House of Lugh, Suzuka

Chapter thirty-seven

"So? You wanted to meet my father, right?"

I nodded without much pep. It was the first time he'd spoken in the fifteen or so minutes since we had left the tower. He didn't look at me. He just walked ahead of me and I followed. I wanted to talk with him at least and try to get him to understand my feelings about how he had been acting earlier, but again, no opening presented itself.

"Yeah. I want to get a real sword so that I can start learning how to use it. Making weapons on the fly is great and all, but the mana accuracy issue just seems too scary for me. Like, imagine if you were fighting and someone took control of your manifestation and like, used the mana to stab you or blow you up or something."

Gydion shrugged his shoulders whilst looking at his hands. Liquid metal pushed through fine cracks in his hand and formed into something akin to a bladed instrument before falling back into himself.

"Ordinarily I'd never even entertain the idea of having you meeting my father as he'd probably have you excised from this world. Of course, the situation now is different from when I attacked you those years ago. You're my charge so I don't think anything bad will happen."

"A-Ah I did forget about it. Maybe not then? I don't wanna invite disaster after all. Ha ha…"

I don't actually think he'll have a problem with me asking which is why I am in the first place, but I honestly don't know. Hopefully, he'll listen though?

"So what? You wanna back out now? You don't trust my word? Again? The only thing I've ever done was the incident that started this whole damn situation in the first place. Not once since then have I ever given even the slightest doubt of my adherence to my duty."

Aaah.

…

He's right. He hasn't given me a reason really… Honestly, he's been really good in taking care of his position as my guard, though I guess there hasn't really been any situation where that really came into effect, but still! I shouldn't use that to invalidate his sincerity! I think at least.

"Mhmm… Sorry, Gydion. I do want the sword and if you think your dad will make it then I should just trust your judgment."

Though Gydion was walking ahead of me, I could tell that my response lifted some measure of annoyance off his shoulders.

We walked in a degree of silence not found in the surroundings. Gydion and I had at this point made it so far from the tower that you could only see its peak on the horizon. This doesn't mean that we had actually walked the length for that to happen in the one-to-one sense though. This place was strange, like a web way if you will. Portals and wormholes that connect from one place to the next with no rational sense of what I've come to know as the rules of the world from the memories and conversations with my other-self.

It was cool.

On one hand, I could have the parts of the world that had this intuitive design that just made sense and on the other, I could experience things that I could only see in my dreams.

It wasn't limited to the scenery of course. Along with the glades that I regularly frequent, there was the great city which kinda serves as one of the main nexus points along with the tower and the palace. In these places, I observed the wonders that the faery people had to offer. Dance, art, mechanical marvels, and all the wildest food you could fathom. Naturally, I didn't eat any since if we stopped Gydion would get frustrated more than he already is, but it's not like I couldn't come back to them later! Well, that's the idea anyway.

The thing about this place is that a lot of the space in between each nexus changes from point A to point B daily. I dunno why. I scoured the books in the study when I wasn't playing and doing stuff with Kalinna and the others. When I wasn't teaching them Fae tongue we'd do any manner of things. Of course, this only applied to the ones that were present, that being the girls most of the time, oh and Karak. The rest of the boys were either completely absent like the twins and Kaxis or spent all their time poking and pranking me. I swear I don't understand why Kagu bothers me like that! It's so @#*%&#$ annoying!

"We're here."

In what seemed to me to be the blink of an eye we had arrived. A little bewildered, I looked at the structure before me. Ivory-Esque marbled cubes, each the size of a small house, flipped and turned over one another in front of me like some sort of Rubix cube until an opening appeared in front of us. When I walked in I quickly found myself inside the bowels of a palace that looked more appropriate serving four-meter tall giants rather than any one of us who was like nothing more than small animals scurrying around on the floors.

Well, really just me since everyone else is how they are after all.

Gydion stopped in the hallway and turned around to me.

"Welcome to my family home. Don't go running off, you hear me?"

I simply nodded.

The opening that had led us here closed behind me with a loud *Szzzhwoooop*.

We were officially inside the domain of the Warmaster Lugh. I can't deny that the mere notion gave me pause, but I decided to listen to Gydion so I'll stay.

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We spent the majority of the day searching for his father, but in the end, could not find him. Gydion, not wanting to make the trip back to the tower, suggested that I rest in his old room while he continued searching, which I happily took him up on. Of course, if I had known that his room was sixty percent a metalsmith and twenty percent a creation storage box then I'd likely have just continued searching with him. What am I supposed to do with only twenty percent of the room being usable for me! Even I need more space than this!

I threw my hands up and laid down on the floor. There wasn't even a bed for me to lay on. Just a few steel sheets with a pillow shunted into the corner of the room as an afterthought.

"I can't believe he lived here…"

Maybe he's just trolling me? Maybe this was really just his smith and he had me stay here so I wouldn't snoop around in his REAL room.

Heh. That doesn't sound like too bad a theory, me! I bet if I actually saw what his room really looked like he'd get all flustered! Not that I'd want to make him feel like that of course!

…

"Well, it's not as if I've got anything to do anyway. Might as well look around."

I rolled onto my side and shot up off the ground.

"Let's see here."

My hands wandered forward, picking up the first of the many weapons before me. Though I had little experience with weapons outside of my memories and the projections I made, I still felt that I had enough of a knowledge base to appraise them.

"No erroneous decorations taking away from the structural stability… An inch wide from edge to spine… One-sided blade. Straight with a simple handguard that could catch other blades from sliding down and damaging the user's hand. The tip rounds out into a curve at the top though. So I guess this is more of a slashing weapon then? Hmm…"

It was good but seemed as though it'd snap under duress, especially being used by a fairy or Faekin who boasted ghastly strength. Definitely not something that could endure the sustained stress that it'd be put under if I were to use it. Simply channeling my Mana into the weapon may cause it to break with its brittle nature. I'd need something that would be able to handle my ridiculous mana output so it'd have to be some special type of material.

The rest of the weapons in the immediate pile were just like the first one. For one reason or another, they'd surely fail if I were to ever actually use them.

"I'm starting to think that this might be a little bit more difficult if this is the standard…"