Chapter 25: Chapter 25 - His familiar face
[Lilia Helstea POV]
Today had been a very busy day, Mommy and Aunt Alice had taken me and Ellie to a magic gear store for beginners. We even bought an accessory that could help to get mana from the environment faster, it was a light blue ribbon that I could wear in my hair or around my neck. Ellie also won a purple one, she decided to leave it as a hair accessory and I followed the same idea.
Arriving home by carriage, we could see something that made my eyes sparkle with joy, Luz seemed to simply appear at the entrance of the mansion in midair. Wearing the clothes our moms bought him, without that adventurer's uniform or any items on hand. He had his back to us and was walking towards the door. Apparently he hadn't even noticed our arrival.
Alice opened the door suddenly and ran to her son, hugging him from behind and thus taking him by surprise. While mommy got Ellie out of the carriage and I leave with them.
"My baby! How are you? What a surprise to see you here!!!" Alice said as she seemed to hold her son tightly in that hug.
"Mom! C-Calm down! You're squeezing me more than a mana beast!" He said exaggerating and still she didn't let go.
I was the next to approach him, looking him up and down, he looked as if he hadn't even been out for adventures in the last 5 months. His black hair looked like it had those colored streaks, but very faint and his eyes weren't shining. Could it be that from so much use, the colors got stuck in his hair? If so, the only way to fix it would be to go to the hairdresser.
"And you? Did you miss me too?" he said teasingly as he looked me in the eyes, but his smile showed that this feeling was mutual.
"Of course, silly! You were talking so much when I meditated that when you left I felt like I was in an empty library." I said laughing with him.
"But where is your brother?" my mom said, making Alice completely startled and staring at him.
"Relax, he's with Jasmine and other guys. I'll explain better inside." after that answer, we go inside the house.
At the moment our fathers hadn't returned from work, so we went to the sofas in the main room. We were sitting there, my mom, and Aunt Alice on one couch while Luz, Ellie and I were on another.
"Fine! Go ahead, we're excited to hear what happened!" Mom said with a little laugh at the end.
"Oh...but do you want me to start at the beginning or do you want me to tell you how things are going?" He said, with Ellie on his lap and squeezing his cheeks with both hands, but he didn't seem to react, just letting her do it.
"The beginning!" Our mothers said in unison.
"Okay, well... The guild looked fancier than we expected, we went to take our exams and ended up being placed as Class A adventurers." When he said that, my mom started to laugh as Aunt Alice covered her mouth with both of her hands.
"My God! You are truly prodigies! But I think it could have been the person who tested you that was weak, no?" Mom replied to what Luz said.
"Are you calling Kaspian Bladeheart weak?" With that question, they were silent watching him with wide eyes.
"Um...Who is Kaspian Bladeheart?" I asked confused, and it looked like Ellie wanted to ask the same question too, because she tilted her head a little to the side. But nobody answered me.
"H-how did he judge you two?" Alice looked a little shaky as she asked this.
"He said he realized that Art was hiding a lot of techniques, since my brother was only using fire and lightning magic. And he put him in A Class for that. As for me, he said he felt like I could easily defeat him if it was a fight to the death. He wanted to make me an AA Class adventurer, but because of the restrictions of the first ranking exam, I was made an A Class.
"Th-that's awesome! And what about your adventures?" Alice asked again, and Luz took a long breath.
"During our wait to take the Exams, we encountered a noble girl from a small family and a boy sponsored by the dwarven nobility. Arthur and I decided that we would form a temporary Party with them so that everyone could train better and even go to dungeons. We went through like 3 C rank dungeons, all were simple, as there was me and Jasmine as Wind Augmenters, the noble girl as a Water Conjurer, the dwarf boy as an Earth Conjurer, and Arthur as a Fire Augmenter."
"That was a really great idea, a starter team where there is at least one person for each element, plus there are three augmenters and two conjurers. But while healing?" my mother asked curiously.
"Me and Arthur decided that we were going to use the stones Mom gave us for these situations, but there weren't even times that we needed it, any wound we had was very superficial and could be healed within a few days."
"Hmm... who was this noble girl that is in your Party?" I asked him, feeling a slight heat in my cheeks.
"Relax, she's eighteen so she's not my age, even though she doesn't even know my age. So no need to be jealous." his answer made me blush a lot and everyone there chuckled softly.
