"Aside from my own words, what we need to do as a group now is to look forward, right Ryuu?"

Lezlie was now standing on her knees. Not with the regret of the past, but with some kind of emotion that helped her to stand still.

But I didn't want her to stay like that. So, I had my own fun,

"From the future, if you mean Prince Arthur, I can understand what you mean. You both can't take your eyes off each other."

Lezlie was already blushing when she heard the word prince. A few seconds ago, her eyes were tear-filled, but now were moving from side to side in obvious embarrassment. She heard what I said, and was laughing with a smile on the one hand and trying to cover up her embarrassment on the other.

Then, throwing a friendly light punch on my shoulder, she scolded me,

"You're a very annoying friend, you know that?"

That's what friendship is like. Talking to each other, sharing our problems, joking about them, and even losing our sadness over it. It made me feel like I was really alive once more. Knowing what I love and what I have to protect inside me, not to disappear.

I didn't know how long I have been fighting inside me, not knowing that I had been losing my sanity.

I was going far far away from what I loved. But now, I remembered that my friends, were my everything.

And it covered me with a beautiful feeling too. I was realizing once again what I was fighting for, and that made me very happy. But so on and so forth, as Lezlie plunged into the view, her eyes flashed, and a question came out of her mouth that she was very curious about getting the answer to.

"Do you think my mother is proud of me? I mean, what we're doing here?"

Lezlie, even if I didn't know her parents, her mother Pelena, and of course, along with many people in the witch village, they had helped me a lot. Because not only did they help me, they showed us a way, and they fought with us. They were people who did not hesitate to help us, even though they endured all the pain, and were excluded by people. They were the ones who instilled in me the value of maternal compassion. So there was only one answer that could be given to Lezlie.

"We can't know the results of the actions we take. If we live by trying to know this and hoping for it, we won't be able to see what's ahead of us, and we'll shatter the whole balance in our lives. But know that if the intention that you carry in your heart harbors only good intentions, and not for any interest or profit, then our real intentions are obvious and open more doors to us than we think. To be honest, even I sometimes can't help but doubt, but I know where our path turns its course towards. And that's to show what is right, and not to give up, even if we suffer the most from this goal."

Then looking at her, I added,

"If your mother had seen these days, and seen you using this grace that you carry in your heart in this way, she would have realized that she has achieved what she wanted to achieve upon you as a mother. So I'm sure she must be very proud of you."

"I'm really grateful to you, Ryuu. Thank you for being with me till this time."

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Our conversations were fun and funny at the same time. I hadn't thought about the situation we were in for a moment and didn't keep myself away from what I truly needed to say.

And as soon as the short time we had was over, we both retreated to make certain preparations. As Lezlie went down to finish her preparations, I sat back down and just spent my remaining time resting. But I also noticed that Mila and the prince were talking about something on the other side of the ship. I didn't intend to listen to the topics they were talking about, and didn't want to eavesdrop. But it was quite difficult to ignore them in a quiet environment, while their voices were also echoing on the ship, making it impossible for me to not hear what was happening.

It's not that I didn't think at the time that they could fight because of the past that they both had on their sides. And they were also two strangers to each other, even though they met a while ago even we met them. Leaving all of the wedding incidents and battles with the ships.

However, contrary to my opinion, they were both talking in a normal way. They weren't angry nor did they hold a grudge towards each other. To my surprise, they both talked about understanding each other's opinions and continuing their sentences in an understandable way. So I decided to listen to it for a while longer, and I started following what happened.

Princess Mila was the first to start the conversation,

"There has been some turmoil in the palace due to what has happened before, and that's why we haven't had the opportunity to talk. I wanted to thank you for what you've done, Prince Elmond."

"As a matter of fact, it's our fault that even you are responsible for welcoming such a thing there in person. With King Egnor losing many of its men, we lost many of our forces in a battle we couldn't foresee. I'm very saddened and needless to say have to apologize for the misunderstanding and the misleading actions of ours and our royalty."

Connecting her arms together, Mila continued to talk, but with another topic,

"I knew you were against this marriage, too. So I thought it shouldn't be a matter for me to bring this up right after it occurred."

"Yes, that is indeed correct. No one should live life according to what someone else says. Perhaps it would be bad to describe people with bad deeds as everyone else, but to live with a choice other than this means only to expose oneself unprepared. We're all forced to do things we don't want to do. And when we ourselves do not find the result of these actions in any real sense, we realize that it is not for our own good, and we give it up as we should. That's why the people we become ambiguous."

"I'm glad we got along. It took my father a while to understand me. But after all, I'm here, and I'm sure that one day your father will understand you too. And allow you to do what you want to do. But that continues, as long as you show him how much you want it."

"I wish it was that easy."

As the conversation was going on, the ship had slowed down to its constant speed and had reached a state that everyone could easily notice. When we looked at the helm in confusion and uncertainty, Shou spoke loudly towards us and tried to hold the helm with his other hand.

"We have finally arrived at the third kingdom. We must do the necessary actions now, or we will not have the time for it."

We all made our way to the head section on the deck of the ship and as soon as we had finished the preparations, and we were put on hold. We all were dying to see what was going to wait for us behind the wooden wall of this rotten ship.

Everyone wondered.

What the third kingdom looked like. What kind of people were there. What kind of things does it hosts. We all wanted to know.

And as a reward for our waiting, when the clouds lifted before us, the whole kingdom was finally revealed to us. And I was witnessing the fact that my eye was first focused on the place that most captured my attention, faced with a kingdom larger than I had ever seen before. When viewed from there, the other part was not even visible and was filled with endless streets. It was as if people had created a new kind of utopia with new kinds of structures, tools, and devices that they had there. The ships were coming from the port, moving from place to place and traveling through the kingdom.

It had so many things to look at.

There wasn't much settlement on the side of the kingdom where we were. It was like lonely woodland. But as we went along, there seemed to be houses and more in unseen places. Covering the left-out spots and creating a whole city-like place.

And although it didn't look complete from here, it was as if this kingdom was full of surprises.

And we, were just about to discover these surprises.