Sora was annoyed by his assignment.
He was the strongest and most skilled of the Filolial, the only one hatched by Rozemyne's own hands. He had been born with sky blue feathers that turned a white as he grew, with only a pale tinting of blue, and his body was large, even among the Royal Filolial, nearly twice the size of most of his kin. He was proud, perhaps even a little arrogant, about his magical abilities, being capable of using all of the elements, just like his mother.
So why was it that he was stuck babysitting the newly recruited gladiators?
…Well, it wasn't like he was the only one. The 400 new fighters were divided into teams of 5, and assigned a leader from Rozemyne's old retinue. It was to be their job to bring the weaker fighters into the field for power leveling, as Rozemyne didn't want any of them to be below level 40 when the wave hit in three days.
The people at the Adventurer's Guild had suggested that Sora use the lower level training area in order to level the newcomers up, but of course they did. That was their entire plan, wasn't it. They wanted to slow down Sora's own training so that they could catch up to him. But he won't allow that. He would remain the strongest, so that his mother would praise him for his hard work.
No, he would not slow down, not for this.
"Pl…Please stop!" One of the gladiators, a human male, shouted from within Sora's carriage and the massive Filolial charged through the uneven and rocky terrain of the highest level training area at full speed. Not that Sora paid him any mind at all.
Cresting a hill, he looked down to see five monstrous badgers, each the size of a house devouring another monster that looked to be a cross between a duck and a deer.
The badgers barely had enough time to look up and snarl at Sora before he sent out his barrage of magic. "Drifa Aqua Shot. Drifa Chain Lightning." Sora shouted, instantly casting the high level water spell, forming a massive water ball that struck and soaked the monsters before following it up with several blasts of lightning, which each struck a different target before they all jumped back and forth between them, frying all of them before they even had time to understand what was going on.
Sora didn't even bother to collect the bodies. He just kept going. If he wanted to keep up with the proper teams of six all by himself, he was going to need to work fast.
"...Please…" His miserable passengers begged, but he ignored them. He was a Filolial on a mission, and nothing would stop him.
An hour into the trip, Sora noticed that the gladiators had reached level 40… so he canceled the party so that they wouldn't steal away any more of his experience, before continuing on for four more hours, until it was time to head back home for a lunch break.
By that time, the gladiators had all passed out.
Such weak spirited fools. And they dared to waste his mother's time. The audacity of them.
Sora had always been of the opinion that if one was weak of will, they should at least make themselves useful in other ways. Like those children who became apprentice blacksmiths, herbalists and assisted in his mother's book making hobby.
Sora had read many of the books that his mother had put out on the subject of magic in his quest to remain the strongest. Though even if he could understand the value of books as a means to transfer knowledge, he didn't understand Rozemyne's… lust for books.
The first time he witnessed her sniffing a particular tome, he wondered if she was sick or something. Apparently she just loved books that much.
"Hm?" Sora slowed his run as he noticed something odd out of the corner of his eye. A trio of wild Filolial who seemed to be playing with a young, blue-haired girl. Given her clothes, she must have been a noble's child, but as Sora looked around, he didn't see any sort of escort for the girl, and they were far from the main roads.
What was a child doing there?
Of course, the area around Alexandra, save for the monster spawning grounds, was the safest in the world. The barriers stopped monsters, save for Filolial and those registered with a magic seal, from moving freely. Banditry and kidnapping was also nearly impossible.
Rozemyne had registered magic laws into the city's foundation that would automatically punish those who broke them, rendering them incapacitated, if not dead. Among these were laws forbidding the use of child sex workers, laws against using force to steal from someone or kidnap them, and laws against book burning. None of the actions could be performed within Alexandra without immediate consequences.
According to Rozemyne, these laws and contracts were mostly used for protecting trade secrets in her previous world, but she decided to use them to protect against injustices aimed towards the weak.
Even so, it was irresponsible for such a young child to be wondering about by themselves.
Sora briefly considered just ignoring the girl, but if he brought her back to the city and took proper care of her, then Rozemyne might praise him for it. So Sora changed direction and headed towards the child.
