The sun's rays hit my body as the journey to the castle didn't take too long. We all had a blast on the way back, recounting things here and there, as for myself, my stories were a bit bland, I didn't have as much freedom before I was exiled, though sometimes I wonder why my father only threw me out instead of killing me and using my body for sustinance like with everybody else in Battalonia. It wasn't a tradition back there for us to just be exiled. It was weird to say the least.

"Hey kid, Lyra told me that I can take you to the capital, we got a week." Grej stated as he looked at me before getting off Lyra's cart. Walking after Grej, I realised he didn't even say my actual name even once, calling me "boy" or "kid". However he did call me something else that nobody really understood. Almost as if it was a different language altogether or he was mentally insane and was speaking jibberish.

"Hey Grej. If we're going to the capital, can I meet with Fraduitch because he's supposed to marry Lyra?"

"Yes, after you got a lesson from me and the jewel guard."

"wait,don't tell me Hellas is going to fight Opex!" Lyra came butting into the conversation worried already as Grej just put his gauntlets in front of himself and shaking it rapidly.

"no,no if that was the case he'd be dead meat... He'll be watching, maybe learning a bit as I'll be fighting Opex."

"Oh thank lord, I don't want him going near that goliscopod." Lyra said as I raised an eyebrow at her. I only knew that goliscopods and their pre-evolution was notorious for running away or being cowardly, so hearing that such a pokemon was a Jewel guard was interesting.

"Hellas, come give me a hand." Brigett shouted as I got off the cart and rushed to Brigett's aid, getting one of the sofa's off the pile of stuff that was left in front of the castle in a separate cart that was locked. It obviously was a bit heavier then what she expected and so did I underestimate it's weight, making my knees give in slightly as I felt my whole body bend in to the load, however as I adjusted I managed to bring it inside with Brigett as she thanked me as I went back to Lyra's cart and looked at Grej who was still talking with Lyra.

I only approached and saw Lyra wave to Grej as he looked at me.

"well kid, Lyra's joining us to solve a court case, she's going to be at her parents house while some of my own workers will be working here helping Brigett and Lola out, as for you, I hope I can teach you a thing or two before we fight again."

"wait so... This will be like a cycle?"

"pretty much, the only time I'll stop is if you can beat me three times in a row."

I was a bit surprised at what he said, I'll get to meet both Fraduitch and this supposed jewel guard named Opex.

"Oh uhm, what's this jewel guard status you mentioned? It sounds important."

"Oh, crown guards like ourselves serve the Nation, however the Jewelguard is a status only a crown guard can achieve and makes the pokemon the defender of the Royal family itself."

"Oh, I see, so it's like a promotion from your rank?"

"In a nutshell, yes however theres a massive difference between a crown guard and a Jewel guard, some of them are obvious because it's kinda like a private job... One of them is that you had to have experience with escorting others previously and to not look as menacing in front of the family and so on and so forth, otherwise it's a job thats harder then being a simple crown guard."

Grej then looked at me until he snarled.

" Alright, enough explaining, let's get going." He said as Lyra grabbed a couple of things from her cart and put it into a small satchel then proceeding to put it on herself, Grej looked at us before seeming to chuckle slightly as he got onto his cart, the hood of the cart was already up to shield him from the burning sunshine that stroke across the fields and trees nearby.

Both Lyra and I got into his cart and watched with a heavy heart as Lola and Brigett were left behind. Both of them waving to us as they went back to unpacking the carts with furniture and alike. Both Lyra and Grej sat down opposite to one another as Grej pulled a crate over and put a box onto it, It had tiles and when it was unfolded it was a 8x8 tile with black and white squares, Grej then also pulled out two separate boxes and placed one next to the crate on Lyra's side and one on his side before opening it and taking out figures, all of which were infused with great detail.

Soon as he began placing the pieces I realised the two just accepted playing a game of chess. The pawniards were in the front, two Bisharp's in the squares near them. Then followed the Rapidash, then Lucario and finally a Gardevior and a Gallade as queen and king.

