It's been what, a couple of months since I last updated? :(
Well here it is at last! Sorry for making you guys wait so long...
Prontera Royal Academy Dormitory, 4 years prior
Thirteen year old Daphne Trenton paced back and forth angrily in her luxuriously furnished room, her silk lavender dress rustling as she walked.
"UGH!" she fumed angrily, tugging at her long blonde tresses. "Who does that Kristoph think he is, to talk to me like that!?"
A pair of female attendants near the wall glanced nervously at each other for a brief moment, but said nothing at the princess's outburst.
"You," Daphne spun and pointed to one of the attendants. "Fetch me a glass of milk."
"Right away, Princess," the attendant said. She left the room silently. Daphne pointed to the other attendant.
"Bring me a pastry from the bakery," she demanded.
"Of course, Princess," the woman said. Without another word, she followed the first attendant out of the room. No sooner had the two attendants left, Daphne rushed to the door and locked it.
It wasn't as if the young princess wanted milk and pastries; she simply wanted to be alone for a while. Having attendants follow her around was stifling, and more than half the time, she felt that she was being watched rather than being served. Daphne dropped herself onto her bed, sinking into the luxurious blankets, and crossed her arms. Oh, when she got her hands on that idiot Kristoph, she'd –
"So you're a princess, are you?" a voice asked from the window behind her. Daphne jumped up from her bed and shrieked, then whirled around to face the intruder. A young boy with short blonde hair dangled from the balcony above her window.
"Oh, it's the idiot boy," Daphne harrumphed, and turned her face away. "I'm not talking to you. A princess won't lower herself to that level."
"Sticks and stones, Daffers," Kristoph responded. He began balancing on the ivory hand-rail of the balcony.
"Well how is it?" Daphne asked. "To be in the dignified presence of a princess – HEY THAT'S DANGEROUS!"
"Ooooh, is the princess worried about me?" Kristoph taunted. "I thought you weren't talking to me."
"I'm ORDERING you to stop doing that at once!"
Kristoph made a funny face at her. "Why don't you come here and make me?"
Daphne stepped backwards from the balcony.
"You idiot! What if you fall?"
"Scared?" Kristoph asked.
Daphne's brief moment of concern quickly turned into indignation and she balled her fists at her hips angrily. She had been strictly ordered by her father to stay away from windows because potential snipers might attempt to assassinate her, but if the princess had her way, she'd stand outside on the balcony as much as she wanted.
"I'll show you!" she huffed. Daphne made her way to the balcony outside, then placed a foot on the hand-rail.
"H-hey!" Kristoph objected. "It really is dangerous!" He jumped off the hand-rail into the balcony.
Ignoring him, Daphne hoisted herself up into a stand on top of the hand-rail. A sudden rush of elation coursed through her, making her heart beat fast.
"Well?" she asked. "How do you like me now?"
"I get it, I get it!" Kristoph said hurriedly. "You're not a coward, so get off that hand-rail!"
But Daphne, drunk off of the feeling of vertigo and excitement, began to walk along the balcony hand-rail with her arms spread out. An urgent rattling inside on the door handle of the room alerted the two of the return of Daphne's attendants. Kristoph gasped and spun around to look inside.
"Princess! Please open the door! Princess!" the muffled voice of the female attendant said through the door.
"Daphne!" Kristoph whispered urgently.
"Alright, fine," the young girl consented. "Be grateful that I'm in a forgiving mood right now."
She knelt to jump onto the balcony, but suddenly lost her balance. Her heart skipped a beat, and the world around her slowly lurched away.
"Huh?" she said.
"DAPHNE!" Kristoph shouted. He dashed towards the balcony and reached out to grab her outstretched hand.
Morroc Slums, Nightfall
Several things happened at once.
Reinbach rushed forward, reaching for Daphne's outstretched hand. Behind her, a red-haired female stalker materialized into sight and pulled out a sucsamad from Daphne's back to block an attack from Argos, who in turn, materialized into sight behind her. By a matter of inches, Reinbach managed to catch Daphne's hand with his own before she could collapse to the ground.
"Tsk!" Argos said. He jumped backwards and slid away from the stalker, then shifted into his customary cross-armed attack stance, never taking his scowling gaze off Colette. "Who are you?" he demanded.
Colette twirled the sucsamad between her fingers and wound a strand of red hair around her pinky. "My my," she said. "Asking a lady her name without introducing yourself first, Richard-dear?"
