"So I've been wondering about something." Issei said as the group had finished eating, and just relaxing with some drinks.
Le Fay and Asia has their own discussion on the side, that Kuroka ambushed, and given the ex-nun and magician's red faces, the cat youkai was say something dumb, but Le Fay was thankfully shutting her down.
"Hmm?" Vali hummed.
"You said your names were Arthur and Le Fay Pendragon." Issei's question was directed to Arthur, but it also brought Le Fay's attention. "As in the actual Pendragon linage? That actually existed and is still around?" Issei asked with an earnestness that had Arthur smiling.
"Yes." Arthur nodded. "Our family is the direct bloodline to the legendary King Arthur. Every few generations, exceptional children would be named after one of the Knights of the Roundtable, and those of the main family branch, would inherit the name 'Arthur'. I am the one who succeeded this name, in this era." He explained. "My sister, due to her prodigious skill in magic was recognized as a descendant of Morgana Le Fay and was thus named after her."
To that Le Fay blushed and looked down with a small smile on her face.
"Wait, but," Issei crunched his face in confusion. "If she's a descendant of Morgana Le Fay, then so are you. Why are you 'Arthur' and she's 'Le Fay'?"
For a moment Arthur and Le Fay looked taken aback by Issei's question, as if the answer should be self-evident.
"Oh, you don't know. You just got introduced to the supernatural recently." Le Fay's eyes widened in understanding, although he words just confused Issei more, as they seemed non-sequitur. "Right." She nodded to herself.
"Ah," Arthur noted, as he understood what his sister was referencing. "Please bare with me for a moment. This is more of a common cultural knowledge, so I guess most people would take it as granted." He said, to which Issei nodded. "As you'd know, history has a lot of famous or infamous figures. Some even only existing in myths and legends according to ordinary people."
"Yeah," Issei nodded following thus far.
"The thing is, naturally those historical or mythological figures have had progeny. Even if not recorded in history, those people still have someone somewhere that is a descendant of them even if not form a direct line. Thus when—And this is something you'll find as a reoccurring cultural practice within the supernatural world—someone of a historical figure's bloodline where to displace a particular affinity for whatever talent, ability or even significant temperament, that historical ancestor had, they get to speak openly about being their descendant and that would be commonly accepted."
"That's why brother has King Arthur's name, and can call himself his descendant, while I would call myself a descendant of Morgana Le Fay, even if we are brother and sister." Le Fay took on adding to the explanation.
"Huh, okay." Issei nodded at that explanation. "Wait, since both of you are descendants of both Arthur and Morgana, even if each one of you acknowledged as being from one of them, that mean you're both descendant of Mordred?"
Le Fay grimaced at that question.
"You are surprisingly knowledge about Arthurian lore, Mr. Issei." Arthur said neutrally, but Issei knew he probably stepped on something, well, not bad given that despite the reaction there wasn't any anger, but social discomfort.
"Just Issei, please. Being called mister while I'm still in high school feel wrong." Issei chuckled.
"Right, Issei." Arthur chuckled and relaxed a bit. "You are correct that logically the Pendragon Family having the blood of Morgana in our genealogy means Mordred was an ancestor of ours, but he's not exactly one we like to talk about given the whole circumstances around him." He explained. "Arthur had many children, beyond the culturally accepted zeitgeist of it only being Mordred.
"Generations afterwards descendant of Mordred and a descendant of Arthur's many other children—we narrowed it down to Duran, Gwydre or Arthur the Less—ended up marrying and those two began gathering the scatter bloodline of King Arthur forming the Pendragon House that exists today." He gave an apologetic smile. "However given the origins of Mordred's birth and his actions that led to the fall of the mythical king's rule, he... isn't really talked about in our family."
"It's also why my name is Le Fay, rather than Morgana." Le Fay spoke up. "Yeah my talent for magic was noticed as exceptional, but no one in the family wanted someone to be named after the witch, even if being compared to her in magical talent is something to respect."
"Ah," Issei nodded in understanding. "I'm sorry for bringing up any bad memories, or making things awkward." He gave a small bow.
"No, no, it's understandable." Arthur said, raising his hands in a placating manner. "I know you didn't ask our of malice, so please don't worry." He said with a smile. "So where were we?" He tried to gather his thoughts to remember where he stopped in his explanations after that tangent.
"You were explaining descendants, and about to get to the extra neat stuff. By the way, I'm a descendant of Sun Wukong." Bikou said with a wide grin.
"Oh! So not a fanboy?" Issei nodded in interest.
"Wha? Fanboy!?" Bikou cried out in outrage.
"Nyahahahahaha!" Kuroka began laughing and hitting the table.
"I mean, the armor and staff are one thing, but the headband too? That felt a bit too much." Issei said back.
"It's stylish!"
"Wasn't it used to torture your ancestor by squeezing his head like it was popping it?"
"Nyahahahahahahaha!"
The discussion devolved for a while as Bikou ranted on how his clothes, headband and even replica Ruyi Jingu Bang weren't being a fanboy but an acknowledgment by his ancestor of his potential as the closest of the Monkey King's descendants to Sun Wukong's ability and strength.
Kuroka's laughter wasn't helping matter and eventually the rabbit youkai maid came and asked them on behalf of the cafe for them to leave.
