"Monster? Do you know anything about him?" Zenith asked quietly.

Paige hesitated. She knew she was going to have to tell some of her past to her Party, especially the parts she wanted to forget. "Yeah, there are a few things that I knew about him. Well, before I killed him anyway. He didn't have the best reputation, even amongst the other Imperial Scions at the time."

"You killed him!?" Zenith was rather shocked at her blunt admission. She knew that Paige escaped from the Imperial Family, but she hadn't known or believed that she had killed other Scions outright.

Paige scoffed. "Where do you think I got the extra wardstones from? I took it off their corpses."

"I thought that was looked down upon?"

"No! Who in their right mind wouldn't check a corpse? And at the very least, I buried a momento of the good ones when I could. I'm not that heartless."

Nick spoke up. "Back up Paige, you need to start from the beginning."

"...Barring Zenith; what do the two of you know about the reputation of Imperial Scions?" Paige glanced over at Nick and Tyler. Well, even their ages weren't that old, so maybe even they didn't know the buried stories of Imperial Scions.

Nick grunted in reply. "In a word, Heroes. A single Scion is said to be a match to most High-Class Parties, solely on their Class."

"Reputation matters to them, and they are the protectors of the Empire," Tyler responded. "And they are always on the lookout for Princesses."

"Yeah, well that's more because the Imperial Family wants more heroes."

"And that matters because..." Zenith asked quietly.

Paige ignored the question outright. "Look, the crux of the matter is that Imperial Scions didn't exactly have the sterling reputation they had when you guys were growing up."

"Sterling reputation?" Zenith scoffed. "That's hardly the right words to describe them."

Paige fidgeted. "Okay. Maybe it's time for a lesson in Imperial Politics.

"So, everyone knows why Imperial Scions want Princesses. Well, Princesses gain more power within the Empire the more their children excel. That in turn also impacts how many resources the Scions themselves gain. They have sex, give birth to Heroes or Princesses, who in turn fight to become recognized as Scions themselves and the cycle continues. The more Scions the Empire as a whole means we can withstand foreign threats far easier.

"It's sort of a multi-generational thing. You could say that the more influential a Scion is, the higher their position is within the Empire. But that's not how things originally occurred before you were all born. No, Scions had a much, much worse reputation."

Zenith scooted in, enraptured with the story, no, with the inside look at the Imperial Family. She could tell Paige really, really did not want to talk about it, since her hands hadn't stopped being clenched since she started talking.  

"Scions were protected by the might of the Empire at large, which is why most people are hesitant to cross them. So you can imagine that a few started to become more arrogant as time went on. Arrogant, self-centered bastards. Not all of them of course, but a few bad apples can ruin the whole as they say. And to these Scions, the Empire was just a toybox. Their toybox to take, build or destroy at their heart's content."

Zenith shook her head. "Paige, that doesn't make sense. That's almost the opposite of what any ruler would do in their country. Can you imagine if a Crown Prince acted that way? Public opinion can sway many things, and I wouldn't be surprised if a Crown Prince was assassinated for his behavior. Why would the Emperor allow it?" 

"The Emperor had no qualms about it, as he was focused on the bigger picture. So long as the Scions did their duty as expected, he would let them vent their frustrations on a few people rather than risk the safety of the borders."

But to her surprise, it was Tyler who spoke up in Paige's defense. "Zenith, your assumption is based solely on the fact that the Empire would not be able to squash any rebellion outright. But they can, especially if the Imperial Mages have an advantage." He turned to Paige, who nodded her head. "Is that how you changed the perception around Imperial Scions? Through selective culls and releasing their magic research?"

"Yeah. Or rather, I should say I killed the morally corrupt ones who came after me. They stopped coming in force after I killed a hundred or so over... one, maybe two hundred years? That got rid of the majority of problem Scions. The rest came in smaller groups spread out over the next seven hundred years. Anyway, Maxwell was one of the former groups. He and his party were able to track me to a rather highly-populated mountain range, something I was unaware of at the time. Maxwell ordered the entire mountain range to be razed to the ground. There were no survivors in any of the twelve mountain villages. 

"Anyway, I faced wholesale slaughters, abductions, threats while I was escaping. They did pay for that, but I hardly had time to relax.

Paige smiled. "But that was before the Empire was almost plunged into a civil war due to me releasing the Imperial family's magic research. The Emperor was forced to reign in all of the Scion behaviors after the other countries started gaining more power. After a few Scions were almost killed outright by countries, the Scions started targeting just me. Why risk getting a nation offended, especially over a few civilian casualties. By the time you were all born, the nations were basically self-sufficient and only needed to turn to the Imperial family if the nation was on the brink of destruction like Alcudia was."

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

 "There are problems with your explanation, Paige." Nick looked up, his gaze piercing. "But I'll focus on the one major one. What is the real reason for so many Scions? Why the need for Heroes?"

"..." Paige was quiet. "I told you that once you can reach my level, I'd let you know. That is still true."

"I agree with Nick, Paige. Give us a reason why. Our ignorance already almost cost the lives of Lily and Tyler. I won't let that happen again with us."

"... let me just say the loss of the gods is a big deal, Zenith. A very big deal. There is a reason why almost every Hero is Blessed." Paige stopped. "That's all I will say about that matter. If the issue impacts us as is, then we are better off not worrying about it. I'll just assume the Empire is doing its job overall since we are all still alive."

That was a rather grim answer, but Paige brushed the questioning looks away. "So, anyway; Zenith, Tyler said you threatened the Imperial Scion by proxy. Does that mean your wardstone was seen?"

Zenith bit her lip. The look in Paige's eyes was warning everyone to drop the previous conversation. It was food for thought, but Paige was opening up to them, slowly.  "It was my mistake, Paige. I jumped back to dodge a blow and the necklace slipped loose. I tried to be arrogant and ordered the Imperial Scion to not interfere. Will that be a problem?"

