Unshackled Bonds Part II

Food was served just after the father and son pair made up, it was as if Robert was listening in all the time and simply waiting for the best time to come in.

After having Tomoe serve the other table, the chef himself brought two wooden trays with oversized ceramic bowls on each hand while two trays magically accompanied his stride—floating in the air beside him. He placed one of the trays he carried by hand in front of Krieg and the other for himself while the other two floating ones slowly settled in front of Leona and Miyamoto.

'This isn't wind magic…'

Leona thought for herself as she observed the tray settle on the table with precision unlikely of the aforementioned elemental magic.

"Here you go." He proudly said. "Enjoy."

She looked down at her bowl, which was half the size of Krieg's.

"What is this…?"

She asked while looking at the strange broth based noodle portion. It had thin sliced round pieces of meat neatly fanned out on the side, finely chopped green onions around the middle, crushed garlic on the side and a runny egg sliced in half. The smell was unlike anything she had ever felt before.

"Ramen." Robert explained. "In my homeworld, I used to cook it a lot when I was a teenager." He said with a nostalgic smile on his face as he sat down in front of her. "Though back then I used to have way more ingredients than I do now."

"How do I even eat this…?"

"I'd say use chopsticks-" He added. "-but you'd be here all afternoon. So I brought you a fork."

Glancing on the side, she noticed there was a metallic fork whereas both Miyamoto and Robert were using two thin sticks made of wood.

"Hmm…" She wanted to try those out but it seemed too difficult for her, which made her turn to the knight for a second opinion. "What about you Krieg?"

He turned to her while already holding a chunk of noodles with a fork.

"What?"

"Nevermind."

She grabbed the fork and twirled some of the noodles around it. The rich yet not so thick broth wafted a pleasant aroma as she lifted the fork.

As she was about to eat it she noticed not one or two, but four pairs of eyes looking at her. Setsuna, Yuna, Miyamoto and Robert all stopped eating their own meal in order to witness her with anticipation for her very first taste of the food.

"W-why are you all looking at me like that?"

"Ah, it is nothing." Robert reassured her with the shaking of his hand. "It's just rare to see someone in this land having their first taste of the local cuisine. It's sort of a unique sight so to speak."

She found it difficult to eat when everyone was looking at her so the only option that came in her mind was to close her eyes and take a bite. Once her teeth sunk in the soft noodles, a gentle wave of sensations washed through her tongue as the salty and savory chicken broth captivated her tasting buds. Her eyes widened as she looked in awe at the bowl of ramen in front of her.

She discreetly slurped the rest of the noodles and chewed slowly while enjoying the rich flavor.

"Tomoe." Robert called her and the waitress appeared by his side of the table. "Bring four glasses of water to this table please."

"At once."

She bowed and went to the kitchen.

"Wow…" Leona muttered. "This is incredible."

"Thank you." Robert gave a modest bow. "It was quite hard to replicate the flavors from my homeworld since I was lacking so many ingredients." He had a nostalgic look on his face. "It has been so long… but well at least it was worth it."

"But I have to ask." Leona stopped eating for a moment to look at him. "Why did you go for such lengths for… food?"

He scratched the side of his head.

"When you live three times your usual life expectancy across different worlds—your mind starts blurring the facets between reality and magic." He chuckled sourly. "This is the only way I found to keep myself from going insane. Don't get me wrong, ever since traveling to another world for the first time, I have always been interested in magic, but after learning the fates of those previous worlds… it left a scar in my mind that almost drove me to the edge." He glanced over the other table where Setsuna and Yuna were keeping the two high elves in check. "If not for them demanding better food time and time again I wouldn't be here to meet Xenovia or any of you."

"But then…" Leona glanced at the two shrine maidens with a certain hesitation inside her heart. They seemed like average girls you'd find anywhere. Saving for the clothing and natural beauty, they didn't seem 'otherworldly' to her. "Sorry if that sounds rude, but does that mean you'll outlive your daughters?"

He smiled bitterly.

"Most likely. But all of this will end once I'm free from Lastraeous." He stared at his own hands. "That is why I'm putting everything I have into this, Leona. As someone who cannot die, this is fate worse than death."

Leona settled down her fork and looked him in the eyes.

"I can hardly imagine what eternal life would be like. But you have my word, I will do all I can to free us from this destiny."

He looked at her for a brief moment before bursting out in a fit of laughter.

"Oh, you are truly one of a kind." He shook his hand in front of his face. "Never once I imagined being indebted to a native of another world, much less from one that is so technologically underdeveloped."

"Dad, you're being too loud."

Setsuna carefully advised with squinting eyes as she was visibly annoyed.

"Sorry, sorry." He settled his back against the chair and took a deep breath. "It has been a few good centuries since I last met someone like Leona here, this is quite refreshing."

Tomoe came back from the kitchen bringing four cups of water with a wooden tray.

"Excuse me."

She placed the cups in front of each of them before taking her leave towards the counter.

