"This is beyond my control, son," The marquis sighs in defeat, "I did not expect that the king would cover it like that for the second prince… It just goes beyond me, especially when he involves a royal member of another kingdom in this. I am not sure what the king is thinking. This will be blown up to be quite a problem even in terms of foreign relations. I will send some letters to some close friends to see what we could do. I am sure that there will be a lot of opposition to the king's choice, but losing access to the Garden of Oracles and being accused of causing it could justify anything that the king does to Ian."
The marquis pinches the bridge of his nose from frustration. The king purposely restricted him from walking out of the house to block him from meeting up with other nobles to convince them to oppose the decision made against Ian.
That said, if the second prince is actually involved in the warehouse, and the king has found out that someone knows about it, he has other choices that would even benefit him. He could have gotten rid of some of the nobles in the first prince's faction, not attack his loyal subject's nest. This is counterintuitive to the king's position.
"Father, it is best if you don't involve yourself in this. This does not feel like something that the king would do," Kyrie starts thinking once he has calmed down.
He looks over to the hallways and sees a shadow walking away.
Kyrie smiles calmly, "I will excuse myself now. Mother, could you please help me pack up for the academy?"
"Sure, dear. Please don't do anything reckless."
"When do I do reckless things?"
Kyrie leaves before getting a scolding from the marchioness. He walks towards where the shadow has disappeared and arrives in one of the servants' bedrooms since that was the only door open in the corridor.
"Don't you think you could just meet me somewhere more comfortable?" Kyrie looks at the man behind the door as he walks in.
The man pushes the door to close the room. The place is relatively small, and it only has enough space to put a bed, a desk, and a small cabinet. Kyrie takes out the chair from the desk and bushes the dust off from the seat. He unbuttons his coat and sits on the chair, crossing his leg.
"How are you going to compensate me for all the damages? I almost got killed and lost all my memories thanks to you!"
"Headmaster…" that man's tone is filled with sarcasm, "Ah, no… I mean… Sir Paladin… Sir Rowan… How was I supposed to know that you were the headmaster when you have never revealed your appearance?"
Nate shuffles his hair like he is going insane but adjusts it back by running his fingers through his long black hair with some blue tones. He discovers just a few days ago about Kyrie's dual identity.
"So… What did you exchange my safety for?"
"An orb of chaos," Nate confesses without hesitation as he lets himself fall on the dusty bed, "By the way… You can't blame me for everything! I mean… It was strictly business! We had a great loss too! The old shaman is still unconscious after coughing blood like a fountain."
"And who are you exactly blaming?"
"Okay, fine! Me… I am to blame! But like, as someone who was watching you two from the side, it was complete agony!"
"And you thought a potion to Ian would be a good idea?"
"But he didn't end up using it!"
Kyrie pauses for a bit.
[Who used it on me again?]
"So, the conversation you had with my master asking me to come for the agreement… How did you know our relationship?" Nate goes right into the questions that have been piling inside his head.
"Your relationship with that elf? Well… It is hard not to notice after you used the communication device."
"Ah!" Nate facepalms, "Right! What is with this coincidence? Hehehe… Of course, you know what it is even after it got reduced to dust! You are the freaking creator of those things!"
"It just so happens that I only released a batch around that time, and three got to your master's hand. The rest of the people I distributed only use them to communicate with me. Of course, now it is in the market."
Nate chuckles in disbelief, "You already knew who I was from the very beginning! You even checked my background and gave me a name that just by pure coincidence matches with my birth name that no one has ever uncovered," He turns back to look seriously at Kyrie, "Why did you keep me around then?"
"Well, I needed to know why you appeared in the kingdom of Ethern," Kyrie smiles innocently.
"Right… And you disguised your intentions by just saying that Imogen was wary of me."
Nate closes his eyes in disbelief, trying to avoid being overwhelmed while thinking, 'And 'that elf' happens to be your father, even though you are a damn human. And that makes me your adoptive brother. Great!'
"But I want some of the conditions changed," Kyrie crosses his fingers and places his hands on his lap.
"For Ian? He is in a terrible position right now."
