SOMEWHERE INSIDE THE VENPINE CASTLE
UNDERGROUND PASSAGE
"What is it that you want to show me, anyway?"
Will asked while walking through the tunnel, with a fire torch in his hand.
"You will see it once you reach there. By the way, why did you listen to my request? Isn't this your family secret or something?"
Eugeo asked while rubbing his elbows due to the cold temperature in the tunnel.
"We never kept it hidden or anything. The rumors filled up your minds with all that crap. And weren't you already aware of it?!"
"Apparently, it's more like a national treasure than some kind of buried secret so it needs some security for its own share of protection."
"I see," Eugeo answered.
"Oh, we are close to it."
Will said as he pointed out towards the two guards who were standing in front of some entrance, probably the place where the youths were going.
"(yawn) Doing overtime really takes a toll on your body right?" One of the guards asked the other one.
"Just keep watching over. We are also getting paid a lot for standing here."
"Still, I wanted to attend the ceremony in the last moments of my life."
"Quit your blabbering. The king has an alternate arrangement if such a condition arises."
"Yeah, Yeah, whatever you say."
"Also, be thankful and we have been assigned to look after this area."
"Why?"
"Haven't you heard? Almost all of the groups that were guarding the borders of Saphris have been annihilated."
"Eh? But didn't something like that happened months ago? It's all fixed now, right?"
"Are you an idiot? I heard the ministers talking, a few weeks ago, that there's no response from the borders since that day and they rarely get some informant from the surface."
"You are making me feel insecure now. That means these may as well be the last moment of my life."
"Probably."
"Probably? What are you so relaxed about? Aren't you worried about your family and yourself?"
"Of course, I am. But we don't have a choice."
"What if the prophecy is false? What will you do? I would run away as soon as possible."
"It's pointless. There's nothing as safe place anywhere."
"I will return back if I don't find anything a-"
"and they will welcome a traitor who ran away while the island was in grave danger, right?"
"That's…"
"Just shut up and stay here. I don't think we can find a place safer than this right now."
"How do we get inside from here? I don't think they will allow us inside."
Eugeo asked as they both looked at the guards guarding an entrance while hiding behind a boulder.
"I don't think that will be a problem. I can just go and order them to let us enter inside."
"Hmm, no that's a wrong approach."
"Why? You think they won't listen to me?!"
"There's that too but it will be troublesome if they inform of this to your father."
"Will that be a problem?… Ah, right."
Will said as he realized that he is the main guest of today's ceremony and if someone is made aware of all that is happening here, it really will become troublesome.
"The main reason why I wanted to come here is related to it, so let me take the lead."
"Mm-hmm, I see. What are you planning to do then?"
Eugeo took out a straw-sized holder from inside his black cloak and bit his fingers slightly for blood droplets to ooze out. He pushed the holder around the cut and then aimed it at the guards.
"Wait, what are you going to do? Remember that you can't hurt them."
"Yeah, Yeah, I know. I will just let them dream for a bit."
"(sigh) Why am I even going along with you?"
Eugeo smiled slightly and put one end of the holder between his lips, tightly closed and the other end aimed in between the guards.
He breathed air inside the holder with a large force causing the solid blood droplets inside to blow towards the guards.
The drop was small and could go unnoticed if one doesn't focus on it. As soon as the crystal drop reached close to the guards, Eugeo depicted a splitting sign by joining and removing his two fingers.
Suddenly, the red crystal split into two parts, each entering the two bodies simultaneously.
"Huh? I feel tired...somehow." One of the guards said.
"I wonder how did you even enter the army when you are tired just by standing for a few hours. Look at me, I...am…com…."
Both of them fell to the ground, asleep, rendered unconscious.
"Let's move faster, we don't have much time left."
Eugeo said as started running towards the entrance.
"I didn't know that you had some latent skills, how did you even do that?'
Will asked while following Eugeo and slowly catching up to him.
"You never asked me anything about it, so why would I go out of my way to tell you?"
"Hmm, I wonder."
They both entered the cave.
*
Everyone looked at the king, confused and puzzled, but nonetheless continued to listen to him.
"This day will be marked in the history of SAPHRIS as the day of coronation of the new king of the VENPINE KINGDOM."
"Huh?"
"What does that mean?"
"Wasn't it for the new viceroy?"
Confusion spread among the guests as they tried to decipher the meaning of the sentence that their king just spoke.
"I can understand your point of skepticism, but I meant what I said."
The king continued, "As you all are already aware of the situation that's we are in right now, the time has come for the prophecy to be fulfilled."
"What could you mean by that, my king?!" Someone from the crowd asked.
"Many of you here think that everything ended after the war that took place few months ago and everything had been fixed now. But nothing like that ever happened."
Everyone looked at the king with worried and confused faces, although little kids didn't understand any of that so they continued doing the usual, walking and falling and repeating the same cycle.
"In the last few months, we were being cornered from all the sides and all our forces were being annihilated without mercy. While I am conversing with you here, the danger is coming towards us and there's nothing we can do."
Everyone started panicking, with some talking to each other and the others feeling discontented by the words of their king.
"I know that it's hard to take in this all of a sudden…I mean it's like a nightmare and I am really apologetic but right now, there's only one thing that can save us because we can't do anything by ourselves."
The king bows down in front of the whole kingdom since the complete scenario was being broadcast around the whole kingdom.
The people looked downwards after seeing their king apologizing to them but the feeling of uneasiness that was planted like a seed inside their body was growing at a rapid rate.
"So, without any further delay, I would like to announce the coronation of the new king. There's only one thing that we can gamble all our lives on, the prophecy - the Valkyrie."
"Valkyrie?"
"Our goddess?"
"But wasn't it just a legend? Are we even sure if this will work?!"
"But it's not like we can do anything about it. That's our only chance."
"No! I don't want to die."
"We have kids in here. We have some way to get them out of here safely, right?!"
"His majesty must of thought of something."
Everyone's agitated eyes, filled with trepidation, looked at their king.
"Hey, isn't this really bad?" Zato said while slurping the jelly sticks.
"Yeah, it's like a sudden explosion of reality." Brian said.
"Well, it's not like we kids can do anything so let them take care of it." Noelle said while fixing the lower bottom of her dress.
"Y-Yeah, his majesty has said that there's a way. I know t-t-that it will work. Y-Yeah, it will…no it has to work."
The scared Mirajina was feeling butterflies in her stomach, that too the giant ones.
"Calm down for a second, Mira. It's gonna be alright." Noelle said while holding her tightly.
"Yeah, and we all are here with you, together." Brian said.
"Come on, have this." Zato gave one of his jelly stick to her, with some discontentment.
"Where is Will?!" The king shouted in vexation.
"Does he not understand the weight of our current situation?!"
He shouted and looked at the queen who was currently shocked by the declarations made by his husband.
"Y-Yes! I told him to come as soon as possible. I don't know what's taking him so long!"
She answered and gestured one of the maids to go and get Will here. The maid nodded and hurried to Will's room.
*
"We are finally here." Will said as they both looked at the engraved text stone, standing vertically in front of them.
"Yeah, it's the real one. The one that can save Venpine…no, the whole Saphris island. But it's not the right thing to do at the same time." Eugeo said.
"What do you mean?"
"Now that we are here, let's start what I left off at your room, the great deeds of the Great fish-men species."