Simon noticed the young Lady, June Summers stirring.
The light from Nell's hands faded away as he nudged the lady's shoulder to wake her up completely.
"Hey, you awake yet?" he asked his new patient.
"W-what happened..?" Lady June asked as she opened her deep blue eyes and stared at the two young men in front of her. "Where are we?"
"Lady June, we're the ones who should be asking you questions," was Simon's reply.
"I felt something stab me earlier..." Lady June touched her bare shoulder which was now free of any wound or scar.
"My friend Nell here is a healing priest in training, he has already healed your wound."
"But getting stabbed was..."
"Yeah, well we were attacked by that bastard first prince's knights," said Nell with a snort.
"First prince?" Lady June looked even more confused.
"That bastard Juno tried to kill the Hero of the kingdom!" Nell told her.
"I-is this the truth?" Lady June looked at Simon.
"I... I still could not believe it myself..." Simon nodded awkwardly.
"Then... it would be best for us to leave..." Lady June looked out the windows.
It was already dark outside.
"Where are we exactly?" she asked.
"We are at the Eastern rim of the Twilight Forest," said Simon.
"The what?!" Lady June suddenly sat up straight from where she lay on the carriage floor.
The carriage shook slightly.
"How did we end up in the Twilight Forest?! This place is said to be crawling with monsters and demons!"
"One of the knights accompanying us helped us escape, but it seems the carriage had fallen off the cliff," explained Simon.
"And the knight?" Lady June asked.
"I'm afraid he might have fallen to his death..." Simon continued in a solemn tone.
"Ah, what a predicament!" Lady June stood up and looked out of the windows, straining her eyes against the twilight.
The carriage shook some more.
"Lady June, can you please stay still?" Simon asked of her while holding tight to one of the carriage windows.
"Yeah, do you want us to plunge to our death?" Nell snapped at her.
"First, we need some light..." Lady June said, ignoring the two.
"Ah, I think I have a matchbox in my luggage..."
Simon was about to check the luggage beneath his seat, when the inside of the carriage lit up.
"Whoa! That's a neat trick!" he heard Nell say, before looking back and seeing a small ball of flame floating at the tip of Lady June's index finger.
"Lady June! You can use magic?!" he asked in alarm.
"Yeah, just keep it between us," replied the young lady.
"Why? What's wrong with magic?" Nell asked with a frown.
"It is strictly forbidden for women to learn magic in the Twin Kingdoms," Simon informed him. "It is also forbidden for men with no status to learn it. Even I and the rest of my brothers who are not in the direct succession, can only learn it when we come of age, and even then, only if we show any proficiency in it."
"Wow. How stupidly petty," Nell said flatly. "What if a child was born with it?"
"Then they would be sent to the capital to enter the wizard's Magic Tower," said Lady June. "There are only a handful of magicians left in this world, after all. They would be taken from their families and raised there as magic acolytes and future wizards of the empire."
"Just as a child with the gift of healing would be sent to the nearest temple to be trained as healing priests," Simon added. "Their family would then be rewarded appropriately."
"Hmph!" Nell rolled his eyes. "Then why is a magician like you not in that wizard temple you're talking about?" he asked Lady June.
"Well, my father didn't need to be 'rewarded appropriately' so he decided to keep me locked up at home instead," she replied with a frown.
"So I guess now you've decided to go to the Magic Tower on your own?" Nell asked with a snort.
"Of course not," Lady June replied, "I plan to go to the Royal Academy and learn magic there, instead of some stuck up tower ruled by an arrogant witch who calls herself the 'Grand Meister' of magic!"
Simon's jaw dropped as he stared at the girl beside him.
"Lady June! How could you say such a thing about His Majesty, Emperor Jonas Maralict of the Holy Maralict Empire's only sister, Empirical Princess AnnMaralict, the Grand Meister of the Wizard's Magic Tower!"
"What's with all the stupid titles?" Nell pipped in.
"Exactly. They're nothing but a fake hero and a self proclaimed meister who just happened to know a bit of magic!" the girl said with a snort.
"Fake who?" Nell asked.
"L-Lady June!" Simon scolded her nervously. "Be careful what you say, someone might hear you and indict you for lèse-majesté! Defaming his majesty the emperor is a treacherous crime that can get you and your entire family executed!"
"As if there's anyone here to hear us!" scoffed Lady June. "And just call me June," she added. "We're not exactly in the best of places to keep being formal with each other, right, Simon?"
