More backstory this may or may not be a hard read for some people to read becuase I used some of my own real life experiences in this one. No, I will not tell you what is real or what is fiction! Needless to say I've met people that had it much harder than I did as a kid. And no... I don't think that anyone can just, get over it, some things in life stay with you.
Just like the bush promised a slightly broken airship was left off at the workshop by one of the Atlee household staff. The guys at the workshop had it fixed up in less than an hour. They even went overboard and gave it a new paintjob.
The aircraft was like a dingy boat that you would see on the side of older ships, they were normally used as life rafts, but this one had a series of helicopter type rotors and blades that protruded from the bow and stern of the craft. Julius didn't really care all that much about the size, but for his purposes it would at least get the job done.
It was already too late in the day to start off, plus the fresh coat of paint on the airship still needed more time to dry. Julius thought that it would be better to start out the following morning.
Julius didn't like the way that his mother kept eyeing him suspiciously over dinner. Mylene kept asking him questions about what he and his secretary were up to the past few days. Julius kept his answers cryptic, or vague enough that even the woman with the sixth sense wasn't able to get a good grasp on what he was about to do.
Julius groaned into his soft pillow while he lay face down on his oversized bed. Jilk kept hounding him right after his mother had. He wouldn't shut up about the secret dungeon that Julius knew about.
That's dungeons plural, Julius thought while turning himself over in bed. There are three that are relatively easy to both find and clear. He frowned. I had to work really hard, because of the level requirements, fucking sucky assed game wouldn't even let my party into the damned thing until I had three characters that were level six, or better. Now that I have met that requirement… he turned his head to look at the AR-ten that was cradled in a stand that was used for swords now it held both his rifle and his katana like sword still inside of its cloth case underneath it.
Julius's sig was laying on his night stand next to his bed, there was a full magazine in it and there was even a round in the chamber. "I'll actually get to break in my new weapons and test them in actual combat conditions…" Julius draped his arm over his face and sighed. I'll have Erica and Angelica with me, but I need a healer… I'll have to go to that tiny town on the outskirts of the kingdom to pick up Olivia. I hope that she'll believe me when I tell her that she's the saint… Julius frowned deepened. I can read the headlines now, crazy prince claims that a peasant girl is the legendary saint, his head rolls at noon today… I hate monarchies, at times like these I miss the Republic… I wonder what happened after I died? Did dad get reincarnated too, what about mom, or my big sister? What about the rest of my family, my aunt and uncle? I thought that I'd be in paradise and become one of the angels, but no I get reborn here in this shitty assed game-world that doesn't make a lick of sense…
"Fuck," Julius screamed while covering his face with a spare pillow to muffle himself so that he wouldn't wake anyone. "Not even gravity works right in this place and physics…the fuck are physics?"
Everything that I knew is either wrong, or has been turned on its head! Every fucking time I look up something about what happened to gravity, why do island float? Magic, over and over again the answer is simply magic! Magic is practically the answer to everything in this world! And these idiotic New Humans not only accept it, but go along with it! Julius screamed into his pillow again. I wonder if the developers learned from the same ones that worked on Halo or War-Frame… though I think that both of those games are slightly more realistic than this one! Why couldn't I have been reborn as a tenno, or as a monster hunter, or even one of the bloodborne, or tarnished? I'd take those hell holes over this… this damnable place that doesn't even pass the sniff test! Why is the sky blue… magic! Why is the grass green… I don't know? Magic… how did magic come to be in this world? Answer… magic…
Julius sat up in his bed, threw off his covers, put on his slippers, stormed over to the sliding door that would take him out to his terrace, stormed across the balcony over to the railing, after closing the door leaving it only a crack open. He crossed his arms on the cool stone surface and slammed his head down on his arms.
"Magic, magic, magic," Julius tried to impersonate the Brady Bunch meme, Marsha, Marsha, Marsha. He felt miserable, the only things that he really liked about the place were being able to bring back what the people thought was old, or lost technology and he liked some of the people.
"Queen Mylene, is nice and she's got a good brain," Julius smiled despite himself. "Looks and brains is a dangerous combination. Then there's my fiancée Angelica, she's becoming more monstrous by the day…" He muttered, before going quiet. I really have come to love her. Angelica she really reminds me of my younger sister that died when she… no… no Julius don't think about it, it was a long time…no a lifetime ago… tears welled up in his eyes when he thought of his kid sister from his past life. They have the same smile, sometimes I have to prevent myself from calling Angelica, my sister's name. Hot tears soaked his sleeve, but he didn't care.
