[LitF] 8. All Three Of You (Patreon)

Previous Chapter - Table of Contents - Next Chapter

Arthur looked at the kingdom's capital from his bedroom balcony.

Lavron spanned as the eye could see, disappearing in the horizon. As the capital city of the wealthiest nation in the Central Plains, arguably in the continent, it also boasted the largest population. Arthur had a direct view of the upper district, with its big mansions and spacious landscaped gardens. After that came the still wealthy yet less privileged homes.

The slightly yellowed white of most buildings and the plentiful trees on the streets made for a breathtaking view.

Yet, the prince's company didn't let him partake in the wonder. Instead, he felt nothing but annoyance.

"...and I even got a skill crystal from the non-boss monster!" Carl boasted beside him. "Can you believe it?! Do you even know the odds?!"

Arthur turned to the boy and interjected before he could continue. "About one in ten thousand," he replied the non-question.

Carl, whose mouth was open, ready to keep talking, didn't hide his annoyance in time. Anger flashed in his dark green eyes but was quickly hidden away. He gave Arthur a condescending smile.

The man had clearly invested much in body stats because he looked much more handsome than Arthur recalled. Even his spiky black hair looked cool, as much as the prince hated to admit it.

"Your wisdom knows no boundaries, Archie," Carl said, trying to sound deferential, but the prince could identify the mockery.

They were sitting on two wooden chairs on his balcony, sharing experiences and bonding "like in the old times." Or so was the excuse.

While Arthur could only talk about his training and that one attempted ambush—Lars's betrayal was a secret—Carl had experienced much more as he delved into dungeons and grew in level, stats, and skills. The man also had more freedom of movement than Arthur and knew more than the prince about any topic, though he sadly didn't want to talk about the war. Finally, the miniature Stinson's mind could likely work much better than Arthur's, too, meaning this wasn't a conversation between equals.

Both men knew that. Yet, Carl persisted in wasting their time. Arthur wasn't that guiltless; the boy obviously wanted something. The prince had no idea what, though.

Still, propriety and politeness demanded Arthur make an effort. Moreover, he had complained about lacking friends with his father not long ago. Carl wouldn't turn into an actual friend in a day, but in the future, who knows?

So, they made small talk for almost an hour before Carl finally got to the point of all that.

"...and finally," he said with a victorious smile, "my father decided I'll marry Annie!"

The prince was dumbfounded. Unlike what Carl expected, Arthur didn't feel offended at all. He just couldn't believe that this was it.

Carl had all those mind stats and had used them to brag about taking Arthur's maid away?

Charlotte had once more been right: only experience could make someone more mature, and it had only been about two years since Carl awakened. No amount of wisdom could make someone less petty or obnoxious. Commander Stinson had evidenced it, and his probable grandson—Arthur hadn't wasted time checking their familial bonds—made it crystal clear for Arthur once and for all.

The prince considered saying something mean just to rip that smile out of Carl's face, but Arthur just felt tired of wasting so much time. He had a training to return to.

"Congratulations," he said with a sigh. "I have matters to attend to. If you will excuse me?"

"Of course, Archie," Carl said with an ever more annoying smug smile. "I also have to take care of my fiancé." He stood up, nodded, and started walking to the door.

That smile made it. Suddenly, Arthur could see nothing but Commander Stinson. It was in Carl's posture, his eyes, the corner of his mocking lips. Months of suffering from the constant verbal abuse came to bear, turned into ire, and demanded an outlet.

Arthur gave in.

"I'm sure she'll also take good care of you; I'd know," the prince said with the most provocative smile he could conjure.

Carl missed a step, then stopped.

"She was nothing but thorough when bathing me," the prince continued, his smile widening.

Carl turned to Arthur with an enraged, twisted face.

"Her hand is—" the prince started but never finished.

Carl moved.

The prince saw the man coming for him but was too slow to do anything but get punched in the face and fall from the balcony.

His last thought before he hit the ground five stories below was how nice the clear sky looked. Then, the pain made him faint.

= - = - =

As it turned out, Arthur's balcony was enchanted to soften any fall, though not to make it harmless. He survived, and a mage healed his broken bones in minutes.

His ears fared far worse.

