Paley left Dillie and Negie to train in the river and went to the mana zone to practice a Fire spell he found in a Fire Magic book. It was called The Eternal Explosion of The Gods – the creator was a massive nerd for a play that had its main character use this spell.
The spell, which Paley was going to rename 'Supernova', used all of your mana to create an omnidirectional burst of dense flames. It was impractical because it exhausts your mana and if you don't protect yourself with a Protection Barrier, you could burn yourself to death.
He took Adimia, Rauba, and Bacha with him and relied on them to carry him back if he ran out of mana. Meanwhile, Dillie and Negie were shooting daggers at each other. Bacha too, though she was too short to be imposing.
"I don't want to learn anything from *you*. But because Paley wants it, I'll do it." Negie scoffed.
"I couldn't agree any more. Shall we get started then?"
"Sure. Let's see if you really are a good teacher."
For the next hour, Dillie taught Negie fiercely. And Negie learned even fiercer, trying to one-up Dillie every chance she got. Dillie began by teaching her to focus on the mana around her. Then, she asked her to try and use Enhancement Magic.
"Strength Magic: Strength Boost." She said.
"Wow, what an original name." Dillie ridiculed. Negie ignored her and focused on the spell.
Paley had left behind three Earth Golems for them to practice on. Negie ran forward with her ax over her shoulder, screaming. The bit of the ax was glowing red and emitting Strength Magic's red sparkles. The orphans cheered her on as she jumped and struck the top of a Golem's head.
Her ax powered through the dense dirt and cut the Golem in half from head to groin. It split in half and fell to the ground. In the mana zone, Paley smirked as he felt the Golem fall, and created and sent another one on its way to them.
Everyone stared in disbelief as Negie threw her hair back and out of her face. She exhaled sharply and dislodged the ax from the ground.
"Negie, that was amazing!" Ketto exclaimed and clapped with everyone.
"Thank you," Negie grinned at them, then gave a mischievous snicker to Dillie, who stood surprised. Even with half an Art complete, she couldn't cut through Paley's Golems. Yet Negie managed to split one in half with just amateur Strength Magic.
"Hmph, we'll see who's more amazing." Dillie pouted and stepped forward to one of the other golems. It stood there waiting to be attacked as usual, but she was anxious. Anxious that she may lose to Negie.
"At the end of the day, I'm the one Paley's going to go on hunts with. I love him way more than you do, so he has to love me back." Negie boasted, uncaring that the orphans could hear her. Though they just found it humorous; Madella too giggled quietly.
"Paley can't be human," Libon said, mouth gaping open.
"He's just like Aneros. A charm that can seduce any woman." Teerom began, "Oh, how I envy him!"
"Hey!" Jurie smacked the back of his head.
"Sometimes I forget he's just twelve." Madella chuckled.
"You think you love him more than I do? I've spent way longer with him. We fly home together. And he trains me." Dillie argued. "He'll love me in the end."
"Hahaha, I'm gonna come over every day to train with him, then!"
"I'll spend every night here!"
"I'll move in!"
"Haha! Too bad! He already loves *me*!" Bacha exclaimed, but they didn't hear her.
"I'll..." Dillie struggled for something to say, but the next thing she said evoked everyone into silence, "I'll have his babies." She said with pride, realizing seconds after, the weight of what she'd said. Even Negie was shocked by it and couldn't retaliate any further.
Dillie's entire face grew a deep red as she realized how childish this argument had become. "I didn't mean it in that way!" She tried to save it.
"Haha! What else could you have meant?" Nova laughed.
"Please don't tell Paley," She begged.
"Tell me what?" Paley suddenly appeared behind her, flying down with Adimia, Bacha, and Rauba.
"Dillie wants to have-" Amasha was about to expose Dillie with his loud mouth, but Madella held him back and covered his mouth.
"What does Dillie want to have? Why're you covering his mouth, Mom?"
"No reason. He was about to reveal something private." She excused, helping Dillie. Everyone else stayed mutually silent.
"You guys can know it, but I can't?" Paley asked, slightly bummed out by their quietness, but accepting it in the end, "Fine, then. Keep your secrets."
"Sorry, Paley. It's a surprise. And it wouldn't be much of a surprise if we told you, wouldn't it, Dillie?" She grinned, relieving Dillie.
"Hm!" Dillie nodded.
"I guess I'll wait then. Mom, I'm hungry, can we make dinner early tonight?"
"Sure," Madella said. Everyone sighed in relief after Paley went inside with Negie, Dillie and Madella.
"Amasha. You have to keep that a secret, okay?" Jurie explained.
