With their assignment out of the way, the family began to spend the vacation time together and they did so very happily. Lakshman’s wives, Emilia and Ondine took care of the cooking while Sumara and Sonia arranged the dishes and took care of cleaning them once they were used. Meanwhile, Tetra, Silvera and Cantia worked together with Mariana to take care of the babies. Cantia was especially adamant about taking care of them and played happily with them while pulling faces and doing stuff to make them laugh and feel at ease.
“I’m at least better at this than any of you lot!” Cantia commented cheerfully while grinning at the babies, who were smiling back at them with open mouths.
“Hey now. This isn’t a competition, Cantia,” stated Tetra soothingly.
“Yes, but each of you are good at something, so I’m just proclaiming that looking after babies is my thing!” Cantia declared proudly. Then she began playing with the babies with, “Here. Here. Smile! Smile!”
The babies would let out a light chuckle or laugh a little while staring at her. This came as little surprise because she had the most energy out of the rest of them and would often come home energetic compared to how tired Venezuela and Erza were on their return.
“You guys need to exercise more often!” She would proclaim but they knew it was the strong beast blood in her that gave her the more energy compared to the rest.
“I think she and Engraut could give each other compliments,” remarked Silvera wryly.
Cantia was so startled by this remark that she quickly turned to her and said, “Stop that, will you? I have Lucky and that’s enough for me!”
This made both Tetra and Silvera to react in surprise and then look at one another before smiling at her.
“Sil meant that the two of you could be good friends, not as lovers,” explained Tetra with a smile.
“Ohhhh…!” Cantia said as she finally understood and turned to look incredulously at the Demon Slayer. “You confused me!”
“No! You’re the one who’s stupid to think that way!” Silvera retorted. “No wonder you got average marks on graduating from Astral Academy.”
To this, Cantia looked like she was about to burst into tears and said, “I did my best! I really did!” and she put her head down near the babies, who all slowly raised their shaky hands and tried patting her for some strange reason.
Meanwhile, Venezuela and Erza were bringing Valerian up to speed about the current situation in the society and how much the world had changed from the ancient times. He listened intently and was very surprised more than one time by the details he received. It was easy enough to guess that he was utterly shocked that the world was conquered by a man after the Phoenix Titan and was bewildered that the same man had disappeared mysteriously all of a sudden.
“What’s the point in the effort he put in to unite the world then? It was a complete waste, right?” He asked them curiously.
Venezuela and Erza looked at one another before looking back at him as Erza stated, “Actually, there are no hysterical records of anything in detail about him other than what he looked like, what he used to unite the world and that’s it. His real name, his whereabouts, his background, nothing about his personal details were recorded at all.”
“Either that or it was wiped clean when he decided to disappear,” added Venezuela.
Valerian looked confused and continued to listen to the history that took place after the Emperor of the World’s disappearance.
At the same time, Indira and Priya were in their shared room while looking at what each of them had written down for their notes. This was mainly to proofread, and do possible corrections to help each other and not meant to cheat off one another. They each had different and vastly unique techniques to look at so there was hardly any chance of that.
While everyone was busy in their own way, Marian and Lakshman were standing in front of where the old house used to exist, which was now outlined by a wall that Lakshman had created. Stuart hovered beside his best friend and remained silent as the two previous residences of that house looked at the scene with mixed emotions on their faces.
“Mariana,” said Lakshman by breaking the silence first while still facing the wall in the frame of the house he grew up in. “Can you remember what happened on... on that day?”
“Lucky!” Stuart said sharply, looking at him with an irritated expression on his ghostly face. “Drop it, will you?”
Lakshman shook his head and said, “No, I cannot, Stuart. I am completely ignorant of what had happened on that day other than just hearing stories and rumours and then seeing this destruction. I have to know what my parents went through first hand.”
His childhood friend shook his head incredulously and asked, “And what good will that do you when there’s nothing you can change! Even you, with all the power you possess, cannot go back in time! You can’t turn back time, can you?!”
At such a demand, Lakshman remained silent for a moment before he replied, “You’re right, Stuart. I can’t turn back time, but I don’t like this feeling of… not knowing the pain my parents went through when it happened.”
He clenched his fists tightly, which shook from the amount of pressure he was exerting into his hand. Then he was surprised when a soothing hand touched his shoulder, and he turned to look at Mariana who was smiling at him.
“I know how you feel, Lucky. I’ve been with you since the day you were born and watched you grow, so I know how much responsible you feel towards your parents and such. However, please remember that there was nothing you could’ve done for us when you yourself were in a difficult position. So, please remember that. Okay?”
