Maria - The Blind Princess

Chapter 2

Maria and Gerald were the only survivors after the m******e in Beauvallet castle. Everything left behind the castle was only the burnt furniture and dead bodies.

Maria also never wanted to come back the castle ever again after the disaster. Gerald and she had to live in the secret since he told her that people were currently posting that they were trying to find her for the rescue. Gerald never trusted the adults after that moment, so he told her to change her family name, pretend to not be Maria Beauvallet anymore.

From now on, they became Maria and Gerald Tranchant - the family name of a kindhearted baker. He also adopted two of them when he saw them as the pretty orphans wandering around the town's alleys.

6 years later, Maria reached 14 years old and Gerald became 16 years old....

"Gerald, I want to go outside."

"No you cannot, Maria."

"I said I want!"

"I said you cannot!!"

"Hey what on earth is happening to you two at the early morning??"

Maria and Gerald had been living together for 6 years inside the bakery of the town. After the disaster, Maria didn't have anyone to trust on except Gerald, so she wanted to see him as her big brother even though they weren't blood related.

At Gerald's side, he had been Maria's eyes for 6 years and helped her adapting a new life as a farmer. He took care of Maria with love and saw her as his little sister as well, but the more she grew up, the more she became stubborn. It caused Gerald headache several times because he didn't want to scold her actually, he just had no other choice.

"Come on, kids... Take your breakfast and we need to get to work."

Their breakfast was homemade breads with delicious meat soup (Tranchant bakery was one of biggest bread supplies for the town so their adoptive father was an average-high grade merchant). Gerald ate his meal with sad face. Of course, Maria who sit opposite of him didn't see his expression, but Gerald was noticing her face which changed a lot since the day they left Beauvallet castle.

Maria had longer and wavy blond hair. Her aquamarine eyes sparkled beautifully, that nobody would believe she was actually blind. Her oval cute face once made people surprised that she wasn't feminine as they thought... because she had an impressive combat skill, especially at using lance.

However, in order to limit appearing in front of public as possible, Maria just could practice at the night time. And it frustrated her a lot because she got complaint from neighbors that they couldn't sleep because of her. Now this morning, Maria wanted to go outside, at the day time to practice, but Gerald refused her.

"Sigh... Okay, but we have to finish our work today first. Since I also want to enhance to battling skill, we can find an empty place to practice."

Suddenly, Maria's attitude changed by 180 degrees...

***

At noon, there were two teenagers one boy and one girl walked through the town under the mysterious coats. They had to hide themselves, not too revealing in front of public and went out the residential area. At there, there was an empty field behind a hill. Maria and Gerald could practice there.

Maria hold her wooden lance, prepared with defensive position. She tried to hear the most silent movement of Gerald. The fact that he was practicing the assassinate skill with knife even caused Maria's focus more challenging. But she didn't give up, it was the promise with her father.

Maria could hear the sudden change of wind movement. In an instant, she stopped the knife attack from Gerald. By his breathing sound and body temperature, she detected where he was to charge forward.

"Got you, Gerald!" She stopped her lance in front of Gerald's chest.

"Bravo! As expected from you Maria. If I was blind like you.. I would definitely die."

"Because even if I have the disability, it will never stop my dream." Maria answered "It's my promise with father."

"Anyway..." Gerald changed the topic "After your father's death, don't you have any idea for the revenge? And I also bet they are still trying to find you and kill you."

Maria was thinking for a little while.

"At first I used to think about the revenge. But every time thinking about you as my only sibling, I'm afraid you will be sad to die if I die."

"No no Maria I'm not a cry baby like before anymore!"

"So you want me to revenge?"

"...No. My apology for being too curious."

"Hehe well I was joking. Simply father used to teach me... Blood cannot be washed by blood. But one day, we will drag them to the light. Their crime shall be well-known to let my father's soul rest in peace. In order to do that, I want to be stronger, to be able to fight against them despite I'm just a blind girl."

"Maria...I understand."

After the conversation, Gerald always supported Maria to go outside for the practice. He even followed her every noon too to help her enhancing her battling skill.

One day, Maria and Gerald got a new hottest post from the capital: They were hiring a group of new students to enter the royal academy since the income students this year was lower than the available slots. That's why this year had an exception, the academy also accepted the ones who weren't from noble, as long as they had excellent entrance score. They were hiring 7 more students, so the top 7 highest scores will be accepted.

"It sounds interesting. But too bad, the academy just hires male students only. How do you think Maria... Wait!"

"What is it Gerald?"

"The academy also has a specialized class to train you into a royal knight!!"

Hearing "royal knight", Maria gave herself a hope. But the academy only accepted boys so a crazy idea then popped up inside Maria's mind.

"Gerald, I want to go there."

"I understand that you want to go there but..."

"Don't worry, I will pretend to be a boy at there!!"