Page 87

Late Morning - Late Spring : Kingdom of Zan x Kaelallan

*CRUNCH* The brittle ground shattered as I finally pinned Ilios to the ground.

"Haah.. haah... I.. win..." After nearly 3 hours of an aggressive game of tag, I had finally managed to come out on top, but I felt exhausted.

*Thud* Collapsing to the ground next to Ilios, I glanced over to see him equally exhausted.

"Hah-hah-hah-hah…" He was panting quite heavily.

"You alright buddy? I didn't push you too much, did I?"

"Hah-hah.. woof!" He gave a cheerful bark as he rolled over and crawled next to me.

"Haha, good…" -I knew he got faster.. but I didn't think it was to that extent…-

*thump* *thump* *thump* As I laid there, some heavy footsteps came up from behind me. "How did you two go at that for 3 whole hours?" After Father finished talking with the halfie, he just sat down, not far away, and watched as Ilios and I played without any regard for our surroundings.

"Haha.. it's all thanks to a wonderful thing called adrenaline…"

"A..drena..line?" He tilted his head as he sounded it out.

"It's basically what makes you hyped up and feel like you could conquer the world."

"Ah! You mean fighting spirit?"

Seeing his enthusiasm, I couldn't bring myself to say no. "Kind of…" -It's not quite the same, but it's close enough.- "Anyways, did you get any good information out of that guy?"

His previously enthusiastic smile turned serious the second I asked. "Actually, yeah. He was pretty high up the chain of command so he could call out the big shots by name. The only bad part is that now I need to fly him all the way to a space rune to get to Bahamut again."

-Ah right.. I nearly forgot about those.- "So what will Bahamut do once they get evidence connecting the Tower to the rebellion? Will they just send reinforcements to help us wreck their headquarters?"

"Pft-haha! Not quite." Father seemed to think my assumption was funny. "Bahamut is incomparably stronger and smarter than you think, Vasilias. They will simply cleanse the Tower and all its connections on their own." He spoke with an out-of-place pride.

But I was too preoccupied to think much of it. -If they'll do it all on their own, does that mean my job is done?- "How sure are you that the halfie will be enough evidence?"

"Extremely." His voice was heavy and decisive. "Although I will still need to meet with the elders to explain everything, even if they don't believe that guy's word, they can just put him under a truth oath to check if he's lying."

-So I was right to assume lie detection magic exists.

..- Although I found it fascinating and really wanted to theorize about how it worked, I shook my head a bit to keep myself from getting distracted.

"So, since Bahamut will handle everything once you report everything, does that mean we're going home when you get back? "

"Hm?" He tilted his head with a look of curiosity and confusion. "Do you not like Kaelallan?"

Realizing my true intention had already slipped out, I just told the truth.

"Well.. it is a little stuffy…" A gave him an awkward smile before coating it with some sugar.

"I'd also just rather spend my time with Mother or watching over Krystallo.

" -There's only so much I can gain from staying in Kaelallan for much longer… -

Giving an awkward glance at Father, I expected him to look a little disappointed, but he seemed to have a joyful memory on his mind instead. "Haha, in that case, we will head back as soon as we can."

-Let's gooo!!- "So when are you going to leave?" I didn't even bother to hide my excitement at that point.

"Haha, well, I will leave here in a moment." He seemed to be enjoying the warm atmosphere. "I don't want to procrastinate and let the tower make more advances on Kaelallan. Plus, I can't let you get implicated more than you already have."

"Haha, you don't need to worry about that, Father." My excitement quickly shifted to confidence.

"Hm? What do you mean? I know you're strong but-"

"Father, I just one-sidedly destroyed 9 Nation Ranks, and 3 halfies, one of which was over 400 years old, and their mutilated bodies on the road over there are the evidence. If that doesn't send a message to the Tower, I don't know what will."

Father's eyes slowly widened.

It felt a little nice to brag a little. "If the tower seriously sends more people after losing that badly, I might as well waltz into their headquarters myself since it seems their leader is a toddler." I held my head high as I continued to think about the whole situation.

Losing 9 normal Nation ranks alone was already a ridiculous loss, but with the addition of the three half-breeds well outside the realm of humanity, the Tower would be stupid to not hesitate and send more people toward an unknown enemy.

-But regardless, it makes me wonder why the Tower wants Kaelallan so badly… -

A few seconds later, Father finally let out a deep breath. "Haah…" His look of shock turned warm again. "In that case, I can leave without worry.. just…" His look had a trace of worry in it. "If not for me, please don't do anything rash like that for your Mother…"

-Does he really still feel guilty?- "You should know me by now, Father." I gave him a confident look. "I don't act on things unless I'm confident about the outcome."

