Both look at me rather startled. I’m simply livid. Why the hell do my siblings have to be so fucking worthless! Trevor can’t leed, Riker can’t think, Talia can’t stop making boy-toys, and the rest are either meek or as cruel as the first three.

“WHY COULDN’T THOSE BASTARDS JUST STOW THEIR COLLECTIVE SHIT, AND NOT. FORCE. THE ACTUAL. BASTARD. TO CLEAN UP AFTER THEM!!!” Cecilia

I’m gripping the Knight’s collar and shaking my fist at him. I don’t even know how I got him into this position. I feel a firm hand grasp my shoulder rather forcefully.

“WHAT!!” Cecilia

It was Y’sar, and only now do I realize that I’m holding my bent up sabre. I look at it in horror, I’ve never had an episode this bad before. Whenever it comes to my… siblings, I can’t help but have one of these episodes. That damn capital left me with some issues, serious issues.

“The king told me you might react this way but… my apologies. I beg your forgiveness.” Knight

Oh God Damnit, why does he have to be so nice about it? I manage to squeak out a reply to the overly good natured knight.

“N-no I should be the one to apologize.” Cecilia

He goes to retort before Y’sar interrupts him.

“Just accept it, she can go for ages when it comes to being more sorry than the other party. Though, I would think that having her straddle you is apology enough.” Y’sar

I feel a slight flush as I shoot up immediately and end up several meters away in the blink of an eye. I can see that the knight isn’t in a joking mood, and is actually glaring at Y’sar. Y’sar simply looks at him with his usual, knowing and mischievous expression, somehow it makes his eyes look like they’re smiling.

Looks like he’s testing the limits of the fresh meat. People like Y’sar are constantly feeling out people who they aren’t familiar with. It’s sort of a subconscious habit of provocateurs, finding out just how to make their opponents lose control. For most other types of fighting, they simply needed to follow their opponents movements, but for provocateurs, they relied on their opponent being out of balance, erratic; commanding their opponent on when to strike and when to calm down, taking control of the opponent to feel it’s flow. Needless to say, he’s one who is very used to fighting opponents that should be far out of his league, and winning.

The Knight soon sighs in a dejected manner and begins speaking again.

“Well, I see that you understand the situation milady. Do you have any possessions that we must retrieve? I must confess that the king couldn’t apply much manpower for fear of the noblemen catching wind and taking you hostage.” Knight

I inwardly groan as I begin to realize that nobles are now a much larger problem for me again, the worse thing is that I can’t pretend to be just a maid anymore. Then again, probably don’t want to pretend to be a maid anymore now that i’ve… grown up, a little. You’d be surprised by how many bastards there really are in the world. Honestly, at this point, the whole “I have noble blood and you don’t!” argument is actually meaningless. As long as there are pretty servant girls and handsome servant men, there will always be a few bastard nobles not far behind. In fact, I attribute the large amount of mixed races being partly caused by this, aside from the obvious couples you see in most villages and cities.

They always piss people off with how lovey-dovey they are at all times of the day.

Thankfully bastards have gotten much rarer since my father took the throne, apparently, barring my own existence. My mother explained to me the real situation, apparently the two of them were lovers back when dad didn’t have any chance whatsoever of becoming king. I showed up a few years after Talia, the former crown princess.

And according to the new laws in place, I don’t have to worry about getting into a situation like my fathers. Marrying someone I hate, that is, even if they aren’t of noble blood.

Even if I did find a man, that is. Mixed races have a slight stigma unfortunately.

Anyways, should probably start talking again.

“*sigh*, yup. It’s the Golden Bull Inn, back in Felba.” Cecilia

“Really? How have they treated you? I’ve been getting some red listing requests for that village.” Y’sar

“The villagers weren’t that bad, kept to themselves. The Innkeeper though, she was a piece of work. Real nasty case of High-Beast superiority. I would at least redlist her. Bitch charged me a silver sparrow for her tool shed. Didn’t let up until a squad of Rangers threatened to have her blacklisted, at which point she was still giving me a questionable deal.” Cecilia

“Hmm. Yeah, definitely red listed. I’ll call the horses then, don’t want any of my men to get screwed over by some bitchy supremacist.” Y’sar

That catches me by surprise. Horses cost a fucking mint Eria, they aren’t native to this land. Only the nobility have horses, everyone else has to either walk, hitch a ride on a yak cart, or ride a Cattian Elk. Cattian Elk are just very large Elk that are similar to a normal Elk, except that they are domesticated and trained to be ridden like a horse; they are just a bitch to ride seeing how they abound everywhere, and can’t carry all too much weight.

Then I realize that I’m the heir to Eria again, gonna have to get used to riding horses. And being seen with horses.

And being seen by everyone.

I’m not even all that charismatic.

Hahh~, the only good thing I can see so far is getting to torment Talia and the terrible twosome for once.

Not long later a trio of horses are here, led by Y’sar on his very own horse. Captains get a certain amount of perks regarding transportation, comes with being a high ranking member of the pact who is willing to babysit the recruits. Two are brown and the other is white, and slightly more slender than the other two. I think the white one is a female while the others are male, but I don’t know horses all that well. They could be unisex and I would have to trust you.

