Don't hurt me for the chapter title. It is for comedic purposes only.
Giliath demands your power stones!
*
Year 1999.
Liberl. Summer.
Early afternoon.
A few moments later after Erika opened the first of two master quartz reward boxes alongside Liberl's Crown Prince...
Outside of the castle, the two large doors that lead into the castle slowly began to crack open. Three figures soon appeared out of the doors, alongside a couple soldiers of the royal army that safely escorted these three figures out of the castle. There were still a couple guards actively guarding the castle, so once they saw their fellow soldiers, they gave them a salute.
As for the three figures that came out of the castle, one was a beautiful blond haired young woman, still dressed in her engineering attire. Yet she seemed to be dazed right now. But if one looked closely, a small colored orb could still be seen in her hands, but she had a tight grip on it, not wanting to let it go. That was the master quartz His Highness had presented to her, while he kept the other one.
Still, the Enigma II model was still in prototype development. His Highness was given the first Enigma II production model, so it made sense for Erika to be dazed. She had no idea that the box given to her would contain a master quartz yet like that.
Erika didn't seem to be alone either though, as she was now accompanied by two smaller girls. A nine year old girl who had a very similar appearance to Erika, as well as a purple haired girl wearing a frilly dress who seemed to be a year younger than the other blonde haired girl beside her could now be seen holding hands beside Erika. Yet Erika still felt dazed, and revealed a small frown as the three of them got escorted out of the castle.
"I think I'm going to have to sit down for a while after what His Highness had just shown me...", Erika uttered softly, still in disbelief of seeing a reward box in action. Hearing that, the smaller blonde haired girl frowned.
"But Mom, you promised me that we were going to take today to sightsee in Grancel City.", The blonde haired girl said while frowning. This girl was of course, Tita, who was Erika's daughter. She had stayed in another guest room more close to where the third girl's room was the night prior while Erika was busy creating the Enigma II model for Naoto.
Seeing Tita pout like this, Erika's previous daze immediately turned into a bright smile seeing how cute her daughter was acting right now. She even wanted to rub her head against Tita right now, but settled with a head pat. Seeing her mother ruffle her hair, Tita couldn't help but close her eyes a bit.
"M-Mom, not in front of Renne.", Tita said, seeing her mother embarrass her like this.
"Oh I don't mind. It just shows how close you two are.", The purple haired girl said, wearing a frilly dress next to Tita. She smiled as she said that. The girl next to Tita was none other than Renne.
Earlier in the morning while Naoto was still sleeping in his private quarters, the two had come across each other while Tita was waiting for her mother to finish her assigned job inside the castle. Seeing that the two were so close in age, it didn't take long for Tita and Renne to become friends.
And now, since the morning had passed, Erika had finished her job, and Renne decided to accompany Tita to explore Grancel City, since this was her first time being able to do such a thing as well. Yet as Renne responded like that, Erika completely snapped out of her previous stupor all together and had her eyes sparkle.
"Right! You are so quick to understand that Tita is the cutest daughter in the world, isn't she?", Erika said, ending her head pat and still proceeded to rub her face against Tita's face anyways. Renne only blinked her eyes seeing Erika suddenly do this.
"I-I get it mom, so stop embarrassing me in front of Renne!", Tita continued to say, pouting again.
"Hahaha.", Erika said, seeing that Tita was now more embarrassed, and right in front of the new friend she had just made. Erika couldn't help but let out a laugh, but she stopped doing what she was doing, allowing Tita to catch her breath. In return, Erika looked toward Renne. Seeing Tita now separated, the three of them started to walk from the castle, seeing that they no longer had any matters to attend to there.
"Still, I didn't think you would make a friend so quickly here during our stay in Grancel City. Moreover, you seem to be related to the royal family too, unless you were a guest like Tita and I were?", Erika asked as she began to talk to Renne.
"Sure. Let's go with that.", Renne said, shrugging her shoulders a bit as she continued to hold Tita's hand.
"I didn't think I'd find someone so similar to my age in the castle either. Renne's really smart you know, mom! Maybe even smarter than me.", Tita said, complementing Renne which caused Erika to blink her eyes at Renne.
