Chapter 256: New Quest Received

"Oh hey, you made it!" 

Here comes another baffling sight. A lovely princess so divine in a lush blue gown, her blond hair in curls flowing so smoothly down her shoulders, her smile with a hint of gloss, staring at me with gentle hazel-brown eyes. 

Didn't know Cinderella attended more than just balls. Wait - 

"Amanda?" 

Cinderella's smile grew even wider, her rosy cheeks flushing to even brighter pink. 

"Y-yeah, it's me," She said, a gloved hand clutching another. "What do you think, I look good?"

I snorted, and tugged at my shirt. "Better than me, that's for sure. You could pass off for an actual princess like that." 

"Yeah… sadly, I'm not much a fan of dresses like these," She said, giving a small clumsy twirl that still somehow looked so graceful. "Unfortunately, no other host was willing to play the eldest princess of Astra, so…"

Unfortunate, she says… but judging by the stares she was getting left and right, clearly, it was fortunate for everybody else. 

"Oh?" Amanda batted her eyes over and behind me. "You're alone? Where's everyone else?" 

"Thieves, bandits," I told her, putting on an air of danger as I spotted a stray camera or two lurking in the shadows. "And I think if we stall here for too long, you'd be stolen from me too, so how about we keep moving?"

"Bandits…" She followed my gaze, and understanding followed with one firm nod, and began to keep pace with my wary strides. "Ah, alright. They are quite a ravenous bunch, aren't they?" 

"And frankly quite too much for a royalty of your caliber. They'll eat you alive as they did with the others. Why who knows what has become of them?"

"Competitors, if I'm not mistaken."

With bells a-chiming, my gaze snapped to hers in an instant. "Competitors?"

"There's a cosplay competition going on at the moment. One photographer, one model. Best pair wins," The princess of Astra went on to explain. "I assume they're fighting to the death by now seeing who gets who in the selections." 

"Oh."

"Or maybe one of them got hauled to the stage play… I heard one of the acts is missing an actor. What was it - a vampire role, I think?"

"Oh god."

"There's also a possibility they're at the jousting arena. One of the Knights isn't feeling well… we are looking for a replacement still."

"Oh God!" I sped up faster. "I better go find them." 

"Or…" She tugged at my sleeve, slowing my sprint in sync with her leisure pace. "You could stay with me for now, and sit this one out at the front-row seats. I'm one of the judges for all these events. It'll be an experience for them, don't you think?"

"Well… uh… I'm not so sure if…."

"An Elf-Knight, a Necromancer, a Matriarch... " She elbowed me, squinting an amused gaze. "You don't think they can handle themselves? Come on, you don't have to be their hero all the time to them… there are some other damsels out there that need saving too, you know?" 

I rolled my eyes. "What, like who? Like you?"

"Well, I am a princess, a damsel if you may," Amanda said, her tone a haughty one. "It's a tale as old as time. Perhaps you can help me find my seat in the meantime?" 

"You know this place better than I do. Find it yourself."

"Very true yet alas," She turned an eye to the side, feigning desperation in her tone. "What is a helpless princess to do with all these thieves and bandits prowling the land? Oh, won't someone please come and be my shield, and fend their lascivious gaze from besmirching my being?" 

"Wow, you're good at this." 

"Come on, think of it as a side quest to your main quest," She said, dropping the act. "If you wanna find your girls, escort me to these places… and you shall be rewarded handsomely for your efforts." 

"Oh yeah?" I raised a brow. "What's my reward?"

"Nothing, I'm talking out of my ass here, just play along, alright?" Then with a smirk, spurred us forward, tugging on my arm even harder. "Right we're almost at the main hall where everything is. Come on, hurry up! We'll see if we can 'em." 

Walking side by side with Amanda clutching tight, it was hard not to be keenly aware of the reputation she has 'round these parts… especially with the constant reminders in the stink-eye stares of others watching us skim by. 

In fact, that reminds me of something… I looked back again, where the entranceway was just a small blip of light at the end of a hall that easily spanned the length of a city block - so far, so distant - yet somehow I could still see a large silhouette looming, and the large silhouette scowling.

"By the way, you know your staff guy you got parked out the entrance? The ones that give the badges?" 

Amanda was busy navigating us through the sea of people to be fully paying attention, responding quickly with only a half-hearted, "Hmm?"

"Yeah, I don't think he's fond of me very much." 

"Huh..."

"I'm serious, he looked at me like he wanted nothing more than to use me as a toothpick to clean out the chunks of metal he eats with his eggs."

"That's interesting… wait," She finally snapped back to focus. "Who? You talking about Nick out there? What, no way - he's a sweetheart! He's always been nice to me."

