Chapter Text
The sun of the Kingdom of Lugnica was beginning to rise as Subaru woke peacefully in his bed beside his wife, Adelheid, who was still asleep.
He stretched with a lazy yawn and headed straight for the kitchen, determined to prepare breakfast for his family. Arriving in the kitchen, he found his eldest son already drinking a cup of coffee.
“Good morning, beloved father,” Perseus said, smiling with his eyes closed.
To Subaru’s surprise, his son was already dressed in his knight’s uniform, even though it was only six in the morning.
“Good morning, son,” the summoned man greeted his firstborn while walking over to pour himself some coffee. “Going on guard duty for your aunt today?”
“Of course, my beloved father. It is my duty as her knight. But don’t worry—I won’t be gone the entire day…” Perseus spoke calmly, then suddenly sensed footsteps right behind him. “Good morning, sister Tereza.”
“Ah!” Tereza gave a small jump from the fright. “How many times have I told you to stop doing that!?”
“Counting this one… one hundred and thirty-seven times,” he remarked while sipping his coffee.
“Then why do you keep doing it!?” she demanded.
“I enjoy teasing you, little sister,” Perseus said with a mischievous smile.
Irritated, Tereza began pinching her brother’s cheek, which he didn’t seem to mind at all. Subaru couldn’t help laughing at the scene between the two siblings.
A few minutes later, Adelheid, Tomoe, Sasaki, and Beatrice arrived and sat down at the table. It wasn’t long before Flam brought breakfast for each of them.
They gave their thanks and began to eat. The family spent a pleasant morning talking and laughing.
“Daddy, Mommy, later can we take a walk around the capital?” Tomoe asked excitedly.
“Yes! And then can we visit Big Sister and Petra? And visit Grandma?” Sasaki asked right after his twin sister.
“Of course, my little ones. I’m sure they’ll be delighted to see you,” Subaru answered with a calm smile, then turned to his eldest son. “You’ll meet us there later, Perseus?”
“But of course, my beloved father. I miss her terribly as well. If I end up with a lot of work today, I’ll still find all of you there.”
While father and children talked, Adelheid read the newspaper. In it was a report about the aggression of the Kararagi samurai—they killed everything in their path, caring nothing whether their victims were women or children. They were true berserkers.
Adelheid couldn’t help widening her eyes at the scale of the atrocities committed by the samurai. It left her uneasy, because she was not at the border to stop them should they attempt an invasion.
“Another report about those savages from Kararagi, I take it?” Beatrice asked, noticing the nervous expression on her contractor’s wife.
“Yes. If those brutes keep going like this, there won’t be a single Kararagian left to tell the tale,” Adelheid said while taking a sip of coffee. “I’m afraid they might try to cross the border while I’m away.”
Subaru had overheard the conversation and decided to step in:
“Don’t worry, Adelheid-tan. Those samurai may be strong, but they don’t compare to our Silver Rose.”
“My father is right, my beloved mother,” said the member of the queen’s personal guard. “Ariel is extremely strong—it’s no coincidence he’s part of the Personal Guard.”
“Yeah, Perseus is right. Ariel is skilled and can handle himself if anything goes wrong,” Tereza said. “Speaking of getting stronger, Mom, can you teach me swordsmanship later?”
“Daughter, if you want I can tea—”
The Japanese man was about to continue, but was interrupted by his wife.
“There’s no need for that, dear. Even though I’ve taught you quite a bit about fencing, I’m still more skilled. So don’t worry—leave Tereza’s training to me.”
“Are you sure, love…? It’s your day off. If you’d like, I can teach her.”
“There’s no need. Precisely because it’s my day off, I want to train her. I need to spend as much time as possible with my children,” the Sword Saint said with a sweet smile.
After all, ever since the formation of Felt’s Personal Guard, she had barely been home, occupied with the tensions along the borders. She needed to make up for lost time.
“So you’re going to train me, Mom?” Tereza asked excitedly, stars almost visible in the young girl’s eyes.
“Of course, my daughter.”
After that they returned to eating in a pleasant silence, until Perseus stood up and left the house to fulfill his duties as a knight and personal guard to the queen of their kingdom.
[...]
In the dojo of the Astrea mansion—the section of the estate dedicated exclusively to the training of the Sword Saint and her daughter—the two of them stood there, dressed in fencing attire suited for sword practice.
Adelheid tied her hair into a ponytail, picked up a wooden sword, and settled into a guard stance.
Following her mother’s movement, Tereza also took a wooden sword and assumed a guard.
They stared at each other in silence for about thirty seconds, waiting for the other to make the first move. Then the second daughter decided to strike first, advancing on Adel with a thrust aimed at her abdomen.
