[Tessia Eralith POV]
I was sitting inside the carriage, heading back to Xyrus City. With me was just Alea, who decided to be my guard until we got to the Academy, Big Bro Luz, who was sitting opposite me with Sylvie in his lap, and Art, who was lying down, using my lap as a pillow. Everything was still so intense and confused in my mind, since the conversation that took place with Rinia, it seems that our world has turned upside down.
Did Art and Luz revelations affect me? Of course... how would it not affect me?
It was confusing, weird, even insane to think of as the real thing, but I couldn't help but see how they were acting about it. I still remember hearing Art's mom screaming and uttering horrible words, before grandpa decided that we had better go back to the floating city. Not only that, the only member of his family who came out of the cabin to say goodbye was Eleanor, who simply hugged her siblings very tightly...
I could see a little bit through my parents, they were really uncomfortable within that whole matter... And I could feel that my father was looking for reasons to try to stop me from continuing with my relationship, but the auras of Grandpa, Grandma Rinia and Luz made him shut up instantly. My mother, on the other hand, seemed to take it lightly, but just because being close to him makes me happy...
Why didn't my parents or grandpa come with us? Simple, they would go directly to the Council castle, for some important meetings...
Important...
It reminds me about what Grandma Rinia said to them, is a tough battle coming? Do we need to be careful? But why is this happening-
"Tess, are you okay?" My brother's voice brought me out of my deep thoughts. "You were staring at the ceiling for a while now..."
"Oh... I'm sorry, I'm just..." I said calmly, gently stroking Art's hair. "... absorbing the information..."
"Alright, I understand... I hope this event doesn't make things worse... Or maybe, nothing will change in the end, since Rinia didn't stop us from continuing to talk no matter what..." He said that, stroking his own chin.
"Hm... sorry to ask... but who am I talking..."
"Who are you talking to?" He chuckled. "Well, with your big brother. I think a good way to make you understand is by looking into my eyes."
"Your eyes?" I tilted my head.
"On some of my adventures, countless people reported how the eyes are actually the window between the physical world and one's soul." He said smiling, pointing to his own eyes, which looked as deep as an ocean. "That is, if my eyes are not like that, it means that I am not controlling the body."
"Is it that simple?"
"Well, I could use Illusion magic to hide the true color of my eyes, but as a wind mage trained by Aya, are you noticing something like that?" I just shook my head at his question. "Great, so now you understand well."
"Luz... can you tell me more about yourself then? I was really curious when you said that... your situation is more extreme than Art's..." At my question, he replied just staring at me neutrally, his cyan eyes deepening.
"Better not... But I think... the least I can say that is satisfactory, is that I've already led several groups of people who were being titled as Heroes or something..." I felt my mouth widen into a smile when I heard him say that.
"This looks amazing!" I said excitedly, and my whole excitement made Art shake his head and hug me tight around my waist.
"Oh... s-sorry Art..." I couldn't understand his reaction, but it seemed that he had gone back to sleep, unfortunately it didn't last that long, because when we passed through the portal, the nauseating feeling came up and made him sit up, instead of lying down.
"It's not as amazing as you think... I mean, it's cool and all, but the downside is when they taken advantage of and blamed on you for every mistake that 'A real hero would have fixed'... it's pretty stressful, and it takes a lot of personality and conscience for that..." He said that while staring at the floor now, so I just sighed, because I couldn't understand why people would do something like that, but at least I could have a slight imagination about what that feeling feels like, it was just remember a little bit of how my life was before knowing them and try to expand several times... maybe.
"I think it's better not to talk about it to her..." Art said, still rubbing his own face, his eyes were red, so I decided to hug him.
"She just asked about what my other lives were like, and I gave her the shortest possible way to let her know that they were good, but also very bad." Luz scratched one cheek, now glaring at his brother. "And you, are you a little better?"
"Not yet, but at least I think I can hold on long enough not to cry, just keep my mind busy with something, and maybe I'll look brand new to the others."
"Art!" I exclaimed. "Shouldn't you be trying to solve the problem instead?"
"I've already done as much as I can... Now I think... the situation is now for them... it's going to take a while for them to give an honest answer that isn't insanely emotional." He sighed.
"Okay, I just hope you don't occupy your mind training like crazy!! Humph!" I turned around with my arms crossed.
"No... You're the one thing that's going to keep my mind busy..." I could hear him whispering this next to my left, I could feel my whole face heating up like a furnace.
"To think you would flirt in a situation like that... Your hormones are really messing with your thinking, bro." When Luz said that, I ended up laughing a lot while Art started to complain to him for a long time.
