Sabiri noticed her son returning while holding hands with Gaby and nearly broke her teacup upon seeing their faces turning red.

"Sarah... Dear..." the empress mumbled with a shiver-inducing calm tone while gazing at the white-haired lass, "Who's that girl and why is she walking so close to my son?"

"Ah!" Saramin nearly flinched once she saw the way the empress was glaring at her, "Tha- That's Gaby... She's the number one in our rankings and... Well... She's Kurt's girlfriend."

"Girlfriend...?" Sabiri repeated while turning her hands into a metal claw and piercing the table for a split-second before staring furiously at Trevor and Nala, "And this is the first time I hear about this because...?"

The brother and sister tried their best to avoid her gaze and began to pray for Kurt to walk faster in order to calm her down.

"You didn't tell her about the girl!!??" Nala whispered.

"I forgot, okay?? She doesn't exactly make it easy to tell her these kinds of things!" Trevor replied while starting to tremble.

"Oh... It seems like I've been way too patient with you two lately..." Sabiri commented while scratching her marble table.

Saramin simply looked at them confused, "I don't get it... What's the big deal?"

"The big deal, my dear girl, is that this gives Kurt another weakness that his father might use against him in the following future! Why do you think I kept him sheltered all these years?? That piece of trash already has me at his mercy! What would happen if he got his hands on her as well??"

"Oh... I... I didn't..."

"Enough!" Sabiri stopped her while glancing at some of the butlers and maids walking through the mansion, "The damage is already done... Let's think about this later."

Kurt noticed the strange mood between them and began to wonder just what the fuzz was all about. It took him a moment to realize they were all staring at his hand that Gaby was holding.

"Well, it seems you two finally made some progress..." Saramin commented.

"Progress...?" Gaby repeated before following their gazes and instinctively letting go of Kurt while turning her cheeks red.

"So... I believe we haven't been formally introduced" Sabiri commented while standing from her seat and walking towards her, "It's a pleasure to meet you, young miss!"

"Ah! It's an honor to meet you, your highness!" Gaby declared while doing a quick bow before the woman.

Sabiri began to analyze the girl as if she was some kind of piece of jewelry she was considering buying while looking for any problems with it.

"How did you two met, exactly?"

"I..." Gaby began to think back to their first day of school. She wasn't expecting to meet her boyfriend's mother all of sudden but she still wished to make a good first impression, especially considering she was speaking to someone from royalty, so she decided to answer honestly, "I took his seat, yelled at him, got into a fight in front of the school, blasted him, left him on an infirmary bed..."

Saramin noticed the empress looking at her in disbelief and hurried to jump over the table in order to shut her mouth before it was too late.

"The hell are you doing???" she whispered inside Gaby's ear, "You want her to cut your neck off??"

"She asked us how we met! This was how we met!"

The empress then shifted her gaze towards her son while processing everything she just heard, "Kurt, is that true...? This girl defeated you...?"

The boy himself felt like he was walking in a minefield while responding, "Y- Yes... We had a little disagreement on our first day... But! We talked it out and we are all good now!"

"I see..." his mother mumbled while looking at Gaby again while holding her chin, "Top of the rankings, you say? And you managed to defeat my son..."

"Y- Yes... Your highness..." Gaby replied, wondering if she should apologize for beating a prince or not. She really hadn't stopped to consider that her actions might have been rather questionable considering she was dealing with the son of the emperor this whole time. For some reason, Kurt just didn't give off the atmosphere of being from royalty so she tended to forget that fact about him.

"So you're strong, then? Strong enough to protect him if something ever happens to him?"

Gaby paused for a moment and began to let her question sink in. She never considered Kurt someone that needed to be protected, but should the time for that ever come, after all the times he stood up for her, she felt it was more than obvious she would be there for him if he truly needed her.

"Absolutely!" she stated with a confident smile, "I'll make sure nothing bad ever happens to him as long as I can do something about it! You have my word!"

"I see... You seem to be the confident type. I like your kind... Okay, then. You have my approval. Go ahead and date to your heart's content as long as you're able to bring him back safely in one piece."

"As you wish, my empress!" Gaby replied with a sudden bow, nearly making Dorothy fall from her head, "I won't disappoint you!"

Kurt, Trevor, Saramin, and Nala were left bewildered by that outcome. It seemed like the empress would basically accept anyone as long as they could take care of her kid for her.

