The Prince and Princess boarded the carriage that was sent to them by the King, Link had called to notify that they needed a ride back to the Castle.
Link was anxious about Daphnes's voice tone during the call… it sounded ominous like something had gone south.
As he was pondering about that when his cell started vibrating in his pocket. Pulling it out, he noticed a few messages in a group chat that he now shared with his clones. Raziel started reading angry messages from Zid. The Pirate was berating about the torment SWORD's board put them through. Robert just wrote ¨Zid… it was hash, but they never stood a chance¨ and then added a notice from SWORD that confirmed the music program was to stay for one more year.
To sustain it permanently, they need to have more agents participating. And from now on, the Board was going to be sending them challenges that the agents have to complete if they want to keep the program.
LINK POV
---------- A few hours earlier inside SWORD's premises---------------
The Hero approached his brothers and George already scrolling through his phone. Robert grabbed him by his shoulders and shacked him hard once.
"WHAT THE FUCK WHERE YOU THINKING?" Li asked worried.
"The board members have busy schedules; I am sure they did not even want to come here today. 10 minutes is me…IS US showing them respect for their time, and it also flaunts our competence and adaptability. That is just to show them it's their lost if they cut us out"
"But dude… it took us 2 hours to set things for the first song; you want us to do it in 10 minutes?"
Link smirks and raises an eyebrow "Are you insinuating that we can't?"
Li stares back at Kid with a dangerous vibe, George roars in anger and stands up pulling Zid with him. "Let those two choose a song and star memorizing it, you help me bring the instruments here" George tells Zid who starts laughing as they left the room. Zid then reenters the room to tell his brothers.
"If we are doing this, we are gonna do it right. We doing 'REPEAT AFTHER ME'"
Zygote's demand is received with silence from Robert and shock from George.
"I know that song demands a lot from Kid vocally, and the rest of us have to find a way to help him without losing the beat. But we can pull it off, can't we?"
Link grins widely "I hear you… Consider it done Zy" Link yells back.
Li smiles worriedly and turns to Kid "You really believe we can do this right?"
Link leans closer to whisper "I believe they never intended to fire us; it's not like SWORD agents grow on trees… they wanted us to plead for their mercy. Their own twisted way of punishment for wasting their time with this"
Robert laughs "But they failed to scare us enough to plead. And not only that, we are also keeping the music program after we pull this off… Dude, you are evil in just the right way"
"Thank you"
-----------------------------------------------
Challenges the notice read… I believe it's their special brand of torture; and I am going to fucking enjoy every second of it.
"Was that a message from my brothers?" Zelda asks.
"Yes"
She looks down at her fidgeting hands before saying "I… can I ask you something?"
"You just did"
Zelda opens her eyes and mouth wide "NO… THAT DOESN'T COUNT"
Link chuckles "Ask"
"When I was talking to Carla a while ago, she referred to Li as Blast, is that going to be his agent's name?"
"His code name is going to be Blastocyst. And Zidane's code name is Zygote" he lifts his sight and notices the Princess staring at him perplexed "It's an inside joke… Back then, they wanted to name me fetus because of my age, but decided against it. I was NOT a fetus, I was already well formed and capable, so they tagged me Kid. Zidane and Robert need to wait until they reach 18 to join, that gives SWORD the chance to actually shape them how they want… hence the names. Zygote and Blastocyst are stages of embryonic development"
Zelda smiles and then breaks into laughter.
"You say it's a joke, but I think they are calling them their babies" Zelda says pleased.
Link lifts both his eyebrows.
That… may be, but I am not putting my money on it.
"By the way, any news about…" The Princess starts to ask but is kind of afraid of finishing her sentence.
"Yes, we are keeping the music program… at least for another year. We could make it permanent if we manage to increase its popularity among the agents"
The Princess smiles genuinely "That is GREAT, the four of you were amazing… I am sure you will make the program permanent in less than a year"
Link just huffs at what Zelda said and looks outside his window. He then releases a heavy sigh.
The Princess worriedly asks "Something wrong?"
"I… am not sure. Don't mind me"
Rolling her eyes "You do realize that it would be kind of stupid of me to dismiss if a SWORD agent is acting preoccupied?"