"Okay…" Amasha replied gloomily.
They all ate a rich chicken-based dinner and sat on the beds upstairs, chatting until midnight. Teerom and Jurie slept together as usual. Amasha slept downstairs with Madella. The boys slept on the floor, letting the girls have the beds.
Rauba and Bacha shared a bed; Liba and Megora shared one too; Diz took up a bed by herself, so she couldn't share it with anyone; Homar had personal space issues, so Negie and Dillie had to share a bed. They slept on the edges of the bed, trying to stay as far from each other as possible.
That night, everyone fell asleep almost immediately, apart from Negie. She was homesick, missing her little brothers and sister who normally would've been by her side. After ten minutes of tossing and turning – but still keeping her distance from Dillie -, she decided to go out and get some fresh air.
Quietly, she slid off the bed and tiptoed her way downstairs. The cold blue light of the moon streamed in through the windows, lighting floating sparkling dust into existence. Compared to her busy house on her busy street, the orphanage was peaceful.
She stepped outside, taking a deep breath of the fresh air. Trying to identify the constellations, she stayed outside for a while, until she noticed Paley sitting by the river and doing the same thing. She gulped anxiously and approached him, her heart beating fiercely as she prepared to say something. But he was the first to speak.
"Hey," He greeted, "Can't sleep?"
"Y-Yeah…" She took a seat next to him, relishing in a breeze that ran down the river from the summer heat that persisted even at night. "Why are you out here?"
"I like it out here. It's relaxing." He lay back with his hands behind his head.
She nodded, "I agree." She said and closed her eyes as she joined him on the ground.
"When were you born?"
"16th of October 6646, I think."
"Hmm, I believe that's your constellation. You see the triangle thingy with two legs that look slightly bent?" He pointed to the Libra constellation. Negie strained her eyes and put her head behind his finger until she saw it.
"I was born under those stars?"
"Yep. I might be wrong, though. Rauba's the one into constellations."
"What's your constellation?" She asked. Her anxiety had vanished, and she was now resting on his shoulder and looking up into his eyes affectionately.
"I have no idea. I don't remember when I was born. But Jurie says that I act like a Cancer."
"How do they act?"
"They're super emotional." He said. When Jurie had told him that, Teerom spoke up, protesting that Paley rarely showed emotion.
"And what about Libras?"
"I don't remember, sorry. I'm not into star signs." He turned to her, "I really don't like the idea of fate."
"That's okay. I'm not into them either." She giggled. "Do you mind if I sleep here tonight?" She'd already rested her head on his chest.
"Not at all." He said, unaware of the obvious signs she was dropping. She would've been frustrated, but she knew that's just how Paley was. Oblivious, or rather, incapable of love.
As they were about to begin drifting off to sleep, he noticed a big scar on her forearm. He hadn't noticed it until now because she always wore long-sleeved shirts, hiding it.
"How'd that happen?" He asked, checking it. It was a scar from a whip. Negie fell silent; her face turned dark and almost frightened. "Negie. Tell me." He demanded. She awkwardly rolled up her shirt until the bottom of her chest, revealing the dozens of whip scars on her back. Paley's eyes widened with shock.
"I was a s-slave for a while." Her words dug into Paley's heart, "To earn our place in Gouon, they made us work in the fields in the eastern town."
"Who?" He felt the scars, making her quiver from his warm touch. They were old. He guessed she was eight when she got them.
"You know the noble boy whose brain was fried?"
"Yeah,"
"It was his father." She shook the memories from her head, "But it's all in the past now." She said weakly.
"It isn't, is it?" Paley's eyes grew colder, but she didn't notice.
"No… The council asks for 200% more than the usual rent rate. Everyone insults us wherever we go. Paley, what do I do-" She turned and froze when she saw his intense gaze.
"The council, right? And where does the noble live?" He asked calmly.
"W-Why do you want to know?"
"…I'll be honest with you. I'm going to set his mind straight. I can't let anyone harm one of my apprentices, can I? Tell me where he lives."
Negie hesitated but ended up putting her trust in him. "He lives near the wall in the western town. In a big house."
"I'll be back." He stood up and began walking off.
"Paley…" She wanted to call him back, but she just couldn't. That look in his eyes made her feel that nothing, not even her, could stop him. His determination frightened her.
She watched him walk off into the distance, grabbing his battle clothes – a white shirt and black pants – from the barn with Air magic. "Paley, wait!" She chased after him.
The council worked around the clock, changing shifts every 12 hours. It was 1 am and there were about fifteen men and eight women loitering around, trying to complete tedious paperwork. One of them, an intern, had fallen asleep on one of the desks in the ground floor. He was the only one down there, assigned most of the paperwork.
