Reinhard led Luke back to the Astrea mansion, with Felt and Rom in tow. He walked towards the Noble District where the Astrea manor was located.
"Hey Reinhard, I still need to check on Mahito. Can we take a detour first?" Luke asked, wanting to confirm that he was actually okay.
"No need to worry. When I saw him earlier, I told him to wait for us in the Noble District." Reinhard responded with no worries in his voice.
Luke simply nodded at his response, trusting Reinhard's judgement that Mahito would be okay. "I did want to ask, are we really just going to walk the entire way?" He said in a tone that clearly expressed that he was not going to do it.
"I was actually hoping that I could use the opportunity to talk to you longer, but you are correct, we should get back as quickly as possible." Reinhard wanted to have a casual talk with one of his only friends for longer, but he understood his duty.
"For a guy with the power of a god, you really are so hopeless as a human." I lightly punched his shoulder, which felt like hitting an actual steel wall. "Follow me, we'll just take my earth dragon instead. We can talk there."
"I don't really know how to respond to that description, but I still appreciate your input, Luke. Take the lead." Reinhard smiled as they switched paths.
Reinhard van Astrea, as the invincible Sword Saint, had near god-like abilities, which made people start treating him like a weapon rather than an actual human. This caused him to have a lack of genuine relationships in his life, aside from all his other problems.
So, meeting another person like him who treated him like a friend and not as a tool or dangerous weapon, naturally made him want to improve that friendship.
Luke led him back to the stables where Maine was stationed, still looking like it had bullied all the other dragons with just his spiritual pressure.
"Are all of your companions as unique as you, Luke? I've never seen an earth dragon with such unique properties." He looked at the almost empty eyes of Maine, feeling like the dragon was actually something else.
'All the other dragons are instinctively clearing away from it too, they can instinctively feel that something is innately different about it from...' Reinhard thought, a bit concerned, glancing at Luke, who was talking to the stable owner.
'No, I trust him. It very well could just be a special earth dragon.' Reinhard concluded, not letting his doubts get to him.
"Alright, you ready? This is Maine, by the way, isn't he so precious~?" Luke came up to him and asked, petting Maine like it was any other dragon. While it didn't make any large reaction, it still made a low humming sound as an acknowledgement.
"Yes, let's go. I'll direct Maine to my manor." Reinhard responded as he put Felt and Rom gently in the back of the wagon.
"I'm guessing you have some sort of Divine Protection that makes travel faster or something?" Luke asked half-jokingly since he already knew the answer. He attached the cart to Maine and got onto the seat.
"Not to sound arrogant, but I do possess a Divine Protection of that type. It will make our journey much more swift." Reinhard responded as he got into the driver's seat, being able to perfectly guide Maine in a manner that surpassed even experts.
"So what did you want to talk about? I'm not clueless, so I'm assuming that Felt is important." Luke glanced at Felt in the back, silently noting that she really does have the characteristics of the Lugunican Royal Family.
"You're correct with your assessments. She's the fifth royal candidate that I've been searching for." Reinhard dropped the bomb suddenly, not beating around the bush. He thought that Luke would look shocked, but he was surprisingly calm.
"Why are you looking at me like that? I've seen enough weird shit in my life, this isn't that special." Luke said simply, though once again, not telling the full truth.
"I don't doubt that. But, this does lead into my next point. Would you be willing to join our camp to support Miss Felt?" Reinhard asked him with a serious look.
"Kinda random, but why me?" Luke responded. He guessed that it was only for his combat power that Reinhard was asking to join.
"Your strength is indeed part of it, yes, but it's not just that. I feel like you would provide way more than just combat strength if you joined us." Reinhard responded truthfully.
"I'll have to think about it..." Luke didn't want to make a hasty decision. He didn't even know if it was safe to so quickly join in the main political race in the country.
"Take as long as you want. I'm sure Miss Felt would also take you in happily since you did save her life." Reinhard added while whipping Maine a little harder to make it go faster. It is worth mentioning that they were already going at an extraordinary pace.
"I would maybe take that statement seriously if Mahito saved her, but it wasn't. Higuruma did it, not me." Luke rested his head back against the seat, focusing on his Cursed Energy. He could feel that it was half filled, though interestingly, it felt like he had more now too...
"Power is not just how hard you can hit. It's also being able to gather allies who are willing to fight for you. You're more impressive than you realise." Reinhard replied, shutting down Luke's modesty.
"Well, not to brag, but I myself am actually a lot stronger than I look~" Luke replied, chuckling to himself. But it was true. He may not have the visible muscles, but through Cursed Energy reinforcement, he was comfortably at the level of an average Royal Knight in terms of physical stats.
"I don't doubt that. Anyways, we've arrived." They had reached the Noble District in surprising speed. What should've taken an hour at least, took only like ten minutes.
