Chapter 86 - Worried Families

[Elijah Knight POV]

I was eating dinner at the table very quietly. On my plate was a large piece of meat, some roots and boiled eggs, for the size of things there, eggs were the only part of my dinner that I used a fork. Beside the plate was a glass filled with a green liquid with bluish bubbles.

"Are you sure this is good for you?" Uncle Vincent asked, he was next to me at the dinner table.

In fact, there were just me, Ellie and my uncles Vincent and Reynolds. Vincent had arrived late from work, as there had been an emergency at the Auction House, but not so intense that he needed to ask Reynolds to come along.

"We need to eat well-reinforced things since we're planning to train a lot, right?" I replied to Vincent while looking at Reynolds who had a plate much fuller than mine.

"Of course! We need to be very energized and enjoy the time we are together, after all even if the boys don't have classes this week, because of the holiday, they still need to go back to Xyrus Academy, due of their duty in this disciplinary committee. Am I right?" Reynolds made that comment and then drank the contents of his glass at once, I just nodded in agreement.

"Wait, won't my brothers stay with us for the whole week?!" Eleanor exclaimed, irritably and sadly, as if she thought we'd be here all holiday after her brothers school trip end.

"Don't worry, they'll stay here as long as they can after they get back from their school trip. But they're also very important people at Xyrus Academy, they have a lot of responsibilities, don't they?" Reynolds patted his daughter's head and looked at me.

"Yep. They might not be the student council leaders, but they're still vice-captains. They'll have to be called in sooner or later, but I'll try to fulfill part of their duties if you want them to be alone with you so bad, Eleanor." I replied and she started giggling cutely as if she had won something.

On the other hand, I just sighed thinking what it would be like to take care of their responsibility... But still looking from this angle, the other members of the disciplinary committee are also having to take care of the responsibility of those who are not there at the moment, so it wouldn't be very fair for them...

Finishing dinner, I, Uncle Rey and Eleanor went towards the back area, passing through the living room, where the women of the family were. Aunts Alice and Tabitha were talking about something, but I still tried to be polite.

"Good evening. We are now going to do some light practice. Anyone want to be our audience?" I asked, curious.

"No. Thank you, Elijah. We were still thinking about the situation the boys brought up yesterday." Aunt Tabitha said scratching the back of her neck.

"Speaking again about my boys getting amazing women?" Reynolds tried to be playful about it, I could still sense he thought the reason Arthur at least had a princess was because of his genes.

"Dear, don't talk like that. It's disturbing to say the least. We were just a simple and basic family that lived on the edge of the Kingdom of Sapin. And now we're connected to two royal families if you stop to think about it..." Alice pulled a great point.

"But you don't feel uncomfortable with us." Uncle Vincent joined in the conversation, and received only a light tap on the shoulder in response.

"Vince, you've been our friend since before your family became all that. Your case is different." Reynolds responded and Alice agreed.

"Oh... I understand... But isn't the same true at least for your blood son, Arthur? I mean, from the story he told us before, he ended up meeting the elf princess by pure accident and only found out who she was after days of walking with her back to the capital." Vincent commented.

"There's a difference between becoming friends before fame and becoming friends without knowing about the fame." I soon threw that phrase in the air, Vincent did a facepalm while Reynolds ruffled my hair.

"You're a hella smart boy, aren't you?" Reynolds said laughing and looked again to his wife. "But if you don't want to be our audience, that's fine, we'll be there until about 3 am—" He soon stopped talking when Alice glared at him, but soon continued. "Sure, me and Elijah will do it, Ellie will be taken to bed by midnight."

"Heeeey!" Eleanor pouted and we all laughed a little in that comical way of hers.

"I hope Emily|Cecilia isn't like Aunt Alice in that way." I thought, but then I realized something strange...

Why... when I thought of Emily... another voice similar to mine said "Cecilia", within my own thoughts?!... Argh.. It must be that annoying thing from.. Flashbacks and memories of my otherself....

I really hate it, it usually gives me a headache... But why didn't I feel pain this time? It was just discomfort...

