Chapter 126: Chapter 126

"I'm happy to see you are awake and looking well, You scared us there, Dahlia..." Henry spoke, making Sara move her eyes from her sister to meet his, trying to ignore the unwelcomed yet reassuring touch and proximity of the shadows’ lord who refused to get off her back, she gave her brother an acknowledging nod, not bothering with any pleasantries or formalities, it was something her old self loved doing as she find some elegance and sophistication in it , but her current self didn't see any point in it beside wasting time and making one look like a boot licker, something she wasn’t in anyway, for even when they didn’t know who she really was, she knew and remembered.

An awkward silence filled the room for about a minute after her gesture, and Henry wondered why did he expect anything else from the weird girl, king or not, she wasn’t going to spare him any words or greetings of any kind, she acknowledged him with a nod and that was it, it was all he was getting from her whether he accepted it or not, waiting for more from her was pointless, swallowing his irritation, he resumed talking.

"First of all, I would like to apologize for the... Ah... Injustice you suffered, it was not in my intention to disrespect or harm you, or let anyone harm you at that, there were somethings that needed clarification at that time, but not anymore.”

Sara wanted to raise her eyebrow at her brother's words and the amount of fake preciosity in them, it looked more of a peasant performing the role of a noble in a low ranked play rather than an actual king addressing a wronged citizen.

"No need to apologize, Your Grace, I am sure the injustice was not intended and you were only doing what you thought was best." Sara, unlike her brother, Didn't try to lard her words with too much butter, she wasn't going to beat around the bush like he was doing, giving her some indirect explanations about his actions and the "injustice", as he liked to call it, that she suffered, Instead, she made sure to tell him, politely as he was still the king and her elder brother, that he was on the wrong side whether he meant it or not, but also made sure to tell him she did not hold it against him, there was no grudge in her heart towards him, because again, no matter what, he was still her brother, the good brother, and she knew he was the kind of person whose actions were done mainly to protect those he cared about the most, and in this case, it was none other than the person she cared about the most, Nara.

"Well..."

"Dahlia please, you need to help us calm the people's fury, Things are getting out of hand..." Nara had it with the awkwardness as well as the unnecessary tardiness and blurted out, gaining everyone’s attention while moving to where Sara was, she sat beside her, taking her hands and answering the unasked questions.

"Someone poisoned you, Dahlia, while you were being investigated..." Nara gave Henry a pointed look, telling him that she was still upset about his irresponsible decision of locking up her best friend.

"Poisoned?" Sara looked at her then to the other faces in the room that nodded in agreement, it was weird as she didn't remember feeling any pain or even discomfort, looking back at Nara with more questions, her sister sighed before resuming her explanations, while feeling the touch of darkness tightening on her back, not welcoming the new person stepping into their space.

Was he suspecting her sister? Sara mentally scoffed at him for the unreasonable thought, he was the danger, not her sister, and she wished to do nothing more than to slap his hand off her and kick him out of the room, but even when she hated it, his presence was the one that brought her back from that dream, where the real danger was.

"We don't know who did it but the investigations are on, and I assure you, whoever did this to you would be punished severely, but the problem at hand is, Someone leaked the news about you being locked and the people didn't take them kindly, You know what you mean to them, Dahlia, You are the savior to many of them, they consider you as one of them, and they believe in you and respect you, when they heard you were locked unjustly, Well, Things started with some protests and then, it escalated to strikes and assemblages demanding to free you, When you didn't make any appearance because you were poisoned, an information we couldn't share with them of course, some started calling out for disobedience, violence and riot... "

"Someone was feeding into it though, I am sure of it..." Henry added while studying the girl's face, she was frowning, trying to process all the news she received in less than five minutes.

“What about the poisoning? And the fact that someone tried to poison her and that this castle isn’t safe? Isn’t that an urgent matter?” Eren asked, irritated beyond compare, and while Sara ignored him and his remark to talk about the irrelevant matter of humans calling out for riot, a pair of red eyes was watching him carefully.

"I agree with you on that, Your Grace, the people do respect me, but for them to go to these extreme measures is definitely over board, It is far from being a normal and expected reaction, even toward someone they value so much." Sara voiced out her thoughts while forming some theories about the matter. “You said I was poisoned?”

“Yes, Venom of the mountains’ snake.” Eren answered the question, making Sara turn to him abruptly, her eyes wide in shock, and he couldn’t decide whether her shock was due to the fact that she survived such a lethal venom, or something else.

