It was soon time for the Midsummer festival.
The festival had a long lasting tradition and was celebrated across the kingdom. It was a ten day tax-free period, during which most people were having holidays, decorating cities, towns and villages, playing music, singing and having fun. There was no alcohol consumption en masse on the streets, although taverns and brothels were full of customers.
Different regions had some other traditions as well – there were held competitions, horse races and fairs while auctions were held in almost every city.
Of course, the one party involved that had the biggest headache were the guards, but the crime rate in the Sun kingdom was comparatively low in general and the increase during this ten day period was not that big.
All the allied kingdoms were sending delegations over since this was the perfect time for the political discussions as well. Usually only envoys were sent, but sometimes royal family members joined this event as a vacation trip.
Nick didn't plan to take an active part in festivities, he leisurely strolled around the city, enjoyed a bit of local cuisine and bought some stuff in fairs.
The fairs had additional attraction to the usual stalls and events. The hunters and livestock farmers used this time to sell their most precious product – tamed and sealed beasts. The difference was that the commonly raised animals, which were not classified as ranked beasts and didn't have beast cores, were usually tamed – like horses or mules. But hunters sometimes managed to catch a rarer rank three or even rank four beasts and seal them using the rune formation master's help. Those beasts were a rare commodity and the Midsummer festival was the time when the biggest market for selling them was available.
Nick was a bit interested in purchasing a mount. Strolling through the streets he was like a youth that was looking at motorcycles – 'they are cool and fast and I want one despite them being dangerous and impractical!'. Nick had enough funds that would allow him to buy anything he wanted, but in the end he managed to keep himself together and used this opportunity for a visual enjoyment, to watch and learn.
There were big wolves, tigers and even few horned elephants available. Nick still remembered the taste of the latter's milk from the time he was in the sect. It seemed that people were willing to pay huge price for a ferocious beast to accompany them.
In one of the beast markets he met Ben and Paul, both visibly tipsy, aimlessly walking around and having fun. Nick used this opportunity to educate himself and asked few questions to the elders. Even if theoretically the concept of sealed ranked beast sounded great, both army veterans just laughed about the practical implications.
Turns out the moneybag aristocrats who were buying tigers and ferocious lizards were throwing gold in the wind, because ranked beasts, although they were more durable and could carry a bigger weight, didn't have any real combat value. They were like more expensive horses with higher maintenance costs.
The reason was simple – when a consciousness, or how many thought – 'soul' – of a beast was sealed, it instantly became a primitive slave that was able to follow simple orders like 'move' or 'stop'. It couldn't really go side by side with its master in the battle and use its former powers.
These were also the reasons why there were no flying mounts. It was incredibly risky to fly a beast that could sneeze randomly while in the air and drop its master. The sealed beasts were not capable of thinking anymore – they could not judge the consequences of their actions.
Therefore the very rare flying mounts, that only very few royalties or aristocrats had, were all tamed and not sealed beasts. And taming an avian was not the same as putting a saddle on a horse. Most of them would rather starve or directly fall to their deaths from sky than serve as a slave, thus usually no one even used to fly a tamed flying beast and they were kept only to serve as bragging rights of their masters.
After this explanation when on the streets Nick saw a carriage that was pulled by flaming wolves, fire lizards or tigers, he only snickered like both old men did before. Up until now his only involvement with mounts was Angel and even that was not a real experience of using a mount. He was wondering before why he didn't see people flying in the skies on sealed birds, but now it was clear that it was only a dream everyone could have.
Few days ago Nick received an official invitation to the event taking place in the Royal ball hall. The servant who brought him the invitation reminded, that the princess Cira expects Nick to wear a formal attire to not embarrass them.
He intended to do so anyway because he respected the local traditions and he also wanted to blend in more to experience the medieval ball first handed. Although for two kids to blend in a crowd of grownups might be an impossible task.
They agreed with Zia to meet up in the palace before proceeding to the ball hall together and Nick would play princess's follower's role to not stand out. They were looking forward to the performance of the 'Aurora's five flowers' already for some time and on the way were betting how many hearts would these five young girls break tonight.
They arrived at a big ball hall that was bustling with people. The building itself had the same architecture as the rest of the palace and it reminded Nick a bit of Gothic style he saw in the European cities when visiting France. The walls were built in white stone and the big windows had the familiar colorful mosaics. The ceiling of the ball hall had pictures of clouds and angels painted on it. The bright lights on the walls illuminated the whole hall, apparently the king wasn't too stingy with the lighting rune formations, and these even seemed to be fueled by rank three beast cores.
