Hey guys, MT here!

I hope everyone is having a great day and surprise! I'm putting up a chapter on time today!

I'm feeling a little under the weather so please forgive the quality a bit.

Well, ENJOY!

Chapter 53

During this chapter, Tenshi will say her backstory without stuttering because it would be annoying to write and read. The entire chapter, unless otherwise stated, will be narrated by Tenshi.

Before I start, I guess I should tell you about what my life was like before it all began.

When I was 6 years old, I lived in a castle with my parents. I was the daughter of the king before Ivarod, Elsker the First. Elsker was one of the kindest kings that the Valkyrie kingdom had ever had and he took the throne after his father had died of a heart attack. People everywhere in my country loved him and I loved my father so much. We lived so happily, until my father tried to enact a reform. For over two hundred years, from my grandfather's reign to Ivarod's rule, there was a law that Valkyrie were forbidden from interacting with humans. My father disliked the law his father had created and attempted to enact a reform. The issue was that my father was older and too soft so it was difficult to fight back against the opposition. That was one thing that the people of the kingdom disliked about my father, his softness. Eventually, Ivarod appeared and organized my father's opposition and tried to start a civil war. He used my father's softness as an excuse by saying that the humans would use it to invade the country. My father didn't want any fighting so he backed off with his reform, hoping that people would be more open to the idea after some time. Around two weeks after he dropped his reform, the opposition seemed to dissipate, but in truth it just went underground. Ivarod led an underground faction and completely opposed my father's rule. One day not long after that, I was playing with one of the maids in the parlor while my father and mother were discussing some of the issues in the country and…and they came.

A small group of assassins, Ivarod as their leader, broke into my home and attacked the guards. They quickly killed off the nearby guards and attacked my father and mother. They tried to fight back but there was no chance of them being able to fight off so many assailants. My father told the maid to take me out of the castle and into hiding. I didn't want to leave. I screamed and cried and begged the maid not to take me away but she didn't listen to me. I remember seeing the sad look on my father's face as he watched me go and I hated not being able to do anything. The maid took me out of the castle and to a nearby alleyway. She told me to wait there while she went out to try and find one of her family members to take care of me but the second she left the alley, oh how I remember it clearly, an arrow pierced right through her head and she dropped to the ground before bleeding into the sidewalk.

The second I saw that I immediately panicked and ran out of the alley on the other side. There were a few of Ivarod's allies out there and, the second they saw me, chased me down the cobblestone streets. I remember how hard it poured that day. How scary it had been to be chased by Valkyrie with swords and axes and magic weapons. At one point they almost caught me and I was forced to slide into a sewer entrance. I just barely managed to fit and they couldn't get to me after that. Once I was in the sewer I just ran. I wasn't sure how long or for how far I ran but I just did. I was so far in that I could hardly see anything in the darkness. I ended up just sitting there and crying for hours.

I ended falling asleep like that in the dark sewers and, when I awoke, I found my way out. When I got back into town, I expected everyone to be angry and hating the people who killed my father and mother, however, when I got out, there was cheering. There was a festival and a coronation ceremony and everything. I was completely confused to see everything that had been happening and I didn't understand why so many people were happy my father, their king, was dead.

Since I was basically evicted from my home and I didn't know anyone or anything of the outside, I basically just wandered around until I found the market. I started begging for food and there was an old woman who gave me some bread because she felt sorry for me.

You might be wondering about Stradinir, my uncle, and he actually had no idea I existed. My father had told me about him and apparently, he left before I was even born for an extensive research trip of ruins all over the country. That had been four years before I was born so he never knew me or what I looked like. I was completely on my own and had to find a way to survive.

