Tibu and Nikki immediately threw their bodies flat, with their heads kissing the floor, and spoke with a quivering voice…

"My liege!"

They didn't dare to raise their heads and lay out flat on the ground.

The person before them was legendary.

Scarlett had her back turned to them, as she gazed at the snow-white-haired girl with a boy in her embrace.

"Grandma!" Arianne called out sweetly.

Scarlett however didn't reply and instead took several minutes to look at her granddaughter and Arlo with a strange expression.

Arianne's face suddenly flushed red to the point that her neck and ears were also tinged in the same color.

To be caught embracing a boy by her grandmother broke her always icy-cold expression.

Seeing her granddaughter blushing for the first time, Scarlett's strange expression grew further to the point that her face was distorted.

While the two were frozen in a deadpan silence, the other two were similarly stunned on the spot.

When they heard the small girl say 'grandmother', it was as if a bomb exploded in their heads.

'The princess?'

Their minds blanked out.

"What are you doing?" Scarlett finally broke the silence.

Arianne lowered her small head slightly as she avoided her grandma's stare and whispered in a mosquito's voice…

"It is your fault."

"It is my fault?"

Scarlett was stunned once more as she thought 'I asked you what you are doing, and you tell me it's my fault?'

However, she still voiced her confusion, as she was curious about what her dear daughter meant by her previous statement.

"How is it my fault?"

"I asked you who the boy is, and you told me to figure it out myself. That is why I'm now in this situation." She spoke the first part of her words in grievance, but when she reached the end, her voice turned into low whispers.

Scarlett approached the two and flicked Arianne's head lightly.

"Silly girl!"

"Ouch." Arianne rubbed her forehead, and her eyes turned misty. She felt wronged.

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Scarlett ignored her response as she continued, "That is not what I meant when I said you should figure it out yourself, I just wanted you to investigate his background using your servants." She was exasperated.

Scarlett took a brief breath before she continued "I didn't expect you to become a stalker."

Arianne's already red face turned into a tomato.

'Why the hell are you behaving like a maid that just fell in love?' Scarlett grumbled inwardly while the words that came out of her words were "When do you plan on releasing him?"

At first, Arianne was confused, but when realization dawned on her, out of instinct she threw the unconscious Arlo out of her embrace.

Scarlett quickly caught hold of Arlo before he hit the floor.

Her eyebrows twitched slightly at her granddaughter's action.

"I-I didn't..." Stumped, Arianne turned into a swarm of bats, before she escaped through the window.

The huge bat-like mount appeared below her, allowing her to land safely before they streaked across the sky.

Sigh!

Scarlett fixed her eyes on Arlo, 'I guess this is fate.'. With that thought, she turned her head to the still-prostrating couple and let out one command...

"Leave!"

All this time, Tibu and Nikki didn't dare to let out a breath. Before the highest power of the vampire race, they were but mere farts.

When they heard her command, they both gasped, releasing the breath they had held for so long, before they quickly vanished from the room.

Scarlett carried Arlo in a princess carry.

She gazed at his missing left arm, and at the stumped wound that had stopped bleeding.

'His healing speed is really praiseworthy.' She turned her eyes back to Arlo's pale face, which was now being clung to by several strands of his sweaty golden hair.

Her heart became filled with love as old memories of a certain woman crossed her mind.

"Hey old man, should I heal him?" Scarlett suddenly asked, seemingly to no one.

What answered her was the silence that pervaded the room until the now two saber marks on Arlo's right hand glowed before an elderly voice resounded:

"Old witch! Are you stupid?"

The side of Scarlett's mouth twitched, and her eyebrows creased into a frown.

She was just about to retort when the elderly voice echoed once more in her ears:

"Have you forgotten his parent's request?"

Haa.

After a brief recollection, she destroyed every intention of ever helping Arlo personally.

"Alright." She assented before she continued with a confused face "Was that Ki he used in the previous fight?"

"It felt like Ki, but that is not how Ki is supposed to be used." She paused before she continued once more "That is if I remember correctly."

"Your perception is not wrong, the child is simply a monster."

"Oh! What do you mean?" Scarlett asked in interest.

Silence returned into the room for a short while before it was broken by the elderly voice:

"The child has yet to break into the first stage."

Scarlett was confused at first before her ruby eyes widened in disbelief.

A preposterous idea popped up in her mind, however, she couldn't bring herself to believe it.

Alas, instead of cracking her head about it, she decided to ask the old man.

"Yo-you don't mean that he is using Ki without actually shedding his mortal body?"

Alas!

"He is." The elderly voice affirmed, dispatching Scarlett's doubts.

However, the elderly voice didn't seem finished as he continued to drop one bomb after the other.

"The astral chains restricting his body are simply too many."

"Yet his body seems to be able to ignore part of their effects, and actually utilize Ki."

"This is something unheard of, even in the realm of the gods."

Sigh!

Scarlett let out a wry smile " We thought the child's talent was simply monstrous in mana cultivation, but who would have thought his control of Ki doesn't lose at all to its counterpart."

"This is simply unheard of. It makes me wonder how bright his future would be. However, it also makes me dread what he may become if the power he wields gets hold of him," said the elderly voice.

"That is why the plan must be enforced, and you must not interfere in it," he threatened.

Scarlett didn't mind his threat as she simply replied, "I know." with a lost look.

After a while, she got hold of herself.

"He really is your grandson! How I wish you were here to witness him yourself," said Scarlett with a look of melancholy, a single tear sliding down her world-destroying face.