'Til Kingdom Comes - The Banished Prince Vol 4: The System

Family

Thursday, 17th November 1442

It was one of the longest night that I had experienced as we all finally climbed aboard the airship and made our way back to our town. The accompanying wood elves earlier bade their farewells as they too headed back to their own kingdom deep inside the forest.

I finally managed to slump over on one of the chairs of the passenger side of the airship once the deed of burying the dead greenskins miles deep into the ground had been completed.

The wood elves were happy that the threat had been eliminated and now they could go about their daily lives without worrying too much about those greenskins that tried to take over the lands.

I sighed a deep sense of relief as I looked at the rest of the weary soldiers, Priest and Priestess as they had once again fulfilled their obligation way beyond duty.

"Phoenix, Eagle... Get your men to learn the elite and then the expert bow attack commands accordingly. We should not lax on our security to safeguard the town and the town folks, alright? Don't you worry much about me, I know what to do right after this."

Actually, the first part was true to tell them to learn about the command skills for the bow attacks. But the second statement that I had said was quite untrue since I myself does not know what the future holds for us.

Right now, something is quite nagging me at this point of time since I felt that I had a kind of deja vu when I was at home preparing dinner. I could dismiss it totally but then the nagging feeling was weighing me down.

I felt as if there are some parts that I had relived and a big part of me had gone somewhere. It's as if I'm missing a part of my life.

"Ceres, what do you think of all this that I had felt all this while?" I began to communicate with my guidance system within me and I was surprised when it actually replied and the reply that I got was quite accurate and true.

"You had somehow lost a big part of yourself, Audemars. You came back from the dead and now all you've got is in this life only."

"You had been in contact with Max some time ago before you came on board this airship. I guess you had rewritten your life history and your fate and destiny are now in your hands."

I pondered on what Ceres had mentioned to me as Phoenix and Eagle replied to my earlier instructions on having the men to learn the elite and expert skills as soon as possible.

It's pretty difficult to juggle conversations with live chat and also telepathic chat at this moment. Somehow I managed to scrape through and informed Ceres that we would chat once again after we got back home.

As for Phoenix and Eagle, they both took out their bow attacks skills book and began to read through it thoroughly. It seems that these two intend to make full use of those books to their fullest capabilities.

They can't always depend on me on such matters, do they? Besides they would also need to be independent and be able to lead the men to victory at times.

It seems that the day today seemed to drag the longest ever. I've been up in the air twice and had been leaving my family behind and worrying about my well being.

Right now all I need would be some family time with them and be a good Daddy at least for the time being.

=*=

"Daddy's back home now...!" I called out to the children and Heather as they were waiting for the arrival of the airship and once they had seen the airship entering the airspace of the town, Heather had then bundled up the children and rushed out to greet me with the Dragon Boat.

"How's the assignment, Daddy? We guess everything is buried deep underground at this moment, am I right?"

"Yes, Daddy... So you won't be going out to kill any more of those greenskins and we could once again go to the realm and do some research, am I right too, Daddy?"

"Well dear, our children had been missing you too much and worried about the assignments that you had assigned for the rest of the accompanying Priest."

"I guess you would be staying back at home for the time being and leave the affairs to Phoenix and Eagle. Don't you think so, baby?"

Firstly it was HRH JR that greeted me and then followed by HRH Amy and then by Heather herself. I could see that they were equally worried and was glad that the assignment that I had taken had gone without a hitch or anything.

"Yeah, don't you worry my little darlings and my dear wife. I knew that I would have to go beyond the call of duty when the time comes."

"So in the meantime, I guess a two weeks break from governance would give us a lot of family time, don't you think so?"

"I could even use the time to redesign some of the armour pieces to make them sturdier and at the same time to equip the Shadows with more Formidable hand-held melee weapons."

"I don't think they would have some long curved daggers as their main weapons of choice. There might be some ways for them to have their own unique weapons, just like the heraldic shield that Eagle had once designed."

"I'm not sure... It is just a passing thought. So let's head home, shall we? I hope the soft pork ribs are still around. I'm really famished...!!"

I concluded and the children cheered in unison when they learned that I would be taking a two weeks break from governance. This would also include that the communication with Doc and Perky as well as Aragorn would be limited unless I used the spatial storage space to summon Doc as well as the pebble with the rune inscription to summon Perky.

Other than that, maybe I could make some more Health Lozenges for them to bring back once they had come here to this town for a visit.

