"So at the brink of death, you dreamt of your childhood?" Adam nodded with compassion, "How interesting, quite befitting of someone such as yourself, Edward."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I chuckled a bit before reminding them, "But it's not like that was a memory that happened. Well, it kind of was, but I guess some parts were altered, like Anna, Cecily and Carter being there."

"Carter was the guy who saved Nelly from that burning building all those years ago, right?" Anna recalled, "It's nice you still remembered him even after all these years."

"How could I forget such a guy?" I joked, "With such a striking appearance and personality, I'd be hard pressed to somehow forget him. Besides, he was one of the best friends I ever had."

"Even when he put your Whitey tighties into the wash with the Red Lions' uniforms, thus making you have to secretly wear pink underwear until you bought new ones?" Aru revealed a dark secret of my past.

"Huh? You actually wore pink underwear?" Anna stifled her laughter, "How long were you wearing them for before you went to buy replacements?"

"I went at the crack of dawn in the morning after." I glared over at Aru.

"More like you waited an entire week before you bashfully asked Jorgen and the other Generals to grab you a few extra pairs while they were out shopping." Aru corrected me without remorse, "This led to rumors among the Generals that you went weewee in your panties-"

"Okay, okay! I lied, you don't gotta embarrass me more!" I got up, since the wound was mostly gone by now, "Shit Aru, I was just dying a minute ago, and you still don't feel bad at all?"

"Oh come on, you'll forget about it in a week." Adam joined in on the mocking as we started walking out of the tunnels, "Just like those pinkie tighties... Pfft!"

Damn, if I had known this was my punishment for dying, I would've tried to last longer. What great friends... Hm? Anna just latched onto me. Wow, it really does feel just like the dream I had, but why an arm hug all of a sudden?

"Thanks for protecting me." She felt a bit too embarrassed to look me in the Eyes as she muttered, "I get we're making jokes, but I want you to know I'm just relieved you're okay. Please bear with it, I bet they feel the exact same way I do, Ed."

"Mn..." I continued walking in silence a bit before smirking, "I'll forgive you if you accept to do any one thing I ask for."

"Geez, when will you ever grow out of puberty?" She chuckled lightly, "Just don't make it too perverted."

"With a wife like you, I don't think that'll ever happen." I smiled back, answering both of her statements with but a single reply.

Walking a pretty wide semi-circle around the corpse of the scirp that had caused us so much trouble and distress, I didn't quite feel like a victor for slaying it or anything. If anything, I'd call our bout a draw, since we both died at around the same time. Even still, it's not like I had done it alone, and we can't forget that it'd still be alive, if blinded, had Aru not come to finish it off. Still, we passed the final hurdle and safely made it out of the underground tunnels.

"The sunlight never felt so nice." Adam looked up, putting shade over his Eyes with his hand comfortably resting on his brows, "So Allucius, if you said Selzion will not be pursuing the shadowy man, then is it safe to assume the animals will stop attacking my people now?"

"Yeah, looking back on the fight, it wasn't really a fight as much as it was a pleasant talk." She revealed to our surprise.

"Huh? Really?" I inquired.

"Yeah, once I amputated both of his legs and arms with my ice shards, he really could only sit there and tell me everything he knows." She said without flinching, "Though by the end he stopped giving away any more info and was just being an overall douche, so I got angry and went to behead him, only for his damned head of his to, WHOOSH, fly right into the talons of an eagle that successfully flew him off to safety."

"Y-You..." We sort of distanced ourselves from her once we saw her recreating the scene with her water abilities to us, "You don't say?"

"Yeah, but that's besides the point." She shrugged as the watery stage moisturized the grass she stood on, "He didn't drop any names, but he did say the guy that escaped Heaven 2.0 is just some guy. I asked if he's dangerous or anything, and he just kind of dodged the question with an "Ugh, I guess not...", so we're all good!"

