Reginsleif had just sat down on his armchair when Laevia came over to his side and sat on his lap sideways.
"Is something wrong, my love?" Reginsleif asked his wife, looking up at her.
"Does something need to be wrong for me to get some cuddles with my husband?" Laevia asked with a giggle, rubbing her head against him.
"No, except that today we have a few interesting guests joining us for the next 2 weeks," Reginsleif smiled. "Come on, I know when something's up. Are you worried about our daughter?"
"Wrong. Rather than worry, I have been thinking a little bit about Kaze," Laevia shook her head at her husband's guess. "I don't know if you noticed, but that boy is closer with our daughter than I had expected."
"Is this an issue of 'that' again?" Reginsleif felt a little more concerned after hearing the way his wife had phrased her words. "Laevia, you know that we-"
"I know, I'm not saying it was a mistake to have invited them over," Laevia stopped her husband from misunderstanding her intentions. "I just thought this is a good chance to see how far Lunaria has managed to overcome her fears."
Reginsleif turned silent at this. Looking away uncomfortably, his wife made a bitter smile. The two understood that this subject was a sore point for their family, in particular Lunaria. It was also what led to the closure of Aravel's borders from the outside world for half a century, something that had became a sensitive issue amongst the dragonkins of the nation.
As the Emperor, Reginsleif was only able to fulfil Lunaria's request for inviting her friends over by making certain compromises. Dragonkins lived a long age, meaning that nearly the entire population had not forgotten the events of the past century. Allowing humans to re-enter their nation had caused a rather huge controversy. This was also the reason why the notice of invitation arrived at Tristania so late, since they had to deal with the backlash received. When Kaze and his friends first came, they couldn't sense the animosity towards them due to constant reassurance by the Emperor himself.
Even now, it was going to be hard to change the opinion of the masses if they didn't do something. This was also why Reginsleif could understand his wife's reluctance, despite Lunaria's enthusiasm. Lunaria, of all people, best understood the situation she would be in if she invited her human friends over. However, her parents couldn't refuse this request because it was clear to them that this was the only way of improving Lunaria's condition.
"… How is Lunaria doing?" Reginsleif asked softly, feeling a slight headache coming.
"Doing better," Laevia sighed. "Dear, are we doing the right thing?"
"I don't know, my love… I truly don't."
- - - - - -
"Oi, where are you going?"
"Just a walk around the palace. I want to explore the place for a bit."
"Are you sure that's allowed?"
"Should I come with you? I think it would be better if you had a guide."
Kaze addressed the concerns of his friends as he got ready to leave the common room. Showing them the pamphlet in hand, he was confident in himself to not get lost within the palace grounds.
It had only been minutes since the group settled down together at the common room of the guest wing of the palace. With so much to talk about, it was peculiar that Kaze wanted to walk around on his own despite there being no clear restriction on allowing them to traverse the halls of the palace. Chris, Noel and Sera respectively questioned Kaze's behaviour, only to be met with a reassuring smile from him.
"No, no, please continue talking. I need some light exercise to digest the lunch we had," Kaze persuaded them, rubbing his stomach. "I won't go snooping around."
Before his friends could persist, Kaze hastened his pace and left the area.
What he said was half the truth. It was true he needed to walk for a bit after lunch as a habit, but also because he wanted to explore the palace alone. As an aspiring young man, Kaze loved the idea of walking around new territory alone, especially when it came to a palace as old as this. He appreciated the chance of coming to Aravel despite the scary greeting from Laevia, hence the bright smile on his face as he walked down the hall.
Based on the map, Kaze decided it best to explore the outside first. The inside was filled with rooms and areas left to slowly uncover over the past few days, which was why it only made sense if he took a look at the exterior of the palace. From Lunaria's stories, it was hard to imagine how the palace would appear.
"Here's the side entrance," Kaze reconfirmed as he turned down a corner at the hallway down a flight of stairs.
What he found blew his mind. What he assumed to be the sight of buildings were replaced with the sky. When he approached the edge of the balcony of the stairs leading out of the palace, he realized that he was on the edge of a huge mountain. Turning around to look above, Kaze found nothing but a very steep and rocky slope leading all the way to the sky.
"The palace is built into a mountain?!" Kaze's first thoughts rang in his head as such.
That explained why he felt the atmosphere inside the palace to be lacking. Not many windows were found precisely because none were meant to exist unnecessarily. With the entire mountain's insides transformed to suit the needs of the dragonkin royalty, it must have served as Aravel's palace for centuries now.
