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Riou and Maximilian arrived at the castle in the nick of time. The festivities were starting and everyone was sitting down on the large tables at the mess hall just like lunch time.

The boy rushed to his room to change into his new outfit and went back to the hall. But the new attire was not comfortable. His movements were restricted by the fabric in a strange way he was not used to, that was probably intended to force a posture at all times thought the boy.

As he reached the hall once again, there were only a couple seats left at the table. He noticed the gaze of many eyes upon him, one in particular was stronger than the others and quickly caught his attention.

At the very center of the table was the King Elrik Strongheart, to his left was his wife Hanna, to his right his son Kasius. But beside the queen was the source of his uneasiness, the princess was staring at him with quite angered eyes.

Riou forced a smile and went for the last chairs available. It was the farthest away from the royal family, at the very last spot on the table to the left side of the king.

The mess hall was ornamented with new items, there were flowers and extra purple silk cloth hanging from the walls and pillars with the lion’s crest on the that were not there during the day.

Guests were sat down while the servants kept coming into the room bringing food and drinks to them.

To the right side of the king’s there were the 5 knights, Bhalrom was the one on the nearest seat to the prince in the perpendicular table. Beside him came the other ones, all older men, each with a distinct color to its cape. Bhalrom was purple and the next man was green. Riou thought him to be way too fat and old for a knight. Clearly a man that was past his glory days, he had curly red hair and a large disgruntled beard. His beard was dyed purple by the wine he was drinking.

The next Knight was wearing a yellow cape, his hair was black and trimmed short. He had a very clean shaved face. His posture was good but did not pass a strong military presence as Bhalrom did.

The next was wearing blue, he seemed the oldest of them all, bald at the top of the head with white hair around his head. He had many wrinkles around the eyes and displayed a big white mustache.

The last knight was wearing a Red cape. The same tone as his long ponytailed hair. But he seemed much younger than the others. But he resembled Bhalrom mannerisms unlike the others he looked like a soldier.

On the left side of the king, on the table in front of the knights were the court mages, all dressed in robes once again. Following the same pattern of colors except that they had 2 more people than the knights. One more purple and one more yellow.

Riou noticed the small red haired girl was wearing purple and sat at the last seat of the mages. The first one and closest to the royal family was a woman wearing purple as well.

Riou concluded that purple was the color of the royal family supporters.

The remaining seats were used by the nobles. Even the man that the princess won against was sitting amongst them, he was overly bandaged around his shoulder from the incident in the morning.

Max approached the table shortly after Riou had sitted. Gathering everyone’s attention.

Max was already preparing to sit on the boy’s side. But before he could do so, the king shouted to him "Nonsense, the Great Magus should never sit near the edges, my friend, please join me on my table, put a chair for him beside Kasius."

Maximilian graciously bowed to the king and glanced at Riou apologetically before joining the king’s table.

Didn't take long for the food to finally reach the boy, he was literally the last to get food near his seat.

There were many kinds of sauces, breads and meat. For drinking there were mead, wine and other spirits. And by the servants movements, they had been flowing through the tables like water. Many of the nobles were past their limits by that time.

Far away from Max, Riou was a bit isolated and didn’t have much to do, so he just observed the behavior of those he could see.

The first thing he noticed was the nobles sucking up to the knights and court mages, he noticed that the red faction was weaker than the others as he received much less attention then the green and yellow ones. The green knight was by far the preferred by them.

Which was weird, the green knight seemed to be a buffoon, eating and drinking while barely paying attention to the nobles trying to talk to him. He ate and drank as if there was no tomorrow, he gave off an air of inadequacy and graceless when compared to the others.

The blue came across as a stiff traditionalist, avoiding all attempts of conversation while the yellow knight, well. His eyes were focused on Riou for some reason, noticing the exchange of glances, the boy just smiled and waved to the man, to which the knight just smiled back.

A shiver ran down Riou’s back ‘Better keep away from that guy from now own’

When everyone had eaten and drank enough, the king got up claiming the attention.

