,,, jeanette12; oh cool, a review. thanks, buddy. and yes... poor anju.
"What... what did you say!?" the king exclaimed, face turned blue with terror. "You did what to the dragon!?"
"H-he didn't mean harm!" the mage quickly replied, hoping not to be executed.
"You shut up!" the archer hissed. "I did what I had to, to protect our kingdom! Your Majesty, I did what any loyal person would!"
The king pounded his fist on his throne's arm. "Are you stupid!? You might as well as have declared war against the demihumans!"
"And we can beat them!" the archer replied.
"I-it's all over, we're doomed!" the knight wailed, cowering nearby.
"We aren't! You all need to get your shit together!" the archer said.
Maki trembled behind her father. "P-Papa... they hurt-"
"She is not your friend!" the archer interrupted. "Princess! Open your eyes!"
"Do not speak to my daughter with that tone!" the king in turn yelled. "You've traumatized my poor Maki! The least you could've done is put her to sleep before doing whatever nonsense you were doing!"
"P-Papa..." Maki whispered in disbelief.
Her father caught this and frowned. "I- I'm sorry, Maki, darling. I didn't mean that they should kill your... friend after putting you to sleep! I meant-"
"You're right, we should've done that!" the archer said. "But these two were thinking of listening to the dragon!"
"B-but the princess said she was her friend!" the mage defended.
"We could've added it to our forces!" the knight added.
"Nonsense! It's a monster!" the archer replied angrily. "Monsters! They're what killed our family!"
"Anju's not a monster!" Maki cried.
"She is a monster!" He took a step towards her, arms stretched. "Princess, you are being deceived! You are siding with the monsters!"
"I am not!"
"That's enough!" the king yelled. "You will not accuse my daughter of something so heinous!" he said, and turned slightly to the princess. "Maki, I'm afraid this is getting out of hand. Please go to your room."
"But Papa!" Maki wailed.
"Maki, please," the king begged, tired.
"...okay..." Fighting against her tears, the girl hopped off his lap and walked towards the door. She turned back and glared briefly at the archer, then walked out the room. On the way back to her room, the girl stopped in front of a wide window and stared out. "...Anju... I want to see you again..."
She limped towards an unknown destination. Much less blood was spilling, but the pain was still throbbing in her head, screaming with rage and suffering.
The warmth dripping down her face felt odd, almost like it was no longer just her blood.
Was she crying?
Anju shook her head, sniffling. "Liar... she's a liar..." she rasped.
She eventually collapsed next to an old tree, lying helplessly on her sides.
"Maki... you're a liar..." she cried.
The dragoness waited, and waited, and waited, for her princess to come back and reassure her everything was okay. She desperately wished the girl would come and give her that sweet-sour green candy again. She wished the girl would come and tell her she was cute again, that everyone would love her.
She wanted to feel her friend's warmth again, she wanted to be embraced again.
"...no..." she growled, fighting back hero own tears. "She's a liar... she's not a friend..."
Grunting, the girl got up again. She tried to spread her wings, but they were trembling and weak. She was almost convinced that if she tried to fly again while feeling this screeching pain in her head, she'd no doubt crash into another tree and risk something worse happening to her.
The dragoness narrowed her remaining eye through her blurry vision to see a cave nearby.
She quietly made up her mind to take it. Whatever could possibly be living inside, it didn't matter- she needed a place to rest and heal.
Anju limped her way towards the cave and peered inside. As another drop of blood fell onto the ground, she held her breath.
"...?" No hungry beast assaulted her.
She sighed with relief and weakly walked inside the cave.
"No... I'm sleepy..." the girl muttered. She tried to fight back the coming darkness, but fell onto her knees. Determined to at least make her way deep into the cave, she channeled what remaining power lied in her hands and shot the area directly behind her with a fireball, propelling her further inside the cave. The girl roughly landed and smashed into the cave walls, feeling more blood spurt out from the impact.
Anju groaned. The tears were coming back, obstructing her remaining eye. She thought she saw something glittering on the ground in front of her, but she was just about at the limit of her consciousness.
The dragoness fell forward and felt water envelope her body.
As she sunk further, her wound screaming from water contact, she stared straight up towards the barely illuminated surface.
"...Maki... I want to see you again..." she whispered with the air remaining in her lungs.
...
"How's it going?" the mage asked and sat down across the knight, wooden cup in her hands. "Still hearing people mouth off at you?"
The knight sighed, looking down solemnly as he ignored the reflection inside his own cup of water. "Yeah..."
