Unlike the previous city we passed through, the guards of this city quickly allowed us to enter as they recognized Sir Nathan immediately. He pulled one of the guards to the side, reporting to them what we encountered on the way as Caleb drove the wagon further inside the city’s walls. Once they were caught up with the situation just outside the gates, the guard ran off to gather enough men and left to investigate further as well as to recover the remains of their fellow fallen knights.

  Sir Nathan ordered Caleb to take the rest of us to the barracks while he would go off and inform the King, thus once again we split off from Sir Nathan. Kat and Alice waved a quiet goodbye as their uncle rode his horse at full speed in the thunder and rain.

  Caleb introduced us to some of his fellow knights once we had entered the barracks.

  “Didn’t think we’d see you again so soon.”

  “What? Did Sir Nathan finally get tired of you?”

  “Where’s Mabel? That lady still owed me two silver coins from last time.”

  With a heavy heart and sigh, Caleb explained things chronologically to his fellow knights, stopping briefly to calm himself before explaining how we had stumbled upon the remains of squadron six. All the cheering and celebration of Caleb’s return was replaced with a sorrowful silence.

  The knights went about their routine as they got dressed up for their duties, choosing to pat Caleb on the shoulder as they left the barracks one by one.

  After a while, Sir Nathan appeared, his cloak drenched in rain as he muddily made his way into the barracks. “The King wishes to see all of you. Zoe, help everyone clean themselves up please.”

  Although Zoe had already fetched us towels to dry off, she nodded at Sir Nathan’s orders before fetching a basket from the wagon and ransacking the barracks for additional articles of clothing. For us gentlemen, Zoe gave us a clean version of what we were, mostly, already wearing, dark pants and shoes paired with military shirts. The key difference was that the shirts were a muted green instead of our accustomed grey.

  Zoe handed Kat a spare dress as that was the only change in appearance that she needed.

  The ones that needed the most work were Alice and Mira. Though Sir Nathan said there was nothing wrong with giving them the same outfit as us guys, Zoe put her foot down and demanded for the two of them to change into dresses.

  “Sir Nathan, we’re about to meet the King, Lady Mira aside, Lady Alice's attire must reflect her royal position, in which case a beautiful dress is required.”

  Sir Nathan gave a slight shrug. “You heard Zoe,” he said, turning to Alice.

  “Psst, what does Zoe mean by royal position?” Chris asked me in a low voice.

  “She probably means that Alice needs to be all noble looking, since she’s the daughter of a Duke.”

  “I guess, but I thought words like ‘royal’ only applied to, like, kings and their direct descendants.”

  “Maybe she just meant that they should have a similar royal air to that of the King’s.” Though our exchange had started with whispers, our conversation had become loud enough for Kat to hear and turn around.

  “Zoe said royal position because-”

  “Kat. Go get changed already,” Zoe said as she started measuring green dresses up to Mira’s chest.

  Kat pouted. “There’s too many people here.”

  “Understood, gentlemen, let us make our way to the entrance, we’ll make sure to keep everyone out while you ladies get ready," Sir Nathan ordered.

  Alice nodded at her uncle. “Thank you.”

  We stood guard outside for a few minutes before we were called back in by Zoe. It was once we went back in that I became convinced Zoe was capable of true witchcraft.

  In had Mira, our friend, gone inside the barracks only for Mirasol, a beautiful flower, to appear and take her place. The green dress served as the stem, Mira’s face served as the beautiful core of the flower, and Mira’s strands of hair, which were styled into the same pretty hair bun Zoe herself wore, were the perfect, golden petals.

  “I feel really out of my element here,” Mira said with a sigh. “Were the heels absolutely necessary?”

  “No, but I thought that they would look good on you.” Zoe gave her a once-over. “Looks like I was right on the mark, like always.” A smug smile manifested itself on Zoe’s face.

