"Useless!" Robert shouted to a young Kaeli. "Can't you muster more mana? You are a high elf for heaven's sake!"
She was a few palms shorter than him. Her shoulder length black hair was tied back using a piece of dried plant fiber and her round dark blue eyes held an immature and inexperienced gaze. Her knees trembled as her hands were tingling with the leftover mana from her previous lightning spell.
"M-master, this is all I can…"
"Put more effort into it! She was abruptly cut by his harsh words. "You will cast spells until you can't anymore!"
"B-but, Master, I need to…" Her voice gradually lowered as she spoke. "Take care of my sister, if I faint…"
He clicked his tongue in annoyance before he walked up to her. At that time he was still using Miyamoto's body as his vessel, which made his hard stare even more menacing.
"You. Will. Cast. More. Spells." He grabbed her by the collar of her clothes and put her in front of a boulder that was about three times her size. "Destroy that thing with your magic, if you can't at least do that much then we're through."
She turned around to protest, but his gaze intimidated her into facing the boulder again. She swallowed dry before pointing her right open palm and holding her arm steady with the other hand. Even though she was tired, mana started to surge from her body and gather at her fingertips.
"Flames of destruction heed my call, bring ruin to mine enemies, Fireball!"
Orange flames began to swirl around her fingers before coalescing into one big orb of fire. She then released the spell with the help of wind magic, but as it erupted against the boulder, it simply left it smoldering with black charred spots around the site of impact. Her eyes quickly narrowed from pain but that was quickly overshadowed as she slowly turned around.
Robert was shaking his head whilst pinching the space between his eyebrows and sighing.
"Have you learnt nothing? Fire spells do not inherently explode unless you- you know what, forget it. Just leave."
"But master!"
"Leave! I have guests today and I can't cater to a useless pupil in front of them."
He turned around and left without so much as another word. The training grounds felt lonely, only the brushing foliage and the quiet whistle of the wind blowing filled the air around her as she struggled to even walk. She sat by the charred boulder and looked up to the sky.
The endless blue dotted with white clouds made her feel somewhat at ease despite the harsh training she had been enduring.
'He wasn't always like this…'
She thought as she closed her eyes. When he was just 'Miyamoto' he seemed much more like a tutor. A person truly worth being called Master. But now, she was unsure what to make out of the situation. The death angel threat was real, even her mother, an esteemed huntress of the west, could barely kill one of them by herself—if the rumors were true, a veritable horde of them would make their descent upon that land sooner rather than later.
"This is for her… even if it's painful, even if it is unbearable… I need to do this, as her older sister."
She opened her eyes and was instantly greeted by the sight of two sharp aquamarine eyes staring at her.
"Aaaah!"
She scrambled to the side and fell face first into the grass. She could hear a female laugh behind her.
"Sorry, sorry. I didn't mean to startle you." Kaeli, with a few blades of grass stuck to her hair, looked back and noticed a tall blonde woman offering her hand. "Can you stand up?"
"I… yes. Thank you."
She grabbed her hand and with some help, stood up. Even then she couldn't help but be impressed by that lady's height. She was about two palms taller than her mentor and her physique was nothing to scoff at either. The two prominent blonde bangs cascading on each side of her face framed her sharp yet kind gaze.
"Good, good. You should leave for now. I'm sure your master will give you an earful if you stay here for too long."
"Ah, that's right. Thank you Miss…?"
The lady removed the blades of grass stuck to Kaeli's hair before introducing herself.
"The name's-"
It was as if she couldn't hear her anymore. As she blinked a few times, she woke up to a familiar high rocky ceiling.
"Ugh…"
Kaeli muttered as she lifted herself from the couch. She felt her right hand being squeezed as a kind voice reached her ears.
"Are you feeling better?"
She glanced to her side and saw Yuna kneeling beside her.
"Ah, Yuna. What happened?"
"Krieg found you collapsed outside and when he brought you in. Father said it was mana shock."
"Oh…" She gave her a bittersweet smile. "Sorry for worrying you."
"It's okay. You were talking in your sleep though, were you dreaming?"
At that moment she gazed empty at the floor.
"I can't remember." She looked around in a daze. "How long was I out?"
"A couple of minutes at best." Another voice came from behind the couch and as she looked over her shoulder she noticed Robert holding a round metallic tray in the air with magic. "If you're feeling alright come sit down, we're about to eat."
"Ah, sure…"
She stood up with Yuna's help and went over to the dining table. With everyone present, Robert placed the last tray on a folded tablecloth. There were many pizzas of varying flavors but all shared a similar trait, all of them had copious amounts of melted cheese of different types as well as a lot of tomato sauce. Kaeli sat down near her own sister, whose eyes were sparkling.
"The smell is certainly watermouthing." Leona noted as her eyes traced between the diced fish one and a peculiar round looking topping which resembled a slice of salami. "What is this?"
