A King's Sad Reflection
Norbert, the King of Greenhorne, sighed as he looked back at the room that held the faceless Princess Aurora. Not even 5 minutes had passed since the attack on Greenhorne Castle had been ended by Matthew, a young Warrior, and his group of friends. He took a bite of his meat, briefly reflecting upon what had transpired over the past few days.
When he'd first met Matthew, he'd thought the story of someone stealing other people's faces absurd, something a child might make up for attention. A quick spell from the Dark Lord and his face ending up on a Golem had been enough to convince him that this story wasn't made up and, more importantly, that the Dark Lord was a serious threat.
Norbert sighed again, reflecting on the conversation he'd had with Aurora, revealing her betrothing to Prince Abraham. She hadn't been happy with the prospect since she had loved another boy, Terry, a son of a besmirched noble.
"Father, please, why do I have to marry Prince Abraham? I can't marry him..." she begged, her voice sounding as if she was on the verge of tears.
"My dear daughter, this marriage will benefit both Greenhorne and Neksdor. Besides, it's time you started thinking about marrying royalty over that Terry fellow you keep seeing. It's for the best and someday, you'll see that." With that, he turned and left her room, but at the door, he heard Aurora speak in a quiet voice, almost a whisper.
"But I truly love Terry. I can't imagine a life with someone like Abraham..." she sighed, her head turned away, leaving her expression unreadable.
At the time, he thought he had been right. However, the conversation between Matthew and his friends after picking up Abraham from the border of Arid Frontier and Neksdor had made him start to reconsider.
"Seriously, that dude has issues if he forced his guards to go up against a powerful monster and abandon them," Mai, a Mage, claimed with fury. She was one of the main powerhouses of the group, boasting powerful Fire and Lightning spells with a good source of MP and Magic to back it up.
"Mai, don't you think you're being a little harsh? I mean, I get what he did was wrong, but the king did want him here unharmed," Matthew said, worried. Apparently, he wasn't too happy with what Mai was saying and didn't want Abraham overhearing the conversation and mistaking it for an insult.
"You've got to be joking if you don't think what he did was messed up. Sure, we've fainted in battle once or twice, but we don't go abandoning people for that," Mai growled, the obliviousness of Matthew combined with the attitude of Abraham starting to annoy her.
"Guys, chill. We just got back to the castle, and we should focus on what's important: everyone made it back safely," Ramsay, a Chef, stated calmly.
The last thing he wanted was for Matthew and Mai to get into a quarrel, especially since he had had recently had one with Mai and only managed to make up with her during the Griffin fight. Plus, while Didi did have Love & Peace, if Mai refused it due to her stubborn nature, that could get Didi potentially fighting with Mai.
Mai huffed. "Fine, but mark my words: I may be stubborn, but I'll never be as bad as Abraham. That guy is just plain rude and arrogant to a whole other level," she boldly stated. Didi, who had been listening to the whole exchange, simply sighed and rolled her eyes. Mai always had to be the one to get the last word in an argument, it seemed.
Norbert shook his head. That conversation had cleared up quite a bit and not even 5 minutes later, Abraham had started a fight with Terry. It seemed nothing, not even Didi's Love & Peace, could calm them. This had forced him to ask Matthew and his friends to go fetch some Calming Fruit from a nearby forest. Then, shortly after they had departed, disaster struck.
It seemed to have all happened in a matter of seconds. Imps had overrun Greenhorne Castle, quickly overpowering the castle guards, and a Naughty Imp had swooped in, effortlessly managing to keep Norbert in place on his throne. The Dark Lord had swooped in as well, glaring at the helpless king menacingly.
"My, my. You try to plan out your daughter's future only for her to reject it. I see that annoyance Matthew managed to free you from that Golem. Prince Abraham is worthless to me, Terry even more so. Honestly, with how you run your kingdom, it's no wonder we were able to overwhelm you so easily," he said, all with an evil smirk.
Norbert swallowed. "Wha-what are you planning to do?" he asked, quivering in fear over the Dark Lord's powers. The Dark Lord smirked again, somehow managing to look even more menacing than he had when he entered.
"Simple: I plan to utilize your daughter's face for my own general. I have no interest in you after what Matthew and his friends d but what if the darling Princess Aurora was involved? Surely, a fight against a friend will end his journey." The Dark Lord paused, his smirk growing wider. "And the best part? You're powerless to stop me! Soon, Miitopia's faces shall be mine!". And with that, he swooped into the Princess's room. There came a loud shriek of fear from Aurora.
