Chapter 28 - Unexpected Visit

[Sylvia Indrath POV]

There I was, in that flowery and beautiful field inside the imaginary world of the "Great Sage", sitting on the grass, with my hands touching some flowers. There were countless of them, very colorful and of types I never thought I'd see, must be from some worlds he's been on. But why was I there?

Simple, I was seeing that being, the same one that could be considered the most brilliant mind to step foot in my world. He was training some techniques, using his current physique and mana core, in addition with spells he knew from other worlds. When I asked him why, he replied with...

"You never know when I'll be able to reach my former potential. Besides, I must know when my current body will be able to withstand my known spells... Damn, I don't even know whether some of them can be used or not, due to to the magical fundamentals of the world 11037..."

"So this is how you see my world? A number?" I asked as I saw him still training.

"It's not quite that. After a few centuries you can get bored to the point where your mind starts to categorize things, it all started with me calling the worlds by a number. No big deal." He answered me as targets appeared in midair.

"PRIMARY FIRE-WIND SLASH!" He exclaimed a spell and tried to cast it, it was a blade of wind that tried to multiply exponentially, its appearance resembled that of very intense flames, but in the middle of the way it disappeared as if it had never been cast.

"The magical fundamentals of World 11037 do not allow for this magic, or at least not in this way." The elegantly dressed demon, better known as Zalgnity, said as he approached us and sat next to me.

"Damn... One more for the unusable list." The great prodigy said, his left hand forming a fist coated in wind mana.

"WIND KRYSTAL ARROW!" He said one more spell, with the energy coating his fist concentrating in the palm of his hand and forming a small sphere, from which countless arrows made purely of wind mana appeared, which ended up hitting the targets.

"Well, based on your current level, I'd say that if you tried to use this spell outside, it would be at 30% of its full strength... Of course, that's if you want to create several arrows with this single spell. Creating just one, it would be like 80 % of original strength." Zalgnity said, it seemed that a glass full of wine appeared in his hands and he drank it.

"Better than nothing..." Luz said with a sigh and looked at me. "Any suggestions for skills I can train?"

"Motion spells would be nice. I mean, you already have great illusion power, but I've seen better."

"Better? Like what?" he asked me, with a raised eyebrow.

"Well... There is a spell that is original to a group known to me, the name of the spell is Mirage Walk. It makes the person able to move without being detected and thus confuse the enemy by creating illusions of themselves walking in a another direction." I replied smiling.

"Fine, I think I can try that... Or maybe I have a magic like that in my 'arsenal', but I don't remem-" Before he could continue speaking, we could hear someone calling him in the distance, forming a huge echo.

"Looks like it's your little sister this time." The demon said with a malicious laugh.

"Argh... Okay okay, apparently my real training for today is over." He said taking a long breath.

"It's too bad you can only come here when you pass out or when you go into a completely random sleep state." I sighed.

Luz apparently had possible ways to access this imaginary world. The first was to pass out, every time he passes out from pain or sleep depravity, he comes here no matter what. The second way was for him to sleep normally, but in that case it depended on total luck. And the third way was to die, according to Zalgnity, every time Luz is in the process of being dead, that's when he can come here if he so chooses. As if it were a light rest stop between a death and a rebirth.

He looked at us and approached me, I extended my hand to him and he kissed my palm in an elegant way.

"See ya."

"And let it be from sleeping... Seriously, forcing yourself to pass out by beating yourself up is kind of nerve-racking." I said, making the demon laugh and the young hero give an embarrassing cough.

Then the owner of that world pointed two fingers of his hand towards his head, and shoot a gust of wind at point blank range, "killing" him and thus making him wake up in the real world.

"You know, I never liked the fact that he had to experience death whenever he needed to get out of this world... I thought he just needed to think about getting out." I said looking at the flowers, which, because of Luz's absence, were in black and white, everything got a monochromatic filter.

"Well, the times you came to visit him, you were alive and forcing a mental connection, it was kind of like opening a door and leaving it always open, without ever closing it when you walk through it." Zalgnity said as he got up and we walked together to the castle at the center of that world.

