Chapter 6: The Royal Council (1)

~6.1~

*****

After the battle was over, I was out of commission for the rest of the day. If Allison had shown up before I used Aether Drive, I would not have gone so far. But since I did, I had to rest the rest of the day and night afterward. The next morning, I woke up very sore. Everything felt painful. Considering the extremes I went to in battle, I could hardly be surprised. We didn’t have a single casualty, so it was worth it.

I did learn that Allison, despite being so powerful, would have struggled just as much against the same foe. Aether is beyond difficult to control, so even Allison sticks to mana as much as possible, only resorting to aether as a last resort. I’m impressed with how far ahead my guardians are in output and mana control, so learning how much trouble even the most skilled people in this world have with aether was a shock. Since I had to rest and was bored anyway, I gave it some thought the rest of the day to try to figure out how to improve them. The result I came up with is that there must be something fundamental missing.

*****

“Aliana, I am going to the food court right now and getting something tasty.” Kye stared Aliana down with the most determined of eyes.

Aliana nodded. “I understand, Princess.”

“As such, I will not hear any nays! We are going right now and that’s that!”

“I understand, Princess.”

“You can save your arguments for an- Wait, you understand? No arguments?” She lost her poker face. Kye had practiced with Liliana for an hour to get her lines right, but Aliana was giving in without a fight, leaving Kye surprised.

“You have more than earned it, Princess. Your performance yesterday was incredible and you deserve a reward.”

Kye was thrown off so much that she didn’t know how to feel. With a blank expression, she walked over to the door separating her and Alethea’s suites. As she reached to open it, she winced in pain. “Huh?” She reeled her hand back and looked at it as if trying to read a line of text on a document.

“Princess?” Aliana rushed over, but was confused. “Is something the matter?”

What was that?

Kye shook her head, “No, I’m fine,” and went through the door. She waved at Eliana as she passed through and barged into Alethea’s room. Alethea was in the middle of changing clothes and shrieked. Kye stood there and watched silently as her lover quickly dressed herself in embarrassment.

“Kye!”

Kye smirked as Alethea walked over. “That was nice. Your boobs are bigger.”

“What?” Alethea examined herself, forgetting the embarrassment. “Are they?”

“Heh. They’re quite nice...”

“You’re such a perv.”

“HEY! I am not!” Kye said, but then she suddenly smirked.

“K-Kye?”

Kye quickly spun around behind Alethea, reached around, and grabbed two handfuls.

“HEY!”

“They’re definitely bigger!”

“KYE!”

Kye released her, spun her around, and kissed her.

Alethea blushed and stepped back. “Meanie.”

Kye gave her a warm smile. “I love you.”

Alethea smiled back. “So, what’s up? You doing something fun?”

“Food court. Wanna go?”

Alethea had stars in her eyes. “YES!!!”

*****

Going to the food court was among the few social opportunities I had. My guardians and one particular attendant were concerned about my diet. Everyone was afraid I’d eat poorly, despite my constant declarations that I needed no such management. Normally I was sentenced to salads whenever I went out to eat, but this time I was getting something tasty.

We ran into Louise at the food court again. It seems she enjoys eating there as much as Alethea and me.

We talked again about my enchanting method and discussed her lack of progress. She was quite the researcher. I thought about telling her my secret, but it remained only a thought. I was able to keep everything believable thanks to my list of accomplishments, so I decided there was no need to share it. I recognize her soul from a past life. We were friends then. It looks as if we’ll be friends again. The thought brought a smile to my face.

“You wish to come to my lab today?” Louise asked.

“I do. Congratulations, by the way, on being granted a private lab.”

“Thank you. I do wonder if you are to thank for that?”

“No, actually. I did mention it to my mother, but she had already decided to assign one to you.”

“I see.” Louise sipped her soda, but it was empty. “Oh, I’ll be right back.” She took her drink and headed off toward the fountain.

Kye smiled and reached for a slice of pizza, but winced in pain before picking one up.

Again?

“Shi-chan? What’s wrong?” Alethea asked.

Kye examined her hand with a raised eyebrow. “Hmm.” She reached again for a slice of pizza, and felt no pain. “Nothing, it seems.”

“Princess?” said Aliana.

“It’s nothing, Ali. I’m fine.”

“If something is wrong, please let us know right away.” Kye nodded silently, and the others returned their eyes to their pizza.

Louise returned and sat back down. “So, Alethea, Aliana, how’s your progress?”

