Please read the author's notes. (Examples and explanation of moves and appearance+ Monster Sources)
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pat.treon:/Keanu_Eugene
CHAPTER START---
Walking behind Riveria, Yang quietly follows her into the royal dining room. A much smaller room than the main dining hall of the palace, intended to be used by the royal family and any special guests they may host.
Entering the room Yang immediately feels all the guards standing at the far walls lock their gazes onto him. Spotting the king at the head of the table he follows Riveria to their seats.
Only three seats were prepared, the king sat at the head with Riveria to his left and another set of cutlery placed beside it.
"Your majesty," Yang gives a polite nod, the king only narrows his eyes and turns to Riveria.
"Daughter."
"Father," the princess responds, promptly taking her seat and trying to keep her composure.
Following her lead, Yang sits beside her, deciding to at least extend an olive branch. "Your palace is quite lovely your majesty," he says.
"Why are you really here, mercenary?" the king asks.
"To help with the war," Yang says, completely oblivious to Riveria growing more and more annoyed as both men speak.
"You care about preserving our culture that much?"
"I care about standing against Rakia?"
"So revenge of some kind?"
"No, helping a friend," Yang says.
"And earning our gold I assume, joining a war he has no reason to fight in and earning a fortune, another warmongering human," the king narrows his eyes at Yang.
"His price was one Valis," Riveria reminds her father. "Father I was very clear that Yang and his team can be trusted and will make excellent allies, essentially winning the war for us if we'd let them," she says with a scowl.
"Humans will always stab us in the back, this one is no different," he argues.
"Easy to say when you never leave the forests," Riveria snaps, "but I've been fighting alongside the other races in the dungeon for decades, we've faced hell together and they've saved me time and time again, including Yang. I won't sit here and let you call them traitors so easily!"
The king leans back in his chair and glares at his daughter, "you're an Elf of the highest breed, you shouldn't need help. You're our princess, my daughter, you're perfect."
"No, I'm not," Riveria removes the glove from her left hand before raising her hand for him to see the scars left by Rajang. "And I never was, no one is perfect father."
Seeing her scarred skin the king recoils in disgust for a moment before schooling his features, his emotions bubbling up for a moment, but that moment was all it took.
For Riveria's heart to break.
And for Yang to reach his limit.
A short burst of heat washes over the room, as if for an instant the mid-day sun shone down on the forest floor for the very first time.
Snapping Riveria out of her thoughts before her tears could even form she turns to see Yang standing up, staring a hole into the empty plate in front of him, and the heat recedes.
"The food was lovely, your majesty," he says in a cold tone. "The journey to the forest was quite exhausting, so if you'd excuse me I should get some rest now," without waiting for a response he walks out of the room, all the guards staring at him but they dare not move to stop him.
"I should retire to my chambers as well fa---" Riveria cuts herself off, mouth hanging agape for a moment before she makes her decision. "We can discuss things further another time, your majesty..."
Leaving the king to process what just happened the waiting staff brings their meals, only to be met by their king sitting alone at the table.
---Later That Night...
"They're pretty much all assholes, the Ranger lady seems fine but I don't know..." Yang says. Laying in bed and speaking into his metal hand.
"All this for Welf to feel better about himself," Freya groans, her voice carrying through his hand. "You shouldn't be in that forest surrounded by people who don't appreciate you, just come back here."
"You know I can't leave until this is done, Freya. Are they making any progress back in Orario?"
"I wouldn't know," Freya says. "I'm in Folkvangr right now, my familia recently made progress in something we've been working on so I can relax and go back to work tomorrow."
"That job you can't tell me about?"
"That's the one. Welf hasn't left his forge in days which has Hephaestus feeling very...lonely. And Thalie still hasn't come out of the dungeon from her training with her daughter."
"So business as usual then," Yang sighs.
KNOCK!
KNOCK!
KNOCK!
Hearing someone at the door Yang frowns slightly, "come in."
"I can't," Riveria answers from the hallway.
Raising a brow at this he puts on his shirt and goes to the door, greeted with the sight of Riveria in a thin green dress with a thick scarf draped around her shoulders, clearly ready for bed.
"Dungeon mom, can I help you?"
"Care to take a walk with me, Dungeon Emperor," she says with a teasing smirk much to his chagrin.
