Lumieri Chronicles: Rise of the First Empire (Book 1)

Chapter 5 The Princess and The Two Princes

It really is her. Princess Sierra, right in front of me. She seems to be the same age as I am. And as I get a good look at her, she is absolutely beautiful. With her long golden hair and ocean blue eyes. I can already tell that she'll grow even more beautiful as she gets older. The sight of her makes my skin heat and my mind whirring. The men were right.

"I apologise for nearly running you over," the princess states with a dignified and confident tone as she steps out of the carriage and approaches me.

Her approach catches me off guard and I stare into her ocean blue eyes. And they were so beautiful. "I-it's fine, I'm n-not hurt."

"That's relieving to hear, but why do you sound nervous?" she asks with what I think is a little annoyance as she leans closer.

As she does so, my mind goes foggy and I slightly stumble as Robert and the men keep me steady.

Her brow furrows further in annoyance after seeing me stumble. "Are you really alright?"

I try to stand straight and raise my arms to assure her everything's okay. "Y-yes I'm fine, really."

She offers no other response than a nod and heads towards her carriage.

As I watch her leave, I think I have a dumb smile on my face. Captain Robert seems to see it too and has a look of pity which annoys me. However, my happiness is too much that I'll let it slide.

It seems to end however when another horse trots in front of me. And the rider aims a sword at me."Stop looking at Princess Sierra with those lecherous eyes!"

The shout was so loud it seems Sierra heard it as well since she stopped.

Anger flares inside me and I look at the rider, expecting that dead man to be one of Sierra's horsemen.

This, however was not one of them. He looks two years older than me. He seems to have brown hair neatly combed as well as brown eyes staring daggers at me he looks to be bigger and taller. In addition to that, he possess a sigil representing a blue eagle with two swords over a dead red dragon. This sight makes my blood boil since I know that symbol very well. The Empire of Tollen.

They have been our enemies ever since our last war almost 300 years ago when Lumiere was on the day it was celebrating its inevitable declaration of becoming an empire. There, Tollen convinced the other kingdoms of Lumiere's threat and they all attacked us at the same time. We were never prepared for an attack on that day so they crossed through our borders very quickly. After seven years of continuous war, we eventually surrendered since they were almost at our capital. Fortunately, we managed to damage them to the point that they couldn't take over Lumiere. And hence, we're still here yet drastically weaker compared to those times and since then, Lumiere has not recovered while they went on to become an empire and the most powerful country on this continent.

The irony.

I glare at the rider. "You should watch your mouth Tollenisi."

"YOU should watch what you say dog. Disrespecting the crown prince like that," shouts a horseman arriving on the scene and aims a sword at me as well.

I hold my sword's hilt but keep it at my side when I hear his rank. "Crown prince?"

As I look, I also see another group of horsemen with the symbol of Tollen.

Robert and the men get their own swords and points them at the two. "Be careful in insulting the Lumieri second prince Tollenisi scum," Robert says in a low angry tone.

The other horsemen that have Tollen's symbol also raise their swords. Now it's turned into a tense situation. On one side I have forty well-trained men but we are too ill-equipped against a group of thirty heavy cavalry. And just by looking at them, they are elite guards like Sierra's horsemen but the aura they give out is far too... frightening.