“He must be really tired,” Mallory said as he and Jon caught up with Hector.

“Huh?” Hector didn’t seem to know what Mallory was talking about.

“Your dad, Hector.” Mallory explained.

“Oh.”

“He’s not as aggressive.” Mallory continued, “then again, we all must be pretty tired... Where are we going, Hector?”

Hector stopped walking. “I don’t know.”

“May I direct you?” Junwata’s voice announced his presence from behind the men, causing them to turn.

“Master… I mean… Mister… ah,” Hector’s face burned as he turned to avoid Junwata’s face.

“You need to feel no shame in facing me,” Junwata said. “My niece’s failure was one of her own making, and not yours. Battles were fought bravely by both parties.”

“Easy for you to say,” Hector muttered.

He shifted his gaze towards Junwata, probably expecting a harsh retort.

“...Trust me,” Junwata said, “we have battles within our own clans. Much like here, we have our fights to determine what decisions are to be made within our borders-”

“But why?” Hector asked, his voice and body invigorated with feeling again.. “If we’re all on the same side, why are we all fighting?”

“Because,” Junwata explained, "even if we all seem to have the same goals, we all may not necessarily be on the same side. And so, the fighting inside must continue.”

Hector’s momentary force of life diminished upon hearing the answer.

“...It’s not all bad,” Junwata added. “We must have our fights on the inside. This way, it prepares us for the fights on the outside.”

This piece of information picked up Hector’s interest.

“Outside…” Hector said to himself.

“Uh… Mr. Junwata?” Mallory interjected. “Good wisdom and all, but, do you think you could tell us where Mercy went?”

“You’ve been relieved of your formal decorum, have you?” Junwata asked with a smile.

“I… uh…”

Junwata chuckled. “No worries. Just an observation, not a critique. I may not know where Mercy is now, but perhaps, I can show you the way. If you wish to follow me after all that’s happened.”

“...Of course,” Hector said before anyone else could respond. “We should… find her…”

Mallory gave a raised eyebrow to Jon.

Jon didn’t know what to make of it. He would be happy to find Mercy. He just hoped that she wanted to be found at this moment. Until then, he was fine with following Junwata. Maybe Mercy would trust him more than the others.

Right now, he wished for Tallow’s quick decision and strong voice, but she had to rest because of her arm, and from the fight in general. Until then, it was him and the guys. He didn’t realize how empty everything felt without either of the girls. It was almost like they were exposed without armor. At least Junwata being a ninja helped superficially fill that void.

“Tell me about the castle,” Junwata requested, “and I will devise a guess from what you tell me,”

From there, Mallory and Junwata led the group through the castle. Mallory said so much information about the castle as they walked that Jon couldn’t retain much of it. There were names of people he didn’t know, and he was exhausted after the events of today. Still, he didn’t want to go to sleep until he was sure all of his friends were taken care of.

Jon would throw a glance to Hector’s direction every so often. Hector wasn’t saying anything, but he also didn’t seem as dour as before, so Jon decided no to say anything to interrupt his mood.

Soon, they walked through the doors of the barracks. Jon wondered if Junwata ever ended up using any of the advice that Mallory had given him as they had all walked through.

It was empty.

“Sonuvabitch…” Mallory looked at Junwata. “You were coming here anyway. It was a good choice.”

He turned to the barren room. “But it’s empty."

Junwata pointed up to the ceiling.

“...Ah…” Mallory nodded with understanding and looked up as well.

Jon followed their gazes. He didn’t see anything in the rafters.

“She probably heard us coming,” Junwata said. “Let’s go.”

The four of them walked outside of the barracks. Up on top of the curved roof was a dark shape.

“...You wanna go up there?” Mallory asked Jon.

Jon nodded.

A slew of tentacles reached down from the side of the building towards Jon. Jon knew that Mallory was gonna bring him up to the roof, and whereas before he would have been nervous, he had learned to trust Mallory’s tentacles in the way he trusted a friend.

He then looked to Mallory, who he saw was staining from mana use.

