Chapter 21: Ch. 20 Distressing Dream
A young lad and lass lay comfortably in the middle of a vast flower garden, looking at the enchanted scene of the setting sun. The lad closed his eyes, enjoying the wind blowing on his skin, while the lass inhaled the scent of the flower she had just picked beside her.
"Paskha, do you know what people say about us?"
"What?"
"They say we have similar faces to the point they mistake us for sisters."
"Ho? And you believe it?"
"Hmph! How can I believe it? I'm definitely prettier than you."
Paskha laughed at his childhood friend's remark. "Of course, you are prettier than me. After all, I'm not a girl. But… you're not a girl either."
The young lass looked at Paskha with a wrinkled forehead and blazing fire-like eyes, and immediately Paskha felt cold sweat on his back and looked to the side.
"Sharleen, I was just kidding. I just… umph!!" Paskha could not continue his sentence because a large bubble of water appeared out of nowhere and fell on him. "This again? Aren't you tired of showering me with cold water? Brrr…"
If only the water were an ordinary one, Paskha would be fine. The thing was, Sharleen's water came from Frosty Lake, which was the coldest water in the world. Not to mention, it had a cold poison that could freeze anyone's heart to death.
If Paskha hadn't strong body resistance, his body would have frozen and turned into ice.
The young man immediately sat cross-legged and used the searing soul force in his body to fight the cold poison without noticing Sharleen's movement sitting in front of him.
Because Paskha was focused on fighting the cold poison and closed his eyes, he didn't know what Sharleen was doing. He didn't even understand why Sharleen had administered a greater amount of cold poison than usual.
Did he really make the girl angry this time? But his brain immediately stopped working when he felt something soft and supple on his lips. All of a sudden, the cold poison vanished instantly as if there was no poison attacking his body.
Paskha slowly opened his eyes, and his black eyes widened when he saw Sharleen's face so close to his and her lips… pressed against his own!
Sharleen placed her palm on Paskha's left chest and pulled away while giving a mischievous smile. "Am I still not a girl after making your heart flutter?"
"I… I…" Paskha was too speechless that he didn't know how to counter the sly girl's advance.
Seeing Paskha's rarely-seen nervousness, Sharleen stood up and laughed heartily.
For some reason, just listening to her laughter, which was so happy, made Paskha feel satisfied. Paskha also got up to catch up with his best friend, only to find the environment around him had changed. Right now, he was in the middle of a battlefield and felt an extremely powerful fluctuation of soul force before him.
As soon as he saw the owner of this soul force, Paskha's heart seemed to jump from this place.
The possessor of this mighty force was none other than Lord Hawk, the Golden General of the Western empire, and this scene… wasn't this…
"I don't want to kill you. But I have to follow orders. Paskha, take this last blow of mine… ugh!"
Paskha's whole body stiffened when the back of a familiar woman appeared before Lord Hawk. Instantly the soul force that had gathered on the man's sword vanished. The Western empire's Golden General coughed once and spat out a lump of thick blood.
"No," muttered Paskha realizing what would happen after this.
He put all his strength into moving his legs. He had to get to Sharleen's side before the girl pulled the knife from her brother's chest and killed herself.
However… the distance between them was quite far, and Paskha didn't have the ability to teleport. Even though he could fly, almost all of his mana was used up, and it took time to replenish it.
Besides, Sharleen's reaction was faster than he expected. As soon as Sharleen was sure her brother was dead in her hands, the girl pulled out her spiritual knife and turned to look at Paskha with tears streaming down her face.
Sharleen channeled all her remaining mana into the blade before stabbing her heart with the same knife.
"I'm sorry,"
"NO!!!"
Little Paskha's eyes opened, and his much smaller hand raised towards the sky as if he was about to reach for something. He was sweating, and tears started coming from the corners of his eyes.
His heart throbbed so painfully that he couldn't breathe.
'Sharleen, why are you so stupid?'
He couldn't take it to witness the scene once, but now he experienced it for the second time, and he again failed to save her, breaking Paskha's heart into pieces.
It wasn't long before he felt a gentle rush of vitality from the top of his head. This energy flow was so mild that it went deep into his soul, which could calm his raging heart.
"Bad dream?"
Little Paskha wiped away the traces of tears on her cheeks and realized what he saw was… a dream. He looked sideways and saw Sir Clove sitting by his bed with a hand pressed to his forehead.
"I'm fine, Sir Clove."
After ensuring that Paskha's expression was gradually recovering, Sir Clove withdrew the infused mana.
"What did you see?"
"Hm?"
"You are still small, but your cries are like someone who lost the most precious person."
Little Paskha avoided his teacher's eye contact and changed his position to sit. "I don't really remember."
"If you say so. Now that you're awake, what was your impression of last night's practice?"
Last night? "How long do I sleep?"
"You've been asleep for more than twelve hours. And now it's noon."
EHHH!?!?
How could that be? He didn't remember using much mana as he ran with his eyes closed. Then how could he sleep for more than twelve hours?
Adults only need six to eight hours of sleep to restore their mana and stamina; meanwhile, children under twelve need about eight to ten hours. Except for the particular case, if one used up all of their mana and stamina, their sleep time would automatically be much longer than average.
Paskha didn't understand how he could lose control and use up all his mana to put him to sleep for dozens of hours.
If he recalled later, the electric array that was stepped on at the start of his run only had the function of shocking him, but it wasn't painful. But about an hour later, the electrical array of Sir Clove's domain had even greater voltage, and it was not only to surprise him but also to injure him.
"Sir Clove…" Paskha was about to confirm his theory, but… he decided to play dumb. "Don't you love me anymore?"
"Ha?"
"Why did you put me in such a dangerous position? What if I die? The electricity I felt was painful."
"…"
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone