The Tale of Naoto Uzumaki : Book I : A lost Hero

Chapter 2

Naoto's POV

I was on my horse when I heard other horses galloping towards me. It was Alicia and Prim. How?! When?! What?! and Why were they even here?! As I stopped my horse to wait for them I noticed something different about them. Alicia had tied her hair in a shorter manner but she was now wearing armor. Did she take my advice and battle with her this seriously? If she did then she decided to improve quite ASAP after everything was shown. I can only imagine being made a fool by the old man you used to trust only for his dirty fantasies to guide you in your planned downfall. At the very least she decided to listen to the ugly truth rather than the beautiful lie and that would be immensely helpful later down the line. Prim had tied her hair in a short ponytail and also decided to wear some very light armor just in case. They didn't take long to catch up as they stopped their horses next to mine before Alicia began the conversation.

''Sir Naoto...I would like to apologize for my earlier actions today. You showed us the flaw and traitor in our midst and I can't in good conscience allow you to do this alone. Prim also wanted to spend time with you...and myself included.'' Alicia said with the latter being nothing more than a whisper which I heard. This brought a smile to my face as Prim decided to add her five gold pieces to this conversation.

''Yes, Mister Naoto...although it's the first time I saw big sister this enamored with a young man our age before,'' Prim said giggling only for Alicia's face to turn a bright shade of red. I decided to tease her and winked at her before telling them to come along as I...no we didn't time to lose. The priority of this mission had changed slightly now. While I should have started with killing Shamuhaza the bug breed, now it changed to recruiting Olga Discordia and her aide to our side before resuming the manhunt for Shamuhaza. If we didn't do this well, Volt would have a stable resource income by taking over Olga's castle, and thus killing Beardsley would only have prevented information given to them. We had the three from earlier today killed to prevent spies from relaying Volt information and destroying their stable income. I then explained this to Alicia and Prim before we fully departed toward the Dark Elves Nation.

"We have a slight change of plan girls. We're going to the dark Elves first to prevent Volt from having resources otherwise we killed Grave, Beardsley, and Klaus earlier for almost nothing. Sure by doing so we prevented Volt from getting information on us from his spies but it also prevented him from getting easy shelter and food. Do you have any questions? Please keep in mind that it is primarily a stealth and diplomacy mission first so killing troops that will expose that we know their plan is forbidden.'' I said as they nodded. Alicia then asked me a question.

''Naoto do you mind if I take the lead for guidance? The kingdom that I rule is the closest to the dark elves so I can guide us three there at the best time possible.'' Alicia asked as I nodded giving her the full go. She smirked as it seemed that we might get to the borders at the very least before nightfall. This was great as we only have four days to succeed in recruiting them and going back to Celestine's castle before Volt arrived. So the faster we got there the better. It took six hours before we arrived at the border and stopped our horses. As the girls and I began making camp and making a tent. With all of this done I decided to use some papers that I crafted to prevent anyone from approaching or noticing our camps. These were meant to put anyone including the wildlife into an illusion that made them go away and not remember this place. With the camp set, I went into my tent to sleep and began closing my eyes.

Or so I tried as Alicia had snuck in and decided to snuggle. I began to open my eyes and saw a blushing Alicia do so many kisses as she seemed to be dozing off. Well, this was awkward. I could tell her that I'm awake or let her just do that. I mean she had been through enough today so she didn't need me poking fun at her yet again. I decided to just tell and explain that I wasn't offended but we still needed to talk about that. If this doesn't get solved it would only hinder everyone later down the line. So I began talking to her.