Chapter 371 - Reunion 5

It was only until the day nearly ended that thing settled down and Cecil was freed from all the talks that he was forced to participate in.

Later in the day, Kaiser had returned and was also pulled into the conversation. He was most looking forward to seeing Cecil's fathers-in-law once the 2 came through the gate tomorrow.

Since everything had settled down, Cecil was finally able to reunite with his former party members. The rest of the beastkins have been settled inside the city while Elizabeth, Velicia, Ainz, and Lucius were invited to stay at the Silvaria Estate.

Once everyone got to the estate, Cecil invited them all into the mansion. Lucia and Serilla were both happy and ecstatic to see everyone after so long but after the two greeted the 4, they couldn't help but feel that someone was missing.

"Where's Fina?" Lucia asked after noticing that her best friend wasn't there.

Elizabeth looked a bit troubled for a moment before she quickly replied, "I'll explain things to you 3 later, alright? It's a bit sensitive."

"Oh, alright, well make yourself comfortable. Dinner will be served in a moment so we can all just relax for now. Eli, Veli, we have so much to talk about!"

"Over here, let's leave the boys alone for now. I'm pretty sure they have things they want to talk about amongst themselves," Serilla said before leading the girls to a different lounge.

Being left behind, Cecil stretched his arms tiredly and smirked at the two guys left behind with him.

"Hehe, why don't catch up on things as well? Follow me guys," Cecil said as he lead the two out of the house.

"Where are we going, lead?" Ainz asked.

"To my workshop, we can unwind ourselves there. The servants will come and notify us when dinner's ready."

"Haha, honestly, Cecil, I thought the first thing you'd ask us to do after meeting again for so long, would be to fight you?" Lucius quipped up amusingly.

"My thoughts exactly," Ainz added.

Cecil chuckled when he heard their words and replied, "Haha, well, that'd be pretty uncouth, don't you think? I'd rather go and relax with my friends whom I haven't seen for a long time."

"Woah, what?"

"Who are you and what have you done to Cecil?" Ainz asked skeptically.

"Pfft, come on guys. Is it that unbelievable if I don't want to fight?"

Without missing a beat or even hesitating, the two replied, "Yeah."

"..."

"Hahaha, it's good that you've changed!" Ainz said while slinging his arm around Cecil.

"Damn, you grew taller and more buff, Ainz. You're even bigger than my dad!"

"It's just a matter of genes, but honestly, I didn't think that your father would look like that considering how... small you were..."

"Hah, I took after my mother. I'm just glad I didn't stay short like her or else I'd feel pretty awkward around Lulu and Seri..."

"Yeah, I guess, but I think having a moderate build like how you are right now is pretty okay... having a large build like mine only gives Eli the excuse to beat me down whenever she gets the chance to..."

The three arrived at Cecil's workshop and once they got inside, Cecil led them to the second floor. Just as the two were about to look for a place to sit, Cecil waved his hand and a staircase dropped down from the ceiling.

"Woah, what the heck?"

"Pretty cool right? It's the secret third floor of my workshop."

"H-how? Wasn't the building only 2 stories high?"

Cecil brought the two up and started explaining.

"Well, that's because I created the third floor using spatial arrays. There was a hollowed-out area on the top of the building that I purposefully made just to try things out. After expanding the small space using my new spatial arrays and stabilizing it using a few new arrays I developed, I was able to create this private room."

"I have no idea what you just said but this is cool," Ainz replied after taking a look around the place.

Cecil had placed a lot of recreational facilities inside the room and it was a pretty good place for one to relax in. Ainz found some board games in the room and noticed that they weren't the ones that he was familiar with.

"Ah, those are my world's board games. There's Shogi, Chess, Checkers, Go, and some other things."

"They all sound pretty simple, how do you play them?"

"Well, learning to move the pieces is pretty simple but strategizing a way to defeat your opponent is where it gets complicated. I'll teach you how to play them later, right now, why don't we have a nice long chat?"

"That's good. We should catch up on what we've been doing during the past few years," Lucius replied. Ainz nodded in agreement and the 3 all found a place to sit down.

Cecil naturally started the talk and informed them about what he had been up to during the past 4 years since they separated. Hearing the rough summary of his adventures caused both Ainz and Lucius to let out a sigh.

"What's up?" Cecil asked.

"Nah, it's just... nothing's changed for you, huh?" Ainz said.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, even when we were back in the academy, we constantly went out on journeys to subdue monsters, look for rare materials, and stuff like that."

"Yeah, so?"

"Isn't that what you've mostly been doing for the past few years?"

"...I guess..."

"Other than the fact that you took in an apprentice, got married to both Lucia and Serilla, and finally found your family, not much has changed, right?"

"Haha, I guess you're right! Except now that I've finally found my family, I'm thinking that settling down and leading a peaceful life up until I finally pass on doesn't seem to be pretty bad... I've had my fair share of adventure and stuff like that."

