'All right, here you go. Thanks for waiting. Drink up!'

It was another busy day at the Boar Hat. Seats were filling up and people were still coming in. Meliodas couldn't help but feel pride at how far his small tavern had come.

'For such a little fella he's one hardworking waiter,' said a customer.

'Oh no, I'm not the waiter, buddy,' said Meliodas. 'I'm the owner of this place.'

As he walked off, Meliodas could hear the disbelief of his customers. It didn't bother him. That much. Any more.

So it was just another ordinary day. Meliodas fought not to reach under his shirt for the ring that hung around his neck. He didn't need the distraction. And besides, it was cold, which meant she wasn't wearing hers.

But then a distraction came anyway.

A man burst through the door. He was panting and leant on the frame. Everyone began to whisper at the sudden entrance.

'I saw it,' the man cried. Once he was seated with his own flagon of mead, he began to tell his tale. 'No kidding, I saw it with my own two eyes. I swear by all that's holy, it was the Wandering Rust Knight I saw out there.'

'Yeah, seems like it's been on everyone's mind,' said someone else.

'Come on,' scoffed another patron. 'They're just made up stories people use to scare their children into behaving.' He put on a mocking voice and said, 'If you don't do what I tell you, then one of the Seven Deadly Sins will come for you in blood rusted armour.'

Meliodas perked up. Time to get to work.

'The Seven Deadly Sins?' he asked, stopping the men's conversation. They looked over at him.

'You mean you've never heard of them, young tavern owner?'

'Their wanted posters are hanging everywhere, like those over there.'

Meliodas looked over at the notice board. It was required by the law to have one with the wanted posters but, truth be told, he didn't hate having it up. The drawings made him laugh.

'What was it? About ten years ago?' the man continued the story. 'Dozens of Holy Knights from across the land were butchered so fast they didn't even have time to defend themselves. And the Seven Deadly Sins were the ones who were responsible for it. From what I've been told, the way the Holy Knight's Grand Master was murdered was too gruesome for anybody to even look at.'

'It's said their captain, Meliodas, was the scariest one of them all. They say he's even brought down entire countries before,' someone else chimed in.

'I hate to interrupt, guys,' Meliodas cut in, reaching for a bottle of ale, 'but you keep saying Seven Deadly Sins. There are eight posters on that board.'

'Oh, yeah, that one in the middle just below Meliodas's? That's his wife,' said one man.

'[Y/n], right?' said another.

'Yeah.'

'I know you said Meliodas is the scariest, but if you ask me, it should be her.'

Meliodas fought back a smile. Hawk peered at him so Meliodas turned away.

'None of them have been caught yet, have they?' The conversation continued.

'Nope,' said a man. 'Not a single one.'

'Well I've heard rumours they've all been dead for years now.'

'Course they're dead.' The man scoffed. 'They have to be. The new Holy Knights would never let them live after what they've done.'

'Yeah, you've got a point there. Even now, with the king sick in bed, you can bet they're still gonna make sure the kingdom stays safe for all its people.'

'But,' interrupted an anxious voice, 'those notices get updated every single year. Doesn't that mean those seven criminals are still out there?'

Uneasy silence filled the room.

'Yeah, well, some spooky knight walking around in rusty armour sounds pretty ridiculous to me! Come on!'

Everyone began to chuckle, putting an end to the tension.

But then, from outside, came a noise. It was metallic and harsh, cutting through the easy atmosphere as a sword cuts through flesh. Each screech and clank echoed through the now silent tavern. It was getting closer. Louder. Meliodas looked towards the door.

'That smells an awful lot like rust to me,' said Hawk.

The door creaked open. Silhouetted in the light was an enormous shape. It was hulking and massive, a tattered cloak tied around its neck. No one moved. It took an unsteady step forward and reached out and arm.

'The Seven...Deadly...Sins,' it moaned.

'IT'S HERE!!!' cried all the tavern customers as one. And, as one, they bolted, dodging the towering mass of armour in the doorway.

