MERCENARY | KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE [1]

PROLOGUE

prologue

"The first time I saw you, my heart whispered, 'that's the one'."
- Anonymous.

※※※※

Manners. Maketh. Man.

It's what Daddy always reminds me since I was only a toddler, which becomes a habit of mine to remind myself of it over and over again in my head everyday just in case I forgot. Though it's impossible to forget. Daddy is a secret agent, and I find it very fascinating but difficult to be one.

Currently, Daddy and I are visiting a family named Unwin, which Daddy simply explained to me that the woman's husband had just recently died for his teammates, including Dad, at the Middle East. Though Daddy suggests me to stay at home with the Sleeping Beauty shown at the television in replay so I can spend my enjoyable time dreaming to be Princess Aurora as how I always do with a babysitter looking after me, I decided to follow Daddy out this time, which.. seems to be a bad idea since the television in this home is now switched off due to the serious adult conversation at the moment, which means there won't be any Princess Aurora for me tonight.

Daddy is a busy man, which means he always left me to spend my time with a hired babysitter, like this babysitter of his aren't bossy at all, which does really annoy me of how powerless I feel over the authorative adults above me: always telling me when to eat, when to read, when to leave, when to stay, when to sleep. But whatever happens, they're always right. Daddy's always right. I'm only a five year old who still needs guidance in life.

"I very much regret that your husband's bravery can't be publicly celebrated. I hope you understand." Daddy apologizes to the woman, as I darted my gaze away from the television to a boy around my age across the room, sitting on the carpet as he is shaking a snow globe in both of his hands, and I tilted my head as I stared at it, which reminds me of Princess Snow White.

"Mirror mirror on the wall. Who is the fairest of them all?" I whispered and pointed to myself, and glanced at Daddy who is still talking to the woman.

Then, I noticed that the boy has a lot of toys near him on the carpet. Mostly small toy cars though, which doesn't really interests me. I looked around the boy's surroundings and caught sight of a few snow globes on a small table near him, which looks more of like a collection of them. Maybe one of them is about Sleeping Beauty rather than Snow White all the time.

"How can I understand? You won't tell me anything. I didn't even know he wasn't with his squad." The woman says back to Dad, which makes me sigh quietly in sympathy, hearing her tone, and glanced at her.

Believe it or not, but she reminds me of Queen Leah, Princess Aurora's mother, more of the way she looks, but no one can ever be Princess Aurora, except me. People may be Briar Rose, the commoner who lives in a small cottage in the woods, but I'm Princess Aurora, who lives in the palace, sleeping until her true love kisses her. Imagine that boy holding the snow globe is Prince Phillips, Aurora, and that you met him once upon a dream.

"I'm so sorry, I can't say more." Dad tells her, and she nods with a tearful look on her face while I straightened up in my seat, imagining this sofa as the throne now for Princess Aurora, and that Daddy is invisible right now.

The boy- Prince Phillips finally looks up at me and I only smiled at him, which he smiles back because who would frown when someone smiles at them, right? Daddy would, and I meant that as a joke.

"But I would like to present you with this Medal of Valor and if you look closely on the back, there's a number. And as a more concrete gesture of our gratitude, we'd like to offer you.. let's call it a favor. The nature of it is your choice. Just tell the operator, 'Oxfords not Brogues', and then I'll know it's you." Daddy explains to the woman as he shows her the medal.

"I don't want your help." She protests as she glances at the boy, pushes Dad's hand away and she starts to cry. "I want my husband back."

Now that's just mean. Let's call her Maleficent.

I looked away from the two adults to look at the boy who breaks his gaze from staring at the woman- his Mom, to look back at me, and I pointed to my left ear, gesturing that he heard that, before I turned back to Daddy who is about to stand up from his seat when I stopped him from doing so.

Slowly taking the medal from his hand, I got up from my seat and glanced at the woman who is now crying as she cups her mouth with both of her hands, and I nodded at the boy to Dad, and he gets the idea, letting me go over to the boy, and I kneeled down in front of him with a light smile on my face, as graceful as a princess too, of course.

Prince Phillips has light chocolate brown hair, a pale complexion, soft blue eyes, and thin lips. Exactly the boy who promised Princess Aurora that he will marry her one day. I smiled wider at the thought and glanced at the snow globe which he is still holding in both of his hands.

"What's your name?" I asked him.

"Eggsy." He answers.

Eggsy Phillips, of course.

"Eggsy. I'm Katherine." I told him as he shakes the snow globe again, and I glanced at it once more. "Can I see that?"

He glances down at the snow globe too before he just hands it to me, and I held it in both of my hands after I handed him the Medal of Valor in exchange to which he glances at me before he stares at it in suspicion and confusion, and I turned to look behind me for a while to see both Daddy and the woman are staring at me from their seats.

"I need you to do something for me." I said to Eggsy as one of my hands rubbed the top of the snow globe. "Take care of that. Please?"

He looks back up at me at that as he holds the medal.

"Can you do that?" I asked him with a kind smile, and he nods in response, before I did the same gesture earlier to him: pointing at my left ear, and he glances at his Mom at that. "Take care of her too. Okay?"

"Okay." He replies.

With that, I stood back up and placed the snow globe on the small table nearby, just as Daddy makes it over to me, and holds my hand, leading me out after I sent Prince Phillips another smile.