The hero is now gone, but I’m still here, now what? (Undergoing editing)

Zathania could only watch in the sidelines as her mistress effortlessly dueled her older brother, if before it would have taken quite a while for her to defeat Adamantite, now, she cut through his attacks and read his movements no differently than when she’s taking a walk.

For a while now, Zathania has silently wished that she could help her mistress in such matters but alas, she doesn’t have a Pledge and is nothing more than a regular human- unsuited to fight against the horde of Demons descending upon humanity.

 

The best case scenario- assuming that is, that Zathania joins the military to fight Demons, - for her would be that she gets placed under the command of Neophyte but the princess becoming a general is still far off into the future- she hasn’t even started her school year yet, it was still one week and a half away.

 

Her becoming a general? A good six years assuming that Neophyte doesn’t die on duty. Performance wise… well, Neophyte doesn’t need to worry about something like that during her entire career, she's guaranteed to become a general.

 

“Hup!” Zathania’s thoughts were broken when she heard Neophyte yelp as she back pedaled under the onslaught of one of Adamantite's Techniques- and the prince if Zathania might add, was the only one who's allowed to use Techniques in their duel.

 

The one that Prince Adamantite used is a fairly advanced one; a Technique that creates a fan of slashes in front of the user, creating a blockade that can potentially harm the enemy if they get too close.

 

As expected, the wall of strikes prevented her mistress from attacking but even Zathania- who’s simply a mere spectator with little-to-no combat experience and only using the basis of her own combat training for judgement, let alone Neophyte, someone who spars on the daily, - could see that the Technique only slashes in front of Adamantite, leaving his sides and back open to be attacked.

 

And that is exactly what Neophyte did, taking a step back and repositioning herself comfortably before dashing to the left and sending a kick towards Adamantite’s ribs, making him stagger with a heave and canceling his Technique.
To the left of Zathania, a few seats away, Graphite, the 4th eldest prince, chuckled at the sight before schooling his expression and turning serious not a moment sooner.

 

Noticing her gaze, Graphite turned to Zathania before sending her mistress a compliment, “your lover is really something isn’t she?”

 

“Not my lover,” Graphite’s smile told of a story, a small joke shared between family members about the two of them being in denial about their love life because of Neophyte’s current status as a Redeemer- or at least that is everyone’s assumption as for why the princess doesn’t want to admit to their “relationship” - but the truth is far more mundane, and that's Neophyte not being interested in girls.

 

Zathania could only silently pine because of it but… oh well.

 

“Of course, you two are just friends,” Graphite grinned, ignorant of the maid's plight, “but you gotta admit, Neophyte’s one hell of a woman isn’t she?”

 

At that Zathania nodded earnestly, she turned to the battle for a scant few seconds and watched as Neophyte put pressure on Adamantite’s defensive blocks with her flurry of attacks, leaving no second wasted in between slashes as she swung and swung without a hint of stopping. Or being tired- hm. Could she really last all night long?

 

Perhaps Zathania should consider cardio?..

 

A question for later- Prince Graphite is waiting and it’s informal to keep him as such, “yes… I… suppose so-” she stuttered, "-Lady Neophyte is not someone who lacks in the physical department.”

 

“Or any department actually,” Graphite corrected with a shake of his head, “honestly, it makes me wonder just how she knows all the damn things she does, she’s always been smart you know? Ever since we were kids she pretty much blew everyone else out of the water- and when she started working hard after she got her Pledge?”

 

The prince chuckled, “we all ate dust. Literally. She was fast enough to kick up a dust cloud.”

 

Come to think of it, when it comes to the princess’ knowledge… perhaps Zathania could shed some light on the mystery? After all, the princess has always been the studious sort- “Neophyte used to teach me as well, come to think of it.” Zathania mentioned, memories of them spending entire nights in libraries as children reading books coming to resurface.

 

“Oh?” Graphite leaned in, “what kind of things was she “teaching” you?”

 

“Nothing like that,” Zathania waved him off, “but back then, Neophyte would drag me to the library at night and she would grab some random book before starting to teach me, we would often only leave when it's past midnight.”

 

Graphite chuckled, “really? That’s… she’s really something. We were sleeping and she was what? Teaching you?”

 

Zathania nodded, “yes, she says it helps her learn faster,”

 

“Hmmm… guess she does need to have a good grasp of the material in order to teach it, especially if she wanted to impress the person she’s interested in,” Zathania knew it was false, she knew but even then, the maid couldn’t stop the heat that climbed up her cheeks, “you're blushing. Thinking about your friend got you going that much?”

 

Crass, but, that’s Graphite, she supposed.

 

Zathania shook her head, “not… really-” a lie that she knows is personally true, and all those… nights would certainly agree, “- and as I said, we’re not lovers.”

