Lucas was surprised when the knight suddenly moved and pointed her sword at his neck, and instinctively he held his hands up and his rifle was hanging on his chest. The knight had a serious but tired face, he saw bruises on her face. He could see that she was wounded on her arm. She had neck-length, light blonde hair. When he was about to open his mouth to talk to her, he heard a loud voice coming from behind him. “Put that sword down. Now!” It was Lyra. Lucas could have guessed that she had pointed her gun to the knight.
“You first!” said the knight with a stern voice. The situation was heightened and Lucas’ head was on the line.
“Lyra put it down.”
“But, My Lor–.”
“Put it down. Now! And all of you as well put the gun down! It is an order.” Lucas could see his crews aimed their guns at the knight and after hearing the order they put their guns down. The knight was surprised that there were more of them in hiding and their obedience to the man she held her sword to.
“Emma, put your sword down.” the knight, Emma, was startled. She looked at the voice and it was the girl in maid clothing and she had gotten up from the ground. Emma sheathed her sword and immediately went to the girl.
“Are you alright, My Lady?”
“Yes. More importantly.” the girl looked at Lucas. The girl had chest-length wavy navy blue-coloured hair, she wore a light blue coloured bandana with a purple ribbon decoration. She looked at him to judge his standing and how she would greet him. He wore fine clothing and she heard the woman behind him call him ‘My Lord’. She also saw the others followed his command, which would mean he has a higher position than the others. She decided to greet him with a curtsy gracefully, befitted to greet nobles. “Greetings, My Lord. My name is Mary Aruburn. I assume you and your companions were the ones that took the people chasing us. Then, I thank you for helping us.”
“Greetings, My Lady. My name is Lucas Lorien. It was a coincidence that they were running towards us. We were startled by them running with swords towards us, and it is our duty to protect others.” Lucas replied to her greeting with a bow. She then was sure that this man was a noble of a high ranking. But she had not heard about his family name before, Lorien. He must have been from another kingdom or from another continent. She wondered whether he was a Prince or a Duke or their heir.
“Oh, both of you were hurt. Let me take a look at it.” Bianca suddenly spoke and walked to them. Mary looked at her and was surprised that she had the same hair colour and a similar look as Lucas. She immediately greeted her with a curtsy, however, she fell down because her feet were tired from running for a long time. Emma catches her and prevented her from falling.
“My Lady, are you alright?” Emma looked worried.
“She was just exhausted from running. Sit down please, both of you. Lucas, gave her your water,” said Bianca. Lucas took out his water bottle and gave it to Mary. She received the bottle with a smile when she was about to drink from the bottle a sudden thought came to her, the bottle was him and he put his lips when drinking from the bottle and was going to put her lips on it, that mean it would be an indirect kiss, her first kiss. She blushed and kept looking at the bottle without drinking it.
“Bianca, she looked very red, it seemed she was exhausted. Lady Mary, please drink the water, you would feel better,” said Lucas. Mary slowly brought the bottle closer to her mount and finally drank from it. Bianca was focused on patching the wounded knight first. Meanwhile, Lucas ordered the rest of his crew to check the body of the dead pursuers.
Not long after, they came back, Ariana's face looked like she just saw a ghost, she was pale as snow. Suddenly, she threw up.
“Bianca, Ariana is throwing up,” said Lucas.
Bianca turned to look at her. “What?! Did you get food poisoning?”
“No, it was Tu–” she suddenly passed out. When she woke up she told Lucas that Lyra was eating a pursuer’s flesh to confirm whether they were human or not. Her analysis proved them to be human just like the rest of them. Lucas wondered how humans could arrive here because there were no records of expeditions sent here and the space around was uncharted on the Empire’s database and established a civilization that went far backwards. He also wondered how the people here could use the peculiar power they saw before, was it engineered or genetically or evolution or something else or were they in an alternate universe. A lot of questions went through his mind and suddenly he was woken up from his thoughts with a pinch on his cheek.
“Lucas, did you hear her?” said Bianca frustrated.
“Huh?” said Lucas puzzled.
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“Oh, my god,” Bianca pinched his cheek again.
“It’s fine, Lady Bianca. It seems His Grace was in deep thought and I should not dare to disturb him,” said Mary. Once again Lucas was surprised, he and the others had normal conversations with them without having their PDC to learn and translated the language first and Lyra did not mention anything about any language differences.
