Looking around for her parents, it seems the little girl known to the world as Nelly Grimheart had gotten separated from them. But she wasn’t afraid, she had nothing to fear, for she possessed the knowledge to remain calm in the face of adversity. After all, in her short life up to now, she has met a God in the middle of a battlefield and lived to tell the tale! That’s Nelly, the princess of the Grimhearts!

“Wah…” She couldn’t help but worry, “Whewe awe they?”

Well, never mind. She’s still a 6 year old little girl at the end of the day, so you can’t expect too much of her. That being said, she’s not one to just sit in place and wait for someone to come save her. No, this is where the “Grimheart” in her name most shines through, as she quickly picks herself up from the curb she was sitting on up until now and begins toddling around the festival with Sir Teddington in her hands.

“I should pwobably ask someone if they’ve seen mom ow dad.” She said aloud, “Hey, mistews! Did you see…”

“I’m telling you man!” The person whose attention she was trying to grab ignored her and continued talking to his chum, “That King is such a lucky bastard! Marrying such a hottie, let alone having it being your childhood friend! Now that’s a happy ending if ever I’ve seen one!”

“Yeah,” His bud chained onto the conversation, “But you can’t help but feel bad for him after all those love letters meant for his first crush got leaked to the public. I mean, he really seemed like he liked that maid.”

“Who cares about her? Adam already has Elaine, so as far as I’m concerned, that maid can go to hell for all I care!”

Just what awe these idiots talking about, Nelly thought, before ultimately turning around and continuing her search for her parents. Even still, she was a small child in a huge crowded area, so obviously it would only get more and more difficult for her to move around as much. It’s in this exact moment that she realized why her father had previously told her to hold onto his hand tightly and not let go.

“That’s what I get fow twying to get mom and dad to hold hands…” She pouted, “Me and my lousy pwanks…”

Just then, she had seen an opening in between the people in front of her. She had no idea what was on the other side of said people, but it was better than her just staying still. This adventurous side of her had actually proven quite useful actually, as the moment she popped her head in between a woman’s legs to scope the scene out for herself, she had seen something straight out of a fairy tale!

“Congratulations, King!” The crowd cheered, “Adam, Elaine, you two deserve each other! Woo!”

“What’s going on?” Nelly once again looked on at the stopped luxuriously decorated wagon, “I don’t see mom and dad anywhere.”

Even still, she was now more so fascinated by the event in front of her than anything else. The handsome person these people called “King” was waving and smiling to everyone that was cheering him on, and the elegant lady seated next to him held a young baby boy in her arms. In the end, Nelly finally put two and two together and figured out why this entire festival was being held in the first place.

“Ooh! It’s to celebwate these guys becoming a mommy and daddy!” She hit her palm with the bottom of her fist, “Hehe~! Now I wanna congwatulate them too!”

And so, Nelly energetically jumped out of her little hiding spot (that being under a woman’s long skirt) and rolled all the way over to the King and Queen, amassing quite the audience with her display. The King, known as Adam, was all but delighted at the little girl’s frolicking.

“What’s this, dear?” He chuckled, “It seems a cute little tumbleweed is approaching us!”

“I’m not a tumbleweed!” Nelly propped herself up out of the rolling position while landing in a star-shaped pose, “I’m Nelly!”

“Oho!” The King chuckled, “Then Nelly, what is it that you need?”

“Congwatulations!” She proudly shouted, only for the crowd to laugh and smile at her honest and earnest praise.

“Well, aren’t you a kind one!” The woman holding her son in her bosom slowly and carefully kneeled in front of Nelly, “Tell me, did your parents tell you to say that?”

“I can’t find my pawents.” Nelly said, all smiles, “But I figuwed I’d be wude if I didn’t say anything.”

At this, the young royal couple could only quietly gaze into her bright Green Irises as she continued to smile naively. Looks like Nelly had inadvertently gotten herself two helpers that’d try their best to aid in her search.

***

“Alright, please explain the situation from the top.” The King raised his finger, “But try to be as detailed as you can possibly be. We won’t be able to do much if you don’t give us much to work with.”

“Dear, she’s overwhelmed!” His wife warned him before turning to Nelly, ”Don’t worry, he looks like a muscly brute, but he’s the kindest man I’ve met. We’re only asking you this now so that we can help you.”

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“I’m not scawed.” Nelly simply said, “Anyone can tell that Mistew King is a kind pewson. Othewwise, how’d he become King?”

Sitting in the wagon, they all shared a hearty chuckle before trying to figure out a way to find Nelly’s parents. It seems that the festival here is being held for the young royal couple getting their firstborn child, so they couldn’t just up and leave their very own celebration to help out a random little girl. Even still, Nelly wasn’t that worried about the entire thing, it seems.

“What’s his name?” Nelly stared at the young prince, who was hungrily suckling on his mother’s teats.

“Allen.” The Queen happily replied, “Allen Grys. Pretty cute, isn’t he?”

“Mhm!” She nodded, “Supew cute! Kind of makes me want a little bwothew!”

“Humu, well, you can ask your parents when we find them, then.”

