The Crown Prince In Hiding

Rafinya still wasn't convinced. She kept the knife pressed down, afraid he might be feigning defeat.

"He's done, Rafinya. You can put it away."

Dan climbed down from the rock and tossed his apple aside.

Rafinya pulled the knife free and sheathed it.

Dan beckoned.

She followed him, glancing back at the Marine Diablo crowding around the fallen crab.

"Just leaving him like that?"

"He's been in worse shape than this before. Everyone you see here has."

Hearing that, there was nothing more she could do. But Dan spoke to her.

"Congratulations. You've earned the respect of the Marines."

Then he stopped abruptly and turned.

"Let me see the wound. You got clamped, right?"

"It's not that bad."

"I can't send you back looking like this. The ambassador would have a heart attack."

Dan poked gently around the wound.

"Let me try something."

"Try what?"

"Healing magic."

Rafinya hesitated... but eventually lifted her shirt to waist level.

Dan held his hand over the wound. A soft, warm glow of yellow-green light appeared.

Professional-level healing magic, Stage 1.

"Mr. Fury, isn't healing magic taught in third year?"

"Nora taught me after she finished the general curriculum."

He pulled his hand away. Rafinya's wound was gradually closing, knitting together layer by layer.

"You brought extra clothes, right?"

"I have spares."

"Something easier to move in?"

"Am I going to need it?"

"No."

Dan gazed out at the ocean waves.

"By tomorrow, every unit will know who you are."

And when he finished speaking, he tilted his head up toward the sky. He lowered himself onto a rock and sat. It was something he did so often that Rafinya had grown used to the habit.

"Come sit with me."

At his invitation, Rafinya wasted no time settling down beside him. She watched the young man open his star-charting notebook.

In the silence that followed,

"Mr. Fury... may I ask something?"

Her quota.

"What is it?"

"What's the strangest thing you've ever seen a human do?"

"Why are you suddenly asking that?"

"I just... want to know."

"That question doesn't match your character at all. I thought you'd ask about the military or something. Well, it's your right."

Dan looked down at the notebook in his hands.

"The strangest thing I've ever seen a human do is this very thing."

He placed his hand on the star-charting notebook.

"Sacrificing their life for knowledge."

That is what I find strangest of all.

"Diablos don't do that. It's not that we don't understand sacrifice. We do. But we don't do it for something you can't touch. At least, that's what I used to think, until I finally came to understand it. You can feel it. But not with the body. It's a touch upon the soul."

Professor Darwin, who stood by his beliefs until Luminus hanged him.

Or even Johannes K., who, despite being cast out of Luminus, never stopped picking up his telescope and turning it toward the millions of stars in the sky.

"A human once told me: if nature ever touches your soul, even once. Once you have truly felt the vastness of the universe. Once you become someone who is aware. You will never be the same person again."

Dan paused amid the silence. The swirl of the waves and the salt of the sea drifted on the wind against his nose. He let Rafinya process his words, then continued.

"I think those people must have had their souls touched by nature. And I think I'm probably walking the same path they did. I never understood what it meant to be touched in the soul... not even when I first boarded the ship to Artheris. Not until I encountered the concept of evolution. When I learned just how far we have traveled. That was the moment nature touched me. So I understand it now. I might be the first Diablo who has begun to understand it. Even now, I can still feel it. Every time I close my eyes."

Dan rose and walked toward the sea, his feet dipping into the clear water. The wind blew, rippling the hem of his shirt. He spread his arms wide, tilted his face up toward the millions of stars shining across the sky, and closed his eyes.

"I can still feel it."

It... what was it?

He didn't tell Rafinya.

He had no name for it. He didn't know how to describe this feeling.

But he called it "it."

"Professor Darwin, Johannes, Pi'erre... they all felt it too."

Whether they studied the sky or the sea, they all felt "it" within their own hearts.

It made all of them the same. It gave them a sense of "reverence" toward it.

And yet they also wanted to "know" about it.

Wanted to know so badly they would dedicate their lives to the very end.

Rafinya decided to follow. Bare feet on the sand, stepping into the water. She stopped just a few paces from him. The wind swept her hair across her face.

"Can you see those stars, Rafinya?"

"Yes, Mr. Fury."

"We are looking at the very same thing our ancestors of millions of years ago looked up at."

Dan opened his eyes.

"Sometimes I like to imagine that I'm not on this world at all. That I'm standing on one of those bright stars, looking back down at this place."

Rafinya turned her face back up toward the stars. Her expression was blank, unreadable. She tried breathing in the sea air and closing her eyes, just as he said.

The next day.

All it took to wake Rafinya was the faintest sliver of Diablo island sunlight slipping through the window glass to touch her face.

The young woman rose instantly, military style. She prepared herself for another important day.

She opened the door. The Snowhaven delegation was enjoying breakfast in the large dining hall, scattered in small clusters.

She didn't find Nora here. She guessed Nora would not be leaving her room and would have to accompany her mother the entire day. They hadn't seen each other since the night before.

Rafinya moved with purpose, as though she already knew exactly where she was going. She walked out of the delegation's quarters and headed straight into the forest like someone who knew her destination.

The hike up the mountain didn't take long for someone like her. By the time she arrived, she had broken just enough of a sweat to feel like a light warm-up. And she found him.

Prince Fury in his true form. The massive black-and-red armored frame. Those deep crimson eyes and their commanding presence.

He was already sitting there waiting for her, amid glowing trees and mana crystals shimmering on the ground.

Her body tensed automatically. Even though she knew this was the same young man from yesterday, her instincts acted on their own, treating him as though he were a different person entirely. An entirely different level of ease.

"Mr. Fury, I'm here."

"Well done. Excellent time."

She stood straight and rigid.

The great demon form rose and walked toward her.

"Did you bring a weapon?"

"Am I not allowed to bring one in?"

"I'd actually recommend you do."

The Prince extended his hand.

"Usually you're the one carrying me around with your jumps. But today, I'll return the favor. Hold on tight. Don't let go."

Let's begin... with our army.

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