Well … that was unexpected.
First of all, it was very odd that my sword started to act on my bloodlust in Schwarz’s hands but in a sense, it was to be expected as it was made partly using my blood and always liked to me in a way no other weapon could. Schwarz using that weapon was a bit like wielding me. And that could end very badly for him if I wouldn’t warn him.
But more surprising than that was Louis loss. If anyone of them would fail, I knew it would be Louis. He didn’t progress as much as the others did after all. But I wasn’t entirely satisfied who he lost against.
Gregory was … not a person the others could get along easily witch. But on the other hand, neither was Schwarz.
“What are you thinking about?” Hannah asked by my side, her steps echoing in the long tunnel we took back towards the palace.
“Was it wise to hold this tournament?” I asked, seriously unsure about it even though I was dead set on doing so beforehand. It had several benefits after all, from motivating others to gathering the best fighters who were willing to throw themselves into near certain death.
“I would say we switched out a good mage with an even better one even though his personality seems … troublesome. And it’s not like Louis is gone.” Hannah said, pointing out that Louis could still tag along if he desired.
“True. It might take a while to whip him back into shape though…” I admitted, remembering the tears in his eyes very clearly. Sighing a little, I waited for Hannah to open the wooden door at the other end of the tunnel and followed right after several maids waiting for us.
“Have I told you I hate parties?” Hannah whispered into my ear while I could only nod approvingly.
“Just stay for a few minutes …” I mumbled quietly and smiled as one of the maids opened the ballroom for us.
“The saint and her disciple, Lucy Worchester and Hannah.” Applause filled the room as we stepped into it and waved to all the two hundred or so people down below.
“Thank you! But today, it’s not me who should be standing at the centre of attention, but rather the four heroes selected by fate itself!” I said loudly and looked over to the three idiots along with the newest idiot.
Applause filled the room once more while I strolled towards them and curtsied elegantly.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you up close.” I said and smiled brightly. “May I ask you to dine with me?” I asked right away and showed them a served table for five. Looking back, I was Hannah fleeing the scene, even though I told her to wait a few minutes and not seconds.
Ignoring her betrayal which struck deep into my heart, I sat down on a chair and waited for all the other guests to find their seats as well.
“May the gods be with us.” I said and lifted up my glass of apple juice while the others followed suit right away.
“So you really did participate. I really thought you wouldn’t let me participate because you knew the others.” Gregory said and laughed loudly while I looked deep into my glass.
“Wait, you know us … Lucy? I mean, you are the Lucy I know, aren’t you?” Schwarz exclaimed, nearly spilling a bit of his wine on the table.
“You are really smart Schwarz.” Ellie said satirically and stabbed into her steak aggressively.
“Ehh … thank you?” He said, still looking at me with surprise written all across his face.
“I am the one and the only.” I admitted, smiling towards him wryly while already preparing my answer for ‘you lied!’.
“… you are married.” He said while looking down on my ring finger. “I thought … I thought we would …” He mumbled, clearly not comprehending the development.
“My marriage was purely politically motivated. That is the way families or rather nobles are bound to each other.” And I abused that system to my own advantage. “But that also means I will be faithful to whoever is king. I cannot be together with you and I also don’t need to. You have a beautiful girlfriend already taking care of every possible problem you might have in the future.” I explained, knowing full well my relationship with the king would break him if I didn’t extinguish his feelings for me as quickly as I could.
They weren’t useful anymore in the first place. Now that he knew I was the saint, I could influence him via his heroic spirit anyways.
Before his life for me would die down for sure though, I would need to endure a whole lot of seducing attempts though. I could only hope I wouldn’t explode until then because they were seriously unbearable sometimes.
“I won’t give up on you. Never.” … or I would need to ram a sword into his chest when he wasn’t useful anymore. At least that would stop him from pursuing me for sure.
Smiling brilliantly about the prospect, I turned to Ellie who was more than saddened that Louis wasn’t seated on this table.
“You did well in defending Hannah’s attack though. I seriously didn’t expect that.” I admitted while she wolfed down her stake cut in sizes which definitely weren’t appropriate for a lady.
“Why did it have to be Gregory? He’s a complete asshole and you know that.” Ellie complained, blaming me for the development even though I couldn’t have changed anything in front of such a large crowd. That may have been an excuse, but it was a damn good one.
