The Soul Reborn: From Silence to Sovereignty Chapter 74

Chapter 74: A Shield of Flesh and Fury

“Livia,” I groaned as I waddled across the castle’s eastern hallway, my hand braced against my lower back, “you know what’s not fair?”

She looked at me with that skeptical expression of hers… the one that always looked like calm disapproval but somehow still managed to be comforting.

“No, Archduchess. But I have a feeling I’m about to find out.”

I stopped walking and turned dramatically toward her.

"Isn’t it ridiculous that I’m the one teaching grown adults how to be competent? I’m nine months pregnant, exhausted, emotional, and constantly getting kicked in the bladder. Why is it my job to fix centuries of ignorance?"

Livia just stared at me without blinking. “You’re the only one crazy enough to try and make it stick?”

I jabbed a finger at her. “Not the answer I wanted, Livia!”

She gave a light chuckle, just under her breath. “I’ll try again later.”

I sighed deeply and pressed my hand against the nearest windowsill, glaring out toward the distant eastern hills where the second school’s framework was beginning to take shape.

“This can’t go on,” I muttered, more to myself than anyone else. “Every time we need new teachers, I’m the one who has to stop and train them. I can’t even get a nap, let alone a moment of peace.”

Livia tilted her head slightly, waiting. That was always her way. Let me spiral, and then catch me afterwards.

“Go to the professors at the fortress school,” I said firmly. “Tell them I want each of them to create a complete exam with questions, answer keys, and all necessary materials. One test per subject; it should be something any future educator is required to pass.”

Livia arched a brow, “So, a qualifying exam?”

“Exactly,” I said, motioning outward as the idea took shape. “I don’t want to be the only gatekeeper anymore. The knowledge is already there. Let them prove they’ve learned it. If they pass, they teach.”

Livia jotted the idea down in her little notebook, “Any incentives?”

I smirked.

“If any of the tests are good enough… complete, clear, and scalable. We’ll pay the writer one year’s salary in advance. Hell, if it’s good enough, I’d be willing to offer two.

That got a rare, wide-eyed look from her.

“You’re serious?”

“Do I look like I’m in the mood to joke, Livia?”

She glanced at my swollen belly, the bags under my eyes, and the unmistakable fury of someone one bad footstep away from declaring war on basic incompetence.

“Point taken,” She gave a light bow and then offered her arm.

We started walking again, slower than before.

“If I build this system properly, I won’t have to do everything myself. People will learn the process, replicate it, and spread it.”

I watched out the corner of my eye; Livia had a worried look on her face.

Then she said with a soft voice. “You’re tired.”

“I’m building a nation and a human at the same time,” I muttered. “Of course I’m tired.”

She gave a gentle smile.

“You’re not wrong.”

I didn’t answer, but I knew she understood. Beneath all my whining and sarcasm, I was still doing what needed to be done, even if I had been more irritable lately.

By the time we reached the gates, I paused to look out over the city. The air smelled like wood and iron.

The sound of hammers in the early morning echoed like the rhythm of a new world being forged.

I couldn’t help but smile, thinking about how far I’d come. Everything was falling into place, and the North was steadily becoming a stronghold, ready to withstand whatever attack the South might bring.

Once Lyra is born and these first initial schools are working without issue, I can finally get some quality rest.

It only took a few days before the tests started piling up on my desk, each set wrapped in ribbon and parchment like little academic offerings to a hormonal goddess of education.

I sat at the long desk in my personal study, my sore feet propped up on a velvet stool, flipping through the first submission with a raised brow.

Livia stood nearby, arms crossed, slightly observing as I graded the professors by facial expression alone.

“This one,” I muttered, “actually included diagrams. I might not have to strangle anyone today.”

She arched a brow. “That’s progress.”

“Mm,” I replied, lips curving. “They’ve proven it’s possible for them to rise to the occasion.”

I placed the packet down and reached for my next tool of psychological warfare… my quill.

So, I began writing up their next assignment.

That evening, Livia read my new order aloud in the castle atrium, where all of my current educators had gathered.

“By decree of Archduchess Seraphina Velmoure,” she said with reverence, “each professor shall now endeavor to write a full textbook in their area of expertise. Said textbook must be suitable for mass education, being clear, structured, and complete. The best submissions shall be duplicated and distributed to every school in the North.”

There were murmurs, confused glances, and then the kicker came to really motivate them.

“Those whose books are accepted will be compensated at fifty times their current monthly salary.”

It was dead silence… then a collective gasp.

Back in the study, I lounged dramatically in my cushioned chair, one hand under my chin and the other tracing slow circles on the curved swell of my belly.

She could be arriving any day now.

Livia stood near me, describing the reactions of the professors to my decree.

“They were stunned,” she said.

I grinned. “Good.”

“One of them asked if there had been some kind of mistake.”

My face smug as I leaned back, “Nope… If you don’t want to do something… just throw money at it.”

I turned to her and added a wink.

“There is more gold in my vault than I could spend in a lifetime. Why not help the economy while I’m building an empire of knowledge?”

Livia shook her head with a breath of laughter.

“It’s not just about funding education; you’re creating loyal intellectuals who will only favor you in the future.”

