A beautiful blonde girl pressed her face against the face of the half-awake Andrei. However he couldn"t keep up with the situation and thought that he was still dreaming, so he turned his face away and buried himself in the pillow facing sideways.

"It"s my day off after all so… "

He heard the girl"s voice again as he felt someone moving the pillow away from his face. He slowly opened his eyes out of irritation, however this immediately went away when his eyes met the crystal-like blue eyes of the girl.

"It"s beautiful" he said, in his low-tone sleepy voice, but he felt sleepy again and closed his eyes again.

At that moment a soft sensation pressed against his lips, it was soft and tender, and it smelled good for him, a tingling sensation hit against his cheeks.

"Is this… hair?" he opened his eyes again and he realized that he was on a facing-up position and saw the girl over him, holding her lips with her two fingers and was beet red, he stared at him embarra.s.singly, while her hair fell down on his face.

"This is… because you won"t accept any of the rewards, as your future wife, I think I need to reward you with this"

And her cheeks became redder than it was,as if steam was rising from it.

From her reactions, their position, and the soft sensation that he felt before, Andrei could basically come up as to what have happened.

At the sudden realization, the situation made him fully awake, as blood immediately flowed into his heart, as he became very nervous instantly and his heart have started to beat faster than normal.

His face became red immediately and stared into the girl before him, hoping to confirm whether his speculation is correct or whether he was just imagining things.

"Did you just… " his shocked face was pathetic as he asked what the girl have done to him embarra.s.singly.

"Yes… I… kissed... you" the girl whose face is now as red as a tomato responded and immediately looked away.

At the end of the incident, Michaela as the queen of the kingdom together with the ministers who knew about the operation, wanted to reward Andrei with t.i.tle and land, which he immediately refused to accept by saying that providing his basic needs and making him able to live in the castle was enough for him.

Michaela herself and the ministers was surprised of his response, that the old men in their robes who were ministers of the different fields in the kingdom could only open their mouths in shock.

"In my world, I would really have accepted land which would be a good investment for the future. However in this era, it would only mean being the lord of that land, which is a pain, even if I plan to live in this world, I don"t want to have such a responsibility yet.

Also having a t.i.tle, which would mean becoming a n.o.ble? That"s out of question, I can"t even read the characters here, those large scrolls of responsibilities...geh, it"s a pain, and I don"t want to do anything with politics, I have been making my cla.s.smates fill-up my attendance on the Political Science cla.s.ses after all" Andrei was deep in his thoughts as he refused for his own personal reasons.

But for Michaela, in her world, and country, the mission that Andrei completed was one where he risked his own life, and moreover he was her savior.

She was so grateful to him that she couldn"t stay put until she rewards him with something, she thought of a way for Andrei to accept the rewards.

She walked in circles in her study room, which was filled with exquisite furniture decorated by the pink roses that she liked, the walls were bookshelves filled with books and on the center was a table where her scrolls, ink and quills were scattered on top.

"What if he doesn"t want the rewards because the country that he came from was very abundant of those already? Also his story of coming from another country with those technology was also fishy… I should just show him the land, and the lives of the people here..." she muttered.

And finally an idea came to her mind that she punched her fist into her palm as if she found a great idea and smiled with delight.

"In other words I should just show him the whole kingdom! So he would realize that he needs the t.i.tle and land that I will be giving to him! Yes! Yes! That should be it! Since he came here he didn"t have a chance to tour it after all" he nodded proudly, as if she found a great discovery.

And when he came into Andrei"s room and tried to wake him up, when she saw his sleeping face, she couldn"t help but to give him an additional reward as his future wife.

After Michaela"s surprise reward Andrei got up, went to take a bath and get dressed. While Michaela was waiting for him at castle"s hall while being served by her maids.

Andrei wore a white trouser and a brown leather suit-like brown coat, layering each other, curious about how it fits him he looked at the mirror.

"I surprisingly look good at this, it"s like I"m cosplaying-not like I tried it before"

He went downstairs to meet Michaela who"s waiting for him nervously, he could see that she was dressed in a plain white dress layered by a pink coat accompanied by a hood.

"Are you sure you"re not little pink riding hood?" Andrei said instinctively.

