-Chapter Twenty-Nine-

Liberated

“Ahh~!” Lia moaned in pleasure and stretched as she removed her mask on the busy street in the tropical city of Leina.

The freedom and liberation of not hiding her face any longer while being out in the open washed over like a sudden wave of release.

“I feel liberated~.”

Beside her, Aria and Aelius did the same, the two of them revealing their narrowed eyes and similar gazes.

Behind them, Saki followed along, looking up and down the streets in wonder.

“So, what’s the plan now, party leader?” Aria asked with a temperamental tone.

“Right, I’ve not had the chance to ask but what is your ultimate goal, Aelius?” Saki asked as well and he looked over at the two from behind his shoulder.

“To get stronger. Other than that, you don’t need to know yet.”

“Aelius, over here!” Lia called from ahead of them and they all turned their heads to see her waving at them from beside a nicely furnished building. “I found one, guys! An inn.”

Upon following her in, Aelius dropped a silver coin on the counter and the eyes on the young girl behind the desk lit up.

He had already done what he could to convert his gold coins into silvers, but it was hard to hold such a large transaction spontaneously, and without drawing attention to himself.

“Two nights,” Aelius told the girl and she looked at the group of four.

“How many rooms?” She was a young child, maybe eight or nine years old, but evidently was long accustomed to the business of inn-running.

Perhaps she was manning the counter in place of her parents.

“Just one.”

“O-oh okay…” her face lit up red as she fetched a single key with a number tag on it and handed it to him. “Please stay quiet at night time. Our guests often hate it when they can’t sleep.”

Aelius gave her a raised brow.

“Oh. Sure,” he answered and turned away, leading the girls up the stairs.

Behind him, the three were slightly red-faced.

“We’re sharing a single room?” Lia asked.

“Well…” Aelius turned to face the girls at the top of the wooden stairwell. “We’re definitely not getting more than two rooms, but even if we did get two rooms, how would we split them?” he asked.

“Saki and Lia can share a room and you and I can stay in the other,” Aria immediately suggested.

“No! Aria should stay with Saki and I’ll share a room with Aelius!” Lia interjected fierily, causing Aelius to groan.

“A-actually…” Saki behind them all nervously pulled on her dress, her eyes struggling to meet their gazes. “I’d rather stay with Aelius and you two could share a room…”

“NO!” The two younger girls immediately answered, causing Saki to flinch and Aelius put two hands out to his sides.

“See? There’s no way I’m letting Aria share a room with either of you, cause Goddess knows what she’ll do out of jealousy.”

“Hey!” Aria gave him a glare.

“But I can’t share a room with her either, cause Goddess knows what she’ll do out of jealousy,” he shrugged with a chuckle and turned around. “Come on, I’ll take the floor. You three can figure the rest out,” he told them over his shoulder as they found their room and entered it.

—-----------------------

Once the girls had settled in, they noticed Aelius had been watching them with predatorial-like eyes, similar to an eagle observing its prey.

Having finished the tasks at hand with nothing left to do, they gradually all grew uncomfortable while he simply observed them.

“Umm… Aelius, is something the matter?” Lia hesitantly asked him and his eyes darted to her, before a small smile turned up at the corner of his lips.

“Take a seat in the corner of the room with Saki, Lia.”

He looked back to Aria and she pursed her lips, realising she was being singled out yet again.

“What is it this time?” she asked.

“Take a seat as well,” Aelius gestured to the foot of the bed he sat opposite to and Aria apprehensively did so.

Lia and Saki also cautiously seated themselves.

“So, we’ve reached Leina now. Do you still remember what we discussed in the Capital?” he asked and a look of realisation flashed across Aria’s face.

“Don’t tell me… the reason you had us do an escort mission was to create an alibi?” she asked.

“Smart girl,” Aelius clasped his hands together. “So, you know what’s coming next, right?”

“You’re going to annihilate the Aerianne Archduchy now,” Aria responded and Aelius nodded.

