Chapter 31. Return

“Ken. Time to get up, you will get teleported soon.” Lovetta whispers sadly to the young man sleeping next to her peacefully.

Just like that, ten days had passed and at 9 this morning, Ken’s necklace would activate, and he would be teleported back home for the remainder of the break.

“Can’t you just stay here with me, and it will be just the two of us for the rest of our lives and we can grow old together and live happily ever after.” Lovetta asked, staring at Ken as the young man slowly opened his eyes.

“If we have met under different circumstances, maybe that would have been an option, but I can imagine Clare gathering an army and come marching if we don’t show up at the academy.” Ken joked.

After the two got up and got ready, Ken greeted Lovetta’s family in the living room and the group was able to enjoy some hearty breakfast. While Zeev would never admit that he was there to send Ken off, he and Ruth showed up bright and early as he and Ken had grown very friendly and Ken promised the next time he visited, the sparring would not end how it did this time.

Saying goodbye to the rest of the family wasn’t easy as well. Like most children, Tina took a liking to Ken right away as he was a natural with kids since he grew up with so many siblings and young kids at the village. Lovetta’s mom Anita was also very fond of Ken from early on as well since he was such a hard worker and good at doing all the chores and always helped out without ever needing to be asked. And of course, Boris ended up liking Ken so much that he even offered to remove the protection on his own daughter.

“Well, we are glad to have met you boy. As long as you treat my daughter right, you will always be welcomed here as family.”

“I can promise that I would never do anything on purpose to harm Lovetta in any way. Thank you so much for having me over and staying with the family, letting me be part of Zeev’s wedding ceremony and being so kind to me over the past ten days.” Ken replied sincerely while Lovetta gave him one final hug before the necklace started glowing and Ken disappeared from the living room of the Wulric family and teleported away from the great forest of Chelmswell.

With Ken gone, Lovetta spent the rest of her break training with her brother and father on different techniques doing her best to keep herself busy, so she doesn’t have time to think about Ken or how much she missed him.

Before Ken even opened his eyes after he got teleported, he was tackled by Genesis and Emma as the two girls were waiting impatiently for him to return home.

Greeting the pair with a smile and big hug, Ken and the girls entered the house and Ken was once again surrendered by his younger siblings and the group happily and excitedly chatted and asked Ken all about his adventures at the academy and what he did when he was staying with Lovetta.

For Ken, when he saw how much healthier all of his siblings looked compared to the last time he was home, he felt a sense of relief even when he knew he left them plenty of money so food should no longer be an issue.

With the family happily united, Ken spent the next 10 days at home teaching his younger siblings things he had learned from the academy, chatted with and visited all of the villagers and thanked them for the continued care and celebrated Genesis’s birthday by taking the whole family to the capital so they could have a proper feast.

Not only was the dinner amazing, When Ken brought out the cake he ordered, his younger siblings went wild with how delicious the cake tasted and how they wished they could eat it every day just to be warned by Emma that cake is dangerous and should only be had on rare occasions.

Since newly selected starts academy life one week earlier than the rest, Emma signed up to get back to work early so she could make that extra overtime money and likewise, Ken decided to join her and return to academy one week early so he could help out with the entrance exam for some extra money but more importantly he wanted to see all the new students and relive the nostalgia day where he ended up getting a big fat zero.

While in the kingdom of Vespera, Alice was having a great break except for the part where Ken wasn’t there with her. With her introducing the Yelwraek to the family during the banquet, her father is now more than happy with her decision to hang out with Ken and during the days she was home for break, Alice spent most of her time hanging out with her sister Ava doing nothing in general while daydreaming and discussing plans to make Ken fall deeper in love with her.

In the capital city of Yelwraek, Clare started her break on a positive note. Similar to Alice’s family, Clare’s father was also in favor of having a conversation and building a connection with the Vespera royals since the vampire city kingdom is one of the wealthiest in the world and their close connection with the Darrumburgh was also a positive.

After her meeting with her father that went quite well, Clare was able to be more relaxed for the rest of her break. While she was already missing Ken from day one, she was at least happy to see her mom and Chloe, but going over to her best friend and having a chat with her was the number one priority.

“Cecilla, Ken told me you were joking with him about marrying him? Care to explain what happened?” Clare asked after going over to Cecilla’s wing in the castle and finding Cecilla studying in her room.

“Joke? What do you mean?” Cecilla looked up and acted surprised at Clare’s question.

“Did you or didn’t you say that you wanted to marry him?”

“I sure did. He made a promise that if I could talk father out of making me marry Xandrian, he would take me as his wife, and I am holding him to his promise.” Cecilla replied happily.

“You met him, what? Twice? You don’t even know him at all! And how exactly did he promise he would marry you?” Clare asked, clearly getting agitated.

“I asked him between you and me who he would pick, and he said he would take both. Sounds like a confession to me.”

“What else would you expect him to say! It’s Ken! He won’t ever turn down a cute girl! You don’t even know him, why do you want to marry him anyways?”

“I mean, if you didn’t talk so much about him, I wouldn’t have got so interested. You know, when I went to talk to Xandrian and his father about the marriage proposal, they basically told me that I’m a worthless substitute that they had no interest in and that you are the only one worthy.

While I had no interest in marrying Xandrian and was only following father’s order, to be rejected so harshly was obviously not something I could have expected especially as a princess of Yelwraek.

I was feeling so down and not sure what to do with my life and guess what? He just showed up like he was a prince saving a damsel in distress and I couldn’t help it but falling in love right there and then.” Cecilla replied, thinking back to that night fondly.

