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A very vast expanse of green field laid before Will.
So vast Will couldn’t seem to make out where it ends, or if any borders exist in the first place. No mountains or hills could be seen from where he stands. Everything was just so … green, with a rather clear blue sky complimenting the field nicely. While it looked like there was not enough cloud floating to block the sunrays, the temperature was not hot enough to make Will uncomfortable.
He had been here before, several times already. The scenery never failed to take his breath away every time. Neuras would take his sweet time to sketch this view before him like he always does during their vagabonds. Maria would love it.
If only he was here, though.
None of his crewmates should be here. Or could be here. Will have figured that out during his second visit to this green field. Not even his guiding fairy, Gallica.
First: It’s not like they’re able to come here. This place does not exist in the map of Euchronia. From Royal Capital to Altabury Heights, no region would be suitable enough for this meadowlike terrain to form. He had memorized the map to know this all too well. Green fields like this would’ve been ruined by monsters and Humans already before it could flourish had it existed in Euchronia. So, no. There’s no way his crewmates would’ve even known this place to begin with.
Second: It’s meant to be a secret place. Even when it took Will a while to remember things every time he stepped his foot here, he can always sense the familiarity behind this place, alluding himself in a soundness he’s rarely been getting ever since he entered the tournament to save the prince.
Will had promised to meet him here just a couple weeks ago.
It didn’t take a lot of work to find him. As if a red thread was tied to one of his fingers, Will always finds the prince faster than a sweat could break onto his temple. The prince’s white hair and shirt was hard to miss in all this greenery. Also due to the fact that the prince had grown taller—quite far from the little boy he used to read a fantasy book with—it’s easier for Will to mark his figure even from afar.
“Oh, you came,”
Will quickly settled himself beside the prince who was sitting on the ground. Just like usual, the prince seemed to be at ease, with his presence brought all the warmth Will would always seek. When his clear blue eyes looked straight to Will’s odd ones, it felt like the world was too much to talk about, and all of the sudden, everything that happened up to their meeting didn’t really matter.
“You look exhausted,” the prince pointed out as Will laid his head on his shoulder.
“Mhm. I slayed a lot of monsters right before this,” said Will begrudgingly, afraid that the prince would perceive his answer as a complaint. Will would loathe himself if the prince thinks he’s being a burden for Will, when everything he had accomplished so far was done for the prince alone. “Just a little bit more than usual. Nothing to worry about.”
The prince tugged a smile. “You can rest here.”
Just by being on the prince’s side on itself already recharges Will’s energy, at least Will thought so. It’s the security in knowing the prince was still alive back in the village. Realizing that each step taken by Will in order to save his prince had not gone in vain. Yet.
“What were you doing before I got here?” Will asked. There would not be much the prince could do whenever he was waiting for Will.
“I was just thinking,” the prince hummed absentmindedly. As if he wasn’t keen on Will wanting more detailed answers. The prince awkwardly eyed his own hands now, almost like it was the most entertaining thing ever. “It’s nothing.”
“Do you know that you’ve never been good at lying?” Will took the prince’s hand into his own, attempting to divert the prince’s gaze into his eyes. “You can always tell me everything.”
A beat passed before the prince finally looked up to him. His voice came quietly; it could easily be drowned by the sound of the rustling grass and wind blows if Will hadn’t been so focused on the prince’s lips. “I was wondering about something.”
“Does it get easier?” the prince eventually asked. “With every step you take on your journey, every monster you behead … does it ever get easier?”
Before Will had a chance to answer, a gust of wind went to tussle his hair. The prince chuckled as his fingers moved away the strands of unruly hair from Will’s face. The brushes and contacts left Will unfocused, truth to be told; for any of the prince’s touches always made him crave for more. He got back into thinking after the prince pulled out his hand.
Well, how do Will answer it? There had been times where Will was too tired to move his muscles. During those days, waking up felt like a chore, but he endured it. Everything for the prince. He didn’t want to offend the prince, but he didn’t want the prince to think he’s lying.
“If you want the truth, then I must say, it … doesn’t get easier.”
The prince’s eyes slightly widened for a mere second, and there was no way Will would mistake it. He brushes Will’s hair once more. There’s a brief silence, as a distant wind blew, before a trace of melancholy made its way to the prince’s voice. “You should stop, then.”
Will’s heart skipped a beat, his eyebrows arching. The short-lived peace moment he just had with the prince instantly ruined with confusion. “What?”
What did he mean by that?
The prince shook his head slowly, his white hair brushing against his shoulders. “Saving me. It’s … too much of a work, isn’t it? I don’t want you to be in such a misery of having to brush with death every single day. That’s not how you should live your life, Will.”
