Once upon a time, long long ago, there was once a king and a common soldier. The Gysterf Kingdom were advancing on the royal palace, and it wasn't long before King Garric's head was on the platter of the cruel royals of Gysterf. So the king called upon his most trusted generals and ordered a final attack.

Now, even Gysterf knew it was futile. Their forces carved through the weakened army in moments, setting the capital city on fire. Just as troops stormed the palace, a common soldier by the name of Justin Ares came and defeated all of the troops, including the invading Gysterf King. King Garric was delighted and rewarded this hero with the promise that he and his ancestors would remain the most important family in Ethica, second only to the monarchs. They would serve him and his children with great loyalty and bring prosperity for generations to come.

And so King Garric's decree came true. For as long as the House of Ares protected Ethica, no kingdom, not even Gysterf, dared threaten the beautiful nation, and they flourished. For generations upon generations, each member of the Ares Family gave their lives for Ethica, and this will continue for as long as the descendants of King Garric lived…

"Julia, above you!"

Julia turned her head to the ceiling, where an enemy tackled her to the floor, pinning her in only seconds. Her attacker smirked, pointing his sword on her throat. Julia gasped.

"I surrender!" she cried.

The man's eyebrows perked up. "An Ares… surrendering?"

Julia stared up at him pleadingly. "Please…"

The man stood, letting her go. Julia acted quickly. She swept her leg at him, sending him falling to the floor, but not before she grabbed him and placed her own sword against his throat. "Ha. Got you."

And the man grinned.

"Good," he said, signaling Julia to let him go. Julia did so, sheathing her sword with practiced grace. He nodded. "Good."

"Quite frankly, I don't think she should have allowed you to tackle her in the first place," Alexei said, smirking.

"True. And she needed your warning." Joseph Ares turned to his daughter, sheathing his own sword. "Work on your perception skills."

"Yes, father," Julia curtsied. Joseph waited another beat before sauntering out of the sparring room, closing the door behind him.

"Did you hear what he said?" Alexei scoffed. Now that their father was gone, his composed posture fell into a mocking stance almost immediately. He leaned over his sister, sneering: "Work on your perception skills, Julia. You should really look above you, Julia."

Julia flushed pink. "I'm working on it!"

"You're already twenty," Alexei said. "I mastered what you're learning when I was five."

"You're obviously exaggerating."

"I know. I'm funny, aren't I?"

Julia rolled her eyes. "Sure."

"I am."

She sighed, walking over to the door. "I'm going to take a walk. Goodbye, Alexei."

"Goodbye, sis."

She slammed the door behind her and sprinted through the winding halls of the royal palace until she was out of breath, which was over half of the entire perimeter, to her despair. She really needed to work on her stamina… plus her perception, as her father had said…

"Julia!"

Julia turned. Princess Annalisa sat at the marble fountain, waving at her with a pink daisy.

"Your highness," Julia said, curtsying with her small skirt. An Ares didn't have to wear dresses, unlike all other women in Ethica. That would simply be too impractical. One of the perks of being born into such a family.

"Oh! Did you hear the news?" she squealed. "My brother is having a Selection!"

Julia stared at her. "A… what, exactly?"

"A Selection! For women!" Annalisa cried. She looked like she was about to burst from both laughter and excitement, which wasn't a surprise. Annalisa seemed to always want to explode, with how she was constantly cheerful.

"What, he's going to line them up and choose one? For what?"

"A wife, silly!" Annalisa giggled. "There's- like- thirty-something girls or something and he's going to go on dates with them and the scribes are going to be there to record all of it and he's going to eliminate all the girls he doesn't like and BWAM, at the end there'll be one girl he's going to smooch with for the rest of his life!"

Julia paused. She had heard the King talking about finding a suitable partner for Prince Alexander, but she hadn't looked that much into it. It wasn't her place to meddle with the affairs of royalty, after all. "... Okay."

"Are YOU going to join?!" Annalisa suddenly grabbed her and pulled her next to her. "Please tell me you're going to join!"

Julia laughed. "I'm not going to try to seduce your brother. I have a job to do, remember? I have to protect you."

"Well, yeah, but if he weren't my brother, I'd totally apply!" Annalisa cried. "You can, like, be in the Selection for me and I'll live through you! I'll even ask my dad to rig it so that you'll definitely, one-hundred-percent get selected!"

