Location: In the City of Rosycthia, Kingdom of Tristania ....
It was a sunny day with clear blue skies and with an air of freshness. Birds chirping and flying around. A certain blue-eyed beauty was staring outside from the window of her room in the castle. Her face was adorned by her silky honey-blond hair which swayed and fluttered when the wind blew around them giving her an even more beautiful appearance. She was dressed in her casual attire which consisted of a sleeveless black tank top, and a red skirt with some white lines on it. Needless to say, she was already very beautiful. Some people even commented that God broke the mold when making her. Though she was beautiful, she was never arrogant about it and had a pleasant smile for everyone around her. This added a certain extra radiance to her beauty. She was the young princess of the Tristania Region, Princess Erica.
While she was looking out of the window, a knock was heard on the door of her room.
"Come in" she said.
A maid presumably of the same age as her entered the room. She had long bluish-black hair which was tied to make neat folds, sapphire-colored eyes, and a pretty face with a gentle smile playing on her lips. She was dressed in normal maid attire and was holding a tray that contained some food on it and a cup of tea.
"My, my what do I see? The princess, oh sorry the soon-to-be Queen has not dressed up yet, on such an important day-"
"Shut up Dawn"
The princess quickly turned at 'Dawn' while answering back and looked at her with a stern expression. 'Dawn' too stared at her with a somewhat annoyed expression for some time, then both of them broke into a fit of giggles.
"Oh well that was a good laugh", Dawn said after they had both stopped laughing after some time.
"Yeah"
"So may I know the reason why the princess hasn't dressed up yet?" Dawn said while stretching the word 'princess'.
"Dawn, how many times have I told you not to use formalities while addressing me while we are alone?", Erica replied back in a slightly angry tone.
"OK Ok, jeez you are no fun. Fine! Now, what is the reason? You do know that this is an important day, right?", Dawn said, putting down the tray on the table beside where she was standing and coming over and sitting on the bed present in the room.
"Well the people are looking so happy and lively today, that I got immersed in their happiness and forgot to take a look at the time", Erica replied sheepishly while again looking out through the window of her room to the streets that were filled with people merrymaking.
"Sure, they do have a reason for that. After all their beloved princess is having her coronation ceremony today. So of course it's a special occasion for them" Dawn said while looking at Erica.
Today was the day when the princess would be crowned the future queen of the Tristania Region. As a kingdom, Tristania had progressed a lot and had given up the age-old tradition that a 'queen would need a king to rule. This would mean Erica, the current princess, would become the next queen when her father, the present king retired or died. To honor the auspicious occasion the people of Tristania had decided to host a 7-day long festival. Today was the 7th day-the day of coronation. So naturally, the air of festivity was flowing throughout the region.
" Leave all that, now we need to get you ready real quick... remember you also have to attend the Knights' Sparring Festival" - Dawn said rising up from the bed and going towards the cupboard to get the clothes ready for Erica.
"Yeah", Erica muffled.
"What? You don't want to go there?"
The Knights' Association was a popular organization famous throughout Tristania for the exceptional quality of knights it produced and consisted of. A knight, hailing from the Knights' Association demanded a lot of respect in the eyes of the common people. Needless to say, many young individuals, mostly boys, dreamed of getting into it. All the Royal knights that the castle owned hailed from there. Every year many quality knights were produced and so their reputation in front of the common people was at an all-time high.
"It's not like that I hate it but I don't like the display of power done so explicitly"
To honor the princess's coronation the Knights' Association had announced that a tournament would be held in which all of the knights, training and trained would participate. Also, any commoner who wished to join the brawl could do so. Basically an open-to-all kind of tournament, in other words.
Since it was a sparring tournament the battles that will be fought would be action-packed and ferocious. It was not like Erica hated battles, but she definitely did not like it when they went beyond the rules. Although, the knights had a chivalric order that prevented things from going out of hand, but there are bound to be cases where things would go out of hand. It was one such case that Erica had witnessed before when a contender had used magic against his opponent to win the battle thereby clearly violating the rules of 'not using magic in a close range weaponry based combat' and the chivalric code of order. This had caused a riot among the other knights and before anyone knew it things had escalated quickly. Although the situation had been brought under control real soon, it still was able to instill fear in Erica's mind.
"I get it, but what happened in the past should not affect you in the present, besides it is not that likely that it will happen again now that we have even more security than the previous one."- Dawn replied.
"Yeah, I get it but-"
"Princess are you ready yet?"- A voice was heard from the outside of the room.
"It's me, Flint, your faithful knight, if you are done we should really get going, it is almost time"
Hearing that voice made Erica even more not want to go to the festival. She somehow managed to answer back.
"I am afraid that it's going to take me a little more time Flint, you should probably head for the tournament without me. It wouldn't be nice if you are late for your battle for some silly reason"
Hearing this dampened Flint's spirits, so he replied to her from outside the room: "I guess there's no helping it then, although I would have liked to escort you to the tournament... guess I'll go alone then"
"Yeah, that should probably be right. Thank you for understanding"
After saying this Erica heard the sound of footsteps gradually fading as Flint went on ahead. She finally released a sigh of relief.
"That freak was here again wasn't he?" Dawn asked Erica.
"Yeah"
"Seriously, he is either too dumb to understand that you are avoiding him or he is too stubborn to understand.. either way, it is very much annoying"
Erica did nothing but silently nodded her head looking dejected.
"Even though making it clear many times he is still under the vain impression that I will give into his pleas one day"
"Yeah, as long as your knight-in-shining-armor still occupies your heart, nobody else has a chance"
This made Erica blush and get all flustered within a second but soon she turned back to normal.
"Although I would like that, I doubt there's a chance that I will meet him again"-Erica said looking out into the clear skies with a dejected-looking face.
'Will I be able to meet you again?', She thought.
Little did she know, among the numerous amount of people swarming throughout the city, a particular group consisting of 3 people had entered of which a certain raven-haired individual was a member.
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Part 1 ends