The Princess

Yusuke could no longer feel his body.

There was no pain.

That was what frightened him.

After everything he had just gone through, the exhaustion had finally caught up to him.

He had expected the moment he finally collapsed to hurt.

But instead, he was only met with darkness.

A darkness that stretched farther than anything he could understand.

He tried to move.

Nothing happened.

He tried to open his eyes.

He wasn’t sure if he had eyes anymore.

Somewhere in that darkness, he thought he heard a voice.

< Yusuke. >

A voice that had become very familiar to him.

He wanted to answer.

But before he could, the darkness swallowed him completely.

Long before Yusuke was born, there was a kingdom.

It was not the largest kingdom in the world.

Nor was it the richest.

Its walls were not the tallest, and its armies were not the strongest.

Yet from the highest tower of its capital, one could see the entire kingdom in all of its glory. The beautiful city walls, green fields, flowing rivers, mountains that stood tall in the distance.

It was a truly beautiful place.

At least, she thought it was.

She had been told that beauty was one of the responsibilities of a ruler.

Not because a ruler created beauty, but because a ruler was supposed to notice it.

She had been very young when her father first told her that.

Too young to understand.

She remembered sitting beside him on the balcony, her legs too short to reach the ground, while he looked over the kingdom below.

“Do you see the river?

She nodded.

“The fields?”

Another nod.

“The people?”

This time, she hesitated a bit. This one was a little harder to see.

Her father smiled.

“Good.”

She looked at him.

“Why is that good?”

“Because you stopped to think.”

“A ruler who answers too quickly is usually one who isn't looking closely enough.”

She didn’t understand then.

Years later, she would.

And years after that, she would forget that valuable lesson.

But she was simply a child.

She did not know what a crown weighed.

She did not know it meant to rule a kingdom.

She did not know how many people could die because of a single decision.

She did not know that a kingdom could fall so easily.

She only knew that her father had shown her a river.

And that she loved it. A simple and pure thought was all that she knew.

Her name was…

No.

Not yet.

That name belonged to another time.

She had refused to speak her name for centuries now.

Perhaps because no one remained who could hear it.

Perhaps because she no longer recognized the person who had once carried it.

Or perhaps because names were dangerous things.

A title could survive.

A title could become history.

A title could be carved into something and repeated by strangers who had never met the one they were speaking of.

But a name belonged to a person.

And she had spent far too long not being a person.

A ruler.

A ghost.

A voice.

A memory.

And eventually…

Princess.

That was what her father used to call her.

Now…

There was another who called her by this name.

A man named Yusuke.

She had never corrected him.

She wasn’t sure why.

It was supposed to be a special thing that she had shared only with her father.

But yet, she let him.

Perhaps, after so long, she had grown accustomed to letting some else decide what she was.

Perhaps she wanted to hear herself be called that again.

Or perhaps she had just wanted to be called something again.

Anything at all.

Even if it wasn’t her actual name, to be called something made her feel something.

Because for a very long time, nobody had called her anything.

Nobody had spoken to her.

Nobody had known she was still there.

She had watched the world change.

And he had remained.

Always watching.

Always waiting.

But alas, she was but a voice that lingered.

What she could see was limited.

What she could hear was limited.

Until that fateful day.

She found him.

And for the first time in centuries, someone responded.

At first, she did not think much of him.

He was simply another human.

Another person living upon a land that was no longer hers.

She could not even see him clearly.

But still, he was all that she could see.

She had long passed and been reduced to nothing but fragments. A distant sound that lingered. Sometimes she could feel the ground beneath her, though she could no longer remember what it felt like to walk upon it.

The world had continued moving without her.

So had its people.

They built cities.

They built homes.

They made her kingdom into something else entirely.

And all she could do was watch.

There was little else she could do.

Then she noticed him.

There was nothing remarkable about him.

He did not possess great strength.

He did not command an army.

