After the fight with Leviathan, Solstice had a wakeup call on how weak he really was in the world, just the pressure emitted from him was enough to make him almost blackout. He thought he had the resolve to become strong but seeing how far he had to go had truly daunted him. After some time delving into the crystal his mother gave him, he had been gaining insight after insight on how to use their powers, but even then, he was scared to use time because of all the consequences.

“Solstice let’s go!” Bela yelled from downstairs letting him know the carriage had arrived. It was finally the day he had to return to the Lightmane Kingdom and attend two different meetings with nobles. His mother had never trained him with proper etiquette so internally he was nervous, and Bela could see this.

“Calm down geez, it’s funny how alike you and your father are. If it isn’t something involving fighting you both just shut down.” Bela giggled when she saw Solstice turtle up when she teased him.

Hours later they finally arrived at the capital and were stopped by guards at the front gate. Ever since the attack, Tyrion had taken up a martial style of governing his kingdom now. Clearly the soft and kindhearted leader wasn’t being taken seriously enough and needed to exert some power to quell some uprisings happening.

“Registration and reason for visit.” A guard in white and gold armor with the signature golden lion on his chest sternly asked.

“Sorry we have no registration, could you please call over your commander so I can talk to him.”

“Give me one moment.” Most guards in cities acted high and mighty but within the Lightmane Kingdom it was different, with how focused Tyrion has been driving his ideal of justice, many bright-eyed young men had enrolled in the military in hopes of making a difference and were very rigid when it came to the rules now.

A few minutes later a guard with a dense aura circled around the carriage and saw Bella’s vampiric features and widened his eyes.

“Bela and Solstice I presume? Go on ahead.” The commander didn’t need to know any more information on either of them, he was from a branch family of the Frost family and knew they had a special gathering involving a vampire, so he didn’t need to be too picky with questioning her.

After riding through the streets of the capital, both Solstice and Bela picked up on the incredibly somber feeling in the city, the tragedy was an incredibly big deal and affected the morale of the whole city. After finally arriving at the palace Solstice was met by Tyrion and some of his royal guards dressed in black and gold heavy plate armor. Each of these men were A-rank with the strongest one being at S-rank.

“Welcome back you guys, sorry it’s very somber in the city. Hopefully after tomorrow things will start to cheer up again. I know I can’t erase what happened, but I’d like to use it as a fuel for them to put their minds to something else. Anyways let’s go inside and discuss important matters, after we finish here, I’ll get an escort for you to the Frost family’s mansion.”

As Solstice walked through the castle, he noticed a huge number of guards stationed throughout, Tyrion noticed this and explained a few things.

“Ever since we learned that the terrorist groups have been targeting our youth, I’ve placed many more guards to help keep my son safe, seeing as the only ones left in Irian and I’s kingdoms are but a handful all together it isn’t too difficult.”

After arriving in Tyrion's study, Ivis was already sitting in a chair while sipping tea and had bandages all over his body. When Ivis saw how fine Solstice he couldn’t help but scoff.

“Leave it to Solstice to already heal fully, what a surprise. It’s good to see you, my friend.” Ivis harbored no ill intentions anymore and just had a sort of admiration for the kid. He wasn’t awake for the fight between Solstice and the burly man who was almost able to kill them all, but from what he heard, Ivis had already given up on trying to compare to this singularity of a person. For the time being he had begun to focus on himself and prepare for his ascension to the throne his father was attempting to salvage.

After everyone sat down Tyrion put on a serious face and finally told them what he had planned.

“I’ll go ahead and let you guys know, Aevis Academy has settled on a tournament style entrance exam this year. After a lot of talks and planning we’ve decided as a united front to use the exam as a way to lure out conspirators, of course we’re going to take every precaution possible. But I figured seeing as you’ve already suffered enough, I’d let you know before you attempt to take the exam in 3 years.” Tyrion had a sad look on his face only because he was part of the minority faction who didn’t wish to endanger the kids.

“Are you still going to attempt it?” Solstice looked over at Ivis.

“Of course, I'd honestly like to get some revenge. It doesn’t feel right that I got taken out and all my friends pretty much died ya know?” Ivis gave a weak smile, most of the kids he grew up with were now dead minus the handful who were older or younger than him.

“Can’t have you making me look bad then, can I?” Solstice only smiled at Ivis, internally this had hardened his resolve once more that was shattered by Leviathan.

After wrapping up the meeting both Solstice and Bela made their way to the Frost family mansion, after arriving at the gates a group of guards came out to welcome them. On their way to the mansion, they saw a giant ice spike erupt behind the mansion, Solstice smiled when seeing this, clearly one of the twins was taking their training seriously after the banquet.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

After walking through the front door Solstice was met by the Frost Duke himself.

“Welcome to my abode, sorry I couldn’t greet you at the gate. Ever since the attack my daughter has been relentlessly training and I’ve been overseeing it all.”

After Luther said this, he garnered a weird look from Solstice.

“What about Hugo?” Slowly a sense of unease rising inside oh Solstice.

