I was sitting near Arthur, eating the afternoon dinner with the many notable Lords and Ladies that the Grand Duke invited to his main castle from the Banquet.

Martyn was beside me as well, but as the Princess, from head to toe in her clerical clothes, entered the dining hall. Martyn stood up as he went over to a certain combed-haired, a bit plumped, bearded man.

He was startled and curious, Martyn is pretty much his King after all. The curiosity was answered as Martyn’s hand suddenly flew towards his face and suddenly got dragged to the floor.

It shocked the room, shocked the other Lords and Ladies here, shocked the man and the woman that sat beside him, his children, but… it wasn’t a big surprise for me and Arthur.

We kept eating normally as we know that he deserves it.

* * *

“What do you mean you’re going to beat the living shit out of their father?” Miss Marie was the first one to voice Martyn’s beyond puzzling proposal.

“Yes, I don’t think violence is the answer here Lord Protector!” The Princess objected too.

“It’s a show of power! There’s no room for me to pussyfoot in this kind of shit in front of all of them! Yes, it’s crude, it’s violent, and it’s not the only option, but it’s the only effective language for people like them that is so far up their ass!”

I’ve seen this face, this resolve from him, I remembered it quite vividly in Anne’s memorial.

What he did to her mother, what he showed to her, what he said to her… was definitely crude, but… it was really effective like Martyn said himself.

* * *

The people were shocked, they are witnessing the very man that they swore loyalty to, they thought of as a living hero, beating the living shit out of one of their peers.

Martyn kept punching, kicking, and more or less beating senseless to the ground, until he picked him up and threw him back to his seat.

“I KNEW IT!! THIS GREEN BOY IS SOMEONE WE SHOULDN’T HAVE FOLLOWED, TO BEGIN WITH!” A Lord, yelled from the top of his lungs, rousing his peers to attack Martyn.

And one of them, near Martyn, had a fist that was ready to punch his face. But Martyn countered with his quicker fist.

But of course, Martyn couldn’t handle all of them as Sir Fionn, Sir Foulques, and a couple more of Prince Kristof’s knights, came to aid Martyn with swords already in hand to keep the Lords away.

“Lord Protector, is this what you had it mine? Do you think provoking and beating father would solve our problems?” the man’s daughter that Martyn beat the crap out of, Ana, said.

“No, that was only for my catharsis.” Martyn then pulled up the man he beat. “Sancho! I’ll commend you for being ambitious, for wanting to reach the stars! It’s understandable even, one should do everything they can if they really want to unlock what they truly are!”

“Get… to the point!” Sancho, exhausted from taking a huge blow from Martyn, somehow managed to respond.

“Okay! Look at your kids Sancho! Do you love them?”

“Of course… I love them, they… are my blood!”

“Then why would one of them try to kill themselves in front of me!?” Martyn delivered lividly.

“Wha… what?” He was bewildered at Martyn’s statement

“Lord Protector-”

“Shut it! I am still mad at what you almost did to yourself Ana, but I am madder at how blind this man, you called father, is!” Martyn then threw Sancho to the ground quite roughly.

Sancho’s kids went over to him and tried to ease his pain, while Martyn, like the showman he is, went upwards with Kristof’s knights and the Princess to the Grand Duke’s throne.

The room was beyond loud, beyond angry, beyond aggravated. This isn’t some beehive that Martyn playfully poked at, no, Martyn sawed the tree-like madman just to really piss off the bees. Arthur seeing this was really concerned, as he should be, and was about to jump in to protect Martyn, but I stopped him, because like last time with Anne’s mom, I have faith in him to unleash whatever he has in store to ‘end this nonsense’

“SILENCE!” The Grand Duke, the host and the Man of this frozen land, thunderously yelled at the disgruntled nobles. They of course went silent, some I saw even went limp as they finally heard the winter’s roar.

Martyn nodded in gratitude when he heard the Grand Duke’s cry as he went to business. “Lords and Ladies of Albion! Firstly, I want to thank you for coming with your daughters and sons to this magnificent feast, that our gracious host here, Grand Duke Alaxandair II, has made! Secondly, I would love it if all of you would sit back down in your seats!”

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“NO WAY IN ENFER, YOU CURSED GREEN BOY!!!” Another Lord in the crowds, yelled at Martyn

“SIT DOWN YOU INGRATE SOUTHERNERS!!!” The Grand Duke, again, roared back at them where some actually heed the cry and went back to their sit, but of course, some still stand defiantly against Martyn and the Grand Duke.

“Well, at least some of you behaved yourself!” Martyn jokingly remarked. “So then! You all might be wondering why I battered one of your peer, Count Sancho of Aguidad! Well, let’s just say he deserves it.”

“What did… I ever did to… deserve this?” Sancho said while still panting in pain.

“Wow! Just… wow! I’ve already told you and your asking again?” Martyn then clamped his hands, a bit erratically even. “Worse father of the year here Ladies and Gentlemen! But… seeing you all here, I think that competition is quite tight!” Martyn mockingly said to them.

“You don’t… exactly know what it means to be… a father do you, green boy?”

“No, of course not you dingus! I am not a father! But I do know what kind of father you are when your son almost poisoned himself! your daughter almost fell to her death from a balcony! Right, in, fuckin, front, of, my, eyes.”

The crowd was aghast at what Martyn just said, Ana’s father especially, as he looked mortifyingly at his children, as of course, there’s no way that blunt statement Martyn gave would fly away from his head anymore.

“Is… this true?” He said with a horrid tone.

“Yes… it’s the truth father.”

“And look at that! She still calls you father even though she and her brother professed their hate towards you in front of me, miss Marie, your Prince, and of course, her Holiness.”

