"Miss Jane, do you believe the rumors?" I stood up from my hunched over position in my garden and looked at the village boy who was swinging on my fence.

"What rumors, Gareth? You know I don't go into town often, so I miss a lot of the news."

Gareth looked at me in amazement and laughed, "Miss Jane, there really is no one else like you, is there? I've asked Mama about you and she just smiled and said that you make really good meat pies. I feel like there is so much about you that we don't know."

"You're smart Gareth, maybe too smart, but what is this rumor all about? Unless of course, it was about my meat pies!" I smiled fondly at the boy, but there was a hint of shadows in my eyes that I refused to let him see.

"No silly, it's about a rusted giant wandering around! Apparently, he is one of the Seven Deadly Sins, and he is out to destroy the kingdom!" I stiffened as Gareth kept talking and my mind spun, a member of the sins? Surely none of my former comrades would be stupid enough to wander around so obviously, even if ten years had passed, that would be extremely careless of them. I tuned back into what Gareth was saying just as he said, "Apparently, it was last seen in this area. My brother told me to stay by the town, just in case."

I quickly put a smile on my face so the boy wouldn't suspect anything, "Oh? So Alioni is home, is he?"

"Yeah! He said that once he gets off duty next week, he'll be able to stay with us and play with me, just like old times!" I couldn't help it, I laughed and walked over to Gareth.

"Well, you sound like you are in for an exciting time. Would you be a dear and come with me? I have some vegetables that your mother asked me for last week, and the squash just finished ripening up." He nodded and bounced over to me as I reached into a bin and pulled out a full bag, "Is this too heavy for you?"

He shook his head and grinned, "No, Miss Jane, I should be good! Mama will be happy though, she's been wanting to make squash shells for a while now! You're the best!" He ran down the street, nearly falling over with how heavy the bag was.

As soon as he was out of sight, the smile slipped from my face and I sighed, running a hand through my unruly red hair. "Why did they have to resurface now? I've been protecting this town for years, and if they find out I'm here I'll have to relocate." I walked into my cottage and began gathering supplies so I could go and find this knight that Gareth had been talking about. Hopefully, it was nothing, but it never hurt to be cautious.

I had wandered for several years before I found this small village to settle in, and to my surprise, I was accepted here. They welcomed me in with open arms, and it felt so nice to be able to walk around without everyone eyeing you with caution; I didn't want to lose this.

I was about to summon Durendal to go search for this mysterious knight when I heard a loud clanging, I looked up and saw the knight walking over the hill not 200 feet from me. My eyes widened and I ran towards it, at first with the intention of talking, but I quickly changed that to helping the poor creature, (It was obvious that this was no member of the sins) It seemed about to collapse with every step.

I got to it just in time to catch it as it fell, there was something very wrong with the knight, they barely weighed anything as it should. Normally, a person this size would weigh over two hundred pounds, plus the armor, but they weighed half of what I would have expected.

I laid the person on the ground carefully and pulled off their helmet; I gasped as I saw a young lady with beautiful silver hair and a turquoise earring.

"No way, could you by chance be Princess Elizabeth?" I murmured to myself and shook my head, "Well, there's no sense in leaving you here, now is there?" I picked the girl up and carried her down the hill and into my house, setting her down on the bed, I got to work cooking her some broth since it looked like she hadn't eaten in a while.

***

Several hours had passed since I brought the Princess into my home, and she had yet to stir; this didn't concern me, but the Knights had been acting odd lately, and I didn't want them catching her here, so I needed to wake her up.

"Princess, it is time to get up, you need to be leaving soon." Nothing. "I really didn't want to resort to this, Princess, but you leave me little choice." I grabbed a glass of water and dumped it on her head.

She started coughing and sat up quickly, "Well Princess, it's good to see you back in the land of the living. Sorry about the water, I was trying to wake you up, but nothing was working."

"Oh, it's no problem. Um, where am I? I remember walking along, but now I am rather confused."

"That's completely understandable Princess, right now we are just outside of Kaynes village. I saw you pass out and brought you here; I made some broth for you, if you would like it, you seem like you haven't eaten in a while." I smiled at her, as she nodded, then her face paled.

"How do you know that I'm a princess?" She asked me, almost hyperventilating.

"Relax, it's just because of your earing, that is a pretty commonly known thing about you Princess Elizabeth."

"Oh, well that makes sense, would you please not tell anyone you saw me? I'm trying to stay hidden, and I know that if the Holy Knights found out where I was, they would come and take me away before I could get done what I needed to do!"

"Of course, Princess. Why are you so far from your home anyway?" She blushed a little at my question and looked at me hesitantly, "It's okay, I'm not planning on telling anybody, I'm just curious is all." I handed her the broth as I spoke and she took a sip.

"Well, it's a bit of a long story, but first, please just call me Elizabeth, I'm not a princess out here." I nodded and she smiled, "Well you see, I am on a quest right now, looking for the Eight Deadly Sins!" My eyes widened, both at the fact that she knew that there were eight sins, and also because she was actually looking for us.

"Aren't there only seven Sins?" I asked cautiously, "And why would you be searching for those criminals anyways?"

"Most people didn't know about the eighth sin, but she was one of the ones I was closest to as a child, as for the second question, I need their help to protect my family and rescue the kingdom from the Holy Knights." She looked at me passionately and continued to defend the sins. I sat back and sighed, so she was the little girl I played with every time I went to the castle, huh?

As she explained about how her family was captured by the Holy Knights, and that she suspected that something worse was going on; dots began connecting in my head, and suddenly, the Knights' weird actions lately began to make sense. There seemed to be a coup d'état in progress, and she wanted to stop it.

"Look Elizabeth, I wish I could help you, but the most I can do is point you in a possible direction to find more help. People say that there have been some strange things happening a little east of the town, maybe a two day walk from here. Your best bet would be to head in that direction and start asking around discreetly."

She gasped a little and smiled at me, "Thank you so much, miss! I honestly can say that you have helped me out a lot!" She jumped up and began to gather her armor, "I have to go now, but that tip was wonderful." She stopped and looked at me for a moment, "By the way, what is your name? I know that it is awfully rude of me to not ask sooner, but I just realized that I had never asked!"

"It's Janis, though most people know me as Jane." I helped put on her armor, and walked her to the door, "If you do happen to find the Eight Deadly Sins, could you please give them a message for me?"

She looked at me in curiosity, "You knew the sins?"

"You could say that, though we were never very close. Please tell them that I'm sorry and what happened ten years ago wasn't what it looked like."

"Of course, Miss Janis, I would love to, but do you mind if I ask what that means?"

I smiled cryptically at her and pushed her out the door as I said, "I'm sure you'll find out soon enough." Then before she could say anything else, I shut the door and leaned against it. I was going to have to follow her, I had made a promise to Zaratras all those years ago, but I didn't want to talk about my past just yet, so I was going to have to do this covertly.

I summoned Durendal and whispered, "Mist body", which caused me to turn into the mists that appeared whenever I summoned my sacred treasure. I quickly began to follow Elizabeth at a distance but turned in my mist form to take one more look at my home for the last ten years. I knew that I wouldn't be coming back, which made me sad; I had experienced happiness here.

Sighing to myself, I turned back around and began my journey following behind the young princess who was looking for my comrades.

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A/N Chapter 1 done! Do you guys think that Elizabeth was OOC? I tried to think of how she would act in a situation like this, but I wasn't sure... Oh well, I hope it worked. What do you guys think?