Every new year before midnight, in the capital of Zemiranda, Adeios, there was the same event. A humbling one, to say the least: every commoner could go to the main plaza of the city and see the royals who'd come to greet the population. Of course it was still just for those who lived in Adeios, so there wasn't much of an issue with bandits and dangerous individuals alike.

No matter what, the royals had incredible protection during this event, given by theirselves. After all, there was a reason why they were at the top of society: they were known to be the strongest mages in the continent, if not the entire world, nobody who had not prepared for it could even dream of defeating one, much less the entire family. To avoid rebellions there still was a good amount of public officials that'd try to keep the crowd calm, but for the most part this year it was full of excitement.

Why?

Well, this year was special. The princess of the kingdom had just turned fifteen and that'd mean, just like her predecessors, that this would be the first public showing that she had. Rumors pervaded the entire commoner population; some thought she was a heart-shattering beauty, others spread the rumor that the new heir was extremely horrific in appearance. The truth was that all of these claims had no solid basis: nobody had any clue of what she looked like.

Her father and mother had, like all previous generations, done an excellent job of making sure that only the highest ranked royals could see her. That was an integral part of the education of the child in their opinion; making sure she wouldn't be recognized would allow a princess that would be held in such a high regard later on to be treated like a commoner during the early stages of her life, learning new things without any fear of danger or special treatment.

This treatment also implied that when twenty minutes prior to the new year, an enormous carriage lit up in the dark night and as high as a one floor building came up, everyone was cheering in happiness. The Adeios Plaza was prepared for these kinds of events; similar to a Greek theater, the carriage arrived to the lower end of the circular hole in the plaza, used for music and speeches during the year. The rest of the city was similarly uneven: it wasn't built on plains which meant that the enormous buildings and small streets that passed through them in the crowded capital seemed one higher than the other, an apparent asymmetry.

Nobody liked such a thing, except for one person.

A youngster between crowds and crowds of commoners in the highest part of the theatre, the one that was the furthest from the royals, waiting and wondering how the carriage worked. It definitely had multiple rooms and not every one of them was open to the public; it was as big as some of the houses.

His face was nothing special; his features were rigid, his countenance skinny and his eyes lifeless as he observed the spectacle under his feet. The moment he was waiting for soon came.

The carriage was also special because, instead of a door, it had curtains which, when dropped, always showed the royals in their greatness. But the young boy didn't mind the red on the curtains either; he felt like it was poetic how lit up it was in contrast to the faces of the commoners that he could barely see in the night. They hadn't even spared any lighting system for those on the upper part of the theatre, just as he had expected, yet he didn't mind.

As the curtains rose three figures appeared, everyone quite distinct from the other. But they should've been four, because the first part of the spectacle should have the four most important royals participating. And that was a particular that he didn't skip at all.

Of those three people, an obvious focus could be immediately noticed. She was in the center, between a blonde-haired man who seemed to be a gentle giant because of his calm and soft blonde-colored facial features and his enormous height and a woman with the same hair color he had, plus a pair of enchanting green eyes and a face that seemed extremely smart despite the fact it was clear she was the oldest between the three.

In the center lied what the commoners would later refer to as ‘an angel’, a girl whose skin color made no sense even to vampires for how white it was. One couldn’t even say that was her main characteristic, considering she had inherited the same green eyes of her mother and the soft features of her father, along with beautiful white colored hair that made anyone think about her beauty for at least one second.

The boy, who couldn’t say he hated beauty, was enchanted for a second as well before going back to his rational thinking mind.

”She dyed them. There’s no way in hell with four blonde-haired grandparents and two blonde-haired parents one can be born with white hair.” That was the conclusion he had arrived to. “Hmm, interesting. I may need to stay here a little bit longer,” he concluded before finally taking a seat in the crowd and happily watching the spectacle, fully aware of being able to gaze how much he wanted without being noticed for a second.

-=-

But right before the curtains were opened, that same princess that everyone was praising for her gorgeous look asked a question to her mother.

”Why is our uncle not coming?” She showed no particular care, just a small amount of curiosity.

”He wants to make a spectacular entrance. You know him, he’s eccentric but he does his job well...” answered her father instead, knowing what bad things his wife might otherwise say if he let her talk.