Beside them, Lia frowned and she sat up.

“Isn’t that Aria’s family? Why would you-” she was silenced by Aelius who put a finger to his lips, giving her a small smile.

“This is between Aria and I.”

He looked back to Aria again.

“That’s right. So let me ask you one more time.” His tone lost its light-heartedness, turning cold and grave instead. “Whose side are you on?”

“Yours,” she firmly answered, with little hesitation.

“And you know what’ll happen if you try to help them? It just means there’ll be no descendents of the Aeriannes left.”

“Yes. You won’t have to worry about that.” Aria clutched her arm tightly. “I just hope that… you won’t ask me to participate. I won’t interfere, so do as you like. I didn’t want any part of this. I never did since the start,” she softly told him and he stared at her with looming glare.

“...Okay.” He suddenly smiled, and the tension in the room quickly disappeared. “Lia, go ask the girl downstairs for three more nights,” he tossed a silver coin to the black haired girl.

Though she was mildly confused, she did as told, disappearing out the door.

“For the next five days, we will rest.”

—-----------------------

User has activated the passive skill Reawakened One.

The user’s Mana Ring count will triple.

User has activated the skill Spatial Dimensional Storage Portal.

Gain access to a subspace to store an infinite number of physical items.

Aelius reached into the purple portal beside him and as it closed, he revealed two rainbow coloured magic stones.

“These are for you. For now, hold off on refining your Sixth Ring. Instead, rely on these for now. I’m going to install these onto your staff-wand. Spend the time we have left in Leina binding your new staff to yourself.” Aelius rose to his feet as opposite to him, Aria’s eyes lit up in wonder.

“Really? These are for me?” she asked, closely inspecting them from all angles as Aelius held them up for her.

“That’s right. Come on, let’s go find a workshop.”

—-----------------------

Magic stones were a precious resource.

They were a form of ore found within mines with a natural composition that was great for Mana conductivity and various other benefits.

For the Sacred Continent, magic stones were a commodity that acted as the backbone of society, similar to the technology that the Saints relied on.

Magic stones however, needed to be refined. They were like diamonds in the rough, in need of polishing before they could truly shine.

Magic stones however, unlike diamonds, had to quickly be bound to its purpose, be it a weapon, a utility or a person.

If the newly polished Magic stone isn’t bound to its master within seven days, it loses the majority of its potency.

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Successfully binding a masterly refined Magic stone would allow Aria to step into the Sixth Tier while her Core was still at the Fifth Tier.

For mages, magic stones were worth risking their life over, in the pursuit of power.

It took a while of wandering the streets, but together, Aelius and Aria finally found a reputable smithy and forgery.

Magic stones required skill of the utmost ability to be polished.

As they were such a valuable resource, inexperienced craftsmen were never trusted with magic stones.

As soon as Aelius stepped in, he felt a wave of heat rush over him, singing his eyebrows and hair.

Aria hid behind him, pulling her hood over her head as she clung to his arm.

Before them, a dozen fireplaces were being manned by shirtless, muscled men hammering away at blades and weapons.

Aelius observed onward curiously, crossing his arms as he waited.

They were neither incredible nor lacking. Their ability to control the flame, the strength in their hammering and their precision were all mediocre.

Finally, one of the workers noticed him at the entry and approached him, harshly panting as they set down their gear.

“What can I help you with?” he asked, glancing to Aria and then back to Aelius.

“I wanna borrow a workstation and some tools. I’ll pay.”

The teenager offered a silver coin and the blacksmith looked doubtfully at his palm.

“You have smithy experience?” he asked.

“Enough for me to get done what I need,” Aelius answered and the man shrugged.

“Well alright then.” He took the coin and gestured to his workbench. “How long do you need?”

“Maybe about forty minutes,” Aelius answered as gestured to Aria’s staff.

She nervously handed it over, noticing the blacksmith eyeing up the staff with curiosity.

