Maxine was minutes away from arriving at the Kavros clan and she was in a good mood. Mostly because of Guan's response when the Shadow Lords announced that Maxine was Guan's daughter. Which was that if anyone was to forcibly marry or kidnap Maxine, he would completely annihilate everyone involved and would place the main instigators in an endless loop of pain and suffering. However, if Maxine married for love or joined a group willingly, he wouldn't interfere.

When Maxine had heard that, she sighed with relief. Instead of worrying about kidnappers or a forced marriage. But her mood was dampened when she realized that she would have to face a horde of people trying to recruit her to their group. Or worse yet, the countless suitors trying to win her favor with shows of false affection and gifts. Afterall who wouldn't want to be the son-in-law of the most skilled alchemist, not to mention one of the most powerful people, in the Alliance.   

Another reason Maxine was in a good mood is that she managed to form a mana core, but the splitting headache that it caused her had made it difficult to properly appreciate it. Had she known it would form next to her brain, she would have been more hesitant about forming it. Fortunately, Hellen had told her the pain would subside with time. Aside from that, the only thing she really had to worry about is that it really wouldn't be that useful until her mana core reached iron stage. However once it was, Hellen assured Maxine that she would experience an increase in her mental processing speed, her ranged attack power and in the defensive power of her essence armor by a small margin.  

Maxine stopped thinking about the last few days once she felt a small tremble from the floor. So, we have arrived. I wonder what kind of reception we will be getting and what my grandparents look like. Although I do expect them to look at least somewhat youthful since Zephyr doesn't look that old. 

Maxine stood up and quickly put her hair into a loose braid using her essence. Afterwards she pinned a palm sized version of the Kavros symbol on the end of the braid, but she modified it. It now had a small hidden blade in it to spring out once she applied essence to it. Once she was satisfied with it's positioning, she opened the door to the small room that she had been forced to stay in for the past two weeks. 

Zephyr, whom had just happened to be infront of her door when she opened it, said, "Follow me and be on your best behavior. The leadership of our clan will be present and Mother, in particular, is quite excited to meet you." I can't believe he thinks that I won't behave without being told. I am not a child. 

Maxine only noticed after he finished speaking that he was wearing a different style of clothes than what he had been wearing for the past two weeks. He was wearing loose fitting black clothes made of silk. His sword was strapped across his back diagonally and the sheath of the sword had engraving of a branching lightning bolt on it. 

"Fine," Maxine said in an annoyed tone as she followed him.  

Although Maxine's irratation was immediately forgotten when she thought about metting her biological grandparents. Although she was looking forward more to meeting her grandmother than her grandfather. She didn't like her grandfather for how he treated Hellen, and her grandmother had thus far had shown that she at least cared about Maxine by sending Zephyr.

After a few moments, Zephyr commented over his shoulder, "So, you can get nervous."

"And?" Maxine asked.

"Just making an observation," Zephyr said with a slight smile on his lips. 

Maxine wanted to say something more, but the exit opened up revealing a large platform at the bottom of the ramp. Zephyr walked down it ahead of her and as a means of calming her nerves, she activated her essence armor before following him down.

On her way down, Maxine noticed that the sunlight on the ground leaned more to the red side of the spectrum than Earth's sunlight did and that this world produced essence, mana and ki. I wonder what kind of resources they had to use to produce that result. It could also be that this world does it naturally. Afterall the Kavros clan's mission is to produce a Shadow Queen or King. It would make sense for them to establish themselves on a world like this. 

Once at the bottom of the ramp, Maxine looked around the platform that was big enough to accomodate a ship three times the size of Zephyr's. Unfortunately she couldn't see anything beyond the edge of the platform due to a weird energy forming a dome around it. It was distorting the landscape to the point that all Maxine saw was a collection of multicolored blobs.

Maxine looked around to and saw there were at least a dozen people wearing various clothing ranging from weird to oddly familiar. However the clothing that they wore covered almost every inch of skin that they had aside from their heads and hands. The youngest amongst them looked like they were in their early thirties while the oldest person looked like they would be celebrating their one hundredth birthday soon. But that didn't stop her from figuring out who her grandmother was as the group was approaching at a walk. 

