At the same time as Maria was watching her son leave her once again, the residents of Kelvin's mansion were hustling around, performing their daily work and getting ready for their day off. Breda and Merri had already finished with the housework for the day and were sitting in the library, drinking tea. The boys were playing outside in the garden, familiarizing themselves with it and preparing a few traps for the unsuspecting. Zerrin and Kelvin were still doing paperwork, and Nofafi was out on duty.
What was Arc doing? The same as usual, cultivating as fast as he felt comfortable with, being sure to not look suspicious. He had started to follow a schedule of sorts so as to avoid scrutiny, sleeping and cultivating at night, playing in the morning while working on walking, 'napping' around mid day, and once more playing in the afternoon with those who were near him. As far as walking was concerned, he had demonstrated to Breda that he was capable of standing, not yet walking, clearing the way for him to walk in the future. Ering had recently graduated to a walk, though it was honestly more of a stumble.
Arc was actually preparing to demonstrate his ability to walk soon. He had been able to for quite some time now, but it never felt safe to do so. Now, based on conversations he had overheard and the way his body was developing, he assumed it would not be strange for him to do so. He couldn't wait for the freedom that walking would bring him, if he was lucky he would be able to explore on his own.
Speaking of exploration, Arc still had no idea how the outside world looked. The windows in his room were fairly high up, and his low bed (so that he wouldn't hurt himself if he fell) was too short to allow him to see through it. The most he had seen was a tree in the distance, which wasn't much, but it's green color was a nice change from the room's palate. He was starting to get sick of red.
He was also working on speech. Right now his sounds had definitely gotten better than that shrieking he had displayed before, but it still could not be considered a voice. It was currently nothing more than a collection of loose syllables and grunts. He could do a 'buh' and 'duh' for Breda and you could hear a 'Merri' from him if you really stretched his "memi" but he couldn't for the life of him pronounce the K, Z, and J sounds from Kelvin, Zerrin, and Jamie.
He was starting to get a bit worried about this actually, Ering was perfectly capable of making those noises by now, so he was starting to get worried that something might be wrong with him, perhaps a side-effect of that mush.
Still, he hadn't given up yet. He would focus more on it after he debuted his walking. For now mobility was a priority.
In regards to his other priority, he had actually progressed quite far. He finally felt that he was at a level similar to that of when he left Anima Operantium, if not greater. He was now practicing the circulation of Xan as well as absorbing it, getting used to the sensation. Losing the Xan was not a worry either, as the Xan that escaped his veins merely appeared in his body and was recycled as he absorbed more of it.
That seed was also still active, and he had no idea when it would stop being helpful. It looked like it had shrunk a little, but it was so slow he couldn't tell. It may have very well just been the case that he got bigger, he was growing at an astonishing rate. He could now proudly say he was bigger than a pillow!
'Oh how the prideful have fallen. Look at me, proud of being bigger than a pillow of all things!'
Arc decided that his containment was having detrimental effects to his mental state.
'That's it, I will show I can walk tonight. This bed is comfortable and all but I would at least like to see how tile feels.'