Rosalba glanced at the sky once more as they all followed Miyuki by air toward the east gate of the city. She couldn't help but wonder how Tetsuya's training was coming along. She had called Serrano to ask a few days prior but hadn't heard from him since.

"You okay?" Roa asked, watching her curiously.

She lowered her head. "Yeah. I was simply thinking of someone. I wonder if he has improved at all during these past few days."

"Your boyfriend?"

Rosalba's averted her gaze and quickened her pace. "Like I would date that jerk!"

Lady Miyuki snickered as she glanced back. "You are a lot like Sofia."

The princess gasped. "Mom said that about Dad?"

Roa smirked. "Comparing the guy to your dad, huh?" he sneered.

Rosalba blushed. "S-shut up! Who asked you?"

The black-robed teen chuckled.

***

"Lady Rosalba!" a voice called out as soon as they returned to Shirayuki castle. A cyan-eyed young man dressed in a white tuxedo waved at them from in front of the elegantly carved lapis lazuli gates. "Where did you rush off to?"

Rosalba yawned for a moment before finally replying, "Sorry for worrying you, Zafir. While I do appreciate the concern, I do believe that it'll be best to take it easy. You are a prince yourself, after all. Not my knight."

"Zafir?" Hyosetsu said, clenching the silver hilt of his sword. "As in the member of the Seven Seas? One of the strongest knights in all of Mizu no Kin? Not to mention the clan heir?"

Zafir nodded proudly and chuckled. "Did you forget me? I guess it has been years since we last met, cousin. Yes, I am that Zafir. I take it that you're the birthday boy, Hyo?"

Hyosetsu drew his sword out of the sheath by an inch. "For a guy who moments ago was worried about the condition of a foreign princess as if he were her nanny, you sure do speak with a high and mighty tone."

Zafir crossed his arms over his chest and flicked one finger toward the older duke, sending Hyosetsu flying back into Shirayuki wall. "And you sir have little respect for those above you."

"Brother!" Kohri yelled, rushing to his aid.

Etsuo sighed. "I just finished healing that guy a while ago..."

"Told you not to bother," Roa said, shaking his head.

"Hey, how would I have known this was going to happen?"

"Zafir!" Rosa said, glaring at the crowned prince of Mizu no Kin. She stomped over to him and poked his chest with her right index finger. "Be nice! You should also be more concerned about your girlfriend. Didn't you say that you were going to propose to her?"

Zafir's face turned bright red. Averting his ocean blue eyes, he said, "Did I truly say that? I don't recall."

The second princess of Kuroriku sighed. "I feel sorry for Akari. Come on, man up and propose, or else she might end up thinking you aren't serious one of these days."

The Mizu no Kinian prince sighed. "You're right... but."

Rosa put an arm around his shoulder. "Let's go inside. We need a serious chat."

Zafir nodded as the two of them walked inside. "Alright."

"Argh, that prince will pay for this," Hyosetsu said as he stomped over to the castle gate, blue energy radiating from his sword.

His mother shook her head at him. "You really are your father's son, always full of energy. Hyo, you are better off not messing with Mizu no Kinian royalty. You know the history of our lands well, or at least I hope so. Sure he's my nephew, but squabbles between family members have happened before. It's best to avoid a repeat of those blood-soaked times."

Hyosetsu recalled the stories about their grand-dukedom, which separated the two halves of Mizu no Kin. It was once a land of active conflict between the Kuroriku and the Mizu no Kin clans. The latter wanted the land for the purposes of unifying the two halves. Meanwhile, the former wanted to retain it as it gave them access to the sea, despite those waters being frozen for nine months out of twelve. The result was a long series of gruesome wars. Yet the unique culture of the Kuroyuki no San and their very genetic makeup resulted from these squabbles. The peace in the Kuroyuki no San lands had only lasted about as long as his mother's life, the frailness of that calm was not to be taken for granted.

"You're worried that by upsetting him that I could start a war? Is that prince's ego really that fragile?" Hyosetsu asked, scoffing.

"Should you really be talking?" Kohri asked as they walked into the palace.

Hyosetsu narrowed his glowing blue eyes at him. "And what's that supposed to mean?"

Kohri put his hands on the back of his head and started to whistle before sprinting off.

