'Abeauteous princess often may, Languish in pleasure's season gay; The empty forms of haughty state, Oft make life tedious to the great. It must the greatest king confound, With all his courtiers circled round, Amidst a splendid court to find, That grandeur can't give peace of mind.' To her Royal Highness, The Princess of ***, Voltaire (François Marie Arouet, 1694-1778)

"This is completely unacceptable!" A shrill voice rang through the courtyard of the knight's barracks. A tall and beautiful young woman stood there furiously throwing a straight-up tantrum. "Hot damn she's pissed," Shura remarked being the first to see the sight of the young woman. She pointed over at her.

Minnow walking up the hill to the barracks let out a sigh before freezing once he saw who was in the courtyard. "Oh no, it's Princess Tetra." He whimpered. Shura blinked before looking over at Tetra, who was in the middle of shaking the daylights out of a much smaller guard. 

"I demand to know where he is!" Tetra yelled, "I don't know!" The terrified guard cried. Other guards slowly backed away in fear of being caught in the crossfire of Tetra's tantrum.

"Huh, so that's the princess." Shura whistled before nudging Minnow, "Quite the looker." She grinned at him, Minnow, on the other hand, looked disgusted by Shura's implication. "I have my eyes on someone else," he mumbled. "Who?" Shura asked curiously, Mako, who was standing behind Shura shook their head.

It was a damn shame she was so dense.

Not getting a response out of Minnow who was in the middle of stumbling over his words and mumbling. As he did sometimes, Shura decided she had enough seeing Tetra shake the daylights out of the poor guard.

"Yo! Princess!" Shura greeted walking over, "Are you Requiem's daughter?" She asked Tetra paused looking over at Shura astonished before seeming enraged. "How dare you address me in such an informal manner!" Tetra shouted throwing the knight to the side into some barrels. He let out a scream before scrambling to his feet and running away.

Shura put her hands on her hips as Tetra stomped over to her, while Shura had always thought herself to be rather tall. In fact, she was the tallest in her family. Tetra was on a whole another level. 

While Shura stood at an average 5 foot 11 inches (about 180 cm), Tetra stood around 6 feet 3 inches (192 cm). All in all, Tetra was a big girl. 

"Holy shit you're huge." Shura laughed a little intimated by her size. But for some reason, Shura always had an urge to fight things bigger than her. In particular tall people... Maybe it was because she was on the shorter side growing up? Whatever the reason, Tetra didn't take too kindly to Shura's remark.

"I am a delicate flower!" Tetra shouted picking Shura up, "Yeah if the flower in question is fucking huge." Shura was lifted up to Tetra's height, the princess glared fiercely at her. "I could crush you." Tetra threatened, a little perturbed by Shura's lack of fear. 

Shura's eyes went dead at this, "Please do, my head is killing me." She deadpanned. "Your fucking screaming isn't helping either you damn banshee." She added Tetra's eye twitched. "What are you four fucking years old? Throwing a damn tantrum like you lost your binky?"

"I'll kill you for that!" Tetra shouted getting ready to throw Shura. But before she could Minnow ran up. "P-Princess Tetra!" He greeted, he hated making his presence known to Tetra. But he didn't want to see Shura get killed...

Pausing just as Minnow ran up, Tetra's expression completely changed. "S-Sir Minnow!" Tetra immediately dropped Shura onto the ground. Shura fell with a grunt and slowly stood up with Minnow's help. "Shura are you okay?" He asked concerned, Shura dusted her butt off and sighed. "You should've let her crush me." She deadpanned.

"That isn't funny!" Minnow exclaimed swatting the back of Shura's head, "Fucking hell Minnow!" Shura shouted crouching holding her head. "Stop saying you want to die!" Minnow exclaimed feeling a bit bad for hitting her. "I've got a fucking headache you ass!"

Minnow looked concerned and guilty, "Why didn't you say so? I could've gotten you some willow's bark." he remarked crotching down to her level. "Wait you have pain killers here?!" Shura exclaimed before wincing she let out a whine while rubbing her forehead.

"S-Sir Minnow!" Tetra exclaimed trying to get Minnow's attention, "W-Who's this?" Tetra tried her best to use a sickeningly sweet voice with him. Minnow glanced up at her before turning his attention back to Shura who was whining. "Princess Tetra this is Shura. She's my friend." Minnow explained as he helped Shura stand up straight.

