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Chapter 15: The Truth

Dinner was silent as you sat in utter shock at what Eduardo had shared with you upon leaving the Royal Tomb. You could barely taste your food as your thoughts wandered back and forth. You only reacted when someone shook you and even then it took you at least half a minute to realize someone was talking to you.

Was what Eduardo said true? That you were from the Royal Family of the Shapeshifters? Was this the main reason for you joining Noctis and the others? To potentially forge a binding contract and assist in protecting Noctis? What did Eduardo say to Noctis prior to leaving the tomb?

"(Your Name)," Gladio barked, making you jump. You blinked a few times and looked around to see you weren't the only one who was startled by Gladio calling you.

"I did it again huh..." You sighed, feeling one of Gladio's good ol' lectures coming up.

"I'm not gonna bother lecturing you at this point. You have every right to be curious about what Eduardo said before leaving us. But if you keep overthinking everything, you're gonna get yourself into trouble. Especially if we get attacked," Gladio murmured, "You know we're all curious too. We'd like to help you find out your origins and shed more light on this. But we also don't want you to be pulling an arm and leg just for scraps of information,"

You mumbled an apology, causing Gladio to sigh and pet your head gently. "An apology is not what I want (Your Name). I want you to be a lot more aware of your surroundings than you are right now. We promised Eduardo just before, that we'd protect you, just like you do for us. I'm asking you not to make it hard for us to keep that promise. 'Kay Hime-chan?"

"Argh. Can you not?" You grumbled, wrinkling your nose at the nickname.

"Hime-chan has a nice ring to it," You didn't like the look of Prompto's grin.

"It makes sense considering we have just been informed that we are in the company of two Royals, not just one," Ignis' input was not helping the situation.

"Yup. Neither one acts like Royalty either. Just Royal pains instead." You saw Noctis roll his eyes at Prompto's play on words.

"Arigatou," You thanked giving them a big smile, before yawning a little.

"Yup. Definitely time for bed," Gladio summarized, sending everyone to bed as he checked the perimeter before joining.

You didn't really have a usual spot for sleeping in the tent. At first, you slept on either side of the tent walls, with Gladio next to you. But that was when you weren't as close to the rest as you were to him. Now you knew that if you wanted a good night's rest, sleeping next to everyone except Prompto was best. He had the tendency to either move around in his sleep or snuggle whomever he was facing at the time in a desire for warmth. You laid down next to Noctis who was lying on his back, one arm cushioning the back of his head, while the other held his phone up, most likely reading up on something that piqued his curiosity.

"Noct? What are you reading so intensely?" Although your eyes were drooping, your curiosity was stronger.

"Nothing special," Noctis replied, "Stop fighting how tired you are. Sleep,"

"Mm'kay," You said, letting your eyes finally close.

"Sleep tight guys," You heard Prompto sigh, having laid down himself.

"Night," Noctis sounded like he was going to be up for a while.

Before you completely nodded off to sleep, Eduardo's words echoed in your mind.

"Only those within the Royal family can forge a binding contract with the Royalty of Lucis,"

Everything was completely dark the moment your eyes closed, only for the silhouette of a little girl to appear. You reached out to her the moment you saw she was crying. You walked over to her and after convincing her to stop crying you went into complete shock seeing her face; she was your 8-year-old self.