  “Perhaps, but it's still scary how good you are, Zoe.” From behind a curtained changing area, Alice stepped out in a teal dress. Her hair was braided into hoops that hung on the sides of her head, and the slight but precise applied makeup Zoe made her ware made her look even more dazzling than ever before. But it was what she wore on her ears that truly made my heart skip a beat. She was wearing the blue stud earrings that I had picked out for her.

  “Whoa, you look amazing,” Chris said, nudging me in the ribs with his elbow as he spoke.

  “Thank you, Sir Chris.”

  “Hey, what about me?” Mira asked.

  “What about you? You’re pretty regardless of whether you're dolled up or not.” It seemed that Chris’ candid words weren’t what Mira had been expecting, for Mira blushed and quickly hid her face.

  “That’s not fair.”

  Chris laughed at Mira’s shy demeanor.

  “What about me?” Kat walked towards us in a sky blue dress, she held up the hems of her dress as she gave a slight bow and followed it up with a giddy twirl.

  “You are the star of the show,” Chris said before picking Kat and spinning her around until he gently placed her into the arms of Mira who also spun her around. Kat giggled the entire time as the two heroes kept taking turns spinning her around.

  As I watched, I felt a familiar tug on my sleeve as the view of Alice’s shy gaze graced my eyes. “How do I look?”

  I took a massive gulp before answering. “Pretty, beautiful even.”

  Alice took a step closer. “Prettier than Kat?”

  “Yes.”

  Alice took another step closer. “Even more beautiful than Mira?”

  “I never took you for being the competitive type.” Alice placed her foot on top of my toes, pressing down just enough for me to feel them being squished.

  “Answer the question, Sir Noel.”

  “Of course, even more beautiful than Mira.” Alice slowly let go of my foot before smiling to herself.

  “Why, thank you,” she said with glee.

  As I felt the blood flow return to my foot I caught a gaze full of suspicion from Sir Nathan placed squarely on me. I quickly turned away and chose to focus on Mira and Chris, who were still tossing Kat around happily.

  As the trio’s fun died down, it was time for our audience with the King, yet a certain knight wasn’t getting up from the cot he had plotted himself on.

  “Caleb?” Sir Nathan called out. Caleb turned, reluctantly looking his Captain in the eye.

  “Sir?”

  “Nevermind, I’ll tell the King that you are still recovering from your injuries.”

  “I appreciate it.”

  After leaving Caleb behind so that he could hash out his feelings, Sir Nathan guided us towards the King’s main castle inside the stone-walled grounds. Though the guards stationed out front recognized Sir Nathan, they still asked him to vouch for the rest of us. When he introduced his nieces, the guards smiled brightly at the girls, one even offered a piece of candy to Kat who took it happily. Next was Zoe, she gave a slight courtesy bow to which the guards responded with a respectful nod. Finally, Sir Nathan introduced us, the moment he said we were the heroes of legend the two guards prostrated themselves before us.

  “Knock it off, you are both still on duty,” Sir Nathan said, he had been embarrassed by the guards’ display of revelry because it had caused all of the citizens nearby to stop and turn to watch us. The guards apologized and allowed us entry.

  Sir Nathan did his best navigating us to the audience hall while circumventing the curious and nosey guards. “Sorry, I am on official business for the King right now,” he repeated each time a guard tried approaching him. Exhausted and his forehead full of sweat, Sir Nathan had finally managed to guide us to the hall’s entrance. He presented himself, as well as us guests, once more to the guard stationed outside the hall. The guard bowed at us, though not as low or as long as the first set of guards, before opening the door for us.

  Inside were three people staring down at us from the top of the stairs that were at the end of the hall. From left to right, there was a man in robes similar to Father Albert’s, though they were slightly more intricate, a much older man wearing a giant crown on his head and sitting on the throne, and lastly there was, what I could only describe as, a slightly older looking clone of Sir Nathan.

  “My King, Father, brother.” Sir Nathan had addressed the man in the center first followed by the robed man and then ended his address towards the man in Holy Knight’s armor. The King waived his hand, beckoning for Alice and Kat to approach. The moment he did so Kat ran at full speed jumping into his arms.

