Going with the princess

He took the girl's hand, "No, you can't do that. The number they have is much more than this elite squad of guards. Even if they could fight better than the soldiers guarding that guy, it would be hard to win,"

The girl shook off his grip and asked, "So what can I do!? My brother is cruel! A playboy! He is like a snake, a sly snake, and that city is his nest. If I fight him later, it would just be harder, incredibly harder than now! I have to take the risk"

The man, the guard Aiden just fought with on horseback said to her, "Your highness, it's too big of a risk. Even though the man most likely replaced the mamluks in the city, there are many forces that we couldn't just defeat. First, there are the city guards, then the royal guards of the palace and finally, his own original mamluks and personal guards! If we calculate all of that number, it easily reaches four digits"

One of the other guards, in the same mamluk armour, got down from his horse and said, "Ilhan! Do not intervene with her highness decision, we swore out loyalty to her since we were assigned to her! If she asks us to die, then we shall gladly do so!"

The girl, the princess, stared at Aiden and her guards. She hesitated but slowly nodded in the end, "Then… the only choice is to return to the territory of my other brother, I believe he would help us"

Aiden smiled, "That's the best choice, we need to find protection and power before fighting that snake,"

The girl nodded, "Jasmine, too, will most likely be there, if the two of us give our support to the other brother of mine... perhaps, we could win the people's opinion and raise an army as fast as possible. And you, what are you going to do now?"

Aiden turned around, looking at Oliver with a smile. The master archer nodded and gave a thumbs up with a smile on his face, "Then we shall accompany you, I too, have something to do with Jasmine"

…

One hour later, in the middle of the desert, following the barely visible stone road, the group made their way to a direction. Riding on his horse, on the side of the carriage was Oliver, "Aiden… y'know"

Aiden shook his head, "I don't"

Oliver chuckled, "Y'know, I haven't said anythin yet. But if I were jus' a lil bit not patient than this… I would have disowned ya and left ya to die in the desert. Didn' thought that I would escortin a girl, though ya were havin a good time with her and so, I gave ya the thumbs up"

Aiden giggled, "Well, we are already here, it's too late to turn around, why not enjoy the adventure you wanted so badly?"

Oliver chuckled back, "Sure…"

Right beside him, on the other side of Aiden, was that same guard he fought with, "Hey… Uhh, Ilhan, right?"

The guard turned around and nodded, "Yea, I'm Ilhan, how about you?"

Aiden smiled, "I'm Aiden. By the way, do you know any way to distinguish yourself from the other ma… mamluks, yea, mamluks? I can't seem to find any difference between you all because of the armour, the only thing I could see were your eyes from the small eye hole in the helmet"

Ilhan shrugged, "I too, don't know, but you could see the difference between us, Mamluks, and the true civilians of the sultanate"

Aiden raised one of his eyebrows, "And why is that?"

Ilhan answered as he looked forward, "We are slaves, freed slaves, we have rougher and a bit of darker skin most of the time. But the one that did well on the battlefield are rewarded could be a nobleman but even their sons joined the mamluks,"

Aiden silenced himself and nodded.

A few days later, about 2 days after travelling through the deserts, camping near oases, they reached a land where some green could be seen. Aiden smiled, just near the moving group, was a town, made of stone, but still with a different structure than his own place.

Slowly making their way there, the carriage stopped and leaving the gate, could be seen, a group of mamluks. In the middle of it was a tan man with a beard, wearing a turban, that man went forward and shouted, "Tell me who you are and what's the purpose of coming here,"

Staying silent, Aiden waited for the response for the man's question as the mamluks started muttering toward each other, "His highness doesn't seem different from the last time I saw him,"

"I know, right?"

"Yea, he looks like…"

"He looks like a mean guy"

"On the outside that is, he actually is kind toward his people and siblings"

Suddenly, the carriage door right beside Oliver opened itself, moving the horses out of the way. A woman came out of it, different from the princess Aiden met before. It was an ugly, fat woman, with the face of 50 years old but a skin of 18 years old and of the colour of a white sheep, white as a ghost.

Right behind her, was the princess herself, coming out of the carriage and making her way toward the outside of the formation of mamluks guarding her formation. As soon as the man on horseback saw her, he got off his horse and ran toward her.

He then jumped into her when he was close enough and hugged the girl, "Big sister Ekrem! I thought something happened to you! I got the news of big brother Osman taking the throne!"

Aiden smiled, 'Ekrem… what a nice name. If I remember correctly, Ekrem means hazel, right? Her appearance, yea, I just noticed, but her eyes have the colour hazed,'

The girl chuckled and smiled upon seeing the man hugging her, "Little brother, you do know we are in public right? It's embarrassing for you to do this,"