When the honorable four queens arrived, to their big surprise almost no one noticed them. What they saw was a crowd of men gathered at the side of the hall, shouting and pushing each other as if trying to get closer to something or someone. Female guests, on the other hand, stood on their original spots with bleak and gloomy expressions on their faces.

Some ministers, government officials and foreign ambassadors went to greet the queens and the awkward situation was mostly avoided.

The crowd calmed dawn when the arrival of the king was announced. Despite that most of the men were still stealing glances at the ‘five flowers of the Aurora’.

During the evening king and his queens to their surprise got an unusually high amount of marriage proposals. It was normal for a few to come up, but this time there were dozens, even some brave ones from minor aristocratic families. The king was not stupid and soon realized who the perpetrators were, but he just smiled and decided to think about it later. To play politics was still the main objective of this event.

Nick, Zia and Mason spent their time chatting. Mason turned out to be quite a pleasant company and being heir of a business hegemon he knew most news, intrigues and open secrets in the capital. Since Nick and Zia were mostly spending time in the woods and palace, they didn’t know much so they mostly listened while asking few questions. Mason was not bothered with this, on contrary, he quite liked both of them.

As per tradition, king arrived last and left first. After his departure Nick was going to leave as well. He would have disappeared long ago if not for the formal obligation to wait. But Zia didn’t want to leave as this whole event was very new to her – for now she was too young to attend and only her sisters managed to officially ‘sneak her in’.

As energetic as always she moved around quite a bit, leaving Nick and Mason to their boring conversations. She went over to her mother, chatted with her, then kicked her route open to see her sisters, openly laughed at their blushing suitors while pointing a finger in their faces and then went back to Nick’s side fully satisfied.

In fact, she was quite noticeable as well. Although she was still a child, her attire was so unique, that most people couldn’t help but stare for a while to process.

Since Nick designed the first medieval business woman’s suit in history, the lucky recipient refused to wear anything else, while continuously ordering new ones in different colors and with new embroilments.

Today she wore a white one that was embroiled with golden flowers. She still wore her red belt and red headscarf – these accessories remained the same despite her changing the costume to green, blue, yellow or any other color.

There was one pair of eyes that was glued to her from the moment she entered the hall. Even the entrance of the ‘five flowers’ didn’t change that. Prince Andrew from Nola kingdom was staring at Zia as if he had found a precious gem. He was twelve years old this year and was decently talented as well. Currently he accompanied his country’s ambassador with intent to get away from the boring palace and to gain some experience abroad.

Nola kingdom was located west of the Sun kingdom and was pressed between Northern empire, obviously, from the north and Lori kingdom, from south. ‘Pressed’ was the correct term, because these both neighbors were anything but peaceful. Thankfully the border with Lori kingdom was Eternal river and the thick jungle in the north didn’t allow barbarians to easily invade either. In addition to that the Sun kingdom was their ally for several hundred years and the strong trade routes as well as political support helped to keep their adversaries away. More importantly the jungle covered most of Nola kingdom’s territory and it was not as tempting as the fertile plains of the Sun kingdom.

Prince Andrew watched Zia for a while and his face was filled with displeasure when he saw her excitingly chatting with the blond kid beside her and weirdly bumping her fist with his from time to time. He was trying to figure out how to approach the princess and how to do it in the most impressive way possible.

His chance came, at least he thought so, when according to the tradition youths started to perform, or rather show off their skills. It was obvious that this way girls were trying to boost their popularity and young men – to impress these girls.

One after another they came in front and performed – some were playing music instruments and sang, others were reciting classic literature and poems. Crowd was politely applauding the ‘brave’ youths who came forward and gave cheers of encouragement and compliments. Obviously there were five girls who didn’t need to perform, their performance was already done and like five primadonnas they were enjoying endless attention from the crowd.

“I am the second prince of Nola kingdom, Andrew. The poem I just recited was dedicated to you.” Prince had approached Zia, politely bowed and introduced himself. Behind him standing were his two aides, probably following the young prince to make him look more important.

And then … there was nothing. Zia just finished telling Mason story how she disturbed Nick and he fell into water. The three of them laughed heartily and didn’t even notice the young prince. The situation was beyond awkward and the prince’s red face was a telling proof of that.

“What is this thing you are doing from time to time?” Mason was confused seeing how Nick and Zia bumped their fists again after her telling a joke.

“Oh, that’s just what friends do if they do something fun together, agree on something or tell a good joke.” Zia expertly explained the ‘definition of fistbumping’.

“Can I try?” Mason asked in confusion.

“You first have to tell a good joke!” Zia seriously replied and three of them started to laugh again.

At this point it seemed that there will be steam coming out of prince Andrew’s ears. He had never been so humiliated! In Nola kingdom only his brother enjoyed better treatment, but even then he was not far behind.