Adelheid, however, dodged with ease.
Tereza was not surprised—she hadn’t expected to land a hit on her mother on the first try. The short-haired girl attacked again, aiming for her ribs; Adel blocked it effortlessly. Then Tereza leapt backward, creating distance.
“Retreating is a prudent decision, dear,” Adelheid remarked with a sweet smile. “However, when you do that… it gives a slight advantage to your opponent.”
Suddenly the young woman’s mother closed the distance at high speed.
The girl did not flinch and held her posture against her mother’s charge.
TOCK!
The swords collided with force. Tereza tried to use her strength to shift her mother’s blade and counterattack.
But Adelheid saw what the girl was planning and landed a thrust against her daughter’s stomach. The short-haired girl fell to the floor.
“Ahh, I lost again!” Tereza complained, throwing herself onto her back on the ground.
“Calm down, daughter. That was only a warm-up,” Adelheid said, resting her sword on the floor.
“Yeah… but if Perseus were here, he definitely would’ve at least touched you.”
“Tereza, we’ve already talked about this. It’s not healthy for you to keep comparing yourself to your brother. You are you, and Perseus is Perseus.”
“I know, Mom,” Tereza said while sitting up on the floor, a little downcast. “I just wish the gap between our skills wasn’t so huge.”
The young girl felt as though she had failed. Her brother was only three years older than her, and even with that small age difference, an enormous chasm existed between them.
“Don’t be like that, dear,” Adelheid sat down beside Tereza. “Have I already told you how incredible you are at fencing?”
The short-haired girl gave a weak laugh:
“Yes. Several times.”
“Then? I’m certain that before long you’ll catch up to your brother.”
Her mother’s words of encouragement made the young girl open a small smile.
“Thank you, Mom.” Then the girl sprang up from the floor in one jump. “All right, let’s start again!”
“Very well,” Adelheid said, rising from the ground.
Then the two assumed their guards and returned to training.
When Adelheid said her daughter was incredible at fencing, it was no exaggeration. Tereza’s combat style was elegant, multifaceted, and balanced, combining her affinity with the sword and her swift movement—she was a prodigy. Yet she still lacked refinement.
[...]
Later, the two finished their fencing practice, took baths, and got ready to visit the family’s eldest daughter.
The twins waited outside the mansion, having finished getting dressed first.
Tomoe wore a dark wine-colored dress in a jumper style, with voluminous ruffles on the straps and shoulders, a flared skirt with a wide ruffle at the hem, and because of the square neckline one could see she wore a cream-colored shirt patterned with small beige hearts. Her hair was left loose, imitating her mother’s.
The dark-skinned twin leaned against the wall, counting from one to ten:
“Seven… eight… nine… ten! Ready or not, here I come!” Tomoe said, setting off to find her brother.
Tomoe began checking every bush in the garden for her brother, but she didn’t find him. She continued searching for several minutes without success.
While she was wondering where her brother had hidden, she saw Sasaki jumping down from the tree in the garden.
Sasaki planned to run to the wall where Tomoe had been counting the moment he hit the ground, but he barely managed to move when—
“FOUND YOU!!!”
Tomoe launched herself at him with the speed of a missile, sending him flat onto his chest on the ground without a single scratch, to his surprise.
Sasaki wore a black shirt, blue pants that looked very much like jeans, and white shoes.
“I won again!!” Tomoe celebrated, still sitting on top of her brother. “You’re terrible at hide-and-seek, little brother.”
“Fine, I lost. Now get off me, Tomoe,” the twin with flame-colored hair pleaded.
“No.”
“Come on, Tomoe, get off me!”
“Let me think… hmm… No!”
The fraternal twins kept at it for another five minutes until their mother arrived and ordered Tomoe to get off her brother.
The Sword Saint wore a simple sleeveless white casual dress ideal for summer, and a wide-brimmed hat with a red rose on top. Her long red hair was completely loose.
Right behind her came Tereza, wearing a tight high-necked crop top that left her stomach and defined abdomen exposed, a long open white blazer, black pants, and gold-rimmed glasses (worn purely for style, since her vision was perfect).
Once the two had brushed a little of the dust off the twins’ clothes, Subaru arrived with the carriage drawn by Patrasche and another ground dragon. The Royal Advisor wore a black sweater, a black suit coat, black dress pants, and brown leather shoes.
With that, everyone climbed into the carriage and set off for the capital of the kingdom.
[...]
After a short journey, the Natsuki family finally arrived in the Royal Capital. The place was very different from the era of the Royal Selection. The architecture of the houses was more Victorian and more industrialized.
