This chapter brought to you by Princess Yaoyorozu, the bad and delusional actress!
I glower at the horse.
"I need to get out of here right now," I snap.
If a horse could shrug, this would be the Horse. He snickers at me in amusement. Horse facial expressions are really hard to read, but this Horse is making it quite obvious he's mocking me.
"No," he says.
I continue to glower at the Horse. "Then how about we make a deal?"
He sits down, quite suddenly, and swishes his tail. "I want to know how you got that voice and why it said what it did." Pretty easy convincing, that was.
"I want to ride you back to my Kingdom."
The Horse regards me, carefully and quietly. "We have a deal. But if I find your information to be incorrect, you're dead."
I glance over as Kaminari snores particularly loudly. Jiro rolls over, slaps him, and rolls back to her normal position. After a moment, I can hear her breathing slow down. Crickets chirp quietly around us.
Well, if I die if my information is wrong, Horse can't get all of his information. "I don't know why the voice said what it did," I tell the Horse. "But you heard it because of this."
I pull out a small orb that glitters in the moonlight. The pale, otherworldly off-white light makes the orb seem all ebony and shadowy silver, but I know in the day it shines like the dark greens, midnight blues and royal purples of the deep seas.
Horse clearly recognises it. "Oh, you've already got one of the Assets," he says, amused at the irony of... something or other. "And you're going to use it against... heh. Heh." I blink a few times before I realise that's Horse's version of a laugh.
"So, will you get me out of here?" I demand, stuffing the orb back into its pouch and raising an eyebrow at Horse.
"No," he says.
I gape. "But you promised!"
Horse seems to shrug. I wonder how he can do this stuff so easily compared to ordinary horses. "And you only fulfilled half of your part of the bargain, kid."
I bristle at being called kid. "Well, you still owe me a half-escape, then," I say. What would half an escape look like anyway?
Horse sighs. "Yes, I suppose I do. And luckily for you, I'm in the habit of keeping my bargains."
I grin wickedly at Horse. "Well, half an escape is the plan for it. So you're going to help me with that."
Horse sighs again and sticks out a hoof. I put my hand on it. "It's a deal," the chestnut animal tells me.
♥✿❀♪timeskip♪❀✿♥
"My Princess Yaoyorozu, I have written to you a poem expressing the depths of my flowery love and affection! For you!" Kamimari declars.
"Oh, really?" Jiro asks, looking up from our supplies with a smirk. "Let's hear it, then."
"I was planning on reading it to the Princess anyway!" Kaminari declares. He clears his throat.
"I am in love.
Why has such a cruel fate befallen me?
When I close my eyes, I hear your heartbeat
I open them to see you, Princess, slender and fair
I wish to be a Prince worthy of you
I am in love.
"I pretend I don't notice you
And you truly don't notice me
My tears fall; I am broken and ignored
One day, you'll disappear without me
I cry as you smile
I am in love.
"I understand I'm unworthy
And yet I wish for more
I dream of your touch
Try to reach out
Will you see me?
I am in love.
"Beautiful, no?" he asks, finger and thumb on his chin. I can see sparkles dancing in the air around him.
I sigh, standing up. "Sure it is," I say, more to spare his feelings than anything else.
Kaminari flashes to my side and kneels in front of me, producing a box. "Marry meeeee!"
Jiro and I both punch him on the head. "No!" I say. Kaminari falls to the ground with two alarmingly large eggs forming on his head.
"Besides," Jiro says, "if you were to write a poem it should be more romantic. Like so:
"I give you my heart.
"My dearest Yaoyorozu,
always.
Forever through light,
forever through your soul.
"My dearest Yaoyorozu,
infinitely.
Invade, in a second
my pulse, my Yaoyorozu."
Kaminari sighs. "That is a lot better. Could you repeat that? I wanna write it down."
I shake my head at them and walk to the outskirts of our camp, where Horse is munching contently on a sugar cube. "Stage one went great," he remarks snidely.
"I actually am doing great," I inform him, sitting cross-legged beside him. "They are getting along with me. So, I'll send Kaminari to feed you and you'll suggest the party."
"I remember the plan," Horse rebukes me, rather insulted. "Not surprisingly either, as I came up with most of it."
I huff out a half-laugh at that, turning around.
"Wait," Horse says.
"Yeah?"
He regards me for a moment. "If you do escape, you'll have to be careful not to get caught again. But, even though I don't think it's smart to escape... if you stay, you'll have to keep an eye on Jiro and Kaminari. Their interests are deeper than getting a few Magic items... and they're more than willing to put you and your life in danger."
I smile at Horse and pat his shining forehead. "Thank you."
♥✿❀♪timeskip♪❀✿♥
Jiro facepalms. "Oh no, Nari."
Kaminari wiggles his eyebrows. "Oh yes, Kyoka."
I'm unsure what to supply to this conversation, so I go with, "Oh maybe, everyone."
Jiro laughs a little at that, then sighs. "Well, I suppose it'll bring our spirits up a bit, right?"
"It can't do any harm," Kaminari points out hopefully.
Jiro laughs again and shakes her head slightly. "Alrighty," she says. "But Kaminari, you ain't qualified to dance with a Princess."
Kaminari pouts, knowing full well Jiro would never deign to dance with him. "So who can I dance with?" he whines.
"Horse," I say shortly.
Horse trots up and offers a hoof to Kaminari, who sighs and drifts off. Horse shrugs and follows him. "Do you happen to have any sugar cubes?" he asks hopefully.
Jiro offers me her hands.
"I suppose you know how to waltz?" I ask. May as well enjoy myself until I have an opportunity to escape.
She snorts. "As if I'd try to dance with a Princess any other way." She places a hand on my waist and intertwines the fingers on he rather hand with my own. I put my hand on her arm and we start to dance, slowly.
After a minute or so, Kaminari reappears with some sort of country instrument and starts playing a lively tune. Jiro grins and dances faster, tipping me backwards every now and again and spinning me every time the music reaches a certain note.
Somehow, I catch myself laughing.
Even though I'm stuck with two enemies and one dubious ally, even though there's no longer a chance for my escape tonight, even though I don't want this, I catch myself laughing.
Jiro grins at me and laughs too.
And it feels wonderful.
♥✿❀♪pov switch♪❀✿♥
"Bring me two glasses of mead, and call in the Jester."
Mina bows floridly to King Toshinori and slightly less floridly to Prince Midoriya, backing out of the room without raising her head. She closes the doors to the throne room softly behind her.
Once in the corridor, Mina trips on the worn-out carpet as she stands up. Someone manages to catch her before she can hit the floor.
"I hate seeing you bow to them," Hatsume whispers to Mina, who laughs quietly and stands back up.
"We all do, Mei," she says. "But we have to."
Hatsume grins. "Well then, I think it's time we change that."
Thank you for waiting for this update! I hope you enjoyed it! See you next time my lovely ducklings ♡
I used poem generators for the poems bc I'm not great at love poems--