"Hey did you know that the second Prince is manaless? Can you believe it!?" Said a woman.

"What? Is something like that even possible?" Said another woman.

"Do you think it's a curse?"

"Perhaps, or maybe that's what you get for being blessed with three powerful children. One has to have the short end of the stick." Another voice said snarkily.

Lara sighed and continued to walk the streets holding a big suitcase.

The rumors were getting outrageous. Just a week ago it was theorized that Lazarus might've been something other than human, now it was a curse?

This was the problem with rumors they grew and changed and not for the better.

However there was some truth to it - that young prince Lazarus was indeed manaless.

Even Lara was shocked by the revelation when Emilia had told her. At first she couldn't wrap her head around it and had the same reaction as the people now, for one person to not have mana was the same as a bird born without wings. How was it even remotely possible when everything had mana? Lara herself couldn’t believe it the first time she was told.

But it came from Lady Emilia herself and the Queen had no reason to lie.

Lady Emilia also told her that the late Duke Roann's minions were the source of the very strange rumor concerning Lazarus being manaless, that it might’ve been a curse, or he’d anger the gods or something similar to that effect.

Duke Roann had rebelled against the crown and paid a price for it. The embellished rumors were simply a form of retaliation in an attempt to tarnish the reputation of the Valhearts. In truth, Lazarus was just manaless, that’s all, there was no conspiracy per Lady Emilia’s words.

But was that true? Could someone truly be just manaless just because?

…

In any case, Lara herself at the very least, believes it wasn’t a curse or anything bad, but it might’ve been some very weird case or perhaps an ability?

"Haaa-..." Lara sighed, it is said that mana was also the energy that living beings used to move. If that's true, how was the young prince even moving? There was also the fact that he was weaker than everyone his age so perhaps there was some truth to that belief?

Regardless, it didn't change Lara's view of Lazarus, to her he will always be the prince with a strong heart. The prince who stood up for her.

Lara eventually arrived at her stop and glanced around. There were many wagons rattling as they come and go, and-

"Town of Ecosia! To the town of Ecosia!" A man screamed and waved his hand as he stood on top of the wagon.

Lara hurriedly raised her hand and shouted back,

"I'm going to Ecosia!" Before running towards the man who smiled,

"Great! You're the last one. Now, time to collect the fees before we head off."

After boarding the wagon and getting squeezed in with the rest of the people, Lara sat the suitcase in her lap and hugged it. She had to make sure no one would try anything funny as this contained her clothes and hidden beneath it was a lot of money for her services. She needed to give this to her parents so they could pay for her brother's tuition

Speaking about her errands, she was allowed to take a week off before she was required to be back. However she didn't feel like taking the week off and wanted to be back as soon as she was done. But still, it would still take her a month to get back.

-'I have to be there for young prince Lazarus'- Thought Lara to herself. Though the young Prince seemed to be doing well these days after the revelation, she couldn't help but worry for him.

And there was no reason for her to prolong her stay as her younger brother was still in school until near the end of fall.

The driver eventually made it to Lara and he held out his hand, and Lara handed him a couple of bronze coins and a silver coin.

The man counted the coins for a few seconds and then nodded to her, "Exact amount. Now that everyone has paid, let's go!"

Lara couldn't help but feel a bit guilty. She had wanted to tell Lazarus that she'd be gone for a while but Emilia told her she couldn't in fear that Lazarus might get depressed. Instead Emilia would find a reason for her departure and simply tell Lazarus that she was doing some errands whenever he'd ask and before he knew it, she would already be back.

“I really hope that’s the case…” Lara muttered to herself.

She didn't agree to keeping the young prince in the dark about her departure, but who was she to voice her opposition to the Queen of the Twilight Kingdom?

Instead she simply nodded her head and quietly left. At the very least, she'll try to do what she can to get back sooner.

In the meantime,

"Hyah!" The man shouted as he whipped the horses forward and soon the wagon began rattling.

-'Please, wait for me young prince, It won't be long.'-

-------------------

There was a pile of books on the bed. All magic related. Lazarus had no idea what to do with them. He had once gathered them beneath the bed so he could easily re-read them, unfortunately he didn't need them now.

He wanted to throw them away out of spite but he couldn't bring himself to go out that much, he didn't have the energy to.

"I don't need them..." He said, balling up his fist. He didn't think saying those words would sting a bit... Actually, a lot.

"I don't have mana..." He muttered again, just to remind himself. It hurt, but for some reason he didn't want to forget.

What now?

Was there perhaps a way to get mana?

Lazarus glanced at the books.

-'There has to be a way'- He thought, as he scanned the book's title. But then his eyes widened upon the sight of the word 'Artifacts' on one of the book's covers.

"That's it!"

Legendary artifacts might be able to help him! All he needed to do was find one.

