Whu...uh? Which fucking moron is more interested in me rather than my cool sister or dad?

Um... h-how can you say that?

I... ok... I am Kiku Arnas.

I'm a passable swordsman. Dad made me swing blades for as long as I remember. A long run in the morning. Exercises for my legs. Giving me detailed lessons on how to move in a fight, how to think during one. He always said gravely 'you need to be able to protect everything you love, just a moment, and it can all be gone.'

He always had distant look when he said it.

I never had a mom, so dad, Kako and the guild were my family. It was always lively when training was finished, and we always went out to have good food, so I got to know lots of nice people. Celia-shishou, the lady at the Smoking Horse tavern, was the one we saw the most. I think she liked dad alot, and I think they kissed and hugged naked when they thought me and Kako weren't looking. She taught me some of the basics of cooking when I told her I loved her food, but her training was even worse than dad’s.

Though dad went away sometimes, leaving his old friend Craig-jii-san to look after us, we had trips where I would follow dad and Kako to places and watch them beat up weak monsters and devils.

Then, at nine years old, I stabbed a griffon to death.

It was really scary and I was crying as I did it. Dad was pinning it down with his big tree-trunk arms that were normally so nice when hugging me.

Maybe I’m just a wuss, but I’ve always been slower and weaker than Kako, and both she and dad would always spank me down in sparring easily.

I don't hate him, or nee-chan for always being better than me. That's just the way things are. They're older, with more responsibilities, and they're really awesome.

I was eleven when Kako went to a tournament to find and recruit a new knight at the castle, and of course we went and watched her. Of course she won. It was really amazing! So many people saw how cool nee-chan was!

But when dad told me I had to go a trip with a party after my thirteenth birthday to 'become stronger and be an adult like Kako', I didn't know what to do. I moped all morning.

I really don't know what drove me to think that I, of all people, would be an adequate companion to the Princess and the Etranger.

But it's like it all clicked into place when I saw that man's shit-eating grin. Aria-hime says he's an evil pervert that will eat up girls for breakfast, and I should be wary, but I read his eyes, like dad taught me, and there was no malice there. He swept over me with a deep gaze that felt it was stripping me of my dignity, sure, but for some reason, I almost felt safe. And wanted, when he accepted.

Well, something's always been wrong with me.