Suddenly, the doors slammed open, and Paley came in, wearing a mask made of earth and dragging the guard that stood outside with him. He set him down gently and walked over to the intern, a young man, about nineteen, with short black hair.
"I'd like to speak to the people in charge of the economic stuff," Paley asked. The intern was much taller than him, but he had him petrified.
"T-They're upstairs." The intern replied sheepishly.
"Thank you," Paley burned a hole in the ceiling and flew up, shocking the intern as he put out the fire with Water Magic. There was a group of men and women, chatting around a table near piles of important documents that dictated many people's futures.
They were laughing, drunk on cheap beer. It was mainly the men laughing. The women, as usual, sat in discomfort and disgust as the men caressed their hands and grabbed at their thighs.
"Hello," Paley greeted, calmly walking toward them.
"What the- Joseph! What the hell are ya doing!?" One of the men stood up and approached Paley. "Piss off! Can't you see we're working!" He shouted, ignoring the fact that Paley wore a mask and its implications regarding his safety.
"I don't think you working while drunk is the best idea." Paley's hand snapped forward, generating a spike of ice from his fingertips. It grazed the man's neck, who jolted back in surprise.
"Are you not going to take care of all those papers?" Paley glanced at the piles of documents, seeing the painfully obvious reason they weren't being done. They were all Nijian or Hijian people, which meant Dillie's family was also going through a similar struggle. His respect for Krish, Parva, Hiruyo, and Shun shot up; they hid these issues from their daughters to not burden them.
"Paley!?" Negie arrived at the council house. She had sprinted the whole way, following Paley despite him flying. She went in to see the petrified intern.
"Paley? He's up there…" The intern said without her needing to ask. She rushed to the elevator and waited for it to take her up. When she arrived, she saw Paley standing behind fifteen men frantically signing, completing, and approving countless documents.
"You followed me?" Paley asked her.
"What's going on?" Her gaze shifted to the other side of the room, where the women sat, equally shocked and confused.
"Mom was right. I shouldn't hurt people. Even if they're bad. Look at how much work they're getting done." Paley joked.
"You threatened the council!?" Negie took a step back.
"Of course," Paley replied nonchalantly. "You should've hidden your face by the way. They're probably going to try and arrest you and your family. But you wouldn't do that, would you?" He turned to the men and they all shook their heads hysterically. It helped that their drunken state didn't allow for rational thought.
"You guys continue with all that. Have it all done by tomorrow midnight." He ordered.
"How will you know?" One of the women asked.
"I'll come back and check. And if any of you try ratting me out, I've set a spell on you that'll make you explode. All I have to do is wag my pinky." He made a half-eaten apple fly to his hand from one of the cubicles in the walls. Then, he flicked his index finger at the apple, making it burst into flames.
"We won't say anything!" They all promised.
"I'll be on my way now." Paley took Negie's hand and flew them out of the council house. He made his mask disintegrate and took a deep breath of the fresh air.
"Why would you do that!?" Negie shouted as they flew toward the eastern town.
"I hate racists." He answered.
"The Lord has already placed a bounty on your head! You probably just made it so much worse!"
"Don't worry, they won't tell."
"Because they're gonna burn to death if they don't?"
"Because they believe they are."
A silence ensued, awkward only for Negie.
"Why did you take such a risk?" She asked, now calmed down.
"For you." He replied, his words making her blush.
"For me?"
"For you."
She smiled and rested her head on his shoulder, "For me..." she mumbled joyfully as they went to their next destination, Jehohn Culengu's house, father of Dersohn Culengu– the young noble who tried to force himself on Jurie long ago.
The eastern town was mainly fields of crops, mostly worked by brown-skinned people. Cotton crops dominated the fields, but there were greenhouses containing herbs to make healing potions. Doctors were the main buyers of the herbs.
The cotton was growing well since it was spring, and it was split into ten-meter by ten-meter squares with shoddy paths between them. Tall posts releasing faint purple gas that acted as a pesticide stood in the corners of the squares. Workers would often become ill because of the excess pest poison in their bodies.
There weren't many houses apart from shacks where workers stayed and a big three-floor house overlooking the fields. That was the Culengu property. Paley landed on its roof. The only people outside were the two guards guarding the entrance to the Culengu property.
"Negie, wait here," Paley left Negie on the roof, covered his face with a mask of earth, and climbed down, looking into the windows for a big fancy bedroom. He found it through the third window he searched, though the room wasn't as fancy as he thought it'd be.
