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---Philadelphia - The Kenway Mansion - Morning---
The morning had begun with a splash of chakra, quite literally.
Alaric, ever the pragmatist with a flair for the magical, had spared the maids… and himself… the tedium of drawing baths. With a few precise controlled burst of Water Release, he had performed the Full Bathing Jutsu on himself, Kassandra, and little Hunter. Warm, chakra-infused water had cleansed them instantly, scrubbing away sleep and grime, followed by a gentle Wind Release to dry them off. Even their clothes were subjected to a Laundry Jutsu, leaving the fabric crisp and smelling of ozone and freshness.
It was a domestic cheat code, and Kassandra loved it, even if she rolled her eyes at his laziness.
Breakfast had been a lively affair with the family, but as the clocks chimed eight, the mansion settled into the hum of daily business.
---Alaric's Office---
The heavy oak door was closed, shutting out the noise of the household. Sunlight poured through the tall windows, illuminating dust motes that danced in the air like tiny stars.
Alaric stood behind his desk, not sitting, his crimson coat draped casually over his forearm. He held a stack of reports in his free hand, his eyes scanning the neat handwriting of his Vanguard lieutenants.
The reports came from the nerve centers of the Pennmere Commonwealth: New York, Boston, Charleston, and Newport.
'New York: Three attempts at smuggling contraband via the docks. Vanguard Unit 4 intercepted. Goods seized, perpetrators handed to local magistrate.'
'Boston: A ring of thieves targeting the grain silos. Neutralized. No casualties.'
'Newport: Attempted assault on a merchant's daughter. Assailant subdued by Vanguard patrol. Currently awaiting trial.'
Alaric nodded to himself. Things were normal. Or rather, they were the new normal. The Vanguard wasn't just a military force; it was a shadow police, a stabilizing agent that ensured the chaos of the colonies didn't rot the foundation of the Kingdom. They were efficient, brutal when necessary, and invisible when not.
On the plush leather sofa near the fireplace, Kassandra sat with one leg crossed over the other. She held a crisp copy of the Philadelphia Gazette, but her amber eyes weren't really reading the articles about corn prices or shipping lanes.
Eleanor had taken Hunter for his morning "Grandma time," leaving the Eagle Bearer with a rare moment of stillness.
For most people, stillness was a luxury. For Kassandra, who had spent millennia in perpetual motion, fighting wars and hunting artifacts, stillness was... itching.
She glanced at Alaric. He was focused, competent, the picture of a ruler tending to his domain. It was attractive, undeniably, but it also highlighted her own lack of immediate purpose.
She folded the newspaper with a sharp snap, setting it on the coffee table.
"Agápi mou..."
Alaric looked up from a report about timber yields in Maine. His blue eyes met hers, softening instantly. "Yep?"
Kassandra sighed, leaning back against the cushions. She stared at the ceiling, tracing the intricate plasterwork with her gaze.
"I've been cooped up in this house for a long time," she began, her voice carrying a restless edge. "Aletheia has been nagging me in my head. Urging me to go out, to hunt some Isu Artifacts that might be waking up due to the ley lines shifting."
She paused, looking back at him.
"However... I can't do that. I don't want to leave our baby here without a mother. I missed that chance once... I won't do it again. And frankly, I'm too far done with my job as the Keeper. Let the world save itself for a decade or two."
She stood up, smoothing the fabric of her dress.
"I'm bored, Alaric. So let me help. Any way I can. That way, I'll have something to do besides terrorizing the chefs or sparring with anyone here."
"Oh?" Alaric raised a brow. He placed the reports down on the desk. "What do you wanna do?"
Kassandra walked toward the massive bookshelves that lined the walls, running a finger along the spines of ledgers and treatises.
"I don't know... business? Paperwork?" She shrugged, turning to face him. "I mean, I'm well versed with reports and documents… I ran a mercenary network for centuries. I'm also updated with what's going on in Pennmere... although I might have to keep up with what I don't know, read through all the parchments here."
She gestured vaguely to the library of administrative nightmares Alaric kept.
"Or I could help manage the Vanguard when you're away. Drill them. Make sure they don't get soft. Or I could do both... I don't know."
Alaric stared at her for a moment. He didn't speak immediately.
He didn't push Kassandra into doing things, nor did he forbid her from doing anything. He respected her autonomy too much. She was a woman who had lived for over two thousand years. She was older than the concept of the nations they lived in. She was the boss of her own destiny.