At her soothing plea, he nodded and smiled a little at her before aiming his hand at her and saying, “Memory Dive.”
In an instant, everything around him turned dark and he fell down a long hole surrounded by darkness. He continued to fall for several seconds before coming to a gentle stop and finally landing on his feet. Beside him Asura landed gently and began looking around at the darkness surrounding them.
“So, this is the memory dive you developed. Quite interesting,” commented Asura before turning to Lakshman. “Where do you see the memories?”
The moment the question left his mouth that floating display made of particles appeared out of thin air before them. He reacted in surprise at their sudden appearance before the particles converged and began to produce a moving image on it. This was similar to the television that they had witnessed in the world of Alzard, except this could only be done by magic while that was through the power of technology advancement.
Memories of different parts of Mariana’s life flashed by very quickly before the moving images finally slowed down to the last moments that Mariana had spent together with them. Both of them watched as the scene opened with everyone seated at the table and Lakshman made a sorrowful look the moment he saw his parents forms when they were still alive.
They appeared to having breakfast by the plates of food on the dining table, and they watched the happy scene of them eating and chatting happily. Once the breakfast was done, Mariana got off her chair and began collecting the plates while Indra, Lakshmi, Priya and Indira headed out of the dining room and moved to the living room.
Lakshman and Asura watched as Mariana began using wind magic to levitate all the plates at once and slowly moved them to the kitchen sink for cleaning. It was while doing that a huge tremor seemed to occur and caused her to become shocked just as Lakshman became scared by what was about to happen.
Sensing something dangerous happening or her woman’s instincts acting, she got so distracted that her magic got deactivated and caused the floating plates to come crashing down. She quickly went to check on the family in the living room and saw that the entrance door to the outside was open and hurried outside to see that everyone was standing there.
That was when she witnessed it happening; a blinding flash of white light sweeping towards them. It was covering everything from the ground to the sky as it swept towards them at an incredible speed.
Lakshman had goose bumps sprout at the destruction it was causing as it came towards them. Without thinking, he shouted at Mariana and the others to get out of there or do something to teleport themselves away. However, it was just a screen showing the memories of the owner as it happened without any alternations.
“Run!” He bellowed desperately with tears forming in his eyes while Asura only watched him in silence before looking back at the scene.
Mariana knew the wave was bad news and saw Indra pull out his sword while facing it with a distraught look on his face. Lakshmi was standing behind him as she too seemed to have prepared her magic to do whatever she could to protect themselves. The family maid knew that he was no match for it and quickly turned her attention to the kids, who were looking in amazement as if it was a spectacle to be admired.
Saying something that could not be heard, Mariana rushed over to them and wrapped her around the kids to shield them with her body as the white flash of the wave swept forward and consumed them in an instant. At that instant, everything turned black and the screen stopped showing what happened afterwards.
“I see,” said Asura as their minds returned to their Lakshman’s body. “That was indeed a shocker.”
“Lucky, are you okay?” Mariana asked anxiously seeing as he appeared to be in a trance to them.
“That wave… it… it did…” he said while trembling from the waves of horror that filled his insides at knowing the helplessness that they must have felt, especially that Mariana tried her best to cover the children with her body in a desperate attempt.
“To make matters worse, even you couldn’t have done anything to stop it if you were there,” said Asura inside his mind, which hurt Lakshman more at the uselessness he was reduced to at that time.
He looked at her with a sad look on his face, which told her everything that he had witnessed. Seeing the kid that went through so much in life in tears like that made her motherly instincts react and pull him into an embrace. It looked like a lost child was being hugged by their mother after meeting each other for the first time in a long time.
“It’s okay, Lucky. It’s okay,” she said soothingly. “It’s not your fault. Not at all.”
“Even if I was there… I… I…” began Lakshman as tears began spilling from his eyes at the shocking revelation that he would have perished along with them.
She understood just from those words alone that it hurt him that much worse by the fact that he would not have been able to stop that wave. It made her understand that the enemy they were up against was indeed an opponent that was way stronger than what Lakshman was at that time.
“Lucky, Indra and Lakshmi wouldn’t want to see you crying like this,” she said soothingly while patting him gently on the head. “They worked their entire lives through nitty gritty and the stupid, all so that you wouldn’t have to cry the number of times like they did in their struggles. Priya and Indira did come later, but for one part of their lives, they were completely focused only on giving you the chances that they lacked. So, wipe away those tears. They wouldn’t be happy to see you like this.”
