It is early in the morning and the sound of wooden swords slashing is already echoing around the place. Every nobility at the age of 15 to 18 has to join an academy centered around improving everyone's combat ability so that when we reach adulthood, we can at least protect those who are around us or join the frontline. Having us attend this academy is important because of what is near to our nation. The land of demons, Ykarn'v. Our nation of Lytron is always in constant danger of being attacked by those vicious demons and we have been at war with them for 200 years now. Every student has a choice as to which one they want to focus on, weapon fighting or magic weaving. I chose to lean towards weapon fighting for I do not have a strong affinity with magic.

"Marcel!, Let's spar. I am going to try to finally make you surrender."

"Okay then, sure."

Dynel, a friend of mine that I met in the academy is calling me for a spar, I know that I said I leaned more towards weapons fighting but in terms of actual offensive prowess, I am also kind of lacking in that situation. Despite of my attacks not being that strong, I do excel at deflecting, parrying and absorbing damage making me a perfect partner when they just want to test how far they came along with attacking. For what I lacked in attack I made up with tenacity.

"Are you ready?"

"Ready!"

After confirming that I am ready, both of us charged towards each other clashing our wooden swords. Dynel would be considered one of the best attackers in my class so he is definitely not someone who will be considered weak but even so I can still easily block attacks that he is dishing out.

He is putting all his force with each strike that he is using, this would usually work if the enemy is actually getting damaged from this but against me right now it is doing me more of a favor. Each strike that he is doing is just making him get tired more and more. While I did say that it might give me more of a favor, that only takes effect if he actually gets tired because, with all the training that he did, he actually has a lot of stamina to continue this barrage of attacks. Due to the rules of this battle, there is only a limited area where we can fight and whoever crosses the line loses. This barrage of attacks is actually making me take a notable amount of distance to absorb them so I am actually running out of room here. I haven't attacked yet in this fight for I did not have a chance yet until he overreached. He extended his hand too much that it gave me an opening to counterattack, I took advantage of this opportunity to do an attack of my own. My slash made him back down a bit but still, it's not a great slash.

"I know that you consider yourself weaker but look at this, I am sweating enough to create a river while you are there barely catching your breath"

"Well you did attack more so it would be a given that you would get tired more"

We continued to exchange blows but it ended just like how the other spars ended, they got too tired to continue and they surrendered.

"Are you looking for her again?"

"What?"

"Princess Maya, I noticed that every time you are here you always look at that direction and Princess Maya will be there reading a book, eating lunch or just chatting with her friends"

"No, I just happen to just always look in that direction"

Every break session I do avert my gaze towards that direction and yes it is actually because of Princess Maya. Usually, she would be there doing what she usually does but for some reason, I haven't seen her all day.

"Well, whatever your deal with you probably should give up on pursuing her."

"Not that I am pursuing her but why would you suggest that."

"It's because according to the rumour, she is getting engaged."

"What!?"

That was news to me, I did not know that she is getting engaged but why so suddenly though and more importantly, who is she getting engaged with.

"According to what people are saying, she is getting engaged with the hero so if I were you I would just give up because there is no way you would be able to win against the hero himself"

The Hero Branton? I guess it would make sense if the hero got engaged with the princess for he is the saviour of the nation. According to the records he managed to kill the previous Demon King when he was still just 10 years old 7 years ago. The news made waves not just in this country but in the neighbouring nations as well. Because of that action, it brought peace to our nation for the demon realm have stopped attacking until their current demon queen turned 17 last year and claimed the throne. I cannot believe that the Demon Queen is the same age as me and so is the current hero.

"While people are grateful to his accomplishment, I have heard a lot of nasty things about him."

"What kind of nasty things"

"People are claiming that he is ruthless and that he gets violent when he is angry. There are also those who report that he is the one who killed his own parents."

"Those actually sound insane."

"That is not all, there are also those who are claiming that he extorts people and that he even uses violence to get what he wants. The most important one in our current conversation is that he might be an abuser."

" Is he actually a hero? He is sounding like a villain right now."

"These are just rumours so it is actually not confirmed but if you met the hero before, he does give a scary vibe."

There is no way that these rumours are true right? Those horrible stuff about the hero aside, there is at least no way that the princess is getting engaged because we have a promise.