Showing her dissatisfaction with a smile, that same old-fashioned woman pointed at the roof upon them.

”That’s a metal detector, my dear. It’s been here for ages, so the soldiers couldn’t bring in pointed weapons to betray us.”

”Like they’d do that,” answered her husband with blind trust.

”How do you know? How can you know these kinds of things?” Disrespectfully replied the Queen of the Kingdom, Melenia Asahara.

”Why would they even think of it? We’ve been nothing but good to them!”

As the two kept being in their own world, the princess decided it was time to open the curtains and make them get their act going; at least, that’d be more presentable. But in reality, all she was thinking was: ‘let’s get this done as quickly as possible.’

When her beautiful face was shown to the clapping audience, she could hear the royal announcer exclaim with all of his might:

“People of all ages, nobles and commoners, this is your Princess, Silver Asahara!”

Just as she was trained, she quickly smiled to the audience in front of her. Making sure to be as fake as possible, just so they’d enjoy it more. After all, she was sure someone would understand the meaning behind her actions, behind her hair. She wanted to collect some hate.

“My greetings, graceful populace of Adeios! I hope to fulfill my future role as Queen as much as I love every single one of you!” No lies there, both values being zero—those were the thoughts in Silver’s mind.

She wasn’t bored of life, the contrary, she had the most fun when others were in pain.

In the meanwhile, the crowd’s cheers were interrupted by a loud voice, screeching and screaming.

”There I am! The General of the Army, Loyd Asahara!” Said a person on top of the vehicle, wearing a medieval cape and showing a full fledged smile—Silver’s uncle.

”Poor idiotic man,” the young girl thought in her mind as she saw how he had climbed all the way to the top of the carriage to talk to his peers. He really loved them, huh.

”Think of what’s here now.” Melenia reminded her daughter, who was lost in thought as usual.

She only nodded, respecting her mother figure, then continued the show.

Meanwhile that was going on, a youngster was allowed on the other side of the carriage, the one that wasn’t lit up, where the royal announcer stood on a chair, microphone in hand.

”Have you checked?” That person asked to the brown-haired announcer, whose eyes suddenly shot wide open as he realized who he was talking to. After a few seconds of shock he muttered a slight: “yes,” to which that young man nodded.

”Great,” he concluded.

Then, as he saw figures arriving, he sent a small kick the way of the announcer and said: “Uncle Sivien, are you fine? It seemed to me like you really hurt your vocal chords there...” 

A perfect cover-up in a loud enough voice. In fact, just one second after Loyd Asahara came to check who had intruded their privacy without being seen by the guards, but he was immediately moved by what he heard.

He jumped on the spot from the top of the carriage to the floor and exclaimed in awe to the child in front of him:

”You came al the way to this spot from the seats to check on your uncle! You have to be the sweetest child ever!!” Not used to affection from his own, the exuberant Commander made that a big deal. But the youngster was fine with it, until...

”The people have to know!” Then, he took the microphone the announcer held in his hands and said:

“This kid here realized their uncle hurt his vocal chords while announcing and he arrived to help! Can we have some cheers for him?!”

And they erupted, probably just because of how loved Commander Loyd was.

”What’s your name, kid?” He asked, microphone still in his hands.

Seeing how the situation had literally turned to the worst possible, the young boy didn’t sigh and simply answered: “Aen Lancaster.” His voice serious but somewhat inspiring was completely different from his uninspiring appearance.

Before long, the other three royals had gone down from the carriage to see what was going on.

Of course, everyone had their priorities: the Queen immediately reached Loyd with rage in her eyes for having ruined her daughter’s first public appearance, the King reached the royal announcer to know if he really was fine.

Seeing the opportunity, Aen decided to make his way back before they could stop him with some useless small talk. He knew half of the people here didn’t even want him.

But he was stopped by an angelic voice behind him.

”Where do you think you’re going?” While the tone was mostly hateful and ironic, he thought the voice itself was really harmonic. Thinking this could only be the oh-so-loved princess, the young man saw no harm in talking to her before anyone could. He knew the Queen and King well, but could have used some information about her.

