"The Keeper" is a science fiction short story by American writer H. Beam Piper.
The old men speak of a time many years ago when hundreds of starships were visible in the nighttime sky, but now the world is old, poor and forgotten.
Raud the Keeper is surprised one day when a local man named Vahr Farg’s son brings two men from another world to his home.
After the men from the stars leave, however, Vahr returns with three people from the south, and steals the crown.
After a heroic adventure, Raud takes the crown, and goes off to meet the men from the stars, whom he now learns are actually princes of the Empire.