Opening my eyes, I meet the gaze of the prettiest golden eyes that I have ever seen - and this particular pair can only belong to one person - Ali.

I feel overjoyed upon having met her again but for her, the last time we saw each other was probably somewhere between 24 and 30 hours. Ali smiles at me as she slid her bangs behind her ears. The sight of her mesmerizes me and before I can even give the Princess' handmaiden my greetings, my eyes suddenly wet themselves with my tears.

Ali has been a close friend of mine ever since I found and saved her when we were younger. I then found out that she worked for Her Imperial Highness the Princess and having served her loyal handmaiden, the Princess extended me an olive branch in the form of a job and scholarship offer. Of course, I accepted. I needed money and connections at the time seeing as how I was living in extreme poverty.

I breathe in Ali's scent, barely believing that she was there with me. I take in the entirety of her beauty and I re-etch her face in my mind. I then hold my cheek and realize that Ali probably slapped me awake. Was it because I was having a nightmare? In the first place, I don't even remember what I dreamed of but it was probably something horrible.

More importantly, why does my chest hurt every time I catch a glimpse of Ali's golden eyes? I sense an ominous feeling warning me of something but that must be wrong since I am safe with her, with Ali.

Ali looks at me and with a worried expression on her face, she touches her forehead with mine to ascertain my temperature.

"Ara, you seem to be fine, Keith." She says.

"I'm...okay. I think I just had a bad dream."

She grimaces at that. "You were sweating a lot Keith., I don't think it was just an ordinary bad dream. What was it about? Can you tell me?"

Eh. So she did take care of me. How wonderful of her.

"Not really. I can't remember much but it felt horrible. Like every bit of happiness was sucked away from me."

"Ara ara, that's not a good sign Keith."

She gently caresses my head with her hand as I enjoy the feeling of the lap pillow she was giving me.

Just as I thought, Ali's laps are the best. I smile to myself.

"Ali, how long was I out?"

"Hmm. Good question. I started taking care of you at around 3:00 in the afternoon, so that's 3 hours after you caused the commotion in the Cafeteria. It is now 8 in the evening. Ufufufu."

Seemingly amused with herself, Ali gives me a flick to the forehead.

"Keith, you are aware that the Princess intends to make you her Knight as soon as you graduate, yes? Then why haven't you made any progress? Isn't that sly fox any good as a teacher?"

Eh? Sly fox? Does she mean Belle? Eh, I'm a little confused as this is clearly a conflict of interest for me.

"I do apologize for wasting a day's worth of training Ali but something weird happened to me."

"Oh? Do tell." Clearly curious, Ali stopped caressing my head and sat me down against the classroom's wall.

"I was doing my usual breathing exercises but after a few hours of staying still, my body suddenly entered a state of bliss and then - nothing. I guess that was when I passed out."

Ali's face suddenly contorts with fear but the expression is gone as fast as it appeared.

"Ali? What's wrong?"

"It's nothing Keith. Would you like to rest some more?" She gestures to her luscious thighs. "No need to hold back."

She gets down on both knees and she started to crawl towards me like how a Panther would stalk its prey. She was extremely sexy and right now, I couldn't take my eyes off of her.

"Ali, wait a minute. You mentioned that it is now around 8 in the evening right?"

Surprised by my question, Ali stops and thinks for a bit.

"Precisely. It is now 8 in the evening. What's wrong?"

"So you've been taking care of me the whole time, eh?"

Blushing, Ali retorts "You seem to be living some sort of fantasy that you thought of for yourself, Prentice." as she pouts in her corner.

You don't have to be so shy, Ali.

"Come to me, Ali." I call out to her as I extend my right hand as an invitation.

"Ara, the spineless Keith has finally decided to grow a pair? Ufufu."

Under the cover of moonlight, a ray of light hits Ali's face, framing it in all of its perfection. She's underestimating me.  Well I'm not the same person as I was before!

Before Ali could react, I gently grabbed her left hand and led her to me. As stated earlier, the classroom we are in is an old style wooden classroom and it's pretty small. You can reach each end of the room in about 10 paces. but the room seemed enormous because we are the only two people using it right now.

"Wh-what are you do-do-doing Keith?!"