“There is nothing I could have done. I had given Louis multiple opportunities and in each one Gregory won. We have to work with what we have.” I explained calmly and didn’t say anything as she threw her tableware onto her plate angrily.
“You are the saint! You have lived for longer than all of us together and you want to tell me there was nothing you could have done?” She asked, still blaming me for everything.
“Ellie. Please let it rest.” Sofie said in an attempt to calm Ellie down.
“You are on her side?” Ellie asked in disbelief and slammed her fist into the table.
“Lucy knows Louis capabilities very well and she never tested him on any of his weaknesses. She knew he could run since he had to tag along us. She knew he could melt that block with his spells and she knew he could fight. She could have given the mages a theoretical test as well which he would have failed. But she didn’t do so.” Sofie explained even though it wasn’t entirely correct. It was true that I favoured Sofie immensely over the others for a whole lot of reasons, but the other challenges were basically thought up by me and Hannah to fit our demands.
“That doesn’t justify her actions!” Ellie shouted out angrily and drew the attention of the few surrounding nobles towards her right away.
“I don’t like being talked over …” Gregory said, his eyes squinted to mere slits.
“It does …” Schwarz answered, completely glossing over Gregory’s anger.
“You are just happy that your rival is gone.” Ellie said and glared at him which seemed to put him off for some reason.
“He’s my friend as well, you know?” Schwarz admitted, looking down on his plate.
“Lucy, you know I love Louis. You know that I want to stay with him, so why do you want to separate me from him?” Ellie asked, dead set on getting an answer I couldn’t give.
“In our darkest moments, a ray of light is enough to give us hope. While our flames of passion dwindle down, a single spark may be enough to reignite them. I do not believe one second Louis will give up on his dreams truly. He may struggle right now, but that will change once he realises the world still needs him.” I explained as calm as an undisturbed pond. “Ellie, I cannot afford to lose you and I need a functioning team of the best people I can get. So please forgive me.”
Finally, she closed her eyes and leaned back, her arms crossed in front of her chest. She began to think seriously for several seconds until she opened her eyes once more.
“He will come with us no matter what. And he will try to prove himself even more now which will lead to his downfall. I want to know him safe, no matter what. I want him to be by your side.” Breathing in sharply, I thought about her proposal and then nodded. It wouldn’t matter where he was anyways. “Great … and now let’s feign to be a well functioning group for all these important people.”
Well, she had guessed that I wouldn’t be accompanying them for the most part in the demon king territory, but she seriously misjudged the importance of any of these nobles. Except a few funds, they didn’t provide anything.
But her proposal was still better than brooding over issues they weren’t able to solve and I couldn’t be bothered to. As such, I was quite glad as we all ate up our meals and we finally got a bit of distance between each of us as Schwarz asked me for a dance.
Sadly, he was a lousy dancer, but seeing him nearly trip over my shoes multiple times was still something I enjoyed to the fullest.
Naturally, it didn’t end with one dance as Gregory and Sofie asked for one as well. I enjoyed one of these two dances, while I was absolutely disgusted with the other as my partner liked to hold me close.
But thankfully, there were a lot of opportunities to escape the ballroom, one of which was directly used by Gregory as his half sister Juliette waved him over and fled together with him.
I could only wonder what they were up to as I strolled out onto the balcony and looked into the backyard of the palace. Under the moonlight, I noticed how a lone person was strolling around outside and sighed quietly. Listening to the sound of wood scratching over a pebble road for a few seconds while ignoring all the noise behind me, I quickly turned around, placed my glass onto the tablet of a servant and went to the next door. Walking along a row of glass windows, I searched for a stair which I couldn’t find anywhere until I was fed up with it.
Opening one of these massive windows, I looked down and as I couldn’t notice anyone around, I simply jumped down while holding my dress down. My feet crashed onto the stones below while my knees feathered the impact. Still, my right heel broke off which made me stumble a little before I made my first step towards the only big tree in the garden.
Tip toed, I staggered to it as fast as I could towards my destination. Listening to the sounds of his gasps, I made a well educated guess and sped up even more to scoot around the hedge and find exactly what I was expecting.
