A/N: I just want to say that I changed the name from the red hooded man to the red champion since it sounds slightly better and the last one was crap. Now i'm too lazy to make a new book cover /:
BTW if anyone knows how to add those lines (I have no idea what they're called) that seperate parts could you message me how to. Thanks.
Anyways, I hope you enjoy the chapter :D
Chapter 4: Princess duties
In the underworld…
In the world down under, there was a large castle made of black brick's for the Lucitor Royalty, rulers of the underworld. Inside of the castle there was a tempermental teen laying down on his bed. Tom had just ended his call with Star and was starting to get frustrated. He was planning on getting Star back by taking her to an event called the blood moon ball which would be occurring in a couple of months and had wanted to reconnect with her too slowly to ease her into coming but the odds had just dropped down from low to near impossible. She had still held a grudge against the boy even though their break up had been years ago and since then, they had almost never interacted except for the times when it involved royalty and even then she would try everything to avoid talking to her.
Tom knew that he had always been a bad boyfriend since their traditions had been very different since he had quite a good temper compared to some of the other people in his life and he knew that if he wanted to win her back, he would have to go through a lot of change and he had. Since the last time that they had talked, it had finally dawned why she wouldn't talk and it was due to his unlikeable behaviour so he had hired a life coach to help him out which had done numbers on him. He had been anger free for over a month and even had a pink bunny for emotional support.
He had felt confident that he would be able to win her back but from the call that he had just made, he realised how useless it would be but he didn't want to give up. He flopped onto his bed and decided to think of the boy that had been standing behind him. He had never seen him ever so he knew that he was certainly not royalty unless they were a new kingdom but he would have known about it from the occasional meetings that he had attended. He knew that the boy's name was Marco since Star had stated that in the call but something about the boy had made him angry, well, more angry than usual. Maybe it was the fact that he had gotten so close to him in who knows how long but inside, he truly knew what the reason was. He had competition. Although they had looked to be just friends, he could see the joy in her eyes when she said his name, even though it was for a sliver of time.
Tom got out of his bed. He knew that if he wanted to win Star over, he would have to make his move quickly before it was too late. He would think of a plan later but for now he had a prince duties to do and not to mention the meeting he had to attend in 2 days. He never did anything in them besides sit in the corner on his mirror phone but he had gotten used to doing it. He decided that he was going to get something to eat for dinner. He would think of a plan eventually.
Butterfly castle, 8 A.M…
It had been 3 days since Star and Marco had met, yet they had become very close at that time. Marco had woken up later then he would usually but that made sense after the events from yesterday that left him exhausted. He groggily arose as a few rays of sun beamed through the gaps in the curtain, coincidentally into his eyes. Today was going to be a busy day for him since he would have to help Star with a majority of her princess duties but for now, he had some free time to do what he wanted and after some consideration, he thought that he would pay a visit to the royal chefs and give his feedback on the nachos.
He slowly crawled out of his bed and went to take a warm shower. He had then combed his hair and put on his white shirt and grey jeans like usual and walked out of his room to the kitchen. By now Marco had remembered how to get to quite a couple of places on his own but he still had a lot of the castle to wonder but he would do that later. He eventually came across the door labelled 'kitchen' and could hear that it was louder then when he came in yesterday. He opened the door to see that there were many more chefs than the other times that he had come to the kitchen since it was nearing breakfast for the royals and required a lot of preparation. There were a couple people who had looked at him as he walked in but the head chef had motioned them to continue cooking. She walked up to Marco with a warm smile to greet him.
"Good morning Marco. I hope you enjoyed the nachos that we made for you," She started as Marco shook her hand. "Yes, they were really nice. I never got your name," Marco stated.
"My apologies, my name is Heather, head cook of the royal chefs," she said was a playful bow.
"Well it's nice to meet you Heather. For the nachos I'd recommend that you add more toppings since the nachos can be quite bland but I'll show you later." Marco mentioned as he looked around the kitchen. "Sure looks busy here. Is this for the breakfast of the royalty?" Marco continued. "Well some of the food is for the royalty but there is also extra food that is made for the castle staff and also extras to store in case anyone else wants food when the chefs are gone," she explained. There appeared to be around 10 chefs cooking different foods. "Mind if I help," Marco asked which got a surprised look from Heather. "If you insist but first i'll need to teach you the basics." She replied as Marco spent time learning to cook new foods.
With Star…
Star had been deep in sleep when her door had slightly opened and a servant came sneaking in, not wanting to get blasted by the princess. The servant was a rather tall man but was still scared of what she would do since she was a heavy sleeper. As he got near the bed, he started talking in a quiet whisper.
"Princess Star, it's time for you to wake up." There was no response from Star so he raised his voice slightly. There were some slight movements from under the sheets but she still wouldn't budge. He was left with no other option but to use a method that always worked on her. Queen Moon had told them a word that would instantly wake up Star and so far it always worked. He cleared his throat and whispered "St Olgas," and ran before he would get blasted. Star instantly jumped up shouting "Not St Olgas!" and blasted the servant in the back before he could fully escape from the princess, making him fall face first into the ground but continued to make his escape.
