/BEWARE, this chapter may be a little gruesome for some/
1 YEAR AND A HALF LATER
ZELDA POV
Zelda was standing in front of her whole-body mirror, tears of frustration about to burst out of her eyes. But she still looked beautiful, her hips where a little wider, her breast had increased in size, along with her buttocks. Her hair was no longer short; it fell to the middle of her back.
She was dressed in a simple purple dress, wearing her white corset on top of it. She accompanied her corset with white earrings and white low heel shoes. But apparently, she still offended the young baron of Grinnden Plains by wearing heels.
This outcome was not my fault, so stop crying girl. That ¨date¨ was impossible.
He behaved hostile towards me… for wearing low heels? I mean, yes, he is on the short side, and my heels put me at his height level, but didn't surpass him. I had faith in this man, he and his family manage their territory in a more than acceptable manner. He is not fat, greasy, or smelly like some of the last bachelors I have had to meet. But if his ego is this fragile, I am not interested. He wouldn't have made a good King.
Once Zelda recovered herself, she headed to her desk and was about to call Rolo, to request him to prepare some food for her. Given that her stomach had closed up in anger during the date. The bachelor, whose name she couldn't recall, had the gall to complain about how much he had spent on the luxurious dinner for a date with a disrespectful woman. In the end, she chooses not to bother the cook since it was kind of late.
The Princess quickly braided her hair and allowed herself to fall on her bed. She then reached for her cellphone on the bureau next to the bed. She quickly texted Link just the simple punctuation mark of a dot. After a minute, he was calling her.
"Is everything ok Princess?"
"I have you on speaker" She says as she starts to undress "Remember the one guy I actually had high hopes for?" Zelda said dismissively.
"Damn… did he smell? Was fat? Or had any type of deformity you could not tolerate?"
"He was good looking; but a very insecure bastard. He kept throwing me hateful looks for daring to wear heels on the date, as if I was purposefully mocking him. He must be a few cm taller than me; he is like 1.62 meters, which is 5.31 feet at least while I am 1.57m, think that is 5.15 feet. Am I converting right?"
"You are… don't stress over it, I currently use it because of where I am, but MOST of the world uses the metric system"
"I know that, but if I ever visit again, we arrive on that country. You told me to do what I saw other people do to blend in… and what they do is use this confusing system" Zelda replies.
Link smiles "I did say that, do as you wish" he sighs "getting back on topic, I think your bachelor was feeling apprehensive about his height, maybe he stays in shape and tries to keep his face and body clean to compensate for his short stature… I now feel sorry for the guy"
You what? Sorry for him?
"HOW DARE YOU? He very much insulted me for nothing, even with my heels on, he was taller"
"Wow, wait… let's back track here. He mistreated you even though he still towered over you?"
"By like two inches, yes"
"He is a fucking imbecile" Link growls.
"He IS, isn't he? I mean, he just threw overboard his chance of becoming a royal because of a wounded ego"
An odd sound is heard from Link's end, it kind of sounded like a whimper.
"What was that? Is everything ok there?" the Princess asks.
"Everything as good as it can be. You know, I was thinking of changing my ward's name, since he lost weight and his numbers are slowly improving" Link says dramatically changing the subject to distract her from the whimpering man she just heard.
"DON'T. A name change confuses even a dog, and we all are animals. You don't want to stress your criminal until you heal him and can finally get rid of him"
A knock is heard on the Princess door. Zelda smiles knowing that it must be Chacha and yells for her to just come inside.
"So, he is slowly healing… hope that means you can soon get the info you need out of him and come back" Zelda says.
The Maid enters the room smiling at the Princess.
"I hope for the same, Jabez seems more open to me now, he even tries to play pranks on me. I am sure he was not expecting the results he is getting with my method. Zelda, I will need an hour at least to take care of something here. When I am done, I will call you back. Is that ok my Princess?"
Chacha's eyes open wide as she kept staring at the cellphone that lay on Zelda's bureau.
"Why do you even bother asking? Is not like I have an option" Zelda says rolling her eyes in defeat.
Link chuckles "Hello there Chacha, the Princess is right on what she just said, she doesn't have an option. Bring her a smoothie or she will faint" he hangs the call.
Of course he knows my maid entered the room, she is the only person I would allow inside when he calls.
