Aethernea

by Cloe D Frost

  Yet, no matter how she walked along the edge, she was unable to reach the summit of the cliff, to reach the top and look down at all creation.

  What chained her back was time.

  Time. The most valuable commodity that no amount of money could buy. Something effort and talent couldn’t surpass.

  Time constantly went forward, never retreating or slowing down.

  Time already passed was forever lost.

  * * *

  (Meanwhile in the Rroda Mainhouse, Ashar)

  Venric Rroda looked at the large clock hanging on the wall of his office, a slight frown making its way to his face.

  “Lawrence. Did you send someone to pick Kiel Rroda up?” The iciness of his voice was enough to cause people to shudder.

  His mood was exceedingly sour. His men had combed through the estate two times already, not finding anything out of the ordinary. To anyone else, that would be good news. However, Venric Rroda didn’t view it in the same way.

  If his men had found something out of the ordinary, the pechuh would be out of the bag. He would have found out the motive of Elaru Wayvin. No matter how capable or dangerous a person was, once their goal became clear, it would be easy to deal with them.

  However, right now, he still knew absolutely nothing. That irked him to no avail. He was very clear on one thing: the most dangerous existences are those who cannot be seen through.

  The most dangerous weapons were not giant great swords or axes. No; the most dangerous weapons were hidden weapons.

  The most dangerous foes weren’t his most powerful enemies, but the ones that he didn’t even know he had.

  Lawrence remained as calm as ever as if he couldn’t feel the icy atmosphere at all. “Yes, your grace.” He had indeed arranged some men to find the young master.

  Venric eyes narrowed. “Why isn’t he here then?” Venric’s Mind always remained stretched to cover the whole estate. He could feel everyone coming in and out of the estate. And Kiel Rroda clearly was not among them.

  Lawrence was wondering the same thing. How hard of a job could it be? He even sent two battlemages to ensure the job got carried out without a hitch. “Your grace, perhaps Kiel Rroda is no longer staying at the same inn? Or perhaps the men ran into some difficulty? I’ll send someone to inquire about the current situation.”

  Lawrence observed his Lord closely, as Venric showed no signs of disagreement, he bowed and left the premises.

  * * *

  Having no place to go, Kiel and Elaru returned to the same clearing as before.

  Elaru, once again, proved to be quite prepared. She found a nice spot, hidden from view, and with a slam of her foot, turned the earth in the radius of two meters into soft sand.

  After that, she took out two rolls of green silk from her bags. The sheets of cloth seemed extremely thin and fragile.

  She spread one of the rolls over the sand. Since the sheet was thin, the small roll managed to cover 4 square meters of ground – more than enough for both of them to lie comfortably on it.

  She pulled out 4 small mana crystals from one of her pouches. She flicked them to fall on the corners of the silk blanket. Surprisingly, the crystals made the silk dip down into the sand, as if it was hit by a hammer.

  Kiel’s eyes glittered in recognition. Those crystals were enchanted with a weight altering spell so they could become extremely light or heavy when used by a mage.

  Elaru had altered their weight to become heavy so no wind would be able to blow away their blanket.

  As he noticed that the thin blanket didn’t show any tears when hit by a heavy crystal, Kiel finally realized what the blanket was made out of – scaled spidersilk. Not only was it incredibly durable and flexible, but it was also resistant to heat and cold. It was an expensive material often used to create high-grade cloth armor.

  Yet she was using it as a blanket?!

  Scaled spidersilk as a blanket, weight altering crystals as anchors. Isn’t all of this a bit too extravagant? They were camping out in the open, yet she made their camp as comfortable as staying at an inn.

  To top it all, she brought out her enchanted metal egg and aligned it properly to create a barrier around their campsite so no creatures or people could disturb them.

  Then she laid down on the spread blanket and used the other roll of spidersilk to cover herself. Her face was blissful as if she was finally home.

  Kiel was already turning numb to her surprises. He had an urge to open every single compartment Elaru had on her and check out what wonders hide within. None of the things she pulled out were shabby in any way. It made Kiel curious about what else she had inside. He even took note of the volume of everything she pulled out up to now and figured that there was still space inside her bags for more things.

  After a while, he just sighed and lied on his back next to her.

  What greeted him was a clear black sky, filled with countless glowing dots. The two moons circling Halnea were glowing brightly – one silvery white, one bright orange. In the depths, among the stars, one could even see vivid colored glittery clouds of dust.

  Resting on the soft, silky blanket, surrounded by the beautiful scenery, Kiel finally understood why Elaru seemed to feel at home out in the open.

  Her little gadgets removed all the bad sides from camping in the woods. No bugs, snakes or other critters could come through the barrier to bite them. No lupaxes or lunars could sneak attack them. The hard ground had turned soft and comfortable.

  Without the drawbacks, all that were left were the benefits.

  The beautifully lit night sky. The soft night breeze making the temperature feel just right. Countless quiet noises of the forest combined with the sounds of the nearby waterfall turned into a soothing lullaby.

  Even though he was very excited for the tomorrow’s exams, even though his mind wasn’t quite ready to doze off. The tiredness of his body, coupled with the relaxing atmosphere overcame everything, lulling him to sleep.