He chuckled, a warm sound.
Alaric walked toward her, draping his coat over his shoulders like a cape, leaving his arms free.
"Sure, you could do that. I don't really mind. The Vanguard would probably be terrified of you within a week, which might be good for them."
"Really?" Kassandra's eyes lit up. "Well, I guess I should start with reading all of these..." She motioned to the bookshelf again.
"You don't need to read those, they're just books I bought to look smart," Alaric replied with a grin.
He reached into the storage seal tattooed on his forearm. A small puff of smoke appeared, and he retrieved two items.
He held them out to her.
"If you really want to do something... you can do these instead."
Kassandra looked at the items on Alaric's palm. One was a heavy, chakra-infused sealing scroll. The other was a folded piece of high-quality parchment.
She grabbed them, her curiosity piqued. She analyzed the sealing scroll… feeling the spatial distortion inside… before unfolding the parchment to read the contents.
Her brows furrowed as she read.
"Pennmere is extremely wealthy," Alaric explained, stepping closer to look over her shoulder. "And its residents have greater purchasing power than people in other countries at a similar economic level. We've eliminated famine and extreme poverty."
He gestured to the window, toward the city.
"People with money tend to buy more items. They consume. That means trash will accumulate. Especially with Pennmere's food market being so cheap, packaging and waste are going to skyrocket."
"Although William Penn budgets money for people to clean the streets, trash will eventually pile up somewhere," Kassandra noted, nodding her head in understanding. "The streets may be clean, but the landfills will overflow. Filth breeds disease."
"Yes," Alaric tapped the scroll in her hand. "That's why I planned a Disposing Center."
He pointed to the scroll. "And that scroll is a high-grade storage seal. It's linked to a pocket dimension of stasis. It can contain any amount of inanimate items for the next... I don't know, ten years? Maybe twenty."
Kassandra nodded slowly, appreciating the magic. But then she turned the paper back to Alaric, poking a line of text.
"But it says here... you're going to buy the trash."
She looked at him incredulously.
"Ten kilos of trash for one cent. Alaric, Pennmere alone has five million people. They would generate tens of millions of kilos worth of trash per year... that sounds so stupid. You're throwing money away."
"...It does sound stupid," Alaric admitted with a laugh. "And with my calculations, assuming fifty kilos of trash per person per year, the Kenway family would be spending at least $12,000 annually just to buy garbage."
He shook his head, his eyes gleaming with foresight that spanned centuries.
"But think about it, Kassandra. Sooner or later, this world will become populated. Industry will grow. Space will become finite. Give it a couple of hundred years... so much waste will accumulate that the earth won't be able to swallow it."
He leaned in, whispering as if sharing a state secret.
"We hoard it now. We process it. We recycle the metals, the glass, the paper. And the rest? We store it. In the future, countries will pay us just so that their trash will not accumulate in their land. We become the world's janitors, and we charge a premium for the service."
"..." Kassandra widened her eyes slightly at the scale of the foresight.
It wasn't just about cleaning the streets. It was about monopolizing waste management for the next three centuries. It was about resource reclamation.
"That's actually..." she murmured, a smile tugging at her lips. "I was wrong. That's a brilliant idea. Devious, but brilliant."
Alaric smiled at Kassandra's excitement. He gestured to the massive desk.
"There's a drawer below that desk, the large one on the right. The documents and reports regarding the logistics, the collection points, and the payroll for the scavengers are there. It's all yours, Director Kenway."
---The Mansion Gardens - Later-—
The sun was high now, bathing the manicured gardens in brilliant light.
Alaric and Kassandra had reclaimed Hunter from Eleanor, who had reluctantly surrendered her grandson for his mid-morning play.
Kassandra sat on a white marble bench beneath a willow tree, watching.
Alaric was standing in the middle of the grass, holding little Hunter. He crouched down, then exploded upward.
"Up you go!"
He threw the toddler meters into the air… high enough to give a normal mother a heart attack, but low enough for a demigod and a shinobi to catch easily.
"Eeeee!" Hunter squealed, his arms flapping as he defied gravity, laughing with pure, unadulterated joy.
Alaric caught him gently, cushioning the descent with wind chakra, before nuzzling his stomach. "Gotcha!"
Watching them, a profound sense of melancholy and healing washed over Kassandra.
