions and remain calm from now on. Can you do that?”
N: Martial law: the ruling of a country by army in time of war or great national emergency, when ordinary law does not apply.
Of course, successfully controlling the situation was a stretch.
They weren’t even stopping the virus from spreading, let alone controlling it. Even Grayson’s military structure had collapsed. The soldiers with Theodore now were the crown prince’s guards.
But he couldn’t tell them all the truth. For now, he had to reassure them until they could get to a safe place.
“Yes, yes, of course we’ll follow you!”
“You’re saving us, so we can all live, right?”
“Thank you, Your Majesty, thank you for saving us!”
The youngsters sobbed and thanked Theodore repeatedly. Theodore looked back at the military commander and nodded. Then the commander stepped forward and spoke to the youngsters.
“Please come this way in turn.”
The Young Ones stood up from their seats and began to move to follow the commander’s lead.
Meanwhile, Theodore slowly approached Aurora and greeted her.
“I’ve been looking for you, Lady. Long time no see. I believe we greeted each other at the graduation ceremony at Benton College in Rubridge.”
Theodore smiled brightly at Aurora. They had spoken briefly on the day of Theodore and Ethan’s graduation, when Aurora had come to the school to congratulate Ethan.
“Ah. I remember you, The Crown Prince.”
“Lord Ethan asked me to protect you in the event of a situation like this one day.”
“My brother?”
Aurora repeated, surprised. Theodore remembered what Ethan had said.
“There may come a time when I won’t be able to protect her, Aurora, and I’ll need you to do so.”
“No. What’s the big deal about protecting her when she’s safe at Lancaster Manor, and what are the circumstances under which you wouldn’t be able to?”
“My father’s hiding something about Aurora’s adoption, and I don’t know the details.”
Of course, Ethan hadn’t asked for a favour in anticipation of the apocalypse.
But since Ethan’s last known contact had been at Brunel, it was Theodore, not him, who could protect Aurora in the capital.
“Don’t you want to see, Ethan?”
“”Yes, I miss him, is my brother safe?”
“I’m very curious to know if he’s okay, too. I need to ask him something. So I’m going to start looking for him.”
Theodore held out his hand to Aurora.
“What do you say, do you want to come with me? It could be dangerous, I’m not even sure of my own life right now.”
Aurora stared at Theodore’s large hand for a moment, then nodded vigorously and took it.
“I’ll go. I want to find my brother.”
To do that, she had to go to Brunel.
I carried the large boulders for the catapult up to the gazebo.
“We need stones of just the right weight, like this, because if they’re too heavy, they won’t fly far. I’ll have to get more outside later, but I’ll use up what I have today.”
I muttered as I placed the stone on the catapult.
This is my first time using it, so I know I will be failing a few times. If I’m unlucky, I might use up all the stones and still not hit the statue.
‘Wait, let’s not think about that.’
Since we don’t have a plan, we had to make the statue work.
“We’ll think about that after we get to the village. Maybe we won’t have to do that when we get in touch with the capital.”
Once we get in touch with the capital.
Ethan sounded hopeful. Not wanting to be a hope destroyer, I kept my mouth shut.
I told him we needed hope right now. To stay sane.
Wordlessly, I checked the condition of the elastic and adjusted the position of the catapult. I could see a statue of a girl in the distance. Very small.
‘I shouted at the top of my lungs…….’
What if it doesn’t work?
Brunel is such a small town that I can see it from the Happy House, but the catapult isn’t very accurate and its range is probably 200-300 metres at best.
‘But I have the power.’
The catapult I made was based on the principle of pulling the catapult rod and using the recoil to launch it, so the pulling force was the most important.
This meant that as long as I counted the force, I could hit the target, even if it wasn’t very accurate.
“Wait, don’t you think something moved over there?”
Staring at the girl, I caught a glimpse of something moving behind the trees in the plaza.
Ethan, next to me, quickly picked up his binoculars and scanned the town.
“Shit.”
Ethan swore in a low voice beside me. I looked back at him, puzzled.
“It’s Lord Knox. He’s alive and well. Problem is, he seem to be stranded in the middle of the square right now.”
