I awoke early in the morning to prepare for training, I walked past my way the unlit corridors and arrived outside.

“No one’s here?”

I must be dreaming if I got here before father, this must be a test, I combed my way through the garden carefully in search of a hiding spot that could hide a large man of his size.

In the middle of my search I was disturbed by mother who seemed to be quite flustered.

“Didn’t your father tell you that today was an important occasion”

“Uhh, No?” I thought about it for a bit and couldn’t recall anything like that being said.

“Just get inside and get dressed we’re leaving soon”

It seems that my search was for nothing since he wasn’t even in the garden in the first place. I went to my room and was greeted to the sight of flustered servants rushing around my room with several articles of clothing on each arm. Before I could say/do anything, they finally noticed me, and with a surprising amount of strength, grabbed me by the shoulders and dragged me to the changing room and quickly took all my clothes off.

By the time they were done dressing me up, I looked nothing like I did previously. The clothes that I usually wore were obviously of great quality and cost as compared to what the common populace wore, but the clothes I was now wearing went a step further.

The garments that I was now sporting looked like it was worth its weight in gold and every inch of it seemed to be made of fine silk or some other kind of high-class fabric. It felt comfortable to a ridiculous degree and I unsurprisingly looked great in it, almost aristocratic (which was probably the point), but it made me feel very self-conscious.

Whoever we were meeting, he/she was obviously very important, so I could help but fuss and worry over my appearance. I initially thought that we were going to meet with uncle Hector once again, but crossed that out since the last time we met him we looked nowhere near as kempt and formal. I also had the feeling he was not one to care for such formalities from what little I’ve seen and know of him.

Leaving my room, I headed for the parlour where the servants told me, father and mother were waiting for me. As I passed through the doors leading to the parlour, I was greeted to the sight of my parents, and I couldn't help but feel impressed by what I saw.

Mother’s appearance was now that of a court lady, her already beautiful countenance was further enhanced by a light dusting of makeup and her gown only further promoted her appearance with it showing off her impressive figure. She was quite literally oozing in sex appeal, a sentiment my father seems to share considering the enamoured look in his eyes.

Father’s transformation however was even more drastic, he now looked more like an aristocratic lord rather than the burly warrior that he was. Father’s appearance was already very good, a subject of envy by all men, I even caught a few women sneaking glances at him in the few times I went out and around town with him. Now, with his freshly shaven face and stylish formal clothing, he looked even better.

“So, how do we look?”, mother, seeing me by the doorway asked while doing a little twirl for show.

“Great!”, I said, there wasn't really any other way to describe how they looked.

“You don't look so bad yourself son.”, father added, and I couldn't help but agree with him. Especially if I were to inherit all their good traits.

“Alright, that's enough of feeding each others egos. It's time we headed for the carriages, I rather not have the duke wait for us any longer than necessary.”, mother said before finally explaining to me what we were doing and who we were meeting today

By the end of it, I was pouting the entire way hoping that my parents would just leave me behind at home, though it was far too late for that. Visiting the nobles that owned the very city we lived in seemed entirely unnecessary and much too nerve wracking for me.

Much to my dismay, we eventually arrived at the center of the city and the castle that resided there was gargantuan. I had never seen anything like it, not that I saw castles before, but still.

It was the home of the Waltem’s the very family who this very city is named after. Mother explained that they were not just close relatives to the current king, but also one of the most if not the most powerful family in the kingdom next to the royal family, thus why they were given the title of duke.

I grew nervous at the meeting, it wasn’t everyday that we got to meet powerful people. Even uncle Hector never made me feel this nervous before and I doubt these people would go out of their way to accommodate us the same way he did.

As we neared the doors it opened and a single person came to greet us. A servant no doubt, but one that was clearly far beyond ordinary if the aura he was giving off was any indication. Even father seemed to be somewhat cautious of the man as he tensed slightly at the sight of him.

“The Lord is expecting your presence in the alcove”

Father nodded briefly and navigated his way through the castle. He gave me the impression that he had been here before judging by his familiarity with the rooms.

We stopped outside a bright red door that had the crest of a golden lion in its center. It was decorated with eyes that were made out of ruby and other jewels adorned its mane and seemed to come to life. Father pushed through the door and we were greeted with an unexpected sight.

It was a short but stout man that was much smaller than father, a little plump around the edges. Like the lion crest he had red eyes and brilliant blonde hair, but his presence seemed much less frightening.

“Your presence is always welcome here, if you aren’t too busy you might reconsider my offer”

“I am thankful Lord Gerald, but I believe that I would be much suited just leading the guards”

“Suit yourself but you should know that you’re the only Full Transformation realm expert that I know of that is working as a guard commander, it is far too demeaning a job for someone with your level of strength.”

“Thank you for the advice Lord Gerald, but I will not change my mind anytime soon. Perhaps when I achieve my next breakthrough I shall reconsider. Though it is still a decade away before I can say anything definitive.”

“A decade or two is nothing to us. Besides, with your talents, you'll surely reach the Evolution realm within the next decade, I can already see hints of it as we speak.”

My father bowed politely in deference to the duke and mother and I soon followed, “You praise humbles me, milord.”

We continued to bow as we waited for the duke’s next words. As we waited to be acknowledged as per protocol, I began to ponder on the fact that father and the duke seemed to have been previously acquainted and much too friendly to have a simple lord and subordinate relationship, but how father would know a duke is beyond me.