“There are ten billion people in the world! Why can’t you fall in love with anyone else! Please don’t fall for Ken.” Clare begged desperately.

“Why are you so against me falling in love with him? Aren’t there already a bunch of girls who are in love with him anyways? What's wrong with one more and besides, I have already fallen in love, I can’t go back to when I didn’t have those feelings for him!” Cecilla replied defensively.

“Cecilla, I could never beat you in anything, whenever we both wanted something or competed in anything, you had always won no matter what it is. I know I’m being selfish, but I can’t let you have him.”

“Well Clare, you are the chosen one so luck was always on your side. It doesn't matter if I am stronger or better at everything, you ended up with the potential to be selected for the academy. It doesn’t matter if I have fallen for him, father still wanted to marry Xandrian even after getting rejected. Besides, I have only met him twice and who knows when I even get to see him again while you are spending all of your days with him, it’s not like I even have a fair chance.” Cecilla answered pitifully.

As much as Clare feared Cecilla’s sudden interest in Ken, she couldn’t help but feel sorry for her sister who was always better at studying, at training, at everything they competed in growing up, yet Clare was the one who got selected while Cecilla is now in a situation where she was being forced to marry someone like Xandrian for the benefit of the kingdom while her feelings are ignored.

Trying her best to comfort her sister who’s also her best friend while also keeping the conversation away from Ken, Clare spent the rest of her break mostly with Cecilla trying to figure out how they could get her out of the arranged marriage while also doing her best to not talk about Ken in front of Cecilla no matter how much she wanted to talk about him or how much she missed him.

For Indra, the break was much needed and a welcome change from her school life. Even after the end of her ordeal and making friends with the girls, Indra missed her family dearly and was glad to spend a whole month with those that she loved especially since she no longer had to pretend and could genuinely tell them about her school life and how much she is enjoying herself now.

The kingdom of Atlantica is similar to most of the other merman kingdoms. Unlike their land counterparts where only a minority like the kingdom of Vespera is a city kingdom and that was due to its special circumstance. The majority of the kingdoms under the sea and in large lakes consist of one city built within an area with natural boundaries that prevented expansion, or it could be said that the water dwellers simply didn’t have as much ambition as some of the land dwellers.

In a vast flat area sandwiched between a bottomless abyss and a mountain range of underwater volcanoes, the kingdom of Atlantica was well isolated like most of the others under the vast ocean. Due to its massive area, the kingdom of Atlantica consists of more than 20 million citizens and even when compared to the largest of cities above water, the population would trump even the capital city of Yelwraek and Darrumburgh.

While Indra could walk like any land dweller and breathe air naturally, for a merman, nothing feels the same as being in their natural environment under the water where her movements are far more elegant and graceful.

“Welcome home Indra! We saw you with that human boy during the tournament! Did you two become friends? Who was that girl you were hiding behind? Either of them matched the descriptions of friends you said you made from half a year ago.” Indra’s mother Indigo asked eagerly in their native language.

Due to her language barrier in the beginning and not having an understanding of the currency used by the land dwellers, when asked who her father was at the start, she told those people that he is nobody. With her not having any money and her father being a nobody, she was labeled and treated like a commoner and when she became friends with Ken and the girls, they never cared to ask her about her family situation, so the misunderstanding was never addressed.

“Hello everyone! Glad to be home!” Indra said happily as she greeted her parents, grandparents, siblings and everyone else that had gathered to welcome her return.

As Indra had told Ken and the group, she was the hope of her kingdom due to her acceptance to the academy and how they wanted to build a closer relationship with those on land. While her selection was to be celebrated, the fact that she is the daughter of the god the citizens worshiped made it even harder for her to quit the academy and why she felt the need to exhaust all her options before quitting.

When she said that her father was a nobody, in reality she tried to say that he was not just anyone. Unlike the land dwellers with kings that ruled the land, citizens here worshiped the royal and the leader of the kingdom is their god. Calidon Altan, Indra’s father, is the current god that the citizens worshiped in the city kingdom of Atlantica.

Tall, long blue and green hair that flowed with the water current, well defined muscle and hazel eyes like Indra. Calidon represented the merman race with his upper human body and fish tail and scales below his waist. Elegant in water and unmatched in speed and power, the citizens of Atlantica prayed to him for protection and the peace of the kingdom.

In a sense, Indra is actually a princess going by how the system works above water. While a population of 20 million is nothing compared to the major kingdoms. If she had been able to properly explain her situation from the beginning instead of having the language barrier, she would have saved herself from a lot of bullying but unfortunately, the past could never be changed.

Just like Ken and the girls, Indra chose to not share the incident with her family but instead decided to tell them a half-truth that with her improved abilities to communicate, she realized that the friends she had weren’t really the right fit for her and that Ken and the girls are much better for her, and their friendship grew very naturally.

Unlike during her time home last break where all of the stories she told her family were lies she made up, she was able to tell her family all about her new friends, their personalities and how each and every single one of them is in love with Ken, the young man they saw during the tournament.

“How do you feel about him, Indra?” Her mom asked curiously after hearing so much about Ken.

“He is just a friend. We aren’t that close like I am with the girls. I guess it’s more accurate to say that we really couldn’t get that close because he is very dedicated to his studies so he could get stronger, and he’s always had girls being intimate with him, so I never really had a chance to get closer to him.” Indra answered.

The more Indra talked about Ken to her family, the more she realized that she might have actually started developing feelings for him as well and as her break went along, she began to want to see him more and vowed to herself that she would try harder to talk to him when the new school year starts so Ken could also get to know her better.