Chapter 12

Arthur-

"Art, let's go. You promised that we would go to the town today and you can't ignore it anymore!" Said Tessia.

"Yeah, of course Tessia. Wait here for a bit I forgot a thing in my room, let me go and grab it real quick." I said to her while running upstairs.

"Okay, please be quick. We have to get back before dinner." She said.

After going into my room I quickly used godstep and arrived where Caera was, she was startled as I appeared in front of her out of no where.

"You ready?" I asked her. Getting a nod from her I grabbed her and returned back to my room.

"Now, use that invisible cloak and let's head downstairs." I said to her.

After she put on the cloak both of us went downstairs to where tessia was waiting.

"Okay, let's go now tessia. I do have somethings on my mind that I want to purchase so it would be better for us to go to the market first." I said while getting a nod from tessia.

~

'Anything that catched your eyes, Caera?'

'Nope, well Elder Rinia arranged some clothes and daily necessities for me. So I don't think that we don't need to buy those.'

'So then let's go and buy you some plushie's.' I said to caera and got a confirmation from her.

"Umm Tessia, do you know a place where we can get some plushie's?" I asked. Then Tessia looked at me confused.

"I didn't know that you liked plushie's Art." She said with a shocked expression. "Uhh no you are mistaken, I wanted to buy some plushie's for my little sibling. You know newborns do like cute stuffs." I replied nervously.

"Ohh, okay. Well I do know a shop that sells plushie's. I'll lead the way then." Said Tessia and I gave her a nod.

After we made our way to the shop, I picked some plushies that Caera said me to buy. After that we just roamed around the town for a bit and decided to return back, also I did purchase some food sneakily for later.

On our way back i saw quiet a familiar face, one of my friends. The self proclaimed rival of mine,i was glad to see him again. As i remember he died in the war while protecting elenoir. As soon as he saw me and Tessia, he approached us, "You human! i challenge you to a duel again, last time you didn't even follow the rules and cheated! This time i will show you the difference between you and me!" he shouted and I could see that Tessia was going to say something but before she could, Feyfey got knocked out as he fell towards the ground. Then his friends came and they carried him back most probably to his house. All the people around us were confused as to what happened and how could someone lose their consciousness so suddenly, and right after challenging someone. Well I knew what happened at the least.

'Was it really necessary Caera?' I asked her mentally.

'Well he was bad mouthing you so i just shut him up. And I am getting tired so let's just go back, I need some rest.' she replied sheepishly and I sighed mentally.

"Well let's go back to the castle now Tessia. It's getting late." I said to her and started making my way to the castle without waiting for her to reply.

After we returned back to the castle, I went to my room with caera.

"I swear, no matter how strong I become, shopping will still remain my worst enemy." I groaned.

"Well yeah it sure does take a lot out of you. While I don't particularly enjoy shopping, but it's a different story when it comes to plushies." Caera said to which I chuckled a bit.

"Well Caera, I did buy us some food from the market. So do you want to eat it now?" As I asked her, I could see her eyes sparkle as she nodded at me aggressively.

"Ok then, let's eat and call it a day. Well resume our beast will assimilation from tomorrow." I said while taking out the food that I had bought and gave half of it to Caera.

"Hey Caera, how is the egg that you received from lumina doing? Any signs of it hatching?"

"No, it still doesn't show any signs of hatching anytime soon. And lumina herself told us that it would take a few months for it to hatch. Anyways, is regis up? And what about Sylvie?"

"Nah, regis is still hibernating while Sylvie should be able to hatch from the egg after sometime, well probably before we leave to xyrus. Well it would be quite ironic if both Sylvie and Lumina's child hatch at the same time wouldn't it. By the way have you thought about what your going to name the child?"

"Nope, I can't really come up with a name right now. But I am still thinking about a name that should be similar to lumina or describe a phoenix. Do you have any suggestions?"

"I don't think I have a name right now but we still have some time so let's take our time and not haste it." I said to which Caera nodded.

"Well Caera, do you want to sleep here or should I drop you at elder Rinia's house?" I asked her.

"If you can fix my bed hairs in the morning then I could sleep here tonight." She said while getting up.

"Yeah sure I can do that." I replied and she nodded.

We both made our way to the bed and laid down. Caera as usual just buried her head in my chest and hugged me while sleeping, and I too wrapped my arms around her waist and controlled the temperature around us with mana so that she could sleep comfortably. Soon she fell into her deep slumber, well I guess even if we both have asuran bodies, we still need some rest.

After a while, Caera just woke up. Her head still buried in my chest. "Art, if you dont mind...I do have some questions for you." She said. "Ask away, I am more than willing to answer your questions."

"Well, it's just that... did you show the memories of our confession...and you know...our kisses to Seris and Sevren?" She asked which caused me to give her a deadpan look.

"Are you serious right now Caera? Do you think that I would have been alive right now, if I had shown those scenes to your brother and mentor. I skipped those parts." I told her.

"Hey! It's not my fault and I just remembered that if you had shown all your memories, then that would include our moments..." She retorted while her face was turning red.

