"Here, Master. Lilia and I made it for you."
I looked over the outfit and chuckled. "That's a lot of leather, Sprite."
"Mm!" the spirit nodded. "Dragon hide is very magically resistant and physically strong."
"And it looks cool. I kinda want some of my own," Eris muttered as she fingered the pile of new clothes Sprite had produced.
"Try it on," Roxy encouraged, pushing me gently forward.
Looking back at the girls gathered behind me, I asked, "You gonna give me some privacy to change?"
"Nope!" Kishirika leered openly, licking her lips hungrily. "Strip for us!"
"Take it ~all off~!" Elinalise nodded, watching eagerly.
"I should be here to make sure everything fits properly, master Rudeus," Lilia explained.
"Well, at least one of you has an excuse that isn't just 'I want to see Rudy's naked ass.' Fine." I rolled my eyes and stripped out of the clothes I'd been wearing (and cleaning daily, obviously) since I started really shooting up in my growth spurt, after we got to the Demon Continent.
Elinalise, Eris, and Kishirika whistled and clapped as I decided to have some fun with it, making a show of it. A look back showed Roxy blushing, but watching with rapt attention. Sprite had actually made a hologram for herself to be visibly present and was likewise blushing as she watched on. Lilia… stared at me the whole time, her lips twitching faintly fighting a smile.
Finally, I was down to just my boxers. "Those too, master," Sprite said, before pointing to the bed. "We made all new stuff."
"…They aren't leather, are they?"
"No."
"Aww!" the lewd elf pouted.
"That ass would look good crammed into leather smallclothes, but I think it might strangle his junk," Kishirika shook her head. "And trust me, as someone who wears skin tight leather shorts full time, you do not want to start sweating in that if it's directly against your skin."
I found the small pile of cotton boxers and long sleeved dark blue under shirts and swapped them out. Picking up the pants, I hummed as I studied them. They were kind of heavier than normal pants, but with them being leather that was to be expected. The outside were covered in a layer of leather, stitched in such a way as to make it flexible and not bind up when moving. The interior, however, was a normal set of cotton pants, which had been used as a base.
"Ooh," I murmured, pulling them on and getting everything settled into place. Following that went a new, sturdy belt to actually hold them up, and a second belt to hold pouches and things. Because leather was heavy and just a belt at the waist likely wouldn't hold them up when it came time for swinging a sword, there was a set of suspenders to hold them in place. Mid-shin boots went on over that with the end of the pants tucked into the tops and the top fastened with straps. A leather vest went on over the shirt, and I could feel individual metal plates down the front and back providing extra protection.
Picking up the new long coat, I looked it over and pulled it on—it came down to just below my knees and was split up the back and sides to the waist to allow for greater freedom of movement. There were several deep pockets on the outside and inside, protected with zippers. The inside, collar, and hood were lined with white fur from something I didn't recognize, but when I looked up to Sprite, she explained.
"Snow wolf fur, taken from the far north, beyond the Red Dragon Mountain Range."
"I notice that the leather isn't all one type of dragon."
"Mm! The coat is fire dragon. The pants and boots are from an earth dragon. I'm testing their viability for everyday wear and armor."
I shrugged. "Fair enough."
"Sprite! When you make me one of those coats, leave the whole thing red!"
"Of course you would," I sent my redheaded future wife an amused look.
Sprite had apparently dyed my jacket a light gray, while the pants and boots were black. All the buckles were steel, but apparently had been made so they wouldn't shine or reflect much in the light. Honestly, I thought it looked great. Vaguely kinda-sorta like Cloud in his Advent Children outfit. I fished into the pockets and found two sets of gloves—one full-fingered set for winter wear, the other fingerless, which I pulled on. Sprite knew my habits, it seemed.
"Alright, if you're done enjoying the show?" I asked, drawing some laughter from the girls. "You've all got your tasks to take care of. Hop to it."
With that, our group descended on Milis—minus Kishirika, Elinalise, Ruijerd, and Tallhand for obvious, Milis-related reasons. Roxy and Tona were the only non-humans in our little party, consisting of those two, myself, Eris, Lilia, and Aisha. We took the bikes down, in addition to a new flying car I'd made, then rode the remaining five miles up the road to the city, since I had parked the ships far enough away to be seen but hopefully not be taken as an obvious and immediate threat.
