I awoke in a white void, this was the Third time I've been here. The last time being in Shanford. I half expected to find myself here. but if I was expecting it, it still came as a surprise every damn time.
However something was different. as I looked around the void that seemed endless, there was no sign of Arael anywhere. No humming. No voluptuous looking lady nearby.
So…why am I here? I looked down at myself and realized I was back in my older body. I Barely recognized it, I was so used to my other self now that this body seemed out of place.
I continued to look for arael, but there was no sign of this goddess. Where the hell was she?
"Fufu…" That chuckle came from above me.
Descending from wherever she came from, Arael floated to the ground. The mosiac covering her face rippled and wrapped around her face.
I really hate this woman. We've barely talked, but her cutesy and kind attitude seemed to be a facade to me.
"I've come with another task." She said calmly, it was too calm. Why the hell is that the first thing she asks from me?
"…a lot of nerves coming from the one who almost sent me to die."
"Fufu, mad aren't you?" She floated towards me, twirling in the air. "Don't be too Angry at me, I only wanted to make you stronger." She pouted.
"I find it very hard to consider all this is making me stronger." Though I didn't really wanna admit it, I guess coming here did improve my magic skills and experience. But there could've been a much easier way of doing this without my life on the line. "I did all you asked, now what do you want?"
"Tsk, how rude." Arael landed on her feet, lowering into a sitting position. "Don't you want to play?"
Play? Does she think this a game?
"I'd rather you just stop contacting me."
"Oh? But without me, you wouldn't even be in Prusha. You wouldn't have met Chris or The others. And Chris would've met an unruly future if you didn't find him."
Well…she's right about that. Hate to admit it, but her attitude towards Chris made me back up a bit.
"What do you mean?"
"I am Arael, the goddess of death. I see everyone's future and ends."
She can see all that? Then what's with the vagueness in everything?
She continued on. "Chris right now is set in a good life, one that'll help you become stronger!"
"I don't understand, why do you want me to become stronger? I don't even want to!" I frustratedly said. "Yknow, I expected myself to be dead when I hit that water. Not to be reincarnated into a new baby in a world where magic exists!"
"Oh hush, aren't you glad to get a second chance though?" Arael playfully twiddled her thumbs together, her transparent body floating once again. "You could've easily said no in the beginning. Now here you are, even finishing the task I've given you."
"Grr…Fine, I guess you are right about that…" I sat down as She floated closer. "Do you think this is all a game?
"What? A game? No, do you believe what I'm saying about you isn't true? That I'm just playing around?" Arael looked shocked that I would be thinking of that. "Hmm, perhaps it's understandable…very well, I'll give you the full reasoning." And she drifted away.
The full reasoning? You mean she hasn't even told me the full reasoning at all? Well she probably didn't need to since I blindly accepted her task. I'd like to know what this is all about.
"You want the real reason for me wanting you to be powerful? I'll give it to you. Though to be quite frank…you might even hate me more…"
"How'd you know I hated you-ah, well…" I fell into that one.
"It's very reasonable that you wouldn't fully believe in me. I'd even say it was smart of you to. But here me out." I couldn't see her face, but I could tell that her tone had changed from joking to serious. "There is someone in this world who wishes to destroy me, and the connection of our worlds."
"Someone here? Why would they?"
"Because of my own foolish actions. Long before you came around, This someone has been on the hunt for me. Wanting to spoil the good that I've done for their own evil plans."
Hmm, so someone from Zenith knows of Arael? Ok, now that I think of it, I don't think I've heard anyone ever speak Her name once. I've heard of other gods' names being heard through the spells. But never Arael's, perhaps it has something to do with her status as the Goddess of death?
"Look, This person is quite strong and unfortunately…I haven't been able to track their whereabouts at all, I have no way of knowing what they do."
"Well you stay in a white void, not sure how you'd be able to see where they are." I said. "Didn't you say you are able to see everyone's ends? How come you can't see theirs?"
"That…I am unsure of. Which is why I have you out there as my eyes." Arael pointed at her Nonexistent eyes. "Which brings me to my next tasks for you."
"…No shoulder touching? No Vision?" I cautiously asked. Can't have another round of vivid images glad in my head.
She shook her head. "Nope, it's just one task. Simple, all you need to do is to attend the Dance in the festival and find The King of Ithryll. He is attending this festival in respect to King Lucian. Make contact with him and be sure that you have the two NOT talk. Stall The king of Ithryll."
"Why?"