Hawk began to tremble but Meliodas just hopped over the counter and faced the giant.

'Now who are you?' he asked.

But before he could get an answer, the Rust Knight reeled and collapsed on the floor. The crash was loud and so hard the helmet fell off and rolled away.

Meliodas stared in shock. His hand twitched towards the ring under his shirt but...not yet. Hawk came to have a look.

'This kid's one of the Seven Deadly Sins?' the pig asked in disbelief.

After removing her armour and carrying her to the spare room, Meliodas and Hawk could see the girl clearly. She was slender and curvy with long silver hair that covered one eye.

'She's a girl,' Hawk said. 'Definitely.'

'Sure looks that way,' said Meliodas.

And then the girl awoke. She sat up suddenly and looked around.

'Where am I?' she said. 'Excuse me, but what am I doing here?'

'Oh yeah, you walked in my bar, then you passed out cold on the floor,' said Meliodas.

'Your bar?'

'Yeah, the Boar Hat. It's my tavern.'

'Hold on,' said the girl. 'You're the owner?'

'Is that so weird?'

'Well, I mean I just saw that sword on your back so I naturally assumed...' She trailed off.

'Oh, this thing?' said Meliodas. He reached over his shoulder to pull out his sword. The girl flinched and Meliodas laughed. 'Did I scare ya? If all you see is the handle, guess it looks pretty intimidating, huh? Makes the patrons think twice before skipping out on the bill.'

'It's the customers who pay their hard earned money to eat your nasty cooking that I really feel sorry for,' said Hawk.

The girl stared in awe and then ran over to pat Hawk.

'It's a talking piggy,' she exclaimed. 'He's so cute!'

'Hi there, my name's Hawk.'

'A long time ago, I pestered my father to get me a piggy like this for my birthday,' said the girl.

Meliodas felt his heart squeeze but tried not to show it. 'So did you like having a pet pig?' he asked instead.

The girl stopped her adoration of Hawk and visibly wilted. 'Didn't get one,' she said.

'Hey, you feeling hungry at all?' said Meliodas. 'I could throw something together.'

'Do you have ham?'

'Watch it!' screeched Hawk.

All three of them went downstairs and Meliodas set about cooking. To be fair, he did try hard to cook, but he knew in his heart of hearts that it was going to turn out awful. He accidentally knocked a whole bowl of salt into the mix and then something in a bottle that said 'balsamic vinegar' (whatever that was) and, okay, maybe he left it a bit too long in the pan. But it looked okay, so it should be fine.

He put the finished meal on a plate and then called out, 'Come and get it.'

The girl walked over.

'First you nurse me back to health, now you're feeding me?' she said. 'How can I possibly thank you enough?'

'Might wanna taste that first, before saying thanks,' said Hawk.

'All right,' said the girl. 'This looks so good.'

And she took a bite.

Just one.

And stopped.

'What do you think?' asked Meliodas. 'Awful, isn't it?'

'Uh, yes.'

Meliodas and Hawk said, in unison, 'Knew it was.'

But something made Meliodas stop. The girl was crying.

'But still,' she said, 'it's delicious. More than I can say.'

'So,' said Meliodas as the girl wiped her tears, 'what exactly were you doing walking around in that old armour?'

'I'm on a personal quest,' she told him, 'to find the Seven Deadly Sins.'

'Why would you do that? No one has any idea whether those guys are even still alive or not. And they're serious villains,' said Hawk.

But before anything more could happen, someone began to bang on the door.

'Open up!' they called. 'The villager's told us who's in there!'

Meliodas set to work. As soon as the girl was safely hidden and Hawk was (badly) dressed in the old armour, he opened the door. Just in time, too; they were beginning to sound pretty angry.

'Yeah? What's up?' he asked.

'Who are you, little kid?' demanded the closest soldier.

'Well I'm the owner of this place,' said Meliodas.

'The Wandering Rust Knight's here. Send him out.'