Argos made no effort to correct himself, only glaring back at Colette. My best bet is to catch her off guard with an unexpected attack, he thought. But catching a stalker off guard...It'll be easier to drop the moon!
Cradling Daphne's unmoving body in one arm, Reinbach began to shake Daphne gently, yet urgently. "Daphne! Wake up! Please!" Her body slowly began to grow cold. "No..." He stared in shock as life stole away from her body.
I don't have a choice, Argos thought. It's do-or-die! In another daring gamble, he sprinted forward as fast as he could to Colette, carrying his katars low. Just as he entered attacking range from the stalker, Argos raised his katars upwards in a rising slash. Colette merely danced around the attack.
"So aggressive," she whispered into his ear from behind, brushing his cheek with her hand. Snarling, Argos spun around wildly to attack, but she was already out of arms reach.
"You must really want to die," Argos said, as an irritated tic formed in his eyebrow.
"You're so boring," Colette sighed, examining her cherry-red painted nails. "At least Quint played along with me."
A twinge of uneasiness grew in the young assassin's stomach. What happened to Spider? Why did she refer to him in the past tense?
"What have you done with him?" he demanded. He tightened his grip on his icicle katars to the point that his hands shook.
"Oh I don't know," she said airily. "I mean, I only poisoned him a little bit. He should still be where I left him, right?"
"That dagger," Argos's voice shook slightly. "Why do you have his sucsamad!?"
The corners of Colette's lips curled upward. She remained silent.
Argos raised his stance again, unable to force his arms to keep from trembling. Cursing himself, he bit hard on his lip, and tasted the salty, metallic tang of blood blossoming on his tongue. Calm down, he told himself. Calm down, calm down, calm down... SHIT! He noticed it too late.
"Where are you looking?" Colette asked from behind him. She had managed to sneak up behind him again, this time right from under his nose.
"WHAT THE – " he spun around to attack at her, not even realizing that his hands were empty.
"Missing something?" she taunted, dangling a pair of icicle katars from two fingers. She let them fall to the ground.
He couldn't help himself. He glanced down at his empty hands. SHIT! YOU IDIOT, DON'T LOOK AWAY!
"How cute," Colette said in his ear behind him. "But I'm bored of you now." She raised Spider's sucsamad up, ready to stab downward.
"You're in the way," Reinbach muttered roughly. He knocked Argos aside one-handedly with brutal strength, out of harm's way. The assassin slammed into the wall and coughed flecks of blood.
"...You should wait your turn, knight boy," the stalker said, looking from Argos's dazed form to Reinbach.
"Shut up, you whore." His muscles tightened, his jaws were clenched. "Because of you..."
"Hmm? Angry because I killed your lover?"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!" Reinbach roared. He raised his zephyrus and thrust downward at Colette's abdomen. The stalker twisted out of the way, but her eyes widened with shock when the zigzag spear point impacted into the dusty street, forming a smoking crater.
"What... what the hell?" Argos whispered hoarsely. "What the hell was that?!"
"Berserk?!" Colette exclaimed. She gritted her teeth and jump-kicked the shaft of the zephyrus out of Reinbach's hands. This didn't seem to impede Reinbach, as the absence of the spear's weight granted him explosively fast punches that he wasted no time aiming towards Colette.
"Aaagh!" she screamed. In a desperate effort to get away, she backflipped away from Reinbach, flinging sand into the knight's eyes as she spun. Reinbach bellowed in irritation and swing his fists wildly. Using this chance, Colette made her way up to the rooftops of the nearest building and knelt on the tile, holding her right arm with her left.
"Having some trouble there?" Spider asked from not far behind her.
"You!" she gasped. "You're supposed to be poisoned!"
"Yet here I am," Spider said, as if being poisoned was simply a minor inconvenience. He shook his head from side to side. "I can't call myself an assassin cross if I couldn't deal with a little poison."
At the street below, Grant rammed his shield into the rampaging Reinbach, who, seconds before, managed to punch a crater into the nearest building wall. The blow was enough to shake the knight to his senses.
"Reinbach! Snap out of it!" shouted the paladin. The knight stopped, breathing heavily as his frenzy came to a halt.
"Captain Graves," he panted, before collapsing to the ground. "That stalker... Daphne got..."
