Chapter 8: The Royal Family

60 days later.

“Gowa?” I said, opening the door to my dorm room.

“Morning Iro!”

“Morning. Why are you here so early?”

“Well… I think it’s time… You meet my parents…”

“The king and queen!? Really?”

Although it had only been 60 days, my relationship with Gowa had progressed fast enough that we thought it was probably time to tell people we were dating.

I didn’t think this meant we were going straight to the king and queen though!

“Well, I think that it’s better to tell them directly rather than letting it leak to them…” Gowa had a point with that one. If the king and queen were to find out from rumors, they would probably be less than thrilled.

To be honest, I think the king and queen will be fine with us dating. Considering that while Gowa is part of the royal family, she is not heir to the throne.

“I have one request though.” I said, “Could my mother be there?” I had never mentioned Akafmowa to Gowa before. As far as she knew, my mother was a serial killer.

“Sure!” Gowa said happily, “To be honest, I’d love to meet your mom! So this will be great for both of us!”

“Alright. I’ll call for a wagon to go pick her up in my village.”

“Iro! Hey! How have you been?” Akafmowa asked, as she got off the wagon.

“Good! What about you?”

“I’ve been getting along. It’s a lot more boring without you though.” I chuckled.

“Anyways though, there's a nice restaurant really close. I wanted to talk to you. About a couple of things in fact, but we can save those for later.”

“Alright. I could never turn down a meal.”

I had told Gowa to reserve a table for us at the restaurant, so we met up with her at the table there.

“So. Let’s get to the point.” I said, eager to start.

“I-” I pulled Gowa close to me, “I love this girl.” Akafmowa and I held eye contact for a while without saying anything.

“And? What, did you think I would tell two youngsters to chill on the true love thing? If you think that I would interfere with that, you are severely mistaken.” Akafmowa said, in the most relaxed voice possible.

“So now that we’ve covered that front, let's get to the real point.”

“Well, anything is larger than zero, so let's see what we’ve got.”

“This girl, Gowa, is the daughter of the king and queen.”

“Like the real king and queen!? For real?!”

“Gowa, can you confirm?” Gowa nodded her head.

“Well then, we’ve got a different situation on our hands. Break up.” I did a double take, did I hear that right? “I’m just kidding. As long as you really do love each other, I don’t care about the girl’s background, appearance, or anything like that.” I gave a strong exhale of relief.

“I knew I could count on you. Thank you.”

“Yeah, no problem.”

I continued to tell Akafmowa about how Gowa and I were going to tell the king and queen about our relationship.

Akafmowa just said to go for it. So that’s exactly what we did.

“We’re here! This is the castle!” Gowa said.

“Wow! It’s a lot bigger than I expected.”

“Well, it’s a royal castle, what would you expect?” Gowa said,

“We should get going. I want it to be done by the sun down.”

“That sounds about right.” Gowa agreed. Gowa and I walked through the castle, Akafmowa following close behind.

The floors were covered in large amounts of red, while the walls were draped in blue.

We reached a large room with many guards, when we were told to go in by one of the guards, Gowa nodded her head.

“Ah, Gowa. What is it my daughter? I see you have brought a friend.” The king spoke,

“Father. I have something I would like to present. It is something me and my friend here thought would be good to go to you before you found out through other ways.” Gowa said,

“What is it?” The king questioned, curiously,

“Hello. I am Iro, and I am 12 years old and attending the Magic Academy currently.”

“Ah, Iro. Yes, I have heard about the child who far surpassed the expectations of the Magic Academy, and was granted permission to be a student at just 12 years old.”

“Yes. That is me. I have gathered, me, Gowa, and my mother Akafmowa, here today to say that I have been dating your daughter Gowa for 2 months. Both Gowa and I have decided it was appropriate to alert you to this fact. I humbly request your permission to take your daughter as the one I proudly call my beloved.”

“I see. Under normal circumstances, I would decline your offer until you have proven to be worthy of not only being my daughter’s loved one, but to also prove you deserve to be part of the royal family. But these are not normal circumstances. Iro, you have proven your worth many times before this. You have not only shown that at just 12 years old, you surpass many full grown adult magicians, but also that you can maintain that. I have been told that you have been getting perfect and beyond perfect scores on all tests since you joined the academy. Is that correct?”

“Yes sir. Although I do not pay attention to my scores. I care more about my standards, not the ones that are put before me by others.” I said. The king laughed in response.

“You certainly are one to behold. However, your test scores do not matter if you cannot keep my daughter happy. But once again, you have succeeded there. I have noticed my daughter has been much more happy over the last 2 months, and I suspected it was due to some outside figure. All I can say is wow. Not a single person in the history of this country has succeeded at this many different things. In such a short time of being on public record…” The king paused for a moment, “My daughter is yours. Make her happy.”

I smiled big, and hugged Gowa.