The sun was shining upon the early morning of Invicta, the day was quite special, as the sky was clear save for the shadow of the mountain, without even an ounce of rain.

“One day, we shall make an empire where the sun never sets.” No one knows who spoke these words, some say it was a previous king, some say it was a high-ranking official, and some even claimed it as words of a delusional madman.

The man who uttered such words was lost to time, but the meaning behind them is engraved in the mind of every human. It was humanity’s dream to lift themselves high up into the sky and create a world that belonged only to them.

Not that they would admit it.

“An unlikely tale.” Louis spoke as he turned his eyes away from the memorial engraved in stone. To the North was a vast forest, to the east a terrain of mountains, to the west dunes of deserts. Each one was a battleground that cannot be conquered through manpower alone.

‘Those words probably hold a different meaning, what meaning do they hold though? Perhaps I should pay a visit to the Akashic Records in the Forgotten Library of the Orken Dunes.’ Louis mused, recalling a legend that he had found in a dusty old corner of the library. He doubted the credibility, but many legacies of ancient cultivators were found through ‘legends’ such as those.

“Heeey, big broooo. We were here a minute ago; you can stop staring solemnly at that rock now.” Lucia called out to him, this time wearing a green blouse.

He turned around, acting surprised, he had already noticed her presence, but there was one thing.

“Where are the others?” He asked.

Lucia smiled, spinning around and pointing to the direction of the TelePort, there was a huge procession of guards bearing the banner of the de Leon household, they did not utter a word but the way they were walking was basically screaming ‘make way peasants!’

Sure enough, it was heading towards their direction: Arthur, Diana and Paul were in the center of the guards, wearing casual clothes. At least as casual at it could get for nobles.

The guards all stepped aside, one was about to announce their presence but Arthur raised his hand to stop him.

“Now’s not the time.” Their presence was already known to practically everyone in the capital at that point anyways.

Diana stepped forward first, the woman giving a sharp glance at Lucia.

“Hehe…” Lucia chuckled, rushing to hide behind Louis.

“It’s good to see you again, Louis.” Diana smiled.

“Likewise, mother.” Louis stepped aside, but Lucia tightly clung on to his back, taking a step at the same time as him.

“Blegh. I’ve always excelled in my dance classes.” Lucia poked out her head and stuck out her tongue.

“And you, young.lady. Why did you rush ahead?” Diana raised an eyebrow, to which Lucia immediately stopped hiding behind Louis and stood up straight.

“Well, uhhh, everyone was too slow… so I rushed ahead?” Lucia tilted her head.

Diana facepalmed.

“Haaaa, what do I do with you? You are the only daughter of a duke, running alone in the capital, do you know how dangerous that is?!”

“Aw c’mon, mom, if anyone tried to kidnap me, father would have gone wooosh, with his sword, and then the villain would go pow! Straight into that wall over there!” Lucia mimed the battle with a bright expression on her face.

‘Where did she learn that vocabulary…?” Louis thought.

“That’s beside the point, you should start to mind your manners outside of social events. No watching sword fights for 1 month!” Diana brought up her pointer finger, condemning Lucia to her fate.

“Nooo~.” Lucia fell to her knees, the bright glint in her eyes turning lifeless.

Arthur noticed the scene, and a feeling of guilt welled up in his heart, he held Diana’s back, and gently spoke.

“Dear-.”

“1 week.” Diana stated.

“Yes ma’am.” Arthur immediately caved in, much to Lucia’s despair.

Louis let out a short laugh, scratching his head and helping his sister get off of the floor.

“Little sister, you’ll get your clothes dirty.”

Paul and Carlos were having a quiet discussion, babbling about what they’ve learned during the past week, Paul seemed a little interested in adventurers too.

“I’ll invite some people over later, you can ask them some questions.” Carlos said with a smug expression, and Paul nodded in excitement.

“Let’s continue this at the villa.” Arthur spoke, heading towards a metal carriage.

Paul and Carlos followed obediently, but Diana and Louis had to drag Lucia to the carriage, they did not know if Lucia was mumbling nonsense or uttering a cant to summon an eldritch sword god.

It looked a little absurd to onlookers, which amounted to zero since all the guards were blocking them, faced away from the scene.