The wild Filolial noticed his approach, how could they not when he was nearly eight meters tall, and made a lot of noise, excitedly annoying the approach of a Royal Filolial, before running off, leaving the girl behind.
The child seemed disappointed to see them go, but her expression changed in an instant as she turned to see Sora standing behind her in all of his giant puffy glory.
"Wow, so big!" The child said in wonder.
She looked to be around ten years old, with hair a similar dark blue as Rozemynes, though maybe with a hint of purple in it. It was wavier though, and done up in twintails, which mixed with her dark blue dress and pale skin to make her look like a dress up doll.
"Child, what are you doing out here by yourself?" Sora demanded from the girl.
"You talk! Mother was right! Royal Filolail really can talk!" The child said, beaming with joy. …She wasn't answering his question. Instead she fished something out of her pocket and held it up for Sora to see. It appeared to be a piece of dried meat. "Here, would you like some?"
"...Do I look like the kind of fool who accepts food from strange children that randomly appear in my path?" Sora asked flatly.
The girl blinked in surprise before looking down with sad eyes. "But… Filolial usually like it when I give them food."
The look struck something inside of Sora's heart and he let out a sigh.
The child blinked in surprise as his body was momentarily eclipsed with light, before the giant bird disappeared to be replaced by a boy, roughly the same size as she was, with long sky blue hair that was woven into a braid over one of his shoulders. His calm face and golden eyes, along with his noble looking clothes and his blue tinted wings, made him seem like something out of a painting, causing the girl to blush.
"You can really transform too." She said with wonder. Sora ignored the comment and held out his hand to accept the piece of meat, which the child handed to him. He took a bite and started to chew. "Do you like it?"
"The meat is stringy and the berries they used as a preservative gives it a subtly sour taste while locking in some of the juices." Sora said disinterestedly. "It is fine for a snack, but you can get better at just about any place back in Alexandra."
"Wow, I never thought that a Filolial would be a gourmet." The girl giggled as Sora finished off the bit of food, not even worthy of being called a side dish to something that ate as much as a Royal Filolial.
"Now, will you answer my questions? Who are you and why are you here by yourself?" Sora asked her again.
"I'm Melty. I was on my way to meet the Lady Shield Hero at my mother's request, but I somehow got separated from my escort while I was playing with those Filolial." Melty said, seemingly puzzled as she looked around. "It's weird. I hadn't been moving fast enough for her not to be able to follow. She's very skilled."
"I see. You wish to see Lady Rozemyne then." Sora said, perking up. It was a good excuse to take the child directly to his mother, and a good opportunity to receive praise. "Very well, I will take you to her. She can help you find your escort."
"Thank you so much." Melty said with a bright smile. "Hey, could you tell me your name to?"
"Of course. I am Sora." Sora said, proud of his name, even if all it meant was sky, alluding to the sky blue feathers he had as a baby.
"It is a pleasure to meet you, Sora." Melty said, smiling brightly. "Will you be my friend?"
"I… well. Fine." Sora said with an inward sigh.
"Thank you so much!" Melty cried out, jumping forward and giving him a hug that left the Filolial King puzzled. "Hey, would you mind if I rode on your back?"
…This girl.
"The Waves in the other countries." Ren said with a complex look on his face, as if he felt like an idiot. "I didn't even think about those."
"So you knew?" Rozemyne asked him, confused as to why Ren would have never mentioned it to her.
"The game was an MMO where there were multiple different possible starting locations, but it was still story driven. Until you progressed to a certain point, you couldn't leave your starting country, save for to go to Zeltoble. The reason given was political tensions, since Zeltoble was a neutral territory that did business with everyone. But it was always implied that the other Waves were handled by the other players who started in those countries." Ren explained. "It didn't even occur to me that there were only four Heroes, not thousands of player characters running around, and that all of us were here."
"I see. So it was game logic overwriting conventional wisdom." Rozemyne said, making Ren embarrassed. "I'm not saying you were wrong. There is definitely political problems going on here, and attempting to leave the country could have sparked something. It is just that you should have talked to me about it so we could analyze the situation rationally rather than depending on knowledge from the game."
"Right. Sorry." Ren said.
