Chapter 27: Father and Son
The King sat rigidly on his throne, his fingers tapping anxiously against the armrest while he stared down at the man standing in front of him.
"If my family secures the area and clears the anomaly without any major delay, I trust the Crown will honor the proposed arrangement," the head of the Flint family said, his voice completely calm.
"You have my word," the King replied, though his mind was clearly somewhere else. "If your nephew retrieves the core, that specific jurisdiction will be permanently transferred to your house. However, my primary concern right now is the search parties."
The Patriarch nodded slightly. "I understand completely, Your Majesty. Losing Her Highness would be a devastating blow to the kingdom. My own forces are currently on standby to expand the search grid if she isn’t found by tomorrow."
"Let’s pray it doesn’t come to that," the King muttered, practically ignoring the political transaction they had just finalized.
He couldn’t care less about territory or rewards right now. His daughter had been missing since yesterday, and the news of Sir Gazel’s detachment being completely wiped out had him on the verge of a total panic.
Before the Patriarch could reply, a loud groan echoed through the room.
Both men stopped talking, turning their attention toward the entrance as the guards outside slowly pushed the doors open.
The King stood up immediately, his breath catching in his throat.
Didi walked through the entrance, completely unharmed, her head held perfectly high as she stepped onto the carpet.
"Didi!" the King yelled, instantly dropping every single ounce of his royal decorum. He practically ran down the steps of his dais, literally jumping in sheer joy as he rushed forward to hug his daughter.
The Patriarch stepped back to give them space, bowing his head slightly as a gesture of basic respect.
’She actually survived,’ the Patriarch thought, his eyes tracking the Princess. ’How unfortunate. I was thoroughly looking forward to the absolute chaos a royal succession dispute would have caused on the council.’
He raised his head again, casually looking past Didi to see who had actually retrieved her.
His eyes landed on a boy with cheap clothes, walking directly behind the Princess with his hands shoved deep into his pockets. Next to the boy was a beastkin girl with silver wolf ears, staring at the room with a highly defensive posture.
The Patriarch’s composed expression completely vanished. He wasn’t shocked or confused at the sight of his exiled son, he was just incredibly annoyed.
’Why in the world is he here?’ the Patriarch thought, his eyes narrowing as he stared directly at Hajin.
’I explicitly told that worthless failure to rot in the slums and never show his face anywhere near nobility again. Does he actually think he can just casually walk into the royal court without severe consequences?’
Before the Patriarch could say anything else, he noticed Didi staring directly at him. Her eyes carried a sharp, uncomfortable intensity that made him pause.
’What is that look?’ he thought, his confusion overriding his annoyance for a split second. ’Did I do something?’
His gaze flicked from Didi back down to the boy standing behind her.
’Wait... did that worthless trash say something to her about me?’ the Patriarch thought, his jaw tightening. ’If he did, silencing him before things get out of control is the best option.’
"I am just genuinely glad you are safe," the King said, breaking the Patriarch’s internal train of thought as he pulled back from the hug. He finally looked past his daughter, his eyes landing on Hajin and Juna. "But who are these two?"
"They are my saviors, Father," she answered smoothly, turning to gesture toward them. "This is Hajin, and his companion, Juna. They pulled me away from the monster and escorted me back to the capital."
The King’s expression softened completely as he looked at the two teenagers, but then a heavy shadow crossed his face.
"The news of your detachment reached me this morning," the King said, his voice dropping significantly. "I am truly sorry about Sir Gazel. He was one of the finest knights this kingdom has ever produced."
Didi’s perfectly composed facade finally cracked. Her expression turned incredibly sad, and Hajin watched small tears start to form in the corners of her eyes.
"He died protecting me," she said quietly, her shoulders dropping.
"He died fulfilling his ultimate duty, and his name will be honored as such," the King said softly, giving her shoulder a reassuring squeeze before he turned around.
The King started walking directly toward Hajin.
