"Nice to see that you haven't changed much sister. You are still wearing those plain mundane clothes as well." The man who Zara had called her brother smiled gleefully as he drew attention toward her clothes.
Jason had no idea what effect he had wanted to create but one thing was sure, he didn't have a sense of fashion,
What he was wearing reminded Jason of the Victorian-era movies he had seen. The man was dressed in purple trousers with a white shirt and long red furry overcoat that touched down to his knees.
He gave the vibes of a cosplayer who had tried mixing two outfits together or at least that's how Jason felt.
But one look at the others and it was clear that they were more or less thinking the same thing.
"And I see that you still love those fancy clothes of the royals, Kerwin. Looks like whatever I said entered your body from one ear and was thrown out from the other." Zara commented as the two siblings locked eyebrows.
It was clear that both of them had bad blood between them. Issac was silently hoping that Zara would kick the daylights out of Kerwin. Fortunately, Risa was there to prevent this from happening as she interrupted Zara and Kerwin.
"We can always have these chit-chats later but you must have been tired. Please come inside." Risa fake smiled as she welcomed Kerwin and his group inside.
Out of the ten demi-humans that had appeared there, seven were guards. The two children turned out to be one male and one female who stood on either side of Kerwin.
"Are they your children?" Zara inquired curiously as her eyes swept over them.
"Why else would I bring them along?" Kerwin snorted as he turned to look at Nora seated on the chair. "I had to show them what other royal blood connections they had."
"Then I guess your children love to act as comedians or something," Risa remarked while hiding a smile as she looked at the two young demi-humans.
The boy and the girl looked around Jason and Nora's age but their dressing style was heaven and earth apart.
While Nora and Jason were dressed in simple pants and a shirt, the two demi-human children looked as though they were going to a fancy dress party.
They wore matching silver and golden robes alongside makeup that would've made a clown feel ashamed of his skills.
Jason felt like laughing aloud when at the two young demi-humans but refrained from doing so. The other members of the Syrward family were in a similar situation as they tried to prevent themselves from laughing.
Kerwin had already realized that his children were being made fun of silently so he decided to change the topic.
"So what did he get, a B or a C grade affinity?" Kerwin inquired while trying to judge Nora's potential.
"He got an S and A grade affinity." Zara refuted immediately as Kerwin clicked his tongue.
"Same as them then. Both have an S grade affinity with fire but Aila got an A grade affinity with water while Felix got an A grade affinity with wind element." Kerwin took the names of his children while telling their affinities.
Zara then gestured for Nora to come towards them as he stood up from his seat. While taking a deep breath, Nora slowly made their way towards them and soon enough, he was standing in front of them.
'All of them share the same red hair except for Aila.' Jason noticed that red hair seemed to run in the family however Aila had aqua blue hair, tied behind her head in a ponytail.
Though Kerwin and both of his children shared the same dark green eyes.
[It's surprising to see how Nora is a prince now. Who could have thought of that? ] The system commented as Jason was staring at his brother.
'The ones who knew would have.' Jason stated the obvious as he could imagine the system facepalming.
[ Anyways, I wonder knowing the fact that he is a prince affect the way he will grow up. ]
'You mean to say whether he would grow up like Kerwin? That was definitely a quick impression you made of him in just a few minutes.'
[ Sometimes, people just show what they are. ]
'Can't argue with that.' Jason replied as he stared at Kerwin and Zara.
Both of them were royals yet were completely opposite. One loved the high-class lifestyle while the other loved the simplistic approach.
One had a prince's pride and the other didn't even act like a noble much less a princess.
'It's strange yet so true to see how different siblings can be.' Jason sighed as he finally decided to focus on the conversation going on between the two siblings.
"Father sent me here to check up on Nora and see how he is doing," Kerwin announced. "And if he doesn't do good, he will have to be taken back to the demi-human kingdom which means you will be going with him too."
Silence followed his words as Risa, Zara and Issac tried to digest his words. Even Jason and Nora were left stunned by this.
Though they had some idea that Kerwin was coming to see how Nora was doing, they had never expected the real reason to be so deep.
"And what are you going to test him through?" Zara asked while maintaining a neutral tone.
"They are going to show physical representation of mana and have a fight. My children versus your child." Kerwin explained as he pointed toward his children and then pointed towards Nora.
Zara inhaled sharply as she knew that Nora alone was no match for Kerwin's children. She was sure that he had trained them specifically for this test and Nora's chances of victory were zero.
If she tried to refute it, not only would her brother make fun of her and her child but her father would also be involved in it. Zara was standing in a place where she couldn't choose either of the two options.
But before she could reply, someone else did it for her.
"That's not fair though. If you want to fight, then I will join Nora's team and help him." Jason chimed in as he stood beside his brother and placed a hand on his shoulder.
Though he wanted to help Nora from the beginning, he was itching to teach Kerwin a lesson for suddenly appearing and saying such things.
Sadly, Jason knew he was nowhere near the level where he could hit Kerwin so he settled for the next best thing. Defeating his children in whatever test that came next.
[ Then do it hard enough for the both of us. ] The system suddenly chimed in as a system window appeared in front of him.
---
< Breaking The Pride Of A Prince >
- Defeat Aila and Felix and remove the pride Kerwin has.
Reward: 25 system points
Penalty: Humiliation and no progress for a week
Time limit: Till the time the test runs
---
'System, you have a good timing.' Jason grinned as he accepted the quest and stared at Kerwin.
"So, what is your answer, mister prince?"