As Jon stepped out of the door and turned into the hallway, he heard a crack underneath his foot.

He looked down and saw small red jewel pieces littered over the floor.

Jon recognized them. They were from the red crystal Hector used to communicate with his sister.

Mallory sighed. “Aw, Hector…”

After stopping to marvel at the scene, they continued forward. Jon was surprised by the brisk pace at which Mallory led him through the hallways. Whereas the girls had taken their time with their walking, Mallory stepped hurriedly, while at the same time not going at a pace where Jon would fall too far behind.

They turned through stone hallways until Mallory went into a door that led to a spiral staircase that went upwards. Jon was amazed.

Mallory stopped partway up the steps when he realized that Jon was still watching in awe.

“Yeah, kinda sweet, isn’t it? Mallory asked.

Jon nodded.

“I’ll show you around some more later. Yeah?”

There was another swift nod from Jon. He understood what that meant. They would find Hector first, then he could marvel later.

They walked up the spiral staircase until Mallory pushed through a door into a large space. Probably the biggest indoor open space Jon had seen other than the inside of the barracks. There was nothing here except for a large wall with a small door further on, where there was a bright light emanating.

“That’s Amalia’s room,” Mallory said. “Hector should be in there.”

Jon nodded. He started to walk but noticed that this time Mallory seemed stuck in place.

“...Sorry,” Mallory said. “I just get nervous thinking about approaching the princess's room for a lot of reasons, although the doors still open…”

He put his hand to his chin in thought. “And there aren’t any guards there yet.”

Mallory shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. Let’s go.”

As Jon and Mallory approached the room, they slowly began to make out the bit of talking coming out of the room.

“I don’t know why you didn’t tell me Lester was here,” Hector said. “That’s important.”

“And how is it important?” Amalia asked. “It’s not like you bother to tell me anyway!”

“That’s not the point!”

“Aye. Sounds like they're married already,” Mallory said.

Jon nodded. It was reminiscent of his parents having a conversation about something.

They entered the room.

The first thing Jon noticed was how large the room was. It seemed like it was as big as the hallway outside. It was also light pink.

His eyes traced the walls and the very high ceiling that was above him.

“Jon.” Jon’s eyes came back down to Hector, who was sitting on a bed in the center of the room. It had to be bigger than his parent’s bed. In fact, it was probably the biggest bed Jon had ever seen in his life. Jon realized that there would be a lot of big things in the castle.

Next to Hector were Amalia and Lester, who stood on either side of him.

“Mallory! Jon! You made it!” Lester said. “Can you guys help me out, here?”

“I don’t need help,” Hector said. “I just need everyone to stop talking and give me some peace and quiet.”

“We were just having a conversation,” Amalia responded.

“Point still stands,” Hector said.

Amalia scowled. “Fine! I don’t know why you make things so hard!”

Hector seemed surprised. “I’m making things hard? I’m trying to be very clear with my feelings and intentions. Is that not what I’m supposed to do?”

“It’s hard for me too!” She yelled, pushing Hector on the shoulder.

When he didn’t show any reaction, she made a loud growl.

“Just… When I come back, we’ll talk… alone.” She said. She stepped out of the room, ignoring Jon and Mallory.

“Well, Hector,” Lester said. “It seems that the princess has made a decree. What do you think we should do?”

“...It’s her room,” Hector said.

“Well, it’ll be yours soon too, won’t it?” Lester asked.

Hector gave him an angry scowl, which immediately changed into a frown.

“I see…”

“Hector, downstairs, we were talking, and…” Mallory began.

“It’s fine, guys. You should listen to Amalia,” Hector said. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

“Hector-”

“Go!” Hector said.

Mallory frowned. “If you say so. Come on, guys.”

He stepped out of the room.

“See ya Hect,” Lester said. “Good luck,”

“Thanks,” Hector responded.

They gave an unenthusiastic fist bump and Lester followed after Mallory.

Jon grimaced but nodded. He turned when he saw Mallory winking at Jon from outside.

He suddenly slammed the door shut.

“Oh no!!!!!” Mallory’s voice came from the other side of the room. He began knocking on the other side. “It’s locked!”

Hector groaned and didn’t move.

“...It only locks from the inside!” Mallory said.

“Oh yeah,” Hector’s eyes lit up. “I forgot. Sorry, Jon.”

Hector stood up and went to the door... Underneath the hinge was a lever.

Hector jimmied with the lever and the door handle until it unlocked.

