Nick was still standing near his chair when all of this happened and could see the angry faces of everyone around. He sighed, touched YunYun’s shoulder and she barely visibly nodded. Although she couldn’t understand what was going on, they have been through so much she easily guessed what Nick will do next.

“I’m sorry you think I disrespected your hospitality. I wish we would’ve met under different circumstances.” Nick said and his eyes became watery, but he quickly blinked a few times and took a deep breath. For the next stunt he had to remain clear headed.

“Wait!” Empress suddenly said and stood up, took a few steps towards Nick and took his hand, but for some reason he didn’t evade her. Similar to his, her eyes were watery as well, “You plan on leaving?”

Nick nodded but didn’t say anything, he simply couldn’t. There was something stuck in his throat and it took all his willpower to remain calm, at least on the outside.

“No one here can stop either of you, right?” Empress said and Nick nodded again. Tears rolled down her cheeks, but she continued, “The moment I first saw you I already had this feeling, but when you fought you were even faster than your father!”

“Elsa!” Emperor shouted.

“Shut up! You blind idiots! I understand that the hotheads that I gave birth to would miss it, but you? How could you not see it? Put a sword in his hand and he is simply a copy of Jens! No wonder he is confident of being able to leave – the whole capital could not hold him here, let alone you, you blind drunkards!” With tears in her eyes and throbbing voice empress scolded everyone around her and then turned back to Nick, “Please don’t leave!”

“But that’s not possible! It’s been only ten years, and he looks much older …” Oliver wanted to say something only to get another angry glare from his mother.

“Sigh. What’s the use? No one will believe me anyway.” Nick shook his head and whispered.

“I will! Tell me everything, grandma will understand! Please!” Empress took his other hand as well and squeezed both tightly. Nick understood she had guessed the truth and needed him to tell the truth. The loss of her daughter brought a lot of pain and suffering and she desperately needed this closure.

“Alright.” Nick finally said, “But it’s a long story so we should probably sit down.”

Seeing how his grandmother refused to let him go, he seated her on his chair and let her keep holding his hands. Thus Nick stood there facing her and ignoring everyone else. Somehow it was easier for him to tell the story as if there was only one listener.

“Around ten years ago my mother was abducted from her home by people from the Holy Order, specifically – elder Sonor. They planned to use her body as a vessel for summoning a soul of a demon to later seal it with a seal similar to what is used to tame ranked beasts. To their surprise at the time she was already pregnant, but knowing the origins of the child they decided to go through with the experiment. During the whole period of pregnancy she was kept unconscious and fed countless amounts of drugs to mutate the body of the unborn who already in the state of fetus experienced incredible torture.” Nick felt how it became harder and harder for him to speak and his grandmother kept squeezing his hands tighter and tighter. And, after the next sentence, she started crying, but still kept looking Nick in the eyes.

“Immediately after the child was born, the mother was killed. Her name was Silja and I am her child.”

The hall was silent and the only sound present were empress’s suppressed sobs. Nick gathered all his willpower and continued, “There were seven people involved in this experiment and to this day I have killed six of them. I killed Holy Order’s grand elder before I escaped and during the last two years I managed to kill elders Ernest, Dinnar, Silvio, Sonor and Jan. The only one alive is elder Agnes and I came to north to find the sole being who can show the exact location of the Holy Order’s base so I can go and finish her off as well. That is the very short version.”

“But … but … it was ten years ago! But … you look so …” Oscar stuttered. This didn’t make any sense at all.

Nick nodded and explained, “As I said, they started me feeding steroids and god knows what drugs already when I was in my mom’s womb. And it only intensified after my birth. During the time I was in Holy Order I didn’t have any single normal meal, but was fed only different elixirs and potions. The only times when I got to eat like human were few occasions when I tricked those psychos in giving me a glass of milk.”

During the last years Nick had already forgotten the suffering he experienced, but now, telling this story to his mother’s family, everything came back as if it happened yesterday.

“Because of all the alchemy products I was fed, my life expectancy was about four to five years during which I would fully grow and fulfill the Holy Order’s objectives only to die right after. Luckily I managed to escape early and for several months straight continued to detoxify my body. I had so much poison within me that after cleansing unknowingly I would’ve poisoned the whole Aurora bay, but luckily queen Hua was spying on me at the time and prevented the tragedy from happening.”

“Sigh, formally I keep telling people that this spring I will become fifteen years old, but no one knows, even YunYun doesn’t, that I actually am only eight. Now you know why I said that no one will believe me. And … well that’s the short version of everything.”

But at this moment there was at least two people in the hall who believed him. YunYun sobbed with tears in her eyes with her heart in a total mess. Although everything Nick said made sense, it didn’t at the same time. He looked and behaved so mature, how was it possible for him to be … only eight?!

