"No."
"What?"
"No."
"Come again?"
"I said NO."
"W-why?!" Kolin, who stood up from his seat had an expression of disbelief.
Lux looked at Kolin and Tobin, seemingly unable to decide who to look at.
"Why not?" Tobin replied, he remained unfazed by my brother's gaze.
"You can do whatever you want, you know?"
Lux was shifting his head left and right throughout the exchange.
"Like?"
"Pfft!" They looked at me, "It's nothing, go on." I held in my laughter. I found Lux's indecisiveness on whom to look at funny.
Kolin looked back to Tobin, "Like Flying."
"Humans can already do that. Give something else."
"Well… Uhm—" Kolin rubbed his chin.
"What I'm saying is, there is no practical application of being a mage in this era." He shrugged.
I thought about that as well. Although it's pretty cool, there's no point in exhausting my time for something I cannot do anything with.
"You kids are idiots…" Kolin slumped on his seat, looking defeated.
"How are you gonna teach us magic anyway? We don't have a magic field like you." Tobin leaned on his seat.
"It's not gonna matter! In a couple of years, I will make a mana field around the Earth… and I'm gonna call it the manasphere."
"What? Can you really just decide on that alone?You know very well how that's going to affect a lot of people, and for what?"
"…and not to mention, manasphere sounds like manosphere."
Lux spat her drink, "Pfft!"
I chuckled as well, "hahaha! Maybe he meant it!"
"…Well, with how misogynistic he is, I don't doubt it."
I saw his brow twitch uncontrollably, he was pissed.
"First of all, I am not, and second, I am doing this for you guys."
"For what?" I asked.
"For threats that might go your way." He looked at all of us.
"Our way? You speak as if you're not one of us." I couldn't help but feel that way.
"That's because he's not." Tobin suddenly spat.
I glared at Tobin, "What did you just say?" I fumed.
"Ah, my bad, I didn't mea—"
"He's right. I do not belong here in the slightest." Kolin suddenly interrupted.
"What are you saying?" I frowned at him, "You must be joking." I looked at him incredulously.
"Mhm. You might not think so, but I grew up with memories that traumatizes me even right now. It is not right to say I belong to this world when I can't even sympathize with your laid-back lifestyle
"Laid back? Are you trying to say that just because we use no witchcraft that our world is peaceful?" I argued, and Tobin nodded at my provoking question.
"Compared to my world, it is." Kolin scrunched up his nose.
"Compare to your world that, compared to your world this. This is not your world, Kolin." I instinctively raised my voice.
"Proves my fuckin' point, doesn't it?" He snorted, "Forget it! There's no point in teaching this power to a bunch of kids, anyway."
"Yea, but that doesn't—"
He walked away and then slammed the glass door, shattering it in pieces.
Lux and Tobin stared at the door, and so is the manager who's been eyeing us all this while.
"I'll pay for it," I told the woman who is wearing the uniform, and she nodded.
"Let's just get out of here," I told them before going up to the manager to pay for the damages.
...
We just decided to walk along the park.
The weather was pleasant, it was neither too hot nor dim. The sky was blue with a some white clouds obscuring the sun from time to time.
The park we're in also had a lot of trees, and very minimal crowd. 'I guess they all chose to go inside, it's not too hot right now though.'
I sat on a nearby bench, staring at the bugs burrowing themselves in the ground. None of us talked.
You could hear the cicadas and birds chirping everywhere since there were little to no people around.
"Why was he so adamant about teaching us magic?" Lux wondered, her misty eyes glancing at me.
"Sighhhh… I really don't know. He's been acting weird since I found out he's a mage."
"You sure he hasn't been that way even before?" Tobin added to the conversation.
Rubbing my forehead, I replied, "I'm not sure, he moved out when he turned nineteen, so probably yea."
"Mhm, the way he talked…it reminds me of someone who's trying to say goodbye." Placed both her her cheeks in her palms as he stared at the ants fighting. A black ant could be seen fighting against multiple red ants.
"Goodbye?" I frowned, "For what? He's practically immortal if you think about it."
"Oh." She went back to staring at the ants fighting. So did I.
We again stayed silent. None of us uttered a single word.
The black ant, although alone, fought off multiple red ants at once--it seems to be protecting a piece of sugar from the other ants.
'Ants are really just like humans, they're willing to risk their lives just for a bit of extra resource.'
"What if he's trying to go back?" Tobin suddenly said. Unlike us, he's looking up to the clouds, seemingly unbothered
I widened my eyes in realization. 'What if he is?' I asked myself, surely not right? He's got a family here.
