After days of traveling, the towering walls of the castle slowly ca into view. Nox and Serena were slightly amazed at the sheer height of the walls and the majestic structure standing proudly before them.
Because she had visited the Royal Capital before, Nyx's face remained indifferent. Seeing the uninterested look in her eyes, Nox couldn't help but ask.
"Nyx, you don't seem impressed by this place. Isn't it your first ti seeing such towering walls?" he asked, a sly grin tugging at his lips. "Like Wendy said, you don't have to act stoic all the ti. Sotis, when you see sothing beautiful, appreciate it."
Nyx glanced at him, an amused light passing through her eyes, and said in a calm yet slightly smug tone, "I'm not impressed because this is not the first ti I've co here."
"Oh," Nox said, nodding slightly. "That makes sense." Not wanting to tease her further, he returned his gaze to the road ahead.
But Nyx wasn't done.
"In fact, I have a lot of mories here... and I'm a bit famous in this place," she added suddenly, with a tone of mystery in her voice.
"Famous? Tsk. What did you do to be famous?" Nox sneered skeptically, then raised his head arrogantly as he added in a condescending voice, "If there should be anyone famous here, it should be ."
While the two siblings were having their usual argunt, they arrived at the entrance of the city. However, they weren't alone. Dozens of carriages stretched into what seed like eternity. Eventually, their turn ca, and they were granted access into the city.
The first thing that caught Nox and Serena's eyes was the wide cobblestone street and the beautifully arranged shops lining both sides.
On the wide cobblestone roads themselves, luxurious carriages moved in an orderly fashion, as if the coachn had been trained for this precision all their lives. On the pedestrian walkways, knights in silver-plated armor patrolled with an air of authority. Above the city, several banners fluttered in the wind, their vibrant colors and sigils catching everyone's attention.
"Once every five years! The No. 1 Academy in the Vermilion Kingdom Entrance exam will be held a few days from now! Everyone from age 13-20 is eligible for participation!" Nox read the advertisent on the banner aloud.
"We still have a day before the exams, so I think we should head over to an inn," Serena suggested. "We'll take two rooms— and Nox will share one... no, I an, what am I even saying?"
Serena felt her cheeks beco hot as she quickly said, "What I ant to say is... and Nyx will share one room, while Nox will take one because he's a boy, and boys are not ant..."
This bitch... was what Nyx wanted to say, but cursing wasn't in her nature.
"How about we tour the city first in the anti?" Nox suggested, breaking the silence. Your next read awaits at mvl
"That isn't a bad idea," both girls agreed, much to the coachman's dismay.
The poor man yawned, rubbing his eyes. He had been traveling nonstop for days, and now, instead of resting, these inconsiderate brats wanted to sightsee.
The group's first stop was the Adventurer's Guild, a large hexagonal structure with sturdy stone towers. Right outside the building, a magnificent fountain greeted visitors. This fountain was carved from pristine white marble and depicted a heroic figure holding a sword aloft as water cascaded gracefully from beneath their feet.
Adventurers walked in and out of the guild, each one different. So carried swords, others staffs, and a few were ard with bows and quivers. Many more wielded strange and unique weapons. A handful of adventurers sat around the fountain reading quest parchnts, their expressions ranging from excitent to dread.
"Who is that?" Nox asked, gesturing toward the statue. He had seen this sa figure repeatedly throughout the capital—at almost every junction, square, and plaza. It was irritating. Whoever this person was, they seed desperate to assert their dominance, as if screaming, "Look at ! I'm important!"
But more than that, Nox found the statue's face very punchable. His brow twitched as he muttered, "I can already tell we wouldn't get along if we ever crossed paths."
"That's the current king of the Vermilion Kingdom, Aldrich Vermilion," the coachman said, his tone neutral but informative. Thankfully, this wasn't his first trip from the western region to the capital, so he was very inford.
In a hushed voice, as if scared soone could hear him, he whispered, "But there's a rumor that, a long ti ago, there were only statues of the legendary Awakened who participated in the Great War of Rebirth."
"Then where did he keep those statues?" Nyx asked with a furrowed brow. This was what Nox wanted to ask as well. All this while, the only statues they'd been seeing were those of the annoying king.
In the last few years, Nox had learned more about the Great War of Rebirth, a history most didn't know much about because the elders rarely spoke of it. The mories of that ti were anything but pleasant.
According to his grandfather, several decades ago, strange rifts had torn open in various parts of the human domain.
Humans initially thought these were just dinsional rifts or portal breaks, phenona that typically occurred when monsters overloaded a dinsional rift.
Contrary to their expectations, what erged from the rifts weren't beasts but humanoids who possessed an intelligence that rivaled that of humans. In fact, his grandpa had vividly described them in high-level armor, their bodies pale, almost gray, with pulsing green and blue veins running through them, wielding advanced weapons—weapons none of them had ever seen before. These beings exuded an aura of authority and danger, as if their very presence signaled the end of an era.
On top of their frightening appearance, these beings were imnsely powerful, and two or more Awakened were required to take down a single one of them.
For years, the humans fought these invaders, who were hell-bent on wiping any sentient being from the world. It was bloodshed! A one-sided massacre and millions lost their lives.
These beings blanketed the sun with their advanced weapons, plunging the entire world into darkness, making it extrely difficult for the human Awakened to see and fight their enemies, who were attuned to darkness and could see as though it was dayti.
The killings continued, while the other countless races in Eos did nothing to help the humans, as they didn't want to get entangled in the conflict.
It was at this mont, Arthur, who had just returned from an expedition, launched a counterattack on these beings!
Along with his beast companions, he was a force of nature, simply unstoppable, and eventually pushed them back to the rift where they ca from, though they vowed to return. Till this day, they've never been spotted again.
After a brief mont of silence, the coachman answered Nox's earlier question. "All those statues were destroyed by the current king and replaced with this one."
"Did he participate in the war?" Nox asked. Perhaps it was because he felt he played a major role in the war, so he decided to place his statues everywhere. That could be it... it was the only thing Nox could think of. There's no one so shaless as to claim credit for a battle they never fought... right?
But...
"No, he didn't," the coachman responded, hate palpable in his voice. "He was a coward and hid behind the walls of the castle until the war ca to an end."
Just as the coachman finished speaking, a white light flashed, and the head of the statue plunged into the pool, splashing everywhere, shocking all the Awakened present there.
***
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