I pulled her towards me and I caught her in my embrace. Ali is struggling. Of course she would. She's too proud to actually admit defeat to her childhood friend.

"Un...unhand me!" She looks at me with defiance in her face. Cute.

I look her in the eyes and I ask, "Ali, do you hate me?" and my question stops her in her tracks.

"Of course not. Idiot."

"Then why?"

Ali, in a rare display of emotional immaturity blurted out.  "Fine! I get it. You only want me to come close right? Fine! Don't regret it!"

She forcefully snuggles herself next to me. Was that so hard? I run my hands through her perfect golden hair. Her hair is flower fragrant and each breath she takes is as precious as the fleeting moments in life we take for granted. We stayed in this position for a while.

"Ali.."

"Mmm?" She replies, with her eyes closed and her head on my shoulder.

"I'm sorry for having left you."

"Mmm? What do you mean?"

"Eh. It's nothing, it's nothing. I just wanted to apologize to you."

She looks up at me and pokes her tongue out. "Ehehe. Well, keep spoiling me and who knows, I may just forgive you."

Seeing this side to the mature and slightly taciturn Ali makes my heart a little bit lighter. Ali has always been the quiet type of girl but recently, she picked up this older sister type of attitude that was haughty and annoying and she always picked fights with my Instructor and Lin.

She's well-read, she's sociable, she's popular among the students in the academy and she's extremely beautiful. It's no wonder that even though she is the reclusive Princess' handmaiden, most of the students think that Ali is a member of royalty herself.

I heard that she also has a large following of people and of course, representatives from our academy's virgin society who constantly pray to the gods to have Ali step on them and insult them or whatever. I do not know where Ali's dominatrix image comes from but seeing the unusually tame and graceful Ali like this causes me to shake my head in disbelief.

There is no way that she's an 'S'. She's quite practically a princess herself, well, at least I think so. Fundamentally speaking, Ali is kindhearted and she looks out for everyone. She's kind of shy when it comes to speaking her thoughts but that is usually hidden by her 'Older Sister' facade. Interesting how people think up of ways to protect themselves, no?

Worth noting is how Ali dresses nowadays. Before, the young Ali always dressed up with pretty dresses which I assume were hand-me-downs from the Princess herself, however, the current Ali is a farcry from her younger self. Ali constantly wears a modified version of our academy's uniform with her top custom made to resemble a striped male's polo shirt and adorning it is a pink necktie. She's also wearing business-class pants that emphasizes her thighs and attached to her right leg is a short crossbow.

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Ali's skill with the crossbow, especially with the bow and arrow, is noteworthy in that she has never missed a target during the duration of her enrollment here in the Military Academy. She is hailed as a rare genius who competes in International Archery Tournaments throughout the year.

I remember sparring with Ali when I started out as a Prentice here. I assumed that I could take her out seeing as I grew up with her and that she was a girl. Boy was I wrong. Thinking that I could win with brute strength, I rush her as I prepared myself to dodge her attacks. What I didn't anticipate, however, was her use of two gas operated crossbows which essentially fired arrows at a fast rate without needed to reload or pull back on the string.

Needless to say, I was soundly beaten before I could even utilize whatever training I had back then so I know for a fact that Ali is more than capable of protecting the princess on her.

But I can't leave that burden to Ali alone. I too must work hard in order for the Princess to accept me as her Knight after my graduation!

Having been lost in my thoughts for a while now, Ali tugs on my sleeves.

"Mm, Ali?"

"Keith, do you....do you want to come to my room?"

Eh? Why her room? Her room is directly in front of the Princess' room. Should I even go there?

"Hah"

"Hah"

"Hah"

I wonder why she's slightly out of breath with that flushed look in her eyes? Wouldn't I get in trouble if I were to step in close proximity to the Princess when I should be training?

"Eh? Why your room, Ali?"

"Do I have to...spell it out for you?"

"Eh, whatever. If we get in trouble, talk to the Princess for me okay?"

"She wouldn't care. I swear it."

I wonder where she gets her confidence?

We stand up and I follow her to her room. Of course, we pass through the usual field in the middle of the Academy. Directly in front of me is the cafeteria but we turn right to return to the dormitories. The trip back to the dormitories seemed faster than the trip we took this morning but that should be expected seeing as how the night was beautiful and cool.

