Otherworld Adventure 266 Four Years

"See ya Mom, love you Mom, I'll be back later after cla.s.s~~!" The girl called out as she raced away on top of a large black cat.

This young girl was Angelia Silvaria and the black cat was her pet panther, Mao. 4 years had pa.s.sed by and she was now about to turn 12 years old. She was heading off to school and she had already promised her friends that she'd be partying up with them later when they ventured out of the valley with the teachers.

As for why Anastasia was yelling at her to quickly come back, this was because Angelia had tricked her into signing the dungeon exploration request that every student in school needed to have their parents sign in order to be let into the dungeon that was found near the back of the valley.

Unlike the normal dungeons that were teeming with materials with a sporadic amount of monsters, this dungeon was filled with monsters and would only open up during set intervals. This was something known as a Raid Dungeon and these dungeons contained rare monsters of varying ranks whose bodies obviously had rare materials waiting to be harvested.

As for why a school would be having their excursion in such a dangerous place, this was because from the info that was obtained after numerous explorations into the dungeon, the rare monsters found inside were only those of D-C rank, monsters that could be easily handled by students who were trained to use their mana.

Over the past 4 years, Fatima was able to provide many materials and ideas to the city from the outside that helped advance their people's knowledge, power and individual combat prowess. New technologies were created using this knowledge and the education system of the earthlings had undergone a ma.s.sive overhaul.

The students were now not only learning about normal knowledge like mathematics, science, and social studies, but also about martial arts, mana, runes, magi-tech, and the like.

They were also required to learn the common language of the new world they were in so that later when anyone decided to adventure out into the world, they'd be able to communicate with the people outside.

Angelia was speeding through the valley's highway on Mao. She pa.s.sed by steam-powered wagons, carriages, bikes, and sometimes other monsters who were traveling on the highway.

Many things have changed after 4 years. The humans were able to build steam engines that didn't run on coal, but rather, fire magic. This was something that Fatima had been able to acquire for her people during her time outside of the kingdom.

There was also another thing that had to be mentioned. The large valley that Angelia's family had been managing has officially been acknowledged by the Regulus Kingdom as the Silvaria Kingdom.

Since a year ago, her family had somehow become royalty and she was now a legitimate princess. The King and Queen were her parents and oddly enough, the entire population had even acknowledged this as well. It was funny, but she even heard that her eldest sister would be marrying the Regulus Kingdom's 3rd Prince.

This was also why she would sometimes find a charming young man at their family's estate, which was now practically their castle, who would come and challenge her father to a duel in the name of proving himself worthy to take her eldest sister's hand in marriage.

Up until today, that man was on a constant losing streak, but even then he would return at least once or twice a month to challenge her father.

"Uhm... big sis should already be at the school by now... I hope she hasn't returned to the Regulus Kingdom...that awful war has already lasted for a year by now... those people better not think about taking advantage of big sis and have her move out to the frontlines again to act as their strategist...I don't care if he's a prince, I'll have Mao rip his face off if he dares put my sis in danger!"

"ROAR!"

"Right?! I knew you'd agree with me, Mao~!"

Angelia didn't take long to arrive at school. Her school was very large, it was practically a campus that integrated primary, middle, and high school together. The college, for anyone who wanted to continue their education, was located only next to their school campus.

Her entrance caused quite a stir, but people were already used to this. She quickly found her friends waiting for her by the school's water fountain so she kicked off of Mao and landed right in front of them.

"Morning!"

"Holy—dammit, Angelia, can't you arrive normally?!" A boy cried out in shock when someone suddenly landed right next to him.

"Morning, Angelia~"

"Morning!"

"Let's go in guys!" Angelia said. Mao had transformed into his small cat form and was already on the girl's shoulder.

"Good Morning, Mao!"

"h.e.l.lo, little Mao~ you want a cracker~?" A young girl with frilly, dirty-blonde hair asked as she waved a cracker in front of Mao. Mao only looked at it and ignored the cracker. He was totally uninterested in that unappetizing looking thing.

"Awww... he ignored me..."

"Hehehe~ Mao is just like that, don't be sad Xin!"

The young girl name Xin only sighed in response. "You're so lucky Angie, you've got a battle pet! I want one too, but my parents won't let me keep a pet in the house!"

"Well, they are pretty expensive to buy and take care of!" The other girl said. This one was a little taller than the rest of her friends. She had short hair and sported an athletic body build. Her name was Marylyn Stromm, and she was a daughter of the Stromm household, who was a part of the city council.

Xin was the same. Her full name was Xin Argent and she was from the Argent household. The families who were a member of the city council had basically become duke families if they were going down the hierarchy.

Kaiser naturally didn't want to implement such a backward system, so he made sure to keep the n.o.ble peerages limited to only the people in the city council and the ones appointed by them. Each duke could appoint one marquis family.

The Generals in the army would be appointed Counts. The governors of the cities that were outside of the valley were appointed as viscounts while the mayors of the towns outside of the valley were appointed barons.

