Today was a special day for everyone for two reasons.
Lucy could finally walk without any problem.
She couldn't run, but she could walk slowly.
The second reason was that they had finally found it.
The perfect place to plant the sapling.
They always knew the sapling had to be planted in a place with perfect conditions for it.
It was there, on an island very far from the Bradford territory and almost imperceptible, that they found it. The perfect place that met the requirements.
When they landed, they got a strange surprise.
"Ixion, are you sure it's here?"
"Of course."
"But it's a desert."
The island was huge but had nothing in sight for kilometers.
It had no natural resources to exploit, but it had water and the climate was perfect because rain and sun alternated to provide perfect cultivation.
The only drawback Ixion mentioned was this.
"The land is sterile. Nothing grows here."
"If nothing grows here, why do you think it's a good place to plant it?"
"Because the sacred tree was planted in exactly such a place."
"What do you mean?"
Rudel and the girls who came with him were also confused.
"The sacred tree was planted there thousands of years ago. It turned a sterile land into what they called Aster."
"Its roots grew and it expanded, taking over nearby islands."
"The same will happen here, but it will take several hundred years to see real progress."
"Then planting it is useless."
"I never said that, that's where they come in."
Everyone's gazes focused on Lucy and Ada, who was also there.
For some reason she can also hear the sapling's voice without being a priestess.
Although that's because no one knows she descends from the first priestess.
"You say the sapling reacts to your voices and is like a child, right?"
"Yes," replied Lucy, getting off the Avrora ship.
"The sapling, when I could hear it, had the voice of an infant."
"Sometimes it would get misbehaved and cry, and other times it wanted cuddles."
"Ada-san, why do you treat the sapling like a girl?"
Rudel asked Ada, who was also stepping onto solid ground.
"That's because the voice I hear is of a girl. Lucy-sama, don't you hear the same voice?"
Lucy denied that.
"The voice I hear is of a boy. It's true that sometimes he complains, but generally he just asks to be hugged and that calms him down."
"How strange."
Murmured Rudel.
"The sapling can communicate telepathically with both, but each hears a different voice."
"Perhaps it's because each views it in a special way."
"For Lucy, the sapling is a boy. For Ada, the sapling is a girl, and it acts according to the personality each prefers."
For some reason Lucy turned her face away from Rudel.
(That means deep down I'd like to have a boy similar to Rudel and pamper him! If those two find out, they won't leave me alone.)
Ada also understood something similar.
(If it's a girl, it means she's like how I imagined Allen-kun as a woman, right? I always wanted Allen-kun to be a girl.)
"Enough of this talk. Let's go to the indicated spot."
Everyone followed Ixion to the place known as the center of the island.
There a robot made a hole and planted the sapling.
"Alright, and now what do we do?"
"The sapling can't stay like this."
"The sapling must grow, it's too weak."
"How do we do that?"
Ixion looked at Rudel the same way he looks at Erselica, with disappointment at what he had just heard.
"Is he stupid? If I knew, I wouldn't have brought you or them. You must think for yourselves how to make it grow."
"You little rascal!"
Rudel grabbed Ixion and threw him far away.
The girls and he were left thinking how they would make it grow when the least expected person had an idea.
"I know!"
It was Ada with the idea.
"The sapling is a child, right?"
"Well, let's say more or less yes."
"In that case, we just have to help it grow!"
Everyone turned their heads to the same side wondering "How do we do that?" while Ada was happy.
She took a watering can from the suitcase she brought and filled it with water.
"Plants and children are similar."
"You must talk to them tenderly and they will come to you."
"My mom taught me a magic spell for when Allen-kun was sad."
"Laugh and eat without stopping, my little heart."
"Or else, you won't be able to go play with your little friends today."
"Ada-san, I don't think that—"
"Rudel, look!"
Lucy covered his mouth and turned his head so he could see the sapling.
It was moving.
Its leaves were shaking.
"Growly, grow, without stopping. To be big and strong."
"So you can help your mommy."
Ada's song was achieving what no one could imagine.
The little sapling began to grow and roots sprouted from the earth.
"As always, humans and their love are the strangest thing in the world."
Commented Ixion, descending and observing the situation.
"It's still weak and small, it needs the priestess's help."
Lucy pointed to herself.
"I have to do it too? I don't want to, it's embarrassing."
Alisa and Airi took her shoulders.
"We'll make sure you're not embarrassed."
"Go and dance."
"I don't want to! Rudel!"
Lucy was pressured by those two and looked at Rudel for help.
He sighed and also took the watering can full of water.
"It's less embarrassing if we all do it together."
Alisa and Airi were shocked to hear that.
"Huh? Us too?"