One would think that the idea of breastfeeding your child when another little girl is in the vicinity might be a bit uncomfortable, but in reality the opposite couldn’t be more true. The young Queen and new mother simply reasoned that Nelly shouldn’t be sheltered away from the idea, as even she was once breastfed herself, surely.

“But how come you awen’t feeding him milk fwom a bottle?” Nelly asked, “Doesn’t it huwt when he eats?”

“Ah, were you a bottle baby?” The Queen chuckled, “Well, I guess there are those types of parents as well. As for if it hurts, I wouldn’t exactly use that word. He doesn’t have any teeth yet, and it fills me with joy to see him enjoying his food. That’s all there is to it.”

I don’t quite get it, Nelly reasoned, but these guys said they’ll help me find mom and dad, so I can’t just go saying whatevew I want to them. Finally, after a couple more minutes of talking, the young prince had his filling and calmly went to sleep in his mother’s arms. Watching the little baby boy sleep also made Nelly sleepy, but this wasn’t the time for that.

“Alright, now that Allen’s asleep,” Adam spoke quietly, “Nelly, would you mind telling us where you last saw your parents?”

“Hmm, we were eating a lot of food at the stalls.” She put her finger to her temple, “Mom was weally hungwy, so dad said we should all go eat.”

“Seems reasonable.” He applauded Lune’s courteous side, “So do you remember the last thing you ate? There aren’t a lot of stalls that sell the same food, so we could probably find their last known location pretty quickly.”

“Awe you a detective ow something?!” Nelly was amazed at the King’s capabilities.

“Haha, oh no, it’s just something that came to mind because I helped get this festival up and running.” He blushed after being praised, “But thank you for the kind words, I see your parents taught you flattery well.”

“Dad always says nice things about mom to get a weaction out of hew.”

Bursting out laughing at the little girl’s sudden words, Adam felt a strong kinship with the lad without ever even having met Nelly’s father. Just what kind of a person was this man, and why oh why does he sound like such a riot to be around? Trying to answer these very questions while also not compromising the mission of helping Nelly find him was now his top priority.

“Why don’t you give us their names?” He asked nonchalantly, “I’m sure it’ll help us greatly in our search if you do.”

“Hmm…” Nelly donned a worried expression and looked away, “Dad said not to give out theiw names to stwangews…”

“Did he now?” He raised an eyebrow, “Did they do something they shouldn’t have? Otherwise I don’t see a reason as for why they’d have to hide that.”

“A bunch of bad people want to take them away.” She felt the tears well up inside her eyes, “I don’t want them to be taken away, they didn’t do anything bad!”

“Whoa whoa, calm down there. We won’t let that happen.” Elaine gave her a hug, “Alright then, Nelly. If you don’t wanna tell us their names, we won’t force you. But a description would be nice.”

“Sniffle, dad has bwown showt haiw.” She spoke softly, “And mom has showt wed haiw.”

“And their Iros?”

“Dad has Green Eyes, and mom has Yellow Eyes.”

“Don’t tell me…” Adam couldn’t contain his excitement as he muttered, “No, but… It couldn’t be! What would the odds be that it’s actually them…!?”

“What’s going on, dear?” Elaine raised an eyebrow at his sudden excitement, “Do they ring a bell?”

“I think they do, Elaine!” He jumped from his seat, “So you’re really that Nelly!”

Eh, she suddenly jolted, he knows me?!

“I mean, your names as rare as it gets, but I still didn’t wanna jump to any conclusions.” He approached her with a scary speed to his step, “I won’t ever forget a name when I hear it. I know for a fact who you are, Nelly Grimheart!”

“Eek!” She scurried away out of the wagon she was in.

Not even waiting to hear Adam out until the end, she was just too terrified after hearing that he not only knew her parents, but her as well somehow. Just what are the odds of that, she wondered as she ran full sprint, I gotta get out of here!

Booking it around the festival, she ran and ran until she could run no longer. But each time she stopped, that haunting moment when the terrifying King called her by her full name with that ear-to-ear grin reverberated in her head and made her continue her desperate sprint. Eventually though, she stopped caring about her surroundings, and only ever focused on running forward.

That’s when it happened. The little girl suddenly got hoisted up off her feet, and while still running in midair, she screamed for her parents to help her. It was only when the person that caught and lifted her high up showed himself did she begin crying.

“Don’t ever let go of our hands ever again!” Lune yelled at her, “You shaved 5 years off my life with this little act of yours, Missy!”

“Ugu, daaaad~!” She cried out, “Some scawy guy knew my name…”

“What?!” Cecily gasped from beside them, “Lune, who could it be?”

“I don’t know, but I guess our trip to Occidence got cut short.” He said, turning back towards their inn to pack their stuff and leave, “Come on. We need to leave for the next country immediately and hope they don’t catch us. And Nelly?”

“Y-Yes?”

“Don’t you EVER pull that crap again, okay?”

Knowing that she had made a mistake, the shame prevented her voice from coming out, so all she could muster the courage to do was nod while looking at the floor below her. The festival raged on while they were leaving on their wagon, it’s quite the shame they couldn’t see it through until the end.