"Tsk. You think you can run away?" Hyosetsu asked, chasing after his younger brother.

Kohri stopped by a pair of stairs leading to the ballroom beneath the palace. He turned around and grinned at his older brother, who was striding toward him. "Oh, it's nothing! Don't mind little old Kohri. Anyway, I'm off to go do some dancing! See ya!"

Hyosetsu scoffed. "Dancing? Honestly, what kind of knight dances with glee?"

"I like dancing," Etsuo quipped.

"You're a knight? Wait, who asked you?" Hyosetsu asked before marching off after his brother.

Roa snickered. "These people sure are proud." He rubbed the back of his neck and walked downstairs toward where Kohri had run off to. "Wanna go check out the ballroom?"

Etsuo, who was frowning before, smiled. "Really? You're fine with it? I thought that you hated dancing. Even the sight of people dancing irks you."

The young man in black waved his hand dismissively. "That's back home. Who knows, perhaps I'll like Zionian dance."

***

[An hour later]

Roa sighed as he reclined on one of the hundreds of seats with a half-eaten caribou sandwich on hand. He sat in the eastern half of Shirayuki palace's ballroom as he watched couples in elegant suits and gowns dance around in circles to the beat of gentle sounds.

"Bored?" Etsuo said, offering him a golden goblet filled with a dark red liquid.

Roa stared at the glass as he took it. "What is this stuff?"

"It's a drink made of fruits from this realm. Not exactly sure what kind, but it's delicious. Go on, try it."

Roa pressed the glass against his lips to wash away the sandwich he had just finished eating. Tipping his head back, his eyes widened as the red liquid touched his tongue. "It is. So this is how Zionian food and drink tastes like. Interesting."

Etsuo sat down beside him and watched as various couples twirled like lotuses sent adrift in a lake of color. "How do you like Zionian dance? Makes you feel like dancing?"

The black-haired young man shook his head. "It's nothing too special." He gazed at the shimmering golden chandeliers before quickly averting his eyes. "This world, it's so bright, it's blinding. I can see why my father is so filled with light. This world is brimming with it."

"Yeah, this world is beautiful," his white-haired companion said, watching as prince Zafir danced with a blonde woman dressed in a white lace dress. Watching the two dance was like staring at professional dancers.

Rosalba sighed as she emerged from behind a nearby rose pillar. "He still hasn't asked her yet." She laughed. "At least they seem to be enjoying themselves. Perhaps it is still too early for them to move up a step in their relationship."

Roa pointed his goblet at her. "Do all princesses here get into other people's business, or is it only you?"

Rosa flinched and turned over to look at them. "I uh... I'm just trying to help out my friends, alright! Honestly, Zafir might be strong, but the guy is naive when it comes to dealing with women. And Akari might be strong and independent, but she isn't one to 'tie' down a guy."

"So, you were bluffing earlier when you said that she might end up dumping him for not making a move?" Etsuo asked.

The princess smiled shyly. "Yes, but my friend needed that nudge!"

"A friend, huh? My first impression of him was that he liked you," Roa said, smirking.

The princess snickered. "Zafir likes me, but as a sister and quite frankly, I am glad he does. He is like the brother I never had. Though there was a time when my father tried to engage us."

"Right, you are a princess yourself," Roa said, the grin still on his face. "A political marriage between two of the four strongest clans in all of Zionia would be titanic. I dare say it could even frighten the other two."

Rosa glanced over at the blond woman dancing with Zafir. While Zafir typically disguised himself as her bodyguard when they were together, the woman did so as her chauffeur. "Akari is a princess from one of those other two clans."

"Huh?" Roa said, blinking.

Etsuo smiled and directed his golden eyes at Akari as she pulled Zafir across the room, giggling like a schoolgirl. At the same time, the latter stared at her like a nervous, lovestruck boy. "Yeah, she sure looks like a princess."

The black-robed young man scoffed as soon as he said that. "Not sure what princess you are basing that off. All the princesses I know are more like this one here."

"I hope that's a compliment and not some off-hand remark meant to irritate me," Rosalba said, putting her hands against her hips. She averted her eyes. "So, do you two plan to join us on the dance floor?"

"Nah. I don't dance," Roa said, waving his hand dismissively as he leaned against the right rail of his seat.