"...and such base talk is improper for a dashing young prince like you!" his mother criticized. "All that for a girl? That is unbecoming of your station!"

They were in his bedroom. One of the chairs on the balcony had been brought inside by her head maid, who stood beside her. The queen had been giving the crown prince a long, lengthy piece of her mind for the past hour.

"Mother," Arthur replied, exasperated. "I said it had nothing to do with Annie! I couldn't care less about her!"

That wasn't wholly accurate. He did care that she would marry a scumbag like Carl, but not enough to do anything about it. Definitely not enough to want to marry her in his stead, either.

"That doesn't matter!" his mother countered, then paused with a hurt face and closed her eyes while patting her belly. "Your sister! Fate! These kicks!" she took a few deep breaths, then opened her eyes to stare at Arthur, sitting before her on his bed. "Arthur, that's what everyone will believe happened! That two-faced vixen will boast about this episode for the rest of her life! She'll spin a tale of how she infiltrated the royal family and seduced the crown prince until he and the hair of High House Stinson came to blows for her! And you'll be seen as just another heated idiot who can get controlled by any random pretty girl!"

Arthur crossed his arms. "Carl is the one who should be considered an idiot."

"Fate! Arthur! Who cares about what anyone thinks about him?! Are you willing to sacrifice yourself to slap someone in the face? Are you that immature still?"

Speaking of slaps in the face, that shut the boy up. When put like this, it was apparent how childish his actions were. He could only look away from his mother in shame.

To his surprise, she sighed. "Look, dear, I will manage this. I'm pregnant, not stupid. I know what to do. You're still eight; if she tries to pull something like that, I'll have someone point out how gross that is. Her social life would be finished. But things..." She closed her eyes and took deep breaths again. "Things might've been different. I just want you to understand everything you do has consequences."

And there was it.

Another slap to Arthur's face in the form of words.

Stinson had been right, damn the man and his grandchild.

The prince didn't try to defend himself after that, which turned out to be the right thing to do in more ways than one. He soon learned that Carl had to kneel before the Golden King and beg for his life.

No one could hit the crown prince with impunity—except the commander, Arthur guessed. That Carl had come to Arthur's room uninvited and seemed to just wait for an excuse to strike even made it look premeditated. In fact, if Carl wasn't from High House Stinson, he would've been executed on the spot.

Instead, he received ten public lashings a week later and would have to carry that shame for the rest of his life.

Getting beheaded might've been more merciful.

= - = - =

Arthur woke up at night to the sound of an annoying stilt; the anti-insect enchantment was defective.

His balcony's golden borders released white light but targeted the gardens, giving him limited visibility. It was enough. His training let him locate the stilt's general location with his hearing, and a quick glance revealed its dark silhouette.

The prince moved his hands quickly. The poor insect had no chance.

| Natural Growth: Perception +1 → 10

「 Achievement: Peak Natural Perception

Tier: E

Reward: +6 stat points

You naturally grew your perception to the peak!

Many look but don't see. Great marvels are barely noticed as the willingly blind tread the world with disinterest. They are too consumed by their struggles to look beyond themselves. Not you. You do your best to notice every detail around you, seeking any advantage to help you attain a grander fate. 」

「 Achievement: Waste Not, Want Not

Tier: A

Reward: +96 stat points

You naturally grew all your stats to the very peak!

From the moment you awaken, greater power is always a single stat point allocation away. Fools forget their natural origins in the pursuit of quick levels. The meritorious, however, tread a harsher path, for they aim much higher. You know that every single stat point matters and refuse to waste any to improve what you could naturally enhance by yourself. Your pursuit of a grander fate might've delayed your ascension a little, but you understand sacrifices are needed sometimes. 」

Arthur almost didn't see the notification and windows. He was about to close his eyes and go back to sleep but decided to close the balcony door first. So, he barely opened his eyes as he lazily strolled towards it.

His sleepiness was utterly obliterated when he finally noticed the messages.

That was it! He had done it! He had grown all his stats to ten!

Arthur didn't even think about going back to sleep after that. He had to tell someone about it.

Unfortunately, his father wasn't in the palace. He had traveled to deal with political matters.

His mother, then? Also no. She was at the end of her pregnancy and needed rest. He could tell her tomorrow.

