Chapter 55: The Sunken Ruins of Melusine

Hi everyone!

I'm sorry I haven't posted any chapters this week. It was a rough one for me since I had exams all week without any time to post anything. Fortunately, I restarted posting them so here's today's chapter. I'm sorry it's shorter than usual.

Thanks and enjoy today's chapter!

Peace!

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Izumi opened his eyes when he saw darkness.

'That's weird,' he thought. 'My eyes are open so why do I see black.'

At that moment, that strange blackness tickled his nose.

'Feathers?'

He moved and felt the blackness rustle as the feathers swept his face and he heard a low moan. He then looked at the noise and saw the source of the darkness. It was Kyouko and it seems she had unknowingly deployed her wings during her sleep. He grinned when an idea struck him placing his hand on her wing, he started gently rubbing it. This elicited a moan from the girl who was still sleeping.

'So they're sensitive. That's good to know.'

That's when he noticed something. He looked closely at the feathers on her wings and saw something weird. He reinforced his eyes to get a better view and saw them. Weird scribbles at an almost microscopic level all over the feathers.

"What?"

He picked up a feather that had fallen on him and examined it closely. He saw twenty-two characters repeating themselves. He looked back at Kyouko's wings and saw the same thing on all of her feathers.

At that moment, the girl stirred from her sleep and slowly woke up.

"Izumi?"

The boy put the feather away and kissed her forehead.

"Good morning, Kyouko."

The girl smiled as she wiped the sleep from her eyes away.

"Good morning to you too, Izumi."

She then noticed her wings.

"Eh? Why are my wings deployed?"

Izumi shrugged,

"You must've done it unconsciously in your sleep," he said.

He didn't mention that he got a mouthful of her feathers as morning breakfast. Kyouko hide her wings and stretched herself. Izumi took out the medallion that he had gotten from the last Labyrinth and examined it.

"That's the proof of completion. Is there any other use of it?" Kyouko asked as she looked at the piece of jewelry.

The boy nodded,

"It's a key."

"A key? to where?"

"The Sunken Ruins of Melusine."

"That's the next labyrinth isn't it?"

Izumi hummed in answer.

"How do you know?"

"I used (Structural Grasp)."

Kyouko nodded,

"Ah. That's the spell that lets you analyze anything huh?"

"Yeah."

Izumi put the medallion into a pocket dimension. He had created said pocket dimension right before going to sleep. With the Ancient magic, Space magic, it was child's play creating a subspace.

"By the way, did you check out the new Ancient Magic you got?" he asked.

Kyouko nodded,

"Yeah, I have a greater affinity to this magic than Creation Magic. I just need to create some spells out of it."

"Do you want me to teach you some?"

To Izumi's surprise, the girl shook her head.

"No. I want to try creating some spells myself," she said before grinning. "Then we can maybe exchange them."

Smiling, Izumi nodded,

"Sure."

Kyouko then got off the bed and went to the bathroom leaving the boy alone in the room. He picked the feather again and examined it.

'Why can't I understand it? Why does (Silver Tongue) not work?' he thought.

For the first time, his ability to comprehend language was not working.

'Maybe I can ask them or Kyouko?'

He shrugged,

'Oh well. I'll ask later.'

An hour later, they both walked out of the room with their stuff stored in their subspace. The owner of the inn saw them walk down the stairs.

"Good morning Izumi-sama, Kyouko-sama!" the owner said.

"Good morning, Owner," replied Izumi.

"Will you be going out, today?"

the couple nodded,

"Yeah, we will be leaving the city," Kyouko said.

"In that case..." the owner said before disappearing into the kitchen.

2 minutes later, he came out with a few lunch boxes.

"Here. You can have this for your trip." the man said.

"Oh, you didn't have to..." the girl began to say before the man interrupted her.

"But I insist. You saved this city. My daughter was one of the patients. It's the least I could do and you don't have to pay for it," the man said as he pushed the boxes to the duo.

Both boy and girl looked at each other before smiling.

"Very well. Thank you, Owner." Izumi said before placing the boxes in his inventory.

They soon bid the owner farewell and left the inn. They were about to reach a gate when someone called them.

"Big Brother Izumi! Big sister Kyouko!"

The couple turned towards the source and saw Aya running towards them.

"Aya!" said Kyouko when she saw the little girl.

The girl slammed into her legs and hugged her.

"Where are you guys going?"

Kyouko was about to answer when another voice was heard.

"Aya! Don't go running off like that. You still need to recover a little," Aya's mother said after walking catching up to her daughter.

That's when she saw Izumi and Kyouko.

"Oh my! Good morning Izumi-sama and Kyouko-sama. I'm sorry if my daughter bothered you."

However, Kyouko shook her head.

"It's okay. Little Aya would never bother us," she replied while patting the little girl's head eliciting a giggle from her.

The woman then saw their gear and asked,

"Are you going to leave today?"

"Yes,"

"I see."

The woman took the couple's hands and bowed her head,

"Then I thank you for curing my daughter. I wouldn't know what to do if the worst would come to pass."

"It was nothing ma'am. We just did what we were paid to do." Izumi replied.

"Nonetheless, you saved my daughter and she means more to me than my life."

"Thank you Big sister Kyouko, Big brother Izumi." the little girl added when she went to hug the boy.

The latter smiled and hugged her back. They soon made their way to the gates and saw four people accompanied by two guards were waiting for them.

"Duke Lanzwi?" Izumi said when the duo reached the gates.

"Izumi-dono! Kyouko-dono! We heard that you would be leaving today." the man said.

