Due to his nomadic lifestyle in the past few years, Du Wei barely had any encounters with the children's of the other noble houses. For this reason, he did not even have a single close friend around his age, which is very strange because every child like him would have at least one close friend they can confide in.
Ignoring the lack of association with the nobility of the capital, isn't the prince in front of Du Wei a bit too young considering the age of the current emperor?
At 75 years of age, the reign of the current emperor can even be considered glorious by current standards. In the past decades, the empire had more than once set out on expeditions throughout the maritime sea. Though at first the conquest against the nomadic tribes hailed large amounts of riches, but as time went by, the amount of loot started to thin and the army expenses far exceeded the profits.
Standing in front of Du Wei right now is in fact the younger of the two princes of the empire. Other than the Prince Son in front of him, the emperor also had another older son. At age 52, this older prince was originally designated as the Crown Prince because he was the eldest amongst all of the emperor's children. However, after giving birth to nine daughters in a row without any other male heir, the current emperor actually sent some of his concubines to death. It was only at age 50 did the emperor finally conceives another male prince, thus, creating an odd age gap among the two princes.
Unlike the rest of the royal household, this Prince Son refused to learn the unique Dou Qi martial skill of the Augustine Royal Household; instead, this youngster is more interested in magic than anything else. As the beloved son of the emperor, he was given complete freedom in his choice and even had a Grand court Mage act as his teacher!
From rumors, it was even said that the old emperor had the intent of changing the Crown prince title to Son a couple of years ago on his 70th birthday. Of course, this proposition was quickly knocked down by the opposition of the ministers…..
Without knowing any of this information, Du Wei remained blind to the origin of this young prince. Luckily, Du Wei is a person of fast response. After listening to the introduction of the person in front of him, Du Wei immediately bowed slightly and performed a standard nobility style salute. However, this prince did something out of his expectation. With a slight smile, this person reached out a hand and caught him before he could make a complete bow: "You don't need to be so courteous, Sir Du Wei….. Don't forget, you are a magic scholar. Mages don't need to salute a noble, this includes the royalty."
To be able to see a prince inside the magic union has caused some doubt inside Du Wei. Within the empire, the three main forces of power is the Royal Household, Temple, and the Magic Union. Unless something extraordinary happens, these three forces normally wouldn't come in contact.
Seemingly unaware of Du Wei's doubt, this Prince Son gently smiled at him and even grasped onto his shoulder: "Sir Du Wei, I've been very curious about you for a while. Originally, I only heard about Gabri of the Rowling Household being a genius. Yet now people are constantly mentioning your name around me. To be able to meet you here today is my pleasure. I don't know if you would honor me by having dinner with me?"
EH?
Du Wei carefully eyed the stranger in front of him.
"Oh, please forgive me for such a sudden invite." Prince Son's smile remained as gentle as before as he said this. In truth, such a manner of inviting someone face to face among the noble class is quite unheard of. Normally, it would require at least one day of notice for a simple tea party. Without losing any of his grace, the prince continued to apologize in his spring warming smile: "Since little, I only had an interest in the field of magic and you are the only mage from noble birth inside the capital."
Such a persistent invitation from a prince is hard to refuse. Thinking it over for a moment, Du Wei smiled and said: "It's my honor."
Side by side, the two walked out of the Magic Union and came up to the already waiting Captain Alpha. With only one look, this Alpha character's face turned extremely ugly, but that was only for a second before he recovered from his initial shock.
"Oh, Sir Alpha." Prince Son seemed a bit surprised: "To be seeing you here…. Could it be that you personally escorted Du Wei when he came here? Recently, I seldom see you come out."
After a pause, Prince Son laughed softly: "I'm going to spend some more time talking with Du Wei, so I would like to ask you to go back and tell the count."
Unable to say anything, Alpha just nodded.
Although Du Wei didn't have a firm grasp of the capital's situation, but from Alpha's expression, he can tell the captain was very afraid of this Prince next to him.
Practically without any noise, two extremely well adorned carriages slowly came up to the two. From appearances, the carriages actually had a layer of gold painted on top of the regular materials. To top it off, there are even precious jewels inserted on top of the Thorn Flower Symbol imprinted onto the door.
With a quick assessment, Du Wei noticed the horses used to draw the carriages were top breeds that won't even lose out to the war horses of the Rowling Household. Isn't it a bit too wasteful to have such valuable horses drawing carriages? But what really left Du Wei bewildered is the magic crystals imbedded onto the sides of the carriages. From his observation, these magic crystals are infused with some type of miniature wind spell!
The miraculous thing about this wind spell lies in the way it is designed. With it, the carriage will not only move faster, it will also feel less rough when moving.
At the same time, the design of the carriage is the most popular style in recent months. Ignoring all the valuable accessories, just the design of the carriage should be enough to overwhelm all of Du Wei's assets!
Luxurious! Just too luxurious!
Of course, Du Wei didn't know this. The carriages in front of him are actually personally made by some famous sculptor inside the capital. Just the commission fee is in the tens of thousands of gold coins!
Unknown to Du Wei when this happened, around four men suddenly appeared near the area around the prince. Wearing red colored robes like that of a mage, each of these individuals had the Thorn Flower symbol etched onto the back of their robe.
Court Mages?
Du Wei immediately thought of the rumored team of Mages only under the control of the royal household. From the era of Aragon, this special team of Mages only answers to the royal family and will only pass on their knowledge down their bloodline. There's no doubt, these four men are Court Mages! With very cold eyes, their sights were randomly sweeping the area for any form of danger.
"Your highness, please enter the carriage."