"Do you really want all the details? Ugh, it's so boring to explain these things." Arael seemed extremely bothered that I even asked that. I mean, If this was supposed to make me powerful, there's got to be a reason why it would.
"I'll make it simple. King Lucian wants to have the enforcement of the King of Ithryll, so that they can both attack the Demon continent. But the King of Ithryll will think he's insane and kill him! This festival is not the week or time for the two to converse!"
"Huh? Like, going to war with a whole continent?! Wait, kill?!" What the hell was I going to do? Am I really going to start a war?
"There is a demon there, Lady Marika. She is the queen of the Demon continent. But she also holds many powerful spells and items with her. Having her dead will let you access those."
"Oh yeah, we had a owl thing talk about her…is she that powerful?"
"Ugh, I do not have time for all this. You spent more time here than you did before. Just go with the knowledge you have, you'll find that out when you go back to Zenith." Arael frustratingly said.
"I really hate this vagueness from you…But there's no real option for me is there?"
"Nope!" Arael clapped her hands together. "You are under me and will always be!"
Great, now I got another task from this lady. Though it's just one, it seems very important. Having two kingdoms come together for war is…well it wasn't what I expected. I'm not sure how this'll make me powerful, maybe this'll give me a chance to go to Ithryll and learn some more powerful spell?
"Time to go, Travis!" Arael snapped her fingers. A white void slowly blinded me, causing me to cover my eyes. I heard her giggle in a way I didn't like. "I expect Great things to happen…Fufu."
And once instantly, my view was completely white.
***
"Gah! Huwah! H-huh?" I gasped, suddenly I found myself back in Zenith. Back in Kales house and my room again. I quickly made sure that I was back to being Kota, slapping my face to ensure I wasn't dreaming. It feels real, the sunlight hitting my face feels real. I think I'm actually here!
"Mmm…Kota?" I heard a voice next to me, I turned and noticed Lilith looking at me awkwardly. "What's with…the face slapping?" She was laying in the bed with me.
"Oh! It's…erm…I had a nightmare." As I said that, I remembered what happened last night. Lilith pecked my cheek, a kiss. That prompted me to turn the other way from her, with my face reddening.
"Ok, Travis. Calm down, you literally just woke up! Stop being weird." I told myself. I took a deep breath and turned back to Lilith.
It seemed Lilith had been awake for some time now, she was already dressed up in her Normal attire. And with the smell of breakfast in the air, it's probably good to assume that I woke up late.
"Kota? Are you alright?" She asked worriedly. "Do you want me to get Kale?"
"Uh, no- No, I am well! Just…unsure why you were staring at me while I was sleeping."
"Oh…oh!" Her face reddened, she then got off the bed and scurried off to the door. "I-I had just walked in and saw you sleeping! That's it! Nothing wrong with…staring!" And she left the room, slamming the door. I even heard Kale, who was downstairs yelling at the slamming.
Huh, I thought I'd be the only one remembering what happened last night. Wait, if I'm thinking correctly…she did make the first move.
Well damn, I think I'd be making Gerald proud. I think all of last night proved Lilith liked me. Making sure Lilith was gone, I gave myself some chest bumps like a monkey. Oh, the great feeling of knowing you have a Crush!
But let's not stay on this topic too long, I have other things on my mind that need attention. Specifically what Arael's task was. The festival was a couple of months away, which meant there was just a lot of free time for me to do things.
Maybe I could prepare and actually train? If anything, something could happen during the festival. Not that I think anything would happen. But it's better safe than sorry if…I don't know, some bandits came in and started slashing? Maybe they'll be more owl monster? To be quite honest, I feel my own magic efficiency is lacking as of right now.
Which means I got to…go to school and study more. And hopefully those boys don't make a fuss at the school about our…altercation. Maybe I'm feeling slight regrets about it, but I still feel like I'm in the right. Alright, I think I got a plan for the upcoming months.
"No! Don't ask him!" I heard from outside, it sounded like Lilith was begging. What was going on outside?
"Ok, you're making it very obvious you did something. I-hey! Let go of my leg!" It was kale, I heard the door jingle as he tried to open the door. "Look, I'm just going to check on Kota! He's been sleeping for a while!"
"No!" She continued begging. But to no avail, Kale kicked the door and entered wearing an apron over his normal clothing. It was a stunning appearance to look at. He was also holding a spatula.
Lilith clung to his leg, blushing insanely as she was basically dragged across the floor by kale. It seemed kale was exhausted once he fully entered the room, look right at me.
