CHAPTER FORTY SEVEN: ROMANCE
"Queen Mother, why are you still giving that damned Rimuto a second chance? The reason us Fairlanders are in dire straits is all his fault. We wasted money, resources, land, and time waiting for his "viral bioweaponry" to work, and in the end what happened? First he created zombies that nearly made human beings extinct on Panasonic—our third largest island. Then he invented a "vampire" formula to make people in Amrica become powerful beings, ignoring the reason that blood supply for vampires is not mathematically possible. And now what, youmas in Singapore?" A handsome blonde young man raged. He is dressed in royal purple, a saber hanging at his side. Only 22, Nathan is the Crown Prince of the Fairfield Continent.
"Don't be rude to Rimuto-osa. Without him, do you think your mother could look as beautiful as ever?" The queen preened in front of the mirror.
Nathan poured himself some golden liquid. "The honey stolen from Dragonia… is that why the Dragonkin is at war with us?! Because Rimuto convinced you that it is the only way to preserve youth and beauty forever?"
"Relationship was already strained between those giant lizards and us. What do you want, anyway?"
Nathan kneeled down. "Permission to spy on Rimuto, mother. Let me bring my pets to Singapore—if it seems like Rimuto will fail us again, I will kill him with my own hands."
"Go do whatever you like." The queen was applying some brown ointment to her face. On the floor are many dragon scales (dragons emit the honey inside their scales—a little amount is enough to make them immortal).
Nathan bowed and walked backwards.
The continent of Fairland might be at war, but Fairfield, the capital, looked as beautiful as before. The people are rich here, and they hold annual brutal contests called the "Hungry Games" where people compete with one another in a stadium filled with giant poisonous man-eating spiders. The national animal is the spiderman, and many people keep them as pets to utilize powers such as stickiness or shooting webbing. Technology might be advanced here, but the base human instincts never change.
Nathan was against everything his mother did but he could not stop her. So, he dressed up in a masked suit to steal money from the rich and give to the poor, earning himself the nickname of the Amazing Spider-man.
This… backwards place is Singapore? Nathan grumbled as he was teleported there. He was still wearing his royal garments of blue and purple. So this is Rabona, Holy City? Hmph, still a long way to go from Fairfield.
He saw a cute, elf-like lady who is playing with some small children. He was suddenly struck by her beauty. The girls in Fairfield always dressed gaudily with strange makeup, that he had never seen how natural people looked like before.
The children saw his weird clothes and screamed, "Youma!" then ran away. The lady looked up and walked towards him.
"I don't sense anything… Are you a stranger? Why don't you come in and dress something less eye catching?" She asked in a soft voice.
Nathan nodded, embarrassed. "Sorry to disturb the peace, fair maiden. I am Nathan, I come from a tribe far away. I am here now because I heard the threat of youmas is eliminated forever."
"I am Felicia. Nice to meet you."
Nathan got some garments from an old man, who still looked impish. He's called Sid and he claimed that he was very handsome last time.
When Nathan washed away his makeup, removed his crown and various
trinkets, he looked like any other normal guy.
Wiping his face with a towel, he smiled as Felicia bounded in happily to take away the basin of used water. When he put the towel down, however, Felicia screamed and dropped the basin which cracked into many little pieces. Looking at his face with pure terror, she ran away.
What? Am I so unattractive? Nathan looked at the mirror in confusion.
Great, Felicia. You're a seasoned veteran and yet you run screaming away like a bimbo… Nathan is NOT Howard… Howard is gone forever.
Howard walked into Felicia's room to gain some insight. He saw an oil painting. "Who's that?" He asked aloud. "And why does he look just like me?"
"Ah, him? Felicia drew it. It was rumoured that he was her first love. He was from a rich family while Felicia was from a poor family. But they were in love with each other. He was supposed to take care of her family for one day but when Felicia came back from work, she saw everyone dead and someone looking like the boy walking away smugly. Supposedly a youma disguised himself as her beau and slaughtered her whole family." Sid said. "She became a claymore after that."
Felicia ran to the river, only to find an unconscious girl. She decided to leave a note pinned to a tree, addressed to Miria that she would be gone for a while. Miria could sense her youki and find it.
She ran towards the girl. This injury… it looked like Serafiel did it! Who IS this wounded girl?
Suddenly she heard footsteps and Nathan appeared.
"Howard?" She asked hopefully.
Nathan shook his head abashedly. "Sorry. I'm sorry I startled you. But I find you kind of familiar too. I remember a willow tree, peach flowers… ouch, my head hurts!" Nathan was not joking. He seriously saw those images when he thought of Felicia.
Felicia looked at him weirdly. Could it be… He is Howard's reincarnation? I mean, it could happen. Thirty years have passed after all.
Howard noticed the unconscious girl. "Who is that injured person?"
"I don't know, but I think my friend was the one who hurt her."
"Well then we must save her! Let's find somewhere hidden so your friend can't attack her, I'm sure it's a big misunderstanding! Let's go!" Nathan helped to piggyback the unconscious girl.
They found a small hut deep in the woods. Surely Serafiel could not sense my youki here… Felicia got to work collecting herbs, while Nathan hunted for food. Felicia could not bear to tell him she did not need to eat, so she nibbled a bit on roasted rabbit.
Nathan excused himself to search for more firewood. Naturally, he ran into Rimuto.
"Prince Nathan!? What an honour, fancy meeting you here." Rimuto cackled.
Several spiders dropped from Nathan's hidden cage. "Like to meet my pets, Rimuto? I am just here for leisure. Don't let me find any dishonest scheming on your part."
"No no!" Rimuto said hurriedly. "I report everything back to Her Majesty, may she reign for a thousand moons."
"Well, now you report everything to me, got it?" He moved to shove Rimuto when suddenly a gut feeling told him to leap back. A crazed looking creature almost bit off his face. A second look told him it was a GIRL!
"KYLIE, back!" Rimuto roared. I am sorry, your Highness, I must keep my
minions in check."
Angry, Nathan strode backwards. Kimberly watched from the hidden shadows at the handsome stranger.
"Felicia, do you trust me?" Nathan asked. She nodded. "I am actually a Prince from the mainland. I do not like the experiments my mother ordered. So what I am going to do is I need your help to overthrow Dae, and then I wil take the throne from my mother. We will defeat the Dragonkin and I promise, the people on this island would be free to live however they want. When all that is done, I want to marry you." He looked at her seriously.
Felicia looked away. "I, I need more time to think about this. I can't betray my friends, and I doubt they will understand how I feel."
Nathan nodded. Just then, they saw Azure stir. They rushed to her side.
"Who am I?" She asked.