Quickly, Grant made his way to Daphne's body, which had been carefully set next to the wall, not far from Argos. The young assassin was staring blankly at Reinbach.
"I'll tell you something interesting, sweet-cheeks," Spider said to Colette on the rooftops above. "It's true that Quint Yaxely only has a bounty of two and a half million." He reached into his cloak and pulled out an eerily smiling mask. Colette's eyes widened in recognition. "But you remember of course; the assassin cross Spider also has a bounty of two and a half million. Two bounties, both of which are two and a half million... I'm sure you know what that adds up to. It doesn't take a genius." He placed the mask on his face. "Now, what were you saying earlier about your paltry bounty of three million?"
Colette stood up on her feet, not letting go of her right arm. Spider's sucsamad hung limply in her hand.
"It looks like I overstepped my bounds," she said, smiling resignedly. "I managed to complete my mission, but I know when I have the lower hand and when to retreat."
"So then," Spider said. "How about giving back my dagger?"
"But if I do that, I won't have anything to remember you by," Colette said, clipping the sucsamad onto her belt. "Ciao!" She blew him a kiss, then dove out of sight by jumping into the dark shadows of the alley below. Spider stared at the alley where the stalker disappeared into for a moment, then let out a sigh of relief.
"I don't think I would have been ready for another fight so soon after recovering from the poison," he called to Grant. "How is she?" He jumped into the street below and helped Argos to his feet.
"Not looking good," Grant replied grimly. His left hand was hovering steadily over Daphne's back wound, pale blue light emanating from it, while his right slowly thumbed rosary beads. "I can use basic healing magic, but it'll take a priest to cure these wounds."
"What if we had shining plant extract?" Spider asked.
"You do? That'll help."
Spider looked over to Argos and jerked his head towards the entrance of the orphanage. Without a word, Argos nodded and left to find the shining plant given to Daphne.
Reinbach stirred, then forced himself up from the ground.
"She'll live?" he rasped hoarsely.
"Easy there," Spider said. "You're in no condition to worry about others." He walked over to the knight and helped him to his feet.
"Wh- who are you?" Reinbach asked.
"He's helping us," Grant said. "It's okay, we can trust him."
Ever so slowly, the knife wound in Daphne's back grew smaller under the light of Grant's healing magic. The blonde knight stumbled towards Grant and Daphne and knelt down next to them. He watched them silently for a minute.
"He's taking a while," Spider said, referring to Argos. "I'll go help him find that shining plant." The assassin cross followed his partner into the orphanage.
"I'm sorry," Reinbach said to his captain. "I failed to protect the princess. As soon as I believed her to be dead, I went berserk. I can't even do anything to help her wound –"
"You're a knight," Grant said. "Not a crusader or a paladin. Leave the healing department to me."
The young man fell silent but his fists and teeth were clenched with anxiety.
"What can I do to help?" he asked finally.
"Go inside and meditate about your actions," Grant said.
"Sir?"
"Now." There was a firmness in his voice that allowed no room for argument. Nodding, Reinbach stood up and walked into the orphanage as Spider and Argos walked out. The former was holding a potted shining plant.
"Here it is," Spider said, holding it out to the paladin.
"Thanks. Put it on the ground next to me."
"Sure thing."
The pale blue light flickered gently as the paladin stripped a leaf from the shining plant. He placed it over Daphne's stab wound and continued his ministrations.
"You know, you can try to act as if everything's fine and dandy," Grant said. "But let's face it. The two of you will have wave after wave of assassins after your heads for what we've pulled today."
"Well, we'll burn that bridge when we get there," Spider said.
"They'll be sending other assassin crosses too." The paladin began listing off names. "Remiel, Ghost, Raal – "
"They'll have to find us first," Spider shrugged. "Remiel is a nutcase. As long as I don't fight him one on one, I'm not too worried. Ghost doesn't specialize in tracking and chasing, and Raal is all about her flashy tricks; she's nothing special."
"Damn it, Quint! You've royally pissed off the assassins guild leader! Do you realize who you're up against?" Argos fidgeted at the mention of the assassins guild leader.
Spider looked at the paladin with his head slightly tilted. "Well Grant, of course I do. But considering the alternative, can you blame me? It was either get on his bad side or..." He jerked his head towards Daphne's unconcious body. "Kill the starling."
"At the very least, start thinking of a plan!"
