Alexa stood in front of Julius' room and entered it as it was already morning and she was up, and so was Ray.
The past few weeks had been very stressful, to say the least, but they actually went into the Valley of Forgotten Dreams and made it out.
Even when they came back, the owner of the inn couldn't help but try to question them about their experience.
As she entered, she saw that Julius was still asleep, and she looked out of the window to the sky. The eerie black clouds were a reminder to her of how dangerous the world had become.
And how much she had lost.
She sighed as she looked at Julius, and her eyes widened as she saw him. On the bed was a boy who looked like Julius, but his hair was white now.
"What the—your highness?" She called out to him, and Julius blinked as he woke up.
"What? I still want to sleep some more," he grumbled and turned the other way before shutting his eyes again.
'That's surely the prince. Is it because of his magic awakening that his hair changed color? I've never heard of this before,' Alexa couldn't help but think to herself, and then she left the room.
She went down to the bar to see Ray sitting directly at the bar, and she went and took a seat beside him.
"You seemed pretty alright while we were going through all that. I didn't expect that you would think about it so much," Alexa said to Ray, who quietly sipped his beer in the glass cup.
"The prince's future is uncertain. Everything that happened in the last few weeks has all shocked me. Now that I think about them again, I get even more shocked," Ray explained and drank another mouthful of the beer in his hand.
"The prince's hair turned white this morning," Alexa said to him, and he gazed at her and nodded.
"How's that even possi..." Ray stopped mid-sentence and then sighed as it was nothing out of the norms now for the prince to surprise them.
"But it's like he changed. Normally, he would just play all day, but after he survived that attack and came back, he's been... different," Alexa couldn't help but say.
Ray gazed at her with a raised brow.
He too noticed this change but had nothing to say about this. Maybe in those few months that he went missing, he learned a lot of things. They couldn't know the entire story right now.
...
Julius woke up, feeling a bit fuzzy. He stood up, and his eyes widened as he looked at the dark clouded skies, but then his expression returned to normal.
He let out a deep breath.
'I forgot where I was for a second,' Julius thought. He stood up from his bed and then walked over to the door to meet with Ray and Alexa, but then he was stopped when he saw his own reflection in the mirror.
'What the fuck happened to my hair?' Julius couldn't help but be shocked by this.
He couldn't help but relate it to his magic. After all, his sister didn't have the color of hair of their parents.
He came down from his room, all ready to leave, and then he met Ray and Alexa downstairs at the bar still talking.
"Ah, you're awake, Prince Julius?" Alexa was the first to notice him, and then the people at the bar looked at the short boy with white hair.
"Huh? Can't you see my hair changed colors?" Julius asked as he expected Alexa to be shocked by this, but she only chuckled at his words.
"I've already seen you when you were still asleep," Alexa said, and Ray only shook his head before letting a slight smile form on his face.
"I guess we're already going," he stood up from his seat, and his knight's red attire appeared on his body magically, and he stepped out first.
Julius gulped as he noted down another thing to make Ray teach him when they got back.
The journey for his awakening had ended. Now it's time to meet the real dangers again—people he would have to know.
They left the citadel on their two royal horses, and they rode back to the human kingdom.
...
It took them one and a half days to finally get back to the human kingdom. They glanced around to see that there was a huge dent in the walls guarding the kingdom, and Julius couldn't help but frown.
They approached the guards, and the guards instantly recognized the royal guard who had a white-haired boy in front of him.
"Sir Ray. Welcome back," a guard saluted him before glancing at the boy.
"What happened here?" Julius asked as he pointed at the damage done to the walls, and then the guard sighed.
"A fight between the king and Queen Elizabeth broke out a week ago, and they damaged the wall during their fight in the sky," the guard said, and then Julius was shocked by that name.
His father's third wife, Elizabeth, mother of Princess Anna and Prince Caster. The mother of both future menaces.
'I didn't get to meet the other queens or even talk with my other siblings much. Well, I guess now that I have magic, I won't be looked down on,' Julius thought, and the guard couldn't help but want to look at his face well.
"Prince Julius," Ray called out to the prince, and Julius snapped back.
"Oh, let's go."
The guard was stunned when he heard the name of the fifth prince, and then he watched them ride away towards the royal castle.
"I thought the prince left with Ray seven days ago?" another guard said, and the guard that answered them looked at his comrade.
"Has the prince's hair always been white?"
...
It didn't take too long for them to reach the castle, and the stableman looked at the prince who now had white hair and noticed mana flowing through the prince, and he frowned.
"Well, make sure to take care of them," Julius said to him, and he nodded.
"Ah, yes. Of course," the man bowed.
He watched Julius walk away, and he folded his arms.
'Looks like this young one had quite the journey. I wonder where they went,' the stableman couldn't help but think.