The cool breeze caressed the young man’s bare skin, his brown eyes filled with serenity and peace as he gazed at the stars beautifying the night. Sitting side by side on the grass in a wide plain with sparse trees, half-naked, with the woman he loved resting her head on his shoulder, he silently enjoyed the moment with a wooden flask in hand. He knew these peaceful moments were only fleeting.
One hand brushed through the woman’s orange braided hair, playing with it. He remembered how long it had taken him to braid her hair when she’d asked for the same intertwined style she admired from him. The young man’s dark brown hair, unwashed for almost half a month, was adorned with about a dozen braids. Each braid's end was weighted with arrowheads that sometimes clinked softly together with slight movements.
Each of them, a dozen arrowheads, held a unique and irreplaceable meaning in his past.
"Quiet and peaceful, ain't it? Quite a change from yesterday." the woman said with a gravelly, dry voice before taking a long sip from the beer flask she grabbed from his hand. She returned the flask to him afterward.
She was a short, stout yet muscular dwarf woman, with her entire body, including her face, covered in brown freckles, and her eyes a vibrant, lively green. She wasn’t the most beautiful in the world, or might even be considered unattractive by many men. But the young man didn’t think this way.
To him, this was the woman he loved enough to see as the most beautiful in the world and trusted blindly enough to lean on her back. He knew her back could bear burdens as heavy as mountains, and she would do anything for those she cared for. That was just who she was.
After holding his gaze on her for a while, he nodded in agreement, “Hmm, really so,” and turned his eyes back to the stars, which brought joy and peace to the night. “You know, Herna, goin' into that forest was a mistake from the beginnin'.” He took a deep breath before raising the flask to his lips for a sip.
Herna chuckled, playfully nudging him with her shoulder, "You're whinin' like a kid, scared outta yer wits! For a moment, I thought you were gonna shit yerself! Buhaha!" She held back her laugh when she saw him frown and sigh.
Idiot! That ain’t even funny!
"Uh… Well, it turn out you ain't scared for nothing. There no evil spirits like you said, but those giant spiders are good reason to run." she sighed. "The worst part ain't even gettin' paid for it. If we were the ones runnin' like cowards, with our feet up our arse, then we'd have to go back and deal with 'em." She glanced at him. “By the way, Remus, why you so scared of forests?”
Remus turned his gaze to the dwarf woman. “I’m no scared. I’m cautious,” he corrected. “It’s a belief passed down among my people from ancient times. They say forests are places where demons and evil spirits roam. Honestly, I’ve never come across anythin' like that, but still, it left a mark on me. So, I prefer to avoid them unless absolutely necessary.” Imitating her voice, he said, “After all, me only have one life, so must hold on very tight, yes?”
Herna raised her eyebrows with interest but then smirked and gently elbowed him when she heard him mimic the words she had spoken to him when they first met. “So, you still ain't forgotten, huh?”
Remus lightly pinched her cheek with a smile, “How could I? It was one of those rare moments when you actually spoke wisely,” he teased, making her frown in half-annoyance, half-amusement.
Herna then grinned mischievously and, before he could react, pushed him down onto the grass with her calloused hands and swiftly straddled his lap. “Oh, so it was one of those rare moments, huh?!”
Her hands roamed shamelessly over the young man’s muscular body, which she had memorized every corner and hidden scar of over the years. “So, am I a fool?!” she asked with a playful tone and a hint of excitement and expectation in her voice. She moved her body over his and leaned in to whisper in his ear, “Then do ya like foolish women, Remus?”
For a moment, Remus looked at her with wide eyes and flushed cheeks. Herna’s face wasn’t any less red than his beneath her, but she couldn’t help it. She wanted him right now. As the intoxication took over, she couldn’t stop herself from desiring her man.
As a dwarf, admitting she got drunk on a simple beer would be both absurd and a lie. It was something she did deliberately, and it wasn’t like they hadn’t done this before.
In the next moment, Remus grabbed her wrists, flipped her onto the grass, and nearly tore her clothes off in his haste. The arrowhead-decorated braids clinked together in front of her face as she eagerly awaited beneath him, with a mind clouded by desire.
As he kissed her with a hunger born of that desire, clouding his mind, Herna thought amidst the climbing pleasure.
This is my man...
...
"...an..."
Huh? Did you say something?
"...agan..."