Jon waited for Hector to open the door, but he didn’t.

“...Don’t leave me... “ Hector said quietly.

Jon nodded.

Hector went back to the bed, leaving the door partially opened. Jon expected to hear Mallory and Lester outside, but there was no noise.

Jon went to Hector’s side and sat next to him.

They sat quietly for several minutes.

Jon didn’t quite know what to make of the silence. Still, Hector had done a lot of screaming. Despite not saying anything or acknowledging Jon’s presence, Jon didn’t think that Hector wanted him to go away just yet.

Hector spoke eventually.

“Why would Mallory lock the door…” This was to himself, and not Jon, so Jon didn’t reply. Not that he had an answer anyway.

“Why would he knock?” The fire lit up in Hector’s eyes again.

He turned to Jon. “What is it?”

Jon didn’t know what “it” was.

“You have something to tell me!” Hector said, grabbing Jon by the shoulders and shaking him. “What is it?”

Jon was so flabbergasted he didn’t know how to start.

“Mallory did the secret knock!” Hector cried. “I know because I made it. I mean, we both made it, although it’s stupid because we never used it. Unless Mallory wanted me to stop talking for whatever reason, but we’re never near any doors or-”

Hector stopped himself.

“Hide!” Hector said. “She should go to sleep soon!”

He hopped onto his feet. “Under the bed! There’s room. Amalia loses stuff there all the time!”

Jon was concerned, but Hector seemed to be panicking too much to give a proper explanation. Jon took off his gun, then got onto the floor. He then climbed under the bed as per Hector’s instruction.

Hector was right. There was room. Jon barely even touched the top of his head on the bottom of the bed. He crawled by some items, such as a small crown and a pair of underwear.

Jon pushed the underwear aside with his gun so that he wouldn’t run into it. Now, he was completely under.

He didn’t know what to do. Hector often gave him things to do in battle. Was this a battle? Would Jon have to be prepared to fight off some enemies?

The door opened.

“They’re gone.” It was Amalia’s voice. “I didn’t think you’d actually listen to me.”

“Sure,” Hector said. “Whatever.”

There was a sigh from Amalia. Jon watched her feet approach the bed and disappear into the air.

There was a sudden bounce from the top of the bed.

“So, you’re staying with me tonight?” she asked.

“We’re not married yet,” Hector responded.

“We don’t have to be married yet! We used to sleep together when we were kids.”

“You’re still a kid,” Hector said. “And besides, that was different.”

“How is it any different?” she asked.

“The fact that you’re asking me to sleep here now says it all. You should have some more respect for yourself-”

There was a large slapping noise.

“You just… know how to ruin a girl’s feelings, don’t you?” Jon could hear tears.

“I wasn’t being mean,” Hector said. “I was just saying-”

She began to sniffle. Even though he was under the bed, Jon was still worried that water was going to drip on him.

“I should have known you would… no…” She sniffed once more. “You won’t fool me. You may be dumb, and a bit cruel, but I know better.” The crying seemed to have stopped already.

“If that’s what you think about me, then you should be against this whole marriage thing,” Hector said.

“It doesn’t matter,” Amalia said. “If you don’t do it, your father might hurt you.”

“I don’t care,” Hector said.

“He might hurt your friends-”

“I’ll die before I let that happen.”

Jon shook from hearing that. Part of him told him that it was true.

“That would give him even more reasons to hurt them, Hector. And besides, if I don’t marry you, it would be someone else. Would you take responsibility for that?”

No response came from Hector.

“I know you want to be with your friends, Hector,” Amalia began.

“You’re my friend-”

“But maybe we can arrange things after the marriage, can’t we?” she continued, interrupting him.

“I’m not dragging them into this, Amalia. This stays between us… and the whole Kingdom of Resden, I assume.”

“...It’s not that big, Hector. I’m sure you’ll do a fine job.”

“Whatever…”

“Come here… you seem tired.”

There was a sound. A gold jacket fell off in front of the bed.

“...Amalia, no!” Hector’s feet hit the ground. “I can’t… That…”

“Aw, come on Hector. It’s probably gonna happen anyway. Maybe before you leave-”

“Jon’s here!” Hector cried.

“Jon?”

Jon took this as his queue. He crawled using his elbows to leave the confines underneath the bed. He stood up straight, gun ready.

Amalia screamed.

“Aie! Pervert! What is this!” she screamed.

“He’s not a pervert. He’s Jon. And he’s here to tell me something, right?” Hector put his fists on his hips, waiting for an answer.

