Kunzite wasn't, however, in the library, or the gardens. He simply wandered aimlessly in the corridors. Apart from himself, he was sure, no one knew the Crystal Palace as well as he did. Ever since the rise of Crystal Tokyo, hardly anyone in the Crystal Palace ever left its vicinity. That might have seemed unreasonable to others, however, such a custom made sense to him. After all, several, if not most, of the royalty in the Galaxy never left their castles, or palaces, except to visit others of their rank. Hardly anyone really went anywhere else on their own planet. That hadn't been so on Earth, even during the Silver Millenium. He remembered it well. Perhaps no one, not even the King and Queen recalled everything the way he did, for some reason. Perhaps it was better that they did not. Or maybe they hadn't really noticed it, or he was the one who had been affected the most by it. The War of Succession. He remembered it.
As the Queen of Earth and her consort had only one son, and no daughters, there was some debate over whether or not he could ascend to the throne. Some thought the crown should go to the closest female relative, as men were not allowed to rule. But the Queen had no sisters. In order to evade that particular problem from happening in the past, every Queen/Senshi had only one daughter, one heiress. There were even some doubts whether or not the prince could possess the Golden Crystal. The Queen had no brothers, either, but she did have distant female relatives, aunts, cousins, nieces, so forth. Even her male relatives, if they had daughters. However, most of them had married into the families of other star systems, or were so distantly related, that they did not seem fit candidates.
The war lasted for almost five years. The other planets and their rulers of the Solar System, refused to intervene. No one wanted anything to do with wars, and they kept strictly to themselves. As the people of Earth fought, some went as far as forbidding even their own citizens from traveling to Earth. They would simply wait until the people of Earth reached an agreement, and the fighting would cease. Thinking, perhaps that the only way to stop the fighting, the monarchs of Earth would betroth the prince to one of the Terrastrian nobility, and perhaps have an heiress that way, if the prince had a daughter.
Then, one of the neighboring monarchs made an offer. Queen Serenity IV of the Moon, had offered her daughter, Princess Serenity V,'s hand in marriage to Prince Endymion I of Earth. Queen Serenity was the most respected Queen in the Solar System, if not in the Galaxy itself. The other planets were amazed that the queen of the Moon offered her daughter's hand in marriage, to a planet which was war-ridden. Several had wished to have the princess marry their sons. However, Serenity thought, apart from stopping the war, it would also unite the crowns of Earth and the Moon.
Some were not too thrilled with the betrothal of Princess Serenity to Prince Endymion, but that had been of little importance to the royal families of either the Earth or the Moon. Among the ones who did not agree with it, were several people at the Court on Earth. Most of the Lunarians didn't mind. It was agreed, however, that the princess and her guardians would be much safer, if they did not visit Earth, until the wedding. There was still conflict on Earth, and everyone thought it was safest to wait until things had calmed down more.
But Kunzite had seen just what war was really like. Some of the others said he always pushed them too hard. Kunzite had been chosen to be the leader of the prince's guard. As such, they thought the best training he could receive was on the battlefield.
After the announcement, things seemed to begin to calm down and go back to order on Earth. At least that was what it seemed. Seeing that the queen had no heiress, it seemed that several important people at court, had wanted to marry their daughters to Prince Endymion. Several young ladies, both noble and common, had come built such a hope, it seemed. Pretty soon, one of Kunzite's duties was to keep the female suitors, for lack of a better term away from the prince. Some of them were pretty determined, however. Among them was a young woman with red hair. She wasn't a daughter of any of the nobles. He thought she most likely was a scullery maid or something around those lines. But that didn't stop her from trying everything time and time again. Finally, he had threatened her with exile at best, or execution at worst, if she didn't cease to aggravate him or the prince. Prince Endymion simply didn't want to see her, and even if he did, he was already betrothed to the Princess Serenity of the Moon. That had seemed to work. At least for a while. Little did he know that he had made perhaps the gravest error of all.
Venus lay on her favorite settee. The Demetrian tea Jupiter had brought her had certainly helped. At least for now. The others were stunned when she'd told them what she wanted to do. What would they say, if she had told them she was going to speak to the king and queen about it? Right away as well. She couldn't talk to them just now. It just wasn't a good time, was all. Only now she realized that it was the only time she told herself that, and it was actually true. She had thought about this before, she admitted to herself, but she just hadn't done anything about it. She'd always thought she was mistaken, she'd change her mind by the next day. Only she'd never changed her mind about it. Not really, she thought to herself.
She remembered when she first saw Kunzite. She had had to go to Earth to find Princess Serenity. The princess would sometimes spend hours looking up at the sky at Earth. There, on Earth, was Endymion, her future husband. She would ask her guardians if they knew anything about Earth, or what he was like. Of course, they didn't know, and the princess's curiosity sometimes got the better of her. Most of the time, anyway. She had to find the princess before anyone at the palace realized she was missing, and all four guardians were there. They'd really be in trouble then. At least for now, they wouldn't find her, either, and would assume that she'd gone with the princess.
Everything on Earth was so green, she'd thought to herself. And had so many flowers, especially roses. Red roses. She'd seen roses on Jupiter, and flowers on her native Venus and the other planets, but none like this. She finally distinguished the princess's dress among all that greenery. With her were two men. One had to be the prince, she could tell. She'd heard comments of people who had seen him. The other one, was probably some servant, companion, or perhaps even a guardian, like herself. He didn't seem at all like she thought a guardian should behave. At least none of them on the Moon behaved like that. Perhaps it was a custom of Earth. The first thing she'd heard him say, was a comment on how hard it must be to have such a bundle of curiosity for a princess. She heard the prince call him Kunzite. She didn't forget the name. She didn't forget him.
She saw him again, when Prince Endymion visited the Moon. It had been arranged, so the people of the Moon could see who their princess was to wed. She'd been right about Kunzite being one of his guardians. She learned that he was head of the prince's guard, as she was of that of the princess's. She managed to learn just about everything about him from the rest of the attendants who had come with the prince and his four guardians. Also from others at court. As a Venusian she had the same charm, and was an excellent gossip, and Venusians were known to be. She was also just as enthusiastic and vivacious, and this Kunzite intrigued her a bit. He rarely spoke to anyone, and he certainly never flirted or even smiled. She made it her mission to see that he did, at least once. As a Venusian, she just couldn't resist such a challenge.