Ralsei's POV

After choosing a group name, we went on ahead and met two darkners that once again told us how much of a tirant their king was. I had noticed
(Y/n)'s fist clenching in anger but she tried to hide it with a sigh. I've never met the king of spades in person. I've only heard of him through (Y/n) and the people we encountered on our journey so far. 'From their perspective, he seems like an awful person but... is it really true? His son seems nice enough, even though he's quite a handful.'

Speaking of which, we ran into Lancer once more, with his back facing us. "Hohoho... Well step on my boots. If it's isn't the fun gang! You boys and girls better turn back while you can." He tried to intimate us, not being very successful. "Lancer!!! What is it this time!?" I asked, a tiny bit tired of this routine of him trying to be scary, failing, running away and try again. 'Gotta admire his obstinacy though.'

"Hohoho... I'm simply warning you...! Something EXTREMELY dangerous is lying ahead." Lancer exclaimed, swiftly turning around to us before continuing. "Hohoho! It's actually really inconvenient!" He took another step forward. "Ha! I can't go home at all because I'm so scared!" Another step as he grinned mischievously. That seemed to have made Susie sort of nervous. "Wh... What is it?!" She asked.

Lancer grinned and stood aside, holding his arm out. "See for yourself!" We all looked at each other before we walked passed Lancer only to be face to face with C. Round. I started smiling. "Oh, hey little guy..." I waved and we relaxed. "It's good to see you're alright C. Round. Did Susie hit you badly?" (Y/n) asked with concern, leaning down with her hands on her knees to examine it for injuries. C. Round shook its head, eh... or more like shook its whole coin face side to side, carelessly smiling up at her.

"That??? That's what you're afraid of???" Susie asked Lancer in disbelief. Lancer's face lit up. "W... Wow, purple girl! You aren't scared!?" Susie huffed a chuckle. "Heh, why would I be? What's it gonna do?" She asked, pointing a thumb in C. Rounds direction. C. Round tilted its head to the side. "Hmm, well, normally..." Before Lancer got to finish his sentence, C. Round spun around and happily parated to end end of the checkered floor. Once it stepped on the tiles, they glowed and a small crown fell from out of nowhere, landing directly on top of its head. As soon as it did, C. Round grew in size and its legs getting more muscle. Then, C. Round turned to us with a loud stomp, startling all of us. "It crushes people to death, I think." Lancer finished his sentence.

When he regained his balance, Kris turned his head to (Y/n). "Uhm, doll? Did you know it could do that...?"

"No... this is new..." She slowly answered, staring at C. Round in pure surprise. "Hehe, okay, no biggy. We got this!" I tried to lighten the mood with encouragement, chuckling nervously.

C. Round who was now K. Round pulled us into battle as it stomped in place. "Okay, how do we handle this, anyone got ideas?" Kris asked. Susie opened her mouth to answer but was harshly interupted by (Y/n). "No Susie, we're not going to fight it!" She warned and Susie huffed. "The crown on its head made it this big, maybe if we get it off..." I suggested. "And how the hell are we supposed to do that?! Huh!?" Susie yelled, readying her axe.

Suddenly, (Y/n) gasped. "Bow to it!" We gave her a questioning look. "The crown of the king of diamonds would always fall off his head when he bowed because it was to big for him. I used to snicker my little butt of  whenever it happened because he alwas became so embarrassed while fumbling to get his crown back on." She laughed at the memories and I couldn't help but snicker too. '(Y/n) has never talked about her childhood that much. I'm glad she's opening up about that.' I also noticed Kris glancing at (Y/n) with a soft look on his face. 'Seems like I'm not the only one who thinks so....'

Anyway, we did as my best friend suggested, bowing to K. Round. Well, except Susie. K. Round bowed back to us repeatedly and we noticed the crown loosening on its head. "It's working! Great idea, (Y/n)!" I cheered. "Susie! Help us bow to it!" I called, hoping she would join. Sadly, she refused to act once again. "Nah, its crown will come off... When I smash this guy to the ground!" She said as she fletched her teeth.

I just stayed quiet, flinching when Susie went for the attack and K. Round took a bit of damage.

Then, K. Round jumped into the air and towards us, attempting to crush us under its weight. "Oh oh! Watch out!!!" I yelled and we started dodging K. Round as he continued to jump up and down. One time, it dove right in Kris's direction and I took notice of it. "Kris! Above you!" I called out and Kris looked up to see K. Round coming towards him. Luckily he didn't get crushed because (Y/n) pushed him to the side, the two stumbling over until they landed next to each other. "Gosh, that was close! Are you okay, Kris!" She asked, laying a hand on his back. Kris stared where he had just stood, knowing that he could have really gotten hurt just now or worse. "Y-Yeah, I'm good.... Thank you doll..." The two smiled at each other sweetly and I couldn't help the smile growing on my face aswell.

(Y/n) would always joke about how naive and oblivious I can be but I did notice how she and Kris act around each other. At first, I thought it was just teasing but now... I'm starting to think that (Y/n) is developing feelings for the Lightner. 'I would definitely be happy for them, if thay do end up together. (Y/n) deserves that kind of happiness...'

