Chapter 13.5: Backstories

"Kriel-san?"

The trio and their newly acquired party members sat around a small fire, produced by Reinor. Kriel was still moody over the whole unexpected revealing of her gender and sat alone, under a tree. Seriya had creeped over and was gazing at Kriel with wide eyes.

"Can you tell me your story?"

Kriel looked up. "Story...?"

The younger girl shuffled a bit. "E-to, I kind of want to know why you wa-were acting as boy." Knowing pasts were a sensitive subject, Seriya had crept away to maximize privacy, as Jarald was occupied with Reinor and Miril, the female elf.

"Eh, it's not very interesting. Just a bunch of political stuff." Kriel shrugged and stared off into the distance, but Seriya's burning eyes bothered her.

"Please."

"Really. It's nothing." Nothing, nothing. A word that rolled around in her mind. The nothing had ruined.

Start, now, past, present. If it was nothing, it didn't really matter, did it? After all, if it was nothing, then it would stay nothing.

The thoughts annoyed her. After all, it wasn't as if the world was going to know. She was already displaced, trying to claim back what she had lost, just so nothing would happen to Marie.

"...Fine." Seriya crept closer to hear her soft mumbles. "I guess, if I'm going to tell you, the others will have to know too."

"Pshaw. This is why I'm downright glad I wasn't born into that high society of yours." Jarald grumbled.

Seriya was a bit confused however. "But why do you need to be a guy? Don't they know that girls are, uh, smart too?"

"I'm not seeing that our benefactor here is smart."

"Jarald!" Seriya socked him in the shoulder. "Say sorri!"

"Well, millidi! You could say that humans are kind of picky. They see power in mali over milli." Reinor the elf, munching on a berry, spoke.

Kriel sighed, not for the first time that night. "He means nobles tend to see men as the dominating figure. They see ladies as merely dolls that they can play around and bend to their will, so if they found out the only heir, well, receiver, of the kingdom was a female, they would grab the chance to try and marry the heir so they can be king. Which, my mother, did not wish to happen. It seems that the ones my father appointed ended up to be the fickle folk, always wanting more power and doing anything for it."

"Sooo, if you were a girl, they would try to play with you? So that they can be emperor?" Seriya asked, befuddled by the long conversation.

"Er, close enough."

Seriya voiced another question. "But why were they trying to kill you if they think you be guy?"

"Because someone wants more power. Or all of them do. And we're stuck right in the goosefeathered middle of it." The squire grumbled again, quite unpleasantly. He threw a glare when Kriel almost snickered at his choice of words. "You lot think our talking is funny. Well, shut the bloody hell up if you're not going to help us normal folk get out of this."

"I highly doubt that our company could be called normal." Then her face fell a bit. "I do need to, however, to get your brother from wherever they're holding him."

"Damn straight. You caused all this, so you better get us out of this mess and keep us out of your Goddess business, too," snarled Jarald, recalling the messenger meeting this morning.

He hefted the heavy lance he was holding. "Or I won't hesitate to run your princely body through with this lance, regardless of what you are."

Seriya, on the other hand, was excited and heeded no attention to Jarald's tone. "Can I come, Kriel-san? I've always wanted to go on a crusade!"

"You're not going on an "adventure" Seri. Meddle with her kind, and you run into a large dose of Defin's misery."

"But you can't forget about us!" Reinor squeaked. "I need help to get home~" He started flashing doe eyes at Seriya. "Pwease?"

The female elf silently poked him in the side. Reinor collapsed into a heap of snoring elf.

As the three humans stared at her, a bit shocked, she spoke.

"So-sorry. He's kind of pushy..." she cleared her throat, "and, we d-do need a little help. We're got caught by this giant bird that tried to eat us- but we got away, and now we're far from home... The Queen will be worried if her two messengers don't come back."

Seriya took up the elf and hugged her. "No need to worry, we're going to take you home!" The girl looked back at the squire and the fugitive noble. "Right?"

Notes: SO MUCH DIALOGUE DASKDANSDKASMKDAMS Welp, I'm done with this chapter, hopefully next chapter gets interesting enough. AND YOU'LL GET TO MEET TWO OF MY FAVORITE CHARACTERS FOR THIS STORY!

LUlz, sorry for the very long wait. :<

Trans note: Defin's misery is a commonly used term for "a lot of shit"

Millidi is a formal term used by elves to say "milady" -di is added as kind of a "my" statement, like "my lord" or "my Queen", etc.

Mali means male and milli means female.