"H-hey! Huff…huff..y-you alright? She do something to you, is that why she came running down stairs?" He wiped the sweat off his forehead as he then tried to wiggle Lilith off his leg. "Will you let go, damn it!"
"No! Kota, don't tell him anything! Don't tell him!" Lilith was tearing as she said that, it was almost comedic the way she was choking up over this.
"Kota, answer me! I made Eggs and pork for breakfast, answer and I'll let you get a portion of what she has!" Kale was bargaining me now. It was over for Lilith. "What'd she do?"
It was simple enough for me to lie. In the end, I'll get a larger breakfast either way. A man's gotta eat. Although…it'll be funny to see how far I can take this.
"Oh, I'm not sure at all. It was hazy last night…" I nonchalantly said. I started tapping the spot where she kissed me. That caused Lilith to freak out, shaking Kale's leg.
"Huh? Hey, what'd you do?" Kale looked down at Lilith who was sniffling. Kale tried figuring out what was going on. Within moments, his eyes widened and he put his hands to his face.
"Ooohh…No you did not."
W-what do you mean we did not?
Kale crumbled to the floor, confusing Lilith and me as he landed on his butt. Kale had turned a deathly pale color as his eyes looked dead before he finally spoke.
"I can't…no…no. you two? You aren't even at that age yet… how will I tell this to Your parents and Tera?"
"I-I beg pardon?" I cautiously asked. What the hell was he assuming? Kale has it every time I do a damn joke, it goes awry?
Kale laid flat on the ground, Lilith shaking him. "Y-you two did it?"
That was a red flag, that's a major red flag! It made me flustered as I fumbled out of the bed. Hitting the floor as well before recovering and aiming at him. "No! That is not what I meant!"
"We did what?" Lilith confusingly asked, she was too innocent for this. We cannot plague her mind at this moment!
Kale Wallowed on the floor, mumbling to himself. "Can't believe it…can't believe it…" he laid unmoving as he dropped the spatula.
I rushed to Kale's side, trying to figure out what was up with him. I should probably snap him out of this.
"Uh…Kale! Listen, we didn't do a single thing last night!" I patted his chest as I said that. His eyes looked to me, an eyebrow raising. "Look, she just pecked me on the cheek, alright?"
"Pecked?" He weakly said, he seemed to be snapping out of it. "Hehe, like a little kiss on the cheek?" He chuckled. "W-wha- is that it?" He casually said. Suddenly, that pale skin color
Faded away, he slowly got up and looked at lilith. "Was that really the reason why you didn't want me to ask what happened?"
I shouldn't be upset since he is a sort of detective for King Lucian. A detective gotta know how to act and stuff, but the fact he did it for this just made me somewhat impressed, but angry.
"Huh?" Lilith said in a croaky voice? She seemed as confused as me.
"What, you kissed him on his cheek? Not a big deal, come on you two." Kale said as he cleaned his apron of any dust and such from the floor. " I always knew you two were just love birds. But I kinda thought you two did something worse with how Lilith was acting."
I can't really blame him for seeing us as love birds, me and Lilith have been together since we got on this journey. We're usually around each other when things go haywire and such. Plus with how we interact, it seemed like a reasonable idea to everyone that something was up with us.
"I mind! It's weird saying stuff that you did!" Lilith gave Kale a punch to his leg. "It's weird!"
"Ow! Relax. Alright, I won't talk about it that much! Even though you two don't make it easy to be unnoticeable." Kale clenched his leg for a moment before looking at me. "And you? You get a portion of Lilith's breakfast now."
"Yessir!" I saluted him, a job well done. Kale stood up, grabbing his spatula from the ground looking at it.
"Gah, now I gotta clean this. I'm heading back downstairs to clean this and get breakfast done." He then moved past Lilith and towards the door before stopping. "I'll leave you two to talk. Seems like you two have to figure out what you want." He smiled as he swiftly closed the door. Leaving just us two.
An awkward pause took place in the room, besides the shuffling of Lilith's feet as she bunched up her legs. After a few moments, she looked up at me.
"Kota…" she slowly started, but I held up my hand to stop her. With how uncomfy she looked, I don't think she was ready to talk. Or at least I thought.
"We don't need to talk about what happened last night if you want." I said. "I mean…if you don't want to…"
That made Lilith slightly irritated, she shook her hands as she answered back at me. " I do mind! It's just that I didn't want kale to see! I-oop!" She stopped herself from continuing, realizing what she said.
Alright, that made me blush as well. Damn, I am not good with this stuff. Cmon Travis, you've had one girlfriend before! I cleared my throat, thinking of what to say to her.
