PeaceMaker

NOVEMBER 5

"Please be careful, your highness," Feline warned, her body twitching to stand up and assist Axel and Desilva.

"I'll be fine Feline, I have Axel and Desilva helping me already," Dominic chuckled, "you guys are such worriers."

Axel and Desilva held onto the opposite sides of Dominic, clutching his arms and helping him to the bed. Slowly, they let him down and held on for one more second in case he faltered.

Dominic tapped Axel's shoulder twice, a signal to let go, and turned to Feline and Litian after they stepped away from him.

"It's been a while since I saw your faces," Dominic smiled, his grin soon turning into a fakes frown when he stole a quick glance at Axel, "all I had to look at was this physician's face. It was time for a change in scenery."

Axel scoffed in reply and ever so quietly whispered to Dominic so he couldn't be heard by the others in the room, "You're still going to be looking at me for longer."

"Then it's even better that I got a break," Dominic giggled.

"Excuse m-" Axel began, so taken aback by Dominic's return that his eyes widened in surprise.

"Are you alright, your highness? I was there on the day of the relapse… I'm sure that would have taken a while for me to recover from," Litian interrupted, intentionally cutting Axel off, "but yet here you are not even a week later… are you sure you don't want to rest more? We're ok here, you can relax."

Dominic huffed, "If I had stayed in that bed for any longer, I would have imprinted my body shape into it." He turned to Axel again and scoffed playfully, "how did you even have patients sleep on it before? It's barely suitable for even a nap."

"Pfft-" Desilva chuckled, exchanging amused smiles from the other ladies.

"E-excuse me, your highness, but we didn't come here to talk about the comfortability of the health tent's bed," Axel answered flusteredly.

"Yes, yes, I'll return to the topic at hand," Dominic waved his hand dismissively at Axel, "I see someone doesn't like criticism."

"Yup," Desilva nodded her head, Feline giving a little chuckle in agreement and Litian plainly nodding her head.

"I'd also like to know about the sudden change in system… like the new positions given to Miss. Milti and Physician Lewis," Litian suggested.

"Ah that," Dominic muttered, exchanging glances with Axel and Desilva before turning back to Litian with a smile, "It felt necessary."

"I agree," Feline nodded, crossing her legs, "since Miss. Milti seems like a very stable bridge connecting us to her people, keeping her as someone close to his highness would be the only sensible answer in order to give us the upper hand."

She paused for a second, to look at Desilva before turning back to Litian and continued, "The title regarding Physician Lewis was only normal to give since I'm guessing it was his hard work that enabled his highness to reach this health, right?"

Axel locked eyes with Feline and gave a nod. There was slight friction in their stare before she turned back to Litian.

A shiver ran down Feline's spine. 'How scary…' she thought to herself for a moment before continuing her talk. "With the title person physician, Physician Lewis can devote himself to healing his highness without being worried about others." She turned to Dominic, "Am I right, your highness?"

Dominic gave a smile as he nodded.

Feline smiled in return. 'That's easy to understand… but then why didn't he refer to me before making the decision?' she thought to herself.

"It's exactly like Axel thought," Dominic grinned.

"Physician Lewis?" Feline repeated, her gaze skirting to Axel. 'He was the one assisting his highness on his decisions? What the hell? He's only a medic…' she thought to herself as she eyed down Axel, flinching when he caught her harsh gaze, 'if that attitude wasn't enough… he thinks he can take a seat beside his highness? My seat at that…'

"Yes, great minds think alike," Dominic chuckled.

"Hmm," Feline nodded slowly. 'A mind in my profession is what I'd like.'

"These are still unofficial titles though. Since we were at war and now out here, the ceremony needed to give out these titles at the palace is postponed until we return," Dominic sighed.

'We?' Litian glanced at Desilva for a moment before turning back to Dominic. "At the ceremony, are there any additional titles that will be given out?"

"Ah, yes," Dominic nodded, "assistant guard for you and the title for my personal guard."

"Oh! About that," Litian began, "there was somethi-"

"Maybe we should stop getting off-topic and start this meeting your highness," Axel interrupted.

"Right.. Can't have it happening two times in a row," Dominic sighed, "especially when we're running out of time."

"Running out of time?" Feline asked as she took a sip of her tea and looked up at Dominic.

"It seems you haven't noticed it yet," Axel muttered.

"Right. Have you noticed the weather getting colder these days? Winter is right around the corner and we're nowhere near prepared. The medics are still trying to heal the injured soldiers, some people are starting to get used to Desiva's village's presence and we have only started planting a few weeks ago. We're low on food and the other things necessary for the upcoming season," Dominic explained, "at the rate, we're going, when winter comes around, this camp and the people in it, will not survive the harsh weather."

"We have a large number of people at the camp, we should be able to get things done soon," Litian replied.

"Half of them are injured, and many people from the kingdom and the village are working to heal them. Then we have the people working hard to provide us with food. There's not much left after that in the camp," Axel shook his head, "we're going to need a lot more than what resources we have right now to survive what's waiting at the start of winter."