Welfare and Warfare

Chapter 31

Roughly Sixteen Years Ago

Days passed and Alfreda was surprised how normal everything was. No one had mentioned even a single word about her brother Osmond. But how was that possible? Who could have such a power to wipe everyone's memories like that in just a matter of days? And then there was also the fact that his name and records were still on paper, on the internet, and on video. How can you erase that? And yet, no matter how hard Alfreda searched out of curiosity, she could not find any traces of the former prince.

Perhaps she should watch the broadcasts of The Eternal Abyss; she wondered if he had lasted this long, surviving against those monsters, or had already become one himself.

Alfreda headed towards the art gallery in the castle and found that there was no portrait of Osmond, only blank spaces and plaques. Since every picture with Osmond had to be taken away, there were no family portraits left either, only their indiviudal paintings. It was a shame, Alfreda thought, there was one particular group painting where she looked divine, the lightning and the composition just right, making her outshine her family. But now, no one would remember how great she looked in it.

She stared at the blank space where that painting had been, her gloved hands touching the cold wall.

"I am afraid I did have to take down the paintings too," said a voice.

Alfreda jolted and turned to find her father, the fake King Casimir. "I suppose we will have to commission more. It will look odd if we do not have any as a family."

Casimir nodded. "I shall book one." He remained silent for a moment, then stared at the blank space along with his daughter.

"How did you do it?" she asked after much hesitation. "I tried to find any sort of record of him out of curiosity and found nothing."

"When I altered everyone's memories," Casimir began to explain. "I also placed a command into their heads, telling them to forget and delete any record of him they come across. There may still be something about him out there that has not been discovered yet, but it will all be destroyed soon." He paused. "I shall also commission some paintings of us in a group years earlier. I agree, it will look odd if there are no paintings of us together, especially before a certain point." The king then left.

Alfreda remained in the art gallery for a while longer, staring at the blank spaces on the walls.

*

Ever since Osmond had been imprisoned in the Eternal Abyss and wiped from everyone's memories, Alfreda had noticed that everyone was treating her rather differently. The servants appeared to show her more respect, presumably because she was to be the next monarch. There was also the matter of the press covering more media on her, asking for interviews and such than ever before. She quite liked the attention for a period of time before her schedule soon was booked out leaving her with no free time to herself. It was filled with interviews, charity events, galas, and then there was her lessons, with her father teaching her the steps to being monarch and then her magic lessons in mind manipulation and other schools of the arcane, and finally, the lessons that she dreaded the most; her sparring training with her mother, Queen Consort Henrietta.

More than before, Queen Henrietta had doubled the amount of lessons Alfreda had before. The princess wanted so much to decline and skive off if it weren't for her crippling fear of her mother and what the consequences would be. What even was the point, Alfreda continued to think. She had magic and was slowly becoming more versed in mind manipulation from her studies with her father that she did not need to draw a sword. She could easily have other people kill and fight for her if needed. However, Alfreda continued to attend, only to keep her head on her shoulders and not face the scorn of the golden armoured warrior queen.