As one of the Royal family members, contrary to his brother who loves all the attention on him, Prince Theo prefers to be obscured from public eyes.
While riding the white horse, he could discern each gaze in the crowds looking at him as if he was a weirdo.
The gazes toward him were mostly filled with incredulity. If not because he had the same hair color as his siblings, people might assume he wasn't a royal descendant at all.
He was already used to such gazes. Unknowingly he turned and searched for the only person who treated him normally since the first time they met. From the stage, he saw the red hair youth looking around the crowd.
'This is his first time attending this kind of event right? He might felt curious despite always seeming aloof and all-knowing' Prince Theo thought.
The emperor, his father was giving a speech, and unexpected things happened. A bunch of terrorists suddenly appeared and attack the citizens on the plaza.
Prince Theo didn't focus much on his family members as he knew they were well protected. From above the stage, he could see the venue more clearly and he saw flashes of defensive shields being conjured on the different parts of the crowds protecting them from the attacks.
Those terrorists were quickly apprehended.
{Master, Ares seems to be unlucky today as well}
Prince Theo turned his head after hearing his elemental's remark.
A weird-looking mage that suddenly appeared was chasing after Ares while throwing spells toward him indiscriminately. Fortunately, Ares seemed to be wearing a defensive artifact thus he was able to parry the attack barehanded.
Surprisingly a moment later, Ares suddenly sprinted in a direction while a group of people seemed to focus on him.
'The Shadows'
After the two bombs exploded, instead of evacuating, Ares was just standing still with dozens of weapons floating around him as if ready to attack anyone that dare to move.
Everyone stood still looking at the intimidating scene in front of him while the Shadows squad quickly cleared the remaining terrorists.
Not long after that, Ares suddenly vanished leaving behind all the weapons falling on the ground.
"As usual, he is always interesting" Prince Theo muttered watching the scene as if watching a movie.
Until the end, Prince Theo didn't even move a finger.
{Master, don't you think he is weird}
"How?"
{He seemed to be able to react accordingly fast to any unexpected situation as if...}
"He knows the future?" Prince Theo interrupted his elemental.
{Yes. The ability to know about the future is something that even God doesn't have let alone mere humans}
"What if it was a special ability being blessed to his ancestors in the past. Zanuki is one of the ancient family still survive until now"
Currently, it was only the two of them inside the underground room filled with books that looked ancient.
{That is a God-like ability. For what reason human could be blessed with that kind of ability?}
His elemental retorted. Elemental always looked down on humans who they deemed weak. The only reason he contracted with Prince Theo was that one of his elders said Prince Theo was an interesting fellow.
"You're not God so how could you guess what a God was thinking?"
Prince Theo knew his elemental didn't like humans too much thus the way he talked sounded condescending.
Currently, they were looking through the royal records of any God-like ability that have appeared in the past. They wanted to see whether there was any record about a Foresight ability.
{Here master. It seems similar to Foresight}
=======Prophecy=======
Able to look into the future but it was hard to pinpoint the exact time of the event. Only appear in a fragmanted-like scene and was hard to control.
====================
This means it was an ability that might cause disaster if the wielder decipher what he saw incorrectly. It was a double edge ability. Far worse than Foresight.
"It also recorded Foresight as the upgraded version of Prophecy but it was deemed to be a myth since even Prophecy is hard to use let alone upgrading it" Prince Theo commented while reading the information that only contained a few sentences.
=======Foresight=======
Upgraded version of 'Prophecy'.
Could pinpoint clearly the timeline of certain future events. Could help in making better decisions.
====================
{Master, this kind of ability isn't like the sealing technique or taming technique which could be inherited throughout their bloodline descendants.}
"So you want to say Ares's have actually just had a similar ability like Prophecy and Foresight? Should I just ask him? Maybe if he is in a good mood, he might even tell me willingly"
{Isn't the Tadraz family able to see in the future too? There was a record of one of their ancestor being able to do that}
Tadraz family.
A family as ancient as the Zanuki. One of the clans that helped Hargan's first emperor in establishing a country. Having the eyes that could see through humans' mana flow, enabling them to halt and disable their enemies' movement using their clan martial arts.
Their eyes are also capable of predicting incoming attacks and seeing if someone is lying based on their heartbeats.
It was recorded that one of the ancestors developed a third eye capable of seeing into the future.
However, that record was from a few hundred years ago. The authenticity has never been proven.
"Isn't it great if Ares really has the ability to see the future? The Zanuki is capable enough to handle most of the things like the terror incident today."
{Ares's temperament is chaotic neutral. He might just let an incident happen if he felt like it.}
A chaotic neutral character is an individualist who follows their own heart and generally shirks rules and traditions. Although chaotic neutral characters promote the ideals of freedom, it is their own freedom that comes first; good and evil come second to their need to be free.
"As long as someone's he care involved, he will eventually have to step in right? If I'm involved, he can't just turn a blind eye on me, right?"
{You're so confident that Ares cared that much about you}
"Yes because we're best friends"
{Don't say things you didn't mean}
Both of them knew, that the 'best friend' relationship didn't have any basis. They just treat each other slightly better than strangers.
Both seemed to keep many secrets from each other and even though curious, none of them seem to want to talk about it since they didn't feel the need to do that.
"Hey, should I ask teacher?" Prince Theo suddenly remembered his teacher who was the one teaching him black magic.
{Oh she might know something}
******************
In Yaro Town, Kiba Clan Territory
Both Cedric and Shino were bedridden but Shino's condition was slightly better due to the unknown one-time use defensive tool which looked like an ordinary Lily flower he randomly bought.
The time when Shino bought that seemingly ordinary flower, Cedric didn't bother to appraise it but once he saw a sudden defensive shield come out of nowhere appeared in front of Shino who was almost stabbed by a terrorist, Cedric quickly appraised it.
