Chapter 13 - Change Is Inevitable

Upon seeing the various non-human children, many citizens were shocked and horrified.

They didn't think that their lord could openly bring demons into the city.

And during the arrival of the rest of the refugees, Oppen's citizens were openly protesting against the so-called demons.

Some people got a little bit violent and minor riots ensued.

Lucius could foresee that it would take decades before the various alien races could be accepted by the natives of this world.

He wholeheartedly decided to hasten his academy's construction. To him, the best and fastest way for the natives to understand that these non-humans were normal people as well, was to make them intermingle at a very young age and teach them that they're the same.

This way, there would be no future discrimination against the aliens.

It would take a very long time to bear fruit, but it was the most important step as of yet.

****

A couple months have passed, and things were sailing quite smooth considering the amount of problems which have been caused by the refugees' arrival.

Although Lucius' and Elizabeth's relationship haven't progressed at all, other things were improving steadily.

For one, Heimer did not need to ally itself with the rebels anymore. This was due to Archid going back to Duke Videl with his broken mind, incurring Duke Videl's wrath.

The Duke knew that something went terribly wrong, but since the only infornation that Archid's men have told him was the fact that Archid had made enemies with Duke Lucius, he realized that severing ties would be the best choice moving forward.

Revenge was of low priority considering the fact that they were still fiercely battling against the Zurg Empire's forces.

Afterwards, Duke Videl recalled his other family members that were still staying at the Storm Fortress, including the soldiers they possessed.

Alongside this move, Duke Videl sent a messenger to Lucius stating that they were annuling the alliance, and that they were now enemies.

The Duke had also managed to get intel about Heimer's strange reformation.

His soldiers and family members that had stayed at the Storm Fortress came back with information regarding new revolutionary weapons that Heimer was using.

They explained to the Duke about rods of varying sizes capable of spewing projectiles using explosive magic.

This made Duke Videl confused, seeing as magic weapons no longer existed after the Day of Descent.

Aside from that, the soldiers also mentioned about a mysterious alchemic mixture that can turn into a solid rock.

The soldiers mentioned that Duke Lucius was using this miraculous mixture to fortify his Storm Fortress ludicrously fast.

This piece of info intrigued the Duke more than the aforementioned magic weapon, considering that alchemy did not rely fully on magic and still mostly worked even after the Day of Descent.

In fact, when mages were deemed obsolete, most former mages assumed new professions that were quite similar to their previous one, such as becoming scholars or alchemists.

Only a few mages stayed as mages, stubbornly researching for a way to wield magic again.

Elizabeth was one of them. After the fall of mages, the Mage Assosciation Tower in Oppen was left to dust, and the owner of the tower sold it to Elizabeth for as much profit as they could.

Elizabeth bought the tower using her own money that she made as one of the many professors who taught magic in the Aurelia Academy, named after Aurelia, the capital city of Roan.

She spent the last 7 years researching for a way to return magic. She also had numerous assistants whom she brought from that same academy, most of them being her former students and lab assistants.

For the past 2 months, she's been busy researching cybernetic limbs, which unfortunately halted her relationship progress with Lucius.

Similarly, Lucius was also more focused on his academy's construction, which he decided to name as Earth Academy due to personal reasons.

After his failed memory wipe, Lucius had gotten tremendously worse in his sense of naming. Looking back, as an example, he directly ripped off his own name from a novel character whom he hated.

The soon-to-be teachers were all refugees from Earth, so when they heard about the academy's dull-sounding name, they promptly suggested that it should be changed.

Some of them suggested grandiose names such as, The Golden Knowledge Academy, The Ultimate School of Science, The Heimer Institute of Education, and etc.

Some of them suggested simpler names such as, Star Academy, Heimer Academy, Lucius Academy, and etc.

Lucius decided to combine one of the simpler names with one of the grandiose names into one name that he considered to be cool and professional enough.

Lucius Science Academy.

****

"My lord, a special guest has arrived and has requested for your audience."

Sebastian told me in a hurry.

I was in the process of organizing the academy's curriculum and was almost done with it. So I was quite annoyed.

"Special guest? Tell them to wait for a few hours. I'm almost finished with this, and I don't want to delay this further."

"But my lord, they told me that it was urgent."