Apparently, the castle was the only thing that remained untouched, despite the presence of the "Great Sage". There was life there, children, women, men, all in there existing, or I could say, the essences of all of them were being kept preserved, as was mine.

The place was bigger than it looked, rooms that would be impossible to exist, outside seats in indoor areas. If I saw this in my world, I would think it was an advanced and extremely complex level of Spatium aether magic, but it seems Luz had a term for that kind of place, a non-Euclidean place, or something in those words.

"Sylvia-san, how have you been?" I heard a little girl talking to me, she had a blue uniform, was blonde and looked like a child.

"It's okay, Lavenza. I'll just see how our prodigy is doing."

"Sometimes I envy you being his 'navigator' now, but that's okay, everyone has had their time." The little girl said as she walked to the opposite side.

Apparently, most of the essences here were from people who were important to Luz or who had helped them during their lives. The throne room, where I was going, was the place we could use to observe and know how he was doing, however, only allowed people could enter. Of course, if it didn't have those permissions, it would be a multi-voice mess, and I feel like that would drive the kid more insane than anything else.

Zalgnity was always allowed to be there, as he was the originator of Soul Of Corruption. I was allowed for being a dragon, knowing that world well, and for him wanting me to see how my daughter was living being Arthur's bond. Meanwhile, Sirius could be there too, but without Luz noticing it, apparently the fact that the current body was his own, gave him that permission no matter what.

"Apparently things are going a little differently than planned today." Sirius said as he sat on the floor, looking at the large window in the hall that served as a screen.

"Why do you say that?" I speak approaching.

"That human princess apparently begged to be with him on his 'officially' last day in Xyrus. So she was allowed to go to the Helstea manor with a guard."

"My god, she really is a yandere." Zalgnity said about Sirius' comment.

"I still don't quite understand what that term is." I said, and he, as usual, started to laugh.

"I already told you. It's something very difficult to explain, which depending on it can be good or bad. And since a princess is acting like that... There's a chance that she's very good in one way but terrible in another." The demon answered me while we watched what happened to Luz, through his vision.

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[Luz Leywin POV]

It had been two weeks since I started my little vacation, they were great and comfortable days compared to the months I spent being an adventurer. But still, they can be considered busy days, compared to an ordinary person. Staying day after day, interacting with the prince and princess of Sapin, occasionally interacting with the princess of Elenoir when I found her, and taking care of a little sister and the daughter of the owner of the house I live in. This is how I can sum up these two weeks.

Today, being the last day of vacation as "Luz Leywin", I planned to stay the whole day with my family, but something happened. Apparently Princess Kathyln kept begging me to stay with her today, but I refused, so much due to wanting to spend time with my parents... And so... she begged her mother, and now she was here, at the Helstea house, with one of her guards.

At the moment we were seated at one of the tables in the main room, Lilia on one side, Kathyln on the other, her guard standing beside her, my mother sitting across the table with Aunt Kabitha. Ellie wasn't here, because she was very sleepy and in bed, my father and Uncle Vince weren't here either, after all it was a Friday and they were working.

"This visit was really a surprise, Princess Kathyln. How have you been?" Tabitha was saying, with a small smile on her face.

"Oh... It's okay." She still answered with few words.

"That's good... My son hasn't been causing any problems, has he?" My mom said, kind of nervous that the princess is only there because of me.

Kathyln didn't respond by speaking, instead she looked at me and tugged my arm. She was now hugging my left arm tightly, like it was some of her stuffed animals. That action made me blush as Lilia watched me with her cheeks filling with air. My mother and aunt laughed a little at the scene. Kathyln's guard didn't even react to the scene, but I felt her sharp gaze as I watched her.

"Hmm... He didn't tell us how things were there... Could you?" Lilia asked, I felt a jealous voice coming from her.

"From the moments when... He stayed with me. We just talked and walked around the garden..." Kathyln said without expressing so many emotions, but her cheeks flushed, very slightly, still hugging me.