Oh no. Jon realized that Mallory was probably drained from mitigating any damage from the fights that night.

He wanted to tell him to stop, but the blue tentacles had already grabbed Jon, bringing him up to the roof.

It placed him within walking distance of Mercy’s back. She still hadn’t turned around. She was just looking at the stars above her.

Jon walked over to her.

“The stars are beautiful tonight,” she said. “Aren’t they?”

“Yeah,” Jon said. He didn’t really think they were beautiful, but he just wanted Mercy to feel better.

He took a seat next to her.

“You don’t really think they’re beautiful, do you?” Mercy asked.

“...I don’t know,’ Jon said. He didn’t think it was in his right to judge beauty.

Still, sitting on the roof and looking up at the stars reminded him of their time at the farm together. There was something nice about being reminded of it.

But, he was also happy that they were somewhere different. He didn’t want to be who he was on the farm. He wanted to be someone different.

“..I’m glad your legs are working for you again,” Mercy said after a brief period of silent stargazing.. “No help to me, unfortunately.”

“...Thank you for caring,” Jon replied.

“Oh, Jon…” Mercy leaned into his chest. “I’m such an idiot. It doesn’t matter if I care. Caring isn’t good enough. Caring doesn’t change anything.”

“I’m glad you care,” Jon said again. He wrapped his arm around her.

“This means I have to go home now, right?” she asked.

“Maybe,” Jon repeated. He figured it was the right thing to say, given the circumstances. Honestly, he felt that Mercy could have gone wherever she wanted, home or not, and no one would have been able to stop her. Hector, Luther, her father, Junwata, or even Jon himself.

But right now, she was clearly hurting. Home was where she felt that she needed to go, and so Jon would support her.

“Are you… coming with me?” she asked.

“Of course,” Jon answered. “I promised.”

“...You idiot… that’s not how I meant it.” Despite her harsh words, she buried her face in his chest.

Jon didn’t mind. He knew she didn’t really mean it. He was starting to get a handle on how people didn’t literally mean what they said.

He then noticed the small patch of bandage taped to her forehead.

“...I swiped some things from the nurses if that’s what you’re wondering,” she said, looking up at him.. “I patched myself up, because… I had too…”

Jon grimaced and nodded.

“...Do you want to go down?” she asked.

Jon tried to figure out how to shrug without making her too uncomfortable.

“I don’t know,” he finally said, feeling stupid that he didn’t just vocolize it before.

They waited around some more before Mercy spoke again.

“...I feel so weak…” she said.

“You’re not-”

“Let’s go…” Mercy stood up, stopping Jon before he finished speaking. Jon stood up as well.

He was gonna wave to Mallory when Mercy wrapped her arm around his waist.

“Ready?” she asked.

He nodded.

Mercy crouched down, then pushed off with her feet.

Jon was reminded of his flight with Genevive as they leapt into the air.

They landed softly in front of Hector, Mallory, and Junwata.

“There she is!” Mallory announced with glee.. “Ready to turn in?”

“Maybe.” Mercy answered.Jon waited for an explanation, but then realized that she was glaring.

At first he thought it was Junwata, but a double take showed him that Hector was her target.

Hector seemed to be trying toHector instead.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked.

“Like what?” Hector responded. “I’m not even looking at you.”

She pulled her arm away from Jon and started walking to Hector.

“Like I’m some sick dog or something,” Mercy said. “Look at me!”

“I’m not…” Hector fully turned away, his arms crossed.

“Uhh… guys…” Mallor began. Despite his speaking, he seemed incredibly hesitant to interrupt/

“I’m not some mistake!” Mercy cried suddenly.. “You don’t need to-”

“You should have been more careful!” Hector yelled, finally turning back to her and opening up his arms.

“Is that what you say to anyone when they lose a fight?” Mercy yelled back.

“...Then don’t ask me for what I think!” Hector thew his arms up in defeat before walking down the hill away from them.

“Stop avoiding me!” she called, stomping after him.

He turned back to her once she got closer.