My family used to be pretty prestigious that we were even usually invited as a guest inside the palace. Back then I would see Princess Maya everyday frequently reading books in the garden. As what adults usually do they just make me go to the garden so that they can have their "adult talks" but thanks to that tho I get an excuse to see Princess Maya. In the beginning, nothing really happened between us, I sat on the side of my seat while she stayed at her own side just minding her own business. For a month most of our encounters just started with silence and ended with silence until I worked up enough courage to finally say hello. She just looked at me shortly and then returned to reading her book. I was in shock for the courage that I mustered resulting to nothing until 2 minutes later, she finally replied with Hello. Starting that day we started talking a little with each passing day leading to more words until 3 months later we were finally having a solid conversation.

She apologized for taking so long to finally be talkative with me, she explained that she hadn't really talked to anyone else before so she did not know how to respond. I was fine with it so it is alright that it took her this long because at least I can finally talk to her. Talkative is an understatement tho because a month later she is just dominating every conversation that we were having and honestly I was overwhelmed. The girl who barely made one sentence before now talks to me in paragraphs within one breath. I may be overwhelmed but I like it, I like it so much that I accidentally said it out loud one time.

"You are so cute when you talk about your books."

"wh- what?"

I was panicking internally so hard at that moment, why did I say that out loud, am I stupid? She probably thought that it was creepy, who in the world would find talking cute? I looked back towards Princess Maya expecting to see an angry or disgusted face but instead, what I saw was her having a massive grin. To this day I still do not know what that face meant. We just carried on with our day as if no one heard I uttered those words. 2 years have passed and I am now 11 years old, we got closer as time passed and I developed romantic feelings towards her. I do not plan to ever say this to her because there is no way that I would have a chance with her for she is a princess and while I am a nobility I did notice that something amiss is happening within my family so with this context, it is like the two of us are living in a different world entirely.

I was happy with my current situation but of course, not everything in this world is sunshine and rainbow. and in the background, something horrible is actually happening. It turns out my family was overtaxing the people and then keeping the excess tax for themselves. This went on for a while but eventually, my father got caught red-handed. Normally we would have received a harsher punishment but thanks to the consideration of the king with how I am the 3rd princess's friend we just got punished by being relocated to the lands near the border close to where the fighting happens. It is still not a good scenario but at least we still get to keep our title. It's not so horrible in that situation because of the hero's recent action, the attacks paused so it gave us enough time to fortify the land until the demons started attacking again.

With us being relocated, it also means that I can no longer visit the palace just due to the vast distance between those two places. My family is now poor but I still have some money saved up while not much, it is still a substantial amount for someone my age. Before we leave I wanted to give the princess a gift, now that I think about it, this is kind of dumb because there is no way I can give her something that would actually be good since I only have so much money. I roamed around the kingdom trying to find something that I could buy and in the end, I decided to buy this necklace with red crystal on it. My money was actually short by some change but the lady who sold this was kind enough to lower the price for me. I went back to the palace in order to give her the necklace but when I came, she was not there. A maid told me that she went out to say goodbye to someone. I assumed it was me so I went back to the house that we were about to leave behind but according to the people there, they hadn't seen the princess.

The 3rd princess is illusive with her natural magic being [illusion] so she always tries to slip out of her guards because she wants to move her own pace. This is worrying because one of the paths towards my house is the slum and as how I know that girl, she will go use the shortcut. I hurried towards the slums hoping that I was wrong with my assumption but unfortunately, I was not wrong. Some people were saying that they heard a young woman screaming, I informed the nearby officers but I couldn't afford to wait for them so I went on alone. I managed to find where they took her and thanks to my natural magic [unlock] I can unlock any place that is considered locked. I sneaked into the building trying to find the princess and when I found her she is trapped inside a cage. She was crying so I tried to attract her attention, when she finally noticed me her crying stopped and I gave her a signal to be quiet. I tip-toed my way towards to cage and managed to open it but unfortunately, they were using the creakiest cage in existence and it gave us away. Before they could catch us I grabbed the princess and ran, back then I already had a stronger body than someone of my age would have regularly so I just jumped from the 3rd floor to the ground while carrying the princess, The fall still hurt but not enough to incapacitate me. The shortcut gave us some space in between us and the pursuer but as we are running away, the princess's shoe broke leading to her tripping and breaking her foot. I tried carrying her the rest of the way but since I couldn't run fast while carrying someone else, it resulted to the pursuers catching up and hitting me with thick wooden slabs to my back. The impact made me drop the princess so us a last-ditch effort to protect her, I surrounded myself around her acting as a dome shield against the pursuers.