Now that he thought about it, Kurt had managed to gather quite the powerful group of friends. Each of them had already proven to be capable of holding themselves well in a fight and staying safe when danger arrived.

He thought back about how Saramin and Gaby had mentioned that he should trust them more and rely on them more and began to wonder if that dream about seeing each of them crumble down and losing themselves wasn't just him thinking too hard about it.

"What about those two, then?" Sarah pointed out while looking at the two girls on the end of the table who had already finished their dishes and were just waiting in a corner while they finished their conversation.

Gaby noticed them and raised an eyebrow, "What are they doing here...?"

"They took part in the event that put my son in danger" Sabiri reminded her, "I'm still deciding on how to properly punish them."

Saramin formed a devilish smile, "Again. My vote goes to hitting them with a thunderbolt."

"Hold on... I'm gonna go talk to them" Gaby muttered while walking towards the two girls.

"By the way, little bro, what happened with that little guy?"

"Leon?" Kurt replied while shifting his gaze towards Sarah, "I'm not sure. He just left by himself. He seemed pretty upset about what we said..."

"Oh... Bummer..." Saramin responded while picking another plate, "More dessert for us, I guess!"

"Sarah! You don't feel bad for him?"

"Not in the slightest..." she admitted while picking a piece of cake, "I don't know what your deal is that you feel the necessity to help anyone the moment they make the slightest 'dog without an owner' face... But not everyone feels the need to go out of their way to improve the lives of others.

You offered him your hand in friendship, fought for his safety, and expressed plenty of times that you were worried about his well-being. And yet, the first thing he does after being invited to your house, a very, VERY important house might I add, is get upset that we weren't fighting Hugh just for his sake? Right after he dares to use his talent on us? His rescuers! To spill out our secrets?

Yeah, no thanks... Sorry, but that kid doesn't get my sympathy at all... He didn't even thank us for all we did!"

"Wha- What are you saying??"

Saramin then glared at Kurt and put her plate down, "I'm saying that this Leon kid is not a good friend. And you probably shouldn't bother too much with him."

Kurt felt his sister's words were like daggers in his chest. The reason why Kurt wanted so bad to get along with Leon was because he saw a lot of himself in him. Hearing that she didn't like Leon was like hearing she didn't like the kind of person Kurt used to be in his past life, "How can you say that? You can't just label him like this when we barely even know him! Maybe he's just going through a lot!"

"Everyone is going through a lot, Kurt! You remember what Gaby said during her fight, we all have our own garbage to deal with... Why should we make a special case just for him?"

"But... He's all alone..." he mumbled while looking down.

"Yes... Yes, he is. But that is not your problem to fix. You have your own issues to deal with right now, don't you? You have your bet with dad, you have your challenge with Annie, the faction games are about to come soon... Can you really afford to waste time on one rude kid who acts like he wants nothing to do with you?"

Kurt didn't want to admit it but part of what Saramin said was right. He already made this mistake with Gaby once, assuming that she was someone with the same problems as his past self and that it was his duty to help her out, but that ended up resulting in her getting even more hurt in the process.

"So... You want me to just ignore him...? To just abandon him?"

Sarah noticed that there was a deeper meaning behind his stubbornness, "You don't have to keep your distance or pretend he doesn't exist... And if he asks for help, then sure, you can help him... But you already offered yourself to him, and he rejected you. So don't try to force it anymore.

Sometimes you have to let people want to be helped before you can help them."

The young prince deep down knew she was right. His desire with trying to make himself feel like he had value by trying to be some sort of hero was starting to turn into an unhealthy obsession. There was a difference between being someone's friend and making their problems your problems.

"I... I understand..." Kurt responded while taking his seat after being verbally defeated.

"I'm sorry..." she whispered after seeing his expression.

"It's fine... Nothing you said was wrong. I really should start focusing on solving my own problems first."

"You could also try to help out those that actually care about you!" Saramin added while glancing at Gaby as she continued to engage in her conversation with the two girls.

From the looks of it, it seemed like they were settling things peacefully. Eventually, the three of them bid their farewells as Gaby watched them finally leave before returning.

"So, how did it go?" Trevor asked while Gaby took a seat next to Kurt, allowing him to caress Dorothy for a bit, much to her delight.

"I think we're good."

"So... You guys are friends now or something?" Saramin wondered.

"Pfffft! As if... I just asked them if they still hated me and they said 'yes'. But they also said they didn't feel like picking on me anymore."