"Let's not make any hasty conclusions here," Spider said. "If Daphne dies, then worrying about a handful of assassin crosses will be the least of our problems."
Yuno Academy, the next morning
"Some of the ancient religions and doctrines placed a heavy emphasis on the idea of karma," Tabby Williams said, pacing side to side in front of a chalkboard. "And even to this day, there are still some cultures that believe in the immediate cause and effect that each action has. For each good deed one performs, an equally good effect one will experience. For each bad deed, for each crime, one will suffer an effect with an equal amount of weight. Nowadays, many established theorists and thinkers regard the idea of karma as an outdated system in which ancient cultures dogmatically taught to their youths to reinforce moral fiber." She paused to take a drink of the hot tea from the mug at her desk.
"Who is to say that there exists a universal set of morals?" the professor went on. "Clearly, a person raised in Morroc will have a different set of ethics than a person raised in Prontera, or a person raised in Geffen. Is one person morally better than the others? Certainly, we feel inclined to say that the widely accepted faith of the Prontera Church must be right because more people are involved with it, but looking at things in the bigger picture, that isn't a legitimate reason at all. What if suddenly, a massive crisis struck Prontera and reduced the amount of the Church followers there to five percent. Does it mean suddenly, the school of science or magicks is morally right? No, of course not."
As the minute hand of the clock ticked closer and closer to the twelve, the students in the classroom began to restlessly fidget and stealthily place their notes and texts into their bags.
"Which brings us back to the notion of karma and what we'll be talking about tomorrow's lecture, Goodman's theory of causal conservation, not to be confused with the Law of Conservation," she continued over the rustling of students packing and standing up. "See you all next lecture!"
The students began packing their belongings in earnest now, chatting with their friends and neighbors while a couple of students hurried to the front of the class to ask their professor questions.
"Professor Williams!" a female student called. She rushed to the desk, adjusting her coke-bottle glasses.
"Ah!" Tabby smiled. "Miss Cook, was it? How did your attempt go last night!"
The student flushed excitedly.
"I- I did it! I managed to create a homunculus!" The students in earshot suddenly turned their attention to the young alchemist and interested murmurs fluttered along the classroom.
"Are you serious?!"
"Caroline did? Cooky Caroline?"
"I'm so jealous..."
"Haha, you're not even an alchemist, you're a sage."
Caroline hoisted her bookbag onto the desk and pulled out a quivering, semi-translucent peach glob of something. It was hard to tell whether it was a solid or a liquid. Nursed inside the gooey substance, a dark round ball with eyes peered up at the people huddled around the desk.
"Oooh, there it is! It's a vanilmirth type!" another alchemist student exclaimed. Tabby used this opportunity to explain more to the students.
"One of the reasons why there are still a lot of unknown territory regarding homunculi is because of the quite recent Pronteran Church ruling regarding what Biochemists and Alchemists can and can't research. Pope Hibram's flexible interpretations of the Holy Teachings allows us to pour more funding into research regarding homunculi."
But most of the students seemed more interested in the vanilmirth rather than the political influence of the church. A student poking at the homunculus recoiled quickly when it reached out with a gelatinous tendril and poked back.
"Ahh! What are you doing to Jello?" Caroline asked.
"That's weird," the student observed, examining his fingers. "It doesn't leave any residue behind. Professor! Shouldn't it leave at least a little?"
"Well," Tabby said. "Maybe when one of you becomes a well-learned biochemist, you can find out. We still don't know everything about homunculus yet after all."
"Haha, that's right," another student said to his friend as he walked to the door. "Thanks to the Pope, we can learn about all the interesting stuff in school now."
"Honestly, I don't see what all the religion fuss is all about," his friend replied. "All this time we've been warned not to create artificial life like it's some sort of crime; glad that things are different now..." his voice faded as the two walked to their next class.
Thanks to the Pope, huh? Tabby's brows furrowed deeply with thought. If only they knew what his real intentions were...
Prontera Royal Academy Grounds, Four years prior
A young black-haired teen sprinted as fast as he could towards the dormitory building. With a final leap, he dove forward and caught Daphne's body with his arms; the two of them rolled and crashed into the bushes along the white marble wall.
"Ghhh!" he grunted in pain, biting his lip so hard that blood dribbled down his chin. Both of his arms were dislocated. Beneath him, Daphne trembled uncontrollably, eyes screwed shut in terror.
