Chapter 1

Chapter 1

We can see two people, a man and a woman, the woman being quite petite, almost childlike, with the woman clutching as hard as she can onto the rope attached to the man, as the man scales the mountain.

The guy has carefully drawn features, his face suited for someone that is in his 20s, and much above the average looks. His tang suit is barely able to contain the muscularity of his physique. He has long brown hair that is roped into a ponytail.

The girl meanwhile has a red dress, unsuited for their activity, just as much as the man's tang suit, a single gust of wind can wind her clothes upwards, and that'd be the end of her from embarrassment alone. She has a fierce looking face, unsuited for a lady, and an energy that feels suffocating from just the amount of enthusiasm alone. Her dark brown hair falls lazily, yet it's not tangled or ruined.

"Careful, you might slip." Li Zhong says as he grips onto another crack in the rocks, using his utmost to grab onto even the smallest cracks and hold on.

"Dude it was a tip from a bar!" Tu Yung shouts.

"I don't have any more leads, might as well just give this one a shot, and if you try something funny, I can just cut the rope." Li Zhong replies back, sharply.

"That is no way to treat a lady!" Tu Yung cries out

"Says the one that kicked multiple guys in the groin then proceeded to choke them."

"Hehe, not my fault." Tu Yung says with a chuckle.

"Tell me, what is it with your obsession with this Skyfire thingy anyway? Did your parents die while trying to find it so now you're trying to continue the mantle for them? Please don't tell me it's that, that would be so cliché." Tu Yung asks with a dumb smirk.

"No." Li Zhong says as he grabs onto another gap.

"We're almost there, be quiet." Li Zhong says to Tu Yung.

"Hmph, you're no fun." Tu Yung snaps back

As they reach the top of the mountain, the air suddenly turns cold, as if a thousand little mites are nibbling on to their skin.

"Hoooolly shit it's cold." Tu Yung says as she is frantically covering herself with her arms

"Take this." Li Zhong says as he gives Tu Yung a fur coat from… Somewhere.

"Where did you get this?" Tu Yung asks as she puts it on

"Be quiet, I see someone." Li Zhong says as he hides behind some bushes.

The fog is thick, presumably because of the cold air, making it hard to see anything, but there comes out a silhouette, then the full image.

"Who's there?" A boy with a fragile looking body asks.

"Show yourself and say your name, or we'll have to do this by force."

Li Zhong walks out of the bushes, clutching Tu Yung's wrist then proceeds to raise both his arms along with Tu Yung's arm.

"We mean no harm, I'm simply looking for something." Li Zhong says

"Uhuh, and your name?" The boy asks

"Li Zhong."

"How about the girl?"

"I'm Tu Yung."

"No I'm not hitting on you, I just want to know your name."

"NO! I meant my name is T-U, Y-U-N-G!"

"Oh."

The boy yawns and rubs his eyes, throwing his arms back as to stretch his back. His aqua colored clothing shines in the sun, as if the fog that covered their eyes was gone for the moment. His short obsidian black hair and the glistening of the sun made it seem as if he was carved by a master sculptor.

He then turns his head towards Li Zhong and walks closer to him.

The distance between them is barely a meter, and the tiptoeing of the boy is clearly seen, as he's barefoot, with his head looking upwards towards Li Zhong.

The boy's eyes radiated like the sky and had the color of it too. He matched with Li Zhong, staring into the curiously dark eyes that Li Zhong has.

"And you, Li Zhong, what are you looking for?" The boy asks

"I'm not sure what it exactly is, maybe a papyrus, some ancient writings, anything that is connected to Skyfire."

"Skyfire?' the boy asks, with a curious gaze, as if he's looking for something a little more in Li Zhong's eyes.

"Something about a floating island maybe, if you've found anything about it." Li Zhong replies, not breaking eye contact, as if reading through the boy's intentions.

"There was a book here, I didn't like the spaghetti looking writing, along with some characters that felt alien. Take a look." The boy says as he snaps off the eye contact quickly and then heads towards.. Somewhere.

The mist is heavy and blocks their vision.

They find it hard to follow the boy.

After a minute of walking, the boy opens a door and the fog mysteriously disappears, the golden light of the house is bright, almost making it seem like the sun was dimmed for a second.

