For 30+ Advance/Early chapters :p
atreon.com/ScoldeyJod
On the beach of Paradise Island, the female general Antiope and the Amazon warriors stood in shocked, puzzled, and angry silence.
Without a word of explanation, by placing her royal diadem upon the head of a human male, Princess Diana had already made her position clear.
"His name is Leo," Diana said softly, as if making a grand announcement. "Leo Prince."
"Uh, hey everyone. Nice... weather we're having," Leo said, waving a hand enthusiastically at the stoic female soldiers, trying to break the icy tension.
No one responded. The silence on the beach became even more profound.
He slowly lowered his hand, his scalp tingling. This was a new level of awkward, a masterclass in embarrassment.
"Even so, he cannot enter the main island without the Queen's permission," Antiope said, her voice tight, her fists clenched. She glared at Leo with an intensely cold look.
He felt a sudden sense of familiarity. It was the same look Captain Morgan often gave him.
"I know. I am going to see my mother, the Queen, now," Diana nodded. "Antiope, could you please arrange a place for Leo to stay on one of the islands near the main one? He will be staying for a few days."
"No problem," Antiope finally gritted out, her reluctance clear.
"Leo," Diana said, turning to him. "You will follow my aunt, Antiope, for now. I will come back for you after I have met with the Queen."
"Okay, you go," he agreed. A few days as a tourist on a not-so-tourist-friendly island. It was fine.
"Come with me," Antiope said, her voice flat. She mounted her dark horse without another glance at him.
Away from the palace and the homes of the Amazons, on the edge of a cliff facing the open sea, stood a huge and peculiar ancient round building. Antiope brought Leo to its main entrance.
"This is where I'm staying?" Leo asked, surprised, looking at the building that resembled the ruins of an ancient holy place. "You really don't have to."
Antiope ignored him and spoke to the two silver-armored female guards at the door. "Arrange a spare guard's room for him."
"Yes, General!" the guards replied. They looked curiously at the first human teenager to ever set foot here, and when they saw the familiar crown on his head, the same look of shock that had been on the other soldiers' faces appeared on theirs.
Why does everyone keep looking at me like that? Leo wondered, still not understanding the significance of the crown.
"Watch him. Don't let him wander," Antiope commanded, and then, without a single word to Leo, she rode off.
After she was gone, one of the female guards spoke to him respectfully. "Your Highness, please come with me."
Your Highness?
Leo was taken aback, but he followed her into the ancient building, thinking that the people here were surprisingly polite. The further he went, however, the more he felt that something was wrong. The inner walls were impossibly thick, with no doors or windows. The only entrance was a crowded, two-meter-high corridor. It felt less like a residence and more like a prison.
"Here we are," the guard said, stopping not in the center of the building, but at the side of the corridor. She pushed on a section of the wall, and a hidden door slowly swung open, sending a shower of dust to the floor.
"Ahem," they both coughed. As the dust cleared, a faint blue hanging light automatically turned on inside the secret room.
It was a small, square room, less than twenty square meters. There was a weapon rack, two very simple beds, and nothing else. The thick dust covering everything told him that no one had lived here for a very long time.
"Your Highness, please wait. I'll clean it up for you," the guard said, waving at the dust. "This room was originally for the guards who watched over this place at night. But most of the guards were later evacuated, so it has remained empty."
"Guarded what?" Leo asked, a little dazed. Was this some kind of detention center? Had he been mistaken for a criminal?
"Just an item," the guard said as she cleaned. "It's in the deepest part of this building, but there's nothing to see. I've been guarding it for about ten years. Before me, our people have been guarding it for thousands of years."
"Is it really okay for me to live in such an important place?" Leo was getting more and more flustered. A place that needed to be guarded for thousands of years? There was definitely something strange going on here.
"It's fine. As long as it doesn't leave, it's fine. It hasn't shown any abnormalities for thousands of years, so don't worry," the guard shrugged. "Besides, you are her monarch. It is an honor for you to stay here."
"Wait," Leo said, raising an eyebrow. "Monarch? What do you mean?"
The guard was puzzled. She pointed to the crown he was wearing. "That is Princess Diana's, is it not?"
"Yes," he nodded.
"Then that is what I mean," the guard said solemnly. "We Amazons are given a crown at birth. The royal family wears a diadem, and the warriors wear a helmet. It is a symbol of our life, our identity, and our honor."
"So, this crown, on my head, right now…" Leo's eyes widened as he finally understood.
"It means that she has given you her honor, her identity, and everything that is most valuable to her. You are her king. You share her honor and disgrace, you advance and retreat together."
The guard sighed, her eyes looking at him through the slits in her helmet. "I do not know why Her Highness would choose you, a human, as her other half. But that is not for me to judge. I can only respect her choice."
Leo was silent. He wasn't surprised, but he felt the weight of the crown on his head, a weight that was almost too much to bear. His Aunt Diana would never choose him as her "other half." This was just like when he had called her his girlfriend to fend off the man on the cruise ship. It was a convenient way to give him a reasonable identity here on Paradise Island.
But for a woman as independent, intelligent, beautiful, and powerful as his aunt, a god-like being who valued her pride and honor above all else, to declare, in front of her people, that she was now his accessory, that everything she represented was now his…
The price of that gesture, even Leo felt, was too high.