A rope on a tree, a tipped over chair and … well, that much was obvious. But at least he hadn’t give up on life completely and still pulled on the rope, giving me the time I needed.
“Hang in there.” I said, rushed over towards him and put the chair back beneath his feet. He was quite thankful as he found footing once more and directly fumbled with the knot behind his neck.
Rubbing my eyes, way too tired from this shit, I sighed quietly as he finally undid it and sat down on the chair while weeping quietly.
“There, there.” I said and pulled his head into my bosom while patting his back carefully.
“Why … why did I lose?” I could tell him that fairly easily. But that would probably crush his poor soul.
“It’s okay. You can cry.” I said soothingly and continued to pat his back even though he wept directly onto my chest.
“I – I just wanted … to be seen by you. I wanted to make you proud of my progress … but I’m worthless. I can’t do anything. I’ll never be a hero.” He said, still sobbing onto my chest like a child, or rather a broken man.
“No, Louis. A stupid test I came up with doesn’t define your worth. Okay?” I asked and let go of his back to go a little further downwards and pressed my forehead on his.
“I lost against the necromancer, I couldn’t be of any use on the last level of the dungeon and I lost again Gregory, just like so often before. It’s better if I just die already.” Yep … definitely broken. Leaning a bit backwards, I grabbed his hands and pulled him up from the chair before laying down in the grass and patting the place beside me.
Still crying a lot, he laid down right next to me and hugged me tightly, using my shoulder as a pillow to weep onto.
“Let me tell you a story about a little girl, imprisoned by an evil person and raised by him as his chosen child. She felt pain, because there was never anyone there for her. She was tortured, because there was no hero to step in. She cried out for help that would never come … and slowly, she started to pick up the habits of the evil person as well. She needed a hero that never came before she fell to the dark side.
I don’t know why you think you can only be a hero if I say you are, because Gregory is certainly no hero. The people may call him one, but he isn’t. He wouldn’t save that little girl from evil if it didn’t suit him. But a hero would. You would.
It’s not the title that makes someone a hero. It’s their actions. A single mother raising her child in difficult circumstances is more of a hero than someone slaying a demon for fame.
For me, there exist countless heroes out there and you are definitely one of them.” I explained and smiled as he slowly calmed down somewhat. His tears still fell on my skin unhindered, but I knew it was only a matter of time until they would stop.
“Never scare me again like this, okay?” I asked after a little while of silence where I listened to distant, but quickly approaching footsteps.
“… okay.” He muttered quietly, finally rolling off me to gaze at the stars together with me.
“Louis?” A few minutes later, Ellie found us with a magical lamp in her hand and directly rushed towards us as she noticed the very obvious utensils. “Louis?!”
“I’m fine now …” He replied, sitting up slowly while Ellie basically threw himself on him by straddling his legs and hugging him tightly.
“No … don’t do that to me.” She said, driven to tears right away.
“I’m sorry … I am just …” He muttered, incredibly pained by her tears.
“Talk to me. But don’t try to solve your problems like this ever again because I cannot bear losing you!” She sobbed bitterly and looked into his eyes with her hands on his shoulder.
“Ellie …” He said, driven close to tears once more.
“Louis! I love you. From the bottom of my heart. So please stay with me, even when you cannot return these feelings.” Ellie said, but promptly pushed her lips upon his nonetheless. Well, saying one thing and doing the other was one of my specialities as well, so I didn’t mind her approach. On the contrary, creeping into his heart while he was at his lowest was exactly what I would … had done … even though she didn’t do so consciously.
“Ellie …” Louis muttered after she stopped her approach which lasted for several seconds.
“… I’m sorry.” She said, her emotions running rampant and leaned forwards to kiss him once more. This time though, she did do it much more forcefully and Louis actually reacted to her by hugging her tightly and kissing her as well.
That whole development was actually a first for me. Being sidelined so quickly was something I never expected to happen and actually hurt my pride a little. Especially as Louis leaned back and laid back down while these two kissed, if felt completely disregarded.
Rolling away from them through the grass a little, I stood up quietly as they were still making out and Louis hand slipped underneath Ellie’s shirt. Making sure to stay absolutely silent, I tip toes my way back behind the hedge before I shook my head in disappointment.
“Youth these days …” I whispered quietly and left the area relatively quickly. These two were in their own world anyways and wouldn’t miss the third wheel which fell of the cart anyways.