But empress didn’t care about such nuances. She jumped from the chair and hugged Nick while sobbing loudly. Nick didn’t really know what to do, but just held her in his arms and caressed her back.

“I believe you!” She said though tears, “I know everything you said is truth!”

If Nick’s story was already unbelievable, then empress’s words made the rest of imperial family totally blank out. Contrary to the two youths, they knew there has never been anyone who could lie to her and not get caught. She was also a Qi master and this was her skill. Holding Nick’s hands was not only for showing her care and affection, but also helped her keep to track on the minuscule Qi fluctuations that could otherwise escape any expert. Nick, of course, felt that as well, but didn’t care since everything he said was truth.

The three brothers were basically stomped into abyss of despair. It was one thing to lose a fight to their nephew, but another if the nephew was only eight years old! YunYun’s heart was a mess, but those three totally lost sense of reality.

Suddenly the present were startled by emperor getting up. He came over to Nick, put a hand on his shoulder and said, “I’m sorry, grandson!”

Empress finally let Nick go and with her red eyes still full of tears threw an angry stare back at her husband, “Now you are sorry? You intended to punish him a moment ago! Don’t you think I don’t know what goes thought your mind!”

Indeed, she could read people quite well. In fact, that was the reason she married Ivar Alpin, he was a good man, just the subject today was to special and he lost himself.

“Sigh, he is a smart boy and understand why I acted this way.” Emperor said, patted Nick’s shoulder again and grinned, “Alright, you said it’s the short version. We have time till spring, tell us the long one!”

Nick was stunned, but smiled back after a second. Then, while the imperial pair went back to their seats, he wiped off tears from YunYun’s cheeks and consoled her. He took her hand and started to infuse his Qi and she automatically replied the same way and after few moments she already calmed down. Be as it may, Nick was still the same – he was her Nick!

“A lot of what I am about to tell you is not know to anyone therefore I would like you to promise that nothing of what I say will ever leave this room. There is no need for anyone to know of my identity, including my cousins.” Nick seriously said while looking at his grandfather.

“I promise. And the rest will keep their moths as well. I would throw them out, but they are your family, you know.” At the end old man grinned again.

Looked like meeting his grandson brought him a lot of joy, despite the earlier misunderstanding. Of course, he had other grandchildren as well and few were older than Nick but for some reason this one felt closer, may be because of the deep connection emperor had with his only daughter.

“Alright!” Nick said and summoned a jug and two smaller cups. Then filled them with some liquid and passed one to YunYun. To the questioning gazes of the onlookers he said, “This is a special tea I invented. It slightly increases resistance to cold and pleasantly warms the body. You guys continue to drink your beer and don’t pay attention.”

When he saw that it was not what everyone wanted to ask, Nick said, “Of course, I have my own treasures and can store some stuff and take it out when I need. I’m not a pauper and didn’t come here looking for wealth, you know? But I’m not giving anything away either. If you guys want something, go ask my grandfather!”

“Hahaha!” Suddenly the mood loosened and emperor was the first to laugh, followed by empress and everyone else.

‘This is much better!’ Nick thought looking at the smiling faces around the table while holding YunYun’s hand. The mood was totally different from before and he could tell the story, that for most people would sound more like a fairy tale, albeit somewhat tragic.

“I awakened my consciousness while I was still in the womb.” For the first time he told one of his deepest secrets, “And, while still not understanding what was going on, experienced continuous torture when my mom was fed different alchemy substances. Only when I grew numb to the terrifying pain I began to discern voices and started to learn the language the people spoke. May be because of the things they fed to mom, my intellectual development was faster than normal and, of course, physical development was faster definitely because of that. There is one thing I want you all to know. During the whole time she was unconscious and didn’t realize what happened at all. Her monotonous heartbeat didn’t change even once thus she never felt anything of that.”

Nick saw the tears return in his grandmother’s eyes, but there was nothing he could do, so he just continued. The more he told, the more unbelievable it sounded and, when it turned bight outside, he already was telling a story about adventures, not a tragedy.

He did surprise himself when he realized how interesting and colorful his life had been and how many friends he had made on the way. This was a very warming feeling.

Of course, he paid attention to not disclose anything king Alexander or queen Hu would prefer to keep confidential. Even though this was his family, they were in a different country after all. But he didn’t hold back any information about the Holy Order, Nestri empire or Sand and Lori kingdoms. Some things were so hard to listen to that brothers and even emperor at some instance crushed the alcohol cups in their hands.

YunYun didn’t care much about all of this and just watched Nick talk. Of course, she knew most of it, but the real reason for her drifting away was that they instinctively practiced their Qi technique and she preferred this feeling to anything in the world.