Kai

Today was the day of the Royal Hunt.

The royal family of the four great kingdoms would be attending which includes the Kingdom of Arden, the Kingdom of Silvan, the Kingdom of Arna, and the Empire of Rain.

My team consisted of Caliban, Rino, Dustin, and Rowan. We walked towards the venue where the royal family and the students from the Academy would be gathering.

We walked into a large garden and saw that there were about 300 nobles in attendance and they were talking with each other. Many of the nobles were the student's families. There were some food and drinks which were located in the center of the garden.

The royal hunt will commence in an hour and we will be spending three nights in the woods which were filled with low-level to mid-level mythical beasts.

The barrier, which was created by the grand magician, was cast over the entire forest. The barrier's purpose was to keep the mythical beast within the woods in as well as serve as a shield, blocking high-ranked mythical beasts from entering.

The students at Thornclaw Royal Academy would be participating in teams of 5, however, starting last year, they started to let the royalty from the neighboring Kingdoms participate in the hunt if they wanted to, the only rule is that they must have a team of 5. They will disembark into the forest to defeat the beasts. For 3 days and 2 nights, the students and royalty who want to participate will need to brave the dangers of the woods.

Although we need to sleep outdoors, it not that bad. We were equipped with magical tents. The tents were made with mana and when folded, it looks like a normal tent and it is small enough to fit in our bags. However, once you open it, it expands in size and could easily fit 5 people. You would expect that the tent would be small, but it is as big as our dorm room! Inside the tent, everyone has their own beds and there is even a kitchen and bathroom.

If you are wondering how we are going to find enough space to set the tent up in the forest, then it's easy! From the outside, the tent looks like a normal-sized tent. But when you go in, the tent is huge! Think of it like a clown car.

Everything will be broadcasted in the waiting area. If the students encounter trouble or danger that is considered too much for them, the students can send a signal flare up into the sky. The royal knights would then be sent out to help them. The grand magician would cast a teleportation spell so that the royal knights would be able to teleport to where the person of interest is.

Mythical beasts, no matter the rank all have a beast core. These beast core can be obtained after killing the beasts. The beast core is very valuable and the higher the rank of the beast, the more valuable the cores are. The students can use any means to obtain these beast cores, even stealing beast cores from the other teams.

I was on alert because I knew that the Dragon, which was a high-ranked mythical beast would make its appearance during the time that we are in the Forrest, looking for its missing treasure.

That is where Caliban had originally got accused by Caspian that he had set lose the Dragon to hurt Asher.

I could not let Caliban be condemned!

The 4 King's and their Queen's were sitting on their thrones on top of a platform.

Only the King of Asten, the King of Arna, and the King of Silvan were married.

The Emperor of Rain was single because he only took the throne and became King two years ago when he was just 21 after his father's death.

I looked at the King and Queen of the Silvan Kingdom.

The King had light green eyes and midnight black hair while the queen had turquoise blue eyes and silver hair. The King, Hades Silvan was originally a count before he became the King of Silvan. And my mother, Celeste Silvan, the queen, was the only child and heir to the throne.

When they were younger, they fell in love with each other and despite their differences in social rank, they still got married to each other. It was true love. They then proceeded to have 4 children which were Zale, Perseus, me, and Rowan.

When the queen was still pregnant with me, it was said that the goddess of water visited my mother in her dreams. The goddess told her to name me Kai which means sea or ocean.

It was the first time that my mother had ever been visited by the goddess, so she felt like I was special and would bring great peace and prosperity to the Kingdom of Silvan.

When I was kidnapped as a baby, the queen was devastated. She cried every night and thought that it was her fault that I had been kidnapped.

After finding out that she was pregnant with Rowan 1 year later, she started to dote on Rowan the most because she thought she had to make up for her missing son.

When the original Kai was stuffed into a basket and brought to the river by the assassin/kidnapper to die, the goddess of water protected him from drowning. Kai then traveled for 3 days down stream all the way from the Kingdom of Silvan to the Kingdom of Asten until the goddess brought him to a kind-hearted old man.

The Goddess of Water had brought the baby to the neighboring kingdom to protect him, as she knew that although the kidnapper died from his serious injures, his boss would send more to hurt Kai.

After using his fishing road to bring the basket to shore, as he was holding the baby, a bright light illuminated his face. It was the Goddess of water. She appeared before the old man and she told the old man to name me Kai and he complied.

Behind the King of Asten, I saw two handsome young men.

The one on the right had blonde hair and blue eyes and the one on the left had purple eyes and dark purple hair that was very long. His hair was tied into a ponytail and both of them had their hands on the hilt of their swords.