"Oh! What are your adventurer names? You didn't even tell us that before you left." Alice raised a good question.
"Well... My adventurer name is Diamond, and Art's adventurer name is Note."
"Your brother might be a prodigy like you...but to create names..." Mom said, making Aunt Alice laugh.
"Reynolds is also bad with names. Arthur is really his son." we all laughed at Alice's comment.
We talked for a while until Luz asked only his mother to go with him to the room to discuss something, I stayed with Ellie on the couch while my mother watched us playing and asked a maid to bring tea. They only returned to the room again a few hours later, almost at the same time that Reynolds and my father were returning from work.
Reynolds saw his son and ran to hugging and lifting him off the ground. Luz talked more or less the same things to them, but adding some information when his father asked where Arthur was.
Luz simply replied that his brother was training day after day with sword movements without using magic, as he felt that being too dependent on mana was making him weak. Uncle Reynolds just agreed with the situation he was told, for an augmenter, focusing only on mana was pretty bad.
When it was almost dusk, we went to the table to have dinner. We got to eat Alice's homemade recipe, which she said both of her kids liked so it was nice to have something special like that on a day like this. We were already finishing our meals when Luz took his glass and tapped the silverware lightly on the glass.
"Guys, I'd like to let you know a little something so you won't be worried or surprised later."
"Hm... And what would that be, son? You're not going back to the guild tomorrow are you?" His father said jokingly, after all he promised us he'd stay at least a week in Xyrus on every vacation.
"Well, actually, this afternoon, After I returned, I went with my mother to have a conversation..... a interesting one." Everyone was looking at Alice when he said that, but soon he tapped the glass again using the silverware to get our attention again.
"Remember when the Glayder royal family wanted to invite me to their residence and interact with the prince and princess? Well, this afternoon I used the communication scroll they gave me, and along with mom, we spoke to the queen and her children, about it. I will be staying here in Xyrus for a maximum of 2 weeks, due to a promise I made with the adventurer's guild manager, Kaspian Bladeheart. But as far as staying here, in this mansion, I will only be present in the early mornings and nights. In the rest of the days I will visit the Glayder family. We're still working on my schedule on that. But for now it's all."
"H-Hey! What about me?!" I exclaimed, feeling left out of it.
"Bruther Lu won't stay with us?" Ellie's eyes began to fill with tears, and we could all see the expression of that prodigy going into despair, making him get up and approach his little sister.
"No Ellie! I'll be here morning and night, I already said that this visit would take a few weeks and then I come back to be an adventurer. But remember, after a while I can have a vacation again and come back here." He said trying to calm his sister, who just nodded, still with tears in her eyes, tears that the careful brother wiped from her face, by gently wiping with a cloth.
"Hmm... I wanted to cry so bad to have this... but I'm not such a kid- Wait why am I even thinking about that?!? Urgh!" my mind went into a slight panic, but then the boy looked at me.
"I am no longer needed in your moments of meditation for the formation of your mana core, but if you want, at night time, I'll stay with you. Are you okay with this?" He finally answered the question I made before he went to Ellie, his voice still showing concern for her, and I nodded in agreement with what he said.
After some minutes, my dad got up from the table, clapping his hands in Luz's direction, we all looked at him confused. "That's amazing! The way you decide and decide to use all your contacts at the same time, plus... You said you made a deal with Kaspian?!? Kaspian Bladeheart himself! I'm sincerely sorry, because of his connections with royalty and someone trustworthy like him? Do you want to be Dicathen's dominator or what?!?" He said laughing still clapping his hands.
"Uncle Vince... I'm just a kid who got lucky and is trying to get all his friends and loved ones in the best life possible. I'm not going to see the Glayder family because of the king or queen, I'm going there because of their children, children who, despite being noble, are just like me... That and anyway I'm going to study at the Xyrus Academy, the same place that Prince Curtis is currently attending... I need tips from him!" Luz replied with a nervous smile.
"OOh!! Got it now... Tips huh? What for? Want tips on how to attract noble girls, little prodigy? You're already the best friend of my daughter, a friend of the human princess's brother and a considerate brother of the elven princess." At the phrase my father said, we were silent just watching him, while my whole face turned into a tomato and I slammed my face against the table to hide it.
I swear I heard that prodigy boy, that I really loved to see next to me, starting to stutter as his dad started laughing uncontrollably like my dad was telling the best joke ever.
