House Caeles is one of the oldest bloodlines in the continent, having been blessed by fiery crimson Phoenix who is regarded to be the highest ranked guardian sent by the old Gods to protect humanity. And as any old bloodlines go, they have expanded their territories through conquest, becoming an Empire unparalleled in might, and don't fall short with the list of enemies who would want to bring them down from their pedestal.

As such, when the opportunity came to bring down the mighty came when the Imperial Crown Prince Morus had severely injured the visiting crown prince of a rival kingdom, many have tried to use that as their means to drag down the Imperial family.

In a desperate attempt to quell the unrest, the Emperor quickly named his recently born twins from his newest mistress as the Fifth and Sixth princes of the Empire, and sent them to the kingdom to be his symbol of his goodwill that they mean no harm to their neighbour.

Fifteen years passed quietly after that.

×××

"Your Highness, it's morning."

A dark haired young man tiredly opened their eyes as the gentle tapping on their body continued. They saw a beautiful, middle-aged woman in front of them, with their white, cerulean-tipped wings tucked carefully on their back, their silver blonde hair neatly done in a romantic braid tuck.

She smiled at him. "I'm surprised you woke up that easily."

The young man grumbled, scrunching their face in protest. "Five more minutes, Lady Eury. No, make it thirty."

"No, child. Your brother wants to dine with you for breakfast, and he's adamant about it."

She gently pulled him out of his bed, smoothing down his cowlick while he yawned and rubbed his right earlobe idly.

He froze after realising something was missing from his ear.

"Where's my earring?" He asked in a slightly panicked tone.

"Were you really that exhausted from your studies you forgot that you threw it out of frustration?"

"What?"

Eury chuckled as she urged him out of the bed and ushered him into the bathroom. "I'm only kidding. We stowed it away properly after its cleaning yesterday. Now, go wash up and get dressed."

She closed the door to the bathroom, leaving the young man staring at himself by the mirror with a grimace.

Dark hair, dark eyes.

He had always hated how he looked, even though many had fawned over him and his brother as the Bygravian Kingdom barely had any humans in them, as it is a territory ruled by proud herons.

It reminded him of the reason why they had to live in this estate, deep within the Bygravian Kingdom, as their father's symbol of goodwill, as the Empire has a superstition that the double black is a sign of good fortune for their territory. By giving the princes away is like giving away the promise of prosperity to their territory.

He had always wondered, if he and his brother weren't born with such looks, would they have remained with their real family instead of being raised in a secluded estate?

"Your Highness? Are you done there?" Eury asked from the other side of the door, knocking politely.

"Five minutes."

"You better be washing the sleep off your eyes and not taking a nap in the bathtub."

The prince smiled at the change of her tone, from being a polite and proper Governess into their nagging mother-figure.

"Yes, yes…I'll  be right out after five minutes."

Contrary to his words, he came out fifteen minutes later with a sheepish expression as he faced the Governess who had a stern look on her face.

"My stomach didn't feel good…" He told her, rubbing his stomach lightly to emphasise his excuse.

×××

The prince walked behind the Governess, following her to the private dining room after he had dressed up lightly and simply for breakfast. All of the servants they passed by bowed politely to the two of them, with the prince acknowledging them politely in return.

Once there, Eury opened the door and the prince entered the room. He could see his identical younger twin brother already seated by the table and eating quietly.

"Enjoy your breakfast. I will go and prepare the materials needed for your lessons today." Eury told the two of them before leaving, closing the door quietly.

"You're late." The younger prince said rather coldly.

"No, you just happen to arrive early." The older prince chuckled as he took his seat. "You really had to ask Lady Eury to wake me up personally? Why would you do that, Letum?"

"Because I know you can't weasel your way out of having breakfast with me if she's the one who'd wake you, Somnus."

"You are cruel to your older brother, I can't believe we're siblings."

"Aren't you the one being cruel, for you've been avoiding me for quite a few years now without explaining to me what I did wrong to receive such treatment from you?"

Somnus, the older prince, only smiled at that as he picked up his utensils and started eating.

"Nothing happened, little brother. It's only a case of an older child's responsibility."

The servants around them watched the mirror twins eat and continued with their friendly banter. Though if one would look closer, one could pick out the slight differences between the two of them:

Somnus is more physically well built, slightly tanned due to his training outside and his signature emerald stud earring on his right ear is there.

Letum, on the other hand, is much daintier and easily mistaken as a young lady, albeit slightly taller than the average females, as he had chosen to pursue the mastery of magic seifon; a small hooped earring on his left ear with a small butterfly dangling from it serves as his signature earring.

Their presence weren't welcomed at first as babies, but time had made the servants be fond of these foreign princes that they were serving, as it looked like their presence in the kingdom had helped them like what the Imperial superstitions claimed about their birth.