Prologue: The Story of a Princess and Her Knight.
Once upon a time, in a certain country, there lived a beautiful princess and a gallant knight.
One day, a wicked witch came from the east and used her evil magic to control the king and ministers. The princess, who was in line to become the future queen, was driven from the country by the witch. Her only companion was her childhood friend, a young knight.
The princess and her knight set out on a journey to take back their home. Through much effort, they gathered many allies and eventually regained the country from the wicked witch.
However, in the battle with the witch, the knight suffered a mortal wound.
"Your Highness, it was a pleasure to serve you," he said before all of his life energy was expended on protecting the princess.
And thus, the knight became the country's hero...
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Back in Macallan, when our party had just been Lucy and me, I remembered her telling me that story.
"Isn't that wonderful?!" she asked. "It's the tale of a princess and her knight!"
"Eh, I don't know about that... I mean, he died, didn't he?" It was a sad ending, and I much preferred happy ones.
"He didn't. The story makes it seem that way, but there're other theories... Some people say that the actual princess and knight grewold together and then divorced, or that he got taken in by a younger woman."
"How's that any better?!" Where's the aspiration and hope?!
"Man, I want a knight to protect me..." Lucy said, flicking her gaze my way.
Before answering, I sighed and surveyed our surroundings. "And what would they be protecting you from?"
The whole area was covered in craters thanks to Lucy's Meteo Rain, along with the corpses of any monsters that were unfortunate enough to be caught in the destruction.
"B-But you protected me from a big ogre, didn't you?!" "Oh, yeah, I guess so."
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This memory seemed distant from our present circumstances. Now, Lucy was one of the most powerful mages in Macallan. If anything, she'd be the one protecting me.
"You're not playing along today," Lucy complained. "Right! Let's go have a drink!"
I smiled ruefully at her as she grabbed onto me, and I put my arm around her shoulders. She had pretty slender shoulders actually... A knight protecting her, huh? It was definitely a nice thought.
First, I'd have to get strong enough to defend my friends. Then, I'd save Noah.
That was my pledge. I glanced around at the water elementals that were drifting through the air...and I also looked at Lucy's face.