"What? But if the guy isn't dangerous, then why even do all this just to get him back then?" I got pretty peeved at the God of Knowledge, "Seriously, do you Gods ever think about how we humans feel about your antics?"

"Eh, not really." She shrugged, "If I had to describe it, I'd probably compare you guys to an ant farm." Aru heartlessly explained, "If you had an ant farm, Edward, would you really cry a river if a single ant died? The lone and in the colony of 5-6 billion?"

"I-! Mn... I-I guess I wouldn't..." I then realized just how insignificant we humans are to someone like the Gods.

"Great, then you know how we value you." She then turned it into a pretty motivational speech, "But that's just how we Gods view you. That isn't any one human's true worth. Any man, woman or child is worth at the very least exactly the amount they value themselves as, plus the amount the people they care for value them as. So, Edward Saint, would you say you as an individual have no worth?"

Whoa, where did this profoundness suddenly come from? Aru, she can be bratty and cheeky at times, but from the time we've spent together, she really does strike me as the most mature out of all the Gods. Heh, I would've expected it to be Selzion, but it looks like that head being carried off by the sharp talons of a bird really doesn't meet my expectations. Glancing around at Adam and Anna as everyone eagerly awaited to hear my own auto-appraisal, I actually cracked a smile before bursting into laughter, prompting them to do the same, just like a chain reaction.

"Phahaha! The hell are you looking at me like that!?" I said in between my laughs, "I get the feeling that if I praise myself too much, you're just gonna start cracking jokes again!"

"Haha, but of course." Adam chimed in, "A man must learn to value himself, but he must also know humbleness. Don't forget to be modest when speaking of yourself, Edward."

"Ahh, forget what this guy's saying, Ed!" Anna laughed out loud as she talked over Adam, "Just say whatever's in your heart! I wanna hear how cool my husband is from his own mouth!"

"Hahah, alright... But don't get mad if it's too high of a number?" I joked, "Realistically, the number is just about average, but it seems my dear friends and family seem to really be boosting that number for the most part. I'll give myself a solid 99."

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"Whoa, that's pretty good." Aru commented.

"Out of 10." I smirked as she started fuming at me.

"Oi! You damned egotistical ant, you!" She hissed and hissed as I continued walking to the mansion, guffawing and wheezing like never before.

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"Oh dear, you're back!" Elaine answered the door in tears, "Is everything alright now? Are you hurt?!"

"Dad!" A teary Eyed Allen clung onto his father desperately, "M-Mom said we were getting attacked, sniff, a-and she said... She said you were fighting them off a-and...!"

"Son. Hey, Allen, my boy!" Adam calmed him down with a somewhat loud yell, "Where's all this crying and worrying coming from? Is this how the prince of the continent conducts himself?"

"Dear, he was just worried..." Elaine tried defending her son, but failed to realize Adam was just mad at him, but rather trying to teach his son a valuable life lesson.

"Allen, before this you were all calm and collected, where did that go?" Adam kneeled down as he put his hands on his son's shoulders, "Before the enemy attacked, you didn't at all care, saying things like "They're not gonna attack us" and the like, so when they did eventually attack, you were left completely unprepared. I am disappointed in you."

"Whoa, you really gonna drop the D-word on him like that?" I tried intervening as well, "He's just a kid, it's not like he knew-"

"He isn't just a kid, Edward, he's MY kid!" Adam shouted back at me, "He's not the king's son, he's not the prince of the land, he's my son! I, not as a king but as a father, am ashamed to see how he handles highly dangerous situations with indifference! What if this attitude one day fails to protect his mother, or God forbid a future friend or lover?"

"S-Sorry..." Allen sniffled.

"No, don't apologize." Adam sighed, "You are but a child, I don't expect you to have anything planned out just yet. The past is done and over with, it cannot be changed, let this shame wallow in your little heart for the rest of your life."

"B-but-!" Allen got a bit of an attitude from all the confusing words, which prompted Adam to raise his voice yet again.

