Kuina was now thinking she might have jumped to conclusions, and looked at them before questioning.
"Huh? What do you mean?"
Ars then looked at her and calmly explained.
"We have a system prepared to use in the future, where you can buy stuff, with points that you get by completing missions. And you can still try to become the world's best swordsman, nobody here is stooping you."
She looked a bit more relaxed after that, but she replied to Ars with a sad smile on her face.
"I see, but the system isn't up yet, and the reason i'm not following with my dream has nothing to do with anyone stooping me, it's just i died and somehow i feel that i somehow lost my habilitations to compete on that race, trying after that would feel like I'm cheating…Besides with my responsibilities has a queen i won't have that much time to train."
She stooped but then added.
"Besides, when the machine showed me the years between when I was supposed to die and my 21st birthday, I got the feeling it wasn't me, but instead a different version of me… Now I have this strange feeling I'm not Kuina anymore, but even then I was Kuina…"
Olivia then looked at her with a strange expression, before looking at Ars with a confused smile, then she finally remembered that he initially didn't even invite her to be his queen. She looked back at Kuina and explained that wasn't the case most of the time.
"Well, actually no, we have a whole lot of free time. You see, each queen is only in charge of one sector, for example, I'm in charge of education and logistics. I can handle other areas, but my job is to be in charge of the education and the logistics. Elia is in charge of the palace and the people in it, that's why she is also the head maid. So you will have more free time than you think. And you are yourself even if you feel strange about who you are. Maybe you're not even the Kuina that died but a Kuina from an alternative reality where you never died… Who knows, but no matter what you are still yourself."
Kuina then thought about it and agreed, in this case she should have free time to train and Olivia's words about who she was didn't really serve as consolation. Then she looked at Ars with curiosity.
"What area would I be in charge of?"
Ars smiled and introduced her to her role.
"I would like it if you would take charge of the military division. That way you can train and do your job at the same time."
Kuina's eyes shone a little, that was a good position for her.
Ars then remembered and said quickly.
"Now, I will take you to get the best resources on the island, which will be used to increase your potential, and would you like to change anything about your body? Apparence wise."
She answered with a confused expression.
"No, why?"
Ars looked at her, and could not help but notice how similar Kuina was to Tashigi. The similarities were huge.
"Do you have a sister or a family member named Tashigi?"
She tried to remember if she did but nothing came to her. So she looked at him and replied with a confused face.
"No, why?"
He explained it with a wondering face.
"You and her look so alike, that if someone told me you were twin sisters, I would believe it, or maybe a little sister. Your big difference would be the hair styles, you are wearing long hair almost by your waist, with a pony tail and 2 curved bangs enclosing your face from the sides. While she is using a short cut, by the shoulders."
She was curious now, so she asked about Tashigi.
"Is she that similar to me in appearance? And she is also from the east blue?"
Ars nodded twice. Then Kuina added.
"I kinda want to meet her now…And one more thing… Will I ever see my family again?"
Ars just nodded. After that he grabbed her hand and transported them to the laboratory, where he then explained what the machine was going to do.
She then entered the machine and Ars activated it. Then Ars left to do something else that needed to be done, since the transformation would take up to 3 days.
Two days passed quietly. And Kuina left the laboratory after signing the contract. Then Ars and the 3 queens grouped to talk about what they should do. Ars started.
"Now we need to choose something important, and that is when to introduce Kuina to the general public… Not so long ago we officially introduced Olivia and Elia, so I'm thinking when would be the best time to introduce her. Your thoughts?"
Elia asked, a bit bewildered by the problem.
"Can't we introduce her right away, normally?"
Olivia answered for Ars.
"No, first people would need to leave the villages and travel here, and that would take time, and we know how long that took last time. And second, if we introduce her now, almost for sure another festival will occur. In my opinion, we should introduce her officially on the same date next year, that way we can make that day an official day to start a festival from then on each year, like a festival to commemorate the birth of the royal family. Since before it was just Ars."
Ars nodded and gave an appreciative smile, then looked around and questioned.
"For me, I think that's a good idea. Elia and Kuina, what are your thoughts?"
Elia also agreed and added.
"I think it's a great idea. A day where everyone can relax, well… almost everyone."
Kuina also nodded and elaborated on her idea.
"I also think it's a good idea, but you will still need to introduce me at least to the military."
Ars nodded and explained something Kuina seemed to be confused about.