Cotton’s remark was quickly followed by a question from someone else.
“I wonder if Lady Sinclair knew, and went down there knowing this would happen.”
“It was kind of weird, actually. Did you read the article? Cherry Sinclair buying an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere like that?”
“Yeah, well, Sinclair’s always had a weird sense of direction.”
“Maybe she had access to some private plague dossier? I mean, there’s a lot of information that gets passed around at Sinclair’s clubs that you wouldn’t expect.”
“Maybe. She was always well-informed, and if Lady Sinclair was paying attention, the business was successful. She’s been devalued a lot, and she’s the heiress to the Sinclair family, so maybe the image we knew of her was all made up.”
These are the same people who, until things got to this point, had been gossiping about Cherry Sinclair harder than anyone else.
Aurora found it pathetic that they could change their opinion of Cherry at the flip of a finger, according to their own whims.
‘Maybe Lady Sinclair is just like me after all.’
The kind that loses itself in all manner of prejudiced gazes.
‘And besides, how I envy her being with Ethan Duncan Lancaster…….
“Ouch, you stepped on my foot, dear Cotton, what? Lancaster, what? Ouch……? Ouch……?”
Cotton deliberately stepped on Seymour’s foot while he was talking about Ethan. Seymour, who had been talking loudly without noticing, suddenly noticed Aurora and shut up in embarrassment.
Aurora’s expression once again sank into darkness as she worried about Ethan.
Kwah!
Just then, a loud bang came from somewhere. It was coming from the middle of the street.
Tadadadadadang!
Ta-da-da-da!
Gunshots echoed down the street.
“Oh my God, they must have come to rescue us!”
“We’re alive! Oh, God!”
The crowed cheered, clasping their hands together in hope.
‘But what if it’s not the rescuers?’
And at this point, Aurora was the only one with such a realistic concern.
The gunshots got closer and closer to the salon, and with each shot, the young people waited excitedly for the strangers.
When the gunfire finally stopped in front of the salon, the door burst open with the sound of fast footsteps running up the stairs.
The uniforms of armed Royalist soldiers were the first to be seen, and they quickly entered the salon, guns drawn and aimed at the young men, and soon stood in formation.
The soldiers were anything but clean. Rather, they were ghastly. They were covered in blood and looked like messengers from hell.
As the jubilant youngsters paused, horrified at the sight of such murderous behaviour, a man walked through the ranks of the soldiers.
Black boots and white trousers, an equally white uniform jacket with ornate knots of gold thread and golden shoulder epaulets.
Aurora looked at the man’s face.
Snow-white silver hair, framed by piercing blue walls. The gold earring in his left ear jingled as he moved.
The man whose face remained untouched by the chaos was none other than Theodore, Crown Prince of Graydon.
” How in the world could His Royal Highness the Crown Prince be here…….”
Crown Prince Theodore scanned the area, ignoring Cotton’s mumbling.
“I’m not in a position to make formal introductions, so I’ll skip introducing myself, I hope you’ll understand me.”
Unlike Prince Lloyd, Theodore was a polite and gentlemanly man, with polite manners that came naturally to him.
“Of course, His Royal Highness!”
Lady Cotton exclaimed, and Theodore’s gaze turned to her for a moment. He scanned his surroundings calmly.
“What happened outside? Are all the monsters gone?”
“When is the situation going to be cleared up?”
“I want to go home, eek!”
“You’re here to save us, aren’t you?”
The youngsters, who would normally have been too afraid to speak under the crown prince’s watchful eye, asked questions in fear.
But Theodore didn’t answer. He didn’t sound particularly threatening, but his overbearing aura was so overwhelming that the young people soon fell silent.
Out of the corner of his eye, Theodore spotted a young girl sitting in silence.
Flowing silver hair, mysterious purple eyes. A face that bore no resemblance to the sharp-tongued Ethan.
After stared at her for a moment, Theodore looked back to the centre of the room and spoke calmly.
“Massive unrest is spreading across the country. But don’t fear, the Royal House of Greydon has declared martial law and is successfully controlling the situation. Your Royal Highnesses will be asked to follow the military’s instructions and remain calm from now on. Can you do that?”
