Today is a special day for the fourteen-year-old Kaelum, today is the day that Princess Tiela of Kassivir is visiting the city of Arum. This visit to Arum marks the halfway point of Princess Tiela’s very first royal tour. She is visiting every major city in a circuit around the kingdom in preparation for the grand tournament next year.
The princess is said to be extremely beautiful, and for many, this is the first and best chance to see her angelic disposition, but that's not what Kaelum is excited about. Kaelum is excited because the city of Arum is throwing a festival for the visit of the princess; That means all the food stalls and vendors are going to be making extra to accommodate the influx of people wanting to see the princess.
This is great news for an orphan street rat like Kaelum; It means after the festival tonight a lot of food is going to be thrown away for him to scavenge. Rather than scrounging up soggy bread from the alleyways, he’ll be able to eat ‘almost’ fresh, and only lightly soiled honeyed skewers tonight!
Unable to stop his feet from tapping in anticipation, he resolves to take a walk away from the market area and start walking towards the main road. The main road leads from the east gate directly through the center of the city towards the west gate. It’s the road that the conscripts take when they march off to war. While the soldiers march it’s customary for their friends, family, and sweethearts to shower them with flower petals as a token of good luck.
Noting that there’s already a procession of knights marching down the wide main street, Kaelum realizes that the princess’s entourage must have already entered the city. Brimming with excitement at the food to come, he decides to get a closer look at the princess everyone seems to love.
Kaelum had heard from some of the older street rats that supposedly the plan was for the princess’s procession to enter from the west gate, join the parade in the afternoon and make their way to the city lord’s manor. That's where the princess would be staying for the duration of her visit in Arum, before heading off to the next city on the royal tour’s circuit.
Apparently, some of the young knights-in-training in the city had gotten it into their heads to try and visit the princess at the city lord’s manor in hopes of impressing her with their magic skills or whatnot.
Bunch of idiots they are thought Kaelum. He’d much rather join the festival and try to snag some free food rather than see some random princess. Besides, the city guards wouldn’t let Kaelum anywhere near the lord’s manor, not after he got caught after sneaking in during one of the lord's feasts. Kaelum didn’t see why the city lord needed that much food, and he only took a little… Or maybe just a little bit more than a little. Regardless, Who cares about the princess when there’s free food?
Well… There’s no harm in at least seeing the princess, thought Kaelum. He’d only be taking a look as she passed. Then he’d go and see if he couldn’t get a hold of some ‘free’ food. With his plan set, he increased his pace towards the main road.
As he got nearer, he saw the grand procession. It truly was a majestic parade. There, the city guards were wearing fine clothing and playing instruments on each side of the procession. Red-faced guards blew into some kind of horned instruments, while other guards beat heavy drums until they were out of breath.
All the citizens around him were cheering, there were even some minstrels nearby singing among the crowd.
On top of all of that, honest to Gods knights led the princess’s entourage! Each knight's strength was worth at least ten of the city guards, and the princess had two entire squads of them!
With sparkling white and silver armour, the knights in front marched with a look only a professional killer could have. Most of the leading knights had helmets on, but the ones who weren't wearing any helmets had calm, but serious looks on their faces. Those white knights must have been from the White Order, a bit of a simple name, but their strength was anything but simple. Kaelum was certain that just this single squad of white knights could completely conquer the city of Arum, even with all of the city guards prepared.
That was just the qualitative difference between a ‘fighter’ and a ‘knight’, knights had trained for years and were able to use mana to not only attack with magic, but they could also use it to strengthen themselves beyond humanly possible. Nearly everyone looked up to knights, in fact, all types of mages were revered by the public. Kaelum was no exception and like every other teenager, he too dreamed of being a powerful knight.
The knights bringing up the rear of the procession were also a force to be reckoned with; They wore a red sash across their chests, complementing the heavy black armour they had. These knights possessed a look of absolute menace. They couldn’t have been from anywhere but Saitus’s Order. They were known as the most deadly of all of the knight orders in Kassivir, a reputation well earned. Between just these two squads of knights, the princess’s entourage could take on an entire army and at the very least survive.
In the middle of this procession was the princess herself, it looked like there were a couple of other people on the float-like wagon with her but Kaelum couldn’t see very well. His vision was blocked by all the tall people around. Being only fourteen, his height couldn’t compare to all the adults around him. Wanting to get a better look, Kaelum started pushing through the crowd to get closer to the princess.
While wading through the crowd, he was continuously jostled by the surrounding people. Finally making his way to a relatively people-free area, he was slammed into quite hard one last time, it actually hurt quite a bit. Spinning around to see who had just slammed into him, he lost his balance and fell.
Picking himself up off of the ground he looked around only to realize that he was no longer on the street, not even in the city. Everything around him was black.
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