As the sun had announced its presence over Emerald City, Arius dragged Amadeus towards the training ground. The little boy had quickly run off to get into his training attire leaving Amadeus just waiting for him. To pa.s.s some time, he decided to go towards the training ground. However, just as he reached the training ground, he was instantly smothered by a large horse."Hey, hahaha."
Pus.h.i.+ng back Sleipnir"s face, Amadeus started petting the horse while it rubbed its head back. It seemed that it wasn"t just the others that were worried, the horse was worried as well. However, Amadeus now realised the saddle worn by the horse. The saddle was made by some unknown black leather that felt comfortable at touch. The horse also had reins attached to it by the same type of leather as Amadeus jumped on top of it, but he never took off. He still had to watch his brother.
"Not now, maybe later,"
Patting the horse, Amadeus jumped off just when Arius returned with a boy around his age in tow. It was easy to tell that the boy had been forcefully woken up as he had bed hair and his training attire was worn the wrong way round. The boy seemed to not see Amadeus as he complained,
"Arius, what do you want this early in the morning?"
A hyperactive Arius replied,
"My brother will be watching us train."
The boy was rubbing his eyes as he stopped and a confused look masked his face,
"Brother?"
The words didn"t click in and a frown reached his eyebrows. It was only until he looked ahead and saw Amadeus leaning on Sleipnir did he realise what Arius was talking about. While still in the midst of being dragged by Arius, Amadeus saw the boy"s eyes widen and mouth slightly open in a disbelieving expression.
Amadeus was pretty sure that it was the first time Rex had seen him. Rex was Arius" training partner and Lionel Baxter, the imperial guard captain"s son. The boy didn"t know what to do as his expression begged the opposite party to tease. As a smile disappeared from Amadeus" face, displeasure was written all over his face.
Arius who saw this got the hint as he bought Rex in front of Amadeus.
"What is this?"
A cold voice from Amadeus shook Rex out of his thoughts.
"Huh?"
"Such an uncultured person…"
All Rex saw was a condescending look on Amadeus, it was as if he was looking at an ant. Rex didn"t know what to do as it was all too fast.
"Hasn"t even bowed yet…"
"Huh?"
"You"re now subjected execution."
"Huh?"
Before Rex could even think further, he was on his knees while his own father was next to him unsheathing his sword. Lionel was just pa.s.sing by and decided to join in when he saw what was happening
"I"m disappointed in you son?"
Amadeus found it weird that Lionel was finding some happiness in this. It seemed that Rex was more that handful for Lionel.
"I thought all your pranks had a limit, but earning the ire of the crown prince, I never thought you could achieve,"
"Huh?"
"REX!!!"
"Mother?"
Rex saw his mother held back by a couple of maids, seeing the tears in her eyes, it allowed everything to fall into place. Tears appeared in his eyes as he was about to let loose the waterworks.
It wasn"t until a stifled laughter broke his desire to cry, causing him to slowly turn around, only to see Arius with tears in his eyes desperately holding back his laughter. More and more stifled laughter was heard as he saw the same expression on his father and Amadeus. Then came the one he didn"t expect at all, his mother"s. Robotically, turning his head, Rex saw the back of his mother. However, as he saw his mother"s shoulder continuously shake and the small giggle, he knew at that moment, his mother was in on it as well.
Rex" mother, Amelia, was a maid that worked for the Empress. One could see that the family of three had an incredibly close relations.h.i.+p with the royals. Amadeus saw that the boy was devastated by the prank and crouched in front of him. He saw the tears and snot threatening to come out of the boy as he ruffled his hair,
"Thank you."
This seemed to calm the boy down as he looked up,
"Thank you for being Arius" best friend."
Amadeus gave a warm smile to the boy as he quickly wiped his nose and looked away with the blush,
"I only did what I had to."
The boy then realised that no one was talking. Once more turning to look back, he looked at his father look at him with disbelieving eyes. These seemed to be more genuine while Arius had the same look. Confused as to what was happening, he looked down only to see what he wiped his nose with. It was a purple cloth, but it came from the one person that he never should"ve taken. Everyone knew that his favourite colour was purple and now he was looking at that same material. Slowly looking up, he came across the same cold eyes he saw before.Find authorized novels in Webnovel,faster updates, better experience,Please click for visiting.
This time the cold look changed back to the warm smile but this time with his eyes closed. For some reason, Rex felt a chill down his spine while he looked at the smile that warmed him before. Speaking while still looking at Rex,
"Eriko, ready my training attire, I want to see how far my brother and his best friend have come in training."
***
Amadeus now stood in the middle of the training ground with Arius in front of him and Rex behind him. The two were holding a training sword while Amadeus was holding a training pole. Keeping it behind him, he held a pebble in his other hand. The three had attracted quite the audience, while Amadeus" entourage of maids were there, with the addition of Emily, Lionel and Amelie stayed behind. As word got out, a couple more Blades came while Lily also found her way there. Despite Amadeus not seeing his father, he definitely knew what was happening here.
