“P-please… Save us?” She repeated. The woman seemed almost unsure of her own words, glancing towards the knights next to her in worry. She was suspicious. No, she was hesitant. Maybe this wasn’t a kidnapping like he thought. Only one way to find out. “...Can you explain the situation? I’m sure this is a kidnapping, but I just want to be sure.” He put on a self deprecating smile, slouching his posture a bit to make himself slightly more unassuming.

Height was a major intimidation factor, he learned that the moment his height had passed the other kids at a young age. It was a useful tool, but it also had its downsides… He couldn’t afford to intimidate this woman, under absolutely any condition. The lady gasped in shock, raising her hands towards him and walking towards him before tripping. He went towards her to catch her fall, but before he managed it one of the knights immediately intervened. He found himself on the floor soon after, with an arm behind his back. The knights had been a good four feet away, so how did they manage to bring him down in such a short time?

He watched from the ground as the girl hit the ground head first, holding her forehead and curling up on the ground with small, painful moans. She looked up at him with a pout before realizing his sudden, new predicament. “L-let go of him! He was trying to help!” The knight stayed on his back for a few more seconds before getting off him. It was what seemed like an unnecessary show of force, and yet he wasn’t sure if it was supposed to be intimidating.

Well, he was definitely intimidated.

Before he managed to catch his breath and stand back up, though, he heard the sound of armor being thrown to the ground. The sound was violent and harsh, and for a moment he closed his eyes and prayed it wasn’t what he thought it was. His hopes were dashed the moment he turned around. Of course this would happen. Nothing could keep the big guy down for long.

“Arturo! Get the hell off him!” He began to run over to remove his friend from the knight about half his size. Even though they were in armor being punched by the big guy at full force would probably be scary for anyone-

He gawked in awe as the knight grabbed Arturo’s arm, pulling him to the side and dropping him with little effort. The scene was flipped all of a sudden, with the armored knight holding down his friend as if Arturo was a child. The whole thing seemed surreal, how the knight had gotten the superior position so easily… As his big friend was getting manhandled, he turned to the princess. “Please call him off, I’ll talk to him.” The princess nodded, before shouting at the knight to stop.

“Sto- …C-Cease! They are heroes! We must treat them as such!” She ran over and tried pushing the knight off his friend, who was in the same position they’d put Jack in. He almost laughed at the scene of his friend being put into such a vulnerable position. They had always been a bit of a bully to him, and even though it had all been in ‘good fun’ it was good to see the big man falter.

"You heard the girl. Get off him." The knight turned to look at Jack, and he struggled to keep eye contact with the terrifying individual. It wasn't until a good ten seconds passed that the knight finally removed himself from Arturo, who actually didn't seem hurt. Physically, at least. He was just as bewildered as the rest of the group, who'd only now awakened to the scene of violence.

He looked at the woman next to him with pity. He'd figured out by now that this girl was the boss, and that she meant no ill will to them. The scene that had just happened now… really wasn’t what you could call an act of goodwill, though. If she didn’t want them to panic, he would have to step in.

Or maybe he didn’t, he realized, as Liam took the front and center of everyone else. He went up to Arturo to help him up, and looked at the scenery around him. He wasn’t panicking, the only one amongst the group to not be. “Where are we? Why did you hurt my friends?” Arturo pushed away from Liam, an annoyed look on his face. “I could have taken them. I just slipped. Go check if Jack’s alright, though. The bastard smashed his face into the ground.”

Liam glanced at him, and he raised his hands as if to say he was alright. It was surprising, seeing someone usually so snarky acting like such a leader in this time of crisis. “Oh god… Where are we!? Liam! Where the hell are we!?” Mary, who had just woken up, shouted as she saw the people around her. Despite her fear, the way she showed it looked more like she was ready to-

Oh my god.

Out of fucking nowhere the girl pulled out a knife, barely three inches long but still enough to cause some major damage. Damage to their current situation, that is. The princess let out a yelp as she saw the weapon, and the knights no longer seemed hesitant on using their spears, pointing them at Mary. He had to step in.

He quickly shuffled toward the girl with his arms in front of him, as if he was taming a small animal. “Mary, put the knife down… Everything’s fine, ok? They aren’t going to hurt us as long as we don’t do anything stupid.” He looked down at the knife, and then back at her. She didn’t seem very responsive, her pale face turning left and right in panic, until he reached towards her face. He brushed the hair out of her eyes, trying to get her to understand. “...Where did you even get that? The school doesn’t allow knives, you know?” She nodded in response, which was a good sign.

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“So… you know, just hand it over and we’ll be ok. Yeah?” He gave her his kindest smile as he reached for the hand with the knife. He even almost grabbed it before the psycho girl pulled back in fear, accidentally slicing his fingers. She gasped in fear as she felt the tear, clean and precise as his blood poured down his hand. He didn’t even blink, reaching for the blade from her now loose hands and taking the blade.

