Chapter 77: Tournament Day 3 (Part 4)

[Ah! Judy! Hah! Hah! Dammit not again...] - Moon

[Are you okay?!? What happened?] - Arlen

[Just that dream again, don't worry. Phew... We were planning to search for my brother and sister today right?] - Moon

I woke with a start, the last image from my dreams burned into my eyes. The sight of the Bunnykin Judy impaled on a sword as she desperately reached out to me, her eyes begging me to help her. Breathing heavily as I realized the bed was soaked in sweat for the 3rd time that night I cursed my current condition from the bottom of my heart. I'd been alone for my whole life, I knew that forming attachments was a mistake. Yet I'd went and gotten friendly with Judy despite that. The short time we'd known each other I'd come to trust the horny berserker rabbit so her sudden loss had a significant impact on me. She was the first friend I'd had outside of Kris and Lake, and I saw them more like younger siblings or even my own children instead of friends. Their loss seemed to exasperate the loneliness I felt at losing what was essentially another pillar supporting me.

The rapid thumping of footsteps preceded the worried face of my Gallant Prince, bursting into my room as he responded to my outburst. I'd spent most of the night tossing and turning as I drifted in and out of sleep and the maids had changed my sheets several times over the excruciating night. The idea of maids caring for me was still strange though. Realizing that I hadn't yet answered my Prince I finally responded to Arlen with reassurance that I was fine while bringing up the plan for the day. Last night, during one of my "outbursts" I'd been unable to immediately fall asleep, my White Knight had stayed by my side until I finally drifted off and during that time we'd spoken about the plan for locating my kids. Apparently Prince Arlen's mother, the Queen, had determined that finding the missing children, including my own, was a national security matter due to the eavesdropped conversations as well as collected evidence from the defeated guard force.

[You're partially right, my Mother has authorize the use of the Black Guard in our search so we'll be interviewed by one of their agents. She'll be meeting us after breakfast.] - Arlen

[She? Are all your forces women? I've only seen women serving the Queen.] - Moon

[Ah, well my home country is filled with Lamia, men CAN hold higher positions but the lack of male births on average makes it so most of the upper echelons are comprised of women.] - Arlen

[Wait but you're...?] - Moon

Hearing that we'd be interviewed by what I could only assume was some sort of spy organization given the name I was once more struck by the sheer amount of women in powerful positions in Prince Arlen's country. I vaguely remember him mentioning where he was from of course but all the excitement had wiped it from my memory and honestly at the time I hadn't really believed him so it hadn't really stuck out. But what he said next was even more surprising. Lamia, I'd heard of the powerful country of snake women to the North-West of course, being this close you were basically guaranteed to pick up news about them. Of course hearing scattered news and knowing about the various relationships between their royal family were two different things and I'd never heard anything more than bar stories about the country's powerful neighbor. And many of those stories were colored by racist undertones. Of course what surprised me wasn't that he was a member of that powerful family, instead it was the fact that he was well... a he. I'd heard that Lamia only produced female offspring so was the Prince adopted or...?

[A man? Yes, the circumstances of my birth are... complicated.] - Arlen

[O-Oh... I'm sorry!] - Moon

[No no, not like that. I just meant that while male births are rare they do happen occasionally, and it just so happened that my father's ancestry was far more dominant than my mother's.] - Arlen

[Lizardman?] - Moon

[Haahaha! No not Lizardman. I'm a dragon.] - Arlen

[...oh don't kid around with me Prince, it's not nice to make fun of me just because I'm unfamiliar with noble's.] - Moon

Mistaking his reluctance to speak of how he was born I figured my speculation was most likely correct and immediately apologized for bringing it up. While I didn't know much of Royal power dynamics I knew that adopted children in such a situation would be in a difficult position, so his reluctance to bring it up made sense.

My White Knight, probably realizing my thoughts, immediately went into an explanation about how his father's seed was apparently dominant or something like that so it had led to him? Although that made no sense since I hadn't ever heard of Lizardmen having superior breeding stock in comparison to Lamia, not that I knew too many Lamia in the first place but still...

His laughing face at my reaction made me flush slightly in both embarrassment and a bit of attraction as his smiling face was absolutely gorgeous. What he said next though nearly broke me.

A dragon? No way that's possible. Yeah I'm just being made fun of, but would my White Knight do that to me? He wasn't the type of cruel person to play such jokes right? Maybe he's attempting to cheer me up with such a obvious lie? Yes, that must be it.

[No really, my mother is a Lamia and my father is one of the Primordial Dragons. Although I'd understand if you mistook me for a Lizardman, apparently not all Dragon's are born with wings.] - Arlen

[H-Huh?!? You weren't teasing me?!?] - Moon

[How distrustful could you be?!?] - Arlen

[That's... U-Umm, wow. I can kind of get why you're so amazing now. I-I mean! Uwuu...] - Moon

However, despite my internal decision that he must be messing with me in order to cheer me up reality doesn't care for false narratives. His assertion that he was, in fact, a Dragon forcing me to confront the possibility that he wasn't just telling a ridiculous joke.

Asking one more time if he was being serious his hurt face made me backpedal in a panic. Although now that I thought of it him being a legendary race made a lot of sense actually. I mean what mortal race could be as beautiful, as powerful, as kind, as beautiful, and as gallant as a Dragon. No, it made sense that Prince Arlen was a Dragon. In fact it was the only choice for someone so amazing! I took me a few seconds to realize that I'd spoken that out loud and I quickly tried to think of a valid excuse but found none, hiding my face in my hands so he wouldn't see my embarrassed flush.

