A Blossoming Flower (Falling Petals)

The Holy Priest.

Mihkael was sitting on the bed while Uriel was sitting right across of him and healing his wound.

Gabriel was right next to them checking up on Sakura.

"Sakura. Do you find anything strange when you were asleep? Did you drink or eat anything someone who you might not know give you?"

"No. I was just sleeping, I must have been really tired."

Sakura lightly shakes her head and seems really confused about the questions. But in truth, knew why they were asking.

'Like hell I'll talk about what I dreamed about to them. That would just be me revealing myself to them.'

She glances at Mihkael and sees how the magic of Uriel glows a bright goldish color when in use.

'That color represents a high tier user of healing magic. I think he is in the first stage, maybe in the 3rd or 4th level of that stage.'

Sakura finally took a closer look at Uriel's magic, the last time she saw it, she wasn't paying attention to it and was still comprehending her situation.

She notices how the wound heals at a quick pace, not even a minute passed for it to fully close and not even leave a scar behind.

'He really is of rare talent. To be of high tier at his age. But that can be said for everyone else around my father.'

She looks back at Gabriel and sees him using healing magic, just to see if he can find any abnormalities in her body.

'His level of healing magic is middle tier, and at the 3rd stage. He is even more of a rare breed of people because his main magic isn't even healing magic. If I have to recall, it was embedding magic and wind magic, one in high tier, while the other in middle tier, but 4th stage.'

"I can't find any abnormalities in her body Mihk. She seems healthy and well."

The moment Gabriel stopped his magic, Sakura watches how the light glows dim and disappear.

"And your wound is fully healed, but I must ask that you don't try something like this again. Seeing you dripping blood while Sakura was in your embrace gave me a heart attack, I thought she was the one injured."

Uriel sighs in relief and does a light glare to Mihkael when he told him off, it even seemed like he was going to start nagging him for the scare he gave them.

Mihkael smiles at him a little tiredly and lightly pats Uriel in the head.

"Sorry."

".... who can stay mad when you look like a kicked puppy."

Uriel let's out an exasperated breath but smiles at Mihkael back. Only to see a hand reach out and hit the back of Mihkael's head.

"Raphael!!"

Mihkael turns to Raphael in surprise while holding the back of his head. He was going to say something, but quickly kept his mouth shut when he saw Raphael's icy glare.

"I knew you were a fool, but never thought it was the level of being a damn incurable idiot."

It almost sounded like a growl when Raphael spoke, the air turn to an icy atmosphere which Sakura was able to see her breath.

'Damn, he is really pissed."

Sakura shivered from the low temperature, only to feel a light warmth when from Gabriel's hands.

'Mid tier 4th stage fire magic, while Raphael is high tier 1st stage 3rd level.'

Sakura rose an eyebrow in amazement but quickly scowl when she noticed what she was doing.

'How am I able to tell their levels so quickly, I don't think I'm the type of player to pay attention to such details. I even get lazy in remembering the capture target's names.'

Sakura feels like a headache was about to form again, especially when she thinks about the dream she had moments ago.

'This doesn't make sense. Well, being in this type of situation never made sense to begin with.'

"Raphael, I understand that you are angry, but please give him a good scolding while the princess is not here, ok?"

Gabriel lightly lifts Sakura up, and uses his magic to form a type of fire energy around her. Sakura was impressed with how she doesn't even feel the heat, but as well doesn't feel the freezing magic anymore either.

'He really is a rare gem. It was good timing that he met my dad. If he didn't, then most likely the divine kingdom would have taken him as to 'train' a talented person for the people. Hah! More like brainwash.'

To understand the structure of this world. A noble child of rank earl and above are measured to see their highest tier level, only downside, if they seem compatible with more that one type of magic, it is unknown which one is the one with the highest tier. But they are trained by magic tutors of the empire. While on the other hand, those who are lower than a earl, like a viscount and baron will have their children measured at an older age, like those of a commoner.

But the location can differ. One of this location is the magic tower, where the best of the mages of the empire are located, while the other is a holy church. The Divine kingdom actually holds a high place in the peoples heart, around 40% of the empire worships the holy empires religion, so most commoners feel it best to take their child to get checked in a holy church.

At that time, Gabriel's parents were just viscounts, so they had to wait later for his check, and even then, they didn't put much emphasis into it, there was a high possibility of him not having any magic. So they decided to go to a holy church that was near their home, since the magic tower was far away from their territory.

