It was a peaceful night in the Thenan family. After Lucas had returned, all the anxiety, restlessness and gloom vanished with the merry family reunion.
Alice had been tensed for quite a few days. Lucas might not know, but he was unconscious in the Turquoise Realm for more than one day. If he had taken a few more days, then there was a chance of him being left trapped inside the realm.
So, seeing him hale and healthy, she could finally relieve her nerves. That night, she hugged him fiercely so as to never be separated again.
When the morning came, Alice opened her eyes. She lifted her head up and found that their mother had woken up early and left the bed. Only she and her little brother were sleeping together, with him being spooned by her.
Alice was drowsy and brought her head nuzzled against Lucas' neck. She stayed like that for some while with a peaceful smile. She was inhaling his scent, and gradually, her cheeks started to redden. Unbeknownst to her heart started beating faster.
When she sensed the changes in herself, she felt embarrassed for hugging her brother. She quickly pulled her arms away from the embrace, resulting in Lucas turning over to face her. His body had climbed a little on her. It was such that his face was a little distance away from hers diagonally.
Alice had always pinched and prodded her younger brother's face when he was younger. And thus had seen his face up close many times. Even now and then, when they tussled playfully with each other, she had encountered such situations.
But for the first time, she couldn't help but feel embarrassed to directly look into his face. She was even embarrassed at the thought of Lucas staring at her at such distance.
But she calmed herself down, rationalising herself with the thought that Lucas was asleep so she could peer into his face to her heart's desire. She looked at his masculine face. Even though he was then 12 years old, he looked more like a young adult rather than a teenager.
His face was chiselled, eyebrows sharp and thin red lips in a peaceful smile. A few bangs of his hair were covering his eyes, so Alice pushed them back behind his ears.
She saw Lucas' smile and recalled how he was always with her with a confident smile. Even though he was younger, Lucas had always prioritised her. He protected her when she needed protection. Lucas would play with her whenever she asked.
He also smiled gently when he faced off against many enemies to secure her way out from that realm. She was enamoured by his smile. Her gaze was drawn to his lips. She wanted to taste those lips.
(Huh?! Taste Lucas' lips?)
Alice was startled at her own thoughts. She knew that her feelings towards Lucas were not like they used to be before. That was not how a sister should feel about her brother. She then remembered the words of Elfie when they had the girls talk.
'You love your brother.'
Alice had always known that she loved Lucas. She wanted to take care of him and spend their time together. Alice had thought that Elfie was asking an obvious question. But now she understood. Elfie wanted to ask if she loved her brother romantically. But Alice had misunderstood her question as asking about familial love.
But after witnessing their struggle and separation, Alice never wanted to be away from Lucas. She wanted to spend all their time together. And now Alice desired to kiss him. Even though she was a bubbly girl with a bit of an innocent nature, she was not impulsive.
Alice was rational. And thus, she knew that there was a high chance her feelings would not be reciprocated. Even if Lucas loved her as a sister, to love her romantically would be a significant thing to ask for.
Also, if he had the same feelings as her, how could they explain such things to their mother. Would she support us, or would she be upset and get angry?
Alice's thoughts started to go in the wrong direction. She began to freak out internally due to her hyperbolic scenarios. But her chain of thoughts was broken as she felt herself embraced by sturdy hands. Lucas had hugged her in his sleep.
Feeling the warmth from him, she felt her earlier dark thoughts melt away. Alice hugged him back and closed her eyes. She believed that even if Lucas didn't love her back romantically, they could still spend their time together and enjoy themselves, and there would not be any cracks in their relationship. With such peaceful thoughts, she closed her eyes and lay on the bed till Lucas woke up.
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I had already woken up when Alice was nuzzling against my neck. I didn't open my eyes but felt her touch over my body. And when she went down into her dark trail of thoughts, I felt an instinctive urge to hug her.
I didn't know what happened to her, but I felt like I should hug her, and so I did. She relaxed her tense body when I embraced her. So, it was good that I followed my instincts.
I felt her warmth close to me and felt peace. I decided to indulge myself and stayed like that for half an hour and 'woke up'. Alice also opened her eyes, feeling my movements. I looked at her face close up. Her hair was messy due to morning.
I combed them a little using my hands. My hands trailed downwards, and I caressed her cheek. I didn't know why, but I felt an urge to kiss her, and so I did. I kissed her on the cheek. But somehow, my lips grazed hers a little.
At that moment, my heart skipped a beat. I separated from her, smiled at her and left the room with a composed face. But just as I stepped outside the room, my face started heating up. My heart was accelerating with no intention of slowing down.
