-Nera-

I still have a few more things that I would like to say to my mother, but she doesn't look like she's going to wake up any time soon. Luna is already scary enough when she's calm, but seeing her get angry made me feel as if the blood in my veins was frozen, and I wasn't even the target of that anger! I don't think that Luna understands just how intimidating she really is...

In any case, I don't think that it would be a good idea to leave the half-naked queen lying there on the floor so for the time being I'm taking her to my room, after all. I wanted to go there anyway, last time I had to leave in a hurry so I left most of my stuff there.

I'll leave her on the bed and look for something for her to wear. There's no way I can dress her when she's tied up, but I'm afraid of setting her free...

"Princes Neraaa!!!"

"Ouch!"

There was someone already inside my room! I was too careless, I got tackled and knocked into the ground, the other person is on top on me and I cannot get up!

"Are you alright!? I heard something about you being kidnapped! I was afraid I would never see you again!"

"Uh? Mari?"

She's one of the castle's maids, Mari. She's only two years older than me and we've been friends for as long as I can remember.

"Are you hurt anywhere!? Are you hungry!?"

"I'm fine! Please stop squeezing me! It hurts! And stop crying!"

"Hey! Isn't that the queen on the bed? What happened to her!?"

"Oh, well, you know how my mother and I have had a few disagreements, that's why I had to leave in the first place. I came back here with... a friend, she got mad at her and she ended up like that."

"But why are her clothes torn apart?"

"She did that too, it's a long story."

Mari stares at me for a bit with an awkward expression, I wonder what she must be thinking.

"That 'friend' you're talking about sounds really scary."

"You don't know the half of it..."

It's probably better if I don't tell her that my friend is the queen of darkness...

"Can you help me to get her dressed? I think that one of mine might fit her."

"Just leave it to me!"

I should take this opportunity to change my own clothes as well, I've been wearing the same thing ever since I got kidnaped by Luna.

"Mari... uh? Did you change my mother's clothes already? When!?"

"I did it while you were looking away."

"I only looked away for like 20 seconds!"

"Yes, and that's when I dressed her."

Woah, she's even faster than I remember. I mean, the ropes are still around her... was that a trick? Is she planning to become a performer?

"So, will you introduce me to that friend of yours?"

"Eh... I'm not sure if I should..."

"Why not? It's so rare for you to make friends, I'm curious."

"It really is rare isn't it... but with everything that's going on right now I don't think it would be a good idea to introduce you to her."

I mean, if Mari finds out that my friend is the person who just took over the city she would probably freak out...

"Oh right, I think I heard some commotion earlier, do you know what's going on?"

"Wait, you don't know?"

"I was busy, I didn't have time to ask."

"Well, you see... after my friend left my mother like that, some people misunderstood what she was doing and she got into some trouble."

"Your friend keeps sounding more and more interesting! What does she look like?"

"What does she look like? She has long black hair, is really tall and also really pretty."

"Oh! You sound like you really like her! Tell me, how do you feel about her?"

How do I feel about Luna? That's a difficult thing to explain.

"I... I think that we're starting to grow close and I should already be used to her, but I'm ashamed to admit that when I look at her I can feel my breathing become erratic and my heartbeat gets faster, I guess I should learn to control my emotions better."

After everything I've learned about Luna, I should no longer get scared by her, but she's just too intimidating... maybe I'm not a very good friend after all.

"That's not something to be ashamed of! You should be true to your feelings! I don't know what your mother told you but I'm on your side, and I'm sure that your father will support you as well!"

Maybe she's right, just because fear is the natural reaction anyone would have in front of Luna doesn't mean that I cannot be her friend. I should just be honest with her and perhaps someday after getting more used to her I won't get scared anymore.

"Thank you Mari, but that reminds me, how's my father doing? Has he recovered already?"

"Ah, no, I'm sorry. His condition seems to been getting even worse. Now he feels so weak that he barely gets off his bed."

I suppose that makes sense, while it's true that he's never been able to stand up to my mother, she's been getting her way too much lately.

