Before the Debut

Edited by: Chip

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Time flew by quickly and it was almost time for Cyrus and Atlas’ debut. They turned 14 years old four months prior. Sophie and Prince Ronan also turned 14 years old a couple of months after Cyrus and Atlas.

After the debut, they would all go to the Imperial Academy.

It was a week before the debut, and all the preparations that Cyrus, Sirius, and their father had made were completed. The Holy Kingdom was bound to find out about Cyrus and Atlas, especially Cyrus, so their preparations had to be perfect.

There was also a chance that they would notice that Atlas survived. It would probably drive the Holy Kingdom crazy that Atlas was also given the Blessing of the Light God. It would make them look like fools because they also tried to sacrifice Atlas to the Light God…

Still, they didn’t know how the Holy Kingdom would react, so it was best to make sure that they could adapt when the time came.

Currently, though, Cyrus and Atlas were sitting in the parlor room with Sophie and Prince Ronan. Having them together in one room was quite common, especially with the debut coming up.

Everyone looked a bit different as the years went by.

Cyrus and Atlas grew taller and more handsome as the years went by. Atlas in particular had a lot more muscles than most of his peers. Cyrus was a little afraid that Atlas would get buffer than Teacher Devina… What was he eating differently that made him lanky compared to Atlas?

Sophie and Prince Ronan also grew taller and were coming into their features. All of them still had youthful faces, but the features they inherited were showing more and more as they grew older.

As for Atlas’ tamed companions, they were not in the room but they did grow with Atlas. Sir Walter, in his true form, was almost as big as a dragon. As for Starlight, she was considered an adult Black Panther after a year and was as big as Sir Walter’s wolf form. As for Lapis the slime, it grew a bit stronger but it didn’t grow much bigger.

Lapis was still being used as a pillow, especially during the hot summer days.

Still, everyone changed a bit as time went by, even monsters and magic beasts. Luckily, everyone got along despite it.

Sophie, who was sitting next to Cyrus, was talking about the debut and what she should wear to match with Cyrus while Atlas was looking at the official letter Ronan handed him to ask him to be his partner for the debut.

“You actually want me to be your partner?” Atlas asked Ronan who was sitting next to him. It wasn’t like he doubted his own charm or his friendship with Ronan, but the latter was exactly the point.

Ronan was his close friend. They were not engaged like Cyrus and Sophie so wouldn’t it be better for Ronan to go with someone he actually liked? The debut was an important event for everyone in high society, so Atlas thought he would play it safe and go with his father, Duke Alnhart.

He thought Ronan would also play it safe and go with his older sister.

Ronan didn’t think it was a surprise at all. No one interested him like Atlas did. “Who would be my partner except for you? I don’t like anyone else.”

“Why are you saying it like that? People can misunderstand and think you romantically like me…” Atlas pouted at Ronan’s answer. Lately, Ronan said things like this, but when Atlas asked if Ronan liked him, Ronan would say no.

Atlas also didn’t like Ronan like that. Maybe it was because he died when he was 25 years old in his previous life, he felt a little weird being romantically interested in teenagers. Atlas also wasn’t the most mature adult out there, but even he had morals. He just physically couldn’t see himself falling in love until he became an adult in this world…

“What would they misunderstand?” Ronan couldn’t help but smile and tease Atlas. “I don’t care what other people think, how about you?”

“I care a little bit.” Atlas turned away because he was getting a little annoyed.

“Okay, I will stop. I just don’t have any other friends except for you, Cyrus, and Sophie. Since we are both not engaged, I thought it would be fine to go with you.”

“That’s fine, but you should have said it like that in the first place.”

“Yeah, but I think your reactions are interesting.”

Atlas saw that he had no remorse so he ignored Ronan and listened in on Cyrus’ and Sophie’s conversation. They weren’t talking about anything interesting, but it was better than talking to Ronan who was obsessed with getting a reaction out of him.

Ronan saw that Atlas was ignoring him, so he tried to get his attention. “Atlas, shouldn’t we also pick our outfit colors and coordinate?”