If he found an artifact, perhaps he might even surpass Reisha and impress everyone!

He gathered the books that contained any mention of artifacts, just skimming through the pages and seeing if any of the drawings depicted some sort of powerful item. If it did, he threw the book to the pile and the rest he left on the bed.

Some stories told of legendary artifacts that were found after the hero journeyed through dangerous dungeons. He couldn’t do that, Emilia wouldn’t allow him. What else? Another story mentions the protagonist finding the legendary artifacts hidden in caves. Was there a cave nearby? Probably not.

Lazarus continued to skim through the story books and-

“The great hero Ron. He-... what’s this word?” Lazarus squinted his eyes. “He was a farmer that continued to dig to plant his crops. But one faithful day, when he dug through the soil, he hit something hard. When Ron unearthed the object, thinking it was a stone - he ended up being very surprised. For he-.. had found the legendary spear, Rigel.”

Lazarus felt a surge in his young mind. Goosebumps spread all over his body as an idea came up.

“That’s it!”

With that thought in mind, he swept up all the books on his bed in one big motion and quickly stuffed them underneath his bed.

He needed them after all.

Perhaps they might contain information on more legendary artifacts like this. But first, he needed to find his own and he knew just where to find one!

Afterwards, Lazarus headed outside with the embers of hope burning in his heart.

For the first time in a week, his steps felt lighter. As he walked, his steps gradually became faster and faster till he was almost running.

Eventually, he arrived in the Palace Gardens. There were a couple of maids tending to the garden, great… What now? He didn’t want to get caught digging around. But what if he covered them after digging? Surely they wouldn’t mind then, right?

It did make sense in his six year old mind. But there was still a chance he might get scolded, but if he found any artifacts then it wouldn’t be a problem!

Still, if he could, then he would want to get away with it just to be safe. He went back to his room for the time being. On occasion, he’d walk back to the palace gardens and see if anyone was there. There wasn’t. He waited for a good while and some maids did occasionally pop-up.

“Still not safe...”

When afternoon came, the maids were all busy with something else.

This was his chance!

----------------------------------------------

-'What should I do?'- Emilia wondered to herself. Lara, Lazarus' personal maid, had gone home to send money to her parents.

And while Lazarus was already eating even without the maid, Emilia still couldn't bring herself to face Lazarus.

Just remembering his completely shocked face, the disbelief then when he finally realized it was the truth as he broke down crying.

No-... Crying was an understatement. Lazarus had just stood there, tears streaming down his face with a blank look. When Emilia tried to touch him, he smacked her hand away with as much force as a six year old could.

The sheer anger and sadness on his face and all of it was directed at her. It was too much, especially coming from the child she loved so much...

It was her fault, Emilia knew, had she never birthed him manaless, or had she never lied to him from the start, then none of this would've happened.

But it couldn't be helped. They had to lie to Lazarus about the fact that he had little mana as he could've spilled the only secret that could bring down the reputation of the valhearts, since he was still a child

But it ended up getting found out anyway. But how??

A torrent of questions flooded Emilia's mind and the one thing she couldn't bring herself to do was face Lazarus.

She was too ashamed and she was also afraid that he might push her away once more.

"Excuse me your highness," A feminine voice said, interrupting Emilia's thoughts and prompting her to look at the maid giving her a bow as the maid continued, "The others are concerned for what Prince Lazarus is doing in the palace gardens."

He's outside?

And he’s in the gardens?

"What is he doing?" Emilia asked, unable to think of any reason for Lazarus to be there.

"He's digging holes all over the place."

Emilia's eyes widened in shock, "But why would he do that?" She then shook her head and asked something else, “Did you see him do it?”

"Not me, however, Yuria was cleaning the meeting room and happened to stumble upon the sight of the young prince digging around. When she went to him, she had asked the young prince, and he said he was looking for legendary artifacts."

"Oh..." Emilia felt her chest tighten painfully upon hearing the reason why. No doubt he was trying to compensate for his lack of mana.

"What would you like for us to do, your highness?"

"For now, just let him do as he wishes and fill the holes after he tires." Emilia said, placing a hand on her anxious heart. She didn't have the heart to order them to stop Lazarus and have his hoped crush once again... and above all, she didn't want him to hate her more.

Maybe she could tell him at a later date that legendary artifacts were operated by mana and that the palace gardens wouldn't have any legendary artifacts to begin with.

...

Maybe not...

Emilia didn't have the heart to break his heart a second time.

--------------------------

"Ah!! The palace gardens!" Anastasia screamed in disbelief. Where it was supposed to be a wide grassy plain surrounded by perfectly positioned plants, was instead filled with dirt patches.

It looked like somebody dug some hole all around and just covered it again. The problem was the number of them. There were too many!

