COS: Royal Rune

Betrothed. Those words repeated in his mind near a thousand times before they arrived to the drawing room. He knew he would have to marry, in fact he was almost certain he would be required to marry more than once. It was incredibly common for someone with power to have as many partners as they could tolerate. His father, the Emperor had a whopping ten wives each on from a family with a powerful bloodline and another couple handfuls of Mistresses that he kept around.

That was just the way this world works. It was expected of those with powerful bloodlines to spread that bloodline as much as possible. It did help that those with powerful bloodlines were some of the most attractive people in the world. 

It was inevitable he would have to wed, his branch of the bloodline was too rare and powerful to give up on . And in many ways he was looking forward too it. That did not mean he wished to have to deal with it now. If he was to marry he would have wanted for it to be his choice in the matter. 

Currently, while he was interested in the opposite sex, the hormones had not developed in his body to really become *interested* in them. So, currently the idea of marriage or even sex seemed more like a nuisance at best and disgusting at worst. If that was the way it felt for him as a child with an adults mind. He could not imagine the way the child on the other side felt. 

When they made it to the doors of the Drawing Room he was doing all that he could to not let his apprehension show on his face. He had wanted to meet his maternal grandfather for as long as he could remember since they were his only living grandparent on either side. The closest thing he had on his fathers side was his Grand Uncle Thor and Grand Aunt Helena and both had openly said they didn't want to deal with the new crop of Princes. An almost treasonous statement but they were given leeway given they were the only two living legends from the main branch of the family. He wasn't even sure if they dealt with their own grandchildren. 

He tried to focus on the excitement of meeting his grandfather and cousin over the part of his new betrothed, but it was hard not too. 

They did not enter the room immediately, his mom stopped a few paces from the door and squatted until she was level with him. She held a smile on her face, but her eyes weren't anything friendly. There was a seriousness in them that he had only seen when they were training; even still, this was different. It was like he was looking at a beast ready to pounce. He didn't feel the intent on himself, it was on others. 

"Walk straight, walk proud" she said while forcefully adjusting his posture, "You are royalty, and shall act as such in all situations. Understood?" she asked

"Yes" he nodded, doing his best to maintain the rigid posture she had forced him in.

"Do not let them intimidate you and do not under any circumstances show weakness." she stood straight and fixed her posture. He followed suit standing as straight as he could and put on the most neutral expression he could manage. His mother looked him over for a time before nodding "Good, let us proceed." and in they walked. 

It was suffocating. The moment he walked through the threshold of the door it felt like he was trying to run through slime. The air felt heavy and thick and almost tangible. He lost his sense of hearing and could only hear the blood thundering in his ears. His vision was blurry and everything became shapes and colors, he could no longer make out anything that he saw. 

Everything in him told him to collapse, to fall, to give in, to close his eyes and submit. And he wanted to. It was only the words his mother had told him and his own pride that prevented him from doing so. This was a test, a cruel one, but a test nonetheless. Someone was testing him, trying to see if he was worthy. It filled him with such a great furry, he felt his blood scream in indignation and defiance. The right side of his face grew freezing cold as even his rune, which had been dormant his whole life so far began to react. With the two working in concert with one another he felt the pressure on his body clear up. 

His breathing grew easier and his vision cleared up, but things were different now. He could see things he had never seen before, many things. Numbers. So many numbers, accompanied by just as many sizes and names. It completely filled his vision. Just as he was about to get dizzy from it all a wave of information flooded his mind about what he was seeing, his rune sending him everything about the abilities he had just gained in that moment.

Immediately it felt like he new how to use the ability as well as he knew how to breathe. He removed what he deemed unnecessary from his vision and he instantly felt relief. He wanted nothing more in that moment than to return to his room, lay on his bed and test the ability he had just gained to its maximum, but now was not the time. 

With his vision cleared and the pressure receding at some point, he was able to get a good view of the room. There were only four people in the room but, just a look at two of them made the hair on his body stand straight. They sat on opposite side of the room with only the coffee table breaking the tension between the two of them. 

On the left sat a stern looking balding old man who he was currently sipping from a tea cup while looking at them from the side of his shinning emerald eyes. The crown of his head was bare leaving only a thinning ring of white around his temples. His posture was a stooped one, a long life under gravity's pressure finally getting to him, but his presence still commanded respects. He gave Nassir the feeling of an old lion, he might not be what he once was, but he was still strong enough to fight. 

This was the Coldshearer, Duke Turing, the current head of the the Turing family. One of the most powerful families in the Empire. He was also one of the strongest people in the Empire, being at the hefty level of 24, a few levels short of stepping into the realm of epic beings. It is almost certain he would not reach that mythical level. The man had been the same level since before Nassir's father had been born. Even still the Duke was still not one to trifled with. He was sure that the Duke had something to do with the immense pressure he had just felt.

Sitting next to his grandfather, doing their best to put on their sternness fast and failing horribly, was a very interesting boy who looked around the same age as him. He held the same bright green eyes and wild, curly, brown hair that his mother had, as well as an additional feature of a hawk like nose. The boy was horribly fidgety in the moment between pulling and tugging at his clearly unfamiliar clothing and the glancing repeatedly at the pair opposite them he made quite the scene in the room. 

That was not what made the boy interesting, not it was the golden numbers that appeared above his head. The gold had already attracted his attention, when he read level 18- level 28 he was immediately intrigued. This was one of the powers his rune had gifted him when it finally awakened, the ability to see ones potential. 

The lower number was the minimum rank the boy would reach just in the span of his life weather he trained or not, the larger number was his max potential. The strength he could reach if everything went right. 

Nassir knew immediately he needed this boy as one of his followers. To have a minimum of reaching the rank of grand mage was incredible. While nowhere near as valuable as sky saints and higher ranks they were still in the vast minority of those who leveled in this world. That was not considering his maximum rank was to become an Epic rank being! And he could even get a few levels deep into it. If Nassir had to guess the boy would probably fall somewhere around the mid levels of legendary if things went poorly for him, which was fantastic!

Although he was interested in the boy he did not look at him for too long. If he focused on the golden letters he would be able to see what the boy would be best at but it was improper to stare for so long so he moved towards the others in the room.