“That’s a good weapon,” the middle-aged man remarked and Aelius nodded.

“It’s about to be better,” he answered smugly.

—-----------------------

In an age where magic and weapons were heavily intertwined, there was an unimaginable demand for the skill of smithing.

With such a large number of people dedicated to the craft of smithing, they soon quickly formed their own unwritten coalition.

Arising out of the ignorance of fighters who abused their weapons and belittled the craftsmen, just because they could not fight, smiths became incredibly prideful and spiteful towards weapon users.

In turn, weapon users also looked back at smiths with disdain.

It was a twisted relationship where both sides needed each other to live, but had come to hate each other equally.

What became uncontrollable was the forger’s pride.

Conflicts arose out of disputes over weapons and factions, and soon smiths refused to let anyone touch their forges.

Only when one was recognised as a fellow smith, were they willing to grant access.

In the small, humble smithy near the centre of town in Leina, the five or so smiths were banging away at their weapons when they noticed two teenagers enter, but they did not let such a minor disturbance take their attention.

Even as the teenage boy approached their fellow colleagues’ fireplace, they only glanced and paid it no heed.

But only a moment later, the smithy lit up with blinding, brilliant light and they spun around, their jaws dropping at the two magic stones in the boy’s hands.

“H-hey! Those have to be at least A-Grade,” the smith who let Aelius use his workspace quickly exclaimed, trudging up to him from behind.

Before anyone could react, Aelius turned the heat up ridiculously high and dumped both of the stones in.

The entire smithy quickly erupted in uproar, with the first worker trying to snatch the hammer out of Aelius’ hands, crying out in horror.

“What have you done!?” he exclaimed when Aelius dodged him and quickly erected a Mana barrier between him and the rest of the smiths trying to tackle him down.

With no choice, they could only watch as some young teenager wastes away two A-Grade magic stones.

With almost a tear in his eye, the first worker dejectedly fell to his knees. “Why didn’t you tell me you had A-Grade stones. I-I would’ve done the work for you…” he wailed.

Beside him, Aria watched on with keen interest as Aelius threw his shirt off and approached the flame.

The smith continued to watch on, almost hypnotised, as he reached into the flame barehanded and retrieved the two glowing stones.

In his grasp was a chisel and he began to carve the sides of the stones away.

For forty minutes, Aelius carried out dozens of unconventional procedures with the magic stones and the staff and by the time was up, he dispelled the Mana barrier.

The first thing that happened as he turned around to return the staff to Aria, was one of the younger smiths running up and grabbing him by the collarbone.

“You little crazy bastard-!” Aelius gave the stranger a cold glare and threw him off with a simple wave of his shoulder and continued on his way, wordlessly presenting the staff to Aria.

The first worker sprung up to the staff, keeping his hands off it, visually eyeing the newly upgraded staff in shock.

“H-how did you succeed?”

He ducked beneath the staff as Aelius horizontally held it, beginning to ramble about the specifications when the other smiths joined in.

“I clearly saw him through the magic stones into the fire.”

“His hands are fine too.”

A wave of annoyance came over Aelius as the minutes dragged on and he pulled the staff away from them, quickly pushing it into Aria’s hands.

“Enough,” he ground his teeth in frustration when they suddenly clasped him by the hands.

“Teach us! Teach us!” they chanted and he pulled himself away from them.

“You want some advice?” he asked him as he ushered Aria out the door in front of him and glanced over his shoulder with a foot out the door.

“There’s always a mountain higher than you. Any of you, and your boss, or mentor. There’s always someone better.”

“How did you do it?” the young smith who tackled him earlier asked in bewilderment and Aelius looked at him in a brief moment of silence.

“It’s a technique of forgery, purification and refinement that only people with combat skills can use. That’s how. Figure out the theory for yourself,” he waved over his shoulder and disappeared.

Relentless as they always were, the smiths tried to chase Aelius and Aria even after they reached the street, but the two were quick to lose them around a corner.

