Salvian readies his sword to take Tarand in, “Any action you take right now will be accounted against you.”

Salvian says to Tarand.

Tarand smirks, “Man that Dan seriously got one up over me.”

Tarand says with a nervous smile.

“I told you didn’t I? I trusted that boy for a reason.”

A familiar figure stood behind Tarand.

Tarand is sweating but his smile is still there on his face, “Ulric...”

Ulric stood behind Tarand with a unique white top hat which is not seen a lot.

“Sir Ulric! Please be careful!”

Salvian says to Ulric.

“Don’t worry about me, I will be fine but we need to deal with the mages that have kids of certain people in their custody.”

Ulric says as he lowers his top hat.

“WHAT?!”

Salvian, Carly, Horrell and all the others who stood there looked confused.

“My goodness Ulric, you are the only other person that I fear in this Kingdom other than The Third.”

For the first time, Tarand opened his eyes and looked at Ulric and this time it wasn’t a smile he was looking at him with.

“Ulric is right, there are hostages over here. Most of them are young kids. You see, just in case Dan interrupted this important sacrifice, I decided to set up a backup plan to get back Princess Kaileen.”

Tarand smiles again.

“Fucking hell...”

James says as he looks around.

“MY BOY IS MISSING!”

“No, my sweet baby girl, where is she?!”

“Freeze! Where are you Freeze?!”

The crowd is panicking.

“No one moves an inch or else everyone will lose their babies.”

The calm yet strong words of Tarand made everyone stop in their tracks.

“Tsch! This is bad.”

Jack says.

“Now then, little princess, let’s get back to what we were doing. Let’s resurrect the devil together, shall we?”

Tarand looks at Kaileen who Valerie is guarding.

Kaileen gets up and looks at Tarand, “Hey now, the title Little Princess was given by Sir Dan to me. Don’t just use it so casually.”

Kaileen looks at Tarand.

“Look at that. The girl has grown out of her shell or as she? I mean, you are still sweating, shivering, heck you’re not even looking right into my eyes.”

Tarand smirks.

“In short, you are still afraid of me.”

Tarand says with a smile.

Luke and Valerie both take a look at Kaileen.

“I see...”

Luke gets back up and moves towards Kaileen.

“Huh?! Luke?!”

James looks confused.

“Leave this to him, James.”

Jack smiles.

“Sit down!”

Tarand applies pressure on Luke with just a glare.

Luke feels the pressure. It almost looked like he was about to fall but he held his ground.

Luke is sweating heavily.

“This is a surprise, did your mana capacity increase in that amount of time that I applied that little pressure on you?! You look really promising!”

Tarand smiles.

“He is Dan’s student. Were you expecting him to be weak?”

Ulric questions Tarand.

“Not really but I didn’t expect him to be this strong to handle my aura.”

Tarand keeps his calm demeanor.

Luke slowly walks towards Kaileen. Kaileen looks surprised.

“Luke?!”

Valerie looks surprised by Luke who is walking towards Kaileen.

“Wow! He is walking even under my strong aura.”

Tarand keeps a calm smile.

“Luke, just a month ago he was a weak little boy but now...He is most probably as strong as some of the prodigies here. It was the right call to keep Dan as a teacher here.”

Ulric looks at Luke and smiles.

“You seriously think that Dan was the reason that the boy got that strong?! You are wrong. I let him be that strong. If I wanted, I would have continued to teach-“

*Slap*

Tarand’s talk gets interrupted by Luke’s slap to Kaileen’s cheeks.

“DON’T YOU FUCKING FORGET WHO YOU ARE!!!!”

Luke screams at the top of his lung.

“YOU ARE THE COOLEST PRINCESS I HAVE KNOWN SINCE MY CHILDHOOD! YOU ARE SOMEONE WHO I HAVE WANTED TO BE! YOU ARE SOMEONE WHO HAS ALWAYS PROTECTED ME!”

Luke looks at the Princess after the screaming is done.

