(Talia POV) [before the encounter with Alice's party]
"As expected of your highness, everything you wear highlights your beauty" (Maid)
How long I have been here? The maids are trying on me an endless amount of dresses while speaking the same words over and over again. All of this for a pointless incoming celebration.
All I wanted to do was to support the honorable warriors and spiritualists in their battle against the Prophets as a member of the royal family. Thanks to everyone's effort won the fight, but regrettably, my intervention made them lose the credit of this achievement. Not only that, the church took this as an opportunity to give me the title of Saint. There is no way I'm not angry by this altercation, as the warriors and spiritualists who fought while betting their lives should be the ones who must receive all the glory instead of me.
As the feeling of impotence invaded my heart an emotionless maid entered the room.
"I'm sorry for the interruption princess, but your majesty request for your presence in his office as soon as possible." (Maid)
Without anything else to add the maid left the room, upon hearing the orders of my dearest father the maids that were dressing me made me wear my usual dress in hurry.
I did not want to let my dearest father waiting, so I left the dressing room as soon as I was dressed. As I walked towards my dearest father's office my thoughts drifted in a reflection of my own identity. What was the meaning of a princess? I couldn't find an answer before I reached my dearest father's office my time.
Giving a long sigh outside of his office I dispelled the thoughts on my head. I quietly opened the office door while trying not to disturb him, with the small opening I could see my dearest father working without stopping. Although he was working with a tired expression somehow his current mood was good, a suspiciously good mood.
The father I have always known has the impression of a man forcing his haggard body to carry the weight of the kingdom, with his health and body reflecting this impression. But recently something feels different, now he is like a tree who received water after years of drought or a dying man who found a savior, in consequence, his health also improved and he looked younger than he should be.
Of course, this was a happy situation, who would be mad at the king's health improvement? But the reason behind this change made me worry. This change occurred around with his contact with that masked girl, ever since that dinner some of his actions became unknown and thanks to an incredible coincidence I learned that even aunt Athena was involved.
I had so many questions inside of my mind wanting to go out and know what is happening, but at the same time, I knew that wouldn't possible.
"Dearest father, your humble daughter is here as you ordered." (Talia)
Hearing my voice made my dearest father stop his work and looked at me with a gleam of joy in his eyes. I wanted to know the cause the reason behind this reaction, but before I could say something he buried that emotion in an instant.
"You arrived at the right moment. Now Athena, take her to Fayna please." (Chris)
"Don't order me so casually, I'm not your pawn. Talia, we have to go now." (Athena)
Before I was able to react I was taken away by aunt Athena who appeared out of nowhere and before I noticed we were in a strange place. Even though I knew about aunt Athena's power, experiencing it made me realize why she is considered the strongest spiritualist of the Holy kingdom, and how much I have to improve to reach her level.
"What took you so long? The girls are probably going to arrive very soon." (Fayna)
"If you want to blame someone then blame Aiya. She forced Talia to try almost a hundred dresses just for a dumb festival" (Athena)
Now if I think about it, my dearest mother ordered an unreasonable amount of dresses just choose the "right one" for the festival. The image of the remaining dresses I have to wear when I return was enough to give me headaches.
"She really changed...."(Fayna)
"Yes... she seems to be getting worse." (Athena)
There was a time where I was doubtful of why my father decided to marry my dearest mother, as her attitude becomes worse and worse. My dearest mother can maintain a cordial masquerade in front of other people, but when she is alone with us her attitude is...… eccentric. Because of her behavior, I asked my dearest father why my dearest mother was like that, but his answer only left me more questions, as he said she once had a beautiful heart.
"Look at the bright side, at least she is still able to control her behavior. In the first place, she was----" (Fayna)
"I am sorry for stopping this nostalgic chat, but please, explain to me what is happening?" (Talia)
Aunt Athena, miss Fayna and even myself were surprised by my rude remark, I did not believe I was this frustrated. Even so, behaving like this was unacceptable for me. If this was the palace then I would have to go again under a strict lesson of how a princess must behave, especially if we were talking about disrespecting aunt Athena. Acknowledging my fault I became a little nervous about what would be my punishment. But instead of punishing me, miss Fayna looked at aunt Athena with a troublesome smile.
