The first rays of the sun just broke through the slits between the curtains, somewhat illuminating the spacious bedroom within. The walls were adorned with tall bookshelves that reached up to the ceiling, and the marble floor tiles were intricately crafted to dispy the symbol of a golden dragon. A man, looking to be around thirty, with long, jet-bck hair and sapphire-like eyes, stretched happily as he stood up from the four-person bed... which was occupied by four others beside him. His body was defined and well-built, not overly so, but just on the edge of perfection. And he knew that. Stretching again, he put on a golden-white silk robe, and at once, his aura exuded a domineering presence without him consciously intending to do so.

  He was the Emperor, after all... and one of the strongest people on this end of the continent.

  Feeling refreshed, he slowly walked towards the window, pulling the silk curtains aside and taking in the view of his city, breathing in the fresh morning air. Behind him, on the bed, one of the frail silhouettes moved, pulling up the white bnket over her naked torso, stretching her limbs under it in a rexed fashion, giving off satisfied, soft moans, waking up the others.

  "Is it a boy or a girl?" the Emperor asked, and a voice from nowhere answered because it wasn't a question towards the women behind him.

  "A girl," the cold, male voice replied.

  "Hmmm... That's really good. Enact the pn according to my instructions."

  "As you order, my Emperor."

  When the presence was gone, Aerthus IX fshed a satisfied smile before closing the window and climbing back to his bed, and soon, happy giggling echoed out of the Emperor's chamber...

  …….…..

  "What did you say, Hal?!" Xendar roared, smming his hand on the breakfast table, almost breaking it into pieces. He was already standing, blowing hot air out of his nose while his aura surged like a flooding river, making the rugs on the floor ripple.

  "Dear, calm down! You are scaring Ren!" Anya said in a slightly aggrieved tone, holding her daughter close to her chest, but Ren was more interested in watching them, specifically her father's reaction, than in showing any kind of fear.

  "The announcement came from the pace right after we reported Lady Ren's birth to the public," Hal stated again.

  "That horny fu-"

  "XenXen…" Anya interrupted him immediately before he could finish.

  "Tsk… Khm. That slimy ba-"

  "Xendar, not in front of the child!" Anya repeated, this time more powerfully.

  "But he is!" Xendar moaned, "She is not a day old, and that harem lover is already engaging her with his youngest son?! What goes through his head besides getting into his maids' panties?! That pussy... pussycat lover..."

  "This is still one of the better outcomes," Hal spoke up, silencing his master, trying to calm him down.

  "Still… It's too soon." Xendar bit into his lips, his aura receding.

  "Yes, it is. But at least we… She is safe." Anya whispered, kissing Ren's head, giggling, and smiling at her. "Both of us know that the imperial power is absolute, and it does not allow competition. Even if you are somebody... There are many other voices in the pace."

  "Like I care about ruling the Empire!" Xendar huffed before sitting down, "It is too much of a hassle, and he also knows this. For crying out loud, we grew up together; I helped him against his brother to successfully cim the throne!"

  "My Lord, this is still just an engagement, not marriage." Hal tried again, "We can use this to gain time and let Lady Ren grow up safe and sound."

  "B-but how dare he-" Xendar began fuming again, unable to release his anger properly, shooting back to his full height.

  "Calm down, XenXen," Anya said while she stood up and walked to her husband's side. She was tiptoeing to reach his face and gave a sweet, small peck on his lips that, like a fairy's wand, made his anger disappear as if it had never been there at all. "The fourth prince, Leinor, is only two years old. It is not a big deal."

  "How can you always stay so calm…?" Xendar sighed, hugging his wife and daughter.

  "Someone has to bance you out, no? And I was also politically sent here for marriage, no? It worked out in the end!" Anya giggled. "Anyway, it's still a long time until this comes into effect, and even if they marry in the future, your daughter will be a princess or a queen and then... maybe the mother of the next Aerthus!"

  "Huh?" Ren flinched in her arms, "My dear mother, where were you raised? Honestly, if this... Airpuss, or whoever he is, was to hear you, I think he would change his course of action… No ruler wants their son to be the one taking orders from their wife. Meh! Anyway, who said I would be interested in ruling an Empire? Father is right. It's boring and headache-inducing… roaming the world and exploring the unknown is much more fun! Count. Me. Out!"

  "If my daughter doesn't want to marry his son, nobody can make her do it! Not even him!" Xendar decred, looking at Ren, who was still immersed in her little inner monologue while ignoring her parents.

