At this moment, Dusk was really surprised. While his small body still exuded a calm aura and his face was void of any expression, his mind was in chaos. Not only him, he could tell that his mother was confused too as she was wearing all her emotions on her sleeve.

Who could blame her though? This was totally unexpected. Even for Dusk. Having seen his mother’s memories, Dusk naturally knew of this lady Onaho Riketing, and the one thing that he could say with certainty about her was that she was one of the proudest people that he had ever seen.

In  as much as she was proud, however, she was never one to stir up trouble with others. Heck! She never even talked to his mum for what it’s worth. And so, for her to go out of her way to come and specifically make trouble for them was something that Dusk could not understand.

One thing that Dusk could understand,though, was that for whatever reason, this lady was currently extremely angry. At this point, she had let go of her daughter’s hand and was rushing towards him and his mother with her hand curled up into a fist. It was pretty obvious that that fist was headed for his mother’s face.

Dusk had thought to read her memories so that he could at least find out what lead to this kind of situation, however, the current circumstances did not allow him to. The fist was approaching them at neck-breaking speeds.

“Lady Riketing, what do you think you’re doing?” His mom asked in fury.

Sadly, before she even finished, the fist was upon them. While his mother was extremely strong, she was rather poor at close combat. Her forte, as opposed to that of Onaho, was ranged fighting.

So at this point, both him and her were in hot water. Dusk could tell with certainty that should that punch even graze him, he would be a goner.

He was just about to raise his palm in a futile attempt to intercept the fist when a buff hand appeared before them in the blink of an eye.  While Dusk had already detected the presence of another person within his range, he had not expected that the moment he would begin to raise his palm, this person would arrive at a speed so fast that it seemed almost impossible.

“Boom!”  There was was immediately a loud noise as the sound of flesh colliding was heard. This sound was so loud that Dusk once again ascertained his hypothesis while swallowing a huge mound of saliva that should that fist have even touched him, he would be long dead. In his mind, these ladies contained some inhuman strength. Something he one day hoped to  achieve and even surpass.

Previously, although Dusk had known that this world had some freaks, meeting them still surprised him. While his mother was really strong herself, this person was on a whole other league. She had effortlessly stopped a punch from a middle S rank queen. Something that should the other high humans hear, they would fail to believe it.

This new lady had a really tall body (a bit over two meters) and her hair was rather short almost five inches long. While her body was really well built and muscular, she still had a sort of feminine charm to her upon which were you to look at her, you would immediately tell that she was a lady. A really pretty one at that too.

While Dusk was still thinking of this new lady’s strength, she opened her mouth to speak in a rather disappointed voice.

“Lady Riketing, what the hell are you doing? Is this how the queen of Latzuna Kingdom is to act? Are you so low as to raise your hand against a child? Mmph, I have been watching this ordeal and the behavior you have displayed today has disgusted me. Please leave to the Empress’s quarters, we shall follow behind you.” As the lady said that, you could tell that she was honestly pissed off. The mere domineering nature of her voice simply amplified the meaning behind her words.

“Nkt.” Just as Dusk had expected, Onaho simply clicked her tongue and left. In as much as she was really strong at the middle S rank, she knew better than to pick a fight with Queen Barbra Barbos who was at the upper S rank. Just one rank below the empress.

That’s right, the lady that had just stepped in was Barbra Barbos, queen of the Domica Kingdom. While she may not look it, she was an extremely capable queen. Especially considering the fact that she was at the upper S rank.

Although Dusk could not see through her rank himself, firstly because he hadn’t began to meditate and thus couldn’t sense mana and secondly because he was too weak, he could still tell that she was really strong. His mom’s memories further emphasized on that point as they had showed him that the last time that the two of them met, she was at the upper S rank.

“Thank you Queen Barbos, had you not interfered, I am afraid my spell would have sent her soul off to the yellow river. I am not so good at holding back when someone speaks of my precious son in such a manner. I don’t know why she acted that way but she crossed the line today.”  Jade said with a forced smile on her face.

“Hahahaha. Don’t worry about it, it’s nothing serious. I just felt as though she was in the wrong. Trying to harm such a cute baby, how could she? This is the cutest child I have ever seen. I’m guessing that this is your son right?”

Before Barbra even finished speaking, Dusk could already feel that he had been taken by the muscular lady into her embrace. While you would have expected it to be really uncomfortable, Dusk was really amazed at how comfortable it was. This lady carried him really gently.

“Yeah, that’s my baby Dusk. He’s three years old this year.” Jade answered.

“Why didn’t you tell us that you had a son? And such a cute one too. I doubt whether the other queens even know about this. Why didn’t you tell us?”

“Well…..” Jade answered awkwardly.

“Haha, its fine. No need to worry about it. I bet you just forgot. And he’s a boy too, you’re so lucky. You said he’s three, right? He must be as old as Queen Riketing’s youngest daughter Janelle, what a concidence. Just one thing though, why does he look this different? I’ve never seen anyone with this kind of hair or even those markings. Even this fox on his neck, everything about him is just so peculiar. Wow, this child is so pretty that I may just steal him one day.” Even before Jade could finish answering, Barbra had already started talking. And boy could she talk.

The moment she finished speaking and looked towards Jade expecting an answer to her question, she saw the sad look on her face. Seeing such a look she could only guess that she too did not know the answer as to why her son was so different. She could only sigh and continue speaking.

