The Princess's Guard

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"So... how is your first day on duty going?" Edna asked, giving me a smirk. Two days had passed since my meeting with the princess and I'd received my schedule just the way before. I was on morning duty protecting the princess's headquarters, and on night duty patrolling the hallway for the day. If the dining hour with the princess counted in, I had only afternoon through night to sleep, eat and take care of myself. "Be patient." I told myself. It was only going to be like this for my first month, after all. I was also doing a sacred job, wasn't I? Protecting our princess...

"Not much happens in the morning so it was kind of boring." I replied to her. "Dining hour is coming up though, so I have to be back on my way in about half an hour."

"Oh yeah, I forgot you had that." she chuckled. "It's tough to work back to back like that, so good luck."

"Knight down, knight down!" yelled a man down the courtyard.

"I'll deal with that." said edna, while heading outside. "I don't get how these new recruits injure themselves while training..." she slowly ran outside, closing the door behind me.

I let out a deep sigh and sat down on the chair behind me. I grabbed a book from the tiny shell on the wall and started looking through it. It was a mage healer's manual which looked like it belonged to Edna. The pages were very dusty, it looked like the book hadn't been opened for a couple of years. The inside of the pages were marked with angry handwriting, written in dark blue ink. Most of it was unreadable because of how leaky the ink was. "I know this already." read one part. "STOP treating me like a child."

I turned a few pages, thinking I had just read something I shouldn't have had, but to my surprise, there was more angry writing. One page was covered top to bottom with the phrase "I AM A WARRIOR" in all capital letters, and the writing had gotten messier towards the bottom. I decided to just forget about it and focus on my job.

I headed out of the dorm to go to the royal dining area early, since we had to be there a few minutes before the princess arrived.

When I arrived there, a knight approached me and told me the king wanted to have a word with me. I stood taller all of a sudden as did all the hairs in my body. I thought of what could have possibly provoked this, and I remembered when I was told off by the princess for speaking when I wasn't asked to. My stomach dropped to my knees and my heart started beating a thousand miles an hour, but I gave all my energy to keeping myself together. Was this the end of my work here? I didn't know, and that was why it was so terrifying to me.

I was escorted to the king's desk by a guard that was standing by the door. I sat down on the chair accross him upon his command. He was an old man with gray hair; and bronze skin just like his daughter's. Though unlike hers, his eyes were a dark shade of brown. He was wearing a casual yet royal garment with what looked like a luxury apron.

He took a deep breath, and than looked into my eyes. "I am sorry if this came off as rash. I've been busy lately and this is the only time I could talk to you." his voice was deep yet calming, like an unmoving ocean. "I just want to thank you for being here. My daughter has always had a strong aversion for guards, and I really think you being here might help with that." He signalled the approaching waiter to keep away for a minute. "Oh and another thing... Her trip to the neighboring nation is going to be for a marriage arrangement. It would mean a lot to me and the nation if you could try to persuade her to take the prince's hand in marriage. I think she would listen to another young woman more than a bunch of old men." he gave me a reassuring smile. "Anyway, I think you should go now... my daughter will be here any minute, and it's better that she doesn't know I had a talk with you."

I stood up from the chair after reassuring and thanking him. I had a slight broken feeling in my heart, having learned that I was only there because I was close to the princess's age, and they believed I could talk her into getting married. Though I knew I wasn't here purely because of my talents, it still hurt knowing the truth. I reassured myself thinking I was still good enough to be here no matter what the actual person was. If they weren't looking for the talent aswell, they could have just picked any young knight after all.