Shangri La Pt. 1

142: Changed

It had been hours since the arrival of all the Scholars, and as promised, all of the Scholars were treated for their travels, but not by the Emerald Dragon. 

Because of this, everyone felt they needed to be extremely cautious of the Emerald, as she did not seem to be in the happiest of moods. But before this uneasy feeling through the palace began to grow and become uncomfortable for everyone present, the bells started to ring once again. 

Just hearing these bells for a second time–in the same day–led everyone to get into a frenzy, as those who were present at the Scholar's confession hoped that it would be the Captain of the Todoroki Knights and the Emerald that was claimed to be killed by the Scholars.

"The bells, someone is at the gates! Tell me who they are, now!" the Empress demanded as she stormed through the palace with discomfort churning through her stomach. 

"Y-Your Imperial Majesty, it is Her Majesty, the Princess and His Majesty, the Young Prince." a soldier answered, trying to tail behind her. 

The second she heard that it was actually her daughter, the Empress stopped, as it was clear that the wedding was still going to happen if they had returned. 

'What? I thought that spoiled Prince captured my daughter to never return again? I thought that if they didn't return in time for the wedding, then I could wage war with the Todoroki's for taking away my daughter. Arg– Nothing is going to plan!' 

"Open the gates and we will await their arrival!" the Empress demanded, easily changing her attitude so no one would expect that she wasn't really waiting for this pair to return.

The entire palace went into another frenzy by trying to prepare everything on short notice and get into positions. 

"Is the Prince really back? Why did he leave in the first place?" 

"I thought it was rumored that the Prince captured the Princess without the Empress' control." 

"Where did they go to be gone for so long and then return just before their own wedding?" Servants whispered as no one outside of the palace knew that the Prince and Princess had been gone for more than 2 weeks at this point. 

'So the Prince came back, but how did he and the Princess come back before Katsuki and his girl did? What in the world happened to those two after they met the Scholars?' Gin thought as he and all the other Knights got into positions like earlier that day.

Of course–because the bells rang and echoed into the city–that meant that everyone in the city had to make a clear path for the travelers that were arriving. And no one in the city–no one–was expecting to see both the Prince and Princess returning while riding the same horse, something that isn't done in the East. 

Everyone in the city bowed to the couple as they rode past, and they continued to bow as the White Lotus' rode behind them, causing a loud silence to be noticed. 

'Is this... really how the city has always looked? It always looked better from the palace, but seeing it this close in person... were all these people affected by the aftermath of the war?' Momo thought with worry. 

Shoto could tell the Princess was worried about something, so he casually wrapped his arms around her waist to catch her attention.

By doing this, those witnessing this gasped to see the Prince of the West doing something so outlandish to this Princess, but they weren't the only ones thinking this way. 

"S-Shoto, w-what are you d-doing?" Momo aggressively whispered, turning her head to look up at him. 

"You seem worried about something, so I wanted to make you feel better."