I can't hear you... Just leave me alone...
"Reagan!!" The voice yanked me out of the sweet embrace of sleep, and I woke up, slightly dazed.
Who keeps calling my name?
As I lifted my head from the desk, cluttered with scattered books, papers, a few needles with black-tipped and a large glass case filled with various insect specimens, I noticed a piece of paper sticking to my face, likely due to the drool that had dripped from my mouth while I slept.
Isn't that kind of gross?
Glancing towards the direction of the voice, I could make out a tall figure, but I had to blink briefly to clear the fog in my eyes. And, of course, I needed to pull the paper off my face.
Finally, I saw young elf Tee'yhan, his ever-childish pout from his childhood still unchanged. His arms were crossed, lips curled in a slightly displeased expression, and he impatiently tapped one foot on the floor.
His golden hair reached shoulder-length, carefully styled back from his forehead and cascading down his back.
His pale skin was completely flawless, without any marks. His once large eyes had now settled into a more balanced look, fitting his maturing features. He was wearing a robe in a shade resembling the blue of his eyes. The emblem of the royalty, the dragon—said to be descended from the elves themselves, as referenced in several history books I'd come across—was intricately embroidered along the inner linings of his robe in a darker tone, while the outer edges were highlighted in a bright gold that accented the seams.
Anyway, back to the present.
"Hey, Tee'yhan, good morning..." I yawned into my palm, stretching lazily as I leaned back in the chair. It was nice to not physically feel any pain, or else I'd probably be suffering the usual stiff neck and back ache that people get in this situation. After all, if you fall asleep at your desk every day like me, you'd probably experience the same.
Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.
"Don't call me 'Hey, Tee'yhan' with that dull voice of yours! Do you realize we're going to be late?" His whining came with that brain-piercing tone, now edging towards a young man's, as he chided me. Ah, my friend, your crow-like voice pecking away at me in the morning is a joy.
"My voice isn't crow-like!"
Oops! Did I say that out loud? How unexpected.
Though, this was actually normal. Sometimes I ended up voicing my thoughts without even realizing it. A bit of a nuisance, really. Anyway.
Where were we late to? Well, it was obviously...
"Are you even present? I’m talking about the Academy of Magic. You’re talking to yourself again," the young man—or teenager, take your pick—gave my still-half-asleep brain a much-needed reminder.
"Ah, right, right." Straightening up in my chair, I stood nearly a head taller than him. Could I say I was tall enough to make even a man feel embarrassed? I suppose so.
It wasn't that unusual. Elves were taller than many races, but demons, regardless of gender, were too. And unlike the slender, fragile appearance of elves, we didn't look that delicate—though that didn’t mean we looked brutish either.
"Ahem!" The young man cleared his throat lightly, his gaze shifting away. For some reason, his face seemed a bit flushed.
Hmm... I rested my chin on my hand, thinking. What causes sudden blushing? Maybe the heat made him feel overwhelmed all of a sudden, or maybe he thought of something silly and was trying not to laugh—he does that often—or perhaps he still hadn't gotten used to my beauty after all these years.
"That's not it, idiot!" His flushed face turned slightly downwards, towards... my direction.
Drip! Drop!
Drip? Drop?
When I looked down, I saw a dark liquid slowly dripping from between my legs, seeping through my pants.
Oh, not this again? Sometimes not feeling any pain isn’t great for recognizing if something’s wrong. Though in this case, I’m kind of glad I’m not feeling it.
Actually, I keep telling myself I’m lucky for not feeling pain, but sometimes I can’t help but wonder what it’s like. Anyway.
I shook my head lightly to clear my thoughts and turned to Tee'yhan, who had averted his gaze and was now pretending to be busy with something else. "Soo? What are you waiting for?" I figured I didn’t need much of an announcement. After all, before coming to the Elven Palace, she had warned me not to show too much skin around men when I grew up.
"Huh?" His eyes widened for a moment. "Ah, uh, yes… I… uh, I'll wait for you at the door." As soon as he said this, he dramatically flipped the cape of his robe—something he learned from his mother and thought looked cool—and hurriedly left my room.
“You forgot to close the door!” I called out after him, and the bumbling elf, with a half-embarrassed expression, rushed back to close it.
Ah, he’s like a silly little brother. At least, that’s what most of the younger brothers were like in the novels I’d read.
