Chapter 308 - Seeking Approval

After dinner, the family moved to the dojo.

Cecil felt that the place was a little nostalgic. His father had built the dojo with the same design as the one from back on Earth. He placed a palm on the worn wooden posts in the dojo and walked around for a bit.

"It's practically the same..."

"Of course, how else do you think, Father would build it?" Kaiser said with a laugh.

Cecil smiled a little and continued walking around. Rowan had finished changing and was now wearing the dojo's uniform.

"Oh! I almost forgot about that uniform. Should I go get changed as well?"

"Here you go sweety," Anastasia said as she handed her son a uniform. Cecil looked at the uniform and smiled.

"When did mother get the time to make this for me?"

"Well, you were asleep for a while so I had Lucia help me make that in her free time."

Cecil nodded and headed in the direction of the locker room. The dojo had the same design so he already knew where it was once he took his time to remember.

When he walked out, Lucia and Serilla were attracted to his looks while wearing the uniform. Anastasia smiled happily when she saw the familiar clothes her son was wearing, but then she screeched in horror.

"CECIL SILVARIA!!! W-What are those?!" Anastasia moved up to Cecil and parted the upper part of the loose uniform. The family also looked over and saw the runic markings on Cecil's body.

No one had noticed it before because he was previously bandaged up and Lucia and Serilla would take care of cleaning him when he was unconscious. The World Tree's runes were normally covered up, but the top part of the uniform showed a lot of his chest and collar area. It was no wonder that Anastasia finally noticed the markings.

Cecil grabbed his forehead in pain. 'Ahhh...I knew mother would freak out...'

"Explain yourself right now, young man!" Anastasia bellowed. Kaiser and the grandparents didn't say anything, but they were a little unhappy. The tattoos that were spread all along his upper body and seemed to continue down to his lower body made him look like some kind of delinquent.

"I-I can explain, Mom! Y' see, I did tell you about those trials from before right? These markings are runes and they were a part of the reward!"

"Hmph!"

"P-Please believe me, Mom! L-Look, see the markings, these are runes and my weapons also have the same runes on them! This signifies that I own them!" Cecil said as he magically started pulling out all 4 of his World Tree's Thorns from his spatial ring.

The Thorns indeed had similar markings on their blades, but this revelation didn't make Anastasia one bit appeased.

"L-Look, Mom, I didn't want these as well, but they were given to me by the World Tree! If I activate the runes on my body and the weapons, I'm able to use the Thorns' special abilities."

"I don't care, I still don't like them. Get rid of it!"

"H-How?! These aren't tattoos that can be erased!"

"Tsk..."

"Honey, let's just leave it at that. Cecil has given us an explanation and we should believe him. Besides, now that I look at it a little more, they don't look so bad. It makes him look a little manlier, just look at his wives blushing over there in the corner."

"..."

"..."

Serilla immediately looked down with a red face while Lucia could only laugh awkwardly in response.

"Hmph...I still don't like them..."

"But your son even said that he can't remove them. Are you going to hate him as well?"

"Tsk...fine, but if I see anymore, you're dead meat young man!" Anastasia said as she eyed Cecil threateningly.

"Y-Yes, Mom!" Cecil responded as he quickly pulled up his uniform. He sighed in relief and gave his father a thankful look.

He walked over to Rowan and said, "Sorry about that, let's have our match now."

"S-Sure, but... those swords that you pulled out earlier...are those really the World Tree's Thorns?"

"Of course, have you heard of them before?"

"Y-Yes, there are 12 in total and they are the demi-humans' sacred weapons! I hear that all the holders are spread across the world. A majority of them are demi-humans, but I hear there's a demonkin and spiritfolk who each own a Thorn."

"Hmmm~ well, I know that the Elves have one or two. Probably the beastkin, beastmen, and giants have them as well. I didn't think you humans would know about it."

"O-Of course we would know. In history, those weapons were at the forefront of the demi-humans' invasion of Midgard!"

Cecil nodded and lifted his swords over to him with his Intent. They began orbiting around his body and this magical ability caused everyone in the dojo to widen their eyes in shock. Some disciples were heading back to their dorms inside the compound, but they noticed that the dojo's lights were on and decided to check in what was up.

They saw the Silvaria Main Family present inside so they found someplace to sit at to observe what was happening.

Cecil stretched his hand and the Thorns shot into his spatial ring. He stretched a little and asked Rowan.

"I've taken a look, but you're able to use mana and you look built enough to fight. Are you perhaps a hybrid?"

"Hybrid? Oh, yes. I'm a magic swordsman."

"I see... hmmm... Wow, you're a primary lightning attribute mage! How rare. Your secondary attribute is water and it seems you can also use a little bit of wind." Cecil said as he observed Rowan with his Mana Eyes.

"H-How?!"

Cecil gestured at his eyes and said, "My eyes are a little special."

"..."

"Your cultivation is a little low so I guess I'll limit mine to the Sea Stage as well."

"N-no, please don't limit yourself!"

"Hm?"

"I don't want to fight you with a handicap!"

"You sure about that?"

"Yes!"

Cecil thought for a moment and shrugged. "Well, this won't be much of a match. I can use mana now, but if you think you can take this attack, I'll consider this match your win."

Cecil activated his Mana Burst and raised a hand in the air. Mana began to gather on his outstretched palm and a small bolt of mana formed. More and more mana continued to gather and this bolt of mana grew larger and larger.

Rowan, who was looking at the glowing Cecil who was radiating an absurd amount of mana, began to visibly pale.