Reaching the 8th floor, instead of turning left to return to the Boys quarters, we turn right and head towards the Girls quarters. The hallways are eerily quiet, with the only source of light being the moonlight, everything has become a frozen paradise for Ali and I to enjoy.

Reaching the end of the hallway, we reach Ali's room. Behind it is a grandiose door adorned with various jewels and impressive craftsmanship - it is the Princess' room. We enter Ali's room as quietly as we could and upon reaching the side of her bed, I turned around and prepared to sit on it. Before I could do so, however, Ali quickly pushes me down.

With her hand still on my chest as she looks down upon me lying down on the bed, Ali's golden eyes peer into mine and she licks her lips.

"Keith...I...want you."

Ali starts taking off her necktie. The sound of her slowly undressing as she rides me is strangely erotic. I am caught in a trance and I get swallowed into her pace. I frantically remove my upper clothes as she started moving with my manhood being caressed by her thighs.

I can't seem to shake off the feeling that something is wrong but something inside me tells me that all is well. Could that be Ryner? Well if he says so!

"Keith. Embrace me, please." Ali lets out a few moans of pleasure as I gradually got into it.

"Yes, that's it. Faster! Faster Keith!"

I wanted to ravage her, to rip her apart. I wanted to submit to my primal urges and take her right then and there, regardless of how I actually felt for her. I couldn't care less if my heart yearned for a forbidden love between pupil and teacher - what's important is what's in front of me right now.

Ali, slowly being enraptured by pleasure starts taking off her pants. The sight of her half-naked body stimulated me more than ever and I quickly rip off her undergarments. As I was about to partake of her womanhood,, I hear a sharp 'thud' from behind me and then two quick 'zip' sounds followed by what sounded like a soft 'boom' and is finally concluded with the sound that you get if you fill a balloon up with water and then suddenly drop it onto the ground.

I  found myself covered in blood and what seemed to be brain matter was scattered all over the room and all over me.

I was surrounded by organs and blood and a half-dead upper half of what used to be Ali who's trying to crawl to what I assume that it think is safety.

Completely caught unaware, I get down on my knees as I start trying to gather and fix up Ali. I frantically pick up her organs, starting with her intestines. I hang her guts on my neck and I pick up a fragment of her still beating heart.

"K...Keeeeeiiiith" A sharp screech completely unlike her soft voice escapes Ali's mouth. "Fuuuuuuuck you and your whoooooores."  

Ali's corpse tries to crawl towards the window and I beg it to stay.

"Please! I almost have your parts with me! I will protect you, let me save you!" I start crying. Why? Why am I crying?

"It is tooooooo late for youuuuuu. Acceeeeept your faaaate and dieeeee!"

"Don't say that Ali! Don't say that!"

I increase my pace and frantically pick up her body parts. I drop her heart and it hits the ground with a 'splot!" sound and blood sprays from it, covering me in bile and Ali's blood.

Ali's upper body crawls towards the window and it desperately reaches for safety but -

'SPLAT!'

A sharp object pierces her head and her already opened skull burst open and spilled what was left of her head into the sheets. I was now completely covered in blood and innards and I couldn't help but feel nothing but anger. This is exactly how I felt the last time I saw Valefor. Is the showdown happening earlier in this cycle?

"Who did this?!" I try to remove the sharp object which impaled Ali to the wall as she lies there slack jawed. Now that I notice it, I seem to see a tear from her ear to the left side of her mouth and it seems that the upper part of her head would suddenly rip itself away from its lower half.

"Show yourself!"

I grab Ali's body and I hold it close to me. I imagined how pleasant it was to be with her and how I wanted to be with her forever. I caressed her bloodied hair with my hands and suddenly, I feel a pressure coming from the doorway.

Before turning around, I breathed in the mana around me and everything stops. I can think faster, I can see better and I can react more efficiently than any living human being on the planet.

Preparing for battle made me unprepared for the horror that I saw next.

Author's Notes:

Hello everyone. It's a sad day for everyone here seeing as how Ali was killed off by me, the author. What did you think? Need more blood? More gore? Let me know what you think!