"How urgent is it?"

"I'm sorry, they just told me that it was a private matter that needed to be discussed with my lord, Lady Elizabeth, and Sir Gorgon."

"Really? With my wife and father-in-law as well? Sigh, fine. Where are they right now?"

"They are currently chatting in the dining room."

Sebastian then followed me to the dining room. When he opened the door for me, I was greeted with a room full elves.

'What the?'

I looked towards Sebastian in a questioning way.

"I thought there was supposed to be just a single guest?"

"M-my apologies, it seems that I was mistaken."

'How is it possible to mistake this many elves as a single guest?'

I decided to let go of the matter and promptly entered the room. Sebastian didn't enter the room to respect our privacy, and closed the door behind me.

Suddenly, there was someone who tapped my left shoulder shoulder. It was Elizabeth.

"Don't blame Sebastian, father ordered him to say that it was only a single guest. He knows that you'll delay things to another day if the matter was too complicated. You're too absorbed in making that academy of yours."

"Heh, it's not like you're any different. So how's your research? Have you finally realized that magic doesn't power those things?"

I said in a teasing tone.

To which, Elizabeth replied in an embarassed manner.

"Let's safe that for another time. We have to talk about the guests and why they're here."

"Fine, fine."

She led me to the dining table, and I saw that my father-in-law, Gorgon, was sitting on a wooden wheelchair next to a big-breasted blonde-haired elf. He looked to be in a daze.

I glanced at Elizabeth, and it seemed that she was unaware of why he was like this. She soon called her father.

"Father? Could you explain to us who these people are?"

To her question, he awoke from his stupefaction.

"Huh? Oh, you both are here alrwady. Well, I shall go straight to the point. This woman right beside me is your mother, Elizabeth."

"Nice to meet you two, my name is Evangeline Lilicia Enrivier, and I'm Elizabeth's mother."

Elizabeth's eyes widened at her words, and I was already forming theories inside of my mind.

"What?!? How??? I thought she died when she gave birth to me? Everyone knows this."

This situation was very intriguing to me, as it reminded me of my family back on Earth, who were most probably already dead at this point. Even though I couldn't remember their faces or names anymore, I could still remember my time with them.

Evangeline, who looked like she could devour several men with just her gaze, started speaking again.

"Let me do the explanation. It all started around 70 years ago. At the time, I was quite rebellious even though I was already 320 years old. I was the eldest daughter of the previous Enrivier emperor, and our tradition dictated that the title of emperor had to be passed down to the oldest heir every 300 years, regardless of their gender. So when my father passed the crown to me, I vehemently rejected and ran away from home. On my journey, I traversed through the thick forests and treacherous mountains, leading to me discovering the Heimer territory. I met your father 68 years ago, spent some time with him, eventually fell in love with him, and you my dear, were our offspring."

"H-how come e-everyone told me that you died?"

I could already tell that Elizabeth was tearing up due to her shaky voice.

"I was getting to that part. You see, my father discovered where I was hiding. And shortly after I gave birth to you, I was forcefully taken back to my home country. I didn't know when I could go back and see you again dear, so I told your father to assume that I was dead."

"B-but couldn't you have gone back after you got crowned?"

At this point, she was already sniffling, and it made me hold her hand.

'Damn, I held her hand unconsciously. Also, did she say that she met Gorgon 68 years ago? That means that he was 16 and she was 322. Damn, she groomed him.'

"My dear daughter, there is something called the Council back in our country. The Council's members are made up of former emperors and empresses, and as a whole, they hold as much as 40% political power inside the entire empire. Moreover, they're all my family members. So when I got back home, they denied me any chance of returning to you or your father."

Evangeline walked towards Elizabeth, flashed a bright smile, and cupped Elizabeth's face.

"I severely missed that fiery red hair of yours, my dear. You took your hair color from your father, while your eye color stayed the same as mine, a beautiful jade green. Hehe, now I'm tearing up as well."

Elizabeth let go of my hand, and she immediately hugged her mother.

They both hugged each other for around a minute or so. Afterwards, they continued to chat with each other.

I was left alone standing awkwardly, and I was starting to get annoyed. It seemed that I was being ignored and that I was unneeded in this situation.

'Fuck, why am I even here?'