The only other person she remembered hugging them warmly was her mother, who had died. Since then, there was basically no warmth in her life, until now. Where a stranger gave her more warmth than her family had given her in years…
She was feeling more lost than before but, she was feeling welcomed besides warmth and other feelings she didn't recognise.
Then her eyes realized something, her eyes that were crying from feeling positive changes, changed to a look of despair…
The Vivre card, her father had hers, he would know that she survived and would come to take her back… She started mumbling, very lightly, slowly becoming louder.
"No…Noo… Why…"
She then stopped mumbling and looked at Kuina, and with an expression full of despair, said.
"I need to leave, or that man will find me and attack this place…"
Kuina looked confused, and questioned her.
"How would he find you? He has no way to know you're here."
Reiju looked at the innocent Kuina, who had no idea of the existence of Vivre cards, and explained calmly.
"There is something in this world called a Vivre card that lets you track the health condition and location of the desired person."
Kuina looked at Ars for confirmation, who nodded at her, but then he asked Reiju.
"How many Vivre cards of yourself does your father have?"
Reiju was confused by the question, but replied anyway.
"One, there is no way that he would share my location with anyone unless it was absolutely needed."
Ars then smiled and took out a paper and gave it to Reiju, before explaining.
"After delivering a deathly blow to you and confirming you would die from the injuries, he took this Vivre card out and threw it on top of you, before leaving you to die… I suppose this Vivre card belongs to you."
Kuina was now very confused, and looked at Ars for answers.
"That can't be the same paper, that one was almost completely burned to ashes."
Ars smiled and explained, deciding to ignore Reiju who was frozen from shock.
"Vivre cards are a very special piece of paper, they will always move towards the person they were made of… More specifically, they are made from the nails of that person, probably mixed with some type of special wood. This paper then reflects the health of the person in question by burning itself when they are getting closer to death, but if the person recovers the paper recovers too, and no i don't know how."
Kuina looked shocked but then she happily hugged Reiju once more, before commenting.
"Then since he threw it on top of her and it's the only one, then she is free from him right?"
Ars smiled warmly, and nodded.
When Reiju confirmed it was her Vivre card, she broke out in tears again from relief.
These last few minutes had been a rollercoaster of emotions.
She was free and at the same time she had found a place that welcomed her, she looked at them and asked.
"I can stay with no worries?"
They both nodded at her.
She then remembered something and commented.
"I need to find a way to change my appearance so he doesn't ever recognize me. And I have a request to you, your majesty…"
She stopped talking, she had no idea how to request his help once more…
It was Kuina that broke the standstill, declaring confidently.
"It's fine, Ars will help you, he might not look like it, but he is very smart and can even change people's potential and appearances easily, so he definitely can help you."
Reiju looked at him hopefully, he nodded, and she showed a delighted expression, before hugging Kuina back
Kuina quickly decided it was a good time to introduce her to all the other queens, and to all of her friends, and dragged her to meet them.
She quickly introduced all the females that were close to her, from the other queens to the ex female knights that were always with Kina.
But one question marked the introductions, almost everyone asked.
'Have you decided on a position you would like to occupy or a role that makes you happy?'
The more Reiju thought about it, the more she felt she was lost in that department, until now she always followed orders, but now she could choose from so many options that she was feeling like she would drown in them.
Ars left her and the others to prepare for the festival. For the next 2 weeks Ars was always occupied during the mornings preparing the festival, from stands, music, inns to sleep in and security to make sure everything went right, and no incidents happened.
The rest of the time Ars trained as usual.
Reiju also started joining in on everyone's training.
While she didn't know what she wanted to do yet, she knew the truth in this world… Power was the most reliable source of stability.
Pirates are attacking you? Crush them.
Corrupt marines are trying to drive you into a wall? Make them bow down to you.
This world was pretty simple, behind everything it only mattered if you had the power to get what you wanted. Do you have the power to destroy your enemy? Yes? All good. No? Then either you escape, hide and train and get strong enough to destroy your enemies or you will be destroyed.
Simply put, violence was the answer, if it wasn't solving your problems, either you didn't have enough power or you weren't using enough of it.
Ars, while he never said it directly, he had the same opinion.
On the day of the festival, Ars, Elia and Olivia, appeared first. And Ars started his speech.
"Today we welcome 2 new queens, Bell-mere and Kuina."
Each of them slowly positioned themselves besides Ars and the other 2 queens.
Then Ars officially introduced them. He pointed at Bell–mere.
"This is Bell–mere, she will be in charge of agriculture and related fields, like she was since she came until now, but now it's official."