“Why ask me what I think if you’re just gonna yell at me?” He asked.

Mercy took a breath before responding.

“...I don’t know!”

Jon didn’t know what answer he expected, but it definitely wasn’t that.

“I… you don’t know?” Hector asked, also surprised. So much so that his anger was slowly waning away and opened up to general curiosity.

“I… I need to know what you’re feeling,” Mercy continued to explain. “Even if you’re mad. I mean...”

She wrapped her arms around herself, making herself look small by doing so.

“We went through this together,” she said. “I mean, it doesn’t feel like we’ve been going through this together, but we have, or we should have been.”

“We... we’ve been together…” Hector looked down with uncertainty despite what he suggested.. He struggled to keep his eyes up.

“We… did struggle…” he added.

The conversation stopped as they stood awkwardly across from each other.

Soon, Mercy walked slowly up to him until her body was pressed hard against his. After his initial shock, Hector wrapped her hands around her back, holding her close.

They didn’t move for a while.

“I think… we should give them some space,” Juwata suggested, breaking the silence.

“We should? I mean... “ Mallory took another quick look at the two.

“...Maybe we should. Come on, Jon.”

“Sure.” Jon took one last look at the two of them. Mercy had looked up and locked eyes with Hector. They regarded each other for several moments before she threw herself back into his chest.

Jon felt a strong knot in his chest.

“...Sure,” Jon repeated. He left the sight, following Mallory and Junwata away.

“I suppose I should make arrangements,” Junwata said to Mallory. “To allow you to return Mercy properly.”

“Oh... yeah…” Mallory said. “I mean… how did you know?”

“How did I know what?” Junwata asked.

“How did you know we were gonna bring Mercy back?”

“Because,” Junwata answered, “at this point, she wouldn’t have it any other way.

Jon felt a sudden presence behind him. He stopped and turned around.

He found himself facing the back end of the castle.

“Would you like to check up on our follower?”

Jon turned back to Junwata. Both he and Mallory were looking back with curiosity.

Mallory, however, didn’t seem to understand what was going on, his gaze going back and forth between Jon and Junwata.

“Follower?” Mallory asked.

“I'm sure the bodyguard can take care of it,” Junwata said, looking at Jon. “He seems to have sensed it as well.”

“Sure.” Jon readied his gun in anticipation. He wondered if it was someone still mad at Hector for the tournament.

“No worries,” Junwata added, sensing Jon’s trepidation. “I’m sure that it isn’t a threat.”

“A threat?” Mallory seemed even more concerned.

“Shall we go?” Junwata didn’ show any concern of his own as he turned and started walking away again.

“Oh… uh… be careful, Jon!” Mallory said as he stumbled after Junwata.

Jon, still wary, held his gun up. He walked slowly back up to the front of the barracks.

He peeked around the corner of the outside of the building. There was no one there.

He made his way back to the barracks door and opened it up with one hand. He didn’t see anyone.

He walked inside.

On the opposite side of the room, the doors that led to the King’s Guard quarters slammed shut.

Movement? Jon decided to go through those doors as well. He was too curious at this point.

He walked across the room towards the doorway before navigating into the hallway carefully.

He looked left and right, observing down both ends of the hallway.

At the right was the door to the gathering area, followed by the door to the beds.

Jon decided to creep to the gathering area before peeking inside.

In the center of the room, in front of the large table, Amalia was holding her staff up, ready to fend off an attacker.

“Oh, Jon.” She unextended the staff and replaced it on her hip. “It’s just you.”

Jon nodded. He put his gun back on his back.

“...I suppose you must be mad at me,” she said. “I’m sorry… for hurting your friends.”

Jon wasn’t mad. Maybe he should have been, but he also knew that the things that hurt his friends weren’t Amalia’s fault. Still, she did have a hand in helping it out.

“...Why?” Jon asked. That was all he could say. He knew Macy gave an explanation, but he wanted to hear what Amalia had to say. Maybe her answer would be different. HE also knew it was what was expected of him to ask at this point.

