CHAPTER 20

The next day, the whole mansion was busy with the preparations for the broadcast. It will be held virtually because the water territory was covered by water, and no arena could accommodate all of the territory's citizens.

Two hours before the event, Hirayon was being attended to by multiple hands as they prepared him. He wore the formal clothes of the Water Clan, which are composed of long sleeves undershirt, a white sleeveless inner robe, and another robe in midnight blue color. It was decorated with a brooch, necklace, and silver details all over the robe, with the intricate logo of the water clan decorating his back.

When they were done fixing his clothes and hair, they looked at the young child with broad smiles. Hirayon looked extremely cute and dashing in his formal wear, and his expressionless face added to the childish maturity he naturally has.

"What do you think?" Larise asked as she looked at Hirayon with warmth. He feels like he was seeing Hanan when he was younger.

"It feels comfortable," Hirayon said as he slightly raised his arms, the oversized sleeves flapping as he moved.

"I'm glad. The necklace could be quite heavy, but bear with it until the broadcast is over," Larise said as she fixed the chains of necklaces.

"It's alright. It's not heavy."

"Alright. Let's go now. The chief is already at the ballroom," Larise said, ushering Hirayon outside the guest room. At their behind were two lines of attendants, with Larise and Amir leading them after Hirayon.

When they reached their destination, the attendants dispersed, leaving Hirayon with Amir and Larise in front of the massive fancy ballroom door where Veno was waiting to open for Hirayon's grand entrance.

For the day, the whole Water Clan territory stopped all businesses and settled in their homes. They are all waiting for the broadcast in their holograms while talking about the commotion of this announcement made in the whole Diwana.

Because Hirayon's appearance from day one caused a stir, his introduction to the entire clan became the topic of talk. Odidily became full of posts about it, and there was also live streaming from the Water Clan oddities who wanted to share the broadcast in the entire Diwana. Giving a lot of oddities in other clans a chance to watch, including the chiefs, council members, people who have authority, and more.

As the video finally started, they all stopped whatever they were doing. They focused on the screen showing the entire ballroom decorated with extravagant chandeliers and sculptures carved in deep sea stones. When the camera switched to the handsome but merciless Water Clan chief, who was also wearing a formal robe, they all held their breaths and waited for him to speak.

"Greetings," he started, his loud, deep voice echoing in the massive ballroom with a few oddities filming.

"I want everyone to meet my son, Azur Hirayon," he said, surprising the people as he immediately introduced the child. The comment section of the main broadcast was then filled with people's opinions.

'As expected of the water chief, he didn't even explain where the child came from.'

'Is he being serious?'

'THE WATER CLAN CHIEF IS SO HANDSOME!!'

'Is it true that he slept with another chief?'

'I saw the kid, and he's weak. They shouldn't expect too much from the poor child.'

'Was it true that the child was kidnapped?'

'Why are they only introducing him now?'

"He didn't even explain anything before introducing Hirayon," Daram said as he watched the broadcast together with his family. He wasn't that startled knowing his friend's personality, but he did think that Hanan would say more.

"That's just the way Chief Hanan is," his wife said and ate some snacks.

"You saw his son, right? What does he look like?" Their son asked while munching on chips.

"Well, he looked like Hanan," Daram answered, not knowing how to describe Hirayon.

"Is he strong?" His son asked again, and Daram contemplated.

"I can't say for now. But... He definitely has potential," he said, remembering how the child quickly recovered from his injuries.

"I wanna meet him."

"You will meet him someday when you compete in the Oddity Rankings," Daram said as he was sure that Hirayon would be one of the Water Clan's representatives for the competition.

On Hanan's cue, the large door opened, and the whole territory awaited the child.

They didn't wait for long as Hirayon walked confidently onto the red carpet, allowing everyone to see the dashing young master and the future heir of the Water Clan.

When Hirayon reached the elevated platform where Hanan was, he stood beside his father and held his hand. Then just as they practiced, he gave the camera a cute smile and slightly bowed his head, greeting all the people watching the broadcast.

'He looks so small! How old is he?'

'Kyaa! He's so cute! I call dibs.'

'Can we talk about how he looked so much like the Water Clan chief? Who said that they don't look alike at all? Was that oddity blind?!'

'He looked frail. The Water Clan should be worried.'

'I'm more worried about you. Judgemental people usually receive the deities' judgment.'

'Long live Water Territory!'

Citizens of the Water Clan celebrated and cheered from their homes. They were happy to finally see their young master and even witness how close their chief and the child were.

After the extremely short broadcast, Hirayon, Hanan, and the Water Clan became the topic at Odidily. Some made reaction videos, while others shared their concerns and opinions regarding Hirayon. The most popular of it all is the topic of where Hirayon came from and who her mother was. Most of them made theories, and because they were first seen together at the Earth Clan, they immediately suspected that Chief Daram, who was known to be quite close to Hanan, had hidden the child all these years.

