Chapter 130: The Grand Parade
The place where the Grand Parade was going to be held was known as the Plaza Of Honour.
As Lucas reached the Plaza, he saw it was full of people lining on top of each other just to witness the mere sight of the Imperial Knights and The Royal family.
After all, for commoners like them witnessing the King and defenders of the country was glory in itself.
Above the Plaza of Honour, was the splendid and marvellous Imperial Castle hovering in the air showing its majesty.
The Parade would begin from the Castle and from there the knights would march across the whole city on a predetermined path.
At the centre of the Plaza, there was a noble stand and a stage near it. A man walked up the stage and spoke in a loud voice.
"Everyone prepares yourself to witness the glory of Cyprus, whose shade had been protecting you from memorable generations and will protect you for more generations to come."
"Glory to the Empire."
The man who walked onto the stage was wearing a shining armour covering his whole body, it sparkled under the bright sunlight as he shouted on top of its long.
His command spread around the crowd like a pulse.
The flag bearer of the noble's clans all promptly gathered at the Plaza.
The head of The Frost, The Warren, The Seyfried, The Azon, The Camron and many other nobles sitting on horses beast marched followed by the Knights of their fiefdom.
The ripple effect of these names was huge and the sensation spread like wildfire.
"Glory to the Empire."
Everyone shouted at the top of their lungs.
Today was the day, the Kingdom was founded. Today was the day when countless enemies were slain. Today was the day to witness the glory of their longstanding kingdom which they have been proud of.
To witness the Heros of the previous generations and to welcome the incoming ones' current generations.
Today the stage had been set, and th audience had gathered.
Today the world shall know, the might of Cyprus.
That's, what should have...
.....
Lucas turned his head as he looked at the shining knights, wearing shining armour whose sparkle made him blind.
The armour of knights reflected the rays of the sun whose reflection blinded the vision.
His heart was beating faster looking at the scene but he can't enjoy and watch the Parade.
Not today.
He was madly searching through the crowd for a suspicious person.
Princess and others would have taken care of bombs planted in the Plaza but there were chances of people carrying them and mixing in the crowd.
No matter how hard, they tried it was difficult for them to catch the bomber unless he decided to show himself.
Lucas didn't plan to watch the show when a bomb would explode beside him.
He knew no matter what, life gonna be sacrificed today and people gonna die.
He can't save everyone from dying even after planning.
The only way to stop this inevitable slaughter was to stop the Grand Parade but it can't postpone or cancelled, no matter what the situation.
Lucas made his way through the crowd and searched like a madman but under thousands of people, it was difficult for him.
"Huss." Lucas inhaled as he wiped off the sweat from his forehead.
"It feels like searching for a needle in a haystack."
As he surveyed the people who were shouting and enjoying themselves, Lucas momentarily stopped as he heard the loud sounds of trumpets and drums and looked at the spot.
It was a sign of the Arrival of the kings.
The Imperial Knights and the knights from the noble household stood in two rows on both sides of the huge pathway.
The look in their eyes was serious and the determination that reflected on thier face gave the onlooker a feeling as if they are going into a war.
"All Hail to the King."
"All Hail to the King."
As the King wearing a golden cornet arrived at the entrance, they simultaneously raised their swords in the air.
The entire Plaza shook with their resonating voices as if small tremors is occurring everywhere.
"Mhmm." The King nodded.
Following him were the Three Princes who were dressed in their noble attire.
All of them had a fiery expression except the Third Prince who had dull look.
Lucas looked at Ellen and sighed.
He can tell that Ellen was trying his best to restrain himself from yawning. He is bored and dislikes this kind of arduous thing.
Leave Ellen, even the King who had a stoic expression was thinking about when this all will end and he can take rest.
It was the first time Lucas had seen the King but just a single glance, gave him a weary feeling as if his sixth sense is warning him, the laziness behaviour of the King is just a facade to mask the sharpness inside.
Lucas carefully observed the king from a distance and a random thought came to his mind.
'He is quite overprotective of his daughter and loses his sense when comes to Julian. He looks for boys who flock toward her daughter and secretly deals with them posing like a thief.'
Lucas shuddered as a random thought came to his mind.
"That means, am I also on the hit list even after he assigned me as her butler."