Star groaned as she looked at the clock mounted on her wall. '8:10' it read and she knew that she should have woken up 10 minutes ago. Why do they always wake me up late? She thought as she prepared for her long day of boring duties.
She got up and had a relaxing bath and then put on her royal dress and checked a schedule that she had on her wall that a servant would update to show what events she had on. She had already got distracted at the cute kittens on the calendar but eventually saw that she had a lecture with her mum in 30 minutes so she decided to head off to the dining hall to eat breakfast. While on her way, her thoughts went to what Marco was doing right now. He had promised that he would help out with some of her princess duties which made her smile. Then she thought about the mysterious nature of the boy. I still can't help but feel that there's something big he's not telling me she frowned but soon arrived at the front of the double door that would lead into the dining hall. She pushed the door open to see that her parents had already begun eating but there were no signs of Marco. She sat down in the middle and saw that her plate had some new foods that the chefs must have thought of. There was a slice of chocolate cake which was meticulously decorated with a perfect pile of pancakes topped with butter and what looked like a sticky fluid that was golden but looked really good. She started eating and felt that the chefs had out done themselves today. I'm going to have to thank the chefs for this meal she thought but still felt weird about Marco not being here.
She had finally finished her meal before Moon finally spoke up. "Today the chefs really out did themselves with the new foods. Also don't forget Star that in 10 minutes we have our lecture so don't be late. After all, you did miss 2 days of work." Star frowned. "I'll be there," she moaned as she got up and exited. I'll check up on Marco after this lecture she thought as she went 1 door down to the chefs kitchen to compliment them. She wasn't sure why she was doing this but something about that meal made her feel ready for the day.
As she opened the door, she saw the many chefs preparing more meals with the head chef walking up to her. "Greetings princess Star. What brings you here?" Heather asked as Star smiled at her. "I came here to say that those new foods you made were really good. I don't know how but they made me feel better than usual." Star praised as Heather's smile grew wider. "Well, you're going to have to thank the new chef Diaz for the food. He's a really good chef you know," she replied which surprised Star. She looked around at the chefs to spot Marco wearing a white uniform and a tall chef's hat. He does look pretty cute in that uniform she thought and blushed at the sudden realisation of her thoughts. Not like that, like how puppies and kittens are cute… yea. Her blush soon faded as she walked up to Marco who was cutting up some vegetables. "Why hello there chef Diaz. I knew you could make some killer nachos but I didn't know you would be such a good cook," Star beamed as Marco turned around. "Why thank you your majesty," he replied with a playing bow. "I never really cook but I was taught how to make some really good treats for special occasions," he continued. Star's smile soon faded as she remembered what she had to do. "I have to get going to a boring lecture but I should be done in about an hour. I'll see you soon!" She sang as she started to get going. Marco had continued to cook for a bit longer until all of the food had been made with 10 minutes to spare. "Wow Marco, not only did you improve the food but we finished early. Thanks for the help," Heather spoke sincerely while Marco sent her a warm smile. "No problem. It was nice to do some cooking. Anyways, I'm going to get going. See you around," Marco waved as he exited. "See you too. Feel free to hop by whenever you want," responded as Marco made his way back to his room.
In an unknown location…
In a gloomy castle located in a dark and barren land, Buff Frog had come back from his expedition to reveal the identity of the red hood. He hadn't completely revealed his identity but had gotten some clues about who he might be. He walked to the front door of the castle and pressed on the doorbell which sounded like a cringey doorbell from halloween of a screaming witch. I took a while until a voice was heard from the speaker that was integrated into the bell. "Who is it?" The voice asked as Buff frog began. "Master, I come back from expedition."
It took a couple of seconds but eventually the gate to the castle slowly went down to reveal the interior. The castle wasn't all that back but it was still rather large. It was made of a dark looking brick but not as dark as the ones of the Lucitor castle. The inside bore little colours except for the gold of the stolen furniture that they had stolen. Just from the entrance of the castle, it gave a really creepy feeling, not to mention how quiet the castle was due to the recent expedition in search of a valuable gem that was lost years ago.
Buff frog made his way slowly up the stairs to the location of Des' office and as he made his way there, he looked at the tapestries that went down the halls. The tapestry depicts how the Mewmans took their land and left them with the worst parts and how they would reclaim their land for the monsters. He finally came across the office and knocked on the door. "Come in," Des started as Buff frog opened the door, doing his signature greeting. "Greetings master. You wanted to see me?" Buff frog asked.
"You sent me a letter a while ago but it was completely unreadable so I wanted you to tell me what information you got about him," Des replied as he took a sip of his swamp water. "I found him defending a village from a monster attack and followed him to his home," Buff frog informed as Des leaned forward on his chair. "Yes go on, go on," he demanded as he took another sip of his drink. He was surprised at how easily he got the information compared to all of his other spies who had little training. "Well about that… I followed him and it appears that he lives in the Butterfly castle. Before I could get a look at him, he closed the curtains," he explained and Des spat out his drink. "Really! Ugh, this just makes everything harder. The butterfly kingdom was already strong enough and now they have red hood on their side."
