Chapter 27: "Knight"

Foolish? No, not quite.

Incompetent? Perhaps.

Utterly and hopelessly worthless? Yes, that seemed to be the most accurate descriptor for the bunch.

King Sarasa had some difficulty accurately putting into words exactly how he felt about his inferiors as he looked upon the pathetically thin commoner boy presented before him. This lanky insect somehow managed to best a number of his guards in direct combat and forge a path straight down to the treasure room. He was within feet of the Sarasa family's most prized treasures, and it was only when he made it that far that he was finally apprehended. Absolutely disgusting.

"I see I must reconsider the worth of my royal guard," he said to the shamed pair that dragged Waluigi up to the throne room, whose hands were bound behind his back with heavy rope. The boy was on the floor, forced to his knees in front of the king, who stood mere feet away. "Shall I double the amount and intensity of the training you all receive, or should I simply get rid of your entire useless lot and hire men who actually know how to do their jobs?"

He received no answer.

"I am waiting," he said. "I am aware your eyes and your brains are not functioning, are your ears suffering a similar affliction?"

The guards, their eyes previously trained on the floor in shame, gave each other a brief glance, then one of them spoke up.

"I, um, perhaps more training, Your Highness?"

"I see. In that case, I will add an extensive section to the regimen going into detail about what to do in the event an ant sneaks its way into my home. The procedure is really quite simple."

In a flash, and never removing his eyes from his guards, he delivered a swift kick to Waluigi's right cheek, catching the boy off guard as he collapsed to the ground on his side, his jaw stinging sharply. Sarasa soon placed his right foot on the boy's other cheek, holding Waluigi against the floor firmly, but not so harshly as to further exacerbate the immense pain he was already feeling.

"You crush it." The guards each shivered, knowing that their king was threatening to give them equal treatment if they didn't shape up.

Sarasa released his foot from Waluigi's cheek, and the boy simply lied there, feeling blood pour into his mouth. It would seem a tooth became dislodged and was now floating freely in the red pool created by the gap it left behind. Refusing to show any fear, but also realizing he would receive much more punishment if he let loose blood on the king's floor, Waluigi swallowed his mouth's contents, tooth and all. Sarasa took note of this, seeing the boy's Adam's apple going to work. Good. He was smart.

"How did he get in here?"

"We found one of our men locked in the dungeon," one of the guards said, "and another stuffed in a locker in the break room. Neither of them claim to have seen him before they got knocked out, and they just woke up wherever he left them. Nobody seems to know where he came from." As the guard spoke, Sarasa turned his back on the group.

"…One was locked in the dungeon?" he asked, very quietly. The two guards glanced at each other once again, almost afraid to answer.

"Yes, Your Grace," one guard answered.

"And what of the two prisoners?" Sarasa said, slowly.

"The…two prisoners?" the other guard said, his throat suddenly quite dry. The room filled with silence, save the thumping of the guards' hearts pounding against their cages that Waluigi swore he could hear. Even the guard by the entrance to the room seemed to fear for his safety, despite having nothing to do with the situation.

"Find. Them." Sarasa remained disturbingly calm, urging his pair of useless workers all the more to fret and exit frantically. Once the door guard sealed the room shut after his colleagues' departure, Sarasa allowed a few moments to pass before speaking once again.

"To whom do you pledge your allegiance?" he said, his back still turned on Waluigi. The boy decided it was high time to go ahead and sit himself back up. Moving from his position on the floor was painful – his cheek was removed from the support of the marble below him – but he did his best to ignore it. He managed to work himself into a crossed-legged position, and he swallowed once again.

"Are you hard of hearing, Ant?" Sarasa said. "I asked you a question."

"I figured there was no point in answering. People and ants don't speak the same language." The mere act of talking was more difficult than Waluigi anticipated. The more he could avoid doing that, the better.

"To whom do you pledge your allegiance?"

"To you, My Lord."

"You do not want to test my patience," Sarasa threatened, his voice continuing to remain steady and his back continuing as a wall between him and the boy. "Perhaps I should ask you in simpler terms so you might understand: Why are you here?"

Sarasa heard a small sound of something splatting on the floor. He turned around. A red stain had appeared next to the boy, who looked at the king defiantly. His cheek had swollen considerably, and he appeared to be having a difficult time maintaining his seated position. It would seem he was trying his best not to pass out on the spot, forcing himself to stay conscious merely to spite the king. He couldn't last much longer though, and he slumped over, his mind slipping away from the world as he fell.

