Will of a Prince

Enny walked with Maria into the palace with Lidia still being held by them.

"Hey, Lidia never showed me to my house. Do you mind if you keep me safe tonight?"

Maria nodded her head and smiled, but Enny’s words worried her slightly.

"Keep you safe? Are you in any danger here?"

Enny shifted slightly.

"Well... there was this man who with a knife. He threatened me before anyone could see what he was doing. Apparently, he’s someone with your group."

Maria’s eyes widened.

"Someone in our group? Who was it?"

"If I remember correctly, I think his name was... Lee?"

"Lee..."

Marira’s thoughts drifted. She tried to remember if Lee was ever the kind of person to be capable of threating someone with a knife. However, she had been gone so long, it was very possible he could have changed quite a bit in her absence.

"Well, from what I know, Lee was always so shy and very to himself. It’s not that I don’t believe you, it’s just a bit hard for me to imagine since I’ve been away for so long."

Eventually, Maria stopped in front of a large door in the hallway and knocked loudly.

"Slimo! Lidia sort of... passed out!"

No response.

Maria cleared her throat.

"By the way... it’s me. I’m back."

Suddenly, the door creaked open. Slimo was standing on the other side donned is his black iron armor. He had a sword unsheathed and in front of himself, prepared to face any threat.

"What did you do to her?"

Maria rolled her eyes and threw Lidia’s unconscious body at Slimo. He immediately dropped his weapon and fumbled to catch her in his arms.

"Relax, we’ve already made up. All I told her was that me and Jacob have a baby."

Suddenly, both Lidia and Slimo were now passed out on top of each other. Slimo let out low groans as he laid completely still. Enny was helping push them into their beds.

"You seriously need to work on that, Miss Maria."

"I’m sorry. I’ll try my best."

Maria guided Enny towards her bedroom. There was only one bed, but Maria allowed Enny to rest first. She looked like she needed it much more and Maria wasn’t that tired since she had recently woken up from a scary dream with a skeleton. Maria’s spear laid sheathed across her back as she leaned against a wall.

"I’ll keep watch over you, so don’t worry about any knife wielding crazy’s coming after you in your sleep."

"Thank you, Miss Maria."

"You can just call me Maria. We’re the same age, so it feels weird to be called so formally."

Enny nodded her head and laid further under her bedsheets.

"Sounds good, Maria."

Maria sighed deeply and looked over Enny as she slowly began to drift to sleep. In an extremely odd way, she found herself more scared to rest in this palace than she did in a barracks full of people who were at her throat before she stayed there. Even so, she let her body carry itself into a deep sleep.

The next morning, Enny was awoken to a strange sound buzzing in her ears. It sounded very muffled, like there was something stuck inside her ears while she was trying to listen. Enny raised her head off her mattress and wiped her eyes. Maria was now standing up and facing the door with her spear by her side. She heard Enny’s movement and turned with a smile.

"How did you sleep?"

Enny shook herself before responding.

"Well. Thank you for the help protecting me. By the way, did you hear that too?"

Maria looked at her confused.

"Hear what?"

Enny tried to recreate her position on her bed to listen to the sound again, but nothing came of it. She blushed thinking how embarrassing she must have looked trying to listen to the sound again.

"N-Never mind. I think I was coming out of a dream."

Maria looked over at her closest.

"Would you like some fresh clothes to wear?"

Enny looked over at the wardrobe.

"Sure. Is that really okay?"

"As long as you fit in my clothes, I do not mind."

Enny smiled and ran over, trying to scout out an outfit that caught her eye. However, when she opened the door to the wardrobe, a pile of all sorts of armor pieces crashed over her. Her hand was the only thing that wasn’t buried, allowing Maria to grab it and lift her out of the pile.

"How much do those things weigh?! I could hardly move under them! And why do you not have any... normal outfits?"

Maria raised an eyebrow.

"These are normal outfits!"

Enny sighed deeply and rubbed her head.

’Yup. I can see why Maria is Lidia’s daughter now.’

"Okay. I’ll choose this thin silver one. Is that okay with you?"

Maria nodded her head.

"You’ll look great in it!"

Enny walked to the corner of the room and quickly put on the thin armor. Despite its looks, it was still decently heavy. Not only that, when she slid her arms and legs through the gaps, there was some extra space for her muscles to move in the armor. She moved the limbs around to make sure she wasn’t feeling things incorrectly.