The uneven stone sidewalks resonated under the hurried footsteps of people walking toward wherever they needed to go. Above them, newly installed electric wires crossed the air like spiderwebs, ready to bring light to the lamps that would later subdue the darkness of night.
In addition, there was the constant noise of the steam-powered streetcars. Yet that noise was music to Subaru’s ears—he and Felt had worked themselves to the bone to build a better kingdom for everyone.
In the same center, among the creaking and the electric wires, stood a small flower shop whose display window was still framed in cast iron and fogged glass, showing bouquets of red carnations, pale roses, and white lilies.
In front of the flower shop stood Meili, wearing a long-sleeved plaid shirt and a white apron while sweeping the sidewalk. The former assassin smiled when she saw her family’s carriage.
As soon as the carriage door opened, the twins ran to their eldest sister and hugged her.
“Big Sister!!” the two exclaimed happily.
“My little ones, it’s so good to see you,” Meili said with a smile on her face while hugging her siblings back. “What are you doing here?”
“We came to pay you a surprise visit, my flower,” Subaru said, embracing his eldest daughter. “Why are you cleaning the sidewalk? Is your wife exploiting you?”
Meili gave a light laugh at her father’s joke, then answered:
“Since business is slow today, Petra and I decided to close the shop early and give the staff the rest of the day off,” she said, then quickly hugged Adelheid and Tereza. “Want to see Petra? She’s inside the shop.”
The mabeast tamer pointed toward her shop, and soon Subaru, together with Adelheid and their children, went to see Leyte… or rather, now she was a Natsuki as well.
Upon entering the shop, the moist, sweet fragrance of the flowers invaded their nostrils in a pleasant way, mixing with the scent of steam from the streetcars and creating a strange, almost nostalgic perfume, as if nature were trying to remind the industrial world that it still existed.
Behind the counter stood the shop’s owner, Petra Natsuki. The young former maid of the Mathers mansion had changed a great deal over the past eighteen years. Now she possessed long, voluminous, vibrant orange hair that fell to her waist, with a soft fringe across her forehead and the characteristic red ribbon on the top of her head.
She wore a sleeveless white shirt, a moss-green apron, and light-blue shorts. Clothes that highlighted her body as an adult woman.
Seeing her wife’s family at the door, Petra opened a sweet smile.
“Everyone? I’ve missed you so much! Welcome,” she said while coming out from behind the counter and hugging the Natsukis.
“We’ve missed you too, Petra. How have you been?” Adelheid asked.
“Well, Mother-in-law. Running the shop, taking care of the flowers. You know—the basics of a florist’s life.”
“Any news about the rebels, sister-in-law?” Tereza asked, worried about the safety of her sister and sister-in-law.
“Still quiet. I think they’ll stay that way. After the thrashing they took from Perseus, I feel they won’t bother us for a while.”
“That’s a relief. I hope it stays that way,” Subaru sighed, relieved. “But know that if anything happens, you can come live with us at the mansion.”
“I’m happy for the invitation, Dad, but we’re fine…” Meili said with a smile. “And also, you’re far too overprotective of your daughter’s wife.”
“I am not!”
“Dear, when Petra came to ask for your blessing for the marriage, you made her go mine gold and diamonds to make the ring before you gave it,” Adelheid replied with a judgmental look.
“My flower deserves only the very best and nothing less!” the Japanese man said, puffing out his chest.
“What a jealous creature!” Adelheid thought.
While that silence hung in the air, Tomoe walked up to her sister-in-law and began tugging excitedly at her apron.
“Petra! Petra! Can you tell the story again of how Daddy saved your village?”
“I want to hear it too!!” Sasaki approached his sister and sister-in-law.
“Again? Don’t you two ever get tired of that story, little ones?” Petra asked with a sweet smile at the excitement of her little in-laws.
Then Petra invited everyone upstairs to the second floor, where the two young women’s home was. Once they were seated on the sofa, Petra began recounting the story of how Subaru had united Crusch Karsten’s camp and Anastasia Hoshin’s solely to save Arlam Village from the attack of the Archbishop of Sloth, Betelgeuse.
[...]
While the Natsuki family gathered in Petra’s flower shop, still in the Royal Capital, a woman with long green hair, fair skin, and light-blue eyes—wearing a white blouse with sleeves and a rounded neckline, and a long, simple, wide brown skirt that covered her knees—walked through the streets of the capital.
Until she decided to cut through an alley to reach home faster. She thought there would be no problem, since she could see two knights at the end of the alley, but one of them chose to speak to her.