Of course, at that moment, Prince Alexander happened to walk by the royal gardens. Thankfully, he was too far away to hear them, and he'd probably just walk by and-

"ALEX!" Annalisa yelled. "COME HERE!"

… Of course.

The prince looked slightly confused, but he walked over to the squealing girls… well, a squealing princess and a stoic bodyguard. "Nice daisy you picked there, Anna."

"I know! I was gonna give it to dad to bribe him to get Julia into the Selection of yours!" Annalisa said enthusiastically. Julia could not have slapped her forehead harder.

Prince Alexander stifled a laugh. "... What? How do you know about that already?"

"Daddy told me!"

"Of course, dad would tell you," Alexander sighed. "Of course he would… Don't go babbling about this to everyone else, okay, Anna? Julia is okay, but I still have to do an official announcement-"

"Okay!" Annalisa said, not even listening. She grinned and slapped the pink daisy into Julia's hand and scurried off. "GIVE IT TO ALEX, JULIA! AND THEN KISS HIM!"

Both Julia and Alexander stared at her as she skipped back into the golden halls of the interior palace.

Alexander sighed. "I don't know how you put up with her," he said.

Julia smiled. "It's my job, your highness."

"That doesn't mean you have to like it," Alexander said. "Your mom hates my mom. But she still protects her."

"Annalisa and I have been friends since we first met," Julia replied. "I would never hate her."

Alexander gave her a smile and looked at the daisy in Julia's hands, slightly crumpled but still intact. She pulled it out, examining it before handing it to him.

"A daisy," she said. "I guess."

Alexander took the daisy and stuck it in his breast pocket. "... Pink is a nice color."

Julia didn't respond, and Alexander sighed.

"Knowing Annalisa, she'll probably try to get you into my Selection regardless," he admitted. Julia nodded in concurrence. "... Do you want me to speak to my father about it? Maybe get him to ignore her?"

Julia stammered. "W-well…"

"After all," he pointed to the daisy. "She did give up her bribe."

Julia looked at the daisy, then back at Alexander. "I'll think about it, sir. I'll give you my answer by the end of the day."

He nodded. "Then I bid you farewell, Julia."

She saluted him and he smiled, walking away with his princely gait. Then Julia collapsed back onto the fountain, still exhausted from her sprint across the palace.

She really needed to keep practicing.

It was in the dark of the night. Julia rolled in her bed, her eyes wide awake. There was something she was forgetting… something she had to do before the end of the day…

Annalisa's bedroom was checked. No bombs or hidden weapons. Her food was unpoisoned and she had done her usual patrols along the palace, watching for any anomalies. There had been nothing of concern. So why was she so…

… oh.

She had forgotten to give Prince Alexander her answer.

A normal person would have just gone to sleep and give him their answer another day, but Julia was an Ares. And an Ares never fails on a promise. She looked at her clock. It was only ten in the evening. She could still give the prince her answer.

Of course, her answer was yes. She would never dream of dating — or marrying — the prince. He was a good friend, yes, but she had no interest in him. Annalisa would be upset for a little while, but she would eventually find someone else to root and rig the Selection for.

It would wake the Prince from his slumber, yes, but she was an Ares. Her family was only second to the royals, so he couldn't punish her even if he wanted to. Not that he would want to. Alexander would never punish someone for simply waking him from his sleep.

She crept along the dark hallways, making sure not to disturb any soul who might have been awake at the time, which, to be honest, was probably half of the entire palace. She thought she was actually quite skilled at sneaking around unnoticed, but-

"Boo."

She stifled a scream as she was tackled from behind, her head falling gently on the floor. A young man about the age of eighteen looked at her and laughed.

"Did I scare you?"

"Who are you?!" Julia exclaimed, trying to force herself out of the boy's grasp. "Let go of me!"

"Let's see." The boy examined her, which was rather hard in only the moonlight. "Ah. Julia Ares, hm? Did you suspect the rebellion would be here at this exact moment, as all Ares do, or was this just a coincidence?"

She glared at him and told a blatant lie. She was also quite good at lying, actually. "Of course I knew you'd be here-"

"Lies," the boy said immediately. "If you knew, you wouldn't have let me attack you."

… Actually, she wasn't very good at lying after all. She would work on that later.

"Nonetheless, I'll have your head for attacking an Ares," she growled. "Who do you think you are?"

