"Wow, so you're a hero!" A dignified lady exclaimed as stars shone in her eyes. This was the first princess Marie Astar of the Moonshine Kingdom and she was currently interacting with a very special guest.
"Well, yes, not to brag but I am here to save your Kingdom after all," He spoke rather pretentiously as he sipped his tea. But the princess didn't seem to mind, keeping her dreamy smile as her gaze watched his every action.
She brushed back her long, light pink hair as she gave a gentle nod. The Hero seemed enraptured by the elegance she exuded.
"So, Sir Hero, could you show me some of your skills? I would just love to be able to witness your grace,"
"But of course, anything for such a pretty princess," Yamada was captivated by her charm and affectation. He especially found her pleasing to the eye. For lack of a better phrase, she was his type!
Getting up from his seat, Yamada moved a bit further from the garden pavilion, passing by roses and other exotic flowers surrounding them.
Snapping his fingers, Yamada conjured the four fundamental elements and harmonised their essences making a small fireworks show of sorts. Crackling bits of essence formed various shapes and explosions of light, creating a mesmerising light show.
"Wow! Amazing, to think you could harmonise the elements so well, as expected of a Hero!" Her eyes were practically gleaming, the first princess was always amused by any use of magic, though not anyone could just perform such a feat. Usually, mages would only specialise in one or two magics, three if they were pushing it. So suffice to say, that it was considered considerably talented to harmonise the four fundamental elements. After all, as one increased their rank, they could either focus on reinforcing their foundation or branch into other skillsets. Though spreading one's skillset often led to impediments and mediocrity. As the saying goes, jack of all trades and a master of none. Though in some cases, better than a master of one, and this was the case with the harmonising of the four fundamental essences that Yamada had achieved.
Though, it was true that Yamada did not get to this degree of skill on his own. He had to thank the Hero System for all his recent exploits.
Even at this very moment, he was completing a quest that would give quite the skill.
[Grade D Quest]
[Princess Impress!]
[Impress the first princess of the Moonshine Kingdom]
[Reward: First Impression]
At first glance, it seemed to be quite a basic quest, with a rather pitiful reward. However, that was far from the truth. First Impression was a passive skill that upped one's favourability with those he meets for the first time and increases the likelihood of befriending others and having other people more inclined to lend an ear to him. It was something that resonated with Yamada considering that he was naturally more focused on CHA, so it was a good synergy.
Truly, this was the ultimate protagonist skill. And Yamada needed it!
*Ding!*
[Grade D Quest: Impress the Princess! Complete!]
[Obtained: First Impression !]
Yes! Yamada silently pumped his fist in the air.
Despite being called First Impression, it clearly still had an effect after first impressions, he fantasized of being like a shounen protagonist and crushing his enemies whilst having an army of 'admirers'.
But he was too weak now, he knew that, so with his Hero System by his side, it was without a doubt that he will eventually triumph above all and gain unimaginable strength.
Sitting back at the small table beneath the pavilion, he gazed at the princess that sat across him. He was quite fond of her and after chatting for a bit longer she parted to attend to other matters. This left Yamada alone, usually, he would head to his outrageously large room and train to get more status value points, but just recently he had completed the maximum payout the quest would give, ultimately finishing the quest. So here came the problem of how to spend his free time.
He could:
A) Try and flirt with the princess
B) Continue to train
or
C) Aimlessly wander around the palace
Considering he knew next to nothing about the place, and training wouldn't bring about any additional benefits, he could just exclude trying to flirt. However, such an option would only be awkward at this moment in time. He chose option C) Aimlessly wander around the palace. Leaving the pavilion, he took another path and wandered the wide corridors instead of returning to his room.
A pink carpet was laid out in the middle of the white corridors with paintings and mild decorations on the wall. It was probably an attempt to liven the place considering how large the corridors were and how little foot traffic there was, apart from the occasional guard who would make their rounds or the stationed sentries.
Yamada had little contact with the other people within the palace, so he would've been stopped and questioned by the guards had he not had an arm brace which signified him as an extraordinary guest, not to mention that everyone was already briefed about his presence. In fact, outside the palace walls, there were already rumours brewing up about the presence of an otherworldly hero come to save the Kingdom. This was no doubt disseminated by King Astar to boost morale on the tough situation the Kingdom found itself in.
Finding himself lost in his thoughts, he continued to saunter about.
"Oops sorry," that was until he bumped into a rather intriguing figure.
"Hey, are you alright?" giving a hand to the pink haired girl he bumped into, she was about a head shorter than him and had a similar appearance to the first princess. Maybe, she was a relative?
…
Walking through the wide corridors she was currently on her way to visit the head of the Night Knights Order to discuss the recent unrest in the Kingdom. Especially increased heretic activity.
She was Kana Asar, the second princess of the Kingdom, the youngest of the four siblings. Two of them princes the other two princesses'. However, despite her age being at a tender twelve, she was exceedingly mature and would more often than not converse with those above her age, rarely interacting with her peers.
Caught up in her thoughts, she failed to avoid a person walking in an opposing direction to her, causing the two to collide.
"Oops sorry," Looking at the person who bumped into her she found a rather peculiar face.
"Hey, are you alright?" With that, the person intended to grab her hand. In normal situations, Kana heavily dislikes being touched, in fact, she rather hated it. In fact, it was a breach of etiquette and blatant offence for a young maiden's hand to be grasped without permission. There was also the lewdness of such an action to consider, though that can be discounted for the moment. For all intents and purposes, she was being harassed and in a normal mindset, she would've without a doubt withdrew her hand and back away from him. As all normal people would. As a princess, she was taught about the seriousness of stranger danger, and her mature mindset backed this up.
However, in this 'special guests' presence, she felt it was fine.
"Yes, yes I'm fine," though she was quite irritated by how he acted, she still kept her temper and quickly left. Looking down to hide her mild blush.