Carrier Falcon Princess

Forenoon.

Valhayle had been sitting motionlessly next to the royal princess for two hours now. He had woken up at dawn and was waiting for the princess who had fainted to wake up.

As per what the doctor said, the reason why the royal princess became unconscious again was because of ‘malnutrition.’

“It takes an exorbitant amount of calories just to bring a body, whose metabolism has significantly dropped, back to normal. As a result of using all the calories she had stored in her body to wake up….”

The doctor explained, making small conversations. After the treatment, Valhayle dismissed the doctor after telling him to prepare for the princess’s recovery. Then, he kept vigil beside the royal princess’s bed.

“…….”

He couldn’t forget how he saw the royal princess awoke for the first time just earlier. He would probably never forget that moment for the rest of his life. 

He checked the condition of the royal princess again in the morning and then summoned the Knight Commanders to explain the situation.

He was reluctant about letting them enter the unconscious royal princess’s tent, but it was also difficult to assure the other Commanders without going in. 

The royal princess hadn’t woken up.

To tell the truth, he had been suffering from the temptation of wanting to continuously look into the royal princess’s condition. He wanted to check on her again and again after every minute and every second.

So, he thought about speaking frankly about the princess’s condition in front of everyone to completely break their hopes that the royal princess was just having a long sleep and would wake up since more than a day had passed. 

But the royal princess had regained her consciousness.

It was like some lie. To even call it a miracle was not enough. The princess had just abruptly woke up.

‘Sir Valhayle!’

The royal princess had called him in a choked voice. His entire body had frozen. He needed a moment to decide whether this was real.

He only felt a sense of reality when he shouted to call a doctor and embraced the body of the royal princess who had become unconscious again. Valhayle sat vigil beside the princess after hearing from the doctor that she would not fall into that terrible coma again and would wake up soon.

He had to check with his own eyes that she would wake up. Before that, he didn’t intend to do anything.

If you wake up, the history of Roymond will begin to be written anew from hereinafter.

“…….”

Valhayle sat down and looked down intently at the royal princess’s face. At first glance, she didn’t look much different from when she was unconscious yesterday, but the sound of her breathing now was different. It was uneven; it went fast and then slowed down repeatedly. Valhayle forgot to even breathe for a moment while listening to it.

The princess probably dreamed about eating something as she opened her mouth a little wide and smiled repeatedly. Valhayle could barely breathe after seeing that. He realized that even though she was unconscious, it was rude to blatantly look at her like this, so he turned his head away. 

As he sat there alone quietly, his tangled thoughts cleared up a little.

First, he got the news that the princess was alive.

Then the bird poked four times on the back of his hand. It had poked four times to tell him the location of the royal princess.

The princess they had saved could not wake up.

The bird had rushed towards the royal princess and attacked her.

After that the bird returned to the barracks in a half dead state.

And… then the princess woke up. 

Since a lot of things had been happening all at once, he didn’t get the time to sort out his thoughts about these things. So, Valhayle now went through his thoughts one by one. There were two questions in his mind. 

Firstly, why did the bird attack the princess? 

Secondly, how did the royal princess suddenly wake up?

* * *

First question. Why did the bird attack the royal princess? 

‘The bird’s attack….’

Valhayle’s gaze fell over the bandage that was wrapped around the princess’s neck. He didn’t know what to say to the princess when she would find out about the wound on her body. 

Should he say that their own kingdom’s messenger bird hurt her?

This was something that no one knew, not even Sir Luke. 

Then should I cover it up? And lie that she got hurt while being rescued out of the Granoir camp. 

But why?

Just because I have a great faith in the bird?

Is that something over which the commander-in-chief of Roymond should lie to a royal heir? 

Valhayle suddenly remembered something which put his unpleasant thoughts on hold.

Come to think of it, out of all the words that came out of her mouth…

‘T-the bird, what happ…’

Bird?

Valhayle frowned.

What bird was she talking about?

The only guess he could come up with was that she might have been with a bird before taking Granoir’s poison. In this cold country, the royal members raised hunting falcons as a pastime, so the fact that the princess might have raised a bird was not at all surprising.

The bird could have been a source of comfort while she was held captive. 

After which, she consumed a poison and fell into a deep sleep.

By the way… 

‘Why did she ask about the bird while looking at me?’

He clearly remembered the time when the princess called him, ‘Sir Valhayle!’ She shouted his name as if calling someone she knew very well. That voice, he had never heard once. 

‘But I’ve never talked to you before.’

And the way she inquired was as if she had been talking to him until fairly recently….

Moreover, the bird.

To think she would suddenly ask about a bird when he had lost his own. 

It was too big a coincidence. 

Valhayle felt an unpleasant feeling, as if he was missing out on something. 

No. As long as she wakes up, I can ask her directly, so I just have to do my own thing.

The second question he had was–

How did the royal princess wake up?

He racked his brain to think of a number of possibilities, but nothing could explain it.

Only a day after returning to Roheneim’s camp, Princess Zelleine woke up with a wound on her neck that she did not have before in Granoir.

How on earth did she wake up?

What could be the reason for the comatose princess to suddenly regain her consciousness?

“…….”

Valhayle, who had been contemplating this for a long time, shook his head.

