Chapter One



I put down the plate of meatballs on the table and called my mom for breakfast.

I decided to be the one preparing for breakfast today since my mom received a lot of orders from her customers yesterday so she would be quite busy with her work as a tailor.

It's just a small business that she started ever since she and dad separated. Though I know it's not quite enough to cover our expenses, particularly my tuition and other school bills, so I took a part time job at Le Charme, a restaurant. I spend my 3 hours there after school and come home around 9pm.

When my mom heard about it, she scolded me of how risky it was and demanded me to quit but I never did and was still working on there.

She started becoming over protective to me ever since crime incidents increased two months ago, especially here in Aurora city.

Though I never encountered any such incidents.

The last time something happened to me was the incident two months ago.

I was nearly a victim of a robbery and thought it was the end of my life if not for the masked guy who mysteriously saved me from such unfortunate fate.

Until now, I was still curious about him.

"That smells good." Mom said as she entered the kitchen.

I smiled at her and she went to turn on the tv to watch news before joining me in the table.

"Be careful of not staining your school uniform" Mom said, reaching for the meatballs.

"Yes, mom." I responded cheerfully as I put food on my plate.

I turned to watch the tv as I eat my food. As usual, the news was all about the constant crimes happening to this country. Murders, kidnapping, robbery, rebels.

With all of those incidents that were happening, we never heard or saw any action from the Sky Castle, except for a single word "We'll do something about it", and that's from a month ago. After that, the Sky Castle became silent.

No one knows the reason why Sky Castle seemed to be abandoning its responsibilities as the country's leader. That's why the number of rebels were increasing.

But as from what I could remember, the Sky Castle had it's own crisis four months ago. The two Princesses, or what we call Keys suddenly disappeared without any traces.

Until now there's still no news about them. And that soon became crisis of the Cradle itself, our country.

Maybe that's why the Sky Castle was gradually losing its power. The disappearance of those Keys was the core of today's crisis.

And there's a rule that Sky Castle could only summon new leaders if a specific member was dead. As long as a leader was alive, they were bound to the Kingdom.

The two Keys disappeared and no one knew if they were dead or alive so the King couldn't summon a replacement yet.

Moreover, there were rumours that the Sky Castle was having other issues regarding its members, the Songs. The so called Princes of the Sky Castle.

Though we didn't know for sure what kind of issue it was, but one thing we did know was how unstable Sky Castle had become.

The Kingdom of Cradle was on the verge of collapsing if there would be no action to be done.

"Medley, honey, the more I hear about the news, the more I want you to quit your part time job. It's really not safe for you to come home at night.", Mom said, her face and voice etched with worry as she looked at me.

I just smiled at her and assured her that I was being careful with my surroundings. But we both know it wouldn't lessen her worries.

"I feel bad as a parent. Because of my incompetent I'm putting my own daughter at risk."

"What, no mom. It's me who put myself on this situation. You don't have to blame yourself mom, and I'm stronger than you know. I could beat anyone who wish to harm me, okay?" I said with a mask of assurance in my voice.

I know how risky it was to go home at night knowing all the crimes that were currently happening. But doing this part time job actually did help us with our expenses, especially at school.

I no longer ask mom for allowance and share her some of the little income I get from the restaurant instead.

So having this part time job was actually helpful for both of us.

My mom just glared at me and returned her attention to her food. I just chuckled at her expression and occupied myself as I feasted on the food on my plate.

The bell rang, signalling the end of the class. As soon as the teacher exited the classroom, my classmates started chattering as they walked out as well.

I sighed and leaned on my chair. It's lunchtime but I wasn't feeling hungry today.

"Hey, what are you doing Medley? Let's head to the cafeteria, I'm hungry. I didn't eat this morning." Diana said, who was already on her feet, frowning at me.

Diana and I were classmates here in Dumas High School ever since our junior high. And with the years that we had been always together until we turned senior year high school students, we became sort of best friends.

At first, I thought that we wouldn't get along well because of our differences in personality since Diana was a social butterfly and attractive. She had a small face and silky brown hair that fell below her shoulders and her small figure just added to her cuteness.

She could get along with anybody without putting much effort. I wasn't bad myself, but I was always lazy when it comes to entertaining people. That's why I always stick with her because she's the only one here at school whom I feel comfortable with. Yet I couldn't deny that I was also blessed with good looks, of course.

I showed her no sign of moving from my seat and she rolled her eyes. Maybe I'd just spend my lunch break taking a nap.

I opened my mouth to say my excuse but she cut me off.

"Besides, I need to talk to you about something."

I glanced at her and noticed that her face softened. I sighed and grabbed my bag before rising from my seat.

