As the carriages drove through the gates of the castle, the one we five rode on placed itself in front of the others to lead in the parade. We headed for the town which was seen below the castle, as it was in the highest place of the surrounding.
The part of the town in which we entered was decorated with many bangles and flags that included the symbol of the Kingdom. (An emblem of an eagle with two swords crossing)
Endless amount of people were seen in the streets waving miniature flags or bright clothing colored with the nation’s two colors, red and gold.
I bet the others are enjoying this festive mood, but for me, a headache was beginning. The music which replayed the same song mixed with the heavy cheering caused me to want to place my fingers on my temple to apply pressure, but it would be rude to the princess who was happily explaining the history of the town.
I was especially conscious of the princess’s maid who seemed to be evaluating the way I was acting.
I endured the ordeal as the carriage went through a set path, skipping the uglier side of town. Putting my attention on the town’s people, comparing those from the center to the ones in the gate, they seemed to be merchants mixed with many commoners while the ones from before were all nobles.
This was just a guess since the way they acted and the dress was very different. The nobles kept to themselves only slightly waving their hands or flags, wearing elegant and expansive looking dresses while the commoners wore light clothing and had a greater amount of colored individuals.
The trip finally ended with no major incidents, I was already worn out and hungry but kept it to myself as we were told we would be given a meal as soon as we reached the castle.
“So princess, who is this Kingdom at war with?” Taking this time to get straight to the point, I wanted an answer outside the ears of the others who would only deviate the response.
She looked reluctant to answer but looked towards her maid who nodded, I took it as a gesture to keep her silent.
“To tell you the truth we ourselves don’t know. All I can say is that a few weeks ago we received ambassadors from the other six nations at different times, all of them gave us declarations of war. Strangely our spies also told us that between the others countries, they also gave one another the same notices.”
The teacher and Darin kept silent so I moved to my next question since we were pressed for time as the castle was within sight.
“That’s unexpected, but how does that lead to us being summoned? “ Certainly I wanted to know more but those small details could be gained with time.
“The King requested the church to ask for an oracle to give us a solution. The answer we received was to use the summoning room and call forth a Hero, however, we did not expect a group this large. Then again the last time it was used was over a hundred years ago when the great Hero Rendell appeared.” A grim expression was shown as she gripped the hem of her dress, not wanting to look up to face us. The maid at her side holding her hand and lowers her head.
“Alright, that’s enough of this mood. Let’s get ready to exit the carriage, we can talk more about this in depth later.” Clapping her hands the teacher was quick to dispel the mood.
Leaving my thoughts for later I exited the carriage first to help the others down, while I thought it was unnecessary to do so since the knights were quick to gather around the carriage, I did so for the sake of adding a few friendship points with the crestfallen princess.
We waited for the others to finished getting down from their respective carriages and we all gathered at the left entrance of the castle which was on the opposite side of where we left.
This area was where there were rooms for guests of the castle to be in and was a building detached from the main one. I took it as a distrust from the king who didn’t want us near the part of the castle he lived in, but of course, I could be wrong.
It was luxurious none the less, I never been to a five-star hotel but if I had to guess this fit the descriptions of anyone wanting to stay in one. The building itself had a lot of Roman-inspired architecture visible from the arches and columns.
We were told this was going to be our new home by the princess, and that everything we needed would be provided. Wanting to laugh I was ready to look for the cameras as it seems it would be the perfect chance to make a Reality TV show using this situation.
The doors of the building opened and butlers and maids took their positions bowing as we passed by them inside. The Princess told us she would need to leave us here as the heads of the workers here would help us with the rest of our needs, also we were to be ready for the banquet tonight.
We were all given a separate room for each individual, the guys were placed to the rooms on the left side of the upper staircase while the women were on the right.
My room was the closest to the staircase and inside there was a large bed with all the necessary furnitures. The total size of the room was seven by ten meters which were huge compared to my own.
Since we were given time to relax before we were called down to eat I took the chance to lie in the bed, it was well cushioned with fluffy blankets and pillows but lacked the springs I was used to.
