The chatter didn't stop until the late evening when finally Conny and Steven excused themselves and, accompanied by teasing of others, went home to put 'their kids' to bed. The rest soon left one after another and soon Helio realized they were only four at the table once again, except now the room looked as if a huge battle just took place.
Prince was still dazed by what happened until Zia said, "Brother, it's good that you're paying. We really ate a lot!"
'Really? They were serious about that bet?' Prince suddenly realized he was doomed to loose from the start.
But while he left the room being quite upset, he heard Nick whispering, "If you want to woo her, just be yourself. She can see through the all clowns in the capital, don't be like them. Also lately she really likes the Qi practice."
Prince froze in his steps. Was this kid really just giving him a love advice? But then again, by looking at his fiancee one had to respect his own results.
At the entrance of the palace Nick and YunYun bumped their fists with the two siblings and left, while Zia pulled the still confused Helio inside. He had never been so worn out, even after fighting several battles in a day.
Then Zia bumped his fist and ran off to see her mother, leaving Helio standing alone on a crossroads between two long hallways.
He looked around in confusion, but then smiled when he remembered what his sister told him about the fist bumping the first time he saw it in Ichita. That's what friends do! Everyone continued on doing that left and right the whole evening and made him fist bump as well. Did they really consider him a friend? This felt really weird, but extremely good.
Except, he had to pay for the whole meal!
Prince sighed and went to queen Helena's quarters. His mother definitely missed him and after he visited her, he had to report to his father as well. Maybe that blond punk could run around freely, but he, the crown prince, had some duties.
Half an hour later, after consoling his mother and wiping off her tears, Helio went to the king's study. Last time he was here it was several years ago. The prince had this weird feeling in his stomach thinking about it, but decided that it was because he hadn't eaten today yet and blamed the noisy bunch from before for that.
The king's study was still the same. And the man behind the desk prince saw was still the same, albeit under the weak lighting of the beast core formations it seemed that the king looked tired … and a bit older.
"I'm sorry I'm reporting in this late." Prince said after coming few steps closer.
But what happened next shocked him more than everything else that happened today counted together and multiplied by ten. King smiled, stood up, came over and hugged him.
After patting prince's back he softly said, "Well done, son! Well done!"
What was that about? King couldn't know about the specifics about last battle at Ichita! Then why? Prince felt like tearing up again. Since when did he become such crybaby?
"Come." King said and beckoned prince to join him at the tea table, "Tell me everything!"
Helio followed and it took him a couple of minutes to gather his thoughts and calm down. Afterwards they talked for several hours and only when the first rays of sun started to play with the colorful mosaic windows of the king's study they realized it was already morning.
"Alright. Let's stop for now and catch some sleep. I bet in a couple of hours that little bastard will come to give his report and there will be a lot of work to do." King said and sighed.
"You mean, Nick?" Prince looked back at his father, "Because of him?"
"In a way, yes." King nodded, "Every single time he comes to report, he brings so much trouble that everyone in this palace has to work for a month without sleep to deal with those problems."
"Then why do you tolerate him? All he cares about is his training, he has no respect for the authority and he even orders me around." Prince said visibly annoyed, "He's .."
Prince could complain a lot about Nick, but the king interrupted him, "He's a special. And when I say that he brings trouble, in fact, I welcome it with open hands. You know, in the Holy Order, the sect that has been almost untouchable for us, few years ago there was the grand elder and six elders, but he killed the grand elder and four of their elders by himself! He …"
"Five." Prince Helio interrupted and sighed.
King was startled for a second. He did receive the report from the Nola kingdom, but apparently those were already old news. He started laughing, "Hahaha! And I haven't seen him only for a few weeks! But yes, you are correct, he is incredibly annoying. But you are also wrong. He does respect the authority except, he treats everyone around him the same way. He considers all people equal! Do you think he orders only you around? He orders everyone in this damned place around including me! But he doesn't do it because he thinks highly of himself or because he thinks he is better than the rest. He does it only under the circumstances when quick and decisive actions are required. If you think about it carefully, most likely you will realize that when he gave you an order it was the most effective way of achieving the result!"
