Chapter 14: Chapter 14: Turn-Based Combat

Otto immediately took a step back, and I wondered, briefly, if he’d try to attack Sabine. He did wear a sword on his belt. I got the feeling he was too smart to do something as unimaginably stupid as to attack a lich with a sword, but he also seemed like the kind of person who would most definitely try to protect his honor, wealth, power, etcetera, by violence. When it came to men like that, “smart” was often barely a part of the equation. It was all moustaches and posturing. I was glad I didn’t have to exist in spaces like that anymore. 

 

But instead of attacking Sabine, Otto turned to me, moustache trembling, and his watery eyes fixed themselves on mine. The experience was a lot like being growled at by a terrier. On the one hand, the creature being angry at me was a lot smaller. On the other hand, it was still scary, still an animal with the experiences and instincts of a killer. I recoiled a little bit, and he saw his opening. Sidestepping Sabine entirely he approached, one hand resting, seemingly relaxed, on his sword.

 

“How dare you, ‘Queen’ Eliza!” Something about the way he said ‘Queen’ would have bothered me, if I wasn’t preoccupied by the fact that he was now angrily approaching me. I felt my breath catch in my throat as I was trying to think of a response, but he was steaming full force ahead and I didn’t have the strength to stop him. 

 

“How dare you!” He emphasized every word with a burst of spittle that increased my desire to put distance between myself and him, and it’s only because I was frozen in place out of shock that I didn’t back away. “I believed you to be an incompetent ruler before! But now you’ve also shown yourself to be a weak-willed coward!” His raised voice had become yelling, and I felt my eyes begin to burn. He wasn’t wrong, I wasn’t cut out for this. And I wasn’t exactly an exemplar of bravery. I tried to say something, but I had no words. I just kept my mouth shut and looked at him as he approached, certain of his power and victory, and I didn’t know what to do. “I joined you because I thought we could have used your armies and strength to take what was ours together, but it seems that I’ll have to remove you from the equation…” He paused dramatically as he drew his sword. “Entirely.”

 

He closed the distance between us in just a few steps and held the sword up to my chest. It glowed softly blue. He grinned at me, his yellowing teeth showing beneath his moustache. “I know you think yourself invulnerable, demon queen, but this sword can cut through any being like you. It will strike you down with holy fury.”

 

I was frozen. I was terrified. He held the sword up to my armor and it sizzled as it touched the silver, which immediately blackened where it touched the weapon. He could run me through with this sword and it’d be over, and there was nothing I could do. I couldn’t even move my arms. I couldn’t even catch my breath enough to cry. There wasn’t a thing on earth I could do or have done to have prevented this, other than not coming here. I was spiralling into old patterns, feelings of blame, uselessness, that this was all my fault, and beginning to wait for him to run me through, because I felt I deserved what was coming, until a green fist that looked like it could crush Otto’s head closed itself on his wrist, and twisted. 

 

The sword spun out of his hand and his wrist made an unfortunate sound, like someone sitting down on a bag of chips, as Erza broke his arm in several places with what seemed like practiced ease. I looked at her. The expression on her face was horrifying. Part of me had expected a mask of hot anger, but this was much worse. She was calm, but her clearly clenched jaw gave me the feeling that, if anything, she was holding back. With the controlled rage of a bottled hurricane, she raised a massive fist and struck Otto across the face. Once. He fell backwards and then she was holding him up by one hand. He seemed to be unconscious and his jaw jutted out at a weird angle. 

 

“Don’t talk to her that way,” Erza seemed to say to nobody in particular. Then she dropped him in a pathetic heap and turned to me and bowed. “I apologize for that savage display, my Queen.”

 

“Thank you,” I managed to squeak, but she shook her head softly.

 

“No thanks are needed. It’s my honour to protect you.”