Des leaned back in his chair as he contemplated his next move. This can't be good but there's only one person I know who could help me Des thought.
"Alright, thanks for the information Buff frog," Des thanked as he threw a small sack of coins to him. Buff frog saluted him and he made his way out of the castle back to his house located nearby in the swamps. Although he was offered a more comfortable living space in the castle, he humbly declines since he preferred to live at his home that he had stayed in for years.
As Buff frog made his way out of the room, Des couldn't help but grin. "Now things are going to get interesting."
Back with Star…
Star had just left the royal kitchen and had begun to walk up hundreds of steps to reach the top of the castle where Moon had her study area. She never understood why it was at the top but I guess she enjoys the views to deal with stress. She was only halfway up when her legs started to shake and when she looked out of one of the windows, she noticed that she still had a long way to go. She couldn't use cloudy since it was too tight for her to fly so she continued her climb to the top.
Moon had been waiting for a while, checking the clock every 30 seconds as she continued on with some of her paperwork. She started to hear the sound of what sounded like footsteps and looked behind her to see a very exhausted Star slouching as she fell onto the ground, panting heavily. "You know… you could… study… at the… bottom," she wheezed as Moon rolled her eyes. "It isn't that hard, you're just over exaggerating," she countered as Star groaned and fell onto the couch. "It was hard but I finally made it!" She exclaimed as Moon rolled her eyes.
Star got up when she heard the sound of a stick tapping the wall to see that Moon had a whole chalkboard full of writing and the occasional drawing as she tapped the stick to the start of the text and began the lecture. She was listening for the first minute but then got extremely bored and started to think of other things. A whole day of this? I can't even last a minute but at least Marco will be able to help out. She then thought back to the times that they spent together and somehow managed to the topic of his abs. He does look really buff though, not to mention those… abs. She started biting on her wand which prompted Moon to check on Star to see her daydreaming while biting her wand. Her brows furrowed in disappointment but decided on a suitable punishment. Embarrassment.
Moon cleared her throat which got Star's attention and stared sheepishly at her. "Thinking about boys are you?" Moon said with a smug smile while Star turned the colour of a tomato. "What! No… I was listening to your lecture," she denied. "Oh really? What was I talking about?" This trick gets Star every time. She froze in place as she tried to think of a suitable yet vague answer that would please her but she looked like a computer trying to process data. "Princess duties?" She blurted out as she mentally facepalmed. Really? That's what you come up with? Moon chuckled. "Oldest trick in the book. So, who were you thinking about. Was it that Marco boy?" Moon smirked as Star managed to turn a darker shade of red. "NO! I wasn't thinking about abs," she sputtered and immediately placed a hand over her mouth. "You wouldn't be thinking of a certain friend's abs would you?" She continued. "Alright alright! I'll listen," Star groaned, trying to avoid her teasing.
The rest of the lesson had felt like forever since Star couldn't not listen to her mum or else she would get teased by her and to be honest, she hated when she teased her. She was always so smooth when it came to that and knew the right spots to hit, like pressure points. Moon had wrapped up the lesson and cleared the chalkboard of all the writing to do with cutlery to basic laws. Star sighed in relief as she got up from the couch and stretched her back. She couldn't wait to hang out with Marco but what her mum said before really did make her think. Do I really have a crush on Marco? No, of course I don't! We're just friends, she thought. She walked silently down the stairs and this way was much easier then the way up. Oh come on. You know you liked those abs a voice said inside of her head. She tried hard not to think about it and made her way back to her room to check what she had for the rest of the day.
One she checked the calendar, she saw that she had some paperwork to fill out and found this to be the best time to talk to Marco while he helped her out with the papers. Later on she also had a boring meeting to do with the allies to the Butterflies and the current monster problems. The problems with monsters had always been bad but in the past couple of years, they had been riled up more than usual, attacking villages more frequently. Finally at the end of the day, she had to attend a family dinner with the Johansen kingdom which she was looking forward to. She had always loved her dad's side of the family since they were much more exciting compared to the posh and snobby relatives from her mum's side.
She decided to get ready for the paperwork which wasn't much important but was some of her mum's paperwork so she would be ready for when she becomes queen. Her mum had always been really pushy when it came to royal business since she wanted Star to be prepared in case of an emergency but she still didn't see why she was so paranoid.
Star finally stepped out of room and made her way to Marco's room to see if he was there.
With Marco…
Marco had made it back to his room holding a bowl of nachos that he had made since he didn't eat breakfast today. He decided that since Star would be busy for the next hour, he would practice on his fighting skills since it had been a while and was starting to become sloppy. He searched in his backpack for some more comfortable clothes and got out some sports pants along with a singlet since it was a rather hot day today in Mewni. He walked out of his room after finishing his nachos and looked for a place where he could practice his fighting.