The Knight mounts the other brown horse, and I am left to try and mount the white one. I go to put my foot in the stirrup, but the damn horse just scoots away, I look at it’s face with a raised eyebrow, and I catch a glimpse of defiance and pride in the damn horse’s eye.

I know what this damn horse is thinking, it’s probably got an ego trip about it. The damn thing is like a noble, so all I need to do is teach it it’s place. Better start now instead of letting it think it has a place to do this sort of thing. I grab the horse's reins and, rather violently, pull it’s eyes down to my level. It seems rather shocked at the rough action, meaning this creature is used to be pampered. It goes to raise it’s head and break away, but stops as it makes eye contact. There is only one emotion I can make out from it, fear.

This horse is a coward.

I keep the eye contact for a little while, making certain that the horse gets the idea. After a few minutes, I let the reins go, place my foot firmly in the stirrup, and hoist myself onto the beast. It takes me a moment to find a comfortable sitting position, but once I do, I look up to see a smirking Y’sar and Knight, whose name I have yet to learn.

Knight grumbles something about cheating as he tosses a money purse towards Y’sar. I quirk an eyebrow at this. Firstly, I seem to be missing something here, secondly, every knight I’ve met so far has been a stiff; both have a single question, why were they gambling?

Y’sar seems to understand my question before I even say it.

“The white mare your riding is the pet of Princess Talia, and the only mare of the king's steed. It has never allowed anyone to ride it, not even Talia, but she persists and believes that pampering it and inflating the things ego will make it love her. She doesn’t even feed it to show that she’s the source of it’s good lifestyle. Right now she’s at a ball on the other side of Eria, so she has no idea that the mare is gone. No one's ridden the mare yet, so you have the right to name her.” Y’sar

I grin at the thought of being the one to steal Talia’s toys. She was always such a greedy and possessive child, taking from me anything I might have a liking for. Now I just stole away one of her projects, that she has been doing for months at least, in a matter of seconds.

She was definitely going to have a fit over this.

“For now, she will be Sigara.” Cecilia

Y’sar snorts in amusement when he hears me say the name; while Sigara lowers it’s head even further in shame, as if it understood the meaning of my words. The knight, who I still haven’t been properly introduced to yet, simply quirks an eyebrow at the seemingly inside joke. Y’sar begins to explain while I get Sigara to start down the road. It’s strangely similar to riding an Elk, probably an effect of domestication.

“Cecilia here has a passion for learning about the Eldar-Kin, so she has picked up as much of their language as she could. Sigara, as far as we know, means something akin to ‘worthless donkey.’ So I suspect that the Princess Talia will be rather miffed about it.” Y’sar

Knight simply lets out a loud laugh from behind me.

“Are you kidding! The Princess broke tradition and started galavanting about saying that horse- I mean Sigara’s name was Sirvina, apparently it meant graceful in ‘High-Eldar-Kin,’ as she called it.” Knight

I grip the reins ever harder as my expression turns nasty. Talia was always too prideful to actually try and improve upon her understanding of the Eldar-Kin’s tongue, so she decided to ruin their language through her consistent mispronunciations and poor grammar. She even had the gall to say it was a ‘higher’ and ‘more advanced’ form of their ‘primitive’ and ‘pitiable’ language.

Sirvina is, hopefully, based on Seri, which means comely, she always got them mixed up somehow. There are many ways to get me annoyed, and people mistake that for me being angry. There are only a few ways to get me angry, and nobody who makes me angry once tries a second time; Y’sar being a prime example.

I hold a great amount of respect for the Eldar-Kin, so right now, I’m at the border between annoyance and anger.

“Fucking bitch.” Cecilia

Y’sar notices and immediately changes the conversation. He does not want to see me angry again.

“By the way, I don’t think Cyrus has introduced himself as of yet, have you?” Y’sar

I turn to look at Cyrus while Sigara slows her pace to match Cyrus’s horse. Cyrus looks like he just realized something very important and coughs before introducing himself, going straight back to his uptight behaviour.

“Ahem, my apologies milady, but it would appear I have made a slight blunder. I am Cyrus, a knight originally in service to his royal majesty, but now have been assigned as the personal bodyguard of yourself for the time being. I have achieved the sixth rank of ferocity and the third of blindness. I will do everything within my power to prevent harm from coming down upon you.” Cyrus

A fairly warrior-esque introduction. The path of blindness is essentially fighting multiple opponents at multiple angles, as well as fighting in no visibility environments. It was an immensely difficult path that started out as a simple augmentation of the path of repentance; however, a blind Low-Beast, whose breed has since then been, with resistance from themselves, forced into the ranks of the High-Beast, saw another way. He applied blindness to all of the paths, and in so doing, forged the fifth path.

I know a bit about the fifth path, gotten up to the second rank, but those masters of blindness are such pains in the ass! They talk in riddles all the damn time and refuse to give straight answers!

