"Wake up." The same annoying voice Alan got used to hearing, once again disrupted his peaceful sleep.
"Damn it..." Alan groaned, rubbing his face, he forced his eyes open.
The very first sight of his new day was the view of the sky, a warm colour took hold of the transitioning night sky as the sun peered over the horizon, marking a new dawn.
Because of Lucian's tight routine of rising at sunrise, Alan unfortunately had to adjust his own sleep shedule to match Lucian's.
Alan sighed, utilising mana within his body to shake off his drowsiness, he pushed the blanket off of his body but quickly realised he couldn't fully do so.
Lifting his head slightly, he glanced down at his torso, where he felt an unnatural weight pressed against his body, and spotted the cause.
Snore
It was a small boy, with vibrant blue hair and an adorably cute face, knocked dead asleep with drool leaking from his grinning lips, damping the white blanket.
The identity of the boy was of course, Sparky, a mighty dragon sleeping like a baby.
"Sparky." Alan ruffled the little boy's hair.
"Grrr." Sparky stirred awake with a small frown, but the moment he noticed Alan his annoyance vanished, replaced by wide, excited eyes.
Before Alan could even say anything, Sparky disappeared in a blink of an eye, using his annoying invisibility, he suddenly faded.
Alan scoffed, finding it amusing, over the past three weeks, Sparky came to like Alan quite a bit, even becoming clingy to him, partially due to the fact he always fed Sparky.
Also because he played with Sparky a lot, well, in Alan's perspective, he was trying to somehow achieve his revenge, but Sparky found it fun instead, much to his dismay.
And now it seemed kind of petty if Alan did something when the boy liked him that much, well, not that Alan cared, he'd somehow have his revenge.
Brushing his thoughts aside, Alan dragged his blanket aside and stepped down from his bed.
The location of his bed? Completely out in the open, in the middle of Julia's garden, right next to a small pond.
"Good morning!" Alan and Lucian weren't the only ones awake, not so far away were Julia and Iris crouching beside a burning campfire.
Surrounding the pond were four more beds, the day after returning from the underground, they just gave up thinking and placed beds in the open, using them for the next three weeks.
"What's up." Alan waved, naturally settling down beside the two girls.
For some reason the two of them, like Lucian, woke up straight at sunrise, which annoyed the hell out of Alan.
Lucian sat down, handing Alan a bowl of whatever they were having for breakfast.
During the past three weeks, nothing eventful happened, they spent the entirety of the time in the garden up to their normal shenanigans.
They also made use of the training grounds very often, sparring with each other many times, and Alan lost a lot more than he won in all of the spars.
Especially Julia, he never won once against her.
After the first few days of their stay passed, Alden started visiting almost every day to spout his usual insults to Alan, then proceeded to take a beating, just like he did in the Zevril Knights order.
It's kind of scary how consistent that guy can be.
Alden aside, Arlo, the second prince, also came by the garden from time to time, bringing small gifts for the group, he was astonished and very concerned when he discovered the four of them were sleeping out in the open.
A surprising visitor was Alessia, the twin sister of Alden, whom Alan generally approved of because she had a fairly kind and outgoing personality and treated his mother nicely.
It seemed that Julia also liked Alessia, considering how Alessia was so interested in her garden.
She truly was a good person, which pissed him off more when he remembered how Lucian rejected her.
Alan glared at Lucian with furrowed brows for a moment, then sighed and went back to his meal.
'Alessia was too good for him anyway.' Alan nodded to his own thoughts.
Except for the three of them, absolutely no one else visited, not even maids or other servants.
Either way, they would spend their morning tending to the crimson flowers, the afternoon was spent sparring, while during their evenings they would start camping.
It was a nice, peaceful repetition.
"Oi, give me some more."
"Sure!"
A nice silence commenced as the four of them had their breakfast.
Rustle Rustle
Until the grass near them crunched with steady footsteps, gradually approaching the campfire.
"What are you doing here?" Alan asked, without even turning to see the new arrival.
It was Alden, moving towards them with his usual arrogant face staring down at Alan. "Bastard, what are you doing?"
"Having breakfast, man." Alan lifted his bowl. "Why, you want some?"
Alden simply frowned, from behind his back another head popped out, peeking from his shoulders.
Her violet eyes were upturned and smiling as her twintails dangled to the side, Alessia came along with Alden.
"Alessia!" Julia grinned the moment she saw Alessia, immediately standing up. "Come here!"
"Juli!" Alessia rushed over and pulled each other into a hug.
As previously stated, Julia quite liked Alessia, as the two somehow got along well.
"Come have some of these oats!" Julia seated Alessia down on a log before handing her a bowl.
"Hmm." Alan scratched his cheek for a moment. "Oi, Lucian."
"Yes?" Lucian turned his head.
"Do we, uh, have to restock our supplies?"
"Uh..." Lucian tapped his dimensional artifact, and frowned awkwardly. "Appears so...?"
"Shit..." Alan cursed, rubbing his face.
Before they left for the capital, Alan and Lucian made sure to stuff their artifacts with as many things as possible, from clothes to resources.
Alan and Lucian were sure the amount of supplies they stored would've been enough to last them a year, but as it turns out, having to use all their supplies daily with four people drained it faster.
Not to mention Sparky, a literal dragon with a bottomless appetite, whom Alan just so conveniently feeds everything.