Maybe Tamara? Arthur had never visited the servant's quarters before but knew where they were. The old woman was kind of old, though. She also needed her rest.

Arthur sighed as he stood up and entered his walking closet. A few minutes later, he left his room wearing his martial robe.

He wouldn't wake anybody up, but what if someone was awake? He would visit his mother's and head maid's quarters to check if the lights were on. If they weren't, he would work out a little until the sun rose.

His mother's quarters were closer, so he would check it first. They were on the third floor and quite a distance away. He would have to walk some.

Arthur got annoyed every step of the way. The corridors were empty except for a few servants clearing here and there, but there were plenty of insects—

He froze. It was one thing for his room's anti-insect enchantments to malfunction, but the entire palace's?! Something was wrong.

"Attack!" he immediately yelled as he started running toward his mother's bedroom.

Arthur might be wrong; it might be just a defective enchantment. He might end up embarrassing himself. But he would rather that happen than chance not warning his mother in time just because he found his ego more important than her life.

Yes, his every action had consequences. He could imagine people discussing the stupid, paranoid crown prince. He still didn't stop. And to his mother's credit, it did feel better to make a conscious decision while knowing the possible consequences rather than just act in ignorance.

He really hoped she would be fine.

"We're under attack!" he insisted. "Wake up! Sound the alarm! Everyone!" He turned a corner and saw a scared servant. He pointed at the old man. "You! Make noise! Wake everyone up! Your crown prince commands you!"

The servant stood still, either ignoring Arthur or too surprised by the unexpected order. The prince didn't waste any time convincing the man otherwise. He just kept running and yelling.

Eventually, a maid and a janitor dropped their brooms and ran away when he passed and ordered them to, but they were the only ones.

The lack of response as he kept yelling was further evidence that something was wrong. The palace had charms to warn high-ranking servants and guards whenever someone was sowing chaos like he was by screaming at the top of his lungs. Yet, no alarm sounded. That was the last drop in the bucket to push him towards doing something probably stupid.

He would use his stat points.

Arthur might cripple his entire future, but he couldn't risk his mother's life. He had to do whatever he could for her. Even if it meant disobeying orders. Even if it meant disappointing his father again—no matter what the man said, he hadn't lied about that in the Ritual Room.

The prince willed Fate to make him as fast as possible, no matter the cost or consequences.

| Agility +3 → 13

| Remaining distributable points: 690

Pain shot throughout Arthur's body. He could only let out half a yelp of pain because all his muscles contracted and locked for an instant. They relaxed right after, and he almost fell down, but the extra reaction speed was barely enough to prevent that.

And then, he was thirty percent faster than before.

He tripped on himself on the first few steps, the speed beyond what he was used to, but on top of the improved reaction speed, he also felt more balanced and dexterous. Five steps later, he could run without trouble.

Yet, that's not what he had asked Fate for. He wanted to use all his stat points to become faster. He willed it and was met with an unexpected notification.

| Operation denied for safety reasons

| Max stat point allocation per minute: 3

| Increase your limit by improving your mind stats

That... sucked. It made sense that Arthur hadn't been told about it; he wasn't supposed to improve his stats at all. Yet, he still cursed Stinson with all the energy he could spare.

Arthur kept yelling and asking Fate to increase his agility. Fate only complied twice more before he reached his mother's quarters' corridor.

| Agility +3 → 16

| Remaining distributable points: 687

| Agility +3 → 19

| Remaining  distributable points: 684

He became almost twice as fast as three minutes ago. It should feel great, but he only felt limited. Slow.

Useless.

In that, too, Stinson had been right.

Finally, he turned the last corner and was immediately filled with relief. There were two royal knights in front of his mother's quarters. They even had their long swords out already.

That was good. Great, even. They were prepared. Things weren't so dire as he had—

Arthur's thought halted when he noticed the blood.

Blood was on the blades, their armor, and the floor. A red puddle had formed, still flowing slowly from the queen's quarters. The doors were open, and a female bloodied hand on the ground had crossed the threshold.

The prince hadn't been quiet as he came here because he had wanted to warn everyone. Now, as the knights turned to him, it became evident that he had also been alerting the infiltrators to his presence.

He didn't care. His mother was in that room, and he had to warn her before those men did something to her. That arm... Thar arm couldn't be hers. It just couldn't.