Again, what Martyn said shook the room, he was not pulling any punches and I got to hand it to Arthur for teaching him to speak less crudely like with Anne’s mom.

The crowd after that went silent, they still are mad at Martyn for what he did to their peer, but what he said, really shook them. Two bombs dropped simultaneously out of nowhere are something that you of course should be wary of, but what’s more concerning is the next drop.

Martyn cleared his throat as he was about to drop another. “One thing that I loathe and hate about people like you Sancho is the fact you rationalize every, single, thing you did for your children is for their benefit. Which… I’ll admit you might have good intentions and wills for their well-being, BUT! But, it doesn’t mean shit if they concluded killing themselves is the answer! That kind of line of thinking is idiotic, but it’s something that a desperate and tired person will think if they had it!”

Sancho could only be silent, though from his body language I could tell he wants to argue back, he just can’t as he knew in himself, that Martyn is right.

“So that’s why I am ending this nonsense, for this world, this realm! At the very least. I am ending this cycle of idiocy that highborns like you ignorantly create! This is a Royal Decree for all of you Lords and Ladies of Albion!!!” Martyn pulled a scroll from his back and showed it to everyone. “As of this day and onwards in Albion, a marriage between two individuals of this realm, can only be seen as a legal marriage by the eyes of the Crown and the Law, if, two of those individuals consented to both the betrothment and the marriage.”

The Princess, or should say, the High Priestess continued Martyn’s speech. “And the ramifications for those who willfully ignore and even force both the betrothment and the marriage, without the consent of the two said individuals that are to be wedded, will not only be branded as an outlaw by the Crown and the Law. The Church as well will issue an ex-communication order to the offender, and if the case turned severe, we will also brand the offender as a heretic.”

“Now, you can sleep peacefully my fellow young future Lords and Ladies, for you will be backed by the Crown, the Law, and the Church, if your unconsent statement in both the betrothment and marriage, is disregarded.” Martyn neatly tied his speech, but he wasn’t done talking, as there was one more thing to say. “You can marry that girl you’ve told me, Pablo d’Silioaldo, now live happily! And don’t you fuckin dare poison yourself in my administration again!”

* * *

After that… pretty much over the top announcement of a new law, that Arthur drafted for Martyn, we had a somewhat of a congratulatory party in our room. It was filled to the brim like when everyone was there to see Roison come out of her shell.

“I have to say… The Lord Protector is full of surprises…” Lady Chloé, who sat beside me, said.

“He really is…” I replied while smiling delightfully at her statement.

“But I do wonder… why is he so dedicated to saving strangers from their horrible parents?”

“I think it’s guilt!” Ruith chimed in. “He mentioned ones that he lost a friend from her horrible parents.”

“Is that true?”

“Yes,” I confirmed it for them. “That friend he mentions is my friend also, I’ve never forgiven myself for not noticing her suffering early on, Martyn… also never forgiven himself for not noticing her suffering too early on.”

There was a brief silence between the three of us, of awkwardness, yes, but for me… it was of remorse, I still can’t forgive myself for not knowing Anne’s plight earlier.

“Martyn!” Ruith called him.

“Yeah?” With a glass of wine still in his hand, he came over.

“Can you tell me more about that friend you mention to me previously! I want to know more about the woman that gave you this resolve to do miracles just now!”

“Anne… she was an amazing person, for Eleanna especially! She was a quiet girl, a tiny bit judgmental also.”

Hahaha… yeah, she was beyond embarrassed when she accidentally slips her dislikes towards Martyn.

“She was smart, refined, pretty much like any other ordinary high society rich girl, who has a wild unbottled side too! Like any other ordinary high society rich girl.”

Ahh… yeah, I remembered! Hahaha… she out of nowhere pranked miss Marie with the classic bucket over the door for April’s fool.

“She was also really creative! Something that I honestly didn’t expect from her and her paintings, considering how rigid she was as a person.”

Her paintings… yeah… all of them were beautiful, always so hopeful… I wish she could have finished the big one.

“But there’s one thing about Anne I admired from her, as even though she was burdened by her mother’s many pressures, she, without a doubt, always put a brave smile against the pressure, against the expectations. She was strong and a fool, but she was our fool.”

She is strong… I loved that part about her because that part of her brute-forced it’s way to drag me back to life… I really can’t thank her enough, I, I… damn it…

Why can’t I save her? Why can’t she still be here with me, with Jane, Martyn, Arthur, Alice, Tony, miss Marie… why, why, why…

“El?” Martyn said concernedly.

“Lady Florens… are you okay?” Lady Chloé as concern as Martyn said.

“I am fine! I am… I…” Remembering her again… it hurts, it hurts that I failed her, it hurts that I won’t ever see her, and I could only let loose of my tears because of how painful those memories are…

“El!” Martyn leaped and hugged me tightly.

“I am sorry… I just… I just really miss her Mar…”

The room went silent as I killed the celebratory mood with my sobbing.

* * *

As the party was over, everyone left one by one, in a bit of a melancholic state because of my sobbing.

But some still stayed, Jumque the one who knows me completely as our souls are intertwined, sent quite literally happy thoughts to me.

Roison the wonderful girl she is, comforted me from my right side.

Nieve the gentle elder wolf, made me feel warm with her fur around my back, as she ticklishly licked my hand.

Miss Marie the ever so reliable and caring adult, caressed my hair gently and said everything will be okay.

Arthur the empathetic person he is, says wonderful things to soothe my heart.

And Martyn, the very person I dearly love, hugged me, kept me warm, kept me safe, kept me… he didn’t let go of me one bit.

“El… Arthur… there’s something I have to come clean about, something you both should know now… about… Anne…”

But out of nowhere… Martyn… said something that I wasn’t prepared to hear.