 

He turned away while shaking his head, he smirked stating, “I didn’t say anything about the pair of you being lovers,”

 

“I suppose you didn't, I'm afraid I was mistaken, then.” Zathania lightly smiled before turning back to the duel between her mistress and Adamantite.

 

By now, the latter of the two looked exhausted while his opponent looked no worse for wear. In fact, Neophyte looked like she was even enjoying their physically demanding spar.

 

And the reason for why that is, is because unlike most Pledge Bearers who only rack up their power output and nothing more, her mistress has trained her physique till exhaustion, and such harsh training allows her to keep up with her style of fighting; the unrelenting movements, lightning quick slashes, and high speed.

 

She can keep going where others would fall down exhausted- and even now she didn’t stop for a single second to take a breather as she pushed forward.

Adamantite, meanwhile, did train his physique but not to the extent of Neophyte, thus, he was feeling the strain of combat and as unbreakable as his sword may be, his hands can only take so much recoil from blocking before they start to feel the onslaught of attacks.

 

With Neophyte's fast-paced fighting style, Zathania didn’t know what her mistress is doing as she attacked but what the maid did know is that Neophyte, in every sense, is an efficient attacker that utilizes everything at her disposal in her attacks- with her continuous momentum aiding in the way she moved, almost as though executing a dance.
Her high-speed also aided in her attacks, making them stronger and far more devastating than they had the right to be.

 

Even her footsteps helped, as she starts her attacks with her foot being the first to move and Neophyte utilizes it in a way that gets the rest of her body to go with it before the momentum goes back to her feet to repeat the process- allowing her to attack over and over again without stopping.

 

Most people described Neophyte's fighting as a dance but to the maid, her mistress’ fighting style was like that of a well oiled machine- one that’ll continue to move unless it has been personally turned off, or if it ran out of power.

 

And Zathania, even after staying at Neophyte's side for every duel, didn’t know how to truly counter it.

 

Well, it's not like she's the exception, everyone else can't handle Neophyte's speed and that extends to the rest of Neophyte’s Pledge Bearing siblings.

 

Well… except for one- the maid eyed Bismuth subtly, the prince was observing the battle with a pensive gaze and was no doubt analyzing everything that’s happening in preparation for his own duel with his sister, and for a good reason as he's the only one who's so far managed to fight Neophyte's unboosted speed and win.

 

And when questioned, Neophyte always answered that Bismuth has a good mind for battle, one that can find counters to even the best fighting style.

 

Zathania didn't really believe her, but maybe it does have a small amount of truth to it. Personally though, the maid thinks it has something to do with the prince's Pledge- but there is no doubt that he's a genius in his own right.

 

And credit where credit is due, it is most likely due to his genius that the prince has most likely devised a plan to counter his sister’s newly found strength- there are ways to get around it, that much Zathania knew, as there are martial arts out there that specifically specializes in using the force of a stronger person to their advantage, and Bismuth is most likely basing the counters that he thought of, off of said martial arts but sadly, Zathania herself doesn’t know anything about them so unlike Bismuth, she is stuck watching the one-sided fight in front of her cluelessly.

 

She turned her eyes back to the battle while holding back a sigh.

 

Although there were others here like her- that is to say, regular, non-pledge bearing maids and butlers of the various princes and princesses, - the Pledges that everyone around her held looked so… so nice to have and she wishes that she herself could have one but alas, she is but a simple maid and the Goddess knew that, thus she didn’t see it fit to bless Zathania with her own Demon killing weapon.

 

One could dream though.

“Lady,” as Zathania made her way across the corridor, the maids that she passed bowed to her before standing straight again and continuing to wherever it is they needed to go.

Contrary to what most would say, the job of a Royal Maid is unending, as simply put, the castle is way too large for them to clean it all in a single day- and usually, there is a schedule, and it would make the cleaners move across the castle from left to right, moving slowly and meticulously on each day of the week as they go from one part to the next in order to clean it.

 

And by the end of the month, they have to do it all over again.

 

Zathania, fortunately, is not on cleaning duty- and even if she is, as a personal maid of one of the King’s children, she would only need to clean the quarters of her mistress instead of the entire castle, - in fact, she's not on any duty at the moment, and with the free time on her hands, she intends to go to the castle’s air strip in order to deliver her monthly letter to her father.

 

What she wrote during the entire month wasn’t much, as most days are nothing but a repeat of the one before but she did write something relatively new in her letter-

 

And that was the acceptance of Igneous Sear Everlast of Neophyte’s “preferences”, which even to Zathania, the princess’ closest confidant, is a complete mystery- Neophyte has never shown any interest towards anyone before, and those that she did are often not even humans, but tiny animals and items of value such as jewelry.