The door guard was rather shocked to see the boy pass out and quickly asked his king if anything should be done. "Leave him," Sarasa said. "And let your peers know that the boy is here."

"God, this is really uncomfortable. These suits were not made for women."

The past few minutes were spent frantically transferring Jeff's suit of armor over to Daisy. The process was awkward and rather clumsy, especially since Luigi was busy looking away and blushing, even though Daisy didn't care whether or not he saw anything as she fumbled with putting the mail on after having removed and tossed aside her nightgown. At least her uncle was around to give a helping hand.

"You're fourteen, you're not allowed to be a woman yet," Jeff said.

"I'm in the middle of puberty, Uncle Jeff, deal with it," Daisy responded as she raised her arms so her uncle could put on her top. "Ilys is gonna be a woman one day too."

"No she's not," Jeff said, pulling the armor down securely over Daisy. "She's going to be four forever. I'll ground her otherwise."

"I can't wait until she brings home a special someone," Daisy said as she slid on her helmet. She shuddered a bit. "Well, this is sweaty and unpleasant."

"Isn't it? And I don't understand why you're being so cruel to your loving uncle with your words right now, Daisy," Jeff said, looking Daisy over one last time to make sure everything was on correctly. At this point, Luigi finally turned to look.

Frankly, Daisy was right.

Her new outfit looked especially awkward on her. Granted, Luigi hardly looked any better, but her pieces were too large for her, and it was obvious she would need to put forth a lot of effort to just keep everything on.

The decision to dress Daisy in the armor was Jeff's idea. From the moment they only got two suits, Jeff knew that he would have to sacrifice his own disguise for the sake of giving the young couple a better chance of escaping together. As for what exactly Jeff would do now, well, there was an ornamental suit of armor near the base of the steps leading from Daisy's room, and he knew it carried a spear.

"The castle is on high alert right now," Jeff said. "They know Luigi and I have escaped, and they'll probably figure out pretty quickly that you're not in your room anymore, Daisy. I want you two to go ahead without me and try your best to blend in. You'll have to be very careful; they'll be looking for two people in armor who don't seem to fit in. Try to stick close to one another, but not too close, and snake your way to the front exit. Pretend like you're joining the exterior guard keeping the townspeople in check, then try to subtly break into them if you can get a chance. Doing that will probably cause a fuss. Whether or not it does, get rid of your armor in the crowd and make a break for it."

"But what will you do?" Luigi asked. Both Daisy and Jeff looked over at him, and Jeff gave the young man a smile.

"I'm gonna go see my brother again, of course. Our valiant thief is trapped in the throne room with him after all. We can't just leave him behind."

Without warning, Jeff felt a pair of arms wrapping around him. The embrace was rather uncomfortable, but the prince gave an automatic chuckle as a tear surprised itself out of his right eye. He could feel his face burning and his throat automatically closing up. Daisy's sudden affection unraveled him in an instant, and he found himself fighting to keep back anymore tears. He hugged his niece tightly, smiling.

"We're almost there, Daisy," he said quietly, knowing she must have been shedding some tears under the cover of her helmet. "I'll be okay, I promise. I won't pretend to know what will happen next, but we're going home."

He took a slow, deep breath, then let it out just as slowly. Luigi gave a sorrowful smile. It wasn't until then that he realized that he, too, honestly had no idea what would happen next. The thought was terrifying, and yet, strangely liberating at the same time. When there were no expectations, the possibilities suddenly became limitless.

"Okay, this is no time to be standing around and moping!" Jeff exclaimed, letting go of Daisy, who seemed to be mentally preparing herself beforehand to hop to action. She swiftly wiped away her tears, balled her fists, and nodded at her uncle, forcing herself to smile the whole time. "You two get out of here. I'll see you soon."

Jeff placed his hand on the bedroom door handle when Luigi suddenly said, "I hope I can be like you someday, Jeff." The comment caught both Daisy and Jeff off-guard, and Luigi, despite being suddenly stricken with sheepishness, continued. "You're brave and smart and you always seem to know what to do, and I just wish I had any of those qualities. You're the kind of person I want to be."

A moment of silence passed over before Jeff chuckled. He smiled, stepped over to Luigi, and placed a hand on the boy's shoulder.

