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Book 3: Chapter 14: Divine Empress and Hypothetical

Their majestic flight through the city was over almost as quickly as it had begun. Lone, Sophie, Breena, Prince Keining and his two children, had all arrived in a secluded garden courtyard of some sort.

The magic used to transport them felt different to Lone than to that of his Ungrounded or internal usage of Blood Clone. Still, it wasn\'t uncomfortable or anything like that. The prince was clearly a master of control when it came to his own magic.

\'I hope that was a skill and not just raw force magic. Do I have time to check my notification log? Probably not considering how long it is. Conversation first, return to our room, check notifications, teleport to Hazel and have a catch-up chat, then finally leave tomorrow for the Crimson Foxkin Clan,\' Lone thought, nodding to himself. \'Maybe move visiting the teens to tomorrow morning, depends how I feel later.\'

A dainty and ordinary-looking human woman with tanned skin was in front of one of the flower bushes pruning it. She turned her head and smiled. "Darling, Son, Daughter! It\'s so good to see you three drop in! I see we have guests too. Should I...?"

Prince Keining approached and embraced her before planting a soft kiss on the delicate-looking woman\'s lips, "Some snacks and drinks would be appreciated, Dearest."

Lone raised an interested eyebrow and whispered to Yulia, "So which wife is this?"

"That\'s Third Mother Irella. She\'s not my nor Lord Kevin\'s biological mother if I recall correctly," the distortion mage replied. "Certainly not mine though I\'m unsure about Lord Kevin."

"Hmmm..." was Lone\'s reply. \'She\'s an SSS-ranker. Higher, maybe? Or maybe middle. Need more practice interacting with other people\'s auras to tell. This must have been much harder for Soph with her Mana Sensing, huh? Anyway, no point standing here looking like lemons.\'

He could clearly see a gazebo with chairs and a table in the centre of the courtyard and given the prince\'s request to his third wife, it seemed obvious they would likely sit there and talk.

With that being the case, Lone took Sophie\'s hand and led her to the gazebo, Breena quickly trailing after them. Yulia and Kevin didn\'t move, not doing so as their father had yet to allow them to do so.

Irella gave Lone, Sophie, and Breena, an odd look before she left the garden.

"Come, let us follow Lone\'s example and sit," Prince Keining said to his children. "When you have earned my respect as he has, you too shall be allowed to act so arrogantly."

Before long, all six people were gathered at the gazebo. The prince glanced between Lone and Sophie before saying, "I will not beat around the bush. How is it you have more than one unique skill, Lone?"

Appearing unfazed, Lone replied, "Wanna elaborate?"

"My daughter Yulia here informed me of your Magical Duplication but now I have witnessed your strange regrowing armour and absurd ability to self-heal. That is three unique skills by my count when a summonsed hero has never appeared with more than a single such skill," Prince Keining stated.

"Hmm... Promise me I can fight you whenever I want in a private setting and I\'ll tell ya whatever ya wanna hear," Lone offered.

The guild was already aware of his seven unique skills thanks to his silver plate exam, and with Sophie\'s effortless murder of an X-ranker, Lone felt less paranoid about being open regarding his \'gifts\', especially to a man who seemed to be friendly on all accounts.

If Prince Keining wanted to know about his unique skills, Lone was happy to talk if he got some benefits out of it like having easy access to an XX-ranked sparring partner.

The prince shook his head. "Whenever you want would be impossible. There are times I am indisposed. I am the ruler of this city-state and the son of the empress of Taslo, so there are many occasions where I would be unreachable."

\'That makes sense. The empress of Taslo, huh? I mean, I knew he was her son but it\'s hard to picture.\' Lone remembered the dark-skinned and relatively small woman from the Deposit auction in Milindo. He also recalled the weird old man with a wooden staff-slash-cane that Gilbert apparently hadn\'t seen before he disappeared.

"That\'s fair. But when you\'re here and I ask for a fight...?" Lone amended his request.

The prince nodded. "I will happily agree to that. I confess, having a sparring partner who is hard to kill would be very advantageous to one of my power."