In the middle of the journey, Louis whispered a question to his father.

“Father, what’s with all the guards? Dukes aren’t required to bring more than 2 guards with them when using a personal teleporter.”

Arthur sighed, staring out of the window.

“This is actually the work of Leonor, when he heard about it he immediately contacted some friends to provide us this entire platoon. That guy always overdoes things…”

‘He did tell me about his connections, but why do this for Arthur? Did he do this out of guilt? A final gift? That is expected of the heart of a man. Or is this a devious plot? Whatever, I will ask him later.’ Louis thought.

“Don’t think too much about it. He’s a good man anyways, despite his past.’ Arthur told him.

Louis nodded.

On the route, they had passed through an establishment familiar to Louis, El Patio. He recalled the time, and checked if Llamiryl was there in curiosity.

Sure enough, she was there eating breakfast, and with Elyssa too. He wondered why Llamiryl chose that place, it was not like Aubrey was that unique, nor was the place a good hiding spot.

Arthur also took a glance at the restaurant.

“Louis, I heard you met with Llamiryl there, did you not heed my advice?”

Louis cast his gaze downwards, he already expected to be figured out with such a direct approach, but it was a little unexpected that Arthur would confront him so soon. Only a little, though.

“Sorry father, my curiosity got the better of me.” He answered.

Arthur put his palm on his face, and shook his head.

“It’s fine, perhaps I was just being paranoid. So how was it, are elves any different from how us humans portray them?”

“Well, we aren’t all that different; they just hit puberty a little later and live twice as long, aside from the bloody forest war thing, that’s all true.” Louis truthfully stated, from what he observed about Llamiryl, everything that set her apart from humans was mostly because she was a Llamiryl, not an elf.
“Ah well I suppose those facts about them being overly racist was all rumors after all?” Arthur asked.

“That… I actually do not know about.” Louis raised a finger and responded.

Carlos’ eyes widened in surprised.

“Wait, so you mean they don’t have a higher libido than humans?”

Lucia’s blank face also turned into one of shock.

“So you mean they don’t use their ears as swords?”

Paul merely nodded in understanding, hiding whatever he had researched about elves.

Diana chuckled, holding her palm against her mouth.

“Children, where did you learn that? Especially you Carlos, it sounds like you’ve read one of those thin books that got popular recently.”

“One of our knights told me that! I think his name was Jones?” Lucia proudly announced, perking right back up.

“Uhh, mom... I just overheard it at a party, okay? I don’t read those things.” Carlos shyly proclaimed.

“Mhm.” Diana nodded; it appeared there would be a paycheck cut and a surprise investigation sometime soon.

“We’re here.” Arthur announced, stepping out of the metal carriage, he called off the guards, and led the family inside the villa.

“Welcome, Lord de Leon, I have prepared all the necessary arrangements for your stay.”

Louis had told Leonor to act as if the events of yesterday never happened in the presence of his family.

“Good.” Arthur spoke, he entrusted the luggage that the four of them brought to Leonor.

Carlos looked at the kitchen, noticing the lack of food, he turned to Louis.

“Everyone except you already ate breakfast, Carlos.”

He looked to the table, noticing a plate of fresh and hot pancakes; he inwardly thanked Leonor for his sharp intuition, and silently started eating his pancakes.

“You can all head to the living room now, I have a few words to say to Carlos.” Arthur stated, he then took a seat opposite of Carlos.

Diana sighed.

“Well? Let’s go.”

“I want pancakes too…” Lucia muttered under her breath.

“There’s cookies in the living room.” Louis told her.

“Yay!” Lucia raised her arms in glee.

“Mind your diet.” Diana spoke, elegantly taking a seat on the sofa while taking a bite of a cookie that she had expertly taken from the jar.

Lucia sulked.

“Fine, today is an exception.” Diana rolled her eyes.

Wordlessly, Lucia began to stuff her face with cookies; she took a glance at Louis but didn’t speak a word in fear of her mother scolding her for speaking with her mouth full.

Instead, Paul was the one to ask a question.

“Brother, how was your first week? Did you learn anything new about magic?”

“Not really, the instructor just went over the basics again, as not everyone enrolled could actually cast magic to begin with. How about I tell you about my soul weapon instead?” Louis answered.