"I can't let Lucy be embarrassed. It's part of my duties as her hus—boyfriend. I was going to say boyfriend! Stop looking at me like that, please."
They all took the watering can and imitated Ada, who was radiant and happy doing that dance, causing her enormous breasts to shake happily.
The girls gave him certain jabs in the ribs every time they saw Rudel staring at her breasts.
"Hmm. Getting the sapling to mature will take less time than estimated. We can accelerate thousands of years in a few months."
"I estimate that by the time it is 300 years old, the kingdom's tree will be even larger than Aster's."
Said Ixion watching how the sapling's roots slowly spread across the entire island.
The planting of the sapling was a resounding success.
◇◇◇
After two hours of dancing and singing, everyone returned to the ship to rest for a while.
Ixion wanted them to keep doing the dance, so they would take a break.
Airi was resting in her room when, suddenly, she felt a headache.
"Mmm…"
The pain was intense, so her hand reached for her drawer to take some medicine.
But she didn't manage.
In fact, she couldn't touch the drawer.
She opened her eyes to see if she was mistaken when she saw something impossible.
"Huh? Is this place... the academy?"
Airi was transported to the kingdom's academy.
She even had her uniform on.
"Why am I here? How did I get here?"
"I was just in my room a moment ago."
"Airi, what's wrong with you?"
She heard a familiar voice coming from behind her.
She turned around and it was Liam calling her.
"Your Highness Liam?"
But he was calling her very familiarly.
"Why is he calling me Airi? Only Rudel-san and Alisa can do that."
Airi remembered something like this happened in the past, but she doesn't remember if it was a dream or happened.
"Yes, I'm fine. I just had a slight headache."
(Huh? Why am I saying that?)
Airi said something she would never say, she couldn't even control the words coming from her mouth.
"It was truly a miracle that nothing happened to you that day."
As if she knew, she remembered what Liam was talking about: she had had an accident in the dungeon, woke up in a bed where Liam and the others were happy to see her.
But she didn't understand what those memories that never happened meant.
"If you feel bad, remember you can ask for permission to be absent."
"Yes, thank you very much, Your Highness."
She smiled at Liam, it was a heartfelt smile, but Airi didn't understand why she was smiling at him as if he were someone special to her.
"Then I'll return to my duties. There's a lot of paperwork to do, see you later."
Liam left and Airi continued on her way, she couldn't stop her legs and being in the garden she was intercepted by a group of girls, who blocked her path.
"There you are."
"You think you're so special talking to His Highness, don't you?"
"Didn't I warn you?"
A familiar voice came from the other end of the garden.
Airi was happy to see Alisa approaching.
But instead of being happy to see her, she was only frightened by the look of hatred in her eyes.
"Tell me, scholarship student, didn't I warn you to stop approaching His Highness?"
"What did you say?"
"Airi" was indignant at Alicelotte's, the duke's daughter, response.
"I'm sorry, but I don't think that's right."
"I'm just a friend of His Highness. I don't think it's right for you to decide for someone who can be friends with someone."
"Regardless of gender."
"You... dare to say that His Highness likes hanging out with you?"
The anger on her face was evident, her beautiful face distorted by the veins on her forehead.
She was losing her composure.
"I told you many times! Don't approach him! He is the next king and I am his future wife!"
"You don't even enter this equation as a mistress!"
She then gave her a strong slap on the face and Airi fell to the ground.
Then she woke up and realized she had fallen out of bed.
She got up staggering and the first thing she did was take the medicine she was looking for.
She wanted to take a walk to get that strange dream out of her head.
But as she passed by the mirror she saw something that shouldn't be there.
On her cheek was the evidence that she had been hit, it was a hand that had left her cheek red.
"No... it's just my imagination..."
She ran out while still telling herself that.
But the reality was that she had no mark on her face.
In a hallway was Erselica, who had finished lunch, when she was bumped into by Airi, who was running.
The two tripped.
"Hey, what's wrong with you! Watch where you're going!"
Erselica noticed that Airi was scared and her eyes were red from crying.
"Hey, what's wrong?"
"It's nothing!"
Said Airi as she got up to continue fleeing.
"It's not real."
"It's a dream. I did this to myself."
"It's impossible that a world where Rudel-san and Alisa aren't is the future that awaits me."
When night fell, Airi returned as if nothing had happened. Convincing herself that something like that never happened and never will.
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What are those strange dreams that Airi and now Rudel have? What will they mean?
https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/10132983?q=watson_amelia+
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Here is the Mega link where you can see the chapters with illustrations in PDF format, as well as the characteristics of the characters and armor: https://mega.nz/folder/75wTzA4b#W-_qGvlSP9miCm1jpk54IQ