16 The Silver Prince
Zephyr sat in a common chair. Sion had left him inside a private room, filled with expensive vases and ancient and immemorial paintings. Some even dated to three hundred years ago.
Despite that, his face did not show any sign of exasperation at having to wait; it had already been over thirty-five minutes.
The only noise was the clock's tick every second. He used this opportunity to consolidate his foundation. He had already broken through, his foundation had no color at the moment. He could wait a week before actually solidifying his title as a Foundation Creation Expert.
He was abruptly forced to stop due to the doors opening, the one who wanted to meet him had arrived.
"Welcome young Zephyr, I am the leader of the Withered Heart Squad, Jon."
Sion was accompanied by a young man, roughly a decade older than Zephyr. He reminded him of the Overseer back when he had reincarnated; the only difference being that Jon had no glasses and had violet eyes.
Zephyr kneeled with one foot and cupped his fists as a sign of respect and acceptance. Jon smiled, it was easily noticeable that despite the difference in age, he also respected him.
The young boy was still 7 and a half in current time; there was a long way for him to go through. Who knew just how strong he'd become.
"I heard from Sion that you also contributed a lot in fighting the special organism. You are also a Qi User; we only have two of them in our squad."
"Your addition in our squad will grow the overall strength to a new level, I appreciate your help a lot Zephyr." Jon continued.
"I believe that as for how our organization works, you'll get to know by spending the first week or two around Sion and Meres, later you'll be joined by May and Mars."
Zephyr had heard about the two latter after all, Arlo had traveled together with him for several months; he was bound to learn something about the squad he was going to join.
"Just a little advice… be careful around Mars, he's even crazier than Meres." Jon spoke with a lower tone this time, while he sat down on his comfortable chair.
"Understood." He nodded until now he knew a total of five members of the Withered Heart Team; only Jon's teammate was left.
"Also, Arlo won't be your temporary partner… We've found a better match for your skills, age, and capabilities, not mentioning overall growth."
"You are free to leave now. Take this book, by the way, it's way better than any other you could possibly find in the library." Jon threw a thick leather book at Zephyr, who caught it.
"Goodbye leader."
~~
It was a tiring day for Zephyr.
He wanted to read the book given to him by Jon a bit, however; since it was filled with a lot of information about Red Dawn.
'The Red Dawn recognizes their members according to their squad emblem. Squads and members are each assigned a rank or tier, depending on their power and overall squad contribution to the Red Dawn.'
'Said Ranks are: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Diamond, and Platinum; further divided into nine tiers or stars.
The Withered Heart is a top class Silver Rank Tier 9 squad…'
Zephyr sighed before putting the book down. He was going to the rest of the day now. He had been reading non-stop for over an hour and a half.
~~
A few moments after Zephyr left the room –
Jon sighed while ruffling his hair. the Leader of the Withered Heart Squad had a lot of problems to deal with himself.
"Sion I'm glad you returned. I have another mission for you and Meres to take. A Silver Rank Tier 6 Mission one."
The demi-human walked straight to Jon's desk; His bow swayed right and left due to being damaged.
" I see that your weapon requires maintenance first… I'll order a craftsman to look at it, for now just take this mission and rely on your spells to complete it. Shouldn't be that hard with the power of Meres."
"Sir, the reason I am here is revolving Zephyr… I think that Mazir won't really be a good mix for him."
Mazir was the new member of the Withered Heart Team, aged 15. A youth with spiky black hair and blue eyes. His appearance could be described as having very good facial features and overall being handsome.
"It's a nice fit if you ask me; his heart is withered and Zephyr's soul is strong. Mazir is indeed a tad bit crazy, but I think Zephyr can keep him in check with his insane strength. I had no other choice anyway, the higher-ups demanded this."
"I see… I understand. Although Zephyr is just a boy with his colossal potential, he'll probably ignite a flame so bright inside Mazir that he would actually start to use his own potential out of pure jealousy."
"He's the King's Son making him the Prince of our organization, only below the Queen, King, and the Chancellor."
"Even the King cannot stabilize his mental state… He's literally someone who wants to never train and thinks that he deserves all that is coming at him; a spoiled brat."
"We'll see… He's going to arrive in a matter of days. Sion, do not misunderstand this. I wish for the best for the squad, but I cannot refuse the King's request."
"Alright… Then do I have permission to leave?"
Jon nodded and waved his hand; Sion bowed slightly before leaving the room with a helpless expression. 'You'll have to be careful Zephyr… Mazir has killed six of his last teammates, please do not kill him due to being annoyed.'
~~
Arlo walked around the garden connecting the headquarter with the outside. He was filled with anxiety since he was told nothing about the situation. He was merely a low-rank inside the organization. His connection to Vanos; was superficial. The local headquarters had several Silver-Ranked Squads by itself.
He stopped upon noticing a figure walk into the headquarters. A boy clothed in silver; with a disinterested look on his expression and of a young age. His hair was pitch spiky black while his eyes were brown.
Arlo's lips started to quiver from the sudden intrusion of shock before bowing. Before him stood the Prince of the entire Red Dawn, Mazir!
The later did not pay any attention to Arlo, going directly inside the headquarters and straight to Jon's office.
"What is he doing here…" Arlo gulped down salvia out of pure fear.