==One-Time Use Defensive Tool==
Grade: N/A
° Can conjure a one-time defensive shield after sensing danger coming towards the holder.
°Created by Ares Zanuki and Kara Zanuki
==================
"Urghhh I already felt that it was better to just stay at home. Now, look at us" Shino grumbled dissatisfied while munching on the doughnuts in front of him.
Cedric who was stabbed and have to be dragged by Shino to safety didn't say anything.
"Hey I'm not blaming you or anything ok but what the hell are those Royal Corps doing; letting terrorists easily slip through like that?"
"Because there might be a mole" Shizui Kiba who rarely home replied.
The three of them currently were inside Cedric's room and it was already common for them who spend time together since childhood.
"Tskk then shouldn't they quickly clean up those useless suspicious-looking officials"
"Aren't you watching the news, dummy? Don't you see how the Royal family has to get help from the always indifferent Zanuki to appease the citizens" Shizui explained to his only younger brother.
"It means the situation is more complicated than it looks" Cedric commented.
"Yes. It seems our Ceddie has become sharper than certain someone who is still a dummy"
"Hey what do you mean by that?" Shino felt insulted but he couldn't retort properly since it was his own brother who said that.
"What?" Shizui acted ignorant.
While Shizui and Shino were bickering, Cedric was thinking of something else.
Shino said he bought the flower-shaped tool from a young lady selling flowers around the plaza. That itself wasn't suspicious.
But after he saw the creators of the artifact, he immediately felt the incident might just be the start of something.
The Zanuki
They seemed to know something that even the Royal didn't know.
If the Royal family knew there would be a terror attack including bombs, they might cancel the event immediately.
Maybe they purposely didn't inform the Royals to lure the perpetrators out of the hole or at least caught a few unlucky chess pieces used by the perpetrator.
"By the way Cedric, the emperor wanted to personally reward those who helped protect the citizens during the terror incident" Shizui informed him.
"Will Ares also be there?" Cedric asked.
"No. He didn't attend the reward ceremony and only his butler appeared. It was said he felt a bit sick after the event."
The reward ceremony was divided into two, for the nobles and the commoners. The nobles have already been rewarded and the commoners were a bit delayed due to the protests all over the country.
"You don't have to go to the palace. We will ask your reward to be sent here" Shino suggested.
"Oh sure"
"If you want to meet with your friend, wait until school started. The royals and Zanuki will be busy this time around" Shizui advised Cedric since he knew Cedric was once personally invited to Kazigare Valley.
Not everyone could go there even the Kiba Patriarch or the Emperor. They needed permission from the Zanuki matriarch and also former matriarch to be able to enter Kazigare Valley.
Cedric managed to enter that place because the official heir of Zanuki invited him.
As fellow official heir of their family, Shizui admired Zerisa for her mature temperament and insight on certain things especially the new business venture that she handled, that already raked hundred of thousands of profits within just one month.
"By the way Ceddie, I'm not scaring you but please be wary of Ares and Prince Theo," Shizui said calmly.
"Eh why bro?" Shino asked curiously.
Unlike Shizui who was honed to be the heir, Shino lack the sharp sense to see people beyond their outer appearance.
Shizui only met Ares once, during the Royal dinner. They coincidentally went out of the hall at the same time and even their chauffeurs parked their cars side by side.
He didn't think of greeting him thus he just glanced at him slightly.
However, he was startled to see the cold eyes looking at him. Fortunately, it was only a mere second.
Through that slight encounter, Shizui immediately knew Ares was a wolf in sheep's clothing. Someone like that having a close relationship with the second prince instead of the crown prince, only meant the second prince also the same type of people.
The same birds always flock together.
As a commoner, it would be disastrous if Cedric unknowingly stepped into these two big landmines.
For Shizui, both Shino and Cedric still don't have a sense of danger from people. Like normal hot-blooded youths their age, they might act recklessly sometimes.
"Just follow my advice and you will know" Shizui didn't intend to explain since it was better for them to realize it themselves.
Unlike Shino who grumbled disastisfiedly with Shizui's lack of explaination, Cedric took his advice seriously.
After a few days, Cedric's injuries already healed due to his holy power and self-healing ability. The Kiba's expensive potions also helped his recovery.
Today, Cedric has a meeting with a person that he met during the chaos of the terror incident. The one who said wanting to take him as a disciple.
"Sir" Cedric greeted the old man that looked like a wandering Taoist in front of him.
Currently, they were in front of a hidden dungeon in the Kiba territory. Weird enough the dungeon was never discovered because even though it wasn't regularly cleared, there wasn't any dungeon break occurred.
"How's your body?"
"My body is already fine but what are we doing here?" Cedric asked.
"You want to be strong right?"
"Yes"
In order to avenge his clan, Cedric needed to be strong, so that he could stand at the peak of the world.
"So this is a test for you. If you managed to get the inheritance in this cave, I will personally carve you to be the strongest"
"Why didn't you take the inheritance yourself?"
"My responsibility is finding a person capable of taking the inheritance thus that's why I couldn't take it even if I wanted to" the old man explained with a benign smile on his wrinkled face.
Cedric was still skeptical but he couldn't think of any reason why the old man needed to lie to him. He was an orphan and didn't have much wealth on his name other than what he got from the mercenary work he did.
After contemplating for a bit, Cedric decided to go with the flow and take the inheritance.
After the blond youth disappear, the old man's benign smile was gone and his face looked cold.
"The last descendent of the Hellios clan. Didn't expect their descendants to manage to survive until now. It's better if he's trapped inside"
The old man then vanished from the place without leaving a trace.
He accidentally met Cedric during the chaos of the terror incident and sense something familiar from him. Cedric never been in his plan but he thought he could just dealt with him along the way.