He did not stand at the center of a crowd.

In fact, he seemed to do everything he could to avoid being noticed.

He was weak.

His head, always lowered.

His steps, quiet.

For years, she wondered why someone so weak was all she could see.

But even as weak as he was, she still enjoyed watching him.

Especially when he would go home.

At least, she assumed it was his home.

It was nothing impressive.

Nothing that would have interested a ruler of her former kingdom.

And yet, there was something that held her interest.

There was always someone waiting for him.

A girl.

His sister.

She watched the two of them speak.

She could not hear everything.

But she could see them.

The girl would always complain about him being late.

And he would apologize.

With a smile.

It was a small thing.

A meaningless thing.

Something that should have disappeared from her memory as quickly as it had appeared.

But she remembered it.

And even enjoyed watching this routine.

She continued watching.

Days passed.

Then weeks.

Then years.

She began to recognize him.

The same tired face.

The same lowered head.

The same routine.

He left in the morning.

He worked.

He returned home.

He cooked.

He cleaned.

He made sure to eat with his sister.

She especially liked that part of his routine.

It gave her a warm feeling.

But there was something strange about him.

In this new world that she saw, power was everything.

She had watched people boast about it. Fight over it. Build their lives around it.

Some used it to protect others. Some used it to hurt them. Some used it simply because they could.

Yet this young man had nothing.

But yet, he still kept going.

She did not understand why.

At first, she thought it was foolishness.

Or perhaps stubbornness.

Or maybe duty.

But the longer she watched him, the less certain she became.

He was not living for himself.

She knew that much.

She had once ruled over thousands.

She had once believed that understanding people was one of the most important responsibilities of a ruler.

But even after all those years of understanding people, she found her stumped with this one.

Why did he continue?

Why did he endure?

Why did he return home every night when there was so little waiting for him there?

And then, one evening, she heard him speak.

Not to his sister.

Not to another person.

To himself.

“I’ll be fine.”

She did not know who he was trying to convince.

Perhaps himself.

Perhaps someone else.

But she remembered those words.

She remembered them because she had once said the exact same words.

A long long time ago.

Before the kingdom.

Before the crown.

Before the death.

Before the centuries of silence.

She had once stood alone and told herself the exact same thing.

That even without her father, everything would be fine.

They were important words.

They were the words that got her through the hard times.

This person is the same as I was.

She thought to herself.

And for the first time in a very long time…

She wondered what would happen if she spoke to him.

It was a strange thought.

She had long given up trying to be heard.

For she had not spoken in so long that she could no longer remember what her own voice sounded like.

Perhaps she had forgotten.

Still, she tried.

< Hello. >

Nothing.

The young man continued walking.

She watched him for a moment.

She tried again.

< Can you hear me? >

Still nothing.

He just kept walking forward.

She waited.

Then she tried once more.

< You. >

Still nothing.

She almost laughed.

How strange.

She had once commanded armies with a single word.

She had once spoken and watched thousands obey.

And now she could not even get the attention of a single person .

For some reason, that amused her.

So she continued.

Day after day.

She spoke to him when he walked.

She spoke to him when he worked.

She spoke to him when he laid in his bed.

He never answered. Not once.

Perhaps this was a foolish endeavor.

But it did not matter.

For the first time in centuries, she had someone to talk to.

Even if he did not know it.

And strangely enough, she found herself enjoying it.

She told him about the things she saw.

She wanted to ask questions about his world.

But he never responded.

She complained about the strange buildings that had appeared across her land.

She wondered why humans had made roads so convoluted.

But there was always no response.

Still, she continued.

Then one day, something changed.

He woke up as usual.

First, he would go and wake up his sister.

She enjoyed this part. The banter between them made her feel warm.

But on that day, something was very wrong.

His sister had disappeared.

At first, she did not understand.

She watched as he searched his apartment.

He called her name.

Once.

Twice.

Again and again.

There was no answer.

