Dream stood still in awe. Ever since her coronation, no one had seen her, so she is absolutely taken aback of the hideous comments of her peers.
The noble ladies stood up and hurriedly tried to calm their children who are crying in fears. Everything became a mess. The maids start whispering to each other, and the guards started arming themselves.
'Wait... Isn't this bad?'
Then before she could realize, the queen is in front of her and lay down her shawl on Dream's head. She then picked up Dream.
"We will excuse ourselves, it seems our princess wandered away from her garden. As you can see, she is wearing an inappropriate attire."
Dream looked down to her clothes and noticed the soil and leaves from the clover garden still stuck on her.
Dream looked at the face of the queen who is trying to calmly handle the situation then she looked back to the pale and nervous ladies who are trying to calm their crying children.
Dream cannot help it but feel guilty about the situation her presence created.
.....
Kaleid who is far busier because of the King's sudden trip to the Diamond Country was surprised by a guard asking for his time.
"What happened?"
Kaleid asked, he assumed something had gone wrong somewhere, why else will the knight seek him out.
"The princess had wandered off to the Queen's tea party."
"What?!" Kaleid without a second thought ran towards the rose garden.
When he reached the garden, he was welcomed by pale looking ladies, who are seem to be wives of the dukes, Marquis and counts. They are sitting around the oval table, with the queen and princess seating side by side at the head of the table. Kaleid composed his breathing from his running and greeted the crowd.
"Oh my Sir Kaleid, it is a p-pleasant day." A duchess tried to hide the awkward atmosphere. Kaleid smiled and look at the queen calmly sipping her tea. The princess is just looking down while sitting up straight like a doll.
Kaleid noticed that the princess is wearing a different attire than this morning when he left him at the Clover garden. The princess clothes is a matching outfit with the queen.
The queen put down her tea cup and finally explained the situation.
"It seems, our Princess coincidentally wandered here because of the laughter of children that was playing in the rose garden."
Kaleid looked around but he see no children.
"They started crying so they are being tended by the maids in one of the rooms in my palace."
"May I know why they started crying."
One of the ladies started shaking and crying.
"Y-your grace, please forgive my child! She is still young! She did not know what she is saying!"
And another lady stood up and start kneeling on the side of Dream's chair that made Kaleid surprised.
"P-princess! Please forgive our children! They did not mean it! Please princess! He is my only son, the duke will-" the lady covered her mouth and started crying and kneeling to the ground.
Dream who is shaken from the events look up to adults who she knows more than the despondent ladies. Kaleid could not take the situation anymore and took the princess and carried her up.
"This is not a something we should show to a young child. We will excuse ourselves for now. You can send your appeal towards the king later when everyone calms down."
"NO!! Please Sir Kaleid! Anything but that! Please hear us out! Please my queen!"
The women started kneeling and grabbing Kaleid's trouser so he could not step out of the garden.
The queen sighed and finally spoke out a solution.
"There should be a reason why the children acted that way. We will not speak of this event until we find out why. Kaleid, you can talk to me later. You should put the princess down for a nap."
The ladies let go of Kaleid and tried to composed themselves from sobbing.
"Kaleid, you should find some trustworthy maids that will look after the princess so this does not happen again in the future."
The queen then told the ladies to pick up their children and go home for today, with reassurring them that they need to find the cause of the earlier uproar.
Kaleid did not stay long and calmly walked back to the clover palace to calm down the princess who is clenching his clothes.
Kaleid enter the princess's chamber and sat her down on the receiving area's couch. Kaleid stared at the looking down princess who is clenching her knees. Kaleid pat her tiny hands gently. He does not want to force the information out of her and just waited for her to open up.
"When I grow up, am I going to eat children?"
Kaleid was surprised by her words. Nobody know but Dia that she is a reincarnated soul, however, she is new to this environment just like every child. She is aware how much people fear her parent, even though she have not seen his scariest acts. She knows that the fears of the people are not an unfounded and with no reason at all. Behind her mind, she fears that she will be someone or they will forced her to be someone so hideous and evil.
"Princess...."
Kaleid speaks of her name in most gentle tone. Dream's eyelids became warm and tears are pending to fall the for the third time she has been living in this world.
"Our princess will grow to the most graceful and beautiful lady in the whole Empire, no, the whole world to see."
Kaleid lift up her head and wiped away the tears building up on the side of her eyes.
"The princess will smile away all the evil of the world. The Spade may be dark and sad but that was because for a millenium, this land waited for you to be born. The Heavenly Father gave us the greatest gift, a light that will shine far beyond and change Spade for the better."
Kaleid smiles and Dream cannot help it but return his gesture. She knows those gentle words are but nothing just to appease her emotions, however for now she wants to believe that she have such ability to be the light he asks for.
.....
Night has fallen at the Diamond Country and a man is filled with an unusual sense of anxiety.
Benjamin is pacing back and forth in his office while biting his fingers. Then the tiny knocks on the door made him jump.
Dia opened the door and told him to hurry up and come to bed with him. Benjamin sighed loudly and Dia tilt his head with the man's obvious refusal.
"Can't you just make me my own barrier?"
"Did I forget to tell you? I can only put up so much with my current abilities."
