Urs then turned his head towards the front door, "Seems like someone got lucky."
"What do you mean," Helena said with confusion. Then the door opened and Damian could be seen walking around the corner with a large pheasant. "Honey I got lucky and managed to get something rather fast so maybe-" Damian looked away from his kill and saw Urs sitting cross legged sipping his tea in his chair holding his son. While gritting his teeth he greeted Urs, "Your Highness."
"Commander Damian, or I guess I could say Commander Kaloss."
"I'm not a commander anymore."
"That's the part you are questioning?"
"I've given up on that life a while ago, but why are you calling me Kaloss"
"Well considering you now have three children with my sister you might as well adopt the family name as well. So feel free to talk to me in a casual tone."
"I'm assuming the Archduke knows nothing of what is happening right now?"
"Oh heavens no, if father knew that you, right after you spit in the face of house Arangis and then followed up that with pseudo kidnapping his only daughter and then on top of that had children with her without him knowing, he would by himself annihilate you along with this entire cliff and Helena wouldn't be able to stop him."
"He should've understood that I didn't want to be tied down to a house."
"Yes but if you had just accepted Arangis' adoption you could have cleanly and smoothly married Helena under imperial tradition, that is the reason father loathes you."
Damian had been so focused on Urs that he didn't even notice that he was holding Cain. "How are you doing that?"
"Doing what?" Urs said with a smile on his face.
"You know exactly what you are doing."
Saying nothing, Urs just kept smiling while sipping on his tea. With some disappointment on his face Damian said "Well since you are here and seem to be relatively comfortable why don't you stay for supper at least."
"Unfortunately there is a noble gathering in a few days and I haven't prepared whatsoever. As I came here without telling anyone I'm a little short on time and as much as I would like to get to know my new nephews I believe it would be best if I leave," Urs said as he gave Cain back to his sister.
"Well in that case I will see you sometime in the future Urs," Damian said, shaking his hand.
"As will I, take care of your family," Urs responded as he closed the door behind him.
"That's a given," Damian said under his breath. "How are the kids Helena?"
"Cain is unusually sleepy and Leon is playing with Alex."
"In that case we should put them all to bed and wake them up again for dinner."
"Mmm that sounds good."
And with that the triplets' first fateful encounter with their uncle concluded.
_______________________________________________________________
The sky had grown orange as Urs had returned to the Kaloss Duchy. Kaloss boasted a personal army of 30 thousand across the entire territory and was home to the one and only mage tower in the country which housed teleportation gates to the rest of the major cities including the other duchy capitals, a couple port cities owned by other wealthy nobles, and the capital of the Helios empire.
The capital city of the Kaloss Duchy, Magnata was a bustling trade city with a population of 175 thousand. While not the biggest it had the largest traffic in the entire empire due to the mage tower's teleportation gates as well as it being close to the empire's border. Walking up to the main entrance Urs had shaken off all the nerves and excitement he had when meeting his nephews for the first time.
"Ahh young master Urs, welcome home."
"Seamus, good to be back, how has father responded to my sudden leaving?"
The man Urs was speaking to was the Kaloss head butler, Seamus. He was a tall man with extremely neat white hair and a curly mustache to match, he had a bad habit of being a perfectionist when it came to appearence. He had taken care of Urs and Helena when they were young and was an old friend of their father's when he was a child "The master, while surprised at your disappearance, has not said anything other than to speak with him as soon as you had returned."
"Fuck."
"Language young master. This isn't wartime"
Urs ignored Seamus' remark and entered the mansion. The mansion was luxuriously decorated, it had a large set of stairs in the middle that branched out into two separate hallways on either side. As Urs begrudgingly walked up the stairs he let out a big sigh. "Sigh more like that and you will start to sound like your father."
Urs looked to his left and continued his sigh "First Seamus and now you mother. Is everyone going to make my life a little harder today?"
Urs' mother was Duchess Elena von Kaloss. Older as she may be, her appearance still held a kind of mature beauty that was impossible not to see nor have faded. "First of all, yes, your father I assume has planned out quite the lengthy lecture for you."
"I appreciate the warning mother."
"Oh and Urs."
"Yes?"
"Do tell me what you talked to your sister about."
Urs looked at his mother as she walked away in awe. "How the fuck did she know that. Great now I'm doubly fucked." Urs was only panicking a little bit as he made his way over to his fathers office. Passing by tens of servants and guards he reached a large set of double oak doors that gave off a very imposing look. Urs took a very deep breath as he opened both doors and stepped into his father's office.
"Father, I'm back."
"Sit."
Urs took a seat in one of the chairs facing his fathers desk. Lining the walls were cases of bookshelfs. The desk itself sat in the center of the room, behind it was a floor to ceiling window that almost covered the entire west wall. Viewing the sunset was the duke himself, Erik Von Kaloss.
"Urs, what are the two most important empirical holidays?"
"Father I fail to see how this could possibly-"
"Answer the question Urs." The archduke said in a stern grisly voice.
*sigh*"The two most important holidays are the birthday of the emperor and the sun festival."
"Why is our family name Kaloss?"
"Do you want me to talk about holidays or our his-"
"JUST ANSWER THE QUESTION BOY. FOR THE LOVE OF THE PRIMORDIAL MAGI YOU ARE WORSE THAN YOUR SISTER"
Urs shivered a bit at his father's rage but still responded calmly, "Our ancestor was a demigod born of a human and a colossus of the fire clan."
"And how does that relate to the sun festival?"
"I am unsure, was never proficient in history." Urs said somewhat sarcastically wanting his father to get to the point.
Visibly annoyed Erik begrudgingly said "Before the Helios empire there was the Kingdom of Eternity, however that eternal kingdom wasn't true to its name, a cataclysmic event devastated the continent. However it wasn't a normal disaster. A mana wave laid waste to the entire colossus race and somehow wiped out the Kingdom of Eternity. What came after was our ancestor and the ancestor of the royal family who was blessed by the sun god and given the name Helios. They came together and used their power to found the Helios Empire. And now we are the most powerful empire with 1000 years of rich history. Now that day is known as the sun festival."
"Thanks for the history lesson father, want to test me now?"
Erik, still facing the window, gave a snarl at his son's snarky response. "With the history I just explained, do you now realize how important the preparation should be to the second most important family in the entire empire?"
"No, I don't get one single bit."
"My point is you need to get ready to meet Arangis, Windrea, Luxor, and a few other subsidiary families"
"Oh yippee, will the old man from Luxor be begging us to increase his budget again?"
"Probably"
"Very well then," Urs said grunting as he sat up from his seat as he turned towards the exit he heard his father "I didn't say we were done Urs, I'm not done"
"Fuck" Urs thought reluctantly sitting back down."
"You still need to tell me what you talked to your sister about."
"fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck"