“If I may, I have another question. Back in the Holy Order I spied on the elders few times and hid from the grand elder in his wardrobe. While all of them were experienced Qi masters, they didn’t notice my presence, but you easily detected us behind the bookcases. Where’s the catch?” Nick asked a question that was bothering him.
“I think most likely the reason lies within the mountain where you were located.” The old king answered this time, “With all of us being Qi masters, everyone noticed your presence. It was simply too obvious. But from your description I gather that the mountain where you were located holds some kind of magnetic minerals that interferes with the Qi master’s senses.”
“Sounds about right.” Simon Den agreed, “They probably chose that particular place because it could be used as additional defensive measure, but in your case it seriously backfired. Most likely that was also the reason why they missed subtle indications of your plans. You know, an experienced Qi master can kind of ‘feel’ or ‘see’ when a regular person is lying, but you managed to survive there despite being watched non stop.”
“So basically all of you, while listening, are functioning as constantly working lie detectors, correct?” Nick realized how good his decision was to be completely honest with the king. In addition, it gave a completely new understanding of a Qi master’s abilities.
The conversation continued for some time. When children left, Ling also disappeared.
“What do you think?” The king asked everyone present.
“There is a lot of information an outsider can’t really know, I think he’s legit.” Simon Den said, “Although I don’t know if I would trust him with my daughter, hahaha! But you have few more, so what do I know, hahaha!” He barely was able to finish the first sentence before choking from laughter.
“Do you think she would listen? She is just like her mother, sigh. You don’t even know what happened before you came.” King shook his head, then turned to the general, “What do you think?”
“We should continue the investigation. Maybe that kid will remember something more, maybe we can figure out a correct question we should ask. Also, I think he wants to flatten that place as much as you do – although it might take some time, he will grow up and help us to solve this problem.”
“Father?” King finally turned to old king Albert.
“Hmm. I think that kid is too smart. He has been through so much that it already is enough for a few lifetimes. I like him, but he’s still hiding something. Anyway, I think he is a great friend to Zia, although a commoner.”
King shook his head, “I don’t think he is a commoner. Remember, he had the ability to judge the situation from my perspective. And he is eight years old! How many grownups are capable of that? But I agree – it is good for Zia to finally have a friend and even a training partner. I look forward to see her growth.”
“Is that the reason you gave him that token?” Old king asked.
“Actually I wanted to give him the regular iron one.” King Alexander smiled, “But for some reason I got this feeling that it will be beneficial for us if I give him a silver token after all. I can’t really explain that impulse. Alright, all dismissed.”
“Oh, prime minister, please stay for a moment.” He added at the end. There was a need for a new royal edict – Nick was right, king didn’t want to waste his time looking at the kneeling subjects.
It was already too late to practice so Nick and Zia decided to continue the next day. When Nick was returning home, he saw from afar the representative from the Meyer family again, thus he decided to use Bruno’s bakery to sneak through to the courtyard and then home.
He told the surprised Ben how he met the king and reported on the Holy Order, and how he was ‘promoted’ to Ben’s assistant. They agreed that when the cottage was finished, Nick would stay and train there. Ben, of course, didn’t really need Nick’s help in the woods, but he liked to have him around from time to time. Therefore in the future morning strolls together through the woods would be enough for them.
During the next days Nick continued to help Zia and they agreed that as soon as the cottage was completed, she will start to learn the three Qi techniques herself.
While preparing to move, Nick visited tailor Stefan and fulfilled another one of his dreams – they managed to recreate design of jeans and even found a similar fabric and, although it was a little rougher, it only had to be dyed blue. The rougher fabric and the few alterations they added made the trousers more suitable for training as well, therefore Nick was ecstatic.
He wanted to order a small backpack, but Stefan gave him an idea to create a bag from leather first and then cover it with the jeans-like fabric. Then Nick ordered few T-shirts – another innovation for this world. Stefan was confused why would anyone want a shirt with such weird short sleeves – it was more practical to have no sleeves at all, but Nick didn’t care.
Another thing Nick ordered for Stefan to create were two wristbands from black cloth. Nick wanted for others to get used to him wearing such accessories – this way it would make easier to later wear the real deal.
Nick meticulously kept evading the annoying guy from the Meyer’s family in hopes that he would be loft alone, but for some reason he couldn’t get rid of him. Ben also tried to ask him to leave, but the man was always polite and every time managed to find a reasonable excuse to approach their house again.
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The worst thing about this whole situation was – Nick couldn’t make pizza anymore! The annoying guy would find it out immediately. But, since the cheese he made was already in his wristband and could never go bad, Nick was fine with some waiting.
Another important thing Nick did during these days – he finally got to visit the famous royal doctor Sigismund Marbel. The man was quite old, but with a lively face and extremely deep expertise in alchemy. He checked Nick out and, besides the young patient having ridiculously wide and strong Qi pathways, and enormous amount of Qi for his age, didn’t find anything wrong.