"Boss this kid just won't let up, he already broke 3 slabs"

"Killing kids is not really my thing but I guess I will need to this time"

The pursuers seems to be not able to get rid of me with those slabs so they turned towards their boss. Getting impatient the boss pulled out a metal sword, I might be able to handle getting hit by wooden slabs but I am not swordproof, getting slashed or stabbed directly will definitely kill me. Their boss was about to stab me when a young kid around my age showed up and kicked the boss away. At this point, I am already losing consciousness so all I can remember is that the kid has a sword. When I woke up 3 hours later I was greeted with the 3rd princess's face and again in tears. For some reason, my body does not hurt as I thought it would. The princess explained that the kid who saved us apparently gave me an expensive medicine that greatly heals injuries, while not fully it is still a significant amount.

"Why?... Why do that? you should've just let them get me. Because of my clumsiness, you got hurt so badly."

"It's fine, I don't mind."

"You always say that, whether I am making a mistake, being an inconvenience or being just plain annoying. I know this is not fine. You almost died!"

"Just like I said, I don't mind if it's you even if I'm dying."

"wh-"

I did not let her finish her question, I just went and said it. One of the side effects of the medicine the kid gave me was the removal of my filter.

"It's because I love you, I don't want to see you die."

"Then you know the reason why I am mad, I also don't want to see you die."

"What?"

"WE HAVE THE SAME REASON!"

She then laid her head on my chest muttering something.

"I also love you"

I did not know how to respond so instead I just reached down in my pockets, luckily the necklace was still intact. I tried giving it to her but.

"I am not going to accept that."

"I'm sorry, I guess a cheap accessory won't really do for a princess."

"It's not that. You bought this necklace because you will never see me again after you move right?

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

I stayed quiet because she was not wrong.

"I will only accept that if you promise me something."

"what is it?"

"Promise me that you will marry me someday."

"What, that is a reach not only are you a princess, I am also part of a disgraced family."

"So what, still promise me that you will marry me."

Her eyes were serious, deep inside I was still thinking that this was an impossible task but this was no different from the usual princess who always had inconvenient requests. At this point it's fine, I am used to taking absurd requests from her.

"Okay then, I promise that I will marry you someday."

It was just a promise between 2 kids, in reality, it holds no merit for a lot of childhood promises get broken all the time. I know all of that but deep inside I am still hoping that I get a chance to actually fulfil the promise. Shortly after that incident, I returned home. The medicine the saviour kid was so effective that no one at home even recognized that I was on the brink of death. I kept what happened today a secret because I did not want them to worry. We left in order to go to the place the king relocated us to and I was not able to see her until I turned 15 when it was finally time to enter the academy. The princess also went to the same academy, I was hoping to get to talk to her but for some reason, it's like our progress has resetted. I mostly just see her in the academy's garden reading a book and just like the first time I met her, it was hard to say hello. She is more of a princess now than when we were kids so probably she is avoiding me now in order to not tarnish her name, I am part of the family who stole from the people after all. For the rest of the year, I tried to approach her but to no avail, everytime I tried to get close, I just got cold feet and turned around. It has been more than a year since I came to this academy and all I can do now is just avert my gaze towards the direction in which she is usually reading her book.

"Hey, are you listening?"

"oh, uhm ye my bad I kinda got lost in my thoughts."

"The professors gave notice that there will be an announcement that is going to be made later, Let's go back to the classroom for now"

Our class have been training since 7 am, it is currently 2 pm. I guess this is a good time to stop and cool down in the classroom. We changed into our spare clothes and went on our way to the classroom. Inside the classroom it is like the students are not being trained to be hardened fighters, they all just go around being teenagers that they are with no sign of being ready to kill anytime when they need to. A professor entered the classroom and in an instant, the room went from joyful and bustling full of friends chatting into quiet and serious where everyone at their sit focused on what is at front.

