"Learning to control it will co with ti huh... I am willing to give ti, Father," Theo said.
"Hmmm." The baron leaned back in his chair, an amused smile forming on his face.
"According to what that old man Bernard told , you don’t have much ti on your plate, do you?" the baron asked.
Theo simply stared at him.
"You were trying to bite off more than you can handle again, Theo," he continued. "There are more important things you need to focus on first. If I hadn’t said anything to you right now, you would have started this suppression training as well."
The baron couldn’t help but shake his head in disappointnt, making Theo nod.
"You are right," Theo muttered. "Then I guess I should let everyone get used to the mantis’s presence instead."
The baron nodded. "That’s the better way. But you should still be careful; aside from the knights, so of the servants we have aren’t as strong as the attendants. If you bring this thing in front of them..." the baron trailed off.
Theo understood it right away and nodded in understanding, which made the baron sigh.
"Whenever you feel like this ability is affecting the people around you too much, just pull the mantis inside the beast space. That should help," the baron explained.
"Now then, let’s move on to the next thing I wanted to ask you, Theo."
"Since this mantis has evolved now, weren’t you supposed to break through as well?" he asked.
Lucien looked at Theo from the side, his expression unreadable.
"You are forgetting sothing, Father," Theo said with a smile.
"I still need to be inside the hive for five hours before I can break through..."
The baron’s eyes widened.
For a mont, it seed as if he was reliving the ti he had spent in the hive himself, and he looked at Theo with concern.
"...I won’t be able to be with you all the ti these days... And since you are going to be in it for 5 hours... which I don’t think you are capable of yet... you will need extra surveillance," the baron said.
"I will see what I can do for that. Until I make so arrangents, just keep it to a minimum, alright?"
Though the baron spoke as a parent, there was also a commanding tone in his voice that Theo couldn’t refuse.
Lucien, who had been quietly observing the interactions from the side, finally opened his mouth.
"Father."
The baron turned to him.
"Don’t you think... Theo is leveling a bit too quickly for his age?" He asked with a neutral tone, making the baron keep looking at him.
"I have made sure to stabilize his foundation just like I did with you, Lucien," the baron replied.
Lucien just nodded slowly in response.
"And besides, after the breakthrough, his leveling will get really slow soon enough."
"I see," Lucien nodded.
Seeing that the conversation had ended, he stood up.
"Oh... and Theo. If you want to test your beast’s strength now, why don’t you co with to the deeper part of the forest?" Lucien asked in seriousness.
His brother’s proposal made Theo stare at him in surprise.
’What?’ Theo didn’t know what to say to that.
After everything Lucien had said, it almost made him feel like he wasn’t happy with how things had developed, and now, he wanted Theo to join him.
"That sounds amazing! I will join you both." The baron said as he stood up with a wide grin on his face, only to see Alfred in the corner watching him.
The baron looked at the stack of paperwork that was still on his desk, waiting to be completed, and then at Alfred again, who just shook his head.
The baron’s mood shifted from really good to terrible in an instant.
"If you want to go, go. If you don’t, then don’t. You both can leave now," the baron said half-heartedly as he sat back down and returned to his paperwork.
But he wasn’t quite done yet.
"But since Theo isn’t authorized to enter the deeper parts of the forest, you will need to take Rhys with you as well," he added.
Lucien looked at the baron and smiled.
"I would be honored to take Knight Rhys with , Father," he said before turning to Theo.
"Now it’s a Yes or No from you, Theo."
’What do you expect to say?’ Theo didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
There was no easy choice between the two. If he refused, then it might look like he didn’t want to be involved with the first heir.
So the only real option was to say yes.
Theo stood up before nodding his head in agreent.
Lucien offered him a military-style elbow tap, which Theo returned before they both started heading back.
"Oh, one more thing," the baron called from behind them as he rummaged through one of his drawers.
He pulled out a small stone from the drawer and glanced at the mantis, who spotted it right away.
Before the mantis could start moving forward, the baron tossed the stone toward it. The mantis caught it effortlessly with its mandibles, flicked it upward, and gobbled it in one single go.
When Theo saw the inside of its mouth, he imdiately regretted it and wished he had never looked at it.
It wasn’t just the main mandible; there were many smaller mandible-like parts lining the outside of its mouth as well.
"Wasn’t that a star stone?" Lucien asked in shock before everyone turned to look at the mantis as the cracking sounds echoed through the room.
Within just a few seconds, the noises stopped, showing just how quickly the mantis crushed and ate it all.
"It was a star stone; wouldn’t be the first ti the mantis ate it too. Isn’t that right?" the baron asked, looking at the mantis with a grin, but the mantis simply tilted its head to the side in confusion.
Lucien then glanced at Theo, who quickly averted his gaze.
"I will tell you about it later, big brother Lucien."
That was all Theo could say before Lucien sighed.
"Father, we will be leaving in a few hours and staying in the forest for a few days. We will be back soon."
The mont the baron heard the words ’for a few days’, he looked at Alfred again, who adamantly shook his head again.
"Just go already..."
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