Quin Strand was genuinely afraid. He was confronted with a person that did not care for his status. That person was absurdly strong. Skilled royal guards that accompanied him were no match. They struggled to even move their fingers in his presence once the man exerted his aura.

As far as looks went, the man was ordinary. Only slightly handsome, with the bearings of a mere commoner, until he released his true aura, or at least that was what Quin thought.

He did not know of anything that went on as he was knocked out merely a second after he felt the suffocating pressure. Finding out that Amelia and her entourage had left him behind upon waking up, he became very depressed.

The guards decided to ignore his orders to chase after them and decided to recuperate, saying that they were in no condition to battle if the need came to be.

As they decided to spend the night at the location, for the lack of better options, they were ambushed by a large group of men.

Half of the guards gave their life trying to protect him during the assault. The remaining guards were able to hold off for quite a long time. The bandits were rather weak, little better than your average civilian. Only the leader having noticeable strength, comparable to one of the royal guards.

However, sheer numbers were enough of a deterrent to the battle-hardened soldiers. As they were not in the best condition to begin with, some of them received minor injuries from the clash.

Quin Strand desperately yelled out that he was the crown prince to the assaulting men. It was only met with jeers and laughter.

“Hahaha! Why would the crown prince be out all the way here with only a dozen so-so guards! Men, capture the boy! We can demand a nice sum for his pompous ass!!”

The cry from the leader bandit brought on even more fervour from their attackers. They were undeterred even after the guards took down a significant portion of their forces.

This was the second time where his status as a member of the royal family was of no help in the same day! It even brought out an opposite effect!

As he was shaken and reflecting on his life decisions a new intruder to the fray arrived. The next thirty seconds of what he witnessed would be something that Quin Strand could never forget for the rest of his life.

***

The Divine Wind brought the six weary soldiers along with the corpses of their companions and the little prince back to the royal castle.

The speed he travelled was much slower. It took a little over thirty minutes to arrive at the compounds of the barracks inside the castle walls, where he deposited the soldiers.

As he landed in the private courtyard of the King, he sent a mana transmission to Silas who was still brooding in his study.

Setting down the still mute boy, Trent sat at the nearby bench, taking out a bottle of wine from his space artefact. The boy reacted to an object appearing out of nowhere, looking visibly interested yet still scared of him.

Trent thought to speak to the boy. He was still very young and prone to mistakes after all. Men would not be men if they were to not learn and improve upon one’s errors.

“Quin is it? Come here my boy. I’m technically your great great great granduncle. C’mon, nothing to be afraid off.”

Quin was a bit startled at being spoken to in a rather friendly tone, a surprising change from earlier.

‘Nothing to be afraid off? Who’d believe that after seeing something like that?!’

Quin groaned inwardly but chose not to voice out his thoughts. He’d had far too much of an emotional rollercoaster in one day. Whatever that meant. What was a rollercoaster anyways??

Trent chuckled a bit as he watched the boy trudge closer to the bench, before sitting down at one end.

“I see you are interested in this. This, my boy, is a space artefact. Forged by the high humans with the help of dwarves. The high humans’ affinity with the space element was uncanny. Too bad, they are no longer in this world. The old gods envied their abilities with controlling mana and made it so that conceiving a child of a high human was nigh impossible.”

Quin took in the new information with great interest, temporarily forgetting his fear of the old man. Trent Strand took a sip of wine before continuing.

“Mine is in the form of a ring you see. They used to make them in the form of pouches, but they got stolen far too easily.”

The Divine Wind recalled some old memories and laughed. Before, Quin had a chance to say anything, a rush of footsteps could be heard heading towards them.

The boy and the old man turned to look and saw the King, Silas, was rushing towards them.

Silas saw the two sitting on the bench together and breathed a sigh of relief. He hurriedly approached the bench and dragged his son off it.

He forced the boy to kneel towards the old man and also following in the act himself afterwards.

“Thank you for rescuing my idiot son, royal ancestor!” The King yelled out, not displaying any dignity of a King as his forehead touched the ground.

The prince followed his father’s action in a hurry and also yelled out. “Thank you for saving me, royal ancestor!”

“Hmm, it’s nothing big. Don’t worry about it. But, perhaps you may want to keep a closer eye on this son of yours Silas. Occasional mistakes are fine until they become irredeemable, hahaha.”

“I shall do as you instruct, royal ancestor!”

“Now, stand up! It won’t do for the King of humans to be seen kow-towing, even to me.”

The King gingerly stood up and pressed down his son who also attempted to stand along with him.

“Now then. Explain to me again why the Duke’s guards didn’t bring your son and the royal guards along when they left. It could be seen as treason towards the royal family.”

The King was also rather upset about this. The Duke had written the report in such a way to pin the blame on the stranger that was Kyle. But if one thought about it, it did not stop the Duke’s guards from going together with the prince.

“I shall do something about this, royal ancestor. You need not concern with such lowly matters. Your descendent will surely demand an answer for this!”

The crown prince turned gloomy when he thought about being left behind again. ‘Do you really hate me to the point of wanting me to die Amelia?!’

Unfortunately, no one could answer his inner thoughts as the Divine Wind mused upon the King’s comment.

“Well, since I’m down the mountain, I shall go see this Duke for a bit. Servants only act on instructions. One who gave such instructions must take responsibility for the outcome.”

***

Kyle had just finished bathing with his daughter and readied to tuck little Kaylee into bed. Suddenly, he turned to look in a certain direction, his gaze seemingly able to see through all obstacles.

He patted his daughter who was holding his neck while in his embrace. Letting her onto the ground, Kyle spoke to Kaylee. “Little girl, go find your mother for a bit, daddy will be back real fast.”

“Nooo!! Daddy, where are you going? I want to come too!!” Kaylee threw a tantrum every time Kyle sneaked off somewhere random. Thinking that he was going somewhere exciting to play, she’d always pester him. Half the time, Kyle would take a walk in the great forest to the west of the land to find rare and exotic specimens of magic herbs for Kaylee to consume, so the little girl always thought she was being left out.

“Not this time sweetie, daddy is going to see a couple of people. I will take you to play next time, OK?”

Kaylee pouted and turned around with a hmph. “You always say that, but you never take me to play!”

Kyle could only laugh in defeat. “OK, I will definitely take you next time. Come, let’s draw hooks.”

The little girl brightened up and drew a hook with her father before running off to find her mommy.

“Well, better get going. I don’t really care about him but Alex won’t be happy if I didn’t help out Amelia’s father.” Kyle sighed lightly and vanished from the spot.