“Even today, don’t forget that you have the duty to protect the citizens of Fracia because you are the Princess of Fracia just like you have protected me back when we were kids.”

Luke smirks, “You protect the citizens and I will protect you because I am not weak anymore!” Luke says with a smile.

XXXXXX

“You are no less than a girl. I mean you can’t even stand up for yourself. You need a Princess to protect you.”

I couldn’t handle that he got mocked at and so I saved him.

“If anyone dares to touch him, I will not hold back!”

I said those bold words but in all honesty, I was just scared. Scared of what if they won’t believe that I am a Princess and try to do something wrong with me.

That’s when he said it, “You know, you are pretty cool and you are pretty strong too. I want to be just like you. No, I want to be better than you so that I can protect you.”

Those words that he said...For some reason gave me courage.

Luke, even now, you are the one who is the cooler one. No, you have surpassed me in every way possible.

XXXXXX

Kaileen drops onto Luke’s back.

“EH?! Princess Kaileen?! What are you doing?!”

Luke is blushing.

“Call me Kaileen.”

Kaileen says as she pouts.

“That’s a mood change...”

Luke looks confused.

“You will protect me, right?”

Kaileen asks Luke.

“Till the very end.”

Luke smiles.

“Alright.”

Kaileen says with a smile.

Luke looks away and blushes, “She’s cute.”

“If you two have had your moment, may I ask you to hand over the Kaileen to Tarand?”

Flesty appears out of nowhere and stands in behind Valerie.

Kaileen leaves Luke’s back.

“Not today, sis, I am not dying today nor am I getting sacrificed.”

Kaileen looks at Flesty.

“WHAT?! How dare-“

“Flesty, please let me speak.”

Tarand interrupts Flesty with a smile.

“See, your little motivational speech to Kaileen was very good but you know, the kids who had gathered here are still my hostage.”

Tarand says with a smile.

The citizens seem to be afraid and in panic. Kaileen realizes that.

“DON’T WORRY CITIZENS OF FRACIA! IN THE NAME OF MY FATHER, I KAILEEN FRACIA PLEDGE TO YOU ALL, NONE OF YOUR CHILD SHALL BE HARMED! YOU CAN TAKE MY WORD ON IT!”

Kaileen shouts at the top of her lung.

“Finally, someone who acts like an actual Princess.”

Jack smiles.

“Princess Kaileen! We are under your command, your orders!”

Salvian kneels down in front of Kaileen along with his soldiers.

“There is only one thing to do, arrest Tarand and the mages he bought with him. That also includes my sister.”

Kaileen says.

“WHAT?! I AM A PRINCESS TOO-“

“Doesn’t matter if you are a Princess or not, you have committed a crime and you shall be investigated.”

Kaileen says as she looks right into Flesty’s eyes.

“You-“

“I guess, I will just have to kill off the kids.”

Tarand interrupts the talks of the sisters and snaps his fingers. This causes an explosion in a nearby compound.

“NO!!!!!”

One of the citizens in the crowd shouts.

“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE YOU FUCKING PRINCESS?!!!”

Another citizen shouts.

“Wait! Why did you do that Princess?! Now everyone will hate you!”

Salvian says.

“Princess did nothing wrong.”

Luke says with a smile.

“What?!”

Salvian looks confused.

“Haven’t you sensed it, brother?!”

Horrell asks Salvian.

“Sensed what?!”

Even James looks confused.

“You haven’t had Sir Dan’s training but if you did, you could sense the mana of two people heading towards us with a bunch of low-powered mana.”

Jack says with a smile.

“That’s right, the kids are safe.”

Ulric says with a smirk as he adjusts his top hat behind Tarand.

*SWISH*

“I hope we made it on time! Is everyone alright?!”

The two people have arrived on time.

“SIR DAN!”

Everyone who recognized Dan instantly knew it was him but along with him was a mysterious person with a steel mask on his face.

“The Third...What is he doing here?!”

Salvian looks confused.

Dan and The Third Commander, have arrived together on the scene of the crime. What kind of a relation does The Third have with Dan?!

XXXXXX