“Hah?” Leona raised an eyebrow with a disgusted expression on her face. “And what exactly makes you think I’d want to be a pupil of someone so repugnant as you?”
Miyamoto chuckled with amusement written all over his face.
“Because you have no choice. Do you think you can manage to kill Alexander with only the skills you borrowed from this body?”
She tilted her head sideways while squinting her eyes.
“What are you…?”
“Naive as always. Let’s go back for now, it’s a pain to go through explaining twice.” He turned to Kaeli who was still shaking beside him. “Go fetch Yuna and tell her to come to the city. It won’t do to have our guests waiting, you hear me?”
“Y-yes master.”
“Good. Now off you go.” He touched her shoulder and snapped his fingers, making the high elf disappear from thin air. After sighing, he turned to Leona. “I’m sure you have questions but save them for later, this little show off spent most of this body’s mana.”
‘This again…’ The things he said were bugging her. ‘He keeps saying as if that body isn’t his own…’
She clenched her fist as she mustered up the courage to ask.
“Did you really make her kill their mother?”
“Hm? Kill? Heavens, no. It was thanks to that old fart Akantor that she almost killed her. Their mother is the last pure blooded high elf in the world. Do you think I’d just let her die like that?”
Somehow she could tell he wasn’t lying, but it made her apprehensive nonetheless.
He flicked his left hand and the frostburnt silver sword that was on the grass came flying with the hilt to his hand.
“Here.” He offered the weapon back to her. “Keep it safe so you don’t lose it. That weapon is much more powerful than even Eleonora’s holy sword at this point in time.”
“Huh?”
She grabbed the blade and sheathed it before he placed his right hand on her shoulder and prepared to snap his fingers.
“Brace yourself.”
With a snap, the world around them seemed to distort again. He teleported them both inside a facility of some kind. The room was tall and illuminated by orbs of white light that simulated LED lights against the white smooth limestone ceiling; the floor beneath her feet was white and made out of tiles that seemed like ceramic just like the walls around them. Directly behind her were a few pedestals that held gelatinous blobs of translucent appearance, similar to slimes.
“What in the world…”
The lack of doors or hallways that led to that room would be strange if not for what was in front of her.
Beyond the glass table filled with a variety of liquids and other chemicals stored in glass jars, there were three stone pedestals engraved with runes around them and on top of each one of them was a person gently floating in the air.
The left-most woman had waist-length brown hair, sharp facial features, and was wearing plate armor from neck to toe. She cradled a golden longsword in her arms, it was exquisite and regal much like the tell tale sword Laevateinn..
On the right-most side, a high elf of shoulder-length black hair was floating out in a fan as if she was frozen in time. She wore a similar kimono as Phoebe was wearing earlier, but it was a bit more detailed with beige spider lilies embroiled in the textile. Leona could only guess that it would be Kaeli and Phoebe’s mother.
However the middle one was an average height woman with blonde hair that went down to the middle of her back with prominent bangs that cascaded down on each side of her face. She had her eyes closed so there was no way of knowing their colors; she wore what seemed to be a military uniform of some kind, similar to what the tactician was wearing, but it included a gray and white camouflage pattern—something that she didn’t know what it was for.
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Leona felt a strange sensation within her breast as she gazed upon the woman. Without tearing her eyes away from her, she asked.
“Where are we…? And who are they?”
“This is my lab. Here is where I keep anything and everything I don’t want the outside world to know. Now, as to who they are…” He pointed his index finger to the pedestals and started from left to right. “Eleonora Gracefell. Xenovia and Alyssa Hawkeye.” He cleared his throat. “Knight Queen, Warrior Princess and Last High Elf.”
She couldn’t believe what she heard. Having never personally seen the Queen, she was skeptical about it at first but seeing that she was carrying a sword with all the characteristics of the holy blade with her, was more than enough proof to confirm that it was indeed Eleonora that stood sleeping there.
As for the other two, she’d understand why he kept their mother alive, but the woman in the middle boggled her mind.
