Chapter 162 – The Church of the King

“Jace! Jace Sesso!”

“Coming.”

Jace sat up and looked around before suddenly realizing that he was at home, not a rented house in Stormwind.

“Get changed, Jess.” Mother leaned against the doorframe and said, “I’m taking you to the priest today.”

“What’s seeing a priest doing?” Jess asked.

“To see the burns on your arms, of course!” Henny said, “Southsea Town is a week’s walk from here! It would have taken you a total of four or five days to get here even if you had taken a boat on Lake Loddanmere, and you must have paid absolutely no attention to your burn in the meantime; it must be a mess under the bandage now.”

“I’m really okay with it, Mom, don’t take me to see a priest ……”

Jace was actually wondering why his recovery from the burns didn’t get any faster even though he had the “Black Dragon’s Blood”, as Black Dragons shouldn’t be afraid of fire.

He should have known that he should have found some random animal in the wilderness to suck on and recover from his wounds before coming back, so as not to worry his mother so much.

But again, Dushan cautioned him not to head out into the wilderness, though of course, he himself understood the dangers of doing so. Currently he still had some occasional dizziness and headaches, not as bad as when he first woke up in Dalaran, but it would really kill him if something happened and he fainted outside the city.

“Why are you still as stubborn as when you were little.” Mother frowned and said, “It’s not like the Holy Light is going to harm you!”

Yeah, it’s true that the holy light wouldn’t have harmed me when I was a kid, but that’s not necessarily true now!

Jace shouted this in his mind, but he couldn’t say it explicitly, so he scratched his chin and asked, “So, going to the chapel? I’m kinda scared of that old preacher ……”

“Go to the cathedral.” Mother said, “I’ve prayed for you every day for the past two years, Jace. Do you dare to say that the Holy Light never favored you in those two years you were in Stormwind? I don’t think the Holy Light helped a little bit how you were able to appear before me again in one piece, aside from your own hard work and luck, did it?”

Jace thought to himself that he couldn’t really refute his mother’s words, after all, the Holy Light did help him a few times, and he couldn’t really say if it was the result of his mother’s prayers.

Surely the effect of a mother’s prayer matters?

He sat up, hugged his thin, childlike mother and said, “Okay, Mom, I’ll go with you.”

Henny immediately laughed at this, and at this point Jace thought she didn’t feel like his mother anymore, but like a sister.

She dressed briefly in a pretty yellow dress and white scarf, Jess put on the shirt her mother had mended last night, and the two of them went out.

The terrain of Lordaeron’s royal city was not as rugged and complicated as Stormwind City, with both high and low ground. It was located on a flat plateau, so strolling around was quite effortless for someone who was used to life in Stormwind City.

Henny led Jace gingerly through gate after gate, and the closer he got to the cathedral, the smoother the road became.

The high reddish-brown walls, the bright green high eaves, the domed roof, and slowly the palace could already be seen in the distance.

The royal city of Lordaeron is like a large, faded, fairytale-esque, purposely aged Dalaran, cold, angular, and unsympathetic.

As a child, Jace had felt that the thousand-year-old city felt like a grandiose, matchless, extravagant, high-class prison. After two years of traveling outside, that feeling had intensified.

“Planning on staying home for a few days, Jess?” Henny asked as she walked.

“I’m moving back to Dalaran in two days.” Jace returned.

“Leaving so soon?” Henny’s tone was a little lost.

“I’ll be back to see you guys again as soon as I can, it won’t be for another two years.” Jace said, “Now that I’m a little more financially secure, I’ll be back if I have any free time.”

“And don’t worry about us so much, Vic and I are still young, don’t treat us like old men and women who can’t move their legs.” Henny said.

“You must have something very important to attend to in Dalaran?”

“Yeah.” Jace said, “There’s a linguistic event that your excellent son is representing Stormwind.”

“Representing Stormwind?” Henny asked with a bit of a flirtatious tone, “So does King Varian know that you represent Stormwind City? Speaking of which, King Varian came this way last year, I even saw him, he rode like a true knight, tall and strong, he felt on the verge of being as majestic as Vic was when he was young.”

Jace thought to himself that she was pretty much out of her depth with her obsession with Pops.

Then again, he’d never seen what Vic Sesso looked like on horseback when he was younger, so maybe he did look like a king’s knight.

“Of course Varian knows.” Jace said, “Do you remember my mage clothes that I wore here, he was the one who financed them for me, I know him personally.”

“Really?” Henny exclaimed, “How do you know him?”

Now Jace realized he was showing off to the wrong people, how was he going to tell his mother about the stone fortress?

“Of course it’s the excellent grades in the magic academy and all that …… being received by the king.”

Henny frowned and said, “Your ability to lie without blushing is of no use to your mom.”

Jace chuckled, “Anyway, just don’t pursue it and know that I’m not lying to you is all.”

“Let’s say you mean it, who else in this world besides me would be willing to believe it knowing that you’re lying?” Henny said helplessly, “However, King Varian is a good man, I’m really lucky to know him, and the Stormwind Kingdom will definitely recover more and more in the future.”

“How did you tell he was a good guy?” Jess asked curiously.

Henny said, “He came into town without any of the nice clothes a king should wear, and with his cloaked hair like he had just been attacked by a horde before he came into town. I could tell he was blaming himself for the murder of his father and the scourge of his homeland by the orcs, that was a strong young man.”

Jace said, “Maybe it’s just these politicians acting for you, selling misery for sympathy so that the Lordaeronians will donate a little more to the rebuilding of Stormwind.”

“It would be nice to donate more, wouldn’t that run into my son’s pocket?” Henny laughed.

Jace wanted to laugh along, but when he thought of his own reward of coming to Storm City to help out with the labor, only to be paid a whole gold coin by who knows who topped it off with a small dozens of silver coins, he couldn’t laugh again.

These things, withholding workers’ salaries, sooner or later, the Diffia fraternity will give you all the ashes.

Chatting away, Henny led Jace to a main road, only to have it blocked by guards in front of him.

“What’s going on up front.” Jess asked.

“I suppose our little prince has been to the cathedral service again,” said Henny quietly; “he comes quite regularly these days.”