"The fact that our group stomped their group probably played a big part in it..." Saramin commented.

Gaby shrugged, "Probably. Who knows... I don't know if they are scared of us or just don't care anymore, but they don't seem that interested in starting fights again."

Kurt thought back about the events of that day, "You think it has something to do with what you said about... What was it again? Crawler forest? Maybe their feelings changed after finding that out."

Gaby raised an eyebrow, "You think they felt sorry for me?"

"Not sorry... Just sympathized. You know... Maybe they just realized that getting angry at someone who is already going through some things might make them look bad."

"Maybe..." Gaby admitted while picking a piece o the strange cake they had brought and taking a bite out of it, "Or maybe they just don't wanna get hit by a lightning bolt or become enemies with the prince that defeated Hugh in his second form."

"Uuhh... Yeah... That might have been it as well..."

The kids suddenly began to giggle at each other after hearing that comment. Sabiri decided to eventually leave the kids enjoying their time together and returned to the mansion in order to resume her work. Before leaving she thought to herself that she had left her boy in good hands after noticing how they all seem to know how to help him out. Even though there were some unexpected events, he seemed to be doing fine overall.

"Enjoy the rest of the meal. You are all free to stay as much as you want. Just don't break anything."

"""Yes, your majesty!"""

Kurt then noticed that gaby didn't seem to react much to him mentioning the forest, so he wondered if it was okay for them to actually talk about it and find out the truth behind it.

"So... Gaby..."

"Mmm? Yes?"

The prince made a silent prayer hoping that his question would not make her uncomfortable, "What you said back then... About your family..."

"Oh... That... It's... It's kinda a long story..." she said while drifting her gaze away.

"It's okay if you don't want to but... Do you want to talk about it? I don't really know the full story but if there is something I can do to help..."

Gaby began to rub her forehead as if considering her options. She gazed at the four kids and thought to herself that if there was anyone she could possibly trust it would probably be them.

"I guess I already started... Might as well just tell the whole thing..."

Kurt, Saramin, Trevor, and Nala all leaned forward as if they were about to watch a movie while waiting for Gaby to begin. The fact that Dorothy was sitting on top of her hair was helping in alleviating the serious mood.

"It all started when I was just a little baby spirit..." the purple-haired lass commented, "My mother was an empty suit of armor, my father was a vampire, and my older brother was a Dwelf... And we had all gathered to fight off against a giant dragon."

Each of the kids just exchanged glances with each other while carrying a big 'What?' sign in their expressions.

"I told you it was going to be a long story..."

***

"How much further...?" a crimson-scaled lizard of the size of a horse asked while dashing through the mountains.

A small cubic device that was flying by her side and following her around came closer to her face and emitted the voice of someone speaking from a transmitter, {She was last sighted at the top of this mountain. Keep climbing!}

"Thanks, daddie!"

The creature began to jump from rock to rock and making her way up the mountain when she suddenly began to hear the sound of screams coming from above.

She raised her head and noticed a massive serpent with green scales and orange wings, white horns, and black hair being launched towards the clouds with a great number of cuts all over its body.

"NEXT!!" a female voice suddenly screamed.

The red lizard began to giggle and increased her speed so that she could reach the top as fast as possible.

Moments later, another creature was sent flying, a beast that resembled a grey dinosaur with black spikes all over its body also covered in cuts and slashes.

"NEXT!!" the voice spoke again.

Suddenly two beasts were sent flying at the same time, both resembling a giant reptilian being and filled with wounds made from a blade, just like the two from before.

"Come on guys! It's like you're not even trying!!" the voice mocked.

Finally, the red creature reached the top of the mountain and discovered a black figure made of metal of the size of an adult human carrying a massive double-edged sword with one hand and using it to stab yet another monster lizard.

The figure was surrounded by piles of corpses, dozens upon dozens of dragons that were either on the verge of dying or already dead.

"Is that all your men have, Lily!!?? Is there no dragon out there that can give me a good time??" she asked while swinging her blade through another beast's chest and following up by stabbing its heart.

Annie began to turn into her human form of a young girl with wild red hair in a black dress and simple started to walk towards the black figure while holding a wide grin on her face.

"Wanna try me?" she mumbled while watching another dragon perishing at the hands of the black knight.

The metal figure aimed its helmet at the girl, "And you are...?"

Anomalia raised her arms and began to cover them with red scales, turning them into dragon claws, "I'm the one that can give you a good time!"