'…'
I began to doubt. Maybe he also has a family that he wants to go back to…
"That's not possible" I replied, still looking down at the ants, the black ant was finally decapitated by the fire ants.
"I guess so, but so is being reborn from whatever that place is."
I opened my mouth to argue, but nothing came out.
'Maybe he's right', I thought to myself.
"Regardless, you should ask him first," Lux suggested.
"Oum." I nodded as I stared at the lifeless ant.
I jumped, creating a small shockwave, startling some people around—I can't be seen, however.
Flying through the clouds, I didn't stop ascending.
-Calm down, Kolin, you might not be powerful enough for space yet.
"I am," I said haughtily, my voice coming out baritone.
-Why do you always do stuff like this…
Breaking the sound barrier, I continued my ascent.
"Ugghhhhh…." My breathing strained as the atmosphere got thinner.
I put a veil of mana, continuously suppling myself with oxygen. It also got colder, compelling me to heat up myself with—again—mana.
Casting a lot of spells at the same time was laborious. I had to keep focus, otherwise one slip might cause me my life.
After getting myself used to it, I sped up garnering a speed close to that of light.
I shouted, but it was muted. It was oddly comforting, but disturbing at the same time.
Looking back, I saw the planet…
It was beautiful.
I never imagined that being in space was this breathtaking.
-…Figuratively…or literally, either way works.
I chuckled, but no sound came out.
I laughed and no sound came out.
Suddenly, a shadow came out. I reflexively flinched.
"Relax, it's me."
I tried to reply but—again, no sound came out.
Quickly putting up a small imitation of an atmosphere, I talked.
I exclaimed in surprise, "Caner? H-how? You know you can't fight—"
"I am not trying to fight. I just thought that now is a good time to reveal this." He made a soft, tight-lipped smile.
"Ah."
"Mhm."
We both stayed silent…like how it has always been—or sometimes—he can be quite annoying.
I looked at the planet that I've called my home for twenty-three years, longer than what I have lived in my past life.
"Why now? So you could've manifested a physical form all this time?" I chuckled.
"Well… a few years ago, yes. You might not be aware, but you haven't been trying to restrain me." He said in his noble-like voice, giving me a nudge.
"Gah!" I jumped as he touched at my waist.
"You're ticklish?" He looked evil.
"N-no? It's my battle senses, they're sensitive." I looked away.
"HAHAHA, sure bud." He let it go.
Looking at the floating living rock, I sighed, "A beer would be nice."
"Urgh, why do you like that so much, does it really taste that good?" He winced.
"Heck yea it does," I smirked
"…wanna have a taste?" I offered him.
"Sorry, but I'm just a blob of mana right now. I don't have an actual body." A look of disappointment can be seen in his eyes.
Maybe I was a bit too harsh with this guy. After all, he's the only one who knows all of me, the sole remnant of my past.
"Say… do you want to go back?" I asked him.
"And then what? Get dragged around to do things I don't even want to…?"
"… I think I'm good here. Makes me wonder why you'd ever wanna go back to that wretched place." He laid on his back, crossing his arms behind his head.
"Don't you ever feel left out?" I crossed my brows.
"I neither belong here nor there." He said lazily.
"I want to see her again." I relaxed my whole body, letting myself float in the vacuum.
"What a simp you are." He teased.
"Who cares? She's not an Earthen woman, she's worth simping for."
He laughed. He abruptly stopped as he saw something coming close to us.
"Isn't that a satellite?" He asked.
"Yea, so what?" I said while picking my nose.
"Shit! Kolin, we're not invisible right now!" He stumbled upon himself trying to get a hold of something before he used mana to stabilize.
"Oh fuck! Why didn't you tell me?!" I shouted as I activated a veil of mana, but immediately regretted is as I accidentally deactivated the oxygen spell.
I quickly put it up again but unconsciously let the invisibility spell slip up. I was panicking, so I just flew down as fast as I could.
In just a couple of seconds, we landed, albeit in an ocean somewhere.
"Ah."
"We messed up, huh?" He said.
"We hella did. They've seen us for sure." Despite that, however, I laughed.
"…say," I looked at him in the eyes, "Why don't you protect this place while I'm gone?"
He widened his eyes in surprise, "You sure you can trust me? I might just make this my kingdom, you know?"
"I dare you." I laughed out loud.
"Tch, how hopeless you are." He shook his head.
Chooooo!
We saw a cruise closing by, "Say, let's go on a vacation, shall we?" I smirked.