Well, I did have a single wish for them.
“Please don’t pull off a Schwarz.” I needed Ellie for my plans after all … having her out of order would be quite troublesome.
I seriously didn’t know how I managed to find Hannah in this massive palace so quickly afterwards. But there she was all of a sudden, stumbling through the hallway with a bottle of wine in her hand.
“Hey! It’s not healthy to drink alone!” I exclaimed while walking towards her as fast as my shoes allowed me to.
“Your not my mum! I’m dinking as much as I want.” She exclaimed a bit too loudly and close to falling over.
“That’s not what I meant? Where did you get that from? I need some.” I claimed, following her finger to the door she pointed at.
“The storage … over there.” She said and I rushed into the room right away only to find out that it was some random bedroom. Before I could turn around, Hannah had already closed the door behind me and held the doorknob in place while audibly drinking the bottle of wine. Only after she had drowned everything did she let me out of the room once more, completely oblivious to my anger.
“Hannah … I need that right now. I have seen two thirteen year olds kiss like there was no tomorrow and I can tell you I won’t forget that anytime soon except I’ll drown myself in alcohol right now.” I explained furiously and grabbed her hand as she tried to leave.
“Just ask Tom …” She mumbled quietly and tried to shake of my iron grip on her hand.
“That’s … actually a good idea.” I explained and dragged her back towards the entrance I came through. Pulling her behind me we circled around the whole palace once while I heard her complaining that we were too fast, even though I already had to slow down considerably because of my broken heel.
Well, we did manage to get back to the carriages after a bit of time anyways. Waking up the sleeping coachman inside, the quickly made our way back towards Toms mansion and entered while singing loudly. I didn’t know why Hannah wanted me to sing in the first place, but she didn’t let me stop a single second on our way back.
But then, I finally got her into a bed where she directly closed her eyes and slept like a baby. Sighing quietly, I turned around and walked out of the room to look at Tom demandingly.
“I need alcohol, drugs and sex right now.” I stated in a voice devoid of any emotions. It wasn’t even a question. I was just stating a fact.
“I have heard worse demands from you. But you might want to come with me first.” He said and already turned around hesitant, but still sure about his decision to let me wait a little.
“No … alcohol and drugs first. We can do whatever you want to do and then fuck right there.” I said, not moving an centimetre until he finally relented and guided me towards his wine cellar.
“Wine mixed with blood are there, beer is there and drugs are in these flasks.” He said, pointing to several flasks inside the room. Nodding happily, I strolled over to one of the flasks he mentioned last and emptied its liquid content right into my open mouth.
I immediately felt my improve quickly as I strolled over towards the wine bottles, grabbed two of them and followed Tom out of the room once more while clearing my mouth of the drugs which started to burn a little.
More than happy and incredibly lightheaded, we arrived at his study where he directly handed me a letter I was too drugged to read. Giggling loudly and with a head swaying from one side to the other, I tripped forwards until Tom grabbed my shoulders.
“You … you might need to read this … for me.” I said happily and put the letter into his pants from the front.
“It’s a copy of a letter from one of the commanders stationed at the front line.” He explained, holding me away from fiddling with his belt.
“So … what?” I asked a bit annoyed by his actions.
“He says the demons created some kind of floating bridge to cross it. The attack was quickly repelled, but he is still concerned about the intelligence they showed. A crossing at the canyon in the west has become more likely with this. If they learn to build bridges next … then the frontline will increase by several hundred kilometres.” I didn’t care about bridges at all at this point. I wasn’t even so sure what I cared about except my own desires thanks to the drugs.
“So … what?” I repeated thinking about far different things than he did.
“Nothing. I just wanted to inform you about their technological progress. If ignoring it is your decision, I’m fine with that.” He explained and threw the letter away into the other side of the room.
“Tom … let’s talk about this tomorrow. My head is spinning and I’m horny … just fuck me already.” I complained and pushed myself against him.
“Hmm Pauline said she was willing to participate in an orgy. If you wait a few minutes, we could have a lot of fun with a few others.” He said and finally started doing to me what I needed.
“Gosh … yes. Do whatever you need to.” I said happily and giggled like an uncontrollable mess as he picked me up and carried me out of the room.