Hector wasn’t wearing his upper body armor anymore. It was a heavy beige shirt that was tucked into his golden pants, which still had the pattern of his golden armor.

“...Do you want to marry Mercy?” Jon asked.

Hector’s eyes widened. “What? What type of insane question is-”

He stopped himself, raising his finger in excitement.

“Of course!” Hector yelled. “It’s genius! Why didn’t I think of it earlier!”

He turned to Amalia. “Amalia! We can’t get married. “‘Cause I’m gonna get married to Mercy!”

He suddenly frowned. “Oh, no, wait, that’s Tallow.”

He looked at Jon. “Mercy? Really?”

“What are you talking about, Hector?” Amalia seemed hurt. “Who would you marry instead of me?”

“Mercy. Mercy Sharkiller yadda-yadda-yadda whatever.” Hector slammed his palm in his fist. “She’s the answer. She can break us out of this mess!”

“She would have to be somebody important,” Amalia said.

“She is,” Hector said. “She’s some dude’s daughter!”

Amalia frowned. “More important. More than just a diplomat’s daughter.”

“She’s a ninja! I don’t know!” Hector smiled. “She could be the key to get us out of this!”

“Hector… I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get out of this,” she said. “And besides, unless she’s really important, they might just consider the marriage null in this country, and marry you anyway. Just come to bed, okay?”

Hector frowned. “You might be right.”

Hector put his arm on Jon’s shoulder. “Sorry, Jon. It wouldn’t work. Tell Mallory… never mind, I’ll tell him tomorrow.”

Hector went to the bed and threw himself on his back, spreading his limbs in defeat.

“You can do whatever you want. I don’t even care if Jon watches.”

Amalia gave a look of hurt disgust. Eventually, she looked back up at Hector.

“He’s asleep,” she said.

Jon nodded. Mallory said he was probably tired.

“He didn’t eat,” Jon said.

“He doesn’t take very good care of himself, does he? If Mallory wasn’t there to take care of him, he would probably be falling apart at the seams. I guess when you marry one, you marry both, right?”

Jon didn’t know how a double marriage would work, but he nodded.

“In fact, I’m incredibly grateful he has friends,” Amalia said. “We’re supposed to be friends, but…”

She looked sorrowfully at Hector’s body. “It’s like he’s trying to always hide stuff from me. Not because he doesn’t like me, but because he’s afraid of hurting me. Ha!”

Amalia gave a small laugh, and yet, she didn’t seem to be smiling. “He’s dumb. He should share these things… with me especially…”

She looked back up to Jon. “Can I show you something?”

“Yeah,” Jon whispered.

She stood up from the bed. Jon then followed her to the corner of her room.

There was a small table lined up against the wall, with a giant mirror in front of it. There was also a large chair and tons of books and papers littered around the area.

“This is his workstation, while he stays at the castle,” Amalia says. “I’m not in my room a majority of the day, so he comes here to work when he wants to. He used to tell me not to read any of it, but that changed recently. So, I started going through. You know what he writes about?”

Jon shook his head.

“Everything. He writes about his life. He writes about what his sisters are doing. He writes about what his father does. He writes about him and Mallory, and new ideas he comes up about. He writes about the King’s Guard. He writes about battle plans. He writes…”

She frowned. “He writes about everything but me…”

Jon didn’t know how to feel. She had felt left out of something Jon wouldn’t have known what to say about.

“...I feel like… I feel like if he had more time, he might write about you,” she said. “I don’t know why I feel so comfortable saying this, but…”

She kicked at the air softly. “Hector doesn’t like to spend his time around things he thinks are useless and take up his time. Even people. The fact that you’re here and he chose to hide you under his bed… means that he thinks you’re pretty important to him. Especially if Mallory’s not here.”

Jon nodded slowly. It was new to hear somebody tell him how important he was to somebody else. He didn’t know what to make of that.

“Sorry for blabbering on,” she said. “I guess I don’t really have anyone else to talk to about this…”

She looked at Jon. “I guess I should go to sleep now.”

Jon walked her to the bed, where she climbed in.

“Thanks for listening,” she said. “You don’t say much… but you don’t patronize me. I like that. And I think Hector likes that too. Maybe you can stay by to help everything go more smoothly… whatever you do…”

She laid on her side and curled into a ball. There was enough room for the bed for Hector’s wingspan to not be interrupted by her body.

Once she stopped moving, Jon made his way out of the room.