Both of them began taking turns as I sat down next to the board and watched them play, making me take some notes as well.

Eventually Grej was left with the Gardevior and Gallade, a Bisharp and a Rapidash while Lyra had her own Gallade and Gardevior on the field, both Lucario's and both Bisharp's left along with a few pawbiards, making Grej have to sacrifice the few pieces he had left so that Lyra couldn't win automatically and soon enough Lyra beat Grej at the game, as Grej knelt down before her she just put out a paw which Grej accepted as he stood back onto his feet, after the game he looked up at the sky outside and pulled the cart cover in, almost making it seem like a wagon inside, it became quite dark deeper into the cart but that slowly changed as Grej lit a few crimson red candles deeper within. Looking at them with a strange feeling as the aroma of raspberries came quickly afterwards. I slowly turned around as I got another feeling of being watched, dread coming over me as I was suddenly taken out of it with a paw over my shoulder. I only snapped my head towards the paw and saw Lyra next to me, a paw on my shoulder as the feeling went away, slowly Lyra came next to me and sat down, watching together with me as Grej chuckled behind us.

"You two enjoy yourselves, it'll take about an hour or two till we get to see the capital on the horizon." Grej said as he took off his helmet, revealing extremely short hair in a single direction as all the strands of hair were pointing straight upwards towards the sky. My eyes slowly hazed as Lyra leaned on me, feeling her soft fur and fluffy chest fur also lean onto my arm. Her fur and fluff was close to being the texture of silk as the fluff was almost like dense clouds. Slowly she began rubbing up against me as we watched the blue and white sky, the wind slightly blowing as the golden rays of the sun hit the trees near us, slowly as she began falling forwards she slowly woke up and stood straight up once again as I just placed my gauntlets Behind myself, sliding my back slightly to look at Lyra. Slowly clutching my right gauntlet together as I pulled my gauntlet forward, sweating a little as I slowly placed it onto her back, feeling a her fur stand on end as she glance back slightly into my eye, locking eyes only made it worse as I looked away and began rubbing her back, making her shiver slightly as I did so, bringing a slightly smile to my face, making me stop as I placed my other gauntlet to my mouth.

I've never smiled before at least not a genuine smile, and it took me 17 years to find that out. Slowly I placed my gauntlet back onto Lyra's back and began rubbing feeling her soft fur go through my gauntlet, making me get behind her and rub her back gently. The smooth silky fur slowly being brought along my gauntlets, as some time passed I began questioning whether Lyra or I was enjoying it more. Slowly as I rubbed behind her I saw the shadows in front of her going back into the cart slowly rise up as her back was approaching me until she hit her back into my chest and stomach making me paralyzed from it all as I felt a full blown blush form on my face, and Lyra didn't hesitate either as she jumped forwards a little to get out of me.

"S-sorry! I-I didn't mean too it was just..." she said as her flustered face explained almost everything to me, making me nod as I placed a gauntlet on her cheek as she was about to talk, and just as I though when I began rubbing her cheek she closed her eyes and buried her face onto my palm a little, I was baffled and I knew why. But I wanted her to accept that it was okay, however she seemed to be embarrassed by the things I did to her. So I slowly began to pull back from the acts and just look at the fields.

"Hey Hellas... What's your real name?" Lyra asked as I looked at her, she however looked back at me.

"wh-what do you mean? My name is Hellas." I said as the only thing coming to mind was my previous name, the one very few knew, since I did like everyone in Battalonia to also call me Hellas even though my actual name was Asira way back before I promptly changed it.

"I-I know that isn't your real name Hellas... Or Asira." She said as I stood up and sat down a bit back inside the cart, Lyra following me and sitting opposed to me as she leaned back against the side of the cart. The time went by quickly inside the tent as the warmth of the noon sun made both Grej and Lyra go to take a nap.

I just watched the road behind us as eventually I began seeing houses alongside the road, as it began stretching wider, the path turning into a mixture of gravel and sand with some small stone slabs scattered across it and slowly turning into just stone.