To be fair, a few bleeding fingers was nothing compared to a spear in the gut. “There… That wasn’t so bad, was it?” He asked, his smile never leaving his face. She couldn’t even look at him, couldn’t even say a word as she just looked at the wound on his hand. Christ, he was bleeding quite a bit. He tossed the bloody knife to the floor and kicked it towards one of the spearmen, keeping himself as steady as he could so he wouldn’t be attacked.

“See? No one here’s gonna hurt you. We’re here to listen to your demands. We won’t resist.” He shouted, looking at the princess in front of him. The girl seemed just about as shocked as Mary was. “Y-your fingers. Are you alright?” He was surprised at her worry. Despite her obvious care for their wellbeing, he assumed it had been because they were merchandise. She looked almost sick when she saw the wound, though.

This… Was this not a kidnapping?

“...I could use a bandage. I’d ask to go to the hospital but I don't think that’s… allowed. What are you-” As he spoke the girl went up to him, grabbing his bloodied hand gently in hers. She didn’t have any tools to fix the wound, so he chalked it up to her being delirious at the sudden wound.. At least, until that happened. “Blessed lamb… Let this world fix your wound. Heal…” Everyone around him gawked as a green light filled the room, flowing around his hands as the girl brought them to her forehead, as if in prayer.

What he felt was indescribable, the first time he’d ever felt like that. Comfort, a feeling of acceptance. His brain only worked on extremes, emotions fading and emerging immediately with barely any signs that they had been there in the first place. He had to constantly keep himself in check because of it. Whatever she was doing to him gave his brain a mellow feeling, and that alone was something he had never experienced. As the magic disappeared so did the sense of comfort, and he was back in the isolation of his mind. Back to the paranoia.

God, the paranoia.

Was that what being “normal” felt like? To be “fixed”? God, all those years he spent being okay with just his own self… “D-do you feel better… hero?” The girl in front of him smiled, her face filled with exhaustion and with an almost pale expression… but he barely cared. His fingers were healed, but he barely cared. He needed that again, to be “fixed.” His hand, still bloodied and dripping wet, reached out to her, to her neck. He could barely think, he just wanted to force her to do it again. To make him feel like everything was fine.

And then he was pulled back by Mary.

She was crying. “I… I’m sorry, Jack… Guh…” She pulled his hand towards her, and checked it for wounds. He just stood there, staring blankly into the distance. He could barely keep himself from slapping her hand away, from jumping on top of the princess and forcing her to drug him again. To do whatever she had done to heal his hand, his mind.

And then he snapped back to his senses.

If someone was paying close attention, they’d notice his pupils shift massively in size before returning to normal, a cocky grin appearing on his face. Jack was back, he had to be if he wanted to salvage this situation. “Hah, I took that pretty well, don’t you think?” He pulled her away from him, rubbing the blood on his hand onto his shirt haphazardly to clean it. To play it off as if nothing happened. “The princess fixed me right up, though. Must have not been that bad a wound, so… You don’t have to worry, Mary.” She didn’t stop crying, but his words were enough to at least shut her up.

His brain slowly returned to normal, the sensation already forgotten in his mind. He didn’t want to do that again, it made him… Irrational. He turned to the princess with a grin, waggling his fingers in front of him with amazement. “Wow. Nice job… doing whatever you did. What did you do, exactly?” He looked at her hands for some sort of needle or something. He didn’t know too much about medicine, but he was pretty sure that his fingers would have at least needed stitches to heal.

The girl’s face beamed with pride, her earlier exhaustion only moderately present on her face. “Healing magic is my… my specialty, you know? Ah… Do you heroes know about magic? I’ve been told to explain this to you all but we didn’t expect for there to be so many of you…” She looked around, and so did he. The group was in shock. Everyone was staring at him and her as if they were aliens, beings completely outside their dimension. It made sense. Even Jack was feeling a bit weak in the knees.

Magic.

How stupid.

“Hahaha… Magic? That’s… unique. Where did you say we were, again?” He tried his best not to show his annoyance as he checked her hands and dress for any tools. The girl may have just drugged him with some kind of medicine that healed his hand, but it didn’t change the fact that she had that kind of stuff on her person. She was dangerous, and seeing just how many armored guards were by her side, she was also important.

She pondered over his question, as if picking and choosing what to say and what to leave out of her little response. “This is the Kingdom of Adelus… We’ve summoned you heroes to help us stop the next demonic plague…”

The response was so completely baffling he almost balled up his fist.

Annoyance, anger, frustration. He didn’t understand the reason behind the woman lying to him like this. Pettiness? Fear? What was there to fear? Did she get off on lying to him? Maybe she was insane, and truly believed what she said. He certainly couldn’t find any flaws in the dopy, pure mask of a face she hid behind. She seemed truly genuine, as if her plea was truly one of helplessness.

Something inside him wanted to do something to her, but he didn’t know what.

He realized his fist was clenched white and loosened it. He had to remember what situation he was in, how easily one could be irrational when they had no sense of control. He was helpless now, and like many others he had desperately wanted to act violently. There were around 14 big reasons holding spears around him telling him why he shouldn’t.

She gave a weak smile as she tilted her head, her eyes sad. “So, heroes… Will you help us?”