Most theories were absurd and crazy, but some managed to connect the dots, even to the point that Hirayon's mother ran away from Hanan. Still, they didn't manage to guess the identity of Hirayon's mother, which became the top mystery. Some even claimed to be Hirayon's mother, but oddities didn't believe such claims because of the current hype and just continued to hypothesize.

When the father and son left the ballroom clueless about what they had caused in the entire Diwana, Hanan led Hirayon to the floor of his office. Hirayon thought they would go there, but then they went past it until Hanan stopped in front of a door that was outlined by glowing bluish-violet light.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"It took longer than the plan, but the renovation was finally done," Hanan said, pressing Hirayon's thumb on the plate at the door's left side.

The door slid open, and Hirayon's eyes widened with so much astonishment. Beyond the door was a spacious room five times larger than his previous room. Inside was a king-size bed, a walk-in closet, a bathroom, a study desk, a mini living room, and, most surprisingly, a huge pond with man-made waterfalls beneath the transparent floor of Hirayon's room.

"You can make the room's floor clear like now, blurry it, or make it black. I also included the coved ceiling containing water as you've wanted," Hanan said while looking at the huge cove atop Hirayon's bed with flowing water like in the guest room where he stayed.

He also pointed to Hirayon how larger the bathroom of this room was, but he was not talking about the most unexpected in the room, which was the pond with waterfalls underneath the floor.

Zeno, who had just arrived and was behind the two, noticed that Hanan had yet to talk about the pond, even though Hirayon's eyes were only looking at the floor. He cleared his throat and signaled his chief with his eyes.

When Hanan noticed Zeno, he held Hirayon's hand and led him to the corner beside the Walk-in closet, where the elevator was. The three entered the elevator, and when it started to descend, it took a few seconds before they reached the ground.

When they went out, Hirayon couldn't help but be in a daze as it seemed like he was in another place. When he looked up, he couldn't see his room, unlike when he was above, and he could see the pond. Instead, he was faced with the clear cloudless sky.

"It's smaller than I wanted," Hanan commented, displeased about the size of the area below Hirayon's bed.

Hirayon and Zeno looked at Hanan with strange eyes. The pond and waterfalls were already too much and over the top for them.

"So what do you think?" Hanan asked Hirayon as he inspected everything with critical eyes. He was already planning what to add as the place seemed bare.

"It's too much," Hirayon said, repeating his thought as that was the only thing that came to his mind.

"You think?" Hanan asked as he felt the quality of Aura in the place. "The Aura quality is not that great," he commented, which made Zeno sigh in exasperation.

"This is the best quality you wanted," Zeno reminded him as the whole area was covered with Aura from Type 2 Monster Cores.

"This is the best they could accomplish after taking so much time?" Hanan criticized. Zeno initially told him that the hunting would take a few weeks, but because of that, he expected more.

Zeno opened his mouth to defend the poor hunters who had to work not twice but thrice harder to accomplish his order, but he decided to just shut his mouth. He felt that whatever he said to his chief would be useless as his standards were high in everything, including Monster Cores.

"I feel calm and comfortable," Hirayon said as he felt the slightly cold air.

"That's the feeling you get when you are in an environment that is rich in the Aura of your element," Hanan explained.

Hirayon walked towards the pond and dipped his hand in the water. When his hand touched the clear cold water, he felt at peace and safe, making him want to submerge underneath and stay there forever. It was close to the feeling he has whenever he is so focused on reading, but better.

He was about to give in when suddenly Hirayon felt something in the water touch his hand. It then crawled on his arm, and when he clearly saw what it was, he beamed in so much delight.

"Neki!" Hirayon exclaimed happily, surprising the two adults.

When they saw what Hirayon was holding, they shared confused looks.

Hanan looked at Zeno with evident shock, 'What is that thing doing here?!' he asked angrily telepathically, as he never ordered the Auveast to be brought into the mansion. He was planning on getting a new rare Auveast for Hirayon and try to make the child forget about the snake.

Zeno shook his head hard, telling the chief that it was not his doing. He was dumbfounded as well since he had received a report yesterday from Lev that the Auveast was still under training.

When they both looked at the snake, it was now wriggling happily while snuggling into the child's embrace. When it noticed Hanan and Zeno's gaze, it gave them a cheeky smile, making his round eyes squint.

Although it looked cute to Hanan, he was sure the snake was mocking him, angering him more.

He was glaring at the snake while ransacking his mind on how the hell he could dispose of the snake when Hirayon turned and looked at him with the brightest expression he had ever seen in the child.

"Thank you, Dad! For the room and Neki, Thank you!" Hirayon said and went to hug Hanan, who stood still because of the new experience of being embraced by his son.

