Bernard

That day was terrible. The troops that captured your parents. The merciless fire that engulfed the castle. The screams of your parents begging you to run as far away as possible. The sight of blood and dead bodies followed you everywhere. Only fragments of memories remained in your mind, but the sight of their bodies and the killer stood before your eyes, breaking your heart into pieces.

You ran without looking back. Stumbling and falling, you got up and ran again in the name of your parents who sacrificed themselves to save you. They wanted to exterminate your family, but as long as you were alive, their victory was impossible. At first, you heard cries that the princess had escaped and needed to be caught. Even after hours of running, you were afraid of being found. The terrain was unfamiliar, and you ran until you lost consciousness, thinking that you had left the borders of the kingdom.

Bernardo, the newly enthroned king of a neighboring kingdom with which your parents had neutrality, went hunting in the forest near the border. There he found you unconscious. Jumping off his horse, he laid your head on his lap, wiped the dirt from his face, looking at the beauty, and realized that he could not leave you alone.

Returning instead of game with a girl in his arms, he surprised his subjects, but no one dared to ask who you were. He ordered the servants to take care of you and put you to bed. He sat down next to you, holding your hand. When you squeezed your fingers, he straightened up. You looked at him with a look full of bewilderment, but he forestalled you:

“Now you can be calm. You are safe. And while I am near, no one will dare to touch you,” he said with the seriousness of a ruler who knows the value of promises. There was anxiety and tenderness in his eyes, and he was afraid to scare you away, lest you think of new evil.