Far East Empire, Zen, the capital of the empire.
The culture here looks like that of Chinese culture, and currently, sitting around a table inside a Chinese restaurant were three people, two males, and one female.
Suddenly, among the males sitting around the table, one raised his fist was about to bash the table but stopped when the woman sitting across from him glared at him, but even if she managed to stop him from bashing his fist again, the table she couldn't stop from cursing.
''Fuck! How many months has it been? But we found nothing until now. Why are we even suffering when he disappeared on his own? Fuck! Seriously it pisses me off.'' Kevin shouted many curses not suitable for human ears to hear.
Neither Dodolus nor Camilla said anything as they could understand his frustration. It had been more than five months since they set off to search for Leonardo, but until now, they found nothing, no clue whatsoever. It was as if Leonardo vanished completely; there was no trace of him anywhere.
While Mysthia was not a modern-day where it was easy to find someone, this world does possess its way of finding people, especially if this person was once an adventurer; they roamed the world searching for him. Still, in the end, they found nothing; it was normal that they would become frustrated after repetitive failure.
While enjoying his fried pork Kevin admired the scenery before him; the restaurant was full of customers eating, drinking, and chatting. Waitresses dressed in cheongsam were serving them. Their cheongsam was small with a slit on either side to let men imagination run wild as this let them glimpse at the white thigh underneath.
Kevin gulped, already imagining some hot night with one of those Chinese-looking girls. While most men are a fan of Japanese culture, Kevin think differently; if he were to choose, then he would go for Chinese culture instead; Indian culture comes second before Japanese culture. So, being surrounded by girls that remind him of Chinese culture didn't help but arouse him.
To temporarily forget their repetitive failure, Kevin decided to drown himself in lust. He would do anything to spend a night with one of the girls in cheongsam tonight.
Camilla and Dodolus exchanged looks before secretly sighing they could understand their brother. After Camilla, Kevin was most affected by Leonardo's sudden disappearance. He was like a second brother; his world was essentially revolved around him; Leonardo was like his beacon, so his disappearance affected him greatly. Without him, he was not complete.
Just as Camilla was about to offer some words to help his brother, she was stopped by the gossip that began. She was not the only one; her brothers stopped whatever they were doing to listen to this gossip as they felt that whatever the other party was about to say would benefit them greatly.
''Have you heard it?'' A man with a crooked nose eating Chinese dumplings initiated the conversation.
Sitting beside him was a man whose features could be extremely ugly; he was fat; not only was he fat, but his face was also covered in scars. His eyes were small also unrecognizable. This ugly man looked at the man with a crooked nose patiently; Kevin felt a shiver race down his spine just by imagining what this gaze meant.
''Stop beating around the bush and tell us, sweetie.'' The ugly fat man said, trying to act cute; Kevin and Dodolus, who rarely show any, felt like throwing up; they were not the only ones while Camilla was not the one to judge others based on their preference, she couldn't help but think that this fat man together with that thin man was not good, but she knew that her opinion didn't matter, she didn't care she wanted to know kept listening.
''It is said that the Black Prince, you know the Eighth, got engaged to the third princess, the beautiful Artemia Eretria Von Havens.''
''What?" The other customers exclaimed at this news; they couldn't believe it; how many had the crown prince tried to ask for Artemia hand in marriage but to be refused at the end? So hearing that an outsider becomes the fiance of such a perfect girl made them angry.
While the inhabitants of the Far East Empire were mad because their prince was not chosen, Dodolus, Kevin, and Camilla were surprised by the sudden development. At the same time, they didn't know how this relationship came to be, but this spell was nothing good but trouble; it would mean that Alex was getting closer to the throne than them.
While they did know he had no desire for the throne, if his woman were to offer him the throne on a silver plate, who knows what he could do.
''Wow! What news. I wonder how our crown would react? Knowing how infuriated he was with her. Maybe he would challenge the Eighth in a duel where the winner would have the girl. I'm fired to know who will win.
I wish it would happen immediately because the current world is too peaceful.'' the fat ugly man said; surprisingly enough, most of the customers seemed to share the same view as him. To them, the current era was too peaceful; maybe it came from the fact that most of them were mercenaries, and mercenaries in times of peace earn almost nothing.
If the crown prince of the Far East Empire were to challenge Alex and won, making Artemia his, there would be some tension between the two empires, and who knows, this may evolve into a full-scale war where mercenaries would shine the most.
''That is not all; it is said that Foxia empire has engaged their crown princess to the same man making the Lionheart Empire wonder what should be done not to fall behind. While it's true that their crown prince is a friend with the Eighth, it was not enough to tie him to their empire.
So the emperor, Leon's father, is thinking if he should give his youngest daughter barely fourteen to the black prince to win him over.''
When they heard these words, the three had the same thought, 'There is no way Alex would accept this condition.'