Kyrie's eye twitches when Nate casually says Ian's name but tries to take his mind off it.
"Yes… I would like you to cooperate with me with some of my next moves. Consider this as your show of sincerity towards our future cooperations and the compensations for the damages."
Nate lets out a sigh in defeat. Master Lin has said to help Kyrie with whatever he needs since he is quite vulnerable without the ability to use mana since his soul has fragmented. Kyrie cannot absorb the mana from his surroundings and process it to circulate his body. Plus, they are father and son.
"Fine. We will follow."
"Oh! You are not going to contact your master about it? Or… Did you look at the future again through those shamans?"
Nate looks over to Kyrie and tells himself never to trust his eyes again. Looking at the silver hair, glass skin, amber eyes, and handsome appearance, anyone would have thought that this person is incarnate of the word 'good' and 'holy,' but this person is filled with a belly full of schemes.
It would be fantastic if someone could slightly guess what Kyrie could be really thinking. Of course, only one person could ever control this man, but the problem is that the very person who can handle this scheming man is completely charmed.
'Not a person that could be easily dealt with, but I can see that he is my master's biological son…'
"It's a trade secret," Nate smiles without revealing more.
Kyrie clicks his tongue, "Fine; I will not pry anymore. Did you bring what I have asked?"
"Ingestible mana stones and two spatial pouches, right?" Nate pulls out a bag from his spatial ring and hands it to Kyrie.
Kyrie opens up the bag, takes out a marquise-shaped mana stone the size of two fingernails, and rotates it on his fingers.
"Headmaster..."
"Just call me Kyrie."
"Kyrie… It is not good to ingest too many of them in one go or explosively use the mana you have ingested. You could damage your body if you do that."
Kyrie puts his hand up and leans back on his seat, "Why are you so caring all of a sudden? I don't have time to have an upset stomach…"
'This goddamn younger brother I end up having… Not even a single drop of gratitude! Urgh… Calm down… You are the big brother now. I will act as a good example and not square accounts in every detail...'
Kyrie stands up and walks to the door, "I am busy, so ask your questions some other time. I have some people to meet. Want to come along?"
Nate points at himself, "I am coming too?"
"Is someone else in the room?"
"What do you mean?"
"I told you. I need your cooperation."
"Kyrie… What are you planning to do?"
"Me?" Kyrie lets out a cold laugh, "Just going to repay some debt! If that king wants to protect the second prince so much, then I will let him. Let's see how sincere his fatherly love is towards his favorite son..."
---
<Prison>
The shadow expanding on the floor thrusts up in sharp spikes towards Cynthia, but she backs away just enough to avoid the spikes from reach her. She lifts her hand to stop the demon puppets from charging towards Ian.
Ian falls on his knee and breathes heavily.
She cackles between her teeth at her discovery. Although she wants her relics back, she feels like what she has learned outweighs what she has lost. Now, she is okay going into the gates like that. After all, she can always get things back.
The Vicar emerges from the crowd of demon puppets and gets pale when he almost walks over a body. He rubs his hands together as he bows to Cynthia.
"Lady Blackwood, I have done what you have wanted me to do. Ehh… The thing that you promised me…"
Cynthia looks at him indifferently, letting go of her amused expression that hangs on her face seconds ago, "Naturally, if everything goes well, you will have what you deserve."
"Yes, yes. I will take on your word, Lady Blackwood."
Cynthia walks away with her demon puppets following, and the bodies on the floor turn into black steam. The Vicar looks back at Ian one last time before walking away, curling his lips in disgust as if he just sullied his eyes.
Ian lets his weight lean onto the prison wall, and he slowly slides down to the floor. He puts his hands over his eyes.
He opens back again when he hears someone hitting the metal bars of the cell, and he takes his hand off his eyes. It is already late, and the sun is almost completely down. Federline is outside of the prison bars.
"Prince Ethern…" Federline whispers and sighs in relief when Ian wakes up.
He passes a note to Ian before he bows and disappears.
Ian opens the note, seeing Kyrie's writing. His stiff shoulders relax, and a smile blooms.
In the note, three sweet words carefully calligraphed.
'Wait for me.'