A Long Story...

La~ la~ la~ la~ la~

The villagers hummed happily while enjoying the feast. Some ate and ate until they were too full. Some drank beer all day long. There were even random made up events that the villagers did just to make the feast more fun.

Of course, everyone joined in. May it be everyone from Golden Phoenix or Morris' soldiers. While everyone was having fun and being merry all day long, Morris and Jay slipped out of the feast and went to somewhere more quiet since they still had some unfinished business to talk about.

Meanwhile, in a wooden storehouse...

"So this is how humans have fun. I wish I could join them, just enjoying and letting all their worries fly away..." Lydia thought to herself as she looked at everyone through the storehouse window.

"Wait, where are those two going?" Lydia asked herself when she saw Morris and Jay sneaking off.

"Interesting."

She then transformed into a small bird and followed after the two.

__________________________

Near Ulruk Village, Greenland Plains...

"Kid, hold my beer. I need to take some things out of my ring." Morris said as he handed over his beer bottle to Jay.

Then he took out some odd shaped rocks that looked like chairs and some firewood.

"Go ahead and sit down while I light this up."

A few minutes later...

Jay and Morris was sitting near a small bonfire. As for Lydia, she was currently hiding somewhere near them using a spell.

Morris took a sip of his beer and started talking. "Kid, I suppose you have some questions why I lost my chill back then at the house. Forget all that, let me just tell you a story."

Jay nodded his head and listened.

"This is a real story that happened around 80-100 years ago. I am not sure about the exact date...

During those times, the one still sitting on the throne was King Arlon. King Arlon is the father of Princess Auburn, or Queen Auburn, and Princess Frallia. As for the queen at that time, her identity was a mystery. Until now.

Back then, I was still a normal ranking general and not Chief Warrior. The king only gave me one command, to protect Frallia and stay by her side at all times. But... Frallia was dissatisfied with this and became very rebellious unlike her sister. While she messed around and ignored her duties as a princess, her sister, Auburn, was the one doing everything needed.

Then one fateful day, King Arlon suddenly disappeared. No one knows how. Some say he was assassinated, some say he fled in secret. But there were only two people who knew the truth. The two princesses."

After hearing that story, Jay was a bit excited for some reason and thought, "Woah! This is new... It looks like my reincarnation really caused things to change this time around."

As for Lydia who was hiding somewhere, she became more interested in where the story will lead to.

Morris took another sip of his beer and continued...

"Anyways, after the king's disappearance, almost everything in Wildergreene changed. Everything was in shambles. It was total chaos. Princess Auburn became the queen even though she was still 14 at that time.

As for princess Frallia, she almost lost her sanity. She just cooped up in her room for about a month, crying and kept saying, 'Father, why did you leave me?.'

No matter what everyone did, may it be her sister or me, her personal bodyguard, she still would not ease up. But then, on one stormy day...

The kingdom of Holtheim decided to take advantage of our situation and suddenly waged war on us. More than 10,000 men from their army came rushing through the gates of Greengarden and demanded us to surrender.

Just as we were all preparing for war, Frallia came out of her room. At first, no one knows what she was doing and everyone thought she was out of her mind. She was only wearing a long white robe and was holding onto a dagger. As her bodyguard, I was the first one who tried to stop her.

'PRINCESS! GET BACK TO THE CASTLE NOW!'

But she just wouldn't listen. The next thing that happened was just the sickest thing I have seen and everyone else who witnessed it probably had the same line of thought.

She just rushed through the enemy's front lines and started stabbing. At first, we thought she was committing suicide, but we were wrong. And the 'thing' I have mentioned finally begun.

One after another, the soldiers of Holtheim fell. Frallia looked like a bloody war god. She was too fast and strong. No one knows where she got this burst of power from... Sadly, killing was not enough for her and she started licking her dagger, biting the throats of her victims, using her fingers to stab them in the eye...she even laughed and cursed at her victims. It was just a very disgusting and gory scene. And just like that, we watched her. May it be us or the people from Holtheim, we was too afraid.

After the Holtheim army suffered losses and retreated, when we thought it was over, we were bloody wrong... Frallia attacked us and did the same."

Morris then stopped for a while and he started shedding a few tears. Then he suddenly pulled his left arm off...

"This is the injury I got from back then." Morris said as he let Jay look at the stump.

He then continued his story...

"She just went on and on. I was the one who confronted her in the end. I fought her in her crazy state for 3 whole days. As for everyone, the were too scared to even help me.

Both of us were exhausted afterwards.

Everyone thought it was over.

So Queen Auburn approached both of us and probably wanted us to stop. But I noticed Frallia grinning, then I knew something was wrong. My body probably moved on its own back then...

I pushed the queen away, and in return, my arm was hacked off. But strangely, I did not even feel pain, nor grief over my lost arm.

Since I was already exhausted back then, the moment I lost my arm, I collapsed. As for the next thing that happened after that, Queen Auburn told me that Frallia ran away and never came back.

But I know that the queen was keeping something hidden. Queen Auburn restored the order and peace to our kingdom, but it took some time. She also officially declared war on Holtheim.

Then around 40 years later, we finally heard news about Frallia. The Great Treant, Fellis, appeared in the dreams of the citizens of Wildergreene and told us about Frallia sacrificing herself."

Jay and Lydia had their own expressions after Morris' story.

"Alright kid. That's the story. Now tell me yours, your story on how you've met the Great Treant and Frallia."

Of course, Jay held nothing back and told Morris about the things that happened to him during that time.

...

While both of them were sharing stories to each other and Lydia was eavesdropping on them, another 'major' thing was happening back at the village.