Stone Will

7

Hadjar protested, but couldn’t deal with her. And as soon as he was back in its warmth and comfort, he couldn’t resist his natural desires and immediately fell asleep.

The soldiers had already appeared from the hall by then. They surrounded the nanny in a ring of bodies and left the room with her, leaving the shocked disciples and the professor alone with their thoughts.

The nurse sighed, imagining how the King and Queen would surely make a big deal out of this. No wonder the soldiers were checking their armor and shields. If Elizabeth started throwing plates again, it would be necessary to call the architects and builders to take them out of the walls.

Hadjar was sitting at the table and playing with wooden knights, or so everyone thought. In fact, he was carefully studying the open scroll left there by the King. Frankly speaking, he’d allowed the neuronet to copy everything into its database. He couldn’t read the strange squiggles yet, but he’d realized that the drawings were associated with martial arts, or, to be more exact, with palm strikes. In the Prince’s opinion, it was quite corny. Thankfully, nobody was interested in his opinion.

In fact, he was seated at the Royal table with only one purpose in mind - to prevent the Palace from needing costly repairs again.

“Record,” Hadjar said for the umpteenth time.

[Processing the request... the request has been processed. The data has been included in the special database " Information about Techniques”]

The King and the Queen didn’t quarrel in the presence of their son. They probably only interacted pleasantly on rare occasions. When they were trying to make a brother or sister for Hadjar, when he was sitting next to them, or when they were in different parts of the country.

Oftentimes, their very similar temperaments gave rise to some legendary scenes. And what else could you expect from two cultivators at the level of Transformation? Moreover, Elizabeth loved to bring this topic up, using her characteristic, scathing sarcasm. She often reminded Haver that she was three times younger than him, but had already reached the same stage of cultivation.

The most sensitive topic for a man wasn’t the organ in his pants, but his personal strength and age. Which was surprising, considering the lifespan of these cultivators.

“I don’t understand why you’re so upset—there weren’t that many people in the office”

Nanny (despite her low status, she secretly remained one of the most powerful people of the Kingdom) was there, along with Primus, the King and Queen, as well as the court Scholar and the Master. This short, gray-haired (though it was difficult to call him that) old man taught the nobles the arts. He trained them hard and without mercy. For his services, he received so much money from their parents that a large merchant guild would envy him.

“Don’t you care that our son was crawling around the Palace alone?”

Haver looked at his son. He was playing with his toys and not paying any attention to the adults.

“It’s hard to find a safer place in the country than the Palace,” the King shrugged.

“He’s tiny!” Elizabeth raised her voice.

The nurse covered the nearby dishes, and Primus clenched his fists. The air around him swirled slightly. It was hard to notice, but it hadn’t been hidden from the neuronet and, therefore, from Hadjar.

[Message to Host! Power has been activated in the vicinity!]

This was a message that Hadjar had seen before. He’d decided to call the local magic by a name he’d taken from a franchise back home, simply naming it—‘Power’.

“He’s a little boy,” Haver corrected her. “I remember that I used to crawl around everywhere in my childhood, too.”

“I have to say, your Majesty,” the nurse coughed, ”You only went out if you were accompanied by the late Queen till you were seven years old.”

Haver snorted at the bitchy old woman, but didn’t answer her.

“And what if he’d fallen and hurt himself?!”

Primus rolled his eyes. In his opinion, Queen Elizabeth cared for the Prince with a bit too much intensity.

“In my opinion, Elizabeth, you’re trying to make a hare out of a wolf. It’ll lead to trouble”

“No one is interested in your opinion!” The Queen barked. “And what are you doing here anyway? Some war council, hunt, feast, brothel or whatever else you do is surely waiting for you. You know, the stuff you call national administration!”

Primus looked at his brother, raised his palms and, murmuring something, left the office.

“Honey, let’s calm down—nothing bad happened.”

“But it could have!”

The situation was clearly heated. The neuronet was pouring out messages about potential threats to its carrier.

“Please, let me tell you something, your Majesty,” the Scholar bowed.

Elizabeth glanced menacingly at the old man, but soon enough, the fire in her eyes went out.

“Please, honorable professor South Wind, go ahead.”

The old man bowed again.

“I may be wrong, but it seems like the fate of the young Prince has already been written down in the hall of Mysteries. It seemed to me, during our classes today, that he wasn’t just crying, but had in fact wanted to ask a question.”

“A question?” Nanny snorted. “Have you completely lost your mind because of your scrolls, South Wind? You should take more walks. The baby can't even talk yet.”

Even the King and the Queen didn’t allow themselves such liberties when dealing with the scholars. There was only one person in the entire Kingdom who didn’t watch her tone and words in front of Master South Wind.

“It’s easy enough to check,” the Sholar suddenly came over to the table. He took out some parchment, a quill and an inkwell. He put them in front of Hadjar and said, “Draw me the map of our Kingdom, disciple.”

They were taken aback at the word ‘disciple’. The nobles who attended his lectures weren’t his ‘disciples’. They were only the children of those who’d paid the tuition, and the Scholar considered them merely a source of income. Regardless, the King hadn’t heard about South Wind taking somebody as a disciple in ages.

“Thank you for the honor, venerable Scholar,” Elizabeth suddenly bowed. The Queen had bowed to the commoner! “But my son…”

Silence descended on the study.

Hadjar hadn’t needed to think about it for long. What was his purpose in this new world and his new body? The dream he hadn’t been able to realize before. When he’d watched TV, or videos on the Internet where people traveled the world, he could only envy them. They were climbers, divers, simple tourists. They could feel and embrace that seemingly large, expansive world.

He lived in this new world now, which was huge, full of danger and puzzling opportunities.