Arthur released a primal roar of anger and fear and rushed toward the room with all the speed his nineteen points of agility gave him.

One of the knights stepped towards him. The prince tried to dodge but was effortlessly grabbed by the hair, which was back to shoulder length after Tamara had trimmed it. The knight yanked the prince's head back hard.

Momentum kept Arthur's body going forward. He was held up by the hair for a few seconds as he got his bearings and supported his weight on his feet again.

Arthur felt his scalp hurt and bleed but only focused on trying to save his mother.

"Mother!" he yelled. "Wake up! We were betrayed! Someone, help! Invaders! We have invaders! Traitors! Someone! Anyone! Help!"

The knight holding Arthur didn't seem to mind the screams, but someone else did.

"Thank Fate, the boy is an idiot," a sinister voice said—a grand knight's voice. It preceded a woman in black and golden armor coming out from his mother's quarters.

She holding a head by the hair: the queen's.

Arthur's mother's mouth and eyes were open in sheer terror. Blood covered her teeth and poured from her ears. Her green eyes weren't shining anymore.

Then, the assassin threw the head on the floor, and it melted away like hot wax.

"Kill the boy," she commanded. "Let's see if he's a double, too."

Arthur was overwhelmed by confusion. He had just seen his dead mother's head, and then it was revealed to be a double? What? How? Even if it was a subject posing as his mother, why had their head melted like that? Was it a skill? Did skills like that exist, too?

"He's a child, ma'am," the royal knight holding Arthur replied. "Doesn't look like it, but you know he's eight. We won't harm children. We agreed to it."

The grand knight tapped what remained of the head with his foot. The thing had become a gross gelatinous blob of meat and fat that wobbled harmlessly. "The bitch is pregnant, but you didn't seem to mind me killing two birds with a stone, did you? I bet the crown prince's head will earn us as much as the queen could have. We still can salvage this shit show." She paused. "Or do you want to be hunted down as a traitor without any money to make up for it?"

"We're doing this because the kingdom will fall anyway, ma'am," the man countered. "No one to hunt us down."

"I will hunt you down if you try to make me lose money," the grand knight counter-argued. "Then, I'll give mourning sister a big mansion where she'll raise your children with some other shitbag. How long do you think a widow like her will remain alone?"

There was a few seconds of silence, then the royal knight sighed, said, "Fate have mercy on us all," and swung his sword.

The man was fast. Way, way too fast. Arthur barely had the time to wish for Fate to let him ignore its safety limits and invest everything in agility—or any stat, really.

It didn't work, of course.

| Operation denied for safety reasons

| Max stat point allocation per minute: 3

| Increase your limit by improving your mind stats

So much for taking his fate into his own hands when he awakened.

The last things he saw in his short life were the annoying notifications—or it should have been the last thing if he weren't suddenly thrown sideways by an unexpected force.

The pain from hitting the wall with his shoulder and the side of his head was bewildering enough. To make things worse, the palace's loud screeching alarm also started ringing. Then, the corridor was filled with golden light from the elven patterns used as footers and heads in the walls.

Arthur found himself utterly lost.

It took him a few moments to recover his senses. When he did, he saw two dead royal knights, their heads cleanly separated from their bodies. More importantly, there was another grand knight present, fighting the previous one.

Her shoulder showed the tribal flower insignia of House Graham.

| Human — Level 53

Charlotte.

Charlotte was alive, and she had come for him.

Lieutenant Graham was fast, but not as much as Arthur recalled. She didn't become a blur. He still couldn't follow her movements, but her enemy could.

Arthur took the opportunity to also check the traitor's level.

| Human — Level 59

The woman had taken the two daggers from her back sheaths, but Charlotte's longsword was still faster, forcing the traitor to retreat every time the blades met. The hallway hadn't been built to withstand two grand knights fighting each other. Everything shook as small craters appeared on the walls and floor. Paintings and stands shattered. Even the air felt dry.

They didn't fight only with their metal weapons. A bloody mist surrounded Charlotte, growing thicker as the fight progressed, while ice spikes floated around her enemy. Both elements fought each other and tried to find openings while the women crossed blades.

