Michael

The feast was great, with exotic food, and drinks. Michael was especially thankful that he had a place to sit and not deal with other people. So, he happily dug into his iron boar steak, it wasn't every day that one could get monster, so he relished in the well-made meat and felt the traces of mana in his stomach. His siblings also seemed to enjoy the meal and chatted excitedly at the opportunity to eat at the king's table. To Michael's surprise, he saw the king had another meal on his plate even though he couldn't quite make out what it was.

After the meal the queen rose from her chair and moved down into the hall, followed by most people on the table, including her children and Lord and Lady Rowan. Michael was about to submit to the social pressure and also go down to socialize when his gaze fell on the king, who was watching him with interest. Upon making eye contact he motioned Michael to come closer and he followed the order and moved over to his father's now abandoned chair next to the king. He knelt down and after a dismissive hand wave of the king sat down on the chair.

They sat in silence, the king inspecting him and Michael just awkwardly trying the remain calm while listening to the playing music. The table had completely emptied now as if everyone had gotten a signal to leave them alone that Michael had missed.

His mother and father were standing in a group of counts talking, Luciel was with noble girls giggling and secretly pointing at handsome boys and Michael could see Lira snuck to an empty part of the hall, most certainly trying to avoid Luciel. The twins were standing next to an older boy that they bowed to, Michael didn't know who he was though.

He couldn't see the prince anywhere but as he scanned the hall, he suddenly made eye contact with Duke Wulfen again, he was staring up at him, not even trying to conceal the fact. This made Michael swallow nervously and look away.

His gaze fell on the dancing floor next; it was still deserted as most would let the food settle before trying their luck and being the brave ones to be first.

After his cursory scan, he returned his attention to the king who was still looking at him, it was then that he finally broke his silence. "I heard a lot of different things about you. You are a genius. You are a monster. You are a mage. You are a demon worshiper. I am somewhat conflicted about what kind of an opinion I should have about you."

Michael thought about his words for a moment, he had expected to hear something about himself but as Zen had never mentioned the rumors, he had hoped that they had not spread here.

"You should make your opinion, your Majesty," he said diplomatically while keeping eye contact.

"Why? Is what I heard wrong?"

Is he playing with me or testing my arguments? Michael thought quickly, he didn't want to be in this situation, but he had to make the best of it, and if what he heard about the king from his parents was true and how Prince Zenial acted as an indicator, he would go the direct route without holding back.

"Why should a person let his opinion be formed by rumors and hearsay when he has the opportunity to make his own? There are many different opinions about everyone and if one doesn't make their own it will just be left to chance which one, they will get." He began to calm down, he was more comfortable with thinking and making arguments than socializing meaninglessly.

The king smirked for a moment and then said with a thin smile, "You are indeed not normal. Do you know why I am interested in this at all?"

Michael shook his head. "No, your Majesty."

The blond man leaned back, finally letting off Michael, his gaze wandering into the crowd. "Has your father ever told you how we met?" After Michael nodded, he continued, "Good, and how I know your father, he correctly portrayed me as a pretentious cunt?"

"He said 'pretentious little shit' if I remember correctly," Michael said with a nod. This made the king laugh, and he took a moment to regain his composure, "Well, it seems like we are gonna make a noble of your father yet. Another fifteen years and he might just call me pretentious." After he said that a flash of dread appeared for a moment but was gone so fast that Michael wasn't sure if he just imagined it.

"Now the point of this is that meeting your father helped me a great deal. He didn't grovel, he didn't lie to me, and he most certainly beat my ass when I needed him to. He made me a better man and my son Zenial needs that as well. He is not as bad as I was back in my time, that I made sure of, but he is surrounded by people who want to please him and would do everything to get in his good graces. He doesn't have anyone that would beat him up when he deserves it."

Michael already knew where this was going, the king was not trying to conceal it at all, but he wasn't sure how he felt about it either. The king didn't notice his hesitation and just continued talking. "But you did exactly that, the first time you met him, just like your father did with me. You also told him an uncomfortable truth without knowing how he would react. I wasn't sure if this resulted from you just lacking respect but that doesn't seem to be the case. You just have a strong self-confidence in your own opinion, don't you?"

