Bang!
As soon as he said this, the sound of something being shattered resounded in the room. The guard, however, kept his eyes on the ground, not daring to look up.
"How is that possible? Didn't my son shove a poison pill down his throat?" An angry male voice sounded from the room.
"I-I don't know how, my lord? But he has indeed returned with three other people who seemed from one of the sects." The guard meekly replied while sweating inside. He was worried that his lord would kill him for bringing this 'bad news'.
There was no response for a minute, making the guard sweat even more. Finally, he heard the voice again.
"I understand. You can go."
"Yes, my lord." The guard immediately stood up, bowed before scurrying out the mansion.
Meanwhile, inside the room, a handsome and strong looking middle-aged was reclining on a chair. A broken table lay in front of him while two gorgeous young beauties massaged each of his shoulders.
"I need to be careful now. Although my elder brother doesn't care much about Arthur, he is his son at the end." The man murmured.
"My lord, we can try to lure young… I mean Arthur out of the city and…" the young woman on the right side spoke.
"No. It won't be easy. If I'm not wrong, his mother and sister would ask my elder brother to assign a stronger guard to him." The man interrupted her.
The woman on the left spoke this time. "Then can we only wait for him to leave the city on his own and arrange for someone stronger than his guard to kill them?"
"Nah, things won't be this simple now." The man casually said. "Alright. No need to talk about him now."
Saying this, he grabbed their hands and pulled them in front of him before forcing them down between his legs and smirked. "Now get to work."
"With pleasure, my lord." The duo smiled.
---
As soon as Arthur stepped inside the city. A window popped up in front of him.
[Congratulations! You've completed the mission [Return to the Dragon Abode City] in given time.]
[The reward [Low-grade health potion] has been added to your inventory.]
[You get the first mission completion bonus: 10 Spirit Qi.]
[Congratulations! You've leveled up to level 1.]
[Your stats have been increased by 2.]
[Congratulations! The soul link has completely established. You can now log out return to your original world. Log out permissible: Once per day.]
[The basic information guide has been stored in your inventory.]
"What the hell?!" Arthur cried out when he saw all the notifications.
"What is it, big brother?" Alice asked when he heard his surprised cry. The other two also glanced at him and saw him staring dumbly in front of him.
Upon hearing Alice's sweet voice, he realized he had spoken out loud and quickly regained his composure before smiling at her. "Nothing. It's just that this city is quite familiar."
"Of course it would be familiar, big brother. It's where you were born and brought up." Alice smiled in response.
Arthur nodded while inwardly sighing in relief.
After a while, they arrived in the northern part of the city, in front of a huge gate. It was as tall and thick as the city walls and looked majestic. On top of it were words: The Dragonheart Family.
Arthur could see the area behind the gate was huge, at least a few miles. There were many mansions, courtyards, etc.
"This is where your family lives, big brother." Alice said before walking over to the guards guarding the gate.
The guards wanted to stop her when she snorted and said, "Go inform young master Arthur's family that he is here."
The guards frowned at her disrespectful attitude, but when they heard the words 'young master Arthur' and saw him standing beside her, they let out relieved breaths, which Alice found strange because only a rare few respected or care for Arthur in the Dragonheart family.
The guards immediately greeted him before one of them rushed inside.
"What is it?" Alice couldn't help but ask.
The guards understood what she was asking about but ignored her and then said to Arthur,
"Young master, where have you been? Lady Elena has been worried sick about you. She had sent people to look for you all over the city."
"Lady Elena?" Arthur raised his brows and thought, 'Without this guy's memories, things would become problematic.'
The guards were surprised when they saw his reaction.
"It's your mother, big brother." Alice told him.
'Oh? I have a mother here too and it seems she isn't as unfeeling as my real mother since she has been worried about me.' Arthur thought.
His real family and he had grown apart more than a decade ago because his father, who is a rich businessman, didn't like him because he wasn't good at studies, or anything else, for that matter. Saying that he was a disappointment, he kicked Arthur out of the house when he was just 25 years old.
He had hoped that his mother would stop his father, but she just looked on emotionlessly as he left. As for his siblings, they weren't present at that time, but they should've found out about it sometime later. However, none of them tried to contact him.
From then on, he didn't have a family.
Arthur's eyes moistened slightly when he recalled those painful memories.
"Are you alright, big brother?" Alice asked, feeling worried when she saw his eyes reddening.
"Of course." He smiled at her while the duo beside them just snickered silently.
It hadn't even been a few minutes when
Whoosh!
A gust of wind hit them before Arthur found himself squeezed in a warm embrace of a pleasant-smelling woman.
"My son… Arthur. Where have you been? Mother was worried about you." He heard her sweet, angelic voice, filled with motherly love and worry. His heart throbbed with some emotions he found difficult to define.
Although he wanted to enjoy this warm embrace for a while longer, he was having difficulty breathing because of how tightly she was squeezing him. So he gently patted her soft as silk back and uttered with difficulty, "I-I can't… breathe."
"Ah? I'm sorry, son." The woman hurriedly let go of him when she heard him and apologized while looking at him up and down in worry.
Arthur coughed lightly and took a deep breath to stabilize his breathing before looking at the woman… the mother of this world's Arthur.
When he saw her, however, he couldn't help but swallow hard.