Kaze inched his way down the stairs to a pathway walkable while admiring the view. He was at the ground floor of the palace, but even the ground floor felt like he was super high up already. It was no surprise that when it came to engineering an entire mountain to act as a base, there were necessary arrangements needed to be made for them to craft out the safety and interior.
He was also able to catch a glimpse of the spread of houses below. Unlike Tristania, which was essentially a city clustered together with houses of different sorts, Aravel had much more land to fit the dragonkins. Houses were spread much farther apart with bigger plots of land.
Since Aravel was built next to a mountain, the area surrounding it were also rocky. It could be seen that there was not much greenery due to the formation of land from beyond the nation's formation. The houses were also bigger in comparison to those that humans would normally live in, once again to suit the convenience of the dragonkins. Without much of a flat surface around, the land was filled with mostly natural lumps and uneven surfaces, giving the houses a rather peculiar distribution.
Adding to the peculiarity of the land, Kaze could see the stone walls from when they first entered Aravel earlier encircling the entire nation of Aravel itself in the distance. Now that he was further away, the sizes of those walls easily towered over that at Czech. It was also constructed differently, most definitely out of ancient magic by the ancestors of the nation. Just imagining all the hard work it took to establish such a land gave Kaze enough adrenaline that he wanted to jump right off the cliff.
More than anything, the view reminded him of what Lunaria had showed him before when she gave him a bird's eye view of Aravel from her memories. He was happy to finally see for himself the beauty of Aravel, a nation classified by neither the extensive spread of land nor how many cities it had. Aravel essentially comprised of only a land area bigger than Tristania, yet Czech paled in contrast to the wonders of Aravel.
Kaze moved on from the amazing view down the side of the palace. He could tell that much work had been put into maintaining the palace since the side paths were already so detailed and well-kept. Hardly any cracks could be seen where manmade structures were made and safety features like railings or tall walls existed to block any careless visitors from slipping and falling.
He soon arrived behind the mountain where the palace was based on, walking past multiple structures that he wasn't quite sure if it was suitable for him to enter. Eventually, the map led him to the courtyard behind the palace. It was a small area of land that acted as an opening serving the connect to the second part of the palace, presumably an area he had not been to yet since even that was not listed on the pamphlet itself.
It was there that he found two dragonkins training. The sound of the sword clashing broke through the silence of the land. Kaze felt like he was relieving a moment from medieval Czech, one of those he had learnt from reading stories of legends. The backdrop of the palace only added to the atmosphere of the sword fight.
More importantly, Kaze was stunned by one of the dragonkins, being someone he knew all too well. The unmistakable colour of her silver-white hair tied into the pattern of a rose reminded Kaze once again how many days it had been since he last saw her.
Lunaria stood on one end, her back facing Kaze with a sword in hand. Her eyes were focused intently on the person she was sparing, getting ready to make the next move. She was so in tuned with the fight that she didn't even realize Kaze's presence or his magical signature from behind, which only happened when she was truly focused on one thing.
Kaze looked at the opponent she spared against. It was a male dragonkin with a darker grey hair, holding what looked to be a mix between a rapier and a long sword. Taking stance, the male let out a grunt when Lunaria charged right at him. He blocked Lunaria's side strike, twisting his wrist to deflect Lunaria's sword by using her strength against her.
It might have worked if it was someone other than Lunaria, but Lunaria saw right through him. Instead of repositioning, she advanced by using striking her left hand forward. It went directly into the male's chest, blasting the male several meters behind. With his sword out of hand and Lunaria on him the moment he tried to get up, the victor was determined.
"P-Phew… Your sword technique is still as fearful as ever," the male breathed a shaky sigh of relief as the edge of Lunaria's sword hovered over his throat.
"How long have we spared for?" Lunaria asked with a small smile, retracting her sword. "Two hours?"
"Three. You insisted on continuing without rest," he wiped his brow and got up from the floor. "Shall we stop? I would say enough is enough for today."
Kaze decided that he wouldn't intervene with the two since they looked to be acquainted in some way. If he disturbed them, it might ruin their training tempo. Kaze himself understood how important it was to allow one to concentrate when it came to training, as someone who stuck to a strict regime.
"Now then, shall we head back?" Lunaria stored her sword back into its sheath. "I wonder when my friends would arrive."
"I think they are here already," the male chuckled and pointed past Lunaria's shoulder. "Isn't he one of them?"