  "Yes, yes, we will talk about it when the day comes. Now sit down, and let's finish our breakfast!" Anya pulled him back to the table, sat on his p, and started to feed him. "After that, we need to bring little Ren to the pace to be seen by the Emperor and then blessed at the Church of Nilier."

  "Nilier?" Ren asked in her head as she looked up at her mother. Being her first, her intense reaction to the name caught her parents' attention.

  "Hey, I was thinking, isn't she a little… off? I, I mean, my Dear-" Xendar added quickly after seeing his wife's darkening expression as soon as he started speaking. "I mean, she doesn't cry, and when we talk, she just listens, looking at us. Sometimes, I swear I feel like she understands us!"

  "As much as you talk, I wouldn't be surprised." Anya pouted, hugging her child, trying to ease the sudden worry on her little face, "While she was still in my tummy, you talked her ears off! Who was the one who was lying next to my stomach every night, reading fables, huh?"

  "True. At least I learned the nguage before coming out." Ren nodded, remembering that when her consciousness was first pulled back from the cycle of reincarnation, she heard a muffled, old fable being read to her. "Thanks, Dad. But you never mentioned Nilier… So this is her territory? I didn't sense her presence at all... Or influence... Oh my… this is going to be interesting."

  "Maybe you are right..." Xendar nodded. "Look at her! Her little eyes are moving like yours when you think about something!"

  "Of course they do! She is just as smart as her mother." Anya said proudly, holding Ren closer to her bosom, "But enough! Let's get back to breakfast."

  …….…..

  "Ahaha, congratutions, my friend!" The Emperor ughed happily while Xendar and Anya kneeled before him under the steps of the golden throne upon the nine-step dias.

  Ren was lying in her mother's arms, looking up at the golden-robed man sitting above them, looking down, and it awoke a simir, long-forgotten feeling in her.

  "Huh… this… feels familiar. This was the same feeling I had when I stepped on that road oh so long ago…"

  "Oh? Look, she smiles at me! Ahaha, oh my, oh my!" The Emperor cpped happily, waving at the newborn baby with a gentle smile.

  "Every subject would feel happy when meeting with their Emperor," Anya said while holding her daughter closer to herself, not raising her head.

  "I guess so. Anyway, you have already received my imperial edict, so I won't take up any more of your time. A mother's time is best spent with her newborn. However, please do come over sometime... It was so long ago, Xendar, that we had a proper night out!"

  "Yeah, the st time we did hang out, you ended up with two new harem members, and I was left there with one or two broken ribs and bills to pay..." Xendar murmured, and some imperial guards in the throne room flinched at his comment while Anya just kneeled there, motionless.

  "Bwahahaha, true, true! Ahh… those were the days! Come on! We have known each other for what… Fifty years now? Even if I became the Emperor, I'm still your friend. In public, you may act like this, but we are alone here... Come, raise your head, and look at me. I may have had a brother, but you are the one I would ever call that. Stop kneeling already!"

  Anya tried to look at her husband, but Xendar slowly raised his head, looking up at Aerthus IX, their eyes locking onto each other without any reserve.

  "Thought so..." Aerthus IX sighed softly, not breaking the contact, "No wonder I've been feeling this way since morning. I knew someone was uttering my name over and over again. Is it because of the marriage?"

  "Engagement." Xendar growled, "It's not a marriage yet."

  "Geez, rex, my friend! It's not like I asked for your newborn's hand for myself." Just as he finished saying that, the whole pace started to shake, and Xendar's hair was dancing behind him like a furious lion's mane. The guards readied their pikes, taking a semi-circle around them, but Aerthus waved a hand while he stood up from his throne. "You are still quick to light your fuse, my brother. How do you manage him?" he asked while looking down at Anya.

  "He is a good husband, my Lord." She answered in a calm, simple tone.

  "Geez, stop it... I am not as bad of an influence on Xendar as you would think... Those outings were... to build his character! Anyway..." He looked back at Xendar, "Hmmm... Interesting. What threshold are you at?"

  His question rang out calmly between the jade pilrs of the still-shaking pace, and Ren was looking at her father with bright eyes, smiling as the Emperor asked exactly the question she was thinking about. Since her father's aura started to rise, she was trying to feel it out, even when Anya made sure that Ren was safe from it, shielding Ren with her own.

  "It seems like father has almost finished refining his body and just needs to open up his… wait… no, this is weird. This shouldn't be the case." Ren thought, smacking her lips. The taste of the power... it was different. "He is leaking energy from his body; he shouldn't have any stored inside if he has not opened up his spirit yet, and you couldn't open up your mind if your body weren't ready to withstand it."

