Inside the king's bedchamber. The queen continues to accompany the unconscious king like she would do every day without fail. However, she was no longer surrounded by an aura of negativity as her eyes had regained their luster and her greyed hair had partially reverted back to their originally colors.
"There is finally hope of you awakening, my dear. The day our family of three is truly reunited is not far and it will all be thanks to our son, to whom we owe so much to."
Elizabeth spoke to her husband, while holding onto his hand, with both hope and dejection. It didn't matter whether the king could hear her or not, she just wanted to speak her mind.
"If only you could wake up now and see how much our son has grown. We couldn't provide him the kind of life we had hoped, but all is well now that he had return to us. We can only do what we can to make it up to him."
"I can't imagine what kind of life our son had led outside to possess his present abilities. The information gathered on hand could not explain his abilities. Too much crucial information is missing, and it concerns me. But you don't have to worry. He is no doubt our son."
"However, he is too outstanding. Far more than we had ever hoped. Is this the will of the heavens or the curse of the royal blood?"
Elizabeth mused quietly.
The bedchamber was very quiet. Only her own voice could be heard inside. That was until a sudden loud explosion entered her ears.
BOOOM!
The sudden loud noise wasn't enough to shake the palace, but it was enough to startle her and make her tensed. Who dares to attack her palace?!
Her grip naturally tightened until the sound of creaking bones could be heard. She had accidentally squeeze the king's hand so tightly, his bones were on the verge of cracking.
"Ah… forgive me, my dear. I did not mean it."
Elizabeth apologized to her motionless husband.
She must have inflicted a lot of pain on her husband for his face to twitch…wait! Her husband was in a vegetative state! Even if the body was still receptive to pain, without the emotional network, it wouldn't be interpreted as unpleasant and was no different to feeling no pain.
Elizabeth was excited at the prospect that her husband was closer to awakening than she had thought and that he just needed a little push.
"Maybe he would wake up if… I give him a few slaps on the face…"
She pondered on the possibility, before shaking her head. No, no… I shouldn't do that… I should just wait for the good news from the merchant association.
She will have to worry about her husband later. She needed to go out and find who had the gall to attack her palace just now! It must be those corrupted nobles.
She originally planned to eradicate all the corrupted nobles in case they harmed her son, whom was somewhere out there. It was as easy as lifting a hand for her.
However, her sworn sister didn't know how strong she was and disputed against her rash actions out of worry. She could feel her sister's kind intention and decided to postpone her plan by a few days.
Expectedly her son was found very quickly, and he was very capable. Thus, she decided to let these corrupted nobles live a bit longer. If she killed them all, wouldn't she be removing the perfect environment for her son to temper himself? Her son would leave the capital in search of better places to temper himself if that happened.
She wanted her son to become powerful, but she also didn't want her son to leave her so soon. She had only reunited with her son for a short few days and couldn't bear to part with him. But she also knew she wouldn't be able to keep him by her side forever.
She had seen her son's strong conviction to become powerful. He was a dragon among men and would one day soar into skies. He wasn't a little chick that needed protection under her wing.
Elizabeth quickly left the king's bedchamber and tracked down the source of the explosion. The closer she got to the source, the uglier her expression and the quicker she was on her feet.
Wasn't that in the direction of her son's courtyard!?
…
Shortly after the palace guard left to fetch a brand-new pill cauldron for Leon, his mother arrived at the scene.
Elizabeth saw the state of son upon arrival and was immediately furious. her son wore a tired expression from draining his mental strength and his back was slightly burnt.
"Quickly tell your mother who attacked you. Who is the one tired of living? Mother will get justice for you, son." Elizabeth asked, while looking around with a cold gaze.
She saw black smokes from the room, but no one inside. Only her son and the palace guards were present.
"Was it them?" Elizabeth locked her gaze onto the guards. Her eyes narrowed into slits.
The palace guards trembled under the Queen's cold gaze.
"What?? No! Mother, no one attacked me! It was a failed pill concoction! The pill cauldron exploded!"
Leon was shocked and quickly explained. He had no doubt that his mother would really kill all his palace guards if he remained silent.
"Oh? The pill cauldron exploded?"
Elizabeth retracted her gaze from the palace guards and looked back at her son in confirmation.
The palace guards' legs felt weak and they fell on their bottoms with cold sweat. The queen was too scary.
"Yes. The pill cauldron exploded." Leon confirmed, whiled nodding vehemently.
"Hmph! So, the pill cauldron was the culprit huh!? Even if it is just a pill cauldron, it will not be spared!"
Elizabeth declared. She glared daggers at the room like as if she could peer through the veil of black smoke and straight at the pill cauldron fragments.
Being a metal-user, she had high intimacy with all metal and could feel their presence like a 6th sense. Her hand outstretched towards the direction of the room's entrance and made a grabbing motion. All the fragments of the shattered pill cauldron in the room was immediately attracted to her hand like a powerful magnet.
Elizabeth clenched her fist and the all the fragments were compressed together with incredible force. With numerous crunching sounds, the pill cauldron that was the size of a teapot was reduced to a fist-size clump of iron.
Only when Elizabeth couldn't reduce the size of the clump of iron anymore, did she gave up and her anger was abated.
Several gulps were heard. The palace guards were wearing full body armor. What would happen if the queen did that to them?
Leon stared at the clump with wide eyes. His mother was too fearsome. Best not to get on her bad side; men, and objects alike.
But Leon felt a great pity for the pill cauldron. It had only accompanied him for a few days, but it had to suffer such a tragic fate. Luckily, it wasn't a spirit treasure that had gained sentience, otherwise Leon's mind wouldn't be at peace. He could imagine how the treasure spirit would weep as it was getting crushed. The thought was mind boggling.
"My son, what kind of pill did you try to concoct? If you did say, mother would have thought someone bombed the palace. The explosion was ten times more potent than Crazy Don."
Elizabeth asked incredulously after checking that Leon was perfectly fine.
"I was testing a new pill recipe and kind of forced the essence merging too hard. Who is senior Crazy Don, mother?" Leon asked curiously.
"Senior Crazy Don is the esteemed alchemist, who is also an elder in our royal family. Senior Crazy Don was the good brother of your grandfather."
"Oh?" Leon's curiosity was piqued, "But why is senior called Crazy Don, mother?"
"Haih… senior Crazy Don is called Crazy Don because he is eccentric and always coming up with weird pill recipes that don't work and causing pill cauldron explosions every day. If you want to learn alchemy from him, mother can put in a good word for you. However, mother doesn't recommend it."
Elizabeth withheld from telling her son why. After all, one Crazy Don was enough to give her headache every day. Her son's one single pill cauldron explosion was ten times more potent than Crazy Don's usual pill cauldron explosion and was enough to alarm her. It would be more than just double the headache.
Leon had a strange feeling at his mother's words. It would be questionable who would be learning from who when that time comes.
"Anyway, it's time mother teach you how to cultivate the [Great Sky Refining Art] so you can awaken your metal-manipulation abilities as soon as possible." Elizabeth said before waving for the palace guards to leave.
The full [Great Sky Refining Art] is only exclusive for members of the royal family. She could cultivate it when she was married into the royal family, but these palace guards are not of royal blood and were only allowed to cultivate the incomplete version. She would not permit them to listen in on the full technique. They would have to display unswerving loyalty and greater contribution to the royal family if they wish to progress further in the technique.
She could see that her son was mentally exhausted.. Cultivating was a great way to recovering oneself to their peak conditions.