Saving The Abandoned Empress

183 “Imperial Fleet”

A few days later~

“How are you feeling now, Your Majesty?”

“...Thanks to you, am feeling much better now.”

‘Then why is he like this?’

Eleanora thought as she found Cathain acting weird for the past few days.

“Am glad that you are fine now, Your Majesty. But if you feel any kind of abnormal symptoms again, you must tell me.”

“...Elee,”

“Yes?”

Cathain paused after calling her name and Eleanora wondered what he wants to tell her.

.....

“Your Majesty?”

Eleanora called him as he didn’t spoke anything after calling her and Cathain stood up to approach her, standing a little far away from her so that she can see his face.

“Won’t you call me by my name again?”

“W-What...”

“You only call me by my name when am about to die...”

“...”

‘What does he even mean by this?’

Cathain looked at Eleanora as he has been wronged by her, which made her speechless.

“Will you call me by my name if i get injured again?”

“...I will personally kill you so that you don’t get injured again, NOW EAT!”

Eleanora spoke in frustration as she didn’t knew what to do with him anymore, and stuffed a bun in his mouth.

Which he bought with him in his bag as emergency food and turned to sit above a rock.

“Anyway, You must not do this again.”

“What should i not do?”

Cathain asked as he chew on the bun, which she stuffed into his mouth.

“...Coming all the way to save me,”

Eleanora spoke as she took another small bun from the bag to eat and looked at him seriously.

“Your Majesty is an unparalleled person who stands at the apex of our empire as it’s emperor-”

“You cannot be so reckless or act on your emotions, You must etch it soundly in your heart that the emperor’s well-being is paramount to everything else in the empire- Is this what you are going to say next?”

Cathain interrupted Eleanora in the middle of her sentence with a low voice.

Which sounded bland but painful at the same time.

“...It goes without saying that am keenly aware of the importance of my identity. However...”

He paused on his words as he approached Eleanora, who was sitting above a rock and kneeled down infront of her.

“Your Majesty-”

Eleanora, who was shocked because of his sudden kneeling wanted to get up but Cathain grabbed her arms so that she can’t stand up.

“However... More then my status as the emperor or this empire, even more then my own life... You matter the most to me.”

Cathain spoke with the highest sincerity he could show through his red eyes to Eleanora, whose blue eyes trembled a little as she heard and saw the sincerity in his eyes.

Who rather avoid it then seeing or acknowledge his sincerity.

“W-We have to get going... Let’s g-go,”

Eleanora avoided looking in his eyes as she turned to pack up their bag and leave the cave to move forward, after she picked up her sword which he had bought with him.

Where Cathain kept kneeling down and staring at the rock, the place she was sitting just now.

‘For how long will we remain like this, My empress?’

.

.

.

Crunching sounds echoed as the two of them continued to walk on the heavy snowy road in the north mountains.

‘Am glad he thought of bringing warm clothes and dry foods. He also packed a compass and a detailed map,’

‘If we continue to go on like this, maybe we can make our way back to imperial army without any complications.’

“Only if i could get any evidence...”

“Evidence?”

Eleanora become surprised as she fall on the snow after bumping into Cathain’s chest, who abruptly turned back to face her.

“...”

“...”

“Hah... Would anyone believe that our commander, who alone is capable of defeating thousand soldiers; falls after bumping into someone?”

Cathain chuckled as he reached out his hands to help Eleanora, who was pouting with anger to get up on her feet again.

“Am not weak, you are just too strong-”

Eleanora’s face turned red as she unintentionally blurted out what she had on her mind.

Even Cathain become a little stunned as he didn’t expected to get... praised by her?

Both of them became quite as they blushed because of embarrassment.

“T-The night is falling, we should circle back to the cave we had passed by earlier.”

Cathain shuttered a little as he spoke and after taking a step, he grabbed her hand without looking back; which surprised Eleanora.

‘His neck is red... Is he embarrassed?’

Eleanora thought as it was her first time, where she saw him getting this embarrassed.

As she continued to walk behind him, while her hands was gripped into his big hands tightly; Eleanora stared at his broad back with amusement.

‘Am i really doing it right?’

‘Or my perception is wrapped by the prejudice i harbour from my past life so strongly that i can’t accept the current changes?’

.

.

.

The Coast of the Blue Sea River ~

(Near the borders of the short cut of Penduline to Scunthorpe)

“The fog is too thick. How long will it take to reach Scunthorpe?”

“Roughly five more days... But i don’t think they will try to cross the river by swimming in this weather.”

A knight replied to their vice conmander of the Rua Army and the vice commander started to ponder about their next move.

‘In the first place, this war was forced from our side by stealing their soldier information.’

‘I can’t even imagine how devastating the aftermath would be if we lose... The emperor is no less then his father, the late-emperor.’

‘His highness, king Mendel has only ruled for four years; if he loses this war, he may be forced to relinquish his powers or even step down from the throne...’

‘But the loses we, the people of this kingdom will face would be huge.’

‘We’ll have to compromise as much as we can if defeat is inevitable.’

‘The upside is that the emperor and the future empress is in our territory.’

‘The young duke of Raven has mobilized the imperial army to gain control over the land of Penduline... We can’t lose in the sea too,’

‘If we can’t avoid defeat, then we have to catch them before the Duke of Dalton joins the war.’

.....

‘Otherwise we won’t be able to handle the terms of the peace talks.’

“VICE COMMANDER!!! THERE IS AN UNIDENTIFIED SHIP AHEAD OF US!!”

“WHAT?!”

‘No Away!’

The vice commander hurriedly walked forward as he snatched the binocular from a knight to see the unidentified ship.

His eyes widened with horror as the ship approached them, which had the red coloured imperial flag of the Valentino empire.

Along with the Blue flag of the Dalton Duchy, lead by duke Alexander De Xavier Dalton.

“THIS IS AN EMERGENCY!!! IT’S THE IMPERIAL FLEET!!!”