"Alright. Let's go then, little buddy…" Leon could not help but affectionately rub Little Han's cheeks before carrying him up, "To my office!"
"Daddi Owffish!!" Little Han's crystal blue eyes twinkled in excitement as he lifted his hands and shouted cheerfully.
Using a mana stone for teleportation, the Baobao and the father-son duo immediately appeared at Leon's office in the Crimson Blade's barracks.
Little Han immediately became curious about the new environment. With his eyes full of anticipation and interest, he looked around to see what kind of place is his daddy's office.
"Let's go and meet the uncles and big brothers." Leon immediately stepped out of the office and went to the open ground where the Blades were busy.
Some were assigned to check and maintain the armor and weaponry while the others are on the training field sparring with each other.
As soon as Leon stepped out of the room, everyone looked in their direction and was surprised.
'Master brought the little prince!'
'He also brought the legendary beast of our Madamme!'
The excitement and amazement could not be hidden in their eyes as they looked at Baobao and Little Han.
However, since they were in front of the Third Prince, their Master, they held themselves back to respectfully greet him.
"Greetings! Wielder of the Crimson Blade, Master! Greetings Little Master! Greetings great beast, Baobao!"
"At ease!" Leon signaled them in response while Baobao gave them a quiet nod.
"Hewwooo!" Little Han grinned charmingly and waved his hand to greet the men. He even giggled when he saw the familiar face of Olivier, Neil, and the rest.
'Ahhhh! My heart!'
'Little Master is so cute and charming!'
'Aaaaahhh this is a lucky day! To have the opportunity to see the cute master even when we are busy!'
"These coming days, my son, Johann might have to visit the barracks during the morning. Though he would be accompanied by Baobao, I still have to assign a person to keep him company."
Leon explained the situation to the blades and asked them with a serious tone, "Who would like to volunteer?"
"Me!"
"Choose me, Master!"
"I'm good with kids!"
"Nah, you can even make a child cry with your face!"
Instantly the atmosphere became a competition as to who would guard Little Han. Leon did not expect that all the Blades would volunteer. Even Blaze who had a hard time interacting with humans he was not familiar with due to his descent excitedly raised his hand.
And so Leon was taken aback and unsure how he would go about the matter. He stood in a daze not knowing what to do. If he could just propose to have them draw lots in choosing who to send on a scout mission, he would not hesitate to do so.
But this time the mission is taking care of a child - a thing that none of the Blades had an opportunity to do often, thus they had no experience.
'Should I choose between Olivier and the five blades assigned before?' He wondered.
"Daddi~~~" While Leon was thinking of a way to select, he was interrupted by Little Han's call.
"What is it, son?" He asked.
"Umcle…Play play!" He stuck his index finger out to point towards Blaze's direction. Then he looked at Leon with pleading eyes, "Umcle play play!"
!!!
Everyone looked at Blaze with widened eyes.
'Did the Little Master choose Vice Captain Blaze as his guard?!'
Leon looked at Blaze and then at Little Han, after thinking for a while he then responded, 'Alright but only for today. Your Uncle Blaze will be busy in the days to come, so you can only play with him today."
"Weeeee!!! Aye!!!" Little Han squealed happily as he nodded at Leon's words.
Then he twisted his body and stretched out his two hands toward the direction of Blaze, with his twinkling eyes he called out, "Umcle Blaze!"
!!!
The Blade's heart melted when they saw Little Han's gesture. Even Blaze who was a stiff burly young man could not help but feel moved.
But even though he felt happy about it, Blaze still waited for Leon's permission before he reached out to take Little Han in his arms.
"Yieeee!" Little Han squealed in delight when Blaze reached out to take him from his father. He flashed his teeth in a huge grin as he comfortably rest in his arms.
Blaze stood in a daze, it was like a new experience for him to even touch such a fragile yet precious creature.
To him, Little Han is very tiny, vulnerable yet precious. He is someone, apart from the Madamme who would thaw the coldness of their every frigid master. Therefore Little Han is someone he must serve to the best of his abilities.
Seeing that Little Han was obediently going with Blaze, Leon dismissed the three of them to go around and play while he proceeded to his job for today.
"Little Master, where do you like to go?" Blaze asked rather helplessly. It was only when there were the three of them that he realized that there was nothing much to do in the barracks rather than spar and train.
There was nothing in the barracks that could be appealing to a child!!!
Blaze wanted to put a palm on his face in distress, but it is too late.
"Ummm…" Little Han looked up and thought for a moment, then he randomly pointed his finger at a luscious tree beside the training area.
It was a wide old oak tree that had branches that expands widely, it became the best spot for the Blades to cool down after rigorous training.
Blaze thought that it was indeed a good spot for resting and so he immediately carried Little Han under the shade of the giant oak tree.
As soon as they arrived on the spot, Little Han gestured to be down and immediately rummaged into his cute bear bag.
"Hmm~~ Hmm~~" Humming the 'tune of twinkle twinkle little stars' he pulled out a piece of cloth into his bag and looked up at Blaze who was watching him curiously.
"Umcle… help pwease?" His eyes widened like a pleading puppy as he raised his bear bag with a piece of cloth hanging out of the bag's opening.
"A-alright…" Blaze then slowly pulled the rest of the cloth and soon he discovered that it was a large fluffy mat.
At first, he was clueless about what he was going to do, but when he looked down again and saw Little Han's anticipating eyes he was confused, 'What am I supposed to do with a fluffy mat?'
"Eherm. Sir Blaze, you can lay it on the ground so that you and Little Master would have a place to sit on." Baobao could not help but interject carefully.
He initially just kept quiet because he wanted the two to have a moment in getting acquainted with each other. However, seeing the interaction between the two, he decided to assist them from time to time.
"O-oh!" Blaze soon realized that Baobao was assisting him and so he quickly moved and laid the mat on the ground.
"Yay!" Little Han happily crawled onto the mat then he lied on his back and giggled happily as he saw how beautiful it was to see the oak tree's branches from the ground.
After rolling for some time, he started to pull out all sorts of things.
There were plushies, a music box, and even his favorite toys given by the Guardians - the shape sorter. But this time, the shape sorter was a little more difficult as it contained slots of the Empire's Alphabet.
Then lastly he took out a weird-looking egg that was large enough to cover Little Han's tummy and chest. Upon laying eyes on the egg, Little Han's mood seemed to plummet.
He looked at Blaze who was still confused by his actions and called out, "Umcle… birdy Sisi… need wakey!"
"Bird? Sisi?" Blaze took the egg in his hands and realized that it was no ordinary egg. Since he doesn't know about the situation, he glanced at Baobao for an answer.
"Sisi is Wisey. It was my Master's first contractor, which is a spirit owl. She went into this state after using all his powers to help Master defeat the first spirit fragment connected to the Vesala."
Baobao explained the matter to Blaze. He knew that Blaze could be trusted like Olivier and so he did not find wrong to tell about Wisey.
"I see…" Blaze looked at the deep sadness in Baobao's eyes and the look of longing in Little Han's eyes, he figured out the situation. It seems like the three of them were supposed to be inseparable since the little master's birth, but due to the curse users, Wisey was now in this state.
And if Wisey remained in this state even after everyone had already recovered from the curse, this means that their Madame was also helpless in the situation.
Taking sympathy over his Little Master, he took the egg and reached out to his space pouch.
Instantly, there was a golden metallic nest before them, which made everyone, even the Blades who were sneaking glances at them curious.
"This is a dragon's cradle, this is where the dragon eggs were kept until they hatch…"