Valerian, The Legendary

165 Faux.

Valerian and Fortuna were channeling shadow element mana and they were standing in the darkest corner of the room, so the troubled girls were not able to find them at first. They had too much to deal with at this moment. Valerian was gazing indifferently at the girl on the floor, lost in thought.

He only woke up when Sylvia came forward and helped the young girl as she said in a consoling tone, “Your highness, calm down. We are too weak to deal with this issue.”

Ashlyn turned her head around to look at Sylvia, she revealed a swollen cheek and asked, “If you were in my place, would you be able to calm down? This bastard usurped the throne when we were children. He misled us saying that it was the Valkyrians who assassinated our parents. His wife and he were both unable to have children because of the attack they suffered from my father.

All these years he used us, and now that his wife can conceive, he even forbade me to call him father? Over all this, this bastard is going to plot against, Brother-in-law? I hate him!!!”

Sylvia sighed and said, “What you said is correct your highness, but what can we do? We do not have the strength to go and kill this guy, can we?”

Ashlyn sighed and then she fell back on the ground, bursting into tears. Valerian watched all this from the side, without any intention of intervening. Suddenly, Fortuna’s voice sounded in his mind, ‘Since she hates the emperor, use it for your benefit.’

Valerian lowered his head to see the cat nodding at him. After thinking for a while, he decided to play the game of politics and manipulation against these people. He calmed his thoughts and stepped out of the shadows. Sylvia was alert and raised her hand, just when she was about to cast the spell a calm voice made her freeze, “Terra Liga.”

She was slower than Valerian but just a bit and her legs were encased in stone, she was dazed for a moment and the silver-haired boy was already in front of her, with his jade-like palm resting on her delicate neck. He said, “Calm down, I am here to help.”

Ashlyn woke up from her senseless crying, upon raising her head when she spotted Valerian, she was about to exclaim when the boy glared at her and she froze. He said in a low voice, “There are people outside, do not alarm them.”

.....

Ashlyn realized that the situation demanded concealment, and nodded as she said, “Let Sylvia go.”

Valerian heard her whispering tone, but he did not move his hand away and cast a gaze at the maid in his hand. He asked, “Will you cooperate? Or not?”

The maid was scared stiff, and then she nodded, as she lowered her hand. Valerian slowly let go of the jade-like smooth neck. He caught a mark of his palm on her delicate neck, and said, “Sanatio Lucis.”

The bruise on the face of the maid, and the swelling on the face of the princess vanished, and Valerian said, “Let’s talk, what the hell is going on in this palace of yours.”

Ashlyn sighed as she stood up. She sat on the bed and gestured for Valerian to sit on the chair opposite as she said, “You might have heard it, Thales is the younger brother of my late father, Herman. They were not yet crowned when we were born. One time, Thales and Stephanie organized a hunt for the royal family, and my parents naturally followed them.

All I know is that this bastard and his wife tricked my parents. They attacked them sneakily and killed my mother. When they attacked my father, he attacked them with his spears, they were injured but my father bled out to death. Later they portrayed the scene to be a beast attack. When they came back to the palace, my grandfather crowned this guy as the emperor, but he also asked the two of them to be responsible for us.

Big sister Adele, still does not know what the truth is. I only found out when the loyalist from the old days could not bear his tyranny and cunning nature and came to tell me about the truth.”

Valerian heard the sob story, he did not know whether Ashlyn was lying or not, suddenly, Fortuna’s voice sounded in his mind, “She is telling the truth. Her heartbeat is stable.”

Valerian nodded, and asked, “We need to turn the tables. Do you have any loyal subordinates under you?”

Ashlyn sighed and shook her head. She said, “I am but a doll they played with for convenience.”

Valerian closed his eyes and began to think about alternatives. Sylvia said, “I can help with this.”

This caught the attention of both the princess and the invader. The maid spoke slowly, “The maids in the palace are all loyal to the princesses, they despise the emperor and empress.”

Valerian raised his eyebrow and asked, “Why so?”

“The two princesses treat everyone with respect and they do not humiliate us, but the other two do not think of us as people. There have been times when the empress had called for the maids to serve him in the bed.”, said the maid.

Valerian could understand this and ask, “Can you get them to help us?”

Sylvia thought for a bit and then nodded. Valerian said, “I have a few tasks for you. One is to find out if there are any Valkeryians in the palace. Second, have the maids relay all the plans they hear from the Emperor and the Empress after the sunset.”

Sylvia was surprised and then she said, “The first one is easy to do, but how will the people hear things inside the rooms?”

Valerian shook his head and said, “The two people must have an attending handmaid or butler to their sides. Use them.”

Ashlyn and Sylvia were shocked, they did not expect this young man to be so sly. To think that he planned to use the right-hand people of the emperor and empress to gather information. Ashlyn said, “Although your plan is nice, but you are simply naive. Those two people are die-hard loyal to the Empress and Emperor, why will they ditch them?”

Valerian shook his head and said, “Not necessarily, those who serve such cunning people are nothing but rats. When a ship is about to drown, the rats jump off the deck faster than anyone.”

Ashlyn rolled her eyes and said, “Fine, but is this ship sinking?”

Valerian stopped paying attention to this idiot in front of him and said, “Sylvia, do you know what you have to do? The approach and imagination of death are scarier than the actual death itself.”

Sylvia smiled and nodded as she said, “Your Highness, you are a terrifying opponent.”

Valerian did not say anything and asked her to get to work. Ashlyn did not understand what the conversation between the two people mean. she was confused. Sylvia stood up excused herself and slowly walked up to the door, she knocked on the surface gently and said, “Can I go out to bring food for her Highness? She is hungry.”

Thales had posted guards to watch over the princess, they could not leave the room without informing them. The guards outside discussed within themselves and Sylvia said in a stern manner, “If the princess starved, I will have your heads rolling at her feet in the underworld.”

This was enough stimulation, the door was opened, and Sylvia was about to walk out when Fortuna followed her. The maid was surprised and so were the guards. The guard asked, “Where did this cat come from?”

Valerian gave a few hand signs to Ashlyn, who nodded and said, “She was inside my beast bag, why? Do I have to report everything to the few of you?”

The guard was scared and said, “No, your highness, I apologize.”

Ashlyn snorted and Sylvia left the place with Fortuna, right at her heels. The door of the room was closed once again. Ashlyn did not think much and thought that the cat was just a normal magical beast that Valerian had sent to protect the maid.

However, she was not correct even remotely. Valerian had sent Fortuna to kill Sylvia if she dared to say more than she had to. If she tried to alert the enemy. After all, trusting her this soon would be foolish and could result in his death. Valerian had trust issues and this was a war situation. He was behind enemy lines, like hell if he would trust anyone.

Fortuna was the one to discern that Ashlyn was speaking the truth, but he noticed that the maid was a bit too calm throughout the process. Either she had complete control over her emotions or she was just unemotional.

Thus the dragon went out to ensure that the plan goes unimpeded. IN the room, Valerian asked, “Do you know what Dragon treasures are?”

Ashlyn looked at him and asked, “Do you think I am that ignorant?”

Valerian shrugged his shoulders and asked, “Do you know where the soul seeker bow is kept?”

Ashlyn opened her eyes wide at this point and took out her magic wand aiming at Valerian as she asked, “What do you intend to do?”

She was wary and thought this guy wanted to rob the dragon treasure from her royal family. However, Valerian simply waved his hand and said, “I intend to stop the valkyrians from stealing that thing and killing everyone. Do not misunderstand, I have no idea about that life-sucking thing.”

He was bluffing.