The desk sergeant knew his stuff. He was part of a group chat that on Earth would have been considered a proto-forum dedicated to Lith's fan club. The Tablets still didn't allow users to post on the Web, but there was no limit to the number of participants in a chat. 'On top of that, the boy has golden hair and blue eyes. He looks nothing like Lith.' Valeron's emerald hair and silver eyes had been shapeshifted to avoid recognition. Falas waited for a few seconds, but when Lith gave no further explanation, he gave the boy a salute and a wide smile. "Sergeant Xarm Falas at your service, young Lord Verhen." Valeron looked at the man in confusion and turned to Lith, who just smiled and nodded. Valeron beamed with joy, returning the salute with the wrong hand. "Have a nice day, little fellas." The desk sergeant waved his hand, and the kids waved back. "Forgive me, Ranger Verhen. The flesh is weak." The moment the family stepped outside the army branch, Falas posted the news of Lith's arrival and his mysterious son, afraid that someone would claim the attention from the juicy gossip before him. "Elysia, Valeron, this is the city where Mom and Dad dated." Lith said as he stepped onto the sidewalk. "I always tell you about our adventures in Belius, and now you can see it with your eyes." The two kids nodded, but Valeron also kept smiling and giggling with happiness. Kamila, instead, stared at Lith like she had a grudge against him. Because she did. "Age-appropriate adventures." Lith rushed to add. "You know, how we met and all the innocent stuff." "I see." Kamila nodded, her nostrils dilating in annoyance. 'The stories where you are the valiant Ranger and I'm your annoying paper pusher handler who's a stickler for the rules.' She often eavesdropped on those stories with Solus and didn't like how he painted her. "Do you want to go home or would you like to take a tour of the city first?" Lith couldn't understand the lingering tension and tried to ease it. "Home can wait." Kamila exhaled sharply, trying to relax. "After all this time since our last visit, it's going to be dirty and I'm in no mood for chores. Let's go to Royal Park." The city of Belius had been built as an army base that only later had developed beyond what military personnel alone could run. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶 Since expanding the walls and recasting the arrays would have been a security nightmare due to the nearby border with the Empire, the city had grown vertically instead of horizontally. All houses were several stories tall, similar to Earth's apartment buildings. Due to its military origin, Belius' city blocks were literal squares, and the streets so straight that they seemed to have been drawn with a ruler. It made the city orderly and easy to navigate, but it also made it a gloomy grey mass of identical buildings that repeated themselves as far as the eye could see. Small parks had been built between city blocks to give the city some color and life. Royal Park was the biggest, allowing visitors to walk for more than five minutes before going back to square one and starting over. Belius' parks were so small that the residents referred to them with the not-so-endearing term of "hamster wheels". Royal Park was located away from the military barracks and inside the nobles' residential district. It owed its name to the members of the Royal family and the one- to three-star generals residing there from time to time. It was the only reason the otherwise inflexible engineers who had planned the city had allotted Royal Park much more space than was functional. A Royal was much more likely not to chop your head off if they were in a good mood. Engineers liked order and structure, but most of all, loved how their heads fitted their necks to perfection. They regretted wasting so much land on green, but it was much preferable to color the city with the red of their blood. Despite the distance, reaching Royal Park took the Verhens less than a minute. The Transport Gate was right outside the army branch, and Kamila just had to pass her ID over the scanner to conjure the holographic interface. Belius' roads were reserved for military and official transportation. Everyone else had to move via the Transportation Gates spread throughout the city. They were akin to short-range Warp Gates, and there was one per city block, allowing the citizens of Belius to reach their destination quickly. Transport Gates also influenced the houses' pricing. The closer a building was to a Gate, the higher its cost. Kamila selected the "mother with two children" option while Lith carried the stroller. Transportation Gates allowed only one person to pass at a time, but there was an option for people with children too small to have an ID or know how to use one. Anyone who tried to cross the Gate with someone else would end up in jail. The magical gemstone on top of the Gate scanned the babies and let Kamila through. "Remember the rules." Lith said with a soft but stern voice. "No shapeshifting, no flying, no magic." "Ba." Elysia grunted, considering her father a spoilsport. There were so many colorful ground thingies (flowers) she wanted to smell and buzzers (insects) taunting her to chase them. How could Lith be so heartless and ground her before she "forgot" about not using Origin Flames in public? "No, no, no!" Alas, Elysia's current eloquence limited her to monosyllables to express her displeasure. "Yes, yes, yes!" Kamila sternly pointed her finger under Elysia's thin nose. "Listen to your father, young lady, and don't even think of playing dumb with me. I know you understand everything we say, and your answer proves it." Elysia was dumbstruck. Her mother had to be incredibly smart for noticing her tiny mistake and anticipating her cunning plan. "Wah, gih me-" She turned to her brother for support, but the traitor was already clinging to their father's leg like a daddy's boy. "Ba!" "Don't listen to her, Valeron, you are a good kid." Lith said. Lith and Kamila took a full round of the park to let the babies pick a spot where to play before sitting down. Elysia needed to be reeled in more than once, whereas Valeron needed to be encouraged to move around more than once. He would often turn around to check that Lith and Kamila were still on the bench, and sometimes he tottered back to them to ensure they weren't just an illusion. 'Gods, I wish I could stay by his side.' Kamila repressed a sniffle. 'It tears my heart seeing Valeron so afraid, but if I always shadow him, he'll never gain self-confidence.' 'Gods, I wish I could relax for one minute.' Lith grunted, pulling Elysia away from a large bee with a tendril of Spirit Magic. 'I turn my eyes for a moment, and that little daredevil is up to no good.' While Valeron stared at the unknown landscape with fear and awe, Elysia pulled flowers, dug through the mud, and pestered the biggest animals she could find, no matter if they were dogs, cats, or birds of prey.