--Vincenzo POV--
"He asked me to marry him-"
"What!?" I cut her off. Never in my life have I wanted to beat up a dead person before. Not until now. Atticus, he was supposed to be one of my great ancestors!
"That can't be. From the history records, it's stated that Atticus was madly in love with his wife," I stated, baffled.
"They're wrong. From what I saw, Atticus didn't love nor hate his wife and the same could be said about her towards him. They had a civil relationship up until he died in the war and then their child became the next King, I would think,"
"You think?" I mumbled.
"Yes. When Atticus died in battle, I returned to the sword then vanished up until you found me. When the wielder dies, the contract goes void," She turned her head around for the first time and smiled at me.
"What's it like in the sword?" I changed the subject but asked with genuine curiosity.
"Huh?"
"Sorry, is that a rude question?" I immediately said, wanting to punch myself in the gut for being so direct.
"No, I'm just surprised," She breathed out.
"Why?" I raised a brow and she turned her head back to face forward.
"No one's ever asked me that before," She mumbled, seeming as if she were talking to herself more than me and I didn't like that one bit.
"There's a first time for everything," I said and she chuckled.
"Yes, there is... The sword is a lonely place," She answered my question which I had almost forgotten about and unintentionally, I felt my gaze drift towards the sword that was wrapped up in cloth and sat on the side of Deus.
"It's as if time doesn't exist. It's like an endless, repetitive dream of my life before I was sealed into the sword and I feel like I'm getting mocked... for not cherishing my freedom while I still had it and now that it's all gone... Loneliness, longing and solitude are all I have," She mumbled.
I didn't say anything and simply stared at the back of her head.
I was right.
This woman is like no other and it's not because she can tame a wild beast or create a flame of fire with a snap of her fingers, it's not her beauty, her smile, or her voice.
It's her words and her eyes which are like nothing I've ever seen before.
She's 409 years of age but in all honesty, she's merely 19 and her eyes say that she's seen much and unless I do something about it, she'll keep living like this fake, emotionless puppet for the rest of time.
For some reason, the mere thought of that made me angry.
"Did you have a pet lion when you lived on the floating city?" I asked curiously as I thought back to the story my mother used to tell Charlotte and me all the time. Eleanora laughed at the question and I felt my heart grow in pride for being able to change her mood.
"I wouldn't call him a pet, he didn't like being called that. His name was Apollo and I found him in the human land when I went with my father. He had stumbled into a small village and the villagers were all frightened and injured him, I saved him and bought him back to Andreas with me," Ah yes, Andreas was real. I'm still trying to get my head through that.
A floating city, I used to laugh at it all the time but now I'm the one that's getting laughed at.
"But he died when Andreas fell... along with all the other mages... and my father,"
"You can't be the only one that survived," I tried to make her feel better but ended up making her feel worse when she seemed to have realised that Andreas fell 400 years ago.
"They're all dead," She confirmed and this time I was the one left with a heavy heart. I can't imaging being as lonely as her, ever.
"Nora," I called lightly, a small smile gracing my lips.
"Hmm," She replied half-heartedly.
"You're an amazing person," I said and there was a long moment of silence.
"Thank you. Vince," Vince. I loved the sound of my name coming from her lips. The rest of my family either called me Vincenzo or Enzo, I think Nora was the only person that called me Vince. In realisation to that, I bit my lip to hold back a grin.
"Say, how old are you, Vince?"
"25," I answered and she hummed.
"How old did you think I was?" I asked.
"I'm not sure. If I had to guess, then maybe 20?" I was staring at the back of her head but I imagined that she had a cute expression on her face right now.
Realising that I was behaving differently, I quickly shook my head as if trying to shake off the weirdness that fell over me in Nora's presence. I was going mad and I couldn't afford to go mad, not right now, at least.
"You said you were the King," I heard her start.
"I did," I nodded my head. "What about it?" I pushed.
"How long have you been King?"
"Around 5 years," I hummed. Unlike my father who didn't want to be King, I knew that I wanted to be King since I was a young child and so I began preparing for it early and managed to become the sole ruler after much hard work and persuasion.
Not only was I crowned the youngest King in Lysandra history but I was also the first ruler that managed to become King without having to marry someone first.
That was only thanks to my parents though, they wanted me to marry for love over anything else but I don't think they realise that the kind of relationship they have is rare to the rest of the world.
The chances of me marrying for love are unlikely and I'm not the least bit depressed about it, I have more important things to worry about than love.
Things like finding Alpheus and dragging him back to the palace but unlike the first time, this time, I don't plan on being lenient with him. I only realise now that for all this annoying nonsense involving that man to end, I'll have to kill him.
And that is something I am looking forward to.
...