Pale faced and trembling, Meredith stared up at the high balcony where the princess, the demon, and the poacher reclined.

  Her drink long forgotten, the familiar weight of a hand on her shoulder had the effect of accomplishing what slowly slackening fingers could not. The shatter of glass startling those in the vicinity nearly as much as the familiar grip had her.

  Attendants swept over to remove the mess in short order, and very soon the droning babble of conversation resumed. And all the while, the patient hand never left her shoulder.

  Turning around slowly, even though she knew what she’d find, Meredith’s heart nevertheless sank when she caught sight of the primly bouncing bob cut, the savagely scarred face, and the two overly broad silhouettes that glowered from behind.

  “D-daisy! What a pleasant surprise, seeing you here! To what do I owe the… um, pleasure?”

  The smaller woman beamed. The sight of burned tissue made to stretch was horrific.

  “You know, you’re a devilishly hard woman to find, Lieutenant. Someone far less charitable than I, might even begin to suspect you were avoiding me! Which, I think we can all agree would be a very silly thing to do. Don’t you agree, Lieutenant?

  “I-! I can pay! I swear, I just need time! I’m telling you, there’s no need for any of this. D-don’t do anything too hasty!”

  “Hmm… Had you asked that a few weeks ago, perhaps I might have been more amenable to the idea. What do you say we go somewhere private and discuss how best you might repay your debt to the Mistress instead. Shall we?”

  “W-wait! I have friends! In powerful places. My sister in law-!”

  The woman doubled over in a fit of uncontrollable laughter.

  “Oh?” the woman wiped a tear from her remaining eye. “And who do you think invited us to this fancy little shindig? Or do you think I plucked this little number out from the back of my wardrobe? If I’m not mistaken, they don’t normally allow for scum like us to hobnob with the genteel sort. Not without good reason, you understand. It would seem that the Mistress isn’t the only one impatient for a return on her investment.”

  Meredith’s mind raced, eyes frantically scanning the ballroom guests, in search of her sister in law.

  Surely it couldn’t be true, what she said. The enforcer was merely trying to scare her. It was practically in the name. She knew people. Powerful people. And this scum, as she’d so aptly designated herself, would be sorry for laying hands on her when the truth of things was laid bare.

  Then, at long last Meredith spotted the Interior Minister where she stood amongst a group of other such officials.

  Catching her in-law’s eye, Meredith opened her mouth to protest the poor treatment she was being subject to, when, instead of pausing in recognition, the Interior Minister’s eyes passed right over her as if she weren’t even there. And as she turned back to the heated debate being had by her peers, Meredith felt the words die in her throat.

  The enforcer sucked her teeth.

  “Really is such a shame when close family squabbles. Now, what do you say you and me have a nice long chat?”

  And, no matter how Meredith kicked or screamed, not a single person made a move to aid her, as she was unceremoniously dragged through the ballroom doors, and out into the night.

  It was something Eleanor was only now coming to terms with.

  The fact that, apparently, with fame came a great deal of fortune. Or at least, that was what seemed to be the case when you had an unscrupulous opportunist like Jun as your familiar. Loaning you out to any and every government official or noble household wealthy enough to pay the exorbitant price.

  So that they might then present you to their oohing and aahing party guests, like some wartime curio, over the course of what invariably turned out to be a very boring night.

  Needless to say, Eleanor ate a lot of good food at far too many awkward parties, though, in the end, she couldn’t really say she regretted it. Good armor was expensive after all, and thanks to Jun, even with his considerable management fees, she was able to buy an entire set in record time.

  Leather armor with a full set of chainmail and layered padding beneath. Eleanor admired the sleek, deadly look it gave her in the full-length mirror—turning this way and that while humming appreciably to herself.

  From the far side of the waiting room, a smartly dressed attendant entered. Bowing, the woman spoke.

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  “The queen will see you now.”

  Eleanor remembered to take a deep breath, thinking on what Mary had told her not thirty minutes prior.

  “Just answer her questions as truthfully as you can. It’s a formality more than anything else. Merely keep your head down, be respectful, answer from the heart and you should be fine.”

  Though, following the attendant down the opulent hallways of the outer palace, she had to repeatedly remind herself of where exactly her heart was. It’s rapid hammering against her ribcage was ironically a huge help in that regard.

  She was so nervous in the moments leading up to, and then during her royal audience, that much of the finer details later eluded her completely. Every face she passed by reduced to a hazy blur.

  The words spoken—an introduction most likely—as she entered the royal audience chamber, forgotten within seconds of their utterance. How many steps was it before she was meant to stop and kneel again? Thirty-seven? Thirty-eight? A gentle hand on her shoulder told her when she’d walked far enough. Kneeling, Eleanor glanced briefly to the side, giving Jun a grateful nod.