"Is THE LADY CAERA that scared to reveal her boyfriend to her brother and mentor~" I teased her, which caused me to receive a elbow jab and she just rolled her eyes.

"Well I just don't want them to know about my relationship yet..." she muttered.

"Art, what should we do after getting out of here?" She asked after a while, still hugging me tightly.

"Well, first we are going back to Xyrus where my parents are and I would introduce you as a friend who I met after getting separated from them. Then we will spend some time with them probably a few months in which I will help you sharpen your swordsmanship, you know that mine and yours sword style are pretty similar so I can help you with that."

"After that I was thinking about going to beast glades and becoming an adventurer, I was going to ask you this later on but while we are on the topic....do you perhaps want to become an adventurer too?"

"Yep, of course I do, you know that I can't miss out on all the fun part, and besides we both can't be separated for such long distance." She said in an excited tone.

"Well yeah that's true too. I can use that chance to take you out and explore more of beast glades, also that would be better for us as we can train much more freely there." I said to her, and I saw that Caera was falling asleep again I chuckled a bit and caressed her hair that made her fall into sleep soon. 'I should go to sleep now too.'

Timeskip~

"Well let's wrap it up for today. I think with just a bit of push you might be able to complete your assimilation process in 2 days or so, Caera. And that applies to me as well." I said to her while getting up and then helped Caera to get up too. The knowledge from the previous timeline surely helped me out a lot, i could finish my beast will assimilation much more quickly this time and help Caera to get assimilated faster too.

"Well that's good I guess. We still have some time before we go to Xyrus right Art? So maybe.....could you help me with improving my mana manipulation a bit?" She asked looking straight at me with a hopeful look.

"Well of course I can. As I predicted you are a dual elemental mage, heck I can even say that you are very much gifted in using fire and ice magic. Well fire was your strong point in the previous timeline anyways, but gaining Lumina's beast will surely helped you gain good control over ice element. It's even possible that you may leave Varay to dust when you gain proper control over the ice element, given that you are around mid or solid silver stage." I explained to her, and I could see excitement in her eyes as they sparkled.

While we were discussing a bit about how our day went, Caera suddenly pulled out the egg that lumina gave her, it had started form cracks. Caera looked at me and I just smiled at her and said, "Don't worry, it is hatching. Looks like you'll get your bond today." I said to her as she returned her gaze towards the egg.

The egg started to crack, both me and Caera saw a red crimson eye looking at us through the hole in the egg, soon the egg completely cracked and revealed a frost blue little animal with crimson eyes. It's appearance was similar to that of lumina, just a child version of her to be precise. Small little wings, frost blue color feathers and bluish with a bit of white color mixed beak, and its claws were of same color too.

As soon as it came to this new world, he first looked at Caera then at me, then back at Caera. Then suddenly it bit Caera at her right hand, "Oww, that hurts...what was that?!?" She exclaimed and I giggled a bit.

"It formed a bond with you, try to communicate with it in your mind." I said to her and she gave me nod while rubbing the area where the beast bit her.

I saw Caera and the mini phoenix in her hand staring at each other, probably talking to each other mentally. Soon Caera's face was bit red, almost as red as a tomato and I could see steam coming out of her head.

"What happened are you okay Caera?!?" I asked her, worried that she might have caught cold or fever....but that shouldn't be possible, she has an asuran body right?

"I-It j-just called me M-Mama and y-y-you P-P-P-Papa!!" She yelled with a flustered face and looking at the phoenix, my face too started to turn red. But why? Sylvie also did call me papa and tessia her mama in the previous timeline and I didn't get this embarrassed or flustered then....so why is it different with Caera?

'Didn't I already explained it to you? I mean the difference between like and love? Its because you didn't view tessia in a romantical interest and more like a childhood friend, you did try to view her as a woman but deep down you knew that you didn't see her as a romantic partner but here you do view Caera as a romantic interest.' said an all too familiar voice.

'Wait R-Regis?? You are awake now?' I almost yelled in my mind from shock.

'Well who else could this Chad and majestic AF voice belongs to if not to this Majestic being?' he stated as a matter of fact and started laughing and I rolled my eyes.

'Well did you gather enough aether to maintain your form?' I asked him, curious as to what he has been doing all this time.

'Yup I did, this much aether should be enough to maintain my form till your adventures in beast glades are over, that is if I don't refill the aether and maintain my physical form 24/7.' he stated.

'Well ignore that fact, it seems that I am now an UNCLE, you and Caera became PARENTS, although it's the second time for you and my first niece hasn't hatched yet, so that means you will became a father of two children when lizard princess wakes up!!' he shouted, I could again feel my face getting flustered and regis just laughed at my state.

"So, Caera what is it? Is it a boy or a girl?" I asked her ignoring regis's comments.

"It's a girl." She replied," so have you thought about a name for her yet?" I asked, well I guess Sylvie got herself a sister.

"I don't, actually I am pretty confused as to what I should name her..." She said while playing with the baby phoenix. "Do you have one?" She asked.