Soon the sound of someone knocking on the door took me out of my internal monologue, it was the front door of the Helstea mansion. One of the maids walked there to open the door, and when she opened it, I shivered with who was on the other side, it was Director Goodsky, and she was accompanied by 4 elf figures, all of them had platinum hair, with the exception of one that had dark hair. I recognized those elves from long ago...

... It was the royal family of the elven kingdom... But what were they doing there

"Are the Leywins here?" Goodsky asked and soon the maid opened the door fully allowing them to enter.

"D-director Goodsky? And the Eralith royal family?... Why are you here? Is there a problem?" Vincent commented, walking towards them and bowing to the elves as a sign of respect.

I could see from the peripheral vision, Alice and Reynolds were shaking a little nervously from their sudden appearance, while Eleanor was confused and clutching at my outfit. I took a deep breath, thinking about a bad and very possible situation, knowing Arthur's luck.

"It's about Arthur and our daughter... Did they manage to get here?" the elf queen asked, which caused everyone there to become confused while my suspicions increased.

"N-no....? He didn't arrive... But... Won't his school trip going to end tomorrow morning?" Alice asked.

"An accident happened, which caused him and the princess to be forced to separate from the main group... This same accident meant that the dungeon they were in could no longer be explored, so one way or another the school trip was canceled." Cynthia completely revealed my suspicions.

Indeed, Arthur is sometimes very lucky, but to balance it out, a near-death situation always arises.

Alice soon got up suddenly. "What did you say?...." Her look was completely panicked, which made Reynolds go to his wife to try to calm her down.

That's when I remembered a small detail. "Aunt Alice, is Arthur still wearing that mana ring?" At my question, she stared at one of the rings on her hand, it was still normal, and hadn't beeped any time today.

"What are you talking about?" Elder Virion, the elf I most recognized for training Tessia alongside me and Art, commented.

"We gave Arthur a special ring, which is connected to a ring that my wife has. The ring glows and makes a very high-pitched sound when it detects that the other ring is not receiving mana. Just in case both rings are not receiving information from each other, they both glows in blue..." Reynolds began to explain as he led Alice to one of the chairs at the table in the central room.

"Today... all day... neither of these things has happened. Which means it's very likely that my son is well and conscious." Reynolds continued, taking a seat next to Alice.

Meanwhile, the Eralith family and Cynthia also approached to sit down, the dark-haired elf stood near the entrance to the room while I just closed the door, so that no one else could enter. The people who had been left out of this conversation were the servants, Aunt Tabitha, Uncle Vincent and Eleanor. It was much better to keep the little girl away from that information than to be preoccupied with it, and the way she still understands things, I pray she was as unfocused as ever.

"And with the way he and Tessia act together, I can tell without a doubt that he's keeping her safe." The queen said and everyone there agreed, it was even bizarre how absolutely everyone in that room had the same vision when thinking about these two people when they are together.

"Excuse the intrusion, but knowing him and considering that he already killed a S Class mana beast without much difficulty... I feel that, having mana, already makes him survive easily, even while taking care of someone else..." I made a comment while checking that the door was securely closed.

"Yes, young Elijah. That brat really is an impressive thing... Anyway, we came here simply to see if Tessia had arrived with him yet..." Elder Virion commented, adjusting the collar of his uniform.

"We thought we would have to send one of our Lances to look for Tessia, but seeing this kid's achievements and that they were last seen 4 hours ago... we can at least hope he can get her out of there and go back to Xyrus City... If, by tomorrow night, there is no news about these boys, we will start the search." The king said as the black haired elf filled a glass for him with one of the jugs of water in the room.

I looked to my side, and realized that she really had left that position and gone to the table, but when I went to look where she was again, she was gone.

"But what...?" I muttered to myself and when I looked to my side, she was there as if she had never disappeared, it made me jump in fear, causing a small mischievous smile to appear on her face, however, that disappeared soon the moment I realized.

"Wait... Why did you say 'these boys'?" Reynolds asked, making Alice's eyes wide open as she realized that detail of words.

"Huff... Professor Vanesy Glory's school trip wasn't the only one interrupted due to an accident..." Cynthia Goodsky spoke, while straightening her hands on top of the wooden table. "An accident also happened in the class your other son leads. The two dungeons are very close, and the accident that occurred in one, was strangely similar to what happened in the other. Tremors under the earth and corrupted mana beasts appearing out of nowhere..."