[Hahahaha! I'm flattered but honestly my cousin is much more amazing than I am, I pale in comparison to be honest.] - Arlen

[Cousin?] - Moon

[Oh you already met her, she's a Dragonkin as well. You remember her, Rose from last night?] - Arlen

[R-R-Rose?!? That scary lady is a Dragon too?!?] - Moon

[S-Scary? She made that much of an impression on you? Oof, and here I thought she was even more beautiful than she was the last time I saw her...] - Arlen

Of course my White Knight wouldn't be who he was if he didn't have humility and in the face of my shameful display of compliments he even said something as ridiculous as his family member outshining him. I daresay something like that was impossible, wouldn't anyone more radiant that the Prince basically be a God at that point?!? Of course his mention of a cousin made me twitch slight with a repressed memory, hadn't someone called the Queen Aunt? Who was... AHHH! It was that terrifying lady from last night! Feeling my body start to uncontrollably shiver I recalled the vague memory of that overwhelming fear from last night, I'd been completely sure of my imminent death, feeling like a fish on the butcher table with the knife descending towards me. In my remembered terror I completely missed Prince Arlen's whispered feelings as I continued to shiver in fear.

Rose and CuCuthain stared at each other across the empty expanse of the Arena, one of them had killed a person in the first match and the other had basically backhanded her opponent into a wall. As a result the crowd was going absolutely ballistic as the two of them squared off. Blushing slightly at my second appearance in my Goth Lolita style battle attire I once more comforted myself with the thought of just how cute they looked. So at least I was adorable while I was embarrassed. That made it better right?!? No? Yeah you're right, it just made it 1000 times worse!

Sighing at my internal monologue I decided to focus on something else, namely the person in front of me. Dressed in greenish metal armor with a lance that was longer than he was tall I briefly noted that he was quite attractive, in a Irish Wildman Mel Gibs*n screaming "Freedom" way. In other words he looked like he straight up walked out of a Hollyw**d film where he played as the extra Background Irishman #2.

[Hah, so you're CuCuthain huh? I saw your fight with that "Shield" character.] - Rose

[Ya saw tha didya? Shameful display that. Man was a ight wanka but eh deservd betta.] - CuCuthain

[...I'm gonna be honest, I only understood like half of that. Sorry.] - Rose

Aaaand I got nothing out of that. The man's speech was so heavily accented to the extent that I literally understood like 3 or 4 words. I mean I don't mean to be rude but English! DO YOU SPEAK IT?!? Oh wait no he doesn't. Actually now that I thought of it neither did I at this point, outside of a few words here and there. Hell even my thoughts were in Miscallin 1I just realized I'd never actually come up with a name for the language they are speaking and since I do plan on having foreign speakers at some point it seems slightly important...!

[Wow ya'r a blunt broad ain'tcha? Innit a noblesse ta isten ta tha comman folk?] - CuCuthain

[...I, okay yeah I have no idea what's going on.] - Rose

[Che, ya'r a rud'on ain'tcha?] - CuCuthain

[Oh? I understood that one! Also hey!] - Rose

Apparently irritated by my lack of understanding the man in front of me decided to start lecturing me. A fact completely lost due to his complete and utter incomprehensibility. Honestly I didn't even know what to do here, I knew he was speaking the same language as me but his heavy accent basically ensured that I had absolutely no chance at working out the meaning without him repeating himself, and that sort of thing would be horribly rude. Especially to an opponent. It'd be like yelling "what was that?" after the villain does his monologue. I mean sure he was standing like 100 feet away so expecting you to hear everything was just ridiculous but you didn't do that! You're supposed to just nod and act like you've heard everything they said right?

Unfortunately what my mouth said was nearly the exact opposite of what my brain was telling it and I couldn't help expressing my complete lack of understanding. Although his response was completely unwarranted of course. It's not like I'm doing it on purpose afterall!

[And without further ado FIGHT!!!] - Judico

[HA!] - Rose

[Tha' ell?!?] - CuCuthain

[I'll show you rude, I already apologized didn't I?] - Rose

[As eff tha' wi mak et betta! Fook!] - CuCuthain

[Da eye aready haf ta use my Lance aready?] - CuCuthain

[Hahahaha! What's the matter?!? You can do better than that right?!?] - Rose

[Fook it! Tak my Lance! Dragoon Lance: Gáe Bulg] - CuCuthain

Finally getting the go ahead for battle I decided to dispense with the "pleasantries" and end the battle quickly. Launching myself forward like a spring I went for the kind of straight blow that emphasized my newly acquired strength. Going for a straight jab to the chest I found my blow blocked by a shaft of metal and wood. CuCuthain had somehow reacted quickly enough to get his lance between the two of us. Admirable.

Cursing aloud as my blow forced him to dig in his heels I found myself surprised he had only moved a few feet rather than slamming into the far wall like I had planned. The deep gouges in the earth from his planted feet though told the story for how he'd kept his position.

Not giving him more than a few seconds of rest I quickly swept my long tail at the man that was still within striking range as he parried my heavy blow, his form being pushed around by the sheer weight of my attacks.

Once more responding to my statement I wasn't able to understand most of what was said other than his swearing and something about using the Lance. Maybe he's talking about that crazy Dragoon skill? Either way I want even more of a challenge.

Venting my frustrations out on an opponent that could last more than a few seconds felt oddly satisfying, the feeling of actually having to work for a win amazing! Especially with 5 months of getting the shit beat out of me by my Master. Sure I'd been able to give him a bit of a challenge by the end but it had been limited and only while he wasn't seriously fighting me. Facing off against someone that was closer to my level without holding back, even if I wasn't really giving it my all, was exhilarating!

Laughing as I rode the high from the Adrenaline I egged on the man only to realize a second later that I probably should've just ended it, my planned blow missing him as he leapt high into the air, a bright dot racing towards me a moment later.