Elegant

Chapter One: Royal Expectations

Valenhaad was vast.

It stretched from one horizon to the other, an ocean of steel and concrete. Black skyscrapers pierced the sky, stretching past the cloud cover. The city's walls, called 'Vales' divided Valenhaad into seven industrial rings. From her view in her plane, Hiromi had no trouble telling apart the wealthy areas of the city from the poor.

Their arrival into the airport was a quiet affair. A part of her expected a waiting crowd, but there was no one around save for their escort of armored cars.

They sped through the city at a hundred kilometers an hour, sections of the winding highway cleared for them. Castle Valenhaad loomed at the very center of the city, sitting atop the Asher Peak. Their drive up the winding road allowed her a moment to appreciate the beauty and scale of the city.

She let out a wistful sigh.

For the next five years, this city would be her home.

Her arrival into the castle was also a quiet affair, without the fanfare she expected out of the arrival of a princess.

They drove past pairs of large, ornate black gates, each one adorned with the sigils of the various royal families who pledge fealty to the House Knightstein.

They arrived at a large garden in the southern entrance of Castle Blackhaven. Amidst towering redwood trees and standing before the imposing black walls of the castle, was a woman wearing a simple black dress. Behind her were a collection of soldiers and knights and ladies, all in their finery.

Hiromi let out another sigh.

She didn't like to admit it, but she felt nervous.

"Yeah, this isn't how I pictured this to go at all," Hiromi said easing into her seat.

Myriad gave her a look from the front seat of the car. Her secretary's red eyes and white her made her look unnatural. Imposing. Like she was a woman that didn't belong in this world.

"Is there a problem, Highness?" Myriad asked.

Hiromi waved her hand dismissively.

"I'm just trying to collect myself," she replied. "Give me a moment."

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"Okay. Moment over."

And with that she opened the door of the car and stepped out. To the surprise of her attendants she strode steadily and confidently toward the waiting foreign princess. Myriad and her guards scrambled after her, a few huffing beneath their breaths.

Princess Cladia raised her brow as she watched Hiromi approach.

The closer Hiromi got to the girl, the more she realized just how beautiful the princess was. A perfect, angular face, eyes like violet gemstones, and hair that stretched a few inches past her breasts. She wore a simple circlet on her head. Princess Cladia's beauty was a simple sort of thing. At a glance, it didn't even seem that she was royalty.

Hiromi stopped about a meter from the foreign princess and curtsied.

"Your Highness," Hiromi said.

She heard the hurried footsteps of her retinue behind her. Myriad and the rest of her companions stopped behind her, bowing respectfully at their host.

"It's nice to finally meet you," Hiromi said, leveling her gaze at Princess Cladia.

Cladia smiled. "I can tell that you're not a big fan of formalities."