The atmosphere seemed to get more and more tense for me, with Lilia and Kathyln glaring at each other a little. So I had a great idea to get their attention off things like that.

"Hey... Kath... How about we go to the back garden and you watch me purify my mana core? You said before that you find it interesting when I use magic." I tried to give a good option to get out of this problem. Kathyln seemed to smile and agreed with the option, but I could still feel Lilia's gaze boring into me.

"Lilia, do you want to come with us? You also need to be concentrating to build your mana core, don't you?" I asked looking at her. She let out a long breath and agreed with me.

So me, Kathyln, and Lilia made our way to the garden behind the house, with Kath's guard following to keep an eye on us. She really was weird... No. It wasn't strange, it was familiar. That's when I noticed that guard was similar to Kathyln in the sense that they didn't show any expression, other than a frosty look.

Arriving I activated my first phase, creating a mini blizzard that covered the entire lawn with snow. With that I sat down on the ground, the snow made everything more comfortable, like a huge pillow. Sitting in a meditation position, I saw Lilia approaching to my side and... Kath too?

"Kathyln, you don't have a core yet, remember?" I spoke still confused, but soon I could finally hear her guard's voice.

"I've been training her. She should be able to have a core around age 11 if my calculations are correct." Her voice was icy as was her look and appearance, with platinum hair and pale skin.

"Oooh! Got it now, thank you so much miss..... Uh.. What's your name?" I realized now that I didn't even know the name of the princess' guard/instructor.

"They call me by the codename Zero." she said it very directly.

"I get it, you're the type who likes to be called by nicknames. Interesting."

"So you like it too when I call you Lux?" Lilia said in a teasing voice.

"Hmm.. My mom also refers to him as Lux" Kathyln said.

"Fine. It's literally changing the final letter of my first name. So... Easy" I answered them.

With everything already arranged and explained, we began to meditate. My eyes were completely closed, making me feel other things. On my left side was Lilia, I could feel her trying to suck the mana around her while the place where her core would be formed had a kind of vortex. On my right side was the princess, she would have something similar, but much more refined.

I could feel like the guard was watching us, I tried to see her core while meditating, but I ended up feeling a strong pain that I could bear by straining my jaw a lot. What stage was that woman in?

Well, by using an codename, she could be an advanced mage, who else would the king and queen accept as their daughter's guardian? At least I could tell which mana she used the most, it was ice mana.

The hours went by, Lilia decided to stop building her mana core for today and went into the house, Kathyln also had the same idea, but decided to stay there, watching me, Zero was also there watching me carefully, since I was on the princess's side. But this is all just a guess, because I kept my eyes closed, being able to see only the shadows of essences they emitted.

I was awakened from my state of concentration by my mother, I opened my eyes and saw that she had brought some plates of food for me, Kathyln and Zero. I thanked her and she returned to the house.

With my eyes open I noticed something. While I was meditating, my legs felt like they were covered in a thin layer of ice. It should be because I'm meditating with the first active phase. Now I understood why the guard was looking more at me than the princess, maybe she thought the ice was trying to consume me, but it did nothing for her real focus of protection being the princess.

"Could you get up? I'd like to tell you something." Zero said out of the blue when I finished feeding.

"Could you tell me what it is?" I said getting up and adjusting my shorts which were full of snow.

Before I knew it, I was surprised by a huge chunk of ice being thrown at me, I managed to dodge it just a little, but it had cut my cheek making a light trickle of blood appear.

"V-Varay?!?" Kathylin exclaimed in shock at what the guard had done, but seemed not to be heard.

The guard continued to attack me with several ice stones, which were accelerating more in speed. Her face was still expressionless, causing me to let out a sigh and my hands to glow blue flames.

"Ice Pillar!" I activated an ice spell, creating from the snow on the ground, a great pillar of ice that served as my shield, I pull Kathyln behind me. It looked like her ice shots were doing quite a bit of damage to the pillar.

"What the fuck!!" I cursed loudly not understanding what was happening, why did she want to attack me out of nowhere?!

I heard her chuckling a little and deactivating the spells. "Excuse the fear, princess. The king told me to attack him at a completely random moment to see the reflections and how he would react." she gave her a sly smile.

