Finding Stardust

Emma smiled at that. She now could see how close was the bond between two men. Therius didn't even mind spending an important moment with Emma, ​​​​which could have been a romantic moment, with Xion around.

Xion must have such an important position for Therius, just like Therius for Xion. Inwardly, Emma wondered if Therius and Xion ever fought about something that could threaten their friendship.

"Did you and Xion ever argue about something so badly that it almost ruined your friendship?" Emma asked as she climbed onto Phalia's back, and Therius climbed up behind her.

Therius touched Phalia's neck to order him to fly back to the capital, before answering Emma's question.

"Never. He's like a brother to me. I would die for him," Therius replied. He hugged Emma's waist as Phalia started darting up and flapping his wings.

Emma was impressed when she heard Therius's answer. She thought such a friendship like the one they have was very rare. Ah .. Emma had absolutely no one now. Secretly, she envied their relationship.

"How was your walk?" greeted Xion who was standing in the small garden in the center of the Crown Prince's palace compound when Phalia landed gracefully and folded his wings. Emma and Therius then jumped down.

"It was nice," Emma replied. "Are you ready to go?"

Xion nodded. "I've brought a bag filled with wine, paper cups, and snacks to enjoy a picnic in the plaza, as well as a marker to write down our wishes on the lanterns later."

"Oh ... we'll also fly the lanterns?" asked Emma with interest.

"Of course. We can buy them in the middle of the plaza later," Xion replied.

Emma nodded happily. Her cold face began to brighten. It looked like the festival tonight would be very interesting.

"We can fly to the plaza in the city center and join the festival-goers there," said Therius. "But you and I better get changed first."

He pointed to Emma's beautiful dress and his regal outfit. The girl quickly realized that the two of them would stand out too much in the crowd in the clothes they were wearing. Therius could immediately attract attention as the crown prince, and so would Emma.

"All right, I'll go get changed. We'll meet again in here in ten minutes," said Emma.

"OK." Therius tapped his friend on the shoulder and walked off towards his own room while Emma walked briskly to her room.

Ten minutes later, Therius and Emma were back in their black casual and simple clothes.

Even though Therius was very strong and he was with two multiple-element mages, he was still a crown prince who had to be protected, so two travs containing his personal bodyguards secretly followed them from behind.

The three of them flew in the sky above Winstad, the Akkadian capital, and immediately headed towards a large plaza not far from the king's palace. There, they saw a crowd with tens of thousands of people taking to the streets and enjoying the festival with their family, lovers, and close friends.

"I think we can land there," Therius said, pointing to a large building at the far end of the plaza. It was a beautiful theater building which was closed for the night. In front of the theater, there were many vendors selling, wines, cookies, sweets, and many other things.

The three of them swiftly landed behind the theater building and then walked casually into the crowd and blended with the thousands of people who all were looking happy.

"This plaza is usually empty," Therius explained. "This is actually located in the middle of a huge park in the city center and many people usually come here for sports or other outdoor activities. However, for big celebrations like festivals such as tonight, the park would be converted to a plaza to accommodate the crowd."

Emma listened to Therius' explanation with a nod. For the first time in two weeks since she arrived in Akkadia, she was finally able to set foot outside the palace. So, she was interested to learn about her surroundings.

The atmosphere and the familiar places around her reminded Emma of the videos she had watched or the books she read about the Akkadian capital when she was still in The Dragonite.

Akkadian capital was called Winstad. Unlike most other capitals, the city of Winstad was not very big. It was mostly a place to carry out the royal affairs and government work The total population here didn't exceed 100,000.

All economic, entertainment, military centers, and the rest were located in the five satellite cities around Winstad, with a population close to five million each.

Akkadia's excellent means of transport made distance less of a problem. Some government employees could work in Winstad and live in a satellite city 200 km away from their office.

"This is a beautiful park," said Emma. She walked with her arms crossed over her chest, admiring right and left. There are still a few small children whose parents apparently let them stay up late to enjoy the festival. The rest were lovers, groups of friends, and families.

They found nice spots and sat on the grass with picnic blankets, enjoying snacks, and various drinks such as wine and liquors. This reminded Emma a little bit of the Europeans who like to go picnic or sunbathing when there was a sun in the summer. They would meet up with friends and loved ones, to have a picnic and chat over wine.

"I'll buy the lanterns for us first," said Xion, who suddenly saw a lantern shop that was crowded with visitors. He handed Therius his bag of picnic supplies and hurried over to join the queue.

Emma frowned when she saw suddenly a gust of whirlwind came out of nowhere and drove away the people who were waiting in line to buy lanterns. The wind was very strong and managed to sway so many people around Xion that most of them finally fell to the ground.

