Anyway, stopping at night gave Leon more time to practice the healing process while teaching the same to Yuki. Just like he had expected, she had talent in that area. In just a few days, she reached the same level.

"I"m happy with this much progress…" Yuki frowned. "But having to hurt me to practice is a little unsettling."

"I understand what you mean," Leon said.

Leon also had planned to teach a few things to Lennart, but the kid was so eager to see his sister that he couldn"t think about anything else. Leon concluded that it would be better if he lets the siblings teach each other. It was a first for Leon, but to repay the favor, Yuki also decided to give him a few pointers of how to heal a bigger area and faster since she eventually surpa.s.sed Leon in terms of progress. After five days, they finally were back in j.a.pan, and on that same day, Leon finally learned the basic spell he wanted.

Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Heal.

Cost: 20 mana

Restores: 20 health

Cooldown time: 1 second.

You obtained 01 status points.

As it turned out, Leon didn"t have to heal a small wound in 0.2 seconds. He just had to do it in one second. Anyway, now he was one step closer to restore his limbs and Gisela"s eyes. Yuki would also be able to help more people… but Leon couldn"t see Yuki increasing her own workload. Although that wasn"t a problem since that was something she enjoyed doing.

The next day they arrived in Tokyo, much to their surprise, the whole population greeted them happily. Leon wasn"t much knowledgeable in j.a.panese culture, but he was pretty sure that the citizens only bent their knees to the emperor, so he frowned when they saw all of them doing that. Then again, perhaps some customs changed in the past four years, or maybe they were thankful for Yuki being alive… or, they acknowledged her as the new leader of the country.

"This is making my back feels itchy…" Leon said. "Shall I let you walk to greet them?"

"There"s no need," Yuki said. "The advisors probably prepared a ceremony for my father"s funeral today; we can"t leave them waiting."

Leon nodded, even though it was weird, he moved toward the imperial palace using the earth platform as fast as possible. The imperial guards didn"t even flinch when they approached and entered the palace. Once they arrived, they met Ren and several advisors; it looked like their numbers had increased.

"It is good to see you back and alive, Your Majesty." Ren bowed.

"… Speak to me like before, Ren." Yuki said. "It"s not like I can a.s.sume my father"s position."

"I cannot. Although it"s not official, the population wishes for you to be the Empress of our nation." Ren said. " Not a single advisor or any other important figure of our nation is against the idea."

"So, everyone is pus.h.i.+ng their problems onto me…" Yuki sighed. "Well, if that"s the case, I will work hard to do what my father always wanted to do, protect our nation and its citizens."

Ren smiled, and then he and the other advisors guided them to where the funeral of Makoto would be held. Seiji burned his entire body and got rid of the ashes, so they buried an empty coffin. Yuki didn"t let her angst and sadness show on her face, but she was unable to control her tears. Meanwhile, Leon could only feel empty. He failed again, and this time his failure cost a friend"s life. Lennart was feeling terribly out of place, but he didn"t do anything.

It would be rude to leave soon after the funeral, and Yuki wanted to stay alone for a while on the grave. So, Leon decided to return to the room he previously used and return only the next day to Las Vegas. Ren accompanied him and Lennart, and when they entered the room, he let out a big sigh.

"…It looked like you had a difficult battle." Ren said.

"I messed up… several times." Leon said. "I"m sorry."

"Don"t apologize, I know that you did what any of us couldn"t." Ren shook his head. "Your Majesty was right in bringing only you… Seiji left several spies behind; even a few advisors worked for him. We got rid of them with your help. If he had revealed his plan to others, maybe even you could have lost your lives. Your Majesty only had a few ninjas who he trusted absolutely, so he used them to monitor things here."

"I see…" Leon said with his head.

"Anyway, if a few people didn"t like you before, now they don"t have any reason to dislike you," Ren said. "You brought back Lady Yuki and even killed those who plotted the kidnapping."

Leon failed in many aspects, but he couldn"t reveal more than what he already did. So, he just stayed silent.

"I wish we could repay you somehow… but I guess Your Majesty already did." Ren said, looking at the katana on Leon"s back.

"She said that as long as carry that on my back, we will be allies," Leon said. "I"m planning to do exactly that… since I don"t know how to swing a sword properly yet."