My Baby Girl...

It was the day after the camping trip ended. Everyone returned to their respective dorms unsure whether to like or dislike their old, yet new environment that restarted during their trip. However, upon return, Lotus was holed up in her room the entire day not saying a word, even when the headmaster came looking for her.

Seeing this, Lilia inquired the situation with Sebek and Silver, but both were also rather confused. After all, Silver refused to believe that a thing such as not being part of a meeting would make her extend her grudge towards the headmaster. Moreover, she has never been so quiet before the headmaster either. When classes continued, Lotus was present that day, but she suddenly disappeared right as the professor let them go at the bell. Not appearing for lunch nor dinner.

"Could he be sick?" Lilia muttered curiously.

Malleus remained in deep thoughts before he frowned.

.....

The next day, Peony entered the glass house garden and secretly made her way into the depth of the garden. This time, she did not appear as Peony nor the red or flame fairy, but as the princess with a red veil over half her face. Silently, she walked through the garden with Pyro, Aqua and Maisey tailing behind her nervously. Just what was the princess doing this time? Why is she so deathly silent?

She could sense their presence behind her, but she did not care to hide herself or brush them away as she continued to walk. Not long after doing so did she come across her mother struggling with her head clutched in her hands seemingly painful!

"Stop it!" She shouted in frustration and swiped at something that is not there.

As she did so, a magical wave of energy burst out of her hand as she did so and broke a nearby stone!

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Get out of my head!!!"

When the queen opened her eyes, she was surprised to find her daughter standing just in arms length in front of her!

"P-Peony... My... My baby girl..." She reached out her arms trying to hug Peony.

However, Peony simply raised a hand and touched her mother's forehead with a painful look across her face as she whispered hoarsely, "It's okay, mom. I'm sorry, it took me so long to come see you. But, I'm here now... I'll help you get the thing out of your head. So please... Sleep for now."

"Peo... ny?" Her mother struggled before collapsing to the ground.

"Queen!"

"Princess, Queen!"

Maisey and Aqua rushed in upon seeing the queen collapsing into the princess's tight embrace.

"Aqua." Peony turned to her seemingly unusual calm and responded, "Help me bring mom to the bed."

"Yes!" Aqua responded and hurriedly brought the queen to her flower bed.

Peony summoned out Little Jun and said to him, "Go into my mother's dreams and protect her from the curse of the dark energy."

"Yes."

With that, the blue horse dove into her mother's dream hurriedly hoping to both prove himself and to keep his master from worrying.

"Princess! What do we do?!" Aqua cried to her in horror, "The- The-The Queen passed out! And she's been cursed! She was in so much pain!!!"

"And I think my eardrums are also in pain..." Maisey complained as he painfully covered his ears.

Ignoring their jokes that could not be helped to be brought out, Peony rolled her eyes and returned to her mother's tired face.

"Princess..." Pyro walked in with a hesitant look across his face, "Please... don't do anything crazy..."

"What do you mean by that?" She replied curiously.

"Risking your life again."

Peony huffed a laugh. Who knew that Pyro had known her so well now compared to when she was just a child. Well, perhaps, shaving off the beards and growing ones on those without one must've left him a rather good idea of her thought process by now...

"I'm just thinking of sharing mother's burden." She replied.

"No! Nu ah! Nope!" Aqua exclaimed in horror.

"For once, I agree with Aqua." Pyro glared at her angrily, "Do you have any idea what will happen if you take in her majesty's curse? Your life will be in danger!"

"That's right, Princess!" Maisey nodded, "You're life is just as important as her majesty's! Why, she'd blow a fuse knowing what idiotic idea you came up with this time! Besides, the King and Queen still wishes for you to uphold their official duties!"

"But, you know as well as I do that this is the best option right now, Pyro." Peony responded firmly, "As the child of the King and Queen, I have responsibility for the safety of them and the kingdom just as they have for me. With my status as their adopted child, I do not have to worry about inheriting the crown and the throne. Instead, I can take on part of the curse. Once a child emerge between mom and dad, they would become the immediate next in line for the throne and these duties would give him the chance to gain some acknowledgment from the people. As for me... I'm happy as long as everyone is well. After all... My wish... the one I've been chasing after for so long can wait for a bit longer... Since, 'she' does not want it. Nobody wants it. I've waited for so long... What's a little longer?"

