Page 49 of Is It Wrong to Escape My Fate?
I ignored his comment and addressed the rest of his statement. “You’ve been with the Priestesses this whole time?” I had no idea how Kingdom-wide prophecies worked, but it made sense to me how they’d try to protect the child Hero as he grew up.
“Oh, no,” Claude giggled, walking over to where I sat. “This only happened last year or so. Our orphanage is huge; even though the Priestesses had yearly visits, they had never seen me until that day. I guess that’s what triggered the prophecy.” He sat on the floor beside my legs. “I hid from them every year because I thought I’d get punished for being a troublemaker.”
Him being a little goblin wasn’t a surprise to me. What was surprising was that he laid his chin on my knee, looking up at melike an oversized dog asking for pats. Like getting up, sitting on the floor, and pouting on my lap was completely normal.
Skies above, he really did want head pats, did he?
I reached out and stroked his golden blonde hair, and if he were an actual dog, he’d probably be drooling on my lap with his tongue lolling out with how happy and content he looked.
What even was this?
“The Priestesses brought me to the royal family, and I’d been under Win’s care since,” he continued the story as if he did nothing absurd. “He’s my boss.”
“No, and I will refuse that word every time,” Winston frowned. “You are the catalyst of the prophecy. If the party needs a leader, it will be you. The Oracle’s Divine magic works through you.”
I raised my eyebrows. “I thought for sure you two are friends. Or at least had a close working relationship before the whole Champions prophecy.”
“I’m so far divorced from the royal family, it’s impossible for the two of us to meet in this lifetime if not for the Priestesses.” Claude lifted his head from my lap, dislodging my hand from his hair. “I’m from one of the border territories, but at the western side of the Kingdom, far away from the Everlasting War battlefields. There’s no reason Winston will be there or for me to leave the region.
“In fact, before the Priestesses discovered me, I was finishing my training as an infantry for the regional army. As soon as I’m emancipated from the orphanage at eighteen, I would be part of the army. Then you know the rest.”
Holywow.His entire origin lore and backstory screamed main character energy. From how he had been living in relative peace, and then his fate altered because of an event out of his control. He was brought to a strange new land, and got to meetnew people along the way, as he grew stronger and made more allies to defeat the Big Bad.
No wonder he was the Hero of the Kingdom.
A niggling thought came to mind. “Wait, what did Prince Winston mean when he said ‘Divine magic works through you’?”
“Winston,” Winston corrected me first.
I smiled. “Prince Winston.”
“No titles amongst us, or I’m making it a royal decree if I have to,” he smiled back, that freaking angelic face betraying the underlying threat in his words, playful as it might be.
Okay, no titles. “Tony,” I replied with an even bigger smile.
Samuel coughed a laugh. “What a brat.”
Winston grinned wider too. “You know what, I’m actually fine with that. You’re the only one allowed to call me that, princess.”
What — princess?!“Why are you calling me that?” I asked, sounding lame.
“You picked a name for me, so I’m allowed to call you one myself,” he explained, my game of giving him a nickname biting me back in the ass. “Don’t worry, I won’t call you that outside of this group, lest those silly nobles misunderstand me.”
“They’lldefinitelymisunderstand,” Claude laughed.
“Besides, it doesn’t feel right if anybody else aside from us calls you princess,” Winston pondered, frowning slightly. “You’reourprincess. Not theirs.”
Claude guffawed this time. “Sounds about right.”
“Stop saying that,” I bit my lip.
“Stop doingthat,” Samuel grunted, shifting in his seat.
“I’m not doing anything.”
“I think what he meant is you’re being too cute right now,” Claude tried to clarify as he laid his head again on my lap. “You’re so entertaining to be with. This is why I like you.”
I had quite enough of this, so I steered the conversation back to my question. “You didn’t answer me yet. What’s that about Divine magic?”