"Luigi, let me tell you a little secret," he said, seeming to laugh at himself as he did so. "I'm scared all the time. Constantly. Scared that I may not be doing something the right way, or that I might not be doing the right thing. Scared of being a bad father, a bad husband, or a bad uncle. Scared that I've been a bad brother and a disappointing son. And I may look like I have it together right now, but trust me, I am terrified. I'm willing to bet we all are. You and me, Daisy," Daisy gave a quick, silent nod in agreement, "those people outside, the people in here, even the king. Everyone in the world is scared. The only difference between you and me, Luigi, is that I'm a little older."

"'A little'," Daisy scoffed.

"As you get older, all that happens is you learn how to cope," Jeff continued. "You figure things out. You figure out how to figure things out. And it's honestly pretty uncommon that you do it because you want to; you do it because you have to. You do it because you can't afford not to.

"That said, just look where you are now," Jeff said as he released Luigi's shoulder from his grip. Luigi took a slow look around himself, at the room he was standing in and what he was wearing and who he was with. Luigi understood what Jeff was trying to say. He may not have gotten there alone and he may have wished he never had to be there in the first place, but the reality was that he was there now.

Silently, Daisy came to his side and tenderly grabbed his hand. Luigi, caught off guard, quickly turned to look at her and saw her smiling at him. Luigi automatically smiled back at her as his heart pounded. He took a deep, slow breath to try to stabilize his sudden nervousness as he remembered what was about to happen next.

"I wish I had a camera right now. You two holding hands with this armor on looks very awkward," Jeff said in a whisper.

"Have you met us? Everything we do is awkward," Daisy said just before gently tugging Luigi toward the door. "We have to get going. The longer we wait, the harder it'll be to get out of here."

"Yeah," Luigi said, failing to convince anybody that he was particularly confident.

"And you, try not to get hit anymore," Daisy said to Jeff, causing him to raise his brows in surprise. "Aunt Julie married you for your looks. Being here doesn't seem to have done much for your face."

"I'll try my best, ma'am," Jeff responded. "I'll see you two outside."

With that, Daisy turned the knob of the bedroom door and pushed the portal open. The outside air was cool as it wafted inside. The slight chill shook Daisy for the briefest moment, making her feel exposed in spite of her armor. She poked her head outside and looked over toward the staircase. The coast was clear.

"I'll go first," she said. "Follow me at a little bit of a distance. I know the quickest way to get out of here." Daisy hurried over to the staircase and began her descent. Luigi watched her go and went to take his first step down when Jeff suddenly spoke up to give one last word.

"I believe in you, Luigi," he said, his signature grin cutting through Luigi's uncertainty. "Take care of each other."

Luigi gave Jeff a little smile of his own now, though Jeff could hardly see it behind the helmet. And with those final words of encouragement, Luigi took one more breath and started to head down the stairs.

Once he got to the bottom of the stairs, Luigi stood just far enough inside the archway over the staircase to avoid being seen from the large main hallway. He paused and drew a nervous breath as he gave Daisy a few more seconds to create a larger gap between them. At the same time, though, he didn't want her to get too far away.

At that point, he began wondering just how long he should keep waiting, but before he was able to fully paralyze himself with thoughts about the appropriate timing, he took a step out and, as inconspicuously as possible, peered left down the hallway, in the direction Daisy was walking away. From the distance, while she did appear smaller than the average size of the guards around the castle, she seemed to carry herself very convincingly. Her gait was perfect, and she walked with purpose, giving off the impression that she was heading to her next duty.

She passed by the stairs some fifty or sixty feet away that Luigi and Jeff had previously climbed to get to the floor earlier. Seeing that the coast was clear so far, Luigi began to follow her. He attempted to match her movements and pace, though he faltered slightly when he saw her come across a guard who stopped her and spoke with her. The two exchanged words quite briefly, seeming to only check in with each other. The guard hadn't detected anything strange about her it seemed, thankfully enough. Luigi was worried she might look too obvious, but the hefty armor seemed to help cover most of her features.

The guard moved on and began heading toward Luigi. Luigi forced himself not to break stride and eventually met the guard near the stairs leading to the lower floor.

"All clear?" the guard said. It was obvious he was upset and not trying particularly hard to find anyone who looked out of the ordinary.

