Chapter 2; Bedtime Story
Once upon a time, long, oh, very long ago – before you, my dear son had even been thought of – a great prince fell in love. Don't pull faces, everyone falls in love eventually, even you will some day.
The prince wanted to marry the girl that he loved, but his father wanted him to marry another girl, a princess from a foreign land, but here's the catch, the princess didn't want to marry the prince any more than he wanted to marry her.
The king kidnapped the princess and dressed her up ready for the wedding, even though she didn't want anything to do with it. The prince couldn't do anything about it though, because he was away from the kingdom, marrying his love in secrecy.
The king was a foolish king, and had forgotten about the princess's private bodyguard. He followed after the kidnapped princess, determined to rescue her and take her back to her kingdom.
The bodyguard snuck into the palace and pretended to be an entertainer of the court, in this way he would get close enough to the princess to whisk her away from her captors.
The king wanted to see the princess smile and when entertainer after entertainer failed, he lost his temper and no one wanted to risk their lives on their show. The bodyguard stepped up and promised the king that he would make the princess smile, and asked her to dance.
The princess didn't like to dance, she often stepped on the toes of her dance partner, but she got up anyway and danced with him. She didn't recognise him because he was wearing a mask – he wore a mask because if she had recognised him at once, he would have been thrown out, and she would never be rescued.
The bodyguard whispered to the princess while they danced, so that the king would not be able to hear them, but the king recognised that the bodyguard was not one of his usual entertainers and ordered the musicians to stop playing. The bodyguard fought off the king's soldiers for as long as he could, and in the confusion, the prince's best friend helped the princess and her bodyguard escape from the palace.
To leave the kingdom though, they had to get through a huge maze. The prince's best friend knew the way, but he couldn't help them – he had to tell the prince what his father was doing.
Just when the princess and her bodyguard were almost out of the maze, the king appeared, blocking their way. He challenged the bodyguard to a duel for the princess, and they were just preparing to fight when the prince arrived with his wife and ordered everyone to stop.
He let the princess and her bodyguard go, and they had nearly reached her palace when the king found them again, crazed from the defiance of his son and determined to fight, saying that if his son was too foolish to want the princess, that he would marry her instead.
The bodyguard and the king fought long and hard, but in the end, it was the bodyguard who won, and he took the princess home safely.
"And they all lived happily ever after," Haru finished, whispering, because her little Muta was almost fast asleep. She kissed him goodnight and went to bed herself, turning off all the lights as she went.