Getting through the northern gate was a pain in the ass since the guards were hyper alert given the ships on the horizon, but a bit of coin passed around got us into the city, where we slowly made our way through the crowded roads. The crowds were buzzing with talk of the mysterious flying ships in the distance and more than one person took in our hovering vehicles and (correctly) guessed that we came from them. Thankfully, we were all old hands at ignoring the chatter and questions by now, given that it happened every time we drove through a population center.
Our first stop was to get Aisha and Tona their adventurer ID cards and have them joined to our party—once more, privileges of being on the Guild's good side paying off when they took one look at my card and agreed immediately. While we were there, we picked up Eris's goblin slaying quest, just for fun.
Once we had that taken care of, we hit up the market for supplies. These were not the bulk supplies meant to feed our passengers, but luxury items and samples. Food to taste test and see if it was worth learning the recipes for. Vegetables and fruits that I could take samples of and grow later if we liked them. Spices from most parts of the world. Other man-made goods to buy as souvenirs mostly for the girls—small jewelry, perfumes, and other pretties they liked. We had the gold for it (by the ton) so I let them go wild.
I might have come out of it with a nice rug myself, but my biggest find was books. My bookish, blue-haired first wife and I found a bookstore, selected one of everything, paid for it, and had Sprite Send them straight back to the Roxy for us to sort through at our leisure later.
Finally, unable to put it off any longer, and with Sprite confirming he was awake and relatively sober, we made our way to the bar where Paul was holed up.
I stepped inside, my staff carried loosely at my side, resting against my shoulder, followed by Roxy, Lilia, Aisha, and Tona in the middle, and Eris bringing up the rear. Instincts myself and Eris had honed over the course of our stay on the Demon Continent putting us in formation naturally, with Roxy following my lead. Lilia noticed but said nothing, while the kids didn't.
The bar had a few people in it, but it wasn't hard to spot the person I was here to see.
"Trouble, boss," a guy who looked like fantasy Lupin III spoke up—he had the monkey-like features and the sideburns, at least. He wore a brown vest open that left much of his chest exposed, along with loose dark gray pants. I recognized him by description, if not on sight, from what I had learned from Ghislaine, Elinalise, and Tallhand. Geese Nukadia was a member of the demon race, a former member of Paul's old party the Fangs of the Black Wolf, a thief by trade, and an all around piece of shit.
My phone pinged in my pocket and I blinked.
Sprite: Text from Archer, master. It says 'Kill Lupin. He's a shit-stirrer. Suspected plant for H.'
I considered that for a moment before giving a faint nod. I wouldn't do anything about it right this second, unless it actually became necessary. I was, however, annoyed at the fact that he hadn't mentioned anything about Zenith and Norn. I would have to talk to him about that later.
"Trouble can fuck off," Paul grunted, not looking up from where he sat hunched over, facing away from the door, nursing a pint of beer.
Lilia stepped up to my side, picking Aisha up and putting her on her hip. "Is that any way to greet your family?"
I almost didn't hear him as Paul flinched. "No, it can't be," he breathed, before turning around slowly. His eye locked onto Lilia's red hair and he stood abruptly, knocking his chair to the floor. He noticed Aisha only a second later and sprinted across the room. "Lilia! Aisha!"
Eris, Roxy, and Tona took seats at a table nearby and I leaned on my staff and watched as my father was reunited with one of his wives and daughters for the first time in years. I felt… like an outsider, really.
Paul was just another man, now. I didn't respect him. Didn't even like him. Didn't care that I was his son. The time apart had given me some clarity on that. Oh, I was still pissed that he had tried to keep me from the rest of my family, but the man himself… I felt nothing towards. Not even contempt. It was just too much effort to hate him for being himself. I hated what he had done, trying to ruin my life and cut me out of the lives of my family, but the man himself wasn't worth it. I made the call right there that after this little reunion was over, I would be walking away—with or without Lilia and Aisha. If they wanted to stay with him, I'd leave them a couple of phones and keep in contact with them. If they wanted to come with me, that was fine too. Either way, I was done dealing with him.
