Three days had passed since Thirteen had been invited as a guest to the palace.
For some reason, Carina always found a smart excuse to keep him there, which amused her brother, Alnair, but annoyed her other brother, Izar.
As for Zen, he was happy to have Zion remain in the palace. With the young man around, Carina no longer looked for him to complain about even the smallest of matters.
Rana and her husband, Caelum, also found Zion quite an interesting person, so they approved of his extended stay.
In the end, Thirteen felt like the Avior family had unanimously agreed to keep him as Carina’s nanny—not that he had any complaints. It did allow him to continue his information gathering, as well as complete his runic formation in the guest room.
"Hey, tell me more stories," Carina said as she looked at Zion, who was busy reading a book in the palace’s library.
The young man was reading the history of Artem, wanting to know the power structure behind the current dynasty.
If there were Celestials in the world, then why weren’t they ruling Artem? Why did the position fall to King Astrion, a High-Archon?
While it was understandable that he was a member of the Royal Family, a Celestial could easily ask him to step down by force if they truly wished to rule the world.
The books didn’t give him any answers, but Carina did.
"My mom used to tell me that a scary grandpa is hiding somewhere in the castle," Carina said after Zion asked why King Astrion managed to rule Artem without someone powerful by his side to protect him. He’s the former king, and Mother said he is still alive."
Thirteen frowned after hearing this piece of information. If the King was still alive, and possibly also a Celestial, then why did King Astrion not have any memory of him?
This could only mean one thing. Some parts of King Astrion’s memories were erased cleanly, preventing others from reading his mind.
Erasmus had carefully extracted the memories of the previous King of Artem, so he was certain that there were only four Celestials currently in the world.
One of them was Queen Miriamele, who was always in the palace.
The second one was Rana Avior, who ruled the City of Lyra.
The two others were Castor Deneb and Regulus Serpens.
As for the two other Celestials, although they ruled a continent of their own, they could instantly teleport to the capital city anytime they wanted.
It was still too early to tell if Rana didn’t have any ambitions to become the Sovereign of Artem. But so far, Thirteen was more inclined to believe that she was content with ruling the City of Lyra, instead of an entire empire.
While Thirteen was reading his book, Alnair arrived in the library after his classes had ended.
"Hey, Zion. I have an important question I want to ask you," Alnair said before glancing at his sister, Carina, who was pretending to read a book beside Zion.
"Go ahead," Thirteen answered.
"Do you have experience with women?" Alnair asked in a serious tone.
Thirteen nodded. "I do."
Carina put down her book and eyed the teenage boy beside her with curiosity.
"Really?" Alnair arched an eyebrow. "Then what kind of experience do you have?"
The teenage boy didn’t answer right away, unsure if it was appropriate for Carina to hear these things.
In the end, he decided to choose the safest route of all.
"I have five fiancees," Thirteen replied calmly.
"F-Five?!" Alnair gasped. "You’re joking, right?"
"I’m not joking," Thirteen said in a serious tone.
"T-then did you... you know? Did you m-m-make love to them?" Alnair asked after making sure that he had covered his sister’s ears with his hand. Googlᴇ search novèlfire.net
Thirteen glanced at Carina, who was trying to free herself from her brother’s grasp.
"Let’s change locations," Thirteen said. "Carina is too young for this."
"Hey! I’m already sixteen!" Carina complained.
Thirteen ignored her and walked out of the library with Alnair.
Carina hurried behind them, but Alnair grabbed Zion and fled, carrying the teenage boy like a sack of rice over his shoulder.
The young man ran straight toward his room and made sure to lock it properly to prevent anyone from disturbing his important talk with Zion.
"So... did you do it with them?" Alnair asked in a serious tone.
"I’ll only answer your questions if you answer my questions," Thirteen replied. "Are you fine with that?"
"Okay. Sounds good." Alnair nodded. "Answer my questions first."
"Yes, I do make love with them," Thirteen answered. "Now, my turn to ask a question. What do you think of King Astrion?"
Alnair frowned. "What do I think about the King?"
"Yes. Please answer honestly," Thirteen insisted.
"Well, I do respect him because he is the king of the Empire," Alnair answered. "But I think he is too ambitious. We already managed to conquer Chandrea, yet he’s still not satisfied with that achievement. He then proceeded to try conquering another world, and look what happened. It ended in failure."
Thirteen didn’t know what Rana thought about King Astrion, so he decided to ask her children instead. Since they had lived in Artem all their lives, their view on the political world of Artem might be similar to their mother’s as well.
"Next question, how often do you do it with them?" Alnair was still in doubt whether Thirteen was telling the truth, but curiosity got the better of him.
During his class, one of his classmates bragged about his relationship with his girlfriend.
This was a very common thing among Alnair’s age group, and being young and handsome as he was, he had his fair share of affection from the ladies.
However, his mother was very strict and didn’t allow him to randomly get into a relationship with just about anyone.
Because of this, Alnair was feeling a bit frustrated, feeling like his classmates were looking down on him for not having any experience with the girls.
Their question-and-answer exchange lasted for nearly half an hour, after which Thirteen left Alnair’s room.
As soon as he stepped outside, a guard was already there, waiting for him.
"Her Excellency asked you to go to her office, Sir Zion," the guard said respectfully. "Please come with me."
Thirteen nodded because this was a good opportunity to ask Rana some questions in private.
But when he arrived at the Celestial’s office, he saw a pouting Carina, hands resting on her waist, standing beside her mother.
Clearly, she was very displeased with what happened earlier, so she decided to go to her mother and snitch about what happened between her older brother and Zion.