As Lily made her way to the lobby almost everyone bowed down to her. She quickly would say thanks to them and excuse them from their bowing.
"You don't have to anymore. I'm fine, thank you. Please go on with your day," were common phrases she would say to people. Everyone, but one barefoot yellow and green eyed peasant with holes in his shirt, and sleeves charred at the ends of them.
"Fool! You should be bowing," a hunter awaiting his pass said to Allen as he looked for a seat. "Is she special or something?"
"Oh you're one of those kinds of idiots," the hunter said raising his head and fist toward Allen. "That's a royal. She's a princess."
"And? It's not like she owns any of us. I don't have to do whatever she wants me to do."
"Huh," the hunter raised his voice as he grabbed Allen's collar.
"Now, now. You people stop fighting," Lily said. "It's alright." The hunter let go of Allen's shirt, he walked away mumbling, "Lucky the princess cares so much freak eyes."
Lily stared at Allen, "I've seen this person before, what was his name again," she thought as she slowly approached him. "Um, you there," she said to Allen who was walking to an empty bench that was placed next to a wall. He didn't react to her calling him, so she ran up to him, tapping him on his shoulder. "Your name is Allen correct, from the Truman farm."
Allen turned around and cocked his head to the side, "You are Lily, the cute name. You aren't keeping your hood up this time?"
"I don't need it anymore," she said as Allen sat himself down on the bench. She followed suit and sat next to him a few inches away. Allen leaned back against the wall, he put his hands in his pockets as he began manspreading. Lily was forced to scoot herself away from Allen, she sat upright on the bench and brought her legs up to sit cross-legged.
An awkward silence rose between them, Lily fidgeted as she tried to think of what to say to break the ice that encased them. "So why don't you need your hood anyway," Allen asked slicing the ice.
She twiddled with her thumbs before answering, "Well, everyone knows who I am so there is no point in hiding it."
"Really? I didn't even know you were a princess."
"And who are you anyway?"
"I'm Allen, I'm a slave."
"How can you say that so nonchalantly. Being a slave is not a good thing you know."
"Do I know? Have you even been a slave before Lily? Actually what do the royals do?"
"How don't you know what royals do? You want to be a hunter, but you don't know the basics of the kingdom you live in."
"I'm a hunter, not a teacher."
"You do know as a hunter you have to go out to places you've never been before."
"And when the time comes, I'll find a way there."
"Oh, how confident, I hope you save face."
"Save face?"
"Yes, to not humiliate yourself."
"I won't humiliate myself."
"You got the power to back it up?"
"Yes I do. Do you?"
Lily hesitated for a moment, "Yes I do. I'm well equipped with magical spells and knowledge. What do you have other than bravado and a fit body."
Allen hesitated for a moment, but he couldn't find the right words to say. Therefore silence rose between them again, and the previously sliced ice block began freezing back to it's original shape. Lily leaned back against the wall, she put her hands between her thighs and looked up at the wood ceiling of the lobby. She sighed, then yawned before closing her eyes.
"My will to live," Allen finally answered after Lily closed her eyes.
"Just because you want to live, doesn't mean that you can just stop yourself from dying. The world is cruel and unfair, people die for no reason," Lily says as she adjusted herself on the bench, she tucked her legs in and laid her head on her knees.
"Cruel, probably. Unfair, definitely not." Lily lifted up her head, and looked toward Allen who was looking at her. Lily's eyes widened as she saw his pupils become that of a snake, and his green and yellow eyes dimmed red. Allen smiled as he said, "Everyone dies, doesn't that make the world fair enough."
Lily's thoughts frantically shot to the front of her mind, as she attempted to sort the jumbled mess of revelations that exploded in her mind. She stumbled over her next words, "Well, I never really thought about it like that." Allen's eyes returned to normal before he turned his gaze forward. As he raised his head up to lean it against the wall, Lily put her head back on her knees. She inched closer to Allen, "Allen?"
"What?"
"Why did you become a hunter."
"I plan on eating whatever is below humans on the food chain."
"You want to hunt a demon?"
"Is that what's below us, then yeah I want to eat a demon."
"I think at least, there has been a surge of new species and creatures being born. Who knows how strong we really are anymore."
"It doesn't matter how strong we are. All that matters is how strong I am. How about you, why did you become a hunter?"
"I was sick of being a princess."
"I don't have medicine for that," Allen responded yawning.
Lily chuckled, "Idiot," she closed her eyes and yawned. She fell asleep and Allen followed suit shortly after. One could mistake Allen for a corpse the way he slept, it was quiet and lifeless. Lily on the other hand, slept like a zebear, she snored and frequently moved. As a child she was found frequently in the bed of her older sister, Irene. Lily was unaware of her own actions, but Irene would testify that Lily would get out of her own bed and crawled into Irene's arms.
Without Irene home, Lily went years without sleeping in the arms of someone. She was kept away from her mother after Irene graduated to a witch. King Merlin's punishment affected Lily as she could never sleep in the arms of her mother as a replacement.
So unbeknownst to Lily as she slept, she moved so much that she snuggled herself between Allen and his arm. The passing hunters and Hunter Guild administrators would take notice of this. Once more rumors would spread like wildfire.
"The Princess has a hunter boyfriend."
King Merlin chose to ignore the rumor when Matthew brought it up to him. However when a knight went over to the Hunter's Guild to convince her to come back. He was horrified.
"Your majesty! Your majesty!"
"What is it now Matthew!" King Merlin yelled as he sat at his dinner table eating lunch with some of his children. "Lily," Matthew began catching his breath. "Lily was found with a peasant hunter boy. He was groping her as they slept together on a bench."
