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The next day, Vincent went to Pragwyn to search through Ludwing’s armory. No little was his surprise to find the castle clean and neat. In the master bedroom, all the furniture was new, like a poster child of Ikea if improvised by local craftsmen who didn’t believe in minimalism and made everything twice bigger than required.

“Hello, buddy!” Thug came to hug Vincent.

Behind the mercenary was Trinella, holding a baby in her arms. The woman had a happy and relaxed expression.

“We have a son,” Thug announced proudly. “Did you know Sidhes have an accelerated pregnancy and give birth very easily?”

“And weren’t they supposed to— err…” Vincent swallowed his words because abandoning their child wasn’t a polite thing to say.

“I’m only half Sidhe,” Trinella said. “And seeing the little one… so beautiful… so vulnerable… so loving… something snapped in me, and I decided to give a chance to traditional motherhood. We hired six nannies, of course, but we’re taking care of Tex’s education ourselves.”

“Tex is short for Texas,” Thug explained. “Isn’t he cute? The cutest baby ever!”

“He looks… stately,” Vincent said. Like Winston Churchill… Oh, my God, he has all Thug’s creases on his face…

“That’s what I think too,” Trinella said. “Please let my father know about this happy event.”

“It goes without saying… Say, Trinella… Ludwing said I could take any armor or weapon from his collection. Can I inspect the items?”

“Of course,” she nodded. “Do you remember the way? I have to take the little one to a classical opera concert. The Ride of the Valkyries tour is in town. The best education is an early education.”

The child began crying immediately. Ignoring the tantrum, Trinella walked ahead, followed by Thug and then two nannies carrying the child and a basket with milk bottles and miscellaneous baby items.

I’ll take care of my boys myself, Vincent swore. He was convinced he’d have boys, of course. No concerts, but a lot of football. And sling shooting. And football.

Strolling around the arms collection, Vincent began by sorting them by categories. Swords, pikes, armor, shields, and so on. Nothing was higher than epic, and many items were still bound to their former owners, meaning they weren’t looted but donated. Cousin x, guard captain y, said the tags.

Getting bored, Vincent shoved piles of items in his storage, grabbing the bonded ones with his hands, real or mechanical, activating Hands of Dominion. The bonds broke in seconds.

An hour and a half later, Thug and Trinella returned. The kid looked merry, speaking in his baby tongue.

“He likes opera,” Thug said.

“Like father, like son,” Vincent said, albeit he knew the only opera Thug had been in contact with was the Queen album. “I picked everything I needed. Do you want this?” he extracted Kaelith’s sword showing it to his friend. It was a mythical weapon, but one he had no use for.

“Health siphoning? Sure, it’s great,” Thug said. “Are you staying for dinner?”

“I can’t, man,” Vincent turned his palms up. “I have to return to Earth. I have a rehearsal for the next stage of the talent show. We’ll do invisibility tricks.”

Thug and Trinella hugged him, and Vincent photographed them holding the baby to show Ludwing his grandson. His inventory was overflowing, and the space was too small after he had cut five slices from the ring. One was with Ludwing, another with Bella, Barbara, and Bee, and a third with Vorrak. Dragon held one for communication purposes, and Irene and Lila shared the last one.

Taking half the objects in storage and the rest unstored, Vincent jumped to the junkyard to let the weapons on the departing site. He had hired workers to sort the materials and, when possible, to melt the metal into ingots. He returned to Cottbus and Krivoburg, taking the people he needed to transport to Earth, and returned to the scrapyard.

Wrapping an as large area in his skill as possible, Vincent strode to the mercenary camp south of Prague. It was the only space big enough to use for storage and metalsmithing. To his surprise, the main building had a new coat of paint, and the two prisoners were responsible for that. They held painting brushes in their hands, climbing on wooden ladders.

“Since we will stay here the rest of our lives, we decided to make our residence more amenable,” Kaelith said.

“As you wish,” Vincent said. “I killed Thorrak, your son’s employer. I met Fenros and spared him as I promised. I hope he will listen to reason and quit.”

“You spared him?” Kaelith frowned, the expression on her face obviously incredulous.