Meliodas sighed and turned to look back into the tavern. 'Better come out.'

Hawk strutted out. He looked quite ridiculous. As the self-professed Captain of the Order of Scraps Disposal paraded, Meliodas froze. The ring resting just over his heart became warm. I have so much to tell you he thought.

But not right now. Things were getting hairy. One of the knights, the leader, had picked him up by the collar. And then a different one spotted something behind the tavern.

'Alioni, look!' he cried. 'A girl ran out the back!'

Meliodas was dumped unceremoniously on the floor. The knights all ran off into the woods and Meliodas used the momentary peace to focus on the warmth that was pulsing over his body in a gentle, steady beat.

But then he stood up. Time to be the hero.

This should do it. Meliodas stopped in a tree right at the edge of the forest next to a cliff. And he was right. The sound of pounding footsteps reached and he got ready. And, when she was below him, Meliodas jumped down and grabbed the silver-haired girl and brought her back up into the tree with him. Together they watched as Hawk pushed the knight leader over the cliff.

Finally safe, the three unlikely companions continued their conversation that had been so rudely interrupted.

'So, why are you looking for the Seven Deadly Sins anyway?' asked Meliodas.

'I wanna ask them to help me stop the Holy Knights,' said the girl. She was looking at the ground.

'Are you serious? Why in the world would you wanna do that?' said Hawk. 'The Holy Knights are the King's men, the knights who protect Liones, real heroes.'

'But what if they were behind a plot to start a war in our country? The other day, except for the king himself, the entire royal family was arrested and is being held by the Holy Knights.'

'Does that mean the king isn't really sick in bed?'

The girl shook her head. 'That's just a cover story the Holy Knights are using. I don't know what they think they can accomplish by driving the nation to war, but now they're drafting the people of the kingdom. They're taking men wherever they can get them. They're preparing for war everywhere you look. Soon, their reach will extend all the way out here.'

'That's not good,' muttered Hawk.

'Yeah, tough break, huh?' said Meliodas.

'Wow. You don't have any empathy at all, do ya?'

'So, how does this tie in with the Seven Deadly Sins again?' Meliodas drew the conversation back on track.

'If there's even the slightest hope of preventing the Holy Knights from doing this, I know they're the only ones who can.' The girl finally turned to face Meliodas, her face set and one visible eye flashing.

'Just checking here,' said Meliodas. 'You're trying to find those guys even though you know what kind of people they are?'

'The Seven Deadly Sins, the most vile Order of knights the kingdom ever produced, made up of seven vicious bloodthirsty criminals, each one branded with the mark of a Beast. Ten years ago, when they were suspected of trying to overthrow the kingdom, the knights of the realm launched a full force attack, scattering them to the four winds.' The girl spoke so passionately. She must have heard the story a lot.

'Well, if you believe the rumours, they each died a long time ago.'

'Such amazing people wouldn't possibly let themselves get killed,' the girl exclaimed.

'Hm.' Meliodas pretended to be sceptical. 'Well, they are criminals, aren't they?'

The girl finally faced him full on, her face screed up and eye full of tears. 'The Holy Knights are the ones causing the suffering of the people right now!' She took a shuddering breath and continued in a calmer voice. 'Long ago, when I was small, only five or six years old, my father would tell me stories about them and that's when I learned they were the most powerful knights the-'

A strange sound cut through the air. It sounded like...a sword. But no one was near them. Then the ground shook and started to fall. The girl screamed as the earth crumbled and they all fell off the cliff to the ground far far below.

Dust filled the air. Meliodas got to work. He grabbed the girl under one arm and Hawk under the other. Then, as the dust began to clear, Meliodas saw that knight from before. He switched Hawk to his back (piggyback) and grabbed the knight before climbing back up to the top of the cliff. Someone quite powerful was waiting up there.

'You there! How dare you survive without my say-so? I shall not be revising my death tally conclusion,' said a tall man with a very prominent moustache. He reached for the sword at his hip.

