Dimensional Descent

Leonel didn't react immediately to this news. On the inside, he was quite excited to see his mother. But, on the other hand, he had several questions he wanted to know the answer of first.

The first and most obvious was why his mother had left him in the first place. There were too many things about his family dynamics that he couldn't quite grasp.

First there was the oddity of the fact he hadn't even known Emperor Fawkes was his grandfather until just a few years ago. Of course, Leonel knew that that was somewhat related to his status as someone who should have been imprisoned in Dark Cloud Prison, but that only made things more confusing to him.

Was he really such a menace to society? Just how accurate was that test if it could only possibly read a fraction of his real DNA?

But then there was the question of just how Earth's Empire had become tied to one of the three leading families of this Sector. How had his grandfather even met his grandmother to begin with? How had their relationship even taken root?

His grandfather was maybe the greatest mystery of all of this.

On first inspection, he seemed to be weak. After all, he had gotten old.

From what Leonel knew, there had only ever been one Emperor of the Ascension Empire, and that was this man before him. Thanks to Earth's technology, or what seemed like it, he had been able to live for more than 200 years, making it to the 25th century.

However, things didn't really add up. He had enough strength to slap a Fifth Dimensional existence like Scithe to death years ago, yet he couldn't maintain his youth?

Several small inconsistencies like these made Leonel shake his head. Practically, a weak man would never be able to win over a woman from a Sixth Dimensional family. Unless…

Leonel looked his grandfather up and down.

"Are you a drafted son-in-law?"

Galaeron choked on air. He bent over, gasping and wheezing.

A drafted son-in-law was probably the most humiliating position a man could be in. It was a situation where instead of a wife marrying into her husband's family and sharing his family name, the vice versa occurred. In this case, the man would take on the wife's family name and become a part of her family.

Traditionally speaking, it was always the son's duty to carry on the family name while it was the daughters duty to birth the lineage of the man she married. Even with how progressive 25th century Earth had become, this was still the default order of things.

To insinuate the Emperor of Earth was a drafted son-in-law was an insult probably only short of saying the Ascension Empire would fall. Even the guards hidden in the surroundings, tasked with protecting Emperor Fawkes' safety couldn't help but falter.

Leonel, though, felt that it was plausible.

Maybe the Luxnix wanted a piece of Earth but couldn't get it through normal means due to various reasons. This could have been a compromise between them and Emperor Fawkes. Who knows, maybe it's because of the secret help of the Luxnix that his grandfather was able to rise to power.

On top of this, the help of the Luxnix would become very important, very soon. As quickly as Earth had managed to enter the Fifth Dimension, they would likely speed run into the Sixth as well. In that sort of situation, without the backing of a well established and powerful Sixth Dimensional power, Earth's luck would finally run out.

The higher the Dimension, the harder it was for 'talent' to bridge the gap. If his grandfather made such a 'sacrifice', it would seem like truly the most logical decision.

For the first time, Emperor Fawkes was truly speechless. He gazed at Leonel as though trying to gauge something, but in the end he just shook his head.

"I would teach you a lesson for that mouth of yours, but then your mother would start nagging me again." Emperor Fawkes continued to shake his head. "I planned to tell you some things, but since you want to be so cheeky, how about you go find out for yourself?"

Leonel's placid expression spread into a smile.

"Sure, but where are my rewards?"

"Rewards?" Emperor Fawkes smoothed out his immaculately sculpted beard. "For what, exactly?"

Now it was Leonel's turn to be speechless. Did one have to be thick skinned to be an Emperor?

"Hey, uncle. Are you hearing this?"

Galaeron, who was still choking on his own air, coughed lightly, straightening out his back. His eyes flickered as he remembered Leonel's teasing words from earlier.

"Hear what?" He asked with as straight a face as possible.

"Ah, I see how is. I guess I'll just have to tell the whole of Earth just how ungrateful Emperor Fawkes is. I'm currently a hero of heroes, I'm sure there'll be plenty of people willing to heed my call."

Leonel cleared his voice as though he would truly begin to opine on his hardships.

Both Emperor Fawkes and Galaeron remained silent, light smiles tugging at their lips. It was clear that they weren't afraid of Leonel in the slightest. Plus, it wasn't as if anyone would hear anything even if he began shouting here. This was the Emperor's private garden, as if sound could casually travel outward.

Seeing their lack of a reaction, Leonel realized that his tactic wouldn't work, at least not as presently constructed.

"Oh, I see, I see. Got it." Leonel's smile became thinner. "I guess when I see my mother for the first time in over a decade, and her heart is overflowing with warmth and the motherly instinct to protect, I'll just have to let her know that her father and her brother have taken advantage of her son.

"While her precious baby was on the frontlines, putting his life on the line. They were resting in a cozy palace, doing—"

**

Moments later, Leonel walked out of the Palace with a wide grin on his face, tossing a 12 sided star pendant up and down, his visage the picture of satisfaction.

[Just one more chapter coming for today]