Tetra gritted her teeth at the sound of this. "She's... You're... Friend...?" She hissed through clenched teeth. Shura dusted herself off, grumbling softly about getting dirt all over her new clothes. As she looked back up at the princess she was met with a menacing glare of hostility and rage.

Being the person Shura is, she only responded in the best way she knew how. "Stop looking at me like that. You're going to turn me on." 

Minnow choked on his own spit hearing this remark. Tetra's face flushed brilliantly with a red blush. "H-How crude!" Tetra exclaimed trying her best to keep up some sort of illusion of ladylike behavior up around Minnow. 

"Shura!" Minnow shouted at Shura in disbelief and a bit of amusement. Despite himself, he couldn't help but laugh at such a derailing comment. "What?" Shura asked with a mischievous smirk on her face. Minnow couldn't help but chuckle, "D... Don't say that!" He managed to get out between laughs.

Disliking the friendly exchange between the two of them. Tetra loudly cleared her throat to get Minnow's attention. Minnow paused in the middle of saying something to Shura and looked over at the princess.

"Is something the matter your highness?" He asked clearly getting Tetra's vaguely veiled message. Tetra who had been pretending to look the other way looked back at Minnow acting surprised. "Oh! Well you know... It's nothing really." She spoke clearly pleased that she had his attention.

She shot Shura quick smug look as if she had won something. Shura wasn't entirely sure what that was all about. But nevertheless brushed it off. She was used to dealing with Tetra's types of women. It was an unfortunate commonality among the women where she was from. Though clear insecurities in their personalities such as that spoke more about their upbringings and less of their issues with Shura.

Shura looked over at Minnow who was obviously irritated with Tetra's casual facade. She watched as his foot tapped softly and he shifted his weight. He was getting impatient as Tetra danced around the subject wanting to keep Minnow's attention on her as long as possible. 

The irritation and impatience that radiated off of Minnow's body ended up affecting Shura. Feeling the unpleasant bubbling in her stomach beginning to form she spoke up. When she did speak she cut Tetra off in the middle of a long-winded sentence about how it wasn't such a big issue.

"Can you just say what you want already?" Shura snapped, she hated it when other's emotions affected her own. There was a slight difference in how the anger sat inside of her that let her know it wasn't her own. Her own anger boiled like water on a stove. But this anger left a metal taste in her mouth, it was sharp like a blade or a sword. 

Tetra gaped at her once more, she was shocked at the audacity of this commoner! How dare she address her as she had been! But before Tetra could open her mouth to admonish this cad Minnow spoke.

"I agree with Shura." He said Tetra's mouth gaped even more, "As much as I would love to speak to you longer your highness. I have a lot of things that I need to do today." Minnow smoothed things out quickly, Tetra's mouth slowly closed and a thoughtful look filled her face. 

"Well, it's actually about Prince Elan's beautillion ball. Father says I can't go without escorts." Tetra finally cut to the chase, Shura snorted at this. "I'm pretty sure you don't need anyone to protect you, Princess." 

Tetra's harsh look at Shura softened at this remark. She folded her arms with a huff and said, "That's what I told him. But father insists based off of some rumors about some bandits robbing nobles on their way to the ball." Tetra explained. 

"The king does have a point, your highness. Robberies have been a serious issue. That's not even pointing out the chance of a monster attack. The last thing we need is for you to be harmed by one of those beasts." Minnow pointed out with a thoughtful look on his face. 

Tetra huffed softly disliking Minnow's observations, but not throwing much of a tantrum despite her displeasure. "I suppose you're right." She grumbled softly, then after that was said she spoke once more. "But that's exactly why I was looking of you Sir Dragoon!" She raised her voice in excitement before quieting it once more.

This left Shura with a bad taste in her mouth. It was so clear that Tetra was trying her best to be ladylike. But at the same time, it was obvious that doing so was against Tetra's very nature. Although just moments ago Tetra threatened her physically, Shura liked her better when she was loud and angry. It seemed more natural and less disturbing. It was almost like seeing a bear that had been trained to ride a unicycle. Which wasn't to say Shura saw Tetra as an animal. But was more to refer to the unnaturalness of the situation.

Minnow clueless, to both, what Tetra was getting at and confused as to why Shura suddenly looked so displeased spoke, "Why exactly were you looking for me Princess?" He asked, one of his hands was resting on his hip as the other hanged loosely. His feet were pointed in two different directions. His left-pointing more towards Tetra and his right directly at Shura's direction. His stance heavily leaned more towards Shura's direction despite the fact that he was facing Tetra head-on. 