"Thank you all for coming today, this was the fifteenth celebration of my daughter’s triumphs. And as a maiden of the north she is entitled to it. And as a father of such a skillful warrior, I'm proud of her strength as well" He said gladly, looking at his daughter who elegantly nodded accepting the compliment.

"But as a king, I grow weary that no one will ever be up to meet her high standards.” the whole room laughed and clapped for the king.

“I’m not from the north, but I must respect the tradition. So here as a father, I must ask my daughter. You who have fought for the fourth time against lord Gilbert Bosche, despite having won the fight, do you find him worthy of receiving your hand in marriage?" asked the king.

"No father." A cold, immediate response from the princess.

"Very well then, may the rites continue" proclaimed the King.

"Father!" interjected the prince "There were two challengers... should you not extend the question to the second as well?" said the mocking prince, clearly intending to ridicule his sister in front of all the lords.

The king looked apprehensively to his wife who gently gave him a calm and collected nod.

"Very well, we must honor the tradition in all forms… as it was his first time on the challenge, I bid the contender to come before me, so we all can see you."

Riou dropped his head, ‘Damn you Kasius... can't I get a break?’

“Please, come to the front” insisted the king.

‘I should have stayed in the drinking bear... damn, let’s get this over with. I go there, he talks, she says no, prince comments some dumb shitty remark... blabla, everybody laughs and then I'm done’ He though encouraging himself.

Riou stood up and started to walk towards the front table in the space between them. When Maximilian saw who was walking he widened his eyes and tilted his head not believing nor understanding.

Riou just gave a wry smile and shrugged to his friend ‘it sort of happened’.

From his right he could see the princess, piercing him with her crystal eyes once again.

The king addressed the hall "This young man is my guest for the time being, his name is Riou. a survivor that found his way to our kingdom. He is under the protection of Maximilian Eindenwald and the Knight Captain Bhalrom. Despite his young age, he is already an honorary member of the First Army."

The murmur began to spread as wildfire in the hall. Riou looked around and saw everyone whispering with suspicious and doubtful eyes. The prince already knew about Maximilian support, but he could not believe the First Army evaluated a boy so highly.

Riou felt the stronger gaze intensifying on his right once again. He knew the source and tried to avoid her eyes to the best of his ability.

But eventually he peeked in her direction.

He saw the elegant princess, with a fire on her blue eyes, looking angered towards him. And he had no idea why.

"That must be the wrong father! You couldn't possibly mean that this boy is qualified to be part of the First Army, Bhalrom, please explain so we can understand." said the upset prince.

Bhalrom looked at the king that nodded to the knight, allowing him to continue.

"It is indeed a rare fact for the First Army to concede such grace, but nonetheless the boy stayed with the company and trained with the very best of our men for a month. I’m not saying he is ready, but he did show proof of his improvement day after day. He has the talent to become a great swordsman, despite his young age. He more than once displayed the rare qualities that the First Army that we seek in our soldiers, skill, honor and courage. When he comes of age he will be a fine addition to the First."

The hall thundered in the commotion caused by the knights' words. Many commoners wanted to join the first army as it pays well and if you were a good soldier and proved yourself, the king would personally reward you to the extent of your deed.

‘The stigmas of this society run deep, they rile up for anything regarding the commoners, they really don’t want to see any of them succeed it seems’. The thought crossed his mind ‘Well, I guess there was no way to avoid some attention’ he looked towards Max who was calmly listening to the commotion.

"You sure jest Bhalrom!" Shouted the prince getting the attention of the crowd once again, Riou could not deny the prince’s ability, Kasius really knew how to be the center of all attention.

"How can this be possibly true, we all saw how the boy barely escaped alive from the duel this morning. He couldn’t even attack once! So how could he enter into the most prestigious army of the kingdom?"

"I never said he was ready to enter, all it was said was that he had potential and with a couple of years of training he would surely be able to join, once he enters the appropriate age" Retorted Bhalrom.

