Chapter 39: Chapter 39: Departure
A few days later...
"Have both packed everything you need?". Max asked Iliana and Silvia who were standing in front of him.
"Yes my prince". Iliana replied with a beaming smile on her pretty face. Her body aged slower than humans so she actually only looked 16 years old at this time. Of course she had curves that no normal 16 year old would have. Anyway, with her childish personality, one can easily mistake her for really still being a little girl. Honestly if she wasn't so childish and naive, how could she fall for an eleven year old?.
Then there was her ability to disguise her fox features and her beastly aura was unparalleled. If Max or Igneel didn't specifically try to look through it, they would have also thought she was a normal human girl... though abnormally powerful. In fact, her ability actually fooled the demon lord in the future.
"Umm, you didn't let me bring anything when you took me away from Crypt... though I didn't have much there anyway". Silvia said after Iliana finished talking. She had sensed that Iliana didn't like her for some reason and so she tried to not get in her way.
"Oh, right, we'll have to buy you some stuff when we get to Madar then". Max said, he was embarrassed for having forgotten such an obvious thing.
"Hmph!". Iliana voice was heard.
"Don't worry little aunt, I'll get you something as well". Max quickly said, calming the jealous fox girl.
"G-ood...and I told you to stop calling me that!". Iliana first replied in a bashful tone before lashing out at him calling her little aunt.
"Okay, I'll stop". Max said with a smile that was suggesting the opposite, he liked her cute responses after all.
"Umm, excuse me young prince, but do you even have the money for all of that?". Silvia asked reservedly, she hadn't been able to treat him normally after finding out his position of basically being the prince of the continent.
"Sigh, I told you to just call Max, do you want to be like Iliana who also refuses to call me by my name? And as for the money, I happened to let myself into King Phar's royal vault a while back so I'm probably richer than most right now.". Max said, he didn't like being called by his title by his companions. Honestly the reason why he kept on calling iliana"little aunt" was because she kept on calling him "young prince or my prince", he was just getting even, he was quite narrow minded after all.
"Okay...M-Max". Silvia forced herself to say his name.
"No fair!, then I'll call you Max as well". Iliana spoke up.
"Good". Max replied with a smile, he was a bit speechless by how Iliana so easily called him by his name when she had been resisting for years just because some little girl said it. And so he promised to never let her wander outside alone or who knows if she's tricked into doing something by some pervert. She was too easy to manipulate even when no one was doing it intentionally so he felt he really should be worried.
"Are you three finally done?". Igneel who had been standing on the side with the rest of the elders spoke up. They were being treated like air by the three as if they weren't even there. Though at the same time he noticed that his son's life might be difficult in the future if he wants to tackle more than one girl. Also feeling that he had made the right choice by only choosing Grace and no one else...not like she'd let him get another wife even if he wanted to though.
"Yes father, I'd like to bid you and the elders farewell for now. I'll return when I get the cure. Please look after mother until then" Max spoke to his father in a serious tone getting ready to leave.
"What do you mean you won't return without it?". Igneel asked in a startled tone, in fact, everyone was startled, they thought they'd only be gone for a little bit and return, doing it like that until eventually the cure was found. But apparently Max had other plans.
"Yes, this way I can be one hundred percent motivated to do it. I don't want to be separated from everyone for too long neither, but I tend to get lazy if I don't have proper motivation. Which would delay mom's healing so I thought of doing it like this." Max said, still serious as before.
"Oh, is that so?..well if that's what you decide, I won't stop you" Igneel reluctantly agreed. He thought it was also a good thing for his son to be away from home for a while, that way he can get used to situations outside his comfort zone. Though the major reason he agreed was because nobody was even close enough to the possibility of hurting his son on the whole continent, even he himself was hard-pressed to do it with Max's space element.
"What!?, nobody told me about that.... Sister Mary, Sister Carol, I'll miss both of you so much!". Iliana screamed as she jumped at the two ladies who raised her from the first day of her life. They were latches onto before they could even react, Iliana was quite fast as a wind element user after all.
"What, you're not gonna miss us too little girl?" Abel asked with a fake hurt look on his face. Even Ron was nodding beside him in agreement.
"No, I won't miss you, you always ran away when I wanted to play with you. But I'll miss big brother Ron though, he always brought me the best meat to eat". Iliana replied as she looked away from Abel with a pout, clearly holding a grudge from her early childhood days.
"Sigh, fair enough". Abel could only agree, since what she said was true.
"Young prince, take care of her please, don't let her body fool you, she's no older than a little child mentally" Mary said to Max.
"Hey!". Iliana was offended but didn't know how to defend herself so just glared at Mary.
"Sure...and we're off". With that statement from Max, he and the two girls disappeared. He knew that if they kept standing around the whole chapter would be about them saying their goodbyes.
.....
Max and thee girls appeared close to the city gate of the capital of Madar also called Madar city because the author is lazy.
"Shit!". Max suddenly exclaimed.
"What?" Iliana asked as Silvia also looked on in curiosity.
"I was too late!" Max replied.
"Late for what?" Iliana asked again.
"The chapter is already over and it was basically all about our departure!"
"....."
"....."
The two girls looked at him with deadpan expressions not knowing what to say to such a thing.
"Maybe we can at least go get the next chapter's preview". With that statement, Max and the girls disappeared again.
.....
Inside a luxurious room a middle-aged man wearing golden robes could be seen reading a book while laying on the huge bed.
This man's name was Thomas, yes the same Thomas you're thinking about. The one who attacked Grace, failed, got caught, got his cultivation stripped and was thrown in jail. But after the king thoroughly betrayed Grace and Igneel, he no longer saw a reason to keep his one and only brother in prison.
And so Thomas was freed, then allowed to leave the rest of his life in the castle in luxury. He could have been doing some freaky stuff with girls right now but sadly, Igneel had long used his devine mana to make him impotent. Not mention his cultivation couldn't be returned. So he was basically just a rich waste now you never left the castle.
"Oh, if it isn't Mr Thomas, how are you great sir?"
Thomas suddenly heard a childish male voice in front of him. He of course looked up and in the direction of the voice.
There, three kids stood, two girls and one little boys with....silver hair and eyes.
Thomas's whole body froze.