Well … that was unexpected.
First of all, it was very odd that my sword started to act on my bloodlust in Schwarz’s hands but in a sense, it was to be expected as it was made partly using my blood and always liked to me in a way no other weapon could. Schwarz using that weapon was a bit like wielding me. And that could end very badly for him if I wouldn’t warn him.
But more surprising than that was Louis loss. If anyone of them would fail, I knew it would be Louis. He didn’t progress as much as the others did after all. But I wasn’t entirely satisfied who he lost against.
Gregory was … not a person the others could get along easily witch. But on the other hand, neither was Schwarz.
“What are you thinking about?” Hannah asked by my side, her steps echoing in the long tunnel we took back towards the palace.
“Was it wise to hold this tournament?” I asked, seriously unsure about it even though I was dead set on doing so beforehand. It had several benefits after all, from motivating others to gathering the best fighters who were willing to throw themselves into near certain death.
“I would say we switched out a good mage with an even better one even though his personality seems … troublesome. And it’s not like Louis is gone.” Hannah said, pointing out that Louis could still tag along if he desired.
“True. It might take a while to whip him back into shape though…” I admitted, remembering the tears in his eyes very clearly. Sighing a little, I waited for Hannah to open the wooden door at the other end of the tunnel and followed right after several maids waiting for us.
“Have I told you I hate parties?” Hannah whispered into my ear while I could only nod approvingly.
“Just stay for a few minutes …” I mumbled quietly and smiled as one of the maids opened the ballroom for us.
“The saint and her disciple, Lucy Worchester and Hannah.” Applause filled the room as we stepped into it and waved to all the two hundred or so people down below.
“Thank you! But today, it’s not me who should be standing at the centre of attention, but rather the four heroes selected by fate itself!” I said loudly and looked over to the three idiots along with the newest idiot.
Applause filled the room once more while I strolled towards them and curtsied elegantly.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you up close.” I said and smiled brightly. “May I ask you to dine with me?” I asked right away and showed them a served table for five. Looking back, I was Hannah fleeing the scene, even though I told her to wait a few minutes and not seconds.
Ignoring her betrayal which struck deep into my heart, I sat down on a chair and waited for all the other guests to find their seats as well.
“May the gods be with us.” I said and lifted up my glass of apple juice while the others followed suit right away.
“So you really did participate. I really thought you wouldn’t let me participate because you knew the others.” Gregory said and laughed loudly while I looked deep into my glass.
“Wait, you know us … Lucy? I mean, you are the Lucy I know, aren’t you?” Schwarz exclaimed, nearly spilling a bit of his wine on the table.
“You are really smart Schwarz.” Ellie said satirically and stabbed into her steak aggressively.
“Ehh … thank you?” He said, still looking at me with surprise written all across his face.
“I am the one and the only.” I admitted, smiling towards him wryly while already preparing my answer for ‘you lied!’.
“… you are married.” He said while looking down on my ring finger. “I thought … I thought we would …” He mumbled, clearly not comprehending the development.
“My marriage was purely politically motivated. That is the way families or rather nobles are bound to each other.” And I abused that system to my own advantage. “But that also means I will be faithful to whoever is king. I cannot be together with you and I also don’t need to. You have a beautiful girlfriend already taking care of every possible problem you might have in the future.” I explained, knowing full well my relationship with the king would break him if I didn’t extinguish his feelings for me as quickly as I could.
They weren’t useful anymore in the first place. Now that he knew I was the saint, I could influence him via his heroic spirit anyways.
Before his life for me would die down for sure though, I would need to endure a whole lot of seducing attempts though. I could only hope I wouldn’t explode until then because they were seriously unbearable sometimes.
“I won’t give up on you. Never.” … or I would need to ram a sword into his chest when he wasn’t useful anymore. At least that would stop him from pursuing me for sure.
Smiling brilliantly about the prospect, I turned to Ellie who was more than saddened that Louis wasn’t seated on this table.
“You did well in defending Hannah’s attack though. I seriously didn’t expect that.” I admitted while she wolfed down her stake cut in sizes which definitely weren’t appropriate for a lady.
“Why did it have to be Gregory? He’s a complete asshole and you know that.” Ellie complained, blaming me for the development even though I couldn’t have changed anything in front of such a large crowd. That may have been an excuse, but it was a damn good one.
