Sherridan heaved a sigh and shook her head as she walked the streets of Wescaster in a wig and common clothes alongside her whimsical little prince. "Please tell me there was a point to that."

Gadreel spun the pencil in his hand as he kept his gaze on the piece of paper that lay on a small drawing board in his grip. On the paper, there was a terrifically accurate portrayal of the Aurelius kid. Sherridan hadn't known Gadreel could draw, but of course he could.

Gadreel let out a slight chuckle before answering. "Of course, there was a point. Everything I do has a point."

"Yeah, right," Sherridan murmured while memories of Gadreel's past actions popped up.

"No, no. Seriously," Gadreel said as he kept drawing. "I wanted to get a good look at him. And I needed to exchange a couple of words to know his nature."

"And now you know?"

Gadreel turned his gaze toward her with a smirk. "And now I know."

"Well? Tell me."

"Tell you what?"

"His nature," Sherridan specified to get the wriggly little man talking. "Explain it to me."

Gadreel laughed. "What? I can't just explain it to you. The natures of people are sacred things that cannot be expressed with words. It is an interconnection of all that moves in someone's head. In other words, it's a puzzle with changing pieces that decides everything."

'One of these days, I will rip out this kid's throat,' Sherridan thought, rolling her eyes at the nonsensical words of the genius who controlled the entire country.

"Just kidding. Of course, I'll tell you. I'll be doing a fair bit of extrapolation here, of course, but as we know, I am very rarely fallacious," Gadreel said, accompanied by the sound of rhythmic taps on the drawing board. "Aurelius is the son of the greatest warrior the world has ever seen. He knows that and seems to look up to his father. He wants to be just like him. To do so, he seeks to become powerful in order to help people. However, he doesn't seem to know his father very well. It seems he looks up to an idea that can't survive in the world. That's where his naivety really stems from. After he gets to know more about his father, that naivety will be uprooted. I assume that process has already been started."

Sherridan's mouth opened wide as she realized it. "That's where Izir comes in."

"What a smart girl you've become," Gadreel remarked joyfully, patting her on the head that was covered by a blonde wig.

She took Gadreel's wrist into a firm grip and squeezed hard enough to almost break bones. Gadreel threw on an exaggerated frown, resembling a dissatisfied child. 'I'll rip out his eyes too,' Sherridan added inwardly to her earlier plan.

She let go, and Gadreel shook his hand a bit before going back to drawing. "But yeah. That is where Izir comes in. Those partners of his will be a part of that process, too. They are peculiar individuals. Both of them. They seemed to see through me a little. I wasn't acting as well as I could to see how perceptive Aurelius is, but his partners figuring me out was still impressive. At least on the boy's part. The girl just seemed paranoid. The boy, however, seemed like he had experience working with sly people. He's a smart kid, clearly."

"Anything else?" Sherridan asked, barely able to keep herself from falling asleep during each step. "Did you get any reads on their strengths with your extra magical magic?"

"As a matter of fact, I did," Gadreel answered. "Aurelius has a very, very good grasp of essence. He is undoubtedly proficient in motionless magic. Probably the one of the best anyone has ever been at his age."

Sherridan scoffed, warranting an unreadable glance from Gadreel.

"He is the son of Ares," Gadreel said. "He has genes that were bred to be optimal for essence mastery. You shouldn't compare yourself to him."

"You think I'm envious of a kid?"

"I know you are." Gadreel snorted with his eyes on the drawing. "He's barely old enough to drink alcohol and is probably a few years away from surpassing every single being in this world. Everybody is envious."

"Except for you, that is," Sherridan spat with obvious mockery in her voice.

Gadreel pointed the end of his pencil at Sherridan with a wink. "Of course. But once he comes to realize the completeness of it all—the essence of nature—I'll get a bit envious, too."

"You're always rambling on about that, but you never actually explain it. The essence of nature," Sherridan said, very close to choking the man.

"I've explained it plenty of times to you. You just don't have an affinity for it. You're too... brutish."

Sherridan took Gadreel's hair and smashed his head against the brick wall next to the sidewalk, forming a small depression.

Gadreel winged in fake pain. "Ow, my hair." Then a smiled formed, and he turned his head slightly, letting his hair twist into a bundle. He opened one eye and glanced at Sherridan with comical intentions. "You see? Bru... tish."