“Why have you done this?”
“So all of you can avoid the impending doom this world is about to face.” He stumbled to the table and grabbed a syringe that was filled with some light blue liquid. “Ha…” He let out a relieved sigh before putting the instrument down and looking at her. “Have Lastraeous never appeared in your dreams?”
She frowned her brows.
“Shouldn’t you know already? You are his champion, aren’t you?”
“‘Was’.” He emphasized. “That sly god threw me a curve ball after all this time serving him.”
He straightened his back and stretched out his arms.
“I should warn you…” After finishing stretching, he tilted his head both ways as his neck let out an audible crack. “Never heed the words of that god. He is especially nefarious with his goals.”
“I know.”
“Now then…” He then walked towards her which made her flinch a bit as he reached for her shoulder. “Stand completely still.”
“Huh? What are you-” He suddenly gripped her shoulder but something felt different, it was as if he was pulling something out of her as a flash of pain surged from within her shoulder. “ARGH!”
“Come out now Miyamoto. I know you are resting in there.”
It felt like her flesh was being pulled out from her body, but as opposed to actually having her muscles ripped off, her soul was being torn apart by some strange technique that he was using to remove the swordmaster’s soul from hers.
The sensation was like being punctured by a sharp object before getting her flesh yanked out. Beyond the pain, Leona saw a light blue agglomeration of mana in front of her before Miyamoto eventually slammed the mana inside his own chest. Another burst of mana erupted from his back and just like a slime dividing itself, there were now two of the same man in the room.
“Ugh.” The second one tapped the front of his chest as if cleaning the leftover mana that was saturated on him. “No matter how many times I do this, it is still disgusting.” He then pulled his hair back and as his fingers left his scalp, his hair turned completely brown. It was a bizarre sight. “Thank you for taking care of him, Leona.”
The man extended his hand towards her while the flesh on his face was reconstructing itself as he took the appearance of a middle aged man with a sharp jaw and square chin. The sclera of his eyes were black like the void before his eyes rolled up and changed to a white sclera and hazel irises.
“Who in the world…”
He motioned with his hand and she hesitantly accepted the help. As she stood up, she could feel a gentle warmth overcoming her body from his hand.
“Hmm… you’re an interesting lass Leona.” He spoke casually. “Let me introduce myself again, my name is Robert, hero, king, sage and as the soul bearing that body as a vessel.”
“Huh? Wait… I don’t understand-”
“You will in due time.” He smiled mischievously before turning to the man that was kneeling and panting on the floor. “Hey, Miyamoto, we haven’t got all day.”
“Give it a rest…” The swordmaster muttered. His voice was completely different from before. As opposed to the nonchalant tone, he sounded much more mature and weary. “I fulfilled my end of the bargain so why did you bring me back?”
“Using a young woman’s body as a pseudo-vessel for yourself is not part of the bargain my good sir.” Robert let go of Leona’s hand which also stopped the warmth sensation she felt. She looked at her own hand before closing and opening again. “I specifically told you to teach either your son or your great niece about aether blade, but you half-assed made her use your own knowledge instead of teaching it to her.”
Leona’s eyes widened as she turned to Robert.
“Did you say great niece?”
The man in question began raising one eyebrow with a half open mouth as he turned back to Miyamoto.
“You didn’t even tell her that? Really?”
“I… we didn’t have enough time.”
Robert sighed.
“I’m feeling like I’ll blink out of existence through stress.” He waved his hand back and forth. “In any case. Leona.” He turned to her before pointing with his left hand to Miyamoto. “This man is your great uncle. I think… was that the second generation called? Bah, either way. You two are related.”
“Wait, wait, wait, wait…” Leona took a step back as she shook her hand and pinched her nose ridge from the overload of information. “Start from the beginning. I don’t even know who—what you are first and foremost.”
Robert sighed as he rolled his eyes and clicked his tongue.
“This is what I dislike about natives…” He snapped his fingers and three ceramic tiles raised themselves into stools. “Take a seat. This might take a while to explain.”