Still, just because I didn't care for him didn't mean I was an asshole. I let the man have his moment.
From the corner of my eye, I caught the look of anger that crossed the monkey man's face, before he wiped it off, picked up his own pint, and downed it. He waved for another, his eyes tracking over to me, before he spoke up—completely destroying Paul's moment of peace. "Aren't you forgetting someone, Paul?"
Paul looked up, looking around with hope in his eyes. That hope died a moment later, when he didn't see who he was expecting. His eyes passed right over me on the first pass, dismissing me outright—though he did notice Roxy and his smile returned, at least somewhat. "Roxy. Thank you for bringing them back to me."
Roxy nodded. "I didn't do it alone. I had help. Elinalise and Tallhand."
"So, they saw my message," Paul said, a grin pulling at his face. "Are they near? I know they avoid Milis, but are they nearby?"
"They're nearby," Roxy confirmed. "Also, Rudy helped."
Paul hesitated. "Rudeus? He's still alive then." A conflicted look crossed his face that made me want to kick him in the nuts. But he finally nodded. "Good. That's… good. I take it you haven't managed to find Zenith and Norn?"
"Not yet," I cut in, and Paul frowned, releasing Lilia and Aisha as he turned to me and opened his mouth.
He paused when he actually stopped to look at me. The height, hair, and missing mole had apparently thrown him, but he knew my face and my eyes. "Rudeus?"
"Yep." Gesturing towards the table, I said, "Come on, let's have a seat and catch up. Figure out where we are on everything."
Paul looked at Lilia and Aisha for a moment then nodded. We grabbed a couple of extra chairs and all sat down with Roxy, Eris, and Tona (sitting in Eris's lap and basically being a cat-girl who has discovered the joys of ear scratches on demand). I dropped into the chair between Eris and Roxy, while Paul sat down across from me with Lilia holding Aisha at his side. "Alright, let's get started. Have you been to Fittoa since the teleport disaster?"
"Yeah," Paul nodded. "It was… flattened. Nothing for miles in any direction. There was a camp being set up for refugees, or people searching for refugees. I left a note for the Fangs of the Black Wolf there to search for you all. Did you find it?"
I shook my head. Reaching out, I took Eris's hand. "No. Eris and I were teleported to the Demon Continent together."
Paul blinked, his mouth opening and closing a moment. He looked like he wanted to deny it, but finally nodded. "If anyone could survive it, you could. But it shouldn't have taken two years to get here. What happened?"
"A lot," Eris chuckled.
"Yeah. You remember the bikes I made for us? I was able to summon those so we could ride and cross the distance faster. I used the phones to get in contact with everyone who had one—"
"Then you've spoken to Zenith!"
Wincing, I shook my head. "No. Norn's phone was in the ocean. She must have dropped it. I don't know where they are."
Paul's fist clenched and he glared. "What have you been doing this whole time? Just… just diddling your noble girl here when you should have been looking for them—"
I opened my mouth to tell him off, but Eris answered before I could.
"You shut your fucking mouth!" Eris roared, standing up and knocking over her chair as she glared at Paul. She moved Tona off to the side as she squared up with the man across the table, while the cat-girl pulled over another chair and sat back down.
"You don't know what happened! What do you think Rudeus has been doing?! This whole time! He's been doing nothing but searching for and rescuing the survivors! He's searched for them every minute of every day since then! He built things to look for them. Rudeus's summoned spirit Sprite has been looking tirelessly since the first hour we landed on the Demon Continent. They've searched further, wider, and harder than anyone else! We saved hundreds of Fittoa refugees on the Demon Continent alone. But that wasn't enough. It wasn't good enough for Rudeus. He built roads all across the Demon Continent and hired adventurers to escort them to us, telling the adventurers right where to find them to bring them back safely. Then he built flying ships and brought them back personally! They're here, now, just outside of town—waiting for us to finish here so we can make the rest of the trip. And we're collecting every survivor we find along the way, to bring them all home. What the fuck have you done, huh?! Sit here and crawl into a bottle while you mope about your wife—"
Several things happened all at once.
Paul stood, and in the same motion, he swung at Eris. Not a slap, but a closed fist punch to her face.