"Thank you Tomoe."

Robert gestured with the glass and took a sip of the water before going back to loudly slurping the noodles.

"Have some class sir Robert." Miyamoto had just finished eating and turned to him with an annoyed tone. "They are guests here."

Robert settled his bowl and rolled his eyes.

"This is how you're supposed to eat it." He turned to Leona and Krieg. "Are either of you annoyed by it?"

"Not particularly, no."

Leona answered while discreetly averting her gaze. Krieg on the other hand just gave his shoulders and shook his head as a way of saying he didn't care.

"See?"

Robert said while looking at the swordmaster and motioning to the two in front of them with his open palm. Miyamoto, on the other hand, sighed while rubbing both corners of his eyes as he uttered.

"Gods be great, I wonder how your daughters have better manners than you."

"They are shrine maidens, I am simply a scholar and a mage." Robert lifted the bowl and drank the entire broth. "Ah… they have a role to play in keeping the people's hearts in check while I have no need for fancy etiquette."

"I have a question." Leona interrupted them which made Robert glance at her with a raised eyebrow. "How did you levitate the trays before? That didn't seem like wind magic to me."

"Ah, you mean this?" Robert snapped his fingers and his bowl started to float a bit from the table. "It's dark magic or more specifically, spatial magic. If you know how to use your mana, you can make objects, in loose terms, 'float' relative to your body to which you're anchoring the said object to."

"I'm not sure I follow."

"You shouldn't be able to, at least not in this era." He lowered his hand and snapped his fingers, stopping the bowl on top of the tray. "To comprehend dark magic, you'd first need to understand relativity and how you can use it in conjunction with mana. Which I'll explain once we start your training."

Leona's eyes widened a bit as she uttered.

"Huh?"

"What? Did you think you'd come to Nara, meet Eleonora and then be on your way back?" He tilted his head side to side, cracking the joints of his neck with a cheek to cheek smile. "I'm going to thoroughly train you to become a full fledged mage, as you stand now you're nothing more than a spell caster who knows a thing or two about crafting spells on the go."

They heard shuffling from the table in the corner of the room as Yuna stood up from her seat with sparkling eyes.

"Father, does that mean…?"

Robert tilted his head over his shoulder and gave the girl a thumbs up.

"Yes, she'll be in your care for the next few days, do go easy on her."

"Please consider a training regime to her standards." Setsuna advised her younger sister. "Lest we need is for her to drop dead on the very first day."

Leona tilted her whole body backwards as she heard those words.

"Dead?!"

"Death from usage of mana only occurs at the fifth stage of mana shock." Yuna declared. "She should be fine until the second stage."

"Wait! That doesn't make it any better!" Leona stood up from her seat. "Besides, why am I going through training?! I mean sure, I can't go against none of you in terms of magic but surely-"

"If you think you're good enough against Alexander…" Robert's words made her stop mid-sentence—his tone had suddenly shifted from his usual nonchalant self to a more serious one. "I'm sorry to throw a bucket of cold water on you, but you're not going to cut it. Neither you or Krieg for that matter."

"With blade energy surely-"

"Listen to me Leona!" He raised his voice just enough to cut her off. "You cannot rely on skills borrowed from someone else. When dire situations push you to the brink, you need to have those skills ingrained in your body and soul or else you might actually die. Do not be complacent with yourself, you must understand this. You only have one life."

Those words cut deep in her heart. Memories of fallen comrades filled her mind with dreadful sensations that coursed throughout her body.

If only she was stronger. Maybe, just maybe, she could have prevented a close friend from dying.

Blade energy was just another excuse she came up with in order to not look back to a past where she didn't have power.

It made her blood boil. Now that she had the opportunity to grow stronger to protect those around her—she was about to throw it all away for a false sense of security born from her own shortcomings.

She stood up with her right hand clenched tightly in a fist, her left arm throbbed as she spoke out loud.

"I will be in your care from now on!" She bowed. "Please, help me become stronger!"

Krieg also stood up and bowed as well.

"I'll be in your care."

"Now that's what I'm talking about!" Robert firmly nodded with a smile on his face. "Alright. Yuna, you'll be in charge of Leona's training for the time being."

"Yay!"

He turned to the older daughter.

"Setsuna, you'll aid Krieg with his own training with Miyamoto."

"Understood."

And finally, to both the high elves.

"Kaeli and Phoebe, you two will come with me later, I have much to discuss with you."

He walked towards the door with the two high elf sisters behind him staring at each other. Phoebe had a hatred filled gaze while Kaeli clearly had an apologetic bittersweet smile. Seeing them leave made Leona's heart clench as she asked.

"What will you do to them?"

"Show them the truth and the reason behind it all." Robert looked over his shoulder towards her. "They deserve this much at least after suffering all this time."

With a last snap of his fingers, he disappeared with the two high elves.

Leona fell back on her seat with a sigh of relief.

'Thank goodness he's not the person I thought him to be…'