Part 1

Lumina Palace, year 2029

The spring season has been come, all the flowers in the palace blossomed and bring the wonderful fragrant to the whole palace. It has been 2 years since the flowers was being plant and felt the situation of peace in this land, technically after the two countries decided to pause the war and built the big wall between the two sides of that big river. The 12-years-old prince Sehun was lying down between the flowers in the palace garden and reminiscing what his country has been through since two years ago, when his father-the King of Lumina- started to attack the Dominas. After that, his father brought the war between them and separated him with his only friend at that time, prince Jongin.

Sehun still remember the crying face of his cousin when he was forced to leave Lumina palace just a few hours after their grandfather passed away. Since he’s little, Sehun already knew that his father and Jongin’s father were very greedy to be the next king and they will never give up until they reach their ambition. So, Sehun’s not very surprised when Jongin was being taken away from his palace because the two of them were not supposed to be friends.

The day when the two of them must be separated will be come and Sehun should be absolutely ready to accept the reality to lose his only best friend. Sehun sighed when he remembered his cousin. He really wanna get rid of Jongin from his head and totally forget him. Unfortunately, Sehun couldn’t even forget his cousin and the time they’re spent together since in the past, playing together and chatting every time they met was absolutely beautiful. Sehun hates himself for keep missing his cousin although it has been 2 years after they being separated. Jongin’s face keeps popping out in his mind.

When he heard the sound of footstep came closer, Sehun got up lazily from the ground and he cleaned up his clothes. He must be perfect and cool in front of other people, and he really hates people to see himself for being miserable and desperate.

“Ah, good morning, Your Highness. What are you doing in this garden at the morning like this?” a middle-aged man with blond hair and eyeglasses greeted him while bowed on him and smiled.

“Yap, good morning too, Minister Jinki, I just get out to get some fresh air,” Sehun replied coldly when he continues, “You know, I have no lessons today and I totally bored right now. Do you want to play some games with me?”

“I’m afraid I can’t, Your Highness,” Jinki replied calmly, “This morning I must attend the final round of Youth Knight Competition and passes the prize to the winner,”

“Huh? What is that? I never heard the kind of stuff before,”

“It’s the competition between all of young boy from the entire country to select some boys that could be trained as Palace Knights,” Jinki explain carefully, “And this is the first time we conduct a competition like this. I came up with this idea because we want to give the chances to all boys at the country to be a Palace Knight,”

“Wow that’s interesting! So, they will beat each other and be the best for being chosen, right? It will be very awesome!” Sehun replied enthusiastically.

“Absolutely right, my little prince,” Jinki smiled widely when he continues, “Do you want to come with me to watch the final match this morning?”

Without thinking, Sehun replied cheerfully, “Of course! Let’s go to the venue and watch them! I’m totally anticipating who will be the winner today!”

***

Sehun and Jinki arrived at the championship venue, which was actually located in the west palace fortress.  There were many soldiers, noblemen, and common people in that venue already. Cheering and chatting filled out the venue since everybody really anticipate who would be the winner of this knight championship, which was held at the first time in Lumina country.  Since the attendants of the championship came from throughout the country, not only from the capital, the spectators also came from everywhere. This fact actually made the atmosphere inside the venue become more intense and thrilling.

“The crown prince and the minister of defense have been arrived! Everybody please give your regard to your highness!” A soldier shouted out from a tower to bring a sudden silence to the whole venue.

All of the people there were kneeling down and lower their head in order to respect the crown prince and the minister. Actually, Sehun was not very comfortable to see hundreds of people kneeling in front of his eyes because he always thought that this kind of welcoming was too strict and absolutely awkward.  After Sehun entered the venue and follow Jinki to walk up the stairs that connected the battle ground and the honorary podium, he immediately sat down on a seat there and clapped his hand once. In a second, everybody in that venue raise their head again then they immediately got up to their original position, bring the same excitement again to the venue.

Sehun sighed when he saw hundreds people in the venue, imagining that this number of people absolutely just a little portion of all the citizens in Lumina made him totally insecure. In the future, the fate and the destiny of all these people will depend on his hand and he hates himself that he’s not yet ready to lead their country. Yeah, he’s totally not ready to lead the confrontation with his cousin from the north.    

“I don’t know that you will come and watch this final match, your highness,” a very familiar cold voice greeted Sehun. He immediately turned his head to the back of his seat to saw a handsome boy smiled at him cheerfully while rubbing his head.

“Minseok-hyung! How surprising you also come here at this time! You should’ve gone to school since the morning, right?” Sehun replied in confusion and give Minseok a curious gaze.

“I took a day off,” the 16-years-old Kim Minseok answered shortly while keep smiling, “This championship already become ‘hot topic’ all over the palace and I’m currently very curious to see who will be the winner today.”

