Unexpectedly—Tales lowered his head, and a heavy sense of helplessness welled up inside him. Unexpected things always came without warning.
In that instant, Tales seemed to see the Air Elementalist's inscrutable smile appear in his mind as he said to him, "Look. This is what chance is."
Yordel silently withdrew the spark.
The middle-aged nobleman calmed his excitement. He looked at Tales and gently patted his head.
"Child, it's all right."
"I'm Gilbert Carso. You can trust me, just as your father trusted me."
"Come, child. I'll take you home."
"To see your father."
Tales took a full minute to recover.
During that time, both Yordel and Gilbert waited for him patiently.
"Let's go." Tales raised his head, calmness already filling his eyes.
Gilbert nodded, approval showing in his eyes. He rose and gestured toward the carriage.
Tales turned to Yordel.
"Yordel, you'll come with me too, right?"
"Of course." Yordel's hoarse voice rang out. At that moment, it sounded exceptionally reassuring to Tales. "Please go ahead. I'll be right beside you."
Tales took a deep breath and strode toward the carriage.
"Mr. Gilbert."
"Yes, Young Master. What do you require?"
"What did you do before?"
"Diplomatic affairs, Young Master."
Diplomatic affairs?
Tales quietly turned his head and rolled his eyes at Yordel behind him from an angle Gilbert couldn't see.
Tales turned back.
For some reason, he vaguely felt that Yordel had smiled behind his mask.
Tales reached the carriage. It was plain, yet clearly expensive at a glance. The windows in the black carriage doors were decorated with crystal.
Two tall horses with pure-black coats quietly chewed their bits. One of them affectionately nuzzled toward Gilbert.
Looking at the high step, Tales measured it against his seven-year-old height and felt troubled.
Before he could even turn around, Gilbert beside him opened the door, lifted him inside, and placed him on the dark-red seat.
"I'm sorry there's no mounting step." Gilbert smiled apologetically and closed the carriage door.
"But I promise this is the last time."
Tales sat alone on the spacious seat. He didn't know what material it was made of. It was comfortable, but he still couldn't sit still.
Night-glowing paint illuminated the four corners of the carriage. He could barely make out the decorations inside. At the rear of the carriage, a star enclosed in a circle was firmly inlaid there.
One, two, three, four, five—nine. A star with nine points.
Tales thought silently, This is a Nine-Pointed Star.
Before he could come back to himself, the carriage started moving.
Tales climbed to the window. Dawn was breaking, but he still couldn't see the scenery outside clearly.
So Tales boredly returned to his seat.
"Yordel, are you there?" he asked tentatively.
A reply immediately came from beside his ear.
"Yes."
Tales jumped and sat up, looking around in all directions. But inside and outside the carriage, aside from Gilbert driving it, there wasn't a single person in sight.
Never mind. He was used to it anyway.
Tales sat back down and continued asking, "Where are we?"
"Mindis Hall is just ahead." The hoarse voice came again.
Mind—mind—Mindis—Mind the Fourth?
Never mind. He didn't know them anyway.
Who could have imagined that just a few hours ago, he had been bleeding for survival in a Ruined House and injured while fleeing for his life on Red Quarter Street, while now—
Tales patted the seat beneath him. He didn't know what kind of person his father in this life was.
Whatever. I'll deal with soldiers when they come, and block water with earth. I've even encountered a bizarre existence like a Magic User who couldn't die. What else could scare me?
The boy exhaled, feeling a little hot, and tugged at the tattered clothes over his chest.
He accidentally pulled at the wound on his chest.
Tales hissed as he looked at the burn.
Around the edge of the wound branded by Quade, he could vaguely see a circle of inverted ancient characters.
This is—Kings are not honored by bloodline. Tales remembered the words on the silver coin.
He suddenly slapped his forehead.
Mindis—Mindis Silver Coin?
Wasn't that the coin of the first wise king of the Star Kingdom?
Wait. Mindis Hall?
The carriage suddenly stopped.
Tales was still confused and dazed when Gilbert respectfully helped him out of the carriage.
Outside was a delicate little garden paved with sturdy tiles of unknown material. At its center was an exquisite fountain, water spraying from the mouth of a stone dragon roaring toward the sky.
Tales blankly turned his head toward the garden's enormous black iron gates. Reliefs seemed to be carved into them, but Tales recognized none of the scenes. Two great flags fluttered in the wind on either side of the gates.
On the flags was a silver cross with double stars against a blue field edged in white: two silver crosses, one large and one small, overlapped, with the small cross slightly to the lower right of the larger one.
Tales recognized it. The highest-flying flags above West Gate bore the same design.
A blue field edged in white, with silver cross double stars.
The Star Kingdom's flag.
On the two flags in the garden, a small gold-and-silver Nine-Pointed Star had been embroidered at the lower left of the great silver cross. Four points were gold, and five were silver.
It was the pattern engraved on the back of the carriage.
Tales came back to himself. Before him stood a magnificent three-story building. Eight exquisitely carved columns supported the broad balcony on the second floor. In the center of the top floor, a window shone with lamplight.
The building's main door was made of cedar. At the great market beside West Gate, Tales had once seen a furniture dealer hawking a large cedar table for fifty gold coins.
Of course, afterward he had "voluntarily" sold the table to the Black Street Brotherhood at a one-gold-coin discount.
In a daze, Tales followed Gilbert. He refused Yordel's gesture to carry him and insisted on enduring the wounds and exhaustion covering his body as he struggled through the enormous cedar-carved doors.