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“So why does he have this bamboo cane? Is it that he can’t see?” Barbra asked.

“Yeah, he can’t.” Jade answered a bit sad. In as much as she had come to terms with the fact that her son couldn’t see through his eyes but could still see nevertheless, she still felt sad for him.

“Ooh, sorry about that. Well, don’t worry about it. Im sure that with you as his mom, he wont have to experience a hard day in his life. Okay, now that that’s done, its time for me to tell you why I’ve come here. As all the other queens have arrived and are currently at the Empress’s headquarters, I had come to call you guys. You sure sleep a lot huh?” Barbra said while laughing and putting Dusk down. However, in as much as she was laughing, you could sense the pity in her voice.

“Oh, lets go then Queen Barbra. I didn’t expect that we would be the first to arrive but the last to meet the empress.” Dusk’s mother replied while holding Dusk’s hand. When she finished speaking, she stood beside Barbra as they walked towards the Empress’s chambers. On her right side was Dusk whose hand she was holding onto tightly.

As they walked towards where the empress was, with Stream on his shoulder and her tail wrapped around his neck, Dusk was contemplating over the things that he had seen.

Since Dusk never liked to be in the dark, as his mom was talking to Queen Barbra, he had decided to delve into Queen Onaho’s memories so that he could at least find out what lead to her outburst of rage. While what he had found had not necessarily surprised him, it had left him  disappointed. To think that such a high ranking species as the  high humans  would still be inclined to such barbaric emotions was something that Dusk found appalling. It seemed that it was naïve of him to think that every high human would be as nice as his mother.

Having delved into Queen Onaho’s memories, Dusk naturally found out why the lady acted that way. Apparently, this lady, although always quiet, had always been harboring feelings of envy for is mother. Those feelings started when she heard that his mother had become the youngest person in history to be appointed queen and they continued to increase with every achievement that his mother obtained. Being a queen, however, Queen Onaho was able to hide those emotions pretty well.

As she had come to feel inferior to Dusk’s mom, Queen Onaho decided to do something that would at least raise her self confidence and placate her ego. She decided to beat Jade by getting a male son before her.

And so, she began to work at it with the aim that should she be lucky enough to get a son before her adversary, she would feel less inferior and would at least have something to brag about. However, as fate is known to be one to love playing the lower hand, it just so happened that both Jade and Onaho got to be pregnant around the same time. What made it even more ironic was that on the day of the pregnany, Jade who had not really expected anything got a son while Onaho who had really wanted a son got a daughter.

While she was quite mad when she came to learn that she had sired a daughter, Onaho still had her rage within acceptable limits. However, when she came to learn that Jade had sired a son and taken what she had wanted once more, she just could not hold it in anymore. Her rage seemed to burst forth so much so that by the time she went to bed that night, she had broken most of the furniture in her palace.

The only thing that still kept her sane was the knowledge that Jade’s son was defective (blind). With that thought in mind, she had managed to soothe her soul and calm her anger, however, when she met Jade today and saw how calm, handsome and smart her son was, all those feelings of anger came flooding back and she just could not control herself.

While Dusk somewhat sympathized with this woman, he still found her to be foolish. Why would someone let herself be consumed by jealousy so much so that it got to the point of ruining her life.

As Dusk was still thinking, he was brought back to reality by a soft sound from Stream only to notice that they had arrived in front of a heavily decorated normal sized door. At the moment, Barbra was pushing the door open.

Inside the room was a round table with ten seats all around. This table was made of smoothened out obsidian like material and seemed to be very sturdy. Around the table, eight of the ten seats were occupied and Dusk presumed that the remaining two belonged to his mother and Barbra.

Seated the farthest away from the door  was a thirty  year old looking lady in a business suit with neat looking shoulder length hair and really sharp eyes. Dusk naturally recognized this lady as the empress, the lady whose name no one knew.

To her right were two similar looking ladies that had her sharp eyes and body shape and to her left was a tall and strong looking youth who somewhat resembled the empress too. In as much as Dusk had never seen these people before, even from his mom’s memories, he was not stupid enough to not be able to join the dots and figure out that these were the empress’s children.

Seated to the right of the two empress’s daughters was lady of medium height and huge bust in glasses. This lady wore a lab coat above her shirt and trouser and carried the aura of one who had dedicated her life to research. Dusk was able to recognize her as Fransisca Labardos, the queen of the Pratzali Kingdom.

On the right side of the empress’s son were seated three ladies, the closest one to him being Queen Onaho Riketing who was holding her daughter in her arms.

Of the other two ladies, one was tall and slender with very long hair and an almost nonexistent bust. This lady, Night Everdark, queen of the Letendo Kingdom wore a long one-piece dress and carried about her an aura of mystery.

To her side was a short childlike girl that wore a frilly dress, sandals and carried a fan with which she would fan herself every now and then. While she looked really immature, this girl was not to be underestimated as she was Modred Fribi, the queen of the Melona Kingdom.

The moment Dusk, his mother and Barbra entered the room, before they could even bow towards the empress, Dusk heard inaudilbe gasps from all around except from Queen Onaho who simply clicked her tongue. However, as they had come to expect this, he and his mother simply offered a bow before proceeding to their seats.