Marco had a few ideas for some places that would have some practice for him but thought that the best idea would be to see if he could find the knights training grounds which would most likely be either in the castle or very close. He finally gave up and asked a staff member about the directions and was directed to a dedicated part of the castle which was for the knights and squires of Mewni. He walked through a hallway to see that some of the royal knights had their own rooms inside of the castle so that they could protect the royals 24/7 along with the recreational rooms such as the gym and training grounds along with a lounge for them to socialise. He opened the door for the training ground to reveal an outside environment that was a rather large dirt clearing with punching bags, weapons, shields and an obstacle course along with many knights and squires training.
Now that he saw the amount of knights in Mewni, he was happy to be on their good side, even though I would still be able to beat them all at the same time. He got a couple of stares as he entered and was greeted by a tall and buff knight. "Hey you! No peasants in the training ground. Now scram!" He roared as Marco took a step back. "I was just wondering if I would be able to train here with you guys," Marco started and there was a few seconds of silence until everyone roared into laughter. "You really think… that some weak boy could train with us," he chortled but Marco kept his calm and serious face and the knight noticed this. "Tell ya what kid, if you can even beat one of the squires here then you can train with us but if you lose, I never want to see you again. Deal?" He prompted with his hand extended out and Marco shook it with a firm grip which surprised the knight.
After a little bit of chatter, a squire came out of the group and revealed a red head girl that was considerably smaller then Marco and had green eyes with spiked shoulder pads and a blue battle skirt. She stared daggers at Marco in an attempt to startle the boy but he didn't so much as flinch or move a muscle in his face.
"Well well well, looks like you think you can just walk your way into the training grounds and get respect nerd. You have to work to be a squire," she spat. "I never said I wanted to be a squire," Marco countered as the squire looked like she would blow steam out of her nose. "By the way my name's Marco," he continued as he lifted a hand to shake but she slapped it away. "Higgs is the name and believe me, I know you. You didn't have to work for your status but i'll show you," she huffed as she got into a fighting stance while Marco still stayed still, angering Higgs as she rushed Marco and tried to throw a punch only for him to sidestep and trip her, making her stumble onto the dirt. She got up and brushed off the dirt and glared daggers at Marco. She ran forward and prepared to jab at him but placed her wait onto the hand and redirected it but Marco was faster as he stepped back and made her fall again. The knights had been laughing at the show since Marco had been toying with her but she got up and put all of her strength into a kick in which Marco grabbed and jabbed at her rib which made her clench her stomach and he finished it by bending her arm in a way to may her stuck until he let go.
She finally gave up and Marco let go of her as she walked away, stomping with each step getting harder. Everyone was cheering for Marco as the knight from before pat him on the back which was more life a hit due to his strength. "You're not a bad kid. I'll keep my end of the deal so you can train here whenever you want," he said as he tried and flipped Marco but as he was lifted he twisted his body and grabbed his hand and managed to flip the man who was twice his size. Everyone stood there dumbfounded as Marco held a hand out for him, which he accepted. "You sure do have good reflexes and not to mention your strength. You'll make a good knight some day," he appraised and they continued to do their training.
Marco had stayed for another half hour and challenged the other knights where he managed to defeat all with ease. He was admired for his abilities at such a young age and some of the squires practically begged for his guidance so that they could be as good as him. He had wrapped things up and had found that to be a success but now he thought that it would be a good time to do some meditations and he had seen a garden on his way to the training area so he made his way down the halls back to the garden.
Marco stumbled across the garden and admired the beauty of it. There was a wide variety of different plants and flowers spread across the area and birds that chirped their beautiful songs. It was a perfect place to relax and to meditate as well so he went and sat down next to some red roses and took a deep breath in and out. He continued this for a couple of minutes until he could hear the sound of footsteps from the garden, but none that he could recognise. He opened his eyes to see a woman with pale skin with a green hair maroon dress. "Can I help you?" Marco politely asked as the girl walked closer. "No it's ok. I'm just interested in what you're doing," she replied as she sat down next to Marco. "I'm just meditating currently. It really calms you down. My name's Marco by the way," Marco started with a warm smile. "Nice to meet you Marco. I'm Eclipsa, royal monster expert. I usually come here on my breaks since I do enjoy gardening here," she said as she sniffed one of the roses near them. "So i've never seen you around the castles, are you new here?" Eclipsa continued as Marco closed his eyes again. "I got here a couple of days ago. I'm one of Star's friends," he soothingly replied. "She saved me in the forest a while ago and let me stay here. Now we spend a lot of time together. It sure beats living in the forest," he noted as Eclipsa looked at him. "Interesting. So you have a crush on her?" Eclispa inquired as Marco's eyes darted open. "What?" Marco asked confused. She chuckled at the reaction. "It's just that I noticed that when you talked about her, your voice sounds more sweet and you calm down more than you already had," she observed as Marco looked at her directly in the eyes. "Well, she is nice, caring and quite cute but I can't see her as more than a friend right now you know?" He didn't know why but he felt that he could tell his feelings to the women for some reason. "Well, love can take time to develop so I see what you mean. All I have to say is that you don't leave her side. She is the most energetic, loving and loyal friend that you could ever have," Eclipsa started with a smile. Marco thought about it and she was right. He had never had a friend and to have Star as one made him feel so much better and he would do anything to protect her. He smiled at the women. "Thanks for the advice," Marco thanked as he stood up and got ready to leave. "No problem. I hope to see you around the castle and don't forget, all knowledge is good knowledge," she declared as she walked away. Marco had exited the garden to get back to his room to take a shower since he was still quite sweaty from before.
