42.

After King Regis announced his retirement, he followed it by announcing that Somnus' coronation would happen in a week. That gives me 5 days to go to Minstrel and cancel the engagement while asking for Helen's hand for Somnus.

Somnus this time decided to join me in going to Minstrel as he wants to be the one who'll ask for Helen's hand in the marriage. He was quite excited since he would be meeting Helen after not seeing each other for many years and they only talked with letters.

As for my engagement with the eldest princess who prefers women than men, it should be easy to break it since the feeling of breaking the engagement is mutual.

I left Irene and the chipmunks with mother and father because I have different plans.

Somnus also asked me about my suit as he felt the demeanor it provides is better than royal garb. I then gave him a paper containing the design for John Wick's social suit, one for day, one for night.

(Italian style, 2 buttons, tapered pants, tactical lining, carbide disk cutting edge body armor sewed between the linings... zero penetration, but still quite painful, I believe)

Alba got delighted seeing new designs as she tried to bear hug me and Somnus but I already had my fill so I dodged it while Somnus almost got caught in her embrace. I also asked Alba to make me one more piece of outfit for me as I gave her Dazai's outfit design.

"Psh. Party poopers." She said as I shrugged it off and let her do the work. Meanwhile I started packing foods for our trip. I also told Irene to teach mother the recipes since we would be gone for 3 to 5 days and I wouldn't be able to teach mother.

By the time Alba finished our attire, I have finished packing the food we will eat while travelling.

I told Somnus not to wear the suit yet since we would be leaving incognito to avoid unwanted attention.

I made him wear a hood to hide his face and we left the castle through the backdoor as we went to the stables and picked a horse before going to Luka town, the town that houses the sky port.

Outside Lucis Kingdom, there are three towns with different specialties, Luka town, Landbrug town, and Niku town.

Luka town houses the Sky Port and is a trading hub for the goods sold by the merchants that came from below and vice versa.

Landbrug town is the biggest of the three town because it houses the farmlands and orchards that is providing the Kingdom of its basic needs.

Niku Town is the smallest of the three town. It is basically a ranch town that grows animals for butchering, be it cows, hodras, or poultries.

Meanwhile Caelum below Lucis Kingdom is a massive town mainly focused on maritime industries. Be it salt making, fishing, and the likes.

We continued riding to Luka town as I spoke with Somnus.

"Really Somnus? You really brought your squad with you?" I said as Somnus smiled wryly.

Somnus' force in the dark is named Shadows because they work in the dark.

"They were sent by father to protect us. And Shadows never disobey the orders of the King. It was one of the things I instilled into their body when training them." He said

"I see. Then let's keep going then. We don't want you to be late on your coronation day after all." I said as we sped up the horses.

We reached Luka town and boarded the Sky Ship with no problems on the way.

I slept on the way down while Somnus is watching the view from a high vantage point. Although he would sometimes go down to Caelum in undercover, he is still mesmerized by the sight of the island from above.

After an hour of travelling, Somnus woke me up and told me that we have arrived. Not wasting anymore time, we hailed a carriage to bring us to the port and presented our fake papers that was forged with the help of my father. Soon we boarded the ship going to minstrel.

As usual I just slept on our journey and reached Minstrel by early morning but we and the other passengers were only allowed to disembark the boat by late morning, for unknown reasons. And it got me curious because they said it is to protect us.

I then realized that it was only a day since we left the Palace and we still have lots of time and I never had the chance to explore minstrel when I was with Irene. So we decided to explore the place first.

I got annoyed a little bit because Minstrel's money changer is in the central plaza and we would have to walk since carriage and horses are banned in that area.

We quickly went to the central plaza to exchange the gold coins for money and spend it while exploring and checking the place out.

I didn't have to exchange for money since I already have Jewel currency. I have already told Somnus about it but declined saying he would spend his own money to buy for his things.

We haven't even left the plaza when a kid bumped into Somnus and I tried grabbing the Kid since I saw him pickpocket Somnus' pouch containing his gold coins.

Somnus held my wrist while shaking his head as he also motioned for the shadows that nearly took down the kid.

"Why? You were robbed." I said.

"The kid might need it more than me." He said

"He might've been forced to do it by a gang?" I said.

"Then we'll eliminate the gang." Somnus said.

'I guess kindness runs in our blood. My predecessor is just overflowing with it, while Somnus has kindness but he would act cruelly against those who take advantage of the weak.' I thought

Somnus gave the shadows a mission to make sure that the kid is safe and if he was forced by a gang then eliminate the gang.

We were about to leave the plaza when sounds of music could be heard in the air while someone is hitting the gong. I saw a lined up musicians escorting a carriage with the gong hitter at the front.

The people in the plaza kneeled down as I had a bad feeling about it and tried to leave but we were to late.

'You could've just given the shadow their mission after we left the place! Now we're caught in this sh*tty mess.'

"You two! Why aren't you bowing your heads?! Princess Aria is in your presence! Kneel down commoner!" The spokesperson said to the two of us.

"What if we don't want to?" I said coldly.

"Then we'll have to use force. Guards! Make him kneel down!" The spokesperson said as the guards surrounded us.

"Really? Just these? And you want us to kneel down?" I said in contempt as the guards got provoked and rushed to us with batons as their weapons.

In my eyes their attacks are so slow so I simply knocked them out. Meanwhile Somnus displayed his great mastery towards hand to hand combat.

Not even a minute has passed and the guards were knocked out.

"Preposterous! To defy the Third Princess, Aria this much, we would put you on the wanted li-" He said but a sweet voicethat could be heard from inside the carriage interrupted him.

"How about you follow me to the palace? I like strong men after all. We'll have fun there and I'll give you everything you wanted." She said in an alluring voice. The people kneeling down, watching us looked at us with pity.

Make no mistake, her voice might be so allurin, but her voice is just a trap, otherwise why would she hide her face in the carriage and speak from inside.

"Although I would like to see the palace, now is not the time." I said as we walked away and the spokesperson tried to shout at us but the voice cut him off from speaking.

After leaving the place, I asked Somnus.

"So, do we finish the task QUICKER or enjoy the scenery first?" I asked emphasizing the word quicker.

"Oh, I would love to finish our task QUICKER. The faster the better." Somnus said as we went to an inn and changed to our suits before going to Minstrel's Palace to meet the King.