Otherworld Adventure

There was still no one here since n.o.body was sure whether or not the miasma from Silver had fully dissipated or not. Yuna had already confirmed that everything was fine, but the Darkfangs wanted to take some precautionary measures and decided to wait for another week before moving back and rebuilding their Estate.

"The place turned into a pile of ruins..."

"Wafu!"

"What"re you doing Master? Mistress was obviously trying to console you, but you snapped back like a moron!"

"What"s that Silv?! I"m a moron?!"

Silver responded with a nod.

For some reason, after having woken up, Cecil was able to understand what Silver was saying despite him just barking. This was probably the Soul magic of the Black Fenrirs that Yuna had explained about earlier.

"Yeah...I"m a moron...I think I made her cry too..."

"Wafu!"

"Total moron! Now, Master moron, go and cheer up your beloved!"

"..."

"Wafu?"

"What"s taking so long, Master Moron? Go! Time"s wasting!"

"...I preferred it when I didn"t understand you."

"Wafu!"

"I know! I"ll get going...but...s.h.i.t...I know it was my fault...but was afraid y"know...I"ve never felt so powerless, I couldn"t do s.h.i.t and I was literally dancing in the palm of their hands..."

Cecil paused for a moment.

"I have to resolve this s.h.i.tty condition my body"s in... My only answer lies with the Ki I have...I"m sure if I strengthen my Ki, my body will strengthen to the point where I can ignore this stupid Mana Disorder."

"Wafu!"

"Okay! I"ll go!"

"Wafu!"

Silver gave a final bark in satisfaction before he began napping again on top of Cecil"s head. Cecil spread his Mana Sense and found Lucia back in the building where he had awoken from.

She was in a different room with her head buried inside her sheets.

"Oh s.h.i.t...I really did make her cry..."

Cecil immediately used Nature"s Shift and teleported in front of Lucia"s room. He hesitated a little before knocking.

"Lucia?"

Cecil could hear the girl fall out of her bed and stumble towards the door and opened it. Lucia only popped half of her head out and asked with the brightest voice she could muster.

"W-what"s wrong Cecil?"

"..."

"She called me Cecil..."

The boy immediately pushed opened the door. Lucia stumbled back and Cecil walked in. He closed the door shut and picked Lucia up in a princess carry.

"Eh?!"

Cecil flashed towards the bed and laid her down before he also plopped down beside her.

"..."

"..."

The two remained quiet for a bit, and ultimately, it was Cecil who spoke up first.

"Sorry...for yelling at you..."

"Huh? N-no...i-it"s my fault...I...I didn"t think before I said something so thoughtless..."

"...Yup, that was your fault, alright..."

"H-huh?!" Lucia was expecting Cecil to forgive her, but...his response caused her to tear up again.

"Don"t cry...I was really scared at that time, when I was facing them. I couldn"t do anything for the first time in my life and it freaked me out..."

"...sniff..."

"That"s why next time...please don"t go punching me and running off somewhere..."

Cecil said and hugged her.

"S-sorry...If I was there..."

"Don"t worry about it...I"ll do something about this stupid Mana Disorder...Didn"t think my biggest a.s.set would also become my biggest weakness..."

Lucia grabbed onto Cecil tighter and said, "I promise I"ll stop hitting you and running away..."

"Hm? Well...that"s good...y"know it really hurts when you do~"

"It"s supposed to, idiot..."

Cecil smiled hearing this...then he spoke up about his plans.

"Lulu...I plan on leaving Urrugdrasil and head over to Midgard..."

"Huh? Oh...it"s that time huh..."

"Wuh?"

"Well...our stop at the Academy was only temporary, remember? You"re the one who said you wanted to take me on a journey around the world to search for your parents..."

"Ahaha~ I almost forgot!"

"...Idiot..."

Cecil smiled and he began stroking Lucia"s hair and ears.

Lucia hummed in delight and asked, "...Are we telling the others?"

"...I"m not sure...but I don"t think we should."

"When are we leaving?"

"Before the end of the year...early Enduar..."

"How"ll we get over there?"

"We"ll cross into the Empire and you disguise us as beastmen, then we"ll try and find those invading humans and hitch a ride over to Midgard."

Cecil made a small oversight and this concerned Lucia.

"Okay...but...will the humans still even be there?"

"Ah! You"re right...Looks like we"ll have to make our move pretty soon..."

"Y-yeah..."

Lucia faltered a little.

"What"s wrong? You don"t want to come?"

"No, it"s not that...but what about Seri?"

"What about her?"