That's right...

Mo Li wouldn't want her vengeance. Nor was she there to hear her deepest and most sincere apologies. Nor her tears or her heart.

Just as when you're a child. You don't want this, you don't want that... Our dearest sister... What do you want?

"I'll share a part of my mother's burden. It will buy my mother more time and lessen the pain. If possible, I hope to take away all of that pain instead, but then, I really wouldn't survive after doing so."

"Please don't do this..." Maisey pleaded bitterly, "Why not use me to save her majesty?!"

"What about me?!" Aqua jumped in, "I'm the best candidate with the highest magic within the guards!"

"Stop it, you two!" Pyro hollered at them angrily. He was in a panic. As much as what the princess said is correct, he also knows that this type of thinking is not only immoral, but it would also sent the king and queen into a spiral of anger upon their subjects!

The last time that such a thing happened was when the child was merely seven years old and hints of her feminine beauty was starting to show. So much so that she could no longer hide her feminine beauty by simply dressing up as a man and had to rely on potions and magic. As soon as marriage talks were brought up, the queen shot down each and every one that he and the subjects presented to the couple.

'Why, she's still just a child!'

'Present marriage between a child and these candidates?! You want us to marry the princess to someone ten times her age?! Even humans considered this to be immoral nowadays!'

'Do none of you not understand how fortunate your king and I were to actually find out that we love one another?! And now, you want us to send our children down that same spiral not knowing which end they'll land on?! Perhaps, you believe we should bring back the reign of our ancestors instead...'

Those days went on again and again until a marriage request came in from the OUTSIDE of all places at the princess's tender age of ten! Everyone struggled to keep this under wraps, but it quickly failed as some rather bold fairies dared to do so to remove the princess from power and sight. Had the princess not acted fast enough, the king would've deemed her unfit to rule. Who knew that on her tenth birthday, she basically forced the king to make such a ridiculous agreement!

.....

"You promise?!" The princess looked up to her father with doe-like eyes before the officials, "The last time you promised me a trip on a pegasus, you spent the whole week with mom..."

"Ugh..." The king grumbled, "Are you calling me a liar?"

"Nope. You're just bad at keeping promises with your adoptive daughter." Peony responded bluntly stunning everyone in the room, "Like..."

"Fine..." The king sighed rather tired and annoyed, "Just say whatever you want. It'll be granted on the spot once you open your mouth."

"Really?!" Peony's eyes lit up happily, "Then-!"

.....

Who knew that the princess would be so bold as to gamble her own future away when she already made it impossible to become the crown princess! Didn't she just mention that she understood the importance she and the royal family has on the kingdom? What about when she mentioned how dangerous the curse was yet managed to subdue the caster?! Why is she being so hardheaded now of all times?!

However, by the time he realized it, he looked up and was shocked to find pitch black miasma drifting from the queen into the palm of her highness!

"PRINCESS!!!"

He shouted and noticed how everyone else had also just snapped out of their own daze, but how could that be?! No matter how crazy of a plan the princess had thought up, even Aqua would remain attentive to the princess's action! So, how could it be that the princess...

"Unless...!"

He reached out hurriedly wanting to stop the princess, but he quickly shifted his aim and pulled the other two back!

"What are you doing, Pyro?!" Aqua shouted in shock.

"The princess once said that dealing with black arts is dangerous. A curse like this is one of them." Pyro grimaced in defeat, "If we interrupt her now, do you understand what would happen?"

"That's..." Maisey hesitated.

"What do we do, then?!" Aqua snapped at him, "If we don't do something now, the princess's life will also be at stake! Not to mention, isn't the queen's condition still unstable?!"

"But her condition was the reason why she arrived as soon as the princess returned from the outside, right?" Maisey noted rather teary eyed.

"Gah! If it was gonna be like this.... If it was gonna be like this..." Aqua cried aloud, "What do I do if I knew it was going to be like this?!"

"The king is going to take away all of our fairy dust for this..." Pyro muttered nervously, "But more importantly, the kingdom may lose their only princess... the only heir to the throne."

Suddenly, there was a thump as the fairies looked up in horror to find the princess collapsed next to the queen!

"Princess Peony!"

As they all rushed towards them, their wings and magic suddenly went limp as though all energy was sucked out of them!

W-What's going on?! Is it an ambush by an intruder?! Her majesty and the princess!