"It will just be a little longer until we reach the manor. I'm sure the other residents would gladly welcome you too."
"For the sake of your reputation, I would hope so. Besides, where's Mahito?" Luke looked around, trying to see if he could spot the Cursed Spirit.
The streets were spacious, and the houses were all extravagant with many luxurious decorations, though everything was spread apart. And, some houses were clearly far grander than others, symbolising the position of their owners in the hierarchy of nobles.
Luke focused his eyes to see anyone with a freaky look in their eyes. Then, he finally noticed someone... a girl? Long, blue-ish hair and wearing a schoolgirl uniform, just playing around with some totem-looking objects with her feet.
It seemed like the girl noticed them because she turned her head and waved towards them excitedly, her voice unnaturally high-pitched. And everyone could see the stitches on her face. Yes... This was Mahito.
"I didn't know he had such tastes..." Reinhard actually sounded awkward as he spoke towards Luke, whose face was filled with pure despair.
Mahito ran towards them and stepped onto the back of the cart, grinning wildly. "Luke~! Did you miss me~?" 'He' said in his cutesy face, though it was absolutely harrowing to hear.
"Just... Turn back. Please..." Luke said, not even being able to look back at him, while Reinhard was busy chuckling, even though he himself also couldn't look back at him.
Meanwhile, Higuruma was sitting in a caravan with Emilia and Subaru while a maid named Ram was driving.
Subaru was still unconscious, lying on the seat with Emilia sitting next to his head. Higuruma was busy watching the racing scenery, having heard of the Mather's domain but never actually seeing it before.
"Sir Higuruma? Can I ask where you're from? Your clothes are so unique, kind of like Subaru's. Are you two from the same place?" Emilia asked after hesitating to ask him for quite a while.
"Hmm? I'm from a country called Japan, you wouldn't know of it." Higuruma glanced at her to answer her question, not finding it a bad move to reveal his origins.
"Subaru said the same thing! So you two really are from the same place!" Emilia spoke out excitedly about having found two people from beyond the Great Waterfall.
"So is Sir Luke also from this 'Japan'? You two seem like close friends, but he said he was a knight."
"Luke is indeed a great friend, but he's also my 'employer', you could say. He needed to find a job, and his strength made it easy to choose the job of a knight. However, I don't know his actual place of birth." Higuruma responded simply, not going to reveal personal information that easily.
"Actually, it's time for me to start asking questions now. Who is Roswaal L Mathers? What's his temperament?" He asked, wanting to know exactly how the famed court mage acts.
"Oh, Roswaal is a bit eccentric, but he's a powerful and intelligent man. He doesn't discriminate against people and is actually quite caring if you get to know him. His family has continuously produced strong mages like him for decades." Emilia explained as best as her current knowledge could give.
'I might need to be careful then. If he's a shrewd man, then he might come after us if I look too suspicious. I should just take the reward and go.' Higuruma pondered after recollecting the information.
Ram, who was in the driver's seat, was hearing everything, but she knew it wasn't in her place to intrude in the conversation, so she stayed silent. But she was highly suspicious of Higuruma, who apparently possessed barrier skills a man of his age shouldn't.
Regardless, she wasn't going to do anything until she saw more of him. She just hoped her sister would do the same when she saw the two men.
When they finally reached the gates of the massive Mather's domain, there was a maid standing there who looked completely identical to Ram except with blue hair. She bowed deeply and opened the door for Emilia and the others.
"Greetings, Miss Emilia and guests. Welcome to Lord Roswaal's estate." She spoke almost robotically with a blank expression as she greeted them. Her eyes immediately darted to Higuruma's figure before looking towards Subaru, who was being carried by Emilia.
Her nose subtly twitched as she could feel the sensation that reminded her of what she hated most. Her eyes gained a slight amount of malice in them as she glared at Subaru, but then at Higuruma even harder, though she was quick to mask it quickly.
Since Subaru hadn't died even once, the Witch's miasma on him was not that intense. However, because of Mahito attempting to transfigure his soul, Satella emerged to dispel him, which resulted in her miasma intensifying in Subaru.
Higuruma, on the other hand, was filled with Cursed Energy on the level of a Grade 1 sorcerer. Though not exactly like the Witch's miasma, it still had the same properties of being practically poison to anyone not capable of wielding it, and it had the same twisted negative nature.
"Allow Rem to lead you to Lord Roswaal." She said expressionlessly before gracefully turning around and leading them into the mansion, while Ram parked the caravan.
"Actually, Rem, can we wait a little longer? Subaru hasn't woken up yet, and he should be present to talk to Roswaal." Emilia looked down at Subaru in her arms, his face peaceful and calm, though the blood on his jacket contrasted that.
Rem glanced at the boy and nodded. "Alright, Rem and her sister will clean the guest's clothes and put him in a room to rest until he wakes up."