The fight seemed even for Arthur's untrained eyes. He thought it would go for a while.

It didn't.

Charlotte swung her longsword widely as usual. Once more, it forced the traitor to step back. By now, they had moved enough that they reached another door.

That's where a third grand knight came from.

His hands were empty, but his fist was covered with flames as he punched. Many of the dozen ice spikes moved to intercept him, but they melted when touching his flaming fist. The traitor tried to dodge but failed.

The punch struck the woman's midsection, and everything shook.

Everything.

It sounded and felt like a mighty explosion. The grand knight's armor only bent a few inches inward, but cracks ran through the walls to fill the entire corridor. Dust and small pieces of debris fell from the ceiling.

The woman lost balance, and Charlotte took advantage of it. Her bloody mist surrounded her foe, and her sword quickly followed in its wake. The traitor raised her daggers to intercept the weapon, but the mist clearly affected her movements because she became considerably slower.

Charlotte's long sword struck just below the helmet but didn't go all the way through. It was bloodied when she pulled it back for another swing, but the enemy was still alive.

That's when the third grand knight punched the woman in the helmet. There was another loud shock wave. Her head flew away as everything shook again, even harder this time, which Arthur hadn't thought possible.

The already damaged ceiling half collapsed. Big chunks fell from multiple places, and one of them would've hit Arthur if not for a grand knight in civic clothes appearing to lightly slap it away.

Arthur turned to recognize Stinson.

"As useless as ever, I see," the grand knight said in his sinister voice, which could somehow be heard above the alarm screech. Maybe the vocal skill existed for more reasons than sounding cool or threatening.

But what Arthur really focused on was that Stinson was missing an arm. Served him right. "I wish you had lost the other one, too," he said.

He didn't hear his voice over the alarm, but Stinson did. He sneered without looking at the boy.

For a moment, no one said or did anything else. The loud screech kept going. Arthur only stared back at Charlotte, unsure of what to do.

She broke the silence a few moments later, "I said I had—" She had to stop due to a coughing fit. "I had this!" she completed. She was also using her grand knight voice.

"And I said screw your glorious last battle if it means I can have my wife for five more minutes," the other grand knight replied as he approached and embraced her.

The words, gesture, and House Graham's tribal flower insignia on the man's left shoulder confirmed that that was William Graham, Charlotte's husband.

"I have enough..." Charlotte started but had another coughing fit. This one lasted for minutes. Even the alarm stopped sounding before she was done. "...enough of a macho attitude..." More coughing. "...from my dad. Asshole."

Despite her words, she rested her head on him.

"If you want a moment alone, there's a ceiling mirror in Her Majesty's quarters," Stinson said.

William stiffened, his neck snapping when he turned his head too fast to look at the commander. "Wha—" he said.

Charlotte giggled, then laughed.

"Charlie!" William complained. "What— Why?!"

She laughed harder.

Arthur smiled at the display. Then, the overwhelming sadness from not knowing whether Charlotte was alive in the past months turned into so much happiness that it overflowed from his eyes. "You're alive," he breathed amid unwanted tears.

"That I am," Charlotte said as she untangled herself from her husband's arms and approached Arthur. "So is..." She coughed. "...the queen. She had..." More coughs. "...a double. The king wouldn't... leave her this unprotected... otherwise. It was... a trap for... traitors."

"And so one of the kingdom's most guarded secrets is exposed to soothe a pathetic boy's feelings," Stinson commented.

Charlotte ignored him. She removed her helmet, and Arthur saw a very, very pale and thin face. Her cheekbones protruded from her skin, and she had deep bags under her eyes. Her short black hair was thin from falling for months.

The curse was hitting her hard.

Seeing her like that hurt the prince deeply. He had gotten used to the strong-looking Charlotte. Now, she looked a step away from turning into a corpse.

How much was she suffering? Yet he could do nothing for her. As Stinson kept saying, he was useless. Pathetic.

In fact, he was so useless he couldn't even stop himself from hugging her and wasting some of her remaining time with his pathetic feelings. "I missed you so much," he uttered. "I love you like a mother too."

For so long, he had wanted to tell her these words. So, so long. And he had thought she was already dead.