Several musicians were playing soft music in the background and servants with silver trays were distributing alcohol and snacks. People kept coming in, greeting each other, then splitting into companies, chatting and then rotating around greeting and chatting with the next acquaintances. There were no chairs to sit on – the idea of this event was to promote most possible active socializing. Here were formed new contacts, deepened relationships and even concluded trade and political agreements as well.
Although everyone was waiting for the king's arrival, Zia and Nick already new what the main event of this evening will be. Earlier Cira helped them to arrange a good spot from where they would have the best view, thus they stood at the side, quite close the entrance. This allowed them to see the door and at the same time watch the audience.
"Good evening princess Zia, good evening Nick," A sudden youthful voice disturbed them, "My name is Mason Meyer."
They saw a young boy, a bit older than them, maybe twelve or thirteen years of age. He was also a tad taller than both of them, with a pleasant face and dressed in black formal suit. Zia and Nick greeted him as well and they started to chat. Turns out Mason was the heir of the Meyer family and his status didn't fall far behind Zia's, maybe in some places it was even higher.
"Our family has tried to contact you, sir Nick, for some time, but you kept avoiding us and for the last few months we can't meet you at all, because common people like us are not allowed to freely enter the Royal woods." Mason politely complained.
"Hahaha! Why are you so formal?" Nick started laughing, "We obviously are peers although you are a bit older. Don't be so serious and just tell what you want and we can chat afterwards."
Mason was taken aback, but after few seconds smiled, "This whole place is so serious it makes my head spin. Sorry about before, I just feel like my father is checking on me all the time. He kind of is trying to train me to become the next head of family, you know. It's really tiring."
"Then just don't do it, whats the big deal?" Zia was confused.
"Zia, do you think it's easy for your brother? He has to become a king in the future, I think he has it even worse than Mason. And both of them have no choice in that matter." Nick explained and then he turned to Mason and impatiently said, "Hurry up and tell me what it is that you want, the main show is about to start."
Mason looked a bit confused, "Main event? Is the king already coming? Anyway, our family would like to present you a formal invitation. When would it be convenient for you to visit us? I would like to send a carriage."
"You are a cunning one!" Nick squinted his eyes, "You didn't even ask if I will come, you ask when. I guess I can't say no?"
"Please, help me out here. I will explain it to you later." Mason gave him a begging look.
"Alright, it's not a big deal anyway." Nick agreed, "When do you think will be a good time? After the festival or is it urgent?"
"After the festival is better. Now it's the tax free period. It's the busiest time of the year for us."
Nick remembered that Meyers were the hegemons of the local trade. No wonder they had their hands full while no one had to pay taxes.
Suddenly the music stopped for a moment and then musicians started a different tune.
"Ok, here they come. Mason, stand beside us and don't block the view. You wouldn't want to miss this either." Nick instructed.
It was his idea for the girls to arrange the music change just before entering so the crowd would be startled for a moment and unconsciously paid attention to the entrance – it was unacceptable to miss the moment when the king came. Therefore the majority of people instinctively turned towards the big door of the ball hall, but what they saw was not the king.
Five young, slender girls side by side, dressed in similar tight dresses of different bright colors, holding small handbags of the same color as their respective dresses slowly 'floated' inside while swaying their tights a little bit.
Tik, tik, tik ...
Their steps sounded in unison. Nick was proud – these girls had really practiced well. They were almost like models on a catwalk, just not that exaggerated.
It had to be noted, that on the Mainland continent women usually wore long dresses or robes stretching down to their ankles and almost covering their shoes. The dresses and robes of aristocrats were expensive and rich with embroilments and didn't really show the curves. But the dresses these girls were currently wearing showed off the beautiful curves of their bodies like five flowers in full bloom.
Although they didn't reveal 'too much', there were no cuts or openings from the top that started on their necks till the bottom that was over their knees. In addition, they all wore ten to twelve centimeters tall high-heels and the color of their shoes corresponded with their dresses as well.
Because of the hing-heels, their legs looked especially long and slender and the five of them together looked extraordinary gorgeous and alluring.
For ten or so seconds the only sound in the hall was the soft music and their footsteps. People didn't whisper, shout or exclaim – they stared with big, round eyes speechlessly.
Nick already warned the girls that there will be such reaction from the crowd and the girls had seen quite a few events themselves and understood how it might turn out. Despite being nervous, they continued to gently smile and approach the guests. Already before the event they prearranged few of their friends to wait at the side and it seemed as if they went over to them naturally by coincidence.
When the girls stopped it was like a huge switch was suddenly turned on – there were shouts, exclamations, few glasses fell down on the floor, some men started to get nosebleeds and some even fainted. It was a hilarious spectacle, at least for Nick and Zia who came to the event for this particular reason. They looked at each other and started to laugh out loud. The plan was a complete success.