Marco had finally gotten clean and put on his regular clothes again, he heard a knock at the door and judging back the pattern, he knew that it was Star. "Come in," he acknowledged as the door opened to see Star who was in her princess uniform. "Hey Marco. I just finished the lecture thing and was wondering if you wanted to help with the papers like you said," she remarked. "Sure, i'll be at your room in a little," Marco responded as Star smiled and shouted "Thanks!" as she ran down the hall back to her room. Marco quickly combed his hair and put a pair of shoes on and made his way to Star's room to help her out.
Star's room was roughly a 5 minute walk which was quite far compared to the fact that it was all the same building which showed how big the castle was. He finally arrived at the door and knocked on it, only to be pulled inside the instant that he knocked and into a hug. "Thanks for helping me out. I have to go the whole day doing boring princess duties but tomorrow we're going to have some fun," she promised as she continued to hug him. "Um Star, you can let go now," Marco added as Star let go. "Sorry," she apologized as she went to sit down on the desk and Marco noticed the large amounts of papers that had been laid scattered everywhere. "Why do you even need to do paperwork anyways. Shouldn't your mum be doing it?" He inquired as Star turned around on her swivel chair. "Well, she usually does but for some reason she wants me to prepare to be queen early in case of an emergency," she suggested and started spinning in her chair. Marco walked up to the desk to see the papers and noted that most of it was to do with complaints of the citizens along with some other messages that just required a signature from a royal figure.
They had spent a while working on the paper with Marco giving some suggestions on how to improve some of the numbers of the corn trade and evan managed to make papers for interdimensional trade which surprised Star. "Wow Marco. Looks like you're good at everything," Star admired as Marco looked up from the paperwork. "Oh it's nothing. I'm surprised your mum hasn't reaped the benefits of interdimensional trade. I'm going to have to show this to her later," he humbly replied. They had gotten through almost all of the paperwork and had around 2 papers left. One of them have to do with a suggestion to change a law to do with the laundry theft since people could steal others clothes and they wanted a more reliable way to deal with it so Marco devised a plan to counter the issue while Star signed one more paper.
They had finished and when Star glanced at the clock, she noted that they had roughly 30 minutes to spare which meant that they could spend time together. "Wow, 30 minutes to spare. I may as well show your mum the papers." Marco suggested. He stood up and stretched his back as he made his way out of the room until Star grabbed his hand. "Come on Marco. Now's the time to goof off not work," she pouted with puppy dog eyes which always worked on Marco. "Fine. Looks like i'll have to show her this later. What do you have planned?" Marco questioned as Star thought. "We don't have much time so we could just you know just chill in my room," she suggested. "Sounds good," he said as he put two thumbs up.
They took the time to learn a little more about each other and some embarrassing stories of their childhood but Marco didn't reveal too much. "Come on Marco you never say anything about your family. Just tell me at least something," she pouted but Marco actually considered telling her something. Telling her about me being the red hood is out of the question but maybe it wouldn't hurt to talk about my parents. He sighed "Fine, i'll tell you about my parents," he spoke. Star got visibly excited. "Story Time!" She shouted as she layed in bed. Marco chuckled at her reaction. "Alright. I was raised by a group of men who were considered to be some of Mewni's strongest warriors to ever exist," he Started and Star was shocked by this. "When I was born, I was abandoned by my parents and was left in the Forest of Certain Death. I was saved by my new Parents who were Boris, Gregory, Grunt and Josef," he continued and was stopped by Star. "REALLY! They had all been some of the most well known and heroic people of Mewni, not to mention Gregory could do magic without a wand. Can you do magic?" She questioned as Marco thought. "No," he lied. He didn't want to give too much away about him since she might start adding things together. "Anyways, the reason I'm quite skilled in well… Everything is because they had been teaching me for 12 years and since they had been the strongest, they taught me everything they knew but then one day we had gotten attacked by a group of monsters. Usually my parents wouldn't be bothered since they were usually weak but these ones had been stronger then the others. I never learnt who the monsters were but I managed to escape into the forest," he added. "Wow," was all the Star could say. He really had a tough life but to be trained by Mewni strongest heroes, no wonder he is so strong. Before she could ask more questions, Marco changed the topic. "Looks like we're out of time so i'll see you after the meeting."