Erica cautiously opened the door to Julius's room. Erica was startled and was getting rather scared when she noticed that the Prince wasn't in his bed like he usually was at that hour. Silently Erica entered the room, she was about to look if he'd fallen off his bed again, but the soft sobs emanating from outside made her panic. In a flash she ran over to the sliding glass door only to see that Julius was crying into his arms.
The twelve year olds sob's, caused Erica herself to have tears well up in her own eyes. Slowly and cautiously she slid open the mostly closed door. Using her stealth techniques she walked up to the slumped over and sobbing child, he stiffened a bit when she wrapped her arms around him and rested her cheek on his head.
"It's alright Julius," Erica whispered to him. "Everything is alright…"
"So much you know," Julius's tearful, but slightly angry retort caught the woman off guard. "I've lost so much, from coming here and I'm afraid I am going to lose even more… I should have gone to heaven like I was supposed to! I don't want to be here! I don't want to be this shitty prince who is both a moron and an idiot…"
Erica held her tongue, I really want to tell him that both of those terms mean the same thing, she thought while she continued to listen to her Julius's troubles.
"I want to be with my real family," Julius's tears intensified. "I miss my parents, my dad was killed right in front of me, then I was shot and I should have died alongside him, my mother died from cancer six year ago, my older sister is alive as far as I know, but my baby sister… she… she died in my arms, I didn't know CPR at the time I was only six and she was four… by the time that the grownups arrived she…"
Julius turned around and hugged Erica who was so overwhelmed and shocked by what Julius was saying she wasn't exactly sure what she should do.
"It was too late, they… they couldn't save her and I didn't know how to save her… I can still see her face, every time I look at Angelica I see Meg's face I have to keep telling myself that Angelica isn't Megan even though… even if they look the same and have the exact same smile. I have to keep telling myself that Angelica isn't Megan, she isn't the sister that I lost on that riverside all those years ago."
Julius, the boy with the memories of a deceased adult cried like the child he was supposed to be, his twelve year old mind having to shoulder the burden of his old life and his new one. It made Erica's heart ache knowing that there was nothing that she could do for him, but give him a shoulder to cry on and listen to whatever was bothering him.
"Erica," Julius muttered half asleep after a full hour of crying. Erica only stroked his head and hugged him. "I love you, please don't leave me…"
Erica's hand stopped moving, her heart rate went to plaid just like Space-ball one did. Her face turned red that even showed while only illuminated by a moon and stars. Erica was so blindsided by the half asleep and delirious child's mutterings that all thoughts died, while her brain tried to rediscover how to even breathe. Erica gasped for air, then after calming down enough she placed Julius on her back and carried him piggyback into his bedroom. She used her foot to slide the sliding glass door that was slightly ajar all the way closed. After placing Julius back on his bed she quickly and quietly made her way out of his room. After silently closing the door behind her she pressed her back to it and slide down the side of it.
Erica hugged her knees while her heart rate went supernova in her chest. She clutched her maid outfit over her heart, but when she felt the dampness from Julius's spent tears, her heart rate and blood pressure both reached dangerous territory.
Another maid carrying a small lantern was coming down the hallway toward her. The maid with the lantern stopped to see what was wrong with her fellow maid. "Are you alright miss, Erica?" she asked with concern.
Erica titled her head, to show off her tomato face and steaming ears. "No, no I am not alright…"
"Wait here," the maid with the lantern used her free hand to gesture for her not to move. "I'll be right back. I'll go and fetch the physician…"
Erica grabbed the hem of the maid's skirt to prevent her from doing so, "That won't be necessary," she let go of the maid's skirt and got to her feet. "Do you know if Queen Mylene is still awake?"
"Yes," the lantern shifted to the maid's other hand. "She's been pouring over some new research documents in the study, she'll probably be awake for another hour at least." The maid frowned. "From the look I saw on The Queen's face and from what little of the conversation I overheard, she most likely won't be heading to bed, probably for even longer than that…"
Erica gave the woman a slight nod in thanks before running down the hallway toward the Queen's study. The maid stretched out her hand to stop her, but she had already lost sight of her down the rather dark hallway.
The grandfather clock in Queen Mylene's study chimed eleven times. The papers on her desk made her blood boil and a vain in her right temple throbbed. "They demand that I hand over my son to them…" she spoke through clenched teeth and was seething with rage. "What on Earth are those clergymen thinking! Are they trying to start a war with the Royal Family?"
"I was only delivered the envelope this evening," Carlson Livenston still dressed in his armor was also livid when one of the Chaplin's stopped him while he was on his way out of the training hall and handed him the envelope for him to deliver to the King and Queen. "So, my Queen what would you like for me to do?"