"Hm?"
Lunaria noticed this and turned around. Kaze and her gaze instantly locked, staring at each other's face without breaking away for a few seconds. Staring in disbelief, Lunaria made a slightly confused frown before her eyes widened in sudden realization.
"K-KAZEEEEEEEE!!!"
Flapping her wings open, she zoomed through the air and dove into Kaze's bosom. At that speed, she knocked Kaze onto the floor immediately, causing him to let out a loud grunt from her knocking the wind out of him.
Still, Lunaria did not care. She had confirmed his magical signature and scent properly to reaffirm that she was not dreaming. Kaze was in front of her.
"Kaze… Kaze..." Lunaria whimpered, her voice muffled from her burying her face in his chest while her arms were wrapped around him tightly.
Trying to recover from the impact of his stomach getting crushed, Kaze could only look down at a very excited and emotional Lunaria. He had never seen her like this before, to the point that she didn't bother sprinting at him and chose her wings instead. Still, he could understand why she acted like this. If he wasn't holding himself back, he would have been the one to run up to her earlier.
"Yes, Lunaria… it's me," Kaze whispered softly to her, his hand reaching over to her head and caressing it.
He could feel her body trembling as she sobbed, her arms not loosening around him despite the fact he was already hugging her. As Kaze laid on the floor from being knocked back, Lunaria was essentially lying on top of him while she cried. This made her trembling even more obvious for him, who was not used to seeing this weak side of Lunaria. The only other time she had ever cried in front of him was during one of the two night talks they had, but even that was mild compared to what she was doing right now.
"My, my, to think that Lunaria of all people would react like this…" the male dragonkin from earlier walked up to the duo, a wry smile on his face. "I'm sorry, Lunaria is normally very reserved and polite."
"No, I understand," Kaze could only laugh along with the male dragonkin, who seemed just as perplexed as he was. "This is also my first time seeing Lunaria like that."
Once Lunaria had calmed down enough for Kaze to stand up, the two walked to where the others were residing. The corner of Lunaria's eyes being red was something she couldn't hide as evidence of her crying as soon as she saw Kaze, but it added to Lunaria's charm. She was very honest to her feelings in front of Kaze, which was a relief when he found out she hadn't changed.
The male dragonkin walked with them for a bit before departing, presumably attending to his other business after sparing with Lunaria. It was a shame since Kaze wanted to introduce this new dragonkin to his friends, but it would have to wait for another time. Besides, Lunaria would be able to contact him if needed since they were sparing partners.
"Why didn't Lunatea or anyone inform me when you arrived?" Lunaria pouted when Kaze told her a bit about what they had done upon arrival as they walked back to the guest common room. "Mou! I swear those few are keeping me in suspense on purpose."
"They meant well, if anything," Kaze laughed, feeling her clinging to his right arm. "Even your mother reaffirmed that you weren't feeling well."
"Oh…" Lunaria relaxed after hearing this. "I see… It was true I wasn't feeling too well."
"See? You are just a little too agitated right now. I wonder what the others will say when you show up."
"They will probably question how you met me," Lunaria stated with a grin. "It doesn't matter how I felt anymore. I'm feeling tons better after seeing you."
As if to show that what she said was true, Lunaria tugged on his arm to stop him from walking and gave him a huge smile. This caused Kaze to hug her once again, the feeling of relief suddenly setting in. He had almost forgotten what happened to Lunaria when he last saw her due to feeling overwhelmed by happiness. Lunaria, likewise, hugged him back properly this time. The two felt unimaginable pleasure from seeing each other again, despite missing from each other's life for only a little over a week.
Once they were done with their tiny moment together, Lunaria finally met up with everyone else. There were quite a few emotional reactions from the girls, since they were the ones most worried about Lunaria. Even Sera and Rena cried tears of happiness as they embraced Lunaria, showing their love and care for their best friend. It was a heartfelt reunion, to say the least.
To celebrate their reunion, Lunaria gave them a tour of the palace. There was no one more suitable than the princess they were familiar with to give them an introduction. This way, they need not fear accidentally stumbling upon any restricted area since Lunaria was there to determine whether or not it was suitable for them to be there.
"Still, Lunaria, I didn't expect you to wear your battle outfit," Kaze commented, referring to the 'revealing' outfit she wore during the Tauzenpod incident.
"Oh, did I not mention it before? Aside from it being my formal fighting wear, it is also my royal outfit," Lunaria giggled. "Don't look so surprised, didn't my other sisters wear something similar?"
