Three Years Later

Chapter 12: Three Years Later

It's been Three years now and I've been living my life as a toddler. It's not a good feeling but I keep myself distracted. Dredan, the weird god who loves books and old cars, wasn't as overpowered as I first thought. For the most part he only sells books and vehicles. He does have a crap ton of skills but most of those aren't for combat or even magic for that matter. 

I bought [BASIC MECHANICS LVL 1] but when I tried to use it, it told me it was incompatible for me. I couldn't figure out why until I decided to buy a bunch of books. Apparently there are different kinds of supers and this one was for mechanics. Whereas I was a mage.

I'm glad I bought them but I'm not happy with how much it all cost. Needless to say, I'm almost all out of the Black Star Silver. I can afford a few more purchases but at this point I'd have better luck buying [PARALYSIS LVL 1] from Pilf.

Speaking of, I haven't heard from the guy in three years. I almost wonder if he is actually still alive or not.

"Jessup, get up. You need to go to sword practice, and later we'll be seeing your grandfather."

"Yes, mom." 

That was Samantha, I only called her my mother because when I called her Samantha for the first time she seemed disappointed that those were my first words. It's not my fault she never calls herself mom, I only see her rarely these days. 

Apparently when the king is away she is the active head of the house, and her words are law, and the king is always away. From what I've heard he travels the world looking for god knows what doing who knows what for whatever reason.

"Hurry up, you don't have all day. Your instructor is waiting, and you know how he is." 

My instructor. What better word can I use to describe a person other than… An orc. He doesn't like it when I call him that but it doesnt change the fact that the dude is a literal monster. 

"I'm coming, just a minute." Samantha is right, my teacher is very punctual and he hates it when I'm not on time. I want to argue it's because I'm a child… but mentally I'm not. I'm just lazy.

I finally get dressed, and open the door. What's waiting for me is an angry mother standing outside my door. I'm actually surprised she didn't break the door down this time. She's done it before, once she even kicked the door down when I decided to sleep in. 

"You're late, starting today your grandfather will personally come to inspect not just you. He will also be grading Sir Mokoto, if you embarrass him in front of the king, I will be the one responsible for punishing you. Now go." 

Samantha had to emphasize a few words but the message was clear. Samantha has always been a woman of principle. Her motto is loyalty over anything else. She respects the king of course but as a leader herself she's still responsible for giving her people their due respect. It's commendable but you can't deny she isn't overly strict on a lot of things.

"Yes ma'am." 

I walk with her for ten minutes before we finally reach a small courtyard outside. The first thing that I see is the instructor speaking to a man in regal clothes adorned in purple and blue with gold embroidery. This was none other than King Grove. The king of this small nation and my biological grandfather.

"I hear the eastern sea company is in dire need of a transport ship. I was planning to have my third wife take my ship out to sea but if I have your permission I would like to take a temporary leave."

The man who just spoke is my instructor Mokoto. I don't know much about him except for the fact that he's amazingly talented with the sword. My grandfather has a rule that he refuses to teach anyone who isn't next of kin his skills. Mokoto is no exception, however the reason why he's so skilled is because over the years he's somehow managed to copy many sword arts from his opponents, including the king. 

"That's fine. Just be sure to tell your wives I said hello," Just then the king looked back at us, he looked me in the eye for a brief second before he continued, "Before you leave I believe you have something to show me."

"Yes, King." 

After their quick exchange, Sir Makoto and I stood on the sand arena. I thought we were going to start but we both had to wait for the king to first sit down. This man is another one of the king's loyal fan girls. Once the king sat down and got comfortable it was the king himself to announce when we should begin. "Begin."

Despite what you may think, the instructor and I didn't actually duel or anything, rather he started calling out numbers instead. Each number stood for every sword technique he had taught me over these three months.

We start with a simple downward slash.

Move on to a strike

An upward slash 

I take the sword and I slash again behind me

I repeat this process until I'm exhausted, going back and forth, back and forth. It's a bit simple but there is only so much you can do in three months. Especially for a 3 year old. 

When I finally stop I look back at the king and I can hear my mother shout, "Do not look at him! He is not your teacher today!" 

That's right, it's not proper etiquette to look at the audience. Especially when your teacher is expecting a lot from you. I look back at my teacher and stare him straight in the eyes hoping for some feedback, "Sir!"

