Four high speed flying ships were chasing, Aleus on his ship had a excited expression. Flying the ship, performing three dimensional maneuvers in the sky to shake them off was quite a thrill to him. Steering a few centuries old sky ship was definitely not something he had thought possible before recent days. After all it worked on runes, which were powered by life force, something they could not afford to waste, a former dwindling life line.

  This experience definitely made him marvel at what they had missed out on in the last century, minus the dangerous beasts of course.

  "You might want to hold onto something I'm about to rotate the ship."

  Aleus kindly warned, Hiro was already used to this so there was no delay in his actions.

  Both weren't flustered or nervous from this, especially after they'd seen what the other was capable of during the subjugation. In short there was no concern for either one of them falling off the sky ship to a splattered meat paste death, as a result of being on the deck without any obvious binding.

  Not encountering any disturbances the sky ship rotated without fail, up was facing left and left down, the right flank faced up with the bottom facing right. Like nothing had happened their orientation still matched the ship, same as before, only their attire and hair swayed from the influence of gravity.

  Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

  Moments after the sky ship rotated, several yellow luminescent chains shot passed from behind. Some grazed the ship's flanks as they hurtled past it.

  If one carefully observed they would notice that if the ship had stayed in its original orientation it would've taken several direct hits. However from the few abrades it received, the sky ship quaked and creaked but remained mostly in a nearly undamaged state.

  "Sorry for the bumpy flight."

  Aleus joked with a smile while doing a quick sweep of their surroundings.

  He saw their pursuers, they were right on their tail. At this range even if they kept firing those chains blindly, it was impossible to evade them all.

  (If I don't increase the speed soon the sky ship will be shot full of holes, ending with my capture. Luckily they are restraining themselves from using cannons and anything that would cause excessive or uncontrolled damage.)

  He thought as he steered the ship to take a u turn supported by the ship's angle to escape through the gaps of the chains, before he returned it to an up right position.

  Just like that the medium sky ships not built for such quick maneuvers sped past them while he traced his way back to the palace and past it.

  By the time the pursuing sky ships turned around, there was already quite the distance between them more so when he was now employing the advantage of his sky ship, speed.

  Forced to acknowledge that their restricted means coupled with the growing distance, were simply not enough to capture Aleus without harming him or escalating the matter. The Rune King on the center sky ship among the four, sighed inwardly while he took out a rune tablet.

  "Come back son, you've had your fun."

  He spoke through it, enabling his voice to be heard uniformly within a certain range.

  "Father, with an endless sky above us, which bird wishes to live in a cage?"

  Aleus who had the same rune responded with hardly any delay.

  "That's not wholly true, you are young and lacking in experience there's is much you do not know. What you call a cage today you will come to realise to be a an anchor and shield tomorrow."

  Aleus fell silent as if digesting or hesitating, but this state did not last. Not long after he gave his response.

  "I don't deny it, which is why I will return.

  Father, you still have a long life ahead of you, at most your hair would have turned grey next we meet."

  The Rune King held back the corners of his smile from twitching as he retorted, not caring for his image considering those with him, close aides and friends.

  "You do that, your mother's sandals and my knuckles will be waiting! And my hair is white."

  Aleus laughed it off looking back at his pursuers.

  "As long as you understand the sentiment."

  "Do you wish to disregard years of history for your fleeting ideals, the world is not such a kind place. Come back with me, you must succeed the throne after me. It is tradition."

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  Another volley of binding was shot out from the four ships respectively. This time with the distance Aleus didn't even have to do a thing, only keeping his sky ship steady as he continued forward, so simple he casually give a reply.

  "Tradition is just peer pressure from the dead. If we all live bound to it, revolutionaries ideas would cease to be. Life would be predictable and boring, day after day it would be the same thing."

  (Indeed, a talent for preaching.)

  Hiro thought with a slight nod as shifted his gaze towards the king, to see the reaction of this man he had failed get a grasp on ever since they met.

  He had a stunned expression as though he had been struck by lightning. Suddenly he chuckled while looking down at his feet, his gaze filling with complex and varied emotions.

  (Ah, look at me, without realising it I had started to squash the dreams of my very own children before seeing where they lead.

  'Wake up to reality, that's how it is, grow up,' it is said. But this is disguised oppression and interference, isn't it?

  Since when was maturity the act of letting go of one's passion and dreams, submitting to circumstances. This is the rubbish the old push down the throats of the young so they can be comfortable, as everything remains the same and the circle continues.

  Hehehe, have my eyes always seen so little. True maturity is to gain a resistance to the influence of others. Indeed, a person who's no longer a product of their environment, perhaps not independent of it, but a person who can be true to themselves.)