Tetra became flustered at Minnow's direct line of questioning. In her mind, she had been completely obvious as to what she was wanting. She had followed every rule of civil courtship and yet the knight had failed to see any of her approaches. 

For a moment she silently blamed the girl standing next to Minnow. It was obvious that Minnow was far more interested in Shura than he was her. But Tetra knew deep down that this issue had persisted long before this 'Shura' had darkened the streets of Vloria. Though her sudden appearance did not make her pursuit any easier.

As Tetra blustered and stuttered, she was cut off by Shura speaking up. "Minnow I think she wants you to escort her to the ball." It was that moment that Tetra almost fell to her knees at Shura's feet. The ruffian had done something she had not expected. This was clear divine intervention from the kings!

However, Tetra's hopes were soon crushed by the oblivious cruelty of Minnow. "I do suppose escorting her as a security detail would be the best way to ensure her safety." He was thoughtful when he spoke, but his soft tone made the knife of rejection twist that much deeper.

"That's not wh-." Shura tried her best to interject. The whole situation was so pathetic that she couldn't help but intervene. She hadn't seen someone pine for someone so much since this morning with Mako pining after Delta. It was really a sad sight. Though it seemed that despite her best intentions in helping the large but very shy princess. The message got lost in translation somehow.

"Shura! You can also join, after all, I'll need the assistance!" Minnow had cut Shura's interjection off and turned to her completely. He seemed excited about the thoughts of Shura's first mission with him. Shura facial expression turned into one of regret and resignment. "That sounds... Great." Shura found herself unable to say no despite the crestfallen look on Tetra's face behind Minnow.

She shot the larger woman an empathic look, Tetra let out a soft sigh as she adjusted her hair. Shura knew that in Tetra's mind, it seemed as though Shura didn't care as to whether or not she was successful with Minnow. Shura, however, was, in fact, trying as hard as she could. 

The issue, however, was. Shura was at a disadvantage due to not being very good at social situations such as this. 

Minnow turned back around to Tetra and began discussing with her about exactly when the party in question was. Shura, at this point, was too emotionally exhausted to care to listen. She took a few steps back from the whole situation finding that she needed to have some distance from them to relax. 

This whole bag of nonsense reminded her far too much of high school for her liking. Vague fuzzy memories flashed through her mind of girls fighting over boys and boys doing likewise over girls. Though there was one time where a boy jumped a lunch table to fight another over a cheeseburger. But Shura could easily understand that the burgers at that school were surprisingly good all things considered.

Nevertheless, dealing with an emotionally insecure amazon did nothing for Shura's already frayed nerves. After all, she was still processing this entire situation. Jumping to new worlds, almost dying, and now a princess thinks that she's her rival in love? This information was enough to make her head spin. 

Slowly inching her way further away from Minnow and Tetra. Shura ended up bumping into someone. As she let out an apology she turned around to see who it was she bumped into. She was met with the vacant expression of a woman who's age Shura wasn't quite sure of.

"It's fine~." The woman's voice was breathy and drawn out. Her air around her was calm and Shura swore she smelt flowers. Quickly spotting the flower crown she realized where the smell was coming from. The woman's eyes lazily moved from Shura over towards Minnow and the princess. 

"Oh, so that's... What all that noise was." The woman yawned a little and stretched. She then looked over at Shura and narrowed her eyes, "Did you do something with your hair Haddock?" She asked Shura felt her eye twitch. Why did she get the feeling that she was going to be called that name allot?

"My name is Shura." Shura quickly retorted the sharpness in her voice surprised her when she heard it. However, the woman seemed unfazed, "That's great, I go by Halfmoon these days." She easily replied. Shura knotted her eyebrows unsure how to speak to this person. She seemed to be quite the flower child. 

At this point, it seemed as though Minnow was done speaking to Tetra. He turned around to see where Shura had gone. Both of them froze in their spots. Had Shura paid attention, she would've seen the blood drain from their faces. But Shura was busy trying to keep Halfmoon's hands out of her hair. "Your hair is so soft!" Halfmoon said to her trying to touch her hair. "Quit it!" Shura tried her best to keep Halfmoon from stroking her hair.

But when Minnow spoke next made Shura freeze, "There you are Captian Halfmoon!" Minnow's voice exclaimed across the courtyard.