 

And those are a given since almost every other little girl or guy out there has found some love for material items or cute critters. Even Zathania herself has felt as such on rare occasions.

 

She reached the airstrip and silently ignored all the other servants milling about as she prioritized walking to a rail-thin man standing in front of a flying carriage pulled by four stationary pegasi, the mail man? Deliverer? - Whatever title the man may have - gave Zathania a wave, “A letter again?”

 

The maid nodded and held out a grey envelope, the man took it and Zathania prepared to leave but she was stopped by the man raising a hand, “wait, your father sent you something as well-”

 

Nodding, the maid waited as the man walked back to the carriage and rummaged inside for a good minute or two before coming back out with a small box held on one hand.

 

“What is that?” Zathania couldn’t help but ask and when her words caught up to her, she frowned, that was a stupid question, of course the guy doesn’t know, he only delivers, and if there is an appropriate answer to that question, it would be ‘a box, obviously,’ which in of itself is not really an answer but is more in line with blunt sarcasm.

 

“My mistake,” Zathania held out an empty hand, “I’ll take it from here, tell father I said thanks for the package,”

 

The man nodded, “I will,”

 

Knowing that the people there would soon leave in order to deliver aid to the barracks and fortresses that keep the Demons miles away from the city at bay, Zathania didn’t disturb the people working there any longer and left the airstrip before making her way back to her personal quarters.

 

Once there, she walked over to her bed and placed the package down on the bronze colored sheets, she unwrapped it, breaking the first layer with the ease of a brown bear that has newly woken from hibernation tearing through a beehive in the spring. But seeing as it was Light imbued material, the wrapping wouldn’t have gave to anyone but her, and those who tried would’ve put in extra effort in order to tear it apart.

 

Zathania placed the now inert wrapping on the drawer to the side of her bed before opening the package in earnest, the first thing that she saw was a pair of necklaces- two silver things with a sapphire and ruby locket hanging on their ends respectively, - and right next to them is a folded letter.

 

Zathania took it and started reading-

 

Daughter, I hope this letter finds you in high spirits.

 

I have personally heard from King Igeneous himself on what has transpired within castle grounds and I must say, you preferring women over men has been a shock to me but I welcome it, and I am happy to say that I accept your preferences regardless of what they are.

 

Still, words will do no good to convey my acceptance so I have bought this pair of couple lockets as a starting gift of acceptance for your relationship with Princess Neophyte, who, I know will be a good partner for you my dear daughter, I have heard rumors in regards to her debauchery but have found no proof of such things, as such, I trust her to take care of you for the foreseeable future.

 

Please give any of the lockets to her of your own behest, either one could work seeing as I have not been able to find a necklace that had Neophyte Jade embedded into their lockets and have had no time to commission for such an item.

 

Yours truly, the Scion of House Phagea, Line.

 

Putting the letter down, Zathania reached for the box with the lockets with shaking hands before grasping the necklaces for dear life- her lie had gone way too deep at this point? Hasn’t it?

 

She gently placed the locket back inside the box before letting her body fall onto her bed. She grasped her cheeks and squeezed.

 

“Idiot.” She said to herself, “why did you think that telling Capscaria to spread that you had a threesome was a good idea?”

 

And now, because of her idiocracy, Zathania Schema Phagea is stuck between a rock and a hard place.

 

In one corner, is the fact that people are accepting of Neophyte's and her’s relationship.

 

… but on the other corner is the fact that said relationship is non-existent. Neophyte and her weren’t in some secret lovers affair, in fact, her mistress would probably deny it, and she does whenever it is mentioned. On the daily. Vehemently.

 

Much to her chagrin, the open path that Zathania has created for herself also leads to her own doom, because it wasn’t enough that the temptation to confess about her love for Neophyte is there, open for her to walk towards- but there’s also the added caveat that should Zathania confess, Neophyte would be able to figure out of her misdeeds and well… she prepared herself for her anger but she expected it to happen when she and her mistress are already… deeply in love with each other-

 

- saying it to herself now really makes it sound like a pipe dream, huh?

 

“I hate this.” If only she could spend more time with Neophyte, then maybe she could slowly explain the situation but the inevitable has already happened and her mistress has now entered Pledge Academy as a student, now Zathania has limited time to spend with her and worse still… Neophyte might even like some nobody in her new school.

 

Zathania wiped the tears off of her cheeks, “I hate this.”

 

Amidst all her crying, she eventually fell asleep and later that night, she would dream of a staff made from silver wood, a two headed weapon whose ends were tipped with a Ruby and a Sapphire respectively- fire and water, and it was only until morning that she would realize what had transpired under the light of the twinkling stars.