Two years passed and I was eight years old. The old lady who used to give me food died two weeks after my birthday of old age and I was at a loss of where to get food. I tried to find someone else who was nice in the market but they all shunned me, one of them even hit me for getting near his stall. I started to get thinner and weaker after a few days with no food but there was a little light. There was a wealthy man who had passed me one day and he took pity on me. He told me he owned a restaurant for the nobles and I could have the scraps that they usually get rid of at the end of the day. I was so happy and I lived in the alleyway behind that restaurant for three and a half years before the owner ended up shutting his restaurant down to follow a woman he had fallen in love with to her hometown far away. I lost another source of food and I was now eleven and a half years old. This was when my stutter began.

On my journey to find a new source of food, I ended up wandering into the worse part of the city. Not long after I moved over there, I met a group of angry delinquents and, after they found me, they attacked me, randomly, for fun. They would ask me questions and, if my answers didn't satisfy them, they would beat me. Every day I would be beaten and I began to develop a stutter from how scared I was of answering them wrong. They ended up enjoying how scared my stuttering sounded and they would hit me harder and more often, hoping to make it worse. This happened for more than four years until they were finally taken care of by the soldiers in the city. By that point I was a mess. I was incapable of speaking to anyone out of fear of being beaten for saying something wrong and I reverted into an introvert. I rarely tried to interact with anyone after that and I was too scared to speak in proper sentences.

This wasn't the end, though. When those people were arrested, I was 15 and a half. Until I was 18 years old, I basically spent my time sitting in different alleyways, hoping people wouldn't talk to me. Since I couldn't speak in continuous sentences without stuttering, when people spoke to me, they would get annoyed by it and yell at me. They would curse and spit at me for being 'a useless member of society' or a 'waste of life' and nobody was ever nice to me after that. Any food I got was from whatever food scraps I could find and whatever garbage people threw at me when they wanted to insult me.

I didn't understand why that had all happened to me and I began to hate myself. I lost any ability of I had to stand up for myself, my self-esteem was near non-existent, and I began to believe what people said about me. I didn't even try to fight it anymore. There wasn't a point.

One day, after the war was over, I saw a little light. My parents had been avenged. It was also around this time that I felt my body change. I felt something powerful get absorbed into me and I was filled with power. I couldn't control this power at all, though, and it was unstable at first. People told me that when I slept my entire body would vibrate. I was worried because I didn't know what was going on but I didn't have to worry about it long. It was then that I was found by Lord Bidashal and he brought me to Halkeginia. I still carry the scars from my life but I hope that one day they will fade away.

End Tenshi Narration

Saito stared at Tenshi with a blank expression after she told her story and he couldn't believe what had happened to her and who she really was. Tenshi was a princess and she was basically tortured for her entire life as a homeless person. After several 5 minutes of silence, Tenshi began to become uncomfortable and she fidgeted in place, wanting Saito to speak and tell her what he thought or felt about her past.

"Tenshi," said Saito, finally. He placed his hands on her shoulders and held her in place, as he his serious stare pierced her eyes.

"Y-Yes, S-Saito-sama?" asked Tenshi, confused by his seriousness.

"You're not alone anymore," said Saito, seriously. Tenshi's eyes widened a bit in surprise and she could barely form a response.

"E-Eh…?" said Tenshi in shock.

"You're loved Tenshi. You're not alone anymore," said Saito, still serious.

"E-Eh…? Eh…?" said Tenshi, her eyes becoming glassy as she processed his words. Saito pulled Tenshi into a hug and said Void mage continued her 'Eh's.

"We're your friends now Tenshi. We'll never leave you. Des Ornières can be your home forever," said Saito, calmly, as he hugged Tenshi. Tenshi's eyes became glassy at his words and she finally couldn't hold back her emotions as she felt the warm hug and words from Saito. She wrapped her arms around Saito's waist and sobbed into his shoulder, unable to control herself as she wailed into the forest and river.

So? What did you guys think?

I hope everyone enjoyed the backstory and the touching little scene at the end. I know I haven't brought Tenshi into the harem much but I've just had so much to think about and set up for future events.

The scene between Saito and Tenshi afterward will continue into next chapter and I will probably begin the Asuna-relationship reparations. Look forward to the future chapters!

Anyways, Review to let me know how I'm doing and until next time...byeee :D