I said my last goodbyes and stepped into the portal. I heard Maria crying harder as I went inside. I came into a lighted room. It looked almost the same with all the vines. I came out of a tree portal. There were only two people that were there to meet me. The king of Flores. I bowed my head in respect as soon as I saw him. I looked at Hermon. He grew taller and skinnier. I wonder how I look.
"There is a carriage waiting for you. You haven't told your parents that you were coming, did you?"
"No, I wanted to give them a little surprise." I wanted to make it a huge surprise since they had been constantly asking me when I was coming.
"I bet you got stronger since the last time I met you. I heard they made the princes start learning swordsmanship at the age of five or six." I remembered Cleo back when I was three. I think he was six then. Eron was one year older than Cleo. I guess Eron started early too.
"I started to learn there when I was four." If I had said three that would be weird, but I guess four wasn't any better. We walked out of the room as we talked more. Hermon was quite quiet and was listening to our conversation.
"You keep up quite a conversation with me, even though you are only seven. I even brought up politics, but you continued on as if it was nothing." I was too immersed in the conversation that I didn't notice how far I spoke. It just came naturally to me.
"They also made me study politics when I was there. I learned quite a lot." I wonder if my lie made sense from a seven-year-old. Of course, I knew politics from my last life, but how was I supposed to explain that to him.
"They must have made you work hard since you know it so well." Good! He bought it.
"They didn't really force me. I liked learning politics, to be honest." King Tyson laughed out loud. "What is it?"
"I never heard of a child that liked politics." I rubbed my head in embarrassment. "Anyway, get into the carriage. I'm pretty sure Jake and Valerie would look forward to it. I wish I could come, but I have a lot of work." I went into the carriage as he said. I waved goodbye as the carriage started to move forward.
I was enjoying the scenery on the ride like last time. I do not know why but I always like to see children playing or people in a rush to do something, even in the past. It helped me feel closer to them and find out what the current problem was. My ministers hated when I made rash decisions, but eventually, it turned out good for the people. I watched as one of the kids that were playing fell down and started crying because her scraped knee was bleeding.
I felt the carriage was too slow, even though it was going as fast as it could. As time slowly went by, we entered a mansion with a lot of soldiers walking around. The mansion wasn't as big as Albert and Maria, but it was big. The carriage went inside the gates and headed towards the mansion, but I wanted to stop here.
"Stop the carriage. I want to go in by myself, so I could go there and surprise them. They might see the carriage and see me too. " The carriage stopped as I asked it to. I opened the door and got off. I remembered the days that I couldn't get off the carriage by myself. I chuckled in the process. I went over to the horseman. "You can go back to the castle." The man bowed deeply and left.
I started walking towards the mansion, but I was soon stopped by soldiers that held their swords at my neck. Some of the soldiers scooted over to give way to another soldier. I guess this must be the captain. I wonder what worked as right now to get guards protecting them. I moved forward until one of the swords touched my neck.
"I'm Alexander Covington, the second son of Jake Covington and Valerie Covington. I'm the younger brother of Arthur Covington. I came from the Kingdom of Bisea to meet my parents. So are you still going to block my way?" I glared at them, releasing some of my bloodlust. Some of the soldiers took a step back. I could see the soldiers in front started shivering. "Take me to my parents!"
I calmed down and raised an eyebrow at the captain of the group. There was sweat dripping down his face and he still looked terrified. Did I go over a bit? He cleared his throat and stood up straighter.
"I will take you to the master, but if you try anything I will not hesitate to kill you." Says the man who looked terrified of me a second ago. He turned to the soldiers. "Five of you are coming with me." Wasn't that a bit of an overkill? They stepped their foot and slammed a fist into their chest, making a loud noise. They started walking me to the mansion. They still had their swords around a seven year old child. The captain went to the door and was about to knock the door until I stopped him.
"I want to knock on the door myself." The captain looked back at me and scoffed. He knocked on the door. He was definitely getting on my nerves. Does he usually treat every guest this way? If so, then I needed to get rid of him. What if people come here if they need help? He was also getting carried away. I like how he tries to protect us and is suspicious, but he lacks a lot of things like observing the situation and making critical decisions.
The door opened up to reveal an old maid. She had glasses and looked quite fragile, but I could tell she was still energetic from her eyes. I liked her.
"Can you take us to Master Jake or Mistress Valerie?"
"Master Jake is too busy from doing work and he told not to disturb him. I can take you to Mistress Valerie. She is in the garden with young miss and young master. They are having their snack time."
"Then take me to mom." The maid looked at me and observed me from head to toe.
"Yes." I liked her a lot already. She led us to the back of the mansion and through a door. The garden was beautiful. The sun shined through the glass walls and roof, which made the plants in the room bright green. There were small vines going up all the way to the roof. There were many flowers that were beautifully grown and cut. I could tell it was well taken care of. There was a small pond with fishes inside on the right side of the garden. In the center of the garden, I saw two familiar faces and an unfamiliar one. The older kid was running after the younger one with a plate and spoon in his hands. He was probably trying to feed the little girl. She looked around three or four years old. She was laughing and having, so was the older kid who looked like he was twelve years old.
The woman was sitting on a chair, near a table full of sweets. She was laughing at the failed attempts of the older kid. She looked just like she did seven years ago. My tears blurred my vision of her. I walked faster towards her, but I was stopped by a sword at my throat. I was angry but overwhelmed with happiness. I turned to the older version of Arthur. He almost looked the same, but he lost all his baby fat and looked more fit. Could the girl be my little sister that mom was pregnant with? I turned to mom.
"Mom!" I yelled with a little hiccup in the end.