"Thank you, Rem. Higuruma, you should stay with Subaru and rest. You've done a lot today." Emilia suggested, making Higuruma nod in agreement.
As he passed by Rem to follow Emilia, they both stared into each other's eyes momentarily for completely different reasons, before she quietly started trailing behind him.
When they settled inside a room, Rem replaced Subaru's clothes and quickly left the room. Emilia gave her wishes to Higuruma and also left him alone with Subaru.
He sat down on the couch and gazed at the distant moon tiredly, before eventually deciding to get some sleep. He laid down with his gavel on his chest and closed his eyes, confident that he could crush the maid who held malice towards him if she tried anything.
Back with Luke, they had finally reached Reinhard's manor, which was surprisingly small.
"Not as extravagant as you expected, Luke?" Reinhard looked at me as he asked, chuckling, having noticed the look of subtle surprise in his eyes.
"Well, yeah. Your family is probably the second most important in the entire kingdom, so it's crazy that it's so much more modest looking than the others." Luke said, not wanting to sound disrespectful.
"Several others have also shared your sentiment. Despite our acclaimed lineage, we are not actually that wealthy comparatively." Reinhard said humbly, not at all dissatisfied.
"It's not like we're in a position to judge you anyway, so let's go! I was standing around for so long..." Mahito interjected, back in his normal form. But, it couldn't be confirmed whether he had actually done nothing or not while he was alone...
Reinhard parked Maine gently in his stable before he was greeted by two identical little twins.
"Welcome back, Lord Astrea." They both said at the same time, in complete synchronisation.
"You don't need to call me 'Lord' every time. Oh, and this is my honoured guest, Luke. Luke, these are my attendants, Flam and Grassis Remendis." He gestured towards the twins, whose only difference between them was that one of them had straight fringes for their hair.
Luke bowed towards them politely, which they reciprocated. These two were like Rem and Ram, with Grassis being sharp-mouthed and Flam being generally reserved. And of course, these two were strong as well...
But not strong enough to prevent Mahito from watching them like they were exotic animals in a zoo, but nobody tried to stop him since he wasn't actually doing anything harmful.
"Luke is the unique spirit knight I was talking about. His contracted spirit's special nature of being invisible to beings with low spirit affinity is quite astounding." Reinhard said politely while smiling at Mahito's antics, which the twins couldn't see.
"Sir Luke, please follow us. We have already prepared your room." They spoke perfectly together again and started leading the way.
They looked calm on the inside, but they were currently using their Divine Protection of Mindspeak to communicate with each other telepathically to discuss the problem of not being able to see the spirit.
They could use this Divine Protection to speak with each other regardless of distance, but it could only be used once a day, allegedly.
'According to what Geto told me before, Jujutsu treats twins as if they're the same individual. It looks like the same is also somewhat true here..' Mahito concluded in his mind as he followed Luke.
The twins led the guests to the spacious and luxurious room, which clearly wasn't meant for just guests. It looked more like a room for an important figure.
"You two can sleep here for tonight. If you have any problems, just call for either Flam or Grassis." Reinhard smiled and left the room, trailed by the twins.
"So... Mahito, wanna tell me about what happened? You didn't mention it the entire time, but I know it has shaken you up." Luke sat down on the large bed and asked.
"Not much to say. I attacked the wrong person and offended a powerful sorcerer, nothing I haven't done before." Mahito replied casually, examining the different foreign items in the room.
"I can't sense the soul, but I assume your soul was damaged? Those totems you were holding were the criminals you transfigured to try and absorb in order to repair your soul, right?" Luke probed.
"...Yes, my soul was critically damaged. I tried experimenting to see if I could absorb my transfigured souls, but it doesn't seem to work." Mahito replied, with a tinge of frustration appearing in his voice.
"Sorry..." Luke apologised, almost certain that Mahito had been reminded of his conflict with Yuji.
"Nah, it's fine, it's nothing a little rest can't fix~!" Mahito suddenly jumped back up with his upbeat tone. He jumped into the bed with Luke, turning into a kid and landing on him.
"GET OFF-!" If you listened from the door, you would hear the energetic voice of a child contrasted with the voice of a frustrated young man as they played like children.
Meanwhile, back in the Mather's domain, in the highest room belonging to the lord himself, Roswaal was looking at a book in his hand, his eyes almost crazed.
'WHAT IS THIS! Teacher couldn't have been wrong! It said that only a boy named Natsuki Subaru would arrive. So why is there another man with him!?'
He kept flipping the pages, checking if he had done something wrong somewhere, but he knew for a fact that he hadn't. He started pulling his hair in frustration, thinking that his plans to revive his teacher were all going to fail.
Something had officially gone wrong. Someone cursed has entered into this world. Someone who wasn't invited and who will keep inviting other people with him...