"Are we...gonna bring her?"

Cecil was a little puzzled at the question.

"What do you mean? Haven"t you always wanted me to yourself?"

"Of course I do! But...I feel like I might have cheated if we just left without telling anyone..."

"...In my opinion, I think I"ll be able to wholeheartedly love you...but if we have to take Serilla with us...I don"t want to hurt her by acting half-heartedly..."

"...you can"t love both of us?"

"Sorry, but I don"t think I can..."

"..."

Cecil was a little put on the spot there. Serilla was a kind and honest girl and if Cecil hadn"t met Lucia he would probably have fallen for her instead, but then again, this depended on whether or not the two would even meet in the first place.

Actually, if he hadn"t met Lucia then he wouldn"t even have any thoughts of going to the Academy and ever meeting any of his current friends. It pained him to think that he"d just up and leave all of a sudden without informing them...but he had to continue his journey.

Staying in one place for so long wasn"t his style, especially since he"s already got an objective he wanted to fulfill and he"s practically gained all he could from the Magic Academy. Anything else was for him to pioneer and explore.

The limits of Magic and Mana weren"t visible to Cecil and he knew that magic could do much more than what it could currently do. He"d have to research all this, but that would take time. He also didn"t have carry it out while in the Academy and he could just do it while out traveling the world.

"...Lulu...let"s leave...tonight."

"Huh?! aren"t you being a little too hasty there, Cel?"

"Ahahahaha...yeah, I know...let"s round up the guys and tell them. We"re about to graduate from being 1st years anyways and I don"t see what else we could learn from the Academy at this point...isn"t it about time we continued our journey?"

"Y-yeah...but..."

"Remember Lulu, I didn"t start out on this journey just to settle down somewhere in the capital...we made friends and had a blast with them...but it"s about time we get moving."

"...Okay..."

Seeing her saddened face, Cecil smiled and said, "If you want to stay behind, Silver and I can go ahead on our own—mmph?"

Lucia immediately covered his mouth and glared at him reproachfully.

"Don"t you dare say that..."

"Mhhmm..."

******

"You"re leaving?!" Ainz burst out in shock.

"W-wait! Please Cecil...if it"s because of the kingdom then let"s talk about this!"

"Y-yeah! I"m sorry that I dragged you all the way out here! Because of me...you had to go through all that..."

Eli and Lucius immediately followed up. The abrupt news about their departure had totally shaken the other members of Little Kings.

Cecil had gathered his party together alongside Lucius and told them about his and Lucia"s plans to leave the kingdom. He had only begun talking and his friends had immediately begun to panic.

"Calm down~ let me explain, alright?"

Once he made sure that everyone was listening, Cecil explained his and Lucia"s circ.u.mstances. Why they started out on their journey and that their stay at the capital while attending the Academy was only temporary.

"S-so you"re saying...you only came to the Academy... out of curiosity?"

"Yeah, but since we"re about to be second years now, I thought it"d be best to leave now...especially since we"re already at the border!"

"But...can"t you wait until graduation Cecil?" Fina asked with obvious sadness dyeing her voice.

"...Sorry, Fina..." Lucia was the one who replied.

"Isn"t this just a little too sudden? I mean...we only became friends and...and..."

"..."

"...So the brat is looking for his parents...phew, I can"t ask you guys to stay when you give me that as a reason...but why are YOU going, Lucia?" Ainz asked.

"Hm? Isn"t it obvious?"

"?"

"It"s because I"m supposed to! And this idiot would be helpless without me while on the road!" She answered as a matter-of-factly.

Everyone chuckled a little at her words, but the downtrodden atmosphere still didn"t dissipate from the room.

"Well, I"m really sorry to break it to you guys like this...but don"t get me wrong, it"s not like I"m fed up with the Kingdom or anything because of recent events...I just thought it was the best time...since the humans are still on the continent, I just had the idea that it"d be great if we can hitch a ride over to Midgard using them..."

Everyone in the room except Lucia looked at Cecil like he was some big idiot.

"...hitch a ride?"

"...are you going to purposefully let yourself be enslaved Cecil?"

"Think about Lucia you idiot!!! Do you know what those slave traders would do to her?!" Fina yelled angrily.

"Hahaha~ woah, woah~ Calm down there everyone..."

Fina was still fuming while Velicia and Eli glared furiously at Cecil.

"Tsk...Idiot, let me explain." Lucia immediately interjected and took over.

She snapped her fingers and in the next instant, Cecil"s beastkin features began disappearing and he returned to his original human self.

"A...A human?!"