There was a large lonely bed and a massage platform on the other side of the room. A work desk was tucked away in the corner of the room with a dimming candle on it. Paley opened the already half-open window and silently entered the room.
A man lay in the bed, snoring loudly beside a brown-skinned woman staying on the edge farthest from him. She saw Paley but chose not to say anything. He put a finger on his mask, where his mouth would've been, and approached the other side of the bed.
Jehohn, who had been having a sweet dream where he relaxed on a beach surrounded by stunning women, woke up to the feeling of cold sharp ice at his neck.
"Hello," Paley greeted in a tone colder than the blade of ice he held.
"Who are you!?" Jehohn screamed. The woman scooted off the bed and backed into the wall, panicked. She was wearing only her undergarments.
"Tell me. What did you do to her tonight?" Paley asked, brandishing the blade calmly as he heard the hurried footsteps of security approaching from downstairs.
"W-Why are you asking?"
"To determine whether I should break my promise," Paley turned to the woman, "Did he do anything to you?"
Before the woman could answer, five guards burst into the room. They were about to charge Paley, but hesitated when they saw that he was a child.
Paley took advantage of their hesitation and pinned them against the wall with dense earth ropes, bolting the ends into the wall. The guards wriggled desperately, but he just tightened them.
"Did he do anything to you?" He repeated to the woman, and she shook her head.
"I-If you are asking whether I had sex with this woman, I did not! We are not allowed to have sexual intercourse with our workers unless consent is given." Jehohn said, sweating intensely.
"She was in your bed. Half-naked. I don't think she consented to that." Paley put the blade of ice against his neck again, making him stiffen up, "Or is there another law I'm missing?"
"I'm sorry!" Jehohn begged, his gaze shifting to the door where a petrified Dersohn was in his wheelchair. Dersohn pointed to Paley desperately, shaking as he recognized his figure.
"Crap," Paley bit his lip.
"Euugh!" Dersohn tried to speak.
"Oh," Paley remembered, sighing in relief, that he'd lost most of his motor functions, "Thank the Moon." He said sarcastically and turned back to Jehohn, making him stiffen up again.
"Listen. I like to have something to hug while I sleep." Jehohn explained pathetically.
"Are you naked?" Paley asked.
"N-No," Jehohn tried to lie, but Paley saw straight through it. He snatched the sheets off him, revealing his flaccid penis. Jehohn covered himself up in a panic. Paley sighed, pissed off that he couldn't hurt this man.
"I really want to put you through the same pain that I put your son through. But I will give you a chance." Paley compromised, "How much do you pay your workers?"
"Two silver for a day's work."
Paley slapped him and he cried out. "How much profit do you make?"
"F-Five gold coins a day," Jehohn looked away.
Paley slapped him again and he cried out again. "How much profit do you make?"
"Fifteen gold coins a day…" Jehohn answered truthfully and guiltily.
He slapped him again. "How many workers do you have?"
"Ten…"
"From now on, you'll pay each of them one gold coin a day no matter what. Do you understand?"
"Yes…"
He slapped him. "Louder."
"Yes." Jehohn's voice cracked from the pressure.
"Good. As well as that, from now on, you will not force any of your workers to sleep with you. You will treat them all as you would a white person."
"That's outrageous!" Jehohn spoke up, "Those animals don't deserve-"
Instead of a slap, he received a freezing glare from Paley's glowing red eyes through the mask's eyeholes.
"I will treat them all the same," He conceded.
"Good." Paley, proud of himself, backed off. "I will return at random times to check if you are holding true to your promise. If you aren't…" He turned to Dersohn and slowly walked over to him. Then, he turned back toward Jehohn and motioned to his groaning son.
"Auegh! eimon!" Dersohn shouted, enraged. He meant to call Paley a demon. Paley silently stared at him for a moment before giving in to the temptation of kicking him. Dersohn fell back in his wheelchair and banged his head on the ground.
"Tch, I couldn't keep my promise." He released the guards, confident that they wouldn't attack him, and climbed out of the window, leaving everyone in the room in a state of pure shock.
He flew up to the roof where he found Negie sitting with a big smile on her face and tears streaming down her face. "Thank you." She said, taking his hand and stepping into the air with him.
"You're welcome," Paley replied as he disintegrated his mask for the last time that night. They flew at a gentle pace back toward the orphanage.
"Why *did* you do all this for me?" She asked.
"You saved my life. It's only fair I pay it back."
"Fair enough."
"Plus," Paley added after a momentary silence, "I like you,"
Her heart sank at those words, but she didn't panic. She just enjoyed the flight while hugging him from the back affectionately.
"I like you too," She half-confessed.