"Now, if you are feeling better, we hope you can make an appearance, in the court and the capital streets, it would help absorb the rage a little."

"Not fully though" Sara answered her brother while trying to get on her feet to fall right back on her butt, swallowing her embarrassment and the curse that threatened to leave her lips.

"Let me help you..."

"You need more rest..."

Both Eren and Nara reached out for her, the princess offering her help while the shadows’ lord insisting that she stayed in bed, making them look at each other in the eyes.

Eren, found it really selfish of Henry and Nara to ask such a thing from Sara who nearly died not ten minutes ago, he didn't care if the sky was falling or the world was burning outside this room, Sara needed rest, and for them to ask her to sort out their chaos was selfish, especially after accusing her of things that were probably true but since she was his beloved it didn't matter one bit if she killed some peasants or not, Eren wanted to voice out his thoughts but was stopped by Sara who took Nara's hand to steady herself, completely ignoring him.

"I will do it, before things get out of hand."

Sara struggled a little to regain her stability and steady her steps up, her knees felt a little stiff, making her wonder if it was because she was forced into immobility when she was asleep, it took her few painful attempts of folding and unfolding her knees for her to be able to walk almost normally, but her knee pain was the least of her worries, she had so many questions, she knew that her dream was anything but a dream, she felt her energy being pulled out of her, She would have blamed it on the demons in any other day, especially a one particular demon that just happened to be in the room with her, but she knew better than that, and this one time, it wasn’t darkness that threatened er, it was light.

Giving Eren a quick pointed look that spoke volumes , Sara leaned on Nara for support, taking a deep breath to steady herself, she took few steps with her head held high and her face bare of any emotions, telling herself that the people in the room already had a fair share of seeing her weak and vulnerable, walking was a real chore at first before her joints were back to their normal flexibility, Letting go of Nara's arm, Sara took a quick glimpse at herself, her clothes were the same she wore usually, not the most feminine nor luxurious but clean and presentable, which was more than enough, Walking outside of her room, Sara sensed everyone following her, as well as Eren's shadows creeping under her clothes and smothering her skin, she didn't mind them though, they somehow warmed her body and helped her keep a steady posture.

"The protestors are gathered in the outer court", Sara nodded at the input which she found pretty ironic, the outer court was the place where the public executions took place, there were even a small stone made podium, just what she needed.

"I don't think I should be followed by all of you, Nara and I are enough, otherwise, I am afraid it would look too loaded to be believed" Sara informed the group following her right when she was about to step outside, the voices were load and mixed up but Sara was able to set apart the anger in them, an anger towards the king mostly, and not just for treating one of them wrongly, but also for his alliance with the demons, Sara frowned, she knew it would take time for the people to accept the demons between them but she thought the first steps for that were made after the demons countless contributions especially in the last war that destroyed the Taghit kingdom's biggest enemies.

"You do have a point, but don't put yourselves in any kind of danger, if you feel the slightest threat, Retreat, We will be watching you from a close distance." Henry did see the point in Dahlia's suggestion, if they all made an appearance together it would seem as if they were forcing her or intimidating her, if none showed up with her, she would appear insignificant to the royal family, not to mention that if they didn't bother to make an appearance it would directly be translated as a way to ridicule the people's fuss, threatening to make it more violent and out of control.

The Yoren family ruled over Taghit kingdoms for centuries, not all kings had the hearts of people as not all kings were worthy of the throne, Some were cruel, Some were unjust, some were greedy, some were weak and some lacked the wisdom it took to be true kings, Nonetheless, the Yoren dynasty still held the people's respect and sanctification because of the first Yoren that led humans to victory against the demons thousands of years ago, the sanctification the royal family had was originated from the sanctification the Gods and the Holy tower had, but since Gods were proven ungodly and both humans and demons allied themselves against them, and since the holy council that used to magnify the Gods and their beloved Yorens was taken down, the entire dynasty lost that glorification, the questions about the avail of the war never extinguished, many doubted the king, and many saw him unfit to rule as he was, for them, too young and reckless.