  The Rune King let out audible sigh as his thoughts churned with a tinge of melancholy.

  (Aleus, just what kind place was the palace to you? How much of your life there did you not consider a forced obligation? Even the one thing you showed interest in, it wasn't a gift.

  Was time ever going to wash you down?)

  He thought while reassessing his son, then compared Aleus to himself. He always saw his son to be much like himself, but now he wasn't so sure or confident in the claim.

  His story was something common, more often than not when people grow old they change. Giving up on their dreams and settling for less claiming it was nothing more than the passion of youth lacking wisdom and full of vitality and unrealistic expectations and imagination.

  When he was still young the throne and kingdom weren't all that he saw, there was rune craft and many other things. He too thought of being at the peak of the craft, especially when he was the descendant of one of the few rune grand masters to ever exist. But unlike Aleus or most practitioners, he with his first field of helper wanted to create a revolutionary golem. With the knowledge that he wasn't the first to make such an attempt he even aimed to reach a higher rank, enabling greater mastery and applications.

  But time passed and he learned of what a rune grand master was. Even with myths of ranks above this, with no one known to have ever reached such a rank, all these old myths would be dismissed as wishful thinking. As he a ruler he definitely couldn't spare the time for such a hopeless endeavor.

  While he recalling this, the Rune King looked ahead, at Aleus, someone also trying to reach these mythic ranks. He definitely felt that if he was in Aleus's shoes he would definitely not want to be stopped as well. He remained silent still in thought, continuing with the pursuit but with a different gaze.

  (Will and rune craft, is there really a way forward here? If it ends up as a fruitless cause will he regret his actions... ah, even if he would, he would definitely regret not taking action even more.

  As I chase after him in this moment, what am I?

  A father concerned about his son or a king securing his replacement.)

  He snickered in silence as realisation struck him, it didn't matter what he was but how Aleus running away viewed himself. The theatrics showed exactly which he perceived himself as, if he could not see this much then he would definitely be a failure as a father.

  (A son leaving home for a dream that may be nothing more that, a dream. He may come to regret this one day, or perhaps not.)

  "Either way I have to let him go."

  The king suddenly said in a whisper that wasn't even heard by the rune in hand.

  With these acknowledgements the Rune King returned his attention to the world around him.

  "You don't want the throne so be it, it is no longer yours to inherit. Now, will you return home with me?"

  Aleus was shocked, not just him but those helping in the chase. The only exception being Hiro because he didn't know everyone involved as much. But the one thing that was clear to him and everyone else was the king at this moment was being honest.

  "Sorry..."

  "Why do you apologize? Did you do something wrong?"

  "No"

  "Then there's nothing more to be said, our pursuit ends here. Catch."

  The Rune King said throwing two gold rune practitioner pens, held together by a golden light thread, not that much thicker than hair. They quickly closed the distance between them before being caught by Aleus.

  With just a quick glance he recognised these pens, he retracted his gaze from them as he cast it upon his father, the shock in eyes vivid.

  "This is... Are you sure, it's tradition that the reigning Rune King keeps them."

  What Aleus held in his hand was two of a threesome master rune craft pens created by the founder, their grand master ancestor.

  Any rune craft pen of their caliber could draw and erase runes with an upper limit of master rank rune practitioner without any special equipment. Something that takes even a rune grand master at least half a century to make.

  "Perhaps you should familiarise and practice what you preach more.

  You know which is best for you. They are my parting gifts."

  Aleus was silent welling up with emotions, this was an unexpected development. He felt like a child being granted a long awaited wish when he was expecting punishment for his mischief.

  "Thank you."

  He said honestly and yet the words felt strange and weird at this moment.

  The Rune King dismissed with a slight smile. In his heart, a father looking after his child was a natural thing, receiving thanks was neither an expectation nor desire.

  With everyone having become spectators and witnesses at some point, to this sendoff between father and son, no one said a thing. Others like Oldomus, even withheld their own goodbyes to this prince they nurtured, feeling the opportunity had passed them.

  Like that the four sky ships turned around and flew back, receding into the distant night sky.

  When they could no longer be seen Hiro silently raised his left hand and touched it near the wrist. Following this a bend like tattoo appeared around it, this was the teleporter from the Manager. It looked like a tattoo but it was actually advanced technology that the current Hiro couldn't hope to grasp.

  Without any hesitation, Hiro activated it and the whole sky ship was bathed in light.

  "Your time here wasn't fruitful but it can't be said there were no gains."

  Said B One his gazes fixed upwards, he could already see the World they were going to even before the light faded.