“There is nothing I could have done. I had given Louis multiple opportunities and in each one Gregory won. We have to work with what we have.” I explained calmly and didn’t say anything as she threw her tableware onto her plate angrily.
“You are the saint! You have lived for longer than all of us together and you want to tell me there was nothing you could have done?” She asked, still blaming me for everything.
“Ellie. Please let it rest.” Sofie said in an attempt to calm Ellie down.
“You are on her side?” Ellie asked in disbelief and slammed her fist into the table.
“Lucy knows Louis capabilities very well and she never tested him on any of his weaknesses. She knew he could run since he had to tag along us. She knew he could melt that block with his spells and she knew he could fight. She could have given the mages a theoretical test as well which he would have failed. But she didn’t do so.” Sofie explained even though it wasn’t entirely correct. It was true that I favoured Sofie immensely over the others for a whole lot of reasons, but the other challenges were basically thought up by me and Hannah to fit our demands.
“That doesn’t justify her actions!” Ellie shouted out angrily and drew the attention of the few surrounding nobles towards her right away.
“I don’t like being talked over …” Gregory said, his eyes squinted to mere slits.
“It does …” Schwarz answered, completely glossing over Gregory’s anger.
“You are just happy that your rival is gone.” Ellie said and glared at him which seemed to put him off for some reason.
“He’s my friend as well, you know?” Schwarz admitted, looking down on his plate.
“Lucy, you know I love Louis. You know that I want to stay with him, so why do you want to separate me from him?” Ellie asked, dead set on getting an answer I couldn’t give.
“In our darkest moments, a ray of light is enough to give us hope. While our flames of passion dwindle down, a single spark may be enough to reignite them. I do not believe one second Louis will give up on his dreams truly. He may struggle right now, but that will change once he realises the world still needs him.” I explained as calm as an undisturbed pond. “Ellie, I cannot afford to lose you and I need a functioning team of the best people I can get. So please forgive me.”
Finally, she closed her eyes and leaned back, her arms crossed in front of her chest. She began to think seriously for several seconds until she opened her eyes once more.
“He will come with us no matter what. And he will try to prove himself even more now which will lead to his downfall. I want to know him safe, no matter what. I want him to be by your side.” Breathing in sharply, I thought about her proposal and then nodded. It wouldn’t matter where he was anyways. “Great … and now let’s feign to be a well functioning group for all these important people.”
Well, she had guessed that I wouldn’t be accompanying them for the most part in the demon king territory, but she seriously misjudged the importance of any of these nobles. Except a few funds, they didn’t provide anything.
But her proposal was still better than brooding over issues they weren’t able to solve and I couldn’t be bothered to. As such, I was quite glad as we all ate up our meals and we finally got a bit of distance between each of us as Schwarz asked me for a dance.
Sadly, he was a lousy dancer, but seeing him nearly trip over my shoes multiple times was still something I enjoyed to the fullest.
Naturally, it didn’t end with one dance as Gregory and Sofie asked for one as well. I enjoyed one of these two dances, while I was absolutely disgusted with the other as my partner liked to hold me close.
But thankfully, there were a lot of opportunities to escape the ballroom, one of which was directly used by Gregory as his half sister Juliette waved him over and fled together with him.
I could only wonder what they were up to as I strolled out onto the balcony and looked into the backyard of the palace. Under the moonlight, I noticed how a lone person was strolling around outside and sighed quietly. Listening to the sound of wood scratching over a pebble road for a few seconds while ignoring all the noise behind me, I quickly turned around, placed my glass onto the tablet of a servant and went to the next door. Walking along a row of glass windows, I searched for a stair which I couldn’t find anywhere until I was fed up with it.
Opening one of these massive windows, I looked down and as I couldn’t notice anyone around, I simply jumped down while holding my dress down. My feet crashed onto the stones below while my knees feathered the impact. Still, my right heel broke off which made me stumble a little before I made my first step towards the only big tree in the garden.
Tip toed, I staggered to it as fast as I could towards my destination. Listening to the sounds of his gasps, I made a well educated guess and sped up even more to scoot around the hedge and find exactly what I was expecting.
