Chapter 292 - He’s the Crown Prince

"Fatima...I'm sorry."

Fatima was still giving him the cold shoulder, but she eventually sighed tiredly.

"I know it's not your fault but...to think that that stupid bastard would have the audacity to commit such a felony!"

"But...Serilla was still sa—"

"Continue those words Rowan and I will break off our engagement. I don't care about the outcome, but the fact that Armano had put Serilla through that experience..." Fatima gritted her teeth angrily when she thought about it.

Rowan immediately shut his mouth after listening to Fatima. He cursed at this brother inwardly. Things were going so well between him and Fatima, but all because of his brother's stupidity, Fatima had started to treat him coldly again.

He wanted to complain about the injustice he was facing. He wasn't the one who tried to **** Serilla, but in the end, he was the one that received the brunt of Fatima's anger. Rowan could only silently take it all in and try to cajole Fatima slowly.

Rowan had heard Lucia's words, but he wouldn't give up. He wouldn't let Fatima's brother stand in the way of their marriage. It was an admirable thought and notion, but Rowan didn't know that he needed the power to back up such ideologies.

Once Cecil found out about what happened to his dear Serilla... the Regulus Royal Family might face extinction.

From the corner of her eyes, Fatima saw the worried and sullen, but resolute expression Rowan had on. She sighed once more and opened her mouth.

"I know it's not your fault, but as my man, shouldn't you at least be able to take my anger? I mean, who would you rather have me take out my anger at, you or Armano?"

"Me of course!"

"Hmph, if you know that much, then don't put on such a sullen face. As for my brother...I'll try and work things out with him... I'm not sure how scary he's become over the past years and I don't want to find out since Serilla said that Armano will undoubtedly die under his hands once Cecil gets this news... I just hope he doesn't do anything too reckless like try to fight your entire kingdom over this offense..."

"...From what your sisters-in-law said, it might come down to that..."

"Ugh... I need something to deal with this headache... just what have your parents taught that brother of yours? And how are you such a gentleman compared to him?! Don't you think that the king has neglected and overlooked that idiot's actions for too long now?!"

Rowan immediately covered Fatima's mouth. It was a crime to talk about the king or a member of the royal family like that.

"Please calm down Ima..." Rowan hastily said. Once Fatima had calmed down a little, Rowan released his hands covering her mouth and spoke.

"He was the son of the imperial concubine... so I haven't been in contact with him for long...All I know is that he somehow had gotten into the good books of my eldest brother due to his talent in swordsmanship, but... I'm not exactly sure how he was brought up that he became such a debaucherous person..."

"Tsk... that brother of yours only causes problems for the people around him! Just look at this mess! Your brother has essentially made enemies with the crown prince of Silvaria Kingdom!"

"Crown Prince?"

"Did I forget to tell you? My youngest brother Cecil is the next successor of the household, essentially making him my kingdom's crown prince!"

"W-what?! I... I thought that Luca or Matheus was the crown prince for sure!"

"No, they do have the ability and brains, but Cecil is leagues ahead of them in terms of combat prowess, even when he's much younger. Not only that, he willingly took the mantle of successor and he's been training ever since. He's a genius in combat and he's able to learn things quickly."

"..."

"Because of his lack of ambition, he was the most ideal candidate to be the next successor since he just followed what Father and Grandfather had arranged for him..."

"So...he was like a pupp—"

"Finish that and I'll pull your tongue out!"

"..."

Hearing Fatima's threat, Rowan immediately silenced himself.

"...He wasn't a puppet. Cecil was the kind of person who just couldn't say no. Especially if it was his family who were the ones asking..."

"...I can see why he's also the most protective." Rowan replied with a grimace.

"Don't worry about my little brother. I'll deal with things on his side so that he'll approve of you. What I'm more worried about is what he'll do to your brother when he gets back." Fatima already knew of Cecil's nature. Even if he had grown up over the past few years, his fundamental character wouldn't have changed that much.

******

"Hey, Master, how do you think Lucia and Serilla will be able to identify big sis Ima?"

"Huh?"

High above the clouds in the neutral territory between the Regulus and Revertia Kingdoms, Silver had abruptly asked this question to Cecil who was meditating. Cecil immediately furrowed his brows when he heard his little bro's question.

"Oh shit... I've never really talked about what they looked like to those two, haven't I?"

"I dunno," Silver replied with a shrug.

"Crap...They know that her name is Ima, but that's only her nickname! Damn, I'm so stupid. I should call them now and tell them."

"You do that, Master. Honestly, 4 years had passed, and still, you're the same stupid Master as before..."

