"Mother, Father… What is all of this? Please, tell me what in the world is happening?"
"Is it because of that nest?"
"Is it because Father had an offspring from someone other than you that you are crying like this?"
Calderon's mind was full of questions and confusion. He was by nature a very levelheaded person but this time, he really needed someone to make him understand what was really the truth.
Only when Fabio heard Calderon's words that he was able to finally figure out why his son was acting strangely all this time.
Yes, how could he, someone who has been with Little Han for several days not think of such an untoward thing the moment he saw a dragon nest with his father's aura?
Besides, Calderon grew up knowing that he is the only child they bore.
That is why the first thing he concluded was his 'infidelity'.
Fabio did not feel wronged, instead, he felt guilty about Calderon's misunderstanding. His son was still young and to be confronted by such a fact without even knowing the truth, must have tormented him quite painfully.
Realizing this, Fabio's anger that had accumulated earlier was washed away. He sighed and coaxed Shesha to sit on the chair while also directing his son to calm down and listen to what he was about to say.
Calderon clenched his fist and could only follow as his father directed. He waited for his mother to calm down patiently as he knew that his Father would never talk until he was able to calm her down.
After some time, the wailing softened. Finally, only the occasional sniffs could be heard in the private lounge.
When Shesha was able to come back to her senses she saw Calderon's confused and troubled expression. She looked at Fabio who seemed to have also figured out their son's emotions and felt guilty.
"Son we…" Shesha opened her mouth trying to find the words to finally discuss the matter, but she was really not in the right frame of mind to think and could only awkwardly utter these words and stop right after.
"I first saw the nest in Little Han's possession, he was trying to hatch the egg. At first, I was only surprised to see him with a dragon's nest.
But the moment I went near and managed to touch the nest I felt Father's aura in it." Since his parents could not say anything even after calming down, Calderon took a deep breath and explained his side of the story.
"All my life I knew that I was the only son whom you have brought forth, but at the moment I wondered, why is there a dragon's nest with my father's aura in it?
Why would my father create a nest which came from his own precious scales and appear in the hands of Little Han, a human?"
"I thought of many things but none of them make sense, except for the possibility of Father having a child outside of marriage. Upon investigating, I found out from Little Han that the owner of the nest was from this father's knight corps.
Then, I planned everything and managed to get Little Han to convince his parents to allow him to come here willingly.
I want to know the truth, even if it means that I have tricked a one-year-old toddler to come and stay in this unfamiliar place to be left by his parents alone, on his own accord."
Calderon looked at his parents, telling them everything that he did for him to get to this point. Even the unpleasant motive of approaching Little Han was courageously revealed by him.
All along he did not intend to hide the matter, instead, he wanted his parents to know what kind of person he has become because of this matter.
Fabio could no longer let the matter become unspoken and so even as he choked while listening to his son's words, he knew that telling him the hurtful truth is inevitable. The only concern for him was Shesha's emotions, for what he is about to say might make her even more emotional.
Shesha saw the reluctance in Fabio's eyes and understood him. She held her hand and uttered, "I can't bear to say it, but he has to know…"
"Sigh…" Fabio took a deep breath and finally looked at his son with a vulnerable explosion. Gone was the fierce demeanor he had shown to him earlier in the morning.
"It is not what you think it is, and it was purely a misunderstanding. We are guilty about not telling you the matter because we ourselves were still unable to completely heal from the incident of the past…" He explained with a pained expression.
"I apologize, son, for we have left you in the dark… but contrary to what you have always thought, you are not the only offspring we were able to bear. Our firstborn, your elder brother… he is the owner of that very nest.
We have conceived him more than fifty years ago which made your mom and I extremely excited.
It was our very first time bearing offspring and everything about parenting is something new to us. Thus we poured out all our efforts and care in order for him to safely hatch.
However, who could have known, we will lose him after eight years of carefully raising him… just because of our one careless action."
Calderon's entire being was overwhelmed with the revelation… he could not quite process everything about the misunderstanding and the fact that he is supposed to have an elder brother.
However, he kept silent and allowed his parents to talk about what happened as he was sensitive enough to feel that just discussing this matter forced his parents to open a deep painful wound.
"That time, it was the Grand Tournament, as we have raised him dotingly, he was quite a willful child and we only wanted him to have everything he wanted. So when he requested that we take him to the Vanderford Territory to watch the tournament, we happily obliged.
We thought that it would just be a normal excursion for our family until the day we attended a banquet which obviously did not allow children like your brother at the time.
He insisted on coming, but because it was simply not allowed, we could only leave him in anger to his guards and nannies. Who knew that he would take it to himself to sneak out?
When we realized that he was gone, it was already too late. None of the adults in the place were in the right mind as they just came from merry-making. We tried to search all over but to no avail. Even the Emperor of the Vanderford mobilized everyone but it seemed like he disappeared out of nowhere.
We never stopped searching for him, but as we do, our guilt and the realization of our failure as a parent caused us to become like this.
Because of our negligence and overindulgence, we have not helped your brother to think sensibly and rationally at the time, causing him to meet such an unfortunate fate.
We can't blame anyone but ourselves and allowed this guilt to torture us for many years. We did not even dare to conceive another offspring, but then, fourteen years ago, we finally mustered the courage to think of being a parent once again…
With your grandma and grandpa's guidance and support, we finally tried and birthed you. But even after you successfully hatched, your mother and I still do not dare to talk about your elder brother.
I am sure that everyone in the village also does not dare to… because it has indeed caused us a lot of pain…" Fabio closed his eyes as he trembled in emotions.
He remembered his firstborn, Abeloth's face and a sharp searing pain struck the depths of his soul. It turns out, the pain of the past had not healed the slightest and would expose itself this way.
"Calderon… our son... We are so sorry… We have kept you in the dark…" Shesha could only reach out to Calderon's hands and rub them guiltily.
Calderon closed his eyes and tried to calm himself down, no wonder he always thought that his parents were quite different from the others.
Since childhood, they never spoiled him and even taught him things like values and more at a very young age. In the end, he was too mature for his age and was not able to have close peers in the dragon village.
It was only when he became part of the elite class in the Green Wave institute that he met like-minded kids like him and Elifas that he managed to have some sort of peer interaction.
As he remained quiet thinking about the information his parents revealed, he finally realized a crucial point that made his mind turn into a jumble once again.
"Wait.. if that was fifty years ago, then there is no way that he was one of the Third Prince's men, for all of them were men under 30!" Calderon asked
"Truth be told, the blood resonance we have on your elder brother was completely extinguished twenty years after his disappearance. That meant that he was no more.
But seeing that his nest is able to survive when he had already perished, meant that before he died, he was able to pass this to another.
Although this was kind of far-fetched, I am bold to assume one possibility… Son, you might possibly have a nephew…" Fabio straightforwardly said.