They got quite excited about the news but Bell-mere suddenly asked.
"Will we all have the same powers or we can choose different powers?"
They nodded and looked at Ars, who smiled back before replying with an annoying expression.
"Both are fine but I would prefer if you got the same power. It will be more convenient."
Olivia was confused.
"Why would it be more convenient?"
Ars with a very serious face replied.
"So I can remember better who has what!!"
Elia smiled an annoyed smile and then added with a calm expression.
"Our lovely husband… You have a photographic memory."
Kuina then looked at the others and said confidently.
"That means we can choose any skill from the list he gives us."
They all nodded agreeing with her, then they looked at Ars with fake smiles. So Ars quickly cleared his throat and replied a bit nervously.
"Of course! Let me just prepare a list."
Then the fake smiles disappeared and got replaced by resplendent smiles.
Ars then started to ponder what powers he should add to the list. While he was thinking, Olivia made a new question to him.
"How many powers can we choose?"
He thought about it and raised 2 fingers. Kuina was a bit disappointed and complained.
"Only 2!? I wanted a few more!"
Ars looked at her confusedly and questioned surprised.
"How many would you want?"
She thought about it and after a few seconds of thinking about it, she replied calmly.
"Well we gotta have the one to fly and the elemental intangibility, but I also would like the ability to breath under water, the ice abilities and the ability to grant life to inanimate objects."
Ars thought about it and nodded before replying.
"I can give you guys the ability to breathe underwater without counting it in your choices, after all it's a passive ability."
Reiju who had been silent until now added.
"I think you should get the enhanced physique he created from my previous germa 66 enhanced physique, it will give you all a boost in most areas."
They thought about it and nodded after a few seconds, it would be nice indeed.
Elia thought about it and announced it for everyone there to hear.
"I think the first choices should be the ability to breathe under water, the enhanced physique, the elemental intangibility and finally the ability to control an element. While I would love to have wings and to be able to fly straight away, I think survivability is the most important."
They all nodded and finally Kuina nodded and added.
"Fine… But the next time after this one will be the other ones I want."
They all nodded, Ars then added.
"You know you can fly using the ability to transform into wind right?"
Their eyes opened wide open except Elia, they were so focused on the wings and flying through the skies that they didn't realize that they could fly in the elemental wind form. While having the ability to use wings to travel for large amounts of distance was super comfortable, the mobility would be similar. The biggest difference would be carrying someone, in the elemental form it could be harder… Way harder than with the transformation.
They all blushed a bit.
Ars then gave them a list and asked for them to inspect.
"Do you agree with those power ups!?"
On the list that was going around they could read.
'Water breathing, the enhanced physique, exoskeleton, elemental intangibility, wind control.'
One by one they nodded.
After everyone agreed Olivia and Elia approached him when he was about to leave. Elia quickly requested.
"Can we talk?"
Ars was a bit surprised but nodded. And before anything else he looked around, besides Elia and Olivia who came to talk with him the others were leaving.
They had either talked it out before with each other or they had a rough idea of the reason for the request and weren't interested.
They signaled him to sit down, and Ars did so, then they sat on him, each one on a different leg. Then Olivia started talking very gently, obviously preparing to make a request.
"We heard that you are searching for a queen, to fill the role of foreign affairs queen and we might have a clue of who would fit the role really well. And that way you could officially introduce 2 new queens, like all the previous years!"
Ars smiled feeling a bit disoriented, before returning a question.
"You know that I can't add 2 wives per year forever…Just saying this once already sounds ridiculous, but yes I was supposed to search for one queen to fill that role, so who do you have in mind?"
They both smiled happily before adding.
"You already met her once… In not so favorable conditions… You might not even remember her at all, but we acquired valid information from a reliable source, that she used to travel a lot to meet people and to do business, on the behalf of the company she worked for…"
If Ars was a bit confused about who they were talking about before, now he was completely lost. The more he thought about it, the more he confirmed he knew no one like that. Ars couldn't help but ask them, full of curiosity.
"Who!? I don't remember ever meeting someone who would fit in that description and it sounds like you never met her either, with the, valid information… So who is your 'reliable' source? And who are you talking about?"
They looked at each other and nodded, they confirmed Ars was interested in the information. So Olivia replied with a sweet smile.
"A woman so goth that she is currently dancing with the dead!"
Ars smiled and replied.
"That's a bit too much for me, but I think I can fix her… Am I correct?"
They looked at him and nodded happily. Ars started thinking about who they were talking about, but even now it eluded him. So he decided to ask directly.
"Okay… I have no idea of who you are talking about, so could you please tell me?"
Elia smiled and finally told him what he wanted to know
"The person we are talking about is the biological mother of Risa and Rika!"
Ars nodded, he avoided this topic, because he didn't want to make the little girls remember that traumatic day but apparently someone had gotten that info anyway.
