Finally returning to a peaceful state, Greyson basked in the sunlight. The higher up he was, the colder the air. Although the source of light was still there, he could no longer feel any warmth. Looking towards the rest of the group resting or meditating, Greyson felt swept up into the atmosphere. Normally, he was not the type to just rest without staying cautious or meditating. At this moment, however, he felt the desire to rest. Closing his eyes slowly, all the acc.u.mulated exhaustion lulled him right to sleep.Lucius could sense the state of his friend and opened one eye in curiosity. Snorting his nose, he muttered to himself that this guy was such a child. Yet, in the midst of his criticism, he still climbed on top of Greyson and kept his senses sharp. After a little while, he actually felt a hard stare directed towards Greyson. Opening his eyes, he quickly glanced in the direction only to make eye contact with that newcomer. Who was he again? Lucius was still napping earlier so he only heard half the conversation. Hmmm... Quinn, was it? What was he staring at Greyson for? It was not exactly full of evil intention or malevolence, but the two of them had never met each other before this morning. Quinn actually did not flinch after meeting eyes with Lucius and just gave him a lopsided smile with a nod as a greeting. Not immediately trusting of this new character, Lucius did not respond and before turning his head and closing his eyes once more. He would have to make sure to pay attention to this suspicious fellow later.
With Zephyr"s speed, they were already approaching the capital after a day. By the time Greyson woke up, the morning son had risen signaling the next day. It really had been a while since he slept for so long. Looking down at his chest, he saw Lucius just lazing there. Rolling his eyes, he picked up the cat by his neck fur and tossed him further away. Indignant, the silver cat bristled angrily and hissed. Sending a quick mental shout, he protested such rough treatment.
"Hey! Of all the ungrateful humans I have ever met, you are most definitely the worst!"
"Are you sure I"m not the only human you know? Anyways, says the cat who always uses my body as his personal walking bed."
"While that is true most times, this time I was keeping the lookout for you. Aren"t you too old to just be sleeping without your defenses up?!"
"Oh? A sleeping lookout? Well, aren"t I just so grateful that I could die? I am amazed by such prowess. Who knew one could even fake drooling while staying completely sharp?" Greyson sent back with heavy irony. Spluttering at a loss for words, Lucius did admit that he had fallen asleep for real at one point. But he really did keep thte lookout for a while, okay! He even caught that new guy staring. Thinking of this, he wanted to quickly defend himself by saying this, but he ended up stopping himself. Really, he had no place to complain of the injustice. Greyson had about all the sublety of the sun in a dark room. Lucius knew that the minute he told Greyson there was something suspicious about Quinn, he would have his guard up in a heartbeat. There was nothing wrong with being cautious; but if your are so obvious about it, then the target of your suspicions will be alerted and put more effort into hiding.
Although it hurt to eat this helping of criticism, he decided to be the bigger cat and let it go.
"Haahh, it"s really hard being so unappreciated."
Seeing Lucius go silent, Greyson turned his attention to his position. Surveying the environment, he tried to pinpoint where they were. Spotting a couple familiar landmarks, he knew that they were drawing close to the capital. Actually, the capital was not too far from Academy City since Aurora Academy was the top academy in the Snow Country. Those of the royal family did not attend only because the best teachers and resources were h.o.a.rded and kept within the palace to prevent the subjects from growing too strong. But some of the young heirs from the other Tier 1 Kingdoms attended the academy. They did not come with Greyson and the rest because they went back home to represent their own kingdoms. It just happens that most of the heirs to the 10 families were on the younger side so Greyson was only acquainted with them. There were some older heirs from the other kingdoms that are graduates of the Academy after reaching the magister level. It was because of his own antisocial ways and the fact that he was so young that Greyson was not really aware of the possible compet.i.tion. Outside of the 10 families, he did not know about the other powerful and talented geniuses in the Snow Country. Speaking of this, he was even ignorant about the royal family of the Idris Kingdom. The ident.i.ties of the rest of the group was still a complete mystery to him as he did not know the ages or talents of the princes and princesses of the kingdom.
Peeking at his teacher, Greyson decided it was better to ask late than never. Deep down, he knew that Sweetbow was waiting for him to ask so that he could show off his extensive knowledge.
"Teacher, do you know what the rest of the team will be like?"
A smirk creeped up on the corners of Sweetbow"s mouth.
"Oh?" he asked. "You don"t know?"Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.
"I knew it." Greyson scoffed inwardly.
"Yes, teacher, can you tell me? I"m really curious about their ident.i.ties and power levels." Acting the part of the obedient student, Greyson looked at Sweetbow expectantly.
*Cough, cough!* "Well, if you really want to know. I"ll have you know, the royal family is rather secretive so it was hard for me to get this information ahead of time. There will be 3 people from the royal family joining us today!" As if a seal was lifted off him, Sweetbow spared no time to start telling Greyson everything he found out.
"Which three?" Greyson egged him on. By now, the attention of the rest of the group had also been caught as they stopped their actions to pay attention to Sweetbow. Feeling even better watching the young ones turn to him for guidance, Sweetbow straightened his back to look a little more dignified.
