Chapter 85: A Faint Glimpse

Giliath demands your power stones!

*

"Is that really you, Sherryl?", Albert asked once more, still in shock as he stared at the lilac haired girl.

Sherryl nodded and revealed a smile seeing the Second Prince of Remiferia before her.

"It is, Big Brother Bear. I know it's been a couple years since Her Highness's passing, but it looks like you have been doing well despite the loss.", Sherryl replied happily. "As you can see, I was one of the rescued. Courtesy of Big Brother Naoto.", Sherryl said, explaining to Albert.

So it looks like Sherryl did have some connection to the Bartholomeus House after all. She probably wasn't a noble herself, but her family probably worked there for a period of time?

Albert then shifted his eyes back to me, only to give me a deep bow, which surprised not only us, but the couple of other prestigious fellows sitting at the rest of the table beside Albert and Vita.

"Thank you for rescuing Sherryl, Your Highness. Once we have learned one of the Sky siblings was kidnapped, we have divvied up some of our time to investigate the cause, but we couldn't find any valid evidence. To think she would be taken by those cultists. I am sure the rest of Sherryl's family will be ecstatic to hear that Sherryl is still alive.", Albert said, thanking me with a bow.

"It was no problem, Your highness. It looks like Sherryl here does have some connection to your House, I take it?", I decided to ask.

Albert quickly nodded his head.

"That's right. Even though the Sky family lived in Erebonia, Sherryl's mother found work as one of the Palace Maids for the first Princess. So we would see both Sherryl and Jillian would get acquainted with her. We would see each other from time to time. Enough to where Sherryl would come to address me like that.", Albert explained. This caused Sherryl to giggle.

"See, Big Brother Naoto? Me signing up to become your own maid wasn't just a baseless idea.", Sherryl said, looking my way.

"I didn't think you would come from a family of maids, Sherryl.", I replied back.

"It looks like you have already decided on this, Sherryl. Well, considering that His Highness was the one to rescue you, I am not against this. Please look after Sherryl, Your Highness Naoto.", Albert said, proceeding to sit back down in his chair.

Seeing this, I saw three other figures beside Prince Albert, Vita, and Tamamo. One appeared to be an older sibling of Prince Albert, who was likely the Crown Prince of he Bartholomeus House. Last time I remember, he was set to die from being poisoned in a few years, wasn't he? It was then the second prince, Prince Albert would assume the throne. Beside the Crown Prince were two much older people, which I could only assume were the current

King and Queen of Remiferia.

"Well with that out of the way, it is a pleasure to meet you, Your Majesties.", I said, doing another bow.

"Likewise, Heir to the Liberlian Throne. It is unusual for us to meet in this manner, but I give you my heartfelt thanks for seeing into this matter. This evidence should be enough for our fellow countries to take action against these cultists. I will personally see to it.", The King of Remiferia said, ensuring us.

"Thank you, Your Majesty. Once we settle down from our end, I'll make sure to bring the Sky family to the Bartholomeus House.", I responded, thanking the King of Remiferia

"We would appreciate that.", The Queen said, with a smile.

"It looks like you got rather acquainted with Vita too, so I'm glad she was well received.", I continued to say with a smile.

"Hmph, now you remember I'm still here. Who was it that established this connection from our end?", Vita retorted me.

"Ouch.", Lechter replied.

"I don't need to hear that from you, Lechter.", I said, glancing my eyes at him.

"Well, after learning that Vita was your messenger, it's not like we could refuse her.", The King calmly said.

"Haha. And well, Vita since we have finished establishing a connection what do want to do from here, Vita? Will you return to the village?", I decided to ask.

"Hmm, I am not sure. Last time I checked in with Grandmother was that she was planning something rather big, but wouldn't give much detail about it. I might stay here for a bit before finding someplace next to continue our training.", Vita said, unsure.

"Hmm, why not join us then? At our current rate, we'll be busy for the next half year at least. Plus I'm sure Tama wants to return to my side. Isn't that right, Tama?", I said, looking at the slightly bigger three tailed fox. The moment Tamamo heard that, her tails started to spin happily.

"Kyuuu!", Tamamo replied happily.

"Head to where you're at...But with such a long distance, I feel I'm a bit rusty to get it down right.", Vita replied a bit hesitant.

"You've done long distance travelling like this before, right? I'm sure you'll do fine. You've received as much training from Rose as I did after all.", I said,, reassuring Vita.

"Then I'll give it a shot.", Vita said before standing up from the chair. She then turned backwards from our view, and gave a bow to the members of the Bartholomeus House.

"Thank you for looking after me during my stay here, Your Majesties. It looks like I'll be taking my leave after all.", Vita said, saying her goodbye.

Among the few, Albert became confused.

"Guess that's that, but you say you'll be heading to His Highness, and His Highness is currently sailing in Calvardian waters...?", Prince Albert asked, confused.

Hearing that, Vita looked down at Tama, only to look back up.

