CHAPTER 2334: PARENTING CONFLICTS
His words evoked an introspective mood in his relationship with his friends. He hadn't had the time to speak to them recently outside Kane. He was swamped with so many important matters that he didn't have time to maintain relationships.
It was hard enough to make sure he spent several hours a week in the Quarrier Orphanage; it was even harder to muster the time to do so with his friends. This was especially true since the world learned of his identity as a Royal Prince. It was even truer ever since he actively began contributing his mass-triggered breakthroughs ability to the Kandrian Empire.
On top of that, in addition to not having time, there were other liabilities that came with maintaining a friendship with Rui.
Any friend of his was in danger of being targeted by his enemies.
And he had plenty of his enemies.
Kane was strong and was driven by his friendship with Rui. Thus, Rui didn't think of putting distance between them. On top of that, he was aware of the risks and was willing to undertake them.
As a decently strong Master, he could handle the risks associated with being Rui's friend.
The same could not be said for the rest of his friends. Especially more normal friends like Dalen and Milliana, who were ordinary Martial Artists of the Lower Realms leading a normal married life with their young daughter in a remote village.
They were entirely under-equipped to be able to handle a relationship with him and everything that came with it. While Nel and Hever weren't weak, they were still of the Lower Realms and also did not have the backing to maintain a friendship with him safely.
This was especially the case ever since his breakthrough ability had been leaked to the entire world.
He had not even the faintest doubt in his mind that there were countless parties watching him like a hawk from all over the Panama Continent who sought his mass-triggered ability. There were also countless forces that wanted him dead for the same reason: he had already run into several assassins in the past.Belongs to (N)ôvel/Drama.Org.
All of that would spill over to friends he knew.
He couldn't allow that to happen.
The only reason the same reasoning wasn't applied to his family was that he paid for their protection and had even gotten his grandmother, a Martial Sage, to protect them.
"Fiona speaks very highly of you," the Flashing Flier smiled. "She has followed all your feats and accomplishments. She beams when she speaks of you, you see. Seeing your prodigious progress, she has gotten more motivated to ensure that she, too, keeps progressing. She has recently hit the peak of the Squire Realm and may very well be one of the next batches of Squire you break through to the Senior Realm. I'm quite proud of her as a father, you see." Before Rui could even respond, Damian snorted heavily with contempt and derision.
"Your soft, weak fathering stifled the potential of the greatest prodigious genius the Empire has seen in decades!" He sneered. "If not for your wishy-washy guidance, she would have been in the Master Realm by now. Instead, she is an unremarkable Squire after all these years. How she still respects you as a father is beyond me."
A flicker of rage flashed in the eyes of the Flashing Flier as he glared at the Devil with a warning gaze. "Watch your words, Damian."
"Or what, you little shit?" Damian spat. "Did I lie? Every word I uttered is true, is it not? She was gifted beyond even my son was. Yet, my son is a Master while yours is still in the Squire Realm. That is all the proof that one needs that you're a failure of a father."
"Kane is a Master, yes, a Master who disowned his own father for being a wretched imbecile who tormented his own son from birth into hating him in some sort of twisted tough love to drive him for more power," Sage Roschem snorted with contempt. "A man who traumatized his own son in hopes of making him stronger is in no position to condemn my parenting."
"Hah, you were dealt the best cards, and you still couldn't win. Shut up and accept you were wrong!"
"I didn't look at my children as some sort of weapon, you twisted demon!" The Flashing Flier roared. "If I was disowned by my daughter, I would never show my face in public, let alone boast about being a better father!"
"HAH! What good does owned or disowned matter when my son would wipe your daughter out with a blink of his eye!" He bellowed at the Flashing Flier with disdain. "What's the point in making them soft and weak when we live in a carnivorous world where the soft and weak get eaten?! Any father who doesn't make his children strong, no matter what, is the true devil if you ask me!"
"No one asked you, so why don't you shut up and stay put?" the co-leader of the Lightning Sect struggled to contain his rage.
"MAKE ME SHUT UP!"
RUMBLE...!
Their enormous power, sealed within the depths of their being, began leaking out.
Rui, who had been watching the two Martial Sages duke it out in the field of parenting philosophy with morbid excitement, grew worried as he realized that unleashing this much power could potentially reveal this carriage as the one containing the Sages and thus Rui to any potential surveilling hostile forces.
"Your Sagehoods, you must stop-"
Before he could even finish his sentence, the Hugging Hegemon unleashed her power, except she used it to shackle the power that the two Sages were unleashing to ensure that none of it left the carriage, absorbing it through high principles that not even Rui was able to discern easily.
"You two are losers," she grinned. "I am the best mother because my child is a Master and also loves me, so I have defeated both of you."