The next morning the two kids met again. After bumping their fists, first thing Zia asked was, “When can we have pizza again?”

On the way to the small garden Zia told how her parents fought for pizza. At first Nick was stupefied, but soon he understood – the royalties were the same people. Why wouldn’t they have fun with their loved ones?

Both kids laughed and chatted for a while and then came time for the training. Or at least it was how Nick described it. This would be a system he came up by himself anyway.

Once again he explained on what he was about to do, Zia seriously nodded and sat down, Nick positioned behind her and held both his palms on her back.

“Now close your eyes and relax. I will try to guide my Qi.” Nick instructed.

For five minutes they sat as nothing happened, but then suddenly, “Hahaha, stop it! Stop it! It tickles!” Zia laughed.

“Does it feel like small warms are crawling inside?”

“Yes, how do you know?”

“From now on you have to sit still, it’s important. Even if it tickles don’t move. I don’t want to damage your pathways.” Nick was even more serious now. It seemed he finally managed to guide the Qi through his palms outside his own body. It took a lot of mental strength, but it wasn’t that hard after all, only exhausting. Also, for now he didn’t try to pinpoint her Qi pathways, he just sent his Qi into her body.

“Ok, again!” Nick commanded.

This time it seemed there was a very thin white mist forming around Nick’s hands. He had his eyes closed and didn’t notice. But the one who did almost lost his cover. Ling stared stupefied at the events that were transpiring.

‘How the hell is this possible? Don’t tell me he is eight years old Qi master!’ He thought to himself.

While Zia was trying her best to sit still, Nick was doing his best to channel Qi and it took around twenty minutes for him to ‘run dry’.

He stopped while panting and when Zia looked at him, she saw his hair all wet and sweat drops continuously running down his forehead. Nick’s hands were trembling a little and it looked like he could pass out any moment.

“I need to rest for a while.” He weakly said.

“Is it that hard? I feel great!” She jumped up and ran around the small garden.

‘Seriously? Not even a ‘thank you’?’ Nick smiled. Well, she was a child after all.

“Oh, I almost forgot. When I told my mom about what we plan to do, she gave me these and said it might help.” Zia passed two walnut sized stones to Nick.

“Hahaha! Do you know what these are?” Nick laughed when he saw those, “Last time when I explained about Qi, I told you about these. Think!”

While Zia was thinking, he grabbed stones in both hands and started to perform the first Qi technique.

To his surprise, he even felt how he was rejuvenated. While performing the first Qi technique, the Qi flowed from the stones into his body in a small stream. This was his first time seriously trying it after leaving the sect. And there was a big difference. Did he improve during the last three months that much or did the detox help? In any case this was good news. Maybe in the future he even could replenish Qi fast enough by his three techniques to never run out of it at all!

“Beast cores! Those are beast cores!” Zia suddenly shouted as she figured out the answer.

“Nice!” Nick stretched out his fist for the usual fist bump.

Then he suddenly froze. He almost missed the main aspect – her mother gave the cores to her for him to replenish his Qi! She knew very well what they were about to do!

He looked around and shouted, “Come out!”

Nothing happened. Zia also was confused.

“Come out, don’t you care for her? I am not completely certain if what I am doing can harm her. Aren’t you a Qi master? Help me out here!”

After a brief moment Nick heard a sigh. The same man in black suddenly appeared in front of him. Except, this time Nick saw that the man didn’t teleport – he moved extremely quickly!

‘My eyesight is improving!’

The man looked at him, “Speak!”

Nick wasn’t offended. It was a long shot and he felt lucky he could bait this Qi master out.

“It’s like this. Obviously I am not a Qi master and can’t clear her Qi pathways the usual way. But I have this technique and want to help her. Zia has taken those supplement baths and her pathways should clear easier just by guiding Qi through her body, right? I am honestly not sure, but, as I said, I don’t want to hurt her. Could you please check if my technique is not damaging her and is helpful in any way? Also, maybe there are other things I have to consider?” This was what Nick honestly thought.

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Ling looked at the boy for a few minutes while silently thinking. Then sat down and closed his eyes without saying anything.

Zia was gaping at the transpiring events with an open mouth. Of course, she knew Ling, but Nick called him out from a thin air just like that, said something and then the always silent and arrogant man in black just listened? Did the sun rise up in the west this morning?

Nick concentrated and performed the same process as before. Of course, Ling’s back was almost ten times bigger compared to princess’s, but that didn’t scare Nick, what scared him was the possibility of hurting Zia.

After half a minute Nick stopped, he was panting again.

Ling stood up, looked at him expressionlessly and said, “It’s good.”

And then disappeared again.

“Hahaha, did you hear Zia – soon you can practice Qi!” Nick was happy. Zia also giggled.

‘What the hell was that?’ Ling, on the other hand, was in shock, ‘As I thought, he does not have the Qi control to clean her pathways. But the way he uses Qi naturally cleanses the whole body, not just pathways! What Qi technique is he practicing?’

