Americ had spent his formidable years defending the crown, making sure that nothing came to happen to anyone who has the luxury of wearing it. He took his job seriously, barely giving himself enough time to sleep before he's back at the Princess' side. He hated even the thought of the Princess getting hurt... or worse. Still, he irritated a few of his peers with his blind devotion and blatant disregard for his own wellbeing for it.

Magnus, ever the worried control freak, ordered Americ to take one night off. Forbade the knight from leaving his quarters unless it was to utilize the washroom or the kitchen. Americ had no choice but to obey — and he did so (begrudgingly). Still, he found ways around it, like using the route to the kitchen that passed by the Princess' door.

The kitchen was in his list of rooms he was allowed to venture to in his room arrest, after all... was it not?

It was that rationalizing that led to now, how he found himself knelt at the feet of his princess. He passed by her door for the third time tonight and overheard the faintest sound of struggle. Concern filled his gut as he pressed his ear to the door, trying to make sure he didn't just make it up — and when he heard a light bump, he barged in. There was a hooded, masked figure with the princess pinned to the wall, his hands wrapped around her delicate throat and squeezing — illuminated only by the glint of moonlight reflecting off of the intruder's cloaked hip.

Americ seethed and lunged forward, ripping the intruder off of the princess and wrestling him to the ground. The fight was a blur to Americ. The adrenaline coursing through his veins made him act purely on instinct so he wasn't thinking about what he was doing or how he was doing it until the intruder finally hit him in the face and knocked him back enough to escape through the window where he came in.

Americ, now on his feet, immediately turned to make sure the princess was okay. He brought his hands to her cheeks, running a thumb over her cheekbone to try and offer some sort of unspoken comfort. With the adrenaline slowing down, he felt a sharp, paralyzing pain in his lower abdomen and tasted the sharp metallic of blood.

He tried to ignore it, tried to keep his eyes on her until he couldn't anymore. Until his gaze fell from hers to the source of the sensation, where he found that the glint he remembered seeing on the intruder hadn't just been the moonlight, but a dagger. And it was now nestled deep within his body.

The knight had fallen to his knees, taking his hands off of the princess and turning to the hilt of the dagger sticking out of his body. Americ let out a soft curse and moved his shaky hands to it with the intention of tearing it out of his body. He paused when the irrational fear of the princess' pain passed through his head. If his own injury had managed to escape him, surely she could have an injury that he missed?

The knight looked up at her, his eyes glazing over as he tried to shove aside his own pain to tend to hers. "Your Grace?" He manages out, gaze sweeping over her form to make sure nothing was out of place. "Princess... are you okay?"