Life was like this for the first seven years.
Though Alvin didn't awaken the royal trait of the Nyxborn family, his shadow servant trait also had space and darkness attributes like in the dragon incarnation trait of the Nyxborn family. Hence, Alvin also possessed the taboo elements of space and darkness.
In the past five years, he had already reached the master level of cultivation in both attributes, whereas other royal descendants who were considered heavenly geniuses in Celestia had at most reached the novice level.
Although life was going smoothly until then for Alvin, an unexpected event broke the smooth rhythm of his life.
One day, when Alvin was meditating in his training room, he heard urgent knocks on the door.
"Master Draven... please open the door, Madam was taken away by the soldiers."
Alvin hurriedly stood up and rushed outside upon hearing this.
Outside his meditation room, an elderly woman wearing a maid outfit stood there with worry all over her face.
"What happened, Grandma? Who took Mother away?" Alvin asked when he saw worry in Gracy's eyes.
"It's Lord Emperor's soldiers. They took Madam to the main palace," the elderly woman, Gracy, explained while panting.
Alvin furrowed his eyebrows upon hearing this.
Without wasting any more time, he started running toward the main palace at full speed.
As he ran, he chanted a space elemental skill under his breath, "Portal, open."
Suddenly, a small portal appeared in front of him, and without stopping, he rushed through the portal.
The next second, he appeared 100 meters away from where he was standing a moment ago.
Without slowing down, portals started appearing in front of him as he ran forward, and each time he stepped inside a portal, he appeared 100 meters away.
This spell was one of the space element skills he had mastered called Small Distance Teleportation, which allowed the caster to create a portal using space energy by joining two different coordinates and teleporting any item that passed through one portal to the other in an instant.
Within a minute, Alvin appeared in front of the main palace, where Cyrus conducted meetings and court sessions.
A group of soldiers was stationed in front of the colossal palace, which looked as though it was made by gods. By blending magic and high-tech technology, it appeared both majestic and futuristic.
When Alvin reached the entrance of the palace, one of the soldiers stopped him and said respectfully, "Young Lord, Lord Emperor is attending a court session. Please wait, we don't have permission to let anyone in."
Alvin ignored the soldiers. He looked at the entrance of the palace and mumbled under his breath, "Shadow Servant Summon."
Suddenly, a dark figure made of shadows appeared right in front of the palace door, bypassing soldiers who were standing some distance away from the shadowy figure Alvin summoned.
All soldiers looked at the shadowy figure with squinted eyes.
As Alvin possessed two of the taboo elements of space and darkness, they were not surprised by the fact that their young lord could summon a shadow servant ignoring their presence directly at the front of the palace.
After all, this was a common trait that every awakened member of the Nyxborn family had. But what they didn't understand was the purpose of doing that...
"Space Switch."
The next second, they got their answer as Alvin cast another space spell, and the position of the dark figure and him switched before anyone could react.
Now Alvin was standing in front of the palace door while the shadow servant was at the place where Alvin stood previously.
Even the experienced soldiers were stunned on the spot upon seeing this; they had no idea that their young lord could even use a 'D' ranked skill with such ease.
Just as one of the soldiers rushed forward to stop Alvin from entering the palace, a majestic voice came from inside the palace.
"Let him in."
The soldier paused in his step. He bowed respectfully and went back to his position at the front of the palace.
When Alvin entered the palace, he saw his father sitting on the throne wearing his golden battle armor, which gave the impression of dominance, and his mother kneeling at the center of the palace.
On both sides of the palace, the other officials, ministers, generals, and other elders were seated with solemn expressions on their faces.
Regarding Alvin's rude behavior of barging into the court just now, nobody mentioned anything.
If it was anyone else, they would have already jumped up to scold the person who had the audacity to do such a crime. But since the person who came in was Alvin, they kept their mouths shut like nothing had happened.
It was a publicly known fact that although Cyrus always appeared to be on bad terms with his son, in reality, he was overprotective of Alvin, and the same was true for other members of the royal family, including the ex-emperor and empress, Cyrus's father and mother.
If they had to know that their grandson was bullied, maybe Cyrus could get away with it, but the poor officials like them would be beaten up for nothing. To avoid such unnecessary trouble, it was better to pretend they didn't notice anything.