What they didn't expect was that he was measured to high tier, the moment the light glowed to represent that, the holy priest tried to detain them as much as possible until a higher level priest appears, the smart thing that Gabriel did that time was use the teleportation stone that Mihkael gave him, his father quickly helped by pouring magic into it and having his son go. 

With that, a great battle of words occured with the divine kingdom who believed it was a waste to have such a talent waste away if not trained early. The only solution my grandparents came up with was give Gabriel's parents a higher noble title, an earl. And with that, the divine kingdom couldn't do anything, because now they have a higher standing of protection from the empire. 

This left a type of strain in the relationship between the Eternity empire and the Divine kingdom, but this wouldn't be the last time, the incident with Uriel caused an even greater impact on their relationships.

While remembering the conflicts between the Eternity empire and the Divine kingdom, and how it was the main factor of why they hid Rose from her fathers eyes.

"Your right Gabriel, please take her highness to get breakfast while I have a chat with Mihkael, Uriel, you should go as well." Raphael was glaring down at Sakura's father and had them all leave to begin his scolding.

"Wait! Can't we do this at a later time, Ralph? I'm still worried for Sakura."

Mihkael looked in panic when he sees Gabriel walk away with his daughter in his arms.

"No! You have to listen now! I know you Mihkael, you tend to run away from me when you know I'm gonna give you an earful of your stupidity. So stay."

Raphael narrowed his eyes even more. And the temperature lowered to a lower point.

Mihkael watches how his daughter is leaving through that door and starts to panic a bit, he tries to stand, but a hand reaches out and pushes him back down to sit. He hears a tired sigh and looks up at Raphael. He finally notices the wrinkle of his friends well tailored suit, the hair messy from the running he must have done, and the bit of blood stain in his suit from grabbing Mihkael to stop the bleeding.

"I'm sorry." Mihkael looks down and starts to relax his tense nerves and mind.

"Mihkael, she will be fine, right now she will be with Gabriel and Uriel, understand she is in the safest position."

"....yeah, your right."

"Now, let's begin in talking about that stupid action of yours."

Mihkael felt his a sweat drop when he saw Raphael's expression, and knew, he won't escape this.

***

Sakura tiredly rested her head in Gabriel's chest and wonders what type of luck she has.

'I didn't think that my inner talk with those Sakuras would lead to this situation. He really cut his hand to check if it was a nightmare. Looks like deep down, he was worried such a situation would happen to his child too, that's why his mind went straight to Aurora's situation when I wouldn't wake up.'

Sakura felt a bit of pity for Mihkael and wonders if the thought of such a thing happening to her was eating up his mind unconsciously.

'I can't allow my shield of protection to get any more dents, I have to at least reassure him with all I can that such a thing will never happen to me.'

Finding the situation tiring, she noticed a royal guard come up to them.

"What's wrong?"

Gabriel hands Sakura to Uriel and stand in front of them to block any type of attack.

'Uriel is full support, he doesn't have any type of attack magic, so I get why Gabriel handed me to him and went on defence in front of us.'

Sakura admired Gabriel's quick wits and watches as how the knight stops a few paces away, to show he means no harm.

"Hello Grand Magician Gabriel. Two high holy knights and a high priest appeared. They came as a greeting to his majesty and wonder if it is fine to speak to the royal healer Uriel till then."

"Tsk! Their quick in finding out you left the magic tower."

Gabriel did not seem too happy at the news, and it surprised Sakura to see such a look in his eyes.

'He really dislikes the Divine kingdom too. Well I understand why, they did try to kidnap him as a kid, and they tried to take Uriel too when he was a child, even now, they still try to find a way to get him to stay in their divine kingdom.'

"Uriel is busy right now, so please tell them he can't meet them at the moment, and his Majesty is a bit busy, he will take a while to meet them"

Gabriel made an excuse and didn't want to send Uriel to those people.

"Understood. If I can recommend something sir."

"What is it?"

"They are waiting in the northern side of the guest area, so I'll advise that you don't approach there, lest you meet them by accident."

Sakura takes a closer look at the knight after he finished speaking, she noticed he seem to be on the younger side, maybe 17 or so.

'How interesting, he must have quite the talent to end up being a royal knight at such a young age. And he even knew that Gabriel purposely found an excuse so Uriel doesn't meet those men and warned them of their location to help.'

The young man seem to notice a gaze and looks behind Gabriel, and sees Sakura looking right at him. He felt a chill when making eye contact and quickly looked down.

'Oh-ho? I found a cute rabbit, just my type.'

