More than half a year has passed since Mordred came to Roa.
He began to boast the true strength of an Emperor-ranked warrior while his Mana reserves had significantly increased in this half a year once again.
Mordred was 8 and a half years old already, and the Teleportation Accident fortunately had not occured yet.
While he was going along with his never-ending sword training, tutoring and Magic practice, Eris began to nag him to take her into the sky and bring her the next time he went out. Clearly, she really wanted to attempt flying with him.
Seeing how impatient and hopeful Eris was, Mordred decided to entertain her and bring her to the Buena Village during one especially beautiful winter day when she had a day off.
Although he would be doing something like this, he didn't think that it would change the Fate of the people involved any more than he already had, so he didn't mind.
That day, Eris wore a meticulous and thick red winter-outfit with soft white fur.
Mordred felt awkward saying this out loud to her because she was a child, but it was a great outfit and she looked very pretty.
Instead of using the speeder, he would carry Eris on his back.
Eris seemed embarrassed at first with the idea, but then began to hold him tightly from behind like a koala.
In the meantime, Albion was to go with them. Even though it was the day and the snow was quite bright, after hearing about the trip, he also became interested. It turned out he really liked snow.
The problem was that by now he had gotten too big to fit into Mordred's bag! He was now as big as a dog could get. For this reason, Mordred planned to use a Summoning Magic Scroll once he reached the Buena village instead.
At the square, Hilda, Philip, Hector and Ghislaine were also there, seeing them off with differing expressions – worried or touched by the scene.
First, Mordred poured Magic Power into a Magic Circle scroll he prepared in advance. It was all to protect Eris from the impact of the harsh wind and snow while they flew at high speed.
As a result, an Intermediate rank physical barrier began to surround the two of them, centered around the Magic Circle.
Although his Magic Barrier Ring could do the same, Mordred felt he would find it distracting to maintain it, triple-tasking, while he didn't trust Eris to do that in his instead. A Magic Circle designed to keep a cheap physical shield up for a period of time was probably best.
"Well, let's start!" Mordred activated the Zero Gravity field around them and leaped away.
Slowly but steadily, the two began to gain altitude.
"Woah!" Eris seemed very excited while holding onto Mordred's neck.
"Hold on tight! I'm about to speed up."
"Got it!"
Saying so, Eris began to hold him so tightly from behind as if she wanted to choke him. It didn't hurt him, but he felt it.
Mordred chuckled. "Okay, not this tight. Just make sure you won't let go of my neck."
After making this point clear, he activated Mana Burst and the two shot high up into the air at high speed like a rocket.
"Woooaaah! Amazing!" Eris cried out in joy.
Mordred only stopped after they reached high enough that people below them began to look to be smaller than ants.
"How is it?" Mordred asked with a small smile while holding Eris up by her legs.
"It's amazing!!!"
"Then let's set off!"
Mordred rotated downwards using controlled Mana Burst and shot out an invisible jet of Magic Power from his feet, shooting out head first.
After that, he did it again and again, gradually rising speed while being careful to not go too fast. To avoid too much attention, he passed on causing sonic booms with Wind Magic.
They began to quickly gain speed as he used more and more energy while.
"Woooohooooo!!! Faster, go faster!"
"Hahaha." Mordred laughed.
Because they had a barrier surrounding them and were in a no-gravity zone, only slight air resistance was visible in the front, but they didn't feel the acceleration at all. After all, even at Mach 1 a person would not feel this kind of speed in an airplane.
However, they were already very fast. Any faster and he might begin breaking the sound barrier, causing a loud sonic boom wherever they went!
Mordred was forced to explain this to Eris, who constantly wanted to go faster and faster.
…
Mordred flew straight to Buena village.
At this time, the entire village was covered in a thick white layer of snow and looked especially fabulous.
The familiar hill was also covered in snow, including something like a house that was built near the tree, partially buried into the side of the hill.
From the building's chimney, smoke was rising.
"Someone lives here?" Eris asked.
Mordred also became interested and flew down.
As they eventually landed on the ground, he then placed Eris back on the ground and disconnected a Magic Crystal from the Magic Circle barrier.
"What a weird house!" said Eris.
