Death... and me

Farius then brought the twins to the palace's entrance. "Here we are, friends. From here onwards, you will need permission to go, which I don't have. This is as far as I can guide you."

Rean patted the young man's shoulder in response and thanked him. "That's good enough, thank you."

Farius smiled in response and bowed to the twins before turning around and leaving.

Rean and Roan then stepped forward to go through the palace's gate. Obviously, the guards there didn't let them go much further. "This is the Royal Palace. Please show your identification."

Fabio's token was immediately pulled out for the guards to check. "Thank you. This is Fabio's Royal Token, so we will need to contact him first. Please, wait a moment."

"Sure, we have a lot of time," Rean said in response.

The twins didn't have to wait for long, though. After fifteen or so minutes, an old man appeared by the palace gate to fetch the twins. "Hello, my name is Colen, and I'm the house manager of Fabio's residence in the palace. Fabio isn't here at the moment, so I'm the one in charge of its management while he's out. Fabio has already informed me of your arrival. Please follow me."

Colen then showed the guards some identification before they allowed the twins to pass through. As one could imagine, the palace was enormous, and many workers could be seen everywhere. Sometimes, Rean and Roan passed by a few members of the Royal Family or some important person, as their attires were easily recognizable. All workers had matching uniforms with different colors, but the Royal Family and those important people obviously didn't follow that trend.

Along the way to Fabio's residency, Colen and the twins ended up bumping into another house manager from someone else. "Oh, Colen. It's rare to see you out of your Master's house. Could it be that these are some guests? They sure don't look to be well dressed enough to be in here."

Colen's expression didn't look very well as he looked at the other old man. "It's because I don't like to see faces like yours that I rarely come out. Also, the attires of my Master's guests are none of your concern. You should know that Master Fabio doesn't care about such things."

"That's one of the reasons he isn't seen with good eyes by most of the family." The other manager shook his head in disappointment as he told Colen this. "Why can't you see that his presence here is just a bother?"

Colen snorted in response when he heard that. "Sure, he is a bother...to your branch of the family, that is. Are you guys that concerned, Nolanf?"

Nolanf didn't seem to care as he replied, "Concerned? Are you talking about that bullshit idea of recruiting outsiders? Hahaha! What can people without the Royal Family's bloodline even do? Don't get ahead of yourself."

Colen then turned around, seeming to expect that answer. "Since that's the case, you have no need to worry. Rean, Roan, let's keep going."

The twins looked at each other and felt the event to be quite familiar. That reminded them of the struggles in the Sasamil Empire's capital quite a lot. Well, this wasn't an empire, though, just a single country. They didn't say anything either and simply ignored Nolanf as they followed Colen.

Colen, however, was surprised by the twins' silence. "Aren't you curious about what that was?"

Roan shook his head as he told Colen, "A Royal Family with over ten thousand years of existence. The least I would expect was for it to have its own internal struggles due to the size it has reached. This isn't the first, nor will it be the last time it will happen. It also explains why Fabio would want the help of talents in the future."

Colen nodded after hearing that, happy that Roan saw through it. "That's correct. In any case, you can ask Master Fabio once he returns. He should be back in a month or so as he was tasked with solving some Royal Family issues in a nearby town."

Rean then asked something else. "By the way, he had called not only us but five of the people he had the agreement with. I believe the five of us were the only ones below the age of 50 if I'm not wrong. Are the others here already?"

Colen nodded in response. "Two of them are here already, Gulia and Regio. I don't know if Samanta has seen her message already or not, though. The fact is that she hasn't arrived yet."

Rean understood as he nodded. "I see...well, Samanta has six more months to see the message, so she might appear at some point."

"Regio, Samanta, and Gulia haven't met you yet, so I'll take this chance to introduce you two to them. Since only Regio and Gulia are here, I'll start with them," Colen told them after.

They arrived at Fabio's residence a few minutes later. Although it looked very small compared to the entire palace, Fabio's home was still very big. It definitely had enough space for at least a few hundred people to live in. "You have everything you need here. Cultivation chambers with formations for use. Alchemists, blacksmiths, and other people with various side occupations are ready to take your orders as well. You just need to give them the materials, and there will be no fees. As long as you don't demand anything ridiculous, you can probably get it. I'll separate two rooms for you as well."

"Thank you, Senior Colen." Rean thanked him as Roan simply nodded.

"Oh! Senior Colen, are these the two new guys?" Suddenly, a feminine voice came from behind the twins.

Colen smiled as he looked at the owner of the voice. "Nice timing, Gulia." Colen then introduced the twins. "These are Rean and Roan, the twins with high talent that Master Fabio found recently." Fabio also did the same for Gulia. "This lady is Gulia Orval. She will be taking part in the Sacred Land Excursion."

'Initial Stage of the Saint Realm,' Rean and Roan thought at the same time. Surprisingly, they were sure about one thing after taking a quick glance at her. 'This girl could definitely trash any of the Saint Realm competitors from Cosec City's assembly.'