"You sure that's not an exclusive privilege reserved only for you?"

"He works well with others. Does his job, he does it well. None of the event-goers have any complaints about him so far." 

"Maybe it's because none of the other event-goers are being touted as your boyfriend with a special pass to everything here, and more importantly - you." 

"Okay, so maybe he has a little crush on me, just a little," Amanda shrugged, concerns non-existent. "He's harmless… don't worry."

Uh-huh. Last time I had to deal with a harmless someone with a crush on a woman, I ended up limping a sliced leg and slightly suffering from multiple concussions for a while. 

So yeah, I wasn't all too convinced by her sorry excuse of an assurance. If anything, It just fanned the flames of my worries into a full-on wildfire.

"He's crush on you might end up with me getting crushed," I told her as bluntly as I could. "I'm serious, did you really have to tell him that I was your  boyfriend?"

Amanda sighed, and it was the distinct sound of exhaled air that implied check out this fool in his fool's outfit, making a fool of himself once more.

"It wouldn't have mattered. Half the convention already knows that you and I are a thing already - "

"A fake thing."

"A real thing to them," She inched closer as we passed by another group of envious onlookers. "And for the time being, a real thing to us too. Just play along, it won't kill you. "

"Yeah, that's what they all say at first..."

"Look," She began, spinning herself in front of me, her hands collapsed together. "Don't worry about it, as the eldest princess of Astra, and one of the hosts of this convention - I hereby decree that you are under my protection, and that no one shall touch a single strand upon your hair without my knowing or my approval. There, that good enough for you?"

"Dunno. Say it through an intercom first, and I'll probably breathe easy again." 

"Ugh, sheesh… well, aren't you high-maintenance?"

"Yeah, I also need milk twice a day everyday and leave a toilet seat up every time. You want me, you get the whole package," I replied. "Should have read the fine print on the back, now you're stuck with me. You considering a refund yet?"

"Nope," She immediately said, twirling back beside me once again. "Unfortunate for you, I get sentimental easy with the things I choose… even if they are a pain, so don't worry, I leave the toilet seat up too." 

Unfortunate, indeed…

We walked just a bit more, before the most peculiar thing happened - so seamless, I hardly even noticed. That hall we were just in, it was gone. Like a step into another world, it was… the ground no longer had its shiny marble finish. 

Our every step after was an uneven one, feeling every hard edge of jagged brittle stone beneath our feet. 

Coming into the convention, I expected some wooden stalls lining the halls, some draperies hanging on the ceiling embroidered with all things fantasy and whatnot. Maybe an outlet or two that kinda resembled a tavern.

That's my mistake for thinking things typical. It already said it right front and center on the website, didn't it? This event was a love letter from the fans, for the fans, and by the fans. 

And that love clearly showed. 

I wasn't staring at people trying to replicate fantasy, I was staring at people living IN the fantasy. The entire hall converted into a bonafide medieval township… every vendor with its own building, every event location with its own distinct landmark. 

Pathways paved with cobble, branching off into even more pathways, tempting travelers to explore deep into narrow alleys, into broad avenues, venture to different districts - with the wide-open streets bustling with carriages aplenty up and down. 

Overhead, soaring higher than any other pointed tiled-roof in the sky, a tower up above chimed and clangored its big, golden bell upon every hour's end. On the outskirts of it all, don't know how, don't ask why, but there was an actual forest. Yes, they got a complete ecosystem here… complete with its own local fauna and everything.

And shall you ever get lost somehow, not to worry… the entrance, just beneath the archway - had a wooden signboard displaying a withered old parchment, which had illustrations in great, extensive ink-splotched detail of the whos, the whats, and the wheres everywhere.

To top it all off, the bright red cherry on top of this old-fashioned delicious cake - when you look up, you don't see the ceiling… you don't see the concrete dome encasing it all… I think it might have been projectors, and I think they got the best of the best… cause there was no other way they could have gotten a perfectly blue clear sunny sky shining down on it all. There was just no way.

Amanda was ahead, beneath the tall wooden archway warmly inviting us in, a finger on the parchment, and smugness on her lips. 

"So, the cosplay competition should be near the blacksmith's, the stage play obviously in the theatre, middle of the town square, and finally the jousting arena, that would be the stables."

My awe slacken jaw fueled her delight even more as she turned my way, flouring her gloved hand out towards me, "Well then, dear traveler. I've gone ahead and marked your objectives on your map. Shall we be off now in search of your lost companions?"

There was no way I could resist grinning wide after everything, and especially after seeing the princess' greatly infectious charming smile. 

"Alright, my fair lady," I said, taking her hand in mine. "We'll do this your way."