"Perfect. Well, it\'s not Magical Duplication, it\'s called Growth Accelerator and it affects all skills, not just magic ones. That\'s how I have Survivor\'s Speed. Nabbed it off of Xer\'rava the X-ranker, a Taker\'s escort during my criminal trial in the Farwinds. Any skill you used on me during our spar I now have though I\'ve yet to go through my notifications. The other skill is called Basic Regeneration and I made a subskill for it called Bone Armour," Lone explained simply.

The prince rubbed his chin while both Yulia and Kevin looked beyond shocked. Thankfully, Yulia didn\'t seem to be upset over Lone\'s white lie regarding his Growth Accelerator. He liked her so it would have been a shame if that created a wedge in their relationship.

Such an academically focused mind was rare in this world, at least it was so far. Perhaps that would change when he eventually enrolled in The Academy.

"What a perfect combination. Hard to kill and every attempt only increases the number of tools at your disposal to help you fight back. And you, Sofia? What was that barrier of yours?" the prince asked. Yulia leaned forward too, excitement oozing out of her.

\'We know you do not mind exposing your uniqueness and Soph did reveal our unique skills to the guild during our silver plate examination, but what do you think we should do here?\' Sophie asked Lone as she said, "Give us a moment to think."

The prince nodded while Lone answered, \'With my attitude, I think it\'ll be rare for us to get many super high-ranking allies. This guy is close, relatively speaking, to becoming an XXX-ranker. An XXX-ranker could be a big help again Arch Devil Zel. Not to mention his mum is a Divine and he has a few siblings just as strong as him according to the history books. I say we lay out all the cards that we\'re asked to present. It\'s up to you though. If you wanna spin it into some sort of family-taught mobile enchantment of some sort, go ahead.\'

Lone wasn\'t sure what following thoughts Sophie experienced after he had said that. She waved her hand and created a small barrier that she spun atop a finger.

"Unique Magic: Barrier Magic. That is the skill\'s name. It has no levels nor mastery but can be improved based on our imagination. Considering the rate at which we have gained subskills for it, Lone and we suspect it is a natural parent skill that boosts the rate of unique subskills beings created. One such subskill is Barrier Prison," Sophie explained as she surrounded the prince in one such prison.

Kevin panicked, thinking his father was being attacked as the guildmaster of the C.A.A. had. Yulia, meanwhile, was beside herself with joy and had almost leapt across the table to inspect the barrier covering her father.

"That skill is still only at beginner rank. It does not require much pressure for it to break and given your skill, we doubt it will challenge you much. Please try to break free from it. We will suffer no backlash from you doing so as the skill has already been successfully put in place at this point," Sophie instructed.

The prince\'s eyes wandered while he was locked in place before the barrier encapsulating him suddenly shattered into a million pieces. "Hmm. That did not require much force magic at all. What of the skill you used to kill Olberic? I can see this prison of yours holding him in place for a short while as he was not a battle-focused man like myself. He was very much so a socialite and skilled alchemist so him lacking the capability to immediately break free despite him being older than even I did not surprise me. Your instant murder of him, however, did."

"It was freeform magic. We simply created thousands upon thousands of barriers within his body and controlled them to wreak havoc," Sophie answered. "We have almost 4,000,000 MP. Creating enough barriers to make someone\'s insides their outsides is not very difficult."

Prince Keining frowned. "I would think you a liar if not for the fact I can feel your MP rolling out of you like a ferocious ocean. You can summon your freeform magic within other people? An absurd MP value is not unheard of, but that certainly is. Were I capable of that, even my mother would dare not face me in combat. How dangerous... And yes, with your MP capacity, I trust you could do a lot of damage to those much higher ranked than you. It all makes sense now."

\'It\'s a bit upsetting that talks like this are always just about our unique skills,\' Lone thought idly. \'I mean, I get it, but at this point, it might be worth making some flash cards. Maybe a steamforged robot that can explain for us? There\'s a fun idea. Golems and automatons are a thing, what about robots?\'

"Lone, how is it you have two unique skills?" the prince inquired.

Lone leaned back in his chair, exhaled, and shrugged deeply. "Fuck if I know. One minute I\'m leaving the classroom of the school I taught at, the next I\'m on a goblin-filled island with more than one unique skill under my belt. I didn\'t even know that was odd until many months later."