Charlotte's armor magically disappeared, and Arthur soon hugged a human being instead of cold armor. He had never seen her without armor before, but he had expected strong muscles due to her previous fit-looking face. Instead, he found a too-thin woman and ribs poking from the light white dress she wore. It only made him sadder.

Her fingers intertwined on his hair as she caressed him lightly. "I missed you too, Your Highness," she said softly.

They stayed like that until three other grand knights appeared to sort through the events.

Charlotte stopped hugging Arthur when the new knights appeared. He knew it had to do with his crown prince status and propriety.

He didn't care.

He held on to her for dear life.

The grand knights solved things among themselves. From their talks, this was indeed a trap for traitors, but way beyond what his mind stats could understand. All he knew was that twenty loyal people had been killed—a grand knight, ten royal knights, and nine servants—and this was the trigger to purge the palace to kickstart another scheme.

Stinson disappeared for half an hour. During that period, grand and royal knights alike ran everywhere. He returned covered in blood, though still in civic duty clothing for whatever reason.

Arthur wanted to know where his mother was, but if it was a secret, it was safer for her that he didn't ask—as much as it hurt him not to.

"The knights supposed to guard the prince were dead on their bed," Stinson said as soon as he was back. "He was always Plan B, which means rumors of Her Majesty's double leaked. Another thing to investigate. Other than that, everything went according to plan. Now, we need to..."

"...to visit His Highness' room," Charlotte finished the sentence for her father.

The commander pursed his lips while looking at his daughter, but in the end, he nodded once.

= - = - =

They walked slowly to Arthur's bedroom—he still hugging Charlotte—as William recounted the trio's adventures in the past five months.

The prince was awed by an epic tale of glorious battlefield action mixed with intricate espionage. They had helped the kingdom win many battles, saved a lot of towns, then went behind enemy lines to fish for information.

Charlotte was an infiltrator assassin, William was a brilliant warrior whose abilities shone in direct engagements, especially against multiple enemies, and Stinson was a genius strategist and tactician. Together, they were unbeatable.

"...and when the investigation revealed this attack, we rushed back to the palace," William said right as they entered Arthur's bedroom.

"You missed a part," Stinson stated while moving to stand by the balcony, looking outside.

"Yes, sir?" William replied.

"The part where a stupid boy leaves the safest room in the palace, filled with multiple enchantments that could kill even me if they detected an attack. Not satisfied with such a feat of utter stupidity, he impresses the world with absolute idiocy by screaming his position to every enemy in what he believes to be an enemy-ridden building. Let me guess, he also goes against his orders and uses his stat points."

Arthur blushed in embarrassment. "I didn't know about the enchantments, sir," he weakly defended himself. "And after I realized something was wrong, I wanted to raise the alarm and tell my mother. And I wanted to get to her fast, so I put some points in agility."

"Like an honorable knight would," Charlotte said, patting his head. Then, she coughed violently, ending the discussion.

William headed to the balcony. "I'll get you a chair, Charlie."

She shook her head. "I need a bath." She lightly patted Arthur's arms so he would let go of her. "Can I use your bathroom, Your Highness?" she coughed a little.

The prince nodded as he grudgingly let go of her. "Of course."

She walked into the bathroom. William followed a few feet behind. She turned to close the door and shook her head. "Not you, darling. I don't want you to remember this... husk."

The man ignored her and went in anyway without a single word.

"I hate you, you know that?" she said with no fire in her voice while giving way for him to come in. Then, they closed the door.

Arthur was left alone with the person he hated the most. They said nothing until Charlotte and William returned a few minutes later.

She had changed into the black and golden clothes of a grand knight undergoing civic duties, like her father—except hers were clean. The little hair she still had was still a little wet, which made it look even sparser.

William still wore his armor as he helped Charlotte not sit down on a chair but lay on the bed. He knelt on the ground beside her, took her hand into his gauntlets, and kept staring at her like a rigid statue with shining eyes that promised death.

She chuckled lightly, then said weakly, "Let me see my handsome husband's face, darling."

She wasn't coughing anymore, but her voice was so, so very exhausted... Her husband said nothing for a few seconds, then took his helmet off.

Arthur was shocked at how average William looked. The man was level 68, the third highest Arthur had ever seen, and punched like a giant, so he had expected something... grander, he guessed?