When we finally arrived at Xyrus Academy, it was already well into the night, maybe even past midnight. I was tired, but also hungry, and my stomach betrayed me, rumbling loudly and letting them know my situation.
"I think we better go inside soon, I'll make you something to eat at least before bed." Luz said, being the first to step out of the carriage.
"I agree... It's for the best..." Art said, still a little down, but at least he gave a big smile when his eyes met mine, and just like that he helped me down from the carriage.
"I hope it wasn't too bad for you..." Alea commented, coming to the side of the door and starting to follow us as we entered the outer gardens.
"No, just the usual classic seasickness." Luz said shortly after giving a yawn. "Anyway, Alea, you have to go back to see the Eraliths, don't you?"
"Actually, I was ordered to stay with you, that's all, there was no request to go straight to the castle or anything like that after you got here." Alea ended up stumbling a few times, but not falling.
"Don't try too hard..." I ended up saying, remembering exactly why she was walking like that.
"Relax, Princess Tessia, I'm not trying so hard, my mind is still not used to moving legs that don't feel anything..." She walked now looking down a little.
"As for that, Alea, the situation will correct itself automatically." Luz replied. "You will experience an event called 'Phantom Member'... it's interesting and even nostalgic depending on when it starts to occur."
"Phantom Member?" Alea and I said in unison, while Art just stayed quiet, walking hand in hand with me.
"It's when your mind gets confused and makes you think you felt something illogical... for example, if I lost my right hand, and at some point someone took a completely fake hand, put it on my wrist, and then someone stabbed that hand, I would feel the pain, even if it's not really connected to me. Because my mind created the expectation of pain and made it happen in my imagination."
". . . I hate when you talk in such detail, you know?" Alea grumbled. "You've always been like this in our training... but now, having heard your situation... It makes it seem like I'm trying to understand some teacher..." She put her hand to her face.
"Well, I am a teacher here at Xyrus Academy, am I not?" He smirked, and that only made Art give a weak laugh as Alea facepalmed.
"You really are a walking joke, aren't you?" Art made that comment, finally looking up to look at his brother.
"Those who suffer the most are also those who want to make others happy." He said this with a long sigh. "That and I want to get you all excited, as I recall, in a few days we will have a meeting with several clubs at the academy, including journalism and mana fights."
I just chuckled lightly at what he said, and soon we were in front of our group's building. Due to Art's emotional state, I decided to stay with him, so we went straight to the Disciplinary Committee floor. Arriving there, I could see that there was someone already inside the kitchen, the light was on, and when we went to see, it was Elijah and Emily, who had decided to stay there talking a little.
We talked a lot together, while Alea sat at a far table and Luz cooked for us. Even though Art managed to hide his bad feelings a little, Elijah ended up realizing that something was wrong and asking him if everything was okay. In a rather quick way, Art always seemed to give calm answers to his friend, gradually making him not ask so much about what had happened.
'They really know each other a lot...' was one of the thoughts that came up. I even felt a little bad about it all, because I was sure I wouldn't realize that Art was in such bad shape, due to the excuses and way of talking he was having.
"So, are you going to sleep together? Hehehehe." Elijah made that comment with a strange laugh, making me blush a lot.
"It's been a very busy day... and Tess seems to want to cuddle with me the whole time, so I don't see a problem." Art responded, making me blush immensely and a little irritated, as it was the opposite! I wanted to sleep with him, because I'm worried about his mental health!
"Eliii, don't tease them, you said that today we'll be together too, didn't you?" When Emily said that, both me and my love smirked.
"So are you going to sleep together tonight?" I said.
"Yeah, I bet they'll be showering each other with kisses, and knowing you, I bet you'll be glued to her so she doesn't just disappear, am I right, 'Eliii'?~" Art continued the tease, and it worked as we'd hoped, as Emily was completely blushing and stuttering, while Elijah simply remained silent with a neutral face but cheeks redder than a tomato.
That way, the two of them ran straight to the bedroom. I feel sorry for them, I would take it easy, but my fiancé really is someone who always lands in the right area, not only in physical fights, but in conversations as well.
"The three of you better go to sleep... I'll take advantage of this and get some things done that I need to see to in regards to security and reporting, due to the instructions I gave Claire, she must have filled my desk." Luz said, handing a mug of hot chocolate to everyone there.
"Three? Me included?" Alea got up. "No, I'm sorry, but I need to keep Princess Tessia safe, and that means standing guard around this building."
"First of all, Alea... stop stressing yourself so much, you need to rest. You can use my room to sleep, I'll be working in the main area so I can also keep an eye on your princess protection."
"But, that's my job, not your!-"
"Secondly." He cut her off. "You are no longer affected by the King's artifact, so if you're trying so hard just to not feel pain, you don't need to anymore."