Chacha stared at the cellphone a little longer, and then turned to Zelda.
"That definitely was the Prince right?" the maid asks.
"Of course it was, didn't you hear him?" Zelda responds.
Chacha looks at the Princess a little exasperated "Didn't you? He sounds different… his voice was rough, kind of husky" she begins to smile and turns away saying "I will be bringing you a fruit smoothie"
Zelda grabs on the maid's arm effectively stopping her and making her turn around "So you are just going to obey him?"
"YES, he is my Prince. Besides, I came here to try to force you some food. The other maids claimed that you arrived from your dinner date utterly irate. It's not the first time you have refused to eat out of anger. So, here I come to the rescue" Chacha answers smirking.
The Princess found herself unable to fight the maid's arguments. So, she sighed and released her hold on Chacha. The maid started to giggle and left in a hurry. Zelda's eyes where fixed to where her cellphone lay.
Raziel's voice changed? I had not noticed… maybe because I still talk to him every day. Not that it makes any difference though; he has always sounded hypnotically endearing to me.
LINK POV
When the Hero hung the call, he slowly released the choke hold he had on a burglar who dared enter the house to steal. The thief dropped to the floor catastrophically, his hands were tied behind his back. His arms and pecks had several cuts that Kid had previously inflicted.
*You killed him*
I did, I had to… I had respectfully requested him to remain silent before calling Zelda. He had been doing a good job until he didn't. So… I had to silence him forever.
*Well… just get rid of the body before Jabez finds out, and notify Widow about this*
I will… damn; I was not planning on killing him. I wanted to turn him to the authorities; I wanted Jabez to FEEL safe and in debt with me.
*wouldn't have worked, he doesn't trust you because he feels and sometimes sees the wild animal inside of you. But I can see that you are slowly breaking his walls…*
Link rolls his neck and shoulders a little, then suddenly smirks and heads to the kitchen to retrieve the knifes and some Ziplock bags.
I am going to get rid of the body and make use of it at the same time. If I chop him correctly, I can store him and feed us for more than a month.
*US?*
What? Suddenly you mind cannibalism?
*HAHAHA, no. I am kind of proud. Any remnants of the body, bury them under the flower garden. The buds will appreciate such high-quality fertilizer*
The Prince starts cutting the body open; he wanted to store the organs first. After that he starts cutting big chunks of meat from the glutes, legs and arms. He wanted to extract the tongue, but upon opening the deceased's mouth his eyes water due to the foul smell. So, he closes the mouth and decides to bury the head whole with the rest of the carcass. Once he is done, he decides to send his brothers a voice message.
"Hey there bastards, I wanted to call you earlier but a looter kept me busy here, you don't need to answer this, I am just checking in with you" That is what Raziel said, but 2 seconds after.
Bing!!!
"What the fuck Kid? I thought you had died man" Zid yells, but in reality, he couldn't keep the smile from his face
Bing!!!
Blast joins the group chat.
"I thought we were not going to do this today, since it was getting late and you have to put my sister to seep. So, I hit the hay" Rob says as he yawns.
"Come on Robert, it's not that late… But alas, your need for a beauty sleep is understandable if I really think it through" Zid jokes.
Robert growls "YOU MOTHERFUCKER… Kid, has anyone from SWORD told you what your Monkey brother did? I have not slept properly in 2 days fixing his shit"
Crap, maybe I should have released the leash for this long. A call once a month is too much freedom.
Link answers "Nobody has told me anything. Nash, what the fuck did you do? Actually, don't tell me. I need to call my Princess; I will find out and when I do... there will be hell to pay"
Zidane immediately speaks "Wait, wait. I don't regret what I did, and you will feel proud of me… I swear. The only bad thing so far is Robert having to fix everything"
Robert sighs "He basically told Badger, Shards and Bear that they could join the music program, but they had to learn how to play an instrument. And since they do not play any instrument, their entry exam was to sing…"
Zygote laughed maniacally "They told me they couldn't, I just laughed. EVERYONE can, right? In the end, I managed to make them sing together as if they were a choir. The result was brutal, such strong deep voices"
Rob chuckled "Your brother just made some corrections and they sounded like a Viking choir. That gave Zid an idea and he introduced them to a YouTube channel… ¨Chat Music¨. That is where THEY ALL FUCKED UP" Rob laughs in defeat "Zid awoke and incited their inner child, so they choose a song to sing and record it"
"From Chat Music, that sounds cool… Which was the chosen song?" Link asks
Zid answers happily "What rimes with EVEN" he laughs loudly "after recording it, I put that song on every laptop, and pc. And it starts playing as soon as you turn on the electronic device. Erasing the audio file doesn't work to stop the device from playing it sonorously"
The Pirate basically infected SWORD with a virus… I can't really scold him for this; he didn't do it out of malice. He is just wanted to irritate everyone with the song, a rather funny song if I must say.
