"Y-you're back right?"
"Yes— father," Ernesto's mouth slowly moved as he talked, but his dead body was still the same, pale and cold.
"Oh god! Oh god! Thank goodness! My son!" Jose Oliva shakenly cried out loudly while caressing his son's lifeless body. He doesn't care if his son's body is still cold and motionless. The important thing is that his son is back.
"please- move- me- in a more- comfortable—bed." Ernesto talked to his father in a very slow manner. His voice sounded like he had a cold.
"wh-what in the world is happening?" The second prince blurted out as he witnessed a miracle.
"Damian!" The Marquis shouted, and the butler instantly understood what the marquis wanted. "I-I prepare the young master's room!" Then he hurriedly walked out of the hall.
Jose Oliva picked up his son's body off the coffin and carried him while still crying.
"Father, stop— crying" he drawled.
"H-how can I? Your prank is too much!" The marquis could feel the body of his child starting to become warm. Ernesto's heart begins to pump blood normally again, and his blood gives life to his pale skin and face.
The Marquis wanted Ernesto to be comfortable, so he walked really fast as he continued to carry his child on the way to his room. The second prince and Lucas also follow behind.
Upon arriving at Ernesto's room, the child asked for Ndulou's whereabouts. Jose Oliva instantly gazed at the three, telling them not to tell him what happened.
"He is at home, son," the marquis lied.
"At– the—baron's —house?"
"Yes"
Damian changed Ernesto's clothes into his comfortable pajamas. The child is much livelier now than in his previous lifeless body, but his eyes were still closed and only his mouth had the slight energy to move and talk.
"can —you —call —him —over?" The child innocently asked.
"Maybe after your strength is back," Marquis Oliva grabbed the wet towel that Damian was preparing. He lightly removed the makeup that was applied to his child's face to cover up his wounds and bluish lips.
"Are my —wounds —disgusting?"
"Not all," he bitterly answered.
"don't —worry —father —I'll heal —them —after —my —mana —is —back." José also wiped his son's mouth, who had not fully controlled his own body and was salivating while talking sluggishly, "Damian already called the healer. Wait for a little while and you'll be fine."
"no — let-me-heal-by-myself... don't— let —anyone — come —close ‐to me"
José didn't want to give his son a hard time, so he held himself back from asking more questions.
"Okay, rest well. Don't push yourself too much. focus only to yourself"
It's a way of the Marquis saying that Ernesto should stop thinking about Ndulou. For the meantime, he is recovering.
Lucas badly wanted to ask for help — Ernesto's help to be specific, but after seeing the state Ernesto was in, he hesitated and chose to be silent.
He and the second prince left the room, leaving the Marquis to have more time with his son.
"Lucas, right?" The second prince opened a conversation with him while he ended up in charge of assisting the prince back to his room.
"Yes, your highness."
"How come a servant knows how to teleport?"
"Ah, I am an earth spirit caster, your highness, and I am a spiritual slave of master Ndulou."
A spirit caster is a human possessed by a spirit. Upon possession, they gain superhuman powers, knowledge, and high skills. It all depends on the power and knowledge of the spirit as to what kind of power you will receive.
Spiritual Slaves, or Spirit Bestowed Slaves, were spirit casters who chose their master to serve. It's the same as a knight giving their oath of loyalty.
Of course, this is all just his front. He is the spirit himself.
"Wh— the missing child your master? Why?" The second prince's questions were quite rude, but it's obvious that everyone will be confused about why a superhuman being is serving a weak and powerless master. Most of the existing spirit casters serve a king or a duke.
Lucas stopped leading the second prince and asked himself, "You're right, your highness!" He then faced the second prince, asking, "Why am I so into serving him?"
Though he is facing the second prince, the question is directed at himself.
Originally, his plan was to stay at the two children's sides until he gathered enough magma supply to supplement his life. He didn't wish for a very long life, but he wished to gather enough supplies to help him through a life of the same length as a human. He plans to leave the real Lucas's body once he achieves his goal. He wonders when he started to act as a real servant to Ndulou. He is questioning himself now.
"Why ask me?" For a moment, Prince Felip was confused, but eventually concluded that the fifteen-year-old baron child might be a very unique individual with some unique characteristics that led to the protection of the Marquis and a strong spiritual slave. It's just unfortunate that he could never meet the intriguing child.
"Ah, ehem! I apologize, your highness. " Lucas starts to walk again. "Anyway, your highness, it would be quite rude to ask, but why are you looking for my master?"
"The Marquis's son requests that I protect the child," the prince bluntly replied.
Then Lucas stopped walking once more. "Then you promised young master Ernesto to protect my master?"
"Yes"
"Then can you help me look for him?" Lucas' eyes sparkled and he clasped the hand of the prince. Felip instantly escaped the hands of Lucas and fixed his collar.
"Why look for him? He is probably dead." Lucas's face turned gloomy again, and he looked at the prince intensely.
"He is not dead yet"
"How sure are you?"
"My slave contract with him is still here." He pounded his chest, "But I really cannot tell if he is on the verge of death or not, but as long as our contract is here, this means he is still alive."