"Haah, I know... You're really smart and freakishly strong, but your mother and I can't help but worry sometimes. Just.. be careful." He was quick to try and suppress the lingering worry with a warm smile again.

I couldn't help but smile back. "I will, as long as you promise me you'll be safe as well. If something happens that could put your life at risk, just drop the halfie and run."

"Haha, don't worry. Even if the tower does learn about this incident, by the time they could get a message to Bahamut, it'd be too late. In any case, I'll be extra careful if it eases your worries."

Before turning to the halfie behind him, he flashed me a caring look that reminded me of Mother. -Maybe.. He'll eventually come around…- "If you get hurt even after promising, I won't forgive you!"

He paused for a moment before letting out a lighthearted chuckle and walking toward the halfie who had changed to his humanoid form.

"Vasilias.. I know you won't understand why I'm saying this, but thank you.

" Father glanced at me with a thankful expression while spreading his wings.

"Also.. thank you for being lenient with me… "

*Fwoosh* Before giving me a chance to respond, he flapped his wings and threw himself into the air with a slightly embarrassed look on his face.

It made me want to laugh, but instead, I just sat there and watched as he steadily flew back over the horizon again.

"Haah..." -The first step toward fixing something is finding out what's wrong with it.

- I felt a little proud seeing Father's prideful demeanor improving, but that only lasted so long.

"Uwaahh…" A deep yawn escaped my body before I noticed how tired I was.

-Well, my job here is done… I guess it's time to head back…- Glancing over at Ilios, I noticed he was about to fall asleep as well.

"Let's go back to Kaelallan so we can nap, alright?" Lowering my wing to make a little ramp, I let Ilios up onto my back where he promptly laid back down. "I'll make it a quick trip so hold on."

Seeing him nod and use his mana to cling to me, I wasted no time blasting the thrusters and hurling us both over the horizon. *FWOOOOSH*

Thankfully, after Ilios's growth spurt, he could handle the ridiculous acceleration of my thruster magic comfortably, letting us make it back to Kaelallan in a matter of minutes. -I'm here already?-

Looking down at the city, I felt a bit too tired and lazy to take the proper route through the gate and just adjusted my speed and changed to my humanoid form while still in the air. -I'll have to repair the courtyard but I'm sure it'll be fine…-

"Ilios, can you shrink down and brace yourself in my arms?" Reaching back for him, I used my aura to pull him into my grasp, where I securely held onto him. "Be sure to brace yourself."

Seeing the courtyard in front of the palace quickly approaching, I used thruster magic to slow us down well below Mach. -Eh, that's probably enough.-

*Fwooosh* We zipped over the city's outskirts in a flash before the stone courtyard eventually met my feet. *CRACKKLEE* The courtyard caved in and shattered for a few dozen meters in all directions, even after using mana to lessen the impact.

*crunch* Casually crushing a piece of rubble into power as I stood up, I quickly let Ilios down and brushed the dust off my pants.

-Wow.. My legs really handled that well…

- I hit the ground far harder than I had expected, but it was a pleasing surprise to find that I didn't break or even strain anything.

-Well, no reason to complain…- Before finally walking toward the palace, I used some earth magic to level the walkway again and help make repairing it a bit easier. -Sorry in advance, Oliver!-

Finally turning toward the palace, I saw a middle-aged maid staring at me with a look of awe that could be mistaken for worship. I called out to her as I walked toward the door to the Palace. "Miss?"

"Y..yes?!" She jolted and straightened up as soon as she noticed I asked her something.

"Where is Oliver right now?"

"T-the lord is in his room, young master." She threw herself into a bow as I nonchalantly walked by.

-Am I really just imagining that look of reverence I see in some people?- I gave it a quick thought before simply shaking it off my mind. -It's probably just my imagination…- "Thanks, miss."

Finally walking inside, I spread out my aura as far as I could and quickly sensed where Oliver was, but he was laying in bed, dead asleep.

-If he's napping, I'll just go to Helen…- Although I needed to talk with him fairly urgently, I knew firsthand how aggravating it was to be woken up during a good nap.

Scanning around the rest of the palace as I walked around, I finally sensed Helen's aura on the edge of mine and made my way to what I assumed was her office. -Is she having a meeting?- As I got closer, I could sense another aura.

-They're quite strong…- Their aura was fairly impressive, but from what I could tell, they were still rapidly absorbing more. -Who could that be?- Not thinking much about it, I probed their aura with mine to see a short elven woman sitting on a couch. -An elf, huh?-

Finally making it to her office after pulling back my aura some, I reached for the doorknob.

*vwoom-BANG*