CH.9 Crown princess

Alen had decided to read the book Theresia had given him; the book talked about a hero who led his people through countless hardships later becoming a true king that united all the kingdoms. And during his time of rule, he built thriving civilizations around powerful artifacts and or sites places that overflowed with mana the cities built were later known as the seven great cities.

The book seemed to be about fiction but considering the situation Alen was in right now he didn't know if it was the history of this world or some make-believe story. The story then described the fall of the king as he was later betrayed by some of the allied nations, the king's forces overwhelmed were killed off one by one and eventually, the king was also slain.

This was the end of the peaceful era in the kingdom as the nations started to fight over control of the seven great cities and the magic potential they had within them, war after war had exhausted the natural resource of these cities and the inhabitants, evacuated deserting the cities forever. And as for the magical treasures, no one seemed to have found them.

the cities were left to be ravaged by nature as time slowly went on and the once great cities turned into nothing but forgotten ruins. At the end of the book a page that seemed to be torn a bit the page contained half a map, the map looked old, and the only available piece of the map. Displayed nations Alen had never heard of, he shrugged it off as fictional and placed the book on the table.

Alen looked up only to be met by a dark sky and lit-up streets, somehow without noticing it Alen had spent the whole day reading, immersed in the world of fantasy.

A few minutes later the princess could be seen walking into the library but today unlike every other day she was alone without her guards and just like before she seemed to be in a bad mood. "I didn't take you for the pouting type," Alen said.

"Sir hero you startled me!"

"Please call me Alen" he insisted as he made his way towards the princess, but today the princess seemed to move away from him, Alen now stopped in his tracks and could see the princess was bothered by something.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"A hero such as yourself should not be seen having a conversation with the next Queen," Sakura replied, to Alen's surprise Sakura was the crowned princess of the kingdom of Noel.

"You're the next in line for the throne! but aren't you the youngest out of all your sisters?" Alen asked now confused yet intrigued by the situation. "It's okay the library is usually empty and beside me, you, and the librarian no one ever comes to this place. And I'm sure the librarian left a few minutes ago to have his daily affair with one of the maids so we have some time."

"Hahaha, such a vulgar hero. Have you been spying on the residents of the castle?"

"I've got to keep myself entertained somehow" Alen replied with a casual smile as he invited the princess to a seat next to him.

The princess sat down and explain the situation, Janet the first and the oldest princess had no interest in inheriting the throne. She decided to pick up a sword and become a knight at a very young age and even now after she was made commander of the first unit of the royal knights, she still strived to become more powerful. Accepting the throne would mean giving up on her dreams.

The second princess had some personality issues according to the princess and the king her father had deemed it necessary to remove her from the royal succession until she was able to change for the better. But she seemed to grow more wicked by the day.

Alen was thankful he didn't encounter the second princess and thought the fact that she mostly isolated herself was for the better. But he couldn't help but worry about what he has seen lately, and the most likely possibility that Jack and the second princess Lily been in an alliance.

"The problem is that if my father was to die before I become of age there's a possibility my sister would take command. The fact that my father can be so careless about his decisions doesn't help, I am at a loss." The princess said.

"It's not like your father is going to die tomorrow, he would have sixteen summoned heroes including one of the great heroes by his side, not to mention the royal guards. I've seen what they can do during the training sessions, and I must say they live up to their name." Alen said not knowing what else to say.

After talking for a while, the princess and Alen both left the library but left at different times as a preventative measure just in case someone was spying or in case, they ran into someone. The night had gone by fast with Alen not getting a single drop of sleep and since Alice was mad at him, they didn't have one of their casual meetings tonight.

The next morning Alen had already packed his gear and cladded his armor. The armor was simple as he wanted to focus more on Agility than defense, the black leather made him hard to detect at night and the rest of the armor was made in a light yet sturdy material apart from his black boots and gloves that seemed to be heavy and focus more on power and defense rather than stealth.

Alen made his way down the hall to meet up with the rest of his group, out of all the one hundred summoned heroes only twenty had decided to stay out of the whole thing and even though Alen was among these twenty he decided to join because of his curiosity and thirst for knowledge. He was intrigued by the technology and wanted to learn more about this world.

Although he could do the same by just staying inside and away from all this, he felt that experiencing something was better than reading it so now among the eighty summoned heroes they were divided into five groups each led by one of the great heroes and each group had fifteen heroes and if you include the leader that makes sixteen summoned heroes per group.

As Alen met up with the rest of his group, he kept his distance as he could see the looks on everyone's faces, some wanted to talk to him but due to his history with Jack and the fact that Jack was their group's leader most didn't want to get in his bad side.

Unfortunately, try as they might Jack seemed to have decided on his own.

"Those whose levels are below seven will not be allowed to travel with us," Jack said as he stood in front of the group in his full set of brown armor that covered most of his body and a two-handed sword in one of his hands that he seemed to handle well with only one hand.

"Our first task is an important one, we cannot fail to escort the king to the kingdom of Cantu, and I fear that the weak ones will be nothing but burdens that slow us down," Jack said as he turned around and got in one of the carriages ready to be transported to the palace.

Without giving them any choice or say in the matter the ones whose level was below seven were left standing in front of the mansion. This included Alen as his level was the lowest among all the summoned ones. Now Jack's team had only ten members as six were left behind, Alen stormed back to his room and threw his bags in frustration the fact that Jack had come up with this ridiculous decision on his own felt like a personal attack to him.

All he wanted was to go on an adventure and learn new things but now he was stuck back at the palace, and he couldn't join any other team as most of them had already left. All that was left to do was remove the armor he had donned and throw his body back to bed, and since this was supposed to be the grand day of departure the maids had left for vacation and would return only when they were summoned. This included Lucy and any other maids in the mansion.

Alen had no problem with this as he felt like Lucy deserved a vacation, so for now, Alen changed back into his normal cloth and left the mansion to explore more of the city. Walking down the streets Alen noticed that the people were gathered at the main gate of the kingdom cheering for the departing heroes.

Something else had caught Alen's eyes and that was a massive carriage that seemed to be floating and didn't require any horse or animal to pull it, it looked like a mini version of a bulky spaceship floating just above the ground. From the number of guards in gold and red armor and the fact that he recognized some of the heroes next to the ship Alen concluded it was Jack's party and the spaceship was the king's means of transportation.

He simply ignored it as he stopped by a stall that sold sweets, the aroma that filled the store Alen was salivating long before he got to the counter. He ordered a sweet dessert filled with strawberries and vanilla wrapped around a tortilla holding everything in and allowing one to enjoy the treat.

Alen left the store with a smile on his face and a kick in his steps as he made his way past the streets and headed to the palace.