Paige was oddly nonchalant about the entire ordeal. "Do they know where we are?"

"Mhmm. Alcudian scouts were able to find us in the town, so chances are they can find us here." Zenith turned to Tyler. "Your thoughts?"

"He's got to know we're here. Most of the information is easily accessible."

"Good. It's no problem then. Even Maxwell would hesitate to visit us if he knows we've been here for four years. That's a lot of time to prepare for unwanted guests."

"And if he does? Or he threatens the town? You already said he wasn't shy of killing innocent people in pursuit of a goal."

"Then we go and kill him. Look, in less than two years Nick or I will be able to leave, and if the trend continues then one more year after that we will all be able to leave. Even I would hesitate to execute a plan to kill a Scion in an established base within three years. Well, I could do it. " Paige leaned back as she thought about what the Scion would do. "If Tyler is right about the country, Maxwell is going to have his hands full defending the defensive lines while the castles are being rebuilt. Neglecting the castles is the same as neglecting the security of the Empire. Even if he wanted to, he's not going to have time to spend on us. Even messing with the Healer Hall is treading a dangerous line for him. He probably will back off if he knows other Scions are waiting for him to mess up."

Tyler spoke up. "So in essence; he's smart, not suicidal?"

Paige nodded.

"We can work with that, Paige. And if his Party or other Servants come?"

"We kill them as a warning. Only the Scions themselves are protected by the might of the Empire. We should get some magic circles ready though, just in case one does come."

"That's a terrible plan. And I need to have a word with you about creating a Formal Party for Lily and Tyler. What in the world were you thinking!?" Zenith huffed. This is what started the mess they were in, not taking things seriously.

"I uh, wasn't, to be perfectly honest. Lily requested I help her create a Party for the two of them, so I did."

"And the reason you chose to do a formal party was..."

"...I'm old fashioned? Ow, watch it!" Paige said as she dodged a blade of wind. "That's a relatively new thing for me, creating parties specifically with the intention of it being temporary. That's only within the last couple hundred years that that is even acceptable in society." 

"So that was the reason why you never joined Rebecca's party?"

"Mhmm. Well, that and my Class would be exposed to Rebecca. Without an [Oath of Silence], I would have to flee almost immediately to escape tracking. My Class is rather noticeable, after all."

"You used your real name in Alcudia though?"

"Yeah, well by that time I saved so many people that people started naming their daughters Paige Alduit. I could relax just a bit, so long as my cover was solid."

"So that's how you were able to pass your history off as the real thing. You practically had doubles." Zenith exclaimed bitterly.

Paige blinked. Why did Zenith sound disappointed? "Mhmm. There were enough children that I could keep track of their ages and then chose one that would match my expected age. For friends and relatives, I would just have to disguise myself and pop in every once in a while to continue the misunderstanding. There really was a Paige Alduit who was in a warzone and became an Apprentice Paladin. She was killed in a battle though when their whole division was practically wiped out. In short, you'd have to do some serious digging to find out I was using a fake identity even though I was using my real name."

"Tch. I thought you had used magic. Nick assumed a disguise, and Tyler said you paid the sources. I guess Nick was the closest to the truth. Looks like you won that bet, Nick."

"Mm. I'll figure out the favor the two of you owe me later. We need to decide on our future plans." Nick stood up, looking outside to where Markus would be. "We can't stay low key much longer. Eventually, we will be forced to act."

They were all quiet at that. Paige looked the most troubled by that simple fact. 

Tyler stood up and started walking to the door but stopped short of opening the door. "We all need to start training for combat again. Paige, I know you have a hard time acting like a Warrior, but please try to get your strength back. Battles may be unavoidable long term, and having a True Warrior would help us immensely. Same for you Nick, Zenith."

"Fair enough, Tyler. I'll... try my hardest and keep up with training. And we'll still train Markus, though as a Swordmaster instead of an Apprentice in general. Nick, Zenith, try to keep your combat skills down to a minimum around him. It's not very common for a swordsman to use a bow, but if he knows archery skills in addition to his normal skills, it will raise some unwanted questions when he starts going to school. Same for Spells, Zenith. A few cantrips is acceptable, but nothing major. And definitely no attack spells."

"Fine. Paige, I'll need your help fixing my relationship with, Emilia, and Kate. I don't want to lose my friends. And they've helped us over the years as well. I don't feel right about how everything went down."

Paige sighed. It was hard to keep friends when you are living a lie. Still, she would help Zenith as best she could. "...sure. I'll help you come up with a mostly true and factual cover story. And let's plan on doing something with them. Perhaps we'll invite them over to make amends? Or volunteer to host a harvest feast for them sometime? I'm pretty sure I remember how to host one."

Tyler spoke up at the mention of a festival. "Rebecca kept that tradition going at least. I never stayed for the entirety of one since I'm not much of a dancer, but I know they are still common throughout the country."

"Hm. Most Farmers know of the tradition, so it wouldn't surprise me if that gained traction even without me here. And Cidala is the breadbasket for the country, so no doubt any Merchant would also know and spread the word of it. After all, more parties mean more chances to sell their goods. Give people something to do in the winters, at least."

"Well, there's our plan, Nick: Train; fix our relationships; continue to make money, and wait here quietly until we can all leave this forest."

Seeing that nothing else would come out of their discussion, Tyler walked out to train Markus, with Nick close behind. Paige happily smiled as Zenith went to grab some lunch for the two of them. She leaned in her chair as she thought about what the next few years would hold. It was an easy enough plan. Markus would be around school age, which would be a perfect time to move to Nespe, or anywhere else for that matter.

And more importantly, they'd be able to go seek some answers.