บท 575: IN SEARCH FOR ALLIES

ARIANNE POV

The doors opened while I stood at the entrance, nothing but the trunk in my hand. My fingers tightened around the leather handle as the cold air of the morning swept through the open doorway. I was dressed in a simple wine-colored linen shirt and leggings—no silks, no armor, nothing that hinted at who I used to be.

The hallway behind me was silent. No footsteps. No farewells. No one to see me off. The council had made sure of that. Stripped of my title, of everything I once held, I had become invisible in the very place where my voice had once commanded armies.

They thought they were winning. That by sending me out of the castle, they were seizing control of the throne and the kingdom. Let them believe that. Let them think they had dethroned me, broken me.

But they didn't know the truth.

They didn't know that I was the one leaving on my own accord.