Chapter 24: | Life in Xyrus City |
POV: Ráel
"Is everything alright now?" Elijah asked Arthur as he came out of the back doors of the guild, and his bond head-butted him in the stomach.
"Gahh, yeah, everything is taken care of. Now we can go back home?"
We started to walk back towards the teleportation gate in silence. No one spoke a word until the gate came into view.
"Well, it was nice meeting you guys, but it's time we split ways, right?" Elijah asked us as he shifted glances between us awkwardly.
"What?" Arthur spouted in surprise. "You're not coming with us, Elijah? Do you have something to do?"
"If it's okay with you guys, then I would not refuse," Elijah said in surprise as he scratched his cheek.
"It would be better if you two came with us before we go to school together," Arthur said.
"What do you mean 'we'?" I asked him.
"Well, one of you wants to make a name for themselves, and the other is a strong kid, so it would be nice to go to Xyrus Academy together," Arthur said to us as he laughed at Elijah's reaction of surprise and confusion.
"I'm sorry, I still don't follow. How would I even get into the school? I mean... I might have the qualifications but not the background. Even the fact that I'm from Darv wouldn't give me any leeway to get into the school," Elijah said.
"Me too, as you guys know, I don't even have a home to live. I always lived in a forest," I replied in my usual cold voice.
He leaned forward and put an arm around our neck as he proudly smiled and said, "Let your big brother take care of the small details."
"What big brother? You know we're both older than you," Elijah laughed as he threw a light jab at Arthur's ribs.
"Besides, I don't think we fit in with those kids at school, me living always on my own and him living with the dwarfs," I said, acting unsure if I should join.
"Just to sweeten the deal, he added, 'You know, Lucas is going to be attending Xyrus Academy. Are you okay with me having all the fun?'"
"I agree with Ar... Note. You can always go back to being an adventurer later," Jasmine glanced around to see if anyone heard the mistake she almost slipped out.
"If you can somehow get me in, I'll go! Besides, someone's going to have to hold you back from murdering Lucas on the first day of school!" Elijah said, finally giving in as I just nodded my head.
"Good! Jasmine, can you take Elijah back to Helstea Manor? I have something I need to do first. I'll catch up to you guys!" He pushed them toward the portal just a bit ahead as he locked eyes with me. I nodded at him, already sensing Kaspin watching us.
"Come out," I called out calmly. With a swish, Kaspian appeared beside us with his sheathed rapier tied to his waist.
"I am glad you took some precautions by sending the two of them away first," Kaspian nodded approvingly as he threw a small pouch of gold coins towards Arthur. The amount of gold would make most people faint, but we didn't react much.
"This is a gift from the Guild," he said and started to warn us to be careful of the Wykes family.
"Don't worry, we can take care of ourselves," Arthur said as he waved his hand and started to walk towards the gate. I gave a last glance towards Kaspin, a glance of warning, so that he wouldn't do something stupid. From the look of it, he understood what I meant.
After we passed the gate, I heard Arthur say, "Sylvie," and the little dragon started to transform once again right before us.
Her pitch-black scales turned white as the horns sprouting from her head completely receded. The scales on her lizard-like tail extended like fur as the scales on her body thinned out as well. As the bright glow subsided, the feline-lizard form that she once had been was nowhere in sight, replaced by the form of a fox.
Upon closer inspection, I could see that her fur was actually incredibly thin scales that took on the appearance of a soft coat over her body. Sylvie's body was almost completely covered in a snowy white pelt as her nose, paws, and the tips of her ears remained black.
"That skill of your bond is really useful," I said to him as I gently patted her head. To my surprise, she was a bit scared of me.
"Yeah, it really is. I didn't know she could transform more than once," he replied in a surprised voice.
"Why does she seem scared of me?" I asked out of curiosity.
"She says that you are strong and dangerous, and the aura around you scares her," Arthur replied, being confused that he could not sense anything from me.
"She has good senses. Not many mana beasts were able to sense my killing intent, and she probably smells blood on me," I said as I gently patted her head and concentrated to fully hide my aura of death and blood. After living in the forest all those years training, I did not care much about my aura.
"Give her mana cores to eat. She has probably used more energy than she could handle, transforming two times in a day," I said to Arthur as I took a mana core out of my ring and gave it to her. She ate them as she slowly started to fall asleep, leaving only me and him in silence.
"I will go to the city, sell my old stuff, and buy a dimensional ring," Arthur said to me.
"Hmm," I thought for a bit and threw him a mid-level dimensional ring. "Take this, it should be of use to you. And don't sell your old stuff, just burn them," I said.
"After all, visiting all those dungeons, I have found a lot of things left from dead adventures, so I have quite the treasures," I thought to myself.
"No, I can't take that. You know those things cost a lot," he said as he tried to hand me back the ring.
"Take it as me paying for you getting me into school," I replied in my cold voice.
Arriving at the other side of the gate in Xyrus,
"We are home," Arthur said.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone