73.3. On the Brink of War - Part 3

"I'm sorry for my boldness, Your Majesty, but are you planning to tell me anytime soon?" Danaheim says almost casually.

Julia took him with her for my regular medical check-up because he proved himself when I was unconscious and Noage too exhausted to continue feeding me through my veins. Julia decided it would be good if he became my third private doctor in case Noage is indisposed again.

"About what?" I ask because I wasn't paying much attention to him. I let his Earthborn tentacles be stuck to my left arm while I'm using my right one to hold a tablet and read the news.

"I might not be good at expressing emotions visibly, but this is my curious face," Danaheim points to his nose. "Or did you seriously think I wouldn't look? That would be like taking a chocolate addict to a chocolate factory. I have the privilege to be taking care of the Celestial Emperor, there's no way I'd resist the temptation."

"Figures," Gotrid comments with a long sigh.

"I'm so sorry, Your Majesty, we didn't have any time to give him a proper briefing and we naively hoped he would just do what he was asked to do," Julia apologises profoundly because she feels responsible.

"What did you find out?" I ask curiously. What would my brain look like to someone who can literally see my genetics, but doesn't know about my special sensory ability?

"Your brain is only half Celestial, Your Majesty," Danaheim says slowly, weighing every word. "The other half is... well, definitely not human, but I have no idea what exactly. I've never seen anything like it before."

I'm a telepath since birth, I send him my thought because he's still stuck to my arm.

"Oh!" Danaheim's eyes widen and he's both shocked and amazed. Now, this is an emotion even someone as laid back, chill and phlegmatic as him just has to show on his face.

"How is such a thing possible?" he shakes his head violently and I can tell he's looking at my brain again with his inner Earthborn sight.

"We don't know, but we're trying to find out," Erik answers for me. "Julia will tell you the rest, are you done? I hope I don't have to stress out that this information is strictly confidential."

"Of course," Danaheim mumbles, disappointed that he has to release his tentacles.

"Come, I'll tell you everything we know so far and you'll be cooperating with Noage and me on uncovering the truth about His Majesty's origin," Julia comforts him and takes still slightly dazed Danaheim away.

"It's not a secret when so many people know," Erik frowns.

"True, but Danaheim was unavoidable," I shrug, not really bothered by it, and look at my vibrating phone. I expect Liana, but the name on the screen says...

"It's Twyla?!" I'd jump if I had the strength to do that.

My hand is shaking with excitement when I pick up and the screen brightens, showing Twyla's green face. Erik and Gotrid squeeze to me in the same joyful anticipation.

"We're sooo sorry to worry all of you, Aefener," the Earthborn Queen apologises without a greeting. "We survived the attacks only by becoming one with the Earth. Almost literally."

"You did what?" I don't understand at all.

"The Earth Camouflage, Aefener, we can do it even here," Twyla explains. "The moment we heard about the attack on your skyscraper, I knew we don't have enough time to evacuate everyone far enough, so we hid in the soil under our ranch. The ground was too hot for us to emerge immediately and we were afraid of another attack, so that's why I'm calling you so late."

"Did everyone survive?" I ask, fearing the answer.

"A few low levels died," Twyla says with a heavy heart. "We helped to submerge everyone we could, but several low-level Earthborn were in different parts of the ranch and we didn't reach them in time. Werden was badly injured while helping the last group of newcomers to dig into the soil and almost didn't make it."

I shiver—the first Draconian casualties murdered by humans. It seems war is inevitable.

"We saw your official announcement, Aefener," Twyla says approvingly. "I want you to know that the Earthborn will back you up. My poor kind-hearted husband is burned so badly that I hardly recognise him and those who did it to him will pay."

"What will you do for now?" I ask, worried about them.

"The local village offered us shelter, they are friendly humans," Twyla says. "We'll heal our wounded and start to prepare poisons and potions that could be useful in the upcoming war."

"You talk as if there's no stopping it, but there's still hope," Erik opposes.

"That would require a miracle, we will never forgive those who did it," Twyla hisses, excuses herself and ends the phone call.

"Luvi, let Liana and our Ministers know that the Earthborn Queen and King are alive," I say to my adjutant who became my legs since I'm still too weak to walk.

