Back at the Silvaria Valley Settlement, Anastasia woke up from a bad dream and started sobbing. Her husband was startled awake hearing her cry so early in the morning. The sun wasn't even up yet!
"Honey, baby~ please...tell me what's wrong? Don't cry okay? Okay?" Kaiser quickly embraced his sobbing wife, trying all he can to placate the weeping woman.
"I...I dreamt that Cecil... he... he..."
Hearing his wife say that he dreamt about their lost son, Kaiser quickly tried to reassure his wife that their son was alive and okay.
"It's okay... It's okay... our son... he's a strong child! He wouldn't die, okay? He's still alive out there somewhere! So, don't cry anymore, okay? How's this, starting from today, I'll take up the scout and expedition team's former roles and act as an independent unit to search for Cecil, yeah?"
"N...No... it-hic-it's not that! Hic. I dreamt that he was alive!"
"Oh... okay?"
Kaiser was immediately at a loss since shouldn't that kind of dream be a good thing for her. So now he was wondering why his wife was sobbing when she dreamt that their son was alive.
"He... he..."
"What is it honey?"
Kaiser waited for her to calm down, but then Anastasia immediately shouted at the top of her lungs, and then she continued sobbing.
"HE WAS HAPPY THAT HE WAS SEPARATED FROM US!!! WAAAAHHHH!!!"
"W-What?"
"He was happy! He was enjoying his newfound 'freedom' he said!"
"How can that be?! Our son, you know how filial our son is!"
"Filial?"
"YES! He would never rejoice at the thought of being separated from us!"
"..."
Filial, or filial piety. A term used to describe how dutiful a child was toward their parents. That word immediately stopped Anastasia's sobs. She then started to repeatedly mumble the word 'filial' to herself. On the side, Kaiser grew worried seeing his wife mumble something over and over.
"...honey?"
Anastasia turned a glare towards her husband and screamed, "FILIAL!!!"
Surprised at his wife's sudden outburst, Kaiser had let go of her and nearly fell off from their bed.
"It's EXACTLY why Cel's so~ FILIAL that he would be grateful to be separated from US!"
Anastasia jumped off the bed and went to grab her weapon that was hung on the wall next to their bed. She grabbed the slender sheath off the wall and unsheathed the weapon and menacingly pointed the tip at her husband.
After half a year, the settlement's forges had finally been developed to the point where the blacksmiths and craftsmen could now smelt and forge all sorts of metal objects, cold weapons included.
Due to this development, the weapon in Anastasia's hands was her personal favorite, one she had always used even when they were back on Earth, the tachi. The blade was a sky blue color with purplish streaks and because of the forging method of the sword; it looked as if there were drifting clouds decorating the blade. It was forged from top quality mithril and due to this, the weapon itself emitted a pressure not seen before by the likes of modern man.
At first, the mithril didn't seem like anything special to the forgers other than the fact that it was an ore that could not be found on Earth. The mysterious pressure only started exuding after the blacksmiths had successfully turned the ore into a weapon. This pressure was the result of the mana circulating inside and around the blade.
Due to a series of coincidences during the forging process, the blacksmiths had created a natural mana array inside the blade that even attracted numerous bolts of lightning which struck the blade right when it was completed. The thunder had struck at the most opportune moment which gave birth to the natural sky thunder array inside the blade.
If one was to inject their mana into the blade, streaks of electricity would immediately wrap around the blade. This wasn't known to the humans inside the settlement because they still had no knowledge of mana, so the weaponsmiths thought that they only created a unique weapon that was strangely beautiful. The tachi was presented to Anastasia as her personal weapon since it was unique and at the time she was the only one in the family that lacked a weapon after all this time.
Although it was long, the tachi was light as a feather and when she swung the weapon, she thought that she could sometimes hear thunder. Apparently others couldn't hear this, but what they didn't know was that the sky thunder array that was hidden inside the sword could only be activated by people who had an inclination towards the lightning element.
Anastasia didn't know this yet, but she was a human with a naturally attuned electric body constitution. This was the reason why she could hear the sound of thunder whenever she swung her tachi. She hardly ever used the blade except when she trained with it and never once pointed the blade at someone else. Well, until now that is, and it wasn't towards an enemy, but towards the man that she loves so dearly with all her heart.
"H-Honey, calm down...Why are you pointing the blade at me?"
"SILENCE!"
"Wait a minute honey, just put the sword–" down, was what Kaiser wanted to say, but his wife cut him off with a howl.
"IT'S BECAUSE OF YOU AND YOUR STUPID TRADITIONS THAT CEL WOULD BE HAPPY TO BE AWAY FROM US!!!"
Accompanied by a flash of electricity, Anastasia dashed towards her husband at an abnormal speed while the backside of the blade in her hand started descending towards his head. Kaiser was surprised at his wife's abnormal speed, but with his intuition he quickly rolled and dodged the attack. After getting up, he quickly dashed out of the room. Then for the next 2 hours until the sun finally shined down into the valley, the main mansion in the Silvaria Household Estate was sent into a state of chaos.
The siblings didn't mind it, but Fatima made sure that Angelia didn't see the state that their parents were in. She quickly prepared breakfast for her family and sent Angelia's food to her room. At the dining table, the siblings could only sigh at the chaos caused by their mother.