"Huh? Who is that? Stop talking nonsense and come over here" Michaela tilted her head in response.

"Are you sure you"re not sneaking out? Erneis aside, Claire might really kill me this time if she finds out that I snuck you out of here"

"I"m not! My maids even picked this outfit for me! Hmmmf!"

"Yeah, you look good in that"

"T-Thank you, anyway let"s go" she went to Andrei and held his hand and pulled him.

"Don"t you have any escorts?"

"No, even if someone comes at me I"ll just freeze... " she opened her left palm and muttered a spell to herself, then a rose made from ice appeared on top of it.

"And burn them!" and then the ice rose was melted forcefully and turned into water and the ice rose was replaced by a small flame.

Andrei was astonished of what he saw, just like a kid who had seen a magic trick.

"Hoohhhhh!!!! That"s awesome Michaela!"

"Well, that"s how it is… anyway let"s go!"

The two went to town with Michaela"s face hidden on her cloak, and Andrei who had to escort her with a nervous expression on his face, aside from the knights, the maids, and the people at the castle, this will be the first time he will be meeting and talking to the other people aside from them.

They walked side by side with each other, Andrei could see again the liveliness of the town, they were at the center of the town where the stalls are selling their stuff side by side, and where clothing, and weapons store would mostly be found, he could see carriages parked on a part of the street, vendors negotiating with their customers, and once again, the blacksmith that dealt with his regulars laughing together, parents with their children who pointed at delicious-looking skewed apples that seemed to be dipped with chocolate, Andrei enjoyed the lively atmosphere where people had happiness written at their faces.

"No matter how many times I look at it, it"s like festival isn"t it? I have looked at this scenery when I took the ride home and at the top of the castle veranda, but seeing it closer, it"s definitely relaxing" Andrei talked to Michaela who was at his side.

"Yeah, this is what I want to protect Andrei, this is… why I became queen"

"Is that so?" Andrei looked at the girl on his side who also had the same expression as she looked at the liveliness of the townspeople.

"Now that" you"ve seen the town plaza up-close let"s go see the other areas"

"Yeah"

They rode a carriage and went to various locations, aside from the town, the other areas were mostly agricultural lands and seaside ports. They ate lunch at a port where delicious seafoods were served, Andrei who came from another world, and Michaela who always stayed in the castle was bewildered of the food in front of them.

They both ate happily that the other people on the restaurant had a peaceful expression on their face as they looked at the two.

"What a happy young couple" and old man said who seemed to be a retired sailor dining with his wife. .

"We were like that 30 years ago right? Grandpa?" his wife added.

The two heard the comments of the old married couple and became red immediately. They stopped for awhile and looked at each other embarra.s.singly, but eventually smiled, with a complicated expression on their faces.

After eating lunch, they pa.s.sed through the castles of other n.o.bles and ministers, and next the mines and other natural resources of the kingdom.

When they finished the tour, they stopped at an elevated bay, overlooking the horizon, with the seawater splas.h.i.+ng on the large mound of rocks. The view was marvelous, there were trees surrounding them however the see was right in front of them.

"This place… it"s like were in the middle of a mountain and sea?" Andrei sat on one of the rocks, while Michaela just stood beside him.

"Yeah, this place is indeed called like that, when I was little, my Mom and Dad brought us- Claire and myself, here often.

Telling us the tales of how about there are different worlds aside from this place"

Andrei got surprised of the phrase "different worlds" so he moved closer to Michaela in order to hear more of her story.

"As they pointed to us on how there are mountains surrounding us, while the sea is just in front of us, just like how the animals lived in the forest, and the fishes lived at the sea, they say that there are other races that lived under the earth, or above the skies"

Andrei sighed as the description didn"t suit his "different worlds" expectation at all.

"Why are you sighing so deeply?"

"No, haha please continue"

"Well, okay.

Papa said that there were ancient writings on a certain tree that governs these worlds, the world of the elves, dwarves, giants, I forgot what other races, papa told me though, I don"t really know if it"s real or not, but I want to go to the world of fairies if possible!"

Just like a kid, Michaela smiled from the bottom of her heart as the rays of the sunset colored their surroundings.