Instead, he found a man with brown eyes and short gray hair. He had a square jaw and multiple age lines around the mouth and between the eyebrows. In fact, he looked only ten or twenty years younger than the ancient-looking Stinson.

He put his helmet on the ground, then went ahead to also remove his gauntlets before retaking her hands into his.

She raised an eyebrow at that. "Going against protocol on your own? Who are you, and what did you do to my husband?"

He smiled kindly but didn't reply. Clearly not a man of many words.

She turned to Arthur and extended her free hand to him.

There was a somberness and heaviness to the air that Arthur had never found it before. It felt like his heart was getting crushed. Deep down, he knew what was coming but refused to acknowledge it.

He rushed to her other side, kneeled on the bed, and grabbed her hand.

Charlotte opened her mouth to say something else, but Stinson beat her to it. "You also didn't say how Lieutenant Graham was so sure that the boy would do something foolish, like leaving his room, that she wasted at least a week of her remaining life to rush here and save him from himself."

The man was a complete dick. He had been alone with Arthur yet waited for things to develop into an intimate moment before spitting more acid. Why did he always want to destroy everything?

Arthur felt like he had been slapped. "Is that true? Ma'am?"

Charlotte smiled sadly. "It's true that I paid that price, but not that I thought you would do something stupid." She paused after replying, her breath labored. "The commander said this room's enchantments are good? So were the palace ones the enemy disabled." Another pause. Her breath became heavier. "I, myself, hijacked and disabled better ones. No defense is perfect, remember that. I worried for you and for the king." She coughed a little at the end.

The prince felt guilty for forcing her to talk. "Thank you," he said guiltily.

Charlotte nodded weakly, then turned to her father. "But I also... I wanted to die in peace." She smiled, teary. "With my loved ones instead of amid loathing enemies." A fit of coughs. "I'm not as good a knight as I thought, after all."

"Love!" William exclaimed, shocked. His armor faded out of existence, and he hugged her gently. "You're the best knight I ever met. You're more knight than I ever was. You know that."

"He's right on that," Stinson said with venom.

Charlotte said nothing, only closed her eyes and kept a small smile. Tears rolled down her face. The room grew into a slightly uncomfortable silence. It was broken by the rustle of Stinson's clothes.

He approached the central bed and made short work of the wooden headboard with his hands, then absentmindedly threw the broken piece sideways. Then, he knelt on the ground and put his hand on her head, caressing her little remaining hair.

"I'm sorry, Charlotte," he said with the softest and warmest voice Arthur had ever heard. "You shall have your peace."

Charlotte's smile widened as she opened her eyes. "The three men of my life." She coughed. "Father, husband, and the one I love as a son. I..." She closed her eyes again. "I wish mom was here."

"She wanted to be," Stinson said, and Arthur noticed the man was crying.

So was William.

Arthur couldn't deny the truth of what was coming anymore. He started crying, too, tightly clenching Charlotte's hands.

"Protect..." She took a deep breath. "Protect him. Please, dad... Protect Arthur." She coughed. "I beg of you."

"I swear to Fate," her father said at once.

Stinson's soul vow mana was almost as strong as the king's. However, while Arthur felt suffocated by it, some color seemed to return to Charlotte's face. That mana did her some good.

When the soul vow set on the commander's body, she turned her face to her husband and opened her eyes again.

"Thank you for loving me, darling," she said.

He smiled with tears rolling down. "You made it really easy, love of my life. Thank you for everything."

She closed her eyes again. "Protect my son, too, will you?"

"To my last breath. I swear to Fate."

His soul vow was like Stinson's. Charlotte rejuvenated enough from it to open her eyes again.

Finally, she looked at Arthur, and her smile turned playful. "Make sure your lady has as much fun in bed as you, alright?"

"I swear to—" Arthur started, as he had been prepared to do, then was shocked speechless by the actual meaning of her words. "What?"

Charlotte giggled, then laughed lightly. She closed her eyes with a beautiful, fun smile on her lips.

"I love you," she whispered. "All three... of..."

She only mouthed, "you."

A blood tear fell from each of her eyes, softly caressing her cheeks until they fell on the bed's white sheets.

Charlotte didn't draw breath again.

Previous Chapter - Table of Contents - Next Chapter