A rope on a tree, a tipped over chair and … well, that much was obvious. But at least he hadn’t give up on life completely and still pulled on the rope, giving me the time I needed.
“Hang in there.” I said, rushed over towards him and put the chair back beneath his feet. He was quite thankful as he found footing once more and directly fumbled with the knot behind his neck.
Rubbing my eyes, way too tired from this shit, I sighed quietly as he finally undid it and sat down on the chair while weeping quietly.
“There, there.” I said and pulled his head into my bosom while patting his back carefully.
“Why … why did I lose?” I could tell him that fairly easily. But that would probably crush his poor soul.
“It’s okay. You can cry.” I said soothingly and continued to pat his back even though he wept directly onto my chest.
“I – I just wanted … to be seen by you. I wanted to make you proud of my progress … but I’m worthless. I can’t do anything. I’ll never be a hero.” He said, still sobbing onto my chest like a child, or rather a broken man.
“No, Louis. A stupid test I came up with doesn’t define your worth. Okay?” I asked and let go of his back to go a little further downwards and pressed my forehead on his.
“I lost against the necromancer, I couldn’t be of any use on the last level of the dungeon and I lost again Gregory, just like so often before. It’s better if I just die already.” Yep … definitely broken. Leaning a bit backwards, I grabbed his hands and pulled him up from the chair before laying down in the grass and patting the place beside me.
Still crying a lot, he laid down right next to me and hugged me tightly, using my shoulder as a pillow to weep onto.
“Let me tell you a story about a little girl, imprisoned by an evil person and raised by him as his chosen child. She felt pain, because there was never anyone there for her. She was tortured, because there was no hero to step in. She cried out for help that would never come … and slowly, she started to pick up the habits of the evil person as well. She needed a hero that never came before she fell to the dark side.
I don’t know why you think you can only be a hero if I say you are, because Gregory is certainly no hero. The people may call him one, but he isn’t. He wouldn’t save that little girl from evil if it didn’t suit him. But a hero would. You would.
It’s not the title that makes someone a hero. It’s their actions. A single mother raising her child in difficult circumstances is more of a hero than someone slaying a demon for fame.
For me, there exist countless heroes out there and you are definitely one of them.” I explained and smiled as he slowly calmed down somewhat. His tears still fell on my skin unhindered, but I knew it was only a matter of time until they would stop.
“Never scare me again like this, okay?” I asked after a little while of silence where I listened to distant, but quickly approaching footsteps.
“… okay.” He muttered quietly, finally rolling off me to gaze at the stars together with me.
“Louis?” A few minutes later, Ellie found us with a magical lamp in her hand and directly rushed towards us as she noticed the very obvious utensils. “Louis?!”
“I’m fine now …” He replied, sitting up slowly while Ellie basically threw himself on him by straddling his legs and hugging him tightly.
“No … don’t do that to me.” She said, driven to tears right away.
“I’m sorry … I am just …” He muttered, incredibly pained by her tears.
“Talk to me. But don’t try to solve your problems like this ever again because I cannot bear losing you!” She sobbed bitterly and looked into his eyes with her hands on his shoulder.
“Ellie …” He said, driven close to tears once more.
“Louis! I love you. From the bottom of my heart. So please stay with me, even when you cannot return these feelings.” Ellie said, but promptly pushed her lips upon his nonetheless. Well, saying one thing and doing the other was one of my specialities as well, so I didn’t mind her approach. On the contrary, creeping into his heart while he was at his lowest was exactly what I would … had done … even though she didn’t do so consciously.
“Ellie …” Louis muttered after she stopped her approach which lasted for several seconds.
“… I’m sorry.” She said, her emotions running rampant and leaned forwards to kiss him once more. This time though, she did do it much more forcefully and Louis actually reacted to her by hugging her tightly and kissing her as well.
That whole development was actually a first for me. Being sidelined so quickly was something I never expected to happen and actually hurt my pride a little. Especially as Louis leaned back and laid back down while these two kissed, if felt completely disregarded.
Rolling away from them through the grass a little, I stood up quietly as they were still making out and Louis hand slipped underneath Ellie’s shirt. Making sure to stay absolutely silent, I tip toes my way back behind the hedge before I shook my head in disappointment.
“Youth these days …” I whispered quietly and left the area relatively quickly. These two were in their own world anyways and wouldn’t miss the third wheel which fell of the cart anyways.
