He felt a little listless, but he still stood up and walked over to the balcony. He looked around and saw a large garden. He circulated his ether and dropped down from the balcony. He stumbled a little when he landed, but he quickly stabilized himself and started walking deeper into the garden.

When he arrived at an empty lot in the middle of the garden, he plopped down onto the gra.s.s and just started staring listlessly into the distance.

"Urgh... I can't remember what happened..." Cecil mumbled to himself as he clenched his aching head. He didn't know where he was, but he didn't care. Cecil felt like he had forgotten something important but he could remember what it was.

He rubbed his hands and noticed that his white ring was still there. He searched inside and was relaxed to find his Gunblade and all his other weapons safely stored inside. Cecil had felt a little bit insecure earlier when he noticed that his blade was not anywhere inside the room.

He quickly pulled it out and began cleaning it. Whenever he felt troubled, cleaning his weapons and equipment always helped soothe his mind. Of course, if he was hugging on of his wives then his mind could be soothed in that way as well.

After a few minutes, he had thoroughly polished his weapon and he began remembering small tidbits of what happened yesterday. They were still unclear, but he remembered transforming into a half-man half-wolf and started rampaging around.

"Was that even me? I think I..." Something suddenly clicked in his head and Cecil stood up from the ground.

"I was probably training with my wooden clone and I accidentally used the Shapes.h.i.+ft ability from Silv's pact..."

Cecil began stretching his body and he quickly used Nature's s.h.i.+ft. Once his clone materialized, he quickly took out Perseverance and handed over to his clone.

"Time to train..."

Cecil had found a new way to use Perseverance over the past few years. If he used Nature's s.h.i.+ft and produced a wooden clone of himself, he could temporarily give that clone an ego by giving it Perseverance and activating its runes. The clone would then be able to fight against Cecil by relying on the Perseverance's auto-pilot.

As he and his clone were sparring in the middle of the garden. Lucia and Serilla had just returned from their trip to the kitchen. Alongside them were Angelia, Gabriel, and Anastasia. When they entered the room, everyone was horrified to find that Cecil was now missing from his bed.

"W-where is he?!" Serilla cried.

"The balcony's door is open! Did someone kidnap him?!" Lucia exclaimed as she went outside onto the balcony.

Once she got outside, she could immediately hear the faint sounds of blades clas.h.i.+ng and when she looked into the distance, Lucia immediately found Cecil... and another Cecil attacking each other.

"Eh?"

"What's wrong Lulu—ah, that idiot!" Serilla exclaimed.

Anastasia, Gabriel, and Angelia also rushed out to see what was up and saw two Cecils in the distance fighting each other.

"Big brother—oh, now hold on, how come there are two of him?" Angelia asked in puzzlement while Gabriel remained silent as he saw his familiar, yet unfamiliar brother sparring in the distance. He couldn't help but appreciate that his younger brother had grown older and more mature.

"...and yet he's still a muscle head."

"Th-that buffoon, he's injured and yet he's gone out to train—AH—my garden!" Anastasia cried out in horror after she saw her stupid son training in the distance.

Cecil was clas.h.i.+ng swords with his clone at blinding speeds which caused the gra.s.s all around him being thoroughly cut up, it was a good thing that the sword winds produced by their attacks didn't reach the flower beds that were farther away. If they had, his mother would be furious.

The sounds of blades clas.h.i.+ng soon attracted the attention of some of the Silvaria family's disciples who were nearby. The dojo and the garden were situated close to each other so they heard the noise coming from behind the dojo.

Kaiser walked out to inspect what was going on and saw his...sons, fighting each other. Kaiser couldn't help but nod in approval at how refined Cecil's sword strokes and how polished his technique was.

"Honey, do something! If Cecil keeps this up, my garden will be ruined!" Anastasia roared from the balcony. Kaiser was immediately startled and just as he was about to walk up to Cecil, his son suddenly stopped.

Cecil was immediately shocked to hear that familiar voice that he would only hear in his dreams. He quickly dispelled his clone and pulled his Perseverance into his hand and immediately turned around.

Upon the balcony of the room he just jumped out of, he saw his mother, his sister, his brother, and his two wives.

"...haha...what?" Cecil let out in shock. He quickly stored away his weapons before he stumbled his way over and jumped onto the balcony.

"Hey! That's my garden you almost destroyed! Is this how you treat your mother after she spent 6 years of her life worrying over you?!"

"..." Cecil could only stare dumbfounded at the person in front of him.

'This...isn't a dream...right?'

If this was, he prayed that he wouldn't wake up from it.

"What? Too guilty to say anything—"

Before Anastasia could say anymore, Cecil immediately dropped to his knees and hugged his mother.