Sakura smirked at the awkward reaction of the guy. He had a dangerous look that would frighten other people, almost like a bad boy look with his narrowed eyes that seem to be glaring and his frowning lips but his reaction is the complete opposite of those looks, and seem like a awkward and shy animal.

'Wah~ I want to tease him.'

The moment Sakura thought that way, she unconsciously let out a few evil chuckles, which caused a chill to go through his spine.

"Uh- I uh-gotta go now, please call over when you need anything, excuse me for now."

He does a full bow and runs, forgetting of his image of a royal knight, he felt like he was a pray under the eyes of a predator. He doesn't understand why he felt like that under the princess's gaze, but he knew never to second guess his instincts, it was always accurate and saved him at times.

'Tsk, he ran.' She frowned in disappointment but soon after smiled again.

'Well it's more fun like this too.'

"Princess, you seem to like him quite a bit, I'm surprised."

"Huh!?"

She glances up quickly and sees Uriel smiling down at her.

's**t! I forgot who I am right now, a 3 year old princess who shouldn't be laughing in such a frightening way.'

"Uh-yeah! He seems really nice."

"Really? I thought he looked like bad news when I saw his glare."

Gabriel looks at the back of the boy and smiles after.

"But you might be right your highness, he seems to be a good and shy kid."

"Well, for now we should take her highness to eat something. Ah! But we should go and inform Mihkael of the Divine kingdoms guest we have here."

Gabriel sighs and thinks so too.

"The dining area isn't far from here, how about you take her highness there and I'll go an inform Mihkael and Raphael of the guests. I forgot to bring my communication crystal, and I bet you haven't brought yours with the hurry we were in to get here."

"Haha yeah, I haven't."

"Thought so."

Gabriel sighs and lightly bends down and pats Sakura in the head.

"I'll leave you with Uriel, don't worry, I'll bring your daddy back in a jiffy ok?"

"Ok!"

Sakura raises her hand to say she understands and hugs Uriel's neck while he begins walking away, she sees Gabriel wave with a smile and turn to return to where they just left a few minutes ago.

'I need to ask for that knights information. He seems to be an interesting to- guy to hang out with.'

She smiled at the thought and let herself rest her head in Uriel's shoulder.

But before she can get all relaxed, she sensed Uriel tense up and freeze in place.

'What's wrong?'

"Oh Uriel! Just a few moments ago, a young knight told me you would be busy, and since it was such an early day and we all haven't eaten yet, we decided to share a meal with his majesty. Who would have thought we would meet this way."

Sakura hears the voice that sounded mellow and kind, yet had a hint of something else to it. She turns around and sees one of the minor butlers leading a group of men, the pitiful butler almost seemed as if he had constipation when he notices the situation.

The man following behind while in the middle of the knights wearing all white robe with gold silk sewed on. It didn't even look like it had a speck of dirt. His hair a light blond and his eyes were a amber which leaned to a yellow. But it held a blue that stood out even more in the yellow. He seemed to be in his mid 40s.

'I don't like him.'

The moment Sakura took notice of his robe and the knights, she can decipher his identity, especially when she noticed Uriel take a small step back.

'If I guess right, this man must be the high priest that came here, and the most annoying one, Nicolas Willow John the 6th, the one who was the most adamant in taking Uriel to the Divine kingdom when he was a child.'

Sakura glowered at the man and truly disliked him because she saw a bit of Uriel's back story.

'This man is a disgusting excuse of a human being, a class A pedo who likes to collect and 'nurture' young talent. Uriel almost became one of his collection, thankfully Azrael saved him in time. If I remember, he was caught at last in a few years from now, because he was going to do something to Rose but was caught and punished for it. All his dirty secrets were revealed and he finally got his just desserts. That's how we got to see Uriel's backstory because this man had a hidden chamber with photo crystals of all his targets. He had a lot that held the image of Uriel as a child and as an adult.'

Sakura felt grossed out. She didn't like how this guy did things. Yeah she was thinking of messing with a young knight a few moments ago, but she knew she would never go passed a line that was called consent that this man passed so many times just because he thought he had the right to.

'Uriel is a nice guy, he shouldn't be seen by this disgusting man who uses any chance he can get to touch him.'

She noticed how the priest walks closer and seems to reach out to touch Uriel in the shoulder. Uriel freezes up and stands there waiting for the revolting moment the hand comes in contact to him, only to end up hearing a sharp slap.

Everyone looks at the high priest hand moved to the side touching air, and the hand of a child that seemed to have slapped his hand away. The man turns and makes eye contact with the girl in Uriel's arms. 

His eyes widen and a smile forms in his face.

"And who might this adorable child be?"