Sighing along, the mage glanced outside the window. "It's been hard for us, hasn't it?" she asked. "And that jerk got all the praises and everything."
"I- I don't understand," the knight said, "what is there to praise? What he did was foolish. What he did, the demihumans scorn us for it."
"Our country's people are idiots," the mage replied. "...n-not the royal family, of course, I'm not..."
"I know," the knight said. "I know... even His Majesty didn't approve of it."
"So why did it turn out like this...?" the mage wondered.
The two sat in silence.
"...you know, I'm... I'm thinking of leaving this kingdom," the knight then spoke up.
The mage's eyes widened. "You... what? But why?" she asked. "You can't leave us here, you can't leave the royal family here!"
"I'm sorry," the knight said, "but I'm tired. I'm tired... the villagers look at us like we're scum," he said. "And the soldiers look at us like we're cowards. And that guy... that guy looks at us like filth on the bottom of his shoes." He shook his head, hands trembling. "It's been four years. Four years... and nobody has ever let it go."
"...come now, it's... it's not that..." the mage said, but froze.
She knew it was that bad.
It had been four years since the kidnapping incident, and the archer was ultimately praised by almost everyone. Despite the royal family's worries, the princess' hostility, the knight's paranoia and the mage's disappointment, many supported the archer's acts, called it heroic, called him their savior.
Because of the others' worries, some started to doubt the Nishikino family's authority.
Because of his paranoia, some started to doubt the knight's capabilities.
Because of her reluctance, some started to doubt the mage's affiliations.
Because of the slight traces of a heart within them, they were starting to be viewed negatively, and it was something they had to put up with through the years that went by. It was... heartbreaking, to say the least.
Nevertheless, as long as the royal family remained, the mage would stay by them. She would never abandon them. That's why...
As she opened her mouth to criticize the knight, however, he looked at her. "You're teaching the princess to use magic, right?"
She blinked. "Y-yeah. And you're teaching her swordsmanship," she added.
Two years after the incident, two years prior to now, Maki made up her mind and one day came up to the two. She asked them to teach her how to fight, how to use magic. She asked the archer as well, albeit scornfully, to teach her to use the bow. When questioned for her reason, however, she said when she met the dragoness again one day she wanted to show her how she's grown.
That resulted in the archer openly mocking and criticizing her, deeply to the point of even threatening her and scaring her greatly. The then-fifteen years old princess locked herself up once more for few more days, but the mage and knight thought she had faced enough from the archer and decided to agree to training her.
It's been quite the two years for them, too, as Maki wasn't anything special, but she definitely learned fast.
She was their first and only disciples, and it's one of the only things remaining that they could be proud of.
Yet... "What are you going to do about her?" the mage asked. "If you just up and leave... who'll teach her more about weapons?"
"...it's time she graduated from that," the knight said. "I've taught her all I know. I think it's fine already..."
"But that's..."
"...even now," the knight said, "even now, when I see her, I'm scared. I feel it deep inside... she still harbors hatred for me, for us, for how we treated her friend dragon."
"No she doesn't," the mage interrupted. "...Princess Maki and I have talked about it some months ago. She doesn't hold us responsible for that anymore... it's only him-"
"Even then!" the knight yelled. "Even then... even if she doesn't blame us anymore, I feel it. I feel her silent stare pierce through my head. I can feel the blood lust in her, I can feel her calmness waiting for us to drop our guards and-"
"That's enough!" the mage said. "She will not do that! Again, it's all in your head!" she informed him. "It's your paranoia that's making you think that!"
"I know it is!" he replied. "But I can't help it, it's ruining me! It's ruining me, along with all these people's stares of judgement!" He sighed and looked down once more. "I can't take it. I can't take it anymore... that's why, I think it's best if I leave this place."
The mage shook her head. "That wouldn't solve anything."
"I know... but I've made up my mind," he said. "In two days. I'm leaving... in two days. I want to give my regards to everyone before I leave."
"...the princess will be sad," the mage said.
He smiled sadly. "I know. So I'll apologize to her for everything as well." He then got up and stretched his arms. "You should think about what you want to do as well. This kingdom is gone for, anyways, with that guy jumping up the ranking inside the villagers' hearts. Nobody believes in us nor the royal family anymore."
"...I'll... think about it," she said, uncertain, as he left. Looking out the window again, she saw Maki training in the courtyard, shooting off some elemental spells into the distant. "...Princess Maki..."