 

Sabine and Kazumi rushed over. The world seemed like it’d been holding its breath. I hadn’t been aware of my surroundings, but I saw now that Kazumi had produced a long, thin dagger from… somewhere, and Sabine was practically glowing, the way her blue magic danced all over her body. The castle’s guards were looking at each other nervously, and, almost as importantly, at both me and my own retinue of protectors, all of whom had their weapons drawn and looked entirely ready to turn humans into paste. Erza was the one to defuse the situation, but she looked at me first and nodded. I nodded back.

 

“The Queen has stripped Otto von Himmeldorfner of all titles and lands. He attacked your queen,” she said to the courtyard, to everyone in general. “He was punished for that. Your loyalty is to Eliza, the Demon Dragon Queen, The Serpent of the North.”

 

Erza spoke calmly but her voice echoed as everyone strained to hear what she was saying. The guards still moved around nervously, but as her eyes scanned them all, they released the hilts of their swords as she continued. “Stand down, guardsmen. Countess Sabine of Innshire is your new Lady and you will show her the respect you once showed the old count, and more.”

 

Her voice commanded respect and obedience, and I wondered once what the situation would have been like if our positions had been reversed, the kind of power a woman like that would have wielded if she’d been the one to have taken the old Queen’s place. It was a terrifying thought. Erza was everything I wasn’t, and I couldn’t help but look up to her. I wasn’t the only one, because only Sabine seemed to be able to resist her charismatic charm, and that was because she was trying to look as Countess-y as she could. Sabine turned around and the guards of Whitehallow dropped to a knee. I didn’t know if they were bowing to me, Sabine or Erza, but behind us the Queen’s Escort sheathed their various weapons. Everyone seemed to be able to take a breath. Then, suddenly, the captain of the Whitehallow garrison started shouting orders to find places in the barracks for the various species of the procession and just like that, all of the tension ran out of the place and the four of us were standing in a bustling courtyard. 

 

Sabine prodded Otto with her foot. “Is he dead?”

 

Erza shook her head. “No, but he will wake up wishing he was. What do you wish to happen to him, Eliza?” She turned her head to me.

 

“I... “ I paused. Otto had been a problem, but the most obvious option seemed… inhumane. He was a miserable pile of a man who had now suddenly lost everything. He’d been a minor character in the main game, I remembered. A power-hungry little creep. Now he’d had an army and his dreams had been within reach. But this… the mangled heap of human on the floor… he was barely worth it. Killing him would be a mercy, but it wasn’t the kind of mercy I was strong enough to give. “Banish him. Send him out there on his own. Give him a horse, maybe.”

 

Kazumi looked at me with wide eyes. I could only shrug. “I’m not going to be cruel to him. I can’t.”

 

“I can,” Sabine said with a mean glint in her eye, but I shook my head.

 

“No, he gets to leave, but he won’t be welcome anywhere. Anyone who offers him shelter will… pay a fine or something. I don’t want him anywhere in my sight. And I doubt he can go back to Wydonia either so… where would he go, Erza? You think he can cross the mountains?”

 

She scoffed. “He wouldn’t reach them. If he’s smart he’ll go south-east and hope the dragons of the steppes take a liking to him.” She looked down at him. “I doubt it.”

 

“Kazumi, is that… could I ask that… I’m sorry…” I stammered. I felt very tired all of a sudden.

 

“I’ll take care of it, Liz,” she said, and raised a hand toward me. She seemed to suddenly realize we were in a full courtyard and she changed her mind. Erza and Sabine looked amused. I hoped that her instinct had been to console me. That itself meant a lot to me already. 

 

I made my way to the entrance to Whitehallow with Kazumi, Sabine and Erza. Once we were inside, Kazumi beckoned a servant and gave whispered orders as we walked forward, until we were standing in the main entrance hall of the castle. It was beautiful. The whole place was spotless and had an almost dreamlike quality, the white stone and marble reflecting the light inside to feel brighter and warmer than my castle ever could have. Sabine stared at everything with her mouth open. 

 

“I thought you were from this region, Sabine?” Erza asked her. 

