The windship dove down to the dock at the castle grounds and fell into the ocean with a large splash, and Jason saw that there were multiple soldiers standing at the side with various carriages that would carry them towards the castle.

'This world reminds me of Montegro.'

Gina suddenly spoke up through their mental link as they came down from the ships, and Jason nodded in agreement. Montegro was one of the worlds that Jason and Gina had passed on their journey so far, and it was filled with medieval knights and ruled by various dukes and viscounts with a King overseeing all of them. Jason and Gina had stayed in an inn when they were in Montegro, and they somehow got involved in a fight between a server boy and the son of a noble. The noble's son was in love with a girl, but it turned out that the girl loved the server boy, and the noble's son had come to tell the boy to stay away from the girl or face punishment. The server boy had obviously not backed down, and things escalated to the point where the server boy ended up killing the noble's son in a fight. It had been an absolute mess, and the only reason Jason got involved at all was because he knew the noble's son had attacked the server boy first. Well, there was also the fact that Gina had been watching the entire thing like it was one of her telenovelas, and she really wanted to help the two lovers.

Jason took both the server boy and the girl who loved him away from that city, and he dropped them in a remote town on the other side of the world and told them that they could never go back to the main city. Jason left a Pawn Rank III subordinate behind as protection for them in case they were tracked, but from what Jason had seen so far, no one had found them, and the two of them had gotten married and were living together as wheat farmers.

Jason shook his head and decided to forget about that as he entered one of the carriages with Gina. Kai had been holding Gina's hand as they came down from the ship, and Kai refused to go with Fritz when she told him to enter another carriage in front. Kai wanted to stay with Gina and Jason, so Fritz was forced to stay with them as well, as they all entered the same carriage. The journey to the castle was smooth, and Kai's excited rambling filled the silence in the carriage and forced everyone to loosen up, and before long, they had finally reached the castle.

….

[Inside the Vanta Royal Palace. The Throne Room]

"Are they here?"

A strong feminine voice echoed through the large hall of the throne room, and a man standing at the bottom of a long flight of stairs turned before bowing to the woman sitting on the throne at the top of the stairway.

"Yes, my Queen. The delegation is right outside, and your son has been brought back safely."

The woman on the throne was tall and slim with an athletic build that showed that she was not a stranger to hard work. She had a small, angular face and short hair that would make anyone who saw her think that she was a handsome woman. She had dark skin and yellow eyes like the rest of her people, and a small crown of blue jewels sat on her head. Her attire consisted of a strip of cloth that covered her chest and a longer cloth that she wore as a skirt, which left her midriff exposed and showed off her flat stomach.

This was Queen Bethsha, the highest authority in the world of Vanta and the eighth wife of the Avaran King, Richard. The moment Queen Bethsha heard that her son had arrived, she sat up straight and frowned in anger as she spoke in a hard voice.

"Bring him to me."

The man at the bottom of the stairs bowed respectfully.

"At once, your majesty."

The man turned and left the throne room, and Queen Bethsha waited with a deep scowl on her face for her son to show up. She tapped her finger against the arm of her throne as she felt the impatience growing with every passing second, and the moment she saw the large doors of the throne room open to show her son along with some soldiers, she immediately stood up and barked out in anger!

"KAI!"

"MAMA!"

Prince Kai immediately straightened his back in a nervous salute when he heard his mother call his name! Prince Kai already knew that his mother would be angry at him for running away from home, but from what he could hear, he had seriously underestimated just how angry she would be! Queen Bethsha pointed at the spot in front of her and growled out!

"Get over here right now!"

It was a simple order, and Kai wasted no time as he quickly marched up the stairs on nervous legs! Kai stood perfectly straight in front of his mother, and he wasn't surprised by the sudden slap that echoed through the room!

Slap!

Prince Kai's face stung with pain from the slap, and his cheek began to turn red immediately, but he didn't even dare to bring his hand up to rub his face since he knew that it would only make his mother angrier! Queen Bethsha squeezed her hand into a fist when she saw how her son's face was already turning red, and she spoke angrily.

"What were you thinking, Kai!? How dare you run away from home!? You are the future King of this world! My son and heir! What would have happened if you weren't found and rescued!? Do you even think about the repercussions of your actions!? Because of you, we had to divert forces for a search mission, and the future king of this nation was almost killed!"

Prince Kai closed his eyes tightly to try to stop the tears that wanted to fall as he bore the storm of his mother's anger! Kai knew that he was wrong, and he knew that his actions had caused problems for everyone, but Kai didn't know what he was supposed to do back then. Kai was only a child, and he had grown up on stories his mother told him about his father and the great things that he had done all across the Primordial Expanse. So Kai had always wanted to meet the great man and talk to him! Even if he couldn't live with his father, he wanted to at least know that his father cared about him.

"I just wanted to find dad."

Kai's voice was so quiet that only his mother was able to hear it, and the moment she did, she felt all the anger and frustration bleed out of her immediately. Queen Bethsha's face squeezed in pain, and she eventually went to her knees and brought her son into a loving hug. Kai pressed his face into his mother's neck, and Queen Bethsha released a calm sigh as she spoke to Kai softly.

"I know how much you love your father, Kai. But running away from home isn't going to help you find him. The world out there is dangerous, especially for a child like you, and if you aren't careful, then you'll be taken away, and I'll be all alone. I love you, Kai, so please, don't ever run away from home again."

Kai nodded into his mother's neck, and Queen Bethsha pulled back and looked Kai in the eye with a hard stare.

"Promise me."

"I promise. I won't run away again."

Once Kai said this, Queen Bethsha finally smiled, and she ran her finger under her son's eyes to get rid of the tears that fell. And it was only after she made sure that her son was smiling again that Queen Bethsha finally realised that Kai hadn't come back alone.

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