--Riverdale city, Arcadina--

"My lord, I'm here to report the status of my mission."

In the luxurious audience room, several knights were currently standing before their city lord.

"Report!"

"My lord, I've successfully bought 1300 new slaves from different cities around the base.

As per your instructions, they are all aged 15 to 18 years old.

We will train them in the way of the sword from now on my lord.

Also, for those who we forced..... we had kidnapped their family members as well, so the lord doesn't need to worry about their loyalty towards you.

Only by training and fighting our battles, will they be able to see their loved ones.

As for their family members, we kept them at the other base my lord... they are working there as farmers and maids." Captain Tomi said.

"Excellent!!

Captain Hook.... what about your mission?

Any news?" Marder asked.

"My lord.... for now, there wasn't any news concerning the mysterious force that killed Master Shannon."

Marder frowned as he listened on.

"But are you sure that the war happened within that valley area?"

"Yes my lord... even though the snow had cleared away most of the evidence, we saw several piles of huge boulder pieces that had several cracks on them.

And from the way that they were spread around, it was safe to say that they had been dropped from the cliffs above.

There were also several deep holes around the valley's road, that also supported our thoughts about people dropping tgese huge boulders from the cliffs on to the valley.

Apart from that, after searching for over 9 more days... we also found several torn knight uniforms with the masters Crest on them... as well as several other rusted swords that were buried deep within the rubble.

Some of these swords had the Shannon family's crests on them my lord." Captain Hook said.

(*Of course Landon had planted the evidence ther, just in case)

"Hmm.... it seems like the battle truly happened there?

To ambush my father at a time like that, meant that the person was aware of my father's summon to the Capital."

In everyone's mind, the culprit was either Alec Barn or Baron Cain.

"Swayze... what about you?" Marder asked.

"My lord.... day in and day out, we have been keeping watch at the roads fervently.

And within this period, those knights from Baymard haven't made any moves to attack us yet." Captain Swayze replied.

"Just as I thought.... those men were never there to harm us in the first place.

Alright.... by the end of this week, send Yves and Shylock to have a look at the city."

"Yes my lord!"

"__"

Far away from the troubles within Riverdale city, a ship full of inquisitive passengers..... were quickly heading towards their vacation destination.

--The Ocean--

'Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!'

The waves swished against the ship in a transient manner.... gently rising and falling steadily, as each wave rolled in as strong and bold as the last one.

Like a living work of art, the scattered rays of light magnified the rich deep bluish color of the ocean... making it seem like an ever changing painting.

"Uncle, are we there yet?" Asked an impatient cute little 6 year old girl, who was currently pouting from boredom.

"You see those tiny figures far from here? That's where we're heading to." Santa replied, while pointing towards Baymard.

For this trip apart from his crewmates, and 30 royal guards..... Santa had brought 26 other people with him.

He had brought those from the royal family with him... along with his mother, father, 3 sisters and their children.

From the royal family, he had brought:

•Former king Carmelo and his wives Megara and Othena.

•Grandpa Adrian.

•Duchess Mina (Carmelo's sister), her husband Duke Richard... and their 3 children: Draven and Alex and Layla.

And from his own family, Santa had brought:

•His father Baron Hamilton and his mother, Olivia.

•His 3 sisters: Nora, Stella, and Willow.... as well as their children and husbands too.

The children were somewhat restless, as they had been forced and dragged in to this vacation by their parents.

What was so good about the place that they were going to?

How different was it from their luxury homes?

In fact, everyone had the same thoughts as well.

Santa had only told them that if they didnt come, then they would miss out big time.... so everything was somewhat mysterious to them.

Duchess Mina's children, who were Penelope's cousin... thought that this brother-in-law of theirs had been duped.

While Santa's nephews all thought that this uncle of theirs had hit his head too hard on a rock.

Just what sort of place was so marvelous that they had to be dragged out like this?

And if it was so great, how come they had never heard of it before?

As for the adults, they were just curious to see what Baymard looked like.