  His long eyelashes fluttered and soon his breathing became rhythmic and soothing.

  * * *

  Venric Rroda stared into thin air, deep in thought.

  The report had just come in. Kiel Rroda and Elaru Wayvin never returned to the inn. Allegedly they left in the morning. When they had questioned the owner of the inn on whether they had checked out, the lady told them that Elaru Wayvin didn’t need to check out, since she had her own, exclusive room in the inn.

  For a girl of unknown origin to have an exclusive room in an inn, didn’t leave him with a good feeling.

  “Should I have their whereabouts investigated, your grace?” Lawrence, stood by his side, asking in a soothing tone.

  “No.” Venric waved his hand in dismissal. “It is a pointless endeavor. Tomorrow is the first day of the exams. They’ll have no choice but to come take them. Send some men to wait for them in front of the University and prevent Kiel Rroda from entering.”

  “Yes, your grace.”

  * * *

  Monday, 27th of August 1449 A.W.

  Muni Exams: Day 1

  When Kiel Rroda woke up that fine Monday morning, he was brimming with energy. Today was the first day of the exams. His rise to prominence started today!

  Yet, instead of feeling thrilled, the first emotion that hit him was devastating regret.

  Why?! Why didn’t I remember to place a fence between us?!

  Although he felt warm and comfortable, his body stiffened and froze in place.

  His arms were incredibly full. Full of warm, soft flesh, that, unfortunately, didn’t belong to himself.

  Elaru was more lying on him than the blanket. She was using his chest as a pillow. Her body was tightly pressed against his. And to make matters worse, his hand was comfortably wrapped around her keeping her right where she was.

  He couldn’t even blame it all on Elaru, because upon further inspection, it wasn’t her that made her way towards him during the night. No. Both of them had, again, congregated to the center of the blan
ket.

  Kiel would have let out an anguished cry of “Why?!” if he wasn’t afraid of waking Elaru up. He needed to move out of this position, right now. This situation could only get more awkward with the passage of time.

  But how could he move her away? She was lying on top of him. He couldn’t move at all. He couldn’t even use acceleration magic to make her float away from him gently because the vixen still had a dense layer of mage armor wrapped around her body.

  How could she retain her mage armor in her sleep?? It made no sense!

  His forehead was already drenched with cold sweat. From where their bodies touched, spread warm tingles that felt wonderful. Yet, Kiel didn’t find the situation wonderful in the least.

  While his body was enjoying the sensation, his mind was in turmoil. This felt both absolutely right and undeniably wrong.

  While his mind and body were sending mixed signals, even his heart joined in on the chaos – from his chest spread a dull ache.

  * * *

  Coming up in the next episode:

  Yet, why is it that when he looked at her, he didn’t feel repulsed at all?

  As soon as her body touched the floor, she jumped up like a frightened lunar, with its hair raised, hissing and puffing: “The heck?!”

  Kiel let out an inward sigh of relief and jumped up on his feet. Disaster averted. God bless my quick wits!

  Ashar University of Magic entrance exams, here we come!

  When Kiel and Elaru arrived in front of the Ashar University of Magic, what greeted them was a large crowd of people filling up the entire huge courtyard.

  Episode 34 – Sneaking About

  Episode 34 – Sneaking About

  Previously:

  Kiel and Elaru went to sleep in the woods. When the morning of the exams arrived, Kiel was the first to wake up and realize that Elaru and he were again in an inappropriate position – Elaru was laying half on top of him.

  * * *

  Kiel Rroda is a perfectly straight male (at least that’s what he believed).

  Even though he didn’t feel an attraction towards the opposite sex at all, he felt even less of an attraction towards the same sex. So naturally, his conclusion was that he wasn’t gay.

  It might be that he didn’t believe in love. He wasn’t sure himself if he believed or not. While everyone preached about how much they were in love, all his eyes could see was a shallow physical attraction. People drowned themselves in lust and called it love.

  It made his skin crawl.

  Even those that did hold love in their hearts weren’t really in love with the person in front of them – they were in love with their own internal image of them.

  Those kind of people were even more pitiful. They weren’t even aware that the object of their love was just a fantasy.

  Kiel wouldn’t let himself become entangled in romantic matters. He wanted nothing to do with it. He had better things to do in life. He just couldn’t see a single benefit a significant other would bring him. He only saw drawbacks.

  His heart didn’t have room in it for anyone.

  Maybe his opinion on romance would change if he had an opportunity to feel love or lust. But when he looked at all the women that wanted him, his heart didn’t feel moved at all. All he felt was revulsion. No matter how beautiful they looked on the outside, it didn’t make him feel an ounce of affection towards them. He didn’t know them; he didn’t want to know them.

  Most of them hid their own ugliness under a beautiful mask. No matter how beautiful someone was on the outside, that which was inside caused all potential attraction to wither before it could even sprout.

  How could he possibly be attracted to something that looked pretty on the outside but was full of disgusting things inside? How could he possibly want to have an intimate relationship with them?

  Not attractive at all. Neither mentally nor physically. He had never felt a primal instinct to mate. And he was glad for that. He was perfectly in control of himself. Just the way he liked it.

