"WHAT?!"

"..."

"They...they left?! Just like that?!"

"Calm down Father...Cecil and Lucia was already planning to head out when the school year ended. They just pushed their plans ahead since things turned out this way..."

"But, why did Serilla..."

"..."

The Anglaria King, Art Anglaria, now had a major headache. A nation a.s.set had actually just disappeared all of sudden. He was planning on giving the boy a n.o.ble status to tie him together to the Kingdom, but it seems all of that went up in smoke.

He looked back at his daughter and couldn't help but sigh helplessly.

"Elizabeth...how do you feel about that boy, Cecil?"

"Pardon?"

"We ask you, how you feel about that boy, you're former party leader, Cecil Silvaria."

Eli was a little puzzled by the question. How did she feel?

"Well...Cecil was a good teacher...leader, and an outstanding friend. Although he has plenty of flaws in regards to his common sense, but as a warrior, I respect him very much."

Hearing her words the King couldn't help but let out a long sigh once again. He wished that this daughter of his was a little more...proactive. She obviously had the beauty, but Eli only accepted Cecil as nothing more than a friend and mentor.

There were obviously no romantic feelings going on between the two.

"You don't...feel even a little bit of anything towards the boy?"

"Hm?"

"No romantic feelings whatsoever?"

"Uh..."

"You may speak frankly Eliza...right now I'm your Father, not your King!"

"Y-yes...well, I...don't think I can feel any of those feelings for him."

"You can't?"

Eli felt a little awkward at the direction where their conversation was going, but she continued answering nonetheless. It was rare for her father to express any interest to her private life.

"I mean, Cecil already has Lucia...now he also has Serilla, I guess..."

"Yes, for a young man of such caliber, it's not a surprise to see woman flock to him."

"Y-yeah?"

"And you are not one of them?"

"Hm? Oh, no way! He's a great person, but as a potential love interest...he's got a few screws loose somewhere. I honestly can't see him that way. To me, he's more of a mentor and sparring partner."

"I see...a pity. If we could tie him together with our Kingdom it'd be great...Your sister already has someone, so I won't force her, but it seems you don't feel anything for him."

Eli only shrugged at this. She turned to look at Ainz who had his arms crossed over his abdomen with his face turned away. It was obvious that he was doing all he could to not laugh.

'...I really wanna smash him...'

"Oh! Now I understand why Lucia's always a bit violent sometimes~"

"What's that Eliza?"

"Nothing Father~"

King Art smiled at his daughter and patted her head before walking out of the hall. Elizabeth walked over to Ainz and punched him in the gut.

"GOWAH!!"

"...that actually felt good..."

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!"

"Nothing...let's hurry on back to Fina and the rest. We've already completed our task here."

"W-wait! I asked you what the heck that punch was for?!"

"Drop it, Ainz. Or do you want me to give you a second serving?"

"..."

The party walked out of the castle and made their way over to the academy district's adventurer guild. They quickly met up with Fina, Velicia, and Lucius.

"Hey guys! How'd it go?" Fina asked.

"Father...took it well, I guess."

"El, don't forget the part where he began asking you those weird stuff about Cecil!"

"Shut it Ainz!"

"Pfft!"

Fina tilted her head in confusion, but knowing that the King had taken the news well, Fina moved on to their next topic of conversation.

"We should go to the Aurielle family's residence...and inform Lucia's parents..."

"Y-yeah...but how will we break it to them though?"

Now this was a tough part. With their children just suddenly up and leaving them, it was without a doubt going to sadden the parents, right?

"Let's just truthfully tell them...it's better than agonizing on how we're going to break it nicely to them, since after all, this news isn't anything 'nice'..." Lucius answered.

He was right about that. Before they went off to find Lucia's parents, Ainz asked the 3, "Did you already change the party members?"

"Yeah, we took off Cecil and Lucia's names and added Lucius into the party...are we going to look for new party members?" Fina asked.

"...We'll see...if they show any potential we'll take them in... and train them." Eli answered.

She still kept in mind the bomb that Cecil had abruptly left for them. Eli thought that there was little she could do to prepare for the oncoming calamity, if it was real.

Everyone in the party was still a little skeptical at Cecil's revelation since the boy himself was also a little doubtful of it. However, just knowing about it was good enough since they could prepare for it in their own ways.

Eli didn't tell her Father, the King, just yet. Once she's heard of any potential sightings of the Fallen, even if it was only a rumor, it could be confirmed that Cecil's words were in fact, the truth. It was only then would she inform her Father of the potential crisis that would fall upon them.

As for whether her Father needed any convincing, just the words 'it was a prophecy from the World Tree' was enough for her Father to mobilize the entire Kingdom's forces to prepare for the Fallen's Invasion.