"Th-this isn't a dream right?"

Her anger from earlier was immediately wiped away after her son suddenly hugged her. She was surprised, but she felt relieved at the warmth she felt from her son. Anastasia opened her mouth and gently said, "...No, it isn't sweetheart... This isn't a dream."

Cecil slowly tightened his arms around his mother. Her words of rea.s.surance weren't enough and he tried to make sure it was real and not a dream. Anastasia gently stroked his head as tears began to fall.

"You're home, my son... welcome home..."

Hearing those words, all of Cecil's pent up emotions; his fear, his anxiety, and his loneliness immediately swelled up and his tears began to flow out like broken down dam. His mother was right there in front of him and this couldn't be any more real.

"I-I'm home...I'm home...I'm home, mom...I'm home..."

Cecil cried for a long time as he let loose all his worries. The relief and safety he felt right now was unexplainable.

Cecil was still only a child when he was suddenly separated from his family. Even though he's already experienced it once during his childhood, he knew that his parents were watching over him in secret so he felt safe.

His separation on Alterna wasn't like his previous experiences because this time, he was completely and thoroughly separated from his parents. When he first realized this, Cecil was naturally afraid like any other child, however he didn't show it. He bottled it all up inside him as he put up a strong and reliable front.

Now that he was back in his mother's embrace, he let it all go. There was no need for pretenses anymore and he didn't have to act tough any longer.

A few moments later, Cecil was able to regain his bearings and take a good look at his mother. She was still as beautiful as he remembered her to be. The mana on Alterna had been good to all the humans and they were able to retain their youth and vigor even though a couple of years had pa.s.sed and his mother should be close to 50 right now.

"...You haven't changed at all, mom."

"Oh my~ but little Cel, you've changed a lot!"

"Ehehe..."

"You've grown bigger, taller, and manlier! Ufufufu~ I'm just glad you didn't turn into a big oaf like your father!"

"Who're you calling an oaf?"

Cecil turned towards the familiar voice that sounded out from below the balcony and exclaimed, "Dad!"

"Hey son... you did a good job. We'll talk later, so accompany your mother for now. She's been worried sick for the past 6 years since you've disappeared." Kaiser said. He took one long look at his son and smiled before turning around and heading back for the dojo. He immediately began yelling at his disciples to quickly head back in and continue their training.

"I'm sorry mom...for disappearing like that..."

"It's okay, we had no control over that... what's important is that you've safely returned to us, I've heard a lot about it from your wives," Anastasia said as she gave Cecil a wink and gestured at the two girls behind her.

"Ah! L-Lulu, Seri... Ugh...How embarra.s.sing..." Cecil said as he started blus.h.i.+ng. He had never once cried in front of his wives so upon noticing that they were close by, he couldn't help but feel ashamed.

'Dammit, men aren't supposed to cry!'

Serilla only walked over and hugged him gently and said. "You should catch up with mother. Lucia and I will make ourselves busy and prepare you something to eat."

"O-okay..."

Lucia walked over to him and hugged him before pecking him on the cheek.

"L-Lulu!"

"Ehehehe~"

Cecil started blus.h.i.+ng because he was a little embarra.s.sed. His mother was right there! He looked up and finally noticed his two other siblings who were present.

"G-Gabe!" Cecil exclaimed when he saw Gabriel who only responded with a slight smile and a simple nod of his head.

He turned to look at the teenaged girl who greatly resembled his mother and exclaimed in shock, "N-No way...Angelia?"

"Ahahah~ big brother~" Angelia immediately jumped onto Cecil and gave him a warm hug.

"You remember me~"

"O-of course I do! It's not like I'm going to suddenly forget about you! But wow...you've grown so big!"

"Of course I have! And big brother has also grown big too! I was afraid that by the time you got back, we'd be standing at the same height!"

"H-Hey, I might have been small back then, but that doesn't mean I'll stay small forever!"

"But Mama's like that~?"

"Don't go insulting your mother, you little rebel!" Anastasia light scolded.

"Ehehe~"

Anastasia led Cecil and everyone inside the room. She let him sit on the bed and began pulling chairs around for everyone else to sit on.

"You should rest a little more. You were seriously injured not too long ago..." Anastasia worriedly said. She wanted to scold her son for acting so rashly earlier. Her son had just recovered from being seriously injured, but when she found him awake he was actually outside training! She felt so exasperated at her son, but at the same time she was glad. Cecil had indeed changed, but many of his traits and habits hadn't. He was still her boy that would go and train right after he had just woken up.

"I-I have so many things to tell you guys!" Cecil exclaimed. Just before he could unload all his stories that he wanted to tell his mother, the door to his room suddenly swung open with a bang.