Tales Of A Prince: Night With Comrades

We were all in a tavern in the heart of Mancana City. Perhaps I should describe our city? Mancana city was a big and industrious place, concrete pillars and buildings, steam pipes, auto-mobiles and machinery. There were three levels to the city. The middle was the suburb where the city folk and commoners lived. Underground was where the machinery and factories were, the lower part of the city was the slums where tramps and the lower class lived, some of them could have a job at the factory and do manual work but I was told it was difficult for them to get a promotion. The slums are connected to the sewers so it does stink down there and because it's underground, there is no sunlight. The only reason why they live down there is that the rent is low; they can create junk and item shops for the lower and middle class if I'm correct. The upper class and rich resided in the buildings and sky scrapers. The highest building in the city was in the heart of it. The palace tower, its entrance was in the middle, its basement reached the lower levels and the top of it reached the sky. At the top of the tower was the castle, where my father, the king resided and watched over and ruled the city.
The tavern where we stayed was near to the Palace building. This was where soldiers, security guards and servants would have a beverage, rest and as they say "Let goose".

The knights were giving Benji a going away party to celebrate. Apparently all the captains went on a top secret mission and that mission was the last one for Benji, he chose to retire from combat and take a cycle out, he said that he might train the new recruits as an instructor in the near future. I knew something was afoot. I believe Benji knew about the Arel and he was upset about Gaku's rebellion. He would be loyal to the kingdom but he would no longer be fighting alongside us. Originally I thought my father would join us considering he is an old friend of Benji but I think my father already said his goodbyes to him. At the party was my squad, Lady Lorna, Miina and the dumb idiot Sky who seemed to be picking his teeth out. There was Benji and Kaz but to my let down Regal did not join the celebration. Some squad captains and their team were there. Kami of squad 3 was a rugged man with curly brown hair tied to the back of his head, despite his unshaven face, he is known as a smooth talker and likes to flirt. He was a lady's man but a noble, fine knight. He is the youngest of the squad captains. Lady Momoko, the squad captain of 4 was a beautiful woman, with black lustrous hair in flicks. She had eyes as the colour of sunset. I could not tell if she was older or younger than Lady Lorna. She had a raspy and seductive voice that was known throughout the knights and military, she was a good songstress who could put on a really good show. There was Clara, a medic and mage. There was Gilio a swordsman, the shortest and youngest of all the knights being 15 cycles old. He was young but he had a stern and military like attitude, both of them in squad 4. Not all of the knights were there but it was a fine celebration.

The street lights glowed and illuminated on us. Miina had a Butter bear while the other women had Milk wine. For the first time I tasted alcoholic pickle juice with Kami. Kami told me and the rest of us a funny story about my father.
"We all got the King, back then the Prince drunk on pickle juice and Stripler blood. He was so out of it, he thought he was invincible and he ordered me to bash his head, being drunk myself I obeyed his orders and grabbed a club"
Lorna interjected and laughed "The high king was not happy about that"
"I spent a day in the dungeon but Aizen was kind enough to treat me after it" he smiled with glee.
Miina had a taste of a shot drink and asked me to try some, I looked at it and then decided to have a gulp but the moment I was going to drink it Sky went "Ka-chink" and snatched it off me, thus drinking it himself!
"Oh Sky! That was for the Prince!!" Miina yelled at him as she clenched her fist with a pouting face.
Sky smugly replied to this by saying
"His reflex is slow, he should be prepared at all times"
This did stop Miina from giving me another drink. This time I noticed she was flushed; her face red, as I stared at her, she turned around and hid her face. Was she this drunk already?
Lady Momoko asked an interesting question to Benji as he drank. "What has been your favourite moments spent with us?" she asked. Benji lowered his eyes and began to reminiscence. He spoke in his gruff tone of voice "I got a lot of memories that I cherish. When I first got assigned to my squad and met Regal, Kaz and Gaku. The adventures we went on and the moments we shared. One of my favourite times is when we helped out during our moments with Rundra" and as if a button was pressed, Lorna mumbled as her eyes were glazed in sadness and walked outside.
Kami looked at Momoko, signalling to check on Lorna. We carried on the celebrations by having a drinking game. We told stories. At the end of it all some of us had left, I was drunk and decided to quit playing. Miina rested on my shoulder as she slept. Benji, Lorna, Kami and Sky were still going on with the game. Lorna was indeed drunk and said whoever wins could kiss Lady Momoko but she was slightly passing out. Kami was doing well but I felt Benji was only playing the game for the challenge of beating Sky.
"What's wrong with this kid, is he immune or something?" he mused.  
Sky was never once losing to the drinks. This was indeed very amusing; I looked at Miina as she rested beside me. Her sleeping face was adorable and I felt it was best not to wake her.  It was hard to believe that this young maiden helped me out and survived through our battles. Kami spoke to Lorna saying as he smiled cheekily "How about you give me a kiss instead or we do something better? You've been single for a long time now. Don't you ever get lonely?
Lorna responded with a gleeful smile "No, you forget who I am Kami. I'm not some girl at a bar"
Kami grabbed a pint and drank it down only for him to vomit it all back up thus making him lose the game. Momoko decided to quit and spoke to Kami "You can say goodbye to that kiss now". This made me chuckle.

It was now Sky and Lord Benji going head-to-head. "You ready to quit old man?" snickered Sky. Benji held his pint but could not fully drink it and so collapsed.
"We have a winner!" Exclaimed a drunken Momoko. She then went up to Sky and cupped his face "You ready for this pretty boy?" she asked. Sky was blushing from ear-to-ear and yelped in a high pitch "Yeah". He won the game and got a smooch of the lovely Momoko.

I carefully let Miina sleep on the bench and went out for some fresh air to enjoy the night sky. Kami joined me as he lit up a smoke. "Hi kiddo, you enjoyed yourself?" he asked calmly.
"Yes, I have. Was it like this with my father when he was young?"
"It sure was. We did not always get so rowdy but we had our moments" he smiled.
I then asked him with slight fear about Rundra, Kami told me that Lorna was in love with Rundra and had a relationship with him. They were very close. But Rundra betrayed the kingdom, why would Lady Lorna still have feelings for such a man? Kami gravely answered my question and told me.

"You must never speak of this to anyone, only me Benji, Lorna and the higher ups, that mean your father the king knows this. I think you should have a right to know my Prince. Rundra never betrayed us, he went on the other side to spy on them and give us intel but some things happened and we had to prove that we were not on his side"

I responded "So you had to kill him?"
Kami spoke with sadness "It was something we were all against and so Aizen assigned Regal to the mission. It was all to cover our tracks. The Great War was over but the rebels and surviving Arel were still about. We didn't want any more people dying. Rundra learned that the Arel created a secret weapon but never actually used it in the war. This weapon was supposed to destroy everything or so he was told. A secret thing the Arel kept but no one knows what the weapon is or what it does let alone where it is".

Silence embraced us as we looked out onto the empty street and I gazed at the street lamps illuminating us. I learned that people before me already accomplished so much and yet others had a dark secret in their pasts.  Even though I write this, I still did not see into the future and that the Kingdom held a horrid truth that the Arel being used as an energy source was not the only reason for revenge and that revenge coursed through the blood of my kingdom.