Vincent had no intention of arguing. He shrugged and addressed the team, gesturing toward the metal and weapons after discharging everything. “Sort it out in that barn over there. I’ll come back for you in… How long will it take?”

“Days,” Jorge sneered. “This is a mess. Can’t you tell ferrous from—”

“Then I’ll come back in an hour and take you to the hotel. Come, Rynn.”

Grabbing the girl’s hand, Vincent reappeared in front of his parents’ apartment. He knocked discreetly, fearing to wake up Milo. Ludwing opened after a few seconds. In the living room, Elina and Karl bathed the baby using a portable tub, and they were obviously bad at it. Vincent’s parents offered unrequited advice, making the couple even more nervous.

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“Goodness gracious, you want to break his arms?” Rynn blurted, pushing the two away and taking the baby. The baby was bathed, dried, and dressed in less time than one could count down from one hundred. “I have three younger brothers,” she said with pride. Her accent sounded posh British to Vincent, albeit she spoke Czech. He had insisted that Rynn buy a Universal Language package, and she overdone it, spending an extra token to acquire high-society accents.

“She’s a country girl from Stellarterra. I don’t think she knows about Pampers,” Vincent said because Milo’s tushy had been wrapped in a towel.

“I’m no country girl. I’m nobility!” Rynn countered.

“Let’s start with the good news. Ludwing, you’re a grandfather,” Vincent said, showing the king the photos on his phone.

“Oh, my God!” Ludwing yelped, covering his mouth with both hands. “He’s so cute!”

“He looks like Winston Churchill,” Karl said, with zero diplomacy, earning himself a kick in his shin from Elina.

“One of the greatest statesmen,” Vincent said.

Ludwing was beaming.”I’m so happy… and… did Zsara—”

“She stayed with the baby and the father,” Vincent said. “They looked… stable.”

“Iiii!” Ludwing clapped his hands. “My heart is bursting… I have to fly…”

Seconds later, the window in the king's room opened. Ludwing transformed into a raven and flew away.”

“Don’t let the window open, moron. The kid will catch a cold,” Vincent’s mother yelled after the king, rushing to close the window.

“So… Rynn here is a sort of a hero but lacks schooling,” Vincent told Karl. “Could you arrange for her to join that private school in Switzerland where your son studies?”

“Yes. I’m still on the board,” Karl nodded. “The only problem is all students have to excel at something. Our son is good at coding, for instance. Do you have some advanced skills, miss?”

“I can write?” Rynn grinned.

“I’m sure she’s good at sports,” Vincent said.

“True, I’m good at running… Praytell, what age is your son?” Rynn asked.

“Fourteen,” Elina said.

“Does he have a fiancee? I’d like to expand my portfolio.”

“Don’t mind her,” Vincent hissed. “She’s—”

“People don’t engage or marry before they’re eighteen here,” Elina said.

“Oh, goodness… Never mind, we could have conversations, to know each other better. Nothing beats talking to build a relationship, Ma says. Of course, she does all the conversation, but Pa’s a good listener. And a top nodder. He says Yes, darling, sure darling, so well Ma doesn’t even realize he’s not really listening… Well, I’ll explore the city a bit,” Rynn said.

“Be back before sunset,” Vincent said.

“I will do so, my liege,” Rynn bowed.

“Won’t she get lost?” Vincent’s father asked.

“She’s a Scout,” Vincent said.

“I’m a Scout,” Rynn said simultaneously. “I can make maps in my head. Don’t worry.”

“She kept her magic?” Elina asked.

“I don’t need magic to make maps in my head,” the girl said. “I’ll find my way out,” she waved her hand and beelined to the exit.

“So, all’s well here?” Vincent asked.

“As well as it could be,” Karl said. “My friend is ecstatic about our space experiment. The next step would be to transport a few bio domes up there and test how—”

“It can be done,” Vincent said. “As a matter of fact, the Elkandaros robot can now drive spaceships and execute Warp jumps… I will bring him here on the next trip.”

“Bee told us he has an antigrav engine prototype at the ready. We need only to build a ship around it.”

“It’s perfect, we’ll have redundancies… Where’s Bella?” Vincent asked.

“Your sister?” his mother said.