"What? Oh right. I'll see you later," Star said as she checked the clock. She walked out of her room while Marco stayed in thought. I hope I just did the right thing…
In the meeting room…
Tom had arrived a couple of minutes early to the meeting and he said in the corner with his mirror phone out, only looking up as new members came in. His mum couldn't fit in the room so his dad had attended the meeting and he also saw the members from all of the other kingdoms come in one by one. They had held the meeting in the Butterfly castle which gave Tom the idea of checking on Star later on in the day. It was almost time for them to start and had been waiting for Queen Moon to arrive since the person who holds the meeting always comes in last by tradition. She had finally arrived as the door opened to see Moon and… Star? Tom was surprised to see her here but thought that it would be for the same reason that he was but this would make things easier.
Star noticed when she walked into the room that it was the normal group but her eyes eventually landed on Tom and she groaned mentally. Why does he have to be here? Tom gave him a 'cool' smile which turned out to look more creepy and Star narrowed her eyes at him which Moon noticed and nudged her which she then stopped and sat down on the seat beside her mum. She grabbed out her mirror phone to pass the time since she didn't want to listen but would occasionally listen in to hear what they had been talking about.
"We should be more forceful with our actions," Queen Spiderbite started as she brought out a scroll. "I think that if we don't take more action, they will start to attack the bigger villages since they are slowly earning their wealth to build an army. If we stop them now then it will be easier in the end. With that, we should all give in around 50 soldiers to build an army to attack them," she continued.
"That would most likely work but we have no idea where they reside so we need to start off by sending our scouts to look for the base," King Lucitor suggested as they all murmured in agreement.
She looked to notice that Tom had still been staring at her which creeped her out as she looked back at her mirror phone but would occasionally check again to see that he hadn't stopped staring. It's annoying that I can't even say anything to make him stop. He eventually decided to start talking to her on her mirror phone so she went onto her contacts to message her.
'Hey Star' he messages with an emoji with sunglasses.
He looked up to see her reaction and when she got the message, she looked up and glared at him.
'If you're going to ask go for a corn shake then no.'
'Oh come on, you know you love corn shakes. At least give it a try again'
'We broke up ages ago so you may as well stop'
'I've changed, I got a life coach and a fluffy pink bunny and not to mention that I've been anger free for 43 days'
He added an image of a fully bunny at which he could see Star's eyes sparkle.
'It is cute but still no'
'Fine suit yourself. Can we atleast chat?'
'Nope'
'Come on'
'...'
'Fine'
Tom was annoyed since it was almost impossible to make her crack. If a cute pink bunny couldn't get her then nothing in the entire universe could so he gave up.
The meeting continued on for around another half hour with nothing really interesting happening besides the parts that sometimes got heated but didn't end in a brawl which she personally was disappointed. "Well thank you all for attending the meeting and I wish you the best of luck," Moon stated as the royals began to exit the room in an orderly fashion and Star made her way out as fast as she could to avoid Tom which worked. Tom noticed the behaviour and got slightly more frustrated. What is it that she looks for in a man? I need to talk to that Marco boy. He made a pillar of flames and went back to his castle to play some video games.
She now had a lot of time to spare now so she decided that she would have a long bath and then eat lunch and chillax with Marco or Pony Head. Man I've really been spending a lot of time with Marco. As she got back to her room to relax, Marco had decided that now would be the time to show the queen his suggestions.
Marco had nothing to do so he had been working on the documents that could be used for interdimensional trade along with some other suggestions to reduce payments on other trades which would save them plenty of gold. He had seen everyone exiting the meeting room and decided that he would wait a little since she wasn't going anywhere… that he knew of. He went back to his room to reread some of the parts along with reading some books that he had borrowed from the library.
1 hour later…
Marco had found some minor mistakes and now the form was perfect to show her. He walked out of his room and made his way to the throne room which is where Marco thought that Queen would most likely be and after a 3 minute walk, he came across 2 large wooden doors that had been larger than the ones at the dining hall. There were two guards waiting at the door with spears as the stopped Marco. "Halt, please state your name and purpose," one of the guards shouted as he stared at Marco. "Marco and I have some papers to show the Queen," Marco stated as one of the guards went to the other side of the door. "Please wait a minute," the guard demanded.
After roughly a minute, he was given clearance to enter the room and was met by the Queen and King sitting on their thrones. The room had been lavishly decorated and was much larger than any of the other rooms that he had seen in the castle and the thrones stood tall with the Queen's throne being significantly taller to show significance. Marco took a step forward and bowed. "Greetings your majesties," Marco stated. "No need for formalities boy. You've been living with us for a couple of days," River spoked as Marco got back up. "So what brings you here?" Moon enquired. Marco had taken out a couple sheets of paper. "Well I was helping Star with some of her paperwork and noticed that there have been some areas in which could be changed along with some suggestions that I wanted to show you," Marco started as he passed the notes to Moon who read over them with a surprised face. "Wow, most of these are really good ideas and not to mention the interdimensional trade which could save plenty of gold by getting suppliers from other dimensions. Thank you for the suggestions Marco, we'll surely be implementing a lot of these suggestions." Moon appraised as Marco smiled with pride. "No problem," Marco replied as he started to walk out. "Actually Marco, I have a proposition for you if you wouldn't mind. Would you like to help out with some of the paperwork more often? It would really help and I could pay you generously," Moon proposed as Marco thought of it. "I don't need the money but I could help every so often if you would like," he suggested as Moon smiled. "That would be nice. I'll see you around the castle Marco," Moon smiled as Marco exited the room. He was going to check up on Star since she was probably looking for him.
