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Once upon a time there was a kingdom near Hamamatsu called Honda. It was a small kingdom where people were very happy and thriving as their land was very rich and prosperous. People had nothing to worry about food and their king, Kuwata-san, was magnanimous and always was making the best decisions to help the land improve and become better. People at Honda were so happy that they were never concerned about their future as they saw it secure. That was of course until an evil dragon arrived and settle himself in a cave near the main village of the kingdom.
Searching for a place to establish himself, Puig the dragon ended up stumbling into this paradise on Earth. The dragon was just hungry, so he destroyed all the fields and ate all the animals he could find near him trying to placate his hunger.
People were scared and begged king Kuwata-san to do something, unfortunately, the kingdom had no army to defend themselves, so they were at the dragon's mercy. However, Kuwata-san managed to reach an agreement with the dragon. The village will offer a piece of livestock a week to keep the dragon away from the village and the crops. The dragon agreed as he had enough with one animal per week, although he will miss causing troubles.
The peace was kept for a while, but unfortunately livestock were running low, until they ran completely out of it. People were scared due to the potential backlash of the dragon, so they met to reach a new agreement. To keep the dragon away, they decide to start offering World Champions as a sacrifice as they had several at their disposition. All people agree that it was an important matter and that everyone needed to do his best, so the names of all the World Champions in the kingdom were written and put in a box. Once a week, a name will be pulled from that box like in a lottery and the next morning that person will go to the dragon's lair.
One by one, all World Champions were going to the cave to sacrifice themselves to a greater good without any complain. The first one was Dani, followed by Jorge, Marc, Cal, Pol and Álex, all of them with one week in between them. Their families cried their lost, but they knew it was to keep them safe.
King Kuwata-san was nervous, as the weeks passed, there was a bigger chance that his son's name, Prince Joan, was extracted from the box. The King has gone behind everyone's back and tried to find a brave warrior who was willing to take the dragon, but he had no luck at all. No one wanted to face the dragon, so the kingdom of Honda was at his own regardless of this matter.
Then it finally happened, Joan's name was pulled from the box. The king was devastated, as he didn't want his only child to be murdered. He pleaded to the farmers, and nobility to spare his son's life, but the people were relentless. If they had lost their son's life to placate the dragon, and some families more than once, so did the king. Joan's life was not going to be spared. That last night, the prince and the king tried to comfort each other while hugging and crying. Joan had been ready to die since the beginning and the king applauded his son's determination, at the same time, he was mourning his loss.
When the sun started to rise and paint the sky with orange colours, the prince left the castle and marched to the dragon's cave located on the outside of the village. The prince was already on the outside the lair, waiting for the dragon to catch a whim of his presence. Joan expected the dragon to just exit the cave and eat him alive, so when he heard the sound of a horse's horseshoe hitting the soil, he was surprised.
‘Do not fear my prince, I came to your rescue!’ Announced a knight on a blue and shining armour. It was not only heard by Joan, as the dragon emerged from the cave as an exhalation.
Dragon and knight fought hard. Puig was relentless and kept trying to burn the knight and horse alive without a break. However, the knight was smart and kept avoiding the fire. Finally, the knight managed to corner the dragon and hit him with his spear in the centre of the chest, which made Puig fall to the floor. The knight approached his victim’s body to confirm his death.
The people in the kingdom, guided by their curiosity, approached the cave, and to their surprise, they found the dragon had been defeated. They saw that a curly haired knight was extracting a spear from the dragon's body, and how the blood pooled around the body. From the blood, a beautiful trophy was born, and the knight gifted it to the prince.
The king was so happy that not the treasure, nor the gold nor the jewels in the kingdom could ever repay the knight for having saved the prince's life. However, he tried to do it by saying that he could have whatever he wanted in the kingdom, including Prince Joan's hand in marriage.
‘Tell me, brave knight, how am I going to repay you? You saved my only child's life and saved us from the plague that the dragon was' said the monarch. ‘I'm sure we can arrange something, like gold or jewels? Or maybe we can tempt you with my son's hand in marriage?' Tempted the monarch.
The knight kept refusing, saying that his job was simply to slaughter all dragons and save as many people as possible. ‘Can we at least know your name, brave knight?’ Finally, asked the prince, who just wanted to know the name of the knight who saved his life.
‘My name is Álex Rins, and I was just doing my job’ and with that, the knight got up on his horse and went into his next adventure. From then on, the kingdom of Honda lived in peace and no other dragon ever set a foot in it.
This is a cat, this is a dog, this tale has already melted