First servant

A captain without a crew

Worth way less

Than the dirt under his feet

Woosh

The grass around her moved slightly with the wind coming in from her sudden teleportation.

She looked around, it looked like a normal forest with a clearing, our princess just appeared in the clearing. There was nothing around but trees and a fresh southern breeze.

Our highly-educated heroine that went through plenty of royal-level classes immediately started looking around for clues of where she actually landed. She had what every country and or part of the continent was known for and thus looked for clues.

Could this be Bosque? No it couldn’t be, the forest is definitely not thick enough for that. It doesn’t mean that there’s a few trees that suddenly landed on the island of the deep forest.

This couldn’t be Noige as there was no snow at all. Neither was this the land of Ekich as there was no mist here at all. Like this, she kept going through her head of all the territories that she knew off and what characteristics they had. She started looking around for people, maybe she could recognize them or know their language.

The wilderness looked mostly untamed surrounding her, thus she concluded she was on the part of Thoughtar, the mostly untamed wilds used to extract resources. Now the question was, what territory was she on and who had sovereignty over it?

Shhhhhhhh

Our princess of the rain had just heard a particular noise.

Tap

She had heard footsteps.

Rustle rustle rustle

The leaves rustled, nobody was in the clearing of the forest with her. She knew that there was someone or multiple right at the border of it still in the forest looking at her.

She took her bla—, it wasn’t there. She tried to make it appear, she couldn’t. She mustered all her mang to her body to be able to fight, it was completely dysregulated or even sealed, she wasn’t fully certain.

Her mang was unusable at the current moment, she was as if a hare was being hunted on. It had gotten completely dysregulated due to the ritual she partook in as an unwilling participant. It wasn’t even something her uncle had planned on, just a side effect. A side effect that may cause her death.

Rustle rustle rustle

Even without her enhanced perception with her mang she felt it, they were about to lunge on her and rob her of her life. She had not felt this weak since childhood, then she realized she could probably take a few of them on if they aren’t enhanced with mang before they rob her of her life.

“Let yourself known, who are you and what do you do here,” it was three Lamians that came out of the forest, they spoke to her in Lima, with this information she knew she was possibly in Badn or Discus. Hopefully it was Badn, she thought. It’d be closer to her native land. She did know it was not Saanpi even if they were Lamia, these were territories far from home they had claimed.

The Lamian were the people of Lamia, they had the head, torso, arms and stomach of a Ninge (that is what the princess was) but they had the lower body of a sort of creature that is one long tail made out of scales.

They looked at her very much surprised from her head to her toes, they were not used to seeing a Ninge on their territory at all. Let alone a Ninge of that standing, she wore a red dress, her stomach was still visible with the dress she was wearing. It was clear from the dress she was wearing she would be at least from nobility, the jewelry she was wearing on her ears and in her hair also looked quite expensive. If she wasn’t of nobility, she might be the daughter of a rich merchant, no person of her age had this much wealth.

She had round eyes and a light brown skin, her hair was pitch black and long or else it wouldn’t fit the jewelry in her hair. The woman they gazed their eyes upon must not have been older than 30 but definitely not younger than 20, that is what they thought at least, they weren’t all too much familiar with the maturity of Ninge compared to their own people.

“I am Keraja, princess of the nation of Wulia, I am called the pri—,” she suddenly got interrupted by one of them.

“How do you speak fluent Lima and how do you understand us perfectly?,” she looked closely at their faces, they were looking at her very intensely, she realized they were unsure to be frightened, polite, respectful or defensive while talking to her.

“As I said, I am Keraja, the princess of the nation of Wulia, I am called the pri—,” she had gotten interrupted again.

“Show us your prueba,” they replied in unison

“That is a very valid statement you want to be sure I really am the princess, certainly,” she searched around her. She searched in her mini-pockets she had specifically let sewn in her dresses to be sure she always has her prueba with her, but she didn’t.

“So, you don’t have proof of your royalty?” One of the Lamians asked.

“I do have it just not on me, I can assure you I do have it.”