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  “Grandpa,” Kat cheered as the King proceeded to do the same thing Sir Nathan had done when he had first seen Kat back at the castle. The King stood up and swung Kat around until one of them got too dizzy to continue. By the time they stopped spinning Alice had finally caught up to Kat.

  “Its nice to see you again, your Majesty.” Alice gave a slight bow before raising her head with a smile to look at the King who was still holding Kat in his arms. “Its also good to see you too uncle,” Alice said to the knight beside the King.

  A look of jealous irritation took over the King’s face. “It's not fair, Alice. Why do you openly call Nathan and Maxwell ‘uncle’ while you still only refer to me as ‘your Majesty’?”

  “It's because of the laws, your Majesty,” Sir Maxwell said with a teasing smile.

  “Then I’ll just have to order a new royal decree. Hear that Alice? I will make it so it'll be perfectly fine to refer to me as grandpa.”

  Alice shook her head with a smile. “I’m afraid even if that were the case, I wouldn’t be able to do so.”

  Those of us still at the entrance turned to look at Zoe who was sandwiched right in between all of us. Zoe looked at us with a disinterested look in her eyes. “Hmn? Ah! Did we never mention it?”

  “No,” we all whispered at the same time.

  Zoe scratched her head, as if explaining was going to cost extensive brain power. “Well, Lady Alice’s mother is the sister of Sir Nathan.”

  “We knew that,” we all whispered, a bit louder than before.

  “And their older brother was the former Captain of the Holy Knights and... lets see now... now that brother serves as the King’s personal bodyguard. What else… Oh. Right. The King is the father of all three of them.”

  Then that means Alice,” Luke trailed off.

  “And Kat too,” Mira trailed off as well.

  “Are related to the royal family?” Chris was the only one excited by this revelation.

  It was as if the thoughts of Luke, Mira, and myself merged into one. We all communicated with our eyes and brows.

  “That means…”

  “We’ve been living with not just nobles but…”

  “Members of the royal family!!!”

  It was almost enough to make us collapse where we stood.

  Just as I felt my knees about to give, the King cast his gaze over to the four of us.

  Sir Nathan introduced us all to the three men while Alice introduced Father Zander, his Majesty, King Leo, and Sir Maxwell to us.

  “I’ve heard from my nephew that you have all suffered through terrible ordeals on your travels. For that, I deeply apologize," spoke the King.

  The king bowed his head and when everyone else saw this they too bowed their heads.

  “No, that isn’t necessary your Majesty,” I said as I waved my hands for everyone not to bow. Eventually, the King relented by raising his head in order to hear me out. “I’m just glad that we had such good company and managed to make it here…” My brain almost made me say “unharmed,” but that would have been a lie. Since our arrival, tragedy has been striking at those around us. Whether it was people we hadn’t met, like Liam, or people that had stayed by our side, like Father Albert and Mabel, and even those who we would never be able to meet, like those in squadron six; they all came to mind as I thought of our arrival and travels.

  If we hadn’t been brought to this world, maybe all of these people would have been able to live out their lives without such terrible things befalling them. It was in this deep thought that her voice was like a guiding lighthouse, leading me forward and out of my sea of doubts.

  “I too am glad that we got to travel together,” Alice said. “The precious memories of our trip, though riddled with sadness, are something I can no longer live without.” Her words were about all of us I was sure, but just this once, I prayed that Chris had been right. I wanted her eyes on me and me alone when she spoke out about her cherished feelings and memories.

  “Yeah, it was fun,” Kat cheered. “It was like I had a bunch of brothers and sisters with me.”

  “Indeed,” Zoe said as she took her place next to Sir Nathan. “Tending after the needs of the heroes has been my honor.”

  Sir Nathan stood at attention. “Though at times I felt my capabilities were lacking, having their complete faith and trust given to me has meant more to me than any medal I earned in the war.”

  Seeing our traveling companions- no, our friends speaking so highly of us was almost enough to bring tears of joy to my eyes. Some snifling from the three behind me told me that they were feeling the same way.

  “I see.” The King smiled as the last of his subjects finished speaking.

