A month had passed in a flash has kassius wounds had almost finished healing.
Dressed in a white button up shirt and black trousers with a black overcoat jacket, Kassius gaze was directed towards the wonders of the world he had never gotten a chance to explore.
His attention span ran low turning towards silas and ophia that sat next to him in the carriage.
The round silver glasses he wore reflected the vast image of nature around them. Looking towards his hands that had yet to fully heal, black leather gloves that held the insignia of house Altair adored his hands.
'Young master this will look absolutely perfect on you', Kassius recalled the sound of her voice has it resounded within his head.
Silence had plagued the air has boredom slowly crept up on them, this was the way it had been for the last week since they departed from the castle.
The journey to the central planes takes a whole two weeks to accomplish by carriage after all.
Finally leaving the embrace of mother nature that had accompanied them for the past two weeks, the sight of a city endowed with silver and gold entered the view of the children.
"Ahhhhh…", Ophia could not contain her excitement as she pulled on Kassius's coat with a widened mouth. Kassius himself had been just has dumbstruck failing to find the right words to describe the city, it is just
"Beautiful…", the word unconsciously escaped his mouth. His gaze still fixated on the city never it, even for a second. While Silas barely took a glance before losing all interest after all this wasn't his first time coming here.
Drawing closer to the city one could see a towering large silver gate, it seemed to dwarf everything in it's path as it stood ominously protecting the inhabitants of the golden city.
The tall walls that surrounded the city made it look like an impenetrable fortress.
The large gate seemed to open slowly as they drew with each passing second, the guards stationed outside the gates had recognized the insignia of the Duke which provided us safe passage into the heart of the gharam empire.
'The City of Valis', Kassius remembered reading about it during his younger days at the castle.
The Duke had provided Kassius with teachers and proper equity training all nobles should possess, it was a must has he would have to interact with nobles later on.
The carriage speed through the streets has people enjoyed their day to day lives, they seemed so happy and prosperous that one would think they had felt hardship.
Being covered by the walls outside the people knew nothing but peace, it was almost as if leaving within a sanctuary. A woman seemingly stood outside her shop attending to the flowers infront of the store.
Suddenly a dark thought emerged from within Kassius as her image seemed to overlap with that of his mother's. His pupils elevated for a brief moment shaking his head to drive away the negative thoughts.
'What if I was born here?, would she still be alive?, would I be happier?'. This thoughts kept resurfacing over the course of their journey through the city as he kept drowning them into the depth of his mind where they were stored.
He knew what caused this thoughts to resurface but at the end of the day it didn't matter.
Since the very night of his mother's passing Kassius had unintentionally developed a sense of absence from the world.
It was has if he never truly belonged anywhere the hole his mother left was too deep to be filled and him committing the act itself had unknowingly fractured his mind.
Although he now lived in the dukes home, he never truly felt at peace. It wasn't to say he didn't try to make this connections it was just a part of his mind never allowed him to truly open up.
To him his goals had become an driving factor to push forward, to abandon all the things that threatened his sanity.
Kassius mood had taken a turn for the worse but that didn't last long as he seemed to flip a switch within him drowning all the unnecessary emotions leaving only a dull feeling of numbness.
It was a mask he wore to hide his vulnerabilities, don't we all.
The carriage came to a stop drawing the attention of everyone, as fate would have it, they had arrived at their destination which would happen to be a very large estate belonging to the royal family.
A knight of the dukes family opened the door of the carriage as we proceeded to descend from it.
The Duke beckoned for us to come over to his side as he also descended from another carriage with the countess. His eyes focused on the attendant sent to led us into the castle, the gates opened as the attendant bowed.
"I greet the Duke Revus of House Altair", the attendant said, he seemed especially pleased to see the duke as he smiled before continuing
"His majesty with the royal family would be joining you soon, so please if you would follow me this way", the attendant turned leading us into the palace.
One would think why he didn't he show this same respect to the countess Elysian, it was quite simple actually she was too low down the food chain to be recognized by his majesty.