"L-Little brother, maybe I will use that handicap," Rowan lightly suggested with a strained look. He knew for certain that if he took on this man's attack, he would undoubtedly die.

On the sidelines, Fatima was already starting worriedly at Rowan while at times she couldn't help but cast a glare in Cecil's direction. Cecil himself flinched whenever Fatima cast that hurtful look at him.

'I-It's not my fault big sis! He didn't want me to hold back!'

After Cecil heard Rowan's words, he immediately retracted his mana, and the large globe of mana in the air quickly shrunk down.

"You're really powerful..." Rowan said.

"Hmm... of course, if I wasn't, did you think I'd be able to walk across 2 continents to find my family?" Cecil replied with a smirk.

"Well, let's get started. I won't use too much mana or any mana at all, so come at me."

Rowan nodded and started circulating the mana inside his body.

Lucia saw that they were using mana and most likely magic spells so she stepped forward and immediately cast a barrier around the ring Cecil and Rowan were fighting on.

"Did you do something Lucia?" Fatima asked.

"Yup, I just cast a barrier around them so they could fight and use mana as they wish without destroying the dojo. Although I say fight, just to be frank sister Fatima, my Cel won't lose~"

"Despite how much I'd like to refute that, that's the only outcome I can see from their fight..."

Lucia giggled and turned her eyes back to the fight.

Rowan had activated a few strengthening techniques and spells and had rushed straight at Cecil with a sword. Cecil had already informed Rowan about the barrier that Lucia had placed so the Prince didn't hesitate to use any magic spells.

Large arcs of lightning and multiple wind spells flew at Cecil. This was the first time that anyone, other than Fatima, has seen Rowan use magic spells so they couldn't help but turn curious and paid rapt attention at the fight.

Cecil waited until the spells got into range before he deflected them with the practice sword he was using. Rowan was surprised because deflecting magic spells were something only in the domain of swordmasters.

He didn't see Cecil cast a spell so he assumed that his opponent had relied only on his sword to deflect his spells.

"You're a Sword Master?"

"I'm not sure what you mean by that, but you better dodge away from this," Cecil replied as he swung out lightly and sent a weakened Ascending Blade at Rowan.

Rowan immediately dodged away, but he was met with a flurry of weakened Ascending Blades sent at him. He desperately tried to dodge all of them, but he was unfortunately struck by one of them.

The Ascending Blade didn't cleave him in two, but it had smashed him away and caused Rowan to slam onto the barrier. He felt the wind get knocked out of him, but he gritted his teeth and jumped away.

A few Ascending Blades struck his previous locations, but Rowan darted straight at Cecil and began fighting him in a melee.

"Hoh! Aren't you the brave one?"

Cecil and Rowan exchanged a few blows for a while and Cecil was able to determine the exact skill level Rowan was at with the sword. It wasn't anything special in Cecil's eyes, but he was satisfied with Rowan's abilities.

Other than the first time he attacked with a flurry of Ascending Blades, Cecil only met Rowan's attacks head-on with the practice sword in his hand. He responded appropriately to Rowan's spells and attacks.

The fight only ended when Rowan collapsed on the ground in exhaustion. Cecil walked over to him and said, "Well, you did lose, but you've still got my approval. At least to me, you've proven that you're capable of protecting my sister."

"Haah...haa... t-thank you...haaa..." Rowan replied gratefully.

"Just don't make my sister regret marrying you..."

"D-Don't worry! I���ll make her happy for the rest of her life!"

"Hmm~ that's good. That's what I wanted to hear."

Cecil healed Rowan of his injuries and walked over to Lucia and Serilla.

"Phew... that was a good workout. My circuits are back to normal now so there's no need for you two to worry anymore!"

"Big brother, big brother!" Angelia called out to him excitedly.

"Hm?"

"That large golden ball you showed us at the start of the fight and the golden waves of mana you swung at Rowan during the match, what was that?!"

Cecil immediately remembered about his family's martial arts manual that he had converted into a Mana Cultivation method and said, "I'll tell you about it tomorrow. Father and Grandfather should be there too."

"Alright," Kaiser responded. He then told Cecil and Rowan to go shower and change. He brought the rest of the family back to the main mansion.

After a quick shower, Cecil and Rowan were heading back together to the main residence.

"...Thank you...for giving me the chance," Rowan abruptly said.

"Hm? Haah...like I said earlier, whether you want to marry my sister, that's your choice. If you have her consent, then go ahead." Cecil sighed in reply.

"Ahaha...it's just I didn't expect you to agree so readily. I thought you'd be the most against it..."

"What makes you think that?"

"Well...everyone in the family except for Mother, Grandmother, Gabriel, didn't approve of me. Many even strongly opposed to it. I thought you would be the same."

Cecil only shrugged and said in reply, "I'm married myself. I can't say no to a man who's essentially abandoned his kingdom just to stay with my sister..."

"Huh?"

"Rowan Regulus... I assume you should be some Prince from the Regulus Kingdom, right?"

"Y-Yeah..."

"I just heard from my butler that your kingdom's army was spotted somewhere within the mountain pass."

"..."

"Don't worry. I won't hold it against you, but you better be prepared tomorrow. I won't hesitate to wipe out their army if you can't stop them from attacking."

"...Yes..."

Cecil nodded at him and walked ahead into the mansion. Rowan looked back at Cecil's receding figure and sighed.

"...What can I do? The army will perish without a doubt..." Rowan mumbled as he looked up at the night sky. Cecil had just given him a chance to try and persuade his Kingdom's army from attacking, but the chances of him succeeding were practically nil.