Otherworld Adventure

With the serious talk finally over, Cecil and Lucia began preparing a home-cooked dinner for their parents.

Seeing the two working together in harmony in the kitchen brought bright, warm smiles to Anna and Zaki's face.

The two quickly finished cooking a meal, it was another dish from Earth and it was the infamous Ramen.

Of course, when Cecil learned that Lucia had successfully replicated the noodles from Earth using ingredients from Alterna, he just had to have them. They had been experimenting and creating various combinations of seasonings for the ramen and finally, Cecil had found one that was acceptable and close in taste to one of his favorite ramen flavors.

Thus for dinner, he had to have his foster parents have a taste of his world's dishes. They had called out Fina to join the family for dinner, but before they started, a Misty Gate had suddenly opened up in the middle of the room.

Zaki and Anna turned a curious eye at the gate.

"Hey! Yuna's back!" Lucia said, as she made her way to the gate. In the next moment, Yuna walked out with an over-sized Silver following behind her. Silver quickly shrunk back down to puppy sized and Lucia picked him up.

"Hey, Yuna~ what took you so long?"

"Ugh... some annoying flies came buzzing around. Good thing Silver came along and swatted them away..."

"Flies?" Lucia tilted her head in confusion. Shouldn't Yuna be able to swat any kind of fly away?

"...it's a long story. Never mind that, I smell something very delectable!"

"We're having Ramen for dinner~"

"Ooohhh~ another one of those unusual dishes you two create!" Yuna immediately noticed the unfamiliar couple that was also at the table when she looked over.

Lucia saw where she was looking at and she quickly introduced.

"Those two are my parents!"

"O-oh!! The mother and father of Lucia," Yuna quickly walked forward before giving the two a gesture of respect in Ancient Draconic. "It's my pleasure to finally meet you two, Ma'am, Sir."

"Hmhmhm~ who knew, that an Ancient Dragon would actually be a friend of my little girl~" Anna said as she returned the gesture. Zaki copied his wife and did the same.

Yuna was naturally surprised seeing this. Normally, no one would know how to return such an ancient gesture of respect. Furthermore, Anna actually knew about her identity as an Ancient Dragon even when she was in her humanoid form.

Anna smiled and did another gesture which only Yuna seemed to understand.

"!"

"Heheh~ how's the old man these days?"

"...Ancestor is... well, same old same old. I didn't actually think that–"

"Now~ let's have dinner?" Anna quickly cut her off and asked the rest.

"Oh, wait mama! I'll go fetch everyone else, wait a bit."

Lucia turned towards Cecil and extended her hand. Cecil naturally understood what she wanted so he grabbed her hand and activated Mana Sense. He quickly spread his sense to the entire academy district and quickly located their 3 friends.

Once he gave Lucia the visual feedback from his Mana Sense, she quickly waved her hand and opened a Misty Gate, to Anna and Zaki's surprise, and stepped through it. Cecil had tried to grab onto the girl, but was a little too late. It seemed that he still had something to say to her, but Lucia was already gone.

Cecil could only shrug and think in his head, 'It's not my fault Lulu, totally not my fault."

The first one Lucia met was Velicia. After a couple of minutes, Lucia came back with the tigerkin girl. She repeated the process one more time and fetched both Ainz and Elizabeth together in the same manner.

When everyone was there, Lucia immediately began apologizing to her friends for taking them away from their family gathering. For Velicia, there weren't many complications, just the initial surprise when suddenly some weird magic had opened up in the middle of the room and a foxkin girl walking out of it.

It was much more awkward when she had to go fetch Ainz and Elizabeth. The two were together in the same place and they were in a hall together with many nobility of the Kingdom, including Eli's father, the current King of the Anglaria Kingdom. Technically, Lucia was trespassing and many of the King's Guards had raised their weapons at her.

It was a good thing that Eli quickly stepped in and cleared up the misunderstanding. She then asked for permission from her father so that she and Ainz may be dismissed from the 'gathering'. Lucia was able to see Lance and Zephyr as well as many other people of the Arks Royal Family. She pretended to stay oblivious to all this however.

But, even after all of Eli's explanations, some people in the hall had still wanted to detain Lucia, most likely due to the unique magic spell that she used when she teleported into the hall, but they were met with a cold, deathly glare from Elizabeth.

The dragonkin girl had gained power much stronger than most of the people in the hall. Besides the King, the Royal Guard Captain, the Headmaster and the Kingdom's Sword Saintess who were present, no other person would be able to stop her if she wanted to walk out of that hall.

The King only took one glance at Lucia and let them go. Lucia thanked the King and opened another Misty Gate which brought them to Cecil's residence.

"...Headmaster Elufied... is she the one?"

"Yes, your majesty."

"Hmmm... she knows magic similar to your Space Gate."

"Yes! It's the first time I'm seeing it though!"

"...as expected of a Sage's daughter... Oh sorry, maybe I should say Demon Empress?"

"Ahaha~ please don't associate master with that title anymore. She's peacefully living her life here. It's best not to provoke such a character."

"Hmhm...I guess you're right." The King chuckled in response.

*****

"Jeez, Lucia! What were you thinking barging in like that?!" Eli reprimanded right when they got back to Cecil's residence.

"S-sorry... I didn't think you two were at some gathering..." Lucia apologized with an awkward smile.

