After spending almost the rest of the day at my uncle's house, my father came back to pick me up, and the moment he stepped inside, the butler was more than happy to hand him the book of exercises I had filled up.
I was mentally exhausted, so I didn't hear the brief exchange they had and instead headed directly to the elevator, dragging my body forward.
"Keep your back straight; you're going to grow with a—" I ignored him, got inside the elevator, and then immediately pressed the buttons to close the doors, forcing my father to rush inside before the doors closed.
My mind was incredibly hazy; everything felt like a blur; thinking was hard; my vision was hazy; and the soothing voice of my father sounded more annoying than ever. At that moment, I just wanted to find a silent corner to rest in.
I leaned on the side of the elevator for the whole wait until we got to the ground floor, then my father picked me up and put me on his back as he carried me back to our house.
The rest of the week passed by without me noticing as we lived a pretty monotonous life. Early in the morning, I and my father would train, then after some warmups I would be handed to the butler that was in charge of supervising my cousins.
There I would spend half of the day doing homework, and the other half was spent doing whatever we wanted. Sometimes we would take a stroll through the giant palace, admiring all the statues and decorations adorning the place; sometimes we would watch a movie or play a video game.
Going outside was out of the question since it was almost always cloudy; apparently it was dangerous to go, as we could get lost in the clouds.
During that time I barely saw my mother as she was keeping company to Elena, whom I also never saw during that time.
As we got closer to the floating city, we started seeing the giant gates in the distance guarded by the massive white angels. They stood tall in the middle of the sky, bigger than any skyscraper, holding their massive spears with both hands.
I don't know how fast we were moving, but the day after I saw those gates, we were already connected to them; a large metal bridge was extended, and the same kind of giant golden chain was used to keep the island attached to the giant floating city.
We were all excited to enter what I considered heaven, make new friends, and make a new life. This new chapter of my life was starting on the right foot.
After being thoroughly washed and dressed up by the braids, my mother even sprinkled some perfume on my body to make me more presentable.
Everybody was well dressed; my mother, for the first time, was wearing a red dress with golden strings flowing down the dress, and my father was also wearing a red shirt and red pants with a dark jacket and tie.
I was a little copy of my father. Since my mother's family crest was that of a thorny rose, a special thorny chain decorated with many metallic roses dangled from our clothes.
When we were all ready, we headed to the ground floor of the building where the others were waiting for us. Even Elena.
She was standing in a corner of the room, ignored by everyone.
She had regained her colors; she had pink hair, blue eyes, and a stunningly pale skin complexion. She was wearing a light blue dress. Something that stood out since we were all dressed using roughly the same colors was that our family was red and uncle's family was yellow.
As soon as our eyes met, she looked away; judging from her gaze, she still wasn't fond of my presence. The others also seemed somewhat tense; Ilay and Elvis were a lot more hostile towards one another than usual while Michael tried to mediate between the two.
"What's wrong with them?" I asked Leonhart as he was standing shyly next to his father, staring at Elena.
"I don't know; it's probably related to the girl Ilay's been fawning over. I think Elvis made a move on her; he even got scolded by Father. Ever since then they've been at odds." He explained in a rush.
Why did you tell me you didn't—You know what? I'm not even going to bother asking.
"Who's the new girl?" He then asked me.
"Oh, you don't know? She's your new cousin. The aunt has decided to adopt her after everything she's been through; after all, if it hadn't been for her father, Lucy would still be stuck in the Fracture." The uncle responded as he began roughly messing with our hair.
"Her name is Elena." I then added while looking in her direction.
"Time to wrap this up, come on, guys, Ilay! To my right, Elvis, stop bothering your brother!" As soon as he raised his voice, the two brothers got quiet, and then they followed their dad outside; we followed shortly after.
My fighter picked me up and allowed me to sit on his shoulders as he carried me to the floating city while my mother held Elena's hand and guided us through the thick fog until we reached the bridge.
It was completely automated, so we just had to stand there and watch as we got close to the golden gates.
The closer we got, the more details I noticed about the giant angels; they were entirely made out of metal, constantly emitting the sound of screaming out of their bodies. For a moment I saw glimpses of blood dripping down the armored angels, but it all disappeared when I put on the bracelet my mom gifted me.
"So, are you excited?" My father asked me.
"Obviously, I can't wait to meet and—" A strong gust of wind made it hard to talk; the day felt pretty chilly; the reflection of the sun's light in the armor seemed to dispel the nearby clouds.
The closer we got to the gates, the warmer the weather got; it also got less foggy.
I turned around one last time to see the giant demonic prison my uncle owned; the golden, spiky palaces built on those floating islands were not even those giant clouds could cover them entirely.
"Wow!" Elena let out an amazed exclamation as she looked back to see the palace we came from.
Once we crossed the gates, the giant angels lowered their spears and closed the giant gates behind us.
"So? Did they live up to the expectation?" My mother asked Elena.
The giant floating city had remained just as I remembered; it was almost blinding to look at, but the buildings no longer shone as they used to; the small buildings were replaced by giant skyscrapers, and each building had a side covered in mirrors reflecting the rays of the sun against a giant floating crystal kept chained in the middle of the city.
Weird vehicles were flying in the skies, along with the many griffons.
In front of the gate the people had prepared an entire parade in our name; my uncle seemed satisfied by the show of kindness, while my mother didn't seem to appreciate it.
They had even prepared a large carriage in the shape of a throne for us. I desperately wanted to sit on it, but my mother disintegrated that carriage. She turned it to dust by just looking at it, and the dust then turned into beautiful red flower petals that got swept away by the wind.
I gloated when I saw the look of amazement of the many kids watching us proudly walking in the middle of the city. Even my cousins seemed to enjoy the attention, with Elvis adjusting his hair as he walked and even giving playful winks to the girls in the audience.
Elena was the only one uncomfortable with all that attention directed at her, often trying to hide behind my mother and ultimately hiding in between my mother and father to avoid all those stares.
"Why do they have to stare so much?" Elena asked my parents.
"It's a tradition; whenever someone new comes here, they all welcome him; of course, they're not forced to do it, but it's a way to see and maybe judge if… whether to build… I mean, if building a relationship is… you get what I mean." My father tried to explain.
"He means that they want to know if by licking your ass they can gain something or not." My mother specified.
"Why would they lick there?" Elena seemed horrified at the revelation and immediately put her hands over her own back to cover it.
My mother burst out laughing while my father quickly dispelled the misunderstanding.
And they have plenty to gain, even if it's just one favor; my mother is the strongest being; if they have an enemy they want to obliterate, sucking up to us is the best way to do it.
"Hehe!" I couldn't stop giggling at the thought of sitting on a golden throne, girls waiting in line for a glimpse of my attention, and people leaving offerings left and right; I was ready to become the new god of these people!
"Honey, I think we shouldn't hang around your brother as much; our son is picking up his bad habits." My mother said as she pinched my cheeks to bring me back to reality.