It didn’t matter how she woke up. Only her waking up was important. As long as the princess regained her consciousness, there was now only one thing left for the princess and him.

If the fully recovered royal princess were to stand in front of the Roheneim, they would be able to retake the Central region together from Granoir. 

Maybe one day, he would be able to tell the princess about the messenger bird. 

When this land would be free from war. When the royal heirs were safe from the clutches of the enemy.

When that time comes, he will tell the princess that there was a bird, and it was that bird and the Royal Princess who helped Roheneim win this war.

He would also explain to her that the scar on her neck was from that bird. 

“Sir Valhayle, are you inside?”

Sir Luke’s voice came from outside the tent. Valhayle got up from his seat.

“What’s the matter?”

“I have something to report to you.”

“…….”

Valhayle glanced at the sleeping princess once. There was no sign of her waking up yet. So, Valhayle went out of the tent and Sir Luke followed after him with an anxious expression.

“The Lords of the Central region have requested an audience.”

Valhayle furrowed his eyebrows.

“Didn’t I say I’d deal with them once I’m done settling the Eastern region’s matters?”

Sir Luke hesitated with an awkward look on his face.

“I think you should look over this now.”

Sir Luke began to brief Valhayle.

So far, the lords of the Central and Eastern regions that they had retook from Granoir had sent many letters to Valhayle.

This was because due to the absence of the royal heirs, Valhayle was now the highest-ranking authority.

Since Valhayle didn’t have time to check them all, Sir Luke worked on inferring the letters.

That was what Sir Luke’s family, the Tenealphs, did mainly. 

Helping with Lumares family’s administration work. 

Even before the war, Valhayle and Sir Luke had worked together many times.

Valhayle had prioritized the matters of the Eastern region, which had suffered a lot of damage. Since the rescue of the subjects was still ongoing, he needed the cooperation of the castle lords.

However, Sir Luke, who was in charge of the central affairs in place of Valhayle, got some strange reports. He had come to report it to Valhayle. Sir Luke said with a somber look.

“I think we should look more into this war….”

“….”

While looking at Sir Luke’s face, Valhayle recalled the confusion he felt when he met the Eastern Lords. It was a suspicion that haunted him ever since the war began.

‘There is something strange about this war.’

The more he won the battle and met the lords of the retook castles, the more his suspicions about the war grew. Before the war, he was commanding the war preparations, so he didn’t know much about the internal situation of the Central and Eastern regions.

Rather, he was more familiar with the situation of the Western region, where he frequently traveled to and from to transport the grains. 

Even though it was the Central region where his family was based. 

However, when he put the testimonies of the castle lords and the circumstances before and after the war side by side, he noticed something strange about the overall picture.

Just before the Granoir’s invasion, the defense was strangely slackened to a great extent. 

The defense measures that Roheneim had prepared before the war were destroyed in an instant and the central region was quickly occupied.

The gates to the capital were strangely open even before the siege.

“Strange.”

It was just as if there was a spy among them.

There were also similar testimonies in the reports that Sir Luke received from the Lords of the Central region.

‘What is this? This is ridiculous…….’

Even though his thoughts were in a knot, Valhayle looked straight at Sir Luke.

“I’m already aware of the strange occurrences. But now there’s something more important than that.”

“…What is it?”

“To win the war and rebuild the country. Only when there is a country can we be held accountable.”

Valhayle spoke firmly.

“For now, our top priority is for Her Highness, the 8th Princess, to wake up.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Handle the documents from the Central region as highly confidential documents.”

Sir Luke nodded.

“Okay, Sir.”

After sending Sir Luke back, Valhayle entered the princess’s tent again. He sat next to her bed, and thought for a moment. Valhayle had found out several facts during his meetings with the eastern lords.

Some nobles displayed strange movements after he went for the battle.

In this war, Roheneim was sent to Granoir as a vanguard. And by the time Roheneim crossed the Granoir border, Granoir headed straight to the Roymond’s eastern region without defending their own land.

The Roymond’s border fell in five days and the east fell in ten days. The Roheneim hurriedly returned after hearing the news but by that time, the capital and the royal palace had already been occupied.

What happened after Roheneim had crossed the borders? 

No, was there any other intention to send Roheneim as the vanguard in the first place? 

From Sir Luke’s report, he also learned that the suspicious nobles had met some of the royal heirs. 

There was no way to know who those royal heirs were now.

“The royal heirs…”

Valhayle’s jaw clenched tightly.

“Umm…”

The royal princess tossed and turned. This broke Valhayle’s train of thoughts and he looked at the royal princess. 

The princess’s eyelids opened slowly.

Blink.

The princess closed her eyes and opened them.

Valhayle quickly dragged back his chair, which was right next to the princess, and got up from the seat. When the princess tried to raise her listless body, he politely stopped her.

“You should keep lying down.”

The princess mumbled softly, “I don’t have any strength.”

Valhayle called someone outside and ordered them to bring food.

“You’ll feel better after eating something.”

When he talked about the food, the princess’s stomach rumbled.

Valhayle pretended not to hear it and avoided looking at her. The royal princess looked down at her stomach with wonder, at the sound that came from her body.

After an awkward silence, the princess asked.

“What’s the date today?”