“I wonder how that boy is doing...”

  Far outside the perimeter of Carthagia, under the scorching sun of the desert with a cup of cold water in his right hand, a one-eyed son of a former governor is gazing his remaining eye to the West, where Latila stood hundreds of miles away.

  **

  By the border of Carthagia, after a few days travelling over the savanna, gathering up supplies and resting for a full day for recovery, the Latilian Army, now three Latilian Armies according to the plan drawn out earlier, entered the desert of the continent. The composition of the armies is as follow:

  Firstly, the Northern Contingent, consisting of the Winged Husaria and the regular cavalry, in the command of Lily Sobieski Voyage.

  Secondly, the Central Contingent, made of mostly regular infantry and heavy knights, led by Gerald de Payens.

  And finally, the Southern Contingent, where Belisari and his loyal Latilian Marine Corps serve. Whatsoever, their destination is the single major city in the vast desert, where only there civilization may thrive, and where this land full of sand takes the name of: Carthagia. The path is quite clear, they will have to separate for a while.

  For most, it’s just another day with troops redistribution, for some it’s detrimental:

  “Are you sure you are okay without my escort?”

  “It’s just a week, I will be fine. I can manage the situation on my own.”

  “Really?”

  “I pledge to you that it is true.”

  That was the exchange between Belisari and Lily before they embarked on the sandy expedition. Despite Belisari’s statement insisting that he will be okay, and his friend need not to be worried, here, right at this moment, five days into the dry land, in the carriage of his Marines, the Archprince looks oddly distant. He sits in a corner, avoids conversation, disassembling and assembling his crossbow multiple times, or just spends a whole day polishing his newly repaired helmet Lily paid for. To kill some time, he said, but clearly that's a sign of loneliness:

  “If that wasn’t clear enough, our Prince doesn’t like to be separated from his flowering Archduchess.”

  Saying pastor Daniel, sitting down next to his white hair companion. In spite of being a Cathedraller, the distribution actually gave all contingents several priests and pastors for religious works. That, adding to the fact that Aurora persuaded Gerald that she wants Daniel to escort her, the pastor has been recruited to the Southern Army. Not without some rumors, but let that slide for now:

  “Are they really friends? Seriously? With all of that inseparable, blushing and interaction far beyond friendships…Saying they are friends is an understatement of their relationships.”

  Aurora whispered to Daniel in an effort for the others to not hear what they were saying, and for some reason God knows, it still sounded like she was whining out as loud as possible. While doing, the engineer pushes herself closer to the pastor, too close:

  “Technically, they are.”

  Pushing Aurora away from him for extra space, Daniel stated:

  “Although His Royal Highness clearly has feelings toward Her Grace, and vice versa, everyone knows that, no member of the House of Latila has ever married a member from the House of Voyage. Despite there being no formal law against it, it’s still a big rule of thumb between the two Houses. Thus, their relationship stops at friendship.”

  “What!? Why!? Forcing people to not have their own love interest is rude!”

  In the surprise of Pastor Daniel, Aurora pouted, that’s a first:

  “No, I told you that it’s just a rule of thumb, of course His Highness and Her Grace can still be married to each other. However…”

  With a few seconds paused, Daniel continues, though his words be spoken louder, like wanting a certain person to overhear his conversation:

  “They, both of them, unintentionally followed that rule and made themselves uncomfortable. All of the things they do were in the name of their friendship, not of their love. Let me see…like you know your reflection in the mirror? You touch it but you never reach it. His Highness is close to Her Grace, but they did not do anything to push that relationship beyond the boundary of the word “friends”.

  Also, that’s why he is anxious when his flowerìn Archduchess is gone. He feels insecure, fearing that one day Her Grace might disappear from him if he does not claim her, but at the same time he refuses to do that.”

  That’s what it meant to be inseparable.

  Now to think of it.

  Visibly, Belisari expresses more kinds of emotion if Lily is within his sight, less abundant if they are not close, and bland if they are far separated. Vice versa, Lily seems to be friendlier if Belisari is around:

  “That’s….quite interesting. What a relationship they have.”

  “It’s entertaining for us outsiders, I’d admit, though I should not find it like that. Lucky for him, just two more days before reaching Carthagia, where we will reunite with Her Grace’s contingent.”

  “Well, then…”

  Out of the blue, Aurora questions:

  “I wonder: What about you? Do you have a similar relationship with someone?”

  When the question was asked and demanded answers, Pastor Daniel depressedly sighs. He doesn’t want to say, but then reconsidered, and speaks:

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  “Unfortunately for me even at the age of 20 no one has ever considered me their significant other. I used to like a person and once was her close friend, but I didn’t have the courage to ask her out before another person did.”

  “So, you lost your beloved because you weren’t courageous enough?”

  “To be fair it was two types of courage: One, the courage to ask a person to be in their company. Two, to overcome the other contestants in the race of love. I can do the first, but the second…I lost to a king, you can’t really fight aristocrats in the game of marriage.”

  Aurora solemnly regrets asking, now she feels bad for her companion. Hold up, was this a reason pastor Daniel understands Belisari so well, because he used to be the same? Maybe he sees himself and the woman he used to love in the image of the two nobles:

  “Sorry…”

  The difference is, the second type of courage Belisari needed is the courage to overcome the rules.

  “It’s okay, it was a year ago.”