"Uh, sure," Yang steps out of his room and begins following her down the hallway. "Any particular reason we couldn't just talk inside?"
"Hmm, you'd enter a royal palace and invite the princess to your bed-chambers? How bold of you sir..."
"Oh, didn't really look at it like that," Yang says sheepishly.
Enjoying light conversation the duo make their way to one of the upper floors at the back of the palace, overlooking a large flower garden of all different colors with rivers flowing beside the flower beds.
The light of the glowing moss reflects off the petals to almost look as if a rainbow fell to the earth and continued shining for all to see.
"Beautiful..." Yang mutters as he drinks in the sight. After a moment however he looks over at Riveria, seeing her only casting a dull look to the flowers below. "Something wrong?"
"No, but I enjoyed these more as a child," her gaze leaves the flowers and moves toward the forest canopy hundreds of feet above them. "But after leaving the forest nothing compares to looking at the stars."
"Ahh, then let's go take a look."
"No magic remember, that means no flying," Riveria reminds him.
Yang sighs," princess, I have magic but I'm certainly not a fragile mage," Yang says as he offers her a hand.
Taking his hand Riveria allows Yang to scoop her into his arms, crouching slightly and preparing to jump, he feels her arms wrap around his neck and pauses for a moment.
"What's wrong?" she asks.
"Your dress is...very thin," he says with a mischievous smirk, leaping up high with the blushing princess in his arms.
Clearing hundreds of feet in a matter of seconds they breach the canopy and land on one of the massive branches of the palace.
"Certainly not a traditional mage," Riveria says as he sets her down on her feet.
"This is the minimum requirement for the deep floors, if you can't do that then maybe start working out princess," Yang says as he follows her to the top of the tree.
"Mages don't need to be able to do that, my firepower is enough," Riveria says.
"Spoken like a dead woman..."
Arriving above the leaves they're greeted by the clearest night sky Yang has ever seen in his life. The light from the forest moss never breaches the leaves and allows the stars to have the entire stage to themselves.
After a few minutes of silently appreciating the sky, Riveria speaks, "you don't have to do this anymore, we can go back to Babel now."
"What?"
"I won't blame you for not wanting to protect our forests, considering how you've been treated since arriving."
"We've already been over this Riveria, what people think doesn't matter to me."
"Yet when he looked at me in that way...you almost lost composure," she reminds him of his magic flaring up in the dining room.
"I said what people think about ME, my friends are another story entirely," Yang points out.
"Can you protect a place that wouldn't even give the people you care about a chance?"
"..." Yang only looks at Riveria with curiosity. Seeing her sigh as her shoulders droop, a frown forms on her face.
"I don't know if these forests are worth protecting," she says barely above a whisper.
"This is your home."
"A home that wouldn't think twice about letting all the people I've been fighting alongside for years die. Eina would never be allowed into the forest simply because of her mixed blood, her mother, my dear friend who left this very palace with me was banished for mixing her blood when we moved to Orario. My familia, all the people I call allies, you, they would smile and watch you all die. I don't think we should protect them, let fate run its course," she says in a bitter tone.
"I didn't know you and Eina were so close...but this is still your home prin---"
"Don't call me that," she cuts him off. "I don't want to be the princess of a place like this."
"But are you willing to watch it all burn?" Yang shakes his head. "It definitely isn't perfect, but it is your home, your dad may not agree with your view of things but I'm sure he still loves you. I'd do anything to get back home, so maybe don't talk like that, because you really don't know what you have until it's gone."
"Things would have been so much better if my mother survived," she mutters.
"Your mother?"
"She encouraged relations with the other races, and my father was by her side through it all, but when Rakia killed her he completely changed, I was a baby at the time but that's always what I've always heard."
"I can't imagine how those two go together..."
"He saved her, if you'd ever believe that," Riveria chuckles.
"Definitely hard to believe, saved her from an attack?"
"They were at a banquet, he was only the crown prince at the time and saw her being cornered by a noble. After the fight, there was the threat of a civil war so they invoked the right of Beloved Protection. A simple lie that they were intimate cleared it all away, and lead to me being born," she says with a soft smile.
"I see, I guess loss changes people after all..."
"Yes, but maybe we should consider how to approach the war meeting tomorrow." Riveria snaps them out of the somber mood. "You won't be able to enter the room so what should I say on your behalf?"
END CHAPTER---