"Eh? What are you talking about?" I ended up questioning it while Art took Sylvie in his arms and put her inside the room.
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"The artifacts that made the Lances reach the White Stage, in exchange for doing so, the person who had their mana core evolved, is forced to follow orders from whoever wears the ring, no matter what the order is." When he said that, my eyes widened. "Since Alea's mana core was destroyed and then rebuilt by me, the artifact lost connection, but the quality didn't disappear, that is... even though it was a dangerous and extremely traumatic situation, she is now absolutely free and doesnt need to obey blindly anything your parents say, Tess."
"Would my parents have something that dangerous?!" I exclaimed, unable to believe it.
"Y-Yes... what Luz said is true..." Alea started to stutter
"Yeah... but as Alduin and Merial are very kind people, I can say with absolute certainty that they wouldn't harm you..." He said turning to Alea. "But they still make such stupid orders without necessary details. Detailing an order is what differentiates a person who knows how to use an artifact of absolute control or not... His orders were only to protect Tess, but he never mentioned the expiry period of that order or if you could give rest breaks..."
He took a long breath before continuing. "Anyway, you're no longer affected by the artifact, so you don't have to follow orders absolutely literally. So go to sleep now, you hear me!!!"
"O-Okay..." Alea said, defeated, as she grabbed my brother's room key and went inside to rest.
"I-I still can't believe my parents owned something of this level..."
"Well, all kings do, and at some point you'd know that, since according to Virion, it's something that would be passed on to you by taking responsibility for them. Anyway, don't think about it too much, go have the hot chocolate I gave you, and go to sleep, tomorrow is going to be a busy day."
I just nodded and walked into Art's room. I thought it would be hard to have anything else in mind, but seeing my beloved shirtless, sitting on the bed and stroking his adorable bond, my face turned red and it made me think of our moments together.
'My god, am I so easily distracted?!' I thought, squeezing my cheeks tightly and getting closer to him.
I was lucky to have a few extra items of clothing for emergencies inside my dimensional ring, so I was able to stay in comfortable pajamas as I lay there next to him, with Sylvie deciding to sleep on top of a chair, all curled up as a fuzzy white ball. I could feel him giving me a firm hug from behind, his face gently rubbing in my hair, and soft kisses next to my cheek.
"A-art..." My face was starting to turn red.
"I told you, that you would be the 'something' that would keep my mind busy, didn't I?" He whispered and placed a kiss on my shoulder. "Do you accept this?"
"Y-yes... I accept..." I was getting quite flushed about this, but when I felt something wet on my neck, I turned towards him.
He had a few tears on his face again, stealing a kiss from me. "Thank you... I love you, my crybaby girl."
I chuckled. "And I love you too, my hard-nosed silly boy." He laughed back and hugged me even tighter. Slowly sleep was finally reaching me and my eyes closed, the feeling of his firm embrace was the only thing I needed right now, and I can say the same for him.
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[3rd Person POV]
It was already 4 am, Luz continued to see some records that Claire had sent him, they were all related to reports of possible members of the supremacist group, having one or another about some strange visits made by nobles in the middle of the night to see their children. As all that was since the beginning of the year, there was quite a lot, and because of that, he was forced to abuse his 'slaves' a little in order to speed things up.
Fortunately, Letty and Alexyo were awake at the time, and Kai was in his room, so it was easy to ask him to stay at that table. In case other DC members saw the two girls who didn't belong there, Luz ordered them to wear their clan uniforms, the big cloak and hood were perfect so they wouldn't see some of their striking features so well.
"High Sovereign, this is pretty impressive stuff, so far most of the ones I've seen on these records are actually from our old group..." Alexyo said, flipping through the papers further.
"I agree... why don't we take advantage and use this to stop them first, Master?" Letty was the next to speak.
"Because we can't mess up their plans too much... I've done everything up until now so that they would think that the problems they had were due to natural accidents, the few who find out about me being an alacryan are killed, or rarely converted to our group." Luz and Sirius replied, their voices being slightly doubled, that body's eyes had a minimally bizarre gradient of blue and yellow. "As far as I know, only one person knows about my existence here, but he sees me as something so stupid and small, that he doesn't seem to make focused attacks on me."
"W-Who would dare to do that, High Sovereign?" Kai asked in disbelief.
"The leader of Alacrya himself..." He sighed. "From the way he treated me before, at most it's possible for him to see me as an ant that can even be squashed without him noticing. That and he has much bigger problems, I feel the most that can happen is he informs the raiding party that we have someone who appears to be more powerful than a normal dicathen. And by the way, any news?"
