"My daughter" she said. "What's your impression of her?"
"Excuse me?"
Ezra was instantly confused.
"You heard me"
"Uhh…" Ezra went down the memory lane. "She's strong, and has a lot of potential…?"
"That's it?" Elisa questioned.
Ezra scratched his head, feeling embarrassed, though unsure why.
He'd meant what he said, if he wasn't a master, she would have done quite a number on him.
The number 2 position was well deserved.
Elisa sighed. "What about her looks?"
"Oh" Ezra exclaimed, the gears in his head predicting where the conversation was heading.
After coughing a bit, he spoke. "Well, she looks beautiful-like many others"
Elisa's smile brightened, though she didn't like the last part.
"Is that so? I'm glad"
"Umm, are you by any chance…
"Bye" she didn't wait for him to finish before warping away.
Ezra was left with conflicting thoughts.
-------------
Elisa appeared in her office. Sits on a floating book in contemplation.
'Unlike my previous thoughts, he seems ignorant about these matters, which is strange since he's a prince…should I call this good luck or bad luck' she thought. 'Regardless, he'll a fine son-in-law'
Her smile rose to the skies just thinking about it.
'Now, I just have to get them together somehow'
She rubbed her hair. 'Should I call up the Emperor on this matter? No, not yet. I should affirm how much his growth spurt affects him. Will he hit puberty early, or….' Her thoughts trail off.
If the boy was capable, age was a small issue.
Besides he was more responsible than most she knew.
'Maybe I shouldn't rush things, Valentine might get annoyed'
------------
Elsewhere, Ezra changed his clothes, the matters of Elisa's inquiry were shoved somewhere.
His dried latent potential took priority.
He wrote a letter to Bard asking if there was a way to check latent potential.
No latent potential meant he wouldn't grow any more.
While this was fitting since he grown already.
If his internals couldn't constantly evolve, he would die if he tried to advance a major rank.
The internals of grandmasters and masters were worlds apart, if his master rank body didn't advance to suit grandmaster specs, he'd die, either by exploding in all glory or his organs rupture.
This was a very worrying problem, so Ezra fished out the note where he wrote down future events, skimming through it to find something that might help.
He found a few.
But… 'These won't be available for a long while'
They were either resources obtained from otherworld monsters or dungeon items-all of which wouldn't be making appearance until after the apocalypse-which wouldn't be until 1733.
Twenty-one years from now.
Ezra rubbed his hair in frustration. 'Is there no other way…?'
Then, his eyes brightened, remembering something as he flipped pages to arrive at a page depicting a being standing on hind legs, with horns and a skin of crimson colour.
'Right, the heart of a demon'
Demons.
They were the beings who invaded Orion right when Ribera and Roosevelt moved to erase Niton completely.
That marked the beginning of the era of disasters.
'Yes, the heart of a demon can be made into limit breaking elixir'
Ezra paused for a full minute. His mind kept repeating two words. 'Limit breaking, limit breaking, limit breaking, limit breaking…'
His instincts were tingling, he was onto something, and the word 'limit breaking' was the key.
And then… "OHHH!" Ezra exclaimed. Delight filled his face as he recalled a long past memory.
Without fanfare, he began releasing the things in the ancient space ring.
From the things he scrapped from the hired assassins to the large amount of gold coins to the copper scrolls and then his weapons…he found it!
A vial containing a transparent liquid.
The Un-limiting dew!
Without delay, he popped it open and gulped it down.
It was like water, Ezra didn't do anything.
It rolled past the gullet, and the moment it entered the body, Ezra shook.
His body rumbled from inside, it was like his internals were jumping for joy.
A refreshing feeling flushed through his veins. It was bliss.
Ezra inhaled, his eyes rolling back as he changed inexplicable changes in him.
After five minutes of Euphoria, his senses abruptly returned, slapping him back to reality.
He sits, regulating his breathing, sweating all over.
He couldn't explain what happened to him, but he instinctively knew his problem of latent potential had been erased.
"YES!" he shouted. Jumping and fisting the air.
He exhaled, feeling livelier than ever, and his face had the widest grin.
"Thank you, Fredrick!" he exclaimed, because he was the catalyst of this event.
Then, he settled down.
His bones were still scrunching up at different places-the dew was at work.
He was exhilarated, but also a bit tired, so he slept.
Month's passed by, with Ezra living the life.
As the number one to seven, he had the top members fulfill the monthly requirements in his place-as he did for the past three months
Beasts of Expert rank were already scarce, and he was a master, killing such beast would be very easy.
Instead of going on a massacre and slaughtering every Expert beast, he let those below him gain experience.
Then, Valentine joined Ezra's army willingly.
Shortly after, the top few had a battle to determine hierarchy.
It was almost the same, except that Valentine came second, knocking Johan to third,
Theron was still number one.
With Ezra training like never before, mostly because his energy capacity had exceeded past limits and because he aimed to improve his physique and master it as fast as possible.