Maxine's grandmother was the smiling silver-haired woman that stood taller than everyone else in her group. It was obvious that she was well over six feet tall. She appeared to be in her early thirties, but Maxine knew that she had to be over one hundred years old. She was wearing something that Maxine could only describe as a similar style to traditional chinese garments. The stern looking man beside her appeared to be roughly the same age and wearing the same style of clothing as her grandmother, whom she was convinced had to be her grandfather. Unfortunately, the poor man was half a head shorter than Maxine's grandmother.

While looking at the rest of their group, Maxine noticed that each and every one of them of them were staring at her essence armor's mask. Of course they are going to stare. My mask looks a lot like the Kavros clan's symbol. 

Once they were close enough, one of the elders standing behind who she thought were her grandparents said, "Young lady, where you come from it might be acceptible to conceal your face, but here it is not tolerated. Cancel that technique at once." 

"Sorry, I got nervous and my essence armor helped calm my nerves," Maxine admitted and deactivated her essence armor.

"There is no doubt. You are Hellen's child," the same elder said and turned to who Maxine thought was her grandfather, "Boreas, I trust we don't need to remind you not to test Guan's patience. He was already gracious enough not to seek revenge after how you treated Hellen." Yeah, he is definitely my asshole of a grand dad. Why else would that elder single him out? Wait, he said Boreas right? Isn't that the Greek god of the north wind? It sort of makes sense now how Zephyr got his name. However Boreas' face quickly turned melancholic once Hellen's name was mentioned.

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"I understand," Boreas said with a sad tone and he looked straight at Maxine, "I have no intentions of going against Guan's wishes."

"Good," the same elder said approvingly, "Now I can imagine you and Victoria want to spend some time with your grand daughter. Myself and the other elders shall take our leave, but do remember to return to your duties as Patriarch once you have settled her in. Afterall you three have plenty of time to get to know each other." Why does it feel like that elder is an asshole? It's almost like he thinks he is the Patriarch instead of Boreas. And why is he leaving? He just got here. It's like he only came here to confirm that I am Guan's daughter. There should have been a huge reception party to express the whole clan's joy at their Patriarch having found his grandchild. Instead I got this vague feeling that I have just been insulted. On second thought, that elder is an asshole. He probably arranged this whole thing as an insult directed at my grandparents.

After the elders walked away, Victoria, Maxine's grandmother, embraced Maxine without any warning forcing Maxine's face into her chest. Maxine wouldn't have minded so much if the woman wasn't flat as a board. It felt like her face collided with a steel plate and Victoria didn't seem to realize how violent she had been with that collision. Unfortunately it was also apparent that she was going to let go of Maxine any time soon. 

To get out of Victoria's tight embrace, Maxine said via spiritual sense, "I think you broke my nose." She was immediately freed from grandma Victoria's hug and stumbled backward while rubbing her bruised nose.

"I'm so sorry, Maxine," grandma Victoria said apologetically, "I didn't mean to hurt you." 

"It's fine," Maxine said as she felt her nose one more time to make sure it really wasn't broken, "You were just happy to see me. Just be a bit more gentle next time." 

"Oh, good. I will be," grandma Victoria said in relief and stepped back to to assess Maxine, "I can't believe how much you look like your mother did when she was a teenager. Although compared to her, your face appears slightly more serpentine and your figure is a smidgen more filled out. By the way, how old are you?"

"Thirteen," Maxine answered and added, "I will be fourteen on February twenty third."

"I see," grandma Victoria said and turned to Zephyr for clarification.

"In four months and seven days, she will be fourteen," Zephyr said. That's not right. He is off by a few days. Wait, maybe he is using their calendar system.

Maxine felt someone staring at her intensely, but it wasn't hostile. She looked at the source to see Boreas with a melancholic expression on his face. She knew that he was obviously feeling remorse for what he did to Hellen just from his expression, but Maxine wasn't going to forgive him easily. At least in Guan's case, all of his actions had been motivated out of a desire to protect her and she was slowly beginning to forgive him. But it would take something monumental for her to forgive Boreas.

However Victoria started to speak again which caught Maxine's attention once more, "Oh, good. That means we still have time to prepare for your birthday party." A birthday party, huh? When was the last time that I had one of those? The closest thing that the original Maxine had to a birthday party was a cupcake with a solitary candle on it that mom got me for five years in a row. As for the previous timeline, I didn't have the luxury to celebrate it after the essence beasts started attacking. The only things I got were hearty slaps on the back and a few words of congratulations for being able to live another year. It was rather depressing when she thought too carefully.