"Well," the boy shrugged nonchalantly. "I was here on a mission to assassinate the prince, but I guess my plan is foiled now."

… What?

"... What?" she actually said, like an idiot.

The boy smirked and relaxed his arm, allowing her to scramble away. She backed herself to the gilded wall. "Don't believe me?"

"No, I just… you wouldn't be so bold- how did you get in here?!"

"Oh, it was easy," the boy said, standing up and leaning his arm against a pole. "Once you have inside intel, you know all of the secret entrances and everything. I suppose you know them too, right?" Julia tried not to look absolutely confused. "Let's play a game, shall we? Guess which secret passageway I went through to get here."

… What?

This time, thankfully, Julia didn't actually say what she was thinking, and instead did something called deflecting the question. "I don't have time to play games with you. You are under arrest for-"

"Oh, really?" the boy laughed. "Wanna fight? See who wins? Look, we all know I'm superior to you in combat. I literally tackled you in seconds."

"Wh- no-"

"Anyway, I must be going, seeing as I was caught," he shrugged, backing away. "Nice talking to you, Julia. I'm gonna report this all to the rebellion and tell them how easy it was to defeat an Ares-"

Julia's cheeks turned red. "No- wait-"

"Oh, the name's Luke, by the way," he grinned. "And I wasn't actually here to assassinate the prince, in case you never figured that out. I was here for intimidation. And you just happened to be a prime target. Oh, by the way, I still have yet to intimidate you, aren't I?"

There was a rebel in the palace. There was a rebel in the palace and Julia wasn't even trying to apprehend him. She suddenly snapped back into her senses and lowered to a fighting stance. Luke scoffed.

"Nice fighting stance. You still have to bend your knees more, though."

… What?

But Julia didn't say anything. She pulled her sword out of her sheath.

Luke sighed. "Here we go," he said, taking out a dagger.

She lunged for him. He dodged. She blocked his attack and thrusted. He dodged and his dagger reached her throat. She froze. He plucked the sword off her hand and sent it flying seven feet away.

He leaned his head over to her, smirking. "Nowhere to run, hm?"

Julia tried to spit on him, but he was already ahead of her. He turned his head so it wouldn't hit him and he smiled, pinning her against the wall.

"Now it's time to intimidate you," he said. Julia could feel his breath against her neck. Disgusting. "I'm the leader of the rebels. I wasn't the founder, but I'd say despite my adolescent age that I'm quite capable. And I have something to say to all of Ethica. You can share it, if you want, but I doubt anyone will take you seriously."

Julia kicked him, though she missed the don't-kick-area pretty badly. He grimaced and sighed.

"I had to admit, we were too weak against the House of Ares," he said. "But then Gysterf struck a deal with us… We have armies now. We have generals capable of things you can't imagine. And…" he grinned. "We have me. We're going to destroy the Aetux and bring democracy to our cherished land. We're going to end the tyrannical reign of King Eadger and his incompetent children. Annddd…" he laughed. "Wow, there's a lot of things we're going to do, huh?"

"Let… me… go!"

He leaned his head towards the side. "Are you even listening?"

Julia didn't give him a response, but he continued anyway.

"And we're going to wipe out the Ares, too," he said. "I like you. You're quite alright. So I'm going to let you go. Besides, if I kill you now, you won't pass all of this info on to everyone else, hm?"

"Shut… up!"

"I'm going to end my evil monologue. Geez, be patient. Yeah, one last thing: you'll never stand a chance against us. We're simply biding our time, letting you have your fun before we pinch you like the annoying fly you are and finally free the common people from the chains of monarchy. You understand?"

Julia nodded, trying to ignore how hard her heart pounded against her chest. Then he paused.

"Oh right, I forgot something. We're going to storm this palace and set it on fire, just as the armies of Gysterf did so many years before. Yeah, we're going to kill all of you. Prince Alexander… Princess Alexandra, Princess Elaina… oh, yeah, your Princess Annalisa… if she dies, you die, right?" he grinned.

"Don't you dare-"

"I dare," he smiled, letting go of her. She stumbled from the wall, catching herself on the railing that overlooked the royal foyer. "Now I got to go while you're still shocked and stuff so you can't catch me as I escape. If you did catch me, it would kinda ruin the whole dramatic thing about intimidation. See ya!"

With that he sprinted for his life across the hallway and literally leaped out the window, where the rustling of trees that he hit as he fell echoed through the hollow chambers.