This was the same for many other nobles who served under a noble house or the royal family directly. The empire only recognizes does who can benefit it, and many of the other nobles below the rank of earl do not possess the power to directly influence things within the empire.
After walking for almost five minutes we arrived into of a door, the attendant opened it before announcing the arrival of the Duke.
"DUKE REVUS OF HOUSE ALTAIR ENTERS"
The Duke processed to enter the hall has all the muttering stopped. A brief silence filled the hall before a woman wearing what seemed to be a robe of sorts shouted
"REVUS YOU OLD BASTARD, YOU'RE LATE"
My brain seemed to shutdown has I hastily turned my head to look towards the Duke, I had made up my mind that whoever that woman was she was likely going to die today as I couldn't process what was happening.
The Duke still maintained his stoic expression has the woman approached, by body tensed waiting in anticipation for the outcome.
But I couldn't have been more shocked the when the duke raised his arms over to hug the crazy woman.
My face held an expression of disbelief struggle to understand what was happening, the woman broke the hug has the Duke let out a rare smile before saying
"It's good to see you too, YUKI"
I had stopped trying to understand as I waited for the situation to explain itself, my curiosity was at is peak.
It was obvious from the whole interaction that they knew eachother but I why did I have this feeling that I've heard that name before.
Yuki turned her attention towards ophia patting her on the head before working closer to Silas who had been quite since the from the moment we arrived. His mind seemed preoccupied with something.
Silas bowed has she approached. He held onto a worry smile which he thought would help the situation but unfortunately that served him to no end.
"Aunt Yuki, it's been quite a while. How is kazumi doing?", Silas asked a little distressed
"That's quite bold of you young prince, still having the guts to address me after sleeping with my daughter. I don't know if I should be impressed or kill you?"
Yuki seemed to really consider it has the air grew thin. Luckily she passed on the thought has she pulled him in for a hug.
"Be more careful next time young prince we wouldn't want you dismembered now, do we?", she whispered into his ear sending chills down his spine.
Breaking the hug Silas seemed to have the life drain out of him as he shivered, while I stood rummaging through my mind trying to recall where were I had heard that name. It was annoying I felt it just at the tip of my mind her approached.
My attention was drawn to her as I looked upwards towards her face.
I was fairly tall but looking forward at her she was still a whole head taller standing at the same height as the duke.
'What the hell do they feed this people', I wondered looking closer at her features now that we just a few meters apart.
She was stunning, her light pale skin and slender face complimented her cherry lips as her hair flowed downwards curling like the currents for a waterfall.
The dark azure color at the end made it standout more highlighting her grey eyes.
The large white robe she wore covered almost all parts of her body as it was adored with golden streaks painting the picture of a dragon. The ribbon tied around her waist helped to hold the dress in place as it highlighted her curves.
In general, I would say she was the most appealing to look at in the hall. It appeared I stared a little too long as a smile blossomed on her face, my mind went blank seeing it.
It was like looking at the most captivating piece of painting ever created.
"Do you like what you see", Yuki asked teasingly holding her arms.
"I do, you are infact most pleasing to look at Mrs. Yuki", I replied. She looked taken back not expecting my reply but she composed herself easily turning towards the duke.
"Revus, where did you find this one, I like him already"
The duke remained silent as she turned her attention back to me,
"I heard today was a special day for you, although we are all here for the princess, I'd like to be the first to welcome you into the noble society. Make sure to enjoy your time here"
She turned her back to leave but not without greeting the duke one last time as her disappeared into the crowd.
My eyes stared at the insignia embedded on the back of her robe as she left, suddenly It finally seemed to click as the fog covering my mind dispersed.
The insignia of a flower divided into five equal parts within a circle only belong to one family among the nobles.
Their traditions and culture stood out making them easily to identify, they were a popularly known house amongst the nobles. I just didn't know whether to laugh or cry at my situation.
'Ah… ahh, YUKI LA RIVA DUCHESS OF THE AZUKI CLAN'