With crushing blows and whiplash accuracy he defeated the monster.?Seizing a great sword, he severed each of the demon’s seven heads. It was over.

Watching these terrible doings in the magic mirror, the princess saw that the kingdom’s mysterious champion we just a humble groom, a commoner, not one of the nation’s great dukes or knights. She did not know that he was really a prince.?But she knew that her father would not readily agree to marry her to a person of humble origins.? So she went to meet the army as it returned and praised the warrior groom for his services. “How can I thank you?? she asked the prince as he returned to the palace. “One kiss, fair maiden,?he replied.? So she kissed him, so loudly and with such enthusiasm that the whole army took notice.

Turning his steed toward the forests, the young warrior rode off.?Soon he retuned to his simple room above the stables.? It was as if he had never been to war, and no one knew of his part in the battle.? Now his former servant came to him and demanded that he remember his blood oath. The old servant had been boasting in the court that it was he, not the prince, who had been seen in the heat of battle and who had slaughtered the demon.?To fulfill his oath, the prince could not challenge his former servant publicly.

The unsuspecting king heaped praise and rewards upon the usurper.?Soon plans were being discussed to arrange the marriage of the princess to the liar who was considered the kingdom’s champion.? Only the princess knew that the humble groom was truly the hero, and she knew she could not explain how she came by this knowledge.?But she was determined to avoid this marriage if she could.?She told her father that she was dreadfully sick, that her heart ached with sorrow after the horrors of the demon’s siege.

Now the false prince who was really a servant saw opportunity in her illness.?He asked the king for a ship so he could search the world for potions and cures to save his betrothed.? “I will take my former servant, your young groom, with me,?he suggested.?“I am accustomed to him.?o:p>