A Personal Request

"Bailey!"

As soon as he sat up he was caught off guard by someone throwing themselves at him, startled he fell back and hit his head off of the pillow.

He recognised the voice almost instantly, he felt as if he was being strangled to death as she gripped him in a hug.

Fortunately, she pulled away, for a few seconds neither of them moved but Bailey failed to see the movement of her arm a second later.

"Idiot!" She shouted at him before a sharp pain spread from his cheek.

Stunned, he was about to ask what he'd done but then he noticed the tears streaming down her face, "Yeah... I really am, but you're the idiot for crying – aren't I fine? The Bella I know wouldn't cry helplessly she'd do something about it!"

He said as he looked at her, a foolish grin replacing the stunned expression from moments before, "I'm alright aren't I?" He said flexing his arms, defined muscles replacing the skinny arms she'd seen every day since the day they met.

Physically he was an entirely different person but, 'He's still him, making the best of even the worst situation – if I really kept being angry at you after this wouldn't I be the unreasonable one?' She thought.

"Idiot, idiot, idiot!" She shouted at him, slapping him several times, "Ouch, stop! Ouch, I'm fin- Ouch!" Every time he tried to interrupt he'd be met with a slap, Bailey laughed and finally stopped trying to talk and just looked at her.

Bella pouted, seemingly enjoying the physical abuse she was inflicting on him, "It's good you're okay…" She mumbled quietly, barely loud enough for him to hear but enough to make him smile.

"Am I interrupting something?" A familiar voice came from the entrance to the tent, "Lewis!" Bailey said happily as he looked at the young man similar to him in age – unconsciously he'd already started to treat him like a friend despite the difference in status.

"Hmph, no you're not what is it?" Bella turned to question him, she cast a cold look at Lewis as she turned away from Bailey – clearly irritated that he was interrupting the two of them.

"Ahah – well that's good, very good…" He mumbled as he sat down on the nearest chair, avoiding eye-contact with Bella as he looked at Bailey.

"You did something amazing you know." He said, Bailey was confused as he heard this, 'Have I? All I did was blackout?'

"I did?" He asked, the confusion evident in his voice, "You don't remember?" Was the reply he was met with, he shook his head as he tried to recall what had happened after he passed out but once more there was nothing.

"I only received the eye-witness reports of the event but apparently you took the energy of several Healers and yourself and created a wave of Light Elementa, this wave managed to reach our own and the other fighting armies, it relieved their mental and physical fatigue – you even healed the wounded and regrew limbs," He said taking a pause to let his words sink in, "If that's not amazing, what is?"

Bailey could only look shocked hearing all this, did he really do that? Or was it because of the voice that echoed in his mind, telling him to heal the injured?

"At one point I thought I might die, the Light Elementa in my body was so violently trying to escape me that I suffered some internal injuries," At this Bailey looked at him with concern, 'Crippling? Life-threatening? Did I injure him that badly?' He thought frantically.

"Ah! Don't worry, really. They've already healed, it was just some minor internal organ damage due to how violent the Light Elementa was – it completely lost its calmness and was like a wolf trying to escape by eating my body from the inside." He said quickly noticing the concern on Baileys' face although a small smile appeared on his own even if he didn't consider them friends showing concern for him was a good start.

"Anyway, that brings me to the real reason I came, I want to request your help – both of you." He said seriously as he looked at both of them, the seriousness in his eyes surprised both of them slightly as so far they'd only ever seen the Prince with a carefree expression as if everything was under his control.

"With what? Would could the Prince need help with that he'd need to ask for our help?" Bella was the first to reply, she didn't have the fondest of first impressions, to say the least.

"To explore the forest." He said simply as he waited for their reactions, but before he could even observe them Bella had already moved with her hand raised as if going to slap him only to be held back by Bailey.

"You want to send him into an even more dangerous situation after almost killing him this time?! Do you think you can decide his life and death on a whim?" She shouted at him, rage bubbling in her eyes as she stared daggers at the Prince.

No doubt she'd already killed him several times in her mind, of course, he couldn't blame her for her outburst, it was true that it was possible that Bailey might never have woken up which was the equivalent of killing him.

"You're misunderstanding!" He said hurriedly as he moved the chair backward several inches, moving closer to the door in case he needed to make a quick escape.

Bailey simply nodded and motioned for him to keep talking, "This isn't an official mission, I'll be coming with you if you decide to go – I want to personally find out where those 'demons' came from, 'demons' is the name we've been given for the enemy from the message my father sent."

Bella seemed to calm down considerably after hearing this, if he was putting his own life at risk along with theirs it was a more reasonable request in her eyes – obviously, the Prince wouldn't send himself to certain death.

"Demons?" Bailey questioned, he'd fainted before they appeared on the battlefield so it was only right that he had no knowledge of them so far – quickly Bella and Lewis gave him a rundown of the situation that'd occurred shortly after he'd fainted.

"I'm in." He said without hesitation surprising both Bella and Lewis, both of them looked at him in surprise it was clear that this was essentially a suicide mission. Bella thought he'd decline because it'd be too much work and Lewis because Bailey had just woken up, he was prepared to spend a large amount of effort to have him accept but apparently that wasn't necessary.

"Great!" Lewis blurted out almost seconds after while Bella kept looking at Bailey suspiciously, was it really possible that he'd changed so much that his previous personality had been completely overturned? She didn't think so.

"I need to go prepare some things, it won't be easy but we'll have to sneak away, they won't monitor me too closely since this is still a War Camp but escaping without anyone knowing will be a challenge." With that he jumped out of the chair and hurriedly left the tent, his footsteps on grass could be heard as they slowly fainted into the distance.

"Why did you accept?" She couldn't help but ask him, she'd kept her eyes on his face for even the smallest of change in expression but nothing, not even hesitation.

"Do you really want the truth?" He asked looking her in the eyes, she could almost see a fire raging in his soul as she stared at him – it was the first time that she'd had an indication that he'd changed in some way other than physically, his attitude had also undergone a drastic change.

"Yes." She answered, an unwavering look in her eyes as she stared back at him, "Because I found fighting on the frontlines fun!" He answered simply and looked at her with that foolish grin of his again.

"You-you, idiot!" She shouted as she hit him on the head, 'did you really become a battle junkie after one fight on the frontlines?!'

However, secretly she was celebrating that her friend had finally found something to be enthusiastic about – she'd watched him try too many different things only to end with him being bored by them in the end, if he wanted to fight she could only support him.

A rare smile appeared on her face before it was quickly replaced by rage. Bailey, of course, didn't notice this change as he was too busy trying to avoid her punches.