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"Well... hello there!"

I heard a sound of a girl. Young, squeaky, cheerful, and confident.

I opened my eyes slowly and I found myself in a room with a stone wall. I tried to scan the area. There were carving of some sort but I couldn't recognise them. It was covered with moss. There were four pillars on each side with carvings of patterns that resemble vines and pods.

"Hi! I'm Pasta, nice to meet you!" she said cheerfully while extending one of her hands.

Her long beige hair and clothing were quite pompous, like she was in the victorian era. She was short, like a young child, and her ears were short but pointy.

Standing close to her was a man approximately in his early thirties with a clean face and well-kempt silver hair. He wore a black tuxedo and he held a spear in his right hand. He had an white armour covering his right shoulder. I couldn't tell what kind of materials that he used, especially the glowing ring that floats near his shoulder.

I tilted my head in confusion. I got up and attempted to approach her.

"Watch your step there!" he, at a lightning speed, was able to point his spear at my neck.

"Oh! he's Ravioli, my personal servant!"

"My lady, this thing might possess a threat to us! You must be careful with him!" the servant said.

"It's Okay!" her bubbly personality allowed her to show no fear. She approached me. "What are you?" she continued.

"Olrun."

"You are not a human aren't you?" she said as her eyes glistened with curiosity.

"no."

"I knew it!" she said excitedly. "You looked like a very well-built golem." she continued.

"Golem?" I tilted my head in confusion.

"You're not?" she also tilted her head in confusion.

"My creator would call me a cybernetic human."

"But you can fight right?"

"Yes."

"Good!" she jumped excitedly. "We'll take him Ravioli!" she smiled as she looked into his servant full of enthusiasm.

"But, your highness...."

"He can fight, right? So, we'll take him!"

"But...."

"That's an order!"

"Okay," the man sighed. He stood up straight and stared at me. "How good are you at fighting?" he continued.

"Very well actually. But now, I don't think I can fight very well," I said as I looked at my own body and hands.

"What do you mean by that?!" Yelled Ravioli, the servant. His eyes seemed to show that he was being sceptical of me.

"Due to some unknown anomaly, it appears that some of the megin shards that I used as my power source are broken. 12 of them to be exact," I replied.

"And how many shards do you have left?" Ravioli said while squinting his eyes in scepticism.

"One."

"Anyway, what's a megin shard?" the princess interrupted our exchange.

"I do not know your highness. This thing has been rambling some nonsense for quite a while. I don't think we can rely on him," he replied snarkily.

"Megin shards is the source of my power, young lady."

"It's Pasta." she pouted her cheeks.

"Miss Pasta...."

"It's her highness Pasta." Ravioli interrupted my dialogue.

"Your highness Pasta, as I said earlier, the shards themselves are my power source," as I uttered that sentence, the core area opened like sands that were pulling away from the centre of my chest.

"Woah! that's cool!" the young princess gaped in awe. Her eyes were big, round and full of wonder.

"My skin is built on microdermis molecules that can regenerate fairly quickly. They can also turn into any form I want." I showed them the shape of a butterfly, a sword, and a gun barrel that I often used in combat as I spoke. "They encapsulate my endoskeleton with a texture akin to human skin, though, they can harden their texture into something similar to a very hard metal," I continued.

"Woah!" her sparkling eyes told me that she was somehow still in awe of my ability. She was clenching her arms in excitement.

"But, since I relied on these shards to give me the power to live and to perform well in combat, there is a high probability that I can not meet your expectation."

"But we can fix your core right?" she said with full optimism.

"Yes, if we managed to acquire other shards, I can synthesise them into my core and that would fix the issue," I replied.

"But, I've never heard the name megin shard before," said the princess while stroking her chin in confusion.

"Me neither," said the servant. "But it seems that these shards somewhat resemble a Valkyrie's Shards," he immediately continued his dialogue.

"Valkyrie's shards?" the princess looked at her servant with interest.

"But, I'm not sure yet. I could be wrong. It's been a while since I study this kind of thing."

"Well, we have to make sure then!"

"I guess we can go to the Royal Library to check whether it's true or not."

"Okay then! Off to the library we go!" she put one of her hand forward and the other hand back as if she was a marching soldier.

"Not so fast your highness!" Ravioli interrupted the marching of the little princess.

"Ehhh..." her face frowned in disappointment.

"I still can not trust this person. May I request a spar with it?"

She looked at me. She said, "Olrun! Are you okay with that?"

"Sure!"

"Okay! Both of you! On your position!" she raised one of her hands.

Ravioli put on a stance. He pointed his spear towards my neck. I raised both of my hands and lowered my body. We both locked our gaze on each other.

"Fight!" the princess vigorously dropped her raised hand.

Ravioli immediately launched his body at me. His spear aimed directly at my throat. His movement was somewhat predictable, I could easily dodge the attack and moved to his left side.

He saw me dodge his attack. His gaze was full of killing intent. He immediately manoeuvred the tip of his spear to attack me again.

I managed to form a shield with my hand. The spear went through my arm. Due to the broken shards on my core, I couldn't strengthen my microdermis enough. I pushed through. His spear was able to graze my cheeks. I managed to land a punch on his left cheek. He lost his balance. I tried to pin him down to the floor, but he managed to kick me before I managed to grab the back of his neck. He was able to take a step back and retained his pose.

I restored my shield to turn it back into my arm. This time, I wanted to be the first to launch an attack. I ran towards his left side. I launched a right hook as a feint. He tried to counter it with his spear. I retracted my attack and ducked to dodge his weapon. I managed to land an uppercut with my left hand. I grabbed his waist with both of my arms and I managed to slam him towards the pillar. The stone pillar that was coated by moss shattered. We both are on the ground and the floor was cracked from the sheer impact.

"Stop!" The young lady immediately yelled, breaking the tension between both of us.

I got up. I extended my hand to help him to get up.

"No need," he said as he casually woke up from the stone wreckage.

"That was good enough right, Ravioli?!" said the princess with full of pride as if she had achieved something grandiose.

"Huh..." he sighed. Ravioli looked at me with a glare of scepticism. "You can still get stronger if we managed to fix your core right?" he asked me.

"Yes!" I said confidently.

"Alright..., we're visiting the royal library after this."

"Yahoo!" the princess jumped in excitement while raising both of her hands. Her mouth was smiling wide open.

"Please behave yourself, Princess Pasta," he said while fixing his glasses.

"Okay!" she said cheerfully.

We exited the room through the stone door in front of us.