I felt a tap on my shoulder and could hear my mother talking close to my ear. "Calm down honey, your dad drank too much this time,but just because tomorrow is Sunday."
"Okay... Okay. I'm fine, mommy." I immediately looked up and the first thing I noticed was that Luz looked red in the face too, not as much as I was, but enough for anyone without a shadow of a doubt, realize that he was embarrassed by the scene.
"Mom, I'm going to take Ellie to her room so we can talk, okay?" I could feel the shame and that he was using his little sister as an excuse to get out of there, and in response, Aunt Alice gave him a wink and he left the table, with Ell with him.
I followed him because I couldn't handle the situation and we walked up the stairs to the room that was currently Ellie's. He left her sitting on the bed and sighed, looking only at his little sister and not seeming to notice that I was there.
"I'm sorry... my fath-"
"It's ok... I saw he had two bottles of wine today. But wow... it's amazing how it took at least 5 minutes after I told you about Sapin's royal family residence, for him to show some reaction." He answered me, his comment made me laugh.
"But... are you seriously going to stay somewhere else every afternoon before going back to your adventurous life?" I said that looking into his eyes, but I could see his gaze breaking a little.
"Yes...but Lilia, don't worry about that, really I jus-"
"I really missed you and you won't even be able to spend a whole singular day with me?" I cut off his answer.
"First... We're just kids, don't let the nonsense your father said affect you. Second, after you've formed your core, thanks to the contacts uncle Vince has with Mrs. Goodsky, you'll be able to go to Xyrus Academy, where Art and I will be studying when he turns 12. And third... I will be eternally grateful for your family helping mine at a time when neither my brother nor I could be here, so I will always accept favors from your parents... or from you." He replied with a sigh. deep down and patting his sister.
I blushed a little thinking about the last part, but he was really right, he would be taking breaks from time to time to visit us and even after that I would meet him at the Academy... Why am I so upset about this?
Before I could even begin to think of an answer to what I was asking myself, he got up and hugged me tight, I could feel his soft hair touching my face, I couldn't even imagine that it was the hair of a boy who had just ventured into dungeons for 5 months.
"Better?" He asked me, I could feel him stroking my hair.
"yeah.. I'm better...thanks... I didn't even understand why I was angry about it..."
"Fine. I know the answer, but unfortunately it's something you're better off figuring out on your own... Can you stay with Ellie while I go to my room to take a shower?" he said walking away and as soon as he spoke I smelled him.
"Hey!!! Where have you been?"
"Relax, I at least washed myself in a river after killing a mana beast with boiling blood this morning." He said playfully and disappeared using some of his illusory magic.
I sighed and spoke to myself, thinking he wasn't in the room. "What time is he going tomorrow? Oh god... I don't even know."
"Around 7 am, I will go in a carriage with our mothers. Will you want to come along and take me there?" I was surprised that he was still in the room and I just nodded, soon I could hear the sound of the door closing, he was finally out.
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[Curtis Glayder POV]
I was walking in the halls of my house, just thinking about what would happen tomorrow, as I went to my room after dinner, towards there, I ended up seeing my sister's bedroom door ajar, when I put my hand to enter, feel a strong slap and move my hand away.
"I already told you not to go into my room..." I could see my little sister's eyes and face on the other side of the crack. Her voice was as cold as ever.
"Sorry Kath, I just went to check on you. Excited for tomorrow?"
"Of course I am... we will have visits that have nothing to do with nobles..." She still said in that cold voice of hers.
"That's true, at all times we are surrounded by nobles, and when they are children, they treat us as different just because of our parents. But remember, he's going to be with us all day tomorrow, so try to get him things to do, because if it's just me the person who is gonna give ideas, we'll be in my practice room for 6 hours straight." I giggled and soon my sister looked like threw a book in my face without having opened the door that much and then she slammed it shut.
I scratched my face and then picked up the book, it was pretty thick and hardcover on top of that, I opened it and skimmed the title and the first few pages. It was a book on manners and how to behave as a royal.
"Mom is really trying to push her too hard on this eh...well...she did the same to me before my mana core's awakening, just in case I didn't have one." I said quietly to myself and went straight to my room.
I put that book on my desk and threw myself on the bed, seeing my bond, a World Lion puppy, in a cage that took up a small part of my room, he was staring at me a little. As soon as I got out of bed, I opened the cage and started petting him.
