Flower Parade IV

"Isn't this cute?" Nina pointed out as she picked up one of the necklaces at the stall.

"Hm? Don't you have enough?" asked Kies. He was certain that Nina already had a box full of accessories. He wasn't sure if there was a point in buying more.

"Well, most of them were given to me by others as presents or my mother. I only have a few that I like. Plus, this one isn't for me." Nina purchased the necklace and placed it in the bag where everything else was.

"Then who is it for?" asked Kies. Nina's mother had plenty of necklaces and he was pretty sure any one of them would easily outclass whatever they could find at the festival, so the gift was unlikely for her. He and her dad were also out of the question since neither of them liked wearing accessories. He couldn't figure out who the necklace was for.

"That's a secret." Nina smiled and then shouted excitedly, "Okay, let's go onto the next one!" Nina thought of it like they were on an adventure to explore each stall and see what they had.

They walked from stall to stall, mostly just looking at what they had. There weren't many things that caught their attention. So far, they haven't bought anything else since there wasn't anything that they hadn't seen before. Most of the items could be found outside the festival.

As they walked around, Kies noticed that most of the stalls were being operated by slaves. and almost all of the slaves were demi-humans. But, it wasn't anything unusual. There were slaves everywhere and all of them were owned by nobles. They had a few working in the mansion as well, but unlike the ones that were here, the ones that worked for the Trevan family were treated quite well. They were paid normally and given the same food and clothes. Kies pointed out what he saw to Nina and she sighed.

"I really don't like the idea of treating demi-humans as slaves, I mean, they're people too. Why are we treating them like this," she said. As much as she hated slavery, there wasn't anything they could do about it. This was because the Council that made the rules and regulations for the kingdom consisted of only nobles and they did not want to give up their slaves. Although there are a few nobles who disagree with slavery and want to abolish it, they are few and are unable to.

The two walked around for a bit while trying to avoid the stalls that were being run by slaves. It was their way of protesting against it by not buying what the nobles were selling. It wasn't much but it was a little something.

"Well, well, well. Who do we have here?" said a voice from somewhere in the crowd.

Kies immediately recognized the voice and sighed. Without saying anything, he took Nina's hand and guided them in the opposite direction of where the voice came from, but it was already too late. Five armed bodyguards blocked their route and prevented them from leaving.

"Tsk, trying to run away?"

Kies turned around and saw the man who had stopped them. He was tall and skinny and was wearing a fancy white shirt and pants to match.

"I'm surprised you have the guts to show up to this festival, especially in that," the man said as he pointed at the shirt Kies was wearing while making a disgusted face.

The crowd around them split apart and gathered around to watch the commotion.

"Let's go." Kies led Nina as he tried to walk past the noble and towards the crowd but was stopped.

"You think you can just ignore me!? Me!? How dare you!?" the man shouted as he grabbed Nina's shoulder, keeping both of them from leaving. The man loomed over the two with a smug look on his face. "You should be honored that I'm even spending my time talking to you two," he said. But before he could continue speaking, Kies interrupted him.

"Sir Ekelle," Kies said in a hard voice. "Please let go of your hand."

The man was initially surprised by what Kies had said but he quickly regained his composure and smirked. "You're in no position to order me around, boy."

Kies raised his hand and a blast of wind blew into the tall man, catching him off guard and forcing him to raise both arms to shield himself, letting go of Nina in the process. Kies immediately pulled Nina who was on the verge of tears, into his arms.

The wind wasn't strong enough to knock him off his feet but it did make him take a few steps back.

"Why you little runt!"

The five bodyguards around Ekelle reached for their swords, but before they were able to draw them, a loud voice boomed down the streets.

"Who's blocking the road?"

Ekelle flinched. His bodyguards froze in place for a split second before quickly retracting their partially drawn swords.

The crowd that had gathered began to disperse, revealing a large man in silver armor on a horse. He was carrying a large greatsword and wore a knight's crest. The man looked like he was in his forties, and had a trimmed beard and a scar on his left cheek. He was very muscular as well.

Behind him were several other knights who all wore similar armor but unlike the man in the front, they all had helmets on and were carrying standard-issued swords.

"Toba Ekelle," the knight said coldly.

The tall noble shivered at the sound of his name being called out by the knight.

"Nina Trevan, and Kies Trevan," the knight continued.

Kies and Nina both turned to face the knight and bowed.

"Sir Siegfried," Nina greeted.

"I hope you two can settle your matters some other day, and somewhere more private as well," Siegfried said while glaring at the noble. He already knew that Ekelle was responsible for the disturbance.

"Y-you're mistaken Sir Siegfried, I have no intention of causing trouble for anyone, especially on such a day," the tall noble stuttered. He was shivering as well and this made Kies quite happy since someone was putting him in his place.

"Is that so?" Siegfried asked.

The noble and his bodyguards nodded their heads.

"Then I shall keep you here no further. Go enjoy the festival. I trust that you won't block the road again?"

"Of course not, I am sorry to have bothered you. I will take my leave now," the noble quickly said and then quickly hurried off with his five bodyguards following after him.

Nina turned and thanked the knight. "Thank you, Sir Siegfried. If you had come later, I'm afraid things would have..." Nina paused for a moment, choosing her words. "...been a mess."

"No need to give thanks. It is the knights' job to deal with things like this. If only that man-"

BOOM!

A loud explosion cut off Siegfried and startled everyone. Everyone's attention turned towards where it had happened and they saw smoke start to rise up somewhere in the distance.

"Did someone's invention explode?" Nina asked out loud, knowing that she wasn't the only one who thought that might have been the case. Many people would often wait until the Flower Parade to present their newest products or inventions. It wasn't uncommon for accidents to happen.

"We better check that out," Siegfried ordered and the knights started to move towards the source of the explosion. As Siegfried was just about to have gallop off along with the rest of the knights, Nina called out to him.

"Wait, take me with you. I can help."

Siegfried stopped which in turn caused the rest of the knights to stop as well. They all turned back around on their horses and looked at Nina.

"Since there is an explosion, there might be a fire. I can use water magic to put it out." Nina explained to the knights. Nina can use water magic and she thought that it might be beneficial for them to bring her along in case she could help.

Siegfried looked at the knights and most of them shrugged their shoulders. Siegfried was the one that was in charge of the decisions and they just followed what he said. After thinking about the offer for a moment, Siegfried upon the answer.

"It'll do no harm to have you come with us," Siegfried said in approval.

All the other knights nodded their heads in agreement and one of them offered to let her ride their horse.

" Wait, I'll go with you," Kies said. He didn't want Nina to go alone in case of something dangerous happening. Even though she was going to be escorted by knights, he still wanted to tag along just in case.

Nina shook her head and said, "No, you should stay here and enjoy the festival. It might be the last one you'll ever see for a while. Plus, I'm pretty sure I won't be away that long." Nina handed the bags that she was carrying to Kies and got on a horse. She then turned around, smiled, and teasingly said, "If you really can't enjoy the festival without me then you can bring those back home first, then wait for me at the fountain," But before Kies could protest, Nina told the knights that she was ready and they galloped off without a moment's hesitation.

Kies stood there for a moment to decide on what to do. He decided on dropping the bags back at the mansion and waiting at the fountain as Nina had told him.

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