"Wait... What?!? What the fuck is Blaine thinking asking that?! And you still obey him???"

"He's the king, I'm his Lancer, I have to obey faithfully... And since that doesn't do any real harm to any of the kingdoms. I don't see a problem. As for why he asked... I don't even know. Maybe he wants to see how 'special' you are." She answered me still in that cold voice, watching me and analyzing as I deactivate my Ice Pillar completely.

"Argh! Is that what you came here for?! Testing me before I disappeared from your trail for a while?!" I said, already very angry.

"N-no! L-luz! I didn't know that... P-please..." Kathyln said from behind me, I didn't have to turn around to know she was starting to cry.

I felt her hugging me tight from behind. "D-don't blame me for something... that my dad does..." that slowly made me calm down.

"Relax... I would never blame you.. I said it on the spur of the moment..." I said while patting her head.

"It's 90% your father fault and 10% hers." I said, referring to Varay.

After that, there was a huge silence, I continued to see the guard's features, it was completely neutral. She didn't even care what she did... Apparently Alduin was sometimes right to hate humans... I can't blame him.

"I want to go out..." Kathyln said still hugging me. "Today was supposed to be a farewell day and good luck for your trip... But... My coming ended up ruining everything..."

"Hey... Relax Kath... It's okay, you can stay here a little long-" I was interrupted with a tighter hug she gave me.

"No... I'm leaving now... I don't want to get in the way... See you in... Any next visit?" she looked at me, she was very upset.

"You're going to get a mana core, aren't you?... So at the very latest, we can see each other at Xyrus Academy, when you go to study there..." I told her, smiling and kissing her forehead, she smiled a little.

Soon the princess and her guard were leaving the house, while my mother, aunt and close friend arrived in the back garden.

"What happened? I had heard some attack noises and I thought it was just training... But... We saw the princess, she looked sad..." Tabitha said looking at me.

"No big deal... Her guard did something that upset her to the point of wanting to go home... Don't worry..." I replied letting out a long sigh, now it was time to spend time with my family. Because tomorrow will be the day I had for Kaspian's Niece.

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[Varay Aurae POV]

After we got out of the carriage and entered the Glayder residence, Princess Kathyln turned away from me and seemed to head towards her room. Meanwhile, I went to the king's room.

He was there with the Queen, both of them talking to each other, until they saw me coming in. They seemed surprised, as we were supposed to arrive at night, and now it was 4 hours earlier than expected.

"Zero, why did you arrive so early? Did something happen?" Queen Priscilla asked

Then I bowed, giving the information about what had happened. Their features turned negative. They both looked annoyed, but the king's gaze went to the door behind me, and the queen's gaze went to her husband.

"Our daughter really did something wrong huh? Deciding to leave so early was silly." The king said, still looking at the door.

"S-silly?!? You ordered Zero to attack the boy our daughter likes! And you say it's silly?!?!" the queen exclaimed.

"She tested his reflexes. Just that, if this child, with so much power at this age, isn't in my army, then at least he needs to show human superiorit-" The king was soon interrupted by a slap from the queen.

"Where is she?" she asked looking at me.

"I saw her heading towards the bedrooms... She could be with her brother or in her room." I answered her and soon her footsteps had a loud noise as she was walking towards the door to leave the place.

"...Varay, I know that you, along with Bairon, have always shown total fidelity to what the king commands... So I know, rightly... Blaine, you are the total culprit of this fiasco... If our daughter starts hating you for it... Suffer the consequences without complaining." The queen said this annoyed with the situation still and left the room.

The king took a long breath and sat on top of his table. "She doesn't really understand anything..."

Soon the king asked me to go out, and I did it. I looked a little at the ceiling in the hallway and got caught up in some thoughts.

"That boy... Only his existence influences the princess's behavior to that extent... Actually, Bairon was right when he told me about... Him... That child is... A problem even for a Lance..." I thought to myself and walked to the training room, returning to my roles.

{A/N: And that was a "normal friday" XD}