However, when she laid her eyes on the youth walking towards her, Princess Darlene couldn't help but suck in a sharp breath and identified him as the king of Everlight without a doubt this time.
He had shoulder-length wavy hair with the color of midnight black and his eyes were darker than his hair, framed by graceful brows. He had prominent cheekbones and perfectly well-defined chin and nose. Unlike many young n.o.bles and men who were obese eating all the fatty food they could, King Don was not bulky but had a well-built body with muscles rippled across every part of his body that even with all the clothes covering his body Darlene could see the muscles protruding.
There was no doubt he was a fighter and a warrior. She���d never seen a man with those features, the aura of a king was radiating from him, unlike Warren who's walking beside him.
And when she thought as she had enough shock, Darlene received another when she saw the woman walking behind Don. The girl had black hair and perfect structure and an aura of a warrior radiating from her, she was not a country toppling beauty or beauty like Darlene but she had a unique charm and grace to her that separated her from the common beauties and delicate young misses.
Seeing the sword hilt on her back, it was clear to Darlene that she was king's bodyguard.
"Princess Darlene, meet his highness Don the king of Everlight and Emir"
"King Don" In the Moon Empire when two royalties meet each other they use a simple handshake as etiquette for greeting so did Princess Darlene.
"Princess Darlene" Don reached out his hand and shook the hand of the princess. When Darlene shook his hand, she recognized it was not a hand of a pampered youth feeling the roughness and hardness of the skin.
"King Don, meet my uncle and advisor Steven Rodric" Darlene pointed at the white-haired old man standing beside her.
"Your majesty" Uncle Steve lowered his head and slightly bowed towards Don as Don nodded in return
After introducing Uncle Steve, Darlene looked curiously at the girl behind him and waited for Don to introduce her
"This is my personal bodyguard, Adria"
Just to be safe Don decided to go with a false name for Arrora
"Your royal highness" Arrora bend and curtsied while Warren prayed that she doesn't ask the same questions she asked Glacia but fortunately Darlene kept her mouth close even though she had the curiosity
Without wasting any time Warren clapped his hand as the refreshment was brought to the hall by the maids while Don gestured at Princess Darlene to take a seat as he sat on the seat which was previously arranged by Warren.
Seeing Don didn't take the throne Warren sat beside Don as Arrora stood behind Don without taking the refreshment from the tray.
"So King Don, I a.s.sume you heard everything from Mister Joel"
"Yes, I did. Except for one thing, what do I get in return?"
Don had his own plans in his mind but for Don, it was never a wrong thing to have more
Hearing Don, Darlene sighed like she was hoping he would not ask this question before answering
"Well, King Don you've heard of ancient dungeons right?"
Don nodded as Princess Darlene continued
"Then you know about the ancient keys to access the dungeons, if you help me with this matter I will give you the access key given to Korrinth"
"The Princess must have gone nuts" that's what Warren thought when he heard Darlene and even Uncle Steve looked shocked and surprised at her
After telling what was she going to offer in return, Darlene expected either shock or surprise from Don but to her surprise, he didn't show any emotions even though any kingdom would kill each other to have one extra access key
"King Don, to my knowledge Everlight is not yet registered with the empire"
Princess Darlene frowned but her meaning was clear to Don, the access keys to the dungeon were only given to the registered kingdoms and Everlight was not one of those
"But Emir is" Don calmly said.
There were sixteen kingdoms in the Moon empire and the empire would give each kingdom a key to access the dungeon and with a key, three members could get inside the dungeon and try their luck inside at getting ancient items buried in the dungeon.
Having another key meant there would be another three members thus a kingdom's probability of getting more precious items would get higher.
The reason for Warren's and Uncle Steve's reaction was they knew how a rare chance it's to get inside the dungeon.
The ancient dungeon has appeared randomly around the Avelon Continent in the past every seventy-five years.No one knew how and why the dungeon keeps appearing or who was it belong to but everyone in the continent knew that inside the dungeon there were countless ancient artifacts and wealth, and it was an unwritten rule that the kingdom who gets its hand on the powerful artifacts could instantly become a superpower in the empire like the Acheron Kingdom or the Zenith Kingdom.
Of course, as much as the artifacts and wealth in the dungeon, it had dangers and risks that according to the empire stats there was only a two percent of chance to return alive after entering the dungeon, however that didn't stop kingdoms sending their best to the dungeon or it didn't stop the young men and women from entering in hope to find wealth or ancient artifact that could change their lives forever.
Don simile inside thinking about how easy he got his hands on two access keys because it would only happen in weak small kingdoms like Emir or korrinth but in contrast, the bigger powerful kingdoms would organize ma.s.sive tournaments and compet.i.tion to choose a champion to send to the dungeon.
And with life energy being replenished in the world, there would be higher level mages and warriors hence the tournaments to determine the champions were going to be crazy as h.e.l.l and the commoners would probably spend their life savings to get a ticket to watch the compet.i.tions.
Don had no time to partic.i.p.ate in the compet.i.tions and reveal his power or attract any unwanted attractions to him yet, besides he was d.a.m.n good at these compet.i.tions when he was in the divine continent. Naturally, he won and lost some of them since the divine continent had many prodigies and monsters but its a story for another time?
"Alright I'll do this but I have one last question Princess"
Princess Darlene's eyes brightened when she heard Don's answer and nodded excitingly
"What is it, King Don?"
"Why do this? you can easily drag your marriage proposal for two months "
Don was skeptical at Darlene's plan from the beginning yet his curiosity and a sinister plot he had in his mind that made him meet with the princess in the first place. Princess Darlene looked like she was expecting this question
"Its because if I say anything else to elope the marriage, the Agorians might declare war with Korrinth but with this, they won't do that since they think that they have to face two kingdoms at once"
Don nodded his head but he still had his doubts about Darlene's explanation, in his mind, he couldn't help but think there was something else going on inside her mind. Yet, Don knew he had to see this as an opportunity rather as a danger if he's going to succeed in his sinister plot.
Besides Princess Darlene's offer tempted Don, with Knight by his side Don was certain that he could rob the dungeon clean, Don and Knight were experts when it comes to robbing and stealing and the dungeon would be their playground.
"If nothing else, we can start our journey to Korrinth today King Don"
Princess Darlene said.
"No time like the present" Don went to stand up before he was interrupted by Uncle Steve
"Your majesty, pardon me asking but where are your guards from Everlight? Princess Darlene has no guards"
It was obvious that the princess had no guards since she ran away from her kingdom and would not be dumb enough to have an armed escort with her. Uncle Steve was counting on Don to bring in the guards although he knew a King of a new small kingdom would not have a squadron like Korrinth, it would be better than nothing.
However, as far as he could see, Don had nothing but a pretty woman to protect him and no king would be that poor to have only one bodyguard or Uncle Steve thought.
"Don't worry about that, Emir will be happy to escort his majesty and Princess Darlene to Korrinth" Warren had seen Don's guards but since he came without his guards, Warren thought that Don must have a reason for it also Warren didn't want someone like Steve from another kingdom look down on his king.
Hearing Warren, Don was glad because he wanted everyone in Korrinth to think that he's no more than a king of a small weakling kingdom who had some kind of luck with conquering Emir.
Unlike Uncle Steve, Princess Darlene was not concerned about guards or escorts because she was powerful enough to deal with bandits or any hindrances that might occur on the way.
And seeing Don had no guards means either he was nothing like the things she heard from her spies or he was just like her, powerful enough to defend himself or the girl behind him was enough to protect him.
No matter what, Darlene knew that she has enough time and brains to figure him out or in worst case scenarios, kill him.