"Pepperoni. It's a common type of cured sausage in the west." He sighed almost as if relieved. "Getting it was not easy, I'll tell you that much. Making about a month's preparation in advance is no easy feat in this world."
She raised an eyebrow. That food was never really seen in Arcadia as far as she could remember
"West? You mean as in Zenith or…"
"Further west. Even further than the demon kingdom."
"Huh? I thought there was only the ocean past those lands."
"Oh dear Leona. Have you forgotten that you have crossed the big blue to reach here?"
"Ah…"
"Other cities and kingdoms exist beyond the demon realm. In fact it was after they conquered the elven kingdom that I started to see this being made." He pointed at the pepperoni. "War may be unfortunate. But at least the good innovations remain for the betterment of everyone's lives."
"That's certainly interesting… it never occurred to me that other cities may as well exist beyond the demon kingdom. Wait…" She stared at him. "If you mentioned you only started seeing this after Zenith was conquered. Today, the Zenith kingdom is still ruled by elves. Have you been taking part in wars before then?"
He shook his hand back and forth in front of his own face.
"Oh please. You're reading too much into it. In the world I came from, food was almost a form of art. We'd take pride in savoring different foods." He turned and sighed. "This pizza still lacks oregano and higher quality flour for instance."
"Dad, come on." Setsuna elbowed him and smiled. "Let's dig in already!"
"Haha… sorry. I tend to get carried away with food." He produced a cleaver from his apron and proceeded to cut the various pizzas into slices. "Alright. You have cleaned your hands right?"
The sound of plates and clinking cutlery stopped as everyone aside of Yuna, Setsuna, Phoebe and Kaeli stared at him with raising eyebrows.
"Oh for goodness' sake. You don't eat pizza with utensils…!" He grabbed one of the slices and folded it slightly before taking a bite out of it. The melted cheese dripped alongside a piece of half eaten pepperoni. "Go wash your hands now!"
"Don't listen to him." Yuna brushed her dad's insistence aside. "Eat however you may like. Oh but do clean your hands if you want to eat without using cutlery."
Leona didn't even hesitate and simply used a fork to stab the outer crust of the pepperoni slice and drag it on top of her plate. Meanwhile Krieg glanced at how Robert was eating and decided to go wash his hands.
However, the knight standing up prompted not only his own father, but also Ren and Tomoe to stand up. That made Robert have a smug look on his face.
"Hah! I knew it, eating pizza with one's hands is simply superior!"
He felt his apron being tugged and as he looked to Setsuna she pointed at the rest of the table. Kaeli, Phoebe, Leona, Yuna and herself were still using forks and knives to eat.
"Dad, I think you need to work on your numbers."
"Bah… next you're going to tell me that eating hamburgers with a fork and knife is 'normal'." He sat down and begrudgingly continued to chew his food. "Then again, I suppose that's fine…"
"Haha! Ah! Wait, dad can I get another one of those?"
Setsuna motioned with her hand as if she was holding a tankard.
"You mean ale? Are you sure you're my daughter?"
"Ehhhh…? Aren't you the one who drinks that on a weekly basis?"
"I drink wine, not ale."
"Boooo…"
They kept conversing and in the meantime, Leona finished eating her slice before going for another one.
'Pizza huh…?' She used the knife on her right hand to cut the slice into bite-sized pieces. 'I wonder if it's possible to introduce it to Arcadia.'
Even if it was possible, her worries were still elsewhere. A week had already passed since she came to Nara and without clearly knowing what was the state of affairs in Arcadia, she couldn't exactly rest at ease. It was a lingering sensation of duty that kept her at the edge.
If Alexander decided to march the Arcadian army towards the demon kingdom—the one hundred year war would once again repeat itself.
'Robert said it would be unlikely and given the number of soldiers we had after the war was over, I'm inclined to agree… but still…' Her expression darkened. 'Alexander is a crafty man. He had mercenaries helping him so it should be fair to assume he has some sort of plan in mind, but what exactly? What would a man like him gain from waging war once again?'
"Leona."
Yuna's voice snapped her out of those dark thoughts as she replied.
"Yes?"
"Are you okay?"
"Huh? Yes, why do you ask?"
"You had a really dark expression on your face."
"Ah… I'm just thinking about my home. Being here is great but I want to go back and finish what my parents started."
"I see… well, at least you're enjoying yourself now, right?"
Leona smiled.
"Of course. Though, if I have to be honest, the food might be bad for me."
"Huh? Why?"
"We don't have this quality of cuisine back in Arcadia. I might become a bit spoiled."
Yuna started to giggle as their conversation kept going. Robert glanced briefly at Leona and in doing so, he sighed discreetly.
'Your path is a long and arduous one. Yet you strive to move forward despite all the burdens placed on your shoulders.' He grabbed another slice and bit into it. 'I just need to hold out a while longer…'