"His Highness, Yuri, is here!"As soon as the announcement rang out from outside the palace, a thin and frail young man with a head that was about twice as big as that of a normal man his size came rus.h.i.+ng in from outside. There was sweat dripping down his face, and as he ran, he urgently yelled, "I"m here to offer Father a birthday present! I"m not too late, am I?"
Everyone in the palace turned to Yuri in unison with surprise etched on their faces.
"Wasn"t His Highness in attendance this entire time?"
"I"m not sure; I don"t recall seeing him, though. As expected of the most forgettable prince."
"Most importantly, even His Majesty didn"t seem to have noticed his absence."
All of the officials wore rather peculiar expressions, with hints of ridicule in their eyes.
The first and second princes each had their strengths, and they had always been evenly matched in the past few years, maintaining a fine balance, so no one knew who would inherit the throne in the end.
In contrast, the third prince, Yuri, was only becoming more and more forgettable.
As a prince of royal blood, he was obsessed with a lowly craft like carpentry; no official was going to be willing to serve a prince like him.
Aside from his abnormally large head, there was nothing about him that was noteworthy at all, and even Josh and Sean couldn"t be bothered to pay any heed to him anymore.
In their eyes, recruiting a trusted servant of the king was more worthwhile than recruiting a completely forgettable prince to their side.
Amy"s eyes lit up as she murmured, "It"s a running mushroom head!"
Mag had to repress his laughter upon hearing that. Now that she mentioned it, he really did look like a mushroom in motion. However, where was he before this? He wasn"t even here for the entire duration of the banquet up to this point.
Mag was struck by a sense of sympathy for Yuri as he heard the derogatory comments the officials were throwing at him in hushed tones, but his amus.e.m.e.nt at Yuri"s appearance outweighed his sympathy in the end.
However, it was just as the officials had said: without Yuri, this battle between the two princes was very intense and exciting. With Yuri here… Perhaps he was acting as comic relief?
Mag was even a little worried that this third prince would step forward and offer a wooden carving to the king as a birthday present.
Mag wouldn"t be surprised in the slightest to see that happen.
The king was slightly surprised as he looked at the panting Yuri, and his brows furrowed as he asked, "Where were you, Yuri? And why are you in such a hurry?"
"Father, I was busy preparing your birthday present. Those idiots were too slow, so I ended up getting here too late." Yuri looked around at everyone in the palace before heaving a sigh of relief as he smiled, and said, "But it doesn"t look like I"m too late, after all. They haven"t offered their presents yet, right? In that case, I"m not too late."
At the sight of the smile on Yuri"s face, the hint of displeasure in the king"s heart disappeared. Instead, he became rather sympathetic toward his often overlooked son, and he nodded as he said, "Take a seat."
"Thank you, Father." Yuri nodded with a smile before looking around, only to find that there was no place for him to sit.
Even the servants had forgotten about his existence and neglected to prepare a seat for him!
The servant off to the side hurriedly picked up a chair, but didn"t know where to put it.
The third prince was a royal of direct lineal descent, but it was quite a predicament for them to figure out where to place the seat.
"Little Mushroom Head, come over and sit with me," Irina offered with a smile.
"Er…" A reluctant look appeared on Yuri"s face as he stole a glance at Mag and Amy, looking as if he wanted to run away.
"Hmm?" Irina"s smile gradually cooled.
"Sure!"
Yuri shuddered before reluctantly making his way over to Irina with a smile that was more hideous than a grimace.
The servant hurriedly placed the chair down beside Irina before finally heaving a sigh of relief.
Mag nodded in approval as he looked on from his seat. Indeed, there was no seat more suitable for Yuri than one that was next to Irina.
Irina"s seat was below Josh"s, so the third prince, Yuri, should be sitting there anyway. At the very least, he wouldn"t have to sit in some awkward position now.
Yuri took a seat beside Irina, looking as if he were striding toward his personal execution. He shuffled his chair away from Irina slightly as he wore a forced, nervous smile on his face.
"Little Mushroom Head, looks like your head grew again in the past three years!" Irina scooted closer to him as she inspected his head with a curious expression, and remarked, "Everyone else grows taller in every part of their body, but in your case, it looks like only your head is growing!"
Yuri ducked away from the evil hands that were reaching for his head. Irina was a childhood trauma of his. He even had a feeling that his head had only grown to its current absurd size because she wouldn"t stop rubbing it when he was younger.
Princess Irina had once lived in the royal palace for a while, and she showed a keen interest in his head when he was at a young age. If it weren"t for the fact that she was General Alex"s lover, he definitely wouldn"t have allowed her to ravage his head like that.
Of course, he couldn"t resist even if he wanted to.
Aside from his carpentry hobby, Yuri also had a dream to become a knight, and his idol was none other than General Alex.
However, before he could even begin to pursue that dream, Alex pa.s.sed away.
That was undoubtedly a lethal blow to his aspirations, and from that day forth, he focused his attention solely on carpentry.
Irina hesitated momentarily before withdrawing her hands. She couldn"t help but want to rub Yuri"s big head every time she saw it. She wasn"t doing it with any malicious intent; she simply wanted to rub it.
After receiving a silent instruction from the king, the servant again declared, "The present ceremony shall continue; His Highness, the first prince, will be the first one to offer his present!"
Another servant quickly made his way into the palace with a long platter that was covered by a red cloth. His forehead was dripping with sweat, and his arms were trembling slightly, clearly indicating that whatever was sitting on the platter had to be a rather heavy object.
Sean rose to his feet and removed the red cloth, revealing a burst of red light that had everyone reflexively narrowing their eyes.
The object sitting atop the platter was a reddish-golden sword. Imposing, regal patterns had been carved all over the surface of the blade, and the fiery reddish-golden light foretold a story of unrivaled sharpness.
"What"s that?"
Everyone was looking at the sword with curious expressions. It was quite apparent that this was no ordinary sword.
Sean picked up the golden sword with both hands as he said in a respectful voice, "Long live, Father. This sword is known as the Crimson Flame Sword, and it was once wielded by the human emperor. It has been close to 1,000[1] years since it sank into the Scorching Flame Pond, and it took three years for the people I deployed to find it. Now, it will return to the human emperor once again."
[1] Next chapter makes it clear it should be 100 instead, or that there was more than one giant war between all (or just many) races.