"...it's because of Cecil, huh?" Luca asked.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Gabriel grunted in response while Matheus complained, "What else could it be? You know how much mother cares for him... though this was because of our stupid father being an idiot as well."
"Matty..." Fatima had only called out his name, but Matheus knew exactly what she meant.
"Sorry, sis, I know I shouldn't be disrespectful, but don't you think so as well? It's because of our family's stupid tradition! Cecil too, he's just way too nice and simple. That's why he was the one tricked into continuing our family's tradition."
"Remember that that same tradition has saved all our lives and the people around us!" Fatima snapped.
"I know, I know... but he's my little bro. Just thinking about all the stuff he went through because WE didn't want to take up that unreasonable responsibility irks me! I can totally get why mother is causing chaos around the house and–"
"Chasing after dad with the Heaven's Cloud?" Luca finished his sentence.
"...Cecil should just hurry up and make his way back here... where is he anyways? He better not be doing what mother dreamt of... that would seriously make us all cry here..." Gabriel said dejectedly.
"Enjoying his freedom, huh?" Matheus fell silent for a moment then he continued. "He deserves it though... even if we're the ones that have to cry later."
The 3 brothers turned to look at their eldest sister worriedly. The three knew that their sis was really worried as well, but unlike their mother, she kept it all bottled away inside. Lo and behold, Fatima looked like she was indeed about to burst into tears.
Matheus sighed. He got up while saying, "If he is enjoying himself, we should be grateful. That means he's still alive AND he'll come back to us eventually! No matter what, he's our brother and we all know for one what he's like."
"KIND AND GENTLE!"
Hearing those words that perfectly described their 5th sibling, Fatima, Matheus, Luca and Gabriel all smiled before turning their gazes towards the dining room's entrance to see their family's youngest bounce and skip merrily into the room while dragging along a teddy bear with her.
Gabriel quickly finished his breakfast and stood up from his seat before going over to pick Angelia up.
"Hey there little one~ let's go back into your room and start drawing again!"
"Hmph. I'm not little! And I don't want to draw anymore!" The angel in his arms pouted and turned her head to the side cutely.
"Okay, okay~ How about we go outside and take a stroll in the garden? We can go and eat the grapes in the orchards too!"
"Really? Yay! Let's go, let's go!"
"Okay, but before we go, did you already finish breakfast?"
"Huh? Oh... yeah... finished..." she said while dodging her brother's gaze while fidgeting a little.
From Angelia's response Gabriel knew that she didn't finish her breakfast. Not minding it, he held her in his arms and went back to her room, after taking the breakfast that was only half eaten, he brought her in the direction of the garden.
Back in the dining room, only Luca and Fatima were left.
"Sis, you heard what Angel said. With how kind and gentle Cecil is, there's no doubt in my mind that he's out there–wherever he is–thinking about us just like we are about him. Although he might also be out there somewhere enjoying himself, that's probably because he's just curious with everything around him. He was isolated ever since he was little so you can just imagine how he'll act once he's been let free..." Luca paused and gave his sister a hard look. He then continued confidently.
"He's surely trying to find his way back to us, so don't feel so down. It's not like it's your fault, or anyone's fault for that matter, that he was separated from us. Even the phenomenon that caused the separation is still a mystery to us. We haven't a clue what kind of power brought us over to this strange planet in the first place..."
Luca was always the logical one, so he would always explain things according to facts and conjectures he's come up with from observation. He knew how his little brother was like, so there was no doubt in his mind that Cecil was looking for ways to find them. Fatima knew how this little brother of hers was, so she quickly finished her breakfast and got up.
"Thanks Luca. Well, I better go and stop Mom's rampage... Seriously, all the craftsmen at the forges can't keep up with the rate of Mom's furniture demolition, haha~" Fatima joked.
Seeing his sister finally smile and even crack a joke, Luca smiled too and teased, "I bet you're the one who wants to go on a rampage the most, big sis."
"I wonder about that~" Fatima started acting coy, and then she smiled dangerously and said to Luca, "Maybe I should go and have the smithies devel–"
"Yup, I'm sorry, don't do that please. We're already backed up with production now. Anymore and we'll drop dead, so don't, please? 'kay, sis?"
"Hehehe~ remember to wash the dishes little Luca~"
Fatima gathered the dishes and put them into the sink. Accompanied by her bell-like laughter, she walked out of the room and went to go calm down the rampaging tigress. On her way out of the dining room, she ran into her grandfather.
"Oh, Ima, there you are. Where are your mother and father?"
"Grandfather! Good morning. Currently mother is–"
CRASSHHH
"Stop. MOVING!!!"
On the second floor, Anastasia was currently chasing down her husband with her tachi. Grandpa Silvaria, who saw that amusing sight, chuckled and quickly made his escape while lamenting.
"Haha, it's so good to be young. Well now, I'd better be on my way Ima."
"..."
Cecil's upbringing was also half of their grandfather's fault, so seeing the rampaging tigress chasing down his heir, Grandpa Silvaria quickly made himself scarce. Luca, who was back in the dining room, shrugged and continued on with his meal. He was the slowest out of them because he was eating while checking on the reports and developments of the valley's metalwork.
"I hope you're having fun out there, Cecil," Luca said softly, a hint of a smile was tugging at the corner of his mouth.