"Wait a minute.... Do you know if anyone was injured in this accident?..." I ended up intruding on the conversation, making Cynthia and Virion face me, with a look of wanting to know why this question was asked, and I quickly continue. "An important person for me... She was the putted as leader of Luz's basic class students."

"I see, a human girl with green hair and glasses came to us and informed us of this accident, while Professor Glory was the one who informed us about what happened with Arthur and Tessia.. Was she that girl?" I nodded at the Elder's words and he continued to speak. "I see... From what we've been informed, two students had injuries on their legs while another girl received severe burns... But other than that, absolutely everyone got out of there without any problems..."

"Speaking of which, the low number of problems that occurred thanks to these boys is impressive... In Tessia's class, no one suffered any injuries, while in the other class, only 3 people were minimally injured in some way, within a large group of 26 students..." The king made a comment.

"I agree... These boys really are special. No wonder we almost turned them into Lances almost 3 years ago! Ha!" Virion said that laughing a little, but then stopped. "Well, as I said before, we also received information that both dungeons are very close... We believe that at some point, maybe by luck, they will end up meeting in an area formed by earthquakes... And then they can escape together."

"...." Reynolds and Alice sighed deeply, with Alice still holding back from crying or panicking in front of nobles.

"As you said, Arthur has a ring that contacts you regarding his status. If it didn't go off, he must be fine." the elf queen said, looking deep into Aunt Alice's eyes, as she seemed to suffer from the same kind of inner panic, but both decided not to voice it.

"Well, we'll stop here before we ask for a search request to find them... Is there a problem?" the elf king said, Alice and Reynolds agreed with the idea.

"Fine, I'll let Vincent know about that. I, on the other hand, am very busy so I should get back to my duties." Cynthia, who had been very quiet during all of this, got up and walked towards the door, passing me. "Elijah, my dear, could you get the Eralith family to use available rooms?"

"O-of course! As I remember, we have 6 empty rooms here. Apart from Luz's study room." I answered her, saluting from sheer pressure.

"Ha! That kid has a study room here?! I'd love to see what one of the prodigy brats is up to. Sure, if that's okay." Elder Virion spoke, looking the Leywins.

"I don't see any problem... As I recall, you were their original mentor... But I don't know if you'll understand most of the things there... Honestly." Uncle Reynolds commented.

"Ha! Is that a challenge?! I love a challenge! Come on, young Elijah, show me where this study room is!" Elder Virion exclaimed as he walked out of the room with me.

Apparently he was trying to lighten everyone's mood by the way he spoke, showing complete confidence that Arthur, Luz and Tessia are all okay. It seems that this worked for a bit, as Tessia's mother and Alice both chuckled at this "childish" way Virion acted.

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[Virion Eralith POV]

I simply walked next to that boy with the very characteristic glasses. As we went to that "study room", as he himself said, I kept thinking a little about the whole situation we were in.

"Geez... Am I really a bad grandfather for seeming so unconcerned with my own granddaughter?" I thought, taking a good look at my surroundings as I walked up the stairs there.

"I know that Luz and Arthur are quite impressive, and knowing that Arthur is conscious and still has access to mana makes my heart lighter... But... Argh... I'm still in shock from what I found out after asking in which dungeon Tessia's School trip would take her... Really? A dungeon close to where my son and I sent Alea to investigate?... What are the chances of that happening?... I hope there's really nothing in that dungeon... Nothing that could have caused these accidents..." I thought, my hand on my chin as I continued to be guided to a place where no one would be near me, at least now.

"I should have made that information public..." I mumbled without realizing it, still thinking that all my words were just in my head.

"Hm? Is there a problem?" that boy, Elijah, asked me, making me realize that I had just said the wrong thing.

"Nothing much... I just thought about a situation that happened a few days ago..." I commented, while I saw a small girl leaving a room, she had very simple brown hair, different from her mother's hair which was more vibrant and the father who seemed to be more greyish.