  And then came the questions. Out of everything, those were probably what stuck with her the most. Even the face of the queen was somewhat murky in comparison. Although, in retrospect, she couldn’t be entirely sure later on whether or not she’d ever actually looked at the queen. Whether she’d even dared.

  “Were you the one to defeat the Undying Lich?”

  “No, your majesty. Jun- my familiar here, was the one to defeat that demon. I aided him where I was able.”

  “And how did you come by this miraculous rift spawn of yours?”

  “He found me, your majesty. He fell from the sky. I know not from where.”

  “You call it a… h-he…? Why is this?”

  “It’s what he prefers your majesty. I know not why.”

  “You know very little it seems.”

  “I know what I know, your majesty. I cannot claim to know anything more.”

  And it was then that the sovereign laughed, filling the whole of Eleanor’s being with the fluttering of butterflies.

  “Fair enough,” the Queen chuckled. “Humility. It is a trait we wish some of our own daughters possessed. You’ve become very popular in recent days. Some have even taken to calling you the first Queen reborn. Do you have any such ambitions for the throne?”

  “Of course not your majesty! It-! It has never even crossed my mind! I swear it on my life!”

  There was a brief pause in which one of the queens many attendants whispered something in her ear. When she spoke, Eleanor could hear the smile in the sovereign’s voice.

  “Good. Good. Now, if not a queendom, what would you ask as a reward for your great service?”

  At this, for the first time since the questioning first began, Eleanor actually hesitated. Once more the gentle hand on her shoulder gave her courage.

  “If it is not too much to ask, your majesty. I would want to reclaim the rest of the fallen bastions, glory of our ancestors, and remove the scourge of rift spawn kind from these lands in their entirety.”

  There was silence after that. Complete and utter silence.

  One could’ve heard a pen drop in the quiet that followed. And indeed, many in the hall did. As, in her total shock, the court stenographer let slip the tool of her trade—splattering ink all over the pristine marble tiles.

  And then, a genuine guffaw escaped the seventeenth Azure Queen, appointed ruler of the realm, instantly melting all the tension in the room. Hesitantly, others joined in on her hilarity, though Eleanor was still stumped as to what she’d said to warrant either reaction.

  “The first queen reborn indeed!”

  Many of the foppish nobles and thin faced attendants were leaning into the clear ridiculousness of the moment by now. Of course, the queen would immediately shoot down such a nonsensical reques-!

  “When you outright ask us like that, really, who are we to refuse?”

  The laughter in the hall choked off with a strangled cough. All but the Queen who, unbeknownst to the young girl, was looking upon Eleanor with what could only be described as a fiercely determined gleam in her eyes.

  Over the course of the next few weeks, as militia were levied, and marching orders issued—supply lines established, and the hierarchy of central command finalized—Eleanor and Jun were left with very little to do but train.

  Having been singled out by the crown as indispensable, the only two in recent memory to face an S Grade Monarch and come out of it on top, instead of marching with the rest of the army, they’d been given command of a special task force.

  One with the rather heady goal of taking out any major threats to the queendom, well before they had a chance to affect the greater army as a whole. In simple terms, this effectively meant they’d be dealing with Monarchs, though they’d also be expected to act as a strategic reserve should the situation call for it.

  To best accomplish this, they’d essentially been left behind, while scouts and information gatherers scoured the frontier. Not only in search of the location of said Monarchs, but in hopes of organizing a comprehensive list of their abilities, to better brief Eleanor and her team for when they inevitably went monarch hunting.

  This daunting assignment of theirs only made possible due to the aerial unit they’d appropriated in the formation of their strike force.

  [ZephyrStorm Griffin (Peak B Grade)]

  Led by an upbeat, practically starstruck Lieutenant who, much to Eleanor’s embarrassment, when she wasn’t worrying after her familiar like a priest before an alter, asked Eleanor all sorts of personal questions she didn’t really know how to answer. Worse yet, once they’d built up the courage to ask their own questions, the other five junior officers were no less curious.

  Now it must be said, Eleanor had long since come to terms with the details of her life being leaked to the public. It wasn’t as if she were ashamed of everything it had taken to get here, after all.

  It was just…!

  Being asked for the third time in a row whether it was really true that she’d used a sack filled with dead rats as a pillow more nights than not…? It was honestly starting to make her feel a bit self conscious.

  And then, after four entire weeks spent idle, the first of their marching orders finally arrived. Brimming over with anticipation, and no small amount of nervousness, Eleanor, Jun, and the rest of their strike force mounted up and headed out. Their first stop?

  The Black Dry Desert.