N: Martial law: the ruling of a country by army in time of war or great national emergency, when ordinary law does not apply.
Of course, successfully controlling the situation was a stretch.
They weren’t even stopping the virus from spreading, let alone controlling it. Even Grayson’s military structure had collapsed. The soldiers with Theodore now were the crown prince’s guards.
But he couldn’t tell them all the truth. For now, he had to reassure them until they could get to a safe place.
“Yes, yes, of course we’ll follow you!”
“You’re saving us, so we can all live, right?”
“Thank you, Your Majesty, thank you for saving us!”
The youngsters sobbed and thanked Theodore repeatedly. Theodore looked back at the military commander and nodded. Then the commander stepped forward and spoke to the youngsters.
“Please come this way in turn.”
The Young Ones stood up from their seats and began to move to follow the commander’s lead.
Meanwhile, Theodore slowly approached Aurora and greeted her.
“I’ve been looking for you, Lady. Long time no see. I believe we greeted each other at the graduation ceremony at Benton College in Rubridge.”
Theodore smiled brightly at Aurora. They had spoken briefly on the day of Theodore and Ethan’s graduation, when Aurora had come to the school to congratulate Ethan.
“Ah. I remember you, The Crown Prince.”
“Lord Ethan asked me to protect you in the event of a situation like this one day.”
“My brother?”
Aurora repeated, surprised. Theodore remembered what Ethan had said.
“There may come a time when I won’t be able to protect her, Aurora, and I’ll need you to do so.”
“No. What’s the big deal about protecting her when she’s safe at Lancaster Manor, and what are the circumstances under which you wouldn’t be able to?”
“My father’s hiding something about Aurora’s adoption, and I don’t know the details.”
Of course, Ethan hadn’t asked for a favour in anticipation of the apocalypse.
But since Ethan’s last known contact had been at Brunel, it was Theodore, not him, who could protect Aurora in the capital.
“Don’t you want to see, Ethan?”
“”Yes, I miss him, is my brother safe?”
“I’m very curious to know if he’s okay, too. I need to ask him something. So I’m going to start looking for him.”
Theodore held out his hand to Aurora.
“What do you say, do you want to come with me? It could be dangerous, I’m not even sure of my own life right now.”
Aurora stared at Theodore’s large hand for a moment, then nodded vigorously and took it.
“I’ll go. I want to find my brother.”
To do that, she had to go to Brunel.
I carried the large boulders for the catapult up to the gazebo.
“We need stones of just the right weight, like this, because if they’re too heavy, they won’t fly far. I’ll have to get more outside later, but I’ll use up what I have today.”
I muttered as I placed the stone on the catapult.
This is my first time using it, so I know I will be failing a few times. If I’m unlucky, I might use up all the stones and still not hit the statue.
‘Wait, let’s not think about that.’
Since we don’t have a plan, we had to make the statue work.
“We’ll think about that after we get to the village. Maybe we won’t have to do that when we get in touch with the capital.”
Once we get in touch with the capital.
Ethan sounded hopeful. Not wanting to be a hope destroyer, I kept my mouth shut.
I told him we needed hope right now. To stay sane.
Wordlessly, I checked the condition of the elastic and adjusted the position of the catapult. I could see a statue of a girl in the distance. Very small.
‘I shouted at the top of my lungs…….’
What if it doesn’t work?
Brunel is such a small town that I can see it from the Happy House, but the catapult isn’t very accurate and its range is probably 200-300 metres at best.
‘But I have the power.’
The catapult I made was based on the principle of pulling the catapult rod and using the recoil to launch it, so the pulling force was the most important.
This meant that as long as I counted the force, I could hit the target, even if it wasn’t very accurate.
“Wait, don’t you think something moved over there?”
Staring at the girl, I caught a glimpse of something moving behind the trees in the plaza.
Ethan, next to me, quickly picked up his binoculars and scanned the town.
“Shit.”
Ethan swore in a low voice beside me. I looked back at him, puzzled.
“It’s Lord Knox. He’s alive and well. Problem is, he seem to be stranded in the middle of the square right now.”
