"HUHHHHH"
A gaping yawn oscillated through one of the castle's many empty foyers. An elfin-like man in his 30s scurried around like a startled rat.
Green tousled hair, jaded brown eyes, and a particular slouch. Kieran, the lethargic royal knight in training, the newest member of the third prince's Scarlet knights.
When he wasn't bickering with Vincent, he could be found flattering pig-like nobles like his life depended on it. He knew it was quite unknightly, but, hey, it's every man for himself- right?
After groveling at the feet of every lord he's come into contact with, the cajoled nobles put in the good word for him, He's already reached the level of royal knight! Now his dreams of living a worry-free prideful life are in fruition. After all, how bad could babysitting a prince be? Kieran had expected to be executing people who even lightly rattled the prince's pretty red head, but after a bit of time he came to realize the prince was naive as they come. "A princeling, " even.
Now all he has to do is be in the princeling's general vicinity when it's his shift, and do what he does best, kiss ass until he can finally retire with a beautiful wife, a tomato garden, and a cat named beef stroganoff.
Well...that was until today.
He held back his tears while clenching his teeth and fists "a mission??!!! I thought the big guy hated his son"
His face wrinkled at the mere thought that he'd have to go back to the battlefield. After being drafted as a teen, he swore to himself that he would never return. "The princeling isn't going to let the people there just die as their fated to, he wouldn't even hurt a fly without going on about the power of friendship or some other protagonist thing"
He scowled "it's all that old tiger's fault, when the emperor assigned Vincent of all people to the third prince as a child he unwillingly turned his son into a delicate flower by that control freak's influence"
The passing servant awkwardly stared as Kieran maniacally mumured to himself like he was a scheming house pest.
"Everything alright?"
Kieran heard a voice calling out to him. "No—!" He screamed in annoyance to the friend worried about his well-being. That is until he remembered he didn't have any friends.
He slowly turned around as stiff as an antiquated action figure. There he was, the handsome red-haired prince and his silver haired retainer. The last people he was prepared to encounter.
"Ah! My prince!" Kieran propped up like a jack and the box and decreased the tone of his voice by an octave. "What….uh bring your highness to a place like this?" He laughed awkwardly.
"But we're in the palace, are we not?" Darius said awkwardly
"Hehe, right, you are…" Kieran panicked and began waving his hands flamboyantly.
When he finally found the courage to look up the piercing icy glare Vincent sent his way, he quickly shot him down.
"What are you up to?" asked the silver knight sternly.
"I was just about to give his highness my congratulations, for receiving his first mission. I can't wait to hear what great things you plan to do for the people of Valene, your highness never fails to inspire me !" Kieran exclaimed while holding back fake tears.
"I'm grateful for your encouragement," the prince said with a warm, innocent smile.
Something seemed to crack within Vincent when he saw his prince's smile.
'How dare that snake use his highness's innocence to hide his schemes' he thought as his fists started to turn an ugly pallid.
Like raging fire, the two just stared at each other with smiles that contained wicked intentions towards one another. The youngest prince continued to smile cluelessly as the 2 men started knives into each other.
"Come your highness, we must first finish the preparations" Vincent grabbed Darius' wrist gently and began to walk away, occasionally looking back at the green haired knight like a mother worried someone was following them.
"Tsk- what a prick." Kieran whined with anger in his eyes. Every time he tried to strike mere conversion with the prince, Vincent was right in the middle to pull them apart. "If I had known the princeling had a nosy nanny, I would have never taken the job."
He turned his head to face the gray cloud that loomed over the horizon and gulped.
No one knew what it was, but it was getting closer and closer.
The Ethereal Empire of Elicia was the military pride of Maisine. But now... it was nothing but a laughing stock to the others. Why did this have to happen?
Everything the misty purge touched lost all life and vitally. Famine and war spread across the once mighty empire. Their loss of land to this plague was way too grand for the power-hungry empires to simply ignore them.
Invasions were constant. It wouldn't be long before Elicia would finally succumb to the pressure.
Blind greed was rampant. Rulers shrouded in xenophobia refused to believe that once the plague swallowed Elicia, they would be next.
Even the nobles of Elicia herself refused to accept what was right in front of them. The citizens living in a state of penury were more angry than ever. The imperial family stopped keeping count of the daily riots at one point. Villages were burned to the ground by mobs simply if they implied having any loyalty to the imperial family. On the other end, if they dared to deny the imperial family's authority, the royal knigths would execute them one by one. No matter what happened, there seemed to be no escape for the innocents of Elicia. Still, the wealthy refused to offer any respite while countless died off.
Why would it matter to the rich, after all, They are wealthy enough to simply run away and live a comfortable life when the time is right
"Sending a hated prince directly into a rampaged fortress city for a couple of materials....with only a small force of personal knights at that ....." No matter how much Kieran thought about it, it seemed like the emperor was issuing the execution of his own son rather than a mission. There was no doubt Vincent knew this, too.
"NOPE, my future is too stable to throw It all away now- I'll keep that princeling alive until I retire whether he likes it or not" Kieran's face grew a twisted smirk as he tapped his fingers like a cunning villain.