Infinite Paths: The Raging Phoenix

Rain and Roan looked at each other… it seemed that someone had found them, but it seemed that things weren't that bad since a single carriage couldn't carry that many guards. Much to his surprise, only a single boy left the vehicle, it was a boy that was a few years older than Rain, and he seemed familiar.

"That is… Hugo's eldest son," Roan muttered in shock.

In the end, thanks to Roan's words, Rain recalled the kid. He went to his five-year-old birthday party. He was supposed to be thirteen now, so it made sense that Rain didn't recognize him. Regardless, for him to come alone with only two guards driving the carriage… something smells fishy. The trip to that area and back to the capital wouldn't take less than three weeks, after all.

In any case, Meiro and Luana went to talk with him.

"Hello, I would like to meet your grandson. I have a proposal for him," The kid said.

Meiro and Luana hesitated since they didn't know what to do. Despite their caution, it seemed that they had been found out somehow, and lying now would only complicate things further. Rain wondered what led to that situation… he could only assume that his own actions did that. The kid should have heard of him once or twice, and after Rain and his family left the capital, he used magic to do so.

He did the same thing to rescue his father. The boy only showed up now because he didn't know exactly where he went.

"Staying hidden is a waste of time," Rain said. "I will meet him, Dad, and see what he wants. Since he didn't ask for you, I think you should stay here."

Roan showed a complicated expression and then nodded. He could imagine the reason why that kid came to see his son and wasn't interested in him despite the fact that his father died fighting alongside Roan.

From what Roan heard, that kid was born with a lot of talent, and thanks to it, in that situation, after the fall of the Lonard family, he was still adopted by another powerful family close to royalty.

"Nice to meet you; my name is Branden Corsalis, former Branden Lonard," The kid said and then approached Rain when he left the building, and he also offered a handshake.

"... My name is Rainendall," Rain said, accepting the handshake.

"There is no need to be so on guard; we are on the same side," Branden said. "First of all, I would like to apologize for coming here like this and disrupting the peace of your family. I am aware that you and your parents had a hard time before the fall of Tristan, and now you live a better life, but I am in dire need of assistance, and I believe that you can help me and benefit from it."

Rain was a bit surprised since the kid was awfully polite, and Rain couldn't feel any ill intentions coming from him. Still, he didn't drop his guard since Branden was someone who graduated from the school of Tristan while mastering all of the subjects taught there.

He heard from his father that he was an unparalleled genius, even though he didn't look like he had the body of someone who had been training physically recently.

"This might take a while. Go look after the horses on the village stable," Branden said after he looked at the guards.

Much to Rain's surprise, the guards nodded after hearing Branden, and they left without hesitation. It seemed that they believed that no one was insane enough to harm their master, or perhaps he could defend himself. Either way, if Rain was paying their salaries, he probably would demand them to be more cautious.

"First of all, let me explain how I found you," Branden said while stretching his body. "Grandpa once said that one of my cousins apparently had as much talent as me when it comes to magic, and then after father said the last time that I saw him that one of his nephews helped him fight in the night of the invasion and that was why he escaped despite his injuries.

He mentioned earth magic for a moment, and from that point on, I connected the dots after hearing that the illusion which had been found was almost buried to death in Tristan. At that moment, I realized that you escaped the capital using earth magic as well. I did some more digging and found that your father visited this area a lot when he was younger.

Also, I made sure to erase the registers of his activities."

Rain felt like facepalming; it made sense that people would find out about him like that since Roan fell in love with a woman in that area. Still, Branden was trying really hard to stay on Rain's good side, and that only made him look more suspicious.

"Although my name is different now, I still have the blood of my father and grandparents; I want to take back what they lost and preserve their legacy," Branden said. "With that in mind, I worked hard in the last three years to become more influential in the capital, but I don't have many accomplishments yet, so there is only so much that I can do."

"And you think that I can help you with that?" Rain asked.

"I do, you have talent, and I never heard anything bad about you," Branden replied. "I also heard that you worked in a bunch of places in the capital, so you are hard-working and used the money to look after your family; you know what is important from a young age."

Branden was also too young to tell others that they were young as well. Still, such a level of level-headedness for a brat was quite shocking. Rain thought that he grew up to become spoiled since everyone praised and fawned over him. He was either too humble or a master at acting.

Then again, perhaps Rain was being a bit unfair, assuming that noble and rich families can only raise brats with pointy noses.