Chapter 4

Kiomi happily glanced at him for a second and followed Black gladly. She locked the door and were rushing to the back exit of the castle with him.

They two were walking for a few minutes through the kingdom. Kiomi looked around the city a lot. Since she never been to underground places, it almost seemed like she was totally new in her own kingdom. The streets of the poor side in the kingdom were full of dirty water and junk. On every corner were people laying on the ground, dazed with any sorts of drugs. Though, some of them were just sick or homeless, nobody could really tell because all of them had the same lifeless expression in their face.

The expression of deeply regretment, the destruction in their heart eating its way through their soul, all found in the eyes of these people.

Seeing this made the princess think. “What happened to all of these people.. They look so.. unfortunate sad. I never knew about this place.. If I would I could have helped here..”

While the princess was busy feeling guilty with all of these people, Black noticed that he was getting looked at. No, she was getting looked at.

“ah- I should have thought of this..” Black thought and stopped walking.

“You are too attentive. When people see your pink hair and your clothes it's just a matter of time, that they notice you are the princess and so until we get in trouble.”, he explained, looked around him.

After he explained it to her and looked at her face, he noticed she felt visible uncomfortable.

He took a moment to think and said then: “argh.. actually.. we don't need to eat here.”. He almost looked ashamed, forgetting his manners and just going to a dirty place as that. He put desperately his hand on his forehead, wondering where they could eat now.

“Maybe we can just talk a bit at some nice place?” Kiomi asked him with her known warm smile, while putting his hand away from his head.

Black looked down. fixated at her hand touching his.

Kiomi merely noticed it and fast put her hand back in her pocked and looked away.

“If you don't want to it's fine too, of course.. I have no problem with eating here..” She mumbled to Black, blushing and trying to hide it with looking at the sky.

“Talking seems just fine, don't worry about it.” He answered her calmly, not bothered with her hand touching his for quite a moment.

With that, Kiomi led the way out of the kingdom. When they came near the gate to exit the kingdom, she told Black to wait a few steps away from it.

“Wait and watch”, Kiomi winked confident to Black, walking to the two knights who were guarding the gate.

“Oh! Hello Princess Kiomi!”, the knights greeted her and bowed down. “We didn't expected to see you that late anymore today! Can we do something for you?”, The knight said with a worried face.

“Hello honorary knights, I wanted to do a evening walk, so no worries.”

“If that's so.. well watch after you.”, the other knight adviced Kiomi.

“Thank you very much. Oh- if I come to think of it.. You two got the orders to come to the kingdom right away. The king noticed some knights were missing on their positions in the kingdom. They already sent two other knights who can protect the gate. So you two should hurry.”, Kiomi said in a haste making voice.

“Of course, my lady!”, The knights answered in sinc.

Both of the knights were rushing to the kingdom right away. Just as the knights disappear, black was stepping closer.

“Honorary Knights, huh? You gonna start calling me this too?”, He asked in a sarcastic, mildly mocking tone.

“Funny.”, She rolled her eyes and gave him back the same sarcastic tone. “You don't always need to beat up innocent men, to get your will.”, she tried to lecture him.

“Innocent? These men are not a single bit innocent. Just because they are fighting for a king instead of themselves, doesn't make the blood on their hands any less red.”, Black said, despiseing the knights of the kingdom.

Kiomi looked at him questionable, but changed her expression to a smiling one and said “I guess you aren't wrong about that”, and were grabbing his arm ready to walk to the nice sunset place.

Black got an, for him uncommon expression.

He smiled.

They finally arrived at the hill.

Sitting on the grass next to the tree, Kiomi stretched and made herself comfortable, Black sat down as well.

At this time, it was dusk already. The sky was filled with wonderful warm colours, orange pink and red.

“I love sunsets like this.. They are so beautiful to look at.”, Kiomi said while the warm wind was making her hair slightly fly. Black was looking at her and had an emotion of satisfaction, shown by a expression of, again, a soft smile. Both were looking at the horizon, taking a moment of silence to embrace the breathtaking atmosphere of this evening. When Kiomi finally looked away from the sunset she catched Black starring at her. As he noticed he looked away and she giggled softly.

“So.. What did you do all these years?”, she asked him. “I have been here and there.. nothing important. Trying to survive, you know?”, Black answered her.

“Naw! That's no fun! Give me more details.. like you used to!”, Kiomi proceeded.

“You remember?.. I would have bet you forget about the storied I told you.”, Black said surprised.

“Of course I remember.. How long is it ago? 18 years? Gosh.. time really does fly by..”, Kiomi continued, “tell me, how old are you now?”.

“Whole 104 years old.”, Black answered. “Damn.. 104 and look like 24. and here I am with my 22 years and I feel old already.” Kiomi said jokingly.

Black looked at the sunset again. “You know.. I know you were just a little kid but.. to that time you were one of the only friends I ever had.. listening to my stories, talking to me, honestly just being friendly was enough for me. Thank you for that.”, Black thanked her.

“I can say the same about you.. You always made me so excited listening to your stories.. oh! And how did I called you? Kuro right? .. You told me a few japanese words and I were searching of all the books in the castle, only to find the word black in japenese, and when I called you Kuro, you got so surprised.. I remember that.. sigh.. good memories.” , She said and couldn't hold back a little smile. “Good old times..”, Black answered.

The mood was full of nostalgia.. everything seemed so peaceful.

Until Black heard a howling of Haru, a frightened, scared scream for help.