Then she pulled his face upward to look at her and asked him with a smiling face, “Is that what you want your parents to feel? Sad?”
He blinked at her in surprise before understanding what she meant. It took him a moment to stop his tears and let out a large sniff before breathing a sigh in relief. Then he pulled away from her and smiled warmly at her, to which she smiled back just as warmly as him.
“You’re right. I can’t wallow in my tears and make my parents sad wherever they may be,” he said with a smile.
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She nodded and grinned cheekily as she remarked, “Still. Even though you’re an adult and the strongest warrior in the world, you’re still a kid at heart, Lucky.”
He blinked at this unexpected remark from her and could only react by letting out an embarrassed laughter while scratching the back of his head with his hand. Seeing this, she pointed it out with her finger and her words.
“See that? You’ve definitely inherited your father’s habit of scratching his head whenever he got embarrassed. Like father, like son, am I right?”
“Oh, don’t point at it, Mariana!” He told her but he was grinning as the sadness was easily swept aside by the happiness.
“Ah! You’re laughing now! That’s what I want to see, happy and smiling Lucky,” she told him and grabbed his cheeks with her hand and swung his head left and right twice before letting him go. “Okay. I think we should return and see what the kids are doing.”
With that, she turned away and began walking away with a bright stride to her compared to the previously saddened way she walked. He watched her go and smiled to himself before continuing to walk with them while Asura posed a question that had been bothering him ever since he witnessed her memories.
“With such a powerful technique, how did she and your sisters survive? I can’t come up with an explanation for it.”
“Yes. I am curious as well,” muttered Lakshman, looking towards Mariana’s back and wondering when to pose the question to her.
But the chance to ask her never came because of the fun time they had spending together. It had been quite some time since the family were away from all duties and could just leisurely have a good time together. So, they did exactly what was to be expected on a vacation by having fun, playing together and making wonderful memories. They even went exploring to different places that Lakshman used to visit during his childhood and told them of the adventures he had with Stuart, who would either agree to them or exaggerate a little bit.
Lakshman was smiling for the first time in a long time, not from a joke, but from the feeling of satisfaction of his success. Saving the world resulted in the fun time he got to enjoy and it made him feel very blessed and happy that all of his battles he fought in to protect the world were worth it. He grew to dislike fighting as he felt it was senseless but there was no choice and, in the end, what mattered was the peace that came by his victory.
Like that, the days flew by very rapidly before it was time for them to return. They stood in front of the wall frame of the old home and appeared to be praying to it with their hands pressed together in front of them while they had their eyes closed. A few seconds later, they opened their eyes and smiled at the birthplace of the man of the family.
“I’ll come and visit again,” said Lakshman with a smile at the wall he made in the frame of his old home.
“See you!” Priya and Indira said and waved at it with bright smiles on their faces.
“Hey! I’m coming with you!” Stuart told them firmly when they turned around to face him.
Priya and Indira were confused as they turned to their brother and asked, “Can he?”
“In the books at Astral Academy, an Earth-Bound Spirit cannot go from the place they are isolated,” explained Priya from the knowledge she possessed. “So, how can he…?”
“That’s no problem,” he told her with a smile and beckoned Stuart towards him. “All he has to do is keep in contact with me and stay near me all the time, and he can be with us. With me mainly though.”
“Really?” The twins asked in amazement. “Can it be achieved?”
“Yes. It won’t be my first time,” he told her and smiled recalled the similar situation with him and Spectra way back when he was still in his first year of Astral Academy. Then he turned to Stuart and asked, “You will come, right?”
“Yes! Any place is better than staying stuck in this isolated land where your only company is the silence… and the wind… and the clouds… and the wind… wait, did I just repeat myself?”
“Yes, you did,” agreed Lakshman, nodding and accepting his friend’s request to come with them.
After bidding their former home farewell, everyone returned to their land owned by the Chand family at the outskirts of the Floria Kingdom. On return, Lakshman was visited by Amaranda with news that Lagron had returned and, upon discovering that the Phoenix Titan was away on vacation with his family, he became infuriated and returned to training with a message to him.
“He told me to tell you that he’s giving you two weeks from now, which was yesterday when he came and left, to get prepared, and he won’t excuse your behaviour the next time,” she informed him with a small smile.
“I got it,” said Lakshman with a smile. “At least, he gave me more time to spend with my family.”
This surprised Amaranda, who asked, “Aren’t you going to train?”