“...You know, I thought about not doing it,” Amalia explained. “I was sitting in this very room, playing around with Danny. Wondering about how my entire future would be decided by my ex-fiance’ and his battle with the many other women of this land.”

She sighed. “If he even was my fiance. And even if I did do it, it feels like he’s the one who loses out in the end, you know? Either he marries someone he doesn’t want, or…”

She shrugged. “He marries someone he doesn’t want.”

Jon grimaced. He didn’t know if she really had answered his question.

“Oh, yes, yes, why did I do it?” Amalia sat down on the table. “I guess… I guess… well, whenever Duranny was of age, he’d be able to take over everything, right?”

She looked to the wall, as if Duranny was standing right there. “Duranny’s my biggest fan. And I know that he would probably be a better ruler than me. But what if he didn’t want to.”

She looked at Jon. “So, what? What if he did want to become ruler. What about his daughter? Would she have a choice? Would my daughter have a choice? I couldn’t accept it.”

Jon didn’t know what to say. He hadn’t thought so much about what would happen if he had children, let alone what their futures would be when they grew up. He had shivers, wondering if his own father had really thought about this before he decided to have kids. It was honestly a powerful feeling.

“I… I want to change things before that happens,” Amalia continued. “It may be too late for me, but that doesn’t mean that it has to continue any longer. And I didn’t want to have to wait for someone to fall in love with me to do it.”

She looked to the floor. “Jon, the reason I fought to marry Hector… is because I need his help. People laugh at Hector for being dumb, but that’s only because he listens to what people say. You want to know what Hector’s greatest strength is? When you ask him to do something, he’ll put forth 100%, even if he doesn’t want to. Even if he thinks you hate him. It’s what makes him so effective in the King’s Guard. He’s a fantastic problem solver, and even if he doesn’t fancy himself in a room with a ton of people, he’ll still try to make sure everyone’s happy. He’s a brilliant, brilliant, flawed man.”

She shrugged. “It’s also his greatest weakness… but it’s a weakness you can work with, Jon. You can’t just consider people at their best. You also have to consider them at their worst, especially if you’re…”

She frowned. “Especially if you’re gonna spend a long time with them together.

Ah… Jon understood. Hector would kill himself trying to make others happy before himself. Maybe that was why he was grumpy all the time. He would have been ten times the farmer Jon was, or maybe even ten times the son.

But if that wasn’t what Hector wanted, then what did he want?

“...Tell me, Jon,” Amalia said, taking him out of his thoughts. “If you had a chance to rule this kingdom, would you?”

“...I don’t know,” Jon said.

She smiled. A tear seemed to be coming down from one of her eyes.

“That’s sweet,” she said. “Most people would either say yes or no, but you would consider if there was some good you could make of it before completely denying.”

Jon shrugged. He didn’t know enough about rolling castles to decide what he wanted of it. He didn’t even know about what he was doing now.

“Maybe… I should have considered the alternative to my former proposal,” she said, holding her arm out. “Come on, Jon.”

She cocked her head to the side. “If you still trust me.”

Jon shivered a bit. Amalia certainly felt different. He didn’t know how. She was a lot less skittish than she usually was.

Stil, he didn’t see any harm in it.

“I feel so alone…” she said. “Please… help me not feel alone anymore…”

“Okay…” Jon felt compelled to help her, so he stepped closer to her.

He stopped in front of the table.

“Closer,” she said.

He took another step.

“Closer.”

Jon thought that he was pretty close. With some consideration, he took another step. Now, he was with her legs that were hanging off the side of the table.

Her eyes had begun fully tearing up now.

She grabbed his arm.

“Thank you… for trusting me…” she said. “Thank you for hearing me out. I think that I lost the trust of one of my closest friends… and… I… could really use someone like you by my side.”

She reached up and brushed the side of his cheek with the back of her hand.

“I’ve never… been so close to anyone before…” she explained. “Can we be close?”

“...Yeah,” Jon whispered, not really knowing where any of this was going.

She leaned into him, kissing him. Unlike the kiss back on the mission, her lips were incredibly wet, probably from the tears.

