Though the rest of the expedition carried on for the next few days, Cadmus took Orion and everyone else back to the palace. (Y/n) and Presley did their best to try and get the two to talk, but, everytime, it ended in failure. Even as they landed, heading back into the palace, they said not a single word. In fact, Cadmus even took a completely separate carriage back. For the time being, they let it go, but the younger girl was still glaring at him for his decision. Under her gaze, he sunk a bit, making her lift her eyebrow.

"How was the trip?" Satoru hummed, darting his eyes between the father and son.

Cadmus gave a dejected look, tugging on the man's sleeve like a child. He then murmured something to the older man which caused his smile to fall. Still, the orange-haired man was given a pat on the back for his efforts before everyone went back inside for a meal. Mica and Verona were already waiting, and Meridian, apparently, chose not to show up at all, a point Mica all but scoffed at. Satoru took his seat, followed shortly by Cadmus, who practically clung to his side, eyes on the ground.

The lunch consisted of many different courses, everything presented perfectly. That was the thing that the (h/c) haired girl learned about the palace. Above all else, they made sure not a single thing was out of place - plants, meals, people, etc. She would admit it was pleasing to look at, especially since food always tasted better if it looked fancy. Suffice to say, she greatly enjoyed the meal, savoring every last bit of it.

"Please, eat a little more," Verona sighed, watching her son sitting there motionlessly, "You must have been running around all over yesterday."

"I'm fine."

Cadmus glanced up at the boy, opening his mouth to encourage him to eat as well, but, in the end, like always, nothing came out. Embarrassed, he covered his mouth with his hand and caved his shoulders in. Satoru gave him a look, unintentionally only making him feel worse. Regardless, if not him, someone else would step in to help the prince. He firmly believed that, and he wasn't wrong.

(Y/n) was the one that placed food in his mouth. Though Orion didn't eat much at all, when she was feeding him, somehow, it tricked him into eating more. He was flustered, of course, knowing everyone was watching him, but, still, it was (Y/n). Thus, of course he would do anything she wanted. In that situation, she wanted him to eat. She even went so far as to hand feed him, so, obviously, he played along, ears pink. Even when she stopped, he tried his best to eat as much as he could. All the while, everyone stared at him in shock.

"Is he really...eating that much?" Mica trembled, on the verge of tears.

"That's more than he used to eat in a week," Verona chuckled, clasping her hands together in gratitude.

"Atta boy," Satoru snickered.

Cadmus stared in awe. He couldn't believe that the tiny thing he held in his arms so long ago was able to do something like that. Shocked, memories flooded through his head about all the times he had stayed up so late just to make sure his baby wasn't choking to death. The fevers, the coughs, the flatlines - it just seemed so distant compared to the child in front of him then. That child was eating all by himself, even smiling. He could walk, he could talk, and he could, above all else, live.

Again, Cadmus was the only one that said nothing. He remained silent and withdrawn, even putting his own utensil down and ceasing to continue his meal. Orion glanced at him constantly, very obviously wanting - maybe even needing - his praise more than everyone else's. But, throughout the course of the meal, he said nothing and didn't continue his participation. Even as dessert came, he did not eat.

"Cucumbers!" the prince beamed, picking up one of the slices and instinctively moving to show his father.

(Y/n) didn't know why he wanted to show him. Maybe Cadmus, too, loved the vegetable like Orion, or, maybe he just wanted his enthusiasm to be matched. But the man wasn't looking at him. He was looking at the floor, as he always was in the presence of the royals. The girl had to watch as a flash of immense shame washed over Orion's face, the male slowly lowering the treat. No longer did he have the spark of joy over the vegetable. Instead, he didn't even attempt to eat it. He just placed it back down on the plate, remaining silent until the end of the meal before running off, Presley behind him. Cadmus, similarly, darted away in the opposite direction.

Pissed off beyond belief, the younger girl followed after him. After everything she had been trying to do to fix whatever messed up relationship they had, he wouldn't even look at his own flesh and blood? Though she had never had any faith in parental figures, for some reason, she thought Cadmus would be different. She thought he would at least love his child enough to give him some words of praise, no matter how lackluster or forced it felt. But, no, he couldn't do that for the purest thing in the world.