  Though saying so, Daniel’s face vividly manifests a deep sadness, as if he hasn’t moved on from that trauma. Poor guy, in an attempt to lift the atmosphere up, the girl seeks to switch topics:

  “Forget about that, the important thing is the present. Speaking of the present, can you tell me more about Carthagia? Who are the Carthagians exactly? I came from a different continent, I only know a little about them from the Bible, and since we are about to be there, I ought to know more”

  “Carthagians...huh…”

  Unconsciously pulling his Holy Bible out of the bag, Daniel opens to the page where had the map of the inner Carthagian Desert (of course an old version of the map), in which in the middle stood the city of the Republic. The man carefully circling around Carthagia, then matching it to Kether:

  “In the early days of mankind, three thousand years ago, there was a civilization mixed between humans and fliers situated in the land that today is known as Aeropostalis Interior. They were known for being expert merchants, trading dyes, ivory, gold and silver, sometimes slaves.”

  “Slavery makes people live in misery, I hate slavery.”

  “Glad that you think of it like I do, unlike those who exploited the teaching of our Lord to justify their slavery mindset. But that is not the main point of the story. For over a thousand years, their network of trading was deemed uncontested, as fliers could easily navigate the area for resources and customers while their foot allies could use the intelligence provided by their allies to create business strategies and logistics. It was a relationship built to last, but eventually all good things came to an end.”

  “What happened?”

  Pastor Daniel flips some pages of the book, at the same time pulling Aurora toward him for a closer look. It’s another map, not of the Carthagian Desert, but of the Middle Ocean:

  “The foundation of Remes.”

  20/4/753 Before the birth of the Lord, the city of Remes was founded by a person in which it was named after:

  “The existence of Remes, the first major port city of the continent, had somewhat forever altered the continental trading routes. By their maritime strength, the Remans soon established a safe sea transport network connecting Remes to all major cities you see nowaday: former Ganeo, Sacili, Vineci, Ethanolin, etc, completely kicking the old alliance away from the game.”

  “How did the fliers and their humans adapt? Did they copy the Remans to expand their market or something?”

  “They cannot, Kether was far inland, they are good at anything but naval supremacy, they were vulnerable in any attempt to contest in the ocean and thus gradually fell behind the Remans. Unable to compete with the new competitors, the fliers of Kether chose to ally with Remes, leaving their former friends in disappointment, who then embarked on a journey to find a place where they can continue doing business without the Remans’ navy to battle them.”

  “And they moved further inland, where maritime trades did not affect much and their role is still needed. But why the desert?”

  “During their journey, the predecessors of the Carthagians discovered a new major trading partner, which was the Nosfeturan Empire, which was at that time the most prosperous inland nation. With this new development, they came to the conclusion that while they must go far from Remes, they should not go too far away to be disconnected from their new ally. Thus, when a river was discovered in the middle of the continent, perfectly balancing both of their desires, the ancestors of the Carthagians established their settlement there, in which it grew into today’s Carthagia. It just happened that the place was also a desert. They just didn't mind it.”

  “The story is fascinating…but doesn’t that mean the Carthagians hate Aeropostalis Fliers? For betraying them and such?”

  “The Carthagians are merciful, they do forgive. Besides, thousands of years already. In those thousands of years, the fliers did a thing that overshadowed all bad things they did in the past. Knowing about it, you cannot hate any fliers.”

  “Oh, tell me tell me.”

  Aurora cannot hide her excitement upon hearing that. She pulls the pastor closer, trying to persuade him to tell her about the story. On the other hand however, while at first Daniel was about to tell it anyway, the overreacting action of the girl was a bit overwhelming:

  “Sorry, I will tell you when we come to that chapter of the Bible, for now wait.”

  “Please…”-the girl claps her hands, showing a begging posture just like how she did to get everyone, including Belisari to do things as she wanted it to be. However, the pastor was not a person who is easily be allured by that:

  “No.”

  “Aww…why is my charm not working on you!?”

  “I have trained my discipline. You go do something, like seeing scenery or something.”

  “But what to see in the desert…”

  Rolling her eyes to the scorching hot outside the shadow of the vehicle, Aurora can only see sand and sand, sometimes large cacti and insects. It’s not like the lively emptiness like back in the Meadow, it’s true emptiness. The dryness of desert has claimed a toll on the creatures who called this place home.

  Imagine travelling over the sand of the Nevada desert, that must be the Earth’s equivalent to this. Nothing in sight, just the clear blue color of an empty sky and the golden reflection of burning sand. It would’ve been nice if Aurora had a guitar with her, that way, she could add a Wild West theme to make the scene feel less empty- oh wait, the girl can’t play guitar. Nevertheless, it’s boring. Wish there is something:

  “Is that a house?”

  Emerging from the far front of the caravan, the army finally reached the beginning of the Carthagian civilization. Upon their arrival, many Carthagians hide inside their house, fearing the newcomers might be raiders or something similar. Only a group of people remain outside, curious about the Latilian Army, but they don’t dare to come close, especially when the Marines are possessing a large amount of crossbows and bolts, and looking hostile:

  “Latilians? No way…Could it be that boy…”

  Except for one individual, the man is hastily approaching the Latilian caravan. He had a fully-grown beard, his skin is a bit tanned like any other Carthagians, but there is one thing that distinguished him from the rest of the others: he had an eye covered in patches. As he run, the person shouted loud:

  “Belisari! Belisari! Are you there?”-The call caught the attention of many among the Marine Corps, not excluding the commander of it:

  “This voice…”

  “Huh?”

  Hearing the voice from outside, in the surprise of Aurora, Daniel and basically anyone in the same cart, the lamenting Archprince suddenly widened his eyes, possibly because he realized the voice of the person. In a hastily manner, Belisari throws his crossbow aside and jumps out of the vehicle. His feet rushed toward the place where the voice coming from:

  “Unbelievable. It’s…you?”