"A king makes no excuses for the ones he's failed!" Adam finally got to the point, "He gives them hope, reassurance, something to look forward to! So tell me, son, what can I expect from you in the future?"

"T-To, uuu..." Allen forced himself to talk through his tears, "To not doubt a potential threat..."

"Good, and?" Adam cracked a smile.

"T-To, sniff, to prepare for anything..." He continued.

"Alright, and the final and most important thing?" Adam's stern face turned into a brimming smile filled with joy and pride of his son's growth.

"A-And finally..." Allen took out a butter knife he had apparently hid in his pockets and started running to attack Bamb, "Never to trust the anim-whoa!?"

"Wrong, wrong!" I reacting that very moment as I lifted him by the outstretched wrist that was waving a butterknife around, "The animals are oyr friends, kid! Your dad wanted you to say something like to make our enemies our friends or whatever, okay?!"

"Oh geez..." Bamb looked a bit startled, "That was startling."

"Don't worry, he couldn't do much with a knife primarily used for spreading butter anyways." Cecily egged the furious Allen on even more, "Seriously kiddo, you oughta learn your weapons better. At your age I was already familiar with all the weapons in Great Hiana."

"U-Ungh, let go of me!" The boy slashed the air in front of my face before I took the knife away from him, "Tch, what friends? They tried to kill dad and the rest of us! It's good we're slaughtering and eating them!"

"Oh!" Bamb gasped, the flowery thoughts usually addressed to her becoming awfully black and scary, "N-No, I-I didn't...!"

"Son, that's enough!" Adam forcefully took his son from me, slapping him once before snatching the knife from me as well and digging it into his son's palm.

"O-Ow! Stop it!" Allen begged.

"Do you feel it?" Adam made his son understand, "Do you feel what it is like to be hurt by another!? This is a butterknife, it won't even shed blood after this, nor will it leave a scar, so do you know why it hurts?!"

"O-Ow, dad!" Allen started bawling his Eyes out, "Please stop, it hurts!"

"It hurts, not because of the weapon used, but because of the person using it!" Adam explained, "Allen, your father, someone whom you trusted could deal with anything, is hurting you right now. So tell me, boy, just how much would it hurt Bamb to get stabbed by this stupidly dull blade?"

"A-A lot!" Allen finally caved, "Bamb, I'm sorry! I'm sorry, okay!?"

"No, it's alright..." Bamb stood next to me, hoping for me to vocalize her thoughts for her, "You didn't know any better, so..."

"Bamb's scared shitless." I told the boy, "For all she knew, she could be dead by now, but she still has it in her to forgive you. You wanna know why?"

"O-Ow, why!?" Allen cried out.

"It's because she trusts you not to hurt her." I then corrected my statement a bit, "Well, not just you, but the human race in general. The animals only did this because they were following orders from some sleazy God, they didn't know any better, just like you. So tell me, do you think it's alright to attack someone you know nothing about?"

"I-I..." Allen calmed down a bit once his father stopped pushing the butter knife into his palm, "Yeah, it's super bad."

"So what are the animals?" Adam dangled the knife in front of his son's petrified face.

"O-Our friends!" The boy answered in a heartbeat.

"And what will the future king promise me after his fuck up?" Adam even threw in a swear word to emphasize his rage.

"To make Cardina a continent where animals and humans can coexist!" Allen gulped.

"Now that's parenting." Anna thought, "I guess being stern and stoic is something Adam has to put up with to make sure his son doesn't become a bad king later. I do kinda feel bad for him though."

"Yo, what'd I miss?" Issei nonchalantly walked into the scene with near-perfect comedic timing, with Othelia and my family in close proximity, "Oh, is that my butterknife? Damn, how'd it go so far from the dinner table?"

"Yeah, your only redeeming quality is your impeccable table manners, so what gives?" Othelia teased.

"Oi! I'll thank you for the compliment, but that was way out of line!" He got all pouty, alleviating all the tension Adam had carefully built up to now.