Hari fell into his chair and sat in silence for a long while.

  “Hari… come on. You’ve got to tell him,” Jen said softly.

  “I know. I know. I don’t know where to start,” Hari said.

  There was a long pause before he finally said anything.

  “Alright. The start I guess.” He drew a slow breath. “I was young—only about your age—when I got my class. At the time, it was just a common warrior. My father was disappointed. He believed all noble house children should be uncommon at least, and if they failed to get that, then it was their own shortcomings.”

  As I looked around, it was obvious the others already knew all this. It was just me sitting there with questions.

  “I thought the rarity you get from the orb was entirely random?” I said, knowing you could influence certain jobs and roles by taking part before you selected your class, but the actual rarity itself was always by chance.

  “It is,” Milo said, nodding.

  “And I was excited about it. I wanted to join the military, become a powerful general, and fight against the demons like I’d read about. This was not acceptable. I was told that was for lower nobles and peasants, not for important houses, and I was told to study—maybe one day I could be redeemed through an evolution.” Hari kept his head down.

  “I’m guessing that didn’t happen,” I said with a chuckle.

  “No. Not at all.” Hari’s voice hardened. “I joined the army anyway, and when I was just about to leave the capital, I was pulled from the group and forcefully returned to the house. My father pulled strings to ensure I was dismissed from the army and couldn’t sign up again.”

  “It was probably for the best given what we know now,” I offered.

  “Perhaps, or maybe I could’ve made a difference if I’d made it high enough.”

  Hari exhaled slowly. “Anyway—after being taken back to the house, I was essentially locked away. Unable to leave for anything outside of lessons. In the end, I managed to get some help from one of the servants—someone who helped me sneak out.”

  “And you became an adventurer?” I asked.

  “Sort of. Like you, I had to flee my home city. I found myself in Farnox, changed my name…”

  “Barely,” Liane cut in with a snort. “You didn’t even change your first name!”

  Hari groaned. “I was young and not all that bright at the time. I thought it would be enough—that he’d never chase after a failure of a son if he wasn’t using the name. But it didn’t work out. Because of the name, I had difficulty signing up as an adventurer. I sold most of my gear to survive, but I ran out of funds. When I tried to reach out for support…” His jaw tightened. “I got a message that simply said: I have no son. Nothing else.”

  “Seems that’s not exactly the case now, though,” Milo said.

  Hari shook his head.

  “Unless this is all an act by him just to get closer to Trevor, I don’t know what to believe with that. He’s a scheming old bastard, always has been. By chance I was picked up by Wyatt who gave me a place to stay and eventually got me into the adventurers guild with his party, where I spent most of the years until Wyatt retired, I started my own party and the rest is history,”

  “And what will I say to him if I speak with him?” I asked, looking around.

  Hari let out a long sigh. “Nothing… nothing at all. I’ll speak with him. If he’s here just to get closer to you, I’d be stupid to allow him direct access like that.”

  “We’ll be with you,” I said, and the others nodded.

  “No. I should do it alone,” Hari insisted.

  “Not a chance,” Liane said, cold as ice. “We’ll leave when we know he’s sincere, and not before.” Getting up from her chair. “I’ll get him. Trevor, take your proper seat now. This is your house.”

  “I’ll be okay,” Hari tried again.

  “We’re not leaving,” Jen said firmly.

  Crisplet, who’d been listening the whole time, turned a deep crimson red—clearly with no intention of leaving either.

  We sat in silence until the door opened.

  A much older-looking Hari walked inside, wearing an opulent blue robe. Greying hair but still very large, both in height and size, like Hari was. The face was also very similar, just clearly aged.

  He hesitated, seeing everyone in the room, and his eyes began to tear up as they landed on Hari, who was currently looking anywhere but at his father.

  Gabriel didn’t move to sit down, or move any further into the room, just spoke directly to Hari. “Son, I am sorry for what I have done. For over a decade I have regretted that note, regretted my actions, desperately wanting to take it back. I wanted only what was best for you and refused to accept your opinion of it. It was arrogance, and I have failed you as a father.”

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  Hari didn’t answer.

  “I want to make it up to you. To get to know my son again—to be a family once more,” Gabriel continued, a tear sliding down his cheek.

  “Why now?” Hari’s voice was rough. “Why now, after fifteen years?”

  “I’ve tried many times to get in contact with you, both when you have visited the capital, even going to Farnox and tried to talk to your friend. I even asked the king to summon you here. I have tried. I also knew simply sending a messenger would not be enough; I needed to see you, I needed to make this right. A foolish note and the actions of a foolish old man drove my son away.”

  Silence again. Hari still didn’t look up.

  Everyone else stayed quiet.

  Everyone except Crisplet, who chose that exact moment to lob a piece of coal at Hari’s head. It bounced off and skittered along the floor.

  “I…” He swallowed. “I… it’s not so easy. There’s so much I have to say. I hate you… hated you. I don’t know.”

  “I think we should leave and let them talk,” Jen suggested to rest of the room.

  “You’re right. Let’s go; we’ll be just outside,” Milo said, standing up.

  We all made our way out, Liane rubbing Hari’s shoulder and whispering something before leaving.