The Merlin children dropped their eating utensils, and looked toward their father who was enjoying his steak, "well then, find out who this peasant boy is. I'm eating right now, begone." The Merlin children sighed a sigh of relief as they picked their utensils up to continue eating.
Meanwhile at the Hunter's Guild, several hours passed since Allen and Lily's conversation. Both of their hunter passes had been created, coincidentally at the same time. An administrator of the Hunter's Guild personally sought out the two of them with their passes. She knew exactly where they were as the rumors had spread so far.
Once she reached the bench she stared at them for a moment before screaming at the top of her lungs, "Wakey, Wakey! Time for a good ol' hunt!" Lily jumped like a cat it was almost like all her hair raised as she woke up and spun out of Allen's arms. She practically hissed at the administrator as Allen instantly opened his eyes and took a look at his surroundings before noticing the administrator.
"What do you want," Lily asked. "Well, I have your hunter passes here. Also you both need to leave, you've caused quite the commotion outside." The administrator handed them each a piece of paper with words aligning along the edges of it. They looked down at their passes inspecting every inch of it.
Allen thought, "That's it?"
Lily thought, "Took them long enough."
They thought it simultaneously as they noticed that their name was printed at the top, followed by their date of birth, date the pass was issued, their gender, height, weight, and more general information about them. Their magical capabilities was not listed anywhere on the pass. On the bottom left of their pass was a 12 digit number that indicated their hunter number. On the bottom right was the number 1 on both of their passes.
"Ahem," the administrator began, "these are your hunter passes. These cannot be sold, traded, or passed on. These belong to you and will always belong to you until the day you die or retire the pass back to the Guild. With this pass you will be able to enter other Hunter Guild Halls, other kingdoms, participate in the trading of game, hunt down bounties, and accept any quests given to the Hunter Guild. Any questions?"
"What are these words on the edges," Allen asks.
"Those are blessings to the paper, it prevents the paper from being destroyed or disfigured in any way. There is a 27% survival chance for most hunters, so these work as a way to identify you no matter how disfigured your body is."
"Huh, interesting," Allen said as he attempted to rip it with all his might.
"Can you answer me this, why is there a number on the bottom right," Lily turned the paper toward the administrator and pointed at the 1.
"Oh I have a 1 too," Allen interjects.
"It is your Hunter Experience Level, aka your HEL. It basically tells the world how good of a hunter you are. You can increase it by-"
"Turning in whatever you hunt," Allen interrupted as he got up from his seat and stretched his limbs out. "By the way when do I get my 5,000 gold?"
"Allen, right," the administrator said as Lily copied Allen's movements, "You put your occupation as slave, so we sent the money back to your master. It is how we treat all slave hunters. Every hunt you turn in, your rewards will go back to your master."
Allen's face grew stoic, "So I'm still not free."
"Allen... Are you okay," Lily asked walking up to him. She was shorter than him by a head and had to look up at Allen whose face grew redder. "Allen, do you want me to emancipate you?"
Allen's eyes only moved as he looked at Lily, "You can do that?"
"Yes, that is what royals do. You hailed from the Truman Farm, right? Then we will have to go to your master and request you to be freed."
"It is going to be difficult, but you're a royal so maybe he will listen to you."
"Perfect and while I'm there I would love to meet the dragonborn."
Allen quickly averted his eyes, his demeanor changed to a scared and worried one. He began playing with his long black hair, "Sure. You can meet her if you want."
"Ahem! I wasn't done talking," the administrator said, "The pass has another feature to it. To ensure that you never lose it, you can mark it with your blood to complete the blessing. Once the blessing is completed, you can summon your pass from anywhere at anytime, all you must do is will it."
"Our blood? I don't have a knife with me, can you let me borrow one."
*CHOMP*
Lily takes a look over at the origin of the noise, it came from Allen who had bitten his own thumb enough for it to start bleeding. He pressed his thumb down on his last name, 'Truman', the paper glowed before disappearing instantly. Lily stared at Allen with a concerned look on her face. "What the fuck is wrong with you," she asked as Allen's demeanor changed once more to that of a confused lion.
"Look Lily," he stretched his arm out and opened his palm, a second later his hunter pass reappeared in his hand instantly, after a short while he made it disappear again. "Look how cool this is!"
"You idiot, you're bleeding!"
"Huh, it'll heal back it's fine."
"No it is not fine. If you're that reckless here, how reckless are you in a hunt."
"I swear Allen you're going to-" Allen rushed up to Lily before she could finish her sentence, he grabbed her hand and bit into her thumb causing her to bleed. He then just as quickly pressed her thumb against her last name, 'Merlin', Lily's pass glowed then disappeared shortly after.
Lily was dumbfounded, "See Lily, simple, it'll heal back soon too." Lily slowly turned her head to her thumb, then looked at Allen, then her thumb again. Her thumb was gushing blood just like Allen's thumb.
"Lily?" The administrator laughed, as she turned around and walked away from the two.
"AHHH! My thumb are you fucking stupid! You must be, is this some intellectual defect! What is wrong with you!" She used her other hand to cover her thumb, she began chanting, "By the pool of the Gods, I heal thy flesh from past endeavors. Heal!" Her hand glowed green as the red flow coming out of her thumb stopped, and reversed itself. Every bit of blood came back into her body and her thumb was completely healed within moments.
"Woah, what was that?"
"Magic. I'll tell you all about it on the way, but you have to promise me that you'll never bite me again."
"I promise," Allen said as his pupils transformed to that of a snake.