"Who..are you?"

The unexpected reaction caused Jason to feel embarrassed, but then it hit him.

The possible reason for Seron's confusion could be his appearance that had undergone a major transformation during the last few years.

However, before he could answer, Anna suddenly chuckled, which made Jason glare at her.

Yet, in a fraction of a second, Jason could see that her eyes had begun to turn teary.

"Please don't cry" He had never looked after a baby, except his newly hatched soulbonds, thus he was not really great at what he was doing.

Nevertheless, he looked at Seron after a short time before he replied,

"You don't remember me? What a shame!! I thought our time on Astrix was valuable enough to be remembered!"

Hearing this, Seron's eyes grew wide as saucers before he released his mana fluctuations to scan Jason's as he blurted out.

"J-Jason? Is that really you???"

While Seron was concealing his mana core, Jason's was revealed to everyone who wanted to see how many drops of mana he had already liquefied.

This caused Seron to look at his old friend in disbelief.

During the last two years, Seron had worked hard on improving his strength to the highest possible degree, but he had yet to liquefy his first drop of mana!

He was only 17, and had a late start to sense mana due to his malfunctioned mana veins after all!

Otherwise, he was pretty confident that he would have liquefied one if not two drops of mana already.

However, seeing that Jason had liquefied almost 40 drops of mana was more than shocking for him.

Other than that, his eye color had changed from his distinct gold to a gold-silverish, and there was a baby girl in his arms.

After the initial shock of seeing his long-lost friend had worn off, Seron could focus on the finer details about the person greeting him. Though, he was still astonished and blurted out.

"...What the hell has happened to you??"

Jason just smiled, happy to see Seron again as he answered,

"Quite a few things actually, but I guess your question was rhetorical."

He chuckled and his laughter sounded alien to his own ears, old memories of their spars back at the Vanguard school flashed before his eyes. It had been...what...four years?.

It felt as if an eternity had passed since their last meeting but now was not the time to take a trip down the memory lane. As such, he continued,

"I think you've already heard it. The Great Argos war is over, it was concluded by the three beasts that suddenly appeared on the battlefield, preventing the war from advancing further. However, the situation is quite bad.

You might not like what you hear next, but I'm not here just because of you! The Gier family's patriarch is said to have returned from the battlefield as one of the first because of a grave injury. Has he already arrived? If so, I would like to meet him!"

While the death toll was alarmingly high, there were also lots of heavily injured humans!

They would either die from the aftermath of their injuries or receive permanent injuries.

In the end, the Gier family patriarch was said to be the latter and Jason knew that Seron was his direct heir.

Thus, the patriarch who had vanished without a trace would have most likely returned to his direct heir, whom he doted the most!

Jason couldn't be sure of this, but it was worth a try.

The Gier clan and the kingdom they governed had received the lowest possible casualties during the entire Greater Argos war.

Though it had been a favorable outcome for them, it had worried the other nearby kingdoms a lot.

Earlier, they had submitted to the Gier alliance, scampering towards them to let them stay safe under the Gier alliance's wing.

These kingdoms had clearly been able to withstand, let alone brave the foreign races' attacks, however, now that the war was over, they wanted to reclaim their old territory and return to the old ruling system.

Jason was not fond of this, but the old system was necessary to regain control over everything.

According to him, it was more of a necessary nuisance, before a better system was introduced, or someone took over the reins and became the strongest, suppressing everyone else.

The latter was definitely not something to look forward to and Jason was planning to follow the first option he had in mind.

There were many ways to introduce a better system, and a democratic system was one way he hoped would ensure that things went as he planned, at least in his mind.

Other than that there were multiple different ways, but fighting for oneself was definitely not the way to go!

Now, they were not alone on Argos anymore!

Seron, who was glad to meet his old friend once again, turned suddenly serious as he asked,

"Why do you want to meet my father, and how do you know that he left the battlefield once the Greater Argos war was concluded? That was a highly confidential piece of information that shouldn't be known by anyone...no offense!"

Jason was glad that his friend had become more mature and rational, despite appearing the same naive kid as before.

On the other hand, Seron had become more vigilant against others, and Jason thought that the Great Argos war had caused this transformation within Seron.

There could also be different reasons, but it was most likely the gruesome war, and witnessing millions of desperate humans trying to survive, just one more day!

Everyone had been terrified of losing their lives, even those from the big clans that could outwardly project a facade of being fearless.

The future had turned from something that was bound to happen given the course of events, to a blank sheet that was waiting to be filled with all types of possible scenarios.

Nothing was set in stone and this was something humans were afraid of, as the thought was clearly unnerving!

They wanted to be led by others, to sleep peacefully in the night knowing that everything was under control, but that was not something anyone could promise anymore!

"I fought in the Great Argos war. Obviously, I know about that piece of information. Your father knows me as well. Just inform him that I've arrived, and he will tell you that it's fine for me to meet him!"

Somehow, Seron found this even more suspicious than before, but he just nodded his head and took out his quantum bracelet.

At that moment, Jason couldn't help but look at his own quantum bracelet that was barely held together by a single steel wire.

Jason traced a finger over his bracelet and it caused him to smile foolishly. Seron's eyes traveled from Jason's face to the bracelet, and when he saw the damage sustained by the bracelet, he couldn't help but halt in his tracks.

'Not even common beasts with liquefied mana drops can destroy a quantum bracelet to make it look..like that...Don't tell me..Did he really fight in the Greater Argos war??'

However, the more he thought about it, the less sense it made, and it was only when Seron reached his father that he explained the situation.

"Do you remember the friend I made on Astrix?...Jason Stella, yes! He is here and says that you know him.yep golden-silverish eyes...Really?? NOW?"

Jason was unable to hear Seron's father's reply, but based on Seron's words, Jason was able to comprehend what was going on.

After Seron had finished the call Jason smiled understandingly as he said

"He'll meet me, right? Where shall we go?"

Seron was still trying to comprehend the situation. He had never seen his father so eager to see someone! Not only did he ask Seron if they were really friends, but his father, the Gier clan's patriarch was overjoyed to hear that Jason was fine and that he had survived the Great Argos war.

However, that was not everything because the most astonishing takeaway for Seron had been hearing his father mumbling.

"He is a monstrous genius and not someone anyone should offend"

Seron was not sure why his father said something like that, but if he were to know what Jason had done during the Great Argos war, and what kind of powerful beings one of his best friends had morphed into, he wouldn't have acted like this.

"Just...follow me Jason.." They walked in silence for a few minutes, Seron was unable to hold himself back anymore because his curiosity was eating him up from the inside.

"I don't know what has happened to you, but why did you join the Great Argos war and how did you survive with your strength?? You've less than 40 drops of liquefied mana in your mana core after all!"

Yet, instead of answering, Jason just smiled before he replied,

"Let's talk later. There are too many people here!"

__________________