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Sherridan let go, having had her anger quelled for the moment. She always let the bastard off so easy. Well, the little prince had his redeeming traits.

As Gadreel then dusted off his clothes, he finished his explanation, "There is an obvious truth to the case of Aurelius. You see, he's the ideal human. But the world isn't ideal. All societies are made up of people who are far from what they should be. You can probably imagine why that's a problem in our golden-haired friend's case. In simple terms, the ideal human isn't fit for an unideal society. That is why Aurelius' path will be one of endless struggle that will end with him being completely eradicated or no longer ideal. That is what the world does to a person such as him. I'm very interested in watching it happen." Gadreel walked a few steps before looking back with his eyes curving down into something demonic-looking. "Oh, and I'm also very interested in being a part of said process."

***

That night, Balgair wandered off to the roof of the rather large hotel they were staying at. It was the best in the meager city. Wealth had its benefits. However, on the roof, he found his ultra-favorite person, whom he loved with all his heart.

Cade turned to him with a disapproving look. "You're here?"

"Nah, fuck this," Balgair said, swiftly turning to exit.

"Wait," Cade called out behind him. Even then, it sounded like an order.

Balgair swung his body around with a deadpan expression before asking, as lifelessly and spitefully as he could, "What?"

"Come here." Cade gestured with a finger. "Come on. You scared I'll hit you?"

"I considered the possibility," Balgair said as he took a cautious step forward.

"Good," Cade said and turned back to face the distant pitch-black of the sky.

Balgair huffed and walked to stand beside her.

"You thought about kicking me off just now, right?" Cade asked, her gaze static on the sky.

Balgair looked down. It was probably close to a 50-meter drop. "Yeah, I considered it. But you wouldn't die. And even if you did, Aurelius would kill me, so it would be pointless."

Cade turned her gaze toward Balgair with a smug look. "I thought you said you could beat him in combat a while ago."

Balgair snorted and looked in the opposite direction from Cade. "Since then, I've seen him shove his arm through a noble's commanding guard, who had downed an enhancer a couple seconds ago, as well as master motionless magic."

"Tch. He hasn't mastered it."

Balgair rolled his eyes back to Cade. "Well, he's pretty fucking good at it. Much better than he should be, considering he heard about it for the first time half a year ago. I tried to learn to from his instructions and got absolutely nowhere." Balgair's face fell even more as Cade averted her gaze. "Admit it, Goldilocks is a monster. And he'll only grow stronger. You won't be the strongest for long. I wonder how that must feel."

Cade snorted but said nothing.

Balgair let out a light chuckle as he dug at his pocket for a box, but remembered who he was talking to and slumped his shoulders. He was about to turn and go find another place when Cade stopped him by grabbing his shoulder.

"Well?" he asked. "Gonna throw me off?"

"I care about Aurelius," she said with a sudden look in her eyes.

"Okay?" Balgair dug at his ear with a tilt of his head.

Cade's jaw tightened for a moment before she spoke again. "I've never wanted to be the strongest."

Balgair sighed and grabbed Cade's hand, which was on his shoulder. "But you really seem to like it."

"I don't."

"Yeah, you do. Don't keep me here just to lie. I'm a filthy guy with nothing but dark desires, so I know such desires when I see them. You want to be the strongest, real bad. You may care about Aurelius. I actually believe that you do, but you also find it very satisfying to have such a talent grovel at your feet for guidance."

Cade withdrew her hand from his grasp before giving him a sharp push with that hand, sending him stumbling to the side. She then pointed at him and said, "Don't talk about him like that."

Balgair burst into laughter with a clap of his hands. "Don't you mean, don't talk about you like that? Damn, you're a twisted person. Everything you do has to not be for yourself, huh?"

Cade stepped up to him and grabbed him by the collar before he could react. She then hung him over the ledge of the roof. Balgair only smiled.

"What do you think Goldilocks would say?"

Cade's face twitched with anger. "You're a piece of shit."

"I know. You are, too. You just haven't realized it yet," Balgair said before grasping Cade's arm and pulling himself back into balance without resistance.

Cade stayed quiet as Balgair walked past.

Balgair got all the way to the exit before leaving a few words behind. "It was nice chatting with you, but how about we never do it again?"

Cade flicked her wrist as bye with her back turned before walking off the ledge and plummeting down. What a show-off.