However, the people had one person they believed in, and it was the black haired girl, for she was one of them, she suffered the same horrors they did as she was enslaved by the Manrast army, she was disfigured and defiled, she lost her family and friends and land, but she didn't give up, at least not on others, there wasn't one in the kingdom that didn't hear about how she saved what was left of the Tuba village instead of only saving herself, she lead them from the borders all the way back to the capital while warning the villages and cities they passed, once she made it to the capital, she made it her duty to watch out after the people, she was the one who stepped forward, and spoke for the rest of them, she was the one who came up with solutions, she was the one who organized their life in the capital, and instead of being beggars, she helped many establish decent lives, when she joined the castle and was named as an advisor and a knightess to the useless princess, everyone thought she was just going to forget about the people to become another high classed lady who looked down on others and fed on their misery, but what happened was the exact opposite, the girl used her status to help the people, she was the bridge that connected them to the authority, and she was the most honest voice they ever had, the girl didn't sugar coat her words and instead told them as they were, sweet or bitter, she told facts instead of courtesies, she gave solutions instead of empty promises, and everyone knew it was her doing and not the princess and the regent, the black haired girl, was one of the people, and with the royal family assaulting her, they were assaulting the common people and silencing their voice, something they did not plan to accept from the very questionable Yoren family members.

Stepping out into the court, Sara steadied herself, before walking to where the podium was, there were a lot of people in there, of all shapes and ages, surrounded by guards in case any riot erupted, there were many hums and whispers as all eyes followed the black-haired girl and the princess until they settled on the podium, looking into their eyes, Sara draw in a deep breath, Ready to lie through her teeth to the people she cherished so much.

''Dahlia...'', A woman called out load from the gathered crowd, her voice happy as much as it was surprised to see the black haired girl, Sara recognized her directly as one of the Tuba village' survivors, the woman was a kind soul who reestablished her life in the capital, with the help of Sara, she opened a little bakery store then remarried and was expecting a child very soon, the woman, same as most of those in the court looked at Sara with relief, the black haired girl looked as good as ever, unharmed and unaffected by anything.

''I'm glad to see you are well, Norma, I'm glad to see you all safe and well, and I am flattered by the fact you are all here for me, I understand many of you were outrageous when they heard the rumor of me being captured and imprisoned.''

''Rumor?''

''So, are you saying it wasn't true?''

''Where were you then?''

''Are you trying to defend them? Why are you hiding the truth.''

Sara was interrupted by the people's questions, the first few were very expected but the last did caught her attention, she tried to look for the one who said it but couldn't locate him, that question was anything but innocent, Sara thought to herself as she cleared her throat.

''Them? Who exactly are them that you are referring to?'' Sara looked around hoping the man would speak again for her to locate him but the voice never reached her ears again.

''I don't know who are the ''them'' you are talking about, You might be referring to the royal family but let me tell you something, They, are not ''them'', they are ''us'' and belong to us, the Taghit people, Now I don't care of one's status, I never did as you know, for me a king or a farmer are the same, they are both laborers , they both have a part to play and based on how efficiently they perform their work I evaluate them, and accordingly respect them, and I do respect the royal family, not out of blind sanctification, but because they earned it.'', Sara posed to study the people's faces, the people she loved dearly like a second family, a bigger family, knowing it was the time to lie.

''As for where I was, you may not know that the princess was kidnapped, and as her personal knightess, I had to be in the expedition sent to save her, same as I would for anyone of you, I was harmed while performing my duty, and it was expected considering who our enemy was, but in the end of the day we managed to save her, destroy yet another enemy that threatened our kingdom, and make our alliances stronger, it took me some time to recover, and now here I am.''

''That is not what we heard.''

''Trust.'', Sara interrupted the young boy, '' We need to trust each other more, same as you consume the vegetables trusting the farmer, trust the ones governing this kingdom, not because of any legacy, but because they are one of us and we give each other the chance to prove themselves, and that is what they did.”

With that Sara got off the podium and walked toward the people who reached out for her, shacking her hands, patting her back while she made small talks with them, Sara had two goals for that walk she made, the first was to insure the people that she was really safe, she allowed them to see it in proximity, Sara was indeed grateful for their love, although she didn't agree to the way they expressed it, for it was somehow manipulated, she knew the people considered her as one of them and every harm falling on her fell on all of them as well, it was in these moments that she walked and talked to them that she felt at home, that she was with family and it warmed her heart, she looked back at the podium to see her sister, joined by Henry and Rima, looking at her with complicated expressions, and then looked at the people to see the love and adoration and relief, and happiness, for her safety, and she wondered at that moment, who was more worthy to be called family?

As for the second objective, Sara was hoping to find the man who asked her that weird, not so innocent question, but just like a ghost's whisper...he was gone