72 Chapter 68 Caged

A fresh and cool breeze flowed between them, giving the princess chills and making her take a blanket out to cover herself. Her life was meant to be an attractive one, a dream for many, yet when she talked about it, it didn't seem all that great. The stress of being killed at any moment, staying inside a room for most of her life. When she goes outside, she gets harassed by her family and all the while she has people supporting and depending on her. The weight on her back was simply too big to carry.

"It had been some time since I last left my room, but this time it would be different. There was a noble with a pretty high ranking that wanted to support me, but he first wanted to speak with me.", her face looked even droopier, giving Lucas a hint.

"Let me guess, he wasn't supporting you, but he sent a killing squad after you?", she looked up and had a face of shock.

"Not really, there was an attempt to take my life, but I'm still here, aren't I? I didn't get to talk to the noble because we got ambushed on our way there. My trusted guard who loved me with his heart fought with his all, but died during the ambush.", she started to get tears in her eyes.

'It seems that that love wasn't one-sided.'

'Who cares, he's dead.'

They waited a bit in silence, the princess needed some time to gather her courage again and Lucas wouldn't interrupt her. A tear or two fell before she could continue, "The last of my group ran away, my advisor created a distraction to let me escape, but then I ended up in that little village, Granod, and spent my days in the inn. When we met it had already been a few days, but no one came back for me.", she started to cry for real now, she didn't have anyone left.

Her guards were presumably killed, her loyal admirer was dead, and her advisor most likely as well. "I don't have anyone left anymore!", tears kept falling like rain during a storm, Lucas didn't know what to do. He never really comforted anyone, he even started to panic a bit, although that was what it seemed like.

He had been through trials of fire and didn't flinch, but this was something completely different. He had formed a bond with her after traveling for some time.

'What should I do?'

'Slap her, it will immediately wake her up and let her face reality.'

'Why did I even bother asking you?'

He thought back to when he was at his church where Robert had hugged him to calm him down and tried to do the same thing. He approached her slowly before wrapping his arms around her. She was embraced by his warmth and couldn't help but hug him back and let all her sadness out. They stayed like that for quite some time, Lucas would normally think about what a waste of time this was, but this time his mind didn't even acknowledge it in the slightest. There were more important things.

Eventually, the princess broke the hug, she didn't move away and stayed close to him. Leaning her head on his shoulders, "Thank you.", her voice was cracked and silent, but Lucas heard it anyway, choosing not to answer and let the quiet of the night take over. "Do you have a family, Conrad?"

Lucas flinched at that question, on one hand, he had forgotten he was under a pseudo name, on the other hand, he wasn't ready to tell her about that. Instead of telling the truth, he also didn't want to create a fake story, 'She doesn't deserve a lie about that.'

"I'd rather not talk about it, I'm alone for a reason.", with that he still had given her an idea of what he had been through. "I see, I'm sorry."

"It's nothing, memories of the past may haunt us, but they can't hold us back.", that was what Lucas truly believed, what happened, happened, he couldn't change history, but he could learn from his mistakes and grow to never make them again. He had never lost his goal, to live freely, though he hadn't figured out what that exactly meant.

"You're right, we can't let ourselves get stuck in the past.", she had calmed down, the tears in her eyes and on her cheeks had dried up, leaving red trails behind on her pale skin. They both fell asleep not long after, leaning on each other.

Lucas woke up first and quietly removed himself from her grasp, she had started to hug him in her sleep. After he was freed from her surprisingly strong grasp, he did what he always does, training. He started with simple exercises to wake up, only to move on to other, more demanding things. He did the fire intensifying technique again, only to suffer from the consequences once more,

'That really hurts more than you would think.'

'It doesn't consume a lot of energy, but it comes at a cost. It would be an explosive attack, but you would lose your arm. Depending on the situation, it would be a worthwhile sacrifice.'

Throughout his entire training schedule, he tried to keep himself as silent as possible, so as to not disturb her rest. Usually, he didn't care, but now he started to care for her.

'She grew up in a hostile world of politics, and once she gets to go outside she immediately gets attacked, how did she keep her naive behavior?'

'Some people simply are stupid, there's nothing you can do about it.'

'I think it's because she simply never had the chance to mature. She was always beloved and never had to face criticism. The very few threats would be damaging, but it wouldn't inspire any spiritual growth, merely anxiety.'

As usual, he had been circulating his core, this didn't require too much attention from his brain so he started to see it as a habit. His body adapted and made his wishes into reality, he still had to be conscious of it, but the body circulated his energy at all times. This resulted in the appearance of a third completed rune. 'We're almost halfway, we should ask her if she knows anything about the gate to the first Rank.'