When Kingdom Goes

Act I - Chapter 4

As Hiro, Rose, and Rex exit the courtyard, Rose starts to think about her situation a bit more. This time, in a more positive light. Many of her questions that were floating around in her head from her first night in the palace had begun to answer themselves. The one that was most important to her, was whether or not she could trust these people. To which she answered, 'Yes', with a gleeful smile on her face.

"You seem to be in a good mood after that. Hard to believe you were nervous about it when I first mentioned it to you." Hiro says, patting her on her head.

"It's not that. Well... Kinda... You wouldn't understand." She says brushing his hand off of her. Afterwards, they arrive at Hiro's study and walk through the door.

"Now that we're here, we can talk about important matters. I didn't want anyone else to hear any of this." Hiro says, taking his seat and taking off his coat. "Not even Ms. Helen?" Rose questions. As he takes off his coat, Rose notices that it has the crest of Kennis on the corners and cuffs. "Especially not her. She worries like she's my mother." Hiro answers with a slight chuckle. "Also, is that a new coat?" She asks, pointing at the crest of Kennis on the corners.

"Yes actually. It was given to me both as a sign of friendship and an apology for the injury. It's imbued with a healing spell to help with my back, but I'm a bit dirty so I figured I should take it off for now." Hiro says, now sitting forward. "On that note, we should get to the topic at hand. As you heard earlier, I went there to ask their King, Faust Von Tyrol, if he could aid us in analyzing the Mana Beast Incident. I was well-received by him and his council initially, but I could tell that he had an ulterior motive. Throughout the conversation we had with the council, he seemed like he was intentionally saying things to agitate me." Hiro explains. "Things about me being a poor choice for a King, and insulting my family, to name a few. He never said any of these things directly, but rather insinuated these and more. Eventually I got slightly annoyed and did the same in return. This went back and forth for a while, until I decided to challenge him to a duel."

"I understand that these are serious things that anyone would want to fight about, but you, initiating a fight out of anger?" Rex interjects.

"No, no, you misunderstand. I wasn't angry when I challenged him, rather, I wanted to see what his end goal was throughout all of this back and forth disrespect, and it seemed like a fight with me was what he wanted." Hiro responds. "Acknowledged, he was stronger than me but I was able to hold my own against him for a while. Once he got serious, I started to get overwhelmed by the sheer power of his ability. At the end of it, there was an attack that I couldn't quite dodge, which led to my defeat, and injury. Afterwards, he apologized and allowed me to rest in the palace. He said he only said those things to test my character and see if I was the type of person who lashes out when myself and loved ones are talked down upon, or if I could stay composed and keep a level head. Apparently, I managed to impress him enough to earn his trust."

"So... You aren't upset about how things went?" Rex asks.

"Correct. I'm quite content with how it turned out. We've gained a powerful ally through this and all it took was a minor burn? Sounds wonderful to me." Hiro says.

"Fine. If you're not upset about it, I'll stop worrying about it." Rex says sighing to himself.

After a few more hours of conversation, afternoon turns to evening, and evening to night, Rose and Rex leave the study to go to bed while Hiro works on a little more paperwork. Rex falls fast asleep once he returns to his room, while Rose seems to be a bit restless in her bed. She's still awake because she feels like she's forgetting something. After about an hour of tossing and turning in her bed recalling everything she had done throughout the day, she remembers what she was supposed to do. She meant to ask Hiro a question before she left: What was her 'mission' that he spoke of before he left? Upon remembering, she gets up and goes to look for Hiro to get her question off of her mind. After exiting her room, she enters the slumbering halls of the palace, everything still, being illuminated by the moonlight shining through windows, accompanied by the slow, mechanical ticking of the clock in the foyer.