'What? I knocked out the king's uncle?' This time Nick blushed as well.
The three of them stood like that for a few seconds and then a thunderous laughter reverberated through the still dark palace grounds. The old man barely could stand as he laughed with tears in his eyes.
"Who would have thought … hahaha … that at this age, I could get knocked out by a … hahaha … child!" He did find it hilarious. A minute ago when he woke up he was getting ready to fight the intruder, but after learning what happened it amused him greatly.
"Uncle Henry, this is Nicolas Berglund. Nick, this is the elder brother of my father, Henry Maxwell." King introduced.
"Nice to meet you, sorry about before." Nick slightly bowed while still blushing.
"A good lad! You did well." Henry patted his shoulder.
"Alright, let's move to my study. You there!" King called over a guard, "Call my father to my study as well. Also, everything that transpired has to remain a secret, no exceptions! Although you just let a couple of ten year old kids sneak into our treasury, you are still elites of our kingdom and I expect you to keep your moths shut." The surrounding guards nodded and proceeded with their duties.
Old king Albert joined them shortly after they arrived.
"What do you think?" King asked Nick as they sat around the small tea table.
"We had a small bonus to be able to start already on the palace's grounds and not outside the palace. But other than that I think your treasury is relatively safe." Nick shrugged.
"Relatively?" King furrowed his brows.
"If there is a Qi master who has a body not much bigger than mine, there is no way for anyone to stop them. For example a woman of a smaller stature. Other than that, I think it's fine. I wouldn't organize the security the way you did, but if this has worked for centuries, what's the big deal?" Nick explained.
"Nicolas, there are many adult Qi masters not bigger than you, especially from the eastern continent. Although their kingdoms are our allies, it doesn't mean everyone is a friend." Henry Maxwell explained the king's worries.
"What would you do?" King asked Nick again, "We could cover the ventilation openings and put a couple of guards on the roofs. Maybe even let a guard in to sit in the attic? But I don't really like it."
"Your majesty, I think we are looking at this the wrong way." Nick interjected, "I think you should realize that inside of a famous building like that you shouldn't keep anything valuable at all. I would like to suggest you only keep there money and maybe some replicas. No, scratch that! Keep replica of every valuable item, except put those in special glass cases guarded by rune formations so people could still see the items."
All the three Maxwells listened attentively while Nick continued, "Originals should be moved to the real treasury and only ten or so trusted people could know of its existence and only a couple should have access to it."
"But everyone would notice the construction of a new building and even if we reconstruct another the information might leak." Old king Albert argued, "How it will be safer that way?"
"Who told you that the treasure house has to be a building?" Nick smiled.
"Although you are a genius, don't play games with us, speak!" The king made an annoyed face.
Nick had interacted with his majesty enough and knew he actually wasn't angry at all, more like amused.
"Sorry. Obviously I thought about it a lot while preparing for the break-in during the last six months and should've prepared some sketches." Nick apologized.
This time both elderly men were really surprised. They didn't know the king gave an order to test the treasury so long ago and that the kids were training all this time just to sneak in.
"I was thinking a lot about what place I would have found to be impossible to break into. I got this idea back in the Holy Order. Although I have never seen the treasury itself, it was the common knowledge that only the grand elder together with elder Ernest could open it and, more importantly, the treasury was located deep in the mountain and no one could simply walk up to it without becoming invisible. We don't have to invent anything new, we can just copy the ideas of other smart people." Nick continued to smile.
"So you want us to carve a treasury in the cliff that the palace is build on? But how do you expect us to stealthily do that?" The king understood Nick's idea, but was confused on the practical application.
"I thought of that as well. In fact, now is not a bad time for that at all. Your majesty would announce, that you have spent too much time away from the palace battling the barbarian empire and even after your return you've been very busy. Therefore your beloved queens felt lonely and neglected. To make up for the time lost, you want gift them a beautiful hot bath with a natural spring that has been found within this cliff. There should be a few like that, right? Within the mountain there has to be a water source somewhere in case of a prolonged siege, otherwise the palace wouldn't be constructed here. And it doesn't need to be a hot spring anyway – if it was, in that case it would be a bonus."
Nick looked at the three royalties and continued, "Then you carve a 'beauty cave' for your queens for your own pleasure and at the same time another one for your treasures, well – those would be your other treasures, right?" Nick cheekily smiled and giggled.