’Is all this armor a tight fit on her just like the one she’s wearing now?! Just how much muscle does this woman have?!"

Despite the armor not fitting properly, Enny was still grateful Maria let her borrow it. She looked at Maria and bowed her head.

"Thank you very much. This was very kind of you to do."

Maria smiled brightly and gave Enny a thumbs up.

"No problem at all! I think I should go say hi to everyone else. Word has probably gotten around by now of my return."

Enny followed Maria to a big hall with long tables and dozens of plates of food. Multiple people sat across from each other and ate together.

"Yah! And then Serena and I absolutely burned those little bastards to a crisp! Our transformation is as powerful as-..."

Zoey stopped talking seeing Maria approach the table. Everyone followed Zoey’s gaze and all looked at Maria, equally shook.

"M-Maria?!"

"MARIAAAAA!!"

Suddenly, a small blonde woman tackled into Maria’s stomach, causing a loud dinging sound to ring across the room.

Squabee rubbed her head as she sat on the floor looking up.

"Ow. That hurt."

Maria giggled and bent down to give Squabee a hug.

"Is your power broken or something?"

"Stupid power doesn’t listen to me! Where have you been, anyway! We’ve all been worried sick about you! When Lidia finds out, she’s going to-"

"She already knows. I talked with her and Slimo last night. I promise I won’t leave again. I’m very sorry for leaving on such bad terms with you all."

Luna came over and nodded her head in respect. Zoey stood up on the dining table and slammed her foot in Bo’s food.

"ALRIGHTY!!! IT’S TIME TO CELEBRATE MARIA’S RETURN! NOT EVEN THE HARSH WILDS COULD TAME HER! AHAHA!!"

"Zoey! You just stepped in my food!"

Zoey craned her arm around Bo’s neck and held him up while she continued her speech. Bo thrashed in her arms pointing at his neck trying to say he was struggling to breathe, but Zoey didn’t seem to care.

"AND FOR THIS CELEBRATION, BO WILL MAKE SURE TO GIVE HER ALL HIS MONEY!! ANY OBJECTIONS, BO?!"

Bo continued to thrash Wildy.

"VERY GOOD!"

Zoey finally let go. Bo simply laid defeated on the table.

The only person who seemed a little confused was Sarah. She raised her hand politely, trying not to interrupt anyone.

"It’s very nice to see you again, Maria. But where is Jacob? Isn’t he with you?"

Everyone went silent waiting for a response. A strange tension filled the room the longer it took Maria to respond.

"He’s... not coming back. At least not yet."

Everyone looked at her puzzled.

"What do you mean not yet? Where is he? What is he doing?"

Lidia and Slimo walked into the room behind her. Lidia was still shaking feverishly while mumbling to herself.

"If I ever catch that lecher of a son-in-law... if I ever get my hands on that pervert... I knew it from the start... he’s been wanting me to try his meat since Iron Kingdom... he’s gone too far... I can’t let him live anymore..."

Squabee looked over at Lidia’s horrified expression and scratched her head.

"Are you sure you guys are on a good page? Why does she keep mumbling to herself and look like... well, that?"

Maria rolled her eyes.

"It’s not even that big of a deal. You see, Jacob and I have a baby-"

"DRAGON!!"

Enny screamed out the last part. There was no way she trusted Maria with finishing the sentence after the first few times. However, because of this, everyone, including Squabee, looked at Enny like she was crazy. Enny blushed severely and put her hands behind her back innocently.

"Okay... Anyway, what’s this about Jacob not coming back?"

Maria refused to meet anyone’s gaze while she spoke.

"Jacob is-... he’s having a hard time coming to terms with his skull mark. He’s completely lost his mind and is going on a killing spree towards Monlo Empire. He used his power on me, ordering me to come back here to Lidia. He probably thought it would be too dangerous for me to stay with him on his conquest."

Everyone listened intently to Maria’s words.

"Jacob has gotten extremely powerful. Both him and I with this curse mark of ours have gained extraordinary power. However, there are still monsters far beyond our strength out there. We need to find Jacob and bring him back before he gets himself-"

Suddenly, Orvo busted through the palace door. He slammed through it so hard the door fell off its hinges, causing it to fly a few feet before slamming against the ground.

"Emergency at the wall! Something has taken out the Elder Leviathan!"