'News sure travel fast.' the mage thought.

"Yes. We will be going to Erisen." the boy replied.

"I see. We have come to see you off." the duke said before turning to his family. "You've met my son yesterday.", he said as he pointed at the prince.

He then turned to the regal older woman that bore resemblance to the younger people,

"This is my wife, Maria Feuward Zengen." he presented her.

The woman bowed to the teenagers,

"I heard from my husband that you were the ones who helped us. I sincerely offer you our gratitude for bringing us the cure."

"It was no problem, Duchesse Maria." Izumi and Kyouko replied.

"And this is my daughter, Sonia" the duke presented a girl about The couple's age. However, the girl tried to avoid Izumi's eyes as a slight tint of red appeared on her cheeks. She then bowed to them,

"T-Thank you for saving us."

"It was no problem, Sonia. We were happy to help," Izumi replied and smiled.

The redness on the girl's cheeks increased. Izumi raised an eyebrow,

'She must've been severely affected. I hope she recovers well.' Izumi thought.

Kyouko looked at the girl before looking at Izumi and turned back to the girl. Realizing what was going on, she didn't what to feel. On one hand, she was slightly irritated. On the other hand, she wanted to tease Izumi. But before she could decide, Duke Lanzwi spoke.

"We came here to give you something," he said before gesturing towards a guard. The latter nodded, before handing Izumi two small plates with the emblem of the Dukedom of Ankaji.

"What's this?"

"These are proof that you will always be a guest of Ankaji."

Surprised, Izumi asked,

"Are you serious?"

Bize, the son of the Duke, nodded,

"You have done an immense favour for our country. Therefore, it is only right for us to give you this."

"I... understand"

Izumi gave one to Kyouko and they put it away in their subspace.

Izumi then opened a portal. The casting time and the usage of mana have reduced tremendously since the acquisition of Space Magic. Izumi could now open multiple portals before running out of mana. They could see the ocean of Erisen on the other side.

He could hear the gasps from the female members of the family.

"What kind of spell is this?" asked the Duchesse.

"This is a portal. It allows me to travel from one place to another almost instantly." Izumi proudly said.

"How convenient."

At that moment, Sonia spoke,

"But, how will you go there? I only see the ocean."

"About that."

Izumi crafted a simple boat with Dark Matter.

The couple then sat in it and it began to float and landed on the other side of the portal and the water.

"Like this," he said.

"Bye, everyone!" Kyouko said.

The other bid their farewell and Izumi closed the portal. They now found themselves in the middle of nowhere where there was only water in every direction.

"So where are we supposed to go?"

"We wait."

"Wait?"

"Yeah, since the Labyrinth will only open at night. Do you want to go somewhere in the meantime?"

Kyouko thought for a moment before suddenly saying,

"Let's go on a date!"

"That's right. We haven't gone on a date yet, haven't we?" Izumi thought out loud.

"That's right."

Izumi smiled,

"Then where do you want to go?"

"Hmmm. Let's go to Horaud. I remember there being good food over there."

"Really? But it's so close to the kingdom and the Church. Let's not even count the heroes. Do you still want to go there?"

Kyouko grabbed Izumi's face and stared into his eyes.

"Izumi. You don't have to worry about me. I'll be fine."

The boy laughed awkwardly,

"So you caught that huh?"

Kyouko smirked,

"I'm your girlfriend. I'm supposed to catch your meanings."

Izumi sighed,

"Alright, let's go."

Kyouko pumped her fist.

"Yes!"

The black-haired teen chuckled before opening a portal leading to an alley. For the rest of the day, they would wander around, exploring the city. To Izumi's surprise, no one recognized Kyoko.

After a few hours, the sun was going down.

The couple had a happy expression on their faces when they finished their date when they returned to the ocean on their boat.

Looking at the sky, Kyouko sighed,

"The day has gone so fast! I wanted to stay a little longer," she said with a slight pout.

"We can always return after completing the Labyrinth. It's not like it's going to take a long time." Izumi said before puffing his chest and pointing himself with a grin,

"You're super amazing boyfriend will make sure of that."

The girl giggled at his silly act.

"Although, when we get back to our world. I'll take you to an even more amazing date."

Kyouko smiled and took his hand,

"You don't have to take me somewhere special to have a date. The fact that we spent the day together like this is enough for me," she said before resting her head on Izumi's shoulder.

The boy smiled, before wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her close,

"You're right. The only thing that matters is that we stay together."

He kissed her head and said,

"You know I will always be there for you, right? I will come to save you when you need help and no one will stop me. Not even God."

Kyouko nodded,

"I will be there for you too when you need help," she said.

They stayed quiet for some time before Kyouko spoke,

"You know, I was wondering about something?"

"What's up?"

"What are we going to tell our parents when we come back?" she asked.

"We'll cross that bridge when we get there."

"Perhaps. I wonder how my parents will react when they see my wings and the fact that I know magic." she thought with a giggle.

Izumi chuckled,

"They will most likely be shocked by your strength."

A comfortable atmosphere settled as they gazed at the beautiful sunset. A few minutes later, night had finally fallen and the moon shined in the start sky. Izumi brought out the medallion and held it up in the sky.

"What are you doing?" his girlfriend asked.

"Just watch."

The medallion soon started glowing as a line of moonlight beamed from it and into the ocean.

"Woah!"

"We have to hurry."

"Why?"

"Because the gauge on the medallion is rapidly decreasing."

"Then, let's go!"

Izumi transformed the boat into a submarine and they plunged into the water.