Unable to wait any longer, Queen Catherine hurried away that very night with the five undamaged warships and nearly eight hundred sailors and crew. Apart from a few of her Armiger Knights, she took nothing else!
She even volunteered to leave a female Armiger Knight with Annie to protect her and attend to her everyday needs.
Although, really, Annie did not need any of that?
As for Christian, there was no need to even mention him. After entering the city, he was run off his feet gathering refugees, reassuring the people, restoring production, putting the city hall in order, repairing the walls and various defensive installations, and sending people to clean up the abandoned barracks and watchtowers in the city while recruiting soldiers for training.
In short!
To sum it up in one sentence, Uncle Christian was very, very busy lately. Restoring order in the city alone would probably take several days, so he had no time to look after Annie for now.
Of course, even if he wanted to rein her in, he could not!
Case in point?
That first afternoon, after Annie got out of bed and looked at the dilapidated, desolate Karyad City, its equally shabby streets, and the refugees hurrying along in scattered groups, she found it all rather boring. Naturally, she simply found herself a little white horse and rode out of the city for a stroll.
Seeing this, the female Armiger Knight Queen Catherine had left behind—the one apparently named Lania or something—immediately rode after her.
"Lady Annie!"
"May I ask!"
"Where are we going?"
Lania called urgently from behind as she spurred her horse to catch up, then rode alongside Annie, her face and eyes full of worry.
"This morning!"
"General Christian said it wasn't safe outside the city right now. There are