She thought about Elpidios. Her first son. The child she had birthed in secret, loved in secret, and lost to the machinations of the Order of the Ancients. She remembered the pain of handing him over to Darius, knowing she could never see him again because her life… her blood… was a curse. She never got to see him walk. She never knew if he was happy. She carried that guilt for centuries, a stone in her heart that never eroded.
Now, she looked at Hunter.
She looked at Alaric.
She had become human again. She wasn't just the Eagle Bearer or the Keeper of the Staff. She was a lover. She was a mother.
With how things were now... with this family entrenched in the heart of a powerful kingdom, and with her son's father being the most powerful entity she had ever encountered... she finally had the luxury of safety. She could be the mother she was denied being the first time.
"Hunter, look at Mama!" Alaric shouted, pointing at Kassandra.
Hunter turned his head in mid-air, his blue eyes locking onto her.
"Mama's very beautiful!" Alaric declared.
"Byutfl!" Hunter shouted back, mangling the word but capturing the spirit. He giggled, kicking his legs. "Byutfl!"
Alaric couldn't help but giggle himself at the cuteness. He walked over toward the bench.
Kassandra stood up, a radiant smile on her face. Her heart felt full to bursting.
"Take a look at that," Alaric grinned, bouncing Hunter. "I'm teaching baby Hunter how to speak. He's a fast learner."
"Yeah, and you're failing at teaching him pronunciation," Kassandra chuckled, reaching out. She took Hunter from Alaric's arms, settling him on her hip. She kissed the baby's cheek. "But he's perfect anyway."
She looked at Alaric. Her expression shifted slightly, becoming more serious.
"Don't you have somewhere to be?"
Alaric adjusted his coat, staring at Kassandra with mock shock. He gasped, grabbing his chest as if struck by an arrow.
"Ah? That hurts... you want your husband to be away that badly? Are you seeing someone? Is it the gardener? I knew he was pruning the roses too aggressively!"
"You want me to break your ribs!?" Kassandra glared at him, though her lips twitched. "I will do it. I know where they are."
Alaric closed his mouth sheepishly. "I was only joking."
"I don't like that kind of joke," she said, her glare softening but still firm. She held Hunter tighter. "Don't do that again."
Alaric sighed, straightening his posture. He brought his fist to his chest in the Vanguard salute. "Roger that, Commander!"
"Okay... I forgive you... for now," Kassandra's glare finally dissolved into a soft smile. "Now, I know you love staying here, but you said you have to go. Your student is waiting."
Alaric looked at Kassandra for a moment. He memorized the way the sunlight hit her hair, the way she held their son.
He nodded his head.
He stepped closer, invading her space. He kissed her forehead tenderly, lingering there for a moment before tilting her chin up and locking his lips with hers.
It wasn't a quick peck. It was deep, possessive, and full of promises.
Kassandra melted into it for a few seconds before she gently pulled away, her cheeks flushed.
"G-Go already!" Kassandra stammered, wiping her lips with the back of her hand. "Don't you dare turn me on while you'll be gone for who knows how long! That is cruel!"
Alaric grinned, a wolfish delight in his eyes.
He turned his head to Hunter, who was giggling at his parents' interaction, clapping his chubby hands.
"Bye-bye, little monster," Alaric whispered. He kissed Hunter on the temple, inhaling the scent of baby powder and milk.
Then he wrapped his long arms around both of them, pulling them into a crushing hug.
"I'll miss you both, okay? It might be a few days here for you... but it's a long time there for me."
"...We'll miss you too," Kassandra replied, her voice muffled against his chest. She leaned her head on him, listening to the slow, steady beat of his heart. "It doesn't matter if it's just a couple of hours or days. Be careful out there, okay? You have a family to return to. Don't do anything stupid."
"Don't worry, I'm immortal," Alaric grinned, pulling back. He tapped his chest. "I can't die. I mean, well... technically I do die, but I'm reborn. Like the Phoenix."
"Yeah-yeah, Phoenix boy," Kassandra sighed, stepping back. She offered him a brave smile. "Now go. Before I tie you to the bed and ride you all day long."
"I'd like that, but you're right," The blonde smiled. He stared at Kassandra and Hunter for one last, long moment, imprinting the image onto his soul to keep him warm in the cold nights of the Shinobi world.
"Goodbye, love... I'll be back!"
Alaric stepped back. He didn't weave a sign. He just willed it.
FLASH.
The air twisted. Golden light erupted.
And with that, he was gone.
.
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