Before, he might have been a little defensive about how accurate his knowledge from the game was, but the business with Wyndia had taught him that he didn't know everything. Bits and pieces that might have been irrelevant in a game, as they went outside of the bounds of the quest, could be very meaningful here.
His knowledge from the game had yet to be 'wrong' per say, but it didn't give the full picture. It spoke no falsehoods, but lied by omissions.
"It seems like there is a lot going on at the international level. Even beyond all of us being summoned here at once, instead of being spread out over the entire world. The Star Heroes have started to go missing, believed to be assassinated." Rozemyne said with a frown. "Now I know why there were so many slaves on the brink of death in Zeltoble. They were all casualties of a Wave there and those who were poisoned by the Otherworld monster's miasma."
Rozemyne had wondered at the sheer number of the critically wounded slaves. Even if gladiator work was dangerous work, they wouldn't have so many in such a state at once. All of those loss of limbs had been recent events.
"We should talk to Motoyasu and Itsuki about all this and organize going to the other countries." Ren said, wanting to make up for lost time.
"...I don't know about that. Like you said, there are political tensions to think about. Especially since Melromarc broke international law by summoning all of us here. If they lose control of the summoned heroes, they have basically lost everything. If we go, we will probably provoke an attack from those who plotted all of this in the first place." Rozemyne said.
"You think they would be reckless enough to do something like that when the fate of the world is at stake?" Ren asked.
"They already have. And in my experience, the worse the situation, the more the idiots scheme. My home country was on the verge of collapse after a civil war and there were at least three factions that were trying to start another one. Politicians are idiots." Rozemyne said with a tired sigh.
"We can't ignore the other Waves and leave those people to fend for themselves. You saw how many injured there were in Zeltoble, and that was from an early Wave. It is only going to get worse as time passes." Ren objected. Even if this world wasn't what he wanted it to be, he wasn't going to turn his back on people and leave them to die.
"You're right. We can't abandon them. But I don't think we should involve Motoyasu and Itsuki." Rozemyne said. "While we are relatively safe inside of Alexandra's barrier, those two could easily be assassinated in their sleep. And remember, you used to have spies among your companions as well."
Ren winced and nodded his head.
"They will definitely attempt to kill us for this, but we will be ready for them. And maybe we can finally put this entire conspiracy stuff behind us after this." Rozemyne said.
"Right. So, what's the plan then? Do we head out now or wait until after the Wave here?" Ren asked.
"Let's get things settled here for now. Hopefully three days isn't enough to cause the international scene to explode." Rozemyne said, getting a nod of agreement from Ren.
"I'm going to head out with Wyndia then. She wants a chance to at least see her father's remains." Ren said.
"Alright. Then I'll deal with some problems here too."
With that, the meeting was adjourned and they went their separate ways, Ren to find Wyndia and Rozemyne to find Fohl and Atla.
Unlike most of the others she had brought back with it, the siblings were in a private room together at her castle, so she could keep an eye on them.
It wasn't a well furnished room, but it at least had a large bed that they could share together, with a good mat and blankets. Rozemyne knew how important those were for someone who was chronically sick.
She entered the room to find the brother and sister sitting at a small table with their lunches, Fohl trying to feed Atla while she insisted that she could feed herself.
Though she had turned to face the door before Rozemyne even entered. "Good evening, Master." Atla said, having taken to calling Rozemyne that and refusing to stop despite having her slave seal removed.
Once healed, she was revealed to be one of the cutest girls that Rozemyne had ever seen, with silky smooth white hair with black stripes, and a complexion so fair that she seemed to glow. It was hard to believe how scarred she had been just a day ago.
Her sightless eyes, which Rozemyne hadn't seemed to be able to heal, still followed her, and their glassy quality made her look so pure and innocent.
"It is good to see you two as well. I'm here to give you a medical check up." Rozemyne said, taking out the parchment mat that had the magic circle on it. "Fohl, would you mind waiting outside for a moment?" The brother's bitter face told her that wasn't going to happen. "Fine. But at least look away. I'm going to need your sister to strip down so that I can take a look at her magic channels."
Fohl blushed before nodding his head.