“I am sorry, what do you want to talk about,” said Lucas.
“Yes, again I want to thank you for helping us and treating our wound.”
“Ah, yes. It was nothing.”
“Yes…” Mary went silent for a while, “If I may be blunt, Lord Lucas.”
“Yes, go ahead.”
“I would like to enlist your help!” said Mary while bowing her head.
“Sure,” Lucas answered quickly. Mary was surprised when she heard him say that. She thought he would leave them alone after helping them and go on their own way. “it looked like you had a problem that needed to be taken care of. I would like to hear that.” She saw him smirking.
“Ah, yes. First, I will introduce myself again, I am Mary Aruburn, I am the first child of Duke August Aruburn,” said Mary. Lucas was surprised to have found a high-ranking noble as soon as he went out to explore the world. It felt like getting a 0.00000001% SSR character in a game he once played.
“It is nice to meet you, Lady Mary. Once again, I am Lucas Lorien. I came from far away. Me and my friends crash landed here but our ships were broken and we could not find our way back home,” said Lucas. He hoped she would buy his lies, albeit there were some truths in it.
“I see, you must have come from across the sea. Many people said crossing the sea was a difficult thing to do. All of you are amazing!” said Mary. She bought the lie.
“Haha, we are not that amazing.”
“Then is this all of your friends?”
“Unfortunately, some died on their way here. This is what is left of my crews.” Lucas lied as naturally as he breathed.
“Oh, I’m sorry. But how did you get inside the forest? Did you land on the coast on the other side of this forest?”
“Correct.”
“You guys indeed are amazing. To think you would traverse the forest with only a few of you and get out alive.” Lucas and the other were shocked when she said that. It looked like they were inside a dangerous forest.
“Lady Mary, I’m sorry but we should not waste their time anymore,” said Emma.
“Ah, yes. Now I will explain the situation.” When Lucas heard that, his face turned serious and excited.
“Go ahead, My Lady,” said Lucas.
“Currently, the kingdom is in turmoil. The King was murdered and the Queen as well as the Crown Prince had gone missing. My father thought they went into hiding. The nobles are fighting against each other for control of the Throne. My father is a loyal follower of the crown and has been fighting against the other nobles for control. Unfortunately, most of the nobles were united against my father, and my father was betrayed by Marquess Tomon Loit in a battle a month ago, resulting in his defeat.”
“Does this noble coalition formed after the late king’s death?”
“No, they existed before the war but they were not this big. After the late king’s death, some neutral nobles joined them.”
“I see, so who are these guys that were pursuing you before?”
“They are the Marquess’ men. The Marquess’ threatened my father to give him, his daughter, and me, as his wife in return for the duchy and my family’s safety. My father refused and the Marquess laid siege to the city. My father sneaked me outside in this outfit with Emma, my knight.”
“I see. So you want us to help you to defeat the siege, correct?”
“Yes, I will reward you with anything you want, E-even with my body…” said Mary, she blushed. Everyone was taken aback.
“My Lady, a woman should not give up their body easily, especially you, a child,” said Lucas.
“But, It is the best I can give,” said Mary with a soft and quiet voice.
“Haaa, don’t worry. We will take the rewards from your father. So you can keep yourself for your future husband when you are an adult, understood?” said Lucas as if he was lecturing a child.
“Yes,” said her with a low voice.
“Lyra and Sarah. You guys go ahead and scout the city and the enemy’s siege.”
“Yes, Commodore.” “Yes, My Lord” They immediately left each other. Lucas was surprised that Lyra kept calling him ‘My Lord’. An AI made for the use of the Imperial Navy usually would call a noble by their rank in the Navy if they serve in it. Usually, the ones who would call him that would be an AI made for the Lorien Navy and House of Lorien.
“Eh, shouldn't we go as well?” asked Mary.
“No, the sun is still up and I plan to attack them at night. They will do scouting first to help us plan efficiently for the night attack,” said Lucas. He decided to call the star of this system, the Sun because he was too lazy to think of a name and it looked like the locals also called it the Sun. For Lucas, attacking at night would be the right decision, they have night vision and thermal vision built onto their guns to help them fight at night and the darkness will protect them from the enemy.
“Ahhh, I see.”
“Both of you can rest. We will be watching this place.”
“Okay!”