“Exactly,” I said. “The ones who will benefit from my vision will have no choice but to help and defend it in the future.”

I leaned back, watching the firelight flicker against the gold-trimmed paper stacks on my desk.

“Besides,” I added lazily, “why not reward effort with pay? It’ll only motivate them to work harder.”

After I’d finished gloating about the generous payouts, I finally felt like I didn’t have to carry it all alone. My feet were up, belly supported, Livia stood near the window reading messages, and Elowen sat beside the fireplace taking notes… when it happened.

A sudden rumble beneath the floorboards… At first I thought it might have been an earthquake. But I was so very wrong.

The tremor knocked a nearby vase off the mantle. I gasped and reached for the arm of the couch I was sitting on, but the next jolt struck, stronger, much closer than before.

It knocked me off balance, and then came another sudden blast.

The wall ruptured at the far end of the room. Glass shattered and screams rang out.

A cry came out of my mouth as I fell backwards onto the couch after trying to get up. I clutched my belly in a daze.

Elowen, who was closest, was thrown into the stone fireplace with a sickening thud. She crumpled, unconscious.

Livia and I both yelled out her name, “Elowen!”

Before I could rise… they appeared.

Three figures burst through the newly opened hole. Two wore maid uniforms, and one was dressed in a chef’s coat. Their eyes locked onto me, filled with murderous intent. It was clear they weren’t actual staff.

They were assassins, fuck!

The two women held twin daggers, drawn from beneath their aprons. The man had a long, curved blade strapped beneath his chef coat.

“For the Crown,” one hissed.

I couldn’t move… not in the amount of time I was given.

But Livia did.

She stepped between me and the blades like a wall made of flesh and fury.

“You’ll have to get through me,” she said without any hesitation.

They all lunged at her; steel flashed as I screamed in terror that Livia might die here.

She caught one dagger with her bare hands, redirected another, but the third attack’s blade cut across her forearm with a sharp, wet hiss.

A gasp escaped her lips, but she didn’t fall. With a few rapid movements, she was able to repel the three attackers while still holding the initial dagger.

There was blood rushing out of her arm and also a few cuts throughout the body. She backed up till she was right in front of me. At the same time we saw all three come in for another coordinated attack that was aimed directly for me.

Livia threw the dagger at one of the women while shielding me from the sword with her shoulder.

I couldn’t stop myself from screaming, “Livia!” Helplessness crashed over me as I scrambled back on the couch, arms wrapped protectively around my stomach. The assassins kept coming. “No... No!”

Then a welcome explosion came as the door burst open, splintering inward with a deafening boom.

Bors and Kellan roared in, blades already drawn… faces carved with fury.

"The maids didn’t even have time to scream. One was cleaved from shoulder to waist by Bors’s axe, her body crumpling before it hit the ground. The other turned to flee, only to be caught mid-step by Kellan’s sword, the blade driving clean through her back."

Bors closed in on the chef. After disarming him, he seized him by the throat. There was a sharp crack as his neck snapped, and then he chucked his body against the stone wall.

It was all over in a matter of seconds.

The room reeked of blood.

Livia fell to her knees beside the couch, holding her bleeding arm. I grabbed her with shaking hands, trying to press down on the wound, tears welling up on my face.

“No, no, no… You’re okay, Livia… you’re okay…”

I couldn’t stop shaking, not even realizing how much of her blood made it onto my dress.

Then the temperature in the room dropped to freezing cold.

A howl of wind echoed down the corridors as he arrived.

Noah stormed into the room like a war god, cloak billowing, eyes burning with fury. He took in the carnage… the blood, corpses, and Livia bleeding all over as I held her in my arms. Elowen was unconscious…

Of course I now also looked injured because of Livia’s blood, but Noah didn’t compute that upon arrival, “Seraphina!”

He was at my side in an instant, cradling me, eyes scanning every inch of my body.

“Are you hurt? Tell me… Tell me you’re not…”

“I’m fine,” I gasped, clutching my side. “Noah… Livia… She’s hurt.”

He looked down and saw the blood on my hands where I held onto her wound.

His jaw clenched.

“Get a healer,” he barked at Bors, “NOW!”

Bors was gone in an instant.

I couldn’t stop crying. I was afraid, but even more than that, I was furious. The guilt clung to me, knowing they were both hurt because of me.

They dared to strike us here, in our own home, at the very center of the North’s strongest stronghold!

“We’re infiltrated,“ I whispered bitterly. “They got in as our staff!”

Noah’s arms closed around me, his face buried in my hair.

"Never again," he said softly, then kept whispering it with quiet intensity.

I looked at Livia, still sitting beside me, dazed but conscious.

“You saved us.” I pulled one of her hands into both of mine.

She gave me a faint smirk, blood still dripping down her arm.

“It’s my job; I’m your shield… remember?”

I always thought Kellan was my shield, but I wasn’t going to take away her thunder.

In that moment, as Noah held me and Bors returned with a healer, Kellan stood guard at the door like a stone titan, and Elowen was lifted away by the servants to safety…

I realized something terrifying.

The war wasn’t coming anymore.

It had already arrived, knowing precisely where to strike and how to do it.