Atla's body was slender and cute as she stood there in nothing but her underwear, giving only a slight shiver.
"How have you been feeling?" Rozemyne asked as she activated the circle, causing lines to appear on Atla's skin.
"I've been feeling a lot better. Better than I have in ages. I can even stand on my own, see." Atla said, holding out her hands proudly.
"I can see that." Rozemyne said, but she wasn't happy as she looked at the damage that still existed underneath the surface. "It still hurts doesn't it?"
"No. I'm…"
"Atla. Tell me the truth." Rozemyne said.
"...Yes." The girl admitted, getting a gasp from her brother.
"I was worried about this." Rozemyne said solemnly.
"I thought you had healed her!" Fohl demanded.
"I healed the damage to her body, but the channels inside of her body are still malformed. That isn't something I can heal with my magic." Rozemyne told them. "But there is a solution to this. A potion called a Jureve."
"Alright, what do I need to do to get her one!?" Fohl demanded.
"The materials are expensive, but that isn't the problem. A Jureve is a type of potion that is keyed into the mana of the person who prepared the ingredients. And in your sister's condition, she isn't able to do that herself." Rozemyne said with a shake of her head. "I do have a Jureve prepared for myself, as a just in case measure, but Atla can't use it. Not unless she becomes acclimated to my mana signature."
"And how do I do that?" Atla asked.
"You would need to become dyed in my mana. The only way to do that, between two girls at least, is for you to give me your name." Rozemyne explained.
"Give you my name?" Atla asked, curious.
"Giving a name is a ceremony in my homeland where one noble seals their name inside of a magic stone, and presents it to the person that they wish to bind their life to as the ultimate show of loyalty. If the name is accepted, the person who gave it will become acclimated to the receiver's mana, making it so that they can never disobey them. If the person who received the name dies, then the person who gave their name dies with them." Rozemyne said.
"You want to make Atla your slave again!?" Fohl said in an accusatory tone.
"I'll admit, they are basically the same thing, only that a name has to be given willingly, while being enslaved can be done through force." Rozemyne said. "However, after Atla is fully healed, I can return her name to her and she will go back to normal. I promise you that I will not abuse this."
"There is no need." Atla said quickly. "You can keep my name. I want you to have it."
"Atla!" Fohl said in disbelief.
"I want to serve Master for the rest of my life." Atla said with finality.
"W…Well. It is never too late to change your mind later." Rozemyne said awkwardly. "For now, let's get everything set up. The Jureve is a potion that you bath in and once you enter you go into a recovery coma until you are fully healed. Considering the damage and the quality of the Jureve, Atla is likely going to sleep for a month, but after that, she will be in perfect health."
Fohl was conflicted, but the promise that his sister would not have to deal with the pain of his sickness ever again was motivation enough to get him to agree. So Rozemyne explained to Atla the process of sealing one's name into a magic stone and then used it to dye Atla in her colors.
She then took Atla to her hidden room and placed her in the Jureve, where the girl promptly went to sleep.
With that work done, she returned to her office to find Sora waiting there for her, looking exactly like a child version of Ferdinand, with a girl she didn't recognize with him. "Hello Sora. Who is your friend?" Rozemyne asked as she gave the boy a pat on the head, enjoying how it made him make a very un-Ferdinand-like face.
She didn't notice how it made Raphtalia pout slightly. She had no idea how many of her original children regretted asking to be treated as adults, and how much they envied the Library Rabbits and Filolial who could get regular head pats.
"This is Melty. I found her wondering around on her own outside of the city. She said that she was sent her to see you, so I brought her here." Sora said, gesturing towards the girl.
The girl then gave a perfect curtsy and noble smile, fitting an Archducal Candidate of her age. "Good afternoon, Lady Alexandra. I am Melty Q Melromarc, Second Princess of Melromarc. My mother has sent me here to speak with you on her behalf. It is a pleasure to finally meet you. I like your Filolial."
Rozemyne blinked as she stared at the smiling girl before just accepting it. "The pleasure is all mine, Princess. Tell me, what can this one do for you?"
She hoped that this wasn't going to turn out like her usual luck with Royals.