Star had just finished having a bath and got dressed back into her normal clothes. She was going to look for Marco and see if maybe he wanted to have lunch in another dimension since they had around 2 hours to spare. She started walking to his room and once she had arrived, he saw Marco walking to the door as well. "Hey Marco!" Star greeted her as she walked up to Marco. "Hey Star. I just got back from showing the papers to Moon and I think she really liked them. She said that I could help with some paperwork so whenever I have time I'll be doing that," Marco began as Star looked at him surprised. "You wanted to do paperwork? It's soooo boring," Star remarked.
"Actually I find it quite enjoyable. It really gets me relaxed."
"You would make a really good king," Star stated as Marco's face turned red as he turned away but noticed that Star didn't get what she was saying. "Anyways you up to go to another place for lunch?" Star continued as Marco's blush faded. "Sure. You got any ideas?" Marco questioned as Star smiled. "You've got to try out this place that sells good cornshakes, you'll love it," she beamed as they started to walk to the gates of the castle. "Sounds like a plan," Marco retorted. He had never been outside into the streets of the Butterfly kingdom and was interested in exploring it. They had walked for four minutes until they opened the doors to go out and greeted the guards who stood at the door. The outside had looked rather nice but nothing compared to the castle. There were lot's of shopping areas along with cafes and some apartments. They walked down the road until they came across a cafe that was called 'Hard Corn Cafe' which was a weird name. They had sat down outside and had immediately been given menus to see the food.
After a while, they had decided on getting their food. Star had gotten a corn snake and a corn pie while Marco had also gotten a corn shake but also got a corn with butter. There sure is a lot of corn here Marco thought as the man dashed to the kitchen to prepare the food. "So you got any other princess duties?" Marco asked as Star slumped in her seat. "Well I have dinner with my dad's side of the family so we're going to go to their kingdom in around 1 and a half hours but it won't be too bad. They're really fun like way better than my mum's side," Star beamed as she sat back up with a smile on her face. "Interesting. Today's been really busy so it's going to be nice to just sit down and talk," Marco thought aloud. "You'll love them. They're all warriors and really strong but I wouldn't be surprised if you were stronger. I'm still really surprised at how strong you are though," Star added.
Their food eventually arrived and they had eaten relatively quietly since they had both been quite tired from doing a lot of work. Once they had finally finished their corn based meal, Star had given the waiter a stack of coins which seemed like way too much to pay him and his face showed that. They soon left and walked around the kingdom to look around and also check out some of the shops. Marco ended up getting more casual clothes to wear that were mainly shorts and different colour t-shirts and Star had pressured him into buying a suit for formal occasions. They had finished walking around with 20 minutes to spare so they started walking back to the castle. On their way, Marco noticed that there was a group of kids that had been playing tag with one of them wearing a red hoodie which put a smile on his face. I really am a good influence.
Once they had arrived, they had gone to get prepared for the visit and eventually met up again at the front of the castle where a carriage had been waiting. "So why don't we just scissor over there?" Marco asked. Their parents had gone into another carriage since the carriages had been rather small and could only for roughly 3 people. "We go on carriage so that it gives a good representation of our status and it doesn't really matter since we go through a portal anyways." The carriage had started moving and they had gone through a portal which placed them around 1 kilometer away from the kingdom which was quite odd for him. He decided to stay on alert while they had made their way to the castle. Star and Marco had been chatting about what the event was about for about 5 minutes until Marco felt that they were being watched. He was looking out of the window and saw that the castle had only been around 300 meters away now. He looked at the forestation and noticed something moving inside of the nearby forest. He focused on it and it looked to be some monster that had been staring at them and then he noticed something else, a bow in his hand and was aimed at their carriage. What was worse was that Star was in front of the window and he knew things would go bad. As the monster let go of the arrow and saw it start to head his way, he used his quick reflexes to push Star out of the way and with that push, it had moved him forward and he got hit in the shoulder with the arrow.