Felip messed up his hair that was hanging in his face. He curled his eyebrows and thought for a moment.
"I cannot send you a human search and rescue team because they will surely die, but..." he walked closer to Lucas and whispered, "I will lend you my secret team. Make sure you zip your mouth." Lucas nodded his head and they walked silently back to the prince's room.
"When will your search team come?" Lucas impatiently asked. Prince Felip told him that he would lend his team, but they went back to his room, and the prince started to write something in his book.
"They will be here in a minute." Prince Felip finished what he was writing and started to cast a summoning spell.
After a moment, three unique beings start to appear from being transparent.
"Second prince, are you worse than the crown prince?" Lucas suddenly feared the king's children.
The crown prince murders and uses living beings as test subjects, and now he learns that the second prince has similar activities [is it the royals that have the tendency to become vicious and brutal?] He thought as he looked at the mutant looking beings.
"Who is this rude servant, prince?" As the summoned mutant lady asked, Lucas observed all of them.
One with a bull's head, the other with a human body and roaster feet.
The second is with a fish-scaled human face, sharp teeth similar to sharks' and bright, glossy blue skin.
Lastly, with a human head but covered in black feathers, her arms can be considered as wings.
"Help this man find a child." The second prince effortlessly ordered the three intimidating beings.
"Huh? We just got to look for a child?" The bull's head asked
"Isn't this too easy?" The fish-looking guy added.
"The location is Mayon"
"Mayon? the Dragon's lair?" The lady raven seriously asked, while the two boys did a fist bump with excitement.
"Okay, That's awesome!"
"Time for adventure!"
Lucas frowned upon seeing this. "Will they really help?" he asked the prince with concern.
"They are useful; you leave the searching to them."
Lucas has no right to complain, so he accepts the three weird mutant beings and doesn't dare ask how and why they look like that.
He used a teleportation spell to transport them to a random location within Mount Mayon.He didn't know where to look first for the search, so the fish-looking mutant guy suggested just randomly teleporting them inside the mountain.
"Wow! Are we late?" The bullhead guy stated that the image of a destroyed forest welcomes them.
It seems that the forest experienced extreme calamity. The majority of the trees are burned and some are broken down. The cliffs and boulders are turned into dust, and the animals are nowhere to be found. It may mean that they are still hiding from the dangers of the fight.
The Raven Lady flew up into the sky and looked around the mountain.
"3/4 of the mountain is destroyed" She reported as she landed back to them, "The base of the mountain is unscathed; the body of the mountain is the most destroyed, while the crater has the sign of lava erupting."
"Lava? and almost the entire forest is destroyed? Did the dragon do it?" Lucas asked as he started to walk and look for his master's trace.
"Why would he destroy his own lair?" the lady raven answered him while she crossed her feathered arms.
"Right, it looks like someone had a fight here," the bull head commented, and the fish-looking guy is consistently excited. "Oooh that's extreme"
"Well, does it matter? Slaying the dragon is not our goal"
"I bet that child is dead already," the fish-looking guy said, reflexively avoiding a rock that was thrown at him by Lucas. "Can't you just help?"
Lucas starts to lose his patience because of the two weird energetic mutants with whom he is dealing.
"Yes sir, 15-year old skinny child with rose gold hair," the fish-looking guy repeatedly chanted while they were searching around.
It would be better if they spread out and searched in different locations. That would be effective if only this mountain wasn't owned by a dragon. They cannot fight the dragon alone, so they need to stick together while searching.
one hour....
two hours...
Five hours had passed and the sun was already gone, but they were not yet done searching the middle part of the mountain.
"Damn! This mountain is too wide!" the bull head complained.
"Yeah right, when are we s-"
"Shh!" The lady raven shut the two down from chatting. "Someone is fighting a distance from here." She then turned to Lucas, "Are we going to check or avoid?"
Now that the lady raven mentioned that someone is fighting, they can hear the faint sound of an explosion and the clashing of sharp things. The sounds are pretty small, which means they are still far from their location.
But Lucas thinks for a moment and decides to check, "But let us not get close to them, let's just check who is fighting."
There's no way that his master would be the one fighting, but he wants to see if he is there too. He thinks that his master has the tendency to meet or gather strong individuals into his life despite being fragile.
They run stealthily, but they all stop mid-way.
"What is this strong power I sense?" Lucas asked, while his hands started to tremble as he felt the stifling aura.
"It's getting near to us! Run!" The lady raven shouted as she turned her back to run away, and the three men twisted their bodies to follow the lady raven.
The strong power that they sense is still going in their direction in a very fast manner. Seconds after that, the power that they thought was going after them passed through the trembling team and the huge gold light crashed into the boulder at the head of them.
Once the thing with great powers lands, the golden light slowly disappears, and a child bathing in his own blood stands up while shuddering.
Lucas blinks his eyes multiple times, then shouts.
"MASTER!"
/
/
/
Note:
(1) I use 'He' if he is in dragon form and 'She' when she polymorphs into a female maid. The same for Lucas. Since he is in a male human body, I address him as' 'he', and 'she' if she is in her Tamahaling form.
(2) Ate is addressed to an older sister /female friend, while kuya is addressed to an older brother/male friend.