I assumed that they were part of the royal knights. They were standing up straight and at attention.

Then Rino and Dustin left us to go greet their families.

Now it was just Rowan and Caliban.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Caliban's hands trembling and I reached for his hands. I knew what he was worried about. He needed to meet with his parents. The archduke and duchess were attending the royal hunt and he was worried that they might hurt him.

"Caliban, don't worry, I'll protect you," I said sincerely looking into his eyes.

Caliban looked at me shocked but then he nodded his head before turning rigidly away from me but not before I saw his slight blush. He walked towards the duchess and archduke.

I knew that since members of the royal family were in attendance, there was no way the archduke and the duchess would cause a scene. But just in case, I watched Caliban's every step and interaction with the archduke and duchess.

While I was watching him, I heard some talk between the nobles. It seemed like they were gossiping about the Crown Prince of the Arna Kingdom.

"Why is the crown prince, Felix Arna here?" I heard one of the noble ladies say.

Another lady fluttered her pastel pink fan. "I don't know why he came."

"Did you hear that his face was disfigured after a battle with about 5 demons that mysteriously appeared in the imperial palace in the Arna Kingdom?"

Demons? Weren't they suppose to appear two years later? What was going on?

But the noble ladies next words made me feel disgusted and furious with them.

"Ew, so he is weak and ugly!" The lady exclaimed laughing underneath her pink fan.

The other lady laughed along with her.

"How could they make such an ugly man crown prince? Just what was the King of Arna thinking?"

"He is such an embarrassment to the King of Arna."

I furrowed my eyebrows and tried to calm down.

Why were they calling him weak? That made no sense considering how strong a single demon was, imagine fighting alone against 5!

In the book, the setting mainly took place in the Academy except for when the Demon War began. So I did not know that much about the neighboring Kingdoms. But why were those ladies mocking and ridiculing him?

I took my eyes off of Caliban for a second to follow their hostile gazes which were directed at a tall young man. He had hair as red as fire and his skin was slightly tanned. He stood tall at 6'2" He was dressed in black and red clothing and on his toned arms were black cuffs decorated with unique patterns. However, I could still make out a tattoo on his arm and I knew at once that he was a pure-blood. His arms were rested at the hilt of his sword which was black.

He was wearing a silver mask with red swirls. It partially covered his face, only revealing the lower half of his face. The mask had two openings where you could see his eyes.

Felix Arna was sitting lazily on one of the chairs and behind him stood 4 men who were dressed like they were royalty. They had the same red hair as him and I realized that Felix must be also participating in the hunt.

Finally, after 5 minutes, Caliban left his parents. All they did was a simple greeting and I waited for Caliban to walk back.

Rino and Dustin were still with their families, chatting happily. To others, they seemed like the ideal family, but if you were to look closely, you could see that Rino's and Dustin's expressions were cold and tense and their smiles did not reach their eyes.

Rino and Dustin's mother were chatting away but Rino and Dustin stayed quiet except for when the mothers would ask them something.

How could you be so calm when the people who caused your blood contract with his royal highness, Caspian were right in front of you? I wanted to praise their self-control.

Caliban finally reached my side and I reached for his hand again because I could see the angst within those red ruby eyes. We did not say anything but I noticed that Caliban seemed a little shy. Was it because we were holding hands?

Caliban cleared his throat and I heard him stutter with an embarrassed voice, "Um...I'm going to get us some drinks." I nodded my head and he let go of my hand, flustered. This caused me to chuckle to myself.

He is so cute.

I noticed Rowan looking at someone and I turned to look. It was two men chatting with each other. One had dark black hair and the other one had copper-red hair.

"Is that our brothers?" I asked Rowan.

Rowan nodded and said, "Yes, the one with black hair is are oldest brother, Zale and the other one with copper-red hair name is Perseus. I personally never met them in person before because when I reincarnated as Rowan, I was already in the Kingdom of Asten, traveling to the Academy. Since I am their younger brother, wouldn't it be weird if I did not greet them? Can you please go with me?"

"Rowan, wouldn't it be even weirder if I go with you to greet them? Although I am indeed related to them, right now people know me as a commoner that was blessed by the god of darkness. You are known as their little brother and the 4th prince of Silvan." I told Rowan.

Rowan looked extremely nervous. "But, Kai! You are there brother too! I know that you want to wait when the hunt is over to tell them, but what is the difference if you told them now compared to later?"

I sighed. "Rowan, how would it look to others that a mere commoner would greet royalty and claim that I am their long lost brother? Wouldn't be better if I win the hunt first and then tell them?"

"I'm sorry, Kai. You are right."

Rowan went to go greet his older brothers and I watched them with a slight smile.