“Hey, kitty!” one of the two knights—the one with blue hair—tried to get the woman’s attention.
The woman clenched her fist in irritation, almost regretting taking that shortcut. Even so, she stayed quiet and kept walking.
“Hold on a second, cat—my friend’s talking to you,” the second knight grabbed the woman by the wrist; this one had blond hair.
“Hey, let go of me!” she said, trying to pull free of the grip, but it was useless.
“What’s the matter, pretty thing? Calm down. We just want to spend a little time with you.”
“Yeah, well I don’t want to!”
“Relax, you’re gonna love—”
“Stop that right now!”
Suddenly an irritated, commanding voice rang out behind the troublemaking knights.
It was Perseus Natsuki Astrea. His sanpaku eyes were closed as he strode toward them with clenched fists.
“L-L-Lord Perseus!?” the blond knight stammered nervously. “We were only asking this lady if she—”
“You can stop right there!” the Astrea ordered. “I heard everything you said!”
The royal guard’s furious tone was so intimidating that the two knights began to break out in a cold sweat. The blond knight’s hand grew so sweaty that the woman managed to yank her wrist free.
“Do you think this is right? Disrespecting and grabbing women against their will? We are Knights of Lugnica—we are the first line of defense for the people of this kingdom. The people should feel safe near us, not threatened!” Perseus spoke in a scolding, angry tone; if he hadn’t possessed enough self-control he would already have punched one of those men in the face.
Then he pointed to his uniform.
“This is more than a uniform—it is a symbol that no matter what happens, we will always fight in the name of peace and justice! Do you understand me?”
“Yes, Lord Perseus!” they said in unison.
“Now get out of my sight. I’ll be reporting your misconduct to the Captain of the Knights later.”
With that, the two knights fled into the crowd passing on the street due to the hour.
Then Perseus approached the young woman.
“Are you all right, Miss Plum?”
“Yes, thanks to you,” the green-haired woman answered.
“Good…” the redhead whispered a quiet thanks. “Please allow me to escort you home,” he said, extending his hand to Plum.
“Thank you, Sir Perseus,” the young woman joked, but then took his hand.
And so the two headed toward Plum’s house. Along the way, Perseus asked about the situation of the young woman’s family, and she replied that everyone was well; she even mentioned she would be getting married in a few months. Perseus couldn’t help wishing her happiness, promising he would pray and protect her and her fiancé from any threat.
After a brief and pleasant conversation, Perseus left Plum at the door of her house. Then, certain the young woman was safe, in the blink of an eye the knight was at the door of his sister-in-law and sister’s shop.
He knocked three times and waited a few seconds until his sister appeared.
“Perseus!” Meili said, throwing her arms around her younger brother.
“I’m happy to see you too, my beloved sister,” Perseus said, returning the embrace.
“Perseus, before we go up, can you give my friend back?” the mabeast tamer asked.
“Ah, right—you must be missing her. Shaula, you can come out.”
Then, from one of the locks of the young man’s long, voluminous hair—the young man who never opened his eyes—emerged a small crimson scorpion. When the Natsuki extended her finger, the arthropod climbed onto it and walked up to her head.
After that, Meili took her brother’s hand and led him upstairs to the living room where the rest of the family was waiting.
“Good afternoon, everyone…”
Even with his eyes closed, the young man sensed the absence of one person when he greeted his family.
“My beloved father, where is sister Beatrice?”
“Ah, she preferred to stay at the mansion reading. Even I was surprised,” Subaru answered, sipping a bit of tea.
“I see,” the young man nodded. “Miss Petra, I overheard you telling some epic tale—may I know which one it was?” he asked as he sat down in an armchair.
“I was telling the story of the day your father saved my village,” the florist said, feeling a sweet nostalgia. “And for the love of Volcanica, Perseus, stop calling me ‘Miss’—I’ve been married to your sister for two years!” she complained, a little irritated. She appreciated the young man’s long-haired respect and manners, but at that level it had become annoying.
“I’m sorry, but no.”
The young man with closed eyes smiled mischievously. Petra looked at him with an irritated yet affectionate gaze.
In the corner of the room, seated on the sofa, Subaru and Adelheid watched it all and felt a warmth in their chests. All that peace and happiness—they had won it after so much suffering, after deaths and wounds. They had finally achieved one of their greatest desires.
A family.
The emotion was so strong it almost made them want to cry from pure happiness.
“Love…” Adelheid began speaking with her husband through telepathy.
“What is it, dear?”
“We won’t let anything, or anyone—especially not those rebels or those bloodthirsty samurai—come near our family, right?”
“Yes, Adelheid-tan… Yes!”