Link chuckles "If you put it like that… when I talked with your father earlier, he sounded stressed and overwhelmed. I don't know if something is wrong or not"
Zelda's cheerful semblance drops "THAT is troubling… we should ask him"
"He is King, he may not have the time to…" sighs "He eventually will tell us, but on his time. Meanwhile, this uncertainty is going to eat me alive"
Huffing "You once told me to trust him, where you lying?" she raises an eyebrow as Ziel looks at her murderously.
"Since you were obviously not lying, then I give you the same advice, TRUST HIM. Everything is all right, and if it's not and we can do something about it, HE WILL TELL US"
Link turn his gaze to the floor and smiles "Wow… since when did you became so wise" he jockes.
Zelda answers beaming "Since Derrick hired you as my guardian and teacher… Actually, I think I always was, I just didn't have many opportunities to show it. But now you are cultivating it and somehow guiding it"
That… could actually be possible. Nayru choose her for a reason after all, and my aim is to nurture her despite all the hate. After all, I DO want Hyrule's next leader to be as capable and prepared as possible.
She sighs "Or that is what I take from all the times we have… discussed; I could be wrong"
Link chuckles "You said it in a much more civilized manner that I would have"
The Princess cracks in laughter "THAT part about me expressing the idea better, IS A BLATANT LIE. You are VERY good with words yourself… what I take from your comment, me being my wise self, is"
The Princess smirks "That you would have found a way to say exactly what I said, but adding a hostile vibe to the message to destroy my already low self-steem"
Well yes, of course. But what is absolutely bizarre it that she somehow finds that fact funny?
"So… you are a masochist now? should I stop thrashing you then?" Link jockes mischievously.
"Maybe you should, but… can you?" Zelda asks innocently tilting her head.
THIS MOTHER FUCKING BITCH
*Keep staring at her, don't back down… and cross your legs*
The Prince sighs and crosses his legs in an attempt to hide his waking organ.
"I don't think I can, but I will be keeping it low, it should be easy since you are kind of growing on me"
*Quite literally HAHA*
SHUT THE FUCK UP
Zelda's eyes widen, and then she slowly stars to grin and was about to say something but Ziel stops her raising his palm.
"Don't get me wrong, what I meant is that I have gotten used to your presence, not that I like you and we are friends now"
The Princess quickly raises her shoulders and lets them fall "well… it's something at least"
She is ok with that?
*The beggar is content with just a few crumbs*
The carriage stops; Link opens the door making the driver frown since opening the door for the royalty was his job. Zelda extends her hand out and the driver happily helps her.
The Princess clears her throat as she is descending from the carriage "Just so you know, I have no idea how, or when, but I am going to make you like me" she tells Link.
"Is that a treat?" Link asks daring her.
Zelda continues walking up the stair to the Palace entrance "A treat? Of course not, I am not an executioner like you… but it IS a forewarning" she smiles as she enters the castle, but is abruptly stopped as she collides with the King. Link smiles and performs a small bow to show reverence.
"So, you are finally here. Good" Daphnes nods at them and walks out, Zelda pulls on his sleeve effectively stopping him.
"Not even a welcoming hug?" Zelda says indignantly.
Daphnes froze and stopped beathing for a second. He was not expecting Zelda's reaction, he was sure his role was to provide and to maintain distance from the Princess, especially since his joke had not been well received.
Daphnes turns grinning and pulls her by the hand she had used to grab on his sleeve. She yelps as the King gives her a bear hug. Link rolls his eyes with a smile. Zelda is finally released from the bestial hug and starts coughing.
Derrick chuckles "WHAT? I thought you wanted a hug from me"
"That was not a hug, that was chocking me with love"
The King starts roaring with laughter.
Zelda asks coughing "By the way" cough "where are you going dad?"
"To meet with the nobles, they are afraid of letting strangers enter… I am sure I can convince them to do it, but not soon, maybe in a few months or years"
"YEARS? That is too long… do you need me and Link to accompany you?"
Ziel frowns "Actually Princess, that is a bad idea. If we go, the nobles may think the King's initiative is not out of his own volition. That will lead them to assume that Hyrule's supreme leader is being steered by us" he points at Zelda and then at himself "That will damage his public image, making him look like an easily malleable leader… WEAK in other words. If you want to overthrow a hierarchy, you make the people lose faith and respect for their leader. That is something we should not even consider."