With a deep voice, these words came from the carriage driver sitting in the front. With a tall build, this guy had a pair of unwavering eyes that extruded power! As much as this person tried to hide his strong presence, Du Wei is certain this guy is not your average person from his demeanor. If he had to take a guess, this driver must be a martial art expert from the court!
Sure enough, Alpha suddenly smiled when he saw the driver's face: "Sir Chick, when did you become a driver?"
This driver is obviously an old acquaintance of Alpha. With a cold glance at Alpha, this Chick spoke in a light tone: "I made a mistake and his highness is punishing me by making me his driver for a month. It's been a long time Sir Alpha; thinking about it, the time since the last big tournament is already two years ago, wasn't it?"
As the eyes of the two crossed each other, it seemed like a series of sparks flew in the air!
It would seem the two warriors hold some kind of grudge against each other.
Du Wei inwardly thought all of this.
The atmosphere right now seemed to be frozen, but Prince Son stepped in at just the right time: "Well then, the time is getting late. Sir Du Wei, please get on the carriage."
It is then that Chick fella retracted his gaze as he lowered his head without saying another word.
Du Wei secretly frowned. With Prince Son inside the carriage, Du Wei took a look back at Captain Alpha and saw a hint of fear flashed across his eyes!
Back at the Earls mansion.
Inside Earl Raymond's study room.
"His highness Son really appeared at the magic union? And he took Du Wei away with him?" The Earl frowned, his eyes filled with gloom.
"Yes." Alpha nods: "I suspect this meeting is not by accident….. And I also saw that Chick fella actually acted as his highness's horse driver."
"Chick? Horse driver?" The count smiled: "That Court fighter that fought you to a standstill at the competition two years ago? Ha-ha... His highness laid dormant for so many years, now he is finally showing his fangs eh?"
Alpha shook his head: "Lord Earl, I am worried about one thing… … Chick is a Warrior of the court and a part of the inner Palace! The inner court is a mysterious force of the Royal family! Now it seems Chick is actually serving Prince Son… … I'm afraid, I'm afraid his majesty is foolish enough to hand over the control of the inner court to Prince Son.,,,,,,"
"This matter is of course bad for us." Earl Raymond sighed. For a moment, he seemed to have aged even more. With a shook of his head, he bitterly said: "Prince Son had always been wiser than the Crown Prince... Growing up under the court Magicians, he already had a good relationship with that group. Now, he even want to pull in the magic union to his side…. If he even has the inner court under his wing, the situation with the Crown Prince is reaching a critical point…."
"I think this situation is bad for us." Alpha shook his head: "The key is… … Prince Son took Master Du Wei away…. If his highness finds out about this, what would he think? Before Master Du Wei could even make it back to the capital, he had already tied himself up with the Magic Union…. Now he even matched up with his highness Son…. I fear this situation will become difficult for you."
Earl Raymond stood up. Straightening his back, his stalwart figure seemed to have renewed back to the time when he was the hero leading the fleet out into battle!
"Humph! It does not matter what his highness thinks. Although he has a lot of chips under his hand right now, but there are only a few that can play a key role in the end! If not for the support of the Rowling Household, what force does he have to go against Prince Son? Now, the only ones willing to stand by his side is us, the rest is only watching from the sideline. Without us, he can't even mobilize a single soldier!"
Alpha nodded, his face also revealed a slightly relieved face. But then, this faithful bodyguard whispered: "I'm not worried about the Crown Prince side now, but the thing that causes the most headaches is his majesties side! Recently, his majesty continued to remain quiet and continued to allow his two sons openly go at it. My lord, you need to be careful. I fear that his majesty will do something….. After all, traditionally, each generation of emperor will suppress certain ministers to pave the road for the next emperor so that he will have a smooth time." Earl Raymond's hand remained on the table as he listened to Alpha's word: "So be it, this is an ancient practice. As long as we can through this hurdle, the Crown Prince will have to rely on us! Humph…. Moreover, if his majesty really wants to make an example of the Rowling Household, he will have to see if he can handle it!"
With that, Raymond suddenly beat his fist on the table. With a faint flash of golden light, the table suddenly broke into two pieces and came crashing down to the floor!
Outside the capital, two carriages were gradually moving through the paved roads.
Facing Du Wei's wonderment, Prince Son laughed as he spoke: "What fun is left in the capital? With all those spies from different powers watching us…. What fun is there? Sir Du Wei, I'll take you to a very interesting place. I think you will like it."
Following the policy of saying less to avoid mistakes, Du Wei only nodded without answering.
"Oh, right." Prince Son suddenly seemed to think of something. Seeing Du Wei, Prince Son smiled: "I hear back in your Rowling Plains, you came up with something called the Hot air Balloon, right?" With that said, the prince looked thoughtful for a moment as he started at Du Wei. With a gentle tone, he continued: "That's a good thing! If you used it to transport troops, not only is it quiet and fast, the enemy would not even detect it till it's too late! No matter how good the army defense is, it cannot guard against the sky!"
Du Wei's went numb! Secretly transport troops into the capital? Such suppressing words! This Prince is punishing him with such words, why is that?
Du Wei thought for a moment and smiled: "Your highness, it's only a small play thing. The number of hot air balloons in my hand only numbers around 10, and the production method is very troubling. It's fine if used to transport some small things, but to transport a couple of thousand troops? That's out of the question considering the weight of the soldier's armor and weapons. The limit is just too high to use it for such a thing."
"Oh..."
Prince Son seemed to have inadvertently nodded, and then turning away, he started to look out the window at the moving scenery.
The capital is located on the central plains of the continent. Now that the day is nearing the evening, the setting sun has dyed the landscape in a thick layer of red…..
Suddenly, Prince Son turned around and peered at Du Wei:
"If… … I want you to help me ship something? For example… … A person?"
Du Wei's heart was in overdrive from fear… …