"They are...… more similar than we thought"(Fayna)
"I... see your point... "(Athena)
Not knowing how to react I chose to stay in silence while both of them were showing a troubled yet affectionate gaze (although aunt Athena doesn't show it on her face). I don't know why but for some reason I felt that their words were linked to the masked girl, I wanted to believe this was paranoia or that my mind was trying to link everything to that girl. But even with that in mind, I believe she was involved on the sudden changes around everyone.
I made my mind, I will try to ask some information about her... or so that was my plan before it was interrupted by a blue-haired maid who appeared out of nowhere... this wasn't the day of appearing out of nowhere right?
"Master, all of the secret bases we found are destroyed, but some of the members managed to escape. Here is all the information they were holding." (blue haired maid)
The blue-haired maid gave miss Fayna a storage device while she greeting me and aunt Athena with well-trained moves. As I wondered about her identity the blue-haired maid took out of her storage device a small table and made me a cup of coffee. Her action alone told me she was working for miss Fayna for a long time. While her identity made me curious I still wanted to know more about the masked girl, but before I was able to ask about her the blue-haired maid offered me a cup of coffee.
"I believe you must be thirsty princess, I won't steal more of your time so please take this cup of coffee. I will also bring you a chair as soon as possible." (blue-haired maid)
With the cup in front of me grabbed it instinctively, as I always accompany my coffee with tea in the palace. Everything was fine until I drank a little of the coffee. As fear crept into my heart I looked at the blue-haired maid in hurry. Even though I drink tea and coffee every day I do not enjoy them very much. In fact, to enjoy them I need to add two spoons of sugar and half a cup of cream or milk. This might be something irrelevant to you, but for me, this was one of my biggest secrets.
"Here is your chair princess, please take a se------"(Blue haired maid)
"Who are you!?"(Talia)
As the maid was placing the chair on the ground I grabbed her hand. If this secret reached the ears of the palace, one of my few enjoyments in life would be denied and restricted by mother, as in her eyes this was an unsightly taste for a princess. My mind was working in full capacity on how I was going to silence this maid when a delicate yet warm hand patted my head.
"Don't worry, everything is going to be ok."(Blue haired maid)
This is strange... why are her words enough to calm down the chaos inside my head? I don't know why but...when I look at her I can feel my heart enveloped in a warm feeling. It was obvious she was used to this, as her eyes were looking at me like a mother appeasing her troublesome daughter. This was the first time in my life I felt this way, because of this I could not avoid looking at the floor in shyness, allowing her to continue patting my head.
"He-He-He, I would like to see this cute reaction more often, sadly, we are short on time. So Talia, please return to your senses" (Fayna)
The mocking words of miss Fayna managed to reset my brain, but by now I had already done so many embarrassing actions. The blue-haired maid took away her hand from my head with a troublesome smile and went to one side of the room without saying anything else.
"Excuse me miss Fayna...... Who is she?"(Talia)
"She is my personal maid, her name is Orie. I don't want to sidetrack this conversation anymore, so let me explain the current situation"(Fayna)
As she began to explain the current situation, I was amazed by the amount of danger we were going to experience. If something goes wrong, this would be the last Festival of the Holy Kingdom. As I steeled my resolve to protect the kingdom four girls entered the room, I was surprised to see three familiar faces, but even more by the fourth girl, as she was the masked girl who changed everything around me.
(Talia POV)
At this moment I was looking directly at the masked girl... Alice. As much as this pains me, I had to corner my old friends with despicable threats if I wanted to learn the truth. I knew this was wrong, but I couldn't back down now.
Her appearance, her actions, most of her tastes, and even most of her attitudes were similar if not exactly like mine. Just looking at her after wearing my disguise was enough to steel my resolve to uncover her secret.
My threats were working, I almost had the truth in my hands when the masked girl summoned a light sword. I wasn't expecting this sudden action, but it didn't matter because a moment later I realized she tried to protect me from a black shadow, not before another shadow covered the masked girl.
I had to put my curiosity aside as we were under attack, most likely I was their target. I did not know how they learned about my location, but this wasn't a good situation.
"Princess, we can continue this conversation later, we need to take care of the enemy." (Masked girl)
As much as I wanted to know the truth, more of the black shadows were coming. Suppressing my irritation from almost knowing the truth I summoned a light staff and began to send enhances to everyone. As I looked at the battlefield I was amazed by the strength of the girls.
Fari was fighting in hand-to-hand combat enveloped by lightning, the lightning on her arms and legs had the form of claws and their length was changing according to Fari's movement. She would have looked more menacingly if it weren't for the cat's ears and tail, with both of them also made of lightning. Maybe her appearance was influenced by her free personality.... and her adoration for cats. As goofy as this was she was defeating the assailants with fast movements.
