Determined to take control of their fates, Arjen and Arien escape Derolina Castle at the age of sixteen after their cruel mother dies. They adopt new names and find a home in the city of Aramore, while the Emperor of Yuriana searches for his missing...
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I could not decide whether to count myself fortunate or the unluckiest man alive. I had never dreamed this would happen. All that had mattered was my research, and I thought of nothing else. My crude little desk in the hut on Hamimi Island was piled high with notes and the beginnings of a monograph. I sat on the dirt floor, furiously scribbling down the day's events while the village women outside pounded roots for making cakes. A shadow fell over me, the women ceased pounding, and chatter arose from the villagers.
A man in a neatly pressed uniform watched me from the doorway. His stiff appearance suggested a military background, and after taking in the medals and other decorations on his clothes, I realized this was no ordinary soldier. One patch on his uniform caught my attention, and immediately my heart froze.
"Are you Professor Maynard Lest?" the man asked sternly.
"I am. Who...?"
"You are a hard man to find. I am Maximus Crespo. I'm a knight sent here by His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Yuriana. I have come to ask you something."
I dropped my pencil at his words. The curious faces of the villagers crowded around behind the knight as they listened. "Ah...?"
"His Majesty would like your assistance. He wants an arranged marriage between His Imperial Highness the Third Prince and a princess from Isteris."
I appreciated his straightforwardness, but it hit me like an arrow to the chest, nonetheless. "That's..." My eyes shifted around the hut as I grew increasingly nervous. "That's very interesting. It would be quite a challenge to accomplish that." When the knight frowned at me, I waved my hands and said, "O-Of course, for His Majesty, I'm sure it's a small matter." Sweat prickled on my scalp, and not because of the heat and humidity. "I assume he has already spoken with the queens of Isteris?"
"Yes."
"That alone is a major accomplishment!"
"He will pay you a large annual sum to teach His Highness the culture of Isteris, and you can live in the imperial palace in the meantime." The knight gave me a wide grin. "It's enough that you can retire afterward and not worry about money for the rest of your life."
That mattered little to me, and I didn't need to know what my wages would be. This was the Emperor of Yuriana. He did not skimp on wages, or so I'd heard. I wanted to ask, "Why me?" but the answer was obvious. I was the only one in the world who had collected any significant amount of information on Isteris. However, my position in that regard placed me in a difficult spot.
"I do have some ethical concerns," I said.
"He thought you might say that. He isn't requiring you to reveal any secret information. He only wants you to teach His Highness the customs and history."
"I see." Even so, some of the customs and history were intimately connected to that "secret information." But if this arranged marriage was successful, the third prince would eventually know these secrets anyway. In any case, I needed to be careful so I didn't break my trust with the Isterisians. There were many things they had told me that I never wrote down, and I will take the information with me to the grave.
