'Auto purify...Ugh, I still can't get used to this.' I whined inwardly.

"Brother. Faster! Sister Helena, come one, walk faster." Urged Adam, full of spirit.

"Adam! Careful. You'll trip yourself." Chided Howard.

The boy pushed Howard's arm and sprinted even faster towards the carriage.

"Geez. You never listen, do you..." Grumbled the former.

"Can you blame him? He's been rambling about going to see the play in the city, thanks to who again?" Sneered Sister Alyson, arching her eyebrow up friskily.

"Ahem!" Harrumphed Howard awkwardly.

"But it's the Harpers, sister Alyson. You know how lucky we are that their group is based on Germund. People from the capital have been dying to see their plays, paying hundreds of gold to invite them. But here, we get to see their monthly play for free." Explained Howard zealously.

'Hundreds of gold? Dang...that's nice...' I nodded along.

"I guess their skill does go hand in hand with their pay. Growing from nothing to such a hot issue in every corner of the kingdom is an extraordinary feat, indeed." Added her.

"Yes, exactly! It was just amazing. The depth of the storytelling. The details of the expressions. And last but not least, the flashy actions that they never fail to deliver. No wonder they've been crowned best of the best!"

Honestly, Howard rarely got passionate about something; hence, it was nice to see him speak with such a gleam in his eyes.

"And today just happens to be the day where they tell the story about the Heroes of the old!" Declared Howard, flashing the colorful pamphlet in his hand.

"Huhu..." I giggled softly.

"He does look stupid, ain't he? Look at him go. Haha..." Snickered Helena as she pushed the wheelchair.

"Hey, it's your own brother you're making fun of." I drew my neck back and whispered.

"So? You did it first." Replied Helena flatly.

"I'm not making fun of him. I'm laughing because it's nice to see him like this." I whipped my neck sideways, just enough to catch her figures from the edge of my vision, arguing my case.

"So you did laugh at him." Refuted Helena.

"But I'm not mocking him...You know what, I give up. You win, princess..." I heaved, throwing my gaze back afront.

"Hehe...It's a given." Exclaimed Helena proudly.

"Hey, you two...You're talking about me, aren't you?" Shot Howard cynically.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

'Yeah, she's talking shit about you.' I hinted with my eyes, pointing to the side.

"Just your feeling." Answered Helena monotonely, lying through her teeth.

"Everyone!! Faster!!" Shouted Adam impatiently, already aboard the carriage.

"Coming!" Answered Howard with a face full of smile. The punk was still a sucker for little Adam even until now.

So...

A year had passed by in the blink of an eye since I turned my house upside down with the decision to relinquish my right as the firstborn son. Or specifically speaking, it had been a year after I was grounded.

After I finished my time, obediently...Father had allowed me more freedom to go out into the city with the others. Of course, with the presence of guards to accompany us.

Sometimes, both Mother and Father would also come along with us despite their jam-packed schedule. But oftentimes, it was just us, the children, with Sister Alyson as the one my parents trusted to look after us.

That meant she had the final say and not the other way around.

I believed this was my Father's way of telling me that I didn't need to escape the house like a sly thief every night. Rather than doing that, I could go have fun like a normal brat when I wanted to.

Well, he was never that crass with his language, but you get the point...

So, using these occasional outings, I was able to keep in contact with Renata and the others through exchanging secret messages. However, for the more important agendas, I did visit the House to understand the situation better.

From time to time, I could follow what the Seatholders were working on, and everything had been progressing smoothly.

With the arrival of Helios, Margareth was finally able to have the edge that she had yearned dearly to strengthen her wealth and position further in the economic ladder of the kingdom. And that was none other than turning Helios's potion into a commodity. At long last, she finally found the goods with quality that could propel her whole business to a whole new level.

At first, the dwarf refused to cooperate, but after hearing Margareth's plan, he was more than willing to comply. He thought that Margareth would place an overbearing price on his potions, but on the contrary, she actually wanted to reduce the margin of profit so Helios's potion would be accessible to people with medium and maybe low income.

Her aim was to cement the image of her company brand to the vast majority of people rather than aiming at the wealthy. And since he can help tons of people in this way, Helios has been singing praises for Margareth to no end.

Heck, he even proposes to her, but that was a story for another time.

Moving on to Trodin, true to his duty, the man had been working his ass off day after day to build the army for the House of Light and Darkness. A couple of months ago, I decided to take a look at the training camp, and I was dearly amazed by what I saw.

The progress in their training was shocking. He was able to instill pride and discipline in the broken hearts of the former slaves in mere months, and that alone garnered much praise, in my opinion.

Long story short, he'd been doing a magnificent job.

And that left us with the two women holding the seats of dusk.

After the whole debacle with the Saint a year ago, it was decided at the Council that both of them would undertake the huge project of swallowing Boreas's underground world, and that meant taking my hands off it and trusting them to deal with it instead.

Sure, it would be harder and take longer time, but that would also mean the growth of the House wouldn't be premature, and the fight with Pepe had served as proof to back their argument.

Save from helping me in the future; they wouldn't be able to close the gap between them and me at the rate that they were going.

But that wasn't all.

Renata, per her request, had been sharpening herself. She went so far out of her way to use Helios's potion to break and enhance her body to make it stronger than ever.

Yes, she was doping herself...Using super drugs...

As for Clara...

Well...