"Ahh, well I am not that good with giving names..... although I did name Sylvie after Sylvia but I don't think that it would be a good Idea to do the same thing for her." I said while pointing towards the baby phoenix.

"Well what are you two talking about?" A voice came from behind, it was elder Rinia, she walked towards us with a curious gaze.

"It's nothing Elder Rinia, Caera and I were just discussing about what we could name Caera's new bond." I replied to her, she had a confused face as to what I was talking about, but she soon saw the bond with caera. Her expression went from a confused one to a surprised one.

"Did the phoenix's egg hatch?" She asked while me and Caera nodded. "Well you both were true, the phoenix you met certainly was different, you can see the difference between a normal phoenix and this child. Although I haven't seen a real phoenix, but I did assume that they would be similar to phoenix wyrm in terms of appearance."

"Well that matter aside, do you have a name in mind for her?" I asked elder Rinia.

"Well it's better if both you and Caera name her, it's not my place to name a child. In any case she still views you both as her mama and papa right?" She said while throwing a wink at both me and Caera.

"Well, Caera let's go inside the house and decide a name for her." I said and both elder Rinia and Caera gave me a nod and we made our way to elder Rinia's house.

Caera-

The little baby phoenix just hatched, as soon as it scanned it's surrounding, it bite my right hand. It hurted a bit because I was caught off guard. I asked Art about what it did that and he explained that the baby phoenix formed a bond with me and he suggested me to communicate with it in my mind, so taking in his suggestion I started to talk with the baby phoenix in my mind.

But before I could strike up the conversation, the phoenix beat me to it.

'Mama?' it asked, well it's voice was pretty cute and soft. So it is a girl I thought, but wait...did it just call me mama? Well technically I am, as newborn birds do view the first living being they see as their parents.

'Yes, i am your mama!' I said to her and she let out a 'Kii' in excitement and she seemed to be happy.

She then looked at Art then at me 'Mama, Papa!!' she exclaimed while looking at Art again, my face started to burn.

Mama and P-papa??? My thoughts wandered around, dreaming of me and Art having a family, that thought alone made my face get hotter even more. Seeing my state Art asked me what happened with a concerned look plastered over his face. I said that she just called me Mama and him papa, then Art's face too started to turn red.

Me and Art, were talking about what to name her then Elder Rinia came and asked us about the situation. After explaining it all to her, we all made our way to Elder Rinia's house, as Art proposed the idea to think about a name for baby phoenix or now ....our child...STOP Caera don't overthink it, both you and Art are still in six or seven years old right now, I calmed myself and stopped my thoughts from wandering anywhere else.

Both Me and Art went over many names, but none of them felt that good. It had been a few hours since we started to think of a name.

"Ohh wait how about 'Chloe'?" I asked Art, well Chloe seems to be a pretty good name to me, it's simple and cute, not too tough to remember or pronounce.

"That's a great name Caera!!" Art exclaimed. "Then it's settled, from now on you are Chloe!" I said while picking up the baby phoenix from my lap and bringing her to my eye level.

"Kii!" she said with a happy expression on her face, "seems like she liked her name." I said and Art came towards us and hugged me and then took Chloe from me and caressed her a bit. Then I remembered something.

"Art, what about Sylvie? When is she going to hatch." I asked Art curiously.

"Well in the previous timeline she hatched just 4 months before I went back to Sapin, well that was due to me unlocking my beast will. But i don't know what will happen this time around..., maybe it will take a while for her to hatch, although my intuitions are telling me that it should be faster than the previous timeline for some reason but can't say for sure." He stated still playing with Chloe.

"Well then it's time for me to leave. Chloe take care of your your mama while I am gone." He said as he handed Chloe back to me. Chloe just Kii'd.

Art then came towards me and kissed my forehead and turned around, "See you both tomorrow." He said as he used godstep.

"Ohh youth, it sure is nice. Reminds me of those good old days." Said elder Rinia from behind me with a smirk on her face, my face was already red from Art's kiss and now I have to handle elder Rinia's jokes.

"Let's go Chloe, I'll feed you something and then let's rest for the day" I said to Chloe and moved to the kitchen to find some food for her.

Arthur-

"Yeah, c'mon princess we could have spent some more time with my niece and horned goddess!" Regis yelled at me.

"Yeah we will see them tomorrow anyways. And you are always free to go and stay with them. Wait actually that would be a great idea, Regis from tomorrow onwards you will go and look after Chloe, well she still is a kid, but try to teach her something like saying proper sentences or mana rotation technique, and when you think she is ready you can start training her with mana manipulation and magic stuff."

"This way you can spend more time with your niece and train her too, and when Sylvie hatches she too will join you two." I said to him and went to bed as it was pretty late and I was pretty tired.

"Yeah that's pretty good idea princess! And I will be there to protect your horned goddess if something were to happen, but that's unlikely to happen." He said as he jumped out of my core and curled up and laid besides me.

"Yeah sure regis. Now let me sleep I am pretty tired you know." I said and went to sleep as regis just closed his eyes, he probably felt good to be out in the open again after all this time.