Chapter 223 - The Prompt Prediction

Even at that moment, Nathalie got taken aback for what seemed Jonathan was somehow in a hurry to give Arnold a call.

Nevertheless, she went for it; rummaging her hand into the pocket, she pulled out her smartphone.

From there, she saw so many notifications: mainly unread messages and missed calls, and they were all from Arnold.

She swiped left and right then to a click as she brought it close to her ear. 

"Mysti!" His loud roar pulled her phone away from her in a snap as she scrunched her face. "Mysti?! Are you there?"

Nathalie then pressed the green button after Arnold requested to have a video chat immediately.

"Oh, thank goodness. You're alright." A deep sigh of relief left his lips after a few moments taking a good look at her. "Where are you now?!"

Her mouth went agape as she tried to look around; her hands began to tap onto the keys with a message.

[I'm still in the Western Territory; I kind of forgot the name of the Hotel I'm in…]

Arnold's eyes narrowed as he went on a hum. "Are you still not done over there?"

[Yes.]

"Then, hurry up! Get out of there?"

[Huh? Why?]

The moment his father opened his mouth had almost got her gut churned and dropped at the same time with her legs turned wobbly from standing. 

"Athan is on his way there with the battalions of the Imperial Army." 

Everyone gasped, stared at each other at the bad news he delivered.

Nathalie had propped her palms on the table to avoid the sudden loss of her footing. Myriad thoughts rushed inside her as she remembered the confidence Clarice had with Athan coming with his sea of armies.

This wasn't what she planned.

Her side glance caught Jonathan's grim countenance, as it was not a light matter to brush off at this moment.

Despite her hands trembling, she took her time upon typing a message for her father to read.

[Where did you get that, Father?]

"About several hours ago; an imperial herald came with a decree to gather abled soldiers and rally them at the camp settled near the Grand Duchy of Salvatore."

[What is he even doing?] After, she then sent another one. [More importantly, have you sent any of ours, Father?]

"No. It was written in it that I have the power not to send some reinforcements, unlike the rest; with Ashtra missing here, I might need to readjust the security and protection up the Northern Territory."

He went on with the decree and deliberated with the rest of the Grand Dukes in the territory to manage and provide reinforcement as per Athan's request.

While it did give a sense of relief inside her, she still couldn't get over the idea of Athan's decision to put up with it. After which, she turned to Jonathan's direction, beckoning him.

[Did you send some of your people?]

"Not me personally, but I got a signal from the stand-in," he responded, revealing the tracker in his hands. "These buttons, flickering in a bright green light, showed that the wargs and the elves had assembled and departed from the Southern Territory."

[Isn't that so many?!]

"...Indeed, it's mandatory…"

In the heat of the moment, Nathalie went mental block as she now bit her fingernails, breathing in and out as she had to think.

"Huh? Wait a minute… You're with Nathan, Mysti?!" A sudden glint came from his indigo eyes, nothing but a deadly gaze from what popped inside his head. "In a hotel, at that?!"

[Nooo!] She pressed the phone as she mouthed her mouth a big no. After which, she spammed emoticons for him to know that he took the wrong idea. [Have you lost your mind? We've called it a day on our mission, and we're in the balcony of this special place as we have yet to return to our quarters!]

After which, she then revealed Ashtra, who sat languidly on the table. Dusk and Dawn stood upright with Keith behind him as well.

"You better not… I'm telling you…" 

She rolled her eyes as she huffed out from his fair warning. 

"Anyway, can you get it over with what you had to do?! Then move away from there!"

[You still didn't tell me why I must be after what ruckus His Highness had to do.]

"Who knows, but it said 'Operation: Purge' in the decree with a brief description of cleansing the plague." He then scrunched his face as he rubbed the stubbles on his chiseled jawline. "I'm not sure what plague but the rumors reached here that it's a deadly one, affecting the livestock and all."

This time, it was as though Nathalie got gutted from the words he uttered nonetheless; with Clarice's words coming true, a part of her wanted to stop this from happening, which she then replied to Arnold as fast as possible.

[Father, you need to convince Athan to stop!]

"Huh? Why in the damned hell would I even do that for that arrogant twat," he spat. Evidently in his face how he still bore that deep resentment, which she couldn't blame him at all But this wasn't the time for a begrudge.

[Please believe in me, Father. This mustn't happen!]

He pressed his lips thin; whenever she made that pleading face, he knew something was up that he couldn't ignore. 

"... Is this one you've been working on all along?" 

From his grave tone, she knew that she slipped her tongue from the agenda she was after all along.

One thing Arnold didn't like was lying to his face, and Nathalie did a few times ever since she now lived in this world. After all the debacle and persuasion she had to put up with him, everything shattered and fell to pieces.

But unexpectedly, he sighed, and responded again, "Fine. It's usually important when you're like this—No promises!"

Never did she feel from beaming with happiness to diving deep to a bummer in a blink of an eye for a long time.

[Why not?]

"For I'm sure you knew hat man would never believe me either way—"

[Father…]

But then, his retorts were rather sensible, as both parties reached a mutual understanding, but the problem in the future would be the catalyst of the third act of the sequel.

Nathalie isn't ready to take that route, not now. 

So she had no choice but to do it.

[I'll have you do something. Then show him that smartphone!]