Andrei who sat down looked up at her warm smile, making his heart feel the same happiness as the girl was having as she expressed her dreams. Her bright smile was something that made Andrei feel nostalgic, he reminisced the last anniversary he spent with Ann-it was also a sunset.

"A fantasy world in a fantasy world huh?" he blurted out the words unexpectedly, but the girl seemed to ignore it and just faced the horizon as the sun was sinking to it.

When it finally sunk, they could finally see the numerous stars with the moon glimmering above them. When the light of the moon hit the girls face, Andrei was surprised to see her bright warm smile, was mixed by a tad bit of sadness.

"Do you know Andrei… before you came, I wished that I could run away from my duties as a queen, it"s true that I had things I wanted to protect, but there"s a part of me who wants to run away from these duties, I just wanted to go to that land of fairies I was talking about. I was pathetic right?"

Andei immediately understood what Michaela meant.

"No, you"re not pathetic, bad things… good things happen together unfortunately in our lives, but remember Michaela, that also means that our bad side and our good side, are parts of us that makes us what we are right now. So I would say that it"s not pathetic, it"s just who you are as a person"

Michaela"s felt warm within her heart, as the queen she really wanted to fulfill her duties, and at the same time she wanted to run for it, and she hated herself a long time for it.

"To think that you"ll just take these feelings away with just a phrase, just who are you really"

Michaela returned to her warm smile and sat next to Andrei who was still looking straight at the horizon. The wind blew her golden hair and it swayed through her back.

She hugged Andrei from his side, while Andrei patted her head with his other hand.

"Well… I"m just someone who have experienced the same thing as you, and I also met someone who just took away those self-hatred feelings away in a moment, so that I could just laugh at them the next day-oh?"

When Andrei looked at Michaela, the girl was already sleeping.

"Hmmm?? Her sleeping face is cute, now what should I do with this?"

He put the sleeping girls head to his lap as he stared at the sunset in front of him while the waves crashed back and forth on the rocks, he stroke her hair and let her sleep until she woke up two hours later.

Andrei could see himself in Michaela, at first, he was living a gray-colored life, living in a military family, his goals were already set of becoming a cadet after the first year of college, but at the same time, just like Michaela, he wanted to run away from the burden of being a soldiers son especially a higher ranked one.

In his senior high of highschool, in a certain encounter, Ann became his best friend and his gray-colored life, started to have colors as she took him on different adventures that he could ever imagine that was there.

It was her that inspired him to become someone that he wanted to be, it was her that gave him the courage to speak up to his family, that there was something he wanted to do instead of being in the military.

And those comforting words that she said to Michaela, was taken from his conversation with Ann with regards to his career. When he himself told her that he was pathetic, the girl he loves gave peace to his soul.

"If pa.s.sing away means G.o.d leads you into another world, then please, let me see your face again Ann"

???? ?? ??? ??????

While making rounds on the training grounds, Erneis secretly asked him if there was a way he could improve the bombs, which Andrei denied immediately by saying that it was everything he knew, the old man could only sigh deeply.

As he was thinking of such things, a bell could be heard sounding an alarm.

"Enemies! Enemies! Enemies!"

"Quickly grab your weapons and take your positions!"

"Raise the drawbridge!"

"The enemy is 10,000 strong!"

He could hear the voices outside.

"No way! This early? And 10,000 knights? We haven"t even finished our preparations!"

Andrei felt deep regret, memories of Michaela and Claire flashed within his mind, and a picture of the kingdom being invaded.

"If only I… If only I" he clenched his teeth.

"I am really pathetic!" he wore his camo jacket and jeans and quickly went outside. He saw everyone was running around.

He ran to his platoon and gave instructions. His platoon was mostly made of conscripts and a few female knights. "Deliver all available bombs to the battlements right now!"

Two men nodded and started loading the carriage beside the area with wooden crates of Molotov bottles and tear-gas smoke bombs.

"If we can just survive today, I will definitely find a way to make even the deadliest weapon I can recreate in this world… make me a ma.s.s murderer for the h.e.l.l I care!

If I could fight the entire world for Ann, then I could do the same for Claire, Michaela, Erneis and for the people of this kingdom!"

He told himself as he balled his hand into fists and looked at the men of his platoon who"s loading the crates to the carriages.