They enter the house and they see a small room, decorated with a singular table, chair and a lamp, with a few books stacked on top of each other, with a single lightbulb being enough to light up the entire place.

There are also a lot of crumpled paper thrown into the trash can, along with some messily placed papers with drawings on them, albeit, not very good drawings.

The boy walks towards one of the shelves, with a note that reads, "Garbage". He tiptoes to reach the top of the shelf and grabs one of the books from the messily organized pile.

"Catch." He says as he lobs the book at Li Zhong.

Li Zhong misses the catch and the book falls down and a few pages scatter on the floor, with the pages looking torn and worn out, yet still as if not a single drop of the ink used on it has ever left its rightful page.

Li Zhong kneels down and grabs the pages and the book, the pages read 4, 9, 33, and 47 on the bottom right side of it, presumably being the page numbers.

Li Zhong organizes the torn off pages in a numerical order before putting it back inside the book and then stuffing it inside his small bag.

"Thank you." Li Zhong says as he bows.

"Wait wait wait, we're not done here yet! You asked us our name and you never gave yours." Tu Yung says as she locks eyes with the boy.

"You don't need it." The boy simply replies.

"Just tell me!" Tu Yung says, with a curious look.

"Are you ready to fight for it?" The boy asks, not missing a beat and intensifying his gaze.

"Woah woah woah wait wait wait, I never agreed to a fight!"

"If you can amuse me, I'll tell you my name."

"Deal or no deal?" The boy asks, with seemingly a spark in his eyes.

"Uhhh, Li Zhong can fight you!"

"Don't drag me into your mess."

"That reminds me, I never got anything from giving you that book, it may be worthless to me, but it means something to you. Why don't we spar? Just a friendly spar..!" The boy says, trying to hide his excitement, but he fails, miserably.

".. Fine, nothing in life is free." Li Zhong says while unbuttoning his cufflinks and pulling the cloth back.

"Don't regret this." Li Zhong says

The boy snaps his fingers and the room warps into a large empty room with multiple ceiling lights lighting it up.

The boy has floating swords above him and he has a sword in his hand, the guard colored a deep blue and the handle made of white wraps that almost look crimson red from blood, the only thing identifying it from red wraps is the small tints of the white wraps remaining. He takes a practiced stance, with his sword tip pointed at Li Zhong.

"Wait, that's not fair Li Zhong doesn't have a weapon!"

"It's alright." Li Zhong says as he puts his palm to the ground and a magic circle forms and an arrow and a bow appears on top of it.

"Hey, my coat disappeared!" Tu Yung shouts

"Be quiet." Li Zhong commanded her

"Council me with your wisdom so that I may make the best decisions. Grant me success in my endeavors, but keep me humble so that I might not become condescending to others. I thank you for the many times you have guided me on my Path. Share with me your mysteries and I will do my best to follow." The boy prays while clutching his necklace.

As he finishes the prayer while Li Zhong picks up his bow and arrow, wondering what the boy is doing, the boy speeds straight towards Li Zhong with a thrust as Li Zhong tries to draw back his bow. The distance is closed in an instant and Li Zhong throws away his bow and moves his hand upwards as he bends the earth beneath him and summons a wall.

CLANG!

The sound of the boy's sword hitting the earth wall created a loud clang.

Li Zhong creates a magic circle in his hand then taps his wall and changes it into a sword as he charges towards the boy clutching the sword.

THRUST

The boy steps back slightly and parries Li Zhong's thrust then he charges forward and straightens his arm to make his swords fly towards Li Zhong.

CLANG!

Li Zhong changed his weapon into a shield and backs away as he transforms his shield into a polearm, trying to keep distance from the swordsman.

"Perfect, you can't wield two things at the same time." The boy says as he charges forward at a speed incomprehensible by the human eye and slashes Li Zhong.

Blood splatters around and the boy grabs a towel from his pocket to scrub away the blood.

"LI ZHONG!" Tu Yung shouts

"That's enough, it was fun, my name is Katsumi." The boy says, as he finally reveals his name.

"It was only a flesh wound, he won't die, just patch him up."

"Li Zhong you bastard you haven't paid me yet don't die!" Tu Yung cries out

"I'm fine, don't be a drama queen." Li Zhong says, covering his wound with a towel

Katsumi snaps his fingers and the place turns into more like a living room, with drinks laid out on the table already.

