A few people were already waiting for us as Blanca and I approached the ship in which we would be traveling directly to the Empire.
Most of them were not there to send me off, of course, because the Lord's daughter was also going to take part in the Holy Academy's test.
This girl was the one who Lord Tylliard was talking about. He explained about how she was acting a bit weird the past few months and indirectly asked me to keep an eye on her. I didn't know anything about this girl but as her father, the Lord must have been worried about her.
Keeping an eye on her would be easy but if it was someone else who asked that, I wouldn't bother with something that sounded so troublesome, but since it was the Lord's request, I decided to do it, after all, I owe him a lot for what he did.
As soon as I appeared, my father waved at me and my mother looked like she was about to cry.
"This is the little girl that I told you about," I said pointing at Linda who was standing next and grabbing the edge of my clothes. She was wearing a robe to hide her wings and tails.
I had already explained to Linda that she needed to stay here with my mother, and I didn't know if she understood what I was saying, but at least, she didn't act like a troublesome kid.
"I see," my mother said, then she squatted down and looked at Linda's eyes. After that, she reached her hand, showing her palm in front of Linda.
My mother didn't say anything and just had a tender expression on her face.
"It's fine," I said, patting Linda's head.
Hearing my words, Linda held my mother's fingers awkwardly with her liitle hand and walked forward hesitantly.
As far as physical appearance was concerned, I looked more like my mother than my father, but my mother was, for sure, more delicate and kinder than me.
It seemed like Linda's instinct told her that she was safe with my mother. Therefore, she was about to walk toward her, but then, she turned back and looked at me.
"I will be back, and I hope you listen to her from now," I said, patting her on the head again.
Then, my mother took Linda in her arms, treating her as if she was one of her children.
Looking at this scene, I felt a little bit guilty lying about Linda's origin and I knew that my mother would still accept her even though she knew the truth. However, I knew that she would discover the truth sooner or later, and before that happens, I needed to make sure that my theory about Linda was correct.
In the first place, I was putting my family at risk just by having Linda around them, and I could just lock her somewhere and observe her as a test subject, but if she did have the intelligence of a human, such a thing would make me worse than those monsters.
It was, of course, a matter of morals and ideology but putting myself in her place, I wouldn't want something like that to happen to me. I still had some part of my humanity left, it seemed.
Therefore, I entrusted her to my mother and looking at how Linda was smiling while looking at my sister, I could tell that she was not different that a little girl and I hoped that she continued to grow this way.
"We will be watching your progress from here, but you need to know that we are proud of you," my father said. "Oh, I forgot. Take this letter and give it to the people who have this crest when you reach the Empire. Amelia and you will be received by the Raizel family when you reach the Empire."
"I understand. Thank you for everything Dad. I love you both," I said.
Hearing what I said, my parents got a little bit emotional and I had to listen to them telling me about the various things related to their experiences in life for a while.
After that, I walked toward the Lord and the people that were present there to send Amelia off.
However, I remarked that Blanca was looking at me with weird eyes.
"Is there something wrong?" I asked.
She didn't say anything and just shook her head slightly then an apathetic expression appeared on her face.
People were looking at Blanca this whole time, but she was looking at my mother and my mother was looking at her.
No wonder this was the case because Blanca looked like she was my mother's cousin or something like that.
But since no one asked, I also decided to not make any comment about it. Still, I could see that my mother looked like she had weird ideas again.
"It's not what you think, mom…" I mumbled.
"Ah?! Cough! She is Cristal, right? She changed a lot since the last time I saw her," my mother said.
"She just dyed her hair," I answered ending the conversation there.
My father was holding my sister in his arms while sitting on top of his automated wheelchair, and he had this weird smile on his face for a while now. He must have been thinking something like, 'the son takes after his father even when it comes to their taste in woman.'
I ignored all of that and walked dignifiedly as I passed through the crowd then made my way to the Lord and his family.
"Adam, you are finally here. Well, this is my daughter Amelia, and she will be going traveling with you. I hope you two can get along, hahaha," Lord Tylliard said and I could see that he was struggling to find the best way to handle his daughter.
'This girl…' Looking at the girl called Amelia, I instantly felt something weird from her. 'Corruption…'
Cristal talked about the Corruption while she told me about Pride's story, and I had already come in contact with this Antiparticle. I called it this way because it was the exact opposite of primordial particles.
"Glad to make your acquaintance," I said looking down at the girl in front of me.
"I-" Without finishing her sentence, Amelia turned her back to me and rushed inside of the spaceship.
I didn't know the reason for her reaction of her but Lord Tylliard looked like he was embarrassed by his daughter's attitude.
"Sorry about that. As you can see, she has changed. She used to be a bright but calm girl," Lord Tylliard said in a sad tone. "That's why I am worried that she might face a lot of problems if she passed the exams."
"She is going through difficult times, we know, but she wouldn't tell us about it…" His wife added.
"I will keep an eye on her and give her a hand if it's possible for me to do so," I answered.
"Sorry about this. Now it sounds like I am asking you to be her guardians. Well, someday you might become one of the Guardians of the Empire if this continue, hahaha," Lord Tylliard continued, trying to change the mood with a light joke.
"Guardians?" I was a bit curious about this title. I knew that there were a lot of strong people within the Empire, but for them to be given a title, they must have been exceptional.
"You don't know about them? To put it simply, these individuals are the pillar of the Empire's strength," Lord Tylliard said proudly. "Come to think of it, you will have the chance to meet all of the ten guardians this year. If you manage to impress them, you will certainly gain access to the best that the Empire has to offer. If it's you, I wouldn't be surprised if you manage to do that."
"I see. So Guardians are such important people. Thank you, I will remember that," I said. "But I am curious now, can everyone become a Guardian?"
Hearing this fact, I knew it was time to change my plans. 'I wasn't interested in becoming the apprentice of a guardian. I needed the title because it would certainly give me access to a lot of confidential information.'
"Hahaha, you seem to be very ambitious but it would be hard to do that. Indeed, it is possible for everyone to become a Guardian, after all, the stronger the Guardians were, the safer the Empire would be against external threats, but it's a little more complicated. Well, you will learn about this soon enough," Lord Tylliard replied but then he realized that he was being talkative again.
"Well, thank you again for everything you've done for me and my family. It's time for us to go now," I said.
Before leaving for real, I once again said goodbye to my parents and even though they were trying to send me off with smiles on their faces, in the end, they ended up crying.
Lord Tylliard and his wife had also waved at the ship, shouting their daughter's name, but Amelia had already shut herself inside her room.
The spaceship finally left and our direction was the Empire's capital planet. However, I had to adjust my plan.
"Here, change your outfit to this one. We are changing the plan," I said to Blanca, handing her an elegant white costume. This time, instead of a skirt, she would be wearing a pair of elegant pants.
"What are you talking about?" Blanca looked like she was not pleased by my words.
"I will explain everything in detail but to put it simply, we discard the ' Prideful Young Lord' character and adopt the 'Elite of the Elite' one. I am going to become a Guardian," I said.
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