"Sworn sisters?" Kalim questioned curiously, "So the queens are sisters?"
Lotus shook her head, "They are people that are not siblings, but they share a bond so close. The bond between the two would be no different than actual siblings. The empresses of beasts, plant fae and the underworld shared a bond so close they made a vow and became sworn sisters."
"That's pretty cool! So, it's like having another brother and sister outside of the family!" Kalim exclaimed with sparkling eyes, "Jamil and I are pretty close. Wouldn't that make us brothers?"
"Probably. But, with how serious Jamil senpai always is, if you tell him how the two of you should be sworn brothers, he'd not only reject but freak out in concern as well. He does have a lot on his plate." Ren hesitated, "You should keep this to yourself for a while until then. Anyway, what did the empress of the human kingdom do?"
"The empress was relieved as she soon realized that her fellow empress from other kingdoms did not use this chance to attack her in a political battle. She opened her mouth and ordered guards to take away fallen to rest." Peony continued, "Halfway through the banquet, the empress decided to hold a talent contest as a means of entertainment for the party. This was a customary thing to have in the ancient times. The noble women would decide to show off their talent at the banquet and be matched to their future spouses. During the contest, the princess was eager to take part in the festivities and decided to perform a dance for their foreign guests on stage. In my birthplace, traditional dance have two forms. The most common for royal court is ribbon dance that involved dancing with a sash in smooth and gentle steps often resembling a bird or a flower. Then, there is one that involves weapons, powerful moves, and bold steps. That was called the war dance. That was the dance she performed for the foreign guests in hopes of gaining the trust of the kingdom of beasts. Her every moves held force and grace. They showed no hesitation and great confidence. Rather than swords, she used two large drums and pounded them with the large bells hanging from the ends of her red sash. Many were amazed by her ability and strength to dance in harmony with the pounding of the drums and the heavy bells. The sound of the drums and the sound of the instruments in the background resounded in everyone's hearts and brought the mind of a great battlefield in their minds. There was great excitement amongst many who heard it as many compared it to magic."
"That sounds so cool!" Kalim's eyes glimmered in excitement.
"However, the kingdom of beasts became upset." Lotus interjected with a frown.
"Huh? Why is that?" Kalim drew back in surprise.
"The reason is because, though the kingdom of beasts do cherish war dances, they do not hold it on as entertainment. The dance is a memorial of the strifes and hardships each species within the beast kingdom held and the memory of the destruction and bloodshed brought from these conflicts. Each day, there will be a beast of their species out there hunting those from another species or struggling against them. Rather than remembering the sacrifices given to attain their current peaceful time, they enjoy other dance forms, especially the sash dance, that reminded them of the present joys brought about by the hardships they faced and the dance forms often remind them of the beauty of the current and former environment. Aside from that, the princess's moves were bold, but, as a woman and a human, that strength was still not enough to satisfy the excuse of honoring their sacred tradition. However, as the empress of the beasts did not say anything, she remained silent to allow the princess to finish her dance. When it was over and all eyes came upon her, many grew shocked when she frowned and opened her mouth and turned to the princess then berated the girl. The princess was not aware of the kingdom's custom and became stunned from having been berated in public by the foreign empress. For others, this was an innocent mistake, but, for the princess, she felt humiliated from having been scolded in public like this. However, she did not know that she was only a couple steps from nearly losing her own life for her mistake."
"Seriously?!" Kalim gasped in shock.
"Perhaps it's like when someone decides to humiliate your grandpa in an embarrassing manner in public. If you heard that someone decided to share a humiliating story of your father in public and they made him to be a person who uses money to commit crime. Won't you also get angry? For them, it's probably no different than saying the humans sees the beasts kingdom's history as violent in the past and weak in the present. It's no wonder they would be angry for this mistake. What stopped them?" Ren questioned curiously before he stopped himself, "No. It's because she is the daughter of the current Emperor and Empress, correct?"
"That's right. Although the human kingdom's relationship with the other kingdoms grew sour, that did not destroy the achievements and reign of these two rulers. Thus, despite their grudge, they did not want to make things difficult for the emperor and empress out of respect as fellow rulers. That being said, after that incident, the princess continued to make many more mistakes before others of the beast kingdom and the Underworld. Since then, the emperor and empress kept their daughter away from social gatherings. Saddened, the empress sent for her trustworthy friend to educate her daughter in matters of nobility. A few months later, the princess made her comeback."
"Great!" Kalim cheered.
"By putting down a rebellion between the borders of the beast kingdom and human kingdom." Lotus grumbled.
"Um... This just got more and more confusing..." Kalim hesitated, "The beast kingdom helped the princess, right? Were they so angry that they attacked a human kingdom?"
"This time, the one who helped her put down the rebellion was the young general who had protected the crown princess in the past. After that attack, the princess, who once appreciated the empress of the kingdom for helping her mother and her, grew suspicious of the other kingdoms once again and decided to ask the young general to help her investigate the matter. The emperor who managed to hear of this decided to put the young general and the minister of foreign affairs on the task. A group of envoys were gathered and they left immediately the following day. Not having been put on the team, the crown princess was stunned. Many questions flowed through her mind. With the question in mind, she went to confront her father for the reason. However, the emperor stayed true to his decision and had his wife calm their daughter as he is required to go quell the matter of the bandits that has not been caught." Lotus sighed, "The princess was furious but the empress did not take her side fearing that the princess was too young to make such important decisions in her life."
"What does being too young have to do with the decision to join this envoy?" Kalim tilted his head curiously.
"It's because the emperor and empress fear that the princess would become too close to the new general, correct?" Ren opened his mouth.
Lotus nodded with a chuckle, "As expected, you noticed the small details quite easily. The reason is because, although the new general is in the same position as when the empress met the emperor, he has his reservation of this man as the way he rose to his status was not from his abilities on the battlefront or war tactics. Instead, he rose to power through the death of another general the emperor had placed in his position after he became emperor. He is a man with great power, but his abilities in utilizing that power is not outstanding. Moreover, his magic only rose higher after meeting the princess. Hence, they were afraid that she had been favoring him too much. If he becomes too powerful, things would not look well if there was a powerful general but a weak ruler and rumors would begin to spread that he may as well usurp the emperor for the throne. Such cases were not uncommon in the past, after all, and the two never had an understanding. However, the princess did not believe the general would be such a person. After two months, the general returned with grave news. The other kingdoms neglected the envoy and were soon attacked by the bandits. The people in the kingdom soon grew fearful of the turn of events as attacks from other kingdoms' people grew more frequent. Before things could turn for the worst, large vines appeared across the borders of the kingdoms and pools of water appeared in the air revealing images of the fighting across the five kingdoms. It had displayed that although the people of the beast kingdom had started the fighting against the humans, the humans had also launched an attack on the beast folk town killing everyone regardless of age and gender. The same was with other across the borders around the human kingdom. The humans were in disbelief. Although they had thought they were the victims, it would turn out that their race were no different having also harmed those who cannot fight back. Soon, turmoil began to stir as nobody could tell who was in the wrong or in the right. Finally, the day of the ten year meeting began."