Dia is actually an exceptional Diamond seal bearer according to the Emperor. So far, Dia is the only that had managed to lure out most of the Diamond seal's abilities and he is still young and will still get stronger. However, at this moment, Benjamin is so ready to beg on his knees to be showered with more extension of the child's power. He would rather shame himself here than go back and sleep with the grandfather and grandson duo and be part of the ridiculous conversations of the knights.
"So far, I can only put up four, and I already have two here and two in Spades."
Dia said while counting with his fingers.
"Wait! Why Spade have two?! That country have the strongest knight in the Empire?! No! They have the strongest battalion! Moreover the king himself is a battalion!"
Dia tilt his head and put both of his hands on his hands.
"That man is like child! I will never be able to leave Dream to the likes of him!"
'Said by the child himself, tsk.. What is Joseph doing?! Is he playing house or something?!'
"Yeah, yeah, you treasure the millenial princess..." Then it hits Benjamin. "Wait, ain't it feel like we are heading the same story of the legend?!"
"Legend?"
"Yeah, the founding of the empire have a legend...."
"Wait!"
"What?!" Benjamin is surprised with Dia cutting his line of thoughts.
"That is a perfect bed story! Tell it on the bed." Then Dia grabbed Benjamin out of the office. "Let's hurry before you forget, cause you're old."
"Wha-?! Wait! I am not sleeping there."
The knights at the hallway turn their ears to them. Benjamin fix his posture and clears his throat.
"Ain't there another one?"
Dia thought for a while before he gets what Benjamin mean. The barrier power of the seal and the seal being on Dia is still a secret they are trying so hard to hide. The duo is trying to be discreet with their conversation.
"Well, yeah... It is in my room-"
"Nice, thanks!" Benjamin broke out of Dia's grasp and run towards the child's room.
Dia did not managed to finish his sentence but he just shrugged it off.
"I'll just ask grandad about the legend."
Benjamin happily walk while skipping to his son's chamber. The knights all watch him with weird look which is the norm.
'Yup! That is perfect!'
He does not like the loving look the knights gave him during the day, he would rather be looked with disgust than be involved with such itchy emotions of human stupidly seek out from others.
Benjamin stood at the front of the door filled with excitement.
"Ah.... Freedom at last."
However when he opened the door, he soon realizes the overwhelming presence of life. Then a pair of glowing eyes stared at him, then another, then another and then another. He automatically shut the door to his face, and keeled over.
'Ahh!! I forgot that the boy is weirder than me!'
He doesn't want to know what are the beings inside the chamber, but the way their eyes glow in that darkness just tells him, those are beasts.
Benjamin sadly walked back to the chamber of the Emperor, then he glanced to the faces of the knights, who are back with their loving look.
'Ahh! Just kill me T.T.'
Benjamin looked outside the big window and started praying that his best friend Joseph finish cleaning up the border of the Diamond Country.
....
Night has deeply fallen. Joseph was so sure they will be done before sunset but unprecedented thing happened. The foreigners have a strange way of fighting and are quite fast, though they are not even a quarter stronger than him or any of his knights. They have sacrificed power over speed, a perfect ability for assassination and escaping Joseph's grasp like leeches. Joseph abandoned his armor to be able to move faster and he managed to get rid most of them, However Joseph is still in a fickle, there is only one enemy that remains but it is hard for him to go all out because it appears that the enemy have a hostage with him.
A little girl.
Joseph is raging with pure fury but he cannot unleash any of it because of fear that the possibility that the girl in his enemy's hands is her daughter.
The knights and Joseph continued on just following the enemy's tracks and making sure that he will not get any further away from the border. It will be a problem if the foreigners have another means to go back to their home land.
The Empire's knowledge about the other two continents are sparse, they are not aware if they practice spells or magic like they do or they have equal amount of power like the four seals. For as long as their history entails, any foreign beings tries to come in were taken care of with ease. It is not that the Empire have impeccable barrier but they have impeccable defense from the four sides of the Empire.
Joseph started the hunting as soon as he left Benjamin's office. He does not believe that the assassins entered the Diamond Country's borders but they did built a hidden camp in the forest which disturb the wild beasts.
Dia approached Joseph about this situation before he headed out with his knights. The boy who is the current lord and liason of the forest told him about the disturbance and the increasing injuries of beasts which tried to shoo away the foreigners. For the first time Joseph witnessed a diamond seal bearer anguish, Joseph was taken aback but accepted the boy's plea, well moreover order.
The boy's anger seems to be about how the foreigners killed some of the strongest beasts which are ones that rule their groups. The foreigners squeezed the beasts bloods and drained them dry to 7se as s surrounding barrier for their hidden camp to make the other beasts from coming near their hideout.
To Joseph's point of view, it is one of the oldest trick in the book. They used to do that in war when they have to set up camps in in the middle of the area of conflict, but it rarely happens because wars does not happen in the forests nor they have to fight the beasts over territorial rights.
Joseph stopped from pursuing for a moment and two of his Knights stopped with him, while the rest continues.
"This won't do, I thought we can make that foreigner tired soon enough, but it seems that it is not going to happen soon."
He can chase the man to the end of the world and Joseph will still have tons of energy, but time is the issue. It will be dawn soon and he have to be back to Spade before dawn breaks in. He does not want the people in the castle to be aware of his absence.
"Grab me one of the dead foreigner."
"Yes Sire!"
The knight hurriedly went back to grab one of the body.
"And you, let them know to make that cockroach go this way."
"Yes Sire!"
They are the ones who started this kind of game, Joseph does not mind on playing along.