*Tetsuya*

There was nothing but green for miles until we came across some snow-peaked mountains. They reminded me of the ones back in the valley. Hopefully, Mom and Teresa were fine. Mom was pregnant, so she wasn't in the state to fight. My sister was quick, but unlike Taku and me, she wasn't much of a fighter. Thankfully, Nico had stayed back to care for them.

My lungs filled with air. I needed to get Serra back before returning home. Even when we weren't on the best terms, we always went back together. It would be strange without him there.

Serra, please be fine.

I gasped as something soft rubbed against my left hand. Yuko furrowed her brow at me.

"Is Master alright?" Yuko asked, pulling her hand away.

I rubbed the back of my neck and smiled. "Yeah, I'm just a little tired. It would've been nice if we could've rested a bit more in Xian."

Yuko narrowed her eyes at me. "Master's deflecting."

My eyes widened. She could tell?

"What makes you think that?" I asked, laughing. "I seriously could use a nap right now."

"Tetsu, even I know you're lying," Rosa said as she flew over to me.

I looked ahead, trying to not make contact with either girl. "I don't know why I'm worrying, but I am."

"Is it Serra?" the two said in unison.

I snickered. It was strange how the girls did that. Were they also of one mind on top of being of the same soul?

"What's so funny?" Rosa asked.

I couldn't help but smile. "You two are different, but yet so similar."

"Yuko and the princess are?" Yuko asked as she shifted her gaze toward Rosa.

"In some ways, yeah. Anyway, thanks for trying to cheer me up. You two are the best-"

"Girlfriends I could've asked for," Kohri said as he flew over to us. He chuckled as our faces turned bright red.

"That is not what I was about to say!" I said, leering at him.

"Sorry, I couldn't miss the chance to say that," Kohri said, grinning. He held up his hand as a ball of ice flew at him. "Hey, don't throw stuff, Hyo! Now's not the time to fight."

Hyosetsu sighed. "Nor is it the time to tease the princess, Tetsuya, nor Yuko."

"He has a point there," Rosa said, grinning.

Yuko nodded. "Yeah."

"Thanks, Hyo!" I yelled, waving at him.

My fellow knight turned his head away. "I didn't exactly do it for your sake. I just hate his teasing in general."

"Don't think you're one to talk," Rosa said, leering at him.

Hyosetsu snickered. "Should I have allowed my brother to continue?"

"I can if you want me to," Kohri said, grinning.

Rose grumbled. "Don't think of it!"

"Kohri. I have no issue with you teasing Rosa, but please don't bother my little sister or her crush," Onami said, appearing behind her boyfriend.

Yuko squirmed as soon as her sister said 'crush'.

I laughed. "You okay?"

She nodded. "Yeah, it's just a little embarrassing," she whispered. Funny hearing her say that after kissing me twice without much hesitation.

"And you! Don't string my little sister along!" Onami said, dashing in front of me. "If she gets hurt because of you, then I'll make you pay. Got it?"

I laughed nervously. "Woah, you sound like Setsuko."

"Oh, yeah, she does," Rosa said, smiling. "Wonder if my other doppelgangers have protective sisters of their own."

"You better listen to them," Hyosetsu said as he got closer. "Else, you'll have a major issue in your hands." He smiled. "Not that I care."

And here I thought we were finally becoming friends.

"Looks like we made it," Kohri blurted out. He pointed to the massive walled city below.

"Reminds me of back home," Hyosetsu said.

"It does, huh?" Huang asked. "Was your home the capital of your universal empire at one point too?"

"No, not really," Kohri said, scratching his head.

"So, this was the capital of Xelerian's second Empire. How timely, I'd just finished reading a book about it."

"This place looks familiar," Nori whispered. His crimson eyes were locked on the city as if in a trance.

"It really does," Ximena said, putting a hand against her chest. "Could it be tied to our souls?"

I tilted my head at the city. It didn't really ring any bells for me. Maybe my past life wasn't tied to this place like theirs were.

"Wait, I thought that you were going to return to training with your uncle," I said, staring at Nori.

"Nori wants to make sure that everything is fine in Xeleria. The appearance of the demons worries Nori."

He made a good point there. Taku, Xime, and he were our best trump cards against the Cianions.

"You don't need to worry. I'll be there too," Emon said as he flew up to us.

"You?" Hyosetsu asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Emon's a priest of Kasai no Ki in addition to being a Seven Flame Knight," Ximena said.