  It was the first time Anya saw her baby furrow her thin eyebrows while the little one looked up at Aerthus. Her husband's words from the morning rang inside her head as she watched, examining her daughter's expression. She was amazed by her reaction, but Ren completely missed it, as she was utterly focused on the Emperor and her father.

  "It looks like the change is bigger than I anticipated," she thought, "They cultivate in a different system than I did... They already have energy within their bodies before completing their own transformation... and this energy is... So much purer! It carries the scent of raw, unadulterated energy. Good! Good! No wonder they devised a different system! Oh my, I can't wait to start again!"

  It was that moment when Xendar finally answered, not with words, but with a straightforward punch. His fist shot out like a thunderstrike on a summer day, with the same ferocity and deyed rumble. Aerthus received the punch with his own, and the sound of the two meeting fists was like when someone struck a giant bell with the might of a demigod. Anya immediately raised a protective bubble around herself with her own powers, neutralizing the incoming force, and silently watched her husband and the Emperor gring at each other.

  "Ahaha, good, Xendar!" The Emperor ughed, "I expect nothing less from my greatest General! You are a step away from stepping into the Harmony realm. Great! You just need to withstand the tribution from the Heavens and synchronize your body and spirit. Do that, and our Empire shall have another legend born into its ranks! Now I'm entirely sure about the engagement! Bwaha- ugh!"

  "FUCK. YOU!" Xendar's second answer was simple, accompanied by a well-pced headbutt right into the Emperor's nose bridge, cutting his speech short. The whole throne room went silent at that moment... The guards stood motionless, frozen like statues of ice, unsure of what to do... The only sounds that remained were the Emperor's groaning and Xendar's breathing as he tried to calm himself down.

  "Maaaan, your head is still as hard as a ram's skull. No wonder you refined that first..." Aerthus moaned, rubbing his face, cracking his nose back to the pce, but still wearing a grin. "This brings back memories…." He sighed, and it had a tinge of lonely nostalgia in it.

  "I…" Xendar flinched, suddenly feeling conscious about what he did.

  "No harm done, my friend," Aerthus IX said while signaling the guards to go back to their pces. Then he patted his General's shoulder before sitting back down on his throne. By now, the much more rexed Xendar went back to the golden stairs' bottom step, kneeling back next to his wife, keeping his head down while Aerthus acted as if nothing had happened.

  "Interesting..." Ren thought to herself, "It seems this Airpuss is above Father... yet Father's power is more explosive, resulting in that draw. Hm. I need to know more about what else has changed. Maybe I can combine it with the old ways and devise another, even better system." It was the first time Ren felt like ughing from her excitement, so when her little giggle echoed in the chamber, everyone was looking at her.

  "Ahahaha, it seems your daughter liked the little show we gave her! No wonder, not after knowing who her father is!" Aerthus IX cracked a grin, watching the ughing baby.

  "My apologies, Lord." Anya said, "I'll talk with my husband when we get home."

  "Don't worry about it, and come on, call me by name. I've known you since Xendar started pursuing you. Wasn't it I who pyed the matchmaker between you two at first? Haaah… okay, okay, I'll stop here before ol' XenXen blows his top again. Court dismissed!"

  "Don't call me that!" Xendar wanted to say, but his shout was drowned by the resounding 'yes' from everyone else.

  In the end, Anya and Xendar merely stood up, leaving the pace, and when they were back in their carriage, Anya gave a hard twist to Xendar's ear.

  "Yeaow!!!! Easy, easy!!! You're gonna tear it off!!! Dear!!!!"

  "Father sounds like a eunuch right now… 'yeaow?' What is that?" Ren giggled again, but Anya was too occupied to notice, cmping down on her husband's hearing apparatus. Consequently, Xendar also focused on not losing one of his body parts... yelling once again.

  "I'm sorry for doing that. I won't do that again! I swear!"

  "I told you not to swear in front of our daughter, you big ox!" she said, fuming, but her words drew a spectacur expression from both her husband and daughter.

  "Huh?" "Huh?"

  "No swearing! What was that back then?! What would you do if her first words were that?!"

  "You mean… so... You are not angry... because… You know…"

  "No. That was… so awesome!" she moaned, leaning closer, then giving a passionate kiss to her husband, even forgetting they were sandwiching their daughter between their bodies.

  "Ugh… Daaad…. Moooom… I'm getting squashed here… hello? Air, I still need air! Uuugh…”