The warm feeling she had grown accustomed to whenever she watched the two of them together was gone.

In its place something she had not felt in a very long time.

Fear.

She did not enjoy watching him panic.

She watched as searched every room.

Nothing.

The young man who always returned home quietly was no longer quiet.

His voice grew louder.

His movements became frantic.

And for the first time since she had begun watching him, she saw something she had not expected.

He was panicking.

Although a weak person, she had known him to be someone who could stay calm.

She wanted to say something.

Anything.

But she knew that he would not respond.

< Yusuke. >

It was the first time she had uttered his name.

But he could not hear it.

< She will be fine. >

The words left her before she could think.

She did not know if they were true.

She simply wanted them to be.

But he could not hear her.

He continued searching.

And she could only watch.

Until suddenly…

Something strange was happening to him.

He was being taken to a different place.

A place much more dangerous than the one he lived in.

She did not understand what was happening.

One moment, he had been inside his home.

The next, everything around him had changed.

He was in a different world.

One that looked like his original one.

But things were wrong.

His sister was gone.

The sky was a strange colour.

The buildings looked similar, but they were not the same.

She could not understand it.

But she could see him.

That was all that mattered.

He was afraid.

She could see it in his eyes.

Yet he continued forward.

She wanted to tell him to stop.

Only danger lay ahead, but she couldn’t tell him.

She watched as he wandered through the strange place, searching for a way out.

There was something familiar about it.

Not the place itself.

The feeling.

The feeling of being trapped somewhere he did not belong.

She had felt it before.

Long ago.

But this was different.

There were things here that should not have existed.

Horrific beasts.

Creatures who seemed like people.

Creatures who mimicked those he loved.

She watched him encounter them.

She watched him hide.

She watched him run.

But he endured all of it.

Even though he was afraid.

Even though he was hurt.

He continued.

Why?

She had asked herself that question before.

But she already knew the answer.

He was strong.

Perhaps not strong in the way she knew, but he was strong.

She believed that he would make it out of this situation as well.

For he was strong. Strong like a knight.

That was how she saw him.

As her knight.

She respected him.

Cheered for him.

For all these years, she watched him fondly.

But as he continued exploring this strange world, something happened.

One of the creatures had gotten him.

He couldn’t continue anymore.

There was nowhere for him to go.

Nothing he could do.

He was powerless.

He could no longer endure.

She began to feel something she had not felt in centuries.

Anger.

Not at him.

At the situation.

At the creatures.

At herself.

She could do nothing.

She could only watch.

She watched as he struggled.

He had no chance.

She knew that.

And still, he fought.

But eventually, he fell.

Her knight had fallen.

She was furious.

He cannot stop moving. He cannot give up.

This was not the man she had been watching all this time.

She could feel something inside herself beginning to crack.

She was heartbroken.

Centuries watching people live and die.

Centuries watching the world she knew disappear.

She had accepted all of it.

She had convinced herself that there was nothing she could do.

But now—

Now there was something she could not accept.

She was being forced to watch him die.

No.

She refused.

Why was he doing this?

What was he trying to prove?

There was nothing noble about throwing one’s life away.

There was nothing admirable about dying when there was no chance of victory.

It was simply foolish.

It was pathetic.

This was not her knight.

She could no longer contain it.

The words escaped her before she even realized herself.

< How pathetic. >

And for the first time…

He heard her.

His eyes widened.

“...What?”

She stared at him.

After all these years.

After all the times she had spoken.

After all the times he had been unable to hear her.

He had finally heard her.

She was delighted.

Angry.

But also delighted.

She exchanged a few words with him to hopefully bring his spirit back.

Perhaps she was a bit harsh.

But she wanted to see him come back.

The man she had been watching all these years.

She wanted him to live.

And so…

She asked him a simple question.

One that would finally free her of her isolation.

One that would not only save him, but also save her.

<I have a proposition for you. >