Prince held his chin and thought. Indeed, it was how his father said.
"And that is a mark of a true leader. Even though he is still a kid, you could learn a lot from him." King said.
"But doesn't that mean he poses …" Prince started saying, but somehow it didn't feel right to say out loud.
"A threat to us?" King finished the simple sentence, "No. Exactly the opposite. Everything he has done has been for this country. In fact, where do you think did we get the funding to continue our military operations? One day he came into this study and unloaded a mountain of treasures and said he didn't need them! We could've built several palaces with that!"
King paused for a second and then continued, "But! My son, your train of thought is not completely wrong. No matter how loyal your subjects are and no matter how close to you are your friends and your beloved one, remember, when one day you will become the king – every single one of them might stick a knife in your back! That is the burden you will have to bear!"
Then king got up and before leaving the study said, "Nick is a bit special. When he arrived I had people monitor him and that is besides Ling who watched him at the same time. Luckily he didn't become a threat. And then … for some reason and I don't really know why he became a part of our family. Thus, you can treat him like your younger brother. Oh, by the way. Queen Hua is pregnant and soon you will get a real younger brother, hahaha!"
Stunned, prince Helio heard king's laughter echoing through the palace's hallways. Then he shook his head and went to the bed as well. If it was anything like his father suspected, tomorrow will be a long day, although it didn't seem likely it could become longer than this one.
While price finally fell asleep and stopped suffering from the emotional roller coaster, Nick and YunYun all fresh and rested accompanied Ben while catching up on the events in the capital. They, of course, told him about the latest battle at Ichita as well and the old soldier laughed till he shed tears. Although it might seem cruel, one had to remember how much the old man suffered because of the Sand's people and, in fact, lost all his family because of them as well. Therefore his reaction was very much understandable.
There were only few days left till the Royal hunting festival and Ben's task currently was to collect all the traps so the royalties and aristocrats wouldn't injure themselves. Although he didn't need any help, he gladly accepted the two youths offering it and enjoyed their company a lot. This way they spent together at least a couple of hours until Nick decided it was time to report to the king.
When they arrived at the king's study, the guard escorted them to a nearby hall and called it a 'war room'. Nick snickered to himself – he suggested this idea to the king a long time ago. A dedicated location to hold the strategic meetings was much more convenient compared to the king's study.
After entering he noticed that many things were according to his suggestions, including the large table in the middle that had the world map covering almost all the top's surface, the drawing board on the wall and a shelf with a load of scrolls, most likely maps.
What surprised him were the people around the table. Besides the usual 'bunch' – the king, old king Albert, Simon Den and general Sanders, there was the crown prince, doctor Sigismund Marbel, old king's brother Henry and two other men Nick hadn't seen before.
"Hello, everyone! I see that the crown prince already gave his report." Nick said with a smile. It was obvious the king decided that some other people needed to hear the details of his story.
"Hello!" YunYun greeted everyone as well.
While the other men at the table were surprised by her being here, king was, of course, expecting that since he knew about their 'peculiar' relationship.
"You guys already know some of us, but YunYun is new to this circle, therefore I'll introduce to the ones you might not recognize." King said and quickly introduced, "My uncle who is experienced rune formation master – Henry Maxwell, royal doctor and accomplished alchemist – Sigismund Marbel, and two Simon Den's subordinates – alchemist Eric Crow and formation master Lucas Stone. We don't have much time, so let's get to it!"
"Alright, I suggest I'll make a full report first and you ask your questions afterwards. To not forget any, just note them down. Afterwards I'll give you my theory and you can decide what to do with all of the information." Nick said.
'There it is again! He is ordering the most important people of the country around like they were his students! But then again, what he said is the most effective way of doing things.' Prince thought to himself.
But king didn't think much and just waved at Nick, "Go!"
And for the next four hours Nick 'went' and reported on what happened since he left Aurora while going into details about the things he considered important. As usual, everyone's faces kept on changing from shock to disbelief, except this time king managed to keep his cool since he already knew of the most events in general.