“I think we should organize this to be more effective. From now on while I am recovering, you should read one of those boring books. That way you can do other fun things later.”

“Sure.” The word still sounded in the air when Zia already was somewhere on the other side of the small garden, running towards her room.

Nick still sat there and recovered when he was disturbed by a loud chatter and laughter. Five girls carelessly strode in the garden, but when he opened his eyes, he instantly blushed. They were around the age of fifteen to eighteen and four of them he had seen before, just without those beautiful dresses they wore today.

“Who are you? What are you doing here?” When they saw him, he immediately got questioned.

Being polite, he immediately got up and bowed, “Hello, my name is Nick. I am Zia’s follower. She told me to wait here so I am doing exactly that.”

“Go away, you can’t wait here!” The oldest one seemed to be annoyed.

“Sister Cira, why are you so mean? Don’t you think he looks kind of cute? Look at the blond hair and the blue eyes.” Another girl of a similar age giggled.

“Don’t tease him, sister Kate, can’t you see he is all blushed over? He probably hasn’t seen so many pretty ladies before, am I right?” The youngest one joined the teasing.

Nick instantly recovered. If he really was an eight year old, he would be stupefied and embarrassed, but he simply felt guilty for seeing them in their birthday-suits few months ago. Although princesses looked cute, he had seen much prettier girls before. Not only ‘Cindy the whore’ was extremely beautiful, most girls from the cheerleader squad were like fresh peaches and apricots and there were many other beauties in the university as well. These five young girls probably were used to everyone pampering and complimenting them all the time.

He smiled at them, “I am just a child, how would I understand. Excuse me, I will wait over there at the entrance and won’t bother you.”

“Hahaha!” The one called called Kate started laughing, “I like him! Wait! Nick, right? Come back and talk to us a bit.”

“Why do you want to talk to him? He seems to be a commoner.” Cira was still upset.

“So what?” Kate looked at her while still laughing, “Everyone tries to flatter you, princesses, but this one ignores for some reason. Don’t you find that interesting?”

‘Sigh, I hope there won’t be any trouble.’ Nick thought to himself.

“How can I help you?” He turned back and smiled while trying to play his ‘cute card’.

“Do you know who we are?” Kate poked his chest.

“Obviously four of you are princesses and one is a friend who’s visiting.” Nick stated the obvious.

“Can you tell who is the friend?” Kate continued to question him.

Nick looked at them, all wore expensive dresses and nice jewelry. They looked quite similar, “I think you are the friend.” He finally looked back at Kate, “You are talking to me like you have younger brothers and are experienced with teasing them, therefore you act a bit differently. The king has only one son who probably doesn’t spend much time with his sisters.”

“Tche, he is just trying to act smart.” Cira snorted, “Obviously he knows you.”

Kate did find this little guy funny, “Tell me, who am I?”

“Kate.” Nick stated the obvious.

“Hahaha!” All the girls started laughing this time. When they calmed down, Kate continued to question, “From which family am I?”

“How would I know? I am new in the capital, I don’t know many people.” Nick honestly answered – he really knew only a handful.

“Stop laughing at him!” Suddenly angry Zia stormed in, “He’s my …”

“As I said, I’m her follower.” Nick interrupted. He didn’t want Zia to get in a spot where she would be made fun of because she had a commoner for a friend.

“Those are my older sisters – Cira, Conny, Belia and Beata. That one is their friend Kate, she is from the Evans family. Everyone calls them ‘the five flowers of the capital’.” Zia introduced.

To the big surprise of the five girls, Nick politely bowed again, “Nice to meet you, ‘flowers’.”

And then left with Zia straight away. The five of them froze from such attitude, but soon recovered and laughed at the silly boy. Moments later they forgot this event like it never happened.

“They are usually nice, I don’t know why they bullied you today. Cira is the oldest, she is eighteen this year and the youngest, Conny, is only fourteen” Zia tried to explain.

“It doesn’t matter.” Nick smiled back, “We still have a lot of training to do. Where we can find a good spot?”

Zia soon found another place for them to train and then he continued to treat her till lunch time. Recovery process, was slow and they managed to perform the treatment only two more times. Of course, only they could use the world ‘only’, because one had to be a real Qi master to have the required Qi quantity and quality to perform what Nick was doing without getting tired in such short period of time.

During the lunch Zia whispered, “I already copied the book from the study. I think we should put it back before my father finds out.”

“Do you still think they don’t know?” Nick looked at her confused, “Than man in black is definitely following us since back then. He might be listening to our conversation even now!”

“But the father doesn’t know and that means our secret is safe!” Zia confidently said.

She kept pestering Nick till he finally agreed to think of something. She was the ‘nightmare’ of the palace after all. Even if lately she tend to behave, the princess was still the same old naughty girl.