"Yep," Luigi said. The guard nodded and pressed onward without another word down the stairs. It hadn't occurred to Luigi earlier how much was happening in the castle simultaneously. Between the crowd outside, Jeff and Luigi himself escaping from the dungeon, Waluigi having been discovered, and the king probably erupting over all of it, the guards' attention was being pulled in several different directions. It may have been mayhem, but perhaps that would actually make things a little easier.

With that confrontation out of the way, Luigi pressed forward once again, picking up his pace slightly in order to somewhat close the gap between himself and Daisy. As he sped up though, he noticed that Daisy's pace had slowed considerably, until she eventually came to a dead stop. Luigi also slowed down now and quickly glanced around to make sure no more guards were nearby, then he jogged over to Daisy's side.

"What's wrong? Why did you stop?" he asked. Daisy turned to him and looked him in the eye. She had that familiar, determined gaze.

"This isn't right. Luigi, we can't leave Uncle Jeff behind," she said. Luigi felt he ought to be surprised by her sudden change of heart, but at the same time, he agreed with her. "We have to figure out how to sneak him out with us."

Luigi turned back and looked at the far end of the hallway. He noticed that the spear the decorative armor set was holding at the foot of the stairs to Daisy's room was gone. Jeff must have grabbed it and headed off.

Luigi then looked back in the direction he and Daisy had been heading. The end of that path wasn't too far off, with the landing giving way to a spiral staircase heading down to the second floor. Daisy was likely taking them to the east wing staircase, and effectively, the eastern exit near the break room that Luigi and Jeff were at not terribly long ago. Escape was mere minutes away, and with all the commotion, it probably wouldn't be terribly hard to break out and run off…

"How do we get to the throne room?" Luigi asked.

Daisy immediately beamed. Those were exactly the words she was hoping to hear.

"We're going back the way we came, and down those stairs right over there," Daisy said. Luigi turned around and Daisy stepped up to his side. A new sort of resolve overcame her in that moment, and she clutched the spear in her hand tight. Then she stopped to take a deep breath. "Luigi?"

"Huh?"

"This is going to work, right?" Daisy said. Despite the uncertainty of the words she just spoke, the energy she put behind them didn't give way to doubt. "We're going to march into that throne room, up to my father, and help Uncle Jeff and whoever this person is that helped you, and we're all going to get out of here just fine, right? We're going to do this, and it'll only take a few minutes, and we'll all just live happily ever after, right?"

A moment passed wherein Luigi wasn't sure how to respond. He wasn't terribly optimistic that everything would be okay; to the contrary, the more they lingered, the greater a sense of dread seemed to well up inside of him. Determined to keep up his momentum though, he faced Daisy and let his words just come out without the thoughtful deliberation he was used to.

"I don't know," he said. "I don't know if anything that we're doing is going to turn out the way that we want it to. The only thing I do know is that all of this is happening because of your dad, and we have to figure out how to get through to him. And I think that us going to him – or, uh, more importantly, you going to him – is going to do…something. And whatever that is, I think it's going to help us more than just running away right now."

"Even though running away would be easier?" Daisy said.

"Well…the easiest thing to do isn't always the best," Luigi responded immediately. With that statement, Daisy threw off her helmet and ripped Luigi's off his head and planted a forceful kiss onto his lips. Luigi was so stunned that he couldn't even bring himself to return the kiss before Daisy separated from him. His heart raced as she playfully plopped his helmet back onto his head and grabbed her own from the floor to put back on.

"I know this isn't the appropriate place or time to have done that, but I couldn't resist how sexy that was," Daisy said as she put her helmet back on and turned back toward the direction of the staircase. She let out a small sigh. "Fairy tales are so stupid to me. Princesses needing to be saved, knights in shining armor, evil kings, all of it is just dumb. And yet…look at where we are right now." She chuckled to herself, letting the irony of the situation wash over her. "We're actually living the exact kind of story I hate… But we're going to keep going together," she said as she looked over at Luigi, smiling. "Except in this story, I'm gonna be my own damn knight!"

With that, she rushed off toward the staircase, chuckling along the way. Luigi watched her go for a moment, looked around to make sure there still weren't any guards in the premises, then headed off after her. Despite knowing the perilous situation they were in, he couldn't help but crack a smile before chasing off after her. Who knew what the future might hold? The only way to find out would be to run right toward it.