~Sun-world, The Great Wall~
Prince Desmond and his younger brother, Prince Damian, stood at a safe distance with their right-hand maidens, Alethea and Moriah, in front of a large golden gate somewhere in a vast desert.
The large gate was made of three parts: the mid-piece, which was the largest, and two smaller pieces, which looked like two smaller halves of the mid-piece stuck to its left and right sides.
The highest point on the three pieces was horizontally flat, with the mid-piece being higher than the other two.
The base of each piece was shaped like a triangle that went into the ground and locked in place when the gate was closed, and each piece had the shape of the sun embossed into its centre.
A man, wearing a white tight-sleeved jacket, stood in front of the gate.
His white jacket sat on top of black leather innerwear and extended to the ground, with a golden strip along the edges of its two halves.
His face was hidden under the shadow cast by his hood, and a silver sword held by both of his hands and stuck into the sand gleamed beneath the sunlight.
A small group of soldiers, each wearing silver ceremonial armor, stood behind the princes, and they all waited patiently for when the gates would finally open.
Prince Desmond looked uninterested in seeing his father or his brother return from the moonworld.
The dark circles underneath his eyes made him look very tired; he had stayed up for most of the night, celebrating his victory against the rebel group with his soldiers, and woke up with a slight headache.
His right-hand maiden, on the other hand, had a hopeful gleam in her eyes.
She had been waiting for this day to finally come—the day she would see Prince Rowan’s face again.
Her patience had become thin, and she could barely wait for him to cross the border between the moonworld and the sunworld.
Prince Damian just stared blankly at the gates, his gaze unwavering.
He also anticipated the arrival of his brother.
For reasons only known to him, he so much wanted to see Rowan’s face again.
He had a goal to achieve, and Rowan was his starting point.
Moriah wasn’t interested in the affairs of the king or the other two princes at all.
The only superior she knew was Lord Damian, and he was the only reason she was heard today.
The gatekeeper, the mysterious man who stood in front of the gate, raised his head slightly, and his eyes glowed a bright gold-yellow color.
“They’re here,” Damian muttered, his brows furrowing.
Alethea smiled as she watched the gates slowly rise from the ground.
Bright white light shot out from the gap between the ground and the sharp ends of the three gate pieces, and the mysterious man who stood in front of it slowly raised his sword from the ground.
A large gust of wind blew by from within the gates, and the two female soldiers who stood by the princes steadied themselves by pushing their legs apart so as not to be swept off their feet by the heavy breeze.
“I wonder what father’s new bride will look like.
I heard the queen of the Andreia is one of the most beautiful women on the Lunar side,” Desmond said with a smirk.
“Don’t be ridiculous; Father isn’t marrying that woman for her beauty; he only wishes to take control of the entire kingdom so we have a way to conquer all of Moon World after we’ve successfully expanded our territory here.
With the king dead, Father can take his place and seize control of the entire Andreian army by marrying his widow,” Damian responded, maintaining his gaze on the gates.
“Right, but why the Kingdom of Andreia anyway?
There are many other weaker kingdoms in the moonworld,” Desmond asked again.
“What sort of half-witted question is that?
You’re his eldest son and the crown prince, and you keep acting like you’re blind to the happenings of the kingdom.
Andreia is the largest and wealthiest kingdom in Moonworld; many kings have their eyes on it.
If Father doesn’t take the opportunity now that the king is dead, some other king will,” Damian responded, turning to him.
Desmond stared at him for a moment, then turned away, folding his hands against his chest.
“You didn’t have to answer me like that, you know?” He muttered to himself.
“Although I do think it’s time Father finally settled down.
He’s been alone ever since mother died,” Desmond said.
Damian scoffed at his words.
“Father doesn’t care that Mother died; all Father cares about is expanding and swallowing up as many kingdoms as he can.”
Alethea listened to the conversation of the two princes, staring at Damian with a curious look in her eyes.
“And what exactly do you think you’re staring at?” Damian asked as if sensing her intense gaze.
Alethea quickly averted her eyes, looking a little shaken by the sound of his voice.
“That kid scares me sometimes,” she thought to herself as a drop of sweat rolled down the left side of her face.
Her eyes moved toward Damian again, but this time they met with Moriah first.
Moriah pushed out her tongue and closed one of her eyes in an act of silent mockery.
Alethea’s brows furrowed, and she let out a soft grunt, turning back to the gates.
The first group of people to step through the gates were foot soldiers who escorted the king to Andreia.
They had spent a week on the road to the gates, and most of them looked exhausted.
Many of them had already taken off their heavy armor and now only wore leather padding around their bodies.
After the foot soldiers had moved in, the king’s coach rode through the gates, followed by a group of heavily armored knights on both the coaches’ left and right sides.
They rode on royally decorated horses and carried weapons of different kinds.
“With this many soldiers, taking over Andreia would have been an easy task.
But father chose the easy way out; I wonder why,” Desmond said.
“Like I said before, Andreia cannot be conquered as long as the royal bloodline lives.
If he had tried to do so, he would have failed.
Marrying the widow was the best option,” Damian responded.
That could only mean the queen had a hand in her own husband’s death,” Desmond speculated.
“Hmm, good point.
The fact that Father just up and said he wanted to marry a queen from the Moonside when he knows that cross-border marriages have never been done proves that he and that queen already had plans of their own.
I almost feel bad for the poor king,” Damian agreed.
“The important thing is that it worked in our favor; our next move now will be to send soldiers there to fully take control of the place,” Desmond said with a smile.
“An agreeable insight,” Damian replied, nodding lightly.
The foot soldiers stopped a short distance from the princes, and the royal coach rode forward.
The first person to step out when it came to a stop was Rowan, the Dark Knight.
He still wore his dark gray armor and carried his usual grim facial expression.
His eyes read no emotion, and his presence sent chills down the spines of everyone present.
Rowan walked toward his brothers and stopped a short distance from them.
His eyes slowly moved from Desmond to Damian and then closed.
He pushed out a sigh and finally spoke with a low voice.
“I see you two are doing well, brothers.”
”Yes, and I can see you’re doing very well as well.
Did Andreia treat you well?” Desmond responded first with a smile.
“You could say it was a breath of…
fresh air,” Rowan replied, maintaining his cold demeanour.
He turned to Damian slowly, and as their eyes met, Damian’s brows furrowed in annoyance.
“I would like to have a word with you in private after the welcoming ceremony.
I’d like to give you a special welcome of your own,” Damian said with anger burning in his eyes.
“I can’t wait,” Rowan responded calmly and silently, his voice expressing his dominance as the older brother between the two.
“Lord Rowan, welcome back from your journey.
I hope your stay on Moonworld wasn’t too stressful,” Alethea blurted, blushing lightly as she bowed to Rowan.
Rowan turned to Alethea; the moment his eyes met her, his lips curled up into a soft, almost unnoticeable smile.
“It wasn’t.
Thank you, Alethea; I look forward to having dinner with you and the other two maidens at the welcoming ceremony.”
Alethea’s face grew even more red, and her heartbeat grew faster.
“He smiled!
He smiled at me,” she thought to herself ecstatically.