It doesn’t make sense.
There’s no stopping. Will won’t stop until he gets to the top of this hellish tournament. Until he’s close enough to Louis Guaibern and do whatever it takes to take the formula or the life out of him.
“No. I will save you. It never gets easier, but that doesn’t mean I will give up,” Will exclaimed. His hand reached for the prince’s, entwining them together gently, afraid had he been any rougher, the prince’s hand would break. He hoped his calloused fingers from battles and fights didn’t leave a single scratch on the prince’s delicate hands.
“I never even—I have never thought of giving up. Such thoughts can never dare to cross my mind.”
It’d be no different from sinning. Will wanted to know nothing but how the prince came into the conclusion. The prince he knows wouldn’t put so little trust and faith in him. This is a dream sequence, a place Will and the prince could only meet up during their state of unconsciousness.
Does it mean that in reality, the prince’s body is nearly succumbing to the curse, and cruel thoughts start to corrupt his mind?
No, no.
Will couldn’t let that happen. He would never forgive himself—he had promised to find the cure, or to kill the caster of this curse, anything to wake the prince up from his slumber. There’s still so many things Will had to do and yet, he didn’t have much time left.
They didn’t have much time left.
“It’s going to be even harder from now on, Will.”
And it’s not like Will accepted the task completely unalarmed with every risk he could have gotten himself into. He knew what he was doing. The person who sent him for this task knew what they were doing, so they sent him with a guiding fairy. It’s not a usual work they could entrust with anyone. It had to be someone who would risk and drop everything for the prince and the person was Will.
By this time, the prince should have known that Will would die for him. Both literally and figuratively, and if there was a third thing other than the aforementioned two, he’d best assumed that Will had signed up for that too.
“My Prince,” Will started. His hand reached for the prince’s chin, not wanting the white haired heir to look anywhere else other than his eyes. “I have torn my heart out once for you, to awaken the power that could save you. It’s agonizing.”
The prince’s eyes flinched; he might as well be imagining the pain of ripping his heart out of his ribcage. It’s painful at best and deathly at worst. Will had told him the story of him awakening his first archetype, and the prince weeped for him after Will described the great pain he felt. It took Will an hour to reassure the prince that he was okay. This is not a new knowledge for the prince, yet it always seems to terrify him.
“But I would tear my heart a thousand times over again, if that’s what it takes to save you,” Will continued. He then brought his prince’s hand closer to his lips, placing a gentle kiss onto it.
“And if I do, you can take any of them, whichever you like. Each one of my heart beats for you anyway.”
And Will was telling the truth. Will meant everything he said, and he was sure the prince did too. It wouldn’t take long to convince him. People who mean everything they say would think that everyone else does too, Will had learned. That’s just one of the ways they have within each other.
With a single tear broken and falling down to the prince’s cheek, Will knew he had retrieved the prince’s faith in him back. He managed to wipe away the tear carefully before the prince started to throw a sobbing fit.
“I wouldn’t need so many of your hearts. What would I even do with them?” The Prince chuckled as he held back more tears from falling down.
“A keepsake, maybe,” Will joked. Relief washed over his heart when he saw the prince smile genuinely. “What I’m trying to say is: be a little generous in putting your faith in me. I’ll do whatever it takes for you, no matter what.”
“Okay,” the prince muttered. He then made his own way to Will’s embrace, and Will was too smitten to not welcome the prince with open arms. The prince spoke to his shoulder, his voice slightly muffled by the fabrics of Will’s clothes. “... thank you, Will.”
“And … please hang in there a little bit longer,” Will said with a heavy heart. Was he asking too much ? The twelve years of curse must have been so rough for the prince, there’s no telling of when the prince’s body would wear down completely. This could be their last meeting and Will would have no idea until it was too late. The very thought of it terrified Will during the nights he couldn’t sleep. “Euchronia, the people … everyone needs you.”
Until the flowers bloom again in this very field, please stay there a little longer .
The prince seemed to take in Will’s words before responding. “Do you need me, then?”
More than you would ever know. It blew Will’s mind away how the prince disregarded the talk about Euchronia and went straight to him. Will couldn’t believe that the prince even thought of it as anything but a rhetorical question. “As the reason for my existence, sure.”
Will could only brush the prince’s hair lightly when he felt a smile formed against his shoulder. Everything will be fine. Long as he’s able to visit this field and meet his prince here, with both of their souls lying on this ground, everything will be fine.
As he drew the prince a little bit closer to his embrace and left no space between them, the world was too much to talk about. [ ]