—-----------------------

“Hah…” Aria sighed heavily, looking at her wand. “Those old foggies were insane,” she groaned.

“That’s the price of passion,” Aelius simply answered, walking side-by-side with her.

She gave him a sarcastic gaze.

“For someone so skilled in the art of forgery, you sure seem passionate,” she rolled her eyes.

“Just how do you keep coming up with these skills out of nowhere?” she asked, perplexed.

“It doesn’t matter,” Aelius answered.

The truth obviously was, knowledge from his past life.

The technique was derived from Saint tech that analysed the legendary smiths of the current era and compiled it into a single format for machines to replicate in software.

That software was, at a later date, employed by people with bare hands when machine hardware proved to be inefficient for weapon crafting.

“More importantly, as long as you spend the next five days binding your staff to you, you’ll then be capable of Sixth Tier magic with this. Just keep in mind-” Aelius looked at her with a narrowed gaze but before he could continue, she cut him off.

“Yes, yes. I won’t betray you. You can still overpower me, I know,” she rolled her eyes. “I’m not going to, so just relax.”

“I’d rather not,” Aelius snorted when they found they had already reached the inn.

—-----------------------

Upon returning to their room, Aelius was pleased to see Saki and Lia getting along, as opposed to burning the whole place down.

Aria immediately knelt down in the corner with her staff.

“Just look after me for a bit,” she said over her shoulder to Aelius and he nodded.

“Of course.”

Saki and Lia looked to Aria curiously.

“What is she going to be doing?” Lia asked.

“Is she refining her weapon?” Saki wondered.

“Yes, she’s binding it to her possession so she can use it. High tier weapons have certain prerequisites. Either way, Aria’s going to be busy the next five days. Lia, you should continue practising your Sorcery. As for Saki…” Aelius looked to the older woman. “What do you need to do to regain your power?” he asked.

“Oh, me?” Saki looked away, red faced. “I’ve been soul-chanting the last few days, so I’m slowly reaching the limit of what’s possible in this realm for the power of Realisation. In order to fully recover, I’ll no doubt have to return to my original realm,” she explained.

“Oh… well, how strong are you now, then?’ Aelius wondered with a head tilt.

“Strong enough to begin teaching you!” she suddenly eagerly answered. “We have five days of leisure, right? It’s the perfect window to get you on the very first step.”

“Hmm…” Aelius shrugged.

Truth be told, he was quite curious about this power Saki described.

“Well, let’s do it.”

He grabbed a chair and sat down opposite Saki, leaning forward.

“What do we need to do?”

With a slight blush, she nudged forward closer to him.

“You just need to sit still and allow my soul energy to enter your innerworld. I’m going to stimulate your dormant Mind.”

Saki raised a single finger in Aelius’ view.

“The mind is the first of many crucial organs within the human body to Awakening, thus allowing you to use Awakening Arts.. Your Mind is the location where all of your life force energy will be converted to soul power to use for Realisation.”

Aelius listened onward intently.

“The Mind is referred to as the First Gate, out of a total of Six Gates. The Second Gate is the Heart. The Third Gate is the Gut, the Fourth is the Sexual Organ, the Fifth is your Appendix and lastly, the Sixth is your Spine. With each Gate you open, you will have more and more life force flowing to your Mind.”

Saki inhaled deeply through her nose, pausing for only a brief moment. The timidness that defined her was nowhere to be seen.

“By stimulating your mind, I will open your Mind’s Eye which will grant you access to the abstract realm. You will be able to see things. In the abstract realm, laws like time, space, death, electricity, fire or anything you can think of, become weaker. This is the first stage of Awakening, and it’s called Liberation.”

Saki took a deep breath after finishing her explanation.

“So, are you ready? To be set free?”

Her tone suddenly turned grim and serious, and Aelius returned an equally dead serious gaze.

“Yes,” he answered with a nod.