Oh well, enough of that.

“You already know me, as it would seem. So I suppo-- why is there a big crowd outside of the village?” Cecilia

We’re outside of the village right now and just exited the woods. Across the way, on the other side of the village, a large mass of people had gathered together. Quite obviously, something was happening. I wonder what it was.

We traveled up a little farther until I could make out what was going on. Apparently it was one of those cliche send offs that a lot of village dreamers like to have. Everyone was waving, couples were resting heads on their partner's shoulders, the works. I then heard the voice of my bitchy innkeeper.

“Go and make me proud daughter! Show those Rangers what you're made of!” Innkeeper

I then start feeling worried for some reason, and start riding a bit faster, raising my speed. The villagers had yet to notice us, so nobody saw that I was on a horse yet. I could, fortunately for me, see over the large mass of people to see someone wearing some oddly familiar. I then met eyes with the girl who was wearing my armor, and, despite smiling brightly just an instant ago, looked a little shocked; then she started running at a full sprint in the opposite direction, her large breasts flopping with every stride.

I then realized what was going on.

I urge my horse to start running at full speed as I get angry.

Very angry.

The horse brays a little in fear and the villagers part the way in a mix of awe, at seeing a horse, and terror, at nearly being run over by said horse. I hear the girl start screaming as I gain on her. It wouldn’t take that long to trample her with Sigara, but that would ruin my only good set of equipment, along with my two backup sabres. So, I take my feet out of the stirrups, and place them on Sigara’s shoulders? I’ll need to find out what these are called later.

Sigara seems to catch my meaning and stops abruptly while also ducking her head. It’s wonderful the amount of these a master/servant bond between bestial existences can allow for simple instinctual communication.

I launch forward with both the abrupt change in speed, aided by my own leaping at the moment Sigara stopped. I easily cross the distance between myself and the Dairy Cow. I grab her shoulders as I’m about to soar over her, and in one fluid motion, grab her shoulders, lift her up, use her weight to stop my flight while firmly continue to raise her; I then plant my foot firmly onto the ground, still swinging her through the air, and crash her onto the ground in front of me. Hearing the beautiful sound of the a few of the thief’s bones cracking, I start to slowly rouse from my cold rage.

Oh boy, I had another episode, shit. Again, my head’s screwed to all hell, don’t judge me. Well off thieves are one of the few things that anger me, mix that with bigots who think everything I have belongs to them because of some cosmic decree that I never agreed to also fit into that category.

“YOU UNGRATEFUL LOW-BEAST WHORE!! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY DAUGHTER!!” Inkeeper

“GET YOUR HANDS OFF OUR VILLAGE’S PRIDE SCUM!!” villager

“ “ YEAH!!” ” Other villagers

Did I mention this village was completely populated by High-Beasts? Well there you have it. A village filled with bigots and thieves.

I sort of internalized all that rage from being appointed Heir Apparent, so let's go and work that out a bit. I grab my two sabres, still in their sheathes, unlatch them from my belt, turn around, and smirk.

It’s not good to keep in stress, so like my mother always said, I’m gonna let it all out.

**************

“Oh, um, Cyrus, we should probably run.” Y’sar

I look to him in disbelief as Cecilia gracefully rises up, her hood loosening as her silver hair sways in the wind, before her face takes a smirk and a cruel glint passes over sky blue, slitted eyes. After hearing those villagers practically call out for her blood, I can’t believe that he’s telling me to run. These villagers are already committing high treason. Even if Cecilia hasn’t been formerly declared as the new Queen, these villagers have already committed several crimes; not only have they undermined a direct agent of the King, a Ranger, they have also committed an act of discrimination, something found highly despicable by his majesty and the current nobility. They have also threatened the companion and charge of a Royal Knight, so they are already looking at the possibility of the death penalty.

Our King is beloved by the public and commoners in general, but he is renowned for his heavy handed treatment of those who go against his reforms without proper justifications.

“What do you mean?! We have to help her!” Cecilia

He then looks at me and I can notice a drop of sweat on his forehead.

“No boy, you’re wrong, we need to run away from her. She will neither have need of us, nor want us in any proximity when she starts the beatdown. Don’t worry, she won’t kill anyone, thinks it’s more deserving if they live with any serious injuries she inflicts on them. Us though, ho boy, I like my penis where it is, thank you.” Y’sar

He then has his horse start trotting in the other direction. I then look back at Cecilia, who now looks like one of the old goddesses of war as she hacks and slashes through a field of fleeing Beast-Kin, while at the same time not even caring to unsheath her blades. She then looks straight at me and all I feel is that I’ve somehow walked into a wolf’s den in nothing but my nethers and a spoon. God that was a weird nightmare, doesn’t make it any less terrifying.

I then follow the wisdom of the far more experienced warrior here, and turn around.

I am honor bound to protect the princess, but no King has enough money in his coffers to pay me the amount of money I would need to get beaten up by her!

Don't mind this, just testing out how the update changed things. Spoiler:asdfhjlkjhsdfaj dsauhfkjsdahflkjquiwe fr