"Maxine, are you alright?" grandma Victoria asked and Maxine looked at her.

"Yeah, I am fine," Maxine answered and tried to change the subject, "Can we go to where I will be staying?"

"Certainly, but after you get your things packed away, I insist that you take a bath," Victoria said, "Being cooped up on that ship for two weeks without a bath must have been torturous." Oh god, that sounds good! Using essence to get rid of the smell still leaves my skin feeling dirty.

"You read my mind, grandma," Maxine replied since she really did want to take a bath and noticed grandma Victoria's face brighten up considerably at being called grandma.  

"I don't have to. I know from experience how uncomfortable your skin feels after using essence to clean it for lengthy periods of time," grandma Victoria said in an understanding tone, "Now follow me. It's a bit of a walk to our house."

Maxine turned to look for Boreas to figure out why he hadn't said anything while Maxine and Victoria talked, but didn't see him anywhere nearby. She didn't really care that he had left, but found it odd that Zephyr had also disappeared. "Where did uncle Zeph go?" Maxine asked.

"Probably to check on Angela, his wife," Victoria answered. He's married?! I know it's not odd for girls even my age to be married in their culture, but why didn't he mention this while we were on the ship?  

"How old is uncle Zeph anyways?" Maxine asked.

"Seventeen years old," Victoria answered and seemed to add as an afterthought, "In standard years that is. A standard year is roughly one day shorter than a year on the world you came from." 

"That answers that question," Maxine said more to herself than anything else as they left the strange dome and she saw the Kavros Clan's territory. It was a jarring sight. No two buildings had the same architectual style and they came in every color under the sun. Some of which were completely alien to her. It's just like their clothes. No wonder they are liberal with their dress code. They don't even have a shared architectual design. The only thing they have in common is the clan symbol on their clothes. 

As they walked down the streets, several people greeted grandma Victoria by calling her 'Matriarch' even though she didn't look the part. Maxine drew a few curious looks after those people gave their greetings to her grandmother and a few of them paled slightly when they saw her eyes. Looks like they recognize whose daughter I am. Maxine shrugged it off. She didn't really care if she talked to anyone other than direct family members anyways. If they didn't like her, she wouldn't go out of her way to change their minds.  

After nearly half an hour of walking, Maxine saw a futuristic mansion on the top of a hill with no other buildings within a quarter mile of it. As they walked along the path leading up to the mansion, she saw large swaths of land in the distance to her right dedicated to growing only medicinal herbs belonging to the light or darkness attribute. Those must be the primary ingredients for the Shadow Lord Awakening potions, but it should still be possible for them to breakthrough without the need for a potion. At least, that's what Guan's notes said about people with special bloodlines. It was just a lot harder to do without a such a potion.

"I see you have noticed our clan's medicinal garden," grandma Victoria stated when she noticed Maxine staring at the medicinal gardens and appeared to have a sudden thought before she continued, "Would you like to learn alchemy? You may have inheirited at least some of your father's phenominal talent for alchemy." More than you know, grandma, but I can't say anything. I already have enough of a headache with people knowing I am Guan's daughter. I do not need the extra stress of them realizing that I possess almost the same level as alchemical talent as he does.

"No, thank you," Maxine answered honestly, "I have enough on my plate." She had been so busy before leaving Earth that she hadn't had any time to even improve her understanding or her skill at using her movement technique, the Phantasmal Steps of the Shadow Cat, while doing everything else. At least now, she didn't have to plan or worry for awhile, so she could focus on improving her profficiency using her skills as well as finish memorizing all of the alchemical knowledge that Guan gave her. 

"That's too bad. I was really hoping for our clan to finally have an alchemist in our midsts," grandma Victoria lamented. Maxine remained silent for the remainder of the walk up to the mansion. Once inside, she felt confused with how inconsistent the interior was to the exterior of the mansion. The interior was furnishings were almost exclusively made from wood and ancient looking ceramics and beautiful paintings were used for declorations. The walls were painted in a neutral white and the hard wood floors looked perfectly aged. The whole place had a faint floral scent.

Once they were inside, several maids that were in the main hall bowed to them. Shortly after, grandma Victoria stopped and turned around to face Maxine before she said warmly, "Maxine, welcome home."