Giliath demands your power stones! Let's try getting over 500!
Next chapter might have a couple new faces.
*
Liberl. Southwest of Rolent. Evening.
The Bright House.
A thin layer of snow could be seen on the surrounding trees and grass, covering most of the wide open yard in snow. It wasn't a lot though, perhaps an inch or two of snow at most. Even the single tree stump in the yard with an axe over it now was lightly covered in snow.
At present, few orbal lights could be seen turned on inside the house, signaling that it was currently in use. If one had a close look, one could hear the sound of a cutting board in use., likely in preparation for the meal tonight inside the Bright Family house.
Estelle could currently be seen humming away as she was cutting several vegetables up to put into a large pot that was waiting to be boiled next to her. Cassius could be seen sitting leisurely away at the table, with Joshua seated across from him, currently engrossed in a game board of sorts. Imagine living out in the wilderness for extended periods of time, but city life was still within reach. That was basically how the Brights lived, and were currently enjoying wintertime, mostly indoors, or enjoying fun activities out in the daytime.
Cassius had finally taken Estelle and Joshua back home from their previous time spent in Grancel City's Bracer Guild. Every so often, Schera would drop by to pay a visit, but her visits have been less frequent as of late. As for Schera, she's been teaching Angelica beginner Bracer lessons to better help her own Bracer Exam in the coming year or two, so she could not be seen present inside the Bright House on this night. That didn't deter Estelle from having fun though. In fact, she's been more frequent out in the woods doing her hobbies than she did normally, and would always welcome Schera on the days she did come by to visit.
Yet on this night, the three of them suddenly heard a knock on their door, which caused Estelle to stop what she was currently cooking for their dinner tonight.
"Special delivery from Liberl's News Service!", A man's voice said, following the sound of a doorbell, which attracted the three's attention from their current activities.
"It isn't often we get special deliveries from the news service. Be a dear and get the door, alright, Estelle?", Cassius asked with growing interest in his eyes.
"Already on it, Dad.", Estelle said as she placed her cutting knife down on the cutting board, and took off her cooking apron for a second, only to quickly run to the door. Estelle opened the door, and saw a person that frequented their home to drop off mail once in a while.
"Well if it isn't Estelle. We have a special print, right off the hot press. It's a real doozy this one is.", The mailman said, only to toss a bundled newspaper Estelle's way. Estelle quickly caught it and smiled.
"Thank you. Don't catch a cold out there alright? With the snow falling, it's pretty chilly out.", Estelle said, warning the delivery person.
"Haha, can do. Say hi to Cassius for me.", The delivery person said, only to quickly retreat into the dark night after waving his hand. A sound of an orbal truck soon kicked on its engines not too far away. Estelle smiled seeing the man depart and waved at him. The orbal truck left the house, slowly returning to the main road. Seeing Estelle by herself again, she closed the door.
Despite being out in the cold for only a few moments, Estelle's nose already started to turn a bit red after she shut the door. Upon doing so she felt warmth from the orbal lighting and the crackling of a fireplace from further in to warm her up again.
"Boy you really don't want to be out there. I wouldn't even take ten thousand mira to stand outside in that cold.", Estelle said, and rubbed her two hands together while hanging onto the newspaper under her arm.
"Heh, well Rolent is basically surrounded by forests and marshlands. It can get really cold during the wintertime here. Having access to orbal technology has improved our home, but I do agree with you there Estelle, one definitely shouldn't go out there when it's this below the freezing point.", Cassius said, nodding his head. "It really is easy for one to get sick out here.", Cassius continued.
"Hmph, you just don't want to go out there because you already wasted all your energy trying to throw snowballs at me earlier during the day.", Joshua retorted after hearing Estelle say that.
"H-Hey!", Estelle responded, revealing a small frown, which only caused Cassius to smile.
"Well, I don't see any faults to the point Joshua made.", Cassius said, shrugging his shoulders a bit. "Anyways, come back to the table for a moment Estelle, what does the news say?", Cassius decided to ask as he looked at Estelle, who was still standing in the doorway.
"Oh, right.", Estelle said, quickly nodding her head at her father's words and headed toward the table where Cassius and Joshua sat down, pausing their game as she did. Estelle released the band that was tying up the newspaper, and proceeded to give it a good shook. Her eyes immediately wandered toward the front section of the special print, and it took her a second to realize it was a photo with a very familiar person on it. It took Estelle a good moment for it to click inside her head after realizing who the person was, causing her to raise her eyes.
Seeing a change in Estelle's expression, interest grew in Cassius's and Joshua's eyes. Cassius couldn't help but ask Estelle if there was anything interesting.
"So, anything important? They don't typically give special prints out like this that are outside of their usual release time frames.", Cassius asked.
"Uh-uh.", Estelle nodded her head, confirming his growing interest. "It sure is. Naoto's in the paper again, Dad. You remember that really pretty blonde haired girl he was with back when Joshua and I were in Grancel? He's together with her in the news.", Estelle said, causing Cassius and Joshua to stare at her.
"Naoto...You're not referring to His Highness, are you?", Joshua said, revealing a frown after hearing Estelle say that.
"Please don't tell me His Highness did something again...", Cassius immediately uttered.
"See for yourself.", Estelle responded, tossing the paper his way. With the paper now in Cassius's hands, Estelle proceeded back toward the kitchen, putting on her apron again. Yet it didn't take long for Cassius's eyes to wander where Estelle's eyes once were. Sure enough he saw Liberl's Crown Prince in the highlighted photo, but the moment he began to read the headline, his body started to tense up.
"In hopes to see a brighter tomorrow, from henceforth Erebonia officially declares an engagement of two parties, Her Highness the Crown Princess, Princess Alfin and His Highness, Liberl's Crown Prince, Naoto von Auslese, together bound in future matrimony...", Cassius started to utter softly, only to grow in disbelief as to what he had just uttered. His eyes grew wider in shock as each moment passed with Joshua looking at him similarly with surprise in his eyes and Estelle only staring at him.
"W-WHAT!?", Cassius couldn't help but yell out in shock, slamming part of the table with his knees as he abruptly stood up, having disbelief in his eyes seeing several figures standing in the photo that could now be seen. A violet haired boy dressed in a vermillion tuxedo and a golden blonde haired girl dressed in a fiery crimson dress could now be seen standing together at the forefront, with several figures standing behind them...