Daphnes clearing his throat "Exactly that… I could have easily explained it too, just so you BOTH know" The King chuckles knowing he is not fooling anyone "But I am glad I didn't have to, it would not have been such a short and easily digestible explanation" Derrick looks at Link and grins "I think adopting you was the right move"
"Until you notice her bruises" Link replies in a very low volume.
"What?" the King asks unsure if the Prince had said something.
"What?" Link asks back, trying to deceive his King and make him believe he imagined things. But then gives Zelda a side glance and he briefly takes his index finger to the lips.
ZELDA POV
He knows I heard what he said, and is now requesting me to keep quiet about it. Not like I was planning to denounce him to anyone.
Zelda starts pushing the King out of the castle.
"Well, you have a job to do… don't let us delay you any longer" she says sending her father off.
Daphnes laughs as he goes down the stairs and into his carriage. Zelda waves her King off using both hands. Link stands next to her and also waves a hand.
"There is still an hour of sunlight… do we start with the bruises now?" Link asks.
Excuse me? he wants me to run around the castle now?
Zelda answers clearly confused "I am not understanding"
Link chuckles and points to the delivery spot, there was a box. "I am sure that box is your sword"
Zelda beams and skips all the way to where the box lay. Tries to open the box but is unable to, she looks at Link with sadness when he approaches. He steps on the box and grunts as he tries to pull the top part.
He is fucking opening it? but… the box is sealed with nails.
"Ziel… use some pincers or something, you could damage your"
Then a loud creaking sound is herd as Link pulls open the top part of the box revealing a beautiful short sword. Zelda rolls her eyes but kneels to hold the sword.
"This is mine, isn't it? it's beautiful" Zelda says caressing it delicately with a finger.
Ziel nods "After we are done here, I will take this to your room and hang it somewhere easy to retrieve" Link draws one of the 2 wooden swords from a sheath that also came inside the box, and throws it at the Princess.
Wow, this thing is HEAVY… I guess is supposed to help me build muscle and stamina.
Link looks at Zelda's sword, grabs it and spins it with his right hand, then he spins the other wooden sword with his left hand and smiles. "The wooden sword is perfect, about the size of your short sword and a lot heavier… you have been exercising regularly, right?"
Zelda nods, Raziel smirks as he puts the actual short sword back, he then suddenly swings the wooden sword and the Princess's head. She just yelps but managed to avoid the hit by dropping to the floor. Link then stands in front of her and brings down the wooden sword with a yell. The Princess just closes her eyes in fear, but no harm came to her. She then opens her eyes and notices the tip of Link's sword touching the crown of her head.
"You are dead" Link says lowering his wooden sword.
This was just practice. For a second there I saw his eyes and I though… but if he really wanted to harm me, he would not have put away the short sword. I should have known; I shouldn't have been afraid. HE IS A DEVIL, but tied by his word to me.
Shaking her head "WHAIT, NO FAIR, YOU NEVER TOUGHT ME SWORD MOVES OR ANYTHING"
"And I never will, I never understood why people want to learn flashy sword techniques, they always only work to answer one particular type of attack…" sighs "I am not teaching you a swordplay choreography, I am teaching you how to fight. Get to know your body, its perks and also its limitations. Your body IS your main weapon; the sword is just a convenient tool"
Zelda slowly stands "But how do I" CLANK!!!, the Princess was able to see Link's next swing and clumsily blocked it holding her wooden sword by the hilt and the edge.
Link chuckles "How do you use it? like that for starters, but take into account that we are simulating a real sword fight, so don't EVER hold your sword like that again, had it been your short sword, I would have cut some of your fingers off"
Zelda takes a few steps back to put some distance between them "it's still not fair"
Link laughs wickedly "I know, I should not be limiting my strength and reaction speed, and we should be using actual swords, but it is what it is" he swings at her diagonally, Zelda tries to block it but is unable to hold against the force of Link's swing, his blade connecting with her obliques as her own weapon was thrown a few meters away from her.
"Dead" Link tells her.
All right, I get it. THIS is how much he is willing to downplay his technique for me. Me still complaining about the unfairness of it shows only one thing, I SUCK. The good thing is… I can only improve. SO, LETS PLAY.