Xavier was seated on the ground beside Jace whom was fast asleep, he was muching on some dry steak as he stared at the fire. They had been divided into a group of ten each with a guard and had camped seperately.
Shandock had told them they were twelve hours away from the kingdom before heading off to God knows where.
"Hi", a gentle voice pulled him out of his daze.
A girl with long black hair which brought out the green in her eyes perfectly sat beside Xavier. Although she looked exhausted and dirty, it didn't in any way make her less beautiful.
Xavier knew her well, she was the prettiest girl in his school, Guila Martha. As her classmate, he would sometimes stare at her and bless God for creating such beauty. She was also an athlete and at the same time in the school council. Being popluar, she had many guys flocking after her, seniors included. This had given Xavier the insinuation that he could never have a go with her.
"You done staring?", she smiled gracefully.
Xavier bit his lips in embarrassment.
'Dumbass.... you just had to stare", he mentally berated himself.
"Sorry about that"
"No problem. I was just bored and you seemed to be the only one awake", she said as she yawned proving how truly bored she was.
"Oh... I don't think I can relieve you of your boredom. I'm a really boring person myself, I once bored a guy to death. If being boring were a crime, I'd be in jail by now", Xavier joked.
Guila chuckled hard at Xavier's words. Her laughter was so soothing, he felt he could listen to it all day.
"Oh Xavier... I knew talking to you would be fun.",
"Wait, you know my name?",
Guila's smile widened. "Is it surprising?"
"Actually yes. You....", Xavier paused
"You are a lot of things, I might even say perfect but me, I'm just me", he added .
Guila's eyes shone gently as the reflection of the fire flickered in it. Her beautiful smile didn't for once leave her face.
"I guess I should thank you for the compliment but....", she paused as she stood to her feet.
"...nobody is perfect Xavier",
"I'll go to sleep now. Good night", she walked back to her space and laid down to sleep.
Xavier slapped himself hard. He had just had a conversation with Guila!and he had also successfully said something upsetting. His luck wasn't that bad after all. He closed his eyes as he tried to ponder on what could be so offsetting on calling a person perfect and soon he slept off.
The journey the next day was rather smooth. Apart from few monsters that popped out and were instantly slain by Shandock and the guards, it was a sleek travel.
Leaving the Grandeur forest, they came into a plain land. few meters from them, stood a gigantic gate which had walls extending from its sides.
The Marshals were not really doing well as they had been walking for hours nonstop. Xavier was the worst being with no constitution and a weak physique. He had an arm around Jace's neck who tried his best to support him.
"halt!", a man on the wall shouted. He had a spear in his right hand and a small shield in the left. Unlike Shandock and the other guards, he had a lighter kind of armor.
"Identify yourself", he commanded.
Shandock flicked his wrist casually causing a circular object to appear. It looked like it had some insignia on it.
He skillfully tossed it to the wall guard who caught it and examined it.
After few seconds, he tossed it back.
"Forgive me for the rudeness Captain", the wall guard slammed his fist to his chest.
"Open the gate!!!"
Soon, the massive gate started to creak and give way slowly.
Shandock grinned as he motioned for them to move on.
Walking through the gates, Xavier frowned. Different people stopped to stare at them and those that saw Shandock bowed in respect. Xavier noticed that the people here were not looking all that good. They were dressed in rags and looked really pale.
"Welcome to Xerosa!!, well this is just the slum for rats", Shandock scoffed.
Xavier frowned at what Shandock had said. He had referred to these people as rats, just because they were poor. It somehow reminded him of his previous life on earth and it made him feel bad but what could he do?
Following behind Shandock, they came to another gate, it was not so large but was slightly tall. Eight guards dressed like the one they at met stood in front of the gates.
"This is the C district. Show identification to pass!", one of the guards ordered.
Shandock did the same thing he did outside the kingdom. He flicked his arm and the circular object appeared again. He tossed it to the guard who examined it.
"Open the gate", he bowed slightly after.
This time, the scenario was different. This place was beautiful, flowers were used to decorate the street and houses. People were dressed in fine clothes and had expensive jewelries on.
Somebody walked up to Shandock, he was tall, even almost as tall as Shandock and was dressed in a robe. He had a somewhat lady like appearance and looked like he was in his mid-thirties.
"Welcome back brother", he smiled.
Xavier rolled his eyes. Was everybody as tall in your family?
"Ah! Aronah", Shandock grinned and opened his hands wide for an embrace which his brother nimbly dodged.
"I rather not... why don't you come home and change?", he said not trying to hide his disgust at all.
Shandock laughed. Seemed like he was used to his brother's character.
"I have to take these kids to the palace and report to the king before that", he said glancing at the exhausted Marshals.
Aronah simply glanced at them before his eyes widened.
"Marshals! The legends are true.", he gasped.
Shandock laughed at Aronah's expression. He patted his brother's back before signalling to the Marshals to continue marching.
Before getting to the palace, they had to go through two more gates. The B district and The A district.
The B district was way better than C and the A way better than the B district. Xavier could only decide on one reason why it was so.
Rank in nobility. The A to C district were occupied by nobles while the slum by commoners. Even in the nobles' district, they were still classified into grades.
'What a sick system', Xavier spat.
Soon they got to a large castle. A concrete but beautifully gem adorned fence surrounded it. The gate had two large lion heads on them. Flowers were used to beautify the surrounding areas giving the castle a majestic look.
Several guards stood on the walls, their outfits were quite different from the ones in the districts. They all wore golden capes on silver armour and had a lion sigil engraved in their breastplate. Unlike the other guards in the districts, they used swords instead of spears.
"Shandock, is that you?", a guard that looked like he was of higher rank than the other guards asked.
"Yep.... Open up", I am here to give my report.
The guard nodded and signalled for the gate to be opened. He stared at the Marshals for a bit too long before saying with a smile,
"Welcome to the palace"