"There's also a shower there." Katsumi says while pointing at a door.

"Freshen up, don't leave yet, I need to do something."

Katsumi walks out the door and his shadow disappears.

Li Zhong walks towards the door that Katsumi pointed at and then locks the door behind him, he takes off the towel he was clutching and then washes his towel.

"Some extra clothes, they should fit you just right." A note reads

How does his room warp and have this much? Li Zhong asks himself

The clothes weren't needed however, Li Zhong can always just conjure his clothes again and again, in case they were torn or dirtied, a valuable asset for an archaeologist.

He enters the shower and takes off his clothes.

-Katsumi's POV-

Katsumi is running and jumping through the thick foliage of trees, swinging through the branches with a wide smile on his face.

After 4 minutes, he reaches a door, he opens it and makes a magic circle imbued with his own special properties.

"Access granted. Gift of Athena recognized."

We see a man with a thick beard, hair frizzled and reaching up to his neck, as if he was a lion. His eyes are closed, seeming worn out.

His physique towered over Katsumi, him being 6'3 and his muscles seeming as if they were polished for over a decade, made him look like a beast of a man, if you could even call him a man,

"DAD! I found someone interesting today!" Katsumi says as he runs towards his father, hugging his father tight.

"That's great son, how did they fare against you?" His dad says, while patting his head.

"They weren't doing their best, but they still did well! I want to see them go all out one day."

"Haha, were they as strong as your dad?" He asks, with a dry chuckle.

"As if!" Katsumi says, with absolute glee in his voice, like a child.

"Dad, I've been wondering, I've lived in these secluded mountains my whole life, I can see through the fog here like it's not even there, the cold temperature doesn't even bother me anymore."

"Isn't it finally time I can go out and explore the world? The books you gave me had so many tales of these warmongers stronger than entire armies, there is so much more outside these mountains!"

"Like there are orcs! How strong would they be? There's sirens! Are they really as alluring as they say? I just wanna know!"

His dad simply stayed there petting Katsumi's head with a smile as he went on about the great things in the world, his childlike wonder was unbecoming of his age, and especially for a god given talent like him.

"Well, who would you go with?" His dad finally asked the question that he saw Katsumi waiting for him to ask

"Well, I was thinking I could go with the new people I met today! They said their names were Li Zhong and Tu Yung."

Everything changed with his dad's aura once he heard Katsumi mention the name Li Zhong, it was not malevolent, it felt nostalgic, if anything.

"If you're alright with it, would you escort your dad to meet them?"

"Let me ride on your shoulders and I will!"

"Alright, shall we go?"

-Tu Yung's POV-

I don't really want to be involved with those two, they're.. Too unique. I mean Li Zhong barely cares about anything except his own goals! He dragged me along the mountain just so he could have a guide!

I mean, he did offer a hefty sum, like an amount that can last me about a decade! How is he so rich? Why is he spending it all on these worthless escapades? If I was him I would be chilling in a mansion eating hors d'oeuvres and sipping the highest class wine.

—

The door opens and the familiar voice of Katsumi is heard. His small silhouette is seen along with a towering figure, larger than most men, and the only man that can humble him is Lord Lynx himself.

His eyes are still closed, but his presence is dangerous, his presence alone can choke a man, and Tu Yung could feel it, her instincts are screaming for her to either fight or run. Her very instincts made her stiff and ready her fists, even though she knew well that she'd get her own grave dug in a second. That man is The Predator. He is not to be trifled with.

"Settle down, haha, I mean no harm." He lets out a dry chuckle as he recoils his strength, as if to test them.

"You, lady, you aren't fit for this type of life are you?"

"Ah, forgive my rudeness, I am Senrai." Introduced Senrai

"My son here has already told me your names."

"Excuse me, mister Senrai, but aren't you renowned for being The Predator?" Tu Yung asks

Senrai opens his eyes for once, and that was the time that they realized why he has his eyes closed, the very intensity of his eyes look like they've seen through tragedy, war, death, and everything in between, his eyes are painted through the mud they crawled through, the blood they shed.

"I don't hold that title anymore, one more fit for that name is our lord, not me. I've renounced that title."

"I am simply trying to live in peace with my son, and he has told me that he wants to adventure with you two."

"I would be against it normally, but I can tell, this Li Zhong fellow here, he would be enough."

