20 Chapter 20 - The Imperial Princess

The Imperial Princess looked down from her throne, she seemed to be quite tall, her face didn't have the blemishes that you'd expect someone our age to have. Her legs were rather long and as were her arms, she seemed to have some amount of muscle on her body but overall she wasn't exactly muscular.

She had roughly waist length black hair, and her eyes were a rather pretty vermillion red. But, what really drew me in was this aura she had, it felt like staring into an empty darkness. It was as if she was darkness personified, and that wasn't exactly inaccurate considering her lineage.

"Who am I? Reinhardt, I'm Charlotte Von Erebus, the lady who you're to guard. Don't make jokes like that when you've just come back after being gone for so long, you'll make me sad."

Then, Caelus spoke with a bit of a dark look on his face.

"Charlotte, he's... lost all of his memories. He didn't even remember how to use Mana until last week."

The Princess looked at me for a while and smiled before sighing.

"I see... but, I have a question. Why does he feel stronger? If what you said is true, then he should effectively have only been an Awakened since last week. But, he seems stronger than before. It's weird."

Then, Caelus smiled.

"That's the good news, he's much stronger than before. I don't known how or why, but as an Awakened he's improved in all aspects. He can even fly now, even you can't do that. Ain't that awesome?"

The Princess's expression didn't change as she looked down at me, with an expression that told me she was holding back tears.

"Uh... Reinhardt, I should tell you now before you see your family. But, we couldn't save your parents. When you got kidnapped, you were with your family. And well... there's no nice way to say this but, your parents were injured terribly. We couldn't save them, meaning they..."

She seemed to be struggling to say the next words but Caelus said them for her.

"They're dead. Your parents are dead, is what she's saying. Your younger sister is... in bad shape, she's crippled. Your older brother's fine, since he's an Awakened. In any case, we've obviously put some effort into helping your family, well, I say we but it was the Princess and the Emperor who made sure of it."

Caelus spoke with an almost expressionless voice, and I didn't really care too much. I didn't know these people, but I did feel... just a little bad.

Then, the Princess spoke, it seemed like they were catching me up on everything.

"Oh right, as for exactly who you are. You're my guardian Knight, your job's to keep me safe and be someone I can trust. But, after... you know. This, maybe... you should rest for a while. Take some time off."

Caelus then decided to speak up, finally talking about the whole disciple thing he had been muttering about before.

"I mean, I'm gonna train him so that won't really work out. This guy, he's gonna be my first disciple."

The Princess's jaw dropped for a moment before she coughed and cleared her throat, and looked at Caelus in the eyes.

"Why..? You wouldn't even take me in, and you want to take Reinhardt? I don't mind, honestly I'm really happy that you think my Knight is worth taking in as your disciple but... is he really that talented in your eyes?"

"Charlotte, I don't train you not because of a lack of talent. You're most definitely not lacking any talent, but it's desire that you're lacking in. I can't train somebody who doesn't have an overwhelming desire for power. You're priorities in life have nothing to do with your power as an Awakened. I don't want to train someone who doesn't have the right mindset and determination, along with the talent of course."

Then, he patted my back.

"This kid, he wants to survive. You can see it in his eyes, it's an overwhelming desire for survival that he has. And, because of that, he'll go far. Really far. The stuff that the people at the facility he was being held at said also tells me that he's the sort of guy I wanna train."

Then I decided to speak up, getting annoyed at them speaking for so damn long.

"Sure, I'll be your disciple, no problem. But, do I have to be her Knight? I don't know you anymore, I can't risk my life for someone I don't know."

The Princess laughed, and then spoke.

"Do you know much I can pay you? It's more than anyone else would pay you as you are now."

I shook my head before Caelus whispered a figure into my ear.

And in that moment, I decided I would be this woman's Knight for as long as she wanted me. Money, I loved money.

Money is love, money is life.

"Oh yeah, I wanna see you two fight later. But don't worry about that for now, I'll take you to visit your family."