Will of a Prince

Lidia gave Enny a long grey cloak, a colorful shirt, and some new pants for her to wear on the journey back. Being without battle gear was a strange, welcoming experience for her. For the first time in a while, she felt a little freer than she was. She stared at Lidia while blushing.

"This is embarrassing, but I still can’t walk very well. Do you mind carrying me a bit longer?"

Lidia chuckled and lifted Enny effortlessly in her arms.

"No problem! Let’s go say hi to the others! I already talked with my soldiers about you, so don’t worry about being attacked right away."

"I don’t think I want to meet these others."

"Well, too bad!"

Lidia walked down the stone steps of their barracks into the main area with all the elite legionnaires chatting and drinking. They all looked at Enny silently when she first appeared. The glares she was receiving were unreadable, as if it was a mix of anger and confusion. Enny assumed they were surprised to see a commander of their enemy so young and in such a weak state.

"Hey, everyone! This is going to be our new friend for a while! Her name is Enny and she likes brownies! Treat her with the same kindness and respect as you would your fellow comrades. Oh, and from now on, think of her more like a helpless child of war. As much as I would love to babysit her on the front lines, I don’t have time for that."

Following the last comment, everyone burst out laughing, some even smacking the table they were sitting at. Enny blushed severely and cursed under her breath at Lidia.

"B-Babysit?! I’m a grown woman!"

Lidia whispered back to her.

"Just go along with it. I needed to ease the tension a little bit."

Enny pouted and laid still in Lidia’s arms. Lidia continued to walk past her soldiers and towards the exit. Before leaving she called out to them one last time.

"All the leadership have an important meeting back at Paria Kingdom. That means you will all have to behave while I’m gone!"

She squinted at one soldier in particular.

"Melonia, that means you sister."

Melonia, who had no idea what Lidia was talking about stopped in the middle of her drink to look around innocently. The soldiers then all waved them bye as Lidia walked away.

Looking out at the expansive view of grasslands, Slimo and Sarah were holding a short conversation.

"But if water if water makes you wet, then it must mean it is wet itself!"

Slimo furrowed his brow.

"Wrong! You are only wet when water makes you wet. Water itself is not intrinsically wet! Oh, hey Lidia! Are you ready to head back?"

Enny stared dubiously at Sarah. She was wearing a thin, onyx suit that covered her body well. Even though it was armor, it looked very flexible, as if it never impeded any of her movements. Slimo was wearing a similar set. She had never expected the Butcherer of the North to look and act so... casual. Her blonde hair was laying gracefully across her back, there were no blood stains on her weapons, and her composure was beyond peaceful. She would have never guessed that this woman was a soldier at first glance.

Sarah seemed to notice Enny’s expression and scratched the back of her head.

"Why are you looking at me like that? Planning to send a thunderbolt on me or something?"

Enny hesitated before answering.

"U-Uh, no. Sorry, I just never expected you all to act so... normally. Being enemies and all kind of shapes your view of who your opponents are."

"Oh! Well, that’s good!"

"Do you want me to call Harold?"

"Sure. Don’t tell Enki, but I think I lost my whistle."

Lidia sighed and pulled a small whistle out from under her attire. She blew through it, sending a loud sound through the air. Enny stared at Lidia oddly.

"I don’t understand. I thought we were taking a carriage back? Why do you need to call your friend here?"

"Well, him and the carriage are kind of a package-deal with this whistle."

Suddenly, the ground began to shake below them. Lidia stared off into the distance.

"Wow! They got here fast! They must have been close by!"

Enny squinted her eyes and looked off into the distance. A figure was barreling over the slopes of the grasslands. The strange thing about it was Enny could have sworn she was seeing it break repeatedly every time it slammed against the ground, but it would always magically repair itself. It took three more seconds before a massive carriage screeched to a halt in front of them.

Sitting in a harness, pulling the carriage, was a light brown-haired man wearing tattered purple shorts. He seemed to have lost his shirt somewhere along the way, revealing his incredible physique under the harness. The sight of it made Enny blush and look away for a moment.

’Pervert...’

Abby leaned off the cart and waved her hands at everyone.

"Who’s ready for a ride?!"

Her eyes drifted to the woman resting in Lidia’s arms.

"Who’s that? She has similar hair to Slimo! Wait... IS THIS IS A BASTARD CHILD OF YOURS SLIMO?! WHO HAVE YOU GOTTEN BUSY WITH?!"

Slimo slapped his face.

"Did you hit your head on the way over here?! Just because she has grey hair doesn’t make us related!"

"Oh. How boring. Is she a refugee then?"