"And did any of the healers find any traces of him having been poisoned?"

"No, they keep bringing healers to the castle, but none of them can tell what's wrong with the king. They found no traces of poison, curses, or any other kind of magic, and they've not been able to tell what illness he has either."

My father fell sick soon after Ranna first showed up here, so of course, I suspect that she has something to do with it, but the healers seem to think that this is some unknown illness and not something that was caused by a person.

"So nobody has any idea then?"

"The king has already been checked by the best healers in the continent, and they couldn't do anything."

"No... the best healer has not checked him yet."

"Eh? What do you mean?"

"Mari, go to my father's room, I'll be there soon."

I keep forgetting about it because of how strong she is, but Luna is a healer before anything else, this is probably not a good time, but I think that I'm going to ask her for a favor...

"Please, princess! Let me talk with you for a moment!"

"I don't want to hear anything from you! Leave me alone!"

"I'm sorry for what I did before! I was wrong! But you need to listen to me!"

"Are you trying to capture me again!?"

"No, I'm not!"

When I was on my way to find Luna I encountered someone I didn't want to see again. That cat-eared knight from before seems to have snuck into the castle. I wonder what she's trying to accomplish here... her two friends are not with her.

"I already told you! I'm not under anyone's control! Luna is only trying to help me to deal with my mother, she's the evil one!"

"I know! I discovered that the queen had been planning to kill some of the nobles who opposed her and that she was really awful to you. You only went with the queen of darkness so that she would help you against her, didn't you?"

"What!? Really!?"

"I was stupid, I let an evil person use me... I wanted to apologize for that."

"Oh, well, that's good."

I was not expecting that, perhaps this girl is not as dumb as I first thought.

"But just because your mother is a bad person doesn't mean that you have to help someone even worse!"

"Uh?"

"It must have been awful, to have to run away from your own mother... I know that you must have thought that the queen of darkness was the only one who could help you get back at her, but you should not betray your country just for that! There's a lot of people here who really love you! You need to see that the queen of darkness is only trying to use you for her evil plans!"

There's not a face, nor a palm, large enough for this.

"Look, come here for a second."

"Eh?"

I place my hands at both sides of her face and stare at her with my face really close to hers.

"Luna. Is not. Evil!!!"

"W-what are you trying to say?"

"She looks scary but she's a really good person, all this nonsense about her taking over the city is just a misunderstanding that happened because she was trying to help me bring down my mother."

"A misunderstanding? You're not really expecting me to believe that, are you?"

Ugh, I guess it must be difficult to believe after Luna made a public announcement basically saying that she was taking over the city...

"L-look, you're completely wrong about Luna, you should try to give her a chance, and then you'll see how nice she really is."

"Has she really deceived you this badly? You need to open your eyes and see the truth!"

This is like talking to a brick wall. I know that I might not be the best person to complain since I was the same at first, but still...

Whatever, I don't have time for this, I'll just get rid of her.

"Oh! Luna! I was looking for you! Can you come here!?"

"Eeek! She's here!?"

As expected, she ran away. She fell for that quite easily.

"Nera! What do you need?"

Oh, she was actually there.

"I wanted to ask you... wait, why do you look so flummoxed?"

"Sorry, I'm still trying to process something, I can't believe the hat is a sword..."

"What?"

"Ah! Forget I said that! It's supposed to be a secret."

"Sure, I'll forget, but in exchange, I wanted to ask you to help my father."

"Help him with what?"

"He fell sick sometime before I left and it seems like he's been getting worse. All the healers who have looked at it have no idea of what's wrong with him, so I was thinking that perhaps you could do something."

"Your father is sick!? Why didn't you tell me earlier!?"

"Well, there seemed to be more important things going on, and I didn't know that his sickness had worsened."

"What could be more important than saving your father? And you know that I'm a healer, of course I will help!"

Yeah, she really is a good person, no matter what she looks like.

forli

I've not been in a good environment for writing this last week, I mostly wrote this chapter in 5-minute sessions, which is bad, I think I do better when I write a chapter in just one or two sessions...