“I’m going to be matching Cyrus,” Atlas said immediately. “We will be wearing white, black, gold, and purple. You already have outfits in those colors, so just wear one of those.”

“Okay, then can we wear a matching accessory? I found a beautiful bracelet I want you to wear. I also got myself a matching pair. I can give it to you the day before the debut.”

Atlas, who was never mad for long, nodded his head. “That’s fine. Since Cyrus and I don’t have any matching bracelets, so I think that should work.”

Why did Ronan always feel he had to compete with Cyrus who had a fiancée?

“Perfect. I cannot wait for you to try it on. Maybe I should get you more bracelets in the future…”

Ronan got himself a slim gold bracelet with purple amethysts on it. He wanted to keep this one and give Atlas the silver bracelet with blue sapphire on it. That way, he could wear Atlas’ colors while Atlas wore his colors.

He liked the sound of that.

Cyrus glanced over at Ronan who only had eyes on Atlas and felt a bit annoyed. He didn’t like that Ronan teased and flirted with Atlas but then he would say he didn’t like Atlas. He didn’t like people who didn’t know what they liked and what they wanted.

Luckily, Atlas didn’t feel anything romantic toward Ronan. If he did, he would have to beat Ronan up for stringing Atlas along.

Well, at the moment, all he had to worry about was everyone’s reactions, especially the Imperial family and the Dragon’s Temple’s reaction.

He would do everything he could to protect Atlas and his family.

*****

Meanwhile, in the Holy Kingdom, down in the basement of the main church, a priest watched the mana draining from a child until there was almost nothing left.

The child was chained to the center of the room with a large magic circle drawn around them. The magic circle was written in an unknown language and it glowed while taking magical energy from the child.

The child was unconscious throughout the whole process but only because it was so painful, the child passed out due to the agonizing pain of having their mana forcefully extracted.

The priest was wearing gold and white robes, but his face and dirty brown hair made him look like he had been awake for days and the smell… he hadn’t bathed for days. But that didn’t matter to the priest!

After years of research, he finally, finally was able to drain the mana from humans!

“If only the Pope didn’t get rid of that cursed child! We could have gotten so much magical energy from that thing. It could have solved the energy crisis for the next 50 years.”

When the cursed child was dumped in the Great Dragon Forest, this priest decided to research how to drain mana from people’s cores without killing them. He thought it was such a shame that the cursed child had so much mana but they couldn’t drain it.

Since then, he has done his best to aid the Holy Kingdom’s energy crisis by taking the children who would otherwise die in the forest and bringing them to the church to experiment on them.

At first, many children died due to his experiments, but now, he was able to keep them from dying while draining their mana cores. There was no longer any need to discard the children who didn’t have light magic.

Instead, the church would be able to use the children as reusable batteries!

“I must tell the Pope about my success.” The man rushed out of the basement but realized he needed to bathe, so he went back to his room first.

The child was still in the basement, not understanding what was happening to them or why.

Once the Priest washed up, he rushed to the Pope’s office and stated his good news. The Holy Kingdom celebrated the priests’ success until the spies in the Hirean Empire relayed the information about Atlas and Cyrus at their debut.

“What?” The Pope felt like he was hearing things incorrectly due to his old age. “A child with blond hair and one purple eye and one gold eye? That means he has been blessed by the God of light!”

The informant relayed even more shocking information, “Not only that, do you remember that cursed child who was blessed by the Dragon God? One of his eyes turned purple, meaning he was also blessed by the God of Light!”

The Pope was already feeling regret for getting rid of that cursed child, but he was actually still alive. How was that possible? He should have died!

“We need to ask the Hirean Empire if the two children could come to the Holy Kingdom to save us! If not…”

The Pope looked at the other high-ranking priests who were in the room with him.

“Do everything you can to get them, even if it means we have to destroy our relationship with the Hirean Empire once and for all.”

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Grandpa Marky: I hope that cliff hanger is cliff hanger enough for y'all LOL. Thank you for supporting me <3 I will see you all next week on Sunday! Have a wonderful day/night my beautiful grandchildren <3