Oh, right. She was supposed to catch him.

Julia ran after him, but when she got to the window, there was no one in sight. Not even a trace of the boy who had somehow rendered her speechless for half their conversation.

Then she ran, past Alexander's room and straight to the royal chambers of King Eadger himself. She burst open the door. "Your majesty, I-"

The King sat at his study, a single candle illuminating bills and laws scattered across his desk. He looked surprised, then suspicious, then angry, and then confused to see a disheveled, panting girl in his room.

"Don't you think bursting into the King's room without permission is quite rude, girl?" he questioned.

She shook her head frantically. "I apologize, your majesty, but you're in danger, we're all in danger, the rebels, t-they teamed up with Gysterf and they're going to kill us all-"

The King held up his hand, and she quickly shut up, standing straight. He stood, pushing his wooden chair and he walked to her.

"... Julia Ares," he said. "I understand that you are probably anxious, but that is no excuse to barge into my room without any sense of respect. I would like to see you out."

"But-"

The King shook his head. "This kind of behavior is unacceptable, Julia. You and I both know that. If you need any consolation for those scary figments of your imagination, I'd advise you to consult your parents, alright? I'm busy right now."

"Your high- I mean your majesty, please, they have armies and they're going to attack us and burn the city, we have to do something-"

King Eadger sighed and pushed her away. "Please, Julia. It's late. If it makes you feel better, I'll look into it, alright? Now go back to your bed and rest. You deserve it."

Then he slammed the door and left Julia alone in the moonlit hallways of the golden palace.

The clock chimed eleven.

"Your highness," she curtsied. Prince Alexander rubbed his eyes as he sat up from his bed.

Julia was used to seeing the royal family's chambers. Prince Alexander, being the heir to the throne, had the most luxurious room. It was decorated beautifully, with golden designs on the walls and the window soaking in the moonlight at just the right angle to shine on the prince. His sheets were woven with bright white silk and the golden canopy was decorated with stunning red embroidery.

"Julia… it's quite late…" he yawned.

Julia refrained from looking at him, just as she always did when searching his room for anything that might compromise his safety.

"I apologize, sir. I just wanted to give you your answer."

"For what?" he asked, standing up. Then he stopped, realizing that he was quite undressed, and tucked himself back into his bed. Even with only the moonlight to illuminate them, Julia could see that his face was flushed red. She decided to pretend that she did not notice.

"I've decided to refuse your assistance and allow myself into the Selection"

"Oh," Alexander smiled. "Oh, alright. What changed your mind?"

"I don't want to disappoint Annalisa," she said. "And…"

She hesitated. Alexander was known for being quite similar to his father, and if she managed to anger both the king and the crown prince in under an hour…

"What?" he asked.

"Oh… uh," she tried to search for a good white lie. She couldn't exactly lie to a prince. "I also needed an excuse to spend more time with you."

Alexander looked surprised for a moment, before his intelligent mind actually kicked in. "Oh. There's been a security breach?"

Julia sighed. "... You can put it like that."

"Did you report to my father?"

"Yes, sir. I did. He… uh… ignored me."

Alexander thought for a moment. "Don't you have to protect Annalisa, though? It's alright. You don't have to force yourself to this. Alexei is a good enough bodyguard. He'll protect me."

"No, no not just you, your entire family… I… I have a plan. Well, not really a plan, but a general idea. The Selection is going to be public, right?"

"Yeah," Alexander said. "We're inviting writers from all across Ethica to record every single word."

Julia nodded. "Just… be careful, okay?"

Alexander laughed. "They wouldn't dare hurt us. We're the Aetux. And we have the Ares on our side."

Like father, like son.

Julia plastered on a smile and curtsied again, excusing herself out of the extravagant bedroom and back to the Ares' quarter of the palace, to her own room.

She would protect Annalisa and her family. At all costs.

A/N

Gasp! I have a new account! And I'm writing SYOC's again?! Wow!

I'm accepting up to ten girls because I won't be able to juggle any more than that (though let's face it, the most submissions I'll get will be three. That's literally my entire record. No, I think my record was two, actually-) and DON'T WORRY! Even though the story is predominantly in Julia's perspective (of course, there will be other perspectives thrown in there to add flavor and because Julia will not physically be able to be at the most plot-rich points every single time) the submitted girls will have an impact on the story and it doesn't mean Julia is going to win!