-Old man’s P.O.V-

My name is Marlow Duke, a knight belonging to the royal guards of the Rose Kingdom, the elites of elites. A group of myself and five others tasked with escorting the princess to a nearby kingdom that neighbors the Rose Kingdom, The Astral Kingdom. The poor princess due to being the fifth daughter is used as an expendable and used as a political tool to strengthen relations with a neighboring kingdom, the Astral Kingdom. To be married off to the third prince against her will and to make it worst, the third prince is the scummiest of scum.

He rapes and defiles young girls,that were bought or taken by force, on top of wooden stages in the middle of the cities. And to make it worst if one pays enough coins they could join in too. Not only that but due to his arrogance in his status he despises and belittles the commoners, seeing them nothing but mere toys. He forces them to do things they would never do in their entire life, sell off their daughters, stripped bare naked while in crowded streets, and torturing their own children just so they can live another day. Not to mention how many orphanages and charity causes he destroyed in just one months time. The only reason why the commoners don’t revolt is because the king is highly military focused, making his forces near impossible for the commoners to fight against and that the king is actually not a bad person, as he was the one who started those charity causes and orphanages, and personally apologizes for his son’s actions. But that had only infuriated the third prince more. Demanding a wife he can play with under the pretext of both kingdoms benefitting and joining together, and the sign that he is going to change his old ways.

The princess only being five years of age was obviously shocked and disgusted by the idea of them giving her to a sixteen year old prince she had never met before. Ah...the princess acted smart for her age, smart enough for her parents not to notice that they're selling a rough gem that only needed to be refined to a dazzling one. Such a waste. The princess tried to voice her opinion but was shut down by her father. Seeing that they had already came to this decision and sealed the deal. She could only seal her opinion and relinquished herself to her fate.

She’s now sitting to the right of me in the carriage, me being here as her personal servant and bodyguard. Her golden eyes were empty and void with her body slightly shaking with the bumpy roads not being the cause. It was a quiet trip and probably her last, so I decided to strike up a conversation with her.

“Marriage huh?” those words flew out of my mouth like a typhoon hitting the princess hard.

“A simple agreement between a man and a woman.” The princess said in a dull tone.

“Huh...so what did you want to do before you were forced into marriage…” I said averting my gaze from the princess and to the outside.

“...I wanted to sing.” the princess answered with a hint of longing.

“That so?...Mind singing for me?” I asked.

“I’m not very good but very well…” The princes said complying and began a humming tone. It was soothing and pleasing to the ear that I almost hummed along. Right when I was about to say she was a good singer, the carriage crashed,slanting abruptly as the two carriage wheels on one side were ripped from the carriage.

“Bandits!” The driver outside announced jumping from the carriage and blocked a swing that came from his right with the edge of his sword.

“Princess it’s not safe here.” I said opening the door of the carriage, hopping down and helping the princess down as well. It’s better this way, now I don’t have to worry about any bandits getting through the other side of the carriage without me knowing, nor can we be surrounded at our back.

The other knights being elites as well were able to deflect any attacks but soon exhaustion would overcome them as we were outnumbered one to eight. With some bandits catching sight of the princess, five of them slowly advanced to me, circling around the princess who stood behind me unaffected by their lecherous gaze.

One of the bandits stepped forward, stabbing at me with his sword only for his strike to be moved upwards with a deflection of my sword. A second after another bandit stride forward with a diagonal swing of his sword while another bandit swung long aiming to cut my guts. I quickly blocked the diagonal swing by making my sword stand upwards then took a step back so the gut aiming slice could only graze my clothing.

I could handle two at a time but three was too much, and these guys don’t seem like your regular bandits at all. They watch your movements patiently and attack like a viper when they see a chance, they have beautiful teamwork with none of them getting in each other's way, and their swords skill don’t match that of a bandits. Looking around even my fellow knights were having slight troubles as if the bandits were just playing with them.

That was until that little boy came in. He looked to be the same age as the princess, but his beauty and demeanor outmatched that of the princess. His partially red and blue black hair swaying in the wind, his sharp gaze on his tiny face yet handsome face were all imprinted into my soul. Because once he had arrived he had already killed two bandits that even our elites couldn’t kill and could only hope to block and parry.

After killing the two bandits, something sinister came from his shadow taking the shape of a sexless human, that disappeared then reappeared behind the backs of the bandits easily taking their life. Then I noticed he was walking towards the princess and I, with an indifferent and calm look, I couldn’t help but feel cold sweat running down my face, even though he seemed to be on our side. he instantly vanished from the path he was walking, leaving my ears to twitch under the screams of pain coming from my side and the sound of iron falling. Regaining awareness I turned my head to the origin of the scream only to see a bandit with his hand cut off with magic I’ve never seen. The next second his head was lying on the floor, same with the other four, and same with the rest.

Looking at him, I noticed he was untouched by blood, unfazed by the gore and the sight of death, when someone at his age would freeze and tense up, but mature over the years. But not this kid, he looks like he’s familiar with death, like he’s seen it more times than I a veteran of war.

Looking behind me, I could see the princess, her dull and emotionless eyes lit up with a flame I’ve never seen before. And the only thing I could say to the princess was

“Good luck.”

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