“I think it would be best if you talked to him yourself.” With that Luther led Solstice while Bela went to the backyard to see Lily.

Luther opened a large door which revealed Hugo, but he clearly had seen better days. He had dark circles under his eyes and bandages all over his abdomen. He slowly looked over at Solstice and his father and just nodded before looking away.

“He hasn’t spoken at all since he was diagnosed… He can no longer use mana, when his chest was pierced it completely shattered his mana heart. The fact he’s still alive is a testament to his will, for that I am grateful.” Luther refused to show any emotions to anyone but his family but whenever he comes across the topic of this, he can’t help but tear up some.

“Anyways, let us go. I don’t want to trouble my son any more than I have.” As soon as they began to leave Hugo finally muttered something.

“Stay Solstice…” Hugo weakly said.

This surprised Luther but he reigned his emotions in and left the two teens to themselves. After closing the door and promptly leaving the area the two teens began to talk.

“Don’t say anything and just listen. I don’t want your fucking pity or sympathy, nor do I want your friendship or hearing you attempt to console me. I just need two favors and I hope you’ll honor them.” All Solstice did to this was nod in reply and wait.

“I know you saw what’s going on in the back, my sister is beating herself up over all of this. That pains me more than losing mana, so please try to help her out when you can. She’s never been good at standing up for herself or making friends, so stand in my place when you can. I would kill myself if something ever happened to my sister…” At first Hugo hated how shy and timid his sister was growing up, but over time all the negative emotions he harbored slowly turned to a strong desire to protect his one and only sister. After seeing his sister grieve over him losing his mana and almost dying did he finally realize how much she had adored him all those years growing up. This only served to eat him up on the inside over how he initially treated her, he couldn’t bear the thought of something ever happening to her.

Once again Solstice just nodded and remained silent, it was times like this he was glad he was an only child.

“Secondly, please kill those motherfuckers that did this to me. I may not know why they did what they did, but it doesn’t mean you fucking slaughter kids….” After saying this Hugo just waves Solstice off and goes back to being mute once again.

——At the same time in the backyard

Bela finally made her way outside and saw a little girl with her blue hair in a ponytail laying in the grass gasping for air. Only after a minute or two did Lily realize that Bela was watching her from the side.

“I’m so sorry! I lost track of time and didn’t realize you arrived!” Lily yelled.

“Eh I don’t care, it’s nice seeing another girl trying to stand up for herself.” Bela gave Lily a warm smile before approaching the girl and patting dirt off her clothes. Lily didn’t say anything to this and just waited for her to finish.

“You do know Solstice is here, right? I think he’s talking to your brother?”

Lily widened her eyes a little before retreating back to her shell thinking about her brother. Bela clearly knew how she felt and decided to chime in.

“No need to beat yourself over it all, I mean what the hell were you teens supposed to do against them? Nothing, if that were me, I probably would’ve died too. You should be proud your brother bought enough time for Solstice to get back up, being sad isn’t going to do anything, there was a saying my father told me all the time growing up. In a simplified way, hard times create strong people, strong people create good times, and uh something like weak people suck basically? Sounds about right!” Bela and Lily both giggled slowly the atmosphere began to lighten up.

“Do you think I can be strong? Without my brother I’m not sure what I’m going to do…” Lily had always counted on her brother to help her through tough times and always be her rock, but with him crippled he no longer could help her out in the real world. All her training has been running off of her fear of death and loss, but once this phase ends, she has no idea what she’s going to do.

“That’s all up to you, everyone has reasons to get strong. I got strong so I could control my own life, leaders get strong to unite and protect their people. Find your reason, I knew a guy who got strong so he could be lazy, there’s reasons all over the place.” Bela couldn’t help but smile at how earnest Victor was when he was growing up and wanting to be lazy.

As Bela giggled to herself, Solstice had made his way outside to see the two girls conversing and decided to wait inside for the meal Luther had planned.

——-One hour later, at the dinner table of the Frost family

“I’m sure you’ve heard from the king about the exam, correct?” The three remaining dukes were privy to the details of the trap and Luther wanted to make sure that at least Solstice was informed.

“Yes, and I’ll be partaking in the exam no matter what.” Solstice sternly said.

All Luther did was smile and nod at his remark, it was seeing youngsters with resolve.

“Dad… I'd like to participate also.” Lily quietly said.

“Absolutely not, I can’t lose you too.” Luther immediately shot her down.

“Why not! If Hugo were me, you would let him! So why can’t I!” Lily screamed.

“Calm down you two, at least give her a chance Luther. I know you’ve been helping her train, it’s as simple as if she doesn’t meet your expectations then don’t let her go.” Bela interjected before letting the escalate.

“I’ll take it into consideration, only because of your status as one of the daughters of the Vampire King.”

As soon as Luther said this both Lily and Solstice went wide eyed.

“Huh?” Was all Solstice could say to this sudden statement, he had known Bela since his birth and never knew that she was royalty.

“Whoops? I forget about that sometimes…. Haha.” Bela casually laughed.