Alright! Time to see what this gift is.
Gramps took me to a carriage saying the place is far on foot and so we need to go by carriage, and so we did.
Hours later we arrived at what seemed to be a ruined palace.
"That is the old location of the Royal palace. It was destroyed in the war." Gramps answered my unasked question.
"I see."
"Come on brat we haven't got all day." he ushered me forward.
He guided me to the ruined courtyard of the palace and stopped in front of a pillar. Then he pushed the pillar away as if it was nothing. The removal of the pillar revealed a trapdoor. He proceeded to infuse some mana, plant type probably seeing the color of the mana. The trapdoor immediately opened.
And so we began or descent. the stairs extended quite deep, but it didn't take us long reaching the end due to the steepness of the stairs.
I was hoping for something grand but all that existed beyond the stairs were two crossed swords stabbed into a pedestal.
Exactly what I'm used to, dual wielding.
"Go ahead brat!" Gramps pushes me ahead.
I went towards the two swords and pulled them out one by one. It was heavy for my childish body. I guess I won't be able to use it till I'm older.
As I was examining it something pricked my palm from both of the handles and drew blood. Instantly the blades became much lighter.
I swung it around to test iys strength and hit the pedestal, the swords went right through the rocks and broke it to four pieces.
Damn that's sharp.
"Why me?" I ask.
"Huh? What do you mean?" Gramps replied.
"Why did you give them to me, why not someone else like the King?" I elaborate.
"To be honest no one has been able to pull it out and those who tried got sent to the medical wards for weeks." He said wuth a sheepish smile.
....this senile old man almost sent me to the medics?
Sigh.
Well it did give me a powerful weapon in the end so uts alright I guess.
"Alright time to go back." He exclaimed gesturing towards the exit
Okay. Do they have a scabbard?" Before he could reply the swords shrunk down and transformed to rings.
"O-okay" I stutter out and put the rings on.
"What about their names?" I say. No change occured this time.
"They have no name." He replied.
"Solaris and Shroud" I whisper.
Almost immediately the names get engraved on the rings.
"Lets go."
_________________________________________________________________________________
The next day I came down dressed in a blue robe and black pants.
"Remember to take care you two! We will find a way to contact you. Here take these, they will help you navigate the forests if you ever venture here again." Gramps said while handling us a silver oval compass.
"Or you could always find another princess to lead you here" he continued passing a wink towards Arthur.
Thus earned him a pinch from Tessia.
"Ouch! It was just a joke little one."
"Alduin and Merial will be going in a different carriage being the leaders of this kingdom. The two of us won't be going. We won't see each other for a long time. Until then." He grabbed the two of us in a hug.
"I will miss you Art, visit sometimes okay, and don't chase after human girls, promise me." Tessia said to Arthur sniffling tears.
My brother proceeded to hug her and say, "We will see each other again I know it, you better grow stronger than me in this time, you have no excuse since gramps is teaching you."
He released the hug and waited for me to finish my farewell a few feet away.
"I'll miss you too, Fay. You will visit as well, right?" She said still sniffling.
"Yeah I'll visit you and bring Arthur with me as well. Until then stay safe sis." I say while patting her head.
Only after her eyes widened did I realize what I had said.
Shit.
"Sorry about that, just slipped out-" I try to apologize.
"No, no its okay. I don't mind, you are like a little brother to me after all." She interrupts my apology.
Phew. Calamity avoided.
"Yeah, well see you then" I say and turn around to leave.
I look at Art's surprised face amused.
"What was that about." He asked me as we were walking away.
"She did remind me about my sister in my previous life, so I guess it just slipped out." I whisper back to him.
He nods in understanding and we go inside the carriage.
"Well, look who it is. Were you finally kicked out of the kingdom." Said an awfully familiar boy dressed in a decorated purple robe.
You've gotta be kidding me. Seriously? This dumbass?
"I'm sorry, do I know you?" Arthur said with the dragon, Sylvie I think her name was, growling from his head.
"I'm the noble you mercilessly assaulted while defying the customs of the duel." He angrily stood up and pointed towards Arthur accusingly.
"Ah you're that bug I pummeled!" He yelled out.
I facepalmed from behind.
"How dare you...?" The nobles face turned bright red in embarrassment as his ears twitched. The elves behind him snickered.
"Ah! Sorry, I didn't mean to say that, I never did get your name though." He tried to apologize and extended his hand.
Which the kid rejected and spoke pompously, " I am Feyrith Ivysaar III, the descendant of the noble Ivysaar family. You may have won before but if we were to duel again I would win without a doubt!"
No, I don't think you will.
An elf girl a few years older than us spoke before I had the chance to vocalize my thoughts, " You can just call him Feyfey like we do."
"D-don't tell them that." Feyrith said, his face turning to an even darker shade kf red.
"Can't do that sorry, it would cause some confusions for him." I spoke up.
"Why?" The elf girl asked.
"My name is Fayden Leywin, Arthur's twin brother and my family calls me Fay so if he were to call him Feyfey he could mix our names." I explain.
"Oh."
"Don't worry I plan on calling him Ivysaur." Arthur whispered to me and I snickered.
Soon after out carriage passed through the teleportation gate and we were welcomed by the familiar feeling of teleportation.
"We have reached Xyrus." The driver announced.
Looking out I say we were surrounded by a parade of people clapping at our entrance. This tournament is supposed to be an extremely important event so the number of people doesn't surprise me.
After navigating the crowd the driver stopped in a small gap between two buildings and signaled me to leave.
And so I did, bidding my farewells to the elves and got out.
After an hour of roaming around searching for the manor our parents were living in we found it.
You ready little guy? We're finally going to be home.
Home? Weren't we home all this time?
Zeke answered me confused.
No we were simply staying there till we completed our assimilation with our beast wills.
I see.
While talking to Zeke I failed to notice Arthur doing the same with Sylvie.
"You nervous?" I ask him as we made our way to the door.
"Absolutely." he replied.
"Same here." I say back.
Reaching the door I took a deep breath before knocking at the door simultaneously to Arthur.