Etsuo smiled. "I am kind of afraid of dancing in the middle of so many people."

Roa raised his head at him. "Afraid you'll make a fool of yourself? Come on, you're the second-best dancer I know."

Etsuo laughed nervously. "Those times were when there weren't so many people watching."

"I see," Rosalba said, turning around. Her eyes shifted toward Hyosetsu. The birthday boy sat on the opposite side of the ballroom with a bored look in his eyes. "I'll go ask Hyo if he wishes to dance then."

Roa grumbled. "So, she simply wanted one of us to dance with her."

Etsuo chuckled. "She is a soft kind of blunt."

"Isn't that how most people are? Also known as not truly blunt at all."

The white-haired teen chuckled. "Hmm, I guess that's true."

Roa straightened himself and narrowed his eyes at his companion. "Is something on your mind? That part about you being afraid of dancing, that was a lie, wasn't it?"

Etsuo glanced down at the color, metallic marble floor. He gave his partner a slight smile. "Part of it was, I mean, it feels kind of weird to dance alongside these strangers."

The umber robed teen continued to stare at him. "I see."

Etsuo sighed. "As for your first question... Do you think we did well, leaving Satoru behind?"

The golden eyes of the raven-haired young man shimmered in the light. "Like I said, the two of us can handle this alone."

Etsuo closed his eyes and shook his head. "That isn't what I meant. Satoru is different from us when it comes to executing what he wants. I fear he might do something which could jeopardize our mission."

Roa crossed his arms and looked down at the colorful mosaic floor in front of them. "True. Satoru is a hazard." He stood up and smiled at his partner. "Well, no use worrying about that." He held a hand out to Etsuo. "Let's go outside, I know you've been itching to dance since we entered this room."

Etsuo's face reddened as he took Roa's hand. "You truly do know me well."

***

[Meanwhile- Grand Crater]

A gray-haired young man hung from a slippery rock wall. After hours of climbing, traces of light were visible. He swung back forth before throwing himself into the air. The area where his feet landed on crunched. All around him was a strange crystalline substance.

He held a hand out as the substance continued to pour down from the grayish-yellow sky above.

"So this is the snow Skah spoke of, a form of soft ice that falls from above. Interesting, it appears to be reflecting the dying light back toward the heavens. Ha, this universe truly is as pretty as that black dove's father said. Yes. I can't wait until I am its ruler." He glanced around. "No sight of those half doves. No matter, they did me a favor."

The gray-robed teen snickered as he cut the land with a single swipe of his hand, causing an oily tar-like liquid to leak out of the ground. The stuff flew into the air as soon as he raised his left hand. It gathered together into thousands of baseball-sized spheres, floating in the air like balls of bubbling black water in zero gravity.

The new arrival grinned. "It won't be long until this entire universe is swallowed into the great, everlasting ocean that is Abyssia!"

*Character Section*

Zafir Mizu no Kin- Age: 23 Sex: Male Birthday: April: 5th Titles: Mightiest of the Seven Seas, Heir of the Mizu no Kin, Prince of all the Oceans, Grandchild of the sea and sky. 

Likes: Training, Duty, Honor, Glory | Dislikes: Those who do not know their place, lazy people, dishonor

(Left Side) Etsuo- Age: 17 Sex: Male Birthday: August 16th Titles: Monkey Prince, White Monkey, Rat-Monkey (by Satoru)

Likes: Roa, Dancing, Trying out new stuff, Playing kickball with his dad| Dislikes: Satoru, loneliness, training with his mom

___

(Right Side) Roa- Age: 18 Sex: Male Birthday: February 14th Titles: Black Pegasus, Black Swan, Feathered Pony (by Satoru)

Likes: Etsuo, Facing tough opponents | Dislikes: Satoru, Bothersome stuff, annoying people (like Satoru)

Satoru- Age: 18 (soon to be 19) Sex: Male Birthday: May 15th Titles: Mystical Dragon, Fox-Dragon, Four Eyes-No Soul (Roa)

Likes: Power, Wealth, Prestige | Dislikes: Roa, Etsuo, Being Ordered Around

**Solar Note: Hope that you enjoyed this chapter :3. What do you folks think of Roa, Etsuo, and now the newcomer, Satoru?**