“Rise, all of you. I requested your presence today because I have something to show you”

The duke made a grabbing motions in the air and pulled out a giant red orb that seemed to appear out of nowhere. The instant that he did an intense heat flooded the room but it disappeared instantly as father released his spirit energy around me.

“This is the crystallized heart of a an adult Scarlet Lion, I need you to fashion it into a usable necklace. It needs to be suitable for someone about to undergo awakening and still remain useful afterwards”, the duke looked towards mother as he said this.

It seemed that it was my mother who handled all things related to magical items and whatnot as she was the one who responded this time.

“It shall be done milord.”

“Good now that things are in order——”

A crashing sound from outside interrupted his words.

SKRAAAA——-

The sounds of glass shattering were heard all around us and the door we came from opened.

“Gerald we’re being attacked open the escape door.”

A red haired woman opened the door accompanied by a small child that had similar striking red hair.

The duke smashed the crest outside the door and grabbed the two ruby eyes and opened a drawer in the nearby tables. He placed the rubies inside and a door appeared in the middle of the room, as if it stopped being invisible.

“Through here this leads to a safe room outside the kingdom”

My parents looked worried but they still stepped through with me in tow. The duke’s family went through and we arrived on the other side, a dimly lit cave that was filled with provisions that could feed multiple families for weeks.

“Sorry to get you dragged through this mess, just another assassination attempt. It should be taken care of when we return”

“Of course Lord Gerald as long as you’re safe it is of no consequence to stay in this cave for a couple days”

“Good, Good, the portal should be charged again within a week, in the meantime following the torched should lead us outside to the Dark Glades.”

I observed the family of the duke while walking, the duchess seemed like a nice person. She was taller than the duke standing only a head shorter than father, possessing brown eyes and a calming voice. The child with her seemed to be their son, he had traits from both having red hair and red eyes but hasn’t spoken a word since I saw him enter the room.

He must have seen me staring at him because he started talking.

“My names Sebastien, if you didn’t know already my dad is the duke. I’ve been in the Dark Glades before it’s mostly safe, we can play when we get to camp.”

“Aren’t you scared?, you were almost killed just earlier”, I raised my eyebrow as I asked him.

“Oh you mean those people, daddy says not to worry about them. We also got attacked by them just last month, It’s nothing.”, Sebastien stated much too calmly.

“You just got attacked?!, how many times does this even happen?”, I had an odd sense of pity for the kid, but if happens as frequently as I assumed, I suppose you do eventually get used to it.

“I don’t really know, all I know is we just go here everytime something bad happens. This is my eleventh time here already, come on we’re almost there.”, he said rather plainly as he unceremoniously grabbed me by the hand.

He then proceeded to drag me around and rushed ahead of the duke and kept rushing till we reached the light at the end of the cave. I was worried that I was breaking proper decorum by letting this happen, but as I looked back at the duke, he simply waved me off and mouthed that it was alright, probably knowing what was going on in my head.

For a place that was called the Dark Glades I was surprised to see that it was less menacing that I was expecting it to be. It looked like the dream getaway that I always imagined off.

“There's a place here that has some baby animals, the parents don’t mind if we play with them. Let’s go faster.”

(2 weeks later)

The following days were filled with nothing but joy as I and Sebastien did nothing but play every single day. Father didn’t seem to mind me not training and even encouraged me to play more as he was preoccupied with something else. I found great relaxation in just playing around and generally just acting like someone my own age.

“Faster Markus there's a tiger cub in the cave we passed by last week. I want to go there and see it.”

Removed from my rational thought over the crazy things he’s done over the past weeks has numbed me to things like this as I followed him into a literal tiger den and saw the cute cub beside its mother.

Sebastien grabbed it with a surprising amount of care while its parent was beside it and started cuddling it without care. The mother seemed to not mind as it didn’t move in our presence at all.

“Here, you try Markus”

He passed me the cub and I felt awed by its softness, its cuddliness was unlike anything I ever felt before. I couldn’t have imagined holding a tiger cub back on earth, I would have been mauled by its parent.

We went back to camp and the duke announced that the portal had finished charging, this finally meant that we were leaving soon. As much as I enjoyed playing with Sebastien, he was only a 7 year old boy while I was much younger physically, mentally I was much much older. He was a good kid, if a bit bossy and demanding, but playing with him for the past 2 weeks has left me mentally exhausted.

We spent the night preparing for our trip back and when dawn broke the duke activated the portal with his own red spirit energy.

“Let us return to Waltem.”, the duke announced.

We stepped through and ended up back where we left from last time. It didn’t seem to have been attacked and it was brought all back to normal.

“It’s time for us to go Markus, I think that the barracks has been doing nothing while we were put and we have to resume you’re training when we return home.”

“Yes father.”

We thanked the duke for bringing us back and went on our way home. Not before hearing a loud voice that came from the castle.

“Come back soon” I saw Sebastien waving from outside and saw his enthusiastic smile.

“It seems that you’ve made a friend during our little trip Markus.”

“We just played around the area for a bit, besides we’re not meeting their family every week.”

“Well that can’t be certain for sure, you don’t know what the future holds Markus.”

We went back to our cozy home as the sun descended on our backs.