Everyone who heard that laughed, they already knew the new queens, today was just making it official.
Then Ars pointed at Kuina and introduced her officially.
"This is Kuina, she will be in charge of Military related fields."
Ars then continued, thanking everyone.
"Now, to start the festivities, I would like to thank everyone for taking some of their time to come visit and attend the festival."
He stopped talking, smiled and looked around.
"I still remember seeing just a few houses, with just a few people just a little bit of time ago. The kingdom and the people living in it have grown in size or in numbers rapidly, and one day, the number of people will be even larger. I thank you for putting your trust in me, and I thank you for being my subjects."
Everyone showed happy expressions, and were about to start the festival when Ars added something.
"Now the queens would like to talk a bit too."
All of the queens got closer to the edge, and the representative they had chosen between themselves, in this case Bell-mere, chosen by the almighty power of rock-paper-sizers, started explaining a new system.
"I apologize for delaying the festival, but I will be quick. Since we all got together, every member of the royal family has been talking of implementing a new system in the kingdom."
She took a few seconds to look around, seeing everyone with curious expressions. She smiled at them and continued her speech.
"This system will consist of a new currency that you can get over time, other than the normal berries. This new system will reward people that took a mission and completed it successfully. What missions?"
She faked a sad face, before smiling and continuing.
"Missions given to us by the stars… No, just kidding, soon either a new establishment or a board will be put in the city and villages. There you will be able to check the missions available to be taken, and the amount of points each mission will give you, you will also be able to check what you can buy with those points."
She took a break and finally added.
"You don't need to worry, these points will be tax free, completely independent of your normal pay, and not only can the royal family put missions for points, but everyone can, as long as they have the points. For example someone needs help with something, they go and check with the personnel on the new building and post a mission, requesting help on whatever they need, and lets say that person had completed missions before and had 10 points, now from those 10 points they need to decide how much they think, the something they need help with is worth. Then, finally the mission would have its details and the payment at the end."
She looked at everyone, and seeing there were no questions being asked, she declared.
"Now without further delay, let's start the festival."
After she said that the streets were filled with laughter and a lot of talk about the new point system.
A lot of people approached Ars and the queens, congratulating them and thanking them.
For most of these people, this island had been nothing short of a paradise. Compared to their previous situations, where most were starving, malnourished and slowly dying out, to now having food, jobs, and getting money, so one day they could buy their own houses.
Everyone was excited, and thankful to the royal family, especially Ars, while some didn't know, most did know that he was the one that had put his life on the line to start this place.
Ars looked around and saw that Olivia was being greeted and talking with the scholars that she had brought back, some of the parents with the children in the daycare and school also came to greet her.
Kuina was being greeted and talking with the people related to the military.
Bell-mere was being greeted and talking with the farmers and ranchers.
Finally Ars and Elia were being greeted by everyone, since everyone wanted to greet Ars, and since Elia was by his side, she suffered the same fate. There were so many people that Ars didn't even have the time to talk properly with each one.
The festival, like the previous year, lasted for an entire week, after that, a few birthdays and they had reached the end of the year.
During this time, Ars laboratory finally went through all samples. And had made decent progress, not as much as before, but considering that now he was entering potential levels above even peak humans, he couldn't really complain.
The laboratory also had now a bunch of new superpowers, ready to be used.
Ars still hadn't reached the awakening level, or like one of his previously hypothesised possibilities, the awakening had disappeared and instead it relied completely on mastery of that power over time.
Ars could already use the abilities from the fruits easily, almost as naturally as breathing.
His favorite was weather control followed by the transformation that allowed for flight. And he used the first a lot.
So he was convinced he was very close to awakening or there wasn't any awakening anymore.
Either way, he would increase the number of his superpowers soon.
But for now… More training.
While he was training he saw Eliana, she was speaking with Elia, both smiling happily, he approached curiously, and asked calmly.
"Did something good happen?"
They both looked at him, Eliana puffed her chest and explained herself.
"I will soon begin my training as a maid in the palace under big sister Elia."
Ars smiled at her, patted her head and replied warmly.
"Well, in that case I suppose I should congratulate you, shouldn't I?"
She looked at him displeased and replied with puffed cheeks.
"No, I'm a big girl now, I don't need congratulations and head pats, big brother!"
Both Elia and Ars looked at her and smiled, then Elia corrected her calmly.
"Well, when you are working as a maid, you can't call Ars, big brother in front of others, you should refer to him as your majesty or his majesty depending on the situation."
She nodded happily, and Ars decided to return to his training, leaving Eliana with her older sister.