“Everybody already know this championship? How come I don’t know this kind of championship is currently being held!” Sehun talked again while pouting his mouth-he looks upset when continued, “You know, nobody at the west castle told me about this championship before! I just know the final match is being held this morning when I met Minister Jinki at the central garden.”

Minseok chuckled when he saw the little prince that being upset, “Haha, I think they don’t tell you because they don’t wanna put you on danger, Your Highness. Many people come to see the final match and we couldn’t check them one by one. This kind of crowds absolutely can be a threat for your safety.”

Sehun sighed, the same reason that he totally bored-to-hear came out again from Minseok. He already knew that his life is absolutely in danger since their country-or their palace, especially his father-have been made too many enemies at this time.

“Gwenchana, we have top level safety personnel here, Your Highness,” Jinki replied this time. He keeps his eyes wary to saw the whole venue. Then, he moves his gaze to Sehun and smiling warmly when he said, “You’re absolutely safe when I’m with you. So, you should relax and enjoy the final match, eh?”

“Minister is totally right, Your Highness. Remember, I’m also watching your back!”

 “Yeah, I don’t have to be worried. You two are the most powerful person in the palace!” Sehun finally smiled when he replied, “Let’s begin this match now, Minister! I think everyone has been ready to watch this!”

Minister Jinki nodded his head and then he stand up at the podium. Everybody suddenly turned silence when they saw the Minister got up already.

“Good morning everybody! As we know, this morning we will conduct the final match of the first Young Palace Knight Championship. This championship already gone to the final round and we already decide the best four young man from all over the country that will be chosen and trained as Palace Knight. The first winner from this championship will get the title of young knight commander while the rest of them will also be trained at the palace!” Jinki stopped while the crowd became louder, “Okay okay, I know you are all ready to see the match right?”

“Yeaaah!!” all the spectators became crazy and shout louder

Jinki smiled widely when he finally shouted, “Okay, let the match begin! Please welcome our four best finalists to the battle ground!”

The crowds shouting and cheering when the four young men with complete set of weapon and armor- all looks like very strong and powerful- go to the battle ground.

Sehun got excited when he saw the finalists, then he turned back to Minseok to asked who were they.

“From the furthest left side, the tall man that wearing wooden armor and long sword, his name is Minho, beside him-the small boy using iron helmet and iron axe, his name is Gongchan, the next boy-with headband and silver dagger-his name is Baro, and at the very end, the bald small boy without armor carrying the long wooden spear, his name is Zitao”  

Sehun observed each of them: Minho is the tallest among them all and he looks like the most powerful with his long sword; he guessed Gongchan is around his age since he is very thin, his helmet nearly covered all of his head; Baro looks like very fast and swift with his dagger, with leather armor covered his body. And then he observed the last boy for a few moment.

In that time, Zitao was a very small, bald, and dark-skinned boy. He went to this competition without any armor on him and he was barefoot. His clothes were worn out and oversized-Sehun guessed he wears his father clothes. Beside that, his weapon was just a long wooden spear that also looks very old. In Sehun’s eyes, Zitao looked very weak comparing to the other participant, and he wonder what makes this boy could survive until this final round.

“Hyung, is he even could attack the others? How old is he? He looked very small,” Sehun pointed his finger to the bald boy while looking at Minseok.

“You mean, Zitao? Haha, He is one year older than you,” Minseok answer with small laugh, “He maybe looks so weak, but he will surprise us. In the last round, he defeated his opponent just in one minute.”

“Really? Wow! he is totally strong! I hope he could do his best this moment!” Sehun clapped his hand when talking.

Minseok chuckled and smiled when he directly looked into Sehun’s eyes, where he could see excitement at his sparkling eyes. Minseok always knew when Sehun is fond of something and he knew that Sehun will fall for this boy very soon.

End of Part 1

Teaser for part 2 - Please guess what happen next!

"Please, you must stop this competition right now, Minister! They will be death if it continues!"

"It's not your help. As you know, I deserve this title since very beginning."
 

A/N : Annyeong beloved readers and subscribers!! Finally we could update this story after a very looooongg time. This Jumi Series story will be devided into 3 sequences, which are :  The Beginning, The Brotherhood, and The Revelation. In this first chapter, Tao and Sehun from Lumina Country will be the main couple because recently we loooove them very much *attackedbyreaders XDD. In the next chapter, we will present the story of the next couple from Domina Country! ^^ We hope you will enjoy the story, all! We will kindly appreciate your comment so we could know your opinion and please wait patiently for the next update. Thank you very much for commenting, reading and still subscribing to this story although we have been missing for ages! *bow90degrees