"Okay class, I have an announcement. As all of you people have noticed the 3rd princess did not attend school today, and there is a reason for that."

Everyone focused their attention even more to the professor anticipating what she is about to say.

"She is getting engaged to the current hero. She is not here today in order to meet with him in the palace."

So it is true, she is indeed getting engaged to the hero. It's fine because in a real sense, nothing is worthy of a princess more than a hero. The class remained quiet until the professor made her leave, the moment the door closed is when everyone's mouth opened. The class is divided, there are those who like the hero for apparently he is very handsome however, there are also those who have heard nasty rumours about him being a horrible person or someone who is abusive so they are scared for the princess.

***

It is now 6 pm, and everyone including me has returned to our respective dorms. Dorms are separated based on status so those richer and more powerful live in the nicer dorms. The dorm that I currently live in is fine. The food is not extravagant but it's still good and the only real gripe I have is that there is no water heater so I have to boil my own water for the bath. The water I heated myself is now ready so I just went on and had my nightly bath. I could not stop thinking about the announcement earlier. Is this really going to be the end for us, I just pondered repeatedly while bathing myself in hot water. After an hour of pondering I made my decision, I am going to at least see what the hero is like. It is dark outside but I still went my way into the palace, I am able to sneak my way into the garden by unlocking the gate in there using my natural magic [unlock]. I was walking in the garden when the door to the palace suddenly opened. A handsome man with a sword around my age came out of the door. He has a very serious air around him and his eyes look like they can cut you with just his glare. I hid in the cornet in order to not get caught and the man with the sword is right in front of the garden looking to the stars. Maybe I am on the clear and this is a perfect time because he left the doors open. All I need is to just tip-toe towards the entrance.

"So, what are you doing here sneaking around?"

I felt chills in my body just hearing his words. It sounds like they were directed at me and as I turn around to confirm there he is tilting his head slightly so that one of his eyes can at least look at me. The surrounding seems to have changed like we are in different place despite still seeing the same scenery. What is happening right now?

"I locked the space around us. Noone else can see us, no one else can hear us and no one else can interrupt us so let me ask again. What are you doing here sneaking around?"

Lock the space around us? there is only one person that I know that can do such a feat.

"Are you the hero?"

"Answer my question first."

Shutting down immediately my question but I guess that is fair he did ask a question first, it is rude to answer a question with a question but what should I say?

"I am Marcel"

"Marcel, huh,"

"I came here to see the 3rd princess."

"What would a person like you have to do with the 3rd princess."

"I answered your question so answer mine back first"

I was shaking my legs but I held my ground. He looks really scary and every word that he says sounds so imposing but I don't want to back down.

"Okay then, I am indeed the hero. Name is Branton"

He actually is the hero, there is not kidding when people say that he is scary does that mean the other rumours are true aswell?

"So why would you see the princess?"

"I just want to make sure she is safe."

"Safe? If I am here there she surely will be safe. I am the hero after all."

"I want to make sure she is safe from you."

I do not know what I am doing, I uttered such words to him while pointing at him accusing him that he is a horrible person.

"I heard that you are someone that cannot be trusted, you get violent and even abusive. I cannot trust if you are a good person."

I expected the look on his face to be anger but when I looked back towards his face he had a menacing smile and shortly after he began to laugh diabolicly. The closed space that he created through this Natural magic started to echo around his laugh. The atmosphere around us turned from scary to nightmarish in an instant. He put his hand to his face and then speak.

"HahAHhahaHA, and what did you think? Did you think that you can save her from me?"

Huh? What is this? Is he actually admitting to being a horrible person? Why? Why? Why? Why is the hero who gave peace to the nation be such a thing? It is clear to see that he is strong, I do not think anyone can stop him if he actually wants something, do I run? Normally people trapped inside his space cannot leave willingly but thanks to my natural gift I can unlock a path for me to escape. After a short thinking, I made my choice.

"So that is your course of action huh, you point your sword towards me"

I choose to fight.

I trust forward with my sword and began swinging towards the hero but each slash just barely misses the hero with how effortlessly he is dodging my attacks.

"Your swings are slow but they are precise, aiming at the part of my body that is most likely to be hit however this is easy to evade. Why are you doing this though, what merit would a no name like you be obtain on dying in an impossible fight."