How was she going to play with her friends now? They had complemented how the Valheim palace garden was the best they'd ever seen and that their gardens paled in comparison. It was a source of pride for Anastasia and now,

The image of the perfect garden had been ruined!

"Who could have done such a barbaric act!?" She scowled and glanced towards one of the entourage of maids behind her.

The maid flinched under Anastasia's glare, despite it belonging to an eight year old young girl - the maid hurriedly searched her memories and she recalled having a chat with Emilia's maids.

"If I remember correctly, her highness' maid, Alicia, had told me that the prince Lazarus was in search of something and those dirt piles were made to cover the holes young prince Lazarus had dug."

Anastasia recalled that she was scolded a lot because of Lazarus.

Even when Anastasia only wanted Emilia to look at her, instead, Lazarus had monopolized her mother's time and attention.

Why?

She had already scheduled a tea party with her friends from the Valentine and Cronwell family this afternoon. But now? She would need to reschedule on a very short notice simply because Lazarus decided to dig some holes??

It was always Lazarus causing her a lot of headaches.

He made her life miserable, even though she tried her best to be magnanimous to him. She had let it slide that Emilia was always on his side, she had also kept Lazarus from getting hurt in their games by not letting him participate and-...this is how he repays her?

The more Anastasia thought about his offenses, the hotter her head got.

He truly was trying to get under her skin.

Anastasia felt something burn from the pit of her stomach. Never had she had to reschedule before, and it was another thing she took pride in.

The heat from her stomach surged to her head as she stomped forward with a balled up fist,

"Urgh! That's it! That thing is going to pay!"

------------------------------------

In a room with books scattered over the bed, sat a young child with black hair and blue eyes.

There were several books opened and he leafed through each one of them in sequence as if he was some grand researcher. But in truth, he was simply going through hand drawn picture books and it simply felt cool that he had all of them open at once.

Still,

"Where can I possibly find these artifacts? There has to be some traces of them in these stories." Lazarus said, cupping his chin with his hand, thinking.

"Laaazzaarruuuss!!" A muffled shout resounded from beyond the door, interrupting his thoughts.

That sounded like...

The door to his room suddenly slammed open. There stood a young girl with blond ringlets with a reddened face, looking very, very angry.

"Ana! Why're you-!"

"Shut up!" She screamed, stomping forward, making Lazarus step back out of instinct. She lunged at him, and grabbed him by the collar, shaking him. "Why did you destroy my precious garden!?"

Lazarus tried to push her off but her grip was like a vice on his collar, she shook him, he tried to shove her away but she was stronger and simply continued to shake him.

"Let me go!" He protested. However this simply served to anger Anastasia further. She pushed him down, and Lazarus fell hard on his back, twisting his face in pain. Anastasia proceeded to smack his head as she shouted, “This! Is! What you get!”

“Stop! Agh-! Please stop! Argh!” Lazarus screamed as he could only shield with his arms.

Anastasia’s maids eventually arrived at the scene, alarmed. They knew her, she’d fire them if they’d interfere. Not wanting to risk their livelihood, one of the maids ran to get help. The others gathered around and pleaded for Anastasia to stop, she just scowled and once again gripped Lazarus’ collar.

“Why!? Why do you always have to be such a pain!?”

He had to deal with being manaless. He had to be ostracized when he only wanted them to see that he was there… that he existed. Lazarus felt something in his mind break, a fire blazed in his heart as he quickly grabbed something while Anastasia continued to shout and shake him.

*Wham-!*

“Kyah!”

“Princess!”

“You-!” Lazarus got up, looked at the young girl clutching her forehead, raised the book in striked down as hard as he could.

!?

It was stopped, he glared, but a maid had caught it and said,

“Please stop this young Prince!”

“Let goo!!! Graaarghh!” He tried to pry it off the maid but instead the book was pulled from him, he wanted to lunge at the maid, but he stopped when he heard a whimper.

“H-how could you-... how dare you!! Waaahh!” Anastasia full blown wailed, but Lazarus was taken aback by the red liquid dripping from her forehead. He felt a sort of numbness spread across his body. The maids all looked at the book the other maid had taken from Lazarus, and they realized he'd hit her at the sharp point of the hard bound book.

“What’s going on?!” A voice called out, Lazarus turned his head in horror at the woman in the door.

“M-mother-...” Lazarus said as a cold feeling seeped in his pounding heart.

He was in trouble. But-!

“It was Ana she attacked me!”

“Waaaaahh!! He hit me!! Waa!” Anastasia wailed and ran to Emilia clutching her forehead.

As Emilia held her, she turned to look at Lazarus who flinched under her inquisitive gaze.

“What’s this commotion?”

!

Lazarus’ stomach dropped.

Behind Emilia, came the one man he never wanted to see.

“I ask again, what happened?” Said Veyron with a gaze that seemed to be ready to burn anyone at a moment's notice.