Otherworld Adventure

Matheus and the group traveled day and night towards the Regulus Kingdom's borders. During the journey, Matheus was able to polish up on his combat skills whenever they encountered monsters.

The knights did help him with some of the monsters, but they were mostly there to protect Cecilia and her people.

Celestina would sometimes aid him in the fights, but Matheus would normally handle things on his own. He felt a weird sense of satisfaction whenever he took down a group of monsters all by himself.

It was odd for him because back in the kingdom, he would normally fight against monsters in a group. This was his first time doing it by himself and he found it exhilarating.

Of course, he didn't know that compared to the monsters inside the No-Man's Lands, the monsters outside were much weaker. The monsters inside the No-Man's Lands were naturally of higher ranks because of the difference in mana density.

Only Cecil and Lucia were aware of this due to how sensitive they were to mana, but the two still couldn't find a plausible explanation for this. They only thought it was a natural phenomenon.

Matheus also found out something, the knights in Cecilia and Celestina's group were pretty powerful themselves. They also had much higher mana cultivations than him. The same went for Celestina, who he had grown quite close to.

The reason why they were struggling the other day and had to be saved by him was because they had been exhausted of their mana when they were attacked by those C and B ranked monsters.

Matheus felt a greater need to grow stronger now that he knew that Celestina was a rather high-ranked magus. She had the same cultivation level as his eldest sister, Fatima. She was an Intermediate Level Mana Sea Stage Mage.

When they all heard about Matheus' mana cultivation being quite low, they thought that he was only being kidding. His combat prowess clearly wasn't in the range of someone who was only at the Mana Vapor stage.

He did have enough mana to rival that of a Mana Sea Stage expert so it gave him the stamina and endurance, but most of his combat prowess was reflected off of his skills and martial arts.

It took the group about 2 weeks to arrive at the Regulus Capital City. Matheus didn't understand what kind of nobility rank that a priestess of Revertia held, but it was enough for their group to be granted permission from the king to use their teleportation formation.

"Heh...looks like they finally repaired the castle," Matheus mumbled when he entered into the castle grounds.

He was currently wearing a cloak so no one would recognize him. He had been present at the time when his brother dueled with the second prince whose name he could not remember and had accidentally sent a stray Ascending Blade flying at the castle. Matheus didn't want the king or the former crown prince to see him since they might recognize him.

Celestina had been walking alongside Matheus when he had mumbled out his words and she couldn't help but grow curious.

"Oh, Matty, you knew that the castle had been destroyed before?"

"Well, yes, it was my brother's doing after all," Matheus sheepishly replied.

"Your brother?"

"Mhm, I'm not sure if you've heard, but the Regulus kingdom's second prince was rather—"

"Debaucherous," Celestina finished.

"Oh? Well, I guess you know!"

"...he tried hitting on my sister once before during one of our previous visits to this kingdom...we were still teenagers back then."

"Ah, that must have been rough..."

"Mhm... anyway, about your brother..."

"Oh yeah, well, the same thing happened to my brother's wives. They are quite the beautiful young ladies and they had been coveted by the second prince. He had come close to raping them even..."

"Th-that's horrible!"

"Yes, it was quite horrible. So, when my little brother found out, he was naturally furious and went to seek out justice for them. In the end, he had a little duel with the second prince. Naturally, he won and while venting his anger, he had accidentally—or maybe purposefully, sent one of his techniques at the kingdom's castle and blew away the castle's west walls."

"Y-you're brother...he sounds like a rather frightening young man..."

"Frightening yes, but that's only if you harm his family. The most important thing that you should be wary of is that his wives are his bottom line. If you touch them, then you'll be in for a world of pain. This wasn't the first time he did this. He told me that he nearly razed one of the Machina Reggio Empire's districts just because some duke tried to do something to one of his wives!"

"W-what?!"

Celestina's outburst caused everyone to look back at her questioningly. She cleared her throat and said that it was nothing before turning back to Matheus and asking, "I-is that true? By the way, what do you mean by wives? Does he have more than one?"

"I only heard it from my brother and he isn't one to boast about anything so it's most likely true. And yes, he does have more than one. He's married to two women."

"I-I see..."

"He's rather lucky haha, but I'd prefer just having one!" Matheus said with a chuckle.

Celestina had a rather hopeful look on her face when she heard Matheus's words. It was hidden under her hood so Matheus couldn't see it.

"I-is that so?"

"Yeah," Matheus smiled and looked down at Celestina who blushed and bashfully turned her head away. They had grown quite close to one another on the course of their journey to Regulus's capital. They had grown close to the point where they would lose their sense of time and awareness whenever they began talking to each other.

