A few days passed after the siege, which was named Dragmere's Doom. It went down as one of many historic battles soon to come. Ellis had sent an urgent request for more reinforcements to Field Marshal Drake von Harts who quickly issued the main unit of Lunar Knights to aid the Heaven's Hand clean up and defense of the castle. Around 20,000 lunar knights were en route to Dragmere which would be a great boon to the overall war power of the castle as it had seen better days. Its functionality as a castle was practically non-existent as of late. Lucius had been entrusted with receiving the Lunar Knights and their commander, Major General Paul von Moonblade. Cecil's younger brother by four summers. Lucius decided on Lenore, Cecil and a small contingent of his men.
Lenore had picked up the nickname, "the Bloody Mistress." She found the nickname to be rather foul as she was no one's mistress, Lucius started a new daily routine of annoying the woman with her bloody status.
Lucius' greeting party moved to the central gate of Dragmere, preparing for their imminent arrival. After a while of waiting, they started to hear a stampede of footsteps in the distance.
Riding towards them was a considerable host of men, all wearing plate armor of a crystal blue shade. They hoisted banners of a silver background and an emblem of two swords crossing and a full moon casting its light upon them. The men looked blessed by the Lunar Goddess herself, the overarching faith with the moonlight kingdom. Whether she was real or not, wasn't for Lucius to say. He didn't completely deny her existence as anything is possible on Idria, that was a lesson he learned early on.
At the head of the men, was a man with raven black hair and soft features. The man was easy on the eyes, for an outsider of the army he looked to have never touched a blade. Let alone go to war in the darklands. Lucius began to look back and forth between the two brothers, the difference was evident. Eventually, the man in question stopped in front of us and dismounted his steed.
"Brother! It's nice to see you're still kicking, stubborn to the end." exclaimed Paul, embracing his brother for a brief moment. His azure eyes drifted between Lucius and Lenore.
"It's nice to meet you, Major General Paul von Moonblade. I am Major Lucias von Moonlight and this is my aide Corporal Lenore von Moonlight." declared Lucius, the two saluted the man. They had both been promoted after Dragmere's fall because of their valor.
"It's great to meet you too, my prince. Please drop the formalities if anyone could be saluting it's me." said Paul, smiling at the prince. After their brief introductions, they gave Paul the rundown on the castle's condition and how the Lunar Knights would situate themselves. Lunar Knights would be living on the opposite side of the castle to Heaven's Hand. The Heaven's Hand had been commanded to stay and aid with Dragmere's defense and replenish their number in any way Ellis saw fit which would mostly mean poaching from other armies.
"You guys really did a number on the castle, it's pretty much in ruins. I'll have you know labour from the Lunar Knights doesn't come cheap." said Paul, we decided to chat more over some food in the mesh hall. The empire's food was a step up from the moonlight kingdoms, they had to enjoy every last bit until it ran out.
"Oh don't be so crude brother. You know the Heaven's Hand never pulls their punches." exclaimed Cecil, laughing while puffing out his chest.
"Yes, yes. I know you are the elite of the Moonlight Kingdom but I didn't expect this to be honest. Twenty thousand versus five thousand is an unbelievable feat." said Paul, still in disbelief in our feats even though he saw the pit of bodies still being dug on the outside of the castle.
"Ha! It's all because of these two, the bloody mistress and the prince." shouted Cecil, underestimating his own voice. Lenore was giving him a look full of murderous intent after his little outburst.
"Sorry, the bloody mistress?" asked Paul, taken aback by the usual and rather gruesome nickname.
"It's a stupid nickname which was given to me after I used my magic under his orders. It's all Lucius' fault to be honest." spat Lenore, her aversion obvious at the nickname. She dug her elbow into Lucius' ribs, he gave a slight whimpering noise. Covering it up with a slight cough, why this was his fault escaped him.
"May I ask my lady, what type of magic do you use?" asked Paul, his interest piqued.
"Blood magic." answered Lenore plainly, she pointed to the book strapped at her shoulder.
"Blood? I don't think I've ever heard of that before, it seems rather sinister." stated Paul, he had never heard of one manipulating blood before. He was a scholar at the Magical School of Vobos, yet not one of the teachers had never mentioned anything of the sort. He made a mental note to enquire about the unknown magic at a later date.
"It's completely terrifying to be honest, you would never imagine a pink haired short stack like her was capable of such violence." said Cecil, shivering slightly at the memory. Apparently, not realising he was currently insulting the girl he was so scared of. For some reason, Lucius endured the punishment on his behalf, her strike was more forceful this time making him lose his breath. She was still wearing a lovely smile though it didn't reach her eyes, thoughts of cruelty and unbridled violence coursing through her train of thought as she stared at the fool named Cecil.
"Stop Cecil, can you not insult the girl you are so scared of."stated Lucius, fearing for their safety if this were to go on. Cecil paled at the realization his death might be imminent, the look on Lenore's face told many stories of his death.
"Sorry Lenore." said Cecil, backing down like a wounded puppy.
"Hahaha. I've never seen that before, it'll be okay brother if you repent she probably won't kill you." exclaimed Paul, finding the whole situation hilarious. The brothers were very similar, they both didn't know when to be quiet. Cecil started to open his mouth to argue back but Lucius shook his back and forth, signalling the man to be quiet to avoid digging himself an even bigger hole.
"So my prince, I've heard many tales of your magic being wonderful. Let us duel, come on." said Paul. Lucius shook his head at this proposition after losing a majority of his troops his perspective had begun to change at endlessly seeking out a fight.
"I'm sorry but I've had my fill of bloodshed for a while now." declared Lucius, putting his foot down. Paul wore a rather disappointed expression, though he didn't seem finished on topic.
"What happened to the blood thirsty heathen of a prince, who would be crowned in a sea of blood." said Paul, trying to aggravate the prince into a fight most likely but this was nothing compared to Felix's silver tongue. He had apparently picked up some nicknames of his own which in his opinion were way worse than Lenore's.
"Seems I'm not the only bloody one at this table, a rather blasphemous nickname. Bloody heathen I like it, it just rolls off the tongue." snapped Lenore, still apparently fuming at me for nothing. She would never let this go for some reason. Cecil's actions were mine as well in her eyes.
"Were did you hear that? I'll have to personally deal with that rumor mill." said Lucius.
"Oh so it's not true?" asked Paul, tilting his head. He was obviously trying to invoke a negative reaction from the prince, still itching for a fight.
"Well it's not like that, the prince is quite brutal. He has no regard for imperial life but he isn't an unemotional husk. He was quite broken up about the lost men at the siege, we lost around twenty percent of the Heaven's Hand." said Cecil, piping up, choosing to leave the kennel.
"Ah so that's why you won't fight me, losing men can be extremely hard on the commander. Perhaps we can have a private chat later, commander to commander." said Paul.
"I'm sorry for taunting you but that nickname was a story I overheard from one of my men. You've gained quite the reputation, some are starting to favour you as the successor." said Paul, dropping some more intelligence that Lucius hadn't heard before. He was four years younger than his second brother so he had never had any conversations about succession of the throne because everyone believed it to be far-fetched and not in his future.
"Thank you for the apology, I'll take you up on that conversation at a later time." stated Lucius, getting up to leave the mesh hall, they followed after him. Heading towards the assembly point of the Lunar Knight commanders who were awaiting a tour of the castle grounds.