The teen staggered to his feet. His sense of balance was skewed as both of his arms hung uselessly at his sides.
"Hey you," he said to Daphne. "Girl. Push my arms back into place." His red-ember eyes were clouded with pain.
But the blonde girl lay still in the bushes in shock. The fourteen year old Richard snorted.
"Fat lot of help you are," he said, voice dripping with sarcasm. "If you're just going to lay there uselessly, then I'm leaving. Try not to fall out of any more balconies." He turned and left.
"Daphne!" Kristoph shouted from above, climbing down from balcony to balcony, with the same method he used to first enter Daphne's room. He landed softly onto the grass. "Hey, are you okay?" He grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her out of her daze. "Who was that guy?"
Without warning, Daphne threw her arms around Kristoph.
"Hey!" he yelped.
"I was so scared!" she whispered.
"Er... yes well... it's time for you to go back to your room," Kristoph said awkwardly. He tried to stand up but Daphne wouldn't let go of him.
"Princess Daphne!" What looked to be a small army of servants and royal attendants rushed to the princess and shoved Kristoph aside. "Are you unhurt?" Daphne quickly regained her composure and stood up, smoothing out her dress.
"I'm fine," she said. "I will be needing a change in clothes."
"Right away, princess." Two of her attendants ushered her away, while a heavy hand clamped onto Kristoph's shoulder.
"You," a stern voice growled, allowing room for no defiance. "You're coming with us."
Morroc Orphanage, Morning
Daphne slowly opened her eyes. For a moment, she couldn't recognize her surroundings or why she was laying down in a bed or why she had a terrible headache.
This... is the orphanage, she realized slowly, staring at the increasingly familiar cracked ceiling. It appeared to be one of the childrens' rooms so where was the orphan who originally slept in here staying? She made an attempt to sit up, but a heavy pain in her lower back flared sharply. Daphne couldn't help but cry out softly.
Oh that's right, she recalled. I think I was stabbed...exactly who was it? With a sigh, she resigned herself to lay back down.
In the corner of the darkened room, Reinbach sat hunched over, nodding off between slumber and conciousness. Sensing that Daphne was awake, he rubbed his eyes and sat up straight.
"Oh... you're awake, Daphne?" he mumbled.
"Yes," she said. The pain in her lower back was replaced by a dull throbbing ache. "What happened to me?"
"A stalker tried to assassinate you," he said. "She seemed to be about twenty years old, red haired. Do you know anyone like that?"
"...No, I don't." The two of them fell silent, but Daphne felt that Reinbach was having trouble saying something he didn't want to say. "What is it?" she asked.
After a long pause, the young knight opened his mouth to talk but was interrupted by footsteps in the hallway outside.
"You're awake Princess Daphne," Grant stated, rather than asked. "I apologize for intruding so soon after you have recovered from your wound, but we must have you listen to our plans for the immediate future."
"That's fine," Daphne said. "You must have been the one who healed my injury after all." Reinbach looked away, gritting his teeth. "Is something wrong, Kristoph?" she inquired.
"It's nothing," he replied tersely, holding out his hand to help her out of bed. Gingerly, Daphne sat up and with Reinbach's help, managed to stand. The two of them followed Grant to the lobby of the orphanage. Two other men were waiting for them.
"Heh," Spider chuckled. "Is the sleeping beauty finally awake?"
Daphne involuntarily took a step away from the assassin cross.
"It looks like the two of you got off to a bad start," Grant explained to Daphne. "This man is my eyes and ears in Morroc. I would trust him with my life."
"Hey," Spider protested. "Eyes and ears? At least make me sound cooler in front of the Princess, yeah?" He bowed his head to the princess. "Quint Yaxely at your service. This kid over here is my junior partner, Argos." He pointed his thumb behind him to Argos, who was leaning against the far wall with his arms crossed. "But you've already met your half-brother, haven't you, Princess?"
"Half-brother?" Reinbach asked, eyes widening. "I-I see..."
"It looks like not all of us are on the same page," the assassin cross continued. "So why don't we start off by familiarizing ourselves with one another?" He turned his head around and stared at Argos.
"...What?" Argos demanded.
"You can start by walking closer to the center... that's it. No, no need for you to introduce yourself to the Princess, you've already met her..."
Daphne blinked bemusedly at Spider.