"Not horrible I guess." The teacher looks a bit disappointed. As for the king?

"Yeah, you should forget about the sword." 

What the hell? I wasn't that bad! I think I did really well, how was that wrong? I even mixed in a few jumps here and there to increase the power.

"Why were you jumping?" Even my own mother questions my sword skill. She has her hand on her forehead clearly disappointed. I have a feeling I'm going to get yelled at later.

"Well jokes aside it's not like you needed to be good with the sword anyway. I just wanted to see how good you would do."

I really hate this guy. 

"Besides, the only people who should be using swords are pugilists."

"But Grandfather, aren't you a swordsman?"

"Goodness no. I just happen to have a really nice sword, if I'm not using it then what is it for? You on the other hand are a mage, so I'll be teaching you magic and statecraft soon."

I can't really understand his argument. He says he has a nice sword but that's not the complete truth. What he's not saying is that despite the fact that Sir Mokoto is a brilliant swordsman, there is one fact that everyone in the kingdom knows about. He has never won a fight against the king.

The king is universally known around the kingdom as being the greatest swordsman alive. It's not surprising why his cult following is so high.

"Well this has been fun, but as I've mentioned I have work to be done. Stay safe Young Master." 

Seriously, that guy belongs in feudal Japan. I wonder how the king managed to get an actual demon to work for him? I bow in respect as I look back at the red skinned man with a tail swishing behind his back and say my thanks for his teaching.

"So, lunch?" 

This man is really too casual sometimes.

"I have work to do, I have to organize the things you brought in yesterday, and oversee the Eclipse project."

"You're such a busy bee. Then I'll let you go. I guess that means alone time with my favorite grandson."

"Actually I have something important- Whoa!" 

This bastard grabbed me on the back of my shirt for the hundredth time I've known him. He didn't even give me time to speak. Samantha looked back at us like she had something to say but after looking back at me it was clear she was having second thoughts. "Have fun."

"Haha always, see you kiddo."

The king waved his hand and opened up another portal before walking through leaving Samantha alone. 

"I can still feel the people's eyes on me as I was being dragged around… Is this what father calls P.T.S.D? I need a drink."

__________________

The king and I walk through the portal and into a bustling city. At least I say walk but it was more like I was carried and he walked. I looked back up at him and noticed something changed. He was no longer wearing his fancy attire and was now sporting blue jeans, a T-shirt and a leather jacket with a giant smiley face on it.

His jacket looked worn out but his whole outfit looked very modern if not a little punk rock. Even the smiley face had blood coming out of its eyes like while it was smiling. 

I looked around the area and it seemed like people were wearing modern clothes as well. The king saw my gaze and asked, "Are you surprised? This is the central continent. The land of many faces, and the place where everyone is equal. Equally worthless."

I took note of what he said and it sounded awfully familiar. It sounded like he was talking about my world. I couldn't help but ask at this point. "Are you from earth?"

He didn't even look at me. I kinda already knew that he wasn't from this world. The first time we met it took far too little effort to guess that I wasn't what I looked like, and the only person who could guess that so quickly is someone who also is not from here.

"Probably not from your earth but yeah."

"My earth? What do you mean?"

The king walked over to what looked like a small restaurant in some back alley. When the waitress saw us she was pretty shocked at first but didn't seem to care enough to ask why I was being carried like this and just took us to our table where the king finally sat me down in a booth.

"You know, alternate timelines, that kinda thing."

Weirdly enough I understood what he was talking about. "Who was the president of the USA?"

"We had an emperor who lorded over our planet and conquered other planets."

"Oh, well we had corporations that did that. The president was just a bought out figure head."

Yeah, it's easy to forget that place, but you never forget your first corporate contract.

"Ah, corporatocracy. That existed briefly in my timeline as well. Who knew a group of millions of people all looking to shoot a tyrant in the head could fix so many problems? Anyone. Anyone could, but no mine was mostly an imperial/technocracy run governance."

"That sounds way better than mine."

The whole time we've spoken, the king has never actually looked me in the face. His attention has mostly been on the waitress or the TV in the corner. I think it has some news channel on it but I can't understand the language.

As soon as I said what I said though, he turned to look at me like I was an idiot. 

"And that right there will be lesson number 1. Remember this kid, everyone thinks their form of governance is better than the other, but the truth is that the only winner is the one on top."

"That is why I've chosen to be on top."