At the entrance and in the hall, including along the corridor leading up the spiral staircase, fully equipped guards stood beneath magnificent Eternal Lamp fixtures burning Eternal Oil. They stared straight ahead. Every guard seemed carefully selected, all of equal height, armed with swords, shields, and crossbows. Their metal shields were covered in Gold and Silver Nine-Pointed Star emblems.
Tales supported himself with the banister and slowly climbed to the second floor.
On the wall facing the building's main entrance hung three portraits.
In the center was a young knight of heroic bearing, charging forward with a spear. His features were handsome and his expression heroic. He wore a Silver Seven-Star Crown and advanced fearlessly against a grim battlefield backdrop.
On the left was a powerfully built warrior wielding sword and shield. His shield bore a Nine-Pointed Star with entirely silver points, and he wore a Nine-Star Crown. His face was resolute and heroic, with a flourishing, towering tree in the background.
On the right was a kindly, benevolent middle-aged man seated against a richly decorated room. He held an expensive scepter inlaid with bright blue gemstones in his left hand and a thick book in his right. On the book were five different designs resembling suns, stars, and moons.
The three nobles each had a different bearing, but the painter seemed to have captured the unique spirit of each one. Tales stared blankly at the portraits, as though the real people had appeared before him.
This really seemed to be a great noble family with a long heritage.
Unfortunately, he didn't recognize any of them.
Wait. Why did that handsome middle-aged man look so familiar?
Tales was just about to lift his clothes and look at the portrait branded onto his chest when steady, composed footsteps approached.
"That is Tomond I, the last prince of the Final Empire, the founder of the Star Kingdom, King of Renaissance. His valor in the Final War is still celebrated today."
"The one on the left is Midier IV, comrade of Hero Sara and the Prophet Kaipeng, and protector of the Holy Tree. He was the Oath Keeper. Beginning with him and his Elf Queen, the Chanstar Royal Family gained elven blood."
"And finally, Mindis III, the Wise King. From nobles to priests, merchants to beggars, all praised his wise rule."
The voice was deep and solemn. It came in a low rumble, yet sounded like thunder hidden behind dark clouds, faintly shaking the air.
Behind him, Gilbert and Yordel dropped to one knee in unison.
Tales swallowed and slowly raised his head.
A sturdy figure gradually walked before him. The man's mighty, resolute features constantly reminded Tales of the sword-and-shield warrior on the wall.
He was a strong-built, middle-aged nobleman with black hair, a high nose, deep-set eyes, and a broad face. His sky-blue pupils were sharp as swords. Leaning on a scepter with his left hand, the nobleman stood before Tales and examined him carefully.
Tales stared foolishly back at the nobleman before him.
He couldn't stop himself from growing nervous.
In all his experience across two lives, no one had ever taught him what to do at a time like this.
The sturdy nobleman studied him for a long time—so long that even Tales began to feel embarrassed.
Yet his gaze made Tales feel no sense of familiarity or reassurance. Instead, it weighed heavily upon him, making it difficult to breathe.
To put it bluntly, even Echeida Sackern's mad gaze had been easier to endure.
But Tales suddenly noticed that the sturdy nobleman wore something resembling the Nine-Star Crown on the sword-and-shield warrior in the painting. The scepter in his left hand also looked exactly like the Crystal-inlaid Scepter held by the middle-aged man in the painting on the right.
Gilbert reminded him quietly from the side, "Child, this is your father."
"Father?"
Tales lowered his eyes to the star-blue cloak behind the man and murmured.
The face of the father from his previous life slowly reflected in his mind, but it was somewhat blurred.
Tales took a deep breath and refocused his gaze.
"Who are you?"
He heard his own voice come out evenly.
The sturdy nobleman didn't answer. He merely furrowed his brow slightly.
At that moment, Gilbert raised his head and spoke solemnly in a voice filled with authority and gravity, one that permitted no doubt.
"This is Kessel Mindis Eddie Chanstar, the fifth King Kessel in the family.
"The legitimate imperial descendant of the Final Empire and heir to King of Renaissance Tomond.
"The Co-lord of the Northlanders and the Ludorians of the Western Continent, conqueror of the Dragon Bone Throne and the Desert God Altar.
"Protector of the Holy Tree and Serra Duchy, guardian of Steel City and the Free Alliance.
"The Iron Hand, the thirty-ninth Supreme King of the Star Kingdom, the Southern Archipelago, and the Western Desert."
Tales felt his heart turn cold, and his breathing quicken.
A suffocating pressure bore down on him as though it had taken physical form.
Kessel looked at Tales, his eyes deep and unfathomable.
After a long while, he turned his head toward Gilbert and Yordel on either side.
The sturdy king, Kessel the Fifth, spoke each word slowly in his heavy, resonant voice.
"He is my descendant—the bloodline of the kingdom?"
"The last and only bloodline of the entire Star Kingdom?"
The first volume has ended. Tales will now enter his true stage. The suffering, blood, tears, and pain he endured before will become nourishment and capital for his future growth, because a true king is not honored by bloodline. Of course, the events of the past are far from over. Rick, Layok, Yala, Kohn, Echeida, and the others all have futures of their own, and their fates will become tightly intertwined with Tales's. Thank you, dear readers on the Chuangshi site, for all your support along the way! Please look forward to Volume Two: Heir to the Kingdom.