Even though this place could make these strange 'V.I.P' passes..... they still felt like it would never look grand or magnificent as Carona's Capital city.

But a few hours later, they soon realized how wrong they were.

"Oh my heavens!!

Pinch me, I must be dreaming!"

"Mom... what's that?"

"How... How... How did they achieve all of this?"

"__"

As the ship closed in on the harbor, those on board were utterly overwhelmed by the sight before them.

Their eyeballs popped out, and their lips slightly quivered... as they looked at the magnificent harbor that seemed to stretch further into the ocean.

How did they do it?

Adrian squeezed the ship's wooden balcony in excitement, as the ship finally docked at the harbor.

"Welcome to Baymard!

I'm Harbor Guide Frida, and I will be in charge of leading you all to the Coastal Port for Check-in."

Standing before them, was one of Baymard's harbor guides.

Before the ship had docked, the woman had walked over from one of the many office posts around the shores.

Her clothing was strange, unique, classy and gorgeous.

Looking at her, one would think that she was royalty as well.

The woman wore a grey shirt, blue blazer, blue pants had a blue necktie around her neck.

Her hair was tied up, she was wearing a gold colored watch, tiny gold colored earrings, and her blazer had a name tag on it as well.

In fact, she looked like a confident professional boss who knew what to do at all times.

As they followed behind her and listened to her tour guide couldn't help but praise her remarkable manner of speech.

She was telling them the importance of all the other buildings that they had passed by.

She spoke about reporting theft or crimes to the police station a little distance from them... as well as were the areas that are privy to visitors and so on.

Her enthusiastic and warm manner of speech, made them feel very welcomed at Baymard.

They smiled and nodded, as they listened on to the polite lady moving alongside them.

First impressions were always the most important, and so far.... they had been completely sold by Baymard's care and attention towards them.

Forget it!!... Hands down, this was the best port experience that they had ever had.

Standing outside the massive port building, they couldn't help but loom at the beautiful glass like building in awe.

Was this glass?

And how did they gather it all?

Wasn't glass one of the scariest things around?

So how could they have this much?

The men felt like their brains were about to explode just by looking at the magnificent glass building.

In truth, Landon had built it to resemble an airport.... so he had built it using a ton of glass.

The men felt like they would faint anytime from now, just from looking at the entire structure.

How rich was this Landon fellow, to actually allocate all these glass resources in one place?

And how many workers did he use to build it?

Did 50,000 men gather these glass pieces and place them by hand one by one?

Everyone looked at Santa suspiciously.... as they just couldn't come up with any ideas of how this structure was built.

At the center of the building, the words 'Coastal Port' was written in bold red for all to see.

Again, at the front of the building, they could also see a massive strange flag hanging around the building.... (obviously this flag was Baymard's national flag)

Everyone kept turning around in circles, as they moved forward in amazement.

And just when they got close to the huge glass doors, magic happened.

'Shoop!'

The door opened on its own.

--silence--

Everyone froze as they looked at the magic doors.

Of course the doors could open due to sensor systems which were pretty much a 4 step method to produce.

Sensor systems already existed, as that's how temperatures and pressures were controlled in the industrial plants... as well as the streetlights all around.

The guide looked at them from inside and smiled warmly at them, while indicating that it was okay for them to cross over these mysterious doors that led to another dimension.

But once they saw Santa cross over while smiling at them, they quickly sucked in a lot of air and moved forward as well.

"Old geezers, why are you hesitating now?

You're scared right?" Santa said playfully.

"Hump! Who's scared?" Carmelo replied.

"Damn brat!!...If you can do it, then I can do it too!!" Adrain said.

Everyone looked at the duo and shook their heads helplessly.

This father and son were exactly alike.

Once they saw Santa safely in, the children quickly rushed in as well.

They were quite curious about this new world that they had been tossed into.

What other magical items could they find?

As they passed through the mysterious glass door, their excited hearts began pounding as hard and loud as a drum.

A new world, new adventures.