Rivals

Chapter 1: Rivalry

Across all nations, only one kingdom stood larger and stronger than the others. The kingdom of Adaresa. The king of Adaresa, King Marlan, was able to ally with two smaller yet some of the greatest kingdoms; Caderis and Mirari. The joining of these lands and kingdoms are what made them rise above the rest. This is what made Aderesa the greatest.

King Marlan, was dying of old age and had no children of his own to be his heir. He wanted either the children of the Lord of Caderis or those of the Lord of Mirari to be his heirs. The promise of having one of their children rule the greatest kingdom of them all is what let the lords to join forces and pretend to like each other for the sake of the king and for their children's futures.

The Lord of Caderis had two sons while the king of Mirari had two daughters. The strive for King Marlan's favor caused tension and great rivalry between the two lords. The eldest of the two families were expected to hold the title of either King or Queen, they were both focused more on education and politics. The younger of the two families were expected to be leaders of their army; they were trained in the area of strategy and combat.

The royal sons and daughters were raised to hate each other in order to succeed over the other. Rivalry did that, it tainted people.

***

Evangeline

The sound of swords clashing filled the air as Evangeline and Kaden had their daily combat practice.

"Edgar, please explain to Eva that I am the better warrior," said Kaden as he thrust his sword at Evangeline.

She blocked it effortlessly and used Kaden's distraction of looking at their trainer Edgar as a window to strike back but he had managed to block the attack effortlessly. "I told you Kaden, it's Evangeline for you. Only the people I like can call me Eva."

She pushed Kaden's sword off of hers and thrust her sword at him where he ducked down thrusting his sword at her feet, which she jumped over.

"Come on princess, everyone likes me. Just look at me," he smirked.

Almost very girl Evangeline had ever met fawned over him, and being a prince made him even more likeable. She thought maybe it was the idea of him, him being the brave handsome prince. Kaden was very handsome, not that Evangeline would ever admit to him. It would have only increased his narcissism, which had to be unhealthy. "What exactly am I suppose to be looking at?"

"A handsome prince," he frowned.

It was Evangeline's turn to smirk. "Isn't that supposed to happen after a princess kisses you?"

"What?!" gaped Kaden.

"I believe she called you a frog sir," said Edgar from the sidelines being use to the constant banter between the two.

Kaden glared at his instructor before turning his glare back at Evangeline.

"You just want to be the lucky princess to do so," he shot back at her. Evangeline had to hold back a shiver of disgust just thinking of it.

"Oh god no! Does it look like I want to be diseased? Odette might be the smarter sister but I'm not stupid," she brought her sword up to deliver a powerful blow but Edgar put his hand up signaling the end of their sparing for the day.

"Dear God, if Odette is smarter what does that make you?" Kaden put his sword into his belt same as Evangeline was doing.

"Are you calling your future Queen stupid?" Evangeline gaped. Her sister was one of the smartest people she had known and that said a lot since some of the land's smartest people lived in the castle.