[Completed] Legend of the Five Knights I: Rise of a Guardian Angel

Episode 70: Return to Shirayuki

Tetsuya descended and shook his wings to get the snow and ice that had accumulated on them off. Despite feeling like a long flight due to the weather, it had only taken him and the others a few minutes of flying to make it to the gates of the city.

There, several soldiers dressed in blue and orange military uniforms awaited them. In their hands weren't spears like the guards of King Osamu's castle. Instead, they held black rifles—high powered ones at that.

"Welcome back, Masters Kohri and Hyosetsu. The Grand Duchess and her comrades await you," the guard standing in front of the door said as he and the others bowed their heads. "Please, come in."

They stepped aside, and the soldiers closest to the silver and blue ten-foot-tall doors pulled them open.

"Wow," Tetsuya said as his eyes grew larger. Beyond the walls was a city that appeared to be made out of nothing but white and blue milky stone. Then there were some buildings which glistened like crystal. Even the streets themselves seemed to be made out of crystal. "It's almost as if the entire place were made out of ice."

Hyosetsu scoffed as they walked inside. "Of course. That is its purpose. It allows us to blend into our surroundings."

"Wait. If that's true, then why that gigantic wall?" Tetsuya asked as he glanced back at the wall.

The Sword Knight grinned smugly. "Tell me. Did you pay it any notice prior?"

Tetsuya's face drained of color as he began to wonder when he had noticed it. "Uh..."

Hyosetsu chuckled. "That is right. You only realized there was a wall when my brother pointed it out."

I guess that even a giant wall can blend into a mist and icy landscape as long as it doesn't stick out. Those orange and blue uniforms that their guards outside wear certainly don't go with the whole blending in thing.

"Why are you trying to blend in?" asked one of Hyosetsu's squad.

"That's a secret," the knight responded as he took to the air once more and headed for the next wall. Tetsuya followed after him. Above all the walls and buildings, standing at the center of town was a twenty-foot-tall dome-roofed palace made out of shimmering silver crystal.

The amount of white in the town nearly made Tetsuya feel like they were still outside the castle walls. The coats of the residents were the only thing that made it clear that they weren't. Nearly everyone, including the kids, wore dark-colored fur coats.

"Welcome back, first and second dukes," the pedestrians said. They bowed their heads as the heirs of Kuroyuki and their comrades in arms passed through the shopping district.

The district was the most colorful place in the entire town due to its open-air market, filled with fabrics and various other goods from other parts of the kingdom.

Tetsuya assumed the fur coats were reserved for outdoors, and they could enjoy wearing a layer less indoors.

"Hey," Kohri said, waving at his compatriots.

"Ah. He's so cool," a girl remarked to her friend. She and several other onlookers followed them on the ground. "And so is that tall, dark-skinned guy with them!"

Tetsuya averted his gaze. His face grew warm as he continued to feel the stares of others. Suddenly it felt like he had returned to campus. And to think he had almost forgotten how it felt to be fangirled over.

"Prince Hyosetsu is the really cool one," her friend gushed, staring at the oldest prince with the eyes of a fangirl. "Though the others don't look too shabby either."