Draxus walked around his home to check on his fiancés. He quickly managed to check around most of them, he noticed that Lily was feeling somewhat different. This is why he decided to check on her after he heard from Julie that she wished to remain alone for the time being. He erased his presence completely to slightly catch her in surprise.
After arriving to the living room, Draxus saw her playing a game with a controller on the screen. It was an open world game that Draxus used to play and even copied some abilities early on in his travels. He simply watched her pass time as she slowly enjoyed herself playing with the game. Before long, Draxus thought about what to do for her, and finally decided to sit right next to her. "Enjoying the game?" Draxus casually started the conversation which surprised Lily that he suddenly appeared beside her. "D-Drax... Don't scare me like that." Lily scoffed a bit away to give space to Draxus in the couch.
"I never expected you to take a liking to this game." Draxus kept an eye on the flat screen that's displaying the game. "Well, it allows me to explore something else. And I've seen similar attacks from certain characters." Knowing that she had caught on to Draxus's mirroring tactics. "You copied some attacks from these characters right? Specially the ones where you augment elements into your weapon." Draxus could only make a dry laugh as he raised both his hands, declaring himself as guilty. "Yeah... I couldn't really help it that time..." Lily then realized something about the style that she had learned from Draxus. "Then most of [Kingfisher Bladework]?" Draxus then quickly interrupted as he realized that she went off-course. "Whoa there, while there are abilities copied to create [Kingfisher Bladework], a large majority of the attacks are completely original, formed by myself." Draxus placed his hand on her head and started slowly muffling around. "Anyways, is something on your mind lately?" Draxus finally went to the point to ask her if something has been bothering her. Lily nodded in response and simply began explaining how she felt recently.
"Ever since I got into this game, it reminded me of a few things... Actually in fact, ever since the castle of Preeliance was created, I felt slightly complicated." "Hmm?" Draxus simply voiced out his interest as he continued to pay complete attention to Lily. "It felt somewhat nostalgic, but at the same time, it's something I've been running away from for a while." Upon hearing the world [Nostalgic], Draxus immediately had took notice that she may have been royalty before. But it was just a hunch that he kept to himself. "No wonder why Danica is impressed with the two of you during etiquette lessons..." He let out a neutral comment as to bait her into saying a certain phrase without any risks. "Yeah... The two of us used to be royal princesses... We were about to be sent off to be married to a king, but we didn't want to be with a person like that king so we decided to escape the country." Draxus glanced over as Lily had paused the game and stopped playing. "So you two really are royalty..." Lily simply nodded her head as she explained more in detail as to what had happened.
Around five years ago, Lily and Julie just came of age to be engaged. The two of them lived in the royal castle of Aquila, both of them led a life as royal princesses and they were already in a questionable position.
Because they were born as twins, it was hard to identify which of them was the crown princess. Thus, they didn't have any idea on how to put their ranking into perspective. Their father, the king, didn't have particular interest on the idea of getting his daughters to be married immediately. He did care for them, just that, he wasn't known to be too sensible or thoughtful.
Their country was on the southwestern area of the continent, it spanned over to the point it's in the way when going to Polytopia, or other countries in the far western area. Boasting as the largest territory for a country due to its sheer influence over the power of fire magic, the country was seen more as a way to get much more prestige.
Lily and Julie were royal princesses in that country. At the same time, they were prodigies on fire magic. However, they simply wished to have their own free will, something their father didn't even consider. "Liliana, Juliana..." The king, their father had summoned them to his private quarters. He felt sorry for his children as there was a man that's in the room, multiple guards were surrounding the room to prevent anybody from disturbing the talks. "Father... They are...?" Liliana glanced over to the man who looked overweight. He was accompanied by a old man who seemed to have more muscle definition. "The king governing the country of slavery... And the [Hero of Control]." The overweight king had a gaudy looking robe and a disgusting grin on his face. "You are truly wise for your young age." "Oh please with the flattery, I believe you have something you wish to discuss?" Lily and Julie already had an uncomfortable feeling after both the king of slavery and the hero were glancing at each other hoping to enjoy something after their negotiation. "Our countries, Aquila and Temockria have the largest territories in this world at war. Soon, the commercial country will make their move to attack one of us. Their hero is powerful, and they have a troublesome army with powerful economy. Even if either of us have the strength in numbers, either of us will fall when we fight him alone, thus I previously proposed an alliance." "And this is where we are right now, on how will this alliance be formed." The king of Aquila glanced over to his two daughters. He had other members of royalty, mainly two princes. "We decided that the alliance will be formed with the princesses marrying the king and the hero of Temockria." The current king of Temockria, due to his young age of twenty, doesn't actually have a queen yet. But he rose to power after the death of the former king of Temockria in a war between their country and Polytopia before. He has more of a mild personality, but he was scheming a lot of things behind everyone. "The two of you, will marry us." The king of Temockria pointed towards the two royal Princesses. He had a disgusting grin mixed in with his somewhat obvious reasons as to why. However, the king of Aquila, their very own father, didn't object due to the reason where he could take in a great benefit. "Father... Why...?" Lily was terrified, that these two men would be doing whatever they wished to them. Lily was resolved on protecting Julie, and thus to protect the both of them, she made her decision.
After the meeting, Lily went towards Julie's room, in a less formal attire with allowance of free movement. She asked Julie to quickly change into a similar attire as she planned their escape. They used a pretense of an investigation towards a certain city incident to their advantage, and with that, they threw their names, Liliana Aquila, and Juliana Aquila, their title and rank, and escaped to different countries.
"So that's why..." Draxus felt slightly down-hearted after listening to Lily's story of their escape from the country. Since the two largest countries are currently in a truce according to reports, there wasn't any need to worry about them for a while. But considering that the two countries are very powerful on their own, each having strong heroes, getting the two to join without the other turning on one would be difficult. "Do you still regret leaving your family behind?" Lily shook her head slightly, but she did show signs of worry for the family she did leave behind. "I'm worried about my mother, since after she gave birth to us, she became weak to constitution. She's still alive as far as I have heard. But she may have been hurt with our sudden leave." Julie came by after sensing that her sister was feeling the same thing. "Julie..." Lily stood up and moved to hug Julie, apologizing for the sudden remembrance of built up guilt she had accumulated ever since their sudden escape. "It's okay sis... I wanted to run away as well..." Draxus felt like he shouldn't interrupt the two of them, so he simply stood up, and went to the door. With his back still turned on them, he spoke something as the two asked him where he's going. "Family huh...?" He felt melancholic as he felt quite similar to the twins. "After this vacation, how about we head to Aquila to check on them?" The eyes of the two were filled with something more than just relief after listening to Draxus's idea. "But we were supposed to be..." "Missing? Right? But your feelings are much more important here. I wouldn't want the two of you to be constantly stressed over something, so I'll help both of you clear your worries." Draxus glanced over with a gentle smile as if to help them all in their troubles. The twins couldn't help but smiled in response as they both seemed to have found somebody reliable enough.