"Tsk, brat, you almost made me lose face earlier! What's with the 'Hey guys~ dinners ready?' Seriously, and you say I have no tact!" Ainz exasperatedly said.

"H-how was I supposed to know! Cecil's mana sen–" Lucia narrowed her eyes and turned an eye to the boy.

Cecil was doing his best to hold back a smile and laugh. He tried, but the tears welling up in his eyes gave him away.

"CEEEEEEELLLLLLL!!!"

Lucia immediately pounced on him and began biting his face and head.

"O-ouch! S-stop, I didn't do it on purpose! Ouch! Cut it out!"

As the two were quarrelling, Ainz, Eli and Velicia quickly introduced themselves to Lucia's parents. They took their seats and waited for the two foxkin to stop quarrelling.

"Jeez, I was just about to tell you, but you just had to hastily go through the gate," Cecil grumbled as he began eating his ramen.

"Hmph. The least you could do was come with me!"

"How?! You came and went so quickly!"

"Tsk... excuses."

"They're logical excuses."

"Hmph."

"..."

Cecil pinched his brow, but the decided to continue eating his ramen happily. Lucia saw this and immediately began kicking him under the table.

Cecil only turned a helpless look at her, but all Lucia did was harrumph and continuing kicking him while eating her noodles.

Lucia's parents were smiling warmly at the two, while their friends were busy wolfing down the deliciously unique 'soup pasta'.

"Hey Lucia, Cecil, slluuurrrpp, this soup pasta, sluurrrp, ish really tashty!!" Velicia commented while eating.

"Don't speak with your mouthful Veli," Fina said as she handed the girl a napkin.

"Yeah, Vel... but this pasta sure is tasty! The soup is awesome too!" Ainz said.

Hearing them call the Ramen, pasta, Cecil had to correct them.

"It's called Ramen, not pasta you guys."

"Raw men?" Velicia replied dumbly.

"R-A-M-E-N...Ramen!" Cecil exclaimed. Velicia's response made his face twitch uncontrollably, but he couldn't get mad at her. "If ramen's too hard to say then just call them noodles!"

"...Nude elves?" This time it was Eli who responded.

Cecil smacked his forehead in agony. His favorite food was being reduced to a new level of low. While Cecil was holding his head in agony, Lucia was already laughing at him.

"Hahaha~ Cel, Cel!!! Your favorite food! Hahaha~ it's... pwahahaha~"

"Lucia, where are your table manners?" Anna softly reprimanded.

"S-sorry mother...fufufufu~" She tried stifling her laugh, but to no avail. Cecil gave her a blank look which earned him another round of stifled laughter.

His shoulders drooped and he quietly continued eating his Ramen. This was the last time he would reproduce an Earth dish that had an easily misunderstood name.

Still, he was happy to see that everyone was enjoying the food, although Ainz was being stupid and drinking the soup with a straw. Who drinks soup with a straw?! This isn't a drink!!!

Cecil laughed helplessly and relished in the warm atmosphere. The nostalgic food caused him to remember his family.

'I hope you're all okay...'

*******

Silvaria City, 10 months after the Transmigration Incident, the entire valley settlement had officially transformed into a self-sufficient city. With the Silvaria family at the helm, the population of the city was able to prosper and claim more land around them.

Inside the large valley, a large-scale city with walls surrounding it was found within. The sturdy metal ramparts that surrounded the city gave off a very powerful feeling of deterrence and intimidation.

Outside of the city's walls, up on a plateau on the mountainside of the Sky-piercing Mountains, was another rampart-surrounded complex.

This was the Silvaria Family's private grounds. The Main household and the martial arts field of the Silvaria family were housed on these cordoned grounds.

To the populace of the city, this area was hallowed grounds. Any person from the city that had the fortunate opportunity to be selected to train inside the place for a month would come out as a whole new person.

Inside these hallowed grounds, a petite woman wearing a large straw hat was tending to the garden situated just behind the Main Household's mansion. It was Cecil's mother, Anastasia Silvaria. The little woman was still a little despondent, but she was much livelier than when they first came to Alterna.

It's almost been a year since she was separated from her precious son, but she had to pull herself together for her family. It wasn't only Cecil who needed her attention, but also the rest of her sons and daughters who were still with her.

Over the past months, the city was completed and the system, security, politics, economy, and agriculture had been fully established to a functional degree. With the high adaptability of humans and with the leadership of the Silvaria family, they were able to re-establish a functioning government.

The lives of the populace were finally stable and safe. No longer was there anyone that would suddenly die due to illness or monster attacks. There was a bigger emphasis on the military section in Silvaria City, however.

With the occasional attacks of monster waves and the establishment of the Military Academy alongside the normal schools, martial prowess and individual combat strength had become a huge norm in society now.

This was also why the Silvaria Family's Private Grounds, or better yet known to the populace, the Silvaria Martial Sanctum, was viewed as an important place in the hearts of the people.

The Silvaria family was always training martial artists to counteract and fend off the monster waves that attacked the city. Without them, the future of the settlement would have been very bleak.

"Phew... looks like I'm finished for today... let's go pick up Angel from school~"

The petite woman got up and quickly dusted herself off. She picked up the gardening tools she was using and placed them inside a woven basket and went back towards the Main Mansion.

She looked up at the clear blue sky and saw the two moons. She was reminded of Cecil somehow so she smiled brightly and said,

"Little Cel... wherever you are in this world, I hope you're enjoying yourself~"