 

“Ye-es, but I’d never been inside. It’s even more beautiful than I could have ever imagined.” Her wonder was endearing, and Erza’s chuckle indicated that she agreed.

 

“It is yours now, Countess,” the tall woman said with a grin. Sabine just made a stifled sound, like a gently muffled scream.

 

“Aaa,” Sabine said. I couldn’t help but smile at her.

 

“You did well out there, Liz,” Kazumi said after the servant had left and we walked through the castle’s hallways. She had clearly been here before and was giving us a tour as we walked and talked calmly. 

 

“I did?” I said. “I was frozen in fear. I was worse than useless. I--” 

 

She cut me off, by grabbing my hand to make me slow down. Her hand was so small in mine, but the determination in her movement stopped me in my tracks. Erza and Sabine looked at her curiously. 

 

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“You’re not useless, Liz. You’re doing good things. Just because you don’t fight well doesn’t mean you’re not the most important person here, okay? You might not be the ‘Fierce Demon Dragon Queen’ that everyone fears, but you’re inspiring people in other ways, okay?”

 

I nodded but it was hard to believe what she was saying. She was being so nice to me after I’d just frozen, and I didn’t feel like I deserved her praise. Tears welled up in my eyes and she squeezed my hand as wet streaks ran down my face.

 

“For what it’s worth, you did not look scared at all. You just stared at him and when he raised that sword you did not even budge, like you had absolute trust in us, in the people you’ve surrounded yourself with, that you didn’t even have to do anything yourself. You looked like the calmest, most composed Queen anyone in that courtyard had ever seen.”

 

“Really?”

 

“Yes,” she said, and looked at the other two. Sabine nodded.

 

“To those who do not know who you are, Eliza,” Erza said, “you just showed a great deal of restraint and power.”

 

“I made a power move?” I asked, a little shocked, but the difference in perspective had at least gotten me to stop crying. Kazumi cocked her head.

 

“Sure.”

 

We walked again, though I was sorry to no longer be holding Kazumi’s hand. Though her hand had been very small compared to mine, the softness and tenderness of the gesture had been very pleasant. Kazumi had very soft and warm hands. 

 

“Do you guys think I can do this? Turn this whole thing around?”

 

They all nodded unanimously. “If you leave the fighting to us,” Erza said.

 

“And some of the talking,” Kazumi added.

 

“Maybe the magic as well,” Sabine concluded. 

 

Fair enough. 

 

“But yes, we actually think you’d make a good Queen. You just need training for this,” Kazumi continued. “And good counsel.”

 

“One out of two ain’t half bad,” I smiled as my tears dried. “Better than the old Queen?”

 

All three made a sound, some variety of chortle or chuckle. 

 

“Heavens yes,” Kazumi said. 

“Undoubtedly,” Erza smiled. 

 

“Heck yes,” Sabine grinned. 

 

I was glad to hear it. We would be spending the next few weeks waiting for a message from Morgana, and I was going to take my time to learn about queening. I was not going to be another Eliza. Not the old one, at least. She was gone.

 

---

 

Eliza looked around the apartment.

 

“It’s small,” she said flatly.

 

“So are you,” Daniel bounced back at her as he walked around the space. “Besides, we won’t need much until we find out how people here live. This whole residence is larger than any I lived in, growing up.”

 

“I’m not surprised,” Eliza sneered, and walked around too. If she’d been in a less hostile mood, she might have conceded that, all things considered, as human sizes went, that this room was honestly not too bad. The ‘apartment’ consisted of half a floor of a building, and had a lot of large windows. Larger than any she’d ever seen, certainly. The flat panes had baffled both of them back in the hospital. 

 

“What about furniture?” she asked.

 

Daniel turned to her. “Apparently we might need to go to a place named Sweden. Most people get their furniture there, but I’ll ask around.”

 

“And until then?”

 

“I’ve slept on the floor before. Haven’t you?” He smirked.

 

Eliza punched a wall in frustration, forgetting that her body was not the one she’d been used to, and fractured a knuckle.

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