66 Mother slaps a lady II

Kurt kept trying a few more times to turn his new talent on and off after conversing with his mother by closing and opening his fist.

"You can try that again later," Sabiri commented while softly pushing his hand down, "Why don't we go down to eat something?"

"Sure! I could use some breakfast right now!"

"Well... It would be more of a dinner, actually..." she mumbled.

"Wait, what? How long have I been asleep?"

"For a while. Nearly a whole day honestly. My talent takes a lot of energy out of you. When I first learned it I would also pass out all the time. It will take a couple of days for you to get used to it."

"I see."

The boy then sighed and changed clothes before accompanying his mother to the dining room. He started to worry about all the classes he was going to need to re-take after missing a whole day.

"By the way, mom, I thought dragons could only have one talent," he asked as the two walked through the mansion's hallways towards the staircase. Dorothy soon followed after and landed on his head as usual.

"There are a few cases of dragons that can inherit the ability from both the father and the mother. It's very rare and it's usually referred to as an anomaly."

Kurt began to gain a couple of sparks in his eyes, "You mean I'm like a mutant? That sounds cool! Do you know of any other anomalies?"

The face of Kurt's red-haired sister flashed in Sabiri's mind causing her to flinch as she walked, "Just... Just one... But it's better not to think about it too much. Just keep in mind that you cant use your healing and your metal scales at the same time. Talents of different types don't mix well with each other."

"So... You mean I have to stop using my healing for a while until I master your power?"

"Probably yes. This might also help teach you to be more careful with how you treat your body."

"Understood..." he replied while feeling like she was waiting for ages to tell him to stop relying on his healing so much.

Kurt never stopped to think about it but Sabiri probably got a little upset when she found out her son had received his father's talent instead of hers, like a son who was picking the career from one of his parents instead of the other. That made Kurt want to do as she says and try to learn how to use those metal scales properly since the last thing he wanted was to make her feel like they weren't close.

"Ugh... Guess I'll have another thing to worry about now..." he groaned, "As if it wasn't enough how behind I already am on classes..."

"About that," his mother paused as they reached the doors to the dining room, "Would you like to quit school?"

Kurt's eyes widened as he tried to think if he had heard what he just heard, "W- What?"

'You've been saying 'what' quite a lot today. You must really like that word...' Dorothy commented.

"It's just... Well..." Sabiri continued, "I was wondering if you didn't want to just... Leave... We could go somewhere far away and..."

Kurt noticed his mother was trembling as she was speaking, "Mom, is everything really okay? Something did happen last night didn't it?"

"I..."

"My empress!" one of the maids of the mansion suddenly barged into their conversation after running to catch up to them.

Sabiri looked at her and began to feel her blood pressure rising. It was one of the servants that held her down when the emperor brought Anomalia into her home, "What is it?"

The maid twitched and started to sweat once the empress turned her glare towards her. She immediately bowed in response as she couldn't bear looking at her face directly, "W- We have a visitor, your majesty!"

"A visitor?"

"The first prince is waiting for you and prince Kurt in the main hall. He came here to see you."

"He's waiting inside?"

"Y- Yes, my empress."

"I see..." Sabiri mumbled before covering her right arm with metal scales and slapping the maid with the back of her hand, causing the woman to fall on the ground with a bleeding mouth.

"Mother!?" Kurt gasped.

"Never let anyone into this house without my permission again, understood?"

"B- But, your majesty! It's the first prince!" she explained while holding her lips and shaking from head to toe.

Sabiri simply slapped her one more time, this time on the other side.

"I didn't ask for your justification. I asked if you understood!"

The maid stared at her with teary eyes and continued to tremble, "I- I... I understand... Your highness..."

"Good."

Kurt was about to use press his palm on the maid's face in order to use his healing flames, but Sabiri suddenly stopped him by grabbing his wrist.

"Mother?"

"I told you! You can't use your healing flames until I give permission" the empress stated while giving him a cold gaze.

"But she's bleeding!"