Michael chuckled and thought sarcastically, self-confidence? Yeah, that is totally me. He then paused and held that thought. He wasn't the same boy he had been last year; he had beaten his brothers, instigated a large crime raid, beaten a prince, and just now had given the king advice even though it was presumably just a test. He had become self-confident; it was hard to deny from the evidence. Sure, he was still nervous or scared but he pulled through.

"I understand, your Majesty, but I am just a child, I am sure there are others that would be better suited for this," Michael said, he felt like a hypocrite as he used the child card that he always tried to get rid of but there had to be an advantage of being one, so, in the end, he didn't feel too bad.

The king leaned back with a smug face and said, "Are you trying to prove me wrong on the lying part? You spend all your time studying or training, you risked yourself to help your town and you are going to move out of your family home to concentrate on your studies, throwing away all the security and boons of it to better yourself. All that at the age of seven, do you really expect me to believe your child act? If you did, you might want to reduce your self-confidence a little and take some acting lessons."

Michael chuckled a little, "I am not as self-confident as you think so it comes from a place of truth, your Majesty."

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"I am not asking you to do anything in particular just to be his friend so that you can rub off on him a little as your father did with me."

He thought back at the scene at the lake earlier and shook his head determined, "I won't do that, your Majesty. He gave me the courtesy of telling me that you told him to get close to me and that he won't do it because you said so, so I will do the same. I will be his friend because he is intelligent and friendly, not because I have been ordered to, and once he doesn't seem like someone that I want to be friends with anymore, I will stop being one." Michael stared at the king to see his reaction to the straight-up refusal of an order, but he wasn't too concerned, the whole conversation had given Michael a sense of the man. He was just trying his best for his son and didn't seem like a raging tyrant that would have him punished for refusing an order like this, it was more like a request anyway.

"Perfect answer, my boy," King Johann nodded at him with a confirming smile. "I hope the two of you can connect and that you can help each other become better men, just like your father and I did."

"Thank you, your Majesty."

The king waved him off and said, "You may leave now Michael. And thank you."

Michael stood up from his chair with a smile and bowed toward the king before he made his way down the podium. Out of the corner of his eye, he could still see Duke Wulfen watching him. He ignored it and just looked for a quiet place to sit down and think about what happened.

As he made his way through the great hall, there were many eyes following him and with a little mana he could hear the whispers.

"What did the king want with the boy?"

"He is the son of Count Cedric."

"Maybe we should see if he will tell us something?"

"He is just a kid what would he tell us?"

With a sigh, Michael let his mana die down and moved on, more politics. He wondered if the king talked to him in such an overt way on purpose to gain the attention of the nobles, but he couldn't find a reason for such a ploy.

Michael sat down on a bench at the western wall and watched the dance floor, as the first people entered it and began dancing. Michael thought about looking for a dance partner, as his mother was certainly expecting him to do at least one dance, but he was too tired and not in the mood. The day had drained him more than any day of training could, so he just sat at the sidelines and watched the others dance, captured by the slowly whirling colors of the dancer's clothes.

He could see Luciel dance with a handsome teenager, her dark red dress making her stand out next to his colorful outfit. She looked like she was amusing herself and was smiling a lot. On the other side of the room, he could spot his parents making their way toward the dance floor, his mother's arm wrapped around his father's. He couldn't make out their faces, but he was sure that she was more excited to dance than he was.

He sat there for a while just watching and enjoying the time alone when suddenly someone sat down next to him. He jumped up a little and looked over startled, he hadn't noticed anyone approach him with the ambient noise of the feast.

His unexpected visitor was the king's daughter, with shoulder-long hair in a single braid, a beautiful silver dress, and a silver diadem in her black hair. She looked to be around Michael's age and looked at him with her shining blue eyes. She looked frantic and said, "Quickly, talk to me." She was looking around as if she was trying to find someone in the crowd and when she did, she swung her head around to Michael with a pleading gaze.

