Four days had passed since Jason had attended the gathering that resulted in the loose alliance.
This might have been partially due to his proposal of translating the foreign race's manuals the big clans had collected after the Great Argos war had ended, but that was not important.
There were multiple other, stronger techniques most big clans had already translated to some extent.
Nevertheless, Jason's offer had been just too good to ignore.
Thinking that their technique was the best, everyone agreed to let Jason translate it.
During the last four days, he hadn't slept much, and it was fortunate that Artemis was able to look after Anna to some extent.
Playing around and feeding her was possible for Artemis, only changing her diapers was something Jason had to do.
Anna was trying to speak proper words and sentences every day, but she was only a year old.
Thus it would take some time before her vocal cords would be properly developed, allowing her to speak smoothly.
As long as there was nothing extremely important she wished to communicate, she would remain silent.
It was not like Anna had any other choice either way.
From the looks of it, Anna was playful at some times and serious at others.
Thus, Jason had problems figuring out what was going on with the little baby girl.
Treating her like a normal baby was not possible for him but neither was acting like she was a fully grown adult.
Sometimes he thought that forcing the big clans into a loose alliance was easier than trying to foster Anna, which was ridiculous in his opinion.
However, now that he had finished the last translation of the three dozen manuals he had received, everything would be fine.
It astonished him that no two manuals had been the same, but Jason knew that nobody had wanted to waste the time to talk with each other in order to collude and try to make the best use of his proposal.
All of them had just hastily scampered towards him to ensure that they got their manuals translated.
Other than that, they hadn't transmitted their thoughts to others by using a paper-thin thread of mana.
Because of that, he was astonished by the final result.
Translating the books hadn't been an issue for Jason and he had kept his end of the bargain by delivering the first few pages after the fourth day had passed.
Once that was completed, Jason had finally time for himself, and what he'd wanted to do.
He rested for the rest of the day while trying to process the information he had received from the manuals, and more importantly from the day of the gathering wherein Nathan Silver, the patriarch of the heaven's eyes sect had acted weirdly.
'Father had said that some race had sacrificed mother by offering her to the Celestia race as a tribute? He hadn't mentioned a word about my grandparents, but Nathan's behavior was weird...he was just too flustered and uncomfortable.
Did he have something to do with my mother being sacrificed to the Celestia race, or did something else happen?'
There were too many things he didn't know, hence Jason decided to figure out the answer by confronting the person involved!
It was one day later that Jason made an appointment with Nathan Silver.
The next day, he found himself in a simple room, without too much grandeur or luxurious furniture.
Nathan Silver hadn't bothered about decorating the room he had been temporarily assigned for the time the gathering of big clans and sects would be held.
However, right now he felt uncomfortable while being eyed intently by Jason, who was in fact Mina's son!
'What kind of karma is that?' He lamented in his mind, trying to continue looking at Jason impassively.
"I can guess why you wanted to meet me! Feel free to ask me anything. I will do my best to answer thoroughly...if I know the answer that is! There is nothing I can tell you about the time after Mina and her parents, Joel and Nina Stella left us!"
Jason was surprised to hear the name of his grandparents for the first time, but instead of showing that, he simply nodded his head.
'He has already built up a defense!'
"I had already expected that, but that's not something that concerns me. If possible, I would like to know more about my mother's past, her mana eyes, and that of my grandparents too. I never met my grandparents, but if they were members of the heaven's eyes sect, they should have had mana eyes too!"
Nathan almost sighed in relief, barely holding himself back from acting as if he was not glad that Jason didn't want to probe further about the reason his mother and grandparents left the Heaven eyes sect.
However, at that moment, a sudden thought emerged in his mind.
'Why am I even nervous? It's not like Jason can do anything to me, even if he were to find out the truth. Furthermore, Jason is obviously alive despite what I have done...WAIT...HOW is Jason here? He is less than 20 years old That doesn't...fit'
Nathan's body was suddenly covered in goosebumps, trying to make sense of what he was missing out on.
Looking straight into Jason's golden-silverish eyes that didn't reflect any emotions, Nathan suppressed his desire to flinch as he took a deep breath.
"To be honest, your entire family was blessed with the most powerful mana eyes I've ever seen. It is a secret, not many humans know of.
Despite being a mutation, mana eyes are unique. There are not only multiple stages mana eyes can have by luck, but they can undergo several mutations, and be enhanced through several other means such as unique soulbonds too!
My mana eyes are natural mutations that I received upon birth and my soulbond's affinity and other characteristics mutated them, protecting me from external harm. It's not a strong protection layer, but you must have noticed it already!
Your mother and grandparents are different from me! Both generations received their mana eyes from the earlier generation that had awoken them naturally."
Nathan had to stop for a moment to take a deep breath. He was trying to provide as much information as possible to Jason, so as to distract him from noticing his own shocked expression, let alone ask about the reason for them to leave the heaven's eyes sect.
'Jason's birth should have happened after I sold off Mina and her parents to the Heva race! How can he possibly be here??
Despite Nathan's efforts to conceal his nervousness, Jason noticed it. Yet, instead of probing into it further, he remained calm and waited for Nathan to continue speaking.
"Your great grandfather from one side and great grandmother from the other side married someone without mana eyes, both your grandfather and grandmother inherited them! Unexpectedly, your great grandfather had been trying to strengthen his weak mana eyes by binding certain soulbonds to him.
This worked, but unfortunately in an opposite way, causing his mana eyes to degenerate.
Your grandfather inherited the degenerated mana eyes that underwent a mutation! The degenerated mana eyes turned into mutated mana eyes that were golden, and stronger than every kind of mana eyes we had seen until your mother had been born.
Meanwhile, your grandmother had unique mana eyes too, but they didn't mutate and she had simply bound a special beast that she had rescued.
This had allowed her eyes to be enhanced to a similar degree as your grandfather had. Everyone was jealous of them.
Yet, when your mother was born, we weren't even able to measure what kind of stage her mana eyes had reached. As she belonged to the third generation of a family with mana eyes that had received several enhancements from different soulbonds and one mutation, Mina had inherited the genes of both sides of her family.
As such, her mana eyes had become much stronger than her parents, let alone grandparents!
In the end, we couldn't call them mana eyes anymore because it was not as simple as that.
Thus, your mother had called them 'Emperor eyes', and it looks like you've received them too!"
__________________