" I just want her to be safe! You are a dangerous person so while the whole world is grateful for your contribution, I cannot trust her with you."

" You have nothing to do with the princess though, it is a waste of your life to be devoting it to someone who does not even care about you."

" I do not care if she do not care about me, all I care is that she is in safe hands."

" Let's test that out then."

After he said his piece he disappeared from my vision, did he turn invisible? No he just sped up, a kick is coming towards my right side but before it hit me I managed to steel myself and absorbed it maintaining minimal damage.

"Woah, you took a whole kick and you didn't fly around. That is a surprise."

"This is nothing."

Of course that was a bluff. While I said I maintained minimal damage, it still hurts. I do not know how many more of these kicks I can take. First of all, why is he even kicking, isn't he a swordsman you have a sword so use it!

"What is she to you?"

"She is the one I love."

"I seriously doubt doubt that."

"HUH? How can someone like you would know about what I feel."

"Well because if that is true, then why am I the one marrying her?"

I am getting angrier by the minute.

"Oh I know what is happening here, you think that you love her well she is beautiful after all. Oh, and she got that money in her so of course a poor nobility like you would be attracted to her hahaha."

I am frozen, I do not know what move to do next and the hero just walks nonchalantly towards me in puts his hand on my shoulder.

"I understand since she is a beauty and rich you just want her fo----"

"Shut your trashy mouth. What I love about her is her smile, her laugh, and the way she talks so cutely about the books that she loves and that I made a promise. I am going to be the one to marry her."

I did not let him finish what insulting words he was about to say towards the princess. Fear is no longer in my inventory only anger. He kept on disrespecting the woman that I love so much without the fear holding me back right now. I made a declaration.

"Are you seriously declaring that to the face of someone who is officially engaged to her? You got some guts."

With a new fire inside me, I moved faster than I usually do. I am finally hitting some attacks on the hero but yet the power is still not something that I am proud of. With every minuscule attack, I landed towards him came with a massive amount of kicks from the hero towards me.

"You seriously made a promise like that a long time ago and made no moves? Did you really think a promise between two kids would bear such significance?"

"Shut up!"

I know that already, I was ready to give up on it but if it meant her going to this douchebag then I do not want to quit yet.

"You claim that you love her but you did nothing all these years. You are just playing pretend at this point."

"My feelings are true. It's true back then and it is true even now."

The barrage of kicks just keeps on coming, I managed to counter-attack a few times but I am reaching my limit.

"Did you even ever think if you can defeat me?"

"I do not know."

"Did you ever think that you can survive all the attacks that you are about to receive?"

" I do not know."

"Did you ever think that you are prepared to fight me?"

"I do not know."

"Then what do you know!"

"All I know is that I want to be with her!"

I did not realize while in the moment that the space around us became silent. The sound of attacks stopped and the hero is just there being quiet. All the noise that is going around the place right now is just me crying.

" I do not know anything. I do not know if she still loves me. I do not know how to approach her right now. I do not know why we resetted into not being able to say hello to each other again. I do not know how can I recover from the tarnish of my family's name. I do not know anything. I want to be with her but I do not know what I can do. Is my family's name going to be a bother to the princess? Should I still be pursuing at this point? I cannot defeat you, anyone with a brain can instantly know that but I do not know why I still want to fight and try to win against you.

The scene is just me right now kneeling on the ground crying and spewing up every worry that I have been bottling up inside. I am grovelling on the ground right now but letting it all out makes me feel a lot better it is like a massive weight behind my back just got lessened.

"So do you feel better now?"

The air around us changed, I thought it was me who changed the air but it actually was the hero. The nightmarish aura that was surrounding him disappeared, and right now that air he is giving is as if he is my friend who is genuinely concerned about me.

"Huh?"

"You finally let it all out right? All the stuff that is concerning you right now. You are so used to absorbing damage that you forget you still need to recover from it. When you get hit by a sword, you just tend the would and then rest. But you forgot to do that on your inside. You have been repeatedly damaged by all the doubts you have inside you that you just kept on getting degraded. You are used to pain so you did not notice but you were killing yourself on the inside all this time thinking that you can't do anything."

I kept my face facing down the ground. I could not bear myself to face him because I knew what he told me was the truth. I never really complained about all of these with anyone because I did not want to be a bother. The hero began to move towards me and he put his hand to my head.