Star stumbled onto the ground and rubbed her head. "What was that for Marco?" Star angrily asked as she looked at Marco and she went pale. He saw that there was an arrow sticking out of his shoulder and was breathing deep breaths until he yanked it out. "MARCO!" Star shouted as she got up but Marco stopped him. "It's not safe right now. Stay down," Marco demanded and they heard another shot and heard screaming outside and their carriage had halted. Star had been on the ground while Marco peeked through the window only to just dodge another arrow that had been fired in their direction. After a few moments of silence, their door was opened to see a very worried River and Moon. "Star! Are you alright?" Moon stuttered. Moon set a shield around the carriage and Star got up. "I'm alright. Marco pushed me out of the way of the arrow but got hit," she gulped as they looked to see Marco holding a vile and pouring it onto his shoulder as he cringed due to the stinging pain. "Don't worry about me. I'm fine," Marco responded as he started moving his shoulder to feel pain but it felt alright. They exited the carriage to see that they had been surrounded by a large group of monster bandits. Marco felt around his pockets but forgot that he had left his scissors in the castle. "Argh! I forgot my scissors in the castle," Marco groaned and got a surprised look from Moon and River. "You have dimensional scissors?" River exclaimed but Marco shrugged it off. "I'll tell you about it later. Right now we need to take care of these monsters, it shouldn't be too hard," Marco remarked as he looked around and saw Star, Moon and River all prepared for a fight. "Star, stay in the carriage," Moon and Marco demanded at the same time. "But mum! I can handle myself. I've got my wand!" She begged. "Star, I know you can but I don't want you getting hurt. There are at least 50 monsters around here." Before Star could retort, Moon had placed her in a small shield which she banged on but wouldn't budge. Moon turned to look at Marco. "Marco, will you be alright to fight?" She asked with concern. "Trust me, I can handle a couple of monsters," Marco confidently replied. With that, Moon dropped the shield and the monsters started rushing. "ATTACK!" River roared as he swung a large warhammer into 3 monsters, sending them flying into the sky. Moon had charged her magic and turned into a butterfly while Marco stared dumbfounded. She charged a large energy beam and hit 5 monsters with it. Then Marco had rushed a group of monsters and punched the first one in the face while sidestepping an attack from the back. He pivoted to but his strength into his hands to grab a hammer that one of the monsters had swung and looked unfazed by the swing. He jabbed the monster's arm, paralysing it and grabbed the hammer and swung it at 2 other monsters. They had continued their attacks with all of them holding steady and Marco turned to see that some of the monsters had been trying to smash the barrier around Star while she sat down, bored and unfazed by their attempts. Marco dashed at them and jumped high into the sky and landed on one's head and grabbed it while jumping off, completely flipping it. Star was now interested in the action in front of her and noticed how good of a fighter Marco was. She also noticed that there weren't any guards around and looked to see that they had been shot with arrows which was very gruesome, looking back at Marco. He had just taken on another 5 monsters and the amount had gone down to around 15 which only took another minute until they had all been taken care of, bodies laying all over the ground.
Moon, River and Marco had stopped and had been panting from all of the action as River laughed, swiping some sweat off his brow. "That sure was a show, not to mention that Marco's a true warrior. I saw you take on those 10 monsters with ease and only a hammer!" he exclaimed and slapped Marco on the back. "I could say the same about you. I saw you take out 3 monsters with one hit. Pretty impressive," Marco replied. As they had been talking, Moon had released the shield from around Star and she got up, looking angry. "Oh come on! Why did Marco get to fight monsters?" Star pouted but Moon didn't answer the question. "Alright. We should get to the Johansen kingdom right away before any other monsters attack."
They had continued their walk for another 5 minutes as they stayed on high alert the whole way and had been greeted by a group of guards who had let them in. They had sent some knights to retrieve the bodies of the killed soldiers to hold a burial for them.
Although that had just been through a lot, they decided to go the rest of the day relaxing and telling the story of what had just happened while Star talked about how heroic Marco was while he stood there humbly. Some of Star's uncles had challenged Marco to a spar and had all been dominated by Marco which surprised them. Star had been embarrassed by the comments of Marco being the right boy but laughed it off. They eventually began eating dinner at a large table as they destroyed the food on their plates while shouting and singing while seeing Star really enjoying herself. Star really does like his dad's family. After some more chatting and more appraise, it had started to get dark and they had borrowed a pair of dimensional scissors to go directly back to the castle to avoid any unnecessary danger.
Once they had arrived, they all thought that they had enough action for one day so they all went back to their respective rooms. Marco was exhausted after doing a lot of fighting so he decided that he would be going to bed early.
Star had also been really tired but spent a little more time awake. She had been dressed into her pyjamas and was laying on her bed, recounting the day. Marco still keeps on surprising me. First he shows his amazing cooking skills, then he flawlessly does all the paperwork and then he saves me from that arrow and fights like 15 monsters without even breaking a sweat. Star had thought more about Marco and only him as she thought about all the things that people had said about him and her. What did Star think about Marco? Sure they had been friends but Star was starting to feel something different. Star had never been such good friends with someone else and Marco was willing to risk his life just to save her as he had shown before. She laid there deep in thought.
Do I really like Marco?
A/N Thats a wrap to another chapter. The chapters keep getting slightly longer than the other one since this one was now around 9.5k words. Sorry for taking longer to get this chapter out since I've been doing a little more homework than usual and had taken a couple more days from writing the story.
BTW I've been thinking if I should make a second story on SVTFOE right now or if I should wait until I finish this story. If I were to make a second story at the same time, it will take me longer to update each one but if I wait until I finish this story, it will be quite a long time since I'm planning on making this a pretty long story at around maybe 200k words but let me know what I should do.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter though :D