Chapter 04: Here they come!

Miss Ann walked toward the door which was under heavy strike. A loud creak made its way to us, giving notice to the opening of a door. Then, a wave of silence ran throughout the room. And after that, we could barely hear the mumbling of Miss Ann with some unfamiliar voices.

A few minutes later, she entered the room with two young boys, who were probably the same age as Isis from their looks. I instantly knew that both of them were Royal Knights of Euphoria as they were wearing special uniforms meant only for people of that status.

Their sapphire blue shirt decorated with an intricate golden pattern of the Empire's symbol in the middle, coupled with white pants and black leather boots reaching up to their knees, were showing the true demeanor and dignity of a knight. The white silk robe lined with blue lace tied to the center of the collar by a tassel, enveloped their left shoulder while the right one had a metal armor that shone brightly in the reflecting light. And the most eye-catching item in that dress was the golden Royal Crest embroidered on the left side of their shirt exactly at the level of their hearts. This was the only thing that distinguished a Royal Knight from a common knight. And the beauty of that special uniform was further enhanced by the people who wore it.

As one of them was adorned with bloody red eyes and pure white hair, making him look like a figure from another dimension. And the other one was also no less, his ember green eyes and raven black hair were one of their kind. Indeed, they were a sight to see.

However, the thing that made me snap out of my fantasies were their huffed breathing, sweat-dripping cheeks, and tears-threatened eyes as if screaming to tell that they have traversed the whole universe in search of their long-lost treasure.

"YOUR HIGHNESS!" they voiced with relief.

"Zack! Chris! What happened to you? Are you two alright?" the prince inquired in a worried and surprised tone.

They silently looked into the prince's eyes. And before my next blink, I found them embracing the prince tightly in their arms and welling up just like a child who holds his favorite thing and doesn't let it go in fear that it would disappear again.

"W-We were so worried...We-We searched for you everywhere but couldn't find you. Th-then a light soared through the sky, and we hurriedly went to that place but when we reached there, we found nothing but ashes. We thought we might have l-l-lost you forever...," their trembling voice and sobbing eyes let out what they were holding back.

His Highness' eyes filled up. It was heart-wrenching. Of course, it was! To love someone more than anything in the world, spending time with them as if it were a casual thing, playing pranks on them to hear their scolding, hurting them to love them back more intensely, relying on them to the point of no return, seeing them smile every day like it was a given, and then suddenly losing them just to find yourself all alone in the whole world, is surely heart-wrenching.

"I'm sorry..." the prince held them back, with his hands patting the back of their heads, and kept apologizing in an attempt to console their wretched souls.

After they calmed down, he explained the whole situation from how he got kidnapped to how he ended up here. Their expressions kept changing when they listened to his every word with all ears. In the end, their eyes once again misted over. But now the tears had a different purpose. Probably, they were tears of joy and relief.

"By the way, how did you two find me?" the prince inquired.

"Ohh! That... How should we explain..." they said, turning their heads away. Both of them looked into each other's eyes as if trying to convey some secret messages through them. Then, one of them sighed and spoke out.

"I'll get straight to the point. We were able to find you out because of the tracking spell that was cast on your body."

"What?" the prince's eyes widened with surprise.

"We weren't the ones who cast that spell. It was "His Majesty, The king," he said, shaking his head as if trying to prove his innocence.

"When you disappeared, we went back to the castle and informed His Majesty about it. He knew that you had the habit of sneaking out of the castle so he had the spell cast on you," he added.

"So, when he knew about your disappearance, he immediately ordered the Royal magicians to track that spell. The spell pointed towards the south. As per the Royal decree, the first division of Royal Knights was dispatched in your search. We followed the directions given by the tracking spell but on our way, we saw a beam of light suddenly soaring through the sky. It was so powerful that we felt our cores trembling. Fear took over our bodies...," he was completely down in dumps as he let out those words from his cheery red lips. He took a deep breath and continued.

"We wanted to find you as soon as possible. So, we hurried to that place. But before we reached there, it was already burnt to ashes. We were devasted and didn't know what to do. To our surprise, the spell once again indicated your presence but this time towards the east and that was how we came here looking for you."

Silence took over the small radiant room.

"Thank you so much for working so hard," the prince said with a consoling smile.

"You are not mad that a tracking spell was cast on you," one of them said.