The house was entirely made of stone and looked to be buried into the ground; it didn't look warm to live in. The entrance was also quite small, only large enough for a child, and it had no door that could be closed.
Mordred began to walk into the building and called out, "Rudeus?"
Soon after, young Rudeus and Sylphiette came out from deep within the building.
As Mordred expected, the two of them had built themselves a base near the tree and maybe played house inside…
"Prince Mordred."
"Your Highness."
Rudeus and Sylphiette made polite greetings, then began to look at the girl that was behind Mordred with wariness and curiosity.
The girl had a fancy and expensive-looking outfit, red hair pouring out from her thick and soft white hat.
Mordred lightly smiled at the two. "I thought it was you. Guys, this is Eris, my friend from the Citadel of Roa. I brought her today because she wanted to attempt flying with me."
Eris had a stubborn expression with a mouth in a firm upturned v-shape. After being introduced, her attitude relaxed as she grabbed the hems of her skirt and made a noble's greeting. "Eris Boreas Greyrat! It's nice to meet you!"
"I'm Rudeus Greyrat, it's nice to meet you."
"Sylphiette…"
The two also made their greetings, very polite and humble.
"Hmph!"
Mordred wanted to chuckle when he saw Eris and could guess her thoughts: See, I can make a greeting too! I've been practicing!
He smiled because he indeed noticed her seriously working on her etiquette, even though he never directly told her to do that.
Following that, Rudeus politely asked Eris why she was also a Greyrat and learned that they are cousins. In the meantime, Mordred took out a Magic Scroll he prepared and summoned Albion.
After the crazy from seeing a young dragon eventually slightly faded away, Mordred proposed that they would all go sliding down the hill.
Today he wanted Eris to have fun, so it was fine to play out the role of a child.
He expected that Eris would be delighted at the idea, and she was!
"Let's do it, Mordred!!!"
Outside at the hill, Mordred and Rudeus then made several hard yet thin stone sleds with smooth texture on one side. The four of them began to slide down the hill together.
Even the typing white dragon would slide down on a sled by himself and looked to have fun while doing so, behaving not much different from a human child.
Among them, Sylphiette was scared of sliding down the slope alone and would only do it with Rudeus. Rudeus didn't seem to complain and the two were sliding together.
After seeing this, Eris said, "Mordred, let's slide together!!!"
"Haha, okay."
To that end, he created a larger slide that could hold two people.
Without any surprise, Eris would yell out in joy as they slid down.
After the first time, she said, "Can you make it go faster?"
"I could. But… It will be easier to make a better slide."
He picked up Eris like a princess, then flew back to the top of the hill.
He then began to walk down the hill while using Water and Ice Magic to create an ice slide at the side.
Afterwards, the two began to slide down on straight hard ice that made them reach the speeds that blew Eris's hair all over. "Woooohooo!"
After seeing this, Rudeus hesitated for a while, then asked Sylphiette, "Sylphy, do you want to give it a try too?"
"Huh? No…" Sylphiette firmly shook her head. At a glance, she was too scared of sliding down such a fast slide.
Rudeus thought, 'Hey, I'm scared too! But we can't lose here! And it's also a chance for me to appear manly in Sylphy's eyes while she holds me tightly out of fright, huhuhuhu!'
With this master plan, Rudeus dragged the terrified Sylphiette onto the slide and the two slid down together.
As for Albion, he began to slide down the ice just on his scales-covered feet. Flying back up afterwards using his wings. It was a comedic scene of how much the little dragon was into it.
In this manner, the four 'kids', or five if Albion was included, continued playing in the snow.
To Mordred, it brought back some old memories from when he was still a child.
Although it was exhausting to walk back up the large hill each time, and especially for Rudeus and Sylphiette who couldn't fly back up, as children they seemed to have unlimited energy.
In the case of Eris, it didn't even need to be mentioned.
When Rudeus and Sylphiette dropped to the ground and refused to move, Mordred noticed Eris's flushed face as well and said, "Rudeus, how about we come to your house?"
"Ah, my house?..."
"To get some warm drinks. I think it will be good for everyone."
Rudeus seemed slightly reluctant, but still led the group to his house in the end.
…
"Mom! I've brought Sylphy and a few friends!" Rudeus called out after entering the house.
"Friends?"