"That explains the vestments," I said.

"Can we really trust you? Your brother attacked the king a moment ago," Hyosetsu said, leering at the boy.

Emon sighed. "That Reno loves to play tough guy. I assure you, unlike my siblings and parents, I don't have much hate for the royal family and Kuroriku."

Hyoetsu scoffed. "You said 'much', not 'none'."

"Good catch," Emon said, smirking. "I would be lying if I said that I held no rancor at all toward your nation."

"Please don't start again," Ximena said, flying between Emon and Hyosetsu.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to start any fights."

"Once you're back in Zionia, Nori will go to his uncle's place."

His uncle, now there was a person with rancor.

"Yuko wonders whether she should stay back too," Yuko said, touching her lower lip. "Yuko can ask her uncle to train her."

"You don't need Uncle Yusuke when you got me, your awesome big sister," Onami said, pointing at herself with her thumb.

Hyosetsu scoffed. "I can see how you and my brother ended up being a couple now."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kohri asked, furrowing his brow at his older brother.

The Sword Knight shrugged. "I'll let you take a guess."

"Ignore him," Onami said, glaring at Hyosetsu.

"You guys really have to mature," Ximena said, crossing her arms. "Even little Nori is more grown-up than you."

Nori laughed nervously. "Uh, Nori's around Kohri's age."

Ximena stared at him. "Right. Guess I still have the image of little Nori stuck in my head."

The kid frowned. "Nori thought so."

Poor kid. It was evident that he liked Xime. If Serra picked Setsuko, then he would have a better shot with her.

"We're here," Huang said as he held out his hand. A hole opened up in the capital's barrier as soon as he snapped his fingers. "Hurry, it won't stay open for long."

All of us sped up and flew straight into the city.

"We're heading to the imperial grounds. We'll need to enter via the front gate," the prince of Mina said.

"Wait, you can't take down its barriers like the city one?" Rosa asked, glancing at the giant compound smack in the center of the city.

I'd never been to Megami City, Zionia's capital city. Still, based on what I've seen on television, I would say Mina's imperial grounds were just as impressive as it. Not that it beat the massive palace that the previous Kuroriku king, King Orlin, had built for himself. Hmm, was he trying to compete with Megami Palace? Mom said that rulers project their powers in various ways. One of those was with the construction of enormous and often expensive projects.

"This place is amazing," Emon said, eyes wide.

Kai nodded. "It really is."

Huang laughed. "Wait until you're inside. Since the Dimensional Transporter will take time to charge up, I suggest taking a nice break."

"Looks like Master can finally get that break he wanted," Yuko said, smiling at me.

I laughed nervously. Yuko knew that I was using that as an excuse, so why did she say it like that? Not that a break would hurt.

We landed on the southern gate and were met by a familiar face. Standing by the opening doors, as if she had anticipated our arrival, was a white-haired woman. Bai. In her arms was a baby girl with vermillion hair.

"Who's the kid?" Kohri blurted out what I was thinking.

"This is Vermillion. She's my daughter," Huang said as he walked over to Bai.

The little girl glanced at us and giggled.

"Hello," Yuko said, running up to the kid. She held out a hand which the baby girl grabbed. "Nice to meet you, Vermillion. Yuko's Yuko."

I laughed. One of these days, I needed to at least teach Yuko how to introduce herself.

"We got guests?" a voice called out. Another older red-haired girl poked her head out of the door. She had to be around the age of my cousin Alex.

"You got two kids?" Eri asked. "I thought you were in your early twenties."

Huang chuckled. "I am. This here is Isabel, my niece. However, we do have another one on the way."

Bai patted her stomach and smiled.

Isabel waved at us. "Nice to meet you, strangers!" She looked over her back. "Hey, Iah, we have guests."

I tilted my head and saw the blond boy from the games. He was trying to create a ball out of stones from a nearby pond.

"Wait, let me finish this first!" Iah yelled, gritting his teeth. Seeing him try so hard to bunch up the pebbles reminded me of when I was little. I'd gone to the river with my brother and sister. While Taku and Tere were catching fish, I instead tried to test my earth powers by making a giant boulder. Failed miserably...

"You're doing it wrong," I said, stepping forward.

The stones clattered the ground as the boy turned to look at me. "Huh? What do you mean by I'm doing it wrong?"

