Will of a Prince

Jacob woke up from his deep slumber. The past few days flew by and before he knew it, he was able to start his training today. Strangely, he was a bit worried about what he was about to put himself through. However, that worry was greatly triumphed by the determination he held to grow stronger.

Jacob walked up to one of his servants who was busy tidying his room. It was the older gentleman he had hurt before.

"Pardon me sir, but have you seen a tallish, brown hair, maybe creepy-looking woman around my age recently?"

The man froze hearing the prince’s words.

"Who... who are you?"

Jacob looked really confused for a moment.

"Uh... Jacob? Oh, and I forgot to say. I’m really sorry for taking my anger out on you before. It was extremely inappropriate of me and I apologize."

The prince bowed to the man who stood still like a statue. Jacob straightened his back once more, smiled and reached out to shake the man’s hand.

"What’s your name, sir?"

The servant was frozen solid, his face full of utter disbelief. He couldn’t process that the prince himself seemed like an entirely different man.

"My lord, I must inform the king at once! It seems you’ve contracted a grave illness!"

Jacob started laughing at this remark and patted the man on the back.

"No need! I’m as healthy as ever! But I am still looking for that woman. Have you seen her around? I promise she’s not in trouble; she’s just a friend."

The man took three moments more to think to himself before responding.

"She’s... I think I saw her cleaning dishes before I came here. But young lord, are you sure you’re okay?"

"Truthfully, this is the best I have felt in a long time. I have a long road ahead of me, but I’m excited to see what awaits me."

The servant couldn’t find any more words to say to the prince. It felt as if his entire world was flipped upside down.

"Is this a dream, my lord?"

The prince looked at him with a confused expression.

"A dream? Hmm. Maybe it is a dream. But if it is, I’m definitely not ready to wake up yet. And hey, you still haven’t told me your name!"

"My name... my name is Joseph, but most people call me Joe."

"Joe... what an awesome name! I’m a little jealous to be honest. Prince Joseph would sound a lot better than Jacob."

The man continued staring at Jacob, his entire body looked like he was about to pass out. Jacob turned around and started putting on his training attire.

"Anyway, I can’t waste any time so I must leave. It was nice talking with you, Joe."

With that, Jacob left his bedroom and started walking towards the palace kitchen.

"Yup. I’m definitely dreaming."

Jacob entered through two small wooden doors in the dining hall before he found his way to the royal kitchen. Maria had her arms in deep water, washing bronze and silver plates with a rag. Her hair was tied up, she had a long, dirtied apron on and she held a focused gaze on her work... until the prince entered.

"Hey, Maria! I’ve been looking for you!"

She immediately stopped scrubbing the tray she was cleaning and looked over at Jacob with a pleasant smile.

"Hello my lord! I hope you have been recovering well!".

"How many times do I have to say, you can just call me Jacob."

"S-sorry my lord, I will try."

Jacob sighed to himself silently. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed there was a small pile of broken glass plates stacked behind her.

"What happened to those?"

Maria embarrassing looked away with a guilty expression.

"I uh... still need some work on controlling my strength a bit. I decided to limit myself to metal plates for now. See?"

She lifted the bronze tray she was working on... only, the tray was extremely deformed and could hardly be called a tray anymore.

Jacob silently laughed to himself.

"Well make sure you’re eating enough. I’m pretty sure the enchantment on your earrings is passive, so it should always be active. Just like mine."

"I will my-... Jacob."

Clearly, she was straining herself to call him that name. Jacob just sighed and walked toward her.

"Hey, I wanted to offer something to you. Are you willing to hear me out?"

"Certainly. What is it you are offering?"

"Now that we are both fully healed, I think it’s time that we start training seriously. There’s no telling when we will need to go out and search for the enchantment my uncle took, so I want us to be at our strongest. Would you like to train with me?"

Maria looked a bit shocked at this question but eventually smiled and shook her head.

"I am honored my lord, but unfortunately my absence has caused quite a lot of work to pile up. I believe it would be best for me to continue doing my chores for now."

Jacob was a bit disheartened to hear this, but then he had a sudden realization. Every task that Maria was doing required her to finely control her strength. Even something as simple as washing dishes required the most perfect control or whatever she was washing would shatter under her force.

"Very well then. I will leave you to it."

As Jacob turned to leave, an idea sparked in his mind.

"Maria, have you ever fought with a sword before?"

Maria looked at Jacob and thought for a moment.

"A sword? Hm... No, I have not."

"What about a bow?"

"I haven’t really fought with any kind of weapon before."

Jacob smiled.

"I’ll tell you what: by the end of this week, meet me on my training grounds. We’ll both show each other our progress, and I can teach you a bit of swordsmanship. Sound like a plan?"

Maria smiled brightly and gave Jacob a thumbs up.

"Deal."

With that, Jacob walked to find his father to ask him an important question.