  “We can talk about everything else tomorrow. It's getting late and I assume all of you are starting to feel hungry from all that traveling.” Thus, after some careful thought, the King invited us to join him and his wife for dinner.

  While we were hoping to visit the Sanctum as soon as we finished conversing with the King, the sudden growls from all of our stomachs made us reconsider.

  We graciously accepted his offer and joined the King and his wife, the Queen, for dinner. Even Father Zander and Sir Maxwell made an appearance.

  Kat sat on her grandpa’s lap as he fed her some of his soup. She joyfully slurped it all causing Alice to scold her sister due to her terrible table manners. Luckily for Kat, the Queen pulled Alice’s attention away from Kat and into a deep conversation. The Queen cast a quick glance on all us heroes only for Alice’s words to make the Queen’s shoot her gaze back onto me. The Queen’s gaze lingered on me for a while and, although I couldn’t hear what they were saying, after noticing the prolonged gaze, Alice pulled the Queen’s attention back to her in a rather panicked manner.

  Odd encounter aside, I myself was seated next to Chris and Father Zandar. Since Chris was busy stuffing his face, I decided to chat away with Father Zander, with our topic of conversation being Father Albert.

  I had just finished explaining how I had met Father Albert, how he had put his life on the line in making sure no harm fell onto our heads, when Father Zandar nodded solemnly.

  “Not many men would have risked their lives for complete strangers, even men of faith such as ourselves would struggle,” Father Zandar said, referring to Father Albert and himself.

  “Thats what makes Father Albert so amazing.”

  Father Zander chuckled. “He certainly is.”

  “Father, can I ask you a question?”

  Father Zander had just finished sipping some of his water when he turned and nodded to me.

  “Father Albert, back in the clinic, momentarily woke up and gave me this.” I pulled the tear-drop necklace and showed it to him.

  He studied it with a curious eye. “Ah, he gave you his mark of Flumen.”

  “He explained that it represented Flumen, and how Flumen is heavily associated with healing and life. But I was wondering if there was any more significance to it.”

  Father Zander stroked his white beard. “Hmm… Well, what you got there is actually the old mark of Flumen.”

  “Old? You mean they changed their symbol?”

  He nodded. “Indeed, according to records, the change occurred the last time a hero was summoned to our world. The church changed from the tear-drop to the rain-drop. It was supposed to signify the happier change that occurred in Flumen’s mythos and history."

  “What were the changes?”

  “Originally Flumen, before being worshipped as the god of all water, was just viewed as the god of rivers. It was to represent the fact that, while water flowing in rivers gave life to humanity, it could also take life from us. Destroying homes with floods, sweeping away the food from streams and oceans, draining up sources of clean water, and even taking our lives directly through the act of drowning.”

  “So, Flumen was viewed as a god of life and death?”

  “Yes, it wasn’t until a wise and powerful mage, the first mage to learn the spell Remeura, claimed that Remeura had actually come to him as divine intervention in their dreams that Flumen’s reputation shifted over from being the god of life and death to the god of water and healing. I’d be glad to give you a longer history lesson after dinner if you’d like.”

  I shook my head. “Thank you for the offer Father, but I’m afraid we’ll all be turning in early tonight.”

  “Ah, you have the visit to the Sanctum tomorrow, correct? I hope you rest well.” A bit saddened by my rejection, the priest offered me a smile as he wished me well.

  After dinner, we were all guided to our rooms, this time we were all given individual accommodations. Finally, I once again had a room all to myself. It was a large room that sat on the third floor of a mansion that stood directly next to the main castle. It had a glamorous balcony that overlooked the entire city. The clouds from earlier, that had left Sir Nathan drenched in rainwater, had long departed from the royal capital. Clear skies now showcased the millions of stars that hid during the day.

  I was staring up at the night sky, blissfully sighing, when I heard a knock at the door. Expecting it to be a servant or maid, I called out to them, “The door’s open.” I heard the door open followed by the sound of familiar sounding footsteps. I turned to see that it was Alice that had entered my room. She had a long coat on, with the ruffling end of a transparent dress peeking just slightly under the coat.