*It's funny if you have a dark sense of humor*
Its SWORD agents we are talking about. Dark humor is core part of our personality…
Shames me to admit that I am proud of the Pirate, a little angry too but gosh, I can't stop smiling.
The Hero chuckles "Blast… this is ultimately your fault, you where the one who taught him how to do it, weren't you?"
Rob sighs "Dude, he is going to be a SWORD Agent, he needs to know how to do shit. So YES, I did. And if I had somehow known this was going to happen… I would have still done it"
*Blast is also very proud*
SQUELCH!!!
"Did that sound came from Link's end?" Zid asks
"What the fuck was that" Robert inquires
"Oh, that is just me chopping pieces of a robber's body for storage, I will hang the call now since I do need to call your sister" Link hurriedly says trying to make a quick exit from the call.
The Pirate smiled at fist, but soon went a little pale.
The Engineer roared "DON'T YOU DARE FUCKING HANG ON US KID. What exactly do you mean?"
Link sighs "Someone tried to rob the property, caught him, ended up killing him, and I figured we could feed on him"
"Demented… respect bro." Zid says grinning
"Effective resource management, and you rid of the protein problem
for a while" Li comments
"Yeah, I needed a rest from running around finding good meat. Good night boys, I will call you next month"
They all hang the call. Link stores the last pieces of meat in a bag and carries everything to the walk-in freezer. He then calls Zelda; they chat for a while before he stars reading the Cristian bible to her. As he does, he is also burying the remains of the robber's body. He stops to stare at the criminal's head for a while and decides to play.
Link draws his swish army knife and starts skinning the face off, he then holds it in front of him to look at it and puts it on his face like a mask, all that while he read the Old Testament to Zelda.
The Hero's left hand holds the skin mask in place, while the right one struggles to keep the cellphone in place for the call.
What the fuck am I doing?
*What you want to do, obviously*
Is this what I want? Maybe I should get back on the pill
*Please do if you must. But before that, let's think about this. My behavior has not changed at all, but what about YOURS? You struggle to maintain a routine, and YOU have not killed anyone for more than a year… Start asking yourself, did you really kill the larcenist for almost revealing his presence to Zelda? Or better yet, did you really chop him to pieces to feed Jabez? *
Fuck, I was more than capable of playing it off and deceive the Princess, convince her she had heard nothing, but I killed him, and now I am storing the burglar for feeding purposes. Finding good meat is a hassle but it's doable. I WANTED to kill him and feed on him.
*You are broken. The Hero journey demanded you to become a merciless beast, and that can´t be mended. But you already know that, don't you? That is why you took this job in the first place, to kill people mercilessly and keep me and your beast at ease*
The hallucination chuckles and imitates Darth Vader's voice.
*Be proud that you haven't followed me to the dark side*
Link suddenly breaks in a boisterous laugher, waking up the already asleep Princess. He didn't really care that he woke her up; all he cares about is the confirmation of something that he already suspected. HE IS NOT A GOOD PERSON, maybe he never was. He just kept laughing kneeling on the ground as the flesh mask slipped leaving stains of blood all over his face. He apologized to the Princess and continued reading to her.
I have to admit that I absolutely love the Old Testament. Yave was a merciless bastard; he knew what he wanted and didn't fuck around. Too bad he died… because only THAT could explain the New Testament.
The sudden shift from ¨an eye for an eye¨ to ¨If anyone slaps you on the cheek, offer them the other cheek¨ IS BULL CRAP. Yave was like me, like ALL OF US. A flawed and scared beast... The change was done to manipulate the masses and profit from this, I believe.