In the morning, I awoke to a sleeping Lilith. The night before we had eaten dinner and made up a plan. Kale and Lilith would train for the majority of the day while I would meet with Griffin in the afternoon when he was out of the University. That means I have some hours to waste beforehand.
"Mmm…" I heard Lilith murmur in her sleep. Speaking of sleep, I haven't heard anything from Arael yet. I'd assume she'd start talking with me immediately after I finished her task, but no. Not that I really care.
I carefully got out of bed to not wake Lilith up, changing into my usual clothing. She'll probably wake up later on, so I should probably plan out my day before she heads out with kale.
I headed out of my bedroom and downstairs where kale was, he probably woke up earlier to prep for whatever he was planning for Lilith. He noticed me as I came down the stairs.
"Morning." He greeted me, he was standing at the door ready to open it.
"Morning, what are you up to?"
"Readying our gear, taking Lilith out to practice in the forest."
"Back out in the forest? Why?" I asked. Kale turned to me.
"Too much snow here on the lawn, and…kind of lazy to move it all. Plus, the forest is just a bigger open area for what we're going to do." Kale explained. "I'm going to teach Lilith how to control her mana cloak. I saw her using it against that black owl for some time, but it seemed like she was using it out of instinct."
"Out of instinct?" I asked curiously. Now that he said it, it did seem weird that she was able to handle that monster with ease, I don't even think she was taught by Kale on how to use mana cloak. There's a lot of things I don't know about their training.
"You noticed how it was momentarily? I think her body just responded to the situation. Which is good, Now we know she can do it. With the way she was beating that owl, I think…she could quite literally be a monster herself once she learns to maintain it." The look of pride and appreciation swept kale's face as he said that. Seeing that his own apprentice managed to do that must've changed his view of her. "Her eye also activated, so I'm sure it was because of stress or something. I'll probably need to see if I can have her Maintain that eye too…"
I left Kale to his thinking as I headed to the kitchen, I wanted to make myself breakfast. In about half an hour or so, I made myself a pretty hefty breakfast of eggs and pork. Only reason it took that long was because halfway through cooking, Lilith woke up. My cooking must've woken her up or something.
"Cooking?" I heard her say, I was about to start cooking the pork. "Making some for me?"
With the way she wolves down food, I had to make sure to make more than what's usually for me. "Yeah, just let me make the pork. I think Kale is doing something. Why not see him?"
"No, I wanna see you cook." She said as she sat down on the kitchen chair. She must've quite literally woken up as her hair was messy, there was still drowsiness in her eyes.
"How was your sleep?" I asked, putting the pork into the oven.
"It was…alright." That pause made me turn around, was Lilith having issues again?
The problem's Lilith brought up about the voices in her head worried me. I'm not sure if Kale knows much more about it, so it was just between me and her.
"No problems with sleeping?" I looked back as I said that. Lilith shook her head. "Alright then…"
"How did you sleep?" She asked me.
Well…No dreams of arael is a Good thing, but it also isn't. The fact that she didn't is lingering with me. Other than that, the sleep I had was quite nice.
"It was…alright." I basically said her response, to which she tilted her head in curiosity.
"Oh, issues with sleeping? Maybe me? Am I troublesome to sleep with?"
Why- who at our age would say that? Sounds like something-Oh. Like Tera. Her teachings really seemed to have influenced how Lilith talked with me now. Or maybe Lilith is just more comfortable with talking with me now. I don't know.
"No, nothings wrong. It was a…good sleep." Lilith kept eyeing me as I awkwardly turned back and stared at the oven.
Perhaps our conversation at the river made her feel more trusting of me. Or maybe she just fell in love with me more? Maybe I'm just overthinking this, I'm just going to keep staring at the oven to make this less awkward.
Just then, the front door clicked open. It was probably Kale, the breeze of cold air quickly swept through the kitchen as it seemed the door was kept open. The shuffling of footsteps slowly came towards the kitchen.
"Yo." It was a young voice, someone that sounded like a teen. I turned around to see a green haired boy standing, It was Griffin. He wore a white cloak that covered him. How'd he let himself in? Does kale really just leave the door open for anyone?
"Oh…uh…" Lilith tried to say his name, but it seemed she had forgotten. Griffin looked at her, waiting. "You…are Sven!"
"What?" He said quizzically.
"Geralt?" Lilith persisted. "George…Jerry?" She was unsure if any of her answers were correct.
"It's Griffin." He raised an eyebrow as he said that.
Lilith paused for a moment before recognizing that name. "Ooh…my bad."
"None taken. Kota are you still on break?" Griffin turned to me. "I was passing by and saw Kale shoveling a path. He said you wanted to hang out?"
I guess this can work too, I planned on meeting him after school, but if he's willing to come and hang out now. I didn't mind. This was really just to take my mind off of Arael and other things.
