Chapter 1:Princess in distress

A beautiful day, everyone at the ball is celebrating the birthday of the princess. She's the most beautiful lady in the kingdom, just turned 20. Every single prince from neighbouring kingdoms and even from kingdoms overseas, came here trying to win her heart.

I would do the same too. Who wouldn't for a beautiful wife? but I'm am nothing but a common knight. Not a commander, not a personal guard, not even the strongest among the knights that were recruited along with me. I'm just a knight. Nothing more or less

Its nighttime, the day is almost over. 11:25. Half an hour more till midnight. Everything was going great. I'm inside the ball room waiting for the day to end. All the princes were head over heels for the princess. Its not like I can blame them for it. But I am jealous. Jealous of every one of the princes, being able to talk to the princess without having to worry about how others will look at you. They'll just think

'oh it's nothing. Just a conversation between a Prince and a Princess. nothing more'.

I can only dream of talking to her. A knight talking to a princess? The princess will be spared from rumours but not the knight.

'Hey isn't that the knight that dared to talk to the princess?' 'Hah, looks like the knights have become more brave'

and on and on about how a knight isn't worthy of talking, or even looking at the princess. Its so unfair.

11:56. Almost over. I can return to my house after this. Just as I thought that I could escape from this nightmare, a knight from outside came rushing inside and yelled—

"There's a dragon outside! everyone run for you lives!".

unbelievable. A dragon? no way. But curiousity took over anyways. I ran outside to take a look, I couldn't believe my own eyes. Its a dragon. A dragon larger than I could ever imagine. What a sight. I was frozen in fear and disbelief. Everyone was panicking, even the king himself was in disbelief when he saw the dragon.

The roar of the dragon was enough to make someone go deaf, but luckily it was still far away, in the air. It seemed to be far away but for the dragon itself? it took nothing more than a step to get here. A real dragon. A real, fire breathing dragon. Chaos was everywhere, it was burning the city down to ashes. Hundreds of lives were lost. 11:58. its still 11:58. In just two minutes, the population in this city was halved. Terrific. No one did anything to stop it. No, nobody could do anything in the first place. Everyone knew, that they could do nothing against that beast. The 20th birthday of the princess turned into the death day of hundreds.

It stopped. It stopped in the middle of crushing and burning everything down. It looked straight at the Palace. the ball room. Then spoke— "Give me the heiress of the royal family". The second unbelievable thing I saw today. 11:59:43. What a timing. I turned to look back, at the princess. She had the most petrified face among everyone present here. Well that would only make sense.

12:00:26. The princess' birthday was over. the home I thought I could return to doesn't exist anymore.

The dragon was still here. As the dragon was waiting for an answer, the King cried out—"No! I will never give you my daughter!". Looks like it's time for the other half of the population to be wiped out.

The dragon was angered by those words and roaded once again. I'm pretty sure I almost went deaf. The dragon took off into the air and came to the palace, flying. Its feet were the size of the training ground for the soldiers. maybe even bigger. It was a horrific sight.

The dragon spoke again— "A mere human, you dare raise your pathetic voice at me?".

Though it just spoke a few words, it felt like a thousand lions were roaring, especially when it's this close.

The princes in the ball room were all terrified. not one raised his sword. not even the commander-in-chief. not even the strongest knights dared to raise their swords against it. The dragon looked straight at the princess, with eyes filled with anger. The king couldn't talk anymore, as if he had lost his voice.

The dragon reached out it's hand and forcefully grabbed the princess and flew to the sky and roared one last time and went back to it's den. 12:13. 18 minutes. 18 minutes was all it took for the dragon to invade this city, massacre over half of the population, destroy the palace, and kidnap the princess. all in just eighteen minutes. What a day.

The king was astonished by the appearance of the dragon, everyone was, infact. Noone could save the princess. The most beautiful lady to exist in the kingdom was kidnapped by the dragon. It was an awful day.

—————

Its been 2 weeks.

2 weeks since the dragon invasion. The people that are still alive are traumatized. Many have lost their loved ones. Even the king has lost his precious daughter. Oh what will he do?

he has lost his wife, and now his daughter. None of the kingdoms that were here on the day of invasion even offered to help re-build the city.

Not even one third of what the dragon destroyed that day has been rebuilt let alone the palace. Sad. Those who've lost their homes, like me, were offered to stay in the palace's spare rooms. Currently i share this room with two other guys. We don't talk much since those two guys are also some of the guards who were traumatized.

—————

4th week.

its been 4 weeks since the invasion. everyone is finally recovering almost quarter of what was destroyed by the dragon has been rebuilt. the knights have started training again.

Just as everything was going great, the king suddenly announced—"Whoever goes to the dragon's lair, and brings back my daughter dead or alive or even information about what happened to her, I'll give you over half of the royal riches and if she's alive, You can marry her!"

shocking.

no one ever thought that the king himself would make an announcement like this. Over half of the royal riches and the princess herself? that's a lot for walking straight to your death. Who on earth would be dumb enough to actually do that?

turns out i actually was dumb enough to do it myself.