truth

And so, the two heroes of our story have parted ways.

The once again lonesome mercenary in the forest of the
forgotten and the princess that learned the etiquette of
the world.

But the story’s just begun.

——————————

Her story

“M’Lady has returned, m’Lady has returned! No, no, no,
this will not do, the preparations are not finished yet!”
the head nurse Dorothy said, frantically.

“Really, Dorothy, all of this isn’t needed.” I said,
trying to calm her down.

I walked towards the stairway of the palace, which led
to the rooms of the household members, walked up the stairs
and proceeded to my room. I opened the large, plain white
door to reveal a world which was not my own.

It was now possibly the most girly room there could be.
The sunlight, which was once a nice white was now a bright
pink, because of the red curtains that replaced my black
ones. The beige carpet which was once littered with stains
of dirt and mud was now replaced with a dark pink carpet.
My large beech cabinet transformed into a huge rose-colored
cabinet with swinging doors, and dolls dominating the
cabinet. I opened the doors to find dresses of all sizes,
all white, pink or somewhere in between. Lovely. Bloody
lovely. A large book full of notes of the spells I had
learned, once residing in a corner of my room, was now a
pretty little book, titled 101 ways to put on your
make-up, along with a huge mirror and a desk with
little drawers. I cannot divulge any longer, it hurts too
much inside.

———————————

My mother had always tried to change me, with etiquette
teachers or teachers that would try to teach me how to
court boys. Magic was my motivation, I was always amazed by
the masters of the art. With a snap of their fingers, the
masters of the art would call a beast to do their bidding.
With a clap, all ailments would be purged. With a mere
murmur, it seemed as if they could alter the heavens
themselves. My mother saw my fascination with magic and
urged me to develop a spell that would make me more
attractive, so that I could marry rich, she would tell me.
It didn’t seem as if I needed a spell to attract drooling
hormone-crazed teenagers.

It would always happen at parties, the ones that my
parents held. I would dress for the occasion, I was not
opposed to that. After all, it was only once in a while. I
had a white dress, gloves and shoes with heels. I would tie
my short hair up and receive compliments for my look. I
never really saw what was so great about this.

Then the party would begin. I would walk around and make
small talk, then excuse myself to the confines of my room,
away from the show which featured the rising businessmen,
kings and princes. That was pretty much the plan for those
evenings. But it all changed one night.

I was doing my regular routine, make small talk and go
away. But my mother had something else planned. I noticed
it, of course, the pointing at me by my mother to tell some
young male that I was her daughter, or so I had thought.
Then later in the evening, my mother had several
adolescents follow her. My hatred was unparalleled towards
these individuals, but mostly towards my mother. My mother
was going to introduce these individuals to me, these
drooling, hormone-crazed adolescent boys. By boys, I only
mean to insult their character, their level of maturity
wasn’t anywhere near what it should be, hell, it never went
up. That was the night I blinded everyone in the room
temporarily. That was the night I packed my things. That
was the night I ran away.

I had gotten so sick of the materialistic society in
which I was born and raised in. Just have to make as much
money as you can, my father said. Have to be as pretty as
you can, so all the rich boys will like you, my mother
said.

————————————

Now, I had returned to the place of my childhood, if you
could call it that. I got tired of the room, and sickened
at the sight of it, and decided to leave. I was turning
towards the door and was met by my little sister, a
long-haired, short, thin blonde wearing a pink dress and a
pout.

“Out of my way.” I commanded of her, I had no desire to
say anything to her.

“Why? You are not the boss of me!” Macy, my little
sister, said in the same royal tone my entire family
had.

She had the same “I’m better than you so listen to me.
If you don’t, I’ll have your head chopped off. And I’ll
tell the executioner to miss.” accent that everyone else in
my family had. I had never known that I spoke with an
accent, because those I played with always had the same
accent. It never occurred to me that I sounded “snotty,
bratty, or stuck-up,” in his words.

With a wave of my arm, I knocked her on her back,
against the hallway wall. Without any words, I headed for
the bathing room.

“I’m going to grow up and be rich and powerful; I’ll be
better than you! You’re a failure, you should’ve never had
the family name. You! Don’t you walk away from me!” Macy
yelled behind me.

I didn’t have time for this, if I had the time, I
would’ve shut her up. I reached the bathroom with many
regrets of my hesitant nature. She was still yelling. Open
the door, close it, and seal it. I was very self-conscious.
I could still hear her haughty accent through the door,
still yelling curses and insults in my direction.

“Have I changed this much?” I said, “My voice, it’s so
different.”

My accent, once-haughty accent, like my sister’s, had
disintegrated, now becoming something similar to the
townsfolks’ accent. He had taught me.

—————————————

On the night that I ran away, I had bumped into a
wandering stranger. The night was dark and my eyes couldn’t
adjust to the dark quickly enough. The first words that
came out of the strangers’ mouth were, “Hiya. Do you know
where I could find an inn to stay for the night?”

I backed away and started running. At this, he yelled,
“Hey! Where are you going?”

I ran away from the castle, away from the town, and into
my master’s home. My teacher was making his dinner at that
time. “Hold up, wait 3, you mean 3 whole minutes for this
to be ready? And I have to boil water? There should be a
reason why this is called instant!” was the voice that came
from the hut filled with light.

