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“We’re here,” Tafel said as she pushed open the door to the bathroom. Inside, there was a steaming pool with a fountain placed in the center with a statue of a two-headed lion adorning it. Water poured out of the lion’s mouths, crashing into the pool below. Tafel raised an eyebrow at the sight. “Wow. This bath is huge. Thankfully it wasn’t damaged by your clash with Vur.”
Mary nodded. “Good job. You’re useful for something,” she said, causing Tafel’s eye to twitch. The empress walked into the bathroom and leapt into the bath, submerging herself fully. A moment later, her head popped out of the water, and she whipped her hair behind her. “Good temperature.”
Tafel’s expression darkened. “Um…?”
“Yes?” Mary asked as she sat down and leaned back, resting her head against the edge of the bath.
“Your armor,” Tafel said.
Mary looked down. She raised her gauntleted hand out of the water. “What about it? You can’t have it.”
“No,” Tafel said, shaking her head. “I don’t want it. I mean, why didn’t you take your armor off before you went in? You’ll get the bath dirty. And you won’t be able to wash yourself, but more importantly, you’ll get the bath dirty.”
Mary scratched her head. Then she removed her gauntlets and sabatons, placing them on the ground behind her. She glared at Tafel as she approached and hugged her armor as if she were a mother hen protecting her chicks.
Tafel’s expression darkened even further. “I’m not going to steal your armor,” she said. “Do you want help removing the rest?”
“You can’t,” Mary said. As Tafel continued to come closer, Mary dragged the pieces of armor she took off into the water and stuffed her limbs back inside of them. “They’re mine.” She brushed her hair back with her armored hand and sank back into the pool. “Besides, I can’t take off the rest.”
“That’s why I offered to help,” Tafel said. She had watched knights get dressed when she was little. They always had their squires around to remove their armor for them since it was almost impossible to do by themselves. She turned away to leave the bathroom. “Since you don’t need my help, I’ll be leaving.”
Mary shook her head. “You can’t remove my armor,” she said. “My uncle made it a part of me.”
Tafel stopped and turned back around. “What do you mean?”
“You have an imprint, right?” Mary asked, raising her head and meeting Tafel’s gaze. “Have you awakened yet?”
Tafel bit her lower lip. “No.”
“I have.”
Tafel’s eye twitched. “Are you picking a fight?”
“To awaken, you have to be in a near-death situation or driven by rage,” Mary said, ignoring Tafel’s question. “I received my imprint when I was eight. I couldn’t awaken for two years no matter how many times my uncle almost killed me.” Mary sighed as she leaned back to stare up at the ceiling. “He got frustrated.”
“What does—”
“Turtles’ spines and ribs are attached to their shells,” Mary said, cutting Tafel off. “My uncle thought making me more like a turtle would help awaken the snaketurtle imprint faster.” She tapped the armor covering her chest with her gauntlet. “This is my shell.”
The blood drained out of Tafel’s face. “You mean, you can’t take off your armor, ever?”
“No,” Mary said, shaking her head. “I can take it off, but I’ll die. And I don’t want to die yet, so I won’t. I’m happy my uncle used magic to let it grow with me, or I might’ve stayed small forever.”
“That’s not something you should be happy about!” Tafel shouted.
Mary flinched. “Indoor voices, please.”
Tafel ignored her as she stomped over. “Why did he do something like that!?”
Mary inched away from the edge of the pool and drifted towards the center, looking at Tafel with wary eyes. “He was in a hurry,” she said. “It was my fault for being too slow. It’s like he knew he was going to die soon, so he wanted to help me as much as possible.”
“Didn’t you say he died in an accident?” Tafel asked as she stood at the edge of the bath, her hands clenched.
Mary tilted her head. “Maybe he could see the future? He seemed to know everything,” she said with a nod. “That must be it.”
“Did it hurt?” Tafel asked, her voice low. “When he did … that.”
Mary bobbed her head up and down. “When he carved my spine out, it hurt so much I thought I was going to die,” she said. “The near-death situation helped my awakening.”
Tafel exhaled and sat down. “It’s a good thing your uncle died,” she said, shaking her head. She shuddered and snapped her head towards Mary.
“Why would you say something like that?” Mary asked, her eyes narrowed. “Without my uncle, I wouldn’t be empress. I would be dead. He gave me everything I have. How can you say it’s a good thing he died?”
“This is some next-level brainwashing,” Tafel muttered to herself as she retreated backwards while standing. She shook her head as metallic clinking sounds echoed from Mary’s waist despite being underwater, her thumb partially unsheathing and sheathing her sword. “No, you misheard me. I said, ‘It was a good thing your uncle tried.’ You know, tried that to help you awaken.” She gritted her teeth. “He sounds like a great person.”
“Oh,” Mary said, removing her hand from her sword’s hilt. “You’re right. He was a great person.” She smiled and sank into the water, submerging her head. She swam towards Tafel and resurfaced, beaming at the demon’s face. “My birthday is at the end of the month. Do you want to come celebrate it with me?”
Tafel made an odd expression.
Mary narrowed her eyes. “You can’t refuse.”
“I guess I have no choice then,” Tafel said. “I’ll bring Vur too.”
“No!” Mary said as she shot to her feet, splashing Tafel with water droplets. “I don’t like him. He makes me mad.”
“If he finds out I went to a party without him…,” Tafel said, biting her lower lip. She shook her head. “Anyways, you’re not afraid of fighting that devil at all, are you?”
“Not one bit,” Mary said, sinking back into the water. “My uncle used to summon devils to kill all the time. They looked so weak. He wouldn’t let me fight one though.”