"Well, the plans so far are proceeding as previously expected, I have not been told of any changes. The attack they are planning will still be next year." Kai replied, quite confidently.
"So the attack that happened this week was something that was foreseen and you told me nothing?" That calm voice when asking, made everyone tremble with fear, especially Kai.
"Th-that was done by some impatient human nobles who called in the aid of some alacryans in our group... Even our former leader, Draneeve, was quite angry when he learned that this had happened, and even more angry that they had all been killed... As someone 'undercover' on the disciplinary committee, he believed my words when I said that they had been killed by Cynthia and some of our own, and that their death was only caused by their carelessness and being mad for blood."
"That's really a great excuse... It might make him think that we're average and that actually the loss he had was due to the stupidity of his members who attacked without really having a plan." the Vritra said, lightly scratching his own nose. "But something still bothers me... What if they know you're a double agent and they're not giving you information because of it?"
"To be extremely honest, High Sovereign, knowing Draneeve, it's possible that if that were the case, I would have already been killed and my father would just make excuses like me being very sick or some need to travel because of distant relatives. Seeing as our family has created countless false names around Dicathen, it is very likely that the last alternative would be made."
"I understand your point of view, but still, I want you to keep your eyes open about this... You and the others, maybe it's not even because of they finding out about you, it could also be because of the other members of our group, and due to how everyone was led by you, to make the association." Upon saying this, all three agreed
"Well... I think we're done..." Letty spoke after a few minutes, taking a mug of hot chocolate that was on the table and drinking it. "All the records they gave me were rewritten, what about yours?" Kai and Alexyo just confirmed that they were over as well.
"Perfect..." Luz got up and went to them, taking the papers they were writing, they had all the reports of suspicions, categorized by noble family names, so it would be easy to show the evidence when needed. "Now we just need to keep an eye on these ones and wait for the right moment to use this information against them."
"Ahn... master... something came to mind..." Letty questioned and Luz turned to her, waiting for her to say more. "Why not use the servitude skill on all of them so we can just win?"
"Simple, the ethical factor is the most obvious answer."
"The ethical factor?" Letty was quite confused.
"Of course, Letty! If our High Sovereign uses his mind control abilities, people will start to fear him, as it is an ability that many might consider to come from a tyrant!" Alexyo exclaimed, irritated with her friend.
"And the most obvious example we have of this, which is a reality, is Agrona... The alacryans love him either for being a 'deity' or for helping to establish society on that continent, but those he doesn't like and who are powerful enough to be against him, he uses magic to have them become puppets again. However, he rarely does this and usually resorts to internal threats or making people disappear out of nowhere, so that no one really knows about this ability he has."
"Oh... true... seeing as we have a clear example of someone with that power who abuses it without caring so much, really, if people here knew about you having this too, we'd have a lot of problems..." Letty was thoughtful.
"Not only that, but he is the only expert in mind control among the Vritra, if he somehow finds out that I also have that specialty, he will see me as a possible rival in some way, and our whole plan hinges on the fact that he thinks that I'm still pretty weak in other things besides intimidation." Everyone seemed to agree with his words.
The sunlight began to appear through the window of that place, making everyone there realize what time it was, even a person who was in one of the rooms. Soon the door to Luz's room suddenly opened, revealing Alea, her face completely red.
"Luz, did you really leave me sleeping here while you stayed up all night?!" She soon realized the existence of hooded people there.
"Yeah, I haven't been feeling sleepy lately, and due to my body, it doesn't affect me as much... by the way... These here are members of a secret security club I created, say hi to her, girls."
"E-eh... ahn..." Letty approached, still with the hood covering part of her face, and bowed. "H-hello, good morning."
"Good morning!" Alexyo said, copying her friend.
"Good morning... uh... did you really make such a secret group...? Even though your group and Princess Tess's exist?" Alea questioned, a little worried.
"Yes, but Director Goodsky is already aware of that, in addition to the two of them, there are a few more members, all of whom were trained by me." Luz gave a sadistic smile.
"Was it using Elder Virion's method?"
"No. This is far worse than what Virion did to me and you."
"My god... I feel sorry for these children..." Alea said, taking a deep breath.
Due to the schedule, Luz then decided to go to the kitchen to prepare breakfast for everyone there. With Letty and Alexyo needing to eat everything quickly and get out of there before other DC members show up. That didn't make the most impressive visit go away, as the next to wake up was Claire, who upon seeing Alea immediately approached her, extremely excited to see her again.
