Late in the night, Beatrice wakes up all of a sudden as she feels like she had already completely recovered from the effects of the alcohol, prompting her to go out of her room to return to her home, something in her made her confident about going anywhere despite the time being the middle of the night.
As she goes down the stairs, she saw the figure of the middle-aged owner of the place still cleaning up some glasses behind the counter, making her want to talk to him for a while before deciding to go back home.
"You really hid yourself well, uncle…" looking at the middle-aged man with a modest smile on her face, Beatrice said with quite the respect in her tone as she knows who this middle-aged man is, or rather, who he once was.
Arthur Lockhart, a terrifying martial artist renown across the kingdom as the Martial Emperor, someone who, for lack of words to describe him, is capable of singlehandedly dealing with an entire army of enemies despite martial artists being ones who are leaning more to the side of one on one combat, proving just how much exceptional he is compared to other martial artists.
Hearing the tall beauty's words, Old Arthur couldn't help but shake his head in denial as he smiles wryly to himself, almost as if he would rather not have such renown if he could see his family again in return.
"Princess Alisha, are you interested in Diluc as well?" looking at the tall beauty sitting on the opposite side of the counter as him, Old Arthur asked with the same modest smile appearing on his face, talking to the beauty as if it is just an everyday conversation with an acquaintance despite the fact that he knows the identity of this young lady, an identity so terrifying that other people might tremble in fear should they hear of her name.
Alisha Beatrice Imperia, the first princess and the current heir to the throne of the kingdom, a princess so different from other greenhouse ladies of nobility that only knows how to make themselves beautiful and elegant, a lady so exceptional that her name resounds even to the adjacent kingdoms, not because of her unrivalled beauty but rather because of other things.
Other princesses from other kingdoms would rather spend their time indulging in the life of a royalty they have, having minimal practices compared to the princes of their kingdoms and just thinking of cultivation as a way to enhance their beauty, to prolong their youth, however, Beatrice, Princess Alisha, is completely different in that regards.
Having an extremely monstrous senior sister under the same master, she weas quite motivated to improve her strength just for the sake of that alone, putting in extreme level of effort to reach the height she currently stands on, a height so high that there is just no possible way for someone else to oust her out of her crown princess position.
"Why uncle Arthur? Would it be bad if I bring him to my people?" the crown princess asked with a careful tone in her voice as she talks with the middle-aged man, as she knows that the temper of such experts is hard to grasp and can easily switch within a second, making her, who is also crowned with the unofficial title of Princess of War, quite scared of him.
"Why should I be? There's no reason for me to get angry at anything, little princess" Old Arthur replied as she looks at her seriously, trying to peer into the depth of her eyes to see through what she wants to do with this young man who he already treats as his own son, and seeing that there is nothing malicious hiding underneath her eyes, he decided to just leave it up to the young man to decide whether he will join this violent princess or not.
Hearing the reply of the middle-aged cultivation veteran, the crown princess couldn't help but smile widely as she bows towards him, showing such respect and gratitude that makes the middle-aged man smile, thinking that there are still some good royalty and nobility around, making him hope for a proper and clean reform of the kingdom he once values so much.
"Thank you for your permission, Uncle Arthur!" Beatrice smiles beamingly as she expresses her gratitude, causing the middle-aged man to wave one of his hand as if to shoo her away, but not before replying to her words of gratitude.
"There's no need to thank me, all of the decisions depends on Diluc and Diluc alone, so it's still all up to you to convince him…" Old Arthur replied with a smile on his face as he looks at the leaving crown princess, who seems to already doesn't hear whatever it is that he is saying.
"Also, greet your master for me, little girl!" he shouted causing her to snap out of her daze, prompting her to nod towards him as she hears his words.
"How will you respond to this, Diluc…" looking at the direction of the young man's room, Old Arthur mutters to himself seeing that there's no longer anyone in this place once again, quite looking forward to the chance given to the young man, this line of events making him remember the things he had gone through when he is young.
" I hope you get stronger than me, so you can protect those who are important to you…" having experience the tragic loses of his loved ones, the middle-aged man changes into a person who wants to guide everyone to greater level of strength so that they can protect the ones closer to them better, but he knows that such ideals are just nothing but ungraspable mist given the rotten human nature, hence he just opts to help select number of people, one of them being the young man who is still currently having his complete focus on cultivation.
Meanwhile on the higher level, the central place of the city, in a lavish house that seems to overshadow the other villas and mansions in the surrounding, two people, a lady who seems to be on her late forties of age and a man who seems to be on his early fifties, is currently talking as they look at the report given by the guards of one of their dear children, the tragedy that he experienced making them want nothing but to dispatch the perpetrator of such brutal acts.
"Dear, you should just kill that bastard while he's powerless!!! Who knows just what kind of atrocity he will commit if we let him grow further!??" looking at the man sitting in front of the table, the woman said in a malicious tone as she points at the portrait of the young man who is supposedly the one who did such thing to their son, a young man who looks all too familiar to them given the nature of their relationship with his parents.
"He's out for revenge, dear, that is clear from his words, but there's really no need to deal with him in such matter, especially since he seems to be favored by the crown princess…" the man explained in a gentle, calm and composed tone as he analyzes the situation, yet despite his faked composure, one couldn't help but notice the shaking of his fist as he clenches it hard enough for blood to start flowing out of it.
'Not to mention us, even the perpetrators back in the capital wouldn't so easily touch that young man because of the Princess of War…' the man added to himself as he starts massaging his forehead, thinking that there will be quite the problem in the future given just how much the young man had grown in such a short amount of time, especially when they can't really offend him given what the crown princess can do to them.
"T-then what can we even do now?!" the lady said with an annoyed expression on her face, thinking that they shouldn't just let the perpetrator go like that, her words causing the man to smile as he looks at her as if she just couldn't think for herself.
"My dear, we might not be able to deal with him overtly but we can always do something to him out of plain sight…" the man said as he snapped his fingers after dropping the quill, a shadow-like figure appearing right beside him as he do so, surprising even the woman as she didn't even know the existence of such people in their home.
"Bring this to the Shadow Blade Clan, make sure that it will garner good amount of attention, but not too much" the man said with a sinister smile on his face as the shadow-like figure receives the letter he handed to him, the figure doing nothing but nod before he disappears into thin air once again, the couple smiling as the two of them already looks forward to the death of the young man.