"I'm about to burst," Akeru muttered, patting his stomach.
He was sinking deeper into the couch, or so he thought.
"Akeru, let's have a spar!"
"Huh?"
"He looks half-dead. How are you gonna fight him? Though... knowing him, he doesn't even need to move." Vanessa, who tried to defend Akeru's peace of mind, could not find a proper counterargument.
"ME TOO. I want to fight too." It didn't take a genius to guess who the other person was.
Akeru looked at Asta and then at Luck, his expression readable.
"Well, sure, why not? Give me a second." He closed his eyes, and in the next instant, his slightly bloated stomach went back to normal.
"???"
"???"
"Learned it from my gorgeous sensei. Recovery mages are broken like that." Akeru winked before following Asta outside.
"Are you not going to go and watch their spar?"
"I ate a bit too full to move... How about you create a portal and transport the whole couch to where they would duke it out?" Vanessa asked with a grin.
"If something happens to the couch, you will be paying," Finral stated his conditions to prevent himself from possibly facing Yami-san's wrath.
"Tch, can't you even do this for me?" Vanessa put a pleading expression on her face.
The fact that she was half-dressed, with curves that defied basic morality, made it hard to argue.
Finral hesitated—torn between Vanessa's body and Yami's boot. Fear won.
"No."
"Damn, you have changed. Fine, I will take responsibility."
Finral only rolled his eyes in response before creating a portal directly beneath the couch, making it pass through it.
They arrived a considerable distance away from where the trio stood. Akeru glanced their way, smiled faintly, then turned back to the fight.
"You guys didn't even ask me about my opinion." Noelle, who was sitting beside Finral, asked.
"I thought your silence was an agreement." Finral shrugged. 'I completely forgot that she was here.'
---
"So, how do you want to do this? Individual One-vs-One or Two-vs-One?"
"I don't mind any. Just start this already." Lightning surrounded Luck, boots and gloves forming around his body.
"Uhh... Let's go with me and Luck-senpai versus you." Asta could see that if he chose the former, he would not get his turn first.
Moreover, he had experience fighting alongside Luck, so it wasn't a bad thing. Their chance of winning would increase.
WHOOSH—Luck moved first, claws already mid-swing.
'Woah, his expression is scary.' Akeru dropped low, angling his body so the claws passed inches from his ear—then punched upward, not at Luck's chest, but just enough to throw his balance.
However, a lightning slash came from his right side.
His fist changed directions, and he swatted away the lightning slash from the back of his hand.
However, this brief distraction bought Luck enough time to back away.
Before Akeru could chase him, he found Asta's second sword a few inches above his head, approaching him in a downward slash.
He also noticed Luck coming from his left side, in case he dodges.
He fired a water bullet straight at Asta's gut—point-blank. Only for a big sword to come out of his grimoire, cancelling the water ball altogether.
Akeru was caught off guard by the fact that the momentum of that spell didn't push Asta back much.
The sword, now a few centimetres above his head.
Moreover, Luck's claws were also very close to him.
"How troublesome." Akeru's hands went in a cross, his left hand stopping Asta's blade with two fingers, and his right hand held the wrist of Luck, stopping him.
"Your mana enhancement didn't get disrupted?" Asta said in shock.
"He is using large amounts of mana to neutralize the sucking effect of your sword, hence not interrupting his internal flow." Luck said, lightning flowing from his body to Akeru's, whose mana skin didn't allow him to touch it.
"Indeed." Akeru kicked Luck, his body was sent flying like a ragdoll.
Asta aimed his large sword with his other hand at this instant when Akeru was standing on only one leg.
However, Akeru had foreseen this before and grinned.
"You forgot this." A water ball formed and shot at Asta, point-blank. This time, he didn't have an anti-magic sword to stop this ball.
He could only grit his teeth and endure the attack, only to be sent flying like Luck.
He lost the grip on his smaller sword, which Akeru was holding, and the latter dropped it.
