The old man responded. " As the prince said, he might just be a reincarnation. Sometimes the words are exactly what they mean."

The old man looked at the young prince in the crib, who is now wide awake, probably due to the rampaging of the queen. The old man once again went close to the crib, while producing a brand new cane out of nowhere again. He looked back at the queen, and she responded with a nod.

The old man took the prince into his arms. Arata finding himself in the hands of an old wrinkly man, scrunched up his face a little and thought [why is this old potato carrying me!]

"Ah, now that I look closer, he feels more like you, your majesty."

Aster was a bit happy hearing that, and while saying that, he handed him back to Wendy, who immediately changed his diaper and gave him to Aster. Although Arata had some indescribable feelings when Wendy changed his diaper, he is able to hold on and was happy, whether it is Aster or Wendy that carried him.

Looking at that, the old man said in a quiet voice, so the queen won't hear, "Although he looks exactly like Lord Westwind now that he is in your arms."

When the queen turned her head at that, the old man immediately continued with his analysis " So we have two possibilities, either take it as the young prince is a reincarnate, or he might be holding the blessing of Gana[1]. I think either of those is fine since the prince is healthy"

The queen did not think it is fine to leave it at that. Firstly she would never leave anything to chance without trying all she can do to accommodate her son. Second, reincarnation is never recorded in not just the kingdom of Summers Bloom but the whole of Gondwana[2]. There are instances of summons from another world, but never an incarnation.

Seeing the worry in the queen's eyes, the old man suggested, "We can call Monore Yababa."

The queen thought for a moment and nodded her head. The old man looked up, and a shadow dropped from the roof. The shadow walked and kneeled in front of the queen, who promptly gave a note to the shadow. The shadow immediately vanished.

After a couple of minutes, the shadow reappeared in the hall, holding an old fat woman. Monore Yababa jumped out of the shadow's support and walked to the queen, and bowed.

Once the Yababa heard what the young prince did and the request of the queen to solve this conundrum, she spoke in her oddly young girls voice, "Your majesty, as the old Flax said, we have but these two possibilities, and we can do nothing about it in either of the cases. All I can provide is to know which of the case is affecting the prince."

The queen somewhat expected this the moment she heard Old Flax, but she can leave no stone unturned when it concerns her son.

"Yababa, please do check the prince."

Yababa bowed and took a multi-colored oval-shaped ore called Thothchromium. This ore is supposed to measure the inherent intellect of a person and if he possesses the blessing of Gana.

The stone floated to the young prince in the hands of Aster. Seeing the stone coming closer to him, Arata hugged his mother, facing away from the stone. The stone stopped a millimeter away from Arata's back of the head and started rotating and producing different hues in short spans.

After the stone stopped, Yababa retrieved it and said "The prince does have potential but does not possess neither the knowledge nor the blessing of Gana"

Hearing that the old man Flax and Wendy were a bit disappointed while the Aster is relieved. Flax and Wendy wanted the young lord to be a genius for the development of the house of Anthurium, but Aster wished a peaceful life for her son, which would be difficult to have with the blessing of Gana. Knowledge could be a curse.

Yababa then took an hourglass containing the sands of Gaia. Once the hourglass finished its rotation near to Arata's head, Yababa retrieved the hourglass and looked at it.

The hourglass top is filled with unvarying sand with a crack visible. Yababa looked at the queen and said, "My queen, I believe the young prince is not a reincarnation but a broken soul."

Arata's room went silent like a graveyard, and the queen's heartbeat skipped.

peral

[1] Gana is god knowledge in this world

[2] Gondwana is like earth for the people in this world

Wo, that was a long chapter, thanks for reading everyone!

Finally we know the family name of the old man- Flax; but what could be his given name?