“It’s great to have you here,” Aldrick greeted Sazaki.
“It has been a while, father.” Agnes followed suit.
“Hey there. I saw Al the other day, but it’s been some time since I last saw you, Agnes.”
“Is mom inside?” Falke asked.
“Yeah. She said she’s not coming out until we pass this spot,” Sazaki replied while pointing at the cover of the carriage with his thumb.
“I see...”
“Oh! If it isn’t Falke and Agnes! It has been quite a long time!”
“My, my, you seem to be doing well.”
“When was the last time we met?”
“Oh, we’re there?”
In Lara’s place, Ferd, Elrica, Stein, and Max came down from the carriage.
“It has been a while, everyone.” Falke bowed his head deeply to the former legends, unlike the way he acted toward his father, with whom he didn’t need to be so reserved.
“So, which one is Lara’s statue?” Sazaki asked.
Don’t bring that up now, dad! Falke was trying to somehow get through this peacefully, but his father just had to make a teasing remark. He got flustered when he felt his mother glaring daggers.
What do I do? My chest is starting to burn... Meanwhile, Aldrick was so excited to see even the legendary monk Stein and Max, the equally legendary Dragonsbane Knight, here that his heart felt like it could stop. He was unwavering in many ways.
Greer, the group’s destination, had shining, golden walls. This city had almost been destroyed during the great war, so its people were now determined to never lose to the forces of darkness again and had woven multiple magical barriers into its walls. Thanks to the efforts of people like the young Lara and Derry, the walls had been reinforced to the desired extent, so that they would remain impenetrable even if demonic forces of the same scale or greater were to attack the city again. They were truly the pinnacle of reconstruction and magical technology. However...to the Lightspeed Blademaster, they were nothing but slightly hard walls.
“Well, that’s about it, I guess,” Sazaki muttered from the driver’s seat.
Falke breathed a sigh. He saw the sword’s consciousness extending from his father and cutting through the shining, golden walls. He believed that he could also cut through them if he wanted to, but he didn’t try to unleash an imaginary sword at them to see what would happen.
“Stop checking to see if you can cut anything and everything that looks hard,” Falke said, exasperated.
“I already told you. I’ve been doing this for as long as I can remember, so it’s too late to change now. Right, dear?” Sazaki replied with a grin.
“Shut up, darling. Falke, you should give up too,” Lara said from inside the carriage with a frown.
I guess mom’s the same as usual. Falke shrugged inwardly, thinking that his mother—who refused to get out of the carriage—hadn’t changed a bit. When he’d entered the carriage to see her a moment ago, he had most certainly not been greeted by a mother in tears, deeply moved to see her son after so long, but by the same curt Lara as always, who ended their reunion with a simple “Long time no see.”
“Well then, we will excuse ourselves for now.” Aldrick and Agnes were public figures, so they’d decided to enter the city first to avoid drawing attention to the elderly visitors.
“Okay. Thanks for coming to welcome us.”
“Back in the Town of Labyrinths and other places, we pushed our way through by telling them that Stein’s a monk, but we’ll be relying on you if he gets stuck at the gates.” Sazaki rubbed his chin as he asked Falke to come help them out if there were any problems at the gates.
“He should be able to pass.”
Stein was half naked as usual, but since many monks did the same, he could get away with it by insisting that he was one too. Besides, since Stein hadn’t ever been stripped of his qualifications as a monk, it wasn’t actually a lie, so they’d managed to travel along using that excuse until now. Moreover, since the Academic City-State was full of oddballs, Falke believed that most people would be convinced if they were told that monks simply went around half naked.
“Is wearing clothes really not an option?” Ferd had overheard the conversation between father and son, and although he already knew the reply, he tried suggesting that Stein put on some clothes.
“It isn’t. The Null Wave needs to constantly sense the energy of nature through my muscles,” Stein replied.
“Oh, I see...”
Since Stein’s response was a bit specialized, Ferd unconsciously looked toward Elrica, a priestess, and Lara, the brains of the group. However, Elrica turned her gaze upward, while Lara shrugged, so their replies were crystal clear. Since there was no one else to serve as a reference point, if Stein insisted that the Null Wave worked like that, no one could refute him.
“The Null Wave is really dangerous, if I do say so myself, so it’s natural that our research and understanding of it have made no progress,” Stein said with his arms folded.
“Well, that’s certainly true.” Max, who’d only heard the overview of the Null Wave from Stein, nodded.
“The Life Wave is one thing, but you also need to understand the Death Wave, which is essentially an unstable power,” Stein added.
The Null Wave was an aimless path that one could only start walking after they’d grasped not only the path of life but also the path of death, so it wasn’t currently being researched. The temptation of the power of death and destruction always carried the risk of going berserk, and the Null Wave lay beyond that, so even Stein, a practitioner, believed that it was dangerous to research it. Therefore, if Stein claimed that he could feel the natural energy of the cycle of life and death directly with his body, it became a proper explanation.
“Hmm, we’ve arrived. Falke, how does the Magic Academy view the Death Wave?” Stein casually asked Falke as he got down from the carriage.
“As heresy or a forbidden technique. I’ve never heard of it being researched, and there’s a danger of being purged if you mess with it carelessly.” Falke’s reply was as expected.
“I can imagine why. More importantly, I’m interested in lessons about the body’s nutrition,” Stein said, changing the subject.
“You can pay to tour the school or take classes.” The moment Falke replied, he felt a bad premonition in the form of an electric current running from his spine to his brain.
“Oh? Can I inspect my son’s class, then?” Sazaki said with a wide grin.
“I knew you’d say that. Right, mom?”
“Heh heh heh heh. He said it before I could.” Lara got down from the carriage with an expression identical to her husband’s.
“Give me a break...” Falke hung his head, feeling drained.
“Ha ha ha. What a close family,” Ferd said with a chuckle after alighting from the carriage.
“Oho ho ho. Yes, they really get along,” Elrica agreed, laughing like her husband.
“No, uncle, auntie. They’re just bullying me,” Falke corrected them.
“Ha ha ha ha ha.”
“Oho ho ho ho ho.”
The couple laughed without a care about what Falke had said.