Ch. 34: Change

As he watched Rosy walk across the stage toward him, Adrian's mind couldn't help but go back to some of the last letters that he'd exchanged with Amanda. She'd felt so guilty, because she'd fallen in love with someone else. She'd felt like actually spending time with the man had been some sort of betrayal of Adrian, but he'd been able to tell how torn she was about it through the letters, so he'd given them his blessing. He'd just hoped that they'd be happy, after all.

Seeing Rosy like that... Adrian couldn't deny it anymore. He finally understood what Amanda had meant when she'd written that letter. He didn't dare try to understand Rosy's depths... but he knew that he had feelings for her that he'd never have for anyone else. Amanda would understand that, just like he'd understand if Amanda was already married to her lover by the time that he returned from Noctus.

Rosy met his eyes as she walked across the stage. Then their hands met and they raised them, showcasing their connection. In that moment, something changed.

...

Jasper's voice had gone hoarse hours ago. His pain was out of this world... he couldn't even pass out it was so intense. Elder Crun, watching over him, genuinely believed that the boy was going to die. Calming magic didn't work. Liquids had to be forced down his throat, or else he wouldn't be capable of swallowing. But finally, in the early afternoon of the third day since the boy's condition began, he suddenly lost consciousness. Immediately, Crun rushed to find the doctor in charge of Jasper's care. 

After a quick check, the doctor confirmed that Jasper's heart rate had suddenly gone back to normal. His pain was suddenly gone, and his body had finally passed out from the stress. He'd make a full recovery.

...

"The Jasper boy has finally begun recovering, huh?" The Urian king, Anton Allaris, listened to the report from one of his knights who'd been assigned to watch over the hospital ward in the inner castle. 

Anton could remember the day that his old advisor, the Elder Mage known as Hat had returned from a long, twenty-year trip meant to 'improve his powers.' Back then, Anton had been fifteen years younger. It'd been the year after his wife had died birthing Adrian, that cursed child. The young Anton hadn't known much about the mage, who had a small residence in the castle's courtyard.

His father had appointed the current age of Elder mages in his last years, and Hat had been the most mysterious. There was Elder Crun, who was an expert in enchantments and charms. Then there was Elder Malachi, who had unparalleled skills in the area of elemental magic. The third Elder mage was a rather reedy man with a strange disposition. His name was Polsun, and he was a master of magical potions and herbs.

The last Elder mage was Hat, and he had never seemed to have a specific focus in his magic. His skill was elusive... but very real, as Anton had learnt over the years. Hat and his apprentice had grown close Anton's cursed son, even going so far as to order a sword and personally enchant it to only be useful to the boy. It couldn't be nearly as powerful of a magical artifact as Anton's Kingstone, but it was still an incredible feat of magic.

About ten years after Hat had returned with Jasper in tow, the blind boy had become a powerful mage in his own right, though none of his skills ever neared any of the true Elder mages. Meanwhile, Hat had died of illness. The powerful, yet useless subordinate dying so stupidly was all that cursed child's fault... Anton just knew it. Shortly after the boy was born, Anton had called his daughter into his study and explained that he was going to grant her the top right of succession, but the girl had exploded in indignation at the slight to her beloved younger brother, instead of accepting the position.

Sydney had forced him to reluctantly hand over her rights of succession to the boy, influencing the child to seemingly change his ways and buckle down for studying... but Hat's death changed Anton's mind. From that day forward, he'd sworn to force his daughter to accept her duty, so that he could send the boy to the far off, uselessly small country of Salila.

That was why Anton hadn't been upset by the boy's disappearance. Knowing the child, he was likely to come back. He was too stubborn to allow himself to fail in his duty, after all... but when the boy came back, he would likely have his personality reverted back to the carefree, useless personality that he'd had as a child. Once that happened, Sydney's focus would ensure that the succession rights inevitably went back to her younger brother. Anton needed to both disinherit the boy, and plant Sydney on the throne all before he returned.

Acting quickly, Anton had sent his people out on a search for the boy, changing his instructions from 'recover' to 'kill' as soon as Sydney had appeared in the sewers of Uriah's capital, Ortain. Killing his son would ensure that Sydney's focus would be on her country's true well-being, rather than her useless brother's. Meanwhile, he made arrangements to hold Sydney's coronation as soon as possible. Using the excuse that Adrian was dead, and that Sydney was his only surviving heir, the fact that she was already of age would ensure that his country's future was not left in the hands of that boy.

...

In Sydney's room, the princess had just been informed of Jasper's recovery by one of her servants. After they told her the news, her servants wouldn't get any response at all during the times that they knocked on her door the next few days.

...

Meanwhile, in Uriah, the news that the crown prince was presumed dead and that the princess was going to be coronated in six months spread through the citizens like wildfire. They couldn't believe it... The events that would follow would blow their minds even further, though.