Immediately, as she reached his room, she forced the doors open, revealing a terrified Cadmus. He likely hadn't known she was following him, and was probably rightfully confused and scared at her sudden appearance. That was why he was holding up his arms defensively, squeezing his eyes shut. He was right to be afraid. A few thoughts swirled around in her head about what she could do to make him feel the same pain Orion felt, but the first was giving him a good slap to the face, of which she began moving closer to do.

"What is your problem?!" she screamed, stalking closer to the man, "Can't you see how much your son needs you?! You won't talk to him, you won't look at him, and you won't even stay in the same wing as him?! If it's going to be like that, why are you even here?!"

With every argument she made, the orange-haired man seemed to become even more weak. He slumped and flinched and trembled, having nothing to say in defense of himself. She was right. There was no reason for him to be inside the palace. At least Satoru was acting as a supportive figure for the prince. What was Cadmus doing? Nothing. He was just lingering around at a distance because he was too scared to stay and to leave.

"I'm...sorry," he whispered, a hiccup escaping his lips.

"I don't give a fuck what you have to say for yourself. No amount of apologies is going to make Orion feel better. He's just going to sit in his room for the rest of his life and wonder why his father hates him!"

"I'm not allowed...," the man trailed off, choking up too much to continue his sentence, ultimately having to say, "He's not mine."

"Of course he is! Just look at yourself. You've got the same looks, same personality, and the same fucking excuses! What? If you had a blood test to prove it, would you finally start looking at your own son?"

"No...I'm not saying he's not my son...I'm saying he's...not mine."

The girl's eyebrow twitched with annoyance. She might have understood what he meant, but it didn't make it any better. In fact, it probably made it worse. Everytime Orion entered the same room as him, the man was kneeling. At no point in time did he ever dare lift his head above the boy's. He lowered himself in any possible way as if he were a servant instead of a father. Vethela once again proved itself to be meaninglessly black or white, this time to the detriment of its most powerful figures.

To Cadmus, Orion was not Orion. Instead, he was the crown prince. He was the next king. He was the descendant of a goddess, not a mere mortal like him. And despite the falsities in that claim with Cadmus's phoenix blood and whatever Orion was, he had no knowledge of that. All he knew was that he and his son were different, and so he had no right to patronize him or shape any of his decisions. Thus, all that was left for him to do was to bow and follow his responsibilities as the Oracle.

"Right. Because you believe he is the property of the entire country and it's selfish for you to monopolize him."

"Not...exactly."

"For the love of fuck! Say what you mean!"

"I...can't...I-I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

Cadmus grabbed a pillow from the bed and held it in front of himself. He probably expected her to hit him until she was satisfied. Perhaps that was what he wanted. It could stand to reason he would want someone to punish him for his indecisiveness, but that just made her more angry at him. He had the heart to take a beating, but he didn't have the heart to tell his son he loved him? It seemed such a pointless sentiment.

"Are you jealous? Is that it? You can't be anything more than the Oracle, but your son gets to be the supreme ruler of one of the most powerful countries in the world?!"

"No!"

"Or is it that you're infuriated that your child turned out to be a weakling that can't even eat without encouragement?!"

"Of course not!"

"Then it's because he was dying, so you wanted to distance yourself from him to spare yourself the pain?!"

"I would never - "

"Then why?!" the (h/c) haired girl yelled, grabbing a pillow and starting to aggressively hit the man with it, "Why won't you even stand next to him?!"

Cadmus flinched as she began hitting him, even going so far as to run into the closet. She, of course, followed, fully intending on beating answers out of him. However, she was stopped immediately as she noted how he had decorated the closet. On the shelves, instead of clothes, he had carefully placed all kinds of trinkets with Orion's visage. The majority of them were small figurines of the boy. Others were posters, books, and, especially protected, was a childish painting with the boy's signature in the bottom right-hand corner.

"What...is this?" she questioned, finding most of her anger replaced with confusion.

"I-I'm sorry! I couldn't help myself! I-I-I just found these things out shopping and..."

"And you wanted them?"

The man blushed, unable to answer her. She gawked at the number of things he had relating to Orion, and, if he was staying in a guest room, no doubt his room back at the Sun God's temple was littered with countless more. It became clear that the man did love his child. He loved him more than words could express, but, for some reason, he was still so awkward, unable to connect with him.