"Care to see a magic trick?", Vita asked, which caused Tamamo to respond by releasing her mana, creating a silver glow. Seeing this, the House members turned wide in shock.

They couldn't even say anything before Vita's figure began to distort into an illusion of sorts. Vita's body flickered more and more out of existence, before Vita vanished from sight, along with Tamamo.

At the same time, the phantasmal window cracked and vanished, causing the atmosphere to return to normal. The King and Queen quickly returned to normal, only to look at Prince Albert.

"You do your best to maintain that connection you have with Liberl's, Heir. Albert. It is clear that boy is not normal.", The King said in a serious tone. "That goes the same for you.", The King said, only to look at Prince Albert and the Crown Prince.

"Yes, Lord Father.", Prince Albert said, while the Crown Prince nodded his head.

Meanwhile, back at the cruise ship, only a couple moments have passed since my spell ended. The six people beside me remained silent, as if they were waiting for something to happen.

On the deck nearby, they saw an azure magic circle appear not far away. Vita and Tamamo appeared on the cruise ship after Vita finished casting her teleportation spell. It was Tamamo who did the illusion part though.

"Hey there you guys.", Vita replied seeing the seven of us. "This really is a party huh?", Vita said, gazing at us.

"You know it.", Lechter immediately replied after Vita said that. I ignored Lechter and saw Vita and Tamamo in front of us. Tamamo immediately saw me and vanished from sight, activating her Quick Step. I could feel Tamamo quickly enter my embrace.

"Kyuuu!", Tamamo replied happily, letting her tails swing.

"It really has been a while, Tama. Thank you for looking after her, Vita.", I said, thanking Vita.

"It wasn't a problem, Naoto. It's been a while since we've seen each other in person too like this. You're taller now.", Vita replied with a smile.

Vita was fifteen now, but I was nine. She was of course still taller than me but I still had several years to grow.

"Haha, likewise. It looks like your spell was a success."

"Yeah. Guess I'll be tagging along for now you guys.", Vita said, saying hello.

"I still can't believe what I'm witnessing right now.", Van said, still in shock.

"It is valid to be in disbelief. Not many believe in the concept of Magic.', Tio explained. Hearing Tio say that, Vita smiled at the small blue haired girl.

"Well aren't you a smart one? You've really gathered an exceptional group huh? I can feel faint bloodlust too.", Vita said, taking a good look at us.

"Sorry...", Ennea said apologetically.

"Hehe, I mean no harm saying that. So what's the game plan now?", Vita decided to ask.

"We are heading to Nemeth Island. Since we have been cruising for a few hours, it'll be another two and a half days.", Rufus said to Vita.

"Are we really going to spend the next half a year at this place, Big Brother? I mean, it is a resort island which sounds really fun, but I can't see us spending that long even if we do find a cult base there.", Sherryl asked with wonder.

"Mmm, it does sound like something needs to happen.", Tio said, nodding her head.

"Well, it's just a rough estimate. But we are not in a rush so we can enjoy are time at the island resort.", I said, giving a rough estimate. We essentially need to just wait until Renne is taken to this place and have some time pass.

"Music to my ears.", Lechter said, beginning to whistle as he placed his arms behind his head.

"I'm game too.", Van said nodding his head.

"Hmm, what is the name of this plan?", Rufus decided to ask. Hearing that, I smiled at him before answering.

"Operation Party Crash.", I simply answered. And yet, hearing this name, Sherryl giggled.

"It's simple but I like it.", Sherryl responded with a giggle.

"So you're really doing that huh, Naoto?", Vita asked, curiously.

However, at this time, I saw Tamamo's ears start to twitch. Not by a bit but by a lot, as if she had picked up on something. We saw Tamamo jump out of my embrace, only to land on my right shoulder.

"Kyuuu?", Tamamo asked, still unsure. But hearing this drew my interest.

"Up? What you do mean, "Look up"?", I asked, seeing nothing in the sky. We then saw Tamamo shift her position only to look backward and upward. Before long we heard the faint sound of an engine tearing through the sky.

"Well well, it looks like a ship is going to be passing our way. Quite a rarity out here. Besides Nemeth Island, there really isn't much out here. Unless this ship is heading to Arteria...", Rufus began to wonder as the engine sound grew louder.

Sure enough, further in the sky behind us, we saw a black dot quickly reach our way. It seemed to be a commuter airship of sorts, so it was likely ferrying passengers. It's design was quite different from the planes on the port back at Messeldam, it wasn't that recognizable.

It wasn't until this airship reached over us to where I felt this moment last longer. We looked up and saw a few figures out on the deck, who seemed to currently enjoy the breeze over the ocean. It was a group of four.

Despite lasting for just a moment, they were able to glace at our cruise ship. Our eyes were able to match theirs. Among the group of four, I saw a nine year old girl with lush silver hair who seemed to be wearing a school uniform of sorts with a black beret on her head, which made her appear very cute.

She had a look of disbelief in her eyes as much as I had a look of shock in mine when our eyes met each other.

"E-Elie....?"