Valeria, a city of wonders, the eternal city... Valeria could be called by many names, but honestly, Alenios preferred to call it The Elder City, for it truly was just that, but not because of it's age, simply because of the fact that the three Elders resided and ruled from it's throne. For him, it didn't matter if it was Valeria or a small keep, it was his own duty to be at Amelia's side, it was his duty to protect her, even if he now was a count and simply her bodyguard as it had been so much time ago.

His seat was close Amelia's cold, stone throne, he could intervene and snap the necks of any hapless assassin that would foolishly try to harm the woman he would give his life for... but it wasn't close enough for him. Sure enough, he knew that Amelia favored him above other in her personal life, it was due to that that he had been awarded the title of count of Sibiu in the first place and due to that that back in Transylvania, he would sit the closest to her, but here... where all the dukes and counts were present, it would be more respectful to have the higher ranked dukes sit closer to her... he disliked this hierarchical ladder, but it was a necessary thing to make the dukes feel more important than they actually were, it was necessary to keep them happy if they were not rebel.

However, he could not show his discontent, his displeasure in this, for this was Valeria, he had to be courteous and he had to smile. For everyone there, his smile would seem like a genuine one a, smile that showed kindness for the ranks of society lower than his and respect to the societal ranks higher than his own. This smile was a forced one however... horribly forced for him, but only a select few would probably notice this, one of them being Amelia, he had been so many years by her side that she could read his expression and understand what he was feeling. The same thing worked for him, he knew what she thought by merely looking at her expression, she wanted to fight, not to sit here listening to the ramblings of peasants, counts and dukes.

However, he kept his forced smile, for Amelia, this was the least thing he could do... smile and pretend to care what other people thought.