"Really now? You do seem pretty similar in age too. Is it alright for you to be walking around like this with us?", Erika said, seeing as a little child similar to her own daughter was currently out on her own.
"Oh I'm used to this already. Big Brother surely wouldn't mind either. I haven't really explored Grancel, and considering Tita here is my friend now, I figured we could go exploring together.", Renne happily replied. Yet when Renne answered that, Erika blinked her eyes.
"Big Brother?", Erika asked with interest.
"Yes. You've just finished meeting with him. Liberl's Crown Prince.", Renne simply responded. Yet even while hearing such a simple answer, Erika couldn't help but spit out some air in surprise.
"A-Are you saying you're related to His Highness somehow?", Erika decided to ask as her eyes turned a bit wide in surprise.
"Maybe? Well, maybe not yet anyways, hehe.", Renne responded with a giggle, wondering about that as well. She knew she wanted to stay beside Naoto for the present now, but as to whether that would develop into anything more, Renne didn't know at the time. Hearing that answer caused Erika's surprise to just turn into confusion.
"All you need to know is that Renne is my friend now, mom. But aside from that, I couldn't help but notice that sphere in your hand. It looks very similar to an orbment, but I haven't seen anything like it from what I've seen.", Tita said, quickly supporting Renne in what she had just said. Erika blinked her eyes again seeing Tita suddenly say that as she tried to continue the conversation.
"Oh you mean this?", Erika said, putting her palm out, and opened it, only to reveal a single colored master quartz with a particular symbol on it. "I had no idea how His Highness got his hands on one of these orbments, but seeing him request such a thing. Now it's starting to make sense as to why he wanted me to build such a prototype model for him. Still, it's not even the general populace has seen these in action yet, since the Epstein Foundation probably won't release it for another couple years at the very earliest.", Erika began to explain the situation of the master quartz she had received as a present. She also received plenty of mira as well. It's not like Naoto hired her for nothing. He made sure she was well paid for doing such a quick job.
"An orbment that isn't even released yet!?", Tita happily asked in excitement.
"Must be quite special to receive a tactical orbment that isn't' even on the shipping line yet.", Renne also said, musing to herself.
"Yeah. No idea what His Highness wants to do with it though. I am not going to question how those boxes work either, but there were quite a lot of them in different shapes. At the very least though, this only happened because of that old coot. I haven't heard from him in ages, but I didn't think he'd request something like that from me.", Erika also wondered what exactly Naoto was going to do with the rest of those reward boxes that were still piled up inside of his private quarters.
"Hmph. Who are you to call an old coot, you blasted woman?", An aged voice suddenly said, calling out to the three, which distracted them from their current conversation. They soon saw two figures approach not too far away. The moment Erika's eyes landed on one of the two figures, her eyes turned wide in surprise again.
The three of them saw two figures approach them from the North Block of Grancel City. Erika could only blink her eyes seeing an aged man wearing a lab coat similar to hers. However, this aged man seemed much more dignified as he wore a monocle over his eye. He was aged enough to where he was already sporting white hair.
Of course who else could it be but Professor Schmidt, now standing in front of Professor Erika?
Professor Schmidt wasn't alone either.
The figure accompanying Professor Schmidt couldn't help but blink their eyes as their gaze landed specifically onto Renne. Renne only smiled back at this figure, but became amused seeing them. It was another girl who seemed to be of similar age to both Tita and Renne. She too was nine years old now, the same as Tita.
Similar to Professor Schmidt she sported a smaller lab coat, and also had a prototype orbal staff over her back. At present, the orbal staff technology was still quite new, but thanks to being under Professor Schmidt's care, she had already begun testing on it, thanks to being part of the Epstein Foundation. She sported very lush blue hair that was now beneath her neck.
Along with Professor Schmidt deciding to come to Grancel Castle, it appeared he brought Tio along with him. Tio couldn't help but stare seeing Renne beside a similar aged girl she didn't know, but seeing Professor Erika standing beside her, she could likely assume who this girl was.