Pasithea only gave Somnus an apologetic smile on the day of their sudden departure.

She had heard about what happened between Somnus and Xanthus, and due to that she was given a lot of superficial work as the successor to the Hierophant, diminishing her free time greatly.

"I'm sorry that I asked the impossible from you." She told him. "I'll talk to King Xanthus and repair your relationship with him."

"No, don't do that." Somnus grumbled. "You're going to make me look like a kid who doesn't know the gravity of his words."

"You are still a kid, Your Highness." Pasithea chuckled.

"I'm not. Sir Urien raised us and he certainly didn't raise cowards who'd hide behind a woman's skirt just because they failed once." Somnus grinned at her. "Wait for me in three years."

Pasithea only smiled half heartedly at that, knowing deep down he wouldn't be able to fulfill that promise.

Once the Imperial Princes left, she let out a heavy sigh before turning to look towards a window not far from her position, where she could sense Eury's overbearing gaze.

Meanwhile, in the carriage with the princes, Urien gazed at a spire jutting out at one part of the castle, a golden shimmer lurked within his irises as if he's suppressing his anger.

×××

The knight captain in charge of their security escort was none other than that beautiful elf the princes saw when they met with Xanthus before.

Knight Captain Ilhan Sydin is the second son of a baron and Xanthus's personal knight.

Their travel was uneventful, save from when the twins had another bout of ether poisoning when their escort knights had fought against the monsters that attacked their retinue.

Of course, Urien had to do the clean up covertly to keep the princes safe.

The territories they passed through were all surprisingly different from the Capital, as their walls and soldiers bore the signs of battle against the monsters that had been disrupting their lives.

Being maintained by barons, hiring mercenaries and having military enlistment all year round was all they could do as their resources and the level of soldiers and priests were below compared to the ones living in the Capital.

Each place has similar steeples to the one they saw back at that town they passed through on their way to the coronation before, and Letum wondered how they engineered it to only repel monsters and not bring harm to others.

The citizens only glanced at their way, wondering which member of the royal family would travel all the way there, as they saw the ever popular Ilhan, only to be confused to see ordinary humans being protected by the royal escorts.

It wasn't until the fourth day of their journey to the border that they came across a group of mercenaries facing off a handful of corrupted wild boars, seemingly luring them away from a small village.

Somnus craned his neck, frowning, as their retinue continued to move forward and avoiding the fight. "Shouldn't we help them?"

"It's none of our business." Urien replied. "They're doing the work they were hired to do."

"But—"

Urien looked out of the window, watching the mercenaries take on the pack of boars. He noticed a red head mercenary taking control of the situation, yelling and pulling his comrades out of harm's way, while dealing damage to their adversaries at the same time.

All in all, the mercenaries' situation isn't all bad and he figured they'd get out of it alive, though some would probably sustain injuries.

Those boars aren't really life threatening to experienced fighters.

"We are on a tight schedule and—" Urien started but his voice died in his throat when Somnus opened the door of their moving carriage, jumped out and rolled to prevent any serious injury.

The knights who were escorting them yelled in alarm, jarringly stopping their procession and Letum, who kept a poker face, quickly got out to run towards his brother who was struggling to get up.

"You are such a dumbass." Letum said as he pulled him up. "I hope you didn't break anything because I'm no top notch healer."

Somnus shook his leg, grunting. "I'm fine. Probably bruised somewhere. Why are you here?"

"I was thinking we could do a seifon showdown." Letum replied drily as he patted his brother's shoulder and started running to make a bigger distance from their escorts.

Somnus took off after him, barely glancing down at the baby boars littered about, with the same black ooze spilling out of them.

He smiled inwardly.

Finally he found the right practice targets for his version of the shapeless and colorless purifying fire he started developing due to his limited ether pool and after his disappointing attempt at re-creating the peculiar fire Urien had shown him.

Having watched the many types of seifon wielders in the royal castle, those attuned to the wind element gave him the idea to make his version of the purifying flames without depleting his ether and started him down on this path as a magic law creator.

Of course, no one else knew that term or anyone who could do the same skillset, since many have adhered to the rules placed down on their ether and nature; the young Fifth prince had no idea that his groundbreaking discovery would catch the attention of an old God, chained to their broken down throne.