“I will. I will,” he told her softly that made her doubt his words, which left her wondering.
“Is he really that confident in his newfound powers even though Lagron is training really hard?” She thought in wonder.
On the next day, Lakshman took his sisters to Astral Academy to drop them off and spoke worried to them.
“Did you check properly the details of your submission? You didn’t miss any details? Anything that you may need me to explain or stuff?”
“Yes, annayya. We have it prepared,” said Priya with a light chuckle at seeing her brother look worried for them.
“Be confident, annayya! We’ll ace the assignment!” Indira said confidently with a bright smile.
“Yeah. I know you will,” he told them with a smile.
At that moment, he sensed a familiar sensation and once again, found himself turning around just in time to hear a chatter walking from beside him. There he saw the girl that he sensed the familiarity coming from, however he could not see her face clearly just like the first time he could only see a partial side of her face.
“Annayya!” The twins called to him, causing him to become startled and turn to face them.
“Yes? What is it?” He reacted in surprise and saw them, staring at him with firm looks. “Sorry. I was distracted.”
Both Priya and Indira turned in the direction of the girl that he was looking at and then looked back at their brother. Priya was looking stern while Indira was looking worried.
“Annayya, don’t you dare cheat on vodinalu!” Priya said firmly in a serious voice.
“Huh?!” He exclaimed in shock while blinking at them.
His exclamation caused everyone to stop and look at them with curiosity. Glancing first at the people around them, he leaned towards his sisters and spoke so that only they heard his words.
“What are you saying, Priya? Why would I cheat on my wives?”
“But you were looking at that junior,” the stronger of the twins pointed out.
“Oh. She’s your junior,” he muttered reflexively.
“Annayya…!” Priya said, causing him to wince and look at her apologetically.
“Really sorry. I was just… well…”
“Just what? Come on, annayya. Speak. We’re listening,” told Priya, and she folded her arms.
From beside her, Indira asked with a worried look, “Are you cheating, annayya?”
“I am not,” he told them wearily. “That girl, your junior, you said, I’m getting this strange vibe from her. Like I know her or something. So, I got curious, that’s all. This is the second time I felt that vibe from her, and I’ve already got a Phintex Raja getting details on her just to check.”
The last piece of information startled the sister, where Priya asked, “So, now you’re stalking her?!”
“Oh no…! Annayya is really a bad boy,” said Indira, and she looked like she was about to cry.
“What?! No! I’m not! Wait! Stop crying, Indira!” Lakshman reacted in a fluster.
This lasted for a few seconds before the twins suddenly grinned and stuck their tongues out at him, surprising him.
“There! We tricked you!” Indira said happily.
“Yes, we did a good on him!” Priya said energetically.
Lakshman blinked at them in confusion, not understanding what just happened and asked uncertainly, “Um… by any chance, were you… trolling me?”
“Trolling you?” The sisters asked, not understanding the word.
“It’s a word I learnt from my time in the Alzard World, which means that you’re toying with the other person, making them get heated up and finding it humours,” he explained to them and looked a little confused.
“Oh. That’s what we did, didn’t we, Priya?” Indira asked curiously.
“Yes. We definitely trolled annayya,” agreed Priya with a smile. They turned and saw him looking at them with a raised eyebrow, to which Priya quickly said, “It wasn’t my idea! Indira just whispered that we should fool you, and that’s what we did.”
“Oh? So, Indira is the naughty kid,” he said, turning to look at her, to which Indira grinned and stepped aside to hide behind her sister.
Priya grinned at him and changed the topic by asking, “Jokes aside, is that person bad since you’re looking into them.”
Her brother shook his head and replied, “No. I don’t sense any negative force from her. Rather, I feel familiar with her as if I know her… or we were close at one point. I’m just not sure what to make of it, so I’m looking into her background.”
“Oh, okay,” said Priya in understanding. “In that case, if it helps, she is three years younger than us.”
“Three years younger than you,” he reacted in surprise, “and she’s your junior? How? How did she get enrolled at Astral Academy so early?”
“She seemed to have had good grades so her school bumped her up by skipping grades and such or so I hear,” said Indira and Priya nodded in agreement with her sister’s statement.
“I see. Okay. That’s a surprise but I’m glad you let me know. I’ll take over from here, okay? Don’t draw unnecessary attention from her till I tell you otherwise. Got it?”
“Yes,” the twins replied firmly.
“Good,” he told them and rubbed their heads gently. “Now, go on and good luck!”
