The Return

After his dance with the princess, Daemon went in to his room. Like he promised himself, he trained diligently till morning. On morrow, Reiner knocked on his room. When nothing came from the other side, he pushed opened the door only to find Daemon cross legged on his bed, sweating profusely. Since he was training Reiner didn't interrupt him. He pulled a chair close to the bed and sat on it. Obviously, he knew what was going on. He was also trained in mana breathing. He also knew the risk. But seeing Daemon training the skill, he was relieved. Daemon wasn't recklessly using the skill; he was calculating on the amount of mana entering the body and circulating through his body. This was an effective training here but back on ground where the mana is not potent like here, it was not reward reaping. But here, kilometres above the ground with pure mana it was totally a reward harvester.

Reiner also knew about this technique, but since his level of proficiency with the skill is higher than Daemon's he needs much more mana than this, which also meant he will be in severe pain and not able to attend the meeting. But he was glad at least someone is doing a great job.

Reiner thought about waiting for a few minutes before calling his brother, since disturbing a training in the middle is not an idle thing. But he also has to call him since they are leaving in a half an hour. Since he decided to wait for his brother, he opened a book which he withdrawn from his dimensional storage and started to read it.

When several minutes have passed and still no movement from him, Reiner was ready to call Daemon. he stood up and went to the bed. He reached his towards his brother when Daemon suddenly grabbed his hands and looked at him with cloudy eyes. Reiner was startled by the sudden movement but he composed himself in a matter of seconds. He stared at Daemon's cloudy eyes which was supposed to be crimson like his father. He didn't know what was going on but he quickly thought about something and;

*Smack*

"Ouch! Why did you do that?" Daemon winced and clutched his throbbing head just like before. "This is the second time you are doing this!" he wailed.

Reiner was relieved to see his eye colour was crimson again.

"It's just your eyes was cloudy."

"Wait, it was my eyes. I thought the room was getting foggy or something. Anyway, why are you here."

"What, you don't want to come back home?"

"Oh. Is it already morning?" Daemon was in disbelief. He thought only few hours have passed but seeing the sun rays passing through the window he was a bit sad. His days over the Moon dust castle is already over. Even though he was only here for three days, he felt already close to the castle, like he was living here for a couple of hundred years. He didn't know why he felt like this.

"Did you lose your bearings after your dance with the princess." Reiner slyly asked. "Didn't knew you two were that close."

"What to say, what to say, she must have fallen for my charm." He majestically put his hand on his forehead and comically posed on the bed.

Reiner's first reaction seeing that was to smack the little brat again. But he refrained.

"Alright, I've had enough, let's just go. Okay." He stood up and started to walk.

"What! Don't you want to know about me and princess?" Daemon called out.

"Oh please. You can boast when we get home."

"Hey, don't leave me"

"You've exactly 10 minutes to come down to the portal."

"Only 10 minutes! How am I gonna tell my goodbye to the princess."

Reiner abruptly halted his steps when he heard that. He slowly looked at Daemon and resumed his walking without further talking. His only mission right now was to escape from this room.

"Idiot." Daemon spoke after his brother basically ran out from the room.

*****

The Pegasus lord who was watching the duo suddenly spit the tea he was drinking.

"My lord, what is it?" asked his advisor.

"That brat." Lord replied while wiping the tea from his dress.

"He must have said something for you to act like this. Perhaps about the princess." The advisor slyly asked.

"You know it. That brat is very dangerous and cunning. We should watch him closely."

"You must have seen something on him to even give him that 'mark.'"

"Yes, something about the kid tells me he is special."

At the same time, they heard a knock on the door. The advisor cleaned the tea that was spilled on the ground while the lord cleaned himself.

"Enter."

The door slowly opened to reveal princess Dahlia on the other side.

"Ah Dahlia, what brings you early in this morning." Lord asked with fatherly love.

"Father, shouldn't I escort the humans back to the portal since I was the one who welcomed them here."

"No!" Lord's loud voice reverberated throughout the room. The princess flinched and took a step back. Seeing her state, the lord corrected himself;

"What I mean is that you don't have to worry about it, I've already done all the necessary arrangements for their departure including their escort." Lord calmly explained with embarrassment coughing a few times in between.

"Oh." Dahlia was visibly disappointed. Seeing her disappointed face lord cursed the little brat more.

"Can I at least say my goodbye to a friend." She asked sadly.

Seeing her sad face, the lord no longer can say 'no.'

"Yes dear, you can."

"Thank you, father." Her face lit up brightly and her demeaner changed back to a cheerful one. With that she basically ran out of the room.

Seeing his dear Dahlia like that, the lord was getting indescribable feelings in his mind.

"Friend. That brat. I will get him one day…"

Seeing all of this the advisor can only shook his head in helplessness.

*****

Reluctantly he started to get dressed for his departure. Though he had only been out for four days from his slumber he has a resolution now. One of them was to restore his family name which was tarnished by him and the other was to get prepared for what was coming. Seeing what the Braharis was capable of, he was sure he won't survive if it comes to full scale wars. The best thing to do is to prepare and get stronger. And the best way to get stronger was to join the best academy and that was what he was going to do.

After dressing up he walked towards where the portal they came from situated. But before he reached the portal, he heard a sweet voice from behind.

"Lord Reinheart…" She was running.

"Oh." Seeing her running towards him made him amuse.

She halted before him.

"I thought you would com to escort us princess."

"My father had arranged others for that."

"So, why are you here?"

"Eh… to see you off."

"Why?"

"When we were dancing you told me we could become friends, right." Her face visibly getting red.

"Oh, so you want to become friends with me?"

"Yes." She nodded.

"Okay." He extended his arms. "Let's become friends."

"Okay." She shook his hands. At the very moment the castle rumbled a bit enough for them to lose balance and break the hand shake.

"Good lord, what was that?" he asked while regaining his balance.

"I don't know. This is the first time."

"An attack?"

"Uh.. no. The mana signature is my father's. So, it's okay."

"I see. Well anyway I'll be on my way. If you want to become friends with me then why don't we start with my name."

"Your name?"

"Yes. Call me by my name not my title."

"That's a bit…"

"That's a bit what?"

"Dae… Daemon." she squeezed some sound with red face.

The palace shook again. This time loudly.

"Oh. Your father must be doing some kind of magic spell experimentation."

"I don't know. I better check out."

"Alright. I guess our little meeting is over. I'll see you next time…Dahlia." He smiled slyly.

The palace rumbled again.

"Okay. I'm going to my father. Take care Daemon." With that she ran away.

Daemon was quite content with the progression, though he doesn't have any romantic feelings for her other than the just infatuation, he doesn't hate to have a friend here. With that he continued his walk towards the portal.