Back So Soon

Mack was super tired after the day he had and being in his fathers arms wasn't helping. He could feel his eyes getting heavy and it was getting harder to keep them open. "I have to stay awake. I have to get cleaned up, I'm a mess" he thought but in the end his fathers heart beat and steady breathing put him into a deep slumber before they even made it away from the barns.

Vorick looked at his little twin trying hard to stay awake but failing miserably. He smiled to himself as he watched a peaceful and relaxed look appear on his face as he began snoring lightly. "Hey dad, I think you put your passenger to sleep" he said with a giggle

"Is that what I'm hearing" said Thomas as he glanced down at the boy. "Well now, that's going to make changing him more difficult"

"Nah I've changed him lots of times while he slept" she said as they walked into the house. Only to see another boy a bit younger then Mack's physical age. Sitting on the couch

"You finally done Mack" he asked with excitement only a little boy could have. But gasped when he saw who was standing in the living room. He instantly bowed "I'm sorry your majesty's"

"You must be that Tony character I heard about" said the king

"Yes sir" he responded hanging his head like he was about to be lead to the gallows.

The king handed Mack off to the woman next to him and she headed towards the stairs. "Why don't you show the queen where the diaper supplies are" he stated

"Yes sir" he said bowing to the king and running off.

"And get yourself changed why your at it child" he yell out. "That was a pretty good punch Ricky. The amount of killing intent coming off you gave me goosebumps. I thought you were going to kill him."

"I should have" he responded "nobody hurts my brother and gets away with it. Please tell me he'll be put on trial dad"

"He is going to be put in the royal dungeon for awhile at the very least" said Thomas

"What are we going to do with Mack dad. He can't stay out here being that little. Those acadamy guys will eat him alive. It won't matter that he got a mana core."

"We'll have to take him back with us….. wait did you say he has a mana core." Said his dad in shock at what he heard

"Yes but it's empty and dormant still."

"How" asked the king "the daggers around his waist are divine grade weapons. Did they somehow do this."

"Yes and I think his sacrifice was a bit more then mine. It seems he had to sacrifice life essence to get the core made. And yes dad those are the family daggers. He'll have the same affinity as me when his core awakens"

"It's going to take him forever to cultivate enough mana to awaken his core even if I give him an Acceleration technique it's still going to take at least 3 years" said the king

"That's way too long dad. According to what my ability is telling me, he has a limited time frame to completely fill his core before their are consequences" he explained

"How much time we looking at" said Thomas with a sigh

"Six months"

"That's it" said the king with wide eyes "that is physically impossible…. You know that. What happens if he doesn't fill it in time"

"Then he will be forced to wait until his body turns ten again and awakens naturally"

"Oh well that's not so bad"

"For him it will be. I mean this with the upmost respect dad but you have know idea what he's dealing with right now. Could you imagine finding out you have no core and that you stopped aging at 9 years old, then having everything you've ever known ripped away from you and being forced to work for your own parents in order to prevent yourself from living on your own in the lower district only to find out that your actually dying. Then finding some weapons that gives you a choice between sacrificing life essence making you get physically younger and death only to become 5 years old and having to wear diapers again because you lost all control of your bladder and things again. I'm sure he's barely holding it together. He'd loose his marbles if he has to go through being repotty trained for the second time"

"I understand what your saying but unless you have a skill that allows you to give some of your mana to him, I don't see any way around him having to grow up like a normal boy his age would. Look at it this way, you've always wanted a little brother" he laughed "now you have one"

Vorick frowned at the prospect of Mack being his little brother for the next five years until he can catch up. It was true that he had asked his mom and dad multiple times for a little brother but this is not what he had in mind at all. Now he wasn't sure if he wanted a little brother because with his age capping out at 10 years old eventually his little brother would become a big brother and he didn't want that. But he also new that being king is out of the question and if mom and dad didn't have a new baby soon his cousin was going to be moving into the castle and he was a spoiled brat that always gets what he wants. He likes to bully folks lower than him in nobility which means since he would be next in line to the throne he'd treat himself and Mack like trash.

After what seemed like hours Mary finally came down stairs with Tony and Mack trailing behind. Mack woke up as he was being redressed. And due to the embarrassment of having been changed by his mom he was unable to get back to sleep.

"Whys your face so red" asked Thomas

"He's a bit embarrassed dear" said Mary as she gestured to Mack's diapered bum.