"Administration?" A voice asked as I looked out and saw two pokemon approach the back of the cart, a Lucario that was relatively short compared to the other guard which was a Machoke both of which had a shield by their side with a red half circle and a blade protruding from it as it went straight upwards.

"Hey you two... Wait, Lightseeker is that you bud, how've you been?" Grej asked as the Lucario bowed to him upon his name being stated.

"good sir, it's been a while since we've seen you here at the capital, you've been traveling for far too long." The Lucario said as Grej nodded at him, we didn't really get much time with the Machoke as it moved on to another cart but thankfully we were let inside, the place itself was somewhat nice, pokemon walking about, kids and pups playing together on the street as we slowly made our way through the place as Lyra began rummaging though some stuff until we pulled over and our cart stopped with Lyra jumping out.

"Well, I need to visit my step-sister since she'll be coming along with us as well... We have a court case pending currently." Lyra said as I was a bit shocked at the announcement and got out of the cart immediately only for Grej to put his gauntlet on my shoulder and shake his head.

" Ya see kid, her step-sister is one you don't want to be around when she's working... She's quite ferocious when she's doing her job, best to keep your distance." He said as Lyra came out of the building in a few minutes which surprised me, by her side was an Umbreon who had some glasses on and with some books and papers wrapped up on her back as she got on the cart with Lyra before she took a look at me.

" Uhm, Isabel, this is Hellas, my bodyguard, and Hellas this is Isabella, an accountant and a lawyer, also my step-sister." Lyra said as Isabel gave her paw to me like she was royalty, I gracefully accepted it and kissed her paw not wanting to get on her bad side. She chuckled a bit before looking at Lyra and whispering something into her ear, making her chuckle a little as well, I just shook it off and got back into the cart as we took off once more towards the center of the city where multiple castle towers could be seen poking above the wall, the one in the center poking its roof above the rest. I kept an eye out on the street since it was somewhat busy, but thankfully we got nothing to worry about as Grej sat down next to me while Lyra and Isabel were chatting away about paperwork and such, eventually coming down to my registration which Isabel quickly agreed to get it done in the next couple of days with the contract Lyra and I signed.

"Alright, next checkpoint... Give me a minute girls." Grej said as he jumped off once more and walked alongside the cart before going over to the pokemon at the front, only coming back after a few minutes as we continued onwards, as this repeated once more after we got to another checkpoint inside the city to finally reach the top portion, gardens everywhere with pokemon actually showing wealthy status, I almost got the whole checkpoint structure of the city, but I couldn't do anything about it, however once we almost reached the castle a Gallade jumped on board to look at Lyra with a smile as he approached her.

"Why hello sweetheart, where have you been? The whole upper ranks have been worried about you!" He said as he seemed to approach her in a state that made me jump immediatly, his hands forming into face and walking in the cart with a more then steady and restless pace. Making me jump up and grab his shoulders to pull him back and jump in front of the two of them. Making him jump back up and look at me with rage.

"Who are you that stands between me and my bride you worthless scum?!"

"Why he's her bodyguard Fraduitch... Now back off. She might be marrying you, but her bodyguard stays till then." Grej said as the Gallade scoffed at ua a little before Looking at Lyra who seemed to go past me and glare at him before jumping up and grabbing his shoulder, making me somewhat jealous as I saw the two of them face to face almost a bit romantically, but before he got the idea and tried to lean in, Lyra just pushed him off the cart with ease as she towered over him. He landed on his rear and almost laid down in the rocky road behind us. Lyra chuckling a little along with Grej as well before she went back to Isabel who gave her a hug in return.

"Well, we're here kids." Grej said after a minute as we arrived at a castle towering above most others, however there were no windows, only holes in the tower with guards looking out of them, a couple actually seemed to laugh at Fraduitch. With both sides throwing profanities at one another until the guards left and Fraduitch brushing himself off and immediately going to a group of women to talk to them, immediately after having small feud.