'Who asked you to anyway?' Hawk shouted.

Keeping a wary eye on the newcomer, Meliodas spoke quietly to the girl. 'Hey, are you awake?' he said.

'Oh, yes.' She lifted her head from his shoulder.

'Okay. When I signal to you, run into the forest. Got it?'

'All right, got it.'

They both got to their feet to face the knights from before and the new, taller one. The taller one's armour was red and spiked. His face was stern and furrowed. He never took his hand from his sword.

'Tell me,' the red-armoured knight spoke to his subordinates, 'which one of them would you believe to be a member of the Seven Deadly Sins? Neither bears any resemblance to the wanted posters.' Then, spotting something, he made a sound of victory and began to walk closer to Meliodas, Hawk and the girl. As he walked, he continued to speak. 'Fate is smiling upon me today,' he said. 'The crest on that earring you're wearing is from the royal family, which means that you, conclusion, are Princess Elizabeth.'

The girl, Princess Elizabeth, gasped. Meliodas turned to look at her with what he hoped was confusion.

'Hold on. You're a princess?' he asked.

'Wait are you really Princess Elizabeth?' Hawk's shock was more believable. 'You're the third princess in the royal family!'

Elizabeth drew her hands close to her chest and took a step back.

'A decree has been issued from the capital to determine your whereabouts. The order was to capture you alive and in healthy condition but if you lost your life in an unfortunate accident...' The large knight trailed off threateningly as he drew ever closer.

Meliodas narrowed his eyes. 'Go now!'

Elizabeth and Hawk legged it into the forest with Meliodas close behind them. With every step he took he could feel the ring bouncing against his chest. The warmth was still there, always there when she wore hers, but there was concern and support. If it wasn't for the situation at hand, Meliodas would have smiled.

'I must not let myself be captured,' Elizabeth was saying. 'I can't afford to give up yet!'

Behind them came the roar of the knight and the same cutting sound from before. It was drowned out quickly by the ripping and cracking of hundreds of trees being ripped apart. Once again, dust clouded the air. Meliodas dodged all the debris and dived, knocking Elizabeth out of the way just in time. He hovered over her, shielding her from any stray pieces of tree.

He couldn't help but smile as she opened her eyes and gasped. 'HI there,' he said, unable to stop himself. 'You all right, Hawk? You seem okay.'

'Seriously?' Hawk cried from right beside them. 'I'm shaved pork on a skewer. Mum! Oh, Mummy!' And, still wailing and the twig still piercing his behind, Hawk bounded off through the forest.

Seeming to decide something, Elizabeth got to her feet. Meliodas watched her with real confusion this time.

'Elizabeth?' he said. 'Hey, what are you doing?'

She began to walk to the red-armoured knight. 'There's no escape,' she said.

'Wait, hang on,' Meliodas said, 'you just said you couldn't afford to be caught or to give up.'

'Maybe if I surrender myself peacefully, he'll agree to take me back with him and your life can be spared.'

But the knight had other plans. His sword cut through the air and the ground, a huge wave of magical power headed straight for Elizabeth. She just stood there in shock. Meliodas dived again, tackling her, just before she would be hit.

'Please,' Elizabeth cried, 'try to get away while you still can.'

Meliodas kept her caged in his arms this time. The ring on the thin chain had come out from under his shirt and was dangling just inches above Elizabeth's face. Meliodas could still feel the warmth and support ready for him to draw on, but he knew he didn't need it, not for this lousy knight. 'Think he wants to make sure neither one of us gets out here alive,' he pondered, looking over at the knight.

'Why?' said Elizabeth. Meliodas looked at her again. She was crying and trying to wipe the tears but more just kept falling. 'I was so happy when I met you. I set out searching for the Seven Deadly Sins all alone. It was hard, travelling by myself. And I felt so scared. Walking around in that rusty armour, hoping nobody would recognise me, but there wasn't anyone I could turn to for help. And now, you've shown such kindness to someone that you've never met before, I don't want to see you hurt. That's why I don't want to involve you in my problems anymore. Not when I don't even know your name.'