Yeah, my master was kinda weird; for one thing, he
didn’t know how to cook. Or maybe he just forgot how to
cook. Either way, he would usually go out and eat at a
restaurant or have something with instructions. Old age
must’ve been getting to him.

“Ah…come in, come in.” he said, when I approached the
entranceway. His house was never locked, he didn’t have
anything of value and he could take out pretty much all
petty thieves and burglars. He must’ve recognized my
presence.

“And I suppose you want some noodles?” he asked as I
came in.

“No, no, no, nothing like that.” I replied.

“They’re good, you know.”

“Not for your health they aren’t.”

“Are you sure you don’t want any?””

“It was enough.”

“No, I don’t.”

“It’ll only take 3 minutes.”

“I’ve already eaten.”

“Probably not enough.

“Hm… ah… they’re done. Not too shabby.” he said
through slurping noises.

In the meantime, someone had come in. “‘scuse me, would
it bother you if I stayed for the night?”

It was the same voice as from the road. The stranger I
had bumped into must have followed me.

“No, not at all. But first things first..” my master was
interrupted.

“Oh, yes. My name is…” the stranger was
interrupted.

“You want some ramen?”

“Cin. And, what?”

“Would you like some ramen?” he repeated.

“No thanks.”

“Are you sure?” Slurp.

“Yeah, pretty sure.”

“You sound a bit uncertain.” Slurp.

“I had enough nutrients to last me for
the….”Interrupted.

“Ah! Cursed noodles caught in my beard!”

“Night.”

“Alright then.”

I looked at the stranger, now known by “Cin”. He wore a
puzzled expression on his face. Not surprising.

Later that night we introduced ourselves to one another,
and explained our situations. We sat in a circle to talk
and to pass the time.

I started, “Well, I’m being forced to be courted by
several drooling boys, at the party I ran away from and I
have nowhere else to go.”

“I’m her magic teacher and I was just eating my dinner.
Want some?”

“No thanks.” Cin replied, “As you can tell by my current
dress, I am a mercenary and a bounty hunter, when I can. I
am wandering the world in search of jobs to make some coin
and feed myself with.”

Somehow, some way, I could tell that Cin wasn’t telling
the truth. Not the whole truth anyway. He seemed to wear
the equipment of someone traveling, a bag, at least one
weapon, tough clothing, sturdy boots and gloves. But
something about him suggested that he was out for something
else, something big.

“Ah! I know! Since you are traveling,” he pointed to
Cin, “and you want to run away,” he pointed to me, “why
don’t the two of you help each other?”

“Umm… one thing. I’m a soldier, not a baby-sitter.”
Cin said.

“Baby? You aren’t that much older than I am you know!” I
yelled.

“How are you anyway?” My master asked.

“Me? I’m 18 now.”

“Hah! I’m16!”

“So then, it’s settled.”

“Yeah, what’s settled?”

“What is?”

“You’re taking her along right?”

“I never said that!”

“And I did not say I wanted to!”

“But you two get along so well…”

Then we went to our separate areas of my master’s house.
Cin took the teaching room, I took the other side of the
teaching room, and my master had his bedroom. I quickly
cast a spell of protection when I got my place.

“Not very trusting, are we?” Cin asked.

“To my master, yes. To you, not so much.” I replied.

“Oh, well. In any case, be ready early tomorrow
morning.”

“Why?”

“You’ve got an accent. If you’re going to run away,
you’ll have to get rid of it, fast.”

I noticed it somewhat before, because of my teacher’s
accent being different from mine, but I never thought that
it mattered much. I didn’t reply.

The next morning, I woke up when the sun had risen, and
the first sight of my day was a close-up of Cin’s face. I
woke up to a wide-eyed stare.

“YAH!” I yelled in shock.

“Hm… it’s ‘bout time you woke up.” Cin said.

“How did you..? When did you…?”

“Oh, the barrier? Something called ‘Barrier Break’. It’s
pretty useful.” He twirled his large sword around. It was a
curved blade, something like a katana, but made of
something different and had a rainbow shine. “Let’s
begin.”

“What?”

“The lesson.”

So, for hours upon hours, he tried to convert my accent
from haughty and snobbish to somewhat humble and tough.

“Ooookay. First things first. The words you use. You
seem to have the regular language down fairly well, but try
to push things. Like, instead of ‘did not,’ use ‘didn’t.’
Try and make things as short as possible.” He told me.

“Alright, then.” I was now fairly willing to learn; he
was right, after all.

“Next is your accent. Recite the alphabet.”

“A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R,
S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z.”

“Hmm…. try and repeat after me. Imitate me.”

“A.”

“A.”

“B.”

“B.”

“C.”

“C.”

And on we went. He went through the entire alphabet ten
times and had me repeat phrases that were heard most often.
My accent had diminished a large amount by noon. When I was
learning from him, he seemed to take more care in getting
to know me than teaching. Later that day, I was to tag
along with him, as were my master’s directions. I didn’t
object.

————————–

I finished bathing and cleaning my clothes. I quickly
dressed, my clothes being dried from a heat spell. I undid
the seal and exited, only to find my mother on the opposite
wall of the hall. I asked, “ Why was I called here?”

“Your father has been killed. Your father was in the
front lines and was shot down off his mount. This would’ve
never happened if you hadn’t left!”

My father had been dead for 3 days, and now my mother
was the head of the kingdom, because he had no male heirs.
This meant one thing. Life was going to be hell, if I
stayed around.