"It's not that we won't introduce you, that would be just rude. It's that we will only introduce you officially to the entire kingdom next year on the same date that we introduced Olivia and Elia. Elia was also in a similar situation, everyone knew that she was gonna be a queen but it wasn't until that date that it became official and people started calling her by that title."
Kuina finally understood what he meant, while everyone would know of her, only next year would she officially become a queen.
Ars then took her to the military grounds and introduced her to everyone there.
"This is Kuina, next year, on the same date of the previous queens announcement, she will also be officially introduced as a queen, and she will be the queen in charge of the military."
Then Ars led Kuina to the military headquarters, and started introducing her job more thoroughly and the headquarters.
"This is the military headquarters of our kingdom, and at that big door on the extreme of it, is the conference room, it's where we make large plans involving the military when we need to, and by its side there is a Work room, where you will be able to read and sign documents when you to, the rest of the building is a few restrooms, bedrooms and a kitchen with a cafeteria included. Well, for now everything is mainly settled, so you don't need to worry, except one thing, you need to decide small units and their superiors, and then the superiors of those superiors, until you get to Rook, who is the general, and the only other person to have a current position is Fierzy who is the captain of the female corps, neither were on the training grounds today, Rook is on the sea on a mission to bring more people, and Fierzy I don't know, maybe you will still meet her today, we will see latter."
She nodded and they slowly went around the city, so Ars could introduce her to everyone that was close to him.
A few days later Rook also returned with a few refugees, he took advantage of the situation and introduced Kuina to Rook. Then Rook stayed a few days before departing again, with the same main mission, to find people to bring to the kingdom.
After that for a few months Ars daily routine was, working on what he needed to do, train and pass time with his queens.
During those months he finally managed to awaken observation haki, he also learned the entire set of the rokushiki, then he improved it, and finally he created a new martial art by fusing, fishman karate with the rokuogan and then perfecting it with other martial arts, and he called it seismic fists. It was similar to the hasshoken, but far more destructive and with a wider range too. He also managed to create flying slashes with his swordsmanship alone, and starting to know how to use most of his skills that were born from the akuma no mi's properly.
Then one day he was bored since his queens were busy, was late and he had nothing else to do, so he decided to go get a new queen.
He went to the machine and searched for the incident he was thinking of. After a few minutes he managed to find it and went in.
He arrived at a group of fishman surrounding a woman. With one pointing a gun at her head and almost pressing the trigger. The woman seeing everything frozen was visibly quite confused. The first thing she did was trying to attack her attacker, but he suffered no damage, she realized that while she couldn't interact with others.
She then looked around, first at her original position, where she saw a silhouette of herself, then she started looking around once more, until she spotted a figure she didn't know, that was also moving like her. She approached and asked about this strange situation with a muddled face.
"Who are you? And are you responsible for what is happening right now?"
Ars smiled warmly at her and replied.
"I am Ars Nautical, and I'm a king from a future kingdom. And yes, I am the one responsible for freezing time, or maybe something similar but not the same. I'm not so sure about myself anymore, I made several possibilities and the more I think about it, the more confused I become with new possibilities appearing."
Ars then looked at her, who was now paying close attention to him, before continuing.
"I came here to make you a proposal, I would like it if you came with me and became one of my queens, everyone here will think you died, but if you stay you will die anyway so..."
She nodded, then closed her eyes while thinking about what to do. After a few seconds she looked at Ars, trying to understand things properly.
"So if I stay I die. But if I go with you I will live as a queen. Is there also a possibility of going but not becoming a queen?"
Ars nodded, it was indeed a possibility. She nodded understandingly, and then inquired about the possibilities.
"You say you are from the future and I trust my girls will survive. So, would it be easier to see them as a queen or as a normal person?"
Ars thought about it and replied while still thinking about the answer, because he himself didn't know the answer to that question.
"Well I'm not sure, if you are a civilian, you will have to work for quite a while before seeing them, but as a queen you will also need to work quite a while… I think the better question would be, what would be the easiest way to live with my daughter or daughters again after we are reunited. In that case the queen option, I think. But I will warn you straight away, you can't go get them straight away and will need to wait at least a few years. And no matter what your choice will be, you always need to return to this island."
She nodded and commented lightly.
"So the real price is to always live on this island, but we can travel…I think I will take you up on your offer to become a queen, I think in the end it will make my reunion with my daughters easier."