"Oh God, how did I forget about that maniac?" Lucas was already drenched in sweat at the possibility of waking at night to see a man wearing black assassin clothes sitting beside him and saying "Lad, let's have a hearty talk."
Lucas saw that the knight who started to prevent any more citizens from entering created space for noble to enter.
The Noble families started to enter and take the higher space granted to them.
Lucas shook his head to clear the meaningless thoughts.
Lucas pushed the people before him and started to walk toward the area from where nobles were coming.
He could see all the people in the plaza as he got closer. There were so many people present here that it was difficult to maintain security.
However, the atmosphere didn't feel stuffy after all the Plaza of Honour was quite large and the fact was the guards standing outside formed a perimeter and limited the number of people to enter so that it wouldn't be overcrowded.
In response to this, some people were in shops near the plaza and on roofs of buildings nearby to try and get a glimpse of the Kings and the nobles on today's occasion.
He scanned the area.
Malls and shops in the east, inns and taverns in the west, buildings in the north and the huge tower with a clock in the central square towards the south.
It was nearing noon when the match will start.
Lucas had verified the locations and asked the Princess to search around the perimeter.
Most of the bombs would be nearer to the road where the knights would be marching and near the noble stand.
Lucas didn't know if things will be going as planned after all the Villain Society had mobilised many strong warriors and even 9-Stars would be present in the attack forces.
The 9-Star would just restrain the King and other 9-Star warriors of the Kingdom, whereas the lower-ranked ones will be the ones who will bid the call.
Lucas knew that shadow guards will be watching and surveying for possible anomalies.
Lucas felt nervous and thought about whether the preparation was enough to prevent the disaster.
"Should, I have informed Parth," Lucas muttered as he thought about asking Parth to convey the events to the Shadow guards.
The Knights closed off the entrance.
The King will be giving a speech.
"Everybody please takes a seat over here."
The seats were arranged with everyone's names posted in specific seats.
"The stars of the Stan family, the members of the royal family are entering now. All of you greet the Empress and other members."
Only one entrance to the plaza was opened which was the gate of the Royal Palace which was built across the plaza.
The royal families entered one by one in seniority ordered and the Empress walked up the stage and stood beside the King.
The Knight present at the front bowed down and nobles lowered their head to greet the empress.
The Empress, Roxana Von Stan was a royal member of The Ralph Kingdom. Her face is quite similar to Julian's expect her black hair.
Following her lead, The King's two Concubines Jess and Briana Von Stan entered.
The Princes who had gone back after accompanying the King entered.
The First Prince entered, taking the lead with the second prince and the third prince flanked his sides, among them was the one and only princess of the Nation who is the pride and the number one flower of the Kingdom, Julian Von Stan.
With her graceful steps walked up the stage following her brother's lead.
Seeing her everyone's expression changed as they took a deep breath seeing Julian's breathtaking beauty and the crowds erupted in cheers.
"Woaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!"
The crowd threw flowers at the Royal family members and the cheering of the citizens was so loud that it felt like the ground was shaking.
After that, it was time for the nobles to enter.
Lucas subconsciously felt a hint of jealousy, seeing the glory and love, the nobles were getting
"One day, I swear, I will stand on that stage. Unlike you, all whose status comes from land and others, My name will be the symbol of my status." Lucas clenched his fist to minimise this suffocating feeling.
After meeting his other self, Lucas came to know many things. Unlike him, his other self doesn't have the system and his life was quite messed and he suffered much pain and suffering to reach where he was now.
His other self had developed an inferiority complex, he also hinted that, unlike his current self, the past self didn't know the future events meaning, there was no novel with the name Dawn of legend when he reincarnated, which was quite weird.
"Let's leave it. I am sure, I will get my answer in the future still his inferiority complex had somehow affected me which developed after seeing others enjoying the status." Lucas cursed his other-self.
As the seats were arranged according to authority, Lucas saw Charles and Fredrick seating near each other in the front row accompanied by many knights from both the household.
Fredrick and Han greeted Charles and following them many nobles appeared according to their ranks.
While observing the nobles taking seats, he saw a man wearing a hood trying to get through the crowd towards the noble stand.
"Gotcha.'Lucas smiled.