"Knew it, you'd fall for that!" She exclaimed in a high-pitched voice then laughed when she saw me glaring at her.

She stopped laughing and smiled at me, her face softened again.

"No, I really want to talk to you."

I let out a long sigh and put my hand on my face.

"You are an idiot. "

"We're the same, then." She said, chuckling and I shoot her a glare.

"Just stop talking."

We carried on with our bickerings as we headed out for the cafeteria.

Diana greeted cheerfully anyone she knew while I just smiled sheepishly at whoever noticed me.

As we were eating peacefully, Diana suddenly blurted out her thoughts.

"So, my brother and I fought."

I looked at her but she was facing down, eyes staring at her plate.

I waited her to continue so I didn't say anything.

I remembered that her brother was the only family she had right now. Her mother died in cancer when they were still young and their father went abroad for work three years ago. They were looking out for each other ever since.

Diana's brother was four years older than her and was now a college student at Henry University.

"He didn't come home last night."

Diana told me what exactly happened to her and Isaac, her brother. When her brother started going out with this girl named Cherry, who turned out to be his senior, things never went right with her brother. He always came home late, and sometimes reek of alcohol. He also spent a ridiculous amount of money for the girl.

When she met her, Cherry had an attitude. She treated Diana like a little kid and if Diana talks back, Cherry would complain about her on his brother. Shockingly, his brother would always side with her and scold Diana which upset her.

Yesterday, Diana finally confronted her brother regarding with his girlfriend but his brother got mad at her for interfering with their relationship. That's when last night her brother didn't come home.

"I don't know what to do, Medley." Diana said, teary eyed.

She's worried that her brother was really upset at her but didn't regret hating Cherry. She believed that Cherry wasn't good for her brother.

I tried comforting her but I suddenly felt a lump in my throat. I understand what she felt right now, the fear of losing her brother.

Because I once had a brother.

My brother was three years older than me. I lost him when I was just 11 years old. It all happened when my parents separated and my father took Max with him by force. I never expected that since he always hurt my brother and never cared for him.

Then one day, we heard from someone that my father had a car accident, but fortunately he survived. But when I asked about my brother, all they said was that there's no boy with him.

I never stopped crying after that, thinking that Max probably got lost or worse, dead.

After our lunch break, we headed back to our classroom and I spent the remaining time napping.

Diana sure was strong. She never showed any signs of worrying until the class ended. She kept her act of enthusiasm while she hid her real feelings deep inside. I envied her strength.

I went straight to the restaurant for my job after school. I greeted my coworkers nonchalantly as I walked to the changing room.

As soon as I was all prepared and headed out the room, I heard excited voices and checked to see what the ruckus was all about. The people's eyes were looking at one place but I couldn't see what got their attention since some of them were on their feet, huddled around the table where that certain person was seated.

"What's going on?" I said out of curiosity.

Ray, my high spirited coworker put his arm across my shoulders.

He's also working part time here and was a year ahead of me.

"My, my, Medley. It normally happens when there's a leader here."

I frowned at him in confusion. Did he just say leader? So there's from Sky Castle in here right now?

"Someone from Sky Castle?" I asked, dumbfounded.

It's actually surprising for me since we never heard of them for so long and now we had one as customer?

Looking at their faces, they show little surprise compared to mine. Maybe they already had them before a lot of times and I was only working here for a month, so that explained my stupid expression right now.

"Yep. And he's a Song."

I stared at him, dumbstruck. I never actually had any opportunity to see any member of Sky Castle this close, particularly a Song.

Songs were actually Princes that serve the King and the entire Cradle Kingdom with their beautiful and magical Melodies. Those melodies were magic from Songs which served as protection for this country of any harm or misfortunes. But ever since the Sky Castle became silent, a country dull of melody weakened that protection.

I jumped when Ray suddenly clapped his hands as gesture of reminding the crowd of their behaviour.

"Now, now, we don't want to scare away our precious guest, do we?"

Surprisingly, they returned to their seats and I took that chance to peek at him.

I gasped as I realized I was looking at a real prince. He was honestly good looking with that wavy blond hair of him that shone in the sunlight that was coming from the glass wall. His eyes twinkled as he laughed coyly with the people around him.

He's wearing a fancy suit that made him looked more attractive. Watching him laughing innocently like that felt like looking at a prince from a fairy tale. Like there was this light around him that made his whole existence shining.

"So this is how looking at a Song this close." I muttered and Ray glanced at me, grinning.

"Oh I see, this is your first time having one as a customer, eh?"

I just nodded, still distracted by the presence of the Song when Ray continued.

"He's the First Song, by the way. Thought you might want to know."

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