A few minutes had passed by ever since Jiniya and Alistair had left the academy, their trip was silent until they reached the busy street. The night was about to come, there were fewer people who were outside. Those who were on the other hand were either eating dinner or taking a stroll.
Their journey was supposed to be a silent ride until they reached the palace, until the princess had suddenly asked a question. A sudden traffic then appeared in front of them delaying their time of arrival.
"Captain Alister, what commotion is happening inside the palace?" Jiniya asked. Her eyes gazing upon a restaurant filled with nobles, all joyously eating their high quality meal, cooked by high grade chefs.
"I am not allowed to speak about it, dear princess" Alistair replied.
There was a small square-like structure at the front side of the carriage which was filled with small circular holes. Where the conversation was being held, as the carriage that was meant for royalties were fully enclosed and is even covered with a small amount of mana.
The princess was shocked over his response, not a single time did she not know the current issues that the kingdom was facing. Ever since she reached the age of 11 she had always been beside her father, learning as the king made decisions that either benefited the kingdom or brought more problems.
"Are you disrespecting my position?!" She angrily spoke, her voice growing louder.
"I sincerely apologize, dear princess, but it was a direct order from both the King and the Commander. You may be the princess but I am under their rule and not yours" Alistair gave out a calm reply.
She stopped her feet so strong that the flooring had cracked despite it being created using the toughest wood. It also attracted quite the attention as the people looked over their carriage. It was the first time she had someone say such degrading words, but she couldn't do anything about it.
Even if the captain was speaking of such things, if it was an order given by the King then Jiniya who was the princess could not make any type of interference to it.
The Avaritian Military was composed of four sections, the City Guards who had the lowest position having to work most of their time guarding gates and sorting out fights that broke loose inside the Kingdom. Above them were the Knights, Knights are the ones who tend to fight in battles training everyday readying themselves in case of a war being declared. They also keep the order inside the kingdom strolling at night to find criminals.
The knights are trained to be capable of long-range and melee combat, while anyone could be a knight; their training tends to become gruesome when other kingdoms decide to start a war against Avaritia. Above the Knights are the Frontier Knights, located at the borders they are under the command of either a Captain or a Marquis who has knowledge about fighting and strategic planning.
Depending on the situation Knights are sent out to fight alongside the frontier knights to be their support and reserved troops. Frontier Knights are superior over normal Knights as they are given medicines to boost their magic in times of need, but even without the medicine a single frontier knight could take out 20 knights.
At the very top is the Royal Knights, the ones who receive direct orders from the King. Known for their massive mana reserves and high aptitude in using magic, they are agile, smart, flexible and could fight for more than a day without rest. Trained by the person who brought down an enemy army on his own.
Unlike the other sections the Royal Knights were given three different roles, one is to become Captains who will lead units in the army when another Kingdom declares a war. Second is the King's knight, they are the ones to protect both the King and the Palace from any harm, having to sign a contract that they would defend the king even if they sacrifice their lives.
And lastly the Commander, the knight above all knights, the one person whom the King acknowledges his power to be far stronger than his. The Commander takes control of the whole Kingdoms Military, having to work 24/7 reevaluating knights and checking the status of all the frontier knights.
While Avaritia has a system for their military other kingdoms differ, as such the Invidian Kingdom does not have a large army nor is there a system. In their case they are known to have hundreds if not thousands of mercenaries under the direct control of their King.
~~~~~
A few minutes had already passed since they reached the traffic, yet they still hadn't moved a single inch. The princess's patience was already decreasing while Alistair was thinking about a way in which they could just skip the traffic.
"Captain, let's skip this traffic, use the other road. If anyone obscures the path tell them who I am" Jiniya declared with a pissed voice.
"Understood, dear princess"
Alistair stood up and placed his hands above his eyebrows squinting his blueish eyes almost to a close, trying to visualize the end of the traffic. Once he sat back down, he felt a presence from above the tall buildings, a disturbing mana was watching them from above. He glanced around the roofs but so no one, it might have been because of the light from the lanterns shining on his eyes.
"Lucky mercenary" he spoke before suddenly waving the ropes on the horse forcing them to suddenly move faster.
They brushed by the other lane which had carriages moving towards them, the captain did not stop he made the horses run faster and faster causing the other vehicles to move to the side. The moment they reached the end point of the traffic, Alistair immediately understood what he felt.
A man wearing copper plated full body armor was waving his hand at them, it was a city guard on duty. He rushed to stop the carriage and was about to ask their reason for breaking the traffic rule. The man immediately raised his hand and saluted once he saw Alistair's face.
"Good Evening Captain, I apologize for the inconvenience on your travel" the man said.
