After having walked for a few minutes, Edmund and his procession made it to the ballroom. Edmund then proceeded to signal his arrival to the servant who stood by the door who then promptly, in his clearest and loudest voice announced the arrival of the king and queen.

The entire ballroom instantly quieted down, and once Edmund was certain all eyes were on him he started to walk towards the throne in a slow and deliberate pace. He politely nodded to few people as he walked forward and he made sure that he smiled to seem as kind and kingly as possible.

As Edmund walked between the people towards the crown, his golden robe flickered under the lighting of the ballroom, giving all the observing people a feeling of ease. However, as soon as the people noticed the shining golden robe Edmund wore they couldn't help but notice the youth that walked behind him.

Unlike the golden saintly robe Edmund wore, the youth behind him wore a dark robe. While Edmunds robe seemed to leak light and made people gasp at its elegance and beauty, the youth's robe seemed to absorb light like a black hole, he gave people a sense of dread as he exuded a faint aura of emptiness with his ice cold green eyes that never seemed to blink.

Most of the kingdom's nobles recognized Wesley as the second prince but the visiting dignitaries from the other kingdoms as well as those who were not very familiar with Holt family immediately assumed that Wesley was the renowned genius prince.

Eventually, Edmund reached the throne. He turned around elegantly, then looked towards the visitors and simply sat down on his throne. The queen sat down in a smaller throne on the right of Edmunds throne with little Delan on her lap, while Wesley simply stood to the left of Edmunds throne. After making certain that everyone took their places, Edmund spoke in a dignified, merry voice:

"Welcome"

The entire hall broke into an applause and many people started walking towards the throne to pay their respects and convey their congratulations. The first noble to person to approach was an old looking man. After bowing to Edmund, he spoke in a croaky voice:

"The King of Norn sends his best wishes to his Majesty King Edmund Holt, and the crown prince"

That last part with the crown prince was said while looking at Wesley. This startled Edmund a little but he regained his composure immediately and smiled at the old man saying:

"We appreciate the Kings good wishes, please enjoy the ball"

Wesley simply stood there unmoving without even a hint of emotion on his face. This impressed most of the people in the hall, and some of the women even eyed him with a hint of red on their cheeks, after all, Wesley was not too bad looking, his slender frame and childish face gave him somewhat girlish features.

Another person approached the throne, this time it was an impressively dressed young man with golden blonde hair and similarly golden eyes, he bowed slightly at towards Edmund and spoke in a melodious, almost singsongy voice:

"The King of Tamin sends his best regards and facilitation to his majesty, king Edmund Holt, and the crown prince"

This young man, just like the old man before him, bowed slightly to Wesley as he spoke. Edmund was startled as he couldn't understand why the people kept calling Wesley the crown prince, but he kept his thoughts to himself and returned the greeting hoping that those two people were simply mistaken about Wesley's identity since they came from other kingdoms.

Unfortunately for Edmund, all the other people who were lined up behind the first two took their ques from them and started greeting Wesley as the crown prince. Wesley didn’t really mind, after all this was but a bother to him since he would very much rather be doing other things, but Edmund who was sitting next to him was greatly stressed, he couldn't stop people from thinking Wesley was the crown prince since so many has already greeted him as such and correcting them now would cause them to lose face, but he was also afraid that false news might spread that Wesley was now the crown prince which will cause him headaches later.

After everyone was done with their greetings and congratulations, they all went back to dancing, chatting and general merrymaking. Wesley went to the far corner of the hall and sat in a small bench. He inwardly sighed with relief but was immediately interrupted by numerous young ladies wanting to chat or dance or some such things.

....................................................................................................................................................

After almost ten minutes of sitting in his little corner, and fending off the advances and invitations of at least a dozen young ladies, Wesley was finally alone. After ensuring that there were no eyes on him, the shadow of the corner of the room where Wesley sat got darker, and a short moment later, Wesley was gone. He re-emerged almost a hundred feet away in a dark hallway. After making sure that there was no one around he slowly started walking.

After having walked for almost ten minutes, Wesley finally reached the west tower of the palace. After reaching the entrance to the tower, Wesley respectfully knocked on the door. This was not very surprising since the west tower was known to be the dwelling of the most powerful mage in the Ject Kingdom, Rale the Keeper.

"Come"

After hearing the short response, the shadows around Wesley intensified again and he walked in, only to reappear at the top of the tower. The moment he walked out of the shadow, Wesley immediately cupped his hands and said respectfully:

"Master"

If anyone looked they would notice that in the dark room, there was only Wesley while everything else was In utter darkness. However for some reason Wesley spoke out as if there was someone there.

"You are late"

The darkness spoke once again, and this time it seemed to have slightly gotten darker in the room. Wesley shuddered for a moment then replied in a baritone voice:

"I had to attend the king's celebration"

A small hmph resounded in the darkness then the voice in the darkness spoke again:

"Have you finished memorizing the basics yet"

"Yes master" replied Wesley respectfully.

"Show me your dark globe"

The darkness commanded and immediately after the command, Wesley muttered something under his breath, then a mist-like shadow spread all over the room with Wesley as the epicenter, the mist continues to spread until it covered a circumference of two hundred feet. The tower completely disappeared, only darkness stood where the tower was.

"Good, that should be enough"

Hearing those words, Wesley immediately released his dark globe, and sweat could be seen rolling off his forehead. His face was paler than usual and his eyes were flickering slightly, but he didn’t show any hint of discomfort as his face remained as stoic as a rock.

"Your range seems to have increased again"

The whole room got a lot less darker as if a veil of night was lifted from it, and a small figure, half a head taller than Wesley could be seen standing in front of him with a faint but proud smile on his face. Rale looked at Wesley as if he was looking at a painting, his grey, almost closed eyes sizing, and evaluating him, then with a small approving nod, he said:

"You are now ready for the next level of your training"

His hand reached into a shadow that came out of nowhere and he withdrew half a dozen books. After looking at each individual book, he looked up at Wesley and said:

"Take these books. You will learn them by heart for the next three years"

Then he let the books float from his hand towards Wesley. Wesley then raised his hand towards the book and muttered something incoherent under his breath leading to the books being covered in darkness and disappearing, then he bowed slightly and said:

"Yes master"

"Good, now go back to your room and start refining, your mana capacity is pathetic"

"Yes master"

The shadow on the wall behind Wesley suddenly got darker, and Wesley without hesitation stepped into it only to appear a hundred feet away. He immediately started heading to his room to start refining mana, and to look at the books he got.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>