When Luvi leaves, I continue browsing the news. Ingri prepared for me a curated feed of several channels that nicely represents public opinion in various parts of the world. My official proclamation did wonders by scaring human governments shitless. Because we survived and the skyscraper is protected by the shield, we're untouchable now and ready for a vendetta.

Of course, I'd still absolutely prefer to avoid open war, but I won't tolerate humans mistreating us any longer. They had more than enough time to adjust and we've been more than cooperative from the very beginning.

"Ryuu," Erik nudges me nervously. "You will try to prevent war, right?"

"If there's a chance for that, I'll take it," I assure him. "But I won't stay idle, Erik, I have to protect my people."

"Love, look at this," Gotrid shows me a live stream on his tablet. "Another monster attack, this time in India."

I sigh. India is an allied country that supports us quite warmly, but we haven't succeeded in establishing battle units there yet. I might feel bitter towards humans after the attacks, but I still don't want to see innocent people suffer.

"Draconians were nearby," Gotrid is relieved when the media drones show random Draconians arriving and fighting the monsters.

"I was afraid they wouldn't help humans," Erik is even more relieved.

"On the contrary, we're demonstrating the difference," I shake my head. "Allied countries will get our full protection, enemy countries soon won't have any Draconian inhabitants that would help them."

I'm happy to see that despite those Indian Draconians struggling with teamwork because they obviously don't know each other, they defeat the monsters quite easily. They must have been doing some serious levelling-up during those past few weeks. I feel proud and hopeful.

"I would like to meditate for a few minutes," I say when the monsters are defeated and local humans start expressing their gratitude which is heart-warming to see. This is how it should be.

"Of course, love," Gotrid takes the tablets away while Erik positions cushions to hold me.

I give them both a kiss on their cheeks and then close my eyes. I tend to neglect meditation when work piles up, but I know it should be one of my priorities. It never crossed my mind before, but if there's something my brief encounter with my father showed me, it's that telepathy isn't just an extra sense. It's potentially a powerful weapon.

I didn't talk about it with Liana or my partners and I was suppressing it myself for as long as I could, but I can't shake off that buggering feeling anymore. I don't know how to do it yet, but I might become able to attack people telepathically just as my father attacked me. Frankly, that idea scares me and I feel that I'm not prepared to confront it just yet.

Instead, I send my mind throughout the skyscraper to check up on the local inhabitants. As expected, the atmosphere is tense and there're a lot of negative emotions, but everyone is doing their best to continue what is assigned to them and nobody is turning their frustration towards human employees who have nothing to do with the attacks.

And then I sense that Liana and the Ministers suddenly feel utter shock and confusion. Something serious must have happened just now.

Li, what is it? I send her my thought because she's the only one there attuned enough for long-distance telepathy with me.

Coming over right away, tell your partners to take you into the living room, she answers in a haste and doesn't say more because she's too busy.

"Something happened," I open my eyes. "Dress me up and take me to the living room."

"Nothing else on the news, though," Erik checks quickly while Gotrid helps me into an ornamented formal robe.

In a few moments, I'm sitting on the sofa between my partners again. I keep monitoring the overall mood on the governmental floor and whatever happened, it's not good.

"Your Majesty," Laurin, our Minister of Foreign Affairs, is the first one to arrive and he's panting from the run. "Things had an unprecedented turn."

"Did it escalate? Are we really at war now?" my heart skips a beat. Is this it?

"The United States claimed responsibility for the attacks," Laurin is shaking, but he's feeling less wrathful than I would have anticipated given the circumstances.

"Why am I not surprised?" Gotrid clutches his hands into fists and his anger is overflowing.

"They admitted it? Just like that?" Erik narrows his eyes in disbelief.

"Not just like that, Royal Consort," Laurin shakes his head violently. "There's been a coup."

At the same moment, Liana storms in and she's just as shocked and confused as everyone else. Her face is red from running and I've never seen her so bewildered before.

"Aefener," she blurts out, catching her breath. "It's seriously fucked up, the American government is in utter chaos."

"What happened?" I demand an explanation.

"The US President is dead," Liana says, still quite not believing it herself. "They say Delgado was assassinated by his own secret service."