"Yeah, do you mind?" I asked.
Griffin chuckled as he gave off a radiant smile. "Of course not! Although…we will need to bring Sura along as well."
"Why's that?"
"She's outside. Hey, me and her? Guess we're on good footing. She doesn't even throw glares at me or anything!" Griffin said proudly.
Now that he has said it, I did notice during school that the two had gotten a bit better at getting along. Sura usually likes to head to the library by herself when she has the chance and sometimes she'd ask Griffin to come along or even me. For the past Three months, it feels like I've slowly become Sura's friend along with Griffin.
"Well good for you!"
"I know! I probably have a chance with her!"
"Not a chance! But I like your spirit!" I said to him, and he chuckled at that.
"Haha! Anyways, what'd you want to do?"
"Uh…explore? I haven't really seen much of this kingdom since I got here."
"Oh, Sura would like that! Y'know, she's been doing her own research. Taking note of everything, kind of cute." Griffin grinned at that thought.
"Are we going now?" I asked.
"Nah, let's just do it after school. We'll meet you here. Just wanted to stop by and make sure." He looked back to the door. "Oh, looks like me and Sura gotta head out. See ya, kota!" He waved at me and then looked at Lilith. "See you…Lauren!" He quickly sped out of the kitchen, laughing as he went out the front door.
Lilith looked like she was in awe. "Ah- you! It's Lilith!"
"He's already out the door." I said, turning back to the pork.
"…i'm going to throw something at him." She muttered. So aggressive to Griffin!
"Stop taking advice from Tera. Anyways, the food is almost done." I opened the oven to observe the pork. It had a golden color to it on the outside. It's probably finished now. I casted a wind spell to blow out the fire and grabbed a cloth to get ahold of the pork.
Once we ate breakfast, Kale came back looking exhausted. It seemed he managed to clear out a path to the entrance of the gate. Lilith and I were sitting on the couch as he entered.
"Ok! Lilith, are you ready for training?" Lilith wasn't even ready as she was still wearing her sleep wear, which made Kale frown. "I did all that shoveling to not have you ready when I walk in?"
"I don't know, I was eating breakfast." Lilith nonchalantly said.
"Come on, Lilith. Get ready, we're going to the forest." That perked Lilith interest as she looked at him curiously. "Kota, what'll you be doing? I thought you'd be heading out with Griffin and Sura?"
I thought for a moment, what will I be doing? That's a couple of hours before they come back, maybe I'll work on my magic. Tera has given me some books from the library to read whenever I wanted to read them. This'll be a good time to look at them.
"I'll probably study my magic, I could use some improving too." I responded back.
Kale smiled at that response, he really liked it when someone was honking their skills. Even if it was out of his own skill set. "That's good, just be careful if you plan on using magic. Go outside for that." And then that sparked an idea in Kale's head which made him smile more. "You should use some fire spells to…clear the lawn!"
"Can't you just shovel it?"
"I-uh…Lilith get ready!" Kale quickly avoided that question and headed outside. "We gotta leave cause we'll be out there all day! We're gonna need all that daylight for what we're doing!"
Lilith quickly hopped off the couch, excitedly rushing upstairs. "What are we doing?!" She yelled.
"I'll tell you when you get dressed!" I heard kale outside.
Why are they yelling at each other? Don't they know there are people around here? Actually, I don't think anyone has been bothered by us.
A few moments passed and Lilith raced down stairs wearing her usual attire, the cloak ragged still with some stains that looked brown. She then went through the front door and stood there.
Turning around, she gave me a big smile and waved. "Be safe, kota!" And off she went. I could hear those two talking outside as it slowly faded.
And now I'm all alone on the couch. Just me and my thoughts. I sighed and plopped my head onto the arms of the couch, pondering on what to do.
Perhaps I should read my Parents letters that they've sent. I know Kale has been keeping me updated on them, saying how they are doing well and he was writing them back. It seemed another letter had come in earlier this month, but kale didn't mention anything about it. I guess I should read that one. He usually keeps them in a drawer in the living room.
Sitting up and Hopping off the couch, I looked around the living room for that specific drawer. There was a long table with drawers near the kitchen door so I checked that one. I managed to find them in the second drawer, all the letters neatly packed onto each other with the top one most likely being the most recent one. I guess it's time to read what they've been saying.
The letter I was reading was indeed from earlier this month, or what I would say would be a month. This world doesn't really put numbers or names for the months. However, it seemed they were marked by seasons though. For some reason. The way they mention how We entered winter signifies that this was fairly new…
But I kept on reading.
'Gerald writing,
How is Kota? Is he faring well? I know I ask this every time, but I'm just making sure. With the new baby on the way, it's making me fidgety.'
I stopped mid-reading to take what I had just read. So the baby is coming, huh? It's been Five months since I got here and it seems like they went crazy once I left.