Michael could see the older boy that the twins had bowed to earlier out of the corner of his eye; he was approaching them, and Michael was pretty sure that he was who the princess was running away from. He looked at the princess who was still looking at him with those blue puppy eyes and just blurted out the first thing that came to his mind, "Do you want to dance?"

She stared at him for a moment, and he already thought that he had said something disrespectful when her face lit up in understanding. She jumped up and said excitedly, "Yes please!" She held out her arm for Michael to grab as he looked at her stunned. He could see the older boy had nearly reached them when he finally got up, took her arm, and began moving toward the dance floor when they were stopped by the older boy.

"Princess!" He said loudly stepping in front of them, "I was looking for you." He was tall, probably around thirteen or something like that, with short brown hair and a slender body.

She looked at him with a stressed look and smiled awkwardly, "Oh my apologies, but I was already asked for a dance, so maybe another time."

He stared at Michael with a condescending gaze and said, "You should think about your status, boy."

His eyes reminded Michael of someone, and he realized that he had seen the older boy on the table before, he was sitting next to Duke Wulfen. Michael frowned at him and looked up into his eyes, he was in no mood to argue and didn't want to get his family into trouble, but he really didn't like his tone.

"And what status might that be?" The sharpness in his voice cut through the stale air and the teenager narrowed his eyes before he answered. "I am Julius Wulfen, son of Duke Leopold Wulfen, I am your superior so show some respect. You are too low in the hierarchy to even approach the princess."

Michael smiled at him, "Well, that is for the princess to decide and now that we have settled that, the princess is part of the royal family, so she is your superior, she agreed to this dance so show some respect and back down." He stared at Julius for a moment before he turned to the princess, made a small bow, and held his arm in her direction. She was barely holding back from laughing and took his arm. They walked away from Julius who was just standing there frustrated, and Michael could see the princess smile as they did.

Michael didn't look back as he led the princess onto the dance floor.

"Thank you," she said quietly, "I didn't want to make any trouble for you."

They reached the dance floor and Michael held out his hand to start the dance, she took it, and they began slowly circling each other. Dancing had been a part of his education of course; he had painstakingly tried to convince Lira to practice with him, but she had denied it every time, so he was forced to train with Solon as he was at least close to his size. He had been glad when Tara was in Reen as she had been more gracious than Lira and practiced with him.

"Always there to save a princess," he smiled at her, and she chuckled. "But I haven't properly introduced myself, I am Michael Rowan, son of Count Cedric Rowan. At your service, your Highness."

"Oh right, I just jumped into it without proper etiquette. I am Miranne Merland, but you can call me Mira, thank you again for saving me," she said without missing a step in their dance. She was definitely trained in the art of dancing, probably much more than Michael himself and she seemed very sure on her feet, moving with a certain grace that one would not expect from a child.

"So, what was I saving you from, exactly?" Michael asked as he whirled her around into the next position.

Her expression darkened as she said, "Julius, Duke Wulfen's son. He is annoying, I don't know why he always wants me to hang around him, but I don't like him. He is mean to everyone that he says is beneath him. The last time I said something I got scolded by my mom, so I just run away now. I really hope you don't get in trouble for talking like that, his father is important."

"Well, nothing we can do then. Just happily going for my last dance in life." Michael chuckled and she quickly joined in. He wasn't overly concerned about any consequences, the king seemed pretty relaxed, and Michael had done nothing wrong.

"So why did you choose me as your savior," Michael asked with an interested glance after a while.

She stayed silent while they continued dancing until she finally spilled, "My brother said you are his friend and that you beat him in a spar so I thought you would probably be nice and strong." Michael smirked at that, "It seems everyone knows that I won against the prince in this palace." Mira didn't reply anything to that and just concentrated on her movements.

They danced in silence until the song was over. Once they had left the dance floor, Michael bowed respectfully and said, "It was a pleasure to dance with you, your Highness."

"And with you," the princess said with a shy smile before they parted ways.

Michael met up with the prince and the other boys, they were hard to find in the large room, but he managed it in the end. When he met up with them Zen gave him a knowing look and signaled with his head toward the king and Michael shook his head with a smile, which the young prince returned. They spent the rest of the evening walking around talking and playing games.