”Away. I’m not in my element here between these charming and lovely royals.” He explained, to which he was met with a scoff. 

“I can see that this is not your element, I have eyes.” 

“Sweet of your highness to acknowledge my existence,” muttered Aen, not being able to resist a word fight. While he knew his persona had to be calm, timid and controlled, this person reminded him too much of Papaya. They totally weren’t the same but had the same kind of delusions. If he could change the blue-haired noble girl, this one shouldn’t be an issue.

”Keep talking like that and you’re going to get executed,” said the princess, stating a fact.

”That’s evil just for the sake of it. Or are you really angry?” He questioned but got no answer.

Seeing the unreadable expression on the princess’s face, Aen realized there was no point in talking it out any further. This person refused to listen, anyway. Then why did she even talk to him first? What was she expecting? Those were questions he couldn’t answer quite yet.

”Ah, whatever,” he thought to himself, “but today my acting game was on point. Nobody would think I was just wasting time.”

And just as he thought that, new guards appeared from the outside of the theatre, up above the reigning royals.

”THE ROYAL PALACE HAS BEEN ROBBED!!”

They exclaimed with their tones as high as possible, making Aen almost smile; it should come to no one’s surprise that nobody was watching anyway, or so he thought.

As she saw that smile on his face for just a second, the princess’s curiosity, already extremely high from the answers she was recklessly given, went up that much more.

”Oh, I really wish I could just slit...” her mind trailed off, but she shook her head to avoid delusions about a commoner she’d maybe never meet. Too much sadism even for her to find him again and torture him slowly, but she had a hint that they’d meet again — there’d be a way to give him the fault for this robbery, for sure.

As she was thinking those irrelevant thoughts, Aen had already vanished and was on his way to somewhere else, unnoticed because of the royals’ terror and everyone’s anger and fear — he had seen the uncle, the king and the queen’s reactions to the fact, but they were all much of the same.

-=-

As he was walking throughout the uncharacteristically empty streets of Adeios, he was stopped by a masked figure that implicitly inspired him to put his mask on as well.

”Great job, Aya. I’m proud of you.” He smiled as he saw the smile on her face and realized the mission had been a success, then pat her head slowly with knowledge she liked to be complimented.

All humans were the same in that in his opinion. If there’s something they truly like, they try to be the best at it. That was also how he could see the growth of her personality; she was a much more mature person since when she was fifteen. She was seventeen now and their organization was two years old and already a behemoth; that was because it was full of people who truly liked, maybe even loved, the final goal.

”I used Writer to take some time, but sadly no particular reaction. I’m not sure it is there, do you know if they know?”

”They don’t know for sure, look at what I found,” Papaya, still blushing from the pat she had received.

”Knew it,” concluded Aen. “Had they known... all of this would definitely not have happened.”

”They are ten thousand steps behind.” Papaya and Aen laughed together in an elegant way for an instant, believing sincerely the situation was funny. They tried to avoid trusting others beyond theirselves, but both felt like the other could have it consciously and it’d not be that bad— the young boy was at a point where he only worked with collaborators he perfectly trusted, he’d never doubt her after all.

”To think that Lar Zan’s Ruins, because of its enormous magic power, is affected by the shrinking quality of magic more than anything else in our world...” He still thought about the gigantically important revelation that Papaya had given to him.

”Yeah, it should be really small now, like a ring.” Pointed out Aya, reminding him of what she had told him yesterday.

”I do have an idea of where it might be, then. There’s only one way to tell. Plus, if the princess gets it, our world is going to be much worse.”

”I’ve always wanted to see you die.”

”Trust me, I’d not be the only one. That person wants God on a crucifix.”

”That’s very specific.”

”Oh right...” Aen laughed to himself, enjoying these small interactions with a friend, some solace in these times where he tried to be as calm as possible but couldn’t stop some of the nerves. Sometimes that’d make him slip up details like the previous one that could make Aya know of the only thing he didn’t want to tell her, but in general he enjoyed her company.

”Before leaving your family, did you have a sister, Aen?” She asked as they went to the darkest part of the road, ready to disappear from any unwanted eyes.

”Nope, but I have one now.”