Soon after that Curtis, Theodore, Feyrith, Doradrae, Kathyln, they were all getting up due to the sunrise, impressed by the presence of Elf Lance once again. Luz had arranged all the food, so with the help of Claire and Feyrith, they were taking everything to the table. The last to get up were the pair of couples who were sharing rooms, it was just laughter followed by teasing each other.
Emily and Tessia's faces never stopped blushing, while Arthur and Elijah kept changing the subject about the fact that they were each sharing a room with a girl. Luz was just giggling, until the moment when Claire and Kathyln seemed to be slightly jealous about it.
"Hmm... Looks like Elijah can get a woman into the same room..." Claire said.
"Yes... and even an airhead like Arthur does the same thing..." When Kathyln said that, Arthur almost spit out the coffee he was drinking.
"Then why don't you do the same?" The two spoke at the same time, staring at the vritra boy with an irritated look.
Luz looked at Theodore and Curtis as if he was asking for help, but they just shook their heads. Then he looked at Elijah and Arthur, who were laughing at the situation, and when he tried to silently ask Kai for help, he saw Kai praying for him.
Swallowing hard, he replied. "You see... it's just that even though I have a room, I use it more as an office, it's very rare for me to sleep for real... so if I invited one of you there, it would be boring... and anyway, there's a lot of dangerous stuff there and that you shouldn't touch..."
"Wait, so why did you let me sleep there?" Alea dropped that bomb, making the two girls look again at their beloved, thirsty for explanations.
He just sighed, realizing his doom. 'You are really fucked...' Zalgnity, Sirius and Sylvia said at the same time in his mind, making him have a violent internal scream.
But while wild and peaceful things were happening at Xyrus Academy, something strange and dark was going on in an uncrowded area of the floating city. In a very dark alley, which the sunlight would take a while to appear, a boy was beating up one of his 'subordinates'.
"STUPID SHIT!" He was kicking hard an adult, who was lying on the ground with a mantle covering his body. "I had them let me know if THOSE STUPIDS REALLY SURVIVED OR NOT! You said they were dead for sure!!!!"
"ARGH! AAH!" The adult moaned in pain, still being kicked by that boy. "M-my students! T-They saw for sure that the dungeons collapsed with them inside! I-it was the thing they talked about the most!"
"Hunf... and among them, even that princess was caught in the situation..." The boy stopped kicking. "But then... why..." A rather volatile fireball erupted in his hand. "Why did they inform me just yesterday that they saw THAT FUCKING PRINCESS GETTING INTO A CARRIAGE WITH THE TWO?!?"
The man tried to explain himself, but soon the boy cast that spell against him, making him burn and scream in pain. The intensity of the flames made the boy's hood fly up a little, revealing his pointy ears and extremely messy blond hair. But the flames ended when a water spell hit the burning wizard, looking back, the blond elf saw two people with cloaks, one of them hid his face with his own hood, the other had a sinister mask and red hair.
"I already told you to use the training dummies if you're irritated, Lukiyah. I don't like to see more people being lost in vain... You know that very well..." Said the man with the mask, very calmly, as if all that was trivial.
Lukiyah simply seemed to bow in the moment, as much out of admiration as fear, then respond. "It's not my fault, among the members of that brainless group, there are two people that I hate more than anything for the size of the humiliation they made me go through..." He kicked again the man who had already fainted at that point. "One of them has the nerve to destroy my flames... and the other recently destroyed my image among the others."
"I can understand your fury, really, someone inferior who decides to destroy everything that represents you deserves the worst possible death..."
"EXACTLY!!" Lukiyah had a wide smile and wide eyes. "I even saw one of those little shits get trapped in that dungeon! IT WAS TO BE PERFECT! MY SATISFACTION SHOULD BE INFINITE!!"
"Well... but according to our informants, they're not at Xyrus Academy at the moment, are they?" The masked man seemed to be laughing lightly.
"Yeah, they're not there..." Lukiyah looked like he was having some thoughts.
"How about we take advantage and while they aren't there, we set the whole stage to humiliate them?"
"T-that... would be... AWESOME!!!" The elf was back to smiling insanely, his hands on fire and the flames rising to his shoulders.
"Yes, we could make the attack... My faithful ally might like us to move things forward..."
"So, we need to know when they come back, so we can give them hell at the exact moment!!!"
"No, Lukiyah, you're thinking too small... It's better to show absolute superiority... you should already have his little friends' skulls in your hands when they get back..."
"Yes..." His insane smile widened. "YES! THEY MUST KNOW WHAT HAPPENS WHEN SOMEONE TRIES TO HURT ME!! So... when are we having the party?"
"Initially it was going to be next year... But for you, we could do it..." The masked man now seemed to look far to the skies, before looking directly at the insane elf.
". . . . Today."