After the report for three more hours Nick answered questions and that included him clumsily drawing the runes they saw in the Lori temple, but this time YunYun often came to help out. Turned out her attention to detail was much more developed than Nick's. The latter didn't mind though and in the end explained his theory, basically the story he told to Zia and YunYun after leaving Moira, except a more polished version. He also took out and gave away the goddess's body to the royal alchemists – this was the main reason for taking it away after all. Needless to say, everyone was in shock again when they saw the ugly creep, but the eyes of the researcher's lit up.
As always, Nick's report brought a lot of think about and this time may be even more than usual. While everyone was still deep in thoughts, Nick and YunYun got up and prepared to leave.
"We are going to grab a bite, Helio are you coming?" Nick asked and then barely noticeably winked, "I think everyone will show up again."
Helio's mind went blank for a split second, but he quickly recovered, "Not this time. We have to deal with the mess you guys created."
Looked like he intuitively copied his father's bearing. But before the two left, Helio added, "Say hello to … everyone."
Nick nodded. Of course, he understood prince meant Kate.
When they ordered pizza, of course, their friends also arrived. Nick apologized for Helio while looking at Kate, but she pretended to not notice. Now, understanding that he had done everything he could, Nick simply let the nature take its course. Everything depended on the two of them.
Youths ate and chatted until Mason asked, "What exactly did you do in Lethe kingdom you could not tell us before reporting to his majesty?"
"We killed a God!" Zia proudly stated with mouth full of pizza.
"Pfff …" Steven and Chris spat out everything they just stuffed in their mouths. Unfortunately they sat in front of each other and not only the two of them, most of the onlookers suffered as well.
"What?" Mason asked while everyone around the table was cleaning themselves while laughing or cursing depending on the damage they received.
"Well. It was not that impressive, the one we killed was considered a god." Nick grinned and told the full story. And not only that, the one about Ichita as well. In this company there was no reason to keep most of the secrets.
Although only few people in the world knew what transpired under the Lori temple, the news of the victory by Ichita spread across the continent fast and that, obviously, included Aurora. The winter days were shorter and people passed more time in taverns. And now they had something 'spicy' to gossip about. Obviously king's forces didn't hold back and brought the maximum possible shame to the Sand's army methodically and meticulously spreading the information. Because of that it almost felt like a festival across the Sun kingdom.
The two main protagonists of these stories were, of course, prince Helio and general William Grant while the information about the secret mission, its participants and swapping poisons was kept in secret. Even if it was unlikely, the palace hoped that the demise of elder Jan would not be discovered by king Canute and he would blame the Holy Order, at least in some way. That would bring some frictions between those allied forces and maybe even persecution of the Holy Order if they got to bear the blame for the fail of the Sand kingdom's plan. In the best case scenario the alliance between Lori and Sand kingdoms would be broken and that, in turn, would bring a period of piece to Nola and Sun kingdoms.
Nick and YunYun currently were speeding towards the north. They didn't care much for the Royal hunting festival and for the New Year's celebration. The only upcoming event they were interested in were the Olympic games, but that was few months away.
Thus they decided to use their time and, despite it was the middle of the winter, go to the Northern mountain range and find Angel. They got held back for a few days until Kate and the other 'flowers' prepared the 'proper' clothing for YunYun while Nick, since he didn't need anything special, in the meantime stacked up on alchemy ingredients and other supplies.
At first Zia was set on going with them, but, when Mason used his hidden Meyer family skill called 'brainwashing', he persuaded her to stay. The construction of the Maxwell Olympic arena didn't go as smoothly as planned and her influence and energy would be the final push they needed to complete the project. And soon the arena became her 'baby' and she spent most of her time with it while not forgetting to practice – the stage under construction was the perfect place for it and she enjoyed the attention from the onlookers. She didn't care about the true owners of the arena like her father. This was Maxwell Olympic arena, in other words – her baby!
There was another reason why Zia decided to stay – her mother was getting bigger by day and Zia was almost dying to see her youngest sibling and the lack of patience was the reason she had to meet the youngest prince right after his birth. Also she was really looking forward to when she could finally become 'the elder sister' – apparently she never really enjoyed being the youngest and even though queen was not due for few more months, Zia visited her every day as if afraid she could miss something.