"Tomorrow that boy comes, if I don't stay long with you that's why. Is it okay to you?" I said, petting my mana beast more, who was purring and laying on the big pillow I begged my father to have there for it.
After he slept, I left some food already in his pot, got dressed in my pajamas and threw myself on the bed to finally sleep.
With the glow of dawn covering my face and with little noises from my mana beast, I woke up, looking around and yawning. I ended up getting up sloppily, going to the window and closing it.
I really knew I was forgetting something... I'll never get used to the fact that in this house, my bedroom has the window facing in that direction. I grumbled a little, as I walked over to my bond again, giving it a light petting.
"Did the sun wake you up too, buddy?" I said with a slight laugh.
I removed my pajamas for at least a more basic outfit to get out of my room, but when I opened the closet, I already saw an outfit that had been left for me. The servants must have already come in here and tidied up, possibly it was my mother's orders. So I dressed in them without complaint, left my room, and I went straight to the dining hall to have our breakfast.
As usual in sundays, only Kathyln and I were there, with the exception of the servants, who were just watching us, waiting for us to possible making orders. Our parents were somewhere else, possibly deciding something. I had gotten used to it since I was 5 years old, but still, it made me return to the discomfort, for remembering that the person who was coming to visit us was someone common and possibly not even used to a kind of life like that.
"Could you tell me the time, please?" I asked.
"It's around 6:30 a.m. Prince Curtis." the employee closest to me replied.
"Apparently we still have at least thirty minutes left, Kath. Do you have any ideas of things we can do?" I asked my sister and she just looked at me with no expression.
"We can talk about what happened during that time, say some news, giving him a tour in our residence... A competition for the best bedroom." She gave a tiny smile, which was still a big deal to me.
". . . Is that why you didn't let me open your door?" When she heared my question, she stopped smiling, looked straight at me, and stuck out the tip of her tongue, totally expressionless, but soon she went back to eating her breakfast.
"Smart girl..." I muttered under my breath to myself.
I got up after finishing my breakfast and my sister followed shortly after. We headed towards the lobby with two servants following us, one for me and one for Kath. Arriving there I could see our parents, they seemed to be arguing, but that was soon over when my mother noticed us.
"Children, I hope you are excited and well fed so we can welcome our guest." our mother said, she was dressed in an outfit that I normally saw her wear inside the residence, with the exception of a decoration in her hair.
"Priscilla, honey. I don't understand why you have to dress like that when we'll have a visitor." My dad said turning to see our mom.
"As I've said before and I'm trying to remind you. Our guest isn't coming here to be in our army or to be a personal guard. He's coming to interact more with our kids, because they really enjoyed interacting with each other. And it's good to them to see how is a life of a non-noble, so they can see more of what them represent in this kingdom." my mother retorted.
"Hm... son, you have to learn all the techniques from this boy, understand?" He said pointing at me with that imposing voice and my mom ended up giving him a bad look.
"Dad... I was already planning to take him to train, I want to show you how awesome I've been in the meantime!" I said excitedly, my mom smiled and my dad smiled too, but his was just political, not genuine.
After a few minutes a sound rang near the door and one of the employees went to open it for us. We ended up seeing two women and a little girl, I recognized them a little. The little girl was the daughter of the owner of that event five months ago, one of the women was her mother and the other was the mother of the Leywin family. But where was the boy I was waiting for?
Suddenly, a curtain of snow appeared in the middle of the air in a cylindrical shape, and in the same way that that curtain appeared, it disappeared without a trace, showing that boy I had hoped to meet again, he had all dressed up for coming here.
Wearing an outfit similar to a noble, with the base colors being white, yellow and lime green. His hair was slightly messy in the back with colored streaks at the ends, his eyes had a sparkle, the same as when he went to protect my sister. He wore shoes that looked like they were made of wood, but clearly that was just the aesthetic.
And I noticed two things: his height, he had gotten bigger and now he was between me and my sister, when before he was slightly shorter than Kath; and his gaze didn't go directly to my father or mother, but to me and my sister.
The people who came with him bowed in respect, while he did the same, but towards me with his hair no longer messy and his eyes returning to an intense cyan.
"I deeply appreciate the chance to meet the royal family again, and especially the future king of the Kingdom of Sapin, Curtis Glayder, and his dear sister and current princess Kathyln Glyder. How have you been all this time... your majesties?" he said, with a smile forming on his face, and I could identify it, it was completely genuine.
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