The two months after I had met your mother all sort of flowed together. Everyday my grandfather and I would march up to the castle. And everyday we would show the lord's two sons a bit of swordsmanship before getting into a fight and pounding each other black and blue with the practice swords, after which you mother would use her magic to patch us up, and we would talk, your mother and I while on until the sunset sometimes till she was called away to study or I went home.

We did our job well, and after those two months the young lordlings would piss themselves if anyone suggested that they take up the sword. They had completely given up on the idea of ever becoming knights. Instead they got the idea of becoming famous hunters and were given bows and arrows and a target range. No one had the heart to tell them that their sister had enchanted the arrows to hit closer to the mark, and the bows to be easier to pull back. They were really completely incompetent with the bows, but they seemed happy enough, and hunters had a higher chance of coming back alive then knights.

Afterwards I had no reason to go to the castle anymore, so I joined the guards at the age of twelve in order to be able to go see your mother everyday. Everything was pretty alright for the next few years after that, but then problems started to emerge as the Lord's health started to decline.

You see, your mother wasn't really noble born, even though her father was the lord of the castle. She was born to one of the Lord's mistress, a half elf girl, in the days before his marriage. Being born to someone of lower blood and out of wedlock, she would usually had been punted to the cover the moment the Lord married. But your mother showed signs of being a powerful source and since having a sorceress in the family could be helpful, she was allowed to stay. They that doesn't mean that her stepmother liked it. She was kept locked up in the tall tower to study books on sorcery day after day, which is probably why your mother had just an adventurous spirit in the end. She took every chance she could to sneak out of that damn tower.

I remember how she always had me take her down to the mining tunnels. She said she liked to be underground, closer to the water ways that cared the magic through the earth. I didn't really understand it, but I would do anything to see that smile of hers. By the time I was eighteen, I had saved up enough money to try to ask for her hand. I had gotten a ring for her and everything.

I remember planning for days on how I was going to do it. I was going to climb up the outer wall of the tower, past the rest of the guards and get in through her window before going down on one knee to ask her to marry me. I had scouted out the wall in question and practiced for days in advance. I remember the other guards laughing at me as I claimed I was doing muscle exercise, though they probably all realized what it was really about simply by which tower I was trying to climb. My grandfather had been laughing for weeks, telling me that he was proud to have a grandson with more backbone and heart than brains.

It was the night before her fifteenth birthday, the night was clear and the moon was full when I started out from the house. Sneaking into the castle courtyard had been easy, since I knew the patrol routes like the back of my hand. The tower was built high, but it was fairly old, so small cracks in the mortar for me to stick my fingers into, and practice made it easy to find them even in the dark. I climbed the forty feet of the tall tower up to her window and tapped on the shutters. I had been shaking with excitement as I prepared to ask her the question.

But after hanging there tapping on the glass for ten minutes, my arms were starting to ache, and I was starting to get worried. I slipped a knife through the shutters and flipped the latch for the window, climbing into her room. Your mother was nowhere in sight.

I felt foolish, all my planning going to waste. But then I noticed something out of place. At the foot of your mother's writing table was a red apple with a single bite missing from it. The apple was bruised from falling from the table and the part that had been bitten off was starting to go yellow and the apple juice changed from exposure to the air.

I had searched the room a little more and found the smug marks of several pairs of large male boots on the floor and finally, a stone pendant covered in the old Dwarven runes with a yellow quartz stone set in the center. A present I had given your mother. One that she had never taken off.

I started to panic. I looked all over the place in her tower, not carrying if someone heard me. But after ten minutes and no one coming to even check what the noise was about, I realized no one was even there.

I sprinted out of the tower and rushed for the Lord's quarters. Some of the other guards tried to ask me what was going on. "Lady Marigold! She's missing! We need to organize a search!" I had shouted, trying to get to the lord's room. But I was stopped by the lady of the castle. I still remember that twisted look on her powdered white face. I can't imagine why anyone would willingly marry such a heartless woman.

"The lord is unwell. You won't disturb him for such a pointless matter." She had scoffed at me.

"Pointless?" I had been too shocked to even realize her twisted smile at first.