These t.i.tles wouldn't be hereditary or inheritable. They were only attached to their occupations so while the governors and mayors were still in office, they'd be viscounts and barons. Once they were replaced, these t.i.tles would be inherited by the next person in office.

The army Generals' conditions were the same, except that even after their retirement, they'd still receive the benefits of being a count, just not the t.i.tle. The marquis were managed by the dukes so it wasn't the Silvaria family's problem on how to manage them.

The only thing that Kaiser demanded from the dukes was that there could only ever be 1 marquis family under them. If a family decides to relinquish their duties then their t.i.tles and power would be stripped and the duke families would have to appoint another to take their place.

As for the dukes, their t.i.tles were hereditary. As long as they remained on the council, their descendants would forever be dukes. Another thing, the council themselves could appoint or remove another duke family as long as they get the votes of more than half of the families on the city council.

Actually, it shouldn't be called city council anymore. It was now the Kingdom Council.

Each of the other 5 duke families manages a single sector of the kingdom's governance. Only the Silvarias had a hand in each sector and this was something absolute since they were essentially the royal family of the newfound kingdom.

The members of the Kingdom Council were the Silvaria Family, the head of the Council and the Kingdom's Royal family; the Heimdall family, which manages the Internal Affairs of the Kingdom; the Sciezle Family, which manages the Kingdom's Foreign Affairs; the Coppernium Family, which manages the Kingdom's Economy; the Stromm Family, which manages the Kingdom's Military; and Finally, the Argent family, which manages the Kingdom's Educational Sector.

There were some other sectors, like the Magical Research and Development Sector, but those were personally managed by the Silvarias. Later when they get more capable hands to help, they'd naturally appoint them to take on the position of being a duke family.

"Hey, Robin, did you see my sister coming to school this morning?" Angelia called out to the only boy in their 4-man group.

The delicate looking boy wearing gla.s.ses was Robin Coppernium. He was one of the few boys in Angelia's circle of friends. He looked at Angelia and replied while yawning,

"I saw her come in early this morning. She was with her fiancé if I'm not mistaken."

"Tch, that bug again."

"B-b-bug?! Angie! Watch your words, that man is a genuine prince from an actual royal family!" Robin said as he quickly moved to cover the girl's mouth.

"Hey Robby~ don't you know that what you're doing right now is disrespectful to THIS kingdom's royal family~?" Xin teased.

"C-c.r.a.p!"

"Save it Robin...it's something that happened a year ago, even now, I still don't feel like anything's changed at all!"

While the group was taking their leisure time to get to cla.s.s, the students around them suddenly started to make haste to eagerly get to cla.s.s.

"Let's hurry to cla.s.s! Today Miss Fatima is going to be teaching a joint cla.s.s!"

When Angelia overheard their words, she was mildly surprised. Her sister was indeed a teacher at the school, but she hardly ever taught cla.s.ses anymore. It was probably because the war over at Regulus Kingdom was intensifying that she moved back here and most likely suspended her search of their brother.

"Let's go!"

******

When cla.s.s was over, Angelia pulled her big sis over to the side and began asking questions.

"Sis, how long are you planning on staying? Much longer than the last time I hope!"

Fatima was already a fine young woman 4 years ago so that short amount of time hadn't really changed her much. She still looked the same as she was years ago, only her demeanor had gotten a little softer and much gentler than before. She wasn't as cold as she was back then at least.

"I'll be staying for around a month or so before I head back to Regulus with—"

"That bug?"

"Eh?"

"W-wow...that really hurt..." A voice said from behind the two girls.

"Oh, Prince Rowan...I didn't see you there," Angelia replied curtly.

"R-Rowan... I-I... Angel, I want you to apologize right now!" Fatima said as she scolded her sister.

"No thanks sis! I'm not going to apologize to some dude who suddenly comes up to our door to take you away!"

"Angie...I'm turning 25 this year...do you really want to keep your sister single forever?"

"Hmph, don't care! You still haven't fulfilled our promise! You still haven't found big brother Cel, yet! Anyways, I'm not going to approve of this! Our entire family needs to approve of him! That includes big brother Cel!" Angelia said before she stomped away.

"Angie, wait a minute!" Fatima quickly turned to Rowan who had a helpless expression on his face.

"Don't worry Ima, your sister is just really attached to you, I see that she really loves you so it's alright." Rowan replied with a gentle smile.

"S-sorry, Rowan..."

"Don't be, and besides, Angel is right, I'll earn your entire family's approval before I wed you! Don't worry. I'll earn it without fail so the first thing we should do is quickly find your brother!"

"O-okay...but do you even have time? I mean, with the war and all—"

"Don't worry about that. The war and this are 2 different things. Besides, my father and my elder brothers are taking care of that!"

Fatima nodded before she went and chased after Angelia. Rowan who was left behind could only sigh a little in defeat.