"It was a pleasure serving with you, Black Warrior." Li Zhong replies, reaching his hand out

"Likewise, Ares." Senrai accepts the invitation, and shakes his hand.

"Wait, ARES?! As in the god of war?!" Tu Yung asks, with her eyeballs ready to jump out.

"Oh, it's simply a name we gave our commanders. This Li Zhong fellow here, he served in the Mors Crucis with me, about 30 years ago." Senrai answers

"I'm retired Senrai, I have only a fraction of my strength from then, all it serves for me now is rock climbing and gathering firewood." Li Zhong replies

"Haha, well let's not dwell on the past."

The little viewer from the back couldn't hold himself back anymore and finally asked what he wanted,

"Hey hey! Can I join you on your adventure and stuff? I'm not really interested in all that Skyfire stuff but seeing that you got here, then you must've been to some places right?! Let me join!" Katsumi gleefully asks

"Do I have to, Senrai?"

"My favor, I'm sorry that I had to use it like this, but I want Katsumi to enjoy his years, this mountain has secluded him far too much."

"I understand."

"Well I for one, am not going with you two!" Tu Yung says, with her arms crossed and a smirk.

The other three are simply just looking at her, and they say nothing.

"Well I wasn't expecting you to come, you look kinda.. Weak anyway." Katsumi says, with brutal honesty.

"How dare you!" Tu Yung says as she walks towards Katsumi in a swaggerish manner

Katsumi pays no mind and simply summons his sword and multiple more to aim it straight at her throat .

"I do not tolerate unreasonable confidence."

An earth wall summons from below the ground, just enough to intercept the tension.

"Calm down you two, I'll take the child with me, as for you, Tu Yung, our agreement is coming to a close, I will give you the payment when we get out, and you may do as you please from then on."

"As long as you make that kid shut up!" Tu Yung snaps

"No, you shut up!" Katsumi snaps back

"Let's not do this right now." Senrai's voice shook the room, even amidst the chaos.

Senrai snaps his fingers, and the room turns into an elevator, he presses number 1 and then the elevator door opens, and the scenery of the harbor is seen from the elevator.

"This is the outside, dad? I'm finally outside?" Katsumi says, barely being able to contain his happiness.

"Yes Katsumi, you're finally outside."

Katsumi runs outside the elevator and jumps on top of a tree branch then smells the air.

"It isn't thick! I can smell clear air!"

"He's like a child, isn't he? Senrai?" Li Zhong asks,

"Yes, it's unlike his age, but he simply hasn't seen enough of the world to be normal."

"How old is he anyway?" Tu Yung asks

"A little over 16."

"16?! He looks and acts like he could be 12!"

"Haha, that's what years of seclusion can do."

"Well, excuse me, I must head back soon, I just need to bid my son a farewell." Senrai says as he walks towards Katsumi.

"Katsumi, I won't always be there for you from now on, I ask you one thing, my son, take care of that necklace I gave you, it will reveal itself to you when you're ready." Senrai says as he rubs his large fingers over Katsumi's necklace, feeling the smooth texture of the masterfully forged Adamantite, then making his way to cover and feel the deep blue sapphire embedded in the middle.

"I will!" Katsumi replies, with glee, excitement, and a wide smile.

"I must get going now my son, at the end of your road, do visit your dad won't you?"

"I won't forget dad!" Katsumi promises

Senrai walks away from Katsumi, thanking Li Zhong along the way and making his way back to the elevator.

Li Zhong reaches into his bag and grabs a pouch then gives it to Tu Yung.

Tu Yung grabs the pouch quickly, but is surprised by the weight, she opens the pouch to see a fuck ton of doubloons.

"Your payment, thanks." Li Zhong says, bowing after she receives the pouch.

"Wait, don't you have a chip?" Tu Yung asks, while pointing at a socket on the side of her forehead.

"A chip?"

"Oh boy, these neural implants have been here for a decade after the end of the Race War." Tu Yung says, with a depressed look on her face.

"What are they for?" Li Zhong asks

"They can do pretty much anything a phone can, with more even."

Li Zhong reaches into his pocket and grabs a phone.

"These little things?"

"Woah where did you get that? Nokias are like, ancient now!"

"It's said there's like, only 15 remaining in the world, well, considering how rich you are, I'm not all that surprised."