Cecilia felt rather odd to see her elder sister grow quite close to someone. They had only met for a week or two at most, but her introverted and quiet sister had grown pretty talkative when she was around the young man.

She felt rather happy for her older sister and also quite envious of Matheus. Cecilia herself wanted to have a fun and engaging conversation with her sister as well. It was too bad that Celestina treated her more like a superior than a sister.

After getting permission from the Regulus King, the group was led to a room deep inside of the castle. Inside the room, there was a large magic formation engraved on the floor that was pulsating with a magical light.

Matheus immediately grew curious and quietly whispered to Celestina who was beside him, "Celes, is this the teleportation formation?"

"Yes, the intricate formation carved on the ground is the teleportation formation."

"This is my first time seeing one!"

"I see. Well, let's head on in, shall we?"

"Oho, this is exciting!"

Cecilia said a few words to the court mage who had escorted them here and he began fiddling around with a stone tablet that was situated in the middle of the formation. The group had all stepped in and was standing around in the magic formation, waiting for it to be activated.

"Since this is your first time, let me give you some advice!" Celestina said as she turned to look at the overly excited Matheus.

"Eh? Oh, sure, what is it?"

"Brace yourself. First-time teleporters usually vomit once they reach the other side of the formation. It's like riding on an uncontrollable wyvern!"

"Eh? What?"

Before Matheus could continue questioning her, the teleportation formation began lighting up and activating. The coordinates were inputted and the Regulus kingdom's court mage had already activated the formation.

"O-Oh crap, wait a sec, I haven't prepped myself just yet!"

He immediately grabbed onto the closest object he could find to try and brace himself. The formation shone brightly and Matheus' vision was immediately blanketed by a white light in the next instant.

It wasn't long before the light receded and he regained his vision. He looked around with sweat dripping on his forehead. As he was going through the teleportation formation, it felt like he was stuffed inside a washing machine which spun a few times at high speed before being thrown back out.

He did feel a little nauseous but it wasn't enough to make him throw up. He heaved a little before quickly stabilizing his breath. However, next to him, Matheus heard someone clearing their throat.

"Ah-ahem...C-Can you let go of my hand now?" Celestina stiffly asked.

"Eh?"

Matheus looked down and noticed that he was tightly grabbing onto Celestina's hand. She was about to offer her hand to him earlier, but Matheus had been too busy screaming at himself.

So when he grabbed onto something to brace himself, he naturally grabbed onto Celestina's hand as well as his packhorse's saddle.

"Ah, s-sorry about that...thanks, Celes..." Matheus quickly replied as he let go of her hand.

Celestina blushed under her hood. She felt all warm and happy and couldn't stop herself from grinning.

She was usually blanked face but she couldn't help herself this time. When she turned to look at the young man who was busy calming his horse down, she couldn't help but smile.

Cecilia came up to her and teased, "Hehe, aren't you having a wonderful time~"

"Eh? W-w-what do you mean, Ceci?"

"Hmmm~ I wonder what~?"

Celestina immediately began to pull down on her hood in an attempt to hide away her face.

"Let's go? Everyone else is already waiting for us!" Matheus walked over with his packhorse and said before walking past the two girls.

He was rather curious if he had indeed transferred from the Regulus capital all the way out to some other city outside of the kingdom. The group walked out but the Regulus court mage stayed behind.

When Matheus turned around to see what was going on, the teleportation formation began glowing once again and a bright light enveloped the room. When it died down moments later, he noticed that the mage was no longer inside the room.

All that was left was a big empty room with the dimly lit magic formation still inside pulsating with light just like before.

"...He disappeared... so we did transfer to another place, incredible..."

Cecilia led the group out of the building they were in. Along the way, they were verified of their identities at some kind of checkpoint station. The people there seem to have recognized Cecilia so the group was immediately allowed through without any problems or questioning.

When Matheus took a look around the city, he was still quite shocked to find that it wasn't the Regulus capital city anymore. He couldn't help but let out an impressed and amazed voice at this, "Haha, really incredible, magic can do so much."

"We'll rest up here for today. We should also need to get ourselves a new wagon and a few new mounts!" The old captain informed. Cecilia nodded in agreement and began leading the party towards an inn.

The captain went to look for a place to buy a wagon and some new mounts. Celestina advised Matheus to look for a new one as well since the terrain in the neutral territory was rather treacherous and a normal mount like a horse wouldn't last long in the new environment.

"Hmm, I'll go look for one then."

"I-I'll go too!"

"Sure, thanks, Celes."

"Y-yeah..."