It didn’t stop her, though. She grabbed Jon with her arms and held him close.

She did want me to be this close. Jon felt warm and weak. He let his body fall into hers. He had felt tired and exhausted, and yet, he felt energy from being close to her.

He had echoes in his head, wondering if what he was doing was wrong, but this was obviously what Amalia wanted, so it couldn't have been wrong.

The more they kissed, the more Amalia became active. She leaned back and pulled Jon with her.

“Let’s… let’s move into the other room,” Amalia said, “so that we don’t mess up the table.”

“Yeah,” Jon said.

She got off the table and pulled Jon by the hand, leading him back out into the hallway and intot the other room.

Once they were there, Jon opened up his mouth to speak but Amalia kissed him some more.

“Let’s choose a bed,” she said.

Jon nodded. It was impossible for him not to.

They both sat down on the nearest bed.

“I’ve never done this before,” Amalia said, looking down to her knees.

“...Done what?” Jon asked.

“Tell me, Jon,” she looked up at him and put her hand on his chest. “Right now, do you feel an urge… and urge to… be close with me right now?”

Jon let the question float around in his head before he decided to answer it.

“Yes…” Jon felt that it should have been a normal answer, but it felt so very personal to him. He didn’t know why.

He did feel a sense of desperation from her. It was as if her body was calling out for him, and he kept listening.

“Jon, I… I want to do this now… I… Maybe we can figure it out together…”

“Sure,” Jon said.

“Good. I…” Amalia took a deep breath. “I don’t know how to start this.”

Jon waited. He didn’t know either.

She turned her gaze to Jon. After a while of staring, Jon felt his lips starting to go dry. It was like he needed water, but the nearest source of water was Amalia’s lips.

Should he have asked for permission?

Still, it seemed to be the trend of the day. So, Jon leaned over and kissed her.

He felt warm in his chest. It felt different, him being the initiator. All of the initial warmness that he had felt before had gone. Instead, his chest felt cold. And yet, it wasn’t all devoid of feeling.

Amalia’s lips had seemed to fulfill their function. He broke away, and he didn’t feel so dry anymore.

“...How’s that?” Jon asked.

Amalia could do nothing but hold on to the side of the bed and stare off into space. Jon was concerned he had done something wrong. Did he overstep his boundaries?

“Glad to see your legs are working Jon.” Lester was standing in front of the door. Jon hadn’t noticed him enter.

He suddenly felt nervous. He grabbed a pillow and put it over his legs to hide them from Lester.

“What are you doing here?” Amalia asked, panicking.

“The king is looking for you,” Lester said. “He’s starting to get worried. Thinking about sending the guards over the castle to look for you. Afraid that the ninja princess might try to take out her revenge on you in the middle of the night.”

“She wouldn’t,” Amalia said. “She feels destroyed right now. If she-”

“Its nothing wrong with how I feel,” Lester said. “But what would happen if any of the guards happen to walk in on a princess in a very compromising position. Could be trouble for all of us. The Kingdom, the King’s Guard, the other families, or even Jon-”

“I get it,” Amalia said, standing up.

“I mean, if you guys want some more time,” he put his hands up, “I could just walk the other way and-”

“I get it!” Amalia repeated furiously.

She turned to Jon.

“Jon… I’m sorry… your… your kind gesture… has shown me what a shelfish being I’ve been. “You’re not here for me. You don’t see me in that way. You’re…”

She put her hand on his shoulder.

“You’re here for your friends. And I shouldn’t take that away from you. I’m sorry.”

Jon nodded.

“Maybe… when this is all over, I’ll finally be able to have you for myself, with no concerns for kingdom’s or mercenaries…”

She brushed his face. “Or princesses.”

She walked away. “Give Hector my best. Lord knows he won’t want to speak to me for years after the marriage happens, let alone be in the same room with me.”

“Trust me, princess,” Lester said, “everyone gets lonely. Even Hector.”

“Hector was already lonely,” Amalia said to him. “Always.”

