Chapter 2: "Your Kingdom is at war"

A thousand thoughts filled my head as I made my way down a long hallway, Ryenia dutifully following behind me.

What the hell? We’re at war? I just got dropped into the body of a princess of a kingdom that’s at war? Great, thanks a lot Wulf, or whatever your name is.

We turned a corner and I came face to face with a large wooden door flanked by two men who I could only assume were guards. They opened the doors for me and I stepped inside.

The war room was huge. There were banners hung around the walls and a large table in the middle which was crowded with about five or six men and women talking quietly whilst pointing at parts of the table. When I entered they fell silent and looked up at me, with one man in armour bowing on one knee.

Despite my newly acquired status as a cute princess, being in a room with people staring at me brought back my inner NEET, and I felt eyes drilling into me. Were they expecting something?

“Your majesty, I’m glad you’re here!” a man dressed in a blue tunic with flowing golden hair stepped forward. “I am Jalis. I will be your chief advisor in this troubling time. Very troubling…but with me at your side, we will see that your kingdom survives.”

“Pleased to…meet you.” I said in a strained voice.

“Let me introduce you to your war council. We will be your aides and confidants in this time of conflict. Here we have Myrella, your advisor on all things magic”, said Jalis, pointing to an attractive woman with black hair,

“That’s Hugo, the general of your armies and the man coordinating this war effort on your behalf.” Jalis gestured towards a surprisingly young man with brown hair and a very friendly face,

“This is Garrell, a great lieutenant who will be responsible for actually leading your forces in battle”, Jalis further gestured towards an older man with a grey beard,

“And finally Thylene, your advisor on all things diplomatic. Not that we have many diplomatic options as of now.” Jalis grimaced, then turned back to me, “is there any more information you require, your highness?”

Yeah, why the hell was I dropped into this shitshow? I thought to myself.

“No. Not for now.” I mumbled.

“In that case, we’ll fill you in on the general situation we find ourselves in. Hugo, if you would be so kind?”

“Certainly.” Hugo stepped forwards toward the table. On it there was a map, with different coloured chunks on and names I didn’t recognise.”

“Your majesty. This is us” Hugo pointed towards a red chunk on the board that said “Allios” on. “At the moment, we are the smallest kingdom. We’re surrounded by…”

He pointed at a blue chunk, “Haran”,

Then he pointed to a purple chunk, “and Thilsei. Right now, Haran is poised to invade us. Thilsei are in negotiations with Haran according to spies we have in their capital. If this happened, we’d be completely surrounded by enemies, which would most likely mean the end of your kingdom. And that’s not to mention the other problem.”

Hugo pointed at a yellow chunk on the board, which was the biggest by far and had the word “Suynet” on it. “Suynet. As you know, they have long wanted to take over Allios for our natural springs and forests. Although they don’t dare to make a move as doing so would mean they’d have to come through either Haran or Thilsei, neither of which they are currently allied with.”

Jalis nodded, “That is the situation as it stands, your majesty. The next move is yours.”

My head was spinning slightly. Yeah, this kingdom is kinda screwed, I thought to myself. I would jump ship if it wasn’t for the fact that I’m the ruler of this place. And if the kingdom goes down…I’m guessing I, or at least Princess Alethia, am gonna go with it.

Having played my fair share of strategy games, I knew the odds were horrible. 3 vs 1, with our kingdom being the smallest? But on the other hand…for all I knew, if we were beaten I might be thrown in a dungeon forever, executed or thrown to some leering king. Maybe I could put some of my knowledge into practice …my countless weekends wasted in front of a screen practicing military and political strategy games could come in useful for once.

“Well…assemble the troops for my inspection within the hour. After I’ve assessed their condition then I’ll decide.” I commanded, all the while thinking, It’s not so hard to speak when I’m copying lines from my favourite video games.

“Very well your majesty. It will be done.” Jalis said, bowing deeply.

“For now I think I’ll...retire to my chambers.” I said lamely. After all this information, I felt like doing nothing more than lying down on my bed. And with that, I turned on my heel, walking towards the door, closely followed by Ryenia.

Once we’d left, I made my way back along the way I’d come back to my room. I pushed the door open, walked over to the bed and fell face down on it.

“Awwwww” I groaned, feeling the weight of the situation. I could hear the door close behind me.

“Your majesty?”

I jumped at the sound of the voice “Ahh–! Ryenia, I thought you’d left.”

“Sorry, your majesty, I’ll go now-” Ryenia started to say before I cut her off.

“No, no, it’s fine. Stay. Take a seat or something.” I lifted my head off the bed and looked at Ryenia, who was standing meekly by the door. “Go on, I won’t bite.”

A deep blush filled her face, but she followed my “order” and sat on a chair opposite the bed, although she looked uncomfortable the whole time, as if she wasn’t meant to be there. It almost looked like she was sweating, so I decided that giving her something to do might make things less awkward.

“I’m gonna have a bath. Can you get me some clothes ready? Something uh, regal, something I can speak to the troops in.”

Ryenia seemed to loosen up as soon as I said that, and she stood up quickly.

“Of course, your majesty.”

With help from Ryenia I stripped down from the frankly impractical white dress I’d been wearing into my undershirt and, after looking around for a couple of seconds, found the door to my bathroom. Once I had filled the bath, I got into it and let the warm water soak away my worries. The one good thing about this situation was that for the first time in years, I actually had a friend. Well, a maid. And she seemed to be as timid as me, if not more so, which meant that I actually didn’t feel as self conscious talking to her as I thought I would.

There’s more important things to worry about, I snapped myself out of my NEET fantasising, like seeing what state my army is in.

I lay in the bath for a while longer until I felt my skin start to wrinkle, at which point I pulled myself out and began to dry my body. My god I feel like a pervert, I cringed as I dried the feminine parts of my body. When it was done I put back my loose fitting undershirt back on, sighed, and went back into my bedroom.

I was greeted with a sight. Ryenia had laid out a deep red tunic with a coat of arms on the left breast and some luxurious looking breeches on the bed. Draped next to them was a long and heavy looking cloak, the neck of which was lined with golden embroidery, and the back of it had the same coat of arms on as my tunic. It beat anything I’d had back in my old life by a mile, and I could only imagine I would look every inch the…princess that I was in it.

But that wasn’t what caught my eye. Ryenia stood at the end of my bed, her back to the door, holding up the dress I’d taken off earlier. But for some reason, she was snuggling her face into it and making strange sounds halfway between a groan and a sigh of pleasure. Several times she breathed in deeply, and I guessed that she was…sniffing it?

Unsure of what to do in this awkward situation, I gently coughed.

Ryenia froze. Her body tensed up and she slowly dropped the dress from her face, turning around slowly. When she saw me, the colour drained from her face as if she had seen a ghost.

“...”

The inspection of the troops was all that I’d been thinking of whilst in the bath. Now, I realised, I might have a few more “complications” in this new life than I’d thought.