"Well, getting straight to it, I didn't even know those chip things existed, so it's evident that I don't have one."

"Man, it's like your very existence is ancient." Tu Yung says, exasperated

"Well, I have to get going now, toodeloo!" Tu Yung says, with a grin as she waves to Li Zhong while running to the harbor.

As she waves, she turns back and walks in a hurried manner straight back to Li Zhong.

"You didn't make this money using your magic right?"

"No." Li Zhong simply replies

"Well you better not have, because I will find you."

Tu Yung says as she walks away, for the final time.

Katsumi pops up beside Li Zhong, soundless in his movement.

"Hey, Li Zhong, let's go into the harbor, I wanna see the things there."

"There's not much there, but I do have an idea on where to go next, you sure you want to go to the harbor first?"

"You never know what can be had, after all, a lot of the novels I read always had something happen in the harbor."

"I won't argue with that, but do you have any footwear? Not wearing shoes or boots isn't popular."

"Nope!"

"Guess I'll have to buy you some later."

Katsumi speeds towards the harbor, overtaking the walking Tu Yung and telling Li Zhong to not fall behind too much.

-Katsumi's POV-

The clear view, the light air brushing past my face, it's all things I've never experienced. The rocky road beneath my feet, the view of a place filled with so many people.

He sees a sign by the side of the road.

[Property of Atlantis

Atlantis Harbor]

I read about this once! They say Atlantis has a lot of sea creatures, I wonder what it would be like to go against a shark humanoid.

The people are coming into view!

They look scaly, with their legs looking like they split their tail to make legs, would that be painful?

Their colors range from orange, blue, green, about any color you'd see from fishes in the water!

Oh it's just like how the books wrote it! The gills on the side of their necks, the long hair of the women and the fishlike head on both the men and women.

Oh there's a few guards by the entrance!

-3rd person POV-

Katsumi approaches the entrance and is blocked by the guards holding their tridents.

The guards look at Katsumi and one of the guard's eyes turns red with a white bar moving up and down on the pupil.

"Scanning for authorization."

"Authority not granted, please leave quietly."

"Uhh, I just wanna see the people inside!" Katsumi says

"Authority is not granted, leave quietly or we will have to use force." the guard says as the guards from the back come out of the gate and surround Katsumi.

"Oh it's a fight you want? I've been itching for one since that Li Zhong guy."

"Individual has not left the area, initiating order 10 to seize the individual."

Katsumi summons his blades and goes straight for the guard that scanned him.

CLANG!

The sound of metal hitting metal was evident, the guard blocked his sword with their trident and the other guards took the opportunity and jumped him as he was left unguarded.

Katsumi left his sword and dashed behind the guard behind him, almost as if he was a ghost.

The dropped sword disappears then materializes into Katsumi's hand as he moves his arm forward to make his floating swords attack the guard. The guard skillfully dodges back and spins his trident to block the swords.

BANG!

Katsumi could feel it, his flesh ripping from a bullet, those things that fire at supersonic speeds in novels, able to kill any normal man.

The bullet is true and hits his arm, he knows the shooter won't hesitate to go for his other arm.

With a flash, and a sound as loud as the gun that shot Katsumi, he goes straight for the gunman and summons his sword on his uninjured arm and thrusts it to stab the gunman's hand that was on the trigger, then removing the sword and slashing the gun apart, all in just 3 seconds.

The guards saw that his back side was open for an attack, so with the loud sound of marching and moving their way towards Katsumi, forming a wall that was impossible for him to maneuver into, a loud voice was heard.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Li Zhong commands

The scanner guard quickly scans Li Zhong and says,

"Authorization granted."

"Katsumi, lay down your weapon, you can still get out of these charges after a while."

Katsumi, with blood on his injured arm and a bit splattered onto his blade and face, laid down his weapon and threw the towel he uses for his blade onto the injured gunman.

"We will seize the boy, as for you, Mr. Li Zhong, explain to us what your friend here is for." the guard beside the scanning guard says.

"Understood." Li Zhong replied

The guard cuffs Katsumi with magic nullifying cuffs and hands the scanning guard a long piece of cloth that the guard used to wrap a tourniquet around Katsumi's injured arm.

They're led into the city, coming into view is the police station, it looks the same as it was in the past, the system refuses to change after all.

