A Meeting of Sorts

Time Period: Silver Millennium

In the main meeting room of the royal palace was a huge bustle of people. The king had called a meeting with all the important people: lawmakers, generals, royals, etc. I sat alongside the rest with the Shitennou and our prince. At the corner of my eye, I could see the woman who started it all, Beryl. She was the one that had exposed the relationship between Endymion and the moon princess through the major newspapers. We, the guards, already knew that there was something going on between the two but didn't want to believe it. As the king walked up to his chair, everyone became silent.

Sitting down, the king cleared his throat. He looked around the crowd of people. When he was done, a look of disappointment was on his face.

"I see that the queen of the moon has decided to not come to this meeting," he said. Angry murmurs filled the crowd. Among them were "of course she didn't" or "I knew it."

"Nevertheless," he shouted over the voices and everyone quieted. "we shall continue without her.

Now I'm sure you're all aware of the fact that my son, against all rational thinking, has developed a romantic interest with the princess of the moon. And for that, he will be gravely punished. However," He looked towards us with a heated look. "some blame must also fall on my son's guards. For they must've known about this as well."

The crowd of people turned their heads towards us. If looks could kill, I would've died on the spot. I was panicking on the inside but we were to remain calm and collected and hoped that Kunzite and Zoisite could talk our way out of this mess. They might even convince the king to lessen the punishment for Endymion.

"Your majesty," Kunzite began. "Whenever the moon princess visited, she was under our watch the entire time. And during that time, there was absolutely no romantic intentions that we had seen. What we saw was an overly enthusiastic young woman wanting to learn more about the Earth and its beauty. The prince merely led her to those places of beauty."

"Then how do you explain what Beryl had seen?" shouted a man.

"Like I said, we did not notice anything but short visits to the earth," Kunzite replied. "If anything happened, it happened without our supervision."

"Poppycock!" shouted another man. "How did you not notice such a thing! You're supposed to be his guards and to be watching over him at all times!"

"I have heard that there are secret entrances and exits that only the royal family know about," said Zoisite while looking at the king. The king nodded and Zoisite continued.

"The prince could've snuck out at any time without us noticing." All eyes were now turned towards Endymion.

"Is this true, son?" asked the king.

Endymion nodded and responded, "Yes, it is." Angry whispers began to reemerge from the crowd. The king cleared his throat as an order to stay silent.

"And may I ask why?"

"Because I love her." The crowd erupted with accusations and shouts to kill the prince.

"Traitor!" shouted a man.

"Execute him!" shouted another.

"Hang him!"

"Burn him!" shouted a noblewoman. The military leaders chose to stay silent and give disapproving glances instead.

The king closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. Sighing, he shouted, "Order!"

After everyone became silent once more, he continued. "We need to think about this rationally!"

"Think about what?" argued a nobleman. "Your son has already admitted to breaking the most important law by being in love with the moon princess! He needs to be punished to the fullest extent of the law! Or are you going to let him go with nothing more than a slap on the wrist just because he is your son?"

"Let it be known that my son will get a fair and just punishment just as a nobleman or a peasant would," the king replied. "We need the details of what he did and go from there."

"You already heard him! He snuck out through the secret pathways and-"

"Your majesty, if I may speak," Kunzite interjected.

"Go ahead." said the king.

"As we all know, the Moon Kingdom has secrets and magics that not even our greatest magicians can decipher. As such, we cannot dismiss the very real possibility that the moon princess has seduced our poor prince with her wily magics."

The king hummed. After a while, he said, "Yes, that could be true."

He turned to the crowd and asked, "What say you?" The crowd was, for once, silent and with no answer. Just a second ago they wanted the prince's head and was now trying to figure out the ramifications of the princess using love magic on Endymion.

"If what the guard here is saying is true," replied a general. "Then it's as good as a war declaration against us." The crowd became still. A war with the Moon Kingdom was unthinkable. The other thought was that the queen of said kingdom was actively trying to take over the Earth with discrete methods such as this.

After what seemed to be minutes of silence, the king spoke, "Does anyone have anything else to add?"

When nobody said anything, the king said, "All right. The prince and his guards are now dismissed unless they wish to stay. Now about the matters of…"

I inwardly sighed as that disaster as narrowly avoided. Walking out of the room, we followed the prince as he walked into the garden. Sitting down on top of a boulder, he rubbed his face with the palm of his hands. After making sure that there was nobody else around, Nephrite spoke.

"Endymion," he said in a serious tone. "You know it had to be done."

"But why?"

"Because it's against the law! This isn't a story, Endy. You can't go falling in love with just anybody! You're a prince! People have to trust that you will do what's right for the people and follow the rules even if you don't want to."

"But if they could see how beautiful she is…"

"For crying out loud, man!" Nephrite groaned. "It's never been about that! It's about politics! That's what it's always been about! Don't you think if the Earth Kingdom and the Moon Kingdom got along with each other we would be happy for you?

But that's not the reality of it. The reality is that right now, everyone hates the Moon Kingdom and wants the head of any supporters of the Moon Kingdom. That's exactly why we're in the mess we're in right now. And the power of love ain't gonna fix shit."

"Nephrite," Kunzite glared at him.

"No swearing is a stupid rule and you know it," argued Nephrite. Zoisite interrupted the start of the argument by clearing his throat.

"While I don't appreciate how Nephrite worded it, he's right," said Zoisite to Endymion. "You need to break off all contact with the moon princess before it's too late."

"No."

"What?" I shouted.

"No," the prince repeated. "I refuse to not see her anymore just because everyone else doesn't like it."

At that moment, I was left speechless. Was he really willing to risk a war for his own desires? Looking at my superiors, they were also shocked. Sitting up, Endymion started to walk away.

"What? Did you not hear a single word of what we just said?" asked Nephrite. "Or hear a single word of the meeting we were just at? Because if you keep seeing her, they're going to kill you. They're not going to be satisfied with you being in jail. They're going to cut off your head and put it on a bloody pole."

"No matter what, I'm not going to leave her," Endymion reaffirmed.

"Think about what you're doing!" shouted Nephrite.

Leaving the garden, Endymion headed to the north area of the castle. The four of us could only stand there.

"Well, that's it," Nephrite declared as he put his hands up. "The world's going to end."

"Don't be so dramatic," said Zoisite while glaring at Nephrite. "We can still fix this."

"Fix this? And how do you propose we do that?"

"Why even try?" I asked bitterly. "Did you see his eyes? He's absolutely adamant about it."

"Because we don't want a complete all out war," Zoisite gritted out the answer. "If we play our cards right, the worst thing that might happen is Endymion being imprisoned for treason."

"Agreed," said Kunzite as he nodded. "We need to think about this carefully. However, we must continue this during the evening. We all need to tend to our duties this moment."

And with that we all scattered to our workplaces. I couldn't help but think how selfish the prince was being. Everyone in the kingdom has to sacrifice some part of their dreams for duty. I had to sacrifice my old friends and my old life as a peasant. Even though I was chosen as a guard for the prince, most noblemen still saw me as a peasant and never took me seriously. But I didn't complain. It was my duty and I had to do it. So how could the prince so easily throw away his duties in the pursuit for love?