But right now, family comes first as we headed to the Dragon Boat as Heather traversed and brought us back home in a few short moments later.

=*=

I was sitting on the dining table as the children were clamouring on their own chairs while talking animatedly about the happenings today at Hellsgate.

I was telling them about how we had managed to locate the place and the archers had bombarded the areas to make sure that the areas had been cleared off from any monstrosities.

Right after that, I had related to them on how I rappel down the ropes ahead than those who used the roll-up ladder to descend from the airship because the airship itself was hovering on top of the treetops and had ni place where it could land properly.

I was stuffing my face and talking with my mouth full and frankly speaking, it was very unsightly. No wonder I had informed the town folks that there should be no conversations when it comes to eating time.

Not only does it looks unsightly, but the food may also go into the wrong airway and would get snorted out from the nostril itself.

Could you imagine how painful it would get if a piece of soft pork ribs were to be snorted out from the nose itself, right? Hahaha...

"Hey... How long have you not been to the realm? Would you all like to go into the realm and learn something new? It's how your mummy and I had made those labels for the products that we had been distributing to all the towns."

When the children learnt that they would be learning something new, they cheered in unison that they would be entering the realm tonight after the late supper I was having.

"That's great Daddy. We all are very eager to learn something new. Is it on the two tables inside there that had those squarish boxes on them?"

HRH JR inquired as he was literally climbing on his chair and was kneeling on it. He was enthusiastic and the same goes to his sister as well.

"Alright then, my dear children. Let me finish up the supper and then we can pack the house a bit and then we would all go to the realm, alright? If we were not able to guide you properly, I think Ceres would be able to guide you better than both of us."

"Ceres could only communicate with me one a one on one basis. But there in the realm, it's voice would be booming across the rooms and it would be able to guide you on how to use the machines over there."

"I am sure that you would be able to learn more things than both of us besides desktop publishing et cetera."

I informed the children as they were literally unable to curb their enthusiasm and wanted me to rush since they wanted to get there as soon as they can.

"Hahaha... Did you forget that an hour over here would be 3 hours over there? You could have a whale of a time once you are over there since you could play around with the machines. Ceres, are you listening to all this?"

I raised my hand as I waited for Ceres to reply to me and it did after a few seconds had elapsed. "That's right, Audemars. I will be able to guide the children as you and Heather can have a lot of things to catch up over there."

"Besides, you can now spend 6 hours over there at the realm since you had gained another hour here in the real world. Congratulations, Audemars."

Whatever Ceres had informed me, I relayed it back to Heather and the children as they cheered in unison once more. "Better pack some things to munch over there, children."

"Here... Have a silver each and see what you could purchase over from the bakery. Once you both are back then we would be head down to the realm with your Daddy. Bring Sir Blackie along with you."

Heather handed a silver coin each to the children and then sent them off with Sir Blackie trailing behind them as they left the house and used their trikes to travel all the way down to the bakery.

It would be good to let them be independent at this young age and furthermore, once the children are on the carriageway, the whole vehicular traffic would come to a standstill right until the children had reached the bakery that would be about 15 minutes walk.

=*=

"Daddy... Mummy... We are home...!"

HRH JR hollered when he was near the vicinity of our house.

They didn't use their trikes but instead were walking their trikes as the placed a wicker basket filled with all kind of goodies inside them. Not just one basket but three baskets altogether...!

"We only spent about a silver and this could be shared among the 4 of us when we enter the realm tonight...!"

HRH Amy followed up after her brother and hollered along.

"Come and look at what we had gotten for ourselves...! Even Sir Blackie had gotten its share over at the outdoor kitchen area when the ladies had already set aside some of the bones and that stuff that Sir Blackie like to eat."

The children were elated that they were given the autonomy to go and purchase their own bread for our 6 hours research back in the realm and we were delighted when we see out children were able to do their own shopping and seemed to choose all those bread with either meat or sweet fillings.

With the three baskets that they were having some difficulty in balancing on the trikes, even after the handles of the basket were tied to their handlebars, we welcomed the children and carried the baskets away from their trikes as they hopped and skipped back into their house.

It would be a good thing if they have their own cars very soon that had been long prepared inside the Engineering guild's workshop.

The only time the cars would be given to them would be the time when the season for giving and receiving of gifts and that season would be coming pretty soon...!

=*=

Dear friends, if you spot any errors, please leave your comments in the paragraphs or the chapter section. Thank you for the POWERSTONES and God Bless.