Eris pulled her head back instinctively as a fireball formed in her hand.
Half a second before he started the swing, I moved, dumping mana into a loose inertia/speed spell and touki into my eyes. I was on the table with my leg kicking out before Paul even registered the motion.
My boot hit Paul in the face just hard enough to send him and his chair flipping backwards onto the ground.
"Daddy?! Big brother?!" Aisha cried out as she processed what had happened.
I hopped down off the table as Paul blinked, a confused look crossing his face. Holding out my hand for him, I waited. "That's enough. Eris, you crossed the line. Paul, don't hit my wife. Now, let's sit back down and talk, like adults. We should set a better example for the kids in the room than our own parents set for us."
Yeah, I went there with that dig.
Paul knocked my hand away and kicked up to his feet. He looked like he wanted to fight, but Geese spoke up from where he had faded into the background, sitting and listening, hunching over himself and staying out of it until now. "Come on Paul, this is the first time you've seen your family in years. Don't let a few words ruin that, my man."
Paul's jaw clenched, but he nodded and picked up his chair, returning to his seat. I moved back to my own and Eris, bless her heart, actually did the mature thing. She bowed her head slightly and apologized. "I went too far. I'm sorry. Zenith and Norn are a sore subject for us, too—and I don't like the implication that Rudeus hasn't done everything he could to find them. That we were just playing around while we were on the Demon Continent. Yeah, Rudeus and I are engaged. And yeah, we're absolutely fucking—and have been since I was thirteen. I have no shame about that. We love each other and we're getting married soon. But when Rudeus was losing sleep over his mom and sister, I was the one who kept him from killing himself or someone else, doing something stupid. When he woke up swinging in the middle of the night, I was the one getting the black eyes. You don't get to talk down to me like I'm a child, father."
Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, Paul nodded. "Alright. Sorry. You're right." After a moment, he asked, "Where have you searched? And what's this about flying ships?"
"Sprite?" I asked, and a moment later, a couple of holograms sprang into being above the table. One showed a map of the world, with zones Sprite had searched highlighted. The other showed the Roxy and our other ships, as seen from Milis—black specs in the air miles off, until it zoomed in for a close up of my little fleet. "Like she said, flying ships. Full of passengers." The hologram of the ships changed to show interior shots from them, full of people being people.
"Okay, this… this is good," Paul nodded. "You're certain you didn't miss Zenith in any of these areas?"
"Positive."
"That narrows things down. We can go—"
"Faster to send Sprite." I shook my head. "It'd take months by foot and it's going to take days or weeks by my ships, because we're being thorough with our sweep. Let Sprite's scouts go and check them out first—if she finds them, I can get there inside of a couple of hours. Until then, I already have a plan for covering every square inch of land between here and Fittoa, then going up north and searching there too. If they're alive, we'll find them."
Paul made a noise of discontent but nodded. "Fine. You said you were in contact with others with the phones. Who else?"
"Sauros, Phillip, Ghislaine, Silvia, Hilda, Sylphie, and Princess Ariel."
The man nodded along with the list, until I got to the last one. "A princess?"
"Well… not any more. Queen now," I admitted. "She was the second princess of Asura. Sylphie actually wound up teleported to the palace and got herself made Ariel's bodyguard. I spoke to her, explained the situation, and she agreed to help. Her father, the king, basically told her that if she wanted to save the survivors then she had fund it herself to show she had what it took to be a princess. So Ariel's technically been bankrolling the whole thing herself. But since it's got a princess's royal seal on it, most people, the Guild included, have so far been sending the bill to the Asura kingdom, not to Ariel personally. She had to flee the capital due to a coup, but the bills have been getting paid, so I guess some clerk somewhere just okay'd everything."
Geese whistled in the background. "Look at that, Paul. Your little boy, all grown up, rubbing elbows with the royalty and marrying a noble!"
"Actually, engaged to Ariel too."
