Chapter 503: He’s Nothing Special
"Dangerous," was Zara’s immediate response, her eyes narrowing as she shivered slightly, "Especially Lady Balfour. Just being near her was... suffocating, no matter how friendly she was acting."
Many of the others in the carriage nodded in agreement, but Landon had a different take, "Marquess Balfour was indeed intimidating, but history has proven that there are warriors in our kingdom who can match her on the battlefield. So, I don’t believe she is the one we should be most worried about."
Raising her brow curiously, Talia asked the obvious question, "Then, who do you believe we should be most worried about, Son?"
Immediately, two figures popped into Landon’s head, causing him to narrow his eyes slightly.
One of these figures had instantly caught his attention and nearly caused him to jump out of his own skin.
The other, upon first glance, had been of interest to the young prince, but only as a matter of curiosity rather than concern. Over the course of the evening, however, as he interacted with and spoke to the people at the banquet, Landon realized that the real monster might just be hiding in plain sight.
The prince waffled back and forth for a time, but in the end, he realized that with the limited information he had, trying to pick just one person was futile, so he did the next best thing, "Christina Rockwell and Lucas are the ones I am most concerned about."
Turning directly to meet eyes with his mother, the crown princess, Landon declared, "Those two stood out the most to me as potential threats, but they’re not alone. Eris Newton is also an unusual figure; I don’t know anyone among the Darr Kingdom’s younger generation who could be so casual about losing an arm."
"Then, there’s the daughter of their First Minister, Danika Emerson," Landon’s eyes narrowed slightly, "During her sumo match, she practically hurled Jessa from the ring despite being almost a full Major Realm lower than her, and it still looked like she was holding back."
"Olivia Moore didn’t stand out as much, nor did she participate in the sumo matches," Zara suddenly cut in, "but her knowledge of Alchemy rivals that of many of my teachers."
As an apprentice Alchemist herself, and one with some decent talent in this Spirit Profession, Zara had naturally found herself chatting with Olivia quite a bit, but rather than a discussion between two members of the younger generation, Zara had felt more like she was receiving a lesson from one of her instructors, which came as a real shock seeing how Olivia was 3 years younger than her.
"What about that Timothy fellow," Talia asked with as slightly teasing glint in her eyes.
Recalling the time she spent chatting happily with the handsome red-head, then how she practically rode on top of him after throwing him to the ground during their sumo match, Zara blushed slightly as she whispered, "He’s nothing special."
Seeing this maidenly look on their usually confident young leader’s face, many of the younger kids in the carriage couldn’t help laughing slightly, something they regretted soon after when Zara’s fist found their stomachs.
Uncomfortable with his big sister’s love-life being so openly discussed, especially that blushing look on her face, Landon quickly continued his musings, "I didn’t understand much of what that fellow named Marco was talking about, but I could tell that his understanding of blacksmithing was extremely advanced."
Not missing her son’s reaction, and Zara’s complete ignorance of it, Talia sighed internally at how hopeless Landon was but made no further effort to help him, instead summarizing, "So, it’s not the current leaders of the Rockwell Kingdom we should fear the most, it’s their younger generation. That’s your opinion?"
Landon, having recovered from his bout of jealousy, nodded solemnly, "Our two kingdoms have been roughly equal in strength for generations, but my instincts are telling me that that won’t be the case for much longer. It won’t be tomorrow, or next year, but soon..."
Although he left it unsaid, everyone understood what Landon was implying, and that irked several of the younger ones in the carriage.
Their own prince was basically saying the youths of the Darr Kingdom were inferior to those of the Rockwell Kingdom, a statement that the prideful youngsters had a very hard time accepting.
Some of those riding in the carriage were impressed with Landon’s frankness and willingness to admit his own weaknesses, but most felt he was looking down on, or perhaps even disparaging his peers in the Darr Kingdom, including themselves.
Never-the-less, no one was going to openly contradict the prince in this environment, so while many disagreed with Landon, they didn’t express such opinions out loud and instead just knit their brows or snorted slightly.
After allowing the grumblings of the youths die down, Talia followed up on what her son had said, "You singled out Lucas and Christina in particular as threats. Why?"
Pursing his lips, Landon took a second to gather his thoughts before explaining, "I’ve always had unusually strong combat instincts, senses that warn me of danger or threats."
Everyone nodded, as this was a well-known fact amongst the upper noble circles in the Darr Kingdom.
"Well," Landon began, before chuckling somewhat self-deprecatingly, "The moment I met eyes with Princess Christina, all my instincts screamed at me to not challenge her. Like not just defeat, but death was the only possible outcome of a fight between us."
"Are you serious, Landon?" Zara, who was undoubtedly the closest one in their generation to the young prince asked incredulously, "Given her age and cultivation, I admit Christina is probably the most talented youth I’ve ever seen before in our South-Central Region, but she’s still just a Seventh Step Core Formation..."
"She’s not," Landon cut in, shaking his head firmly, "I don’t know what her exact realm is, but it’s definitely higher than mine."
"But that’s..." Zara wanted to say that was impossible; however, the words caught in her throat.
As someone who grew up practically inside the palace together with royalty, Zara had met her fair share of others from outside the kingdom, including youths from the neighbouring Kore Sovereignty, a handful of whom really did have higher cultivations at younger ages than she had thought possible.
"Did you not try to confirm your suspicions?" Talia inquired with a frown, knowing that if her son really thought there was a hidden monster among the youths of the Rockwell Kingdom, he would have tried to investigate them by any means necessary.
He even had the perfect opportunity in the form of the friendly sumo match.
Wait... a thought suddenly came to Talia, her brow furrowing slightly, "If I recall correctly, when that whole ’who’s the strongest’ argument broke out, you did try to propose settling things with a series of duals, but..."
"That’s right, Lucas intervened," Landon nodded gravely, "He seemed to have noticed my intentions and then purposely proposed that strange contest as a way to block me, or anyone else, from fighting Christina without raising suspicions."