After he left, I sighed lightly. That was really a rookie mistake, but you know… I was sure I had put on… the pad.
Turning my head, I glanced over my shoulder at the table. Ah, did I really leave it there? I guess I got so absorbed in examining the Kraterfablium, a newly imported insect from another country, that I forgot.
But look at this beautiful creature!
I gazed at the eight-legged being inside a glass enclosure, surrounded by glass walls with small holes in certain areas, resembling an aquarium. Its eyes were bright red and extended from its head on long, antenna-like appendages like a snail’s. The creature's body was pitch black, and its skin—especially on its back—was as tough as a turtle’s shell. Strangely, it didn’t have a mouth. Well, at least, you couldn't see one at first glance, but when prey approached, its body would contort, revealing a massive mouth that opened up from its entire torso. Actually, calling it a ‘mouth’ wasn’t quite accurate. It was more like a stomach that could open and close with a lid resembling a sticky gel—which it could use to fully seal its stomach. The creature had nothing but a stomach and a digestive system.
If you listened carefully, you could hear it emitting some sound signals—most people found them unsettling, but I thought they were okay—resembling the song of a siren.
Of course, to hear that, you’d need ears as sharp as an elf’s, capable of picking up the faintest sound signals. This was why, after birth, elves’ parents would have their children’s hearing sealed through magic, so that they could perceive sound signals like an average person. Without this, a baby would die shortly after birth, as it would suddenly be bombarded by all the sounds within a few hundred meters—the conversation of a person, the faint rustling of a leaf, or the flapping of an insect's wings, all at once. Therefore, they only lift the seal when absolutely necessary or open it in a controlled manner, with the intention of sealing it again afterward.
So how do I hear it? Well, being a cultivator helps. At least the sounds are more controlled, filtered so they don’t harm my ears' health. But when I focus on a specific sound—unless there’s an invisible barrier blocking the sound waves—I can usually hear it quite easily.
Now, moving on to the present. The first task was to grab new clothes, underwear, and 'the forgotten pad' of course, then open one of the doors in the room and head to the bathroom with the golden bathtub. Truly, the elves never spared expenses. I guess you wouldn’t, especially if it’s for the royalty. This place was completely different from the place where I born and lived as a child, and the comfort here was far beyond what I experienced back then.
Well, if I haven’t gotten used to this comfort in eight years, then what am I? Although, I don’t remember having too much trouble adjusting at first. And even though the palace was grand, it never impressed me as much as the city's itself. I suppose the most impressive thing about the palace was that you could find nearly every resource you could think of. Books on all sorts of magic—though some of them didn’t have their crafting formulas written down, for fear of them falling into the wrong hands—alchemy developments, reports on the results of chemical experiments and how they were conducted. There were records of significant figures throughout history, journals turned into books from famous travelers containing information about lands, kingdoms, places, cultures, plants, nature, animals, insects, and anatomical details of various creatures, and so on.
"Reagan, are you ready?!" Tee’yhan’s voice came from outside the room, pulling me from my thoughts and back to the present. I didn’t even realize how long I had been in the bathtub.
I guess getting lost in my thoughts and talking to myself really pulled me in deeper than I thought. To some, talking to oneself, asking questions like you’re trying to convince another person, and saying things like ‘Were you like this too?’ might seem weird.
I suppose, when one can’t find someone to share their thoughts with, they designate themselves as their closest friend and start conversing as if talking to someone else.
Is it like that for others too? I really wish I could stop questioning these things, but...
I placed my hand over my chest. I touched the flesh that covered the emptiness of a heart that didn’t beat, a chest devoid of a physical heart entirely.
But when you lack feelings, you constantly compare yourself to others, don’t you?
...
Tee’yhan was impatiently tapping his feet as he waited by the door for Reagan.
"Do girls really take this long to get ready?" He lifted the lid of the watch hanging around his neck, hidden within his robe, and checked the time. There were still thirty minutes left.
He sighed. As a royal prince, being late to the magic academy wouldn’t be an issue for him, of course, especially since no one had even forced him to attend in the first place.
All he had to do was ask, and there were already numerous high-ranking nobles at the palace willing to teach him intermediate-advanced magic, just like the many teachers who taught him basic and intermediate lessons and proper etiquette up until this age. Still, there were well-known and renowned scholars and wizards at the academy who attracted not only him but many other nobles as well. The academy held things one couldn’t learn from a noble palace teacher or court magician.