I wasn't going to tell them that it was partly a political marriage. Ariel, or Shizuka as she wanted to be called in private, was a friend. We were fellow reincarnations and refugees from Earth. We were interested in each other and we got along well. But neither of us had any illusions that the two of us marrying wouldn't be political. In fact, we came up with the idea together specifically as a political play, to elevate her standing when she returned to Ars once I got back by tying her to one of, if not the strongest mage on the continent. We planned to use each other mutually. Her, using my for my magical power. Me, using her for her political connections and influence. Together, we were going to kick off a revolution of magic, technology, and society—reshape and revolutionize this world, and remove the corrupt nobility and others while we were at it. We were both getting what we wanted out of it. The fact that we both liked each other was a happy bonus. But we were honest and up front about it from the start.
"He he!" Geese laughed, getting up and slapping Paul on the back. "You can take the boy out of the nobles, but you can't take the noble out of the boy, my friend. He even looks like one of them! He's going to fit right in."
I frowned, looking up at the monkey man. "I'm not like those corrupt degenerates."
Paul brushed Geese's hand off his shoulder and sat back in his seat, crossing his arms over his chest as a conflicted look settled onto his face. "Rudy… If she was run out by, I'm guessing her older brother, how did the princess become queen?"
I chuckled, a bit embarrassed about that. It was Eris who answered. "They were going to execute grandfather. They wanted to blame the whole thing on him."
Paul didn't look surprised, in fact he nodded in agreement. "Something like this would be the responsibility of the lord of the region."
"Yeah, no," I denied. "Look. Sauros sent for mages from the capital and they sent them. They checked it out and couldn't do anything. So he gave up on it. I got there and said something when I finally noticed the thing, he told me what he'd done, so I checked it out myself. All I learned was that it ate mana. I urged him to evacuate, but he said he couldn't—the government wouldn't allow it even if I did everything to move the citizens myself. And we see how big the blast was. Nowhere inside Fittoa was safe and I wouldn't have moved them that far—maybe twenty miles outside Roa. Not even remotely close to outside the blast zone."
"Rudy, what did you do?" Paul asked, with that tone that said he 'knew' I fucked up and just knew it was bad.
"I projected an illusion of myself into the audience hall where the sham hearing was being held. When the king protested, I told him who I was. Then I called Ariel and put her on too. I explained everything I just told you and told him to change his mind about executing Sauros. So he did. Then, we encouraged her father to retire and pass the crown down. And then we held court. Sprite has been gathering evidence against, well, basically every royal, noble, and merchant in Ars since Ariel got kicked out. We used all of that evidence and tried the criminals under Asuran law, using penalties set down within the law."
"You took over Asura," Paul's words came out strained.
"No," I denied. "Ariel took over Asura. I helped. Her brother committed treason against the crown, the country, and tried to have Ariel killed so he was, by law, disqualified and should have been disowned by his father. Would have, had his crimes been found out—if the Prime Minister wasn't working with him and covering them up, so he could have some of that power for himself. We started with those two and worked our way down. Without the first prince in power and with her elder sister having no desire for the throne, and the king unfit to rule if he can't manage his own house let alone the nobles and the rest of the country, Ariel was the only viable candidate."
Paul took a deep breath (Paul's hand shifted down to his side and he began to draw his sword as he started to lean forward over the table, a single quick-draw strike aimed for my neck, touki flaring over and through his body.) and let it out in a sigh. Paul's hand shifted—
For just a moment, I couldn't believe what I was seeing with my Demon Eye of Foresight—set two seconds ahead after Paul's first attempt at lashing out when Eris verbally tore him a new asshole.
That wasn't a punch. That wasn't a threat. That was a serious strike, meant to be a decapitating blow. That was enough touki to do the job… if I hadn't figured out touki under Ghislaine and mastered it under Ruijerd. I hesitated and the sword cleared its sheath as I wondered what to do.
In the end, I took Elinalise's advice.
Paul's sword shattered, scattering metal fragments across the table and everyone there as it hit my neck.
Eris had begun moving before Paul made it halfway and I snagged her by the back of her shorts and pulled her back down into her seat. Aisha's eyes watered as she realized what she had just seen and she began crying. Roxy's staff shifted and I felt her mana swell, but a hand on her bare thigh below her skirt caused her to pause. Paul moved a step back from the table, looking at his broken sword in his hand.
I stood up. Outside, thunder rumbled.
