He was not happy. Ever since Jacky came back home, his father had been distant toward him. The news had already spread far before he even arrived. It was his father who had sent Jacky adventuring to gain more experience outside. Jacky was his oldest son, after all, the heir of the house Landa. Everyone had high expectations of him, but he came back home as a disappointment.
Every staff member in the family mansion was avoiding him as much as possible, and they looked at him with pitying eyes from the back. Even his brothers were distant toward him. They were probably thinking they now had a chance to be the next family head. Those sly bastards. The last three months in the family mansion were hell for Jacky, but he knew this was not even close to the price he should have paid for his crime. If not for his father and the family reputation he had built over the years, he would have been either executed or in prison for life by now. Like his past companions.
He was summoned by his father for the first time in months. His father's study was as luxurious as he remembered. The room was well lit by the yellow light orbs for his father to read and write without any discomfort. The dear leather couches and the embroidered oak desk were warmly lit by the fireplace on the right-side wall. His father, Edward Sigeberht Landa, was sitting on his chair behind the desk and assessing the story he just heard while Jacky was nervously standing in front of it.
He wanted to hear the whole story from Jacky's mouth, and Jacky told everything that happened before and after the Silver Dragon incident without missing any detail. There was no point in hiding any information. It was an event that was hard to forget, and Jacky had already decided to accept any punishment. His father was silent since and it was making Jacky even more nervous. Then he suddenly talked.
"So, you are saying that you saw the Vandenberg girl with a middle-aged man, and they slew the monster that seriously injured your party." His voice was not as mad as Jacky expected. If he didn't know his father, Jacky could have thought he was excited.
"Actually, she slew the monster alone. The man only gave her some advice and protected us. He even treated some of our wounds." Jacky unintentionally touched his chest. The old wound from that time was still itching from time to time.
"If I remember right, he was the same man who humiliated you in front of a crowd and broke your sword. The sword that I got for you." That was more like him. That sarcastic and disparaging voice of his father.
"Yes, father."
"Moreover, you shamelessly accepted his help and let him go after all he had done to you. Is that how I raised you?"
"I have nothing to say." Silence was the best choice here for Jacky.
His father lost in thought again, made Jacky wait for him to speak. Who knows what he was scheming this time? Their position and reputation in this kingdom were earned and maintained by those schemes. Jacky knew it but never appreciated it.
"Did you know what that Vandenberg girl did last year, Jacky?"
"No, father."
"She ran away from home." His father's eyes were glowing with excitement this time, Jacky was sure. "And you saw her in the Northern region with her lover."
"I don't think so." Lovers? Where did that come from? "He was more like a mentor…"
"Enough! You can leave now; I got what I needed."
Jacky stood where he was for a moment. Was this it? He had expected a lot of scolding and punishment while coming here. He needed to be scolded. He needed to be punished. How could he gain his pride back without redemption? How could he forgive himself?
"Father, about the Dragon incident, I am truly…"
"I said enough!" His father's eyes said it all. He was not interested in how Jacky felt or what he thought about the situation. "I will overlook this 'Dragon incident' of yours because you gave me something valuable. Something to use against those Vandenbergs, one of the King's favorites. Now leave, I have letters to send."
Power. That was what his father was interested in most. Everything was an opportunity to get more power for himself. Was everything just another part of his schemes? How could he be this heartless? How could he treat everyone as his playthings? Even his son.
These were the questions Jacky wanted to ask his father, but he never had the kind of courage to do so. He suppressed his pent-up feelings and left without saying a word.
***
The first lights of the day hit Elise in the eyes. A naked foot was poking her shoulder. She couldn't understand where she was for a moment. She was lying on the ground filled with wild grass, and the voices of various animals reached her ears confusing her. She was not used to it. It had been months since she last woke up to such an environment.
She opened her eyes and looked up. The daylight was filling the dense forest she was in. She never thought she could miss the sunlight. Last night they came through the Gate they used previously and came back to the realm she was born and lived in. She decided to call those things Gates, and according to the Traveler, they had so many names, so it did not matter.
Her eyes slowly got used to the sunlight and she saw an unknown man standing on top of her. She immediately backed off with a flip and took a stance without drawing her sword. She had always slept while hugging it in case of these kinds of situations. Her back hit a tree because she backed off a little too much with her first move. Right, the gravity was lower in this realm.
She looked at the man in front of him and tried to assess the situation, but she recognized him from his strange clothing. It was made of stripes of cloth that seemed to be mixed all together randomly, like layers of rags. Elise saw that stripes of cloth moved around and changed forms a couple of times. It was an interesting equipment she wanted to learn more about but, at that moment she only had one question to ask him.
"What the hell happened to your beard?"
The Traveler had a messy beard ever since they were traveling together, and it was like a thing of him. It was giving him a more mature and experienced appearance, but now a man in his mid to late twenties was looking at her. He was the Traveler, Elise knew that, but the sudden environment change made her mind numb after she woke up. It was not possible to mistake his ever-changing colorful eyes.
