Clayford Aries

When he reached nearer to the entrance, he started to see an increase in the density of the crowd and apart from that, the thing that caught his attention the most were the walls.

He was able to see huge walls which just kept on extending endlessly.

Other people didn't pay much attention to it as if they saw it everyday, but to the boy it was like he was seeing a wonder of the world.

He was in aw but kept on going in the direction of the increasing crowd.

The further he went inside, the higher the height of the walls seemed to get.

And finally he arrived at the entrance gate.

He was able to see several carriages lined up in front of the gate.

The gate was atleast 30 feet tall and 10 feet wide and it was made with stone, the same material which the walls were made of. It had some geometrical designs.

Past the gate, one of the carriages seemed to be standing out more than the others. The carriage was made with some white material and it was decorated with golden floral designs which were glistening like the fireflies in the night.

The carriage door opened and a person walked out of it.

As soon as the person exited the carriage and set his foot on the ground the whole crowd kneeled on their legs.

The man who had just exited the carriage had black hairs which were turning grey. His face looked like he was in his fifties but his body looked very fit which seemed odd for someone his age.

He had an expressionless face.

The wool and fur coat he was wearing couldnt do much to hide his robust build under.

His clothes were also designed with floral gold shape and a dragon figure was seen embroidered on the left side of his chest.

A man in black and white suit supposedly his buttler, came to king and took his coat off, which revealed even more of his body and also a dagger on his waist.

Another figure came out of the carriage and this time it was woman who looked like she was in her thirties.

Along with her a girl also came out of the carriage.

She looked like she was around 8 years old.

Both the woman and the girl had shiny black hairs and a very beautiful face and they were also dressed lavishly.

The woman had a wide smile on her face while the girl had an expressionless face just like her father.

...

The emperor started walking towards the kneeling crowd, towards the direction of a man who was also lavishly dressed but his dress wasnt anywhere near to the emperor's.

As the man in the crowd saw the king approaching him he stood up.

"What brings your highness here." The man asked.

"Do you really not know why I am here? I am here to look for my daughter's groom." He asked before answering it himself.

"Yes but your highness, she isnt of age yet." The man said

"I know of your traditions. I am just here to look for someone worthy of my daughter's hand." He said with a bit of annoyance.

When the man sensed that the king was annoyed he became a bit scared and let them just enter.

He gave a signal to the set of guards which were guarding the gate from inside to escort the emperor to the watch tower.

The guards arranged themselves around the family and escorted them to the watch tower.

The crowd opened an entrance for the escorts to pass through.

The emperor was walking when he noticed a boy, who was particularly standing out in the crowd. The boy was wearing plain leather clothes whereas the others were wearing colourful clothes.

The emperor as soon as he saw the boy he thought that the boy was a farmer's son.

He leaned on to the man's ear who had just ordered the guards to escort them and asked "Who is that boy in the clothes of a vermin and why is he here?" He had a hint of disgust while asking those questions.

The man was taken by surprise when he heard the question since no one should be allowed in, without proper and appropriate clothing. But when he recalled that the king used the word boy he understood who the king was talking about.

He replied "Your highness, he is the abandoned son of the Aries family. The family had enrolled his name in the event before they abandoned him and since we have to keep a proper number of participants, he was allowed in the event."

The emporer was taken a little aback when he heard what the man said.

"Hmm, so he is the abandoned son. What was his name again." The king asked

"Clayford, Clayford Aries."

...

The boy who was oblivious of the fact that they were talking about him, had his ears ready for the information that was about to come after the king and his family left.

That didnt take long because as soon as the group of guards were out of the crowd, the people started conversing.

After about 10 minutes of gathering information he got to know a lot about the king and the kingdom.

He was about to head to another stall when the horn could be heard again.

A group of guards were responsible for the horn so the people gathered around them to see what was going on.

A guard with a scroll in his hands started to shout as he wanted to deliver an announcement made by the overseer of the event.

"One week later another event will be held, in this event all boys above the age of 8 and below the age of 16 are allowed to take part. This will be an event for the showcase of strength, meaning that battles will be held. The winner of the final battle will get to marry princess Cera.

So if you are confident in your abilities then take part in the event.

Note to be taken, everybody above the age of 8 and below the age of 16 can take part in the event means that everybody in the continent who satisfies the conditions can take part." The guard closed the scroll as he finished the announcement.

...

According to what he had learned in the past ten minutes, princess Cera was the daughter of the emperor. She was his only child.

The emporer who had just entered was the ruler of the entire continent of Kargos.

This just shows how important and the amount support the event had which was able to make even the emperor listen to the rules.

At the moment, after the guard was done announcing, the crowd went into another wave of conversations.

Most of the conversations had the topic of, who is going to participate in the event?

Some were mentioning names of a few young geniuses, some where speaking of powerful nobles and some were mentioning the name of mage academies.

The news hadnt even been announced and the people had started to guess who would be participating in the event.

He didnt think much about the event, he just felt like he wanted watch the event because then he would get to know the strengths of the teenagers who live in a world of Mana.

Aside from that he was surprised to see why did the emperor hold a competition instead of finding a groom himself. Because, since he had only a daughter and no son then his son in law would normally be the next emperor, so why was he holding a competition which only gauges the kid's prowess and not his knowledge in political matter.

He stopped thinking about that since he didnt know much about the world.