  Making our way to the library so we could still hear when the door opened, I couldn’t help but ask, “Will he be okay?”

  Jen nodded. “I think so. It’s impossible to be sure with court politics; this could all be an act, but it seemed genuine.”

  “He didn’t look at Trevor once,” Liane added.

  “Wait, why would that matter?” I asked.

  Milo chuckled. “Some of the less talented individuals would’ve put on the act and been sneaking glances to make sure their true target bought it. But from the moment he walked in until we left, his eyes never left Hari.”

  We waited, and somewhere along the way we’d completely forgotten about Luis. Nearly an hour passed before the door opened.

  We rushed around the corner and caught sight of them hugging.

  “I am truly sorry,” Gabriel said. “We will work things out. I will make sure of it.”

  He wiped his eyes, straightened.

  “Thank you for allowing me into your home, Sir Trevor. I must take my leave,” Gabriel said formally, then walked out into the foyer where Archie was waiting.

  Hari stood there watching his father go.

  Liane broke the moment. “Well? How’d it go?”

  “I… I don’t know yet. He seemed like he really wanted to fix things. I just don’t know that I can trust it yet, or him.” Hari said, shaking his head.

  “Right! I need to let off some steam. Is the prince still here?” he said, shaking his arms.

  “Erm, I don’t know?” I chuckled.

  “He’s not killed the boys, has he?” Hari said, now rushing to the foyer as well, nearly running over Archie as he was about to come into the hall.

  “I’ll go keep an eye on him then, wouldn’t mind a spar myself honestly,” Jen said with a chuckle.

  “Sir, if I could, there have been fourteen messages so far this morning,” Archie said, handing me a small stack of parchments.

  I noticed Milo slipping away back into the library, and Liane had already vanished, leaving me alone with Crisplet and Archie in the hallway.

  “Thank you, Archie, and please just call me Trev or Trevor,” I said, taking the notes and storing them.

  “Also, I’m heading to the kitchen to do some cooking. Please don’t allow anyone in there while I’m cooking.”

  It crossed my mind to go out and watch Hari and Luis spar, but I really needed to take my mind off the events of the past couple days, and cooking something would be the perfect solution for that, plus I had not gotten to try out the kitchen yet.

  I made my way across the hall and finally entered the large kitchen, picking the side of the room closest to the ice room. I didn’t know if I’d use it or not, but it was certainly nice to have, and maybe it would come in handy for cooling something down.

  I looked through all my items, and I had far too many to choose from, that it made it difficult to choose.

  Because I wasn’t comfortable with the servants and guards, I didn’t want to do anything too outlandish, so I went with something simple, something we had not properly had in a long time: skywolf steaks. I had plenty of skywolf meat from the three I butchered during my full-day session.

  Pulling out one of the halves on the counter, I removed the fillet and rump. I had not even finished cutting the meat before both Liane and Lily arrived in the kitchen.

  Liane was sitting on a counter off to the side, while Lily came up right next to me and was inspecting the meat, before looking at me.

  “I can’t do anything too special just yet. We can’t trust people here, Lily, so no dragon or drake just yet, but soon, I promise,” I said.

  She looked upset about that.

  “It will be special though—I’m going to make a really nice sauce with this one,” I said excitedly.

  My plan was to not worry about the infusions so much tonight and cook steaks for everyone, plus a really large one for Lily, maybe even a drake steak if I could ensure no one was watching, then top it off with a red wine jus, serve it alongside some steamed tubers tossed in garlic grass butter.

  I got to work getting all the skywolf steak cut. I ended up taking the meat from two wolves for it, since these seemed leaner than past ones.

  For the jus, I roasted the leftover bones of the skywolves, along with some buvul fat I had. My goal was to get them nice and brown, making sure to collect all the juices in the bottom of the oven tray I found.

  Once I had all those drippings, I placed them back near the heat, adding some red wine that Liane gave me, before adding a little of the red meat stock I had put aside before the drake stew, finally adding some pepper to it as well, allowing it to start slowly boiling down.

  The goal was to keep reducing it until it became thick, and it could take hours according to the book, so I seasoned the steaks and had them all ready as I got to work on the tubers, first using one of the small knives on the wall to peel them all before cutting them into small cubes.

  I took a pot off the wall and added water to it, which was much easier to locate in this kitchen as the runes were actually coloured blue.

  I began to boil the water, as Crisplet created a basket for me to hold the tubers above the pot so they could steam.

  Once everything was ready and the tubers were coated in the garlic grass butter, and the steaks were all cooked to perfection, I stored everything immediately to keep them all hot, still waiting for the jus to reduce, which would be the last item.

  In the end, Liane left to go collect everyone as I plated everything up. Since I used the wine, I didn’t plan on infusing any meal, but out of habit I instinctively went to infuse the one that I was giving to Lily, stopping in my tracks as it appeared to work.

  Why did it work? It shouldn’t work. I used wine…

  I had tested wine with Geo—I was sure of it. It didn’t work.

  My thoughts and confusion were interrupted by Liane coming back into the room in a panic.

  “The prince is dining with us tonight!”