With many thoughts running trough his mind two days later prince Helio arrived in Aurora. It was already winter and a refreshing contrast to the weather he had only few days ago.
Although Aurora's winters were generally warm, currently it was a bit chilly. Despite that the streets were bustling with activity and the street vendors who sold hot soup enjoyed an increased popularity.
Prince felt quite worn out from the running after the three psychos, but at least now he could finally take a break. To his big surprise they didn't immediately go to the palace, but arrived at a restaurant with all three loudly cheering.
"Sunshine". Helio remembered this place that belonged to the Meyer family. He had eaten here from time to time because it was so close to the palace, but didn't recall it to be 'that' special. Why did the three act like this?
"Princess! So nice to see you! Master Nick, miss YunYun, welcome back!" Waiter at the door was all smiles and, following Nick's instruction, didn't lead them to their 'regular' room, but to a larger one.
Why a larger one? And what was that? Waiter clearly saw him, but didn't pay other respects, but a simple, polite hello. Had prince really changed so much? But the waiter clearly recognized his little sister who had been in the Sword sect for years. Well, she was wearing this peculiar red headscarf, but it was hard to believe she wore that years back before the departure.
When they sat down at the table that was obviously too large for them, Nick ordered 'two of each type' without specifying anything, but from what it looked the waiter knew what they wanted – obviously they frequented this place.
Only after ordering food Nick told waiter to send a message to the palace and inform that they have brought back the crown prince. Waiter's eyes widened, he blushed, but immediately after apologized and thanked prince for his service in the south.
'Wait till you hear about the last battle.' Prince smirked to himself.
When few minutes later several waiters started bringing in weird looking round dishes, YunYun said, "Alright, let's wait for the others before we start."
Nick and Zia froze for a second, but then burst into loud laughter.
"Others?" Prince asked in confusion.
"Ye." Nick nodded, "Dig in before the hell breaks loose. You eat it with your hands, like this." He instructed.
Prince was already staring at the two girls who almost turned in to animals grabbing the food with their hands and wildly devouring it. Was it really that good? Although it did smell enticing.
Prince took one of those triangular pieces in his hand, but before he could taste it, the door sprung open with a loud bang and a huffing and puffing youth ran in.
"Good! You almost started without me!" He said, bumper his fists with Zia, Nick and YunYun and unceremoniously grabbed a piece of food from the many plates on the table.
"You remember Mason Meyer, right?" Nick asked with full mouth.
Newcomer looked at Nick in surprise, then at the prince and his eyes widened, similar to the waiter earlier. But unlike the waiter, Mason didn't apologize for not recognizing prince.
"Helio! You've changed so much! Good to see you! Eat up before they come!" He said.
'Helio? By name again? What happened to the manners of these people?' But when he looked at the way they ate, prince got the obvious answer to that question.
Few seconds later door sprung up wide open again and another youth stormed in. Although this one did everything the same way Mason did, he behaved a bit more reserved and didn't immediately reach out for food. "Oh? Helio? I almost didn't recognize you! I'm Chris Evans, not sure if you remember me." Chris said and sat down. But it looked like he was really hungry, because he didn't wait for the prince's response and started to devour the food like the others.
Helio looked at the strange piece of food in his hand that he didn't try yet. It did smell good, but was it worth to loose the basic table manners because of that?
While prince he was still contemplating, YunYun suddenly said, of course, with a full mouth, "That was fast! They are here already!"
Zia immediately grabbed two more pieces emptying the large plate in front of her. Now she held multiple triangular ones in her hands but didn't seem to be worried about her behavior and the others didn't seem to care as well.
'Who are 'they'?' Prince thought to himself, but then he heard excited child voices screaming and this time his eyes widened in surprise.
A young boy, maybe eight years of age ran into the room followed by a bit younger girl. Right after them hand in hand came in Conny and a young man, most likely her husband, Steven. And the latter was carrying even a younger child!
Before prince could say anything, they young boy with a serious expression walked around the table, fist bumping everyone, including him and the girl mirrored his actions.
Only after they climbed on chairs and grabbed a piece of food each, Nick said, "Ali, you realize you just fist bumped the future king, right?" And immediately the whole room was filled with laughter while the boy scratched his head in embarrassment.
Conny went over and kissed Zia on cheek, then hugged YunYun who still had a piece of food in her hand.
'Right, they were captives together in the Nestri empire. They should've become quite close.' Prince remembered the report he read a while back.
But then, to the prince's big surprise, she came over and hugged him as well, whispering, "Welcome back, brother!"
For some reason prince Helio felt his eyes tearing up and he quickly blinked few times to not show such weakness in front of this crowd.
"This is my husband, Steven Rollen. I guess you haven't been previously formally introduced." Conny said, "And the boy is Ali, oldest girl Alu and the youngest – Ala. They came back from the Nestri continent with us."
"So they are not your …" Prince stuttered.