Tona winced in her seat, her ears flattening on her head as her fur poofed out. She wasn't the only one, as static filled the room, along with the smell of ozone.
"Paul, you have to finish—!"
Geese died, collapsing to the ground and shitting himself as I scrambled his brain with telekinesis. No one noticed he was dead in the ensuing events—and with no blood, no holes, they might have even assumed he just passed out from drink or something. The people in the bar began either standing up and drawing weapons or heading for the door. Those that went for the door, I left alone—the rest, I flattened to the ground and held there.
"Okay then," I nodded. "You've made your feelings clear."
"It's what I was always afraid of, Rudy. This. All of this."
I moved slowly around the table, the floorboards creaking and cracking under my feet. To Paul's credit, he stood his ground and didn't flinch as I squared up with him. "Lilia, please take Aisha outside," I requested.
"No!" Aisha wailed. "Rudy, Rudy don't! Don't hurt papa! We just got him back! Why can't you two just get along?! Why, why do you have to be so stupid?!"
Paul waited there, his weight shifted so he could move if he had to, but he had seen how fast I was earlier—he knew, and I knew, that he couldn't avoid whatever I was going to throw at him next. But for once, he wasn't lashing out with his fists. Not when he had seen that his best couldn't even scratch me now. So, for a change, Paul used his words. "Go ahead, Rudy. Show your sister the kind of man you really are."
It wasn't Paul's words that changed my mind about the beat-down he had earned for himself. No, it was Aisha. It wasn't that she had asked me not to—he had really earned it, after all. No, it was the fact that she knew I could do it, knew it wouldn't even be a fight—and I suspected that in her mind, if I did beat his ass like I wanted to, it would be bullying.
It was… stupid. Absolutely stupid. The sort of view of the world a child has. But Aisha, for all her smarts, was still a child. And for all that I was her big brother, that I had been responsible for saving her, that I had been spending time with her and showing her I loved her and wanted her to be the best person she could be from the moment we were reunited… Paul was still her father. He raised her. She loved him unconditionally. He would always be daddy. The authority in her life. Right by default, even if he was wrong—at least until she grew up enough to break out of that mindset.
What she saw now wasn't her brother, who had been attacked unprovoked, about to beat up the man who had literally just tried to kill him—assassinate him, since it hadn't even been in a proper fight. It was her father and brother arguing. Her father trying to discipline her brother—which would have been right, because he was our father. And her brother denying that discipline, because he was just too strong—which was wrong, again, because her father was right by default. And then her brother threatening to beat up their father—which put her brother in the wrong and made him a bad guy.
So, in the end, Paul's plan to turn my sisters against me had worked—at least to some extent.
He had her trust, implicitly and I… didn't. He had taken that from me. Where it was just given to him by virtue of being her father, I had to earn it because I hadn't been there in their lives.
If I actually raised my hand to him, Aisha—and probably Norn—would reject me entirely. After all, for most of their lives I was just a stranger to them. A vague, Rudy-shaped hole in the family, that Sylphie tried to fill with stories of a kind older brother. And I guess, in their minds, a 'kind older brother' wouldn't beat the living shit out of their father because he was a piece of shit and had it coming.
I laid my hand on Paul's shoulder. He flinched, but when I didn't crush it, he didn't move. "I'm going to go find Zenith and Norn. When I find them, I'll send them back to Buena, once I rebuild it. You stay here. I'll send word when the real work is done. Then, I expect you to clean yourself up, go home, and be a father and husband. Try to be a better father to Norn and Aisha than you were to me. As for me, well… You killed 'Rudeus Greyrat' with that sword strike. He's dead. So, good job on that. I'm just Rudy."
Letting go, I turned away and gestured towards the door. "Let's go take care of those goblins. After that, we're leaving. Lilia…" I paused, sending the redhead a smile. "Take care of this idiot. Make sure he doesn't crawl back into the bottle. He needs you more than I do." I glanced down at Aisha, "And a girl needs her father."
Eris, Roxy, and Tona followed me out of the bar. We left the car behind for Lilia and loaded up on my and Eris's bikes, heading out of the city for the goblin quest. In the meantime, I instructed Sprite to get the ships moving. We would catch up later.