Ten knights stood in the presence of the king in the hall, standing shoulder to shoulder for the king to examine them carefully. The king, Cornelius Lawrence, sat on his throne at the end of the meeting hall.

The meeting hall consisted of a large corridor-like room with a red carpet from the doors to the throne. There were five seats arranged on either side of the carpet, no one sitting on any of them currently. There were pillars built inside the room to support the structure and the hanging chandeliers. To Kesshō, there were no striking features about this room except the throne, which was apparently made of gold. The golden throne was adorned with gemstones all over, the only thing that wasn't gold or gemstones were the leather seat and arm rests. Kesshō couldn't tell which animal the leather came from, but she could tell that it was dyed red with a scent of flowers on it, one which she didn't recognise.

The knights were all standing nervously as the king eyed each of them. All knights were wearing iron armor with the emblem of the kingdom engraved on the chestplate. Their eyes were covered by their helmets, but she could tell that Kurai's eyes were scanning the entire room, looking for any potential threats, challenges, surprises, or anything the king might use to test them. His eyes rested on her for a while several times but she couldn't tell what he was thinking.

Kesshō was standing beside the king for no apparent reason. She got dragged away by some maids in the morning, bathed, dressed and groomed. She has not been told anything about why she was supposed to stand here or if she was supposed to even do anything or not. She just stood there without any movement, hoping to not get into any trouble. She had been looking directly at the ground till Kurai entered, risking several glances to see what was happening since then.

After what felt like an eternity the king finally spoke. "Go talk with General Fletcher for your orders. Now, leave." He dismissed them with a wave of his hand.

All the knights, including Kurai, looked at each other in confusion. "Why did you call us here then, my lord?" The knight third from the right inquired. Kesshō believed those were the last words he would be allowed to speak, for the crime of speaking in the presence of the king without permission.

"Figure it out yourself, it's quite simple." The king said getting up and gesturing Kesshō to follow. Though surprised, she did as he said without being told twice, her head still down.

"To test which of us will follow his orders without questioning them." Kurai said just as the king walked past him.

The king stopped in his tracks and looked at Kurai, his eyes neither friendly nor hostile. "You, follow me, and the rest of you, go to General Fletcher." The king ordered as he continued walking.

Kurai followed them, keeping a respectable distance. He was walking at a steady pace, keeping a couple steps behind and to the right of Kesshō, seemingly a habit of his whenever escorting someone. Going through the maze of hallways they stopped at a room with a door made of dark oak and lined with gold, the handle also being of pure gold. The king opened the door and the two followed after him.

The room on the inside was luxurious. Two sofas were placed on either side of a glass table placed in the center. A chandelier hung from the ceiling right above the table. The walls were adorned by lamps and paintings. A table, also made of dark oak, sat at the other end of the room beside a window with red curtains which were currently drawn.

The king sat on the sofa to the right and gestured Kurai to sit on the sofa opposite to him. Kessho went to stand beside the king as she has been trained to do. Kurai declined the offer and kept standing near the door, the reason unknown to Kesshō.

"Why are you not sitting?" The king asked.

"It would be wrong for me to sit down in front of my lord." Kurai said with a wave of his hand. Kesshō could tell that Kurai was tempted to kill the king right here, but he kept his intentions hidden.

"A very knightly response. However, I would like you to sit so we can talk easily." The king gestured Kurai to have a seat. Kurai bowed slightly before taking a seat at the sofa. "So, which region are you from?" The king questioned, resting his chin in his hand as he leaned on the sofa.

"The icy mountains to the north," Kurai answered.

"Who trained you as a knight?"

"A former knight that settled at my village some years ago."

The king relaxed backwards and thought for a while.

"May I ask who that is?" Kurai inquired pointing at Kessho, wanting to know how the king will respond.

"No one you should be worried about." The king said with a dismissive wave of his hand.

"Quite certain she is the one I should be worried about," Kurai sighed under his breath. The king didn't hear it but Kessho did.

The king got up and walked to the table. "You seem to be quite skilled, go to General Fletcher with this and receive your orders." He handed Kurai a page from the table with something written on it and a red spot at the bottom right part of it before sitting back down.

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Kurai took it and walked towards the door after bowing to the king. Sneaking a sideways glance at Kessho before leaving. He seemed somewhat confused as to why the king believed him to be skilled, but Kesshō was well aware as cruel as the king might be, he is still an experienced king. She has seen him determining the strength and usefulness of knights within seconds of meeting them, even though they barely even believe he inspected them.

"So," The king mumbled a few moments after Kurai left. Kesshō's body stiffened instinctively, having relaxed in Kurai's presence. "I heard that your ears and tails are gone and haven't grown back in a long while." He mumbled with a smile on his face, still looking at some papers on the glass table.

She nodded slowly.

"It seems like you are finally prepared to be the queen now. You will be given a much bigger room to do anything you want, however, for the most of the time you will be with me from now on," The king informed.

Kessho didn't know whether to be happy about it or not, but she got a feeling of dread from his words.

