Chapter 98. The Hope of Tomorrow Is Her (1)

[2019, August 7th. Sartis Est]

With the arrival of Prince Troy Pierce in Sartis Est, its castle and its queen seemed to slowly, cautiously, come back to life. Aria was a quick study. She became a worthy chess opponent almost overnight and ended up winning as many games as Troy did.

“Checkmate,” she said proudly.

Troy raised an eyebrow to her well-deserved grin.

“It’s the jet lag,” he assured her.

“Sure it is.”

The constant smiling Troy was still getting used to. It was restricted to them playing chess though, which was starting to get to him because it turned out he needed to see it as much as she needed a reason to do it. So even though chess was their ultimate favourite and he was annoyed at how good she’d gotten seemingly overnight, he allowed her to drag him into simpler board games like Conquest and Battleship, just so he could see her smile a little longer. They were living in a fantasy world of sorts. Almost as soon as Troy got to Sartis Es