“Princess Zia, I am …” He tried to hold himself together and spoke up again, except found himself interrupted by the girl of his dreams.

Zia turned to him and said, “I’m busy, go away!” And then turned back to her companions.

When Nick saw what was happening he tried to help prince out, “Sorry, sir, princess currently is entertaining important guest from the Meyer family, she is busy.” He politely said.

All the prince had to do now was politely say something and go away and the situation would be diffused. But he couldn’t. Before coming over he played out possible scenarios multiple times, but none were this catastrophic.

“Who are you? How dare you to speak to me like that?” He almost shouted.

People nearby were already starting to watch the upcoming show. Many knew who prince Andrew was and to the adults the situation was clear from one glance.

“I am the princess’s follower.” Nick plainly stated. He started to get annoyed by this the kid who couldn’t appreciate his good intentions.

“Being a lowly follower, how dare you to speak to the prince like that? Who the hell do you think you are?” Andrew’s two followers seemed to be as offended as he was and one of them verbally attacked Nick. Following this shout already half the hall was watching the children argue. Some people found it just noisy, others embarrassing and few – adorable.

“I am sorry, but we only have one prince in the Sun kingdom and at the moment he is over there creating contacts and learning politics.” Nick pointed at the prince Helio some distance away who, in fact, was discussing something with foreign diplomats from the Eastern continent.

Nick noticed him already earlier and guessed that the king has ordered him to make connections here as a practice. Since the lecture in king’s study there was no way Helio was running around like he did during his ‘happy days’. And now Nick thought – why wouldn’t he give Helio some moral boost or increase his reputation. Even if Helio has done some stupid things before, he was one of their own after all.

“Our prince has no time to run around and shout at children, he will govern this country one day, protect us and lead it to even better prosperity.” Nick confidently said, “If you want to be a real prince, you should learn from him.”

Most people in the hall heard his little monologue and many were nodding approvingly and smiling at the stunned prince Helio who noticed Nick for the first time.

But prince Andrew finally couldn’t hold back and lost it.

“You peasant! I’ll kill you! Duel me!” He shouted.

“Why would I do that? I’m busy. Let’s meet another day.” Nick smiled and answered.

They were just children, what was the fuss about? He gave a signal to both his companions and prepared to leave.

What he missed what the tradition on continent to arrange marriages between families. As prince Andrew saw it, this was the perfect opportunity to get Zia as his future wife and this little peasant ruined everything!

Zia was confused. She didn’t understand what exactly newcomer wanted, she didn’t even think in these categories and even more – she wouldn’t accept any talks about marriage because she had no time – she needed to get stronger!

“Stop right there!” Andrew shouted, “I challenge you to a duel! If you have any honor you will accept!”

“Don’t you think it is stupid? We are children. What duel? We should rather go to palace’s kitchen and get some snacks.” Nick smiled back.

Everyone around them knew he was right, except for the young prince.

He tried even harder to ‘regain his honor’, “I see that your parents have given birth to a worthless coward!”

Then Zia couldn’t bear it any longer and said to Nick, “Just kick his ass, he is annoying.”

Nick looked at her – she definitely wanted to incite a fight. Nick was her friend, but at the same time he was her rival and she was very curious to see how strong he really was in a fight.

He shrugged. He didn’t even care about this whole situation and only wanted to go back to his cottage, and practice alchemy before going to bed, “Princess ordered to kick your ass, so I’m sorry, but I don’t have a choice. When and where would you want me to do it?”

Laughter filled the ball hall. People who heard what Nick said obviously understood that he didn’t really accept the duel, he just intended to punish the prince. But it was obvious he was several years younger and at that age it was a huge difference. And it was almost guaranteed that the prince has already started practicing Qi, he even had ceremonial short sword at his side.

There was no way for little prince to calm down now. He asked his followers, “Where can we duel?”

Both followers were adults and even if they were insulted, they still had their common sense, “There should be fighting arena in the city.” One of them replied.

“Tomorrow at noon in the arena.” Prince Andrew blurted and stomped out of the hall while still fuming.

“Who was that?” Zia asked in confusion. To her knowledge in this palace only she could throw such tantrums.

Suppressed laughter was heard around them. These kids … they didn’t know whom they insulted and didn’t even care.

“Seems to be some kind of a prince.” Nick shrugged, “Now you made me fight. Ar you happy?”

“Of course! This will be fun!” Zia’s little face was all smiles, “Are you coming tomorrow as well?” She asked Mason.

The latter already thought of these cheery kids as his friends, they were easygoing and fun to hang around with. “There is no way I can miss that.” He said.

Then the three of them left and the little show was over. Most of the crowd instantly turned back to the main attraction of the evening – ‘the five flowers of Aurora’.