"Hahaha!" Both elderly laughed while the mighty king Alexander Maxwell blushed.
"What the hell is going on in your head?" He tried to be angry again, but inside he was excited. This was not a bad idea at all!
"The main question is," Nick continued, "how to carve a secret passage at the same time. But I am sure you as Qi masters definitely have your ways. In addition, I think that having a secret entrance to the treasury near the queens bath is a double security measure. Oh, right. After seeing the current treasury, I would like to suggest you create a separate chamber for the rare alchemy ingredients and create sealing rune formations so they don't degrade with time. And regarding the entrance – there should be a complicated rune formation in place that allows to enter only when two specific people are present."
The three royalties stared at Nick to the point he even began to feel uncomfortable. Actually there was no need for that, the experienced men couldn't just understand why haven't they thought of this earlier by themselves.
Soon Nick left, but the tree continued to discuss and draw sketches for several hours. Nick was already mentally tired before this meeting and now couldn't wait to get home.
When he got back to the cottage he immediately fell asleep just to get woken up half an hour later.
"Nicky!" Zia shouted from afar while approaching at the speed of light. She directly ran in and started to shake Nick for him to wake up.
"How can you sleep? It was so great! Wake up!" She continued to shake him until he finally gave up.
"What's the matter? Why don't you let me sleep for a while? I'm exhausted." Nick complained.
"Did you see that sword? I really, really want it! Help me get it!" She was all fired up after falling in love with the weapon she saw in the treasury.
"What sword? That was a big knife, not a sword. And you won't be even able to lift it with both hands, to not speak about carrying it around." Nick felt helpless. Although th little princess was slowly growing up and mostly listened to him, if let loose, she would quickly turn into the old palace's 'nightmare'.
"Don't care! Let's break in and take it this time!" She seemed to have lost last bits of sanity.
There was only one way to make her stop.
"There is no way it is possible with how you are now. You have to get much stronger – you have to train your upper body strength more." Nick yawned, but Zia darted out of the room, leaving barely audible 'alright' behind.
They continued to train day after day and at least now they could go back to the regular routine. As weather got warmer Nick started to dive again, but the only difference was that he mostly was trying to practice his new underwater Qi technique. Of course, he gave it an astonishingly unique name – ' the fourth Qi technique'.
He taught it to Zia as well, but she didn't care about practicing it too much, just used it 'regularly' like the other three, only while she was in the water speeding after turtles or trying to catch colorful fishes with bare hands.
This year's Midsummer festival was not as exciting as the last one. Prince Andrew didn't come to challenge him and, in fact, Nick had long forgotten about him.
The only exciting news in Aurora was the proposal of the crown prince from the Styx kingdom. He arrived with expensive gifts and asked for the hand of princess Cira to what she agreed while blushing from head to toes.
According to Zia's 'inside information' her oldest sister and the crown prince have met five years ago and managed hit it off right away. When he left, prince promised to come back for her and now he did.
Although Nick liked Zia's sisters, he didn't care much about all of this, he wished them well in his mind and went on with his own life.
But it was the whole different story for any young girl in the capital as they continued to gossip about the latest royal romance for months. Be as it may, the 'five flowers of Aurora' were no more after this summer. Although Cira was leaving only the next summer, she tried as much as she could to behave like a future queen. Her sisters didn't mind much and, in fact, were all happy for her – it was not easy to find a good husband these days.
Besides the royal wedding, there was another popular gossip in taverns that involved the palace. King felt guilty for neglecting his queens and carved deep into the mountain to create a special bath for them. This made the eyes of the kingdom's females shine like stars while fantasizing about how perfect it would be to have such a loving husband. On the other hand it was a period of depression for men caused by their inability to present such extravagant gifts to their sweethearts.
In a blink of an eye two more years passed. When the year 711 came, Nick officially became eleven years old and Zia proudly celebrated her twelfth birthday in the "Sunshine" while eating pizza. Of course, it was the New Year's celebration and only Zia claimed that everyone was here for her.
They were still the same height, currently around one and a half meters tall, but Nick understood that during the next couple of years she will grow a little taller and he would catch up only later. Physically they were not that far apart, although Nick was much faster. He was a bit jealous of her natural talent, but didn't dwell on that too much – he'll just had to practice harder.