But the realization that Arael told me sank in, I wouldn't be able to see this newborn sibling of mine. I frowned, thinking about it. Arael was a strange goddess, one that ticked off many red flags. Why'd she even choose me? She really chose someone who was going through some bad shit to make that a reason to give me a new life.
Ugh, I shouldn't focus on that. I shook my head and proceeded to continue reading.
'Also, how is Lilith? Sarah has been wondering as she's been planning a trip to Prusha. I would like to go along as well but…with the condition Synthia is in, I'm afraid I can't. I gave Sarah your house address just in case. She'd probably get lost in that city. That's all I got to say, I'll let Synthia write the rest of this.'
As he said in his writing, the change in writing was noticeable. Synthia's more elegant handwriting was now noticeable for the rest of this letter.
'Are you feeding him? I hope so. If you aren't, I'll personally go there.'
Synthia writing went on quite a long paragraph of threatening kale….talk about terrifying.
'-I hope you sleep knowing that I'll be nearby, ready with a grave for you. Anyways, Please tell Kota about his new sibling! It's been some time since we've seen him. We had our local Doctor check up on me and with his magic, he was able to see that I was pregnant!'
Assuming the Doctors were able to see it, that must mean he saw the mana of the baby inside her? It seems dumb since…wait, This place is different from our world. If the doctor can see a different mana source inside someone, it's probably a baby forming.
The letter continued on with what they were up to in Shanford. Gerald managed to go on some quest in Shanford that involved some wolves and a bear. And Synthia and Sarah got to know each other much more, as the two decided to start training with their magic as a way to pass the time. But I got to the bottom of Synthia's part and read that.
'Once our baby is born, we'll head to Prusha when we can! Hopefully Kota is doing well when we do get there! He'll get to see his sibling!'
I closed the letter and stood idle. I didn't really intend on reading the rest of these letters as they'd probably offer up the same things in this letter. What they have been doing and asking how I was. So I put the letter back in the drawer and closed it.
So in a couple of months, my sister will be born and I won't be able to see her? I wish arael explained that, did she mean that they'd die? Or something goes wrong and I don't meet her at this point in my life? Maybe I will see her when I get older.
I pondered this situation as I went upstairs into my room. I planned on studying magic for some time before Griffin and Sura came to get me. I shuffled through a bag of books that Tera gave me and started reading them.
With a couple of hours passing, I managed to figure out one spell, a beginner earth spell that would erupt from the ground. I found myself outside wearing my cloak, holding my staff out as I chanted the spell.
"Great Teher, move the lands and erupt!" It was a simple chant, I've noticed that most beginner spells always had a short chant to them. Mostly a sentence to conjure them while intermediate needs two or three.
The snowy ground beneath my feet rumbled as a bubble of some sort crawled across the floor a few meters and erupted a bunch of jagged rocks that formed into a disfigured sphere. I wonder if I'm able to change the shape when it erupts?
The spell dissipated and the rocks tumbled down into the snow, and once again I tried again. This time without chanting it, feeling that same feeling I had when I chanted it at first. As I felt the spell conjure, I imagined a flat plate. If I did this correctly, I could make a makeshift floor for myself. As the spell continued on, it burrowed in the ground and erupted again, this time the rocks slowly built itself into a somewhat ugly looking floor. Well it sort of worked, but I'll need to practice this even more.
Speaking of practice, I took in mind Kale's proposal of clearing the lawn. The snow out here was really piling up, so I held out my staff and casted a fire spell, this spell was called sunspot. It acted like a torch for those in caves or in dim lit areas. But with enough mana and power, you could make this Heat up anything fast.
A ball of fire was created, hovering above my staff as I casually held it to the snow. And with ease, the snow melted quickly. Look, I got nothing else to do. Plus, this would be a great way to figure out how much mana I had before I exhausted myself, though maybe I shouldn't since I am heading out later.
I waved the Sunspot around as the snow melted and made puddles in the ground. looking around the front lawn, I noticed that the trail that kale made was already covered in snow. I'll need to take care of that. Soon I found myself spending Two hours just melting the snow in the front lawn, somehow finding it amusing like…playing those simulator games in my old life.
The ground was now green, with most of the snow gone. I had the sunspot spell deactivate, the ball of fire dissipating as I lowered my staff. Now what do I do? I did what Kale wanted me to do and I learned an earth spell. But with the ground not covered in snow, I could practice the earth spell better now. And as such, for a couple more hours I spent the time just training my magic and efficiency with it.
A/N: Hey! Getting close to the ending of volume 2, with just a few more chapters to do and finish. As of right now, I'm plotting the roadmap for Volume 3 and thinking of what I can do to make it interesting. Hope you enjoy this chapter, the next couple of chapter will help develop Griffin and Sura!