That brought Meliodas back to last time. Back to the rain and the blood and the tears. But this time would be different. That's what he promised. So he smiled and said, 'Meliodas, if you really wanna know.'

Elizabeth gasped and her eye widened. 'I don't believe it,' she said. 'You can't be.'

That made Meliodas laugh.

'How can you-? You're just-' Elizabeth couldn't finish any of her sentences.

Meliodas could hear and feel the red-armoured knight getting closer but ignored him for the moment. He was having too much fun.

'That symbol on your arm there,' said Elizabeth, finally spotting the mark, 'some kind of beast? Wait, that's a dragon!'

And the knight was upon them. He struck, cutting through the air. But Meliodas was too fast; he blocked the strike easily, knocking the knight back several paces. Meliodas walked up to him slowly, his own sword drawn, and ignored the knight's blustering. Honestly, a whole lot of fuss for nothing.

'Meliodas? Is that actually who you are? Really?' said Elizabeth from behind him.

'Wait a minute,' the knight said, realisation dawning on his face. 'Now your face is beginning to look familiar. But, if that's who you truly are, how can you look exactly the same as you did? And where's your ring? Weren't you married?'

Meliodas got into stance and saw the knight finally see the ring on the chain resting on his chest. He smirked. 'All right, time's up,' Meliodas said mockingly. 'Figured it out yet?'

'No, it can't be,' said the knight. 'And yet you still dare to exist!'

And with that, he brought down his sword again. It had force behind it, sure, but no finesse. Meliodas dodged easily and countered. The knight was blown away, his armour breaking, screaming in pain.

'The Seven Deadly Sins' Sin of Wrath. The Dragon Sin. Meliodas!'

Meliodas sheathed his sword but kept the ring visible and turned to look at Elizabeth. 'Well, Elizabeth,' he said, 'I guess this mean you've found your first Sin, doesn't it?' Her surprised face was so cute. 'So listen,' he continued, 'as far as the six others go, I've got some business to discuss so I've started looking for them myself. I've been using the tavern as a way to gather information but if I had a pretty girl to pull in a larger crowd, I bet we'd see a lot more info heading our way. How about it? Coming with us?'

Elizabeth started to cry again. 'Yes,' she said. Seems they were happy tears.

Hawk's mum descended from the sky like a giant green pig-shaped meteor.

'Perfect timing, isn't I guys?' Hawk boasted from her back. He released the rope ladder.

Snagging Elizabeth under one arm, Meliodas leapt up and grabbed a rung with the other. 'Hey, Hawk's mum, way to go.'

'Wait, I'm the one who brought her!' Hawk sounded angry. Meliodas ignored him.

'All right then,' said Meliodas, 'let's head out for the next town, guys. Come on Hawk's mum, up to you now!'

Meliodas left Elizabeth talking to Hawk in the tavern and wandered upstairs to his bedroom. He sat on the bed and pulled the chain over his neck. It pooled in his hand, glinting slightly. Meliodas couldn't help it; his hands began to shake. He put the ring on the fourth finger of his left hand.

Immediately, her voice was in his head.

Are you okay? What's going on? Are you hurt?

Meliodas chuckled. I'm fine, just a bit of trouble because...because I found her.

There was no reply but just feelings. Pain, loss, joy and, most of all, hope. Meliodas knew the mixture well, he was feeling the exact same. He had been since Elizabeth's helmet fell off.

Perfect timing. Her voice was slightly choked, thick with emotion. Meliodas wished he could hold her. I finished up today and will be heading off tomorrow morning. Keep me updated on where you are and I'll be back with you soon.

Sounds good. I'll see you soon. Oh and [Y/n]?

Yeah?

Stay safe.

She laughed and Meliodas couldn't help but smile. Isn't that my line?