A crushing, suffocating weight settled over the entire room. Hajin completely froze in place, his instincts screaming at him as the King drew closer. The man wasn’t even drawing a weapon or gathering mana, but the sheer, overwhelming pressure leaking off his body was terrifying.
’Fuck,’ Hajin thought, his breathing growing shallow as he stared at the approaching monarch. ’Just how powerful actually is this man? Why is he emitting his pressure like this? Is this some kind of test?’
The King stopped right in front of him and slowly reached his hand out.
Every single alarm bell in Hajin’s head went off. On pure, raw instinct, he immediately jumped a full step backward, dodging the hand completely.
Cold sweat formed on his forehead. He had just dodged the King in the middle of his own throne room in front of several heavily armed guards.
’Crap,’ he thought, forcing his heart rate down as he quickly tried to play off the reaction.
"Forgive me, Your Majesty," he said quickly, gesturing down to his own dirty clothes while giving a slightly awkward bow. "But a person of your status absolutely cannot be allowed to grab someone covered in this much dirt and monster blood."
The heavy, suffocating pressure in the air vanished completely.
For a second, the room was totally silent. Then, the King threw his head back and let out a loud, booming laugh that echoed off the high ceiling.
"You have fantastic instincts," the King said, his laughter settling into a genuine smile. "And a good heart to match. Though I must say, for someone attempting to look completely unassuming, you are carrying quite an interesting power."
Hajin kept his head lowered, but his grip tightened inside his pockets.
’Can he actually sense my fragment?’ he thought, realizing how dangerous the King’s perception was. ’Or did he just detect the fundamental shift in my mana when my path changed?’
"Please stop teasing him, Father," Didi interjected, stepping between them. "He just brought me all the way back from the forest. There is no need to test him the second he walks through the door."
"I am not testing him with malice," the King replied, willingly stepping back. "I simply couldn’t help myself. When an unknown individual walks into my throne room having saved my daughter, it is only natural to gauge his foundation. I wanted to learn exactly what kind of person managed to achieve something my own knights could not."
Standing a few paces away, the Patriarch remained completely silent.
His earlier petty annoyance was gone, replaced seamlessly by the cold, calculating mindset that kept his family in ultimate power. When the King pressured the boy, the Patriarch had subtly activated his own mana vision to observe the physical reaction.
He expected to see nothing but the empty core of a talentless failure. Instead, he saw a dense, sharp mana signature actively circulating through the boy’s body.
The Patriarch’s eyes narrowed as he recognized that specific density immediately. It matched the exact mana signature that once belonged to the boy’s mother.
’It is circulating flawlessly,’ the Patriarch observed, keeping his physical expression entirely neutral while analyzing the tactical shift. ’The core isn’t fractured anymore. It can’t be... did throwing him to the edge of death in the slums actually force him to awaken the bloodline?’
A dormant bloodline waking up completely changed the variables. The boy wasn’t just a forgotten stain on the family name anymore, he was a living political vulnerability.
While the Patriarch was busy recalculating his entire strategy, a small blue window popped up in the corner of Hajin’s vision.
[ashley donated: 500 credits]
[ashley: that pressure was genuinely terrifying even through the screen. the king certainly lives up to his title.]
He barely stopped himself from reacting to it in front of everyone.
’Not now, Ashley,’ he thought, dismissing the donation notification before anyone noticed him staring at nothing.
But before the window closed, a second panel flickered open underneath it, the system giving him a quick status update he hadn’t checked in a while.
[ Stream Status: Active ]
[ Viewers: 187 ]
[ Soul Energy: 94 ]
[ Fragment Recovery: 0.012% ]
[ Rank Progress: 16,500 / 500,000 ]
[ Juna Wing Progress: 15,000 / 300,000 ]
’The viewer count nearly hit two hundred?’ he thought, genuinely surprised by the jump. ’And the Soul Energy climbed that much just from people watching the rescue and the trip to the capital?’
He dismissed the panel quickly, but the numbers stuck with him. Things were moving faster than he expected.