When he finally came to it, he crouched and hugged Hirayon back. Even though he is still confused as to how the Auveast managed to get out of the current and into Hirayon's new room, he decided to think about it later and ingrain this moment in his mind.

While the two were having their moment, Zeno took his chance to take a video and photo of the scene. He himself was smiling so merrily to the point of tears. He felt like all the hardships he had gone through for the past weeks had finally shown their results, which is a closer relationship between the two.

"Are you happy?" Hanan asked Hirayon.

"Yes!" The child answered with a face brimming with delight.

"You will be more because we're going out to the festival tonight," Hanan announced, making Hirayon more excited. He read in a book that festivals were fun, filled with food, games, plays, and different entertainment.

Because of that, Hirayon looked toward their outing, counting every second, and when it was time, he ran towards Hanan's office.

Seeing his son's excitement, Hanan let out a small smile and decided to stop working to accompany Hirayon outside.

After leaving the mansion, Hanan, Hirayon, and their entourage traveled to the massive stadium where the festival was held.

Entering the place, the group was welcomed by loud music and colorful lights, illuminating the area and giving it an enjoyable ambiance. Inside, there were a lot of booths meant for food and games. The stadium also had several stages where people danced, sang, acted, and performed skits to entertain the crowd.

As the group walked around, oddities noticed them and greeted them warmly. Some even forgot to bow in front of Hanan, drunk with the night festival, but the chief let it go as he knows not to ruin the fun.

After scanning the area, Hirayon went to a stall selling grilled seafood in a box. He was about to line up when the oddities falling in line made way for him to buy first. Hirayon looked at them with confusion, but the oddities only smiled at him and motioned to buy what he wanted. When the seller finally saw him, he exclaimed, thrilled that the young master wanted to try his food.

"Young master, how many boxes do you want?!" He asked with a broad, accommodating smile while his hands quickly prepared rows of food.

"Ten," Hirayon said in a quiet voice as he was bothered by the attention everyone was giving him.

Although he had always received love and support from the clan's citizens, it was Hirayon's first time to directly experience it in person with the oddities looking at him.

"What a cute voice!"

"Can I ask him for an autograph?"

"Young master, do you like seafood?"

"Young master, can we take a photo with you?"

Oddities around the stall started to say and ask what they wanted, and Hanan, who was watching everything, immediately worried that the child would be crushed by the slowly approaching crowd.

He walked toward Hirayon in front of the stall, and when he did, the oddities stopped talking and bowed respectfully to Hanan. They also stopped in their tracks and remained at a safe distance from the overwhelming authority Hanan was exuding.

Seeing the chief, the food seller immediately bowed and looked at Hanan happily. He wasn't bothered by Hanan's pressure as he was a Gifted Oddity. Since his chief wasn't using an ability and was instead emitting the natural authoritative pressure he has, the seller could still move and speak.

"Welcome, chief! Do you want soy sauce?" he asked, not bothered by the silent crowd.

Hanan, who was pleased with the seller's attitude, nodded and received the food Hirayon ordered. He then paid the seller a gold coin, startling the man.

Before he could say anything, Hanan spoke. "Keep the change," he said, walking away from the booth with his left hand holding a bag of food and Hirayon's tiny hand in the right.

When the food seller woke up from his daze, he beamed a smile and yelled. "Thank you, chief! Please enjoy the food!" He said while waving his hand.

A few more stalls after, Hanan and Hirayon were finally satisfied with their food and went to a vacant seat that Zeno found. The two butlers then arranged the food they bought and stood behind Hanan and Hirayon to let them eat.

"Let's eat together," Hirayon suddenly said while looking at Zeno, Amir, and the other knights, which were composed of the Sea Knights Commander Rehan and five other capable knights.

They all looked at Hirayon with startled gazes but then immediately sat when Hanan sent them a message telepathically.

'What are you waiting for?' Hanan said through their minds. His stone wasn't angry, so they awkwardly sat around the table while still being alert for sudden attacks.

When all of them settled down, Hirayon started eating and enjoyed his food, followed by Hanan, who seemed not bothered by the knights' presence at the table. Seeing that, Rehan also started eating slowly, and the other knights followed. Zeno and Amir, who had become accustomed to such a situation, ignored the knights who were eating stiffly and just enjoyed the savory festival food.

After the silent dining, Hirayon and Hanan enjoyed the festival by playing games. They had so much fun, even with the crowd, to the point that Hirayon thought this was the best day of his life. The day was so memorable to him as a lot of good things happened, so it was not surprising that time passed by faster, and it came to the time Hirayon had to sleep.

Tucked into his new bed, Hirayon was sleeping soundly with the sound of floating water at the ceiling when a dark fog formed on top of him. Clueless and tired, Hirayon didn't feel anything as he was enveloped by the fog and quietly disappeared, leaving no trace behind.

R E H I L I Y A