"And as such," the king continued, "you are not allowed to leave the castle. I will have a royal guard with you at all times. At times of great joy like this there are always those that wish to ruin it by assassinating the queen. It has happened once before and I don't wish to take any risks."

Kessho didn't let the expression on her face change. She was now quite certain that for now her life wasn't going to be easy, if ever again. Not showing any expressions, as was expected of her, was already hard enough, but without being allowed to meet with Kurai or cry her heart out she was certain that she won't be able to keep it up for long.

"You can go now." The king dismissed her with a wave of his hand.

She bowed and walked out of the door, wandering aimlessly, not knowing what to do. Her mind was stressed and she wished to tell Kurai about everything the king just revealed, but wasn't sure she would get the chance to now.

At the gate which led out to one of the gardens she collided with something hard. The collision wasn't too hard, but it was enough to knock her off her feet. She fell backwards, clutching her nose which was hurt by the sudden impact and was now slightly red and bleeding.

"Extremely sorry, I was in a ru-" The voice paused abruptly. "Very sorry!" The voice exclaimed.

She felt a soft cloth being pressed on her face. She removed her hand and the person wiped off the blood. She opened her eyes and saw a person in a knight's armor knelt in front of her with a handkerchief. He pocketed the cloth and looked at her, making sure there weren't any other injuries.

"Good thing I found you first. Never thought the general would decide to turn this into a competition. Anyways, now that I have found you there's nothing to worry about." The voice sighed in relief, resting his hand on his chestplate.

Her head was slightly ringing before so she didn't recognize the voice, but now, with the ringing gone she couldn't ever fail to recognize this voice. She tilted her head, confused as to what Kurai was doing here, being certain that he had been told to go to General Fletcher.

"I was looking for you. When I got there and handed the general the paper he gathered all the ten new recruits and announced a competition, as was asked of by the king. 'The first one to find the queen and bring her here is going to be her guard and receive much higher pay than anyone else.' I ran away the instant he said that, I didn't want anyone to get to you before I did, none of them seemed to really care about you. I was going for the room we were just in but seems like I won't have to," He explained to her.

Kesshō's face brightened on hearing that. Her worries of not being able to meet him were unnecessary now. A guard being with her at all times was now the best thing that happened to her in a long time as now she would always be with him.

Kurai got up before lifting Kesshō to her feet and leading her through the garden towards the front gate of the castle. Kesshō stopped as she heard someone approaching and jumped towards Kurai just as a hand was about to grab her. Kurai quickly pulled her behind him and kicked the away the attacker.

The attacker was a person in a knight armor, the same as Kurai's. Kurai took a battle stance, his left hand slightly raised and his right hand near his waist. Their attacker approached without any caution, not thinking of Kurai as a big threat, and he couldn't have been more wrong.

Before he knew what happened the other knight was flying through the air, landing on the ground with a loud thud a moment later, startling several birds that were eating seeds nearby. Before the knight could have noticed Kurai grabbed him by his head and thrown him over his shoulders. The knight now lay at the ground, coughing, all air knocked out of his body.

Before anymore showed up Kurai grabbed Kesshō by the hand and ran towards the main gate. When they were just one turn away from the gate Kesshō heard two people running towards them. She stopped and tugged on Kurai's hand trying to warn him. He looked at her, understanding what she meant from their last encounter and gestured her to tell him where they were coming from. She pointed to the garden they just knocked out the other knight at and a door that led into the main building. She pointed to the building twice, gesturing that the one from there was about to arrive first. Surprisingly, Kurai understood what she meant and went to stand right beside the door, close to the wall and out of sight.

"Close your right palm when he is just about appear through the door." Kurai commanded Kesshō after taking his position.

Kesshō watched the knight as he spotted her and charged straight towards her. She waited for just when he was about to reach the door then closed her palm. Seeing her palm close Kurai extended his leg towards the door. The other knight, not noticing Kurai's leg in time tripped over it. Before he hit the ground Kurai grabbed him around his shoulders, swung him around and smashed him straight into the wall. Kessho was shocked at the brutal attack and reached her hand out, worried the knight was dead.

"Nothing to worry about, he will live, just unconscious, and maybe badly injured." Kurai informed, walking past her to take care of the other knight.

The other knight emerged from the turn, only his sharp reflexes saving him from Kurai's punch. The knight ducked under Kurai's punch which was aimed right at his head. He rammed his body into Kurai, trying to down him on the ground, but Kurai was much stronger. Kneeing the knight in his stomach Kurai lifted his body into the air and slammed his body on the ground as he fell backwards, breaking the knight's leg as the heavy armor didn't allow him to soften the impact.

The knight lay there groaning in pain, not even daring to move. Leaving him be Kurai ran back to Kesshō, grabbing her hand and rushing to the last turn before the general. There were 6 knights standing there with the general, having been waiting for whoever finds and brings Kesshō there, a clever but underhanded move.

"You won't be making it any further, we will be taking her now." A knight, easily more than twice the size of Kesshō grinned.

Kurai let go of her hand and gently ushered her behind him. She looked nervously at him as he took his fighting stance. "I would like to see you try," he taunted.