But even with her fast speed and my support Fari still had a contract with low-rank spirit, forcing her to strike with everything she got to defeat an enemy. As the battle progressed her body was quickly covered with wounds each time she defeated a black shadow. This would have been a suicide tactic if Rine wasn't here, every time Fari was hurt Rine would heal the wound in an instant.
To my surprise, Rine itself was dealing with some assailants even while healing Fari. Of course, she couldn't defeat even one of them as their difference in power was remarkable, but this didn't mean she would be defeated so easily, as she was parrying and blocking the incoming attacks with ease.
Lapis on the other hand was giving instructions while protecting Rine from surprise attacks. She was using her dark attribute to restrain some attacks and control the crowd of enemies. Her job was similar to Rine's, but instead of giving attack support, she was controlling the flow of combat.
You can't believe how happy I was with the growth of my friends. Don't get me wrong, since the last time we met I was worried about how they were living and their future because of the low-rank spirits. But now, watching their fight made my last specs of worry disappear.
With their safety confirmed I returned my sight into the fight, only to see a black shadow cut in half in front of me, then there was a second, then a third, and so on. Even though I do not have a lot of fighting experience, I have fought along with skilled fighters, so I can fairly recognize the skill level of a person.
But the girl in front of me, Alice, was on a different level, as her fight couldn't be called a fight. Instead, you should call it a dance, her steps were graceful and each of her swings was deadly, cutting in half a black shadow every time she swung her sword.
..................... I won't talk about................. how the macho maids were.............................. fighting....................... Just please ................don't ask me................... that was..........................
Trying to not look in that direction I sent enhanced everyone again. Just as I believed everything would end without a causality I felt myself flying in the air. I didn't know what happened until I found Alice pushing me away............ while being pierced by a black spear.
I couldn't tell why, but my heart was filled with dispair by this sight. I could feel time slowing down so I tried to take advantage of it and ask for help, only to realize this was the end, as everyone in the shop was stabbed by a black spear.
Even if I wanted to deny this sight, the reality was a cruel mistress, as the pain from falling prove to me this wasn't a nightmare. Now realizing this was not an illusion, time returned to normal. Alice was sent flying while being pierced by the black spear and everyone was barely holding to life while having a black spear stuck into their chest.
"So you were the real Saint.... or it was the one who was pierced?" (?̶̢̠̇͠?̷͇͘͝?̷̖̄̉ͅ?̶̗̐?̶̨̲̍?̸̝̩͝?̴̫̮̊̔ )
At the main entrance of the shop was a single man wearing a black cloak while being covered in wounds with his left arm gone and his right arm dragging a broken sword. The pressure coming from him was insane, I felt he was more a demon than a human even though he was heavily wounded.
Without time to react, I was sent flying once more, this time by the materialization of my contract spirit. The man was in front of me was brandishing his sword at me and my most trusted companion, my spirit, was cut in half instead of me without having time to fully materialize. One more time I was saved at the cost of another life, although she wasn't dead, she was severely wounded.
"I believed the obstacle for our messiah would be more of a problem........For our luck you are only a disappointment ..... Cut her T̴̙͔̆̕y̸̙̐̚r̵̨̓f̵͚̬͂i̴̩̕n̸͖̂ǵ̸̅͜ ̷̳̰̿̃ " (?̵̫͑̉?̵̲̗́̄?̴̖͍͐́?̸̘̂?̷̧̡́͘?̴̱͂?̴͚̹̂ )
Hearing the words of the man created a deep wound on my heart, a wound that would be real soon by his sword. In this short amount of time, everything I thought would be fine was destroyed. As life passed in front of me a single thought emerged from my heart, for the first time in my life I learned what I wanted to do, unfortunately, I became aware of my own feeling too late.
"I just wanted ... a normal life."
Resigning myself to death, I was about to close my eyes when a bi-colored creature made of flames swung his fist at the man's sword. Just before the clash, I managed to hear the surprised voice of the man.
"Impossible...... Our messiah?" (?̷̡̘̤̄?̶̥̦̏͐̕?̵͇̄?̸̘͍̽?̴̛͖̯̑̔?̴̣̪̄̿?̸̙̊?̷̯̩̏̾?̷̥̾͘͝)
And then the two forces clashed.... and everything went black.....
