I wish I had someone

Your highness Princess Luna, good morning. As I walked into my history lessons, a deep-aged voice greeted me, "I hope your nights end with sweets and feathers." The familiar gold-rimmed glasses with a metal neck strap belong to Madame Aevum, who has her signature bun tied with a ribbon that matches her dress.

In the nation, the common saying 'I hope the nightly sleep brought sweets and feathers' is said to those who are still legally minors and don't yet qualify as adults. What the phrase means in the common language- or what is known in the nobility as the lingua pauperis- is 'I hope the sleeping child slept well and had no nightmares.'

It is a thing of my toddler days to greet the children with 'sweets and feathers' in the morning, but I am still working on understanding the reasoning behind the practice.

Almost immediately, Madame Aevum began teaching lessons regarding the Viribus Ignis Nation's history and culture. Peace has existed between us since the reign of Imperial George the Fifth, dating back to approximately 500 years.

The dispute over taxes and trade, however, very much led to a rift between the two nations.

Their emperor has therefore taken steps to have a conference at our palace so that our two nations will not find themselves at war.

In my understanding of the situation and the news I have been gathering in secret, it is more probable that they are trying to instigate our nation and will bring about a plan that would force us to accept an unreasonably aggressive foreign policy.

The reason I came to this assumption is that they will not be sending any royal representatives other than a sickly prince who suffers from a deadly disease that might cause him to collapse in the next year or so, this is why I have my suspicions.

It is easy for a nation to cause a stir by sending a sickly prince during a conference and then sending a declaration of war for defaming a prince if the prince collapses during the conference. In an attempt made by my nation to avoid the war, we would undoubtedly end up agreeing to a clause that could put a major damper on the economy of my nation.

Furthermore, they are sending in the name of 'protection of the sickly prince, the generals, and knights of the phoenix and lumbus army, which is feared by many nations.

They were able to defeat Aquila, a small yet powerful black market kingdom, though it was powerful. This nation was home to most of the world's criminal organizations.

Even the previous emperor shuddered when his name was mentioned in connection with those criminal organizations.

To understand quickly how the armies are stationed and assigned let’s have a quick look at the Julius Gravium Act, it states that every royal blood from any Kingdom and Nation has the option to form an army that strictly follows them and their orders, the size of the army depends on the capabilities of the royal descendants and are overlooked by the present ruler of the nation. At the suspicion of a civil war or treason, the army under the royal blood may under the Ruler’s discretion be disbanded through proper evidence of such claims. Those of royal blood must display an exceptional talent to be a capable general through any use that may allow the Ruler to approve the notion of an army directly under them.

This is where the Eques Miles comes in place. Though it’s a regular knightly competition where the winner might get to be specially approved by the emperor allowing them to enter directly into the royal Bodyguard, it is still a place where Princes go to show off their power over other knights that are spacially trained by Luietants.

The Emperor rarely goes there and bestows the right unless he is specially designated to do so. This method, however general, is still a bit of a challenge. In history, most people would prefer to proceed with an investigation done by an army loyal to the Emperor, to safeguard the weaker links and parts of the nation.

Thus….

In fact, even if I were a Princess, there is no law restricting a female of royal blood from taking part in securing and forming the army.

Muahahahahahahaa

The time has come to show off my skills and no longer pretend to be a naive, pitiful princess.

It would be a waste of your valuable time if I said too much about myself and the National structure now.

The conference will be held in about two weeks.

I was assigned by the Emperor to some highly qualified teachers and ministers who would make sure that I did not make a fool of myself in front of the delegates.

The amount of preparation and work has been overwhelming. A chocolate lava cake mixed with hibiscus tea and honey, macarons, and a good book would make my day. Imagine what I would have given if I could live the life of the second princess.

“I greet the fourth Princess luna of our beloved nation, I greet the start that shows light in the darkest of days.” Marquess Dames owed superficial respect in a way a lot of many greet me, Marquess Dames is always one of the first of many to force the emperor into setting up an arranged marriage with any delegate or royal I meet in many of my ‘work travels’. My ability to skirt such topics is at least partially due to the Emperor declaring that I'm 'too young and, as such, cannot properly fulfill the role of a wife while I remain childish in my appearance.'

Just a quick bow so as to not raise any suspicions about my manners. “Fourth Princess, if the star may provide an answer to my question.

"What progress is being made in preparation for the conference?”It would make me rich enough to buy a title and live in comfort without having to work dozens of hours a day if I had a bar of silver for how often I've been asked this question."Marquess Dames, in response to your question, I would only be able to answer this based on my previous experiences with international delegates and conferences. I'm certain it will be smooth just like the one in question." Raising my fluffy fan, I posed in a formal manner mannerism to avoid him finding any fault that could lead to a round of noble pettiness.

“Listening to this puts an immense ease in his heart,” he said.

Please, he is fifty years old, why don’t you retire? A polite giggle is all I can give in response to him. “The fourth princess is quickly approaching the age when two individuals can be united. Hopefully, the fourth princess will find a prospective husband at this conference since the Emperor is not getting any younger and you, my great princess, are the only princess in the royal palace to turn sixteen without an engagement.

Princes and princesses are customarily guided by their betrothed. It appears that the Emperor still cares for his beloved daughter and does not wish to see her in the hands of another man." After that, the Marques was called back by the finance ministers.

I don’t understand the Emperor, he has never cared or done anything beneficial for me or has ever glanced in my direction.

He even sent some of the nine-grade maids to spy on my misgivings and report back to him. In response to a friend's suggestion that the Emperor secretly cares for me, I explained all knights that were assigned to me were either in training or once that did not make the cut into being in the royal army or any other position in the army.

Somehow I have fooled myself in my younger days under my mother’s love for that man that maybe the Emperor cared for us in his ways but couldn’t display that love as that would put both the Emperor and my mother in a ‘difficult position’, one of which was that mother didn’t have any good backing and would easily fall under the watchful eyes of the empire or anyone supporting the more powerful heirs.

It all went away from dealing in firsthand how the Emperor took care of mother’s corpse, the proceedings of the funeral, and most importantly how the Emperor quickly brought a village woman to ‘replace’ mother’s place in near months after mother’s death and then about to year’s later bestowed her family the title of an Earl which ultimately gave the following queen a great backing and a better life in term of money and luxury plus and added support from the ministers in knowing of her contributions she has provided in the breakthrough of health and hygiene which was previously mother’s proposal that was put aside for so-called ‘inequalities with the work’ which in the deeper meaning held power as she had the backing of the emperor for the Education Council to take a look at the findings and bring about a great understanding that helped improve the lives of the people.

I know it was mother’s as the woman was one of many of mother’s students. Adding a real-life experiment to support her thesis added a metaphorical fancy bow.

Mother may have provided the case study, but in order for the experiment to be moved forward, the Emperor and Council Ministers must approve the experiment.

I always relied on mothers Fountain statue in her lily garden to collect my thoughts and to provide me a place to think. Even though mother has left, it still feels like she is standing next to me on this bench, consoling and singing in tongues I have never heard or learned about before.

I miss her dearly. It would be nice if mother could have been spotted by a well-known merchant, maybe she would still be alive.

If I had a dad who truly loved and cared for me, maybe I wouldn't have been so lost.