After K. Round finally stopped jumping, it was our turn. We just bowed to it and the crown loosened more. Then Susie attacked it again. This stressed K. Round out and he somehow pulled out milk and drank it, his wounds healing immediately and it seemed to have more energy now. "Susie! Stop attacking it! You're making it stronger!" I scolded her but she didn't seem to care. "Pssh, and let it think I'm afraid? No way!" (Y/n) face-palmed and Kris rolled his eyes. 'Susie... when will you learn that violence won't bring you everywhere. You have to be kind at some point...'

A few turns of constant bowing and almost getting crushed to death by K. Round later, the crown finally slipped from its head and it turned back into the adorable and harmless looking C. Round. It peacefully rolled itself away and we won. All of us were completely out of breath from all that dodging and (Y/n) even sat down for a moment  "We... We did it?! That silly idea actually worked?" Susie questioned in surprise and (Y/n) silently glared up at her from her position on the ground.

All of a sudden, Lancer walked in front of us again, looking completely amazed. "Wow!! You clowns really are heroes!! You saved the next 20 minutes of my life!!" Susie put her hands behind her head, grinning. "Yeah, yeah, I'm pretty great, huh...?"

I turned towards her, nervously fumbling with my sleeves. "Ummm, Susie...? Not to downplay your contributions, but.... You... didn't actually help at all. You only made everything worse by attacking it. If you had just acted nice to it in the first place... We could have avoided the entire battle." I tried my best to choose my wording as carefully as possible, knowing how easily angered Susie is. She looked at me as if I had just spoken in a different language.
"Huh? Are you FOR REAL? That thing was Bloodthirsty!!! The only thing keeping it a bay was my axe!" She yelled at me harshly. I could feel (Y/n)'s magic building up inside her so I knew she was ready to intervene at any moment. But I didn't want another fight to break out between them so I tried again. "And, earlier, you terrorized those troops..."

"Those guys were enemies. They're for terrorizing!" She excused her actions. "Yeah, She's right!!!" Lancer called from behind us. "And before that, you ate an innocent person's cake..." I argued and Susie thought about what to say about that. "Cakes... are also my enemy."

(Y/n) scoffed. "In which universe!? You did that just because you felt like it, end of story! That is not okay!" Susie snarled at her. "Stay out of this, Guardian-wannabe!" (Y/n) brows furrowed, her magic mist already forming around her hand. But thankfully, Kris was there. He gently took her hand into his and stroked it to calm her down. It seemed to work because she took a deep breath and looked away to the side. I sent a thankful look to Kris before turning back to Susie. "Susie... Whether you like it or not... You're a hero. One with the power to bring peace to the future. Could you please start... acting like one?" I looked down with a sad expression. 'I hate judging people. But what she's doing could get us all in trouble in the future.'

Susie stayed quiet for a while, turning her back to us. "Yeah, when you lay it out like that... I've been a pretty bad hero, haven't I?...." She fell silent again. 'Is she actually rethinking her actions? That would be amazing!' Susie put her hands in her pockets, looking like she was thinking about something. "Alright, Ralsei. You got it. I'll change my ways. From now on, I won't be such a rotten hero anymore."

I could have cheered. 'Yes!!! I got through to her!!' Or that's what I thought. Suddenly, Susie swiftly walked over to stand next to Lancer. Then she faced us with one of her scary face. "I'll just be one of the bad guys instead!" I nearly fell over in shock and Lancer's face lit up with excitement. "R... Really!? You're going to be on my team?" Susie grinned down at him. "Yeah, sounds way easier, honestly."

"Susie, you can't just--" I tried to reason with her but Lancer caught me off. "Quiet, toothpaste boy! Susie is My comrade now!" He exclaimed cockily. "Hahaha, yeah, toothpaste boy!" Susie laughed.

"We're going to have monogrammed track jackets!"

"Yeah!"

"And sleepovers! Where we tell each other secrets!" Susie got confused.

"Umm, yeah? Anyway, uhh, see you guys never."

"Haha!! If you can even last that long!" The two new comrades ran away laughing, leaving us alone with me personally being completely horrified.

"Oh no... Perhaps I shouldn't have been so harsh on her..... But I just worry that if Susie is too eager to fight... then... well..." The two walked over to me and Kris put a hand on my shoulder. "It's not your fault." He said. "Yeah. Don't beat yourself up about this Ralsei. It was time that Susie heard that from you. And even though this might complicate a few things, you couldn't have known...." (Y/n) gave me a quick hug which I returned of course.

"And, heh, in my opinion. You were way too easy on her. Believe me, you don't want to know how I would have worded that. Hahaha!" We all laughed.

"Thank you, both of you but... let's just be kind to her, ok? I'm sure Susie will come around soon!" Kris nodded and (Y/n) reluctantly agreed aswell.

'At least.... I hope she does.... goodness I hope she does....'

~To be continued~

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