Once again the room thundered with whispers and talking.

Riou on the other hand was just there waiting, as if he had no part no interest in such conversations. As if he had taken no offense by Kasius' words.

"Enough!" Shouted the king, “if you want to discuss the matter we will do so at the appropriate time. This should have been a fine and calm evening to appreciate Eileen's victory, but since everyone is so fired up over trivialities, you are all dismissed!" Concluded the king sitting down,

The nobles looked at each other and then to the king. He was not joking.

They quickly bowed towards the king and began to leave in an orderly fashion as commanded. Soon only the Royal family remained at the hall.

The king went to talk to Kasius about his attitude, while the princess remained sat with her light purple dress a bit anxious.

The queen, noticing the princess restlessness, approached her "What is my dear?"

But she received just silence from the princess.

"Come on now... I know something is bothering you” She smirked and approached Eileen even more “It’s the boy, isn't it?" she said knowing her daughter very well.

The princess looked at her surprised, and as if she was about to say something, she stopped.

Hanna nodded "You got mad because of that fight didn’t you?"

Eileen's eyes looked away from her.

"I'm a daughter of the north too, I know what you are going through”

She turned to her mother rather confused “So why am I feeling this? It’s burning me from the inside and I don’t know why”

“I’ve watched all your duels. And for all these years, this was the first time you had trouble fighting someone. And as he forfeited the fight before you were satisfied with the result, you are mad at yourself as if you didn’t deserve the victory, am I right?”

Eileen didn’t know how to respond to that so she asked her mother “I knew it! He was holding back wasn’t he? Why didn’t he fight me seriously? Maybe that way I’d be able to find a way to win against his defences”

"But what if you couldn’t take him if he was seriously fighting?" retorted the mother trying to hide a smile.

Eileen understood what that meant, he could have married her if he won. Strangely, she had not thought much about that side of the problem. She was not sure if she would win or lose if he fought seriously, but she sure did want to see him at his full potential.

"I don’t think I’d lose either. I don’t want to marry a boy. He is far too young and not part of any family, so that’s out of question".

"But do you think he was a worthy adversary?" questioned her mother.

She paused for a moment and "Yes" finally said the princess recognizing he was the best fighter she faced so far.

"By the rites, if he had won, would you have accepted him?" continued the mother.

The princess remained silent, clearly conflicted.

The mother held her tight and kissed her in the forehead.

Noticing that the sparks in her eyes remained strong, her mother smiled and continued "If you still need answers, why don’t you go ask them? Only he can put your mind to rest now" Said the mother, looking tenderly at Eileen.

The princess nodded and left the hall towards the guest rooms with a clear purpose in mind.

After scolding Kasius, the king went to his wife as he noticed Eileen leaving the hall in a hurry.

"How was she?" the king asked.

"She’s young and doesn't know what she wants" Answered the queen.

"Reminds me of someone I know... you were the same at her age." Joked the king.

"And that's why I'm so afraid for her, but things seem to finally be getting better" said the smiling mother. “He is a bit young, but he was able to spark something within her… this is the first time I’ve seen her like that.”

The king immediately shook his head “What do you mean? You can’t possibly be thinking… no, no, we know nothing about him”

“I like him. Max and Bhalrom like him, and those two hate everybody. He proved to be smart and kind by forfeiting the duel, and Elrik, he stood in front of a king and nobles, unphased by it. His eyes were sharp as knives. I know he is no commoner, I can feel something great coming from him”

“Don’t you use your daughter of the north senses now … I don’t like where this conversation is going”

“If it weren’t for these feelings and senses, I wouldn’t be here today, would I?”

The king puffed, not happy.

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Riou was walking to his room when a longing sentiment finally caught up to him. Seeing the royal family and all that ruckus caused by Kasius, it reminded him of the people he had left behind when he was thrown into that world.

How would they be feeling, now he suddenly vanished? If only he could send a message, tell them he was alright. That he would come back as soon as he could.

As he walked by the corridor, he saw a balcony under the moonlight.