Lucia nodded her head vigorously, pleading at Paul to immediately say yes.

“Sure, I’m interested in that as well.” Paul responded.

Louis explained what the instructor discussed in the lesson, along with some tidbits of basic information from the library.

“Oh, I see… so the more you understand the science behind your soul weapon, the stronger it would be?” Paul asked, a little bit of confidence in his face.

“In a nutshell, yes.” Diona answered.

“Then what stops Louis from painting a giant sword on a mountain? Can’t he just calculate the surface area and volume of the mountain and use his soul weapon.” Lucia finished stuffing her face with cookies, and answered with surprising intelligence.

“Why do I feel like whenever someone mentions sword, there’s a chance your intelligence decreases by 100% and an even lower chance it does the opposite.” Paul commented.

"One hundred percent? But that means my intelligence will still say the same?" Lucia tilted her head.

"See, there it is, I mentioned it!" Paul waved his hand.

Diana gracefully took another cookie, she bit a portion of it, then continued explaining.

“That’s because it’s not just the mountain he needs to know about, he also needs information about every single tree, rock and ore within that mountain if he wants to use his ability on it. Such information is far too much for the human mind to handle, even if he did observe every corner of the mountain”

Lucia’s mouth turned into an ‘o’ shape.

“Is that why mind mages are very powerful soul weapon users?”

Diana nodded.

“Yes, that’s why if you wish to have a powerful soul weapon, you should take mind magic as your specialization. Consequently, all the dukes are required to have at least an intermediate level of understanding.”

“So does that mean father can do mind control??” Paul freaked out.

Diana shook her head, frowning at the half-empty cookie jar.

“If it was that easy, we would be living in a dystopia in which mind mages control everything. He can do telepathy and mental augmentation at best.”

Arthur and Carlos barged into the room, with slight smiles in their faces. It appeared that their conversation went well, whatever it may have been about.

“I’m back, did I miss anything?” Arthur asked.

“Nothing that you already know of.”  Diana responded.

“Right, Louis, how’s your extra-curricular activities, made any friends?” Arthur inquired, taking a seat on the sofa.

“Actually, I made a lot.”

Louis stood up, he took a stack of papers from the nearby shelf, he had prepared these yesterday for the occasion.

He gently placed it in front of his father, who took a glance at it.

“A business proposal from the Brown Merchant Association, don’t they only have a casino in the capital? We’re not exactly lacking in gold right now.”

“Yes father, but they’re looking to expand towards the construction industry. Their structures have quite interesting designs and they even have some plans for interior designing. Check the papers at back.” Louis flipped through the pages, showing the illustrations to his father.

“Well, there they go talking business again.” Lucia slumped on the couch.

Arthur’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Well, these towers are certainly ambitious… the plumbing and mana crystal management will be a nightmare.”

Louis smiled confidently.

“Page 34.”

Arthur flipped through the pages, landing on the one Louis told him about, and he nodded in satisfaction.

“I might start looking into some renovations.”

The two continued looking over the documents for hours on end; they quickly finished lunch and continued their discussion while Paul and Lucia practiced poetry.

Arthur was honestly surprised at the proposal, while there were no immediate effects, his territory’s economy would be booming in the future, It may even help him cut costs. He would do some less ambitious projects on smaller towns or villages first, then see if it would be good to make changes to the city at large.

Arthur let out a hearty laugh, before ruffling Louis’ hair.

“Son, you have once again struck gold, less literally this time.”

Diana had tears in her eyes, whether from drowsiness or the romance novel she was reading, when she heard that statement, she immediately closed the book and spoke.

“You two done? It’s the afternoon, isn’t it the opening of the autumn festival? We probably have a few banquets later in our territory in celebration of that event, so we best be back at night.”

Arthur let out a tired sigh.

“It’s the weekend though.”

“I know, but these types of things are technically recreational activities, you know.” Diana retorted.

Arthur clicked his tongue.

“Banquets… recreational… one of the biggest lies ever uttered on the face of this planet.”

Carlos nodded, a smile plastered on his face.

“Yeah, good thing I won’t have to worry about them while in Great Leyline Academy.”

“Oh you…. Ah well, let’s eat out at a high-class restaurant, to celebrate their first week of school, how about it?” Arthur grumbled in frustration.