"Eleanor! Careful, don't run around the halls like that. We're having visitors for today and maybe tomorrow." Elijah commented as that girl looked at me and seemed to recognize me from when I went to visit my granddaughter and her siblings in the hospital wing at Xyrus Academy.

She simply waved at me and glared at the boy beside me. "Elija, weren't we going to train?! Hunf!" she pouted, reminding me of my sweet granddaughter when she got mad at something my son said about Arthur.

"We're going to... Let me just finish things off here. Okay?" Elijah said as he ran a little ahead of me and opened a door.

"That's the study room I mentioned." He said quietly, but my attention returned to the little girl there.

"You said you're going to train with him? Are you a mage by any chance?" I asked, sincerely curious.

"Yes! Dad and mom said I'm a very special mage!" She said smiling.

"Wow... Considering who your siblings are, you really must be. What's your elemental affinity?" I asked, walking towards the door the boy had opened for me.

"Oh... Mom said to keep it a secret... It's very special." She said calmly.

"Little girl, I trained your two brothers. I know that one of them is a quadra-elemental, I think this secret of yours is nothing much compared to them." I made a simple comment and turned away.

"Wait!" She took the bait. "I'm way more special than them! I have an affinity for pure mana!"

My eyes widened a little at that and I turned to her. "Did you say... Pure mana?" I asked to confirm and she agreed.

"A quadra-elemental mage and a pure mana mage, the Leywins are insane, aren't they?" Elijah spoke, watching my expression, I just swallowed hard and nodded.

"Fine. I'll go train her, as I promised before. I hope you have fun in this study, Elder Virion." the boy spoke as he left the hall with little Leywin.

I turned around finally entering that study hall, and at first glance, my eyes widened again. There was a large table at the back, filled with blueprints and other papers on top and taped to the nearby walls. I closed the door and walked past two cupboards and shelves filled with parchments and a few books.

"Boy, you work too hard, don't you?" I asked for nothing, while watching a paper on the floor.

I took that paper, showing some kind of drawings of what appeared to be a prototype of a strange box. Most of the words on that paper I didn't know, but I could read that it had something to do with mana. With that, I put that item where I thought it had fallen. Approaching the table, I managed to identify those blueprints, I had seen them before.

"Son of a... It was really you, wonder brat." I muttered, seeing something that was very reminiscent of the prototype designs that the Royal Scientist, Gideon, had shown me and the other councilmen.

That item that looks like a strange crossbow... That movement device... The magic guitar, the magic shooter... Everything was there...

"You really used a lot of cards up your sleeve." I commented while observing some notebooks that were there, when I opened them I came across something that I did not expect.

It appeared to be a notebook with various things related to the element of fire. The initial sheets were basic stuff, but after that came theoretical information about advanced level spells. Even though this kid was 13 years old, all those notes looked like things I would see from some renowned professor at Xyrus Academy.

Well, he IS a professor at Xyrus Academy currently, but... For all of this be made, he would need to start writting much time before he went there.

After looking a bit, information and drawings related to runes began to appear, that is, the subject he teaches at the academy. All of that was very detailed, explaining the meaning of every little scratch in the runes related to the element of fire.

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A few long hours passed and I was reading the books there. I refrained from invading my former disciple's privacy, only reading four books, each related to a basic element. To say the least, this reading was quite revealing, not only to understand his potential, but also to know that he, teaching things like this at Xyrus Academy, was something perfect.

Also, while I was looking through those books scattered around the study, I ended up seeing some other things he already made. He apparently loves the idea of ​​being an artist, as in some drawers I found yarn and needles, and inside the closet were several parchments drawn in a very detailed way.

"He must have a lot of free time, or he hates to be doing nothing. I wouldn't be surprised if he started painting and selling his works to noble people." It was one of the comments I made when I just saw those arts.

They all seemed to be art of people with magnificent landscapes, I loved 3 in particular. In one he had drawn my granddaughter and his brother, in the other the entire Leywin family, and in the last one he had drawn him and a group of people I've seen spending time with Tessia and Arthur.

I decided to leave that study room and walk around that mansion for a bit, I could hear the sound of spells being used outside, so after finding a double door behind the stairs, I opened it. I came across an interesting scene.