She exited the room and turned out of sight.

“Sorry to jump in on your party like this,” Lester said. “I’ll try to give you a heads up if it happens again.”

He saluted with his hand. “‘Til next time, my brother.”

He left.

“Bye,” Jon said, even though no one was left to hear him. For the first time, he started to feel lonely. He was so worried about being able to do things by himself, and now that his legs were working, no one else was around.

He kicked back and laid back on the bed. He felt incredibly lonely, but that wasn’t to say that there weren’t positives to think about.

All of his friends were safe. As much as he knew, they would be prepared to leave the next day.

He still felt warm in his chest left by Amalia’s presence. He didn’t know what he meant, but he didn’t have too. It didn’t have to do with his mission.

He turned over. He didn’t have to know what his friends were doing. He didn’t have to think about what would happen in the castle tomorrow. He just had to think about what would happen tomorrow.

“Hey, mate!”

Avery walked through the door with his clunky armor.

Jon looked over.

Avery gave a wide smile with a wave. “How you doing?”

“...I’m okay…” Jon said. He sat up.

“Mallory sent me to check up on you,” Avery explained. “Glad to see your legs are working again.”

“...Thanks,” Jon said. He hadn’t thanked anyone for noticing before. It helped him feel a little better.

“...Well, that was all bloody exhausting, right?” Avery asked after a small bout of silence.

Jon grimaced. “Yeah.”

“Well,” Avery put his hands on his waist and sighed. “There goes all the excitement going on in this castle for now. At least until the wedding.”

“Right,” Jon said. Hector and Amalia’s wedding.

“Until then,” Avery stretched, “looks like you still get to go on more adventures.”

Adventures? Had Jon really gone on any adventures. It all just felt like torture. All of the fighting and all of the arguing was starting to way down on him.

“I don’t know,” Jon said. “I just want to-”

“All this that’s happening, though?” Avery went to the bed across from Jon and sat down. “It’s all gonna be worth it!”

Worth it?

“What do you mean?” Jon asked.

“Everyone now knows that the princess can kick ass.” Avery explained as he unbuckled his armor. “I mean, yeah, there were assumptions, but she really did kick ass! In front of all those blokes.”

He pulled off his chest plate over his head and kicked off his leg armor before pulling his legs up onto the bed and crossing them, turning to face Jon properly.

“Hell, all of those princesses kicked ass!” He said excitedly. “I mean, even if that Highlander chick lost… Mercy, I mean… she still scared the hell out of all those people watching. And she almost married Hector?”

Avery whistled. “Imagine if that happened. Whole kingdom would have been on their knees. And you, Jon? You knocked out the prince in a wheelchair. Any more of this and I’m soon to be out of a job.”

Job?

“Is that bad?” Jon asked.

“I dunno?” Avery shrugged. “A job’s a job. I mean, of course, I’ll still be here to make the castle look good, but I can’t imagine what I could do to protect Amalia now.”

“Get stronger,” Jon said.

Avery chuckled. “Hah. Yeah, right.”

He laid back on the bed.

“You’re around a legion of strong people, Jon,” Avery explained. “It’s a wonder you even just ended up in a wheelchair!”

“...Sure…” Jon suddenly felt tired, probably from watching Avery lay down, so he took off his gun strap and put it on the small table beside him before he laid down as well.

“I wish I had friends like you,” Avery added.

Jon wondered how Avery would fare against someone like Raglace.

“...Avery,” Jon said.

“What, bro?”

“...If you get in danger… I’ll protect you.”

Avery chuckled.

“Oh, Jon… you… you…”

Avery began to laugh harder. His laugh echoed throughout the room.

“You’re a trip, Jon!” Avery cried. “What did I do to deserve you?”

He continued to laugh.

Jon didn’t know how to answer that. Avery had been nice to him, and all he could do was be nice back.

Jon tried to rack his brain for an answer, but he didn’t have enough energy. Instead, he reveled in the echoes of Avery’s laughter still echoing through the bed-chamber.

He was glad to hear at least one person was having a good time.