"You're too focused on pushing, but what you should actually be doing is pulling," I said, lifting the stones up. My mana moved toward the core of the jumbled sphere. The force yanked on its neighbors, contracting them into a spherical mosaic. "Then you push like you were doing."

The boy stared at the giant stone and applied his prana as he had before, creating a monolithic orb. "It worked this time!"

I smiled. "Try it from the first step now," I said, patting his head.

"Okay!" he said, dashing to get more pebbles.

"You really would make a great dad one day," Rosa said, giggling as she and Yuko walked over to us. Huang and Bai must've escorted the others inside as they were gone and the gate had closed.

"You think so?" I asked, blushing.

"Yuko does! And a great teacher too!" Yuko said, smiling.

Rosa nodded. "I really do believe that."

I directed my gaze back at the cheerful young prince as he managed to contract the stones into one like I showed him.

"T-thanks," I mumbled. Hopefully, I could be a good one. I didn't wish to repeat my dad's mistakes.

"Let's go get some rest," Rosa said, touching my shoulder.

I nodded. "Yeah."

The princess winced.

"Huh? What's wrong?"

"I'm not sure. I felt something weird. Like someone kicked me in the stomach."

"Princess ate something nasty?" Yuko asked.

Rosa laughed. "I've actually not eaten a thing since this morning."

Yuko patted her stomach. "Maybe that explains the pain. Yuko's tummy aches too."

The princess grabbed her hand. "Let's go get something to eat then."

The tanuki girl beamed. "Yuko hopes they have raspberries here!"

"Hopefully!"

I gulped as I watched the two girls walk away. A few days ago, at my place, Rosa collapsed. Similarly, she claimed it was hunger. Could it be that Rosa was anemic? Or was something else going on, like pregnancy.

I laughed. It was probably just the princess acting weird again. There was no way she could be pregnant... right?

I'd chased off Eiichi before he could do anything to her, so it was impossible. Unless Rosa was right when she said the dreams of me and her being intimate were true. No, we passed out that night. I'm sure of it! Not to mention, it's only been slightly over a month since the ball. It was too early for her to feel kicks, right? That usually happened around month three.

"Are you alright, Mister?" Iah asked, turning around. "You're crying."

I gripped my head. "Must be due to lack of food," I said, forcing a smile.

He crossed his arms over his chest. "I don't buy it!"

My eyes closed. "I just need to get my thoughts in order."

"That so? What's wreaking havoc?"

I opened my eyes and saw the kid staring right into mine. "What do you mean?"

"What's throwing your thoughts out of order."

My lungs filled up with air. "A lot of things, to be honest." My dad and Serra were missing, while the events of the night of the ball weren't any clearer than they were a few days ago. However, it was highly likely that Rosa had an illness of some kind.

The kid smiled. "Want to play a game? It always helps me out."

I blinked. "A game?"

He nodded and summoned a basketball. "Yeah, basketball. I'm still learning how to play, but I really like it!"

I chuckled. "Sure, I would love to. Though, maybe I should teach you a few tricks first. Otherwise, it would be dangerously unfair."

"Tricks?"

I rubbed the back of my neck. "Yeah. Don't mean to brag, but in high school and in college, I was seen as a basketball star."

"Woah! A star? I want to grow up to be a star too!"

I grinned. "Well, your eyes and hair certainly make me think of one."

Iah laughed. "That so?"

"Yeah, as yellow as the little dots in the night sky."

Iah glanced at the blue sky. "I like stars. It would be nice if I could fly to them one day."

I laughed nervously. The kid would likely change his mind once he learned what a star truly was.

"If you try hard enough, I'm sure you'll reach the stars one day," I said, ruffling the boy's golden hair.

The kid grinned. "You think so?"

I nodded. "Yeah."

The boy jumped and ran ahead. "I'm going to the stars! I'm going to the stars!"

I smiled. Hopefully, my future kids could be that cheerful.

"You can be a great knight one day, just keep at it! But, be sure not to lose yourself either, kid." My eyes widened as Dad's voice echoed in my head. Had he actually said that?

I laughed drily. If he did, I probably disappointed him. Not that it mattered. My dream of being a knight was gone just like him. Only thing I wanted was to keep my friends, family, and home safe.

**Solar Note: I'll like to announce that I'm going to start publishing updates starting with this one every five days instead of four for the foreseeable future. Anyway, I pray that you enjoyed the chapter ^^. Thoughts? Theories?