"Hey! We had a lot on our plate during those 4 years so I haven't talked to them about my family all that much! Besides their nicknames and the fact that they have the same last names as me, Lulu and Seri probably don't know anything else!"

"Well, you did talk about their characters, Master!"

"Yeah, but then again, that's just from my perspective from what I see of them from the house! What happens if they act differently when they go out? How am I supposed to know about that?"

"Tsk, this is why you're stupid Master. You just had to focus on your martial arts all your life that you essentially became a shut-in!"

Cecil shook his head and roughly tousled Silver's head, making a large mess of the properly groomed hair that Yuna had just brushed for him.

"Master! That's rude! Big Sis Yuna just combed my hair for me!"

"Oh shut it, I just helped you out!" Cecil replied before leaning in to whisper, "You should be thanking me! This way you have an excuse to act intimate with your big sis Yuna later~"

"...Master...not only have you grown smarter over the past years, you've also grown much more sensible." Silver praised in a deadpanned tone.

"Heh, you don't even sound sincere!"

"Bleh, well shouldn't you call your wives now? Seriously, Master, you're such an idiot."

"Oh shut it. Yuna! Can we stop for a bit! I'm gonna call Lulu and Seri!"

"Sure," Yuna replied.

She immediately swooped down to the ground and landed. It was also a good time to take a break so Cecil had the party rest up. Ren was glad and he immediately deployed his tent from his spatial ring that he received from his Master after a year of becoming his apprentice.

He already had a spatial ring, but the one Cecil gave him was a white ring. So naturally, Ren swapped out his black ring for the white ring his master gifted him. After deploying his tent, he went inside to rest his head. Now that he was in his adolescence, Ren needed more privacy for himself.

Cecil couldn't help but chuckle at his disciple. The way Ren acted was much different than how he was during that age, so it was funny to Cecil, but his wives said that he was the funny one because Ren's actions were what a normal teenager would do.

He had once caught Ren masturbating while mumbling out Serilla's name, but he didn't particularly understand what Ren was doing at the time so he didn't know whether he should have gotten angry or just laugh it off.

Serilla also found out and this caused Ren to hole up in his room for over a week. And he became much more cautious around Serilla after that.

Serilla was flattered that Ren's first love was her so she couldn't help but dote on the boy. That puppy love soon faded however as Ren became more and more immersed into Cecil's teachings.

Cecil had corrupted Ren with his way of thinking. Now Ren valued training, learning, and experimenting much more than anything else. He was beginning to grow more and more like Cecil and everyone else in the party couldn't help but lament that another youth had officially turned abnormal, just like Cecil.

Silver and Yuna had also entered their tent and upon seeing the suggestive look Yuna was giving Silver, Cecil couldn't help but raise his brow at the little fella.

'Well aren't you having the time of your life.'

Cecil chuckled and tried calling Lucia. He waited for a bit but the call couldn't get through. He frowned at this because normally Lucia would immediately pick up whenever he gave her a call.

"Maybe she's busy with something or she's out training, let's try Seri," Cecil tried calling Serilla and he was a little excited. He hadn't heard their voices in quite a while and he dearly missed hearing them.

To his dismay however, Serilla's MID couldn't be reached as well as his MID kept on ringing and ringing. Even after waiting for 10 minutes, it kept on ringing, but the call didn't connect. Cecil optimistically thought that maybe those two were busy.

He waited for another hour before trying again, but the same thing still happened, both of his wives' MIDs couldn't be contacted.

He waited for 3 more hours and tried again, but his calls still couldn't connect. It was then that Cecil thought that maybe something was wrong. He was in a dilemma right now. The Revertia Holy Kingdom was already so close, probably just another half a week to a week's journey before they arrived, but his gut was telling him to head back immediately.

Cecil couldn't understand it, but he felt that if he didn't go back this instant, he'd probably regret it for the rest of his life. He resolutely pulled out Providence from his spatial ring. Cecil wanted to use the Providence's clairvoyance to see if something bad would happen to his wives.

After 4 years of owning the World Tree's 4 Thorns, Cecil had mastered how to use their special abilities to a sufficient degree that the side-effects would no longer affect him as much, except for the Perseverance. Up until now, that Thorn's ability was something Cecil couldn't handle.

No matter how many times he tried to endure its effects, his mind would immediately be taken over and his body would go into autopilot mode. The bad thing about him using the weapon repeatedly was that the duration of the autopilot had increased, but a good thing was that Cecil could forcibly exit out of that state at the cost of him losing consciousness for a day or two.

Once he set up his tent, Cecil immediately entered and sat down crossed-legged before he activated the runes on the Providence.