From the sunlight that passed through the window, it was most likely sometime passed midday, about three in the afternoon give or take. Feeling that I could sleep at any moment I raised myself from the bed and began exploring the room more but only found the essentials such as towels in the closet with no extra clothes. A desk near the bed contained paper and ink with a feathered type pen and envelopes that were made to be sealed as the necessary tools were included. Nothing else stood out in the room, sadly it seems I will have to survive without electronics while living here.
Twenty minutes went by as a maid went around telling us that food was prepared and we should hurry as we needed to clean ourselves for the coming banquet later.
Since I was the first one noticed and I was in a state of starvation I didn’t care if I looked strange, I ran downstairs to avoid the crowd before the rest are informed. The dining room was supposed to be on the right side just under the area where the boy's rooms were at.
A maid was stationed in front of the dining room waiting for the group but since I was the first one there and a bit impatient she let me through. The large room had about ten or more small round tables in which we could all sit in groups of six and a large table that had staff ready to hand out trays.
I was given one of the trays from the large table and took my seat in front of the area that was hit by the sunlight.
Nothing beats eating while watching a landscape as the window nearest to me was opened letting fresh air inside the room. A lake could be seen in the distance with a forest behind it, this was outside the walls of the castle so this building was high enough to be able to see over the walls surrounding the town.
Concentrating on my meal it contained five separate dishes, one was a normal soup but well season. The second was a bowl with a type of meat, the taste was comparable to that of a cow. A salad containing various leafy vegetables with some berries which were sour acting as a lemon for the third dish. And the final two were bread slices with cheese and something along the lines of mashed potatoes.
It was when I was cutting up the meat in small slices when the others began entering the room. The first was a group of guys that were making a fuzz about the maids followed by some girls that scornfully looked at those guys, most likely because they were going on about bust sizes.
Since it was starting to get crowded I hurried with my meal not wanting to be here when the place gets full.
We were told we needed to be measured as soon as possible to have formal wear for the banquet. I took this time to head towards the maids in charge of the clothes. I wanted to hurry for there was a bathing facility and I felt the need to clean myself after so much movement throughout the day.
Inside a room full of fabrics two maids who looked like experts with clothing were using tapes to take exact measurements of my body, it ended fast and I was told my wear would be ready in half an hour. I took that time to go to the showers and brought the towel that was within the closet of my room.
In the corner, just before entering the bathing facility someone bumped into me, by the size and shape of the individual's body and the muffled voiced that screamed out the culprit was a girl, she had her face covered by a towel. It was unexpected since I thought that most of the class would be finishing their meals by now so meeting her here caught me off guard.
“Auh, sorry about that.” She was desperately trying to remove the towel that stuck to her wet hair.
Realizing who it was I slowly went behind her before she could regain her sight.
“What? I thought I hit someone…” Finally removing the towel she looked around but with her hair puffed she couldn’t see behind her quick enough.
I tapped her shoulder causing her to jolt forward.
“Hahaha, ha… Sorry about that Liz, you should know better than to walk around like that though, it’s not like we should grow accustomed to this place yet.” Holding my stomach to keep more laughter from coming out I scolded Lisa.
“Sorry I was in a hurry since we don’t know how long the meals will be given out.” While blushing she tried fixing her hair by patting it with her fingers.
“So you haven’t changed much huh, well you better hurry since there still handing them out. I’d say you have at least an hour more till they start cleaning up.” Although we were never too close we have known each other since elementary school having many classes together. I distanced myself when her popularity spiked up during middle school though, I had by then chosen the path of a loner, it was only natural.
But today was the first time I had seen her in this appearance, fresh out of the shower with steam still rising from her wet hair. Looking at her who was less than two feet away she was a natural beauty which didn’t need makeup to attract others, as a guy, of course, I wanted her.
“Wait wh…at… um…. this is…” Flushed crimson red she quickly ran away while not finishing her sentence.
“What was that about…?” I felt somewhat embarrassed, was I too obvious with my stare. I used my fingers to raise my hair clearing both of my eyes to see the figure of her sprinting off towards the girl's section.
I could only shrug my shoulders while heading toward my intended destination.
Comments (0)
See all