"Hmm. A teacher, you say? That explains your incredible proficiency in Teaching Mastery. I\'m sorry for the pointed questions. This isn\'t an interrogation. I just wished to satiate my curiosity. Landing an attack on me, let alone a slight injury, is a feat few others I have fought can boast of. As I said in the arena, you are like family to me now. Ask any questions of me you would like or feel free to leave. Given your show of strength, you may do as you please," the prince made clear.

"Hmm... What\'s the most powerful being you\'ve fought against and went on to win the fight?" Lone asked.

"I can sense that is a leading question," the prince said, "but I have fought my mother, a Divine being, many times before and won when she had restricted herself heavily. In a life-and-death fight, I once fought a triple-X-ranked Ivory Dragon with a group and we barely won. Alone I have never fought above my rank. There is too much risk in doing so."

"So if I said an Arch Devil wants to kill me because I know his true name and made it so he can\'t directly attack me or those I consider companions, would you be willing to offer your assistance when the time comes for me to erase him from existence?" Lone asked. "Hypothetically, of course."

"Of course," the prince answered. "Hypothetically, it would depend on the force the Arch Devil could summon to get around your supposed restriction on him. I am impressed by you but I will not sacrifice myself, my wives, my children, or my city, to help you defeat such a powerful existence."

"Couldn\'t ask your mum for a favour? I saw her once in Milindo. Had no idea she was a Divine then. You\'d earn a favour from me which while not very valuable now, its worth will only grow as the days, weeks, months, and years roll on by," Lone suggested.

The prince shook his head. "I cannot promise anything. I can agree to be very open-minded at the time, though that won\'t happen, will it? This is all hypothetical. There is no way a man who was but a C-ranker this morning made contact with an Arch Devil, annoyed it, and still lived to tell the tale."

Lone smiled and chuckled. "Yeah, purely hypothetical. Ah, I can feel some auras approaching. Andrew and your wife with the snacks?"

Sophie nodded at his side. "Just so. The auras match."

"You have gotten used to your ability to sense auras very quickly," Prince Andrew stated.

Sophie nodded. "It was not hard."

"Father, may I ask some questions to Lady Sofia?" Yulia requested politely.

Prince Keining leaned back in his chair and gestured with his hand that she was free to do as she wished. While Sophie dealt with the excited questions of the girl roughly 600 years her junior, Lone was stuck in deep thought.

\'Considering Zel hasn\'t made a move yet, he isn\'t in a big rush. He\'s thousands of years old, maybe tens of thousands of years old, after all. It\'s been almost half a year and nothing. Still, I can\'t be lazy. The longer he takes, the worse his attack might be. Get stronger and make allies. Who are the candidates? The grand guildmaster of The Adventurer\'s Guild, Sarah. The Empress of Taslo. Maybe whatever hidden powers slumber within the beastkin clans? Something to look into when we reach the Crimson Foxkin Clan.\'

Lone\'s worldview had been expanded greatly since he and Sofia were dumped on Goblin Island and then spent some horrible time at Milindo. There was no way that Matriarch Lossa was the strongest the Crimson Foxkin Clan had to offer.

She was just an SS-ranker in a world where slavery and discrimination were common. SS-rank was powerful, make no mistake, but as a ruler of a nation? It just seemed unlikely that an ancient group of people like the Crimson Foxkin would have one such ranker as their only stopgap.

Only newer nations could get away with that like Milindo, and even then, not for long without some sort of powerful backing.

Lone could easily kill Matriarch Lossa and her entire clan, let alone some slave-hungry nation ruled by an X-ranker or someone stronger. Hell, the Church of the Primals was openly anti-beastkin due to their close connection to the Primals.

There must be some sort of powerful entity or group of entities keeping such nations and individuals at bay. Lone was determined to find those hidden powers and cut them a deal.

For today though, he\'d chat with Prince Keining, one of his wives, and three of his children. Tonight or tomorrow morning he\'d finally go meet Hazel and the kids again before setting off for Breena\'s homeland the proceeding afternoon.