  Yet, the worst thing about it all was that he was exactly like them. He too looked beautiful on the outside, while the insides…didn’t match.

  Elaru Wayvin was like it too. She was beautiful on the outside, but he couldn’t tell what ugliness hid beneath her skin.

  Yet, why is it that when he looked at her, he didn’t feel repulsed at all?

  They fought all the time. He didn’t like her at all. She could easily get under his skin, make his blood boil. And yet, even after all of that, he didn’t hate her. Not really.

  Being with her couldn’t be called pleasant, but if he was forced to endure it for the rest of eternity, he didn’t think it would be unbearable.

  Perhaps, this was acceptance? Or maybe it was something else.

  Whatever it was, it was illogical. It made absolutely no sense. Kiel couldn’t make heads or tails out of it.

  So he just decided not to think about it at all.

  He sighed in resignation. Look at the bright side. After a few days, I’ll be living in Muni dormitory, and things like this won’t have a chance to happen. Then I can go to sleep and wake up in tranquility.

  After a few seconds of pondering how he could resolve the issue, he decided to use the air stream to gently lift her up. His eyes glittered as he cast Acceleration on the air around him. He could have done something similar using Morph, but Morph wasn’t really intended for creating uniform movement of particles, so naturally it would be much easier to do it with Acceleration.

  He proceeded to control the movement of air particles, directing them to pass over them, in between the crevices, faster and faster.

  Surprisingly, it was more difficult than he thought it would be. It was as if it became more difficult with every second. Still, he persevered and finally succeeded in pushing Elaru’s body a bit upwards. In that split second in which their bodies separated, he accelerated sideways from under her.

  He didn’t even get a chance to breathe out in relief before Elaru smacked facedown onto the blanket. She had lost the support of his body, and his air control seemed to fail completely for no apparent reason.

  As soon as her body touched the floor, she jumped up like a frightened lunar, with its hair raised, hissing and puffing: “The heck?!”

  Startled awake, she looked around herself in a daze until her eyes found Kiel who was still lying on his back, a few meters away. “What happened?”

  Kiel plastered a completely emotionless expression on his face and responded in the most honest tone he could muster. “You suddenly jumped up screaming bloody murder. Did you have a nightmare?”

  She frowned and scratched her head. “I don’t remember having a nightmare…”

  “It is possible you don’t remember anything because you woke up too abruptly?”

  Elaru shrugged and started stretching her limbs. “Well…whatever.”

  Kiel let out an inward sigh of relief and jumped up on his feet. Disaster averted. God bless my quick wits!

  As he stood on his feet, something felt strange. His body…felt lighter? He flexed his muscles a bit. Was it just his imagination, or did he have more control over his body?

  His eyes brightened. Was this because of that pill I consumed yesterday?

  That would be the only explanation since he didn’t exercise his body yesterday nor did he perform mana tempering.

  The previously sour mood got replaced by delight. He was in a perfect condition to take the exams. He just needed to tidy himself up to look like a proper noble.

  He made his way to the stream and washed his face. Then he tidied his clothes. He even spent a few minutes checking himself out in the small mirror before being satisfied.

  He was looking quite dashing, just like always.

  Cold, yet sexy eyes. The soft rebellious hair framing his flawless pale face. The long black eyelashes and soft lips.

  Wait…why does it sound like a description of a girl?!

  He frowned and quickly returned the mirror into his
backpack. His eyes turning towards Elaru who was patiently waiting for him. Besides running her hands through her hair, doing a quick cleansing and drinking some water, she didn’t tidy herself up at all.

  Even so, she looked like her usual beautiful self. She was bursting with vigor, her aura so animated and alive Kiel felt like it was directly pouring energy into him.

  A neat, refined look wouldn’t suit her.

  When people described beautiful women, there were several types of beauty they would point out such as charming, soft, cold but regal, voluptuous and sexy, adorably cute, etc.

  None of those descriptions were adequate to describe Elaru.

  Her appearance was neither tomboyish nor was she a girly girl. She was neither warm and soft nor did she have a cold countenance of a noble. She was neither voluptuous nor cute.

  She seemed to be somewhere in-between all of those. She was just…beautiful. Charismatically, gracefully beautiful.

  “Are you all pampered up, princess? Ready to go?” Elaru grinned warmly, showing off her pearly white teeth.

  Kiel frowned in annoyance. “Do all your nicknames have to be so insulting?”

  She chuckled and seemed to realize that calling Kiel a princess was going a bit overboard. “Alright, alright. I’m sorry. You are actually quite fast in getting ready. But when you pulled out a mirror…” She suddenly started giggling melodiously.

  Kiel’s frown deepened and felt the need to explain himself. “How am I supposed to know how I look like without a mirror? I could have an unruly strand of hair that makes me look ridiculous. Using a mirror doesn’t make me a girly guy. Everyone uses a mirror!”

  She smiled and gave him a thumbs up. “You are right.”

  Kiel’s mouth twitched. Can’t tell if you are being sarcastic or not…

  And so, the two set out towards the Ashar University of Magic which was so large it could still be seen in the distance.