Rowan came running back to me, happy.

"I thought they were scary, but they are actually really nice!" Rowan ranted and for the next minutes, Rowan said nothing but praise for Zale and Perseus.

Just then I heard a Caspian's voice from a distance.

It looked like he was arguing with his father, the King about something.

Our group made our way to the commotion.

"But, Father! That is not fair! We deserve to participate in the hunt too!" Caspian yelled at father.

"Rules are rules, 5 teammates or you are disqualified from the hunt." The King said with authority.

I frowned. Shouldn't they have gotten two more teammates yesterday?

"Father, we did have 5 members but today one of them called in sick. Can you just please let this slide once for your only child?"

"Caspian!" The King yelled. "Just because you are the prince and heir to the throne does not mean you can flaunt your authority as the crown prince and abuse it, I am greatly disappointed in you."

Caspian just scowled at the king until I heard someone say, "Do you mind if my younger brother joins your group?"

I heard gasps from the nobles.

It was Dylan Rain, the Emperor of the Empire of Rain. Dylan had light brown hair with gold highlights. He had pale blue eyes and looked to be about 6'3"

Dylan smiled, "You see, our empire was not going to participate in the royal hunt this year, however, I see that you have quite the problem."

During the argument with his father, Allen stood next to Caspian while Asher stood behind him. Asher, who was behind Caspian's tall build peaked out from his shoulders and I was startled to find that he was blushing very hard.

Emperor Dylan Rain also seemed shocked when he saw Asher's seamlessly pop out of nowhere.

Dylan was momentarily stunned and then let out a loud laugh.

"Who is this cutie?" He asked with a smile.

"I'm Asher Astra, your majesty," Asher blushing profusely and he then proceeded to bow down.

Dylan lifted Asher up and said, "Please, no need for formalities."

Then Dylan did the unexpected. He suddenly caressed Asher's face which caused the audience to either gasp in surprise or glare at Ash in jealousy.

"You are the commoner who was blessed by the goddess of light, Arial then?"

Asher nodded meekly and against my utmost surprise, Caspian growled at Dylan!!!

Just what the heck was this development?

"Don't you think you are too close, your majesty?" Caspian said through gritted teeth.

The Emperor just smirked and left them standing there.

I was so confused. Why did Caspian growl? Did he actually like Asher? But does this mean I am blind because I thought he did not have feelings for him, did something happen in just a day since we last saw each other? I knew the original Caspian loved Asher however, things started to change ever since I was reincarnated.

Also, it looked like Ash was love-struck after seeing Dylan.

I was driven out of my thoughts when I heard the most beautiful voice I have ever heard.

"Hello, Prince Caspian," the young man said," I am the 2nd prince of the Kingdom of Rain, and I will be joining your team."

Caspian just nodded at him.

I was slightly dazed by the man's beauty.

The man had light brown hair like honey and his eyes were as green as emeralds. He had sun-kissed skin and seemed to be about the same height as me. He was dressed in black and golden yellow and on his back was a bow and arrow.

It was the 2nd prince of the Kingdom of Rain, Aiden.

I felt a tug on my sleeve and I turned around to see what it was.

"Stop looking at him," Caliban said with a pout which made his cheeks puff up.

Oh my god! I wanted to squeeze his cheeks. Why was he so cute when he was jealous?

"Are you jealous?" I teased him.

Caliban turned bright red.

"I-I'm not!!"

Ding! Ding! Ding!

I heard the sound of a bell and I looked towards where the sound was originating from.

The King of Asten was clinking his gold wine cup with a spoon. "The Royal Hunt shall start in 5 minutes, students of Thornclaw Royal Academy and royalty who will be participating in the hunt, prepare to enter the woods!" The King announced with a regal voice.

"Let's go," I said and our team made our way to the edge of the forest where the other participants were.

We were at the edge of the Forrest and I could see the air in front of me glow with a light blue light. It was the barrier.

I put down my bag which contained all of my things I need for the 3 nights in the woods.

My group members did the same.

Rechecking that we had everything we need in our bags which included food, water, change of clothes, the signal flare, and the magical tent, we heard the King announce that the Royal Hunt had officially begun.

I hoisted my bag onto my back and began to walk near the barrier with Rino, Dustin, Rowan and Caliban in tow.

The grand magician opened the barrier and my teammates went through the barrier first. As I was about to step into the barrier, I felt an unconformable gaze on me.

I turned to my right side and my eyes widened in shock when I saw a pair of black eyes staring right at me!!!

I looked at who those pair of eyes belonged to and I gasped. It was the crown prince of the Arna Kingdom, Felix.

I quickly averted my gaze walked through the barrier and set off into the forest.