I quickly got off the cart and looked at what we just went through, and shook my head, going over to the entrance of the castle and going inside, to find that two sets of the stairs in front of us actually lead downwards. This time without hesitation Grej took the lead from us and went forwards and going down the spiraling stairs, finally heading into a long corridor, barely lit with torches as noises could be heard from almost all of the rooms, except one where very few pokemon were, the place was dimly lit where there weren't any pokemon. The whole place was a semi library with a massive map on the wall depicting the whole nation with its boarders, cities, villages and farmland. In front of the massive map Grej sat down at the long table and motioned everyone to come along, I obliged and sat down with Lyra taking the seat next to me with Isabel sitting on my other side with the paperwork she got and went down right to it. I laid back but eventually I was disrupted from my sleep as a gentle paw tapped on my shoulder as Isabel needed my signature for some of the paperwork, making me at least somewhat active as I felt my life slow down a little to a crawl in this room, only looking at the map every once in a while to get myself a bit excited as to the journey we already had and what more we could be having since the whole nation was so vast and diverse, some parts of it stretched into the North Pole where there was ice, and the South-West part actually stretched into deserts.

"Alright, that settles it. We're good." Isabel said with a smile as she looked over at the group that was already finished, and were looking at us as Isabel coughed a bit and motioned over to the entrance to the room as we all got up from our chairs and looked around for a bit before going out, only for me to accidentally bump into a Zoroark that had some rather unique features, I instantly recognised the Zoroark as female, her slender body along with her extremely dark blue mane and claws definetly made her undistinguishable from the dark corridor that we were going down.

"Alma! It's been a while since I've seen you!" Grej said as she leaned down as well to pick up the books and scrolls along with me, I just gave her the things that she was carrying. She thanking me then looked at Grej.

"I'm Sorry Grej, I'm in a rush currently, I need to deliver these to the... You know who" She said before looking over at Lyra as she herself growled a bit and looked away as Grej rolled his eyes.

"Alright, we're not gonna hold you up then, enjoy yourself while you can Alma!'"

"Will do!" She replied back to Grej as we headed towards the exit, with Alma going deeper back down, fixing up the red glasses she had on herself before we went back up the flight of stairs and out of the tower, only to be confronted by Fraduitch once again, however this time he stormed up to me instead of Lyra.

"Listen here you little prick! I'm not gonna let you stand between me and my marriage with Lyra." He spat out as he shoved his hand almost onto my face, however I quickly swatted it away with my gauntlet as he got more furious, and before I knew it, I was blasted back with electricity from him and back into the tower a bit before I shook myself and stood up to look at him, however before he could throw down another punch at me, he was swept of his feet and picked up high above Grej who had picked him up with his gauntlets, not soon after he chuck him over to the side onto his back.

"No fighting here you two, this is sacred grounds, If you two want to fight, then do it in the pit." Grej said as Fraduitch stood up and cleaned himself off.

"With pleasure, I'll make sure to whack this bisharp up in a moments notice." He said before going off but looking at Lyra as he turned his head back slightly to look at us as he walked away, snarling to himself.

"Well kid, looks like your training started today." Grej said as he chuckled to himself before holding out a gauntlet which I took.

"What is with that guy, first he comes and almost tackles Lyra down... And now he's up and picking fights with me." I asked before looking over at Lyra who looked back at me.

"I didn't say that even for his noble status, he's a lot diffrent then us... ACTUAL nobles, so he's kinda jelous of me particularly since we almost have the same way of rising to power, however I get to keep my nobility while he seems to slowly be losing it." Lyra said as I finally understood why he was so up front and personal with Lyra and all, however I still was speechless at how poorly he handled the situation at hand. Making me sigh slightly before going onwards, and finally having a goal here as well, getting ready to beat him was the goal that I set out for myself.

"Alright kiddo, you're coming with me then." Grej said as I was confused but he just said his goodbye to Lyra and Isabel as he dragged me off.

"Okay,what's going to happen?"

"You kiddo, you're going to watch me and Opex fight a little bit before you get to fight Fraduitch... In Hand to Hand combat!"