  She’s in her nightgown, isn’t she? I could feel my heart race as my body went numb from all my nervousness.

  Seeing me stare at her peeking gown, Alice blushed profusely, jamming her hands in my face in order to look away. Her fingers, as they were jabbing my face, made me feel rather ticklish. I laughed as I took a step back and pulled her hands away from my face and into my own hands. I gazed at her with a smile on my face, this time it was Alice that was staring, just not directly at me.

  What is she looking at-

  I realized quickly when I felt the faint pulsing of her fingers. I was holding her hands. She wasn’t pulling away and I didn’t want to let go. I held her hands a little while longer and still, Alice didn't pull away.

  “My fingers were pretty cold,” she said as her warm breath condensed in the cold evening air. I squeezed her hand a bit more. She turned he gaze up to glanced up my face. Her eyes were on me and only me. It was only when she closed her eyes did I realize I had been pulling us closer to each other to which she must have interpreted as me pulling her in for a kiss.

  Nope, sorry Chris, I am far too much of a coward, no way I can do this.

  I took a small step back. I’m guessing Alice felt my retreat in her hands because the next thing I knew, Alice had grabbed my wrists and pulled me towards her, giving me a kiss on the lips.

  Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh.

  My mind went blank as the last of my conscious thoughts spiraled out of control. Having the complex thinking part of my brain shut down, I allowed myself to turn to my instincts. I closed my eyes and wrapped my arms around Alice.

  It felt like our kiss had gone on for an eternity, yet neither one of us wanted to pull away. But even eternity comes to an end, in this case, the end came in the form of three individuals barging into my room without bothering to knock even once.

  Chris, Luke, and Mira looked on in shock, not in a bad way but more like a jumpscare in a movie that turns out to be a lovely, heartwarming surprise.

  They quickly shut the door but it was already too late. Alice pulled away from our kiss and I released her from my embrace. I’ve seen Alice very flustered these past few days, but the way the hues in her face glowed and changed color rapidly. Alice proceeded to stammer incoherent words before running out the door in an extremely cute and embarrassed way.

  “Goodnight Noel,” she managed to squeak out as she blitzed past the door and escaped down the hall. She had left the door open, an opportunity to which the three stooges who stood outside my room took as their sign to enter my room.

  Smiles on all of their faces. All three turned to each other and nodded.

  Uh oh, I know that look on their faces very well.

  I tried making a run for it, but I was too slow. All three charged at me, Chris managing to tackle me onto my bed while the other two piled on after.

  After a bit of roughhousing, I managed to settle them down which only led to the next awkward phase of our evening.

  “You dog, telling me you weren’t sure about her, yet here you are inviting her to your room.”

  “Noel, it's not fair, you can’t get a girlfriend before me.”

  “Luke, you’re already dating Luna.”

  “No, no. They were going to date, that's the important and key distinction, Mira,” Chris corrected.

  “Noel, you can’t go any further than kissing, you hear me?” Luke cried.

  “Please, he’s not going to do anything,” Chris said. “If anything, Alice probably took the initiative."

  It was nice that I wasn’t needed for this conversation.

  After I cleared up their misunderstandings and delusions and answered their questions, the three of them begrudgedly agreed to leave my room.

  She really kissed me.

  The thrill of having my first kiss was making my adrenaline pump hard and fast. How would I face her tomorrow? I obviously need to talk with her, but what should I say? It was only after thinking through the immediate future that the bigger issues popped into mind.

  Crap, she’s the daughter of a Duke and part of the royal family, you dummy.

  But, they wouldn’t execute me just because she kissed me. Or would they? Wait, but aren’t I also a hero? And the people of this kingdom love their heroes. In that case, no one is going to kill me over this.

  I had satisfied myself with this answer when a small wicked voice in the back of my mind spoke up.

  I mean, her father probably hates you…

  The one time I thought I was going to get some proper rest in a proper bedroom was ruined by none other than me.