“Thank you, annayya!” They told them happily and waved at him before leaving through the academy gates.
Lakshman watched them go before Stuart said, “My goodness. Those kids are certainly cheeky.”
After returning from his vacation, Lakshman made it so that Stuart is visible to only him at all times unless he chose to make Stuart visible to others to see. If others could see him in broad daylight, chaos would ensure and people would get scared and cause an uproar. So, Lakshman had it, so that only he could see, hear and converse with Stuart.
“I suppose it’s part of having siblings,” replied his friend with a smile, “and I suspect they wanted to fool me at least once to get the satisfaction, so it’s okay.”
Stuart let out a chuckle and followed Lakshman on his way out of the city and using a Phoenix Portal to return to his home. On his arrival, there was a sudden warping before a Phintex Raja appeared kneeling before him.
“Sir. I have the information regarding the girl you wanted us to track and get information on,” he informed him.
“About time,” he remarked in satisfaction. “Follow. We’ll discuss further in my room.”
“Yes,” the Phintex Raja replied and rose to his feet before stepping aside to let him pass.
Lakshman walked up the stairs but stopped by the kitchen and told Emilia, “Emy, I’ll be busy for the next half-an-hour, so don’t disturb me unless it’s urgent.”
“Sure, Lucky,” she replied with a smile while Ondine nodded in agreement.
He smiled at them and left with the Phintex Raja in tow, making the two turn to one another in bewilderment. Once they reached the top landing, he led the way to his room, opened the room and walked in. His Phoenix Clan member walked in after him and closed the door shut while Lakshman walked to the desk and sat down on it. The masked warrior held his hand out and a folder popped out of nowhere, and he caught it.
“All of her details are here, sir,” he said while handing the folder over to his master. “It also contains her photo.”
“Photo? As in an unmoving still image of her?” Lakshman asked, turning to look at the masked warrior in amazement. “Did we have such a technology?”
“Yes, sir, but it’s dying out at present because the product costs were high and such. The producer is even deciding to shut it down because it didn’t receive a wide audience like he expected it to.”
His words made Lakshman thinking about the possibilities of such thing and thought back to what he saw in the Alzard World. A decorative item also used as a tool for storing special moments and photos taken together. If it was widespread, people would use it to store their memories together of when they go out or just in general and it also had value in the money side of things as well.
“Alright. Arrange a meeting with the producer later so that I and Wolfenstine meet them later and talk of possibly sponsoring his product,” he said finally.
“You and Wolfenstine, sir?” The masked warrior asked curiously. When Lakshman nodded, he nodded back in understanding and said, “Understood, sir. I’ll get right onto it,” and he warped out of the room in an instant.
After he left, Lakshman placed the folder down on the table while Stuart floated from behind and asked, “So, what’s this about that girl?” Then he made a cheeky smile and asked, “Are you really cheating like your sisters suspected?”
“Oh, drop it, will you?” Lakshman sighed wearily and opened the folder.
Immediately after opening the folder, he was met with her photo that was the size of his hand. The photo appeared to have been taken in the midst of the crowd but it was amazing to see that her face was taken with great clarity. This went to show the great lengths the Phintex Rajas would go to do their work by going the extra mile of perfection.
With finally being able to see her face clearly, the sense of familiarity in him felt even stronger, and he vaguely felt as though he knew that face from somewhere. However, the face was a bit young and cute and in the growing stage considering she was much younger than his sisters despite being their junior to Astral Academy.
Stuart leaned down to check the photo closer and said, “I don’t remember seeing her anywhere before.”
“Me neither but…”
“Maybe it’s someone from your past incarnations?” Stuart suggested.
Lakshman stared down at the photo and thought, “Asura, do you remember seeing this face anywhere?”
“No. I don’t recall seeing anyone with such facial features,” replied Asura, sounding troubled by it.
“Yes, and I don’t remember ever seeing them in my other past lives as well,” he muttered to himself with his eyebrows knitting together as he stared down at the photo. “I don’t get it. Why do I feel like I know you? It’s almost like… wait… wait a second…!”
Something started to form inside of Lakshman’s memories as he slowly recalled something and with it in mind, he looked down at the photo of the cute smiling face of the girl he had been tracking. It made his eyes open wide in alarm as a shocking realisation dawned on him.
“No way…! It can’t be…!” He reacted in shock.
“What? You remember something?” Stuart asked quickly.
Lakshman did not reply to him and instead continued to stare down at the photo while saying, “It… can’t be…! This is…! This person is…!”