Walking inside, a myriad of police officers, secretaries, and the such walk around in their proper uniforms, the mermaids and merman look surprisingly normal in their uniforms, the only thing that looks off are the lizardmen and the fish head seafolk.

Still, despite the off-putting looks, they clearly look like they're doing well in their situation.

A flurry of papers fly out and hit the guard's face. Okay, maybe they're not THAT organized.

He grabs the paper off his face and gives it to the woman running with a folder. He scolds her slightly and she runs off after apologizing.

He leads them into a room labeled the interrogation room, Katsumi and Li Zhong are cuffed to the tables and given seats.

The room is bland, boringly gray and there's only one lightbulb to light up the room.

"Please wait here for a bit," Their escort tells them as he leaves the room.

"You didn't have to stop me, I could've beaten them all." Katsumi pouts

"You could've killed one of them too."

".. So?"

"Once you kill, there's no going back, your father entrusted you to me, I am to stop you from doing something like that."

Katsumi didn't agree, but Li Zhong's words were irrefutable.

The silence in the room was strong, almost choking, but there's nothing they can say. They understand each other, despite only knowing each other for a day, perhaps it's because they clashed swords, after all, to a swordsman, a fight is a conversation.

About 10 minutes pass and the guard comes back and with a more surprised look on his face than before, though it's only slight, something that most people can't see.

But Li Zhong saw it, he knew why.

"The queen wanted to see us?" Li Zhong asks

"The queen wants to see you." The guard answers

"Follow me, I will guide you to a corey."

"Understood."

Katsumi's hands are still cuffed. Him not being able to feel his magic is uncomfortable.

After 2 minutes of walking, they reach a machine with wing-like gliders and a small pod inside with a glass cover, capable of fitting 4 people.

There are lights on the front of it, and the back has a big jet engine, powered by a large green crystal on the back. The color on the gliders are a deep blue, and the machine itself is a brown color.

"Please, go in."

The guard's eye turns red and a white line covers the pupil with lines protruding out of the white line. The glass cover opens and stairs protrude out from the side of the machine.

Katsumi and Li Zhong enter the back seat of the machine and as the guard gets inside the machine, he presses a button and the stairs recoil back and the glass cover closes the machine again.

The machine dives into the water and the engine starts, the engine is loud and almost nothing can be heard except it.

After a few minutes of driving in silence, the machine surfaces and lands near a dock, there is the view of a small island, only enough land so that the castle would remain standing and not sink into the ocean. The guard presses a button and the glass cover opens and the stairs come out.

"Your destination, there will be a maid to escort you on the way."

Li Zhong and Katsumi get out of the vehicle and the cover closes. The guard bids them adieu and dives back in the ocean using the corey.

Tap. Tap. Tap

A woman approaches them, who seems to be the maid that the guard mentioned.

"Welcome to the queen's abode." The maid with very human-like features says, the only thing being off from her is her long ears, like an elf.

She has a tall figure, with emerald green hair and an accessory that looks like a butterfly on the side of her hair. Her hair is neatly fixed and falls down. Her clothing is surprisingly normal, she has a long dress that reaches to her knees. It's more befitting of a princess than a maid, perhaps the queen treats her subordinates well.

Her eyes are like gems, it's as if the gods chose her existence to be born from an emerald itself.

"Please, follow me." The maid asks, with a soft voice as she walks towards the entrance of the castle, gesturing to the guard to open the gates. After the gates open, the view comes in and the first thing to notice is the long carpet that connects to stairs.

The castle is massive and the entrance is even bigger. It seems to be rather empty space, with just tables and chairs to decorate the halls. There is a large chandelier on the ceiling, it's strong and large enough to cover the entirety of the hall.

There is a large platform, with stairs that climb to the top of it placed in the middle of the room that's connected to the carpeted walkway.

The gate opens and the queen is visible, she's seated in a throne in the middle of the platform. She has her head propped on top of her slim right hand.

She has a crown decorated in beautiful jewels, and her looks perfectly compliment her accessories. She wears a robe like a noble, but it feels as though the robe is just to hide her own beauty.

Despite being known to be a leviathan, she has no resemblance to the typical leviathan, attributed to the fact that she's honed her transformation magic to the highest level of mastery.

She doesn't even have any visible gills on the side of her neck, and looks like a model in their 20s.

"Welcome, my husband."