"Jeez ... where's that wind coming from?" Xion asked in a loud voice, pretending to stagger towards the lantern vendor. He handed a bill to the vendor who was still looking dumbfounded when he saw his customers who were queueing to buy his lanterns earlier, suddenly were nowhere to be seen. Xion smiled and added. "The wind is really strong tonight, don't you think? Hopefully, it won't ruin our lantern ceremony."

"Eh .. what did you say?" The vendor blinked over and over at the handsome young man in front of him who was impatiently tapping his finger on the counter. The vendor frowned in confusion. How could everyone get swept away by the whirlwind, but this man was fine?

"I said, the wind is strong tonight. Hopefully, it won't ruin the lantern ceremony," said Xion again. He was still smiling but not as wide as before. He just wanted to quickly sit down and enjoy a cup of wine, while looking at the beautiful night sky. "Sir, I want to buy three lanterns."

"Oh, that's right. Here they are. It costs 300," said the vendor as he handed over three paper packages with the lanterns inside. "Do you already have a candle and a fire to light your lantern? How about a marker for writing your wishes?"

"We have it all. don't worry. We don't need fire," said Xion. Of course. With two pyromancers among the three of them, he could save his little money and not have to buy fire.

Whistling, he looked for Therius and Emma, ​​who had already rolled their picnic blankets in the middle of the plaza and arranged the various drinks and snacks they had.

"Did you get rid of your competitions who were queueing to buy lantern earlier?" asked Emma. "Are you cheating by using your aeromancy?"

"Well, if I had to queue with them, I might have to stand there for over one hour just to purchase these lanterns," said Xion, with a chuckle.

He handed Therius and Emma one lantern each and kept one for himself. Then, he opened a bottle of wine and poured it into three paper cups for them.

"Come on, drink it. Soon the show will start." Xion pointed to the sky. "They're going to have a drone show."

Emma sipped the wine in her cup and looked up. In the sky that looked reddish bright, she had seen thousands of tiny twinkling lights.

At first, she thought they were stars, the part of the galaxy they saw every night. But after she paid close attention, she could see that those 'stars' now were moving in harmony, as if controlled by humans with great skill.

"Oh .. those are drones? How many are there?" asked Emma. She turned to Therius because she thought the young man knew better.

"If I'm not mistaken, there are about 10,000. All of them are controlled from the city of Milestad, the military center," said Therius. "Their shows are always exciting."

Emma nodded. She narrowed her eyes when she saw the thousands of lights dance and quickly form a sentence.

Happy Three Moon Fire Festival.

KING CASSIUS

"That one is cool," Emma commented.

"Soon they will be like fireworks," said Therius. Emma nodded and continued to look up. Sure enough, it wasn't long before she saw that thousands of lights from the drone had scattered as if fireworks were erupting in the sky.

The color also changed from white lights to all the different colors. However, instead of the sound of an explosion of fireworks, they heard a very beautiful sound of music with the lights. For a moment, Emma was amazed. She continued to look up intently and watch the light show with lulling music. 

After the drone show ended, the audience saw a team of golden pegasus horses flying in a very beautiful formation. On the back of each pegasus was a beautiful girl wearing elegant long dresses that were swayed by the wind, making them look like goddesses from heaven who came down from the moon.

Immediately, muffled sighs of praises rang out.

"Those are the princesses from the royal palace," they commented.

"That's right. Ohh .. so beautiful! She looks just like a goddess!!"

Emma narrowed her eyes as she recognized the girl who sat on the back of the most beautiful pegasus. She was all smiles and seemed to be able to control her horse with great skill.

Emma saw Yldwyn looking much prettier tonight than when Emma saw her in King Cassius' palace. 

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From the author:

Yeayy!!! Win Win Event is extended to October. I hope you will still help me and purchase my privilege in all my books, so I could get features from this site. The cheapest tier of 1 coin is enough to help me.

And... like last month, if you send me the screenshot to email: [email protected] or DM me on Instagram @missrealitybites, I will include you on my giveaway. Amazon Giftcards or my paperbacks. For books with over 1000 privi buyers, I will prepare 10 giveaways, and the ones over 500 buyers, I will prepare 5 giveaways.

I still have to wait to announce the winner for September, because my assistant who is helping me to manage the giveaway is studying for the exam and she could only do it after Oct 11. I hope you don't mind.

Since I got 1047 Privi buyers for "The Alchemists: Cinta Abadi" I will give 10 giveaways to 10 lucky readers.

And 666 privi buyers for "The Prince Who Cannot Fall In Love \u0026 The Missing Heiress", I will give 5 giveaways to 5 lucky readers.

I'm sorry, Finding Stardust only received 286, so I cannot justify a giveaway for the book. I hope in October we can reach 500 so the book can get a flash banner on the app. The banner will increase the chance of this book to reach many new readers, so I really hope we can get it for Finding Stardust.