I spent the next few days in the capital city of Soma. As much as I had missed Noella and Evelyn, we all knew that we couldn't go back to the way we were before which made things a bit awkward for us from time to time. I met with King Oberon for the first time too. I thought it'd be some sort of grand affair with an official audience or something, but as it turns out it wasn't. It was just an awkward meeting with a teacher or something.
He seemed to be a kind man who loved his daughter dearly but was actually a bit of a wimp when it came to Sylvia. He seemed on edge whenever she was around. It was strange but since I only met him a handful of times, I never did find out the reason why.
I actually spent quite a bit of time with Sylvia during this time, as I think she didn't trust me completely yet. For the first few days, she simply followed me around in the shadows without even bothering to hide her presence which was a bit unnerving. On the fourth day, while I was practicing my swordsmanship in a training area the knights used, I finally got fed up with it and asked her to at least spar with me if she was just going to stand there like a chump anyway.
I think I actually said something along the lines of "stop being a creep! If your gonna just stand around anyway, at least be useful and spar with me."
That was a mistake as I was beaten black and blue in our sparing sessions. I guess somewhere along the way I had entered the 'Big fish in a small pond' mindset, as I thought I'd be able to at least keep up with her in combat, only for her to beat me with almost pure finesse.
While it was true that physically I was about on par with her, she had vastly more magic power at her disposal and a more refined fighting style and combat experience than I did.
In short, I got my ass handed to me, but not for lack of trying. I was able to get in a few good knicks in every now and then, but for the most part, it was just an exercise in testing the limits of [Ultraspeed Regeneration].
It turns out that the training my father received was from one of Sylvia's own students, so she was already familiar with my fighting style, though she noted that it was incomplete, as my father never had the time to teach me all of the technique's secrets.
This information surprised me momentarily but made sense after I thought about it for a while. The only reason I was able to scratch Sylvia at all was that I had noticed her style was similar to my father's and about a quarter of the tricks I could use on him either worked or almost worked on her, though they only ever worked once since she fixed the holes in her technique after I exposed them.
It wasn't until the seventh day of my being in the palace did this brief reunion with Evelyn and Noella come to an end and Twilight Valentine arrived. I happened to be in the training field with Sylvia that day when he teleported in.
...
"Nice try with that one, but I've closed that opening in my thrusts now." Sylvia taunted as she leaned back, dodging a quick swipe from my wooden training sword.
"Yeah, but can you block THIS!" I yelled in response, quickly changing the direction of my blade and lunging at her with a quick thrust.
"Nieve!" She yelled as she made a move to disarm me, however, my feint had worked as I was able to use the brief blindspot created my her sudden change in motion and threw a kick which she hastily received with her left arm.
A loud clapping sound erupted from where our bodies made contact and a shockwave kicked up a ring of dirt around us. After a moment, we both quickly jumped back and reset our stances.
'Sylvia is a Semi-Spiritual Lifeform, meaning she won't tire out through just physical combat, I have to force her to use magic and run her down that way!' I thought in my mind before sending a quick |Aura Blade| slash at her.
Sylvia didn't flinch and took the attack head-on, receiving no damage, as the barrier she had up wouldn't allow for her to be damaged by an attack of that level. She smirked at me, probably sensing my plan and began to speak.
"You use this strategy every time we spar. You'll never be able to defeat me with a power like that!" She smirked as she redied her stance.
"Shut up! You're the one with that cheaty barrier! The only way to get past it now would be to attack you with lethal intent and I'd rather not have to deal with the aftermath of killing you!" I yelled back in annoyance before taking up a defensive posture, ready to receive the flurry of attacks she would no doubt give me as retaliation for my outburst.
"Actually, it's because Sylvia has an Ultimate Skill! Attacks of that level can't even affect her, it's not a barrier!" I heard an excited whisper directly in my ear.
Startled by the sudden appearance of someone so close, I instinctively I twisted my body and swung my wooden sword in an upper-cut fashion with all of my might, but my blade was stopped about a fourth of the way up.
"Gyyyyyyyaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!" I the man screamed.
He had taken no measures to defend himself or dodge, it seems, and so the full force of my blade had made contact with his groin, probably crushing his family jewels in the process.
