"Sir, do forgive my... rudeness, but I feel it is completely unwise to be leaving the city with a bunch of vagabond want to be heroes."

"Your concern is noted. Why do you think I'm bringing you along?" A smirk tugged at the cheek of the burly man in his white armor as he leaned slightly on his shield. 

They were meeting their group of recruits in the front gardens within the castle gates, still surrounded by his guards and the safety that was his home. Esmeralda insisted she was coming down, she wasn't about to let him leave without seeing his companions. And he wasn't going to make her go all the way down in to the actual city just to do that much. 

"Your attempt at humor never works on me, you realize this?" his blonde knight captain sighed, closing her eyes as she shook her head, tapping her own shield on the ground.

"You can't blame me for trying. Look, most of the people who are going to be here are going to have an agenda to further their family names in some form another, and none of them would do that if I were to die on the way because everyone would be suspect and all assumed to be lying and Esmeralda would probably have them all killed," he said as he looked over his shoulder as said Empress made her way out of the front gates.

"I won't mention to her that you just depicted her to be quite the blood thirsty monster," the blonde muttered before turning and looking at the currently open gates, waiting to see when their new "companions" would start to arrive. She had no doubt that they would have some sort of an agenda, even if they didn't realize it at first. Why else would they go in to a part of the empire that was plagued and overrun by vicious monsters? Then again they could just be crazy.

"Ah good, I got here before they did. So I won't miss a thing," Esmeralda said as she stood next to Balan, crossing her arms behind her back, her white gown, dragging on the ground lightly, much to her maids dismay the blonde was sure.

"Aww, it's like you're trying to match with me," Balan teased her seeing that she was wearing white and just laughed lightly at the less than amused look that both women gave him.