Just in case doctor prescribed a simple herbal remedy for Nick to drink before the bedtime. This elementary recipe was in the same simple folk remedy style as the one he used for his cleansing baths for three months straight.
When Nick inquired more in detail, turned out that the book he read before in king’s study was written by the doctor Marbel himself. After doctor heard Nick used his medical treatment for three months, he forgot about the flow of time and they discussed the nuances of alchemy with his young patient until the late evening.
Eight days later the cottage was completed. King didn’t gift him a mansion, obviously, but it was a small and simple wooden house, built on the edge of the forest near the eastern cliffs and had a beautiful view over the Aurora bay.
Nick took his very few things and moved in. After a short discussion with Ben, they decided to meet every morning at the palace’s northern exit and then proceed to tour the Royal woods.
Although the cottage was nothing special, Nick really loved his new place and, after eating dinner, forced himself to go to bed. Starting the next day he would finally have time to do something he hasn’t been able to do for three months – organize the grand elder’s wristband’s contents.
This was the day Zia finally should start learning the Qi techniques. In the morning Nick expected to see a very lively and exited princess, but for some reason she seemed to be really down.
“Mom is very sad these days.” She answered Nick’s inquiry, “Yesterday I spent with her the whole evening, but she mostly was sighing and looking through the window. She said she misses my dad, but I don’t understand why. He’s in the palace and she can meet him every day, right? Why does she miss him?”
Nick immediately understood the implication. He met the king and saw how tired and busy he was. And even more – he had four wives! It was clear that the previous favorite would feel neglected if suddenly she got less attention. And the king was absent for more than a year!
“What if I could help her?” After thinking for a few minutes, Nick asked.
“How would you do that? You are even younger that I.” Zia was skeptical.
“Well, I learned few runes when I was captive, maybe they could help.”
Although it sounded very suspicious, princess wanted for both her parents to be happy. Therefore she agreed to let Nick help out.
“It’s like this, I will write some runes on a paper, but only your mother can see them, otherwise the situation will become even worse. So under no conditions you can look at them. Also, you can only pass the paper to her if she will swear she would not harm me or think anything bad of me because of what is written on it. What do you think?”
Some days ago during his discussion in the king’s study he saw the effect of the vow both king and queen took. Even if it concerned their daughter’s future prospects, they didn’t break it. His idea was to give an advise to her and even in case she didn’t take it, she wouldn’t punish him.
There was a chance she would start to dislike him, but he was pretty confident his method would work and if she was really that desperate, she would try it out. And if she would – he might really fulfill his life’s main mission and save the world!
When Zia agreed, Nick sat down and wrote few lines, then sealed the paper and once again reminded of the ‘severe repercussions’ in case someone other than queen Hua opened it.
Princess was finally in a better mood and Nick started to teach her the first Qi technique. Zia didn’t have his comprehension ability, but she had a real inherited natural talent. It was much easier for her to learn from practice than from explanations. She quickly started to pick up the technique and almost immediately had some results.
Nick watched her progress with a slight envy, but at the same time he was full of joy. After all she was his friend and kind of apprentice at the same time.
When later in the afternoon princess brought the message to queen Hua, the latter thought that children were just playing. So without any second thought she promised to not touch or hate Nick in case she didn’t like the message.
Zia immediately passed it to her and watched her mother read it and suddenly blush, “Scoundrel! Rogue! How old is he!”
She angrily sat and kept murmuring curses under the surprised gaze of her daughter. Then she read the message again.
It contained three lines:
“If your man shaves, what makes you think you should not?
When a woman dances, do you think man looks at her clothes?
If four women have kissed the man, a kiss on which spot would be the most intimate?”
Nick didn’t know the details of intimate traditions of the Sun kingdom, but he was pretty sure the three questions, as a legacy he brought with him from his previous world, had to be enough. And the queen was smart – she definitely had to understand the underlying meanings in those messages.
Thus queen Hua cursed for a while and then calmed down, kissed her daughter and said, “Mommy has to take a bath, go rest early.”
One evening, a couple of days later, king Alexander finally visited his queen Hua. The next morning he sent a servant to inform the ministers that he was not feeling well and will not appear earlier than after two days, so they should postpone all meetings. During his ‘recovery’, he stayed in Hua’s quarters and that caused envy and jealousy from the other three queens, but that’s a different story.
Nick didn’t know what exactly transpired and the confused Zia only reported how she passed the message and her mom acted strangely. Nick’s idea was simple – if she didn’t kill him straight away, it should be fine.
And most importantly – these three lines could really save all the men in this world! Of course, that happened only later, when queen Hua’s secret of the revolutionary hygiene was leaked and in a speed of light changed the intimate life of every person in Aurora.