“Dinner? So early?” Diana asked.

“No, just some afternoon tea. Come on, let’s call Lucia and Paul” Arthur stood from the sofa, stretching his body a little.

“The soldier took his spear by the pole, and drove it into the widow’s hole.” Lucia recited a poem.

“Uhhh.” Paul responded, confused and uncomfortable.

“Paul, Diana, let’s head out for some afternoon tea.” Diana called out.

Lucia set the paper and ink on the table, rising from the chair and feeling relieved.

“Finally, my head was starting to ache.”

“Same.” Paul agreed.

“Father, mother, is it alright if I invite some of my friends over for the occasion?” Carlos asked.

“Sure, as long as they are nearby.” Arthur answered.

Carlos took out a communication pearl and headed to another room to make some calls.

The family informed Leonor of their appointment, who happily agreed to be their driver. After ten minutes of travel, they arrived at a tea and snacks establishment reserved for nobles. It was mostly a place to set up some social gatherings or meetings, rather than the food. However, their sweets were said to be one of if not the best in the kingdom.

“Yay, sweets!” Lucia exclaimed.

“If I knew about this, I wouldn’t have eaten any cookies.” Diana spoke, disappointed in herself.

Arthur laughed, calling the host to lead them to their table.

“The de Leon family, right? A guest has already reserved a table for you, please do head in.” The host bowed.

“Strange, did one of Carlos’ friends arrive here before us?” Arthur wondered.

They headed inside, greeted by a cool air and the refreshing smell of tea. The host led them to a wide table, with Frank, Otto and Robert already seated.

“Duke de Leon and his family. It’s a pleasure to meet you, come take a seat.” Robert spoke.

“Robert… you all sure got here fast.” Carlos said in shock.

The three laughed.

“I was shocked too; I mean what were the chances my family owned the place you were going to. At the same time, we were already here having a chat.”

As they all took a seat, a waitress took their order.

“It’s all on the house, by the way, a favor for a friend.” Robert smiled.

“On the house you say…” Lucia had a dangerous look on her face.

“Well thank you for your hospitality, Mr. Windmill.”

As Arthur spoke, Robert could not help but flinch a little.

“Would you prefer to be called Robert?”

“Yes, please.”

“Well then Robert, no need to be so formal, just treat this occasion as a casual meeting with your friend’s family.”  Arthur said with a gentle smile.

“It seems the rumors about the de Leon family being quite friendly are all true.” Frank spoke, arms crossed.

“You look exotic, do your parents perhaps have a relationship with the dwarves?” Paul interrupted.

Diana gave him a stern glance.

“Paul, you shouldn’t ask that!”

The Dwarvendom and Invicta were at war, so his statement was tantamount to calling Frank’s ancestors traitors.

“Sorry, I really shouldn’t have.” Paul lowered his head, apologizing.

Frank smiled and shook his head.

“No, I’m not offended at all, I know it’s quite similar to dwarven culture, but rest assured this is 100% tradition of a family born in Invicta.”

Arthur shrugged.

“I have seen stranger traditions.”

The awkward atmosphere was interrupted by Lucia.

“Mother, this is a casual meeting right? Between a family and Carlos’ friends he met in the adventuring class.”

Diana was about to open her mouth, but then she realized Lucia put a lot of emphasis on the word ‘adventuring’

Alas, it was too late and the time bomb had exploded.

Lucia practically bounced up from the table, not even caring about the bountiful amount of sweets she had ordered.

“So you three had adventuring class right? How was it? Did you get to use a sword? How do adventurers swing their sword? Did you guys fight with a sword? Do adventurers polish their swords often? Do they give them names like knights?”

Even Frank felt overwhelmed.

Louis was in a corner, eyes closed.

The conversation between Frank and Paul, was a conversation between two people who were ignorant of dwarven culture. The misunderstanding was birthed from an assumption on eastern culture. An assumption that was off by a few hundred years.

No one bothered correcting their ignorance, because they were none the wiser.

Everyone except Louis. He lit a small fire, a fire that revealed a golden glow.

His eyes widened in shock, not because of Paul who he had already suspected, but because of Lucia.

In her soul was a faint golden glow, and as faint as it was…

It was there.