>>6287197You’re almost surprised when your groggy eyes open, though very quickly you find yourself wishing they didn’t. Pain overwhelms your body, and you find yourself wishing you could return to your dreams rather quickly. It was a pleasant dream where you were slowly and surely making your way through a grand tournament as more and more onlookers cheered your name with every battle you won. A dream where you didn’t have to deal with the ramifications of severe mana exhaustion like you do right now. Worse, you didn’t even awake anywhere comfortable, such as a warm bed or the lap of someone you fancy- instead, you’re on the cold, wet, and muddy ground. To say your clothes are ruined would be an understatement on par with saying the Merchant Provinces are wealthy. That is to say, an extreme one.
But what’s even worse than that disgrace is the horrible ruckus that fills the land with noises most dreadful. Such that the clanking of armor, the clopping of hooves, and the shouts of knights. Ah, those are noises you suppose you should be thankful to hear, but right now? All they do is make your headache that much worse. Goddess, please let your body fall back to sleep and not awaken for another hundred years until this whole mess is resolved. Then, just as you’re about to close your eyes again, you feel two cold gauntleted hands reach under your arms, and you bolt upright.
“Do not touch me, knave!” You shout to the knight who tried to carry you.
“Y-your Highness-! My apologies, I did not know you were awake!” The woman says as she stumbles a bit at your hostility.
“Of course I am! And I can walk myself, thank you.” You say before trying to stand. Only for your knee to immediately buckle and for you to fall face-first into the mud. Thankfully, you do not hear anyone snicker at you; if you did, their head would surely roll by the day's end.
“Your Highness?” The guard asks.
“A second, if you will.” You reply to say something without saying much. At least this fall into reality has the added benefit of allowing you to size up the scene. The sun seems to have risen on a clearing of dead trees in which you’ve found yourself in the middle of. Marie and Alyssa speak with a knight with more pomp on their armor than any of the other, likely the captain of this unit, and after a second, you notice his heraldry is from a county north-west of Lindan. The adventurers speak with other knights, likely telling their own accounts. The Bloodgraves are nowhere to be- wait, you see them inside of a carriage with guards positioned at the back entrance, they’ve been taken captive. Good.
