How I Accidentally Built a Kingdom

I had spent almost the entire night packing all of my things up, I had lived in Stellor City for years after all.

By the next morning all of my inventory was packed up.

My apartment was packed up.

Everything now stood basically empty.

Daniel had arrived, and stored all of my belongings in his storage spell.

And just like that we were ready to go.

The adventurers that had joined his mercenary company had also packed up all of their belongings, which Daniel also stored, except for a couple of packs, which apparently they would have to carry back.

According to Julia this was part of their training.

By mid morning we had all gathered at the city gates.

We were now a party of fifteen.

Two of the original mercenaries were staying behind in the city; they would be responsible for guarding the Forest Flute.

That meant that of the deserters there would be four traveling with us again, and eight of the new recruits.

"Excellent," Daniel said, standing in front of everyone, Julia at his side. "It seems we’re ready to go."

"We’ll be traveling through the forest. Try to keep up, see this as part of your training."

The adventurers were looking at each other with confused expressions.

Even I had been a bit confused.

Why would traveling through the forest be seen as training?

It wasn’t like the beasts in the direction we were heading were of a high level.

But I soon realised why he would see the travel through the forest as training for them.

As soon as we were through the first trees, Julia and Daniel started running.

They kept a pretty good pace.

Nothing that would truly be considered running.

It had been more like a light jog.

Erick, his men, and I kept up pretty easily, but the new recruits soon started to breathe harder.

The packs they carried bounced all over the place as they jogged behind us.

A smile tugged at the corner of my lips as we kept going at that pace consistently.

I immediately knew that this had been Julia’s plan.

She had always been very focused on fitness.

And I could already imagine her forcing Daniel into this pace when they started their journey.

I could even imagine him nagging her to slow down.

Maybe even feigning some sort of injury so she would agree.

But in the same moment I could also see how she would have convinced him to keep going.

It would’ve been quite easy after all.

All she would’ve needed to do was tell him that there would be new business opportunities in the city.

Maybe have him imagine all the money he could make.

Or tell him about some of the things that weren’t in the city, which would immediately make him think of how he could make money by filling these gaps in the market.

The man had an almost insatiable desire for business after all.

We had been going for quite a while before I finally caught myself thinking all of this.

I don’t know when it had happened, but I had grown to respect the man.

Even though there were so many things about him that should have frustrated me beyond measure, for some reason they didn’t.

I looked at his back, as he and Julia kept pace in front of the group.

Their steps almost perfectly in sync.

Every once in a while they would even have a short conversation, which would almost always end with Julia giggling like a young girl.

In all the time I had known Julia, I had never seen her that... happy.

And that made me happy.

Even though it also made me a bit... envious.

I frowned at this thought, how could I be envious of the happiness my sister had finally achieved.

It had been at that moment that Julia gazed at me over her shoulder.

She said something I couldn’t hear to Daniel, before slowing her pace only momentarily until she was next to me.

"What’s wrong, Cat?" She asked me. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

I tried to school my features back into the smile I would always share only with her. The same one I had come to share with Daniel.

"Nothing," I answered. "I’m just enjoying our run."

"Is that so?" Julia asked with a knowing smile.

Apparently I hadn’t been as successful with my expressions as I had hoped to be.

"I’m just happy for you," I finally said, it hadn’t been a complete lie after all.

"Riight." Julia said. "You know, I would be even happier if you were happy."

"Of course I’m happy." I said, obviously a lie. "I get to be close to my darling sister again, after all."

"Mmm-hmm."

For a few moments we just kept moving in silence, Julia staying next to me the entire time.

"I’m happy you and Daniel are getting along." Julia finally said again.

I had noticed over the last day, she had stopped calling Daniel her husband when she spoke about him to me.

"He’s a good man." I had to admit.

"That he is." Julia nodded. "A bit awkward, but that just makes him even more endearing."

I couldn’t help but laugh at her calling him awkward.

I don’t think there had ever been a more accurate way of describing that man than that one word.

"He definitely is." I answered.

"Endearing, or awkward?" Julia asked me, that same knowing smile on her face again.

I don’t know why she had decided to start grilling me about my feelings toward Daniel at that moment, but that question made me blush for what felt like the hundredth time in days.

"Awkward!" I answered. "Of course I meant awkward."

"If you say so." Julia shrugged.

We kept going for a while in complete silence again.

For some reason I couldn’t make myself look at Daniel’s back.

My eyes had focused on anything but him.

In the end I decided to just focus on the spot in front of my feet.

Just focus on the next step.

"I know you’re in love with my husband." Julia suddenly said.

I immediately lost all rhythm I had, stumbling over my own feet.

For that moment, as I was falling forward, I even momentarily forgot Julia’s words.

That was until I found myself in the arms of the object of her words.

"Are you okay?"