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Chapter 3: First Contact

Posted: 16-12-2013

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My body is made of swords

Iron is my blood and glass is my heart

I have overcome countless battlefields undefeated

Not once have I retreated

Nor once been understood

Always alone, on the hill of swords intoxicated with victory

Thus this life has no meaning…

This body was surely…

Made out of Blades

Ritual Chamber, Royal Castle, Tristannia, Tristain, Halkeginia

"Servant Archer. I ask you. Are you my Master?" The red clad Servant asked the Princess. Immediately Henrietta recognized a problem with her Servant. A massive problem.

They didn't speak the same language.

She wanted to drop down laughing, not an amused kind of laugh, that someone uses when he/she is amused. No she wanted to drop down and laugh in a hysterical kind, the laugh befitting someone who just realized that all their efforts were for naught. And truly all her efforts were for naught. At least according to her train of thought. All this preparation to summon a Servant for this to happen.

She turned to look at her Servant. He was a tall man with tanned skin, no usually found in Tristain, with white spiky hair that contrasted greatly with his skin. His eyes spoke of hardship and loss, but still they held some steel in them. He was garbed in a red overcoat with long sleeves, a black leather breastpiece with silver highlights, black pants and black combat boots. On his back was a beautiful sword. He was bowing down on her.

"I ask of you, are you my Master?" the Servant intoned again. Henrietta was once again at a loss of words. She didn't know what to do. What to say. "I' m sorry but I can't understand you." She said.

The man frowned as if understanding the problem. He then made some notions with his hands. He pointed at his hands then to the Princess. She was once again at a loss. At her expression he sighed in frustration and took a step to approach her. He couldn't manage to take a second as he found a sword at his throat. Agnes decided to make her presence known at last when the man appeared to be approaching her Princess. "Stop right there." She warned him.

The man stopped dead on his tracks when he felt the cold steel on his jugular. He raised his hands and put them behind his head, in a non-threatening manner. He once again gestured towards her hands. Confused once again Henrietta tilted her head to the side in a cute manner not understanding what her Servant was talking about.

"Your Majesty perhaps he wants you to show him your hands?" said Agnes.

"My hands? Why'd he need to see them?" She said. Then she remembered an important part of her role as a Master. The three Command Seals that should be engraved on her hand. Did her Servant want to see them as proof that she is his Master? She glanced at her hand and saw them for the first time. She felt them getting there when she performed the Ritual but she was engrossed with it so she didn't pay them any attention. They appeared to be a sword in the middle with a bow and an arrow crossing each other in the middle in an X shape. They were pulsing a deep red.

Finishing her examination of them she presented them to her Servant. When he saw the Command Seals he nodded and bowed deep as if swearing allegiance to her. Come to think of it that was the most possible reason for his bow.

She then remembered something important. The letter that she had to deliver to him. Perhaps that letter had a solution to the language barrier. If the one who delivered the book and the rest could write in the local language, then perhaps he/she could have included a way for her Servant to understand her in his/hers letter.

She made him a hand motion to stay there and he appeared to get the message as he watched her with a hint of amusement in his eyes. At the same time she made a subtle motion to Agnes to not let her guard around him. She seemed to understand her as her hand still held her sword with a tight grip. Henrietta then turned around and went to the corner where they had put all their spare belongings that weren't needed for the Summoning. There among other things she found the letter addressed to her Servant. She took it and handed it to him. He took it curiously and opened it, then tensed as if he was struck by lightning as he began reading it.

She stood there watching his face as it turned a set of different emotions. Shock, amusement, sadness, grief, annoyance, amusement again, shock again and in the end it ended with resignation. Then he raised his hand, making Agnes tense, and draw a series of Runes on his forehead. She wasn't familiar with any of the Runes on the sequence and she was curious about their use. She got her answer when he opened his mouth. "Let's see if this works. Can you understand me Master?" he said and the thing is that Henrietta understood him completely.

Henrietta stood there with a big smile on her face as her biggest problem at the moment vanished. Then she said "Yes I can understand you, at last." And smiled at him once again.

The Servant watched her with amusement on his eyes and bowed to her. "Then let's do this again, properly this time. Servant Archer, I have heeded your Summons and came forth. I ask you, are you my Master?"

"I am Princess Henrietta de Tristain, thank you for responding to my Summons kind Sir." She said to her Servant, the now identified Archer and presented him her hand with the Command Seals. He took it with his own hands and proceeded to kiss her knuckles with a smirk on his face. His action made a deep blush to appear on her beautiful face.

They were interrupted by a growling sound from within the room, as her bodyguard made her presence known. "How dare you sully her highness you cur. Unhand her." she growled at an amused Knight of the Bow. She then lunged at him with her sword drown.

He easily sidestepped her and pulled out of thin air a pair of black and white blades to block her follow up strike. She seemed to be putting a lot of pressure at her strikes, as the strain could easily be felt by even Henrietta. Archer however didn't even seem bothered by her actions as he regarded her with a mocking expression and no strain whatsoever. His attitude seemed to anger Agnes even more as she tried to strike him even harder.

Henrietta having enough of their attitude decided to put an end to this. "That's enough!" she said with her voice full of authority. Both of them stopped right on their tracks. Agnes turned to her and bowed apologetically.

"I am sorry for my impulsive actions your Highness. I'll accept any punishment you seem fit" Henrietta waved her off as no harm was done. She then looked at Archer to see him smirking at her.

"My, my, what a forceful Master that I have." His tone was enough to get Agnes ready to pounce on him again but a sharp glare from Henrietta stopped her in her tracks.

"That's enough Archer. You will behave or I will make you." She said with steel in her tone as she pointed at her Command Seals.

"Archer this is Agnes Chevalier de Milan, Captain of the Musketeer Squadron. She is my most trusted knight. I estimate that the both of you'll be working a lot together so I want you to be professional one to the other. This goes for you too, Agnes. Am I understood?"

"Yes Master/your Highness." They both said at the same time.

"Good. Agnes I have a meeting with the Queen in a bit. I want you to take Archer and give him a tour of the Castle. In the morning I will introduce him to the Court as my Knight of Honor." Archer seemed surprised at that.

"Wait, what?" he seemed a bit of lost. 'Good' thought the Princess smirking inwardly. She was happy that she could make Archer sweat a bit. But she couldn't help it. Archer even from her brief interaction with him could bypass all her defenses. She couldn't understand how he could do it. It's infuriating.

"As you heard. I need a reason to keep you around all the time and since I can't say that you're a Heroic Spirit from an other dimension, I will make you my knight to have a legitimate reason to keep you around. Do you have any objections to that?" she asked sweetly.

"Too many to count!" sputtered the Servant of the Bow.

"Rejected!" she replied the Princess with the authority of one that was raised to rule a country one day. Beside the sputtering Servant she could see her best friend do her best not to crack out laughing at his reaction.

"Now go!" He dropped his head down dejected knowing that he couldn't possibly win against her.

"Yes Master."

A/N: Here is the third Chapter of Hime no Servant. A friend of mine did some art for me and made me the Command Seals for Henrietta. When I saw them I completely fell in love with the design. There is a link on my profile for them in devianart.

I also want to point out to all of them haters that I'm primarily a reader and not a writer so excuse me for not being perfect. So if you don't like, just don't read.

R&R

Till next chapter…

Ja ne