She could have told her Father earlier about it, but if things turned out differently than what Cecil had said, then it was going to be a waste of time and resources for her Kingdom to prepare for something that wouldn't occur. Not to mention they were still preoccupied with the Orca Empire.

*****

The party arrived at the Aurielle family's residence and immediately asked them for an audience with Lucia's parents.

They were waiting in the reception hall while talking with Friedrich and Aurellia. The two were a little surprised when they saw the whole party come, minus the 2 members who were now a part of the Aurielle family.

"Where are Cecil and Lucia?" Aurellia ended up asking.

"That's...what we're here to talk about. Let's wait for Lucia's parents to arrive then I'll explain," Eli answered.

They didn't wait for long since after another 5 minutes or so, the doors to the reception hall opened. A regal man and a beautiful woman walked in arm in arm.

"Ara~ it's Cecil and Lucia's friends~ what can I do for you sweeties today?"

Eli stood up to receive them, but when she heard Anna's inquiry she hesitated a little.

"Eh...uhm...y-you see ma'am...Cecil and Lucia...they—"

"Left?" Anna answered with a smile.

Eli paused a little in confusion before replying, "Uhh...yes?"

"Ehehe~ I already know~ Cecil had spoken to me about it a while ago! He also gave me a call and informed us that they were heading off to continue their journey~"

"Huh?"

Anna waved the customized MID that Cecil had given to her and the Little Kings immediately understood what she meant by 'call'.

"W-wait...you mean...he can reach you from all the way over in the Empire?!" Ainz exclaimed.

"Why yes~ Cecil did say that as long as the Mana Integrated Network was present, he'd be able to give me a call even if they were on the Midgard Continent~"

"What the heck..."

Aurellia was shocked to hear that Cecil and Lucia had left the Kingdom. The party didn't need to explain to Zaki and Anna since apparently, the two had already known before hand and received a call from Cecil, but Aurellia immediately demanded an explanation.

The party explained the reason behind Cecil and Lucia's decision to leave and how it was about their journey to go find Cecil's parents who were said to be traveling around the world and was currently at the Midgard Continent.

"Aww...little sis didn't even come back to say good bye..."

Friedrich didn't feel much when he heard that the two had left, but when he heard that they had taken along Serilla, he was immediately floored.

"W-wait a minute! Don't those two know the prestige and pedigree that Serilla holds for the Kingdom?! They just took her away so wouldn't that be considered a crime? I mean...she is the likely candidate to become the Kingdom's next Sword Saintess!"

Eli smiled wryly at his words. When she explained to her Father and Sword Saintess Celia about Serilla's departure, they had freaked out even more than when she informed them of Cecil and Lucia's departure.

Eli thought that telling them about Serilla's departure would cus.h.i.+on the shock they'd get from Cecil and Lucia's, but instead the King and the Sword Saintess had shown a stronger reaction to it.

The girl was the most likely future Sword Saintess and she had the responsibility to uphold that t.i.tle, but now she had decided to go off and pursue her man instead.

Serilla's mother, Celia, was especially worried. Her daughter hadn't even informed of her departure.

Now that Eli had the means to contact Cecil and Lucia via their customized MIDs, she wanted to go back to the castle and call them. Once they hand over the MID to Serilla, the girl would be able to explain herself to her mother.

"Well...please keep this between us only, okay? We don't want the beastmen to catch wind of this. For now we spun up a story that those two are off training somewhere."

"O-okay...we'll make sure to keep this news to ourselves, you hear that Friedrich?!" Aurellia yelled.

"Yes, yes...you don't have to explode in my ear."

"Good, so now where will you guys head off to?"

"...I'm gonna go back to the castle and call Cecil...Serilla should at least explain herself to her mother...I mean, it was the first time I saw the Sword Saintess freak out..."

"Oh?"

"Honestly, it was a little scary...funny enough though, the Sword Saintess had also acquired Weapon Intent. I'm pretty sure Serilla gave her mother some pointers or two there...but seriously, her Intent practically rivaled Cecil's Spear Intent...it was scary."

"W-woah..."

"Although I've never really experienced this 'Weapon Intent' I've seen how powerful it is when you used it Eli."

"Yeah...so imagine the Sword Saintess possessing it as well..." Eli s.h.i.+vered at the thought.

"You should get going then, put the Saintess at ease. Honestly, that Serilla...she's so inconsiderate of her family!"

"Well, who could blame her...she's lived her life following her heart and sword...now that her heart belongs to Cecil...it's obvious that she's going to follow him."

"Ahahaha~ so carefree!"

"Yeah..."