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nWhile Sylas was recovering from the fist he took to the face, the white robed woman did a slight reverence towards the king and seeing that there were new faces she presented herself.

n“The royal alchemist Milia Diod greets the king; I have important news regarding the things that the guardian of the borders asked me to analyze”.

nOrson nodded.

n“Miss Diod, please take a seat… there are no strangers here, so tell us what did you find out”.

nMilia took Sylas’s seat, her indifferent expression changed to a warm one when she saw Kana.

n“Good morning little girl, if you see your grandfather doing any extenuate activity, tell me so I can punish him for being a stubborn old man”.

nSylas sighed, he sat next to Milia with a somewhat annoyed expression.

n“Why the discrimination? I’m also Kana’s relative, you know?”.

nMilia ignored Sylas which was a usual thing, Aster was amused by the whole situation, “to think that this crazy old man would have a weakness for women… well I’m in no position to judge though”, he thought.

nMilia took out three bottles from her spatial ring, she showed them to all the presents before starting her report.

n“The royal family has always taken utmost care when it comes to identify whether a child has the main lineage of the king or not, so whenever a successor is born a little test is made, a drop of the blood of the child is combined with a special reactive, if the liquid turns green then everything is okay”.

nTwo of the bottles that were in the table had the reactive Milia mentioned, the third bottle had the blood of the black robed old man that Sylas killed, she poured a few drops of the blood in the reactive and after shaking it a couple of times… the color changed to green.

nOrson gritted his teeth, he made a slight cut in one of his fingers and let his blood fall in the other bottle of the reactive, the result was the same, the reactive also turned green.

nMilia nodded.

n“I did the same test quite a few times already with some of the samples we have taken from your majesty, and the result is always the same… that black robed man was related by blood to the main royal lineage, and that is not all”.

nShe left the bottles with the reactive aside and took out two black capsules out of her robe.

n“Corruption eats away any living thing, but that guy from Riga had some kind of resistance towards it, look”.

nMilia left the capsule into the bottle which contained the reactive with the blood of the black general, the capsule dissolved and the liquid started slowly drying off and turning into a black dust.

nOn the other hand, she did the same on the bottle which contained the blood of the king and the result was immediate, the liquid turned into brown dust.

nIn comparison the other bottle was still in the process of being corrupted.

n“There is a huge difference in the two samples, first the rate at which corruption advances in the blood of the black general is extremely slow, also as you can see the color of the resulting dust is different, the black one is poison, the same kind that I found in the body of Sylas”.

n“In conclusion, the black smoke that guy used was created using his own vitality, although I didn’t have the chance to inspect the Archduke after he took the form that Sylas described, I can more or less deduce the procedure… they managed to combine a human with a portion of a corrupted to augment its strength, but the price is the host’s lifespan”.

nThe room fell in silence, things were getting worse with every new discovery they made, but the most solemn right now was Orson.

n“Thanks for the report… it’s been some time since a king of Luonto has been assassinated or has disappeared, the last one is a direct ancestor of me, the fifteenth king Oliver Millefiore”.

nEveryone could more or less imagine what the king was thinking, Leister elaborated on the theory.

n“According to the books of the sixteenth king which was the son of the king Oliver, his father was only a peak stage star alignment cultivator when he disappeared… so at this point he should be dead due to old age, but there are other ways to keep the lineage alive”.

nOrson finally couldn’t hold back his anger, he hit the table which cracked a bit due to the impact.

n“Those scum from Riga have been using my family to experiment… unforgivable, senior Grim I want to see all the memory crystals, we will be going to the forbidden chamber after that”.

nOrson turned to towards Sarina.

n“The crystals can only be used by the king… you all can leave for the time being, a maid will go look for you when the time to visit the gatekeeper comes”.

nHe then saw the other members of the royal court.

n“Honorable members of the court, please stay behind, I don’t know what I’m about to see but I’m pretty sure it’s not going to be a pleasant experience… and it’s going to feel real for me, I don’t want little Kana to see me like that”.

nSarina agreed with the king, some things are better buried in the past, unfortunately they don’t have that option anymore.

nKana and Sarina stood from their seats and started walking towards the door, Aster and Alice followed them but before they left the room, Aster gave Orson a suggestion.

n“Pay close attention to the second king, something tells me he is more involved in all this than what it seems”.

nAfter saying that he closed the door behind him, and the first thing he saw were three girls looking at him, he could understand why Sarina and Kana did it, but he was confused about why Alice was joining them.

n“Is everything okay ladies?”, he asked.

nSarina smiled.

n“We haven’t had any moment to relax together since we met, so I was speaking with Alice about doing a little picnic in the back garden of the castle, we have to wait for them to finish anyway”.

nKana had a bright smile in her face.

n“Say yes, big brother plaeasee, we didn’t have the chance to see Oak Heart city together… and I want to play with big sister Alice and you”.

nAster saw the cunning smile in his sister’s face and he was sure this was her doing, just like she helped him back then when he was courting Aria, she was giving him her support now… although he wasn’t sure if things will end up like the last time.

nHe patted Kana’s head, something which unconsciously has become a habit due to the cute reaction she always had when he did it.

n“Ok, let’s go to the back garden then, I will tell you some stories about my native planet and you can play with Alice too”, he answered.

nThe corner of Alice’s mouth trembled a bit, she didn’t expect her brother to drag her to his mess, “maybe he wants to speak with Sarina first”, she thought.

nSarina guided them to the back garden of the castle, on the way she also asked for some little snacks and drinks to the maids, so they could pass the time later, once they arrived at their destination Aster was a bit surprised, although it was called “back garden”, it was more like a little forest, it even had an artificial river which complemented the beauty of this place.

nSeeing the surprised expression in Aster’s face Sarina nodded.

n“This is one of Kana’s favorite places in Luonto, back when she was younger, we had tea parties with other noble ladies and their daughters, here”.

nAfter walking a bit inside the garden, Sarina took them to a gazebo made of stone that was on the edge of the river, to be honest Aster found this place had more of a romantic atmosphere, than a familiar one and his supposition was confirmed by Sarina a moment later.

n“This gazebo was built by Orson’s grandmother to commemorate the day she met her husband, but they didn’t use it, so when Kana was born, I asked the staff of the castle to restore it for a different purpose”.

nThere weren’t chairs so Sarina took out a blanket and everyone sat cross legged over it, the maids brought some cookies and tea and then left.

nWhile Sarina was pouring tea for them, Kana and Alice started eating the cookies as if they were competing between each other.

nAster was amused by their little interaction.

n“Well, they do have something in common… they are both gluttons”, he thought.

nHe started telling Kana some stories of the azure sky planet, how they travelled in a space ship and about some of the people he knew, like Eric, once he mentioned Eric, Aster suddenly thought of Cade, the subordinate of Eric which they left in Oak Heart city.

n“Sarina… can you ask someone to contact the guy that was with us when we arrived at your mansion, I somehow totally forgot about him”.

nSarina laughed.

n“Don’t worry, Marco returned to the mansion and everything is fine, apparently his food was drugged by Lynn so he slept the whole night, speaking of that we are still looking for your friend, luckily you told me about him when Robert wasn’t around or he might have been in danger”.

nAster sighed.

n“Thanks, let’s not speak about that for now, earlier I promised to speak with you, so ask me what you want”.

nKana stopped munching the cookie she had in her hand and after hesitating for a couple of seconds she spoke in a shy tone.

n“Big brother… when you return with big sister to your world can you take me and mom with you?”.

nSarina was a bit surprised by her daughter’s question, “I thought she would ask him to stay here, is she really prepared to leave Luonto just to follow them?”, she thought.

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