15 — Anneliese's Injury

Lorelai's sword flies out of her hand, falling helplessly on the ground. Joezand puts his rapier close to her throat.

"Holy... I don't know what that priest did to you," Lorelai starts. "But I'm starting to get excited. You're actually even better than in the beginning. Soon I won't have to hold back anymore."

"I think you're overestimating me." Joezand comments, although the confident smirk on his face says otherwise. "Although I do feel more energized and quick. Really feeling Sunnaria's blessing, you know?"

"Which makes no sense. Combat enhancement would be more fitting as Falchion's blessing." Lorelai sighs. "But hey, if it works, right?"

"Yeah. I do think we should stop here, though." Joezand says. "I don't feel tired yet, but I still have to read at least a little bit of the books that Empress Agatha wanted me to. It's better to avoid making her mad."

"Heyyy!" A voice comes from the entrance grounds. Anneliese ran towards them holding a jug in one hand and a sack in the other. "I brought some juice! And cake!" She runs towards them, but she doesn't seem to notice the sword on the ground.

"Anneliese, watch out!" Joezand screams, but it's too late. Anelliese steps right on the hilt. Her feet roll on it and she flies to the ground.

The jug flies towards Lorelai, but Joezand's ring glows and he reacts fast, grabbing it mid-air. Surprisingly, very little juice spills. The sack falls to the ground unceremoniously, on the other hand.

"Are you okay?" Joezand asks, helping Anneliese up.

"Y-Yeah. I just skinned my knee. I'm sorry."

"It's fine. Let's get you patched up." He puts the jug on the ground, and watches as Lorelai picks up the sack. He leads Anneliese to the audience steps of the training ground, sitting down on one. He grabs some linen strips to use as bandages. "Pull up your dress."

"P-Prince Joezand, what do you mean? A royal tending to a lowly maid... That's not right!" She exclaims.

"So what?" He says, but he looks up and sees she's red in the face. "Oh. Well, I can tell Lorelai to take care of you instead if you're embarrassed."

"I-I, uhm..." She looks to the side. Lorelai is staring at them with a smirk. "W-Well, i-it wouldn't be so bad if you learned to patch other people up. I-In an emergency scenario, of course! I can maybe, uhm, allow this reversion of our usual roles. O-Only this time!"

"Yeah, sure." He chuckles as she raises her dress, revealing her bloody knee. Her legs tremble as he wraps the linen strips slowly across her knee.

"Hm." She murmurs as she feels the sting of her wound. "Y-You're... different, Prince Joezand."

"You've told me that already. I was a total chatterbox before disappearing, right?"

"Yes, but that's not what I mean." She lets her dress fall down again. "When you came back... You looked scared. At everything. You seemed really overwhelmed."

"Well, that's a given. I had lost my memory, after all."

"I know. But I thought you'd go back to normal after a while. Like how you were before." Anneliese said with her eyes downcast. "But you're really different. You're... I can't really explain it."

"Just not the same?" He says. And he understands. The previous version of him is gone. The person she was very close to gave way to a total stranger. "Don't worry. I understand."

"I'm still loyal to the end. You've shown to me your soul is still kind, Prince Joezand." Anneliese says. "I just need to accept that things have changed. However hard that may be."

"As long as you're still taking care of me, I don't mind." Joezand says. "So, about that cake..."

They both look at Lorelai, who has her hand inside of the sack, which looks half as heavy as it was. She has crumbs on her face, and she's on the process of shoveling a slice of what looks like very mangled-up cake in her mouth. Damn, it seems that fall really did a dent on their snacks.

"Lorelai! Save some for us!" Anneliese says, pouting. "Stop being greedy."

"You two were having a moment, and I was hungry." She says, before taking a bite of the slice. "Can't blame a lady for needing her grub."

"You've had enough, though." Joezand grumbles. "Come on. Let me have some."

"Alright, alright." Lorelai lets them pick up some slices from the sack.

They sit down, eat their dessert and drink some juice while they talk, watching the sunset together.

Looking at both Lorelai and Anneliese, he can't help but think how glad he is that he found... friends? He's not sure. They are technically subordinates to the crown, but they seem to really care about him. The only friend he had before was Shinichi, and they barely talked outside of school.

He thought Sunnaria would be the only one he'd have in this world, but...

He might miss life here once he gets back.

But isn't that a good thing? Enjoying the moment so much that you know you'll miss it when it's gone?

He pushes those thoughts aside and re-focuses his attention on having his... picnic? It really feels like one. He needs to enjoy the quiet while he can.

And so, his second week at the palace of von Styria comes to a serene end.