3. The royal clan

Julius, as a talentless prince, didn't get much from the clan as they couldn't invest in trash with no essence potential.

He lives on the other side of the huge palace where there were less people so his mother's room was quite far.

'I doubt if my mother is around by this time. But right now, she's the only one who can help me.' He thought to himself before increasing his pace.

The inside of the castle was even more majestic than the area he was at a few minutes ago, with tapestries, portraits, and weapons lining the walls, and decorations. The black marble floor which was so smooth and slippery seemed foreign to him too.

Julius was lost in thought and he passed by a garden without noticing it.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?"

Julius stopped as he heard that voice and he looked back calmly.

Behind him was a boy who seemed about his height, with short spiky red hair and green eyes. And handsome facial features.

His expression was that of rage as he walked towards Julius from their seperate garden.

"What have I told you about crossing this participate corridor, Junior?" The boy asked with an angry expression.

"I forgot, I got lost in thought. You won't see me again." Julius said with a calm tone and the boy laughed loudly.

"Well, this part of the castle isn't for weak people like you." The boy said before pulling Julius by the hair aggressively and dragging him towards their garden.

'Argh fuck!' Julius felt pain as it felt like his hair was going to be ripped off, he tried to slap the hand pulling him but Cidar's hand didn't budge. He was too strong.

"Rowan, River, look who I found crossing our corridors again," Cidar said and threw Julius on the ground.

Julius looked up to see two boys.

Rowan has short red hair which was braided sharing the same green eyes with his brother. He was only on a white singlet and brown pants.

River on the other hand had his hair tied in a ponytail. He had the symbol of a snowflake on his forehead and Julius couldn't help but furrow his brows.

'River Augustine. The only Rival Vernox has throughout the book.' He thought, gritting his teeth.

"Julius? You again? How long has it been, like 3 months since we beat you up, I see it wasn't clearly enough." Rowan said as he stood up and River only glanced at Julius.

He couldn't help but feel uneasy with how calm Julius was being right now.

'Fuck, no matter how much I want to beat them up, they're already awakened.' Julius couldn't do anything and just look at them with a calm face.

He got on his knees and put his head to the ground.

"If you guys could only spare me this once. Have mercy." Julius begged for his life.

'Come on please. I don't want to get hit by these guys.' He gritted his teeth.

Essence wielders in this world were all revered, transcending the limits of their original body. And only those with this essence, can challenge the ascension towers around the world.

Cidar couldn't help but laugh at Julius' state on the ground and Rowan took couldn't help but find it funny.

"You're even more pathetic then last time!" Cidar said as he kicked Julius in the stomach sending him sliding across the grass.

"The royal Augustine family has never birthed a weakling. You're a disgrace, wouldn't it be better if you had just died in that accident." Cidar said with a smile as he walked towards Julius.

Rowan smiled as he walked forward.

"This is boring. How about this, you take three attacks from me and I'll let you go. The training dummies are not really practical." Rowan smiled and River's blue eyes went towards Julius.

He didn't mind what his brothers did, they weren't wrong, the Augustine family has never produced this level of trash before.

Julius felt his stomach churning as he was in pain. He still managed to look at the dummies that Rowan referred to and saw the pieces of metal with deep dents in them and then he stood up, blinking at Rowan.

Julius gritted his teeth in pain as he managed to stand up.

Seeing the grind on their faces made him feel confused as he couldn't understand how they were enjoying this.

'Just get it over with.' Julius thought to himself and in the next moment, a punch came straight for his face and he couldn't even raise his hands on time.

He fell to the ground hard as he received the punch and he blinked as he couldn't see properly in that moment.

Before Rowan could land the second blow, a man suddenly appeared out of mid air, like a blur.

His red armour having a smooth texture, with golden lines running along the surface in beautiful patterns.

The man in front of him had red hair with deep brown eyes. He had a bored expression on his face as he looked at Cider.

"Prince Julius is currently weak. Going further would kill him." The man said in a calm tone and Cider smiled and walked forward.

As he took a step forward, another knight appeared in front of him. It was a woman with shoulder length black hair, wearing black armour with a different design pattern that the red haired knight.

Julius looked up to see the man and he was relieved.

'I was afraid that he wasn't going to show up.' Julius thought as he looked at the shadow knights.

'Directly in servitude to the royal family, all of them are essence masters in their prime.' Julius stood up weakly.

Each of the royal children are assigned a knight to guard them from the shadows until they are 18 years old.

Currently he was still in a 16 year old's body, so he would be protected from his siblings until he is 18.

'The only problem is that we have to be in real danger for them to come to your aid. And Cider only took one step for his knight to appear... I wonder if this red knight can harm him.' Julius thought.

He was sent backwards by the punch so Cider was still over two metres away from him.

The distance...

If Cider was considered in danger the red knight would be able to harm him from this distance.

...

The knights ended up not fighting at all and Julius was able to leave there without collecting serious harm from Cider.

That was one thing, if he didn't get power, after he turns 18, he probably would die the same day.

Julius walked through another hallway. He could still feel pains in his stomach and it hurt to walk, but at least let him do what he came here to do.

He was in a hall filled with doors lined up by the sides and he walked to a particular door which was painted a golden brown.

'I just have to make it believable.' He thought with a blink before knocking on the door of his mother's room.