Issei paid for lunch via credit card, and the group left to wander Inner Erimo.
Vali was walking with his hands in his pocket, the sunglasses bought as a joke to place on him in his sleep, were worn by him. Kuroka had disappeared somewhere checking out some of the stands. Asia was between Issei and Vali eating ice cream.
"Say," Issei spoke as he walked next to Arthur. "What was the 'extra stuff' Bikou was talking about, when we were discussing about how descendants get acknowledged and all that?"
"Ah, he was talking about Spirit Inheritors and Reincarnators." Arthur replied.
"...The second one I can get the meaning of, if you're implying what I think you're implying. But what are they?" Issei asked with narrowed eyes.
Arthur chuckled. "Well the first thing we need to establish is the Cycle of Reincarnation isn't limited to the Buddhist mythology, rather its an aspect of the cosmos that all factions and pantheons interact with." He explained.
"Wait, even the Abrahamic ones?" Issei's eyes widened.
"Yes, even them." Arthur nodded. "The thing is, people that managed to leave their mark on history, end up inadvertently having small bits of faith leveled toward them. Not full on worship of course, but just being remembered in awe or fear, causes their souls to gain more... 'weight' if that can make sense."
"It does." Issei nodded, fully understanding the concept due to having experienced something similar in the form of Heroic Spirits. "So what does it do for famous people having heavier souls?"
"At times a concentrated amount of Spiritual Energy belonging to that famous figure shoots out of the Reincarnation Cycle to be integrated into a newborn baby, always from that famous person's bloodline, granting them massive amount of that person's talent, skills, instincts and sometimes personal impressions, or even memories.
"Those are Spirit Inheritors, those who inherit the spirit and will of legendary heroes. Reigniting or even continuing the hero's legend once more upon the world." Arthur said with a grandiose tone. "Often they tend to take on that hero's name discarding their own, as if to cement their position as that hero's living continuation."
Issei smiled at the theatrics. He wasn't sure if Arthur was into drama and theater, though he couldn't help but note that Arthur had a talent for it.
"And Reincarnators are just straight up the reincarnation of the historical or mythical person." Issei concluded.
"Quite. Although it's been noted at times that Spirit Inheritors and Reincarnators, quite frequently tend to have Sacred Gears." Arthur said.
"How come?" Issei raised an eyebrow.
"No one is really sure." Le Fay said from next to Arthur, leaning forward a bit to be visible to Issei. "The theory is that an extra amount of Spiritual Energy and thus Life Force from being Spirit Inheritors or Reincarnators, causes the Heaven's System to target them to be given Sacred Gears due to their likely arduous destiny they'll inevitably have in life. Because of who they are." She added the last part after she finished.
"Uh huh." Issei said thoughtfully before falling quiet for a while.
As the group walked further, each person began to head toward their separate interest. Le Fay went to check out some magic trinkets or tomes, while taking Asia with her. Bikou went to check out some professional Familiars fighting tournament, with a bored Vali following along.
"Say Arthur?" Issei asked after some time.
"Yes?"
"You said you were named 'Arthur' after your ancestor and seen as having the right to be acknowledged as his descendant."
"Correct." Arthur nodded.
"So are you a Spirit Inheritor? Also does that mean that no one else from the Pendragon Family get to say they are descendants of King Arthur?"
"Ah, hahaha, I can see the confusion for that." Arthur chuckled and nodded. "Anyone from our family that proudly introduce themselves as a 'Pendragon'. Usually they would just say 'they were of the bloodline of King Arthur', while I would say 'I am a descendant of King Arthur' to show that small distinguishment as being the one closes to the king in strength and skill."
"So you mean it's an etiquette thing?"
"Quite. As for being a Spirit Inheritor?" Arthur chuckled again. "I am not and I assure you it would have been very obvious if I was. You'd understand if you meet a Spirit Inheritor." He said and Issei nodded, getting that it's one of those thing you have to experience for yourself. "As for why I can say I'm a descendant of King Arthur?
"For one, I am natural-born Holy Sword wielder, having the highest Holy Factor the Pendragon Family have seen in generations." Arthur extended a hand and a magic circle appeared. With a flash of light an elaborate blade was held in his hand. "And by my own swordsmanship, I was able to defeat my father in a one-on-one duel and win ownership of this sword from him." He said, before smiling at Issei. "Caliburn, the Holy Sword King."
"Woah." Issei said in amazement. "So King Arthur never broke it here." He smiled.
Arthur had a complicated smile at that. On one hand Issei was right, but on another, he was wrong as one of Arthur's famous swords had broke.
"No he didn't, it's a misconstrued story. And 'Here'?" Arthur raised an eyebrow.
"It's nothing." Issei waved him off. Arthur let it go and sealed Caliburn once more. "So if that was Caliburn, then what's that one?" He pointed at the sheathed sword on Arthur's hips. "From the feel it's... another Holy Sword? Is it a practice one, or one you use when you don't want to bring out the big guns?"
"Ah, this." Arthur said with a proud smile. "This was a recent find, as I had to work with Vali, gathering many clue to discover it's location." He drew the two-handed gold color cross-guard sword, holding it upwards to show it. "This is one of the seven Excalibur Holy Swords, although it went missing after it's creation. Excalibur Ruler, Holy Sword of Control."