It was dizzying for the drafted students, who had to train with Ezra.
While they did only a quarter of what Ezra did, it was still very hard.
The top brass did half of what Ezra did.
As such, they improved at crazy rates.
They began distinguishing themselves from the rest of the student body as 'training maniacs' attracting even more students to join.
The females did work routines designed by Ezra but with Valentine and Roxanne leading them separately.
Then, Ezra recognized that his training wasn't the best for everyone, so he enlisted the help of the professors who were surprisingly accommodating.
Explaining his aim, the professors diagnosed a training regime for Shifters, Mages, and Knights-aimed at helping them master their biggest strength while shoring up their weakness.
News of Ezra's action went far.
Moreover, Ezra had bought out two shops with the taxes he was collecting.
Of that, he sent money to the poor and the needy, garnering respect from others-which was part of the plan.
Then, he hired them, and had them begin learning hired professionals.
To build the best presence-one must aim to do things differently.
In a world of selfishness and ignorance, being generous went a long way.
Three months passed. It was now Ezra's seventh month at the academy.
Ezra had grown, rather lanky, he was broad shouldered but not buffed with robust muscles.
Draped in a new black and gold uniform, he looked cool yet deadly.
(A/N: Imagine Uzui's figure, but less)
His short silver hair was as eye catching as always, dressed in spikes with a bit of it falling to the left side of his face.
Along with that, the growth potion had truly accelerated his growth.
He'd hit puberty!
Since he was reincarnated, it wasn't a big deal.
Last month, Ezra advanced to mid rank, proving that the latent potential problem was no more.
So, except for a few things, the past seven months have been peaceful.
But Ezra knew it wouldn't be long before the chaos started, he knew so because Black Silence had recently gained information hinting at the demon worshippers orchestrating a large attack.
With the powers still recuperating from the great war, Ezra expected the worst.
That's why he pushed himself even when it seemed he'd already achieved enough.
The students he drafted suffered for it.
Some left due to stress but Ezra couldn't care less.
He'd already achieved his aim by having them recognize his might and potential, he had put them under his feet.
That was why he drafted them.
He didn't really think they'd be his loyal army, especially since they were children of people in high places.
One could practically say he ruled the whole school.
Beyond him, ever since Black Sky was inaugurated, Black Jaws was making so much they could barely count.
The money from the businesses was used to build the academy Ezra told them to build.
Yes, the Emperor approved of it after giving them shop spaces in the skyscraper for free.
What would you know? It was nearing completion.
Then, Cabrera had advanced to mid master rank as did Kron while Sebastian was in late master rank.
After that, Ezra's mother had advanced to late Expert. A very impressive feat when regarding her age.
In addition, her faction had begun to gain traction and generate waves within noble circles.
The fact that Black Jaws was backing them was no more a secret.
Then you had Niton's heirs.
Triton was making exemplary contributions in the army.
The other two princes were in Niton's second academy, Trom academy.
Connor-the second prince-had given up battling for the throne so he could dive deeper into the study of magic and learn the world's truths.
The Emperor had no problems with it. so long one of his sons yearned for the throne-it was enough.
One could not force desire.
Jordan-the third prince-on the other hand had also grown his infamy, but in another way.
Rather his sword skills, the boy was now known as a womanizer. His acts of sleeping with a girl in the academy and uncontrolled drinking habits had reached all ears.
Gwendolyn was facing from everywhere because of it.
--------------
Meanwhile…
A man with long black hair sat shirtless, cross legged under a sigil written in red in a room lit with torches when another man walks in, covered in red from head to toe with a fiendish mask.
"Sire, it is done"
The leader raised his bent neck. But did not turn to the other man. "I gave you seven months. You've used almost double that. Why?"
"Sire the potion was far too incomplete after just seven months. I thought would be a tragedy and disrespect for me to use an inferior substance for our grand plan"
"Hmm" the leader said. "Very well then. Is everything set in place"
"Yes. I made sure of it"
"Then have them commence"
The man bowed and left.
The leader had his red eyes calm as still water, many thoughts swirling about his head.
-------------
At Russell, Gaga sat on his throne speaking with his son, Lexon's latest grandmaster when he felt a pull in his pocket.
He frowned, and his son took note. "Is it them?"
Gaga nodded, got up and went into the room, where he opened the artifact the demon worshippers handed him.
"What is it?"
An eerie voice came from the other side, the face wasn't visible. "We have fulfilled our side of the bargain, it time you fulfilled yours"
"Which is?"
"War"
"I cannot people in harm's way again"
"Without us, there wouldn't a people to look after"
Those words stung, but Gaga couldn't refute them.
"Now, here is what you'll do…
An elaborate plan was laid out, the ingenuity of it shook Gaga to the bone.
"Just how much do you want to see the world burn!" Gaga shouted..
"You misunderstand," said the voice. "We only seek to please our lords"
"If our Lords says the world has to burn-then it has to burn"