...That was probably why Sparky liked Alan a lot, because Alan was feeding him much more than Julia ever did.
"A gold digger..." Alan cursed, suddenly feeling motivated to enact his revenge.
"What are you even talking about?" Alden sat down on a long opposite to Alan staring at the bowl handed to him by Lucian.
"Nah, nothing." Alan waved it off, turning to the main point. "But why are you here?"
"Can I not be?" Alden asked back.
"No, it's just very unusual for you to be here at this time." Alan gestured towards the sky, Alden really didn't usually appear this early in the morning.
"I suppose." Alden took a spoonful of oats before stating. "But today is different, of course."
"Eh, why the hell..."
In response to Alan's words, Alden stared at him weirdly. "Did you forget the date?"
"Is something happening today or something?" Alan looked at Lucian. "Know anything?"
"No." Lucian shook his head.
"Iris?"
Iris thought for a moment, then frowned, lightly shaking her head.
"Julia?"
"Today we're planting new flowers!" Julia shouted something completely irrelevant.
"Yeah... Good for you." Alan encouraged her with a thumbs up and turned to Alden.
Who was looking back at all four of them with furrowed brows and slightly open mouth, as if unsure of what to say, even Alessia seemed confused by their responses.
"Today's the, uh..." Alden scratched his head for a moment. "Princess's age of coming ceremony?"
"Oh..."
"Oh..."
"Oh..."
"Oh..."
Alan, Lucian, Iris and Julia all simultaneously blinked with blank expressions.
The silence stretched for an unnecessary amount of time until Alan and Lucian exchanged a small look.
Alan tapped his necklace, the moment he did a huge cake popped out, coated with beautiful layers of icing.
Snap
Lucian snapped his fingers, small cylinders of ice erupted from the surface of the cake, forming candles created from ice, at the same time, clusters of smaller ice shards joined in the air above the cake, forming a sentence.
Snap
Alan clicked his fingers, ignited the icy candles with crimson-coloured flames, a shade different from his usual violet ones, and sprayed the lit campfire with a wave of white flames, freezing the dancing flames into a chaotic makeshift table.
He placed the cake he was holding onto the table, while Lucian's ice shards also finished its sentence.
[Happy 16th Birthday!]
"Happy birthday!" Alan and Lucian applauded, followed by the cheering Iris.
"Yay!" Julia grinned and quickly cut into the cake.
"Huh, oi you didn't even blow out the candles."
"Oh..."
Gulp
A quarter of the cake mysteriously disintegrated into thin air.
"God damn it, Sparky!"
Meanwhile, Alessia had already scooted over to Alden, watching the entire sequence play out with a puzzled face, she glanced at Alden, hoping for an explanation.
But her brother just lightly shook his head, silently telling her to not question it.
...
"Thanks for reminding us." Iris spoke to Alden as they walked.
Some time passed since the sunrise, their breakfast and cake cutting, now the group were heading to a certain area within Julia's garden, along with Alden and Alessia.
"No problem, my lady." Alden expressed proper respect to Iris as he lightly bowed his head.
"Yeah, thanks." Alan also thanked Alden.
"Silence, you filth."
"What the hell is your problem, man?"
While the two of them bickered in the back, Alessia and Julia were chatting at the front.
"How do you think about the flowers over here?" Julia smiled, pointing towards a field of crimson roses.
"So pretty!" Alessia looked awestruck, staring at the flowers.
"Yes, yes." Julia nodded with puffed-out chest, accepting the compliments.
"Wait." Iris frowned. "When is the ceremony?"
"Oh, the ceremony?" Alessia hummed for a moment. "In about six or seven hours?"
"So it's before evening, I see." Iris muttered, lifting her gaze, she asked. "Has any of the royal family arrived."
"No..." Alessia lightly shook her head. "But the emperor arrived just yesterday."
"..." Julia's steps faltered for a small moment, which nobody failed to notice, her expression cooled over becoming plain as she stared at the path forward, she became quiet not speaking excitedly like before.
'The emperor is here...' Alan who was listening to the girls talk from behind silently thought to himself, not directly conveying this interest due to Julia's reaction.
Alessia seemed confused but at the same time a little guilty, possibly assuming she said something she wasn't supposed to.
Alan didn't blame her, when matters related to any members of the royal family other than Arlo came up, Julia would have a dramatic shift in her demeanour, refusing to speak, even Iris would give dissapproving looks.
But Alan was very curious about the emperor, he wasn't sure of what to expect from the man but he wanted to meet him.
The emperor was one of the four Rank 7 humans in the current era, the other three being the patriarchs of the grand duchys, which included his deadbeat father, Alaric Nyx Zevril.
As much as he hated the man, Alan still gave credit when due, Alaric was one of the strongest beings in the world right now.
Cassian Von Valenheart, the current emperor of the Northern continent, who was once called a rising prodigy of the previous generation, along with the three childern of the grand duke family.
But there was a fifth member of the prodigies, someone who wasn't connected by royal blood or noble inhertience, he was called hero by many, and a scumbag by all.
Alan had no idea on who the fifth member was, but his reputation sure wasn't great, all Alan heard was curses about the man, not even his name.
As Alan was falling deeper into his thoughts, Alessia hesitantly spoke up again in a small, low whisper.
"The emperor also requested your audience..."