"I don't know," Mylene pounded her fists down on her desk. "It doesn't say why they want Julius, it just says that we need to hand him over to the church or there will be dire consequences… but, again it doesn't specify for whom, who are they referring to? Are they referring to us nobles, or to my son, or are they inferring that our whole kingdom will suffer if we don't hand him over! I need more information! I can't simply give up Julius to them if they aren't going to give me any specifics!" She got up out of her chair and pounded her fists on the desk again.
Mylene's mind was in turmoil while she tried to think of every scenario and contingency concerning the Church, then the door to her office burst open. A heavy panting and very disheveled looking Erica came in, she closed the door, but immediately turned on her heels and briskly walked up to stand in front of Mylene's desk.
"My Queen," Erica spoke after taking several calming breaths, but even then her face was still very flushed and her heart was still pounding so loudly in her chest that both the Knight Captain and Queen Mylene could hear it. "Please allow me to be one of Julius's consorts!"
Erica's sudden demand made Mylene slump back down in her chair. Carlson Livenston on the other hand paled at the Erica's abrupt entrance and demand that the maid turned secretary had just asked of their Queen.
"Why," Mylene calmed herself enough to ask with a fierce look that could kill a lesser person. "Erica, why would you ask to become a concubine to my son…" Mylene's mouth couldn't work right when she realized just what kind of disheveled mess that Erica was in, her maid dress was wrinkled, her chest had a noticeable wet spot on it and her bonnet that she usually wore was hanging partially off her head. "Erica," Mylene rose to her feet, her anger once again boiling over. "Did you actually…"
"No," Erica flatly and loudly stated. "Though, after tonight I wouldn't really mind if Julius did something like your thinking with me!"
Now the Knight Captain and Queen both blushed red.
Mylene, retook her seat and gestured for Erica to tell them what happened and her reason for making such a decision as to become a concubine.
The Noble Monarch and the Knight Captain both frowned, but shortly thereafter started crying themselves, while Erica who was also in tears from just retelling what had transpired with Julius.
"He lost his sister,"— Carlson was sitting in one of the free chairs in the office his face was buried in his palms while he cried. —"when he was only six years old…"
"And she looks like Angelica Redgrave," Mylene shook her head in anguish and disbelief. "He didn't know how to save her. She even died in his arms while he looked on helplessly…" Mylene thought of her own daughter who was safe in her bed, she had personally made sure of that. "Now I know why he's become so overprotective of his sister Erica…"
"He said that he loves you and doesn't want to lose you," Carlson eyed Erica who nodded her head. "There is a very high probability that he won't remember saying that to you Erica. What happens when he wakes up tomorrow and has forgotten everything that happened tonight?"
"I don't care," Erica made a fist. "I've come to love him, I was simply too scared to admit it!"
"But your age," Carlson cried with wide eyed concern. "Erica you are seven years his senior…" he turned to Mylene who was already tired from dealing with the issue from the Church, but now Erica's proposal made things even more complicated. "Please Your Majesty you must tell her that there is no way that she can become a consort to Prince Julius!" He practically begged of her to renounce Erica's proposal.
"If Julius wants to keep Erica by his side," Mylene eyed Carlson with a hint of contempt, but then turned to Erica. "And if he truly does love her, then I would not have a problem with her becoming one of Prince Julius's consorts…"
Erica was about to thank her Queen, but Mylene held up her hand to prevent her from celebrating just yet.
"Erica you must also gain permission from Angelica," Mylene's eyes widened when the girl was about to start crying again. "I'm sorry Erica, but she is Julius's betrothed and she will become his primary wife. If Angelica agrees and gives you written consent that you can become Julius's consort then I will also sign off on it."
"Then I shall do so," Erica swiped her face with her sleeve to dry the tears that were forming once more. "I will ask Angelica tomorrow before we…" She suddenly slapped both hands over her mouth.
Mylene and Carlson noticed her abrupt action, so of course they wanted to question her on why she did that.
"Before you…" Mylene narrowed her usually very pretty soft eyes at Erica, who quickly turned her head. "What… Erica?"
"Nothing," Erica muttered from behind her hands. "I shall take my leave!" She hurried for the door, but then Mylene snapped her fingers and two more guards appeared right when she opened the door, they barred the Maid's way in order to prevent her from leaving.
Erica of course knew both of them so she deftly ducked down and slid between the two of them. Erica turned and twisted her body keeping herself out of reach when they attempted to grab her, but she was much too quick on her feet. Erica vanished down the left hallway leaving the guards mouths hanging open in disbelief.
"Should we go after her," The guard on the right turned to ask his Queen with a partly confused partly afraid expression on his face, while he pointed down the hallway.
Mylene raised her hand and shook her head. "Don't bother," she lowered her arm and glanced down at the paper on her desk. "Right now I have a much more pressing matter to deal with…" her ire rising once more and a very serious frown formed on her face.