Roleplay

Deciding to move on from Ashur as his main questions had been answered, Larfal turned to the crowd before saying "Now after that is out of the way, let's move on to the matter of Riveria punishment."

"For sneaking outside and disobeying what I said, and causing all this mess, I have decided that she will be grounded in her room for three months"

"Is there any objections?" Larfal asked toward the crowd below, and all he got was silence.

He then turned his head over to Riveria on the side and asked "Any objections?"

"No Father..." Riveria replied, not bothering to hide her downcast voice.

"Good, you may all leave," Larfal said loudly.

After hearing that they can leave, people soon started leaving the room in an orderly fashion. With Aina quickly walking over to Ashur and leading him back down the hall back towards his room, with Aina in the front and Ashur following shortly behind her.

But they soon both stopped only after a minute of walking.

This was because they were suddenly stopped by someone.

"Hey!" said Riveria as she ran up to them.

"Hun? Your Highness? Why aren't you headed back to your room? Aina asked. Confused by as why she was here.

Usually, she would have probably been escorted back to her room by now by herself, but because she was escorting Ashur, she had a maid attend Riveria in her stead. But because of the situation, she would have probably been escorted by a guard also, so she was confused why she was not already headed to her room.

"I managed to convince the maid that was escorting me back to my room to delay returning by a few minutes, so I can't stay long, I just wanted to ask you something," said Riveria as she turned to Ashur.

"Ask me something?" Ashur curiously asked.

"Did you really mean what you said? Do you really want to be my bodyguard?" asked Riveria with a bit of excitement on her face.

Even though she had just been told that she would be grounded in her room for over 3 months, just thinking about her being able to see him every day pushed the thoughts of her being grounded to the back of her mind.

'Wait! If he does become my personal bodyguard, doesn't that mean that he will probably be made a knight?! Then does that mean that he will really become a knight in shining armor?' she wondered, before suddenly jumping to a thought 'Wait! Did he ask to become my personal bodyguard because he likes me!?'

Meanwhile, Aina who was watching from the side was shocked out of her mind looking at Riveria. She had known Riveria all her life, but she had never seen Riveria this excited about anything. She was almost always serious and cold. Never showing much emotion to others besides her, and this made her think she should reevaluate Ashur and Riveria's relationship with each other.

At first, she thought that Riveria was just grateful to Ashur for saving her, and from the way she talked about him, they probably became friends. But seeing her act like this she started to think she should find out what Ashur truly means to Riveria....

"Hey Ashur, why do you want to become my bodyguard?" asked Riveria curiously. This had always been on her mind ever since he requested it.

Hearing this, Ashur smiled and said "No reason, I just thought that this way, we would be fun, and we would be able to hang out as much as we like"

Ashur wanted to stay in Alf's Royal Forest for a bit anyways and thought that this would be the only way he could stay closer to her as if he asked for anything else, he would have been probably just rewarded and then be sent off, and would probably not be able to interact with her freely as he can now. So, he asked to be Riveria's personal bodyguard, so that he would be able to hang out with her whenever he wanted.

'Plus, It's just like role-playing! But it's real!'

Ashur figured it would be quite interesting and fun to role-play a Princess and her Knight. He always wanted to try something like this and thought it would be quite fun to try out.

And admittedly, this may be the main reason he asked to be her bodyguard.....

There were other roles he found would be quite interesting to play, such as a butler and his lady, or maybe a Young Noble, or even a Mysterious Masked man. There were many run roles he would like to play, and they were just a few.

"Hang out?"

"Yeah, you don't want to?" asked Ashur

"No no no, I want to hang out! I just thought that your request would be something like a ton of money or a pile of jewels for your reward, why did you waste it on something like becoming my personal bodyguard?" asked Rivera.

"Waste? I don't really think I wasted my reward"

"Hun, what do you mean?" asked Riveria questioningly.

"Well, to me, my friends and the people I care about are more valuable to me than some money of jewels, and at the same time, I thought it would be more fun!" said Ashur with a smile.

'So he considers me a friend and someone he cares about?' she thought. A little happy inside.

"More fun?" she asked.

"Yeah, wouldn't it be much more fun if we could hang out almost every day?" asked Ashur.

"Yeah, I guess it would be more fun," said Riveria as a smile spread on her face, before quickly vanishing as a maid that was on the side, suddenly approached them.

"Princess, this is the most I can delay before you have to return to your room," said the maid.

"Alright," said Riveria, before turning towards Ashur and Aina before reluctantly saying "I have to go."

"Okay, see you later"

"See you later your Highness"

seeing the both of them leave, Aina said "I guess we should make our exit also."

"Yeah, let's get going" replied Ashur before starting to walk again.

-----------------

A few minutes after everyone left, there were only two people left in the throne room, one was Larfal, and the other was his adviser which was an old elf with grey hair.

"Are you sure about this?" asked the old elf.

"To be honest, not really," said Larfal with a sigh.

"What will you do if he does pass your test?"

"That's 'If'' he can complete it, that is"

"Your Majesty, what do you mean?" asked the old elf.

"Atel, for his test, I have decided that he will fight simultaneously Castien, Aliceia, Atures, Carlem, and Seph"

Atel was shocked and shouted "Your Majesty, you can't be serious! He is just a child! How can he possibly win against them! They have all made contracts with Spirit's, and they already have reached the equivalent of a level two or even the border of level three!"

He was appalled that he would send his five best knights to fight a child.

Each one of them were the elite of the elite among his knights, and to last even a minute against just one of them would mean that they were on the level of an elite knight.

"Relax Atel, I never actually meant for him to win against them, I only need one of them to fight him, the others are there for psychological pressure, all they have to do is stay on the sidelines. I just wanted to see his determination, and how he would react when he is cornered and faced with an enemy that he can't win against. Will he give up? Runaway? Or will he fight to the end? I want to see his reaction and see if he is suited for protecting Riveria"

"Thank goodness, Your Majesty, I truly thought that you had something out for the child," said Atel in relief.

"But don't you think you're going overboard with sending all five of them to fight a child?" asked Atel.

"Don't you remember? They said that he effortlessly defeated one of those knights under Astin, and fought those slave traders. Even though he is a child, seeing how calm he was and how he acted, and also knowing of his strength, made me stop thinking of him as a child, and instead of instantly rejecting his request of being Riveria's bodyguard, and simply writing it off as a child's wish, I thought to consider it." said Larfal.

"But Your Majesty, if you just wanted to make sure he was troubled, wouldn't one be enough?" asked Atel.

"I want to make him feel that he has no chance of winning. With only one, he could put up a little fight before losing, but I want him to feel that he has absolutely no chance," said Larfal.

"But Your Majesty, what about Seph? You know his personality, what if he accidentally kills the boy?"

"Don't worry, There's Castien and Carlem there, you know those two will stop him if he gets too out of hand. But I will also tell them to only stop him if he is going to cripple the boy or kill him"

"I have a question, why did you even consider letting him become her highness's personal bodyguard?" asked Atel.

To be honest, when Larfal heard Ashur's request, he wanted to instantly reject it, but when he thought about the events that just happened, he thought that Riveria did need a bodyguard. To make sure something like that doesn't happen again.

"Unlike a child for his age, he showed that he is smart and also calm, and should not make stupid decisions. Considering he chose to escape with Riveria and ensure her safety instead of rashly fighting, and also able to successfully escape their pursuit. It shows that he is capable of making smart and rational decisions," said Larfal "Also, put a few 'Eyes' on him, as he still seems a bit suspicious."

"Right away Your Majesty, I just hope that her Highness will not be that mad at Your Majesty that much, considering she seems quite fond of him," said Atel Wryly.