Flicking the pebble into the air, the three waited for it to hit the ground. The two boys tightened the grip on their swords while sweat appeared in Arius" forehead. It was the first time he was sparring with Amadeus and he wanted to show his improvements. As for Rex, he wanted to see how far he had come with his training, it was definitely not for revenge, definitely not, not, Okay, maybe a bit.
As the pebble slowly descended time seemed to slow down for the two as they both gulped at the same time. Arius felt slightly excited as he also felt adrenaline pump into him. An unknown light shone in his eyes as the pebble descended onto the ground. With a drop, the two instantly moved, pus.h.i.+ng off the ground with determination. The two were on either side of Amadeus and in their seriousness, what they didn"t notice was the ever-growing smile on Amadeus" face.
Arius was there to reach him first but what he didn"t expect was a foot that threw him off balance. Barely able to control himself, he found himself just barely seeing Amadeus"s smile, and heading straight for Rex. Rex was already into his stride and found out that Arius was heading straight for him. He desperately tried his best to stop but to no avail, and it happened, with a *Thunk* the two landed on each other and began to see stars.
When the two were barely able to get up, all they heard was,
"Again."
It was such sentence where they could only find themselves complying, finding it difficult to reject.
This went on for all morning until the sun reached its peak in the sky. They were given dinner and when the maids came, they saw a fresh-looking Amadeus who was all smiles and two little boys next to him full of bruises. Well Arius" was mostly healed but it wasn"t the same for Rex. Amadeus then nodded at another maid who came healed him with healing magic. Rex looked at her as if she was a G.o.ddess, slightly embarra.s.sing the maid in question.
"You look like you"re about to eat her."
Rex flinched with those words,
"So young yet so lecherous."
Rex stayed quiet and gobbled his food with tears. Amadeus felt it was enough but had the urge to go on. It was just the boy"s character that made it so fun in teasing him. Still it didn"t change the fact that he saw Rex as a little brother due to how close he was with Arius. He was really surprised the cooperation the two had despite only training together for a few months. Having their lunch, he then moved training grounds to get alone. He needed to try out his weapons. He had the Blades set up and maintain a barrier where he went in alone. With a lift of his hand, Solaris flew out and turned into his Hsu Quandao.
Amadeus didn"t tarry and immediately input his power into the weapon. Seeing it glow an orangey yellow, he could feel the heat emitting from it, yet no side effects was seen. He then started swinging it around and felt no discomfort. The Blades outside felt slightly hot as they started sweating. They were outside, and they could feel the heat emitting from it. The only reason Amadeus" clothes were ok were due to him spreading a thin layer of runes surrounding it. Knowing the strength of Amadeus" powers, he had a few tailors back at the clan make a special set of clothes for him just so they could handle Amadeus powers. Despite not being able to handle a direct strike they could at least withstand the aftereffects.
Next, he input his cold energy and the blade glowed blue while ice crystals appeared around him. He could see his own breath while it was the same for the Blades. At one point they were sweating, now that same sweat froze on their skins. Still they were dragons and had endurance.
Lastly, he input both of his energy where it was able to go into three different directions. The upper half was hot while the lower half was cold, the opposite, and the last one where the two elements intermingle which he couldn"t do yet.
Upon finis.h.i.+ng, this test, he indicated to Luna who ran and jumped into Amadeus. Luna turned into white smoke and surrounded him, summoning his armour. Getting a mirror, he had a look and e ad to say, he looked awesome. It was a pure white Samurai armour similar to the Blades. With the crescent moon and Dragon on his helmet, it perfectly fitted around his new horns. With the addition of his mask, that was in the shape of a smiling demon, it looked even more frightening. There was an opening at the mouth in case he wanted to roar. While the whole armour was white, the lines and grooves were purple with a tint of gold with the inside of the armour being the same. Playing around with it, Amadeus unsummoned his armour and moved away from Luna, creating a barrier where the rabbit couldn"t reach Amadeus. Summoning his armour, he saw Luna still stand there as his armour started appearing from his four limbs. Amadeus concluded that he didn"t have to have the spirits near him to activate it. Once he finished all his experiments, he left the training grounds because he was back to taking his private lessons.
Amadeus made his way towards the study room with his entourage of maids and Blades behind him. With what had happened before, they were extra cautious and always had him in sight, apart from certain "private" times. He couldn"t say that he never minded it but with the leader of his entourage being Eras, the latter was extra cautious when it came to him. Amadeus had heard that he was scolded quite a bit by his father, but ultimately Baldrik knew that it wasn"t his fault, so he was let go. Blades were the most difficult to train and were the most loyal squad.
Outside his study room, Amadeus had surprisingly found Baldrik waiting outside while talking to someone. The person in question had long bat like ears and leathery wings beneath his arms. He was wearing a suit and had a monocle on his left eye. His face was full of wrinkles and his head was full of white hair. This wasn"t the first time Amadeus had seen him as he knew it was the current prime minister of the empire, Henrik Grim.
"Father?"
"""Your highness."""
While the entourage bowed to Baldrik, Amadeus ran straight to his father. Baldrik looked down and turned to Eriko,
"Eriko. Get him properly dressed."
"Properly dressed?"
Amadeus and Eriko looked confused as to what Baldrik was saying but his next words answered their questions.
"He will be entering the Royal Court with me today."