“It’s summer!” Luke hugged the princess who was confused but appreciated the embrace.

“What’s so great about summer?”

“This summer Matt is coming home!”

When the boy released his friend, he was still hopping anxiously.

“Oh! I bet you can’t wait to see him again.”

“I can’t wait to ask him about his trip. Also, I’m going to ask why that jerk didn’t send me any letters like he promised.”

“Maybe he couldn’t find a way to send mail?”

“No, there’s a mail system in Lumina, one of his books says so.”

“Maybe it meant the city?”

“I don’t think so. My dad was bothering me that day, I could have misremembered.”

“What do you mean your dad was bothering you?”

“He was talking about Matt or something, I wasn’t really paying attention.”

Elizabeth visibly gritted her teeth, poking her index fingers together. “I was wondering, Luke, do you feel different?”

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“Different?” Luke stopped bouncing.

“I swear you’ve been acting strange recently. Not by much, but some part of you has changed.”

“I do feel like I’m becoming more like my mother.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

“Yeah! My mom’s a bitch! I don’t want to be a bitch, I don’t want to be like her!” Luke stopped to calm down for a moment before continuing. “I guess I appreciate her trying to give me a spine or whatever she called it, but I don’t want to treat other people like she treats me.”

“I think you might have done that to your dad.”

“Act mean? He deserves it though. Even if what he said was nice and had nothing to do with my brother, he’s always away from home and whenever he used to come home he just wanted me to train. At least he doesn’t ask that now, but that’s because he doesn’t talk to me period.”

“The reason I’m asking this is because I’ve been wondering about our future.”

“Our future?”

“Luke, my mom has been wondering if I had feelings for someone.”

“That’s awfully vague. What kind of feelings?”

“Oh, you know, just…like…butterflies in my stomach, for someone I know.”

Those words had triggered multiple flashbacks in Luke, his mind immediately thinking on his bracelet.

“Oh, I can’t say I know those feelings. Maybe I’ll understand one day.”

“Luke, I’m talking about marriage!”

“Yeah, I know.”

“W-what? You just said you didn’t!”

“I’m not ready to think about that yet!”

“We’re going to be adults soon, you should start thinking about who you love and what you want to do. If we get married, you and I would live here for the rest of our lives.”

“No.” Luke bellowed.

“What?”

“I’m not going to stay here!”

“Why not? You could stay with me and live like a prince instead of having to fight monsters.”

“Why would I want to live here? This place sucks and all the people here are terrible, every last one of them!”

“Luke…you don’t think I’m terrible, do you?”

The boy hesitated for a moment as he looked into the scared, uncertain gaze of his friend. Instead of answering, Luke stood up straight, turned around, and marched out of the castle.