"Hahaha! No!" Conny laughed and sat at Helio's side and Steven with the small girl in hands sat besides her.
'Phew. Finally someone with manners.' Prince thought.
But then Steven said, "On our way I ordered more, but it might take a while till pizza is ready."
And what followed completely destroyed the beautiful image of his fourth sister. After hearing what her husband said, she immediately grabbed a piece of food in each hand and started eating those like she had starved for half a month. And the whole weird family acted in a similar fashion, even the smallest one!
The prince watched the scene around the table with wide eyes, barely blinking. Someone had to pinch him, he obviously was having a nightmare and needed to wake up!
But he couldn't and what followed proved that this was not a nightmare, but more likely a hell.
He heard loud quick footsteps approaching, like a small herd of wild horses running over savanna and then three tornadoes stormed in. They screamed, laughed and talked all at the same time, running around the table, hugging the girls and fist bumping the guys.
Of course, he recognized his two sisters, Belia and Beata, but the third one should be their friend, Kate. Prince had to admit, she had matured and become incredibly beautiful. Probably half of the hearts in the capital were broken by her alone.
He sat there, stealing glances at her while the rest ate and talked at the same time. One couldn't blame him, he lived the life of celibacy on the southern border during his whole youth – the time when the hormones run most rampant.
At some moment prince felt someone staring at him. It turned out to be Ali's tanned face – the boy obviously wanted to say something, but was shy.
"What is it?" Prince asked and tried to smile gently. He was talking to a child after all.
"Uhmm, future king, are you going to eat that?" Ali asked and pointed at Helio's hand where he held the cold triangular piece of food that he hadn't tasted yet.
Prince glanced around and realized that all the plates on the table were already empty.
"Oh? You want it? Here." And gave it to the kid.
The eyes of the rest were filled with disbelief, but no one said anything.
Except Zia, "You probably are the first one who doesn't like the pizza. Even mom and dad fought for it when they tried it for the first time."
'What? Queen Hua and father fought for the food?' Prince found it unbelievable, but then realized that he couldn't really judge the food he hadn't tasted yet.
"No! It was great. I just couldn't say no to him." Prince said.
"You have an incredible willpower. I couldn't give my pizza away." Zia shook her head, but the prince noticed that a beautiful smile had bloomed on Kate's face and now she looked at him. It was the most beautiful thing he had seen in years.
He coughed from embarrassment pretending to clear his throat and asked, "Should we order some wine?"
… And the beautiful smile on Kate's face disappeared and was replaced by an icy expression.
'Did I say something wrong?' Prince tried to understand what just transpired.
"Why would we need wine?" Zia asked in confusion.
"I … I thought you wanted to celebrate your reunion." Prince said. It was the truth.
"Helio, don't you know that alcohol impedes your judgment, slows reaction speed and destroys your brain cells?" Zia furrowed her brows like an angry mother and asked the obvious thing everyone around this table, except the prince, thought. Nick's lectures on this subject had influenced everyone, especially after the Nestri incident.
"Don't judge the prince." The latter jumped in to help, "Don't forget he spent the last several years in the south. Do you think soldiers have an easy life there? I bet that after the hard battles the rare glass of wine with general Grant was the only celebration they could have."
Expressions of those around the table softened. Indeed, the prince has experienced difficult times and, in fact, Nick was not far from the truth. Prince didn't have much time to enjoy alcohol and to maintain his reputation, couldn't.
"But how did you travel between the continents?" Prince suddenly thought of something, "It's not possible to travel on the sea for weeks and not drink alcohol! In fact, the water diluted with alcohol is the only thing anyone drinks, including the crew and passengers."
"You are worthy of becoming our future king!" Nick nodded with a smile on his face, "Your mind is quick and sharp. In this case you're correct, but what you said applies to the others and not us. After you use your new ring for some time, you will notice that the food and water doesn't go bad no matter how long you keep it there. And we had enough spatial storage to supply all of us with fresh water throughout the trip. More importantly – do you think we would take three small children with us and feed them with alcohol for weeks? They could never grow up and become normal after that."
In the end Nick pointed at the tree children at the table, but Ali didn't like the last part. He furrowed his brows and struck the table with his little fist.
"Why only normal?!" He said.
"Exactly!" Zia found it adorable and correct as well, "Brother, you should also avoid drinking any alcohol in the future, otherwise only I in our family will be able to defeat dad and you'll fall behind." Zia said with a smile.
Before prince even managed to become confused, a loud discussion started about when and how Zia would be able to defeat one of the strongest Qi sword masters in the world. Soon the question about alcohol was forgotten and Kate's attitude softened as well so prince could have a sigh of relief.
The subjects changed all the time and everyone shared their experiences during the last few years and talked about their adventures and Qi practice as well. For some reason all the girls continued to talk at the same time when they spoke about the Qi training like they were chatting about clothes or shopping and, while the rest was long used to it, prince's shock grew by a minute listening how these brittle 'flowers of Aurora' had become respectable experts.