"But as you can see…" he continued.
Alistair raised his hand so the guard would no longer speak about what had happened, he turned his head and spoke through the holes on the wall.
"Princess an event has occurred, our arrival at the palace will be delayed. I suggest not looking on the right side of our carriage"
The princess was confused over his words, but understood that Alistair was only speaking so she wouldn't be disturbed. Thus she leaned her head on the opposite side, looking outside as people were flocking around. Did they know that she was inside the carriage, the longer she looked outside the more confused the princess felt.
She was alone inside the enclosed space of the carriage, she stared outside for a few more minutes when she saw the face of a small child who was passing by. She immediately moved towards the other side and glanced outside of the carriage.
Her face immediately turned sour as she saw the figure, a knight dismembered and mutilated like an animal, blood all around the ground. It's head was placed inside his chest with the heart inside its open mouth. She felt like vomiting and hid her face inside the carriage cowering down like a child, she had not seen such a disturbing sight.
Alistair on the other hand was talking to some witnesses and other city guards when he suddenly heard a banging from the tinted windows of the carriage. He immediately ended his conversation and asked a knight to report to another captain who was supposedly closed by.
But before he could sit down on his chair behind the two horses, he once again felt the ominous presence that was above them earlier. But this time it felt much closer, he glanced around the crowd of people who were gathering, staring at the corpse.
The person was close by, yet he could not see him. It was like he was invisible and was standing beside them. Alistair moved the carriage on high alert. In a few more minutes they arrived at the palace gates, there were over 10 King's Knights guarding the southern gates which the other gates are filled with knights as well.
One of the knights raised his hand as Alistair's carriage grew closer to the gates, they all saluted as they recognized his face. One of them walked over to Alistair and gestured his hand, the captain swiftly leaned over towards the knight.
"Do you know who your follower is, Captain?" the knight asked.
"No, keep the gates safe, don't let anyone else pass. It'd be troublesome if the Commander find out about this spy"
The knight nodded and saluted once more, before waving his hand at the other knight. The large wooden gates had opened up in front of them. Variety of plants could be seen all around, numerous maids were still cleaning up and trimming down the small bushes despite the moon up in the sky.
The maids bowed their heads as the carriage passed by and continued to do their work afterwards. Slowly moving on the light pavement road towards the entrance of the palace, a sudden shake shook everyone causing them to fall on their knees.
Jiniya felt someone calling him, she felt like Lyon was calling her. She opened the door of the carriage and ran towards a circular path where a fountain was placed in the middle. But to her surprise her maids were waiting for her. She was stopped immediately as she stepped inside the halls, pulled away towards the corridor leading to her room.
For a second she saw Lyon, who was wearing a golden armor with a black cape. She smirked and joyously yelled at him while waving her hand.
"Lyon where have you been. I was worried about earl-"
Her heart sank as Lyon glanced back at her with a pair of red lifeless eyes. She could no longer resist the pulling of her maids, she watched as Lyon raised his hand which held a mask and covered his face. Jiniya had only seen those kinds of eyes once, it was back when they were young.
Captain Alistair entered the halls and watched as Jiniya was taken away by her maids. He bowed his head to one of the maids who lowered her head as well. He then walked forward following the path Lyon had taken, he stopped before he could reach a room which had its two large doors with an arc at the very top.
He took in a deep breath and walked towards the door, turning left and entering the King's throne room. The other captains were there kneeling before the King, while Lyon, who wore a white mask stained in blood, stood beside the king. Opposite to him was Commander Arthur who had a dissatisfied look on his face.
Alistair walked hastily towards the back row of the captains and kneeled like the rest. The king looked at each one of them with a serious face. The air had grown heavier as the silence had turned deafening, Arthur walked forward and stood in front of a knight. He looked at him intensely causing the knight to suddenly shiver in fear.
He grabbed his sword from its scabbard and threw it towards a glass pane above them, the glass instantly shattered causing the broken pieces to rain above the knights. The clanging sound of broken glass hitting the armor echoed inside the room. A loud thump sounded beside the commander as blood had suddenly appeared from the floor.
A man suddenly appeared in front of them with the commander's blade penetrating his chest, the man gasped for air as Arthur grabbed his hair and lifted him in the air. The captains watched as the man suddenly bursted into laughter, Arthur tilted his head and looked with confusion all over his face.
The man smirked after glancing at the king, he once again laughed like a psycho before lifting his right hand and pulling his left middle finger.
"This is the end for all of you stupid pests… Fire Magic: Explode!"
The sound of explosion echoed through the halls as the ground shook once more. Jiniya had tears running from her eyes as they finally entered her room.
Chapter End.