"I love him," the man blushed, shyly hiding his face behind the pillow he was still clinging onto, "There's no way I couldn't, but she - "

Shutting his mouth quickly, the man trembled out of fear. His eyes shrunk and he brought his knees closer to his chest, shivering as though the closet had sunk into sub-zero temperatures. And yet, to calm himself down from whatever plagued him, he glanced at the closest image of his son, grabbing a picture of the boy and giving a longing sigh. How he could stare at the picture of the male but not have the strength to do it in-person was baffling. She could no longer say anything, just staring in shock.

"I tried," Cadmus mumbled, pressing his face into the pillow in defeat, "I've tried so many times to tell him. I promise. But I just can't say anything at all. O-Or we switch roles and he gets strange around me. He'll run away sometimes."

"You know, he doesn't hate you."

"I know. I wish he did. It'd make it easier."

"But, if it keeps going like this, he's just going to feel worse and worse. Don't you owe it to him to tell him how you feel?"

The man grumbled childishly, obviously hesitant to take the first step. It had probably been like that for years; a constant circle of longing, fear, and defeat. Both of them contributed to the cycle, too. Cadmus might not have been the only one at fault, but he had been the one to start the misunderstanding. Years ago, probably when Orion wasn't old enough to know better, he had given him the idea he didn't acknowledge him. There was one instance that came to mind, the girl taking in a deep breath.

"Why did you leave?"

"I wanted him to live."

"You mean you were looking for a way to make that happen."

"Yes."

She didn't understand how hard it was for Cadmus. Sure, he didn't marry for love, but, regardless, love came out of the union. The moment he heard the tiny baby crying for dear life, all of a sudden, he felt like he belonged somewhere. He finally had someone related to him, not through the sect, not through marriage, but through blood. No matter what, he finally had something that would always have an unconditional connection with him. And then the baby stopped crying. It stopped moving. It stopped breathing. It stopped having a pulse. Everything stopped.

Somehow, someway, they managed to get the baby to stay alive, but it was only barely. For the next few months, the man forced himself to stay awake, if only to try and buy a few more seconds of time to save him from his next inevitable attack. Of course, people were there specifically to watch over the precious royal heir, but how could he take his eyes off of his child for even a second? So many times, he lost consciousness, refusing to eat, refusing to sleep, and even refusing to talk to anyone else but his baby. All the while, Cadmus was only 15 years old.

"They said, if he was lucky, he'd die just before he became an adult," the man sniffled, pressing his face even more into the pillow, making his speech muffled, "No one knew why he was dying, so no one had a cure."

"If they couldn't do it, how could you be expected to?" the girl murmured, offering words of comfort to the man.

"But I had to do it. I had to."

(Y/n) sighed, knowing there was nothing that was going to change if it was up to Cadmus. He meant well, but he didn't come off that way. And, obviously, Orion wasn't going to make the first move either, but, perhaps he could be tricked into it. Like Presley said, they needed a push from somebody else to get them started. Considering the power inequality between the two, it had to be the prince that was tricked into it first.

"Do you want to talk to your son?"

"More than anything, but - "

"And do you have any other clothes?"

For a moment, the man was incredibly confused. He took his face away from the pillow and glanced down to his outfit. True, it wasn't necessarily casual wear. Cadmus, as the Oracle, was one of the very few that wore such traditional garbs on a regular basis. It was luxurious despite its nearly simple appearance, having a lot of sheen to it, but he had never seen it as distasteful. It was what all of the high-ranking paragons wore in the Sun God Sect. Orion wore a similar outfit, too. Though whether he chose to because he was the son of the Oracle or because he was a prince, the man could never quite figure out.

"Something casual? Like insanely casual."

"Oh," he paused, blushing, "No. I can go get some?"

"Listen carefully. You need a plain white shirt. Plain. And some plain black pants. Jeans are fine, too, but they must be as plain as humanly possible. Socks and shoes, too. The cheaper, the better."

"Is there a point to this?"

"You'll find out. You get a day to go get those things. Tomorrow at 10am, meet me in the greenhouse."

"What?! I can't possibly step foot in there! The greenhouse belongs to the third prince! Only the people he personally - "

"I can kidnap you there. Just ask Orion."

Cadmus gave a squeak of fear and became silent, nodding wordlessly. Though she was well aware there could be a chance he tried to flee, she would keep an eye on him. They both knew she wasn't kidding about abducting him. Regardless, she left with his promise that he would meet her there. She hoped deeply that for both his and Orion's sakes, he wouldn't break that promise.