I touched my lips with a finger, still feeling the slight touch of Alice's lips. The thought made my heart beat faster. I swiftly moved to the training grounds to train and try to somehow suppress the thoughts from wandering to her lips.
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Alice was still in the room. She was also red-faced like Lucas. But she was dazed. It was Alice that moved her a little when Lucas was going to kiss her cheek. She wanted to know the taste of his lips. And she found out about it.
His lips were not sweet nor sour. They were citrus-flavoured. And she liked citrus the most. She didn't know if her mind was playing tricks on her to make his lips taste as such. Because it was the taste, she liked the most.
But Alice took it as a good omen to follow her heart and make her feelings known to Lucas. She decided that she would do so during their visit to the Lunas.
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It was before noon when Alice and I had finished preparing to leave for Ruvendin. It was the town in which the Lunas lived. It was one of the great cities of the Vangan empire. It was situated in the northern region of the empire.
As it was close to the north of the planet Caligen, the weather was colder than in the capital, Angor. Also, there would be snow present most time of the year. So, both of us were very excited to witness it firsthand.
We planned to walk on foot to the nearest city and then get a beast carriage for the later part of the journey. We used internal energy to run through the forest and reached the nearest town by nightfall. It was a small city.
It didn't have much human traffic during that time, unlike the capital, Angor. We booked ourselves two different rooms. It was my intention to do so. Alice asked why I did so, to which I answered that I would cultivate using the beast core. And so as to not disturb her sleep, having separate rooms was a better option.
But the main reason I didn't mention was that I was very conscious of her after the last 'incident' with her. And to make my fluctuating emotions stable, I wanted some time alone.
Alice was sulky, but my reason satisfied her a little, and she agreed to the arrangement, albeit a little bit reluctantly. We went to our separate rooms. After entering my room, I removed the metal plates on my body. After returning from the sect, I once again started to train the natural physical strength of my body.
Before, I used to carry half a ton of weight on my body with another half-ton boulder. But now I had increased the weight of the metal plates I carried to 1500 kg. After removing everything on my body except my pants, I took out the beast core from my storage ring.
I held the core in my two hands. It was a red glowing orb. If I felt the sensation carefully, I could also feel minute pulsations from the beast core. Pure stellar energy was transmitted from my internal reserves to the core. The energy surrounded the core uniformly and then started to get assimilated into the core.
After the layer of energy was halfway incorporated, I willed my energy to create a suction force. The partially assimilated energy layer started slowly sucking out the essence and energy from the beast core. I started meditating, absorbing the essence and energy present inside the core.
As the spirit beast whose core I was absorbing was living in the Turquoise Realm, where the concentration of stellar energy was very high, the quality of energy was top-notch. The amount of mortal energy inside the core was very minute. I absorbed the core for the whole night and continued till the next afternoon. Alice also avoided entering my room so as to not disturb my cultivation.
By the time I had completely absorbed the energy inside the core, my cultivation had broken through into the 8th stage of River Consolidation. I was already at the peak of the 4th stage, and the abundant pure stellar energy was sufficient for these many breakthroughs. As there was a sudden increment in my cultivation, it would take many months to stabilise and consolidate my strength without any gaps.
I put my clothes on along with the metal weights. I decided to increase the total weight to 2 tons. The metal which was used was given to us siblings by our mother. According to her, this metal was rare and couldn't be found in our Stellar Domain. The density of the metal was very high; thus, even these metal plates were very thin, so they could be easily concealed inside the clothes.
After dressing up, I packed my stuff and knocked on the door of Alice's room. Alice exited her room fully prepared. She looked at me and asked.
"So, what is your cultivation now?"
"8th stage."
She remained stunned at my answer. Then she started raining down her fists on my chest. She didn't exert much strength; even if she did, it would not hurt much as she was only at the 6th stage of River Consolidation. She pouted and said in a sulky voice.
"Now you have left big sister far behind. This is not fair. I am the older sibling. I should be stronger than you. Not the other way around."
I let her release her frustration on me and gently consoled her.
"It is okay. I will not increase my cultivation for many months till I stabilise my strength. Big sis will become stronger than me eventually. You are much more talented than me. And then you can protect me."
Hearing my flattering and fawning words, Alice stopped her fists. She had a bright smile. She nodded her head and said.
"It is good that you know. You just need to be cute, little brother, and I will be strong and protect you."
With our light-hearted banter, much of the awkwardness between us vanished. We exited the inn after asking for directions to the nearest carriage company. After getting the details, we left for our next destination, the carriage company.