"Aurora! No, not my darling Princess!" Norbert yelled, knowing that trying to fight was hopeless since the Naughty Imp was holding its spear quite close, making sure he didn't try to interfere. The Dark Lord came back out, this time with a glowing orb that had Aurora's face on it, ready for whatever evil deeds he had in store.
The Dark Lord laughed in triumph. "Looks like I win this round, fool! I can't believe how easy this was. It was like stealing candy from a baby! Anyway, I must be off. Nightmare Tower is where the lucky monster receiving this face is residing!". With that, he flew off in a southerly direction.
His thoughts were interrupted by a loud shout. "Goodness, gracious me! What were those things?! Ooooh... M-m-m-m-m... Mama! I'm scared! Save meeeee!" Not even 5 seconds later, Prince Abraham came rushing by as if he'd seen a ghost.
Not even a minute later, Terry came rushing in. "I'll save the princess!" he exclaimed, shaking his fists and boldly running towards the tower. Norbert briefly glanced up from the meat he'd been eating the whole time, noting the difference when it came to how the two had reacted. At that moment, Matthew and his friends reentered the throne room from her room.
"Aurora! Is she unharmed?" Norbert asked, worried about the state of his daughter. Matthew paused, considering how best to word things. His teammates, even the usually snarky Mai, were uncharacteristically silent. You couldn't have told that mere minutes ago, they had been triumphant against the Imps and the Naughty Imp that had taken over.
"Well, her body is unharmed. She's faceless but, I'm starting to notice a pattern: every time someone loses a face, it's always unharmed, no matter what. Meaning that the Dark Lord preserves the faces he puts into monsters carefully," Matthew finally said about a minute later.
"That's... well, I don't know how to feel," Norbert responded. He was feeling mixed. On one hand, it was good to know his daughter's body was unharmed, but on the other hand, it was nerve-wracking to know the most important part of her was in the possession of the Dark Lord's minions.
"According to Terry, he said she was taken to Nightmare Tower," Matthew said slowly, in thought about the current situation.
"Right. First, we save a town, then we save you, and now we save Aurora. Come on, team! Looks like we have another person in trouble!" he declared confidently. Quickly, the four heroes departed, with Matthew leading and Didi bringing up the rear.
Norbert watched them as they departed the main entrance and headed south, towards the ominous tower. He turned away, thinking hard about his daughter's face. "I hope they succeed... Both for her and for the kingdom." he said slowly.
The fact that Terry had displayed such courage for someone who didn't have Matthew and his friends' strength was remarkable, as was his desire to protect Aurora despite the danger of whatever monster received her face. So, too, had been Abraham's cowardice in the face of the same danger. He had a lot to think about regarding Aurora's future.
A/N: Hope you all enjoyed. Few quick details I wanted to mention:
First off, comes the exchange where Aurora's betrothed is revealed. Since this is never shown in game, I had to make up some dialogue. I noticed how her feelings towards Terry in game were stronger being the childhood friend and her reluctance for expressing her feelings for the Besmirched Noble's son in a dialogue from the scene where you're assigned to get the Prince from a Nearby Land. I'll admit, the dialogue does seem stereotypical for someone like her, but when you have a dad like hers, are you really going to argue?
Secondly, for those wondering, Matthew is a Cool Warrior, Mai is a Stubborn Mage, Ramsay is a Kind Chef and Didi is an Airheaded Pop Star. Based on them off of the characters in my recent Switch play-through (and yes, Ramsay was inspired by Gordon Ramsay before anyone asks). Added extra dialogue primarily to flesh Matthew and Mai out (and also the expand the story of Miitopia a bit since the game's dialogue, which while it serves its purpose really needs fleshing out in my honest opinion), whilst Ramsay gets 1 line in and Didi gets nothing. Bit sad that only 2 characters get fleshed but I hope to do the same for the other 2 in the future and also my party weren't going to be the primary focus of this fic anyway.
Thirdly, the copied dialogue. Yeah, this is set around the aftermath of the attack on Greenhorne Castle and wraps up around the start of when the party takes on Nightmare Tower. I just used the dialogue from the game for Abraham and Terry because honestly I didn't see any reason to change it since this takes place in the timeframe I mentioned and I didn't want to risk inconsistency with the game's plot involving the 2 characters.
Fourthly, sorry about the potential overuse of italics for the flashbacks, but I felt I had to make them distinct from the rest of the story, especially with the exchange and reflection.
Lastly, constructive criticism and likes are appreciated, flames are not. Hoping to keep this civil and generally a good read for all.