"Oh, right" said her husband awkwardly "anyway we're very curious as to how you ended up as a very cute little five year old boy again"

Mack climbed up onto the couch beside Vorick and started to explain how he got younger leaving out the parts about the system and the god of youth for the time being. "Dad…." He paused "hhhhh I don't think I'm going to be able to do this job after all. I'm sorry"

"No, we are sorry Mackey we should have never let you come out here on your own. I wasn't thinking about how cruel the noble kids can be to commoners. Especially one that used to be a royal Prince." Said his father

"What am I going to do now" he asked

"Your going to come back to the castle with us tonight. And in the morning Vorick will teach you how to cultivate using the technique he was taught"

"I guess I'll have to be Voricks servant then" he said

"Now that you have a mana core you may be able to get some of your privileges back" said Mary

"Let's not get his hoped up" said Thomas "remember what I said earlier. It's getting late why don't we head back to the castle and get some food" he said

"What about Tony" asked Mack "I can't leave him here alone he is forgetting more and more of his life everyday"

"He'll have to be registered as an orphan with the boys home in the lower district" said the king "however Mary has been wanting to start a fostering program where orphans or kids that have been given up can stay with a sponsor family instead of the orphanage. Mary what do you think about sponsoring the little guy."

"I think that's a wonderful idea" she said as she looked over to where Tony was hiding. She could hear him sobbing softly so as to not draw attention to himself "what do you think Tony"

"Y…your m…m….majesty" he sobbed out

Her motherly instinct kicked in when she saw a little one in distress. She stood up and walked over to the sobbing child and picked him up and walked back to her seat. "How would you like to come live with us" she asked the boy as he subconsciously started to suck his thumb in an attempt to calm himself down. He nodded as he started to cry harder for a different reason now. The queen hugged the boy close. Meanwhile Tony continued to suck his thumb as he laid his head on his new mommy's chest.

Mack was over the moon because he had grown attached to the kid in the short time he had been here. He was also happy because he had gotten a little brother out of the mix. "Yay" he said out loud "thank you guys so much"

"Regardless on what he did to deserve such a punishment, he is very cute and I'd really hate to see him being treated badly" said Mary. Thomas looked at his wife and could tell she was glowing with happiness as she rocked the boy. She grabbed the blanket off the back of the chair and wrapped it around herself tying it in the back. She then pulled it up around the boy in her arms and created a sort of carrying apparatus that held the boy snugly up against her as the boy was already asleep. "Vorick sweetheart I want you to go up stair into the nursery and pack enough diapers and supplies for both boys to last till tomorrow afternoon"

"What about clothes" he asked his mom

"Don't worry about the clothes I'll order them some tomorrow afternoon." She said as she watched her son disappear up the stairs "hey dear, grab that blanket behide you and do the same thing for Mack that I did for Tony"

Thomas stood mack up and stripped him down to his diaper and then scooped him up and wrapped the blanket around him and Mack making sure he was snuggled nicely up against him.

Mack was so taken back by his dad just stripping him out of the blue that he didn't even have time to blush before he was wrapped up. Blushing fiercely he had to ask "dad, why'd you take my clothes off"

"So you don't sweat to death bubba. It hot outside still." He explained

" oh, I guess that makes sense" he said as he gave in and snuggled into his dad once again. By the time Vorick got downstairs he was also asleep. Vorick blew out all the lights and they finally left the house and started the trip back to the castle with the guards.

"So dad, is Zach really going to be next in line for the throne" asked Vorick while trying to keep up.

"Not anytime soon if I can help it" he replied "my plan is to just not say anything"

"That's a terrible idea" he said "look what happened when you tried that with Mack. I don't think we can stop what's about to happen. Veritas knows I can't age and he's on the council dad. It's only a matter of time before they declare me Ineligible."

"How did you get so smart" his dad asked with a grin but that grin didn't last long as he went into deep thought about what his son said. As much as he hated to admit it he was right. When they were getting info from Roy and Veritas Vorick had told Roy that he could know longer age past the age of 10 but forgot that Veritas was still in the room and he had overheard. If he was willing to do what he did to Mack what's to say he won't do anything to Vorick. It's not a secret that he's against the monarchy. If it was up to him he'd see it abolished and move to a parliamentary form of government. His brother would never let that happen though he has 99% of the council on his pay book so to speak. He would never support something that would negatively impact his sons chances of becoming king. He pondered about what to do as they walked in silence but couldn't think of a way out of the situation.

"Why don't I abdicate. Because like you said earlier, nobody's gonna take me seriously. Even if I was 100 years old, I would still look like I am now. A kid" said Vorick

"Hhhhh if that's The route you think we should take then that's your choice. Just know that when you do Zach will be moving into the castle. I won't be able to stop that. You know how he is"

"Yes dad I'm well aware" he said " I don't plan on doing this until after we get Mack squared away. If I can help him awaken before the council finds out we might be able to just play it off as Veritas getting to old"

"That's risky but I like taking risks….obviously." He said scratching the back of his head. "If we can make that old coot seem like he's lost his touch even better"

Eventually they came upon the gate to the inner area of the castle and stopped to greet the guards who saluted as the king and queen passed. They headed upstairs to Voricks room.

"You don't mind them sleeping with you tonight do you dear" asked his mom. Vorick yawned and shook his head indicating that he didn't care. the king and queen layed one boy on each side of the bed leaving the middle of the bed for him. They all said their good nights and the boy stripped down and crawled into the bed between the two little ones and feel asleep himself.