"All of you listen carefully. The three who will be joining us are: the Third Prince, the Fourth Prince, and the Princess Royal. They all are connected to the Moon Emperor"s family, so they all take on the imperial last name. The Third Prince is Sebastien Yce, the Fourth Prince is Nicholas Yce, and the Princess Royal is Palmira Yce. Sebastien is 33 years old and a wind element user. He is at the magister level stage three. Nicholas Yce is 25 years old and a water element user. He is at the magister level stage two. Palmira is the eldest princess and is 39 years old. She is actually a dual-element magician who uses the water and earth elements. She is at the magister level stage four. As the Snow Country does not discriminate against women rulers, Palmira is definitely in the running to be the next queen of the Idris Kingdom. Well, while this is true, the one to take the throne will be the one to break through to great magister the fastest."
"Really? But wouldn"t that be biased towards the older children?" Greyson spoke his doubts.
"Oh my, Grey Grey, it seems you are not very aware of the rules of the royal family. They have to wait until even the youngest heir is 50 years old before they name the next king. Any child born during the current king"s last 100 years of life have no rights to the throne since it would take too long for them to grow up. Plus, in most cases, the heir would be chosen far before then. The queen can only have so many children while she is still younger and fertile. Once she pa.s.ses 500 years, she starts to slowly lose her ability to get pregnant. The children of mistresses are not considered. This might seem rather discriminatory, but the truth is that if the mothers are weak, then the king"s great magister status can only do so much. The illegitimate children will usually be born with lower talent. Most human kingdoms have similar rules because they started to realize that just taking the oldest son was not very intelligent. Younger children could be more talented than their older siblings and the daughters could best the sons. The biggest role for a ruler is to be the strongest. Every other lacking part could be made up by trusted advisors." Ezra stepped in and explained the situation.
"Wait, the queen... over 500 years? But that means..." Greyson barely listened to the rest as he caught onto this point.
"Yes, not many people are aware, but the partners of Tier 1 Kingdom rulers are almost always great magisters themselves. Human bloodlines are not much to brag about, however, the potential of it does grow as the person grows in power." Sweetbow cut back in while glowering slightly at Ezra for stealing his thunder. "In order to have children with higher talent, they try to make sure that both the King and Queen are great magisters. It takes a while for rulers to get married even after determining their status due to this. How many great magister level magicians could there be? Especially because they cannot be related to the royal family which is a criteria much harder to avoid than you would think. Sometimes they choose a decently talented person who could reach the magister level stage five and use rare and powerful magic herbs to get them to the great magister level. Those people would never get pa.s.sed the first stage in the end, though."
"Well, I get waiting for the most talented prince or princess, but won"t the older ones try to kill them while they are young if they show promise? Everyone wants to rule the kingdom, right?" Greyson saw some glaring weaknesses with this system still.
"Do you think even if this system was not in place there would be no a.s.sa.s.sinations between the royal family heirs?" Sweetbow shot back.
"..." Greyson truly could not say with confidence that there wouldn"t be.
"At least this way, it"s not only the oldest son who automatically gets the throne but everyone has a fair chance. Even before this change was made, there were still b.l.o.o.d.y coup d"etats. Actually, it is better now that the older princes and princesses are not taught to expect that the throne will be theirs. Instead, they are told from the beginning that their talent would be the largest deciding factor."
"Anyways, we have gone off topic. Those three are the ones coming along. When we arrive, you will get to meet them personally. I would suggest you are prepared. These types of heirs are always haughty and arrogant under normal circ.u.mstances, so they might not really pay attention to any of you. You don"t have to mind it, though. You are obviously extremely talented as well and they will soon realize and envy you." Sweetbow warmly encouraged.
The group of kids could only secretly retort, "more arrogant and haughty than you?"
"Elder Sweetbow, we will keep your advice in mind. Don"t worry, it"s not as if Ignis, Quinn, and I have never experienced the personality of the royals." Ezra continued smiling like a fox while politely answering.
"Those words were not really for you. Your talent probably IS below theirs so looking down on you is a given. I was speaking to my disciple. It really is quite unfair for him to be looked down on." Sweetbow completely disregarded Ezra"s words and instead insulted her with a plain face. After he spoke only silence remained. Ezra and the rest had ugly expressions on their faces as they really did not know what to say at this point. They were really itching to beat this unreasonable and rude elf, but it was beyond their own abilities to fight with Sweetbow. His lips twitching Greyson was also speechless. Obviously, he was just praised. Yet, why did it have to be said in such a manner? His teacher never seemed to allow him to enjoy compliments.
Thankfully, one could see the castle starting to appear in the distance. Noticing their imminent arrival, the group decided to take this chance to divert the topic. They continued their small talk until Zephyr was just a couple miles from the entrance of the capital. Greyson had him land so they could get off since flying directly was seen as rude and could also be misinterpreted. Dragons looked threatening no matter what, so he could only imagine the panicked response if he just flew right up to the gates. Travelling on foot, they still only took around an hour or so to make it to the front entrance. Although there was the usual line of people and merchants waiting for entry into the city, there were also four people resting on the side surrounded by a rather grand procession. Greyson could tell who they were right away.