"No, you don't need to introduce yourself to Chevalier Captain Grant Graves either," Spider went on, enjoying his little game. "And if you need to introduce yourself to me, then there's a minor communication problem between us partners."
There was a long, awkward pause.
"Go on," Spider grinned evilly. "Shake his hand."
Grant pushed Reinbach forward, shaking his head while looking amused. The two of them shook hands for the briefest of moments.
"Reinbach," the knight muttered.
"Argos," the assassin replied.
"Wait," Reinbach said, looking at Spider. "So who are you?"
"Alrighty!" Spider said, clapping his hands together. "We're done with introductions."
"Huh?!"exclaimed Argos. He looked slightly betrayed.
"It's planning time," Grant stated. "We don't have forever to prepare for the upcoming week."
"Among one of the things we don't know," Spider continued. "Is whether or not the enemy knows the Princess is dead or alive. The stalker they hired couldn't confirm her kill. But we don't want to be in a situation where they can find out. It's never too safe." He stood up from his chair and pointed his finger at Daphne. "Basically, you are going into hiding as soon as possible, and we are going to give the illusion of your death."
"I don't like the sound of this," Daphne said.
"It's unpleasant, but necessary, Princess," said Spider. "In order to prevent any further assassination attempts, first we must stage your death. When word spreads, war will be triggered. Your existance will be revealed to the general public, and at that moment, you will appear at Prontera with the ability to stop the war and seize power from the Pope."
"I refuse to accept this!" she snapped, pointing at Argos. "Get him to do it instead! I am needed at this orphanage!"
"And you are needed by Prontera!" Grant almost shouted. "You MUST accept it! Please open your eyes to the truth!"
"I told you this before," Argos said. "The general public will never accept an illegitimate half-breed like me as their ruler."
Daphne squeezed her eyes shut and rubbed her temples. "Kristoph! You say something too!"
Reinbach looked away, unable to look her in the eyes. "As much as I would like for your happiness, I agree with them."
"Even you, Kristoph?"
A soft sound near the entrance of the hallway alerted them to someone's presence. Argos, Spider, Reinbach and Grant immediately reached for their weapons, but stopped when they noticed a young auburn haired child.
"Momma?" she mumbled sleepily. "Why is everyone so angry?"
Daphne stood up and rushed over to the young child.
"Hush now," she whispered, hugging her and rubbing her head. "It's okay, Rachel, it's going to be fine. It's nothing to be worried about."
"Momma... your shirt is wet."
"Princess!" Grant said urgently. "Your wound!"
"I said before," Daphne glared at the paladin, standing up to face him. A wave of dizziness assaulted her, but she forced herself to stand still. "I will not leave these children alone!" Blood silently dripped to the floor.
Reinbach had to admire her. She appeared dead on her feet but here she was, in a battle of wills against four men who all wanted her to leave the orphanage.
"Well at least listen to what we have to offer," the knight said quietly. "I know that child is important to you; if you agree to come with us, then she can come along too. And this orphanage has Mrs. Reeves, who somehow managed to hold things together, despite how frail she is. It has Aloys; despite his lack of capability, has only worked for the good of the orphans here."
"I-it's... it's just..." Daphne bit her trembling lip. "I have people who need me here!"
"Yes, well you've said that already," Spider sighed. "And there are people who –"
"It's not that!" she interrupted. "All my life, I've been pampered, spoiled, had things handed to me... I've been treated like a princess! I couldn't do anything without having aides constantly following me, or servants constantly asking me if I needed anything..."
"Well in case you haven't noticed," Argos muttered under his breath. "You are a princess."
"For the first time in my life," she went on. "I felt like I actually made a difference, I felt needed... with my own two hands, I saved these childrens' hearts!"
"Then all the more reason to go with us," Reinbach said, holding her shoulders. "Not as Princess Daphne, but as a guardian to these children. You have a responsibility as a caretaker right? Then for the purpose of creating a tomorrow where these children can live safely... you should understand that and come with us."
For a long while, Daphne seemed to be struggling with some sort of internal conflict. At last, she nodded.
"Fine," she said. "But this is only temporary, understand?"
"I'm glad that you've agreed, Princess," Grant smiled. "Don't worry, I swear that from now on, things will look up."
"But... how do you expect me to travel with this wound?"
"Do you think we've just been sitting here all night without thinking of a plan?" Spider said. "Who do you take me for?'