Well, I did have a single wish for them.
“Please don’t pull off a Schwarz.” I needed Ellie for my plans after all … having her out of order would be quite troublesome.
I seriously didn’t know how I managed to find Hannah in this massive palace so quickly afterwards. But there she was all of a sudden, stumbling through the hallway with a bottle of wine in her hand.
“Hey! It’s not healthy to drink alone!” I exclaimed while walking towards her as fast as my shoes allowed me to.
“Your not my mum! I’m dinking as much as I want.” She exclaimed a bit too loudly and close to falling over.
“That’s not what I meant? Where did you get that from? I need some.” I claimed, following her finger to the door she pointed at.
“The storage … over there.” She said and I rushed into the room right away only to find out that it was some random bedroom. Before I could turn around, Hannah had already closed the door behind me and held the doorknob in place while audibly drinking the bottle of wine. Only after she had drowned everything did she let me out of the room once more, completely oblivious to my anger.
“Hannah … I need that right now. I have seen two thirteen year olds kiss like there was no tomorrow and I can tell you I won’t forget that anytime soon except I’ll drown myself in alcohol right now.” I explained furiously and grabbed her hand as she tried to leave.
“Just ask Tom …” She mumbled quietly and tried to shake of my iron grip on her hand.
“That’s … actually a good idea.” I explained and dragged her back towards the entrance I came through. Pulling her behind me we circled around the whole palace once while I heard her complaining that we were too fast, even though I already had to slow down considerably because of my broken heel.
Well, we did manage to get back to the carriages after a bit of time anyways. Waking up the sleeping coachman inside, the quickly made our way back towards Toms mansion and entered while singing loudly. I didn’t know why Hannah wanted me to sing in the first place, but she didn’t let me stop a single second on our way back.
But then, I finally got her into a bed where she directly closed her eyes and slept like a baby. Sighing quietly, I turned around and walked out of the room to look at Tom demandingly.
“I need alcohol, drugs and sex right now.” I stated in a voice devoid of any emotions. It wasn’t even a question. I was just stating a fact.
“I have heard worse demands from you. But you might want to come with me first.” He said and already turned around hesitant, but still sure about his decision to let me wait a little.
“No … alcohol and drugs first. We can do whatever you want to do and then fuck right there.” I said, not moving an centimetre until he finally relented and guided me towards his wine cellar.
“Wine mixed with blood are there, beer is there and drugs are in these flasks.” He said, pointing to several flasks inside the room. Nodding happily, I strolled over to one of the flasks he mentioned last and emptied its liquid content right into my open mouth.
I immediately felt my improve quickly as I strolled over towards the wine bottles, grabbed two of them and followed Tom out of the room once more while clearing my mouth of the drugs which started to burn a little.
More than happy and incredibly lightheaded, we arrived at his study where he directly handed me a letter I was too drugged to read. Giggling loudly and with a head swaying from one side to the other, I tripped forwards until Tom grabbed my shoulders.
“You … you might need to read this … for me.” I said happily and put the letter into his pants from the front.
“It’s a copy of a letter from one of the commanders stationed at the front line.” He explained, holding me away from fiddling with his belt.
“So … what?” I asked a bit annoyed by his actions.
“He says the demons created some kind of floating bridge to cross it. The attack was quickly repelled, but he is still concerned about the intelligence they showed. A crossing at the canyon in the west has become more likely with this. If they learn to build bridges next … then the frontline will increase by several hundred kilometres.” I didn’t care about bridges at all at this point. I wasn’t even so sure what I cared about except my own desires thanks to the drugs.
“So … what?” I repeated thinking about far different things than he did.
“Nothing. I just wanted to inform you about their technological progress. If ignoring it is your decision, I’m fine with that.” He explained and threw the letter away into the other side of the room.
“Tom … let’s talk about this tomorrow. My head is spinning and I’m horny … just fuck me already.” I complained and pushed myself against him.
“Hmm Pauline said she was willing to participate in an orgy. If you wait a few minutes, we could have a lot of fun with a few others.” He said and finally started doing to me what I needed.
“Gosh … yes. Do whatever you need to.” I said happily and giggled like an uncontrollable mess as he picked me up and carried me out of the room.