Besides, as someone already enrolled and having attended for a few weeks—thus being known by every student—being late would be a bit embarrassing, and he couldn’t afford to miss any of his teachers' lessons. As a royal prince, he couldn’t disgrace his mother with poor grades.
Tee’yhan crossed his arms as he looked at Reagan’s door.
Normally, entering someone’s room without permission, especially if that person was of the opposite gender, wouldn’t be well-received. And if both parties were of noble blood, it would be even less acceptable.
But this didn’t apply to Tee’yhan and Reagan. They had grown up together since childhood and shared a bond that could be described as a close friendship, perhaps even siblinghood. To Tee’yhan, Reagan wasn’t a stranger, and to Reagan, Tee’yhan wasn’t one either.
In fact, in this situation, Tee’yhan would usually knock a few times on the door out of courtesy before entering, even knowing full well that Reagan had a habit of falling asleep amidst various studies. Unfortunately, Reagan lacked such courtesy. She would abruptly open the door and barge in with that usual empty expression, saying, “Hey, Tee’yhan.” In reality, it stemmed from her ignorance of what might be inappropriate. When Tee’yhan had once told her it was wrong, Reagan quickly understood her mistake and, well... she solved it by simply not coming to Tee’yhan’s room anymore.
While waiting at the door lost in these thoughts, Tee’yhan suddenly noticed a faint shadow before him. Lifting his gaze from the feet to the face, he saw Reagan staring at him with that emotionless look, causing Tee’yhan to jump in fright.
“Wah!” Letting out a slightly high-pitched yelp that wasn’t quite fitting for a man, he fell on his rear.
With anger, he lifted his head and stared up at the tall figure of Reagan looming over him. The girl wore a half-open black robe that barely showed any skin, and beneath it, pants in the same dark tone, resembling the robe. Her skin, pale as paper, and her white hair formed a stark contrast against it.
Why her favorite colors are always such moody and depressing shades?
Her facial features were sharpening gradually, revealing themselves as she grew, with her cheekbones becoming more prominent and her crimson lips gaining fullness. Her body was taking on a more defined, curvaceous shape, signaling the onset of womanhood. Despite seeming to spend all her time experimenting in her room, it was evident that she had also been physically training, maintaining a fit and strong build.
When Tee’yhan finally noticed that familiar crooked grin on her face—a grin that hardly deserved to be called one, displaying neither emotion nor true amusement—he furrowed his brows even deeper.
She had learned to use a few expressions, but they were not quite natural or convincing enough to appear normal on a person’s face. In fact, she hadn’t fully grasped genuine expressions, so Tee’yhan once advised her that it would be better to maintain a stone-cold expression rather than appear horrifying.
But she did it again! She always does! Honestly, she’s ruining such a beautiful face!
When Reagan extended her hand to him, he ignored it and stood up on his own. “Hmph!” Fixing his robe, he grumbled, “Do you really have to keep doing that? And I’m sure you make those faces just to annoy me.”
The young girl fall a silent before shrugged lightly, running her sharp, black-clawed hand through her short, white hair, which reached just beyond her ears, as she glanced down the corridor. “It’s not like I genuinely enjoy it, but how else can I adapt to a place if I can’t use expressions as easily as you all do? While everyone keeps staring at me as if I were some strange creature, it’s hard not to think about it.” Her voice was icy as usual. “So, if you’re really bothered by me practicing on you, just let me know, and I’ll stop.”
Tee’yhan’s expression softened as he listened, feeling a pang of unease. “No, that’s not what I meant! It’s just...” When he looked at her blank face and emotionless eyes, he stopped himself. Sighing, he shook his head.
It's not just expressions. You can't make what's not alive in your eyes reflect on your face.
Reagan also didn’t seem interested in dragging the conversation further. “Mom and brother are waiting for us. We’re already a bit late for breakfast.” He patted her back a few times in a friendly manner, casting a half-concerned, half-soft look at her. “Let’s go, let’s not keep them waiting any longer,” he said, then flashed a gentle, warm smile, encouraging her to follow him down the corridor.
As Reagan watched him take slow steps away, she lowered her gaze momentarily. And she silently asked the question that had been nagging at her mind since she woke up.
*
“Who is this Remus?"
And why did I dream of him as myself?