As Megumi took me outside to meet her friends, I looked at Sebastian just to see his usual expressionless face. On the green garden of the temple there were more different kinds of trees and flowers I didn't recognised than I could count. A garden of eternal green I thought.
The two children both had dark hair (which gave you the impression they were green) and violet purple eyes. The girl, Midori , had long hair tied in the back on a high ponytail with a short fringe on the front. Her tween brother, Aiko, had shorter, tousled hair and round glasses. Their father was a genius strategist who lived on the east tower, and he had let them live on the temple a few weeks ago because he was afraid of a potential betrayal. Well it wasn't potential any more I thought.
"Well, these are my friends. What do you think Naru?" Megumi asked me?
" I'm very pleased to meet them" I said 'but I wish to see the powerful people soon' I thought, but kept the thought to me.
"Should we go back inside kids?" Hanzō asked " the food is ready and since we have 2 members of the karasunochi clan as guests, it would be rude to serve cold food". I was amazed about how fast they obeyed him and got inside, but when I looked at his face I knew why. It was scary...
The feast included several different flavours, tho they were cheap to buy foods. I didn't expected a temple to has the money for even this, but I learned they did the fishing and hunting themselves and the food was 'as fresh as the wind'... Whatever than means. They also served a strong liquor which smelled like fruits, but neither Hanzō nor Sebastian would let us go anywhere near it.
"That was a strong drink"Sebastian said
"It indeed is, we bought it from a merchant from the south yesterday" Hanzō answered.
" Time for business, what do you want?"
" Retainers for the lord. And on the long run an army willing to go against the shogunate"
" For the long run we will see in the long run. As for now, what does he need the retainers for? Isn't a member of the Onihito family more than enough to protect him?" Hanzō said and then silence fell. Everyone was surprised when heard Sebastian's original family name, but why?
"You are as nerve cracking as always to deal with, aren't you Hanzō" Seb said braking the silence " He of course needs retainers, not only for his protection but to create loyal and capable generals for his future army."
" I see... Then you can have them. Megumi, Midori, Aiko." Hanzō shouted" You three are going to the north with the young lord, you shall pass through the east tower to meet your father and then if you decide to make my lord your lord, you shall go to the north."
"It won't be an easy journey, but if you succeed you will have a kind lord as the head of the shogunate again and you could eat as much rice as you wished" he said
Well I didn't knew what Sebastian's plan where, but apparently I got 3 kids of my age as my retainers and I had to feed them rice when I took my kingdom back.
When the sun was down and the moon had taken it's throne high on the nights sky, the five of us departed from the temple to go to the eastern tower and find the "esteemed strategist", who apparently was a cringy freak. That's how the tweens had described him.
" So Sebastian, how did you end up this east serving this lord?" Midori asked loudly
" I was supposed to come and meet with the shogun to ask him to help my family against the suppressors... Or force him, depending on his answer" Sebastian said calmly, hoping that this conversation wouldn't continue as he didn't liked talking about himself.
"Oh I see... Wait FORCE?!" Midori screamed at my ear
" Yeah. Supposedly I was the most capable for this job, so they sent me." He answered, and then focused deeply into his thoughts, ignoring both Midori and Naru who were asking him questions.
" -stian..." Naru said
" Yes?"
" You ingoned us, didn't you?"
"..." Sebastian stayed silent
" Hey Seb, how did you did it back then? I mean when you froze the traitors"
All 3 of the other kids froze. Sebastian could use frost magic! And he was a descendant of Onihito as well
" Well, you were too young to be tough about magic, but some people are blessed with it. I, for instance, am using Frost magic. To use a certian magic type, you have to me compatible with the element of the particular type."
" Can people use different magic types?" Naru asked
" Good question. Some people yes, there are dual elemental mages and some times evern tri- elemental mages. Usually when someone has more I one element, it's something similar like ice and water."
" In other words you can't have a combination of opposites like ice and fire" Megumi add, as she saw Naru make a clueless face.
" Oh, I see, I understand now" Naru said, tho Megumi didn't believed him.
" Anyway, y'all too young to start experimenting with magic, you probably haven't even fully developed a mana core yet. When you all awake, I will teach you magic myself" Sebastian said, as Naru's face lit up. The other kids seemed to be happy but for a completely different reason. Naru hadn't even knew magic like this existed so he was more than happy that he would learn about it, but the rest of the children who were accustomed to magic (as they grew up in a temple) were thrilled to learn magic from Sebastian.
A few more days passed by as they were travelling north-east to reach the east tower where the father of the tweens and genius strategist were. On the way, they met several different things the kids had never seen before like bears, shining golden birds as well as some general magic lessons from Sebastian about magic theory and application in real life scenarios. One of the scenarios where when they were attacked by a group of bandits afew hunderd metters away of the city of the east tower.
" Stay back young lord" Aiko said, as he pulled back Naru dragging him from his shirt
" I know you want to protect our lord, but please, don't choke him with his own shirt..." Sebastian said, as he proceeded to hit his right foot on the ground. The area felt cold, but not nearly as cold as when he killed the traitors. A 2 meter area around him froze, as well as the bandits. There were visible frozen marks on both his boots, as well as his own body. He was breathing heavily and seemed like he was sick and exhausted. All that just by that I wonder how he was felling when he froze an entire city.
" Goodness gracious, Seb you look exhausted" Megumi said
" No wonder you said we should try experimenting with magic yet" Midori added
" Yeah, that's nothing. Anyway, shouldn't we be getting inside the city of tower before having a conversation?"
" You are right Seb. Let's go!"