Slimo gritted his teeth while Lidia nodded her head.

"We found her after our most recent battle. She was sickly and hardly alive. It took us three days before she could recover enough to travel."

"Ah. Harold and I were wondering what was taking you all so long to blow the whistle. We made sure to stay close in case it was an emergency. What’s her name?"

"Her name is Enny."

Abby’s eyes widened.

"Wow! That sounds similar to Enki! You don’t think they’re related somehow, do you?"

"Enki is a few hundred years old, so it could be possible."

Enny’s face drooped further with shock.

’What is going on?! These people have a human-pulled carriage, a man older than a few hundred years, and they love to throw crazy accusations at each other?! Did I actually die in that last battle?!’

Sarah walked up to Abby and jumped in the wide seat up front next to her.

"You want to ride on the front again today?"

Sarah smiled widely.

"It’s much more fun that way!"

Meanwhile, Slimo, Lidia, and Enny all piled into the back of the carriage. The seats were all in pristine condition. Enny was still trying to grasp what was about to happen.

"Y-You’re telling me this cart was moving over the terrain that fast with this guy pulling it?!"

"That’s right. I wonder how fast he can run now without it attached to him? That would be quite the sight!"

Suddenly, it finally dawned on Enny what was about to occur, and she was almost positive her stomach wouldn’t be able to handle it. Before she could say anything, Abby already called back to everyone.

"Ready to go?!"

"Uh... actually-"

"WE’RE READY!! HIT IT HAROLD!!"

Hearing Lidia’s words, Harold dug his feet into the ground as hard as he could. Lidia and Slimo gripped on to the seat in front of them before the takeoff. In mere moments, the cart exploded forward with insane force, leaving behind a small crater in the hill they were just on. The air was pounding against the carriage trying to tear apart the faster Harold ran. However, every single crack or broken piece of the cart was almost instantly mended every time it broke.

Enny was getting pressed further into Lidia’s torso. It felt like gravity was trying to flatten her sideways. The blood in her body felt like it was trying to be pushed somewhere else entirely. Then, the feeling finally came. The brownies that she had gorged herself with earlier were trying to find their way back up her throat. Enny held her stomach and mouth for dear life. She tried getting Lidia’s attention, but she seemed to be distracted with looking out the window of the carriage.

"I’ll never get used to how cool it looks to go this fast! What do you think Enny?!"

Enny continued holding her mouth, refusing to speak. Lidia didn’t even bother looking down to see she was okay. She simply assumed that Enny was a little shy being around the new people.

After what felt like an eternity, the carriage finally came to a halt. They had finally made it back to Paria Kingdom. Lidia jumped out of the cart with Enny still in her arms.

"See? That wasn’t so bad was-"

Before she could finish her sentence, Enny was already vomiting over her arm. Instead of recoiling and dropping her, Lidia set her down gently and rubbed her back.

"Sorry! That’s my fault. Maybe brownies wasn’t a good idea before taking this trip."

After getting everything out, Enny wiped her mouth and looked up weakly. What she saw made her want to pass out. The wall of Paria Kingdom had evolved to something that looked inhuman. She whispered under her breath.

"I-Impossible..."

The dark steel wall that was once completely flat now had hundreds of thousands of jet-black spikes protruding outward in them. Each spike was easily over nine meters long and looked sharper than any needle she had ever seen. As if the height and length of the wall wasn’t impressive enough, now there seemed to be no creature capable of breaking through its defenses easily.

That wasn’t all. She had never realized it before, but there was a large grumbling sound coming from close to them. She turned around in the direction from where the cart came. In the center of the vast field in front of this wall was a creature of the size of an average kingdom’s palace with a dark black collar chained around its neck. Its dark red eyes had insatiable furry residing within them, its hide was festering with dark green pustules, its body was incredibly thick with massive muscles. It almost reminded Enny of an oversized version of a gorilla. However, there was no doubt that whatever this creature was, had strength equal to mountains.

Lidia noticed Enny looking at the creature and smiled.

"You like our little bodyguard over there? He’s our first line of defense when it comes to defending this place!"

"What is that thing? How did you capture it?"

Lidia laughed.

"That was actually a project that took the combined efforts of every elite force we had. Believe it or not, we lost around twenty of those elite soldiers you battled trying to capture this thing. And that was with me and all my friends helping!"

"It’s really that strong?!"

Lidia smiled and turned her head.

"Is an Elder Leviathan considered strong?"

Enny stared with even wider eyes at Lidia, unable to speak. Lidia sniffed a few times and looked away from Enny.

"By the way, your breath smells like brownies. Sorry about that."