Alethea was confused with a slice of pizza half shoved into her mouth. Aliana was reaching for a slice but stopped. “I was able to replicate the effect somewhat. I realized that my ability to render objects invisible or intangible is to simply create a void.”

“Void?” Louise asked as she returned. “May I ask?”

“I wanted your input on the subject, too, actually,” Kye said. “Aliana, go on.”

She nodded and continued. “The basics of my power is to do this...” She held a piece of pizza between her fingers, and it suddenly became invisible. She was still holding it, but all that could be seen were her fingers with a space between them. “And this...” She reversed the invisibility and applied intangibility instead. She tried to grab it with her other hand, but that hand went through the slice of pizza and the fingers holding it. “I can also do both at once, but you get the idea, so I won’t demonstrate.” She took a bite.

“You just wanted to take a bite sooner.” Liliana giggled and Aliana shrugged while she was chewing.

“And that’s where I come in!” Alethea cheered. She formed a ball of mana with the void effect, though she winced while she held it. “This is perhaps the most dangerous single thing that has ever existed. It is the very concept of void in the form of mana.” To demonstrate, Kye formed a ball of light mana and Liliana touched a light-imbued napkin to the ball. They simply collided and were pushed apart. Liliana then dropped the napkin onto the void ball. The napkin vanished as it fell, but only the portion of it that touched the ball. The surviving scraps fell to the table below. Alethea dispersed the mana so that Louise could examine the leftover scrap of napkin.

“It’s as if the missing piece was just... never there. There’s no sign of tearing, no burns, nothing. It’s... interesting.”

“I can imbue my weapon with this magic, but I can’t make things invisible or intangible,” Alethea added.

“I haven’t progressed enough to imbue anything, but I can form a ball of mana with it,” Aliana said as she briefly demonstrated before reaching for another slice of pizza.

“How did you learn use that magic?” Louise asked, looking at Alethea.

“I figured out how to do this in the middle of battle yesterday while Kye was busy being a hero fighting the S-Class.”

“You also used Aether Drive,” Kye said with a grin. “Nice job acting surprised, by the way.”

Alethea smiled. “To be honest, I was a little surprised when I saw how well it worked. You used it at the full five hundred times boost.”

“Five hundred?!” Louise exclaimed. “Wow...”

“And then you did the same!”

“Yes, but we only ever pushed it to 100x in practice, so I was a little nervous about going to 500x. Anyway, that’s how it went. While Kye was fighting the S-Class, Allison and I were fighting the hoard of F to A-Class. I had a hard time with the A-Class ones, but with both Aether Drive and this void magic coating my weapon, I was able to beat them.”

Aliana nodded. “And I wish to master that ability as well.”

“I would be very interested to research this with you if you are inclined,” Louise offered. “I have a list of questions already in mind that I believe we could use to learn more about it.”

“Aliana, this is your power mainly, so I will follow your lead,” Alethea said.

Aliana nodded and agreed to the questions. They decided to visit Louise’s lab after lunch to conduct experiments.

*****

“Lord Apollyon, are you certain you do not wish to invite another from Daemonheim?” asked Layla. She was seated at a large round table. Next to her were James and Allison.

Around the table were royals from each of the five universes. From Terra, the Atlantis sisters: Atalante, Astarte, and Astraia. From Daemonheim, Apollyon sat alone. From Drachenheim, representing the Maya family: Drakon, Drayon, Drangan, Draelana, and Draenara. From Nippon Sekai, representing the Akari family: Zen I and Hatsumi; representing the Venturi family: Leonardo III and Leonardo I; and representing the Tachibana family: Ginchiyo and Kanade. From Alcanus, representing the Marshall family: James alone; representing the Romanov family: Alexandra and Kolodka; representing the Knight family: Adalric and Rebekka; and representing the Barrett family, aside Layla, James, and Allison: Edward and Charles.

“Thank you, Lady Layla, but that will not be necessary. I am the only royal of Daemonheim so it would not be proper to have another here until more have been selected as candidates.”

Layla nodded and looked toward Allison. She stood up and began, “The attack yesterday was unprecedented. Collectively, we were able to stave off the demon beasts, but perhaps the most important battle was on Alcanus. Alethea displayed a new type of magic that erased anything struck by it, used a very grandiose spell that summoned countless swords of mana to defend the city overhead, and Kye... defeated an S-rank with an even more grandiose spell. Since this meeting is primarily about them, does anyone have any questions before the discussion begins?”

*****

Revision: 11-30-2023