" I will help you."

"Help me with what?"

Did I hear him right? what is he gonna help me with? I looked up to his face expecting the scary hero that I met at the beginning but instead I was treated with a reassuring smile while saying the following words in a friendly tone.

"I will help you win over and get together with the 3rd princess of course."

This is the person that I said I cannot trust just half an hour ago and yet the smile that he is making and the reassuring sensation in my hair right now leads me to believe that I had the wrong impressions about him.

"Just so that you know, I do not actually like the princess, I'm more of just being forced by the king to be with her. Oh, but before we continue further take this medicine."

"This medicine, this looks like the medicine that the kid back then gave me. Wait. Someone who kicks despite having a sword and is almost the same age as me. You were the kid that saved us?"

"Bingo. That was me and just so you know I was in the room when you two made the promise, pretty bold back them I must say hahahaha."

So he is actually the one who saved us back then. His laugh seems to have also changed from the diabolical laugh that he had earlier to a tone that is more akin to a friend teasing each other it's like he is a different person.

"I am so sorry that I had to be harsh with you just now but it is true that I was mad at you. I couldn't believe that the person who had the guts to jump off from the 3rd floor, shield someone with their whole body and brave enough to promise to marry a princess became a spineless coward when it finally mattered."

"Spineless, I literally faced against you though and you were scary."

"I am not the one that matters in this picture, it's the princess. You didn't make a move ever since that promise so of course all of this happened."

"I didn't do nothing, I tried my best to approach her."

"Efforts that resulted in nothing might actually not have happened at all."

He is right, I pretty much did nothing, I've only just been fooling myself with the illusion of actually doing something.

"Atleast you did not slack off on your body. While your attacks might not be strong you have an impeccable defense."

"Well always had a stronger body ever since I was a kid."

"So that's how you were able to deflect all those wooden slabs."

"What did you mean by you are willing to help me?"

"It means exactly how it sounds. I am going to help you get together with the princess but just so you know there are some problems."

"What problems?"

" Normally people would not really care much about who the 3rd princess marry because her 2 sisters are considered more important so she actually would not have a problem marrying you despite your familiy's status."

" The problem now is that?"

" The problem now is that I am now part of the picture. You are trying to replace the hero. Your only problem is not just winning over the princess but also winning over the people."

"But don't the people think you are some creepy abusive person?"

"While it is true that I am feared by some people no one actually think that I am an abusive person, I just happen to paid people in your class to spread those rumours hehe."

"Why?"

"To see what you would do of course."

I have been dancing to his tune the whole day? That Dynel, he knew all this time I was going to give him some piece of my knuckles when I get back.

" I do not think I will be able to replace you though."

" Do not give up when the fight hasn't started yet, there is a way."

" There is?"

" In a little less than a year, a tournament I am hosting will happen where winner(s) are granted the ability to make a wish to the hero and the hero will grant it if it can be fulfilled."

"But isn't that the tournament where no ordinary person has won before? Are you saying that you are going to throw the match for me?"

"yes it is the very same tournament but nope I will not be throwing anything. If you are going to fight me there you will have to fight for real for I am not going to hold back?"

"Then it is the same as an impossible task then."

"Look, you are not so bad with my guidance you can surely reach the level that you can actually win against me in a tournament setting."

"What do you mean?"

"In the tournament making me surrender is not the only way to win, There is also a time limit and with your speciality in defense you might actually be able to last til the time is up."

Am I actually going to be trained by the hero himself? But with this, I might actually have a chance to be finally with her. This is an opportunity that I cannot miss therefore I will take full advantage of this.

" Your target right now, the princess and the nation. The goal you have is to win over both of them. The plan is to win against me in a little less than a year. The progress will be your training with me. Remember that the battle will be us no holding back. I may bu but that is only for the preparation, the execution will depend entirely on you. You may have a promise with the princess but you still need to work towards fulfilling it. Are you ready?"

"I am ready."

Today, January 18 I formed a partnership with the hero for him to help me prepare to beat him in the tournament. I will do my best.

"Just so you know you will still need to overcome this 'I cannot talk with her like we used to' problem on your own because I will not be able to help on that front."

"Yep, I know. I do miss listening to her rambling about the books she has finished reading haha."