"Ahem…as I said last night, I…made a promise to you to be by your side." She looked at me with a Blushed face, covering her mouth as I spoke. "Erm…Though I think it's too early for us to…progress things, I wouldn't mind…maybe holding hands or something like that." I somewhat murmured those last lines out of a cringe of my own words.
"I don't mind! Er…I mean, I don't mind…waiting…but we can hold hands and stuff!" She waved her hands in front of me in a cartoonish way, she's got the spirit. She then pulled back, it was like her mind was switching between multiple things or things to say. Opening and closing her mouth before finally saying. "We aren't official, yet! J-just testing waters!" Before ending with a quivering smile. How cute.
I chuckled and laughed at that, I didn't expect this to end up like this. Though not official (I guess by her saying), I feel we made some sort of progress from last night. As long as Lilith was near, I'm fine.
"Heheh…" I heard a snickering from the door. I barely noticed that the door was slightly creaked open. Was…was that kale listening in on us?
"Hoho! Was that a confession I heard from my apprentice?" Yeah it was him. I saw Lilith turn even more red as she got up from her sitting position. "Just saying, I hope this doesn't make any distractions du-agh!" Lilith swung the door open, having Kale fall down into the room.
"You weren't supposed to listen in!" Lilith got on Kale's back and batted at his back as He started to laugh.
I couldn't help chuckling myself again. This whole day seemed tremendously better than yesterday. And the day just started! Also, that reminded me. Today, I should be heading back to the University. I wonder how Tera would feel about this new progress me and Lilith made. She'd probably be ecstatic that her pupil she was teaching the art of love managed to make some progress.
"Haha, alright! Enough with the hitting!" Kale quickly stood up, causing Lilith to tumble off of him. "Kota, needs to head to School. And me and you need to continue reading your Mana cloak!" All that funny mannerism he had this morning seemingly vanished and he was back to being normal kale. "Breakfast is done, Kota you should be getting ready!"
"Y-yes sir!" I quickly got up and rummaged through the clean basket for some new clothes.
Kale nodded and turned to Lilith. "Alright, you better not let that lovey dovey stuff get in your head. You're too young…I think? Anyways, you know what you aren't young enough for?" He asked her.
Lilith looked at him, confused. "…F-food?"
"Training! But you're correct, so I'll let this one slide. we're going now! We'll be going back to the forest!" And he quickly picked up Lilith by her waist, looking like he picked up a baby.
Even with her bantering and utter confusion, Kale swiftly ran out the door and downstairs. I could hear The front door open and close as the two set out to train.
I quickly found some new clothes. I found it odd that I always had a spare of clothing that was the same as I usually wore. But I guess everything in this world was similar, I mean I never saw kale wear anything else than his typical attire. Hey, if a style fits you, just wear it forever!
I put on the pendant that Synthia and Gerald gave me, examining it again. The name of Gerald etched into the back of it. I wasn't really sure if this pendant was a magical item, maybe it was and I just didn't know how it activated. I put the pendant underneath my white shirt and proceeded to put on my cloak. Taking a look at myself in the mirror, I noticed my hair was growing quite long for my taste. To say it was long was just my opinion, my black hair was almost down to my shoulders, some points of my hair sticking out in some directions. Y'know I'm really starting to look like an anime character…not that I minded. I've gotten taller too, couldn't say for sure. I got to make a height comparison to kale at some point.
Grabbing my staff named incongruity, I gathered whatever I needed for the university and headed downstairs. I went into the kitchen to stumble upon a plate of eggs and pork, it seems that Kale didn't lie about giving me some of Lilith's portion as there was a good amount of pork on this plate. And Lilith loves the pork that he makes. I found myself chomping and gnawing at the meat ferociously as a way to speed up the time. Who knows how late I was going to be, or even if I was going to be late!
After eating, I quickly hurried to the door.
Ok, a new day for me. A new task from arael and perhaps the most important; Some progress with Lilith! Oh, how fruitful this day is! I made my way outside and out of the gate door, rushing past a woman with an owl mask.
"Hey! Watch it!" She yelled at me. Something about her voice reminded me of someone, but I paid no mind as I was in a hurry. I just gave her an apologetic wave before sprinting towards the university.
Hopefully, no one at school didn't hear about what I did…I hope.
A/N: Ah, a start of a new chapter! This Volume will be more cutesy, more comedic(Hopefully), and even more darker at some points. I want this Volume to be a roller coaster ride! This opening chapter isn't that long, but a lot happens in it! Hope you enjoy this chapter!