"Yes, pointless. That miserable child disappeared all the time. Scattering the guards is unnecessary." That bitch had said. "Who knows, maybe this time... she will decide never to come back."

That was when the pieces started to fall into place for me. Even though your mother wasn't the rightful heir to her house, she was the favorite child. Not only of the father, but of everyone. So the Lord's wife had decided to remove the possible obstacle to her sons' succession. She had arranged to have your mother removed from the castle... and then killed.

Realizing just how limited this made time, I spun on my feet, prepared to race out of the castle. "Stop right there." The 'Lady' had said to me. "You are not to continue this nonsense. Is that understood."

I turned to her, raised a middle finger and responded with the first words that came to mind. "Go fuck yourself! I'm not letting anything happen to Mary!" And with that I left to the armory to grab my equipment. The woman was calling for the guards to seize me, but none of them stepped forward to do so. We served the Lord, not that bitch, and even after the lord died, her sons would be the new lords, and they would have never approved of their half sister being killed like this. Even so, they didn't move to support me either, they weren't knights, they were just simple folks who made a living as guards. I understood, they had families they needed to think about. And I had thrown aside my duty to the Lord's house. Regardless what happened, after that day was done, I and my family would be considered criminals in those lands.

I grabbed the family sword, my grandfather's, that was kept in the castle armory. It was a massive piece of steel and wicked sharp. A dwarven blade made for the purpose of hunting dragons. Long enough and strong enough to slice an entire horse in two with just one strike. I took it and my horse which had been waiting for me outside the castle wall were I had left it, and I rode out towards were I knew the secret exit to the castle lie.

The trail from the scum that had taken your mother was easy to find as their was no path from the place the secret passage opened up too and they broke branches and disturbed nearly every bush. I went after it as fast as I could and when I finally caught up to them and nearly screamed my head off at the sight.

There were seven of them, and they had your mother bound and gagged. They stood around her, laughing like the monsters that they really were. "You witches aren't so scary when you can't say your spells." One of the bastard had been laughing. "This has to be the easiest job we ever got. They even drugged the girl for us."

"Yeah, but she's coming around now. Sorry love, but we've been payed to spill your blood." A second said. "But don't worry, we won't make you die without knowing the love of a man..."

They laughed as her arms were tied together and her legs forced apart. The second man was pulling down his own britches, preparing to mount your mother. I saw her fear and her revolution as the man descended on her.

I hardly even remember then next few seconds. I rode up to them, erging my horse to go as fast as it would and used my sword to hack the man who's trousers were down in half. His upper body spun through the air sending blood everywhere and startling the other scoundrels.

I jumped from the saddle and rushed towards them again, swinging my blade in a wide arc, cutting two more of them. The second hand armor they wore put up no resistance at all to my dwarven sword. Compared to the dragon scales it was made to cut through, the thick hide might as well have been empty air. One's head threw off while the other lost and arm and had a cut through his heart. They both feel down dead.

I had fought my way to your mother and was forcing the others back. But by then they had recovered from there shock and were reaching for sword and shield. They might as well not have bothered. The next three went down just as easily as the first. Their shields and swords shattered underneath the weight of the family sword and my rage. The final man had loaded a crossbow and the bolt slammed into my left leg, but I didn't care. I still ran towards him, ignoring the pain. He had raised his crossbow above his head, trying to shield himself. He had been begging for mercy. I sliced him in half from his neck down to between his legs.

I got back to your mother, stripped her of her bonds and she throw her arms around my neck and started to sob. She knew what had happened. She was always a smart girl. She knew that she couldn't go back to the castle. Her step mother was still there, and would try again to kill her. She had no where left to go.

After a few moments and got her to her feet and went down on one knee in front of her. Then, right there, with me still injured and covered in blood, I showed her the ring and I asked your mother to run away with me. It wasn't how I imagined me asking her, but at least I got my answer.

By the time the sun was going down, she used her magic to mend her clothes as best she could, as well as my wounded leg and we got back up on horseback to head into town. I told my grandfather what had happened and he and my grandmother started packing up to leave town.

'Alright... this still doesn't explain why you say that Ichigo was promised to a wizard.'

The story isn't done yet. Keep waiting. I told you it would be a long one.


I've been watching Berserk... does it show?