"What is the meaning of all this?" Ignoring the gazes on him, Alvin asked Cyrus as he walked toward his mother step by step.
Cyrus looked at Alvin coldly and said, "Why don't you ask your mother? Even though I usually tolerate your rude behavior, don't expect to get away with it if you keep on testing my patience time and time again."
Alvin furrowed his eyebrows tighter. He kneeled in front of his mother and asked, "What happened, Mom?"
Elena looked at her son and smiled weakly. She didn't say anything.
Seeing this, one of the elderly ministers in the court stood up and said, "Reporting to the Young Lord, Madam Elena Everheart is suspected to be a spy, and we have acquired enough evidence to justify this."
Elena lifted her head and said gently,
"It is true that I am the youngest daughter of Haile Everheart, but my father is not a coward who will send his own daughter as a spy to an enemy country."
Cyrus frowned upon hearing this. He signaled the minister to sit and said, "Whether you are a spy or not, hiding your identity and silently becoming a part of my family is suspicious and is punishable by death."
Upon hearing what Cyrus said, Alvin took out a small sword from his storage ring. Although the sword was small for an adult, it was still fit for a seven-year-old boy who only reached waist height compared to an adult.
Cyrus merely looked at Alvin silently from his throne without saying anything when he saw him pulling out a sword.
"Young Lord, weapons are not allowed inside the court. Please put it back in your storage ring," one of the female generals said with worry in her eyes upon seeing this.
Alvin's reckless nature was known to everyone in the court. Although the kid was more mature than other kids of the same age, he was also equally reckless at times.
"Alvin, put the sword away. This has nothing to do with you. Let Mother handle this matter," Elena also called out anxiously upon seeing this.
But Alvin shook his head and fixed his gaze on Cyrus, who was sitting on the throne. He took a deep breath and said firmly, "I know you are powerful enough to kill me just by releasing your aura, and there is no meaning in what I am doing now. But..."
He looked at the sword in his hand. "I won't allow anything to happen to her until I am alive."
As soon as he finished speaking, he channeled his spatial divine essence into the sword, and the sword started to crackle with silver lightning arcs.
The entire palace fell silent at this moment. Nobody said anything.
Cyrus gritted his teeth in annoyance when he heard what Alvin said. If someone else had dared to speak to him like this, they would have already died a million times.
Suppressing his anger, he leaned back on his divine throne and said, "I will give you two choices: forget the existence of this woman and continue to live in this palace as my son. Or..."
"You can leave the palace with her. I will forgive her offense, but from then on, you won't be a member of the Nyxborn family, nor will you be my son...."
Before Cyrus could finish his words,
"I choose the second option. As for being part of the Nyxborn family, it is not as important as my mother. Also, I was named Draven Nyxborn by my grandfather, not by you," Alvin said with a sneer on his face.
He ignored the gazes of all those who were present in the hall and helped his mother stand up from the floor.
Elena looked at her son with a myriad of complicated feelings in her eyes. She opened her mouth but didn't say anything in the end.
After all, she knew in her heart that Cyrus was doing this out of anger, and even if she wanted Cyrus to expel her and her son, he wouldn't do that.
Elena was well aware of the deep possessiveness Cyrus had toward her. It was for this reason that, even when Cyrus married her against her will, she didn't inform her family.
She understood very well the extent of his obsession with keeping her as his own and the consequences that would follow if anyone dared to go against his will.
Seeing that Elena was standing there without saying anything,
Alvin held one of her hands and said in his childish tone, which was completely opposite to the adult-like behavior he displayed in front of his father a moment ago, "Although I am a kid, I am a master-level cultivator. Don't worry, Mom, I am capable of earning enough money for both of us to live."
Elena touched Alvin's face and smiled. She held Alvin's hand and walked out of the palace.
"Madam Elena gave birth to a filial son," one of the elderly ministers in the court said with a sigh upon seeing the retreating backs of the mother and son.
Cyrus sat on his throne indifferently. Nobody knew what he was thinking at that time.
After some time, when Elena and Alvin exited the palace, he said with a sigh to his subordinate, who was standing near his throne, "Inform Father about these two idiots, and ask him to make necessary arrangements for the time being."