Soon after, a young blonde woman in a late stage of pregnancy came out, along with a dark-haired maid who was also pregnant. Mordred guessed that perhaps these pregnancies were the reason Rudeus was reluctant to bring them to the house previously.
Mordred did the Kingdragon Royals' greeting, saying, "Mordred Kingdragon."
"Oh, my…"
"Eris Boreas Greyrat! It's nice to meet you!" Eris repeated the same phrase as before like a robot.
Soon after, Albion laid down on the ground near the entrance and immediately fell asleep.
Meanwhile, the group of kids took off their outer winter garments.
They then sat down at a table while the maid Lilia and Zenith began to prepare some warm drinks and snacks for them. Rudeus joined to help them and used Magic to make some boiling water.
Zenith sat down at the shared table and began to ask Mordred and Eris questions to get to know them better. She looked very happy and excited to meet them.
It didn't take long for Eris to take the initiative and begin introducing Mordred in his stead. "That's right! Mordred is an amazing Magician! He's King rank in all Attack Magic!!!"
"King ranked? That's amazing," said Zenith.
"Yes, Mordred is amazing! He's also a King rank swordsman! He can fight a Sword King and win!"
"Oh, he can beat a Sword King? That's really amazing!" Zenith said again.
"Yes, he's really amazing!" Eris said, nodding, not catching that Zenith stopped taking anything she said seriously.
Mordred laughed.
"What else can he do?" Zenith asked in an exaggerated manner while looking at Mordred teasingly.
"Ah? He can do anything!!! He can do complicated math instantly! And speak in several languages! And he can sing! And he taught me Silent Magic! And he's training me to reach Advanced rank! And he can fly through the sky! And he fought more than 10 dragons once! And…"
Eris was on a roll.
'So it's like that…' Rudeus looked at her. Although some of those things sounded way too unbelievable and were likely exaggerated, like Mordred fighting ten dragons or beating a King rank swordsman, at that time Rudeus didn't need more clues to know that the Young Miss had a huge crush on the genius prince.
Mordred had also seen Eris being so heated up for the first time when talking about him without reservation. Hearing all this just made him very happy – that's why he liked Eris!
As Eris got exhausted from speaking and began to run out of ideas while stuttering, Zenith said, "Oh, he taught you Silent Magic?"
Eris nodded her head. "He did! I can do this!"
She stretched out her hand and silently created a fireball over her hand.
Mordred smiled.
Zenith clapped with her hands. "That's amazing! I didn't know that Silent Magic could be learned!"
"It can! Mordred taught me! Because he's an amazing teacher!!! Ah, right! Mordred can make fireworks much bigger than this! And there is red lightning when he fights! It's very amazing!!!"
"Red lightning? That's amazing!"
"Yes, it's super amazing!"
The meeting continued and the two sides got to know eachother better. After Eris said everything she wanted to say about Mordred and exhausted herself, the conversation entered a more natural tempo.
After warm tea there was a warm meal and a cake.
Soon after that meal, Mordred decided to leave with Eris.
Their winter break ended peacefully in this manner. They hadn't met Paul this time around.
"Hey, Eris," Mordred told her as they landed in Roa.
"What?"
He smiled, saying, "You look very cute in this outfit."
"Hmph!" Eris squeezed her fists and glared at him angrily.
"I mean it. Eris looks very cute today, " Mordred added with a smile.
It was then that Eris realized she was not being made fun of. Her body relaxed and a bright smile appeared on her face. "Thanks!"
"Eris, you're back!" Sauros walked out from the buildings as if he was waiting.
"Grandfather!" Eris ran up to him, still in high spirits.
Sauros laughed and lifted her up onto his shoulders. "Eris! Did you have fun on your trip?"
"Yeah! I had lots of fun!"
***
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Name: Mordred Kingdragon
Titles/nicknames: 16th Prince of Kingdragon, Miko, Magic prodigy, Youngest Sword Saint
Age: 8 years and 7 months
Height: 135 cm
Weight: 30 kg
Strength: C- | Early King rank strength
Endurance: C* | Peak King rank resilience
Agility: B- (C-) | early Emperor reflexes and sword speed, with true King rank running speed
Mana: A | God rank (In terms of Servant stats, it would be close to A+/2xA, I reckon.)