“The other one. I have to ask her some things.”

“At the lab,” his father said.

“Say, guys,” Vincent looked at his parents-in-law, “what if I’d rent you an apartment? I have twenty gold from… err… doing some public services,” he avoided saying it was the executioner’s fee.

“No!” Vincent’s mother blurted. “Milo’s a joy! And we’re practicing for when you and Bella will finally reward us with the grandchildren we deserve.”

“And Karl and I are like brothers,” Vincent’s father said. “But if they got annoyed staying with us, we won’t stop them from leaving.”

“Nonsense,” Karl waved his hand. “We really like it here. Socializing with such wonderful friends beats a boring mansion any time.”

“Suit yourselves,” Vincent shrugged. “Then take this, Pa, change it to have some pocket change for your expenses,” he offered the gold coins. “See ya!”

Cutting short the goodbyes, Vincent left the apartment. Outside the building, he noticed Rynn trying to climb the façade. “What are you doing?”

“I need to pee, so I came back,” the girl said. “The door is locked.’

“Get down. See this number pad? Twelve’s my parent’s apartment. You dial that, and they’ll answer. When you hear a buzz, the door is open.”

“Wow…” the girl said, pressing the numbers. “Magic!”

A few seconds later, Vincent’s mother answered. “Who is it?”

“It’s me, ma'am. I need to pee,” Rynn yelled, making the passersby turn their heads toward her.

Vincent let the girl deal with the door on her own and strolled toward the lab. Half an hour later, he arrived at the location and found Bee and Bella arguing, with Sven in the middle. “What’s up?” he asked.

“We have a dilemma,” Bee said. “The rest of the AIs in Sven want to stick together and move in a robot. But Sven has magical protections, while the robot is just a robot. They’ll be vulnerable. I say to wait, and Bella says to go on.”

"The automaton may bide with us until we find a solution, and we shall use the time to learn how to walk and explore," the girl said.

“Let’s do both. We will wait a few days until I bring Elkandaros back. He got a pod armor, and he should be able to do magic… We might unlock another pod for the guys if we find more power sources.”

“What’s the power source?” Bee asked immediately, his eyes beaming.

“Dead dungeon cores,” Vincent said.

"How?" Bella asked.

“The Archetypes found a way to kill the personality inside but keep the magic,” Vincent said. “I got two pods and three armors and cores. One for Elkandaros, one for me, and a third that I couldn’t unlock. I thought you could use your anti-magic on it. ”

Saying that, Vincent summoned the First Princess’ armor and the adjacent core from the storage, putting them on the table.

Bee touched the armor but shook his head moments later. “I don’t see anything. Like the object doesn’t exist. You try,” he offered his ring to Bella.

The girl waved her hand, refusing the ring, and touched the armor in her turn. Under their eyes, the object wrapped itself around her into an elegant white and gold armor.

“It hath a special requirement. Being a maid. I shall tell thee what it saith: Maid Power, erstwhile dungeon core, and the First Princess Armor. The dungeon did offer refuge to women abused, yet in time, it lost its wits and decreed that all men must perish, slaying them by the hundreds. It could not be reasoned with, and Kiara and Hubris did take it down.”

“Hm… so, the ones having the most armors and cores are their descendants,” Vincent said. “It can’t be a coincidence. I must have a word with them… if they’re still alive. What does it do?”

"The armor? A great Mana pool it doth possess, and enhanceth all magic skills by a tier. It dealeth double damage to men. It also doth fly," Bella said.

“Say, Bella… you sound more… archaic…” Did something happen?”

“Parts of her childhood memories are returning, including the language,” Bee said. “Peter said it’s a good sign, and she’ll be able to learn to speak normally shortly.”

“Oh… OK… So, now you can mix magic and anti-magic, right, Bella? Let’s say somebody shoots bolts at us. Are you able to annul them?”

“My magic or magic-breaking skills are slow and channeled,” Bella said. "Methinks I would fare well if I had a company to protect me."

“We’ll do some tests,” Vincent nodded. “We’ll start by putting Irene throwing low-intensity bolts at you. You could become our greatest asset if you manage to dispell them.”

“I shall wear the armor, just in case,” the girl frowned.