14 King Visit

"But, I still want to give it a try." Alex was determined to try it in order to hide his embarrassment.

"Okay, fine." Seeing his eyes, Alicia couldn't reject him and she thought to herself. 'Hmph. I have explained how hard it is to you. Don't come back to me while crying when you fail.'

Alex closed his eyes for a second and he tried to focus his mind. He started chanting in his mind while imagining the previous scene where the magic was formed with his new chant.

Fireball in a size of a thumb was formed on his hand but it soon dispersed.

The exhaustion immediately came to his mind as he panted.

"This is tough and tiring." Alex sighed, but he was determined to master this technique as soon as possible.

'Monster.' This was the only thought that popped up in Alicia's mind. Mia also blinked her eyes a few times, refusing to believe such a thing could happen. This monster actually almost succeeded in his first try.

Alex tilted his head and looked at the two sisters in confusion. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"You… Do you know what you are doing? Argh! How do I explain it to him…" Alicia walked toward him and grabbed his shoulders, she looked very frustrated.

"I failed." Alex didn't know what she was thinking. The only thing he knew was the fact that he failed this time.

"You… Ah! I want to punch this guy." Mia was the same. She had her own pride as the most talented one among the family. Yet, everything changed the moment he came here. All the pride she had harbored in her heart was crushed.

People call her a genius, but if she compared herself to him, she was probably just mediocre.

"Alicia! You can do the rest." She pouted and went inside.

"Why did she act like that?" Alex was baffled by the sudden action.

"My sister was known as a genius in this Kingdom…" Alicia rolled her eyes.

"Was?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows, wondering why she said it in past tense form.

"Yeah. Because you just replaced her." Alicia shrugged.

Alex's body shook as he started sweating, wondering whether this was a good or bad thing. "I will go back to my training, then."

To escape from the embarrassment and that thought, he decided to continue his training until the grand duke summoned him.

Alex and Alicia walked side by side to the meeting room.

'Knock Knock!'

"Come in."

Alex and Alicia opened the door and walked inside the room, only to find the grand duke along with another middle-aged man whose face was similar to the grand duke.

Suddenly, Alicia leaped toward him and tackled him to the ground. "Uncle!"

With just that single word, Alex managed to deduct the man's identity. He must be the king of this country.

"Hoho, my dear Alicia. How are you?" The king smiled gently.

"I'm fine… Just a bit disheartened." Alicia looked down with a sad face.

"What?!" The king raised his voice. "Who dares to make you sad? I will sentence him immediately."

Alicia pointed her finger at Alex with a pout.

The king looked at Alex while furrowing his eyebrows before getting a nod from Raymond.

He rose from the ground and cleared his throat. "So, you are Alexander Sirius? Let me introduce myself, I'm Carollus Zelle Van Acacia. The current king of this kingdom."

Alex froze for a moment, he was not sure what he should do. Back in the days, those who were close to the king often called him a rude brat or something, so he thought he needed to kneel here.

The king noticed his action and stopped him. "You don't need to kneel. This is just a private meeting, so you can relax. No need for such formalities. Just like how you call Raymond as Uncle, you can… No, you must call me that too."

Alex glanced left and right only to find the grand duke nodded his head. He finally resigned his fate and called in a low voice. "Un… cle…"

"Good!" The king laughed and Alicia decided to tell her father about what just happened earlier.

"Father. Do you know that Sister Mia just got her pride crushed by him?"

"How come? What happened?"

"How do I say this… Alex could control the mana flow on his first try. Then he succeeded his first spell, also in the first try. He then created a new chant and he succeeded in using it as well. Not only the chant was shorter, but the power output was greater than a normal fireball spell…"

Raymond opened his eyes wide as he looked at his own daughter with disbelief. "Please tell me that's not true? You're joking, right?"

"I am serious. You can ask Sister Mia and she will give you the same answer, albeit she will hate you too if you ask her right now."

Raymond was stunned. He looked at Alex with mixed feelings before grabbing his shoulder and scanning him upside down. Even Carollus was baffled from such an action.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

"I am just checking him to see whether this boy is a monster in human flesh or not."

"What are you saying, Raymond? Don't be rude!"

Raymond repeated what Alicia just said to him. "And if you say that he is not a monster in human flesh, then I don't know what he is…"

"Are you serious?"

Alex's heart skipped a beat, especially when Carollus decided to do the same thing as Raymond.

After scanning Alex for a few minutes, the king and his brother suddenly went to the corner, talking with each other.

"This Alex… His potential is limitless. I think he has more potential than our founder."

"You mean he has the potential to be a God? Don't you find that a little bit exaggerating, Brother?"

"No… I am not exaggerating. In fact, I think I am still underestimating his potential. If I should say it word by word, this man seems to have the potential as the ascender." The king confirmed with a nod.

"If this is true, our kingdom will have a God in a few decades. No one had ever ascended after the first guy five thousand years ago. Even our founder couldn't reach that stage before he passed away."

"This will depend on how we develop his ability then. If we carelessly increase his strength, he might lose the chance…"

"What should we do then? I think we should bind him to our kingdom first…" Raymond thought for a moment before remembering what Alicia said earlier. "Didn't Alicia say Alex made her sad? As petty as it may, we still need to do whatever we can."

The king widened his eyes in surprise as he smirked slyly "That's a good one!"

The two suddenly laughed like two old foxes. Alicia was confused with the reactions of both her father and uncle while Alex was standing there feeling a little bit terrified.