"Y-Yes, but we were wondering how you would wash it…" Irene sweatdropped. "Isn't it very restricting in movement?"
"I can't relax wearing it, that's true, but it's a matter of getting used to it," Lunaria nodded. "Besides, I only wore this because I was sparring earlier. That's when Kaze found me."
As Lunaria said so, they arrived in front of an area which looked rather different in contrast to where their rooms were located. Here, Lunaria waved her hand in the air and instantly, several magic circles and spells that were once invisible before became visible in their eyes.
"Don't worry. These are some enchantments to prevent guests from overstepping their boundaries and keep all intruders out," Lunaria told the group with a reassuring smile. "I just tinkered it a little so you all would be able to follow me in. The area we are going to now is where my family and I stay. Essentially, our private quarters."
"For the palace to be built within a mountain, it is certainly a fear unimaginable," Yuuji commented as they walked past the barrier in front of the entrance of a separate hallway Lunaria just disarmed. "How was this accomplished?"
"You will have to consult the history books available in the palace library for that," Lunaria said. "Don't worry, we will cover all areas of the palace that I deem available. Otherwise, just take this as a house tour rather than a formal visit."
Walking up a different flight of spiral stairs, they arrived at an open area which acted as a sort of central room before splitting up to different hallways leading to various parts of the palace. Much like Yuuji's, the place would be confusing if it wasn't for Lunaria leading the way. After all, this was constructed in a mountain where space was ample.
"This hall leads down to where mother and father live," Lunaria gestured to a hallway on the left. "Places like their bedroom, private quarters, personal space, it's all there. If you are wondering about their workspace for public use, it would be somewhere downstairs. We will head there later."
Moving on to the other two hallways left, the one leading straight was towards Luniel and Lunaea's room, whereas the one on the right was towards Lunatea and Lucentia's. Since Lunaria felt it not appropriate to show off her sisters' rooms when she hadn't obtained permission from them, she just led them off to where her own room was.
They walked down the fourth hallway available there, each of the hallways in the palace being fairly large and spacious. Unlike the ones they passed earlier, the ones within the private quarters of the royal family looked more simple-designed than the luxurious feels the rest gave off. Instead of priceless paintings dangling from the walls or expensive ornaments and suits of armour displayed alongside, the halls gave off a cosier feeling here, making the group feel invited and at home.
Towards the end of the hallway where Lunatea and Lucentia's rooms were, there was another door that wasn't visible to them from where they stood earlier. It was difficult to describe the space they were in since it felt as though they were walking past rooms after rooms instead of halls from how spacious it was. It only made the group question exactly how large Lunaria and her sisters' rooms were.
"Here we are," Lunaria stated, opening the door of her room with a proud smile. "Welcome."
The group oozed sighs of admiration at the sight of Lunaria's room. It was just as they expected: huge, wide, lavish, but humble at the same time. It wasn't filled with what one would expect of another nation's princess, such as jewellery and endless outfits. There was a super huge bed at the corner of the room, taking up at least a quarter of the room space. A desk sat in front of a huge bookshelf on the corner to the right of the bed, with a window by the side to look out of the palace. Cabinets and the like were arranged in a neat way, making it a room truly fit for a princess.
"My room's cosy enough as it is, but even this is making me feel jealous," Yuuji admitted with a hearty laugh as he sat in a spare armchair. "Aravel's in a league of its own."
"Oh, this isn't it," Lunaria giggled as her friends look shocked when she told them the surprise wasn't over yet. "I have my own private kitchen, small dining area and my bathroom. Interested?"
"W-Wait, remind me again, Lunaria, how much space is this?" Chris looked flabbergasted, following Lunaria to where her kitchen space was isolated by a wall to separate the bedroom from it. "In Tristania, land this big would cost millions…"
"It's a mountain, Chris, you shouldn't feel surprised," Irene sighed in pure bliss as she admired all the kitchenware available. "I want to see the bathroom!"
Just as they had expected, the bathroom was exceptional as well. It was definitely smaller than the bathroom they just used, but it was still more spacious and luxurious than what they were used to. With a similar design of having an in-floor bathtub, there was no changing room nor an isolated shower area. There was simply a faucet at the side of a room that had a half-sunken slab to filter out the bath water before stepping into the bathtub.
At this point, rich wasn't even the appropriate term to define the state of the palace. They felt as though they had arrived at heaven. To this, Lunaria only responded with a happy innocent smile.