"Because she made a mistake! And if you just treat her wound and pretend that mistakes have no consequences... She might do it again."

Sabiri then bent one of her knees and stared directly at the maid still on the ground and proceeded to grab her by the hair.

"And you are NOT, going to make the same mistake again... Are you, young lady?"

"O- O- Of course not! Your highness!"

"Good. Let's go, Kurt. Let's see what your brother wants."

Kurt began to wonder if he was looking at the same woman who was crying in his room a couple of minutes ago, [Does mother seem weird to you, Dorothy?]

The grey owl began to ponder, 'I don't know... Maybe she lost weight?'

The boy simply rolled his eyes and followed the empress while glancing at the maid crying on the floor and wondering why she became so aggressive all of sudden.

He was now more sure than ever that something did happen last night and he needed to find out what it was.

Once they finally reached the main hall, there stood a blond gentleman who appeared to be in his early twenties wearing a white suit under a black coat carrying some sort of cane. He was busying himself glancing at the structure of the mansion and occasionally whistling as if he was enchanted with the size.

"Welcome, prince Larz" Sabiri greeted as she approached Kurt's oldest brother and the emperor's first son.

"It's nice to see you again, Sabiri" the lad greeted back with a quick bow. He then shifted his gaze towards Kurt, "You too, young brother."

"Ah. Hello..." Kurt mumbled while waving at him. He didn't remember much about Larz to properly form an opinion on him yet but so far, he didn't seem to be as bad as Hugh at least.

The eldest prince frowned at him, "We are royalty in this world, little man. You can't just say 'hello' like some peasant. You have to show dignity and authority or you will never be respected."

"This world? Oh! Right..." the boy murmured as he nearly forgot that all each of his brothers and sisters were also individuals from his old world.

"To what do we own the pleasure of your visit, prince Larz?" Sabiri asked.

"Not gonna offer me a cup of tea first?"

"I rather offer you the exit door, but I'm trying to be polite in front of my son."

"Fair enough. Works for me anyway... Father asked me to check on the little man over here just to make sure the terms of the deal were not... Forgotten" he chuckled before finishing it.

Kurt raised an eyebrow, "The deal?"

Larz smiled at him, "Seems like father was right."

Sabiri hurried to step in front of Kurt, "There was no need to come here yourself. I was planning on reminding Kurt about it eventually."

"Sure you were. And you were totally not about to grab the kid and ran off with him to the ends of the world in an attempt to get away from us, right? Kukuku" Larz commented while laughing and pointing at his ears, "Just so you know, I have very good hearing, even for dragons. Why do you think dad chose me to come here?"

The empress began to glare at him while sweating at the same time, which only served to amuse the blond lad even more.

"Oh! You seem upset! Would you rather have Annie be the one to come here instead?"

"NO!!" she screamed, "I- I mean... It's fine... "

Kurt kept shifting his gaze from his mother to his brother. He felt like the two were having some silent conversation right in front of him using nothing but their eyes and body language.

"Anyway... Back to the topic. You and father made a deal that in one year you would become more powerful than a regular dragon by using your own training methods. The whole thing was your idea by the way!" Larz continued.

"My idea...?" Kurt mumbled while scratching his hair, "Why would I say that?"

'Who knows...' Dorothy whispered.

"So, starting from now, I'm gonna be checking in on you to observe your progress. You know, since I'm the older brother and all. Unless you would rather get Hugh instead."

"NO!!" Kurt screamed, "I- I mean... I'm fine with this..."

"Kukuku, you two really are mother and son."

Kurt's opinion on Larz was really starting to decrease with each passing second. Sabiri also didn't seem all that happy in having to talk to him.

"Well. That's about it! I'll be coming here once at the end of every month to check on your development and taking notes in case that might be useful to father's. I hope things work out, for the sake of you two!"

After finishing his speech, the blond man made a final bow and took his leave.

Sabiri stared at him while biting her nails while Kurt tried to make any sense of what just happened.

[I think I'm missing some context...]

'Nah...' Dorothy mumbled, 'Probably just your imagination.'