The next day, Valtherion awoke to earth-shaking news:
King Mathien would embark on his sacred pilgrimage to the temple… with his personal maid.
Not a noble family member.
Not a future queen.
But a maid from another world—whose name wasn't even recorded in any royal genealogy.
The news spread faster than wind magic.
Slipping from a servant's whisper to a handmaiden's ear.
From a corridor guard to an innkeeper.
And finally, to the main marketplace, where the people of Valtherion speculated, questioned, even fretted.
"A maid…? Isn't that dangerous?"
"A sacred pilgrimage isn't just any trip."
"Isn't that an insult to the nobility?"
"Has our King fallen in love…?"
The whispers grew into murmurs, and the murmurs into unrest.
Inside the palace itself, the council chamber turned into a battlefield of words.