"Well! There are two things that I know for sure," he held out his index finger and said. "First, you two were unaware of it."

"And second, this is something that my father would definitely do to keep an eye on me. It's no surprise. After all, he is such a worry-watt for his son. I guess I'll have to hear a lot of scolding this time," he added,

taking out his middle finger from his fist and holding it closer to the earlier one.

"You truly are a kind soul," the knight with red eyes said, smile spread across his cheeks.

After all that commotion, both of the knights turned toward us, held out their swords, and knelt on their knees.

"We, as the Royal Knights and the closest friend of the Crown Prince, Zaneir Alpheus, thank you for saving His Highness's life. Our lives will always be in your debt. And We will surely return your favor one day. We swear on our Master's name to whom we pledged our loyalty," they took a promise, not knowing what it cost.

"We acknowledge your intentions, with all our hearts," Isis replied, respecting their wishes.

A beautiful smile spread across their faces. Everything got resolved, in the end. Since the prince's wound had already healed, they requested to take him with them to the castle. We went out of the house to send them off. But when they were about to leave, His Highness turned around and handed something over in my brother's fist.

"Please keep it as thanks for saving my life," he whispered in Isis's ears. I could barely hear those words.

"Are you sure, we can have it? Did you consider this possibility that you can get into trouble if we request for an impossible thing?" Isis asked.

"Yup! I did consider it. But you know what, this is the least I can offer to the ones who saved not only my life but also people's hope," the prince replied.

He then turned towards me and gave me a pat on my head saying, "Thank you". I felt something. Something snapping in my heart! I could not figure out what it was, so, I just ignored it.

After that, he thanked Miss Ann and gave her daughter seeds of Royal flower "Ever" which he made with his magic. "Ever" was its name because it could remain bloomed through out the year, and was considered the proud of our Empire and the best gift for conveying one's feelings. The little girls' happiness and delight presented itself in the form a lovely smile on her chubby cheeks. She thanked the prince for this precious gift and promised to treasure it for the rest of her life.

In the mean time, the knights opened a teleportation portal that could teleport them directly to the castle.

"If you ever decide to come to the capital, please do pay a visit to the castle. I will surely welcome you with open arms," he shouted while waving his hands as a goodbye.

"Well, then we shall meet again."

Our eyes kept chasing them until their beautiful figures faded away in the teleportation portal. As soon as the portal closed, I looked at my brother and asked him about the thing which he got from the prince.

"Tell me! Tell me! What did he handed in your hand?"

Isis held out his hand before me. It was a Royal badge made of His Highness' mana, that could allow the one who has it, to request one wish from the crown prince.

"Ohh! My! It's so precious. How could you accept this?" I asked him with bulging eyes.

"And why can't I?" he replied and turned toward Miss Ann.

"I think, the one who deserve this Royal badge more than anyone else is Miss Ann," he said, putting the badge in her hand. "Miss Ann, thank you so much for everything."

"Should I really have this? I don't think I have any wishes that I want to be fulfilled," Miss Ann replied.

"That doesn't matter. You can use it when you find a wish," he said with a big smile. Miss Ann thanked us and returned to her work with her daughter.

"Now, then what should we do?" I asked my brother with my arms folded behind my head.

"Probably, write an excuse letter to be submitted to the town's knight department for leaving our post without informing," Isis said.

"Ohh! No! It totally slipped my mind," I said, smacking my forehead.

"Well! How could it not slip your mind when it was already full with a new fantasy?" he said with a chuckle.

"You will keep teasing me. Won't you? I wonder what did you eat today for you to be so full of jokes and have a filter-less mouth," I said, pouting.

"It's a given when you have an silly sister like you?" he said, walking away from me.

"Ohh! Really, then have you ever considered..."

Silence

"What's going on?"

My body suddenly started trembling. The sweat kept coming from every pore of my body. My legs lost their strength. And for a moment there, I felt my heart stopping. I looked at the back of my brother which was becoming blurr to my eyes.

"Isis," I called out his name, hoping it reaches his ears.

But then, I realized, my lips didn't even move.

"Brother! Please look back," I screamed, in my head.

And that was my last scream as after that both my eyes and mind lost their fight in keeping me awake.

"Thump!"

"Evelyn!... Evelyn!... Evelyn!..."

Those were the last words that my ears could hear before leaving me deaf.