"Pfft!-" Sylvia instantly covered her mouth in an attempt to stop herself from bursting into laughter, however, I could tell by the tears in her eyes that she wasn't going to be able to hold it in for long. Thankfully, it seems that she wasn't the first one to start laughing.
"Fufufu! That's what you deserve you lustful beast. Maybe now you won't go around screwing any fairy you see." A soft womanly voice spoke out.
I turned slightly to see a beautiful girl with long whitish silver hair and heterochromatic eyes, one sapphire blue while the other was ruby red. She was on the shorter side but her small frame didn't take away from her beauty and while she didn't have the most curvacious figure I'd seen, she was definitely the most attractive woman I'd ever seen.
'Isn't that Luminous!?!' I yelled in my own mind at the sight of the future Demon Lord in front of me.
After Sylvia and Luminous had their laughing fit and the man was able to compose himself, I was finally and officially introduced to the two people in front of me by Sylvia.
"Alaster, this is my father, Twilight Valentine, and my older sister Luminous." She stated, giving a brief introduction.
"It's nice to meet you-" I started but was interrupted by Twilight who suddenly got in my face and began inspecting me seriously, lifting one of my arms and sniffing me and other stuff. I felt really gross, but as a silent apology for busting another mans' jewels like that, I allowed him to do his little analysis on me.
"What are you doing creep? He is definitely a man so you can't stick your dick in him" Luminous asked with a disgusted look on her face.
"Well I cou-" He started before I gave him a death glare and smacked my sword against the ground.
"Try it and you'll see how much stronger my swing is with my full strength applied to it!" I warned him.
"Ah-haha. Don't worry, I won't," Twilight laughed meekly while scratching the back of his head like some sort of Japanese anime character, however in only a moment, he completely swapped gears again. "So you're a high human then? I must admit, you're stronger than any I've seen before, minus my eldest of course."
"I'm pretty sure I'm not a High Human and am just an Enlightened," I responded after sighing.
"Enlightened? With my analysis just now you definitely looked like a High Human though," he replied with a frown.
"Well, that's what I am. I was born a normal human who evolved after awakening a Unique Skill and going through some shi- stuff." I replied.
"Yes, Ramiris did say you were quite special." He pondered to himself.
"Speaking of Ramiris, didn't she send you to pick us up a week ago? Why did it take you so long? You should be able to teleport right?" Sylvia started complaining to him.
"It's because this asshole was too busy with his latest project," Luminous answered while pointing to Twilight who seemed devastated by the accusation.
"Oy! Lum! That's just mean" Twilight complained.
"What kind of project, if you don't mind me asking?" I asked the crowd, as I was a bit curious about this dude.
"Fufufu! Are you curious, Alaster-kun!" He said, placing his arm over my shoulder. "I was busy seeing if I railed a daemon if they would produce a new race as offspring!"
"Huh?" I replied.
Sylvia shook her head and Luminous sighed while placing it in her's in her palm. I could tell this was something he did frequently, much to the dismay of his daughters(?). I gave him a quick once over before looking at the two in front of me, then back to him.
"Wait a minute... are you-"
"That's right!" Twilight interrupted me again, this time letting me go and spinning away from his earlier close contact and appearing in front of me with his head down. "I am the one. The only! DIVINE ANSEST-" He began, splaying his arms out wide before being kicked in the hahas by Luminous from behind.
"Oof" I briefly cringed at the blow.
"Yeah, Dad's the Divine Ancestor, progenitor of all the species on earth that Aren't the True Dragons," Sylvia replied rubbing her temples.
Under normal circumstances, I would have been shocked and maybe even stunned into silence, however, after seeing the supposed progenitor of humanity, elves, vampires, beastmen, dwarves, and all the other intelligent species currently inhabiting the planet, doubled over in pain on the floor holding his mangos... well let's just say the usual illusion was kinda broken.
(A/N: I don't know what Luminous' laugh style is, like is it 'fufufu' or 'wah-ha-ha-ha' like Milims or something else. The wiki doesn't say either and she is more composed in the anime. the reason for her slightly bratty behavior right now is because this is before the world goes crazy.)