"You're still too young to be thinking like that, Cecil. You should go out and do what you want. Even though you now have your own family, you shouldn't be thinking that settling down is the end game. You should only think about that once you've gotten much much older," Lucius said.

"I guess, well, what have you two been doing in the past years?"

Ainz and Lucius looked at each other before they decided that Ainz would go first.

"I'll start first," Ainz said.

Ainz then started telling Cecil all about his activities after he had left. The party continued staying in the academy until everyone graduated 3 years later. During their time in the academy, Eli and Ainz took the liberty to expand their Little Kings party.

5 more members were added to the party that the old members had deemed to be worthy enough to hold the Little Kings' name. They had the greatest potential and talent among the students that everyone from the Little Kings could find in the academy.

The old members naturally trained these 5 new members until their abilities were at least close to or on par with them. From there, Eli decided that it would be better if they could find more people for their small party but they couldn't find anyone that had potential that was at least on par with the previous 5 members that they had found.

Fina then came up with the suggestion of training anyone who had the willingness to come to them and undergo their stringent training courses. Since everyone wanted to keep the party small and only filled with elites, this was a rather good suggestion.

Since then, the Little Kings became more of an organization than a small adventurer party. Now, it wasn't only the students of the academy or the personnel of the adventurer guild that knew about them, instead, the entire kingdom knew the name of the Little Kings.

It was an elitist organization that took on just about anyone, as long as they were willing, and trained them up to become top-notch warriors and mages. The only requirement was that the individual who wanted to be trained agreed and consented to the tough and arduous training course that the members of Little Kings would put them through.

If they gave up midway, then there won't be a second chance for them to come back and try again. Elizabeth and everyone in the party had set a goal for themselves which was to train as many people as they possibly could.

The prophecy that Cecil had left behind to them was weighing on their minds so this was the only way they could try and ready the people of the nation for the impending danger that may or may not come.

Most of the beastkin who came through the teleportation gate were a part of the large organization that the Little Kings had become. It was no wonder why Cecil felt like there were many beastkin with strong auras that came through the gate since it turns out that almost everyone who came through the gate had undergone the tough training regimen that Cecil had left behind to them.

"Wow, you guys sure have been busy..."

"Of course, not after what you left behind for us..."

"Haha~"

"I feel a little pissed now that I remembered it," Ainz grumbled.

"Ohohohoh~ what are you gonna do about it?" Cecil meaningfully asked with a smirk.

"...Tsk, that's just what you want, huh?"

"Hahaha! Anyway, other than managing the Little Kings, what else do you do Ainz?"

"..." Ainz remained silent and turned his head away. It seemed like he didn't want to reply to him.

Since Ainz didn't want to answer, Lucius was the one who did it for him.

"Eli's been working him to the ground. She's been having him patrol the kingdom's borders while keeping an eye on any news from mercenaries, adventurers, and the kingdom's citizens for any signs of the Fallen. Of course, it wasn't limited to only the kingdom's people. During his time in the academy, Eli's been sending him on missions out of the kingdom with only a handful of people..."

Ainz began groaning on the side and Cecil spoke up and laughed, "So that's why you've become so buffed! Hahahaha, Eli's been working you to the ground!"

"...Please don't remind me...even though she's supposed to be... haaahhh..." Ainz sighed and didn't finish his words.

"She's supposed to be what?" Cecil asked.

"Oh, you didn't know, Cecil?" Lucius asked in surprise.

"About what?"

"You know, those two are now an item."

"Oh...wait, what?!"

"So you really didn't know?"

"Hold on a sec!" Cecil exclaimed before turning back to Ainz. "A-aren't you two like cousins or something?!"

"Yeah, and?" Ainz replied, clearly puzzled by why Cecil was so worked up.

"A-And? W-what do you mean by 'and���?!"

"Ah, I see. Ainz, don't forget that Cecil is a human. He's not used to our customs so it's only natural that he'd be surprised that you're together with Elizabeth who's your cousin."

"Ooh, I see."

Cecil was quick on the uptake so he understood that this sort of relationship wasn't uncommon for the beastkin.

"So it's alright for you guys?"

"As long as the partner isn't a direct relative like a brother or sister then there are no constraints on who we choose as our partner. Also, the royal family does this to keep the dragon bloodline in the family as pure as possible," Ainz replied.

"You won't believe how Elizabeth asked him to be her partner, Cecil! She literally just dropped it on him like an explosion," Lucius snickered.

"Haha, you've got to tell me the details! Anyway, this is news to me though."

"Lucia didn't tell you? I mean, she already knew about our relationship," Ainz asked.

"She didn't!"

"I bet she did but you just glossed over it without paying too much attention to what she said."

"M-maybe... ugh, she might have told me and I just forgot..."

"You should be more attentive, Cecil," Lucius advised him.

Cecil only nodded but he didn't make any promises. Whenever he got too busy with anything, he'd tune out a lot of external things and focus on his task until it was perfectly finished. It was a habit of his that could be described as neither good nor bad.

After asking about Ainz, it was Lucius's turn to talk.