The Lamians looked at each other.

They went forth and walked towards the princess.

The weapons the Lamians had in their posession were simple, they were three in total, one of them had an axe, the other had a spear and the last one had a sword.

These men were approaching slowly, still unsure of what they should do with the Ninge in front of them, yet they didn’t relent as they had taken orders of their superiors.

At this instance, while they were getting closer and finally close enough for Keraja to realize if they were using mang or not, she realized they did not. They were simple Lamians that had no specific abilities they could use and didn’t reinforce their body or weapon with it.

“Ok, I will give you guys one more chance to actually give up on this and give me the information I need or else there will be issues,” the Lamians had stopped and looked at her intently.

“Lady, we will kill you, we promise you that. We had simple orders of our higher-ups to take care of people that were not meant to be here. Of course killing a princess of an allied-nation would be an issue, but you are not or at least have not given any proof that you are thus we are free to do with you what we want and we will do our job we a—,” at this moment Keraja jumped forward.

She had received years of training, of her mang but also of physical capabilities. Taking care of three Lamians might be impossible for her, she knows this, it does not matter how strong you are if you are going multiple people without mang there is little to no chance especially if they’re armed.

Except… If it’s a surprise attack of course, that puts things in the balance quite differently.

Her first attack was an immediate kick to the head of the Lamia that was left of the group of three. It was a complete surprise attack and thus she had the advantage.

It hit him in the face in an exceptional way and he was knocked out absolutely instantly. She had no idea what had happened and neither did the 2 other Lamian that were remaining.

All 3 of them that were remaining looked at each other, the princess did not expect to knock out one of the Lamia in a single hit and neither did the 2 Lamia expect her to be this strong.

Was she strong or was this just a stroke of luck? They were unsure, but they didn’t want to wait there any longer to realize what was the truth and what wasn’t. They immediately escaped with their weapons.

Keraja, still standing in the clearing, having no clue what just happened and where this sudden stroke of luck came from kept looking at the unconscious body. She was hoping he wouldn’t be dead, if anyone found out that the princess of Wulia had kicked a Lamian unconscious and let alone that Lamians attacked her it would be quite the diplomatic catastrophe.

Suddenly, she was attacked from behind, not by one of the Lamian that had ‘escaped’ but a fourth one that witnessed it all and had decided her kick was really just a stroke of luck.

“If only my mang wasn’t disturbed I would’ve taken care of all of them, easily at that,” she thought, she thought it would be her last thought.

The princess of the rain had heard him but could not react in time and could not turn around for him. That is when suddenly something from her shadow emerged.

A giant big blob of dark shadowy drippy substance defended her with his 6 bright red spears.

The monster was twice as big as the princess, he had 6 massive arms and he had a red cloak of the same color as his red spears. He had 3 eyes on the left side and 2 eyes on his right side. His eyes were bright red. His whole body was made out of a black drippy substance made out of what it looked like… shadows.

He swiftly used the dull part of one of his spears to hit the assailant on his head and knock him unconscious.

Afterwards, he put his spears on the ground, looked at the princess and kneeled right in front of her.

“My lord, my monarch, my sovereign, my ruler, the one born and raised to lead the nation of Wulia. Child blessed by the rain, qu—,” Keraja gave him a sign to stop.

“Who are you?” she asked

“Your first servant, sire” he responded solemnly

“Do you have a name, my first servant?” she responded, there was a whole other tone in her voice, not the one of a princess.

“None just yet,” he responded, looking down still on his knee and spears next to him.

“Where are you from?” She asked.

“I could not tell you, I do not know myself.” the giant blob monster replied.

“Will you accompany me throughout my odyssey to my home-nation again?.”

“Yes, sire,” he then disappeared again within the shadow of the princess. He jumped in it as if it was a pool of any regular liquid.

The princess was surprised by this and tried multiple times to ‘access’ her own shadows, of course with no results.

Her mang had finally stabilized, she invoked her sword on her left hip as she always did, took a few steps forward smelling the nature she currently resided in and looked for residents of this proxy-nation.