He nodded, this 3rd festival might have 2 new queens introduced after all, if everything went alright. Ars then looked up and questioned hopefully.
"How are they gonna react?"
Both of them shook their heads. Elia replied uncertainly.
"We have no idea how the oldest will react at first… But when she is older she will understand. The youngest on the other hand will react almost 100% very well…"
Ars was a bit afraid of the oldest reaction, the oldest one would hold some resentment towards him, due to him not reviving their mother instantly, when he could do it…
Ars sighed and replied quickly.
"No use in delaying it anymore. Let's go get a new queen for me, a sister for you the queens and a biological mother to the little girls… I will deal with the little girl's possible resentment later…"
Ars proceeded to move towards the machine that hadn't been used in a while, when he got there, he swiftly prepared the machine and once done, he crossed the portal.
He arrived on the cruise ship, right on the middle of the deck, he looked at the sea and he could see his own ships in the distance but not so far away. He sighed, he realized that if he arrived a single minute earlier or if he didn't hesitate to investigate, the biological mother of the 2 little girls would still be alive with no need to come here through the machine.
He started moving towards the room where he found the girls, when he got there he could see by her expression that the mother was clearly screaming and cussing at the marines, with the marines already attacking to kill her.
The moment he chose her, she regained the ability to move. And the first thing she did was move to dodge the frozen strike, then she realized that everything was frozen for some reason and looked at her previous location, there she could see a pseudo shadow of herself. She looked at her hands, then around and finally commented, feeling incredulous.
"Wow… Trippy! What is happening?"
Ars approached a bit more, and only now did she realize that there was someone else moving, she raised her arms in front of her, preparing for a fight. Seeing this, Ars laughed. When she saw Ars laughing she tried to attack him with a high kick to the face. He simply dodged and looked at her, before commenting.
"I'm not sure if you realize it but, you are wearing a short skirt and that high kick allowed me to see your preferred colors!"
She semi-closed her eyes and questioned him, ignoring his comment.
"Who are you!? And are you responsible for this!?"
She pointed at the frozen marines.
Ars changed his playful face to a serious one and introduced himself.
"I am Ars Nautical, and I'm a monarch of a small new nation. And yes, I am the one responsible for this…"
He pointed at the frozen marines, and continued.
"I came here through a machine to save your life, and I would like to make you a proposal…"
She stopped him and bowed to him, before replying.
"If you can save anyone, please, save my 2 baby girls!"
Ars smiled at her and kept going ignoring her plea for now.
"My proposal is simple, I would like you to come back with me, and become one of the queens in my kingdom, in this case the queen in charge of foreign affairs… "
She was about to scream at him, but he put a finger on her lips and continued.
"About the little girls, I saved them a while ago, without using the machine… That day, I arrived on time to save them! Outside you can see a few ships approaching, You probably can guess the rest."
Her eyes widened, looked outside through a small window confirming what I had said about the ships, then she broke into tears before hugging him tightly and murmuring non stop.
"Thank you… Thank you… I don't even know how to thank you…"
Ars smiled and quickly introduced an option.
"You could say yes to my proposal, but if you really don't want to become my queen I can still bring you back to work for me!"
She laughed and nodded, before replying with a huge smile.
"It would be my pleasure to become your queen, your majesty!"
He smiled back, and took her hand, before correcting her.
"Become one of my queens!"
She smiled and nodded, she was going to ask a bit more, when they started getting closer to the portal and time started moving again.
She looked back in time to see herself being butchered, and the marines quickly left for the next room.
Ars pulled her through the portal, where Elia and Olivia were already awaiting them.
She looked around and pointed at the 2 queens that were here to receive her.
"Are the 2 of them your queens?"
Ars nodded but added.
"They are 2 of my queens, you are the 6th one."
She nodded and introduced herself.
"I am Rachel Raven Ouki, I used to be a princess and I'm 24 years old."
Everyone except herself was caught by surprise. Ars couldn't help but to ask.
"You were a princess? And you are 24 for now, but soon you will be 21 again…"
She nodded and showed a confused smile but decided to clarify.
"While i was a princess, i couldn't inherit the throne, so i left home to work on a group that helped the crown, and my name comes from my given name and then my mother last name and then my father last name. Now that i explained, it's your turn to explain what you meant i will be 21 again?"
Ars quickly explained.
"Well, you died to the world, so you will have to change your appearance a bit at the very least, for that we use my laboratory, where you will increase your potential, give you super powers and change your appearance for something you would prefer and that is different enough to only look alike at minimum so we can hide you got revived, in addition you will be reborn as a 21 year old and will sign a contract that you can fixate your age at 21."
She nodded and asked.
"So I will increase my potential, get super powers, change my appearance to match my desires and I can get eternal youth?"
They all nodded at her, but Ars corrected her a bit.
"Not eternal but similar."
She quickly added.
"Where do I sign?"