Elijah was creating several earth pillars while little Eleanor was concentrating hard while holding a bow. The arrows she was using gained a whitish lighted tip, which gave off a clear sense of danger.

"Come on, Ellie! Go for it!!" Elijah exclaimed and just like that the girl fired her shot.

The arrow cut the wind, making a very sharp sound and when it hit one of the earth pillars, it fell apart instantly. The girl gave an excited laugh and grabbed another arrow, quickly getting ready to fire once more.

Close to the door where I was, I noticed that there were some wooden seats and on one of them was my daughter-in-law. I approached her and touched her shoulder, she gave a slight jump of fright, apparently she hadn't noticed that I was around, so I sat down on the small bench beside her.

"Are you trying to distract yourself, Merial?" I asked simply and in a calm voice.

"..." She returned to face that training that was happening and I did the same.

Elijah apparently started to increase the pace of things a little, with a strong step on the ground and reciting a spell, the earth pillars split into several disks that floated and went one by one flying towards the little girl. She, in response, dodged some of the attacks, using simple side rolls and at other times fired arrows, destroying the earth disks.

"I...I'm just worried, that's all..." Merial spoke, and I sighed, looking back at her.

"You know damn well she's going to be fine, especially with her charming prince." I smirked, trying to ease the tension a bit, and it seemed to work, as she gave a light laugh.

"Yes yes... I know... But there is other problem... the fact that we couldn't contact Alea... I'm still surprised that the dungeon we sent her to explore was very close to where Tessia was..." When she mentioned it, I just gulped.

"True, but you must remember that anything can happen in a dungeon, there are chances that her communication scrolls fell into the lava, after all it is a dungeon purely of lava and fire." I pointed out some facts to her.

"Would you really think that would happen to a Lance?" Merial asked in a low voice.

"Alea is a Lance, but she is still a person... I feel that, not only you, but the other councilmen, forget that even though they are white stage mages, they are still people and not absolute warriors. No wonder that, during the training they've had their whole lives, we've found flaws in them that can only be covered by mutual assistance between each other." I replied with a low voice as well.

"You're right... I'm sorry..."

"Just don't get super paranoid, I bet any moment now Tessia will arrive, I'm pretty sure of that." I commented smiling proudly, clearly because I had trained her together with the two Leywins boys, I knew everyone's strengths and weaknesses, if really the accident that happened to the three, made them meet, then everything will work out.

"..." Merial was silent for a while, watching Elijah and Eleanor spar, until she spoke again. "I'm a terrible mother for... Not trusting my daughter's potential?..."

I remained silent and slowly placed my hand supporting her right shoulder. "That just means that you love her very much and are afraid that her little flaws will cause some disaster... But I advise you to try to have more confidence in her, after all, she is the one who will represent all the elves when, me, you and my son, we are no longer present."

"And what do you think of the children?" I asked smiling and trying to lead her to the subject of the training in front of us.

"They're amazing... I mean, the girl uses pure mana and the boy seems to create earth and metal spells out of thin air." Merial commented, focusing on the workout. "The Lances that will appear during this new generation will be at least 5 times better than ours."

"Hahaha! That's how you say it!" I let out an amused laugh that got the boys attention.

"Something happened?" Elijah asked as he dodged a blow from little Eleanor and threw a projectile of dirt in her direction.

"Nothing much, Young Elijah. We were just talking about how great you are compared to people your age." I answered him while Eleanor augmented her bow to attack the projectile and destroy it before it touched her body.

"Oh! We're great! We're great!" little Eleanor got excited and bounced happily at my words, which made me laugh a little more about it.

Within that scene of happiness, something that I didn't expect so much happened, a feminine and terrified scream was heard inside the mansion. This made my eyes widen, along with everyone who was with me, and we ran to see what had happened.

Inside the mansion, a little after the midnight, we saw the floor a little dirty with blood, my son hugging someone who was kneeling... And the three children we were waiting to see, their clothes were dirty, quite destroyed and it looked like several bandages made with plant mana were all covering most part of their bodies.

However, a little sob started to fill my ears, I looked in my son's direction to see who he was hugging...

My mind entered in a state of silence... the same silence that someone has in moments of despair.