"O-oh..." Simon blushed. "I-I guess you have a point there..."
"Now, why don't you tell me what happened while I was unconscious?" she asked the two boys.
"We seem to have fallen off a cliff," Simon told her. "We think, perhaps, the coachman was killed while we were trying to escape my brother's treachery, thus, the carriage went over the cliff and fell on a gigantic tree. It's a good thing, though, that the tree we fell on seems to be very sturdy."
June cautiously made her way to the window with her arm out to illuminate the area.
There were trees all around them.
It seems they fell through the canopy and landed on a shorter tree, for they cannot even tell the direction of the cliff where they fell off from.
"I guess it would be better to check the area once the sun is out."
"Damn right!" Nell said. "Now keep still before you cause the carriage to drop on the fuckin' forest floor."
June glared at Nell.
"Are you sure that's a novice priest?" she asked Simon, pointing at Nell with her thumb.
"You got a problem with me, bitch?" Nell glared at her.
"Now, now, Nell, can't you just keep your vow of silence again?" Simon said with a nervous laugh.
"Don't wanna. That senile old priest bastard was the one who forced it on me. I only kept at it since he dared to say that I can never keep my mouth shut! Why'd I need to keep it if he's not here to catch me? Besides, I've already broken it anyway!"
"Well, you've been keeping it all this time, so why stop now?"
"You think I can just keep my silent with all this fuckin' bullshit happenin' all `round me?!"
"Hah, let's just drop it!" said June as she placed the flame from her finger afloat in the middle of the carriage. "Let's just get some rest for now."
The three took the luggage from beneath the seats to get some food and blankets.
Regrettably, most of the supplies were in the bags underneath Nell's seat, and the scheming Lady June had secretly disposed of most of them to plan her stow-away.
"God dammit! You even got rid of my bag my clothes?!" Nell snapped at her. "I haven't even tried them on!"
"We can just share the ones I brought with me," Simon volunteered before the two could bicker again.
"So," Nell finally settled down on a thick blanket on the carriage floor. "Who's that fake hero you mentioned earlier?" he asked June.
"T-that was just a rumor..." Simon tried to dismiss it with a laugh.
"It isn't a rumor!" June interrupted him. "My father has solid proof from written journals about what truly happened at the end of the War of Liberation twenty years ago!"
"He does?" Simon asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.
"Of course!" June said haughtily. "Our family's library boasts of exceptionally rare and unusual books, even ones forbidden by the emperor himself!"
"Then you know what happened after the real Hero left?" Simon asked.
"I thought you just said it was only a rumor?" June gave him a challenging glare.
"Just tell me about this fake hero you mentioned!" Nell insisted.
"What? Are you some kid, asking for a fairy tale story before bedtime?" June mocked him.
Well, Nell does look like he's younger than the both of them.
"How old are you anyway?" she asked the novice priest.
"Eighteen."
"I don't believe you. You look like you're just 12!"
"I said I'm eighteen!" Nell pressed on, looking so pissed, that Simon couldn't help but think that June might have guessed his right age.
"Let me tell you the story then," June said with a smirk, "about his Majesty, Emperor Jonas Maralict, the 'Golden Hero', being a fake."
"A fake?" Nell frowned. "Why would the emperor be a fake?"
"That's why they called it a rumor..." Simon whispered beside him.
"You see, there are a lot of evidence showing that the 'Golden Hero' was someone else entirely," said June. "It shows that the emperor simply stole all his glory after the war ended, and even went to great lengths to cover it up and erase the existence of the real 'Golden Hero'."
"But the Golden hero really does exists!" Nell argued. "He's in the capital right now as the emperor!"
"That's just it," Simon told him patiently, "The person sitting in the capital as our Emperor, is a different person," he explained. "He was a prince, a holy knight who took the title of emperor, but the real Golden Hero that fought the most during the war and actually killed the Demon King, was a different warrior of unknown origin."
"Ho-ho! I see you know parts of the truth as well!" June told Simon as she rubbed her chin. "But there is still more behind that truth."
"Tell me the story!" Nell insisted.
"Aren't you two tired already?" Simon asked with a yawn.
"Yeah, it's time for kids to go to bed," June gave Nell an annoying grin. "I'll tell you the story some other time."
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CHOICES:
[I wanna know more!] go to Part54
[We should call it a day.] go to Part57
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