CLANG
The sound of the sword hitting the ground could be the only thing heard throughout the clearing.
"Not bad. Your teamwork's better than I expected."
Before either could reply, Akeru's communicator buzzed. He took it out and talked to the other side for a few minutes.
*Sigh*, "I need to leave." Akeru sighed, appearing beside Finral.
"To Where?"
"Headquarters."
"When do you want me to pick up?"
"Yami-san would be coming too, so you have to come with us."
"Tch, there goes my relaxation time."
Akeru just shrugged, a lazy smile on his face.
"You go first, I will bring Yami-san." Finral created a portal directly beneath Akeru, the latter passing through it automatically.
'His control has improved. He couldn't have done the same feat a few months ago, at least not instantly.'
---
"It seems everyone is here. As all of you know, we are here to discuss how the recuperation is going on for the incident that happened last month." Julius said with a tired voice.
Eyebags could be seen under his eyes, and dealing with the incident proved to be quite difficult.
The massacre of Ashveil.
That was the name given to that incident.
A name that even the most ignorant fools know about.
After all, it all happened in just a few seconds with most of the Grand Magic Knights on the scene, all unable to stop it.
"I still can't believe that we witnessed that incident." Rill still can't accept that nearly a month ago, one-fifth of the Kingdom's population was gone.
"Noel Rosemberg. It's a name that I won't be forgetting anytime soon." Charlotte solemnly said.
"None of us would. Madman! Even that word isn't enough to describe him. Just as he said, we need to prevent the emergence of another Noel." Fuegoleon looked around.
"You are forgetting one crucial aspect." Nozel caught everyone's attention. "There are 4 more gods that our kingdom worships, and all 4 of them are likely devils."
The mood in the room worsened, reminding them that the whole kingdom was worshipping false gods.
"Maybe it's about time we tell the public what exactly happened during that incident," Langris suggested.
"That would cause needless worry, the public reaction was already terrible in the previous month. We barely were able to stop the Magic Knights from being seen as criminals. Now, you want us to tell them that the god they worshipped for their entire life was a lie? I can't imagine the backlash." Nozel countered him.
"B—"
Julius knocked on his table, silencing everyone.
"Langris is correct. We need to tell the truth to people. However, Nozel is correct too. Creating a plan to weaken the belief in God in the next few months before dropping this truth is ideal."
"We could start by disclosing the ugly truths that churches try to hide. I won't be surprised if other churches are similar to Malgeth's church in that regard," Akeru said, who had firsthand witnessed the horrors the church has done.
"Indeed. If the churches weren't like that, then we wouldn't have found ourselves in this situation in the first place." Charlotte indirectly mentioned Leon's condition.
Akeru have given the diary for others to read. Some of them were heartbroken. After all, as Magic Knights, they failed to stop that atrocity from happening.
'From what I know, there was even a strong opposition for Julius to step down from his Wizard King position. I don't know how that ended, but the highly likely reason is that no Grand Magic Knight has shown that level of power... other than me.'
"Are you sure that you can't replicate that state again?" Rill, sitting beside Akeru, asked.
"I tried repeatedly, but it was of no use." Akeru shook his head.
"Well, that sucks."
'Even if I could replicate it, they won't make me the Wizard King, not like I am interested in it. The only problem would be being used as the royal house's pawn to do their bidding. Though I believe Fuegoleon won't let things reach that state.
The meeting continued with everyone giving their ideas, and then Julius telling them their next action items.
It was around 3 am that Akeru found himself freed from the meeting.
Other than Finral, who hung out in the capital, and Yami-san, everyone else has already slept.
Currently, Finral and Akeru were on the couch, the latter to plan his next day, and the former with an agenda.
'Why did they even keep the meeting after dinner? Are the captains that busy during the day? I guess, other than Yami-san, I haven't seen a captain's day-to-day life. That's why I thought they were relatively free.'
"Akeru!" Finral's voice broke him out of his thoughts.
"Yes?"
"Wanna come with me to a mixer?"
***
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