"Good morning to you too."
He had his usual joyful smile on his face, but it seemed a little strange to Elise without the beard. She realized she still had her guard on and relaxed her stance.
"Good morning..." She said ashamedly. "And sorry for the extreme reaction. I was just... not expecting it, I guess."
"I thought you were afraid of my face, you hurt my feelings you know." He said with a dramatic tone and a gesture but became himself again shortly after. "I have an apprentice now; I need to look sharp to be a good example. Come on, let's have breakfast and be on our way."
They were heading back to her home. She was not a fan of it, but the Traveler kept insisting that she needed to resolve her past quarrels if she wanted to travel freely. She was heading back home to start her journey without any regrets.
After they had nothing else to do in the past realm, the Traveler caught her by the neck and took a step forward. Before Elise had realized anything they were in front of the cylindric-shaped dark stone. The Gate to the Malargo Forest that they came from. They traveled months' worth of distance in an instant.
When they passed the Gate, she hardly stopped herself from hugging the trees and soft ground of the forest. It was good to be back in a familiar environment. She deeply breathed in the clean air. Even though they were in the deepest parts of it, the Malargo Forest was still much better than that dark and gloomy place.
Last night, Elise had her best sleep in months. The warm fire orb the Traveler created acted like a fireplace and kept her safe from the deadly cold of Malargo Forest. After an eventful awakening, they had breakfast and continued their way. It was the best time to ask some questions in her mind.
"So, you said you just destabilized his core. But, how exactly?"
Elise was still curious about how the Traveler defeated the Demon. The last thing she remembered was a machine glowing with Energy, and the Demon in the middle of it. The Traveler said she passed out because of the high Energy density in the area. He blocked most of it for her, but the remaining Energy was still too much for her body to handle.
They were on their way to the town of Rihona, or at least what remained of it. They were passing through Malargo Forest once again after months. And once again, the forest that was normally full of monsters was empty because of the Traveler. He was leading the way in the dense forest, and Elise was, surprisingly, keeping up with him.
This terrain had its difficulties, but compared to that rough and rocky realm, it was nothing. She never thought the difference in gravity would affect this much. Now that she had come back to her realm again, she was light as a feather. Her movements were more fluid than they had ever been.
"The power he was trying to control was too much to handle for a normal creature. He sure had a well-trained Energy core, and he was also supporting his Energy flow with his skin enchantments. If I wasn't there, he could pull it off with more time. But unfortunately for him, he rushed it and the whole process was hanging by a thread so, I just disturbed it a little."
He was explaining everything so casually, but something was off about him since that fight, and he was trying to cover it up. His behaviors were still the same, but his face was giving it away. It was not about the beard as Elise first thought. From time to time, she caught a dark expression on his face. He seemed troubled and engrossed at these times. When he realized it, he was quickly getting himself together.
"What was that power? How did he get his hands on it?" Every time the Traveler explained something about Energy, more and more questions were popping in her head. That topic was a bottomless pit.
"I didn't have time to take a closer look, but it felt like raw Energy. The one that was all over the place in the whole realm." He raised his right hand in front of Elise while they were walking. Energy started to condense in his palm, he was doing it slowly for her to catch on.
"Usually, the Energy doesn't remain raw for long. It changes the characteristics of its surroundings." The condensed Energy in his palm started to change shape and color rapidly. "Most of those characteristics are already categorized and being closely examined by researchers, but that's an advanced topic even I don't know the exact depth of."
"So, how there was so much of it in that realm?" Elise was watching the demonstration closely. She could see the change but was also trying to feel it with Energy. It was not easy.
"There is only one way to encounter raw Energy. It has to leak from the space between realms." He dismissed the Energy in his hand. "First, I thought it was because of the incompletion of the realm, it isn't that rare to happen. But when we got closer to that machine, I understood the cause."
Space between realms? Every explanation led to another question. She needed to write some of them down at this point. The Traveler continued as she looked for pen and paper in her bags.
"He either opened a Gate of his own or used an already manifested Gate to draw and store raw Energy. In that unstable realm, it shouldn't be that hard."
"Wait! Can anyone just open a Gate like that?" Where was that pen when she needed it? She continued to delve among the bags.
"Of course not. It requires a tremendous amount of Energy to open, and much more to maintain." He stopped walking and pointed out a location in front of them. "Watch carefully."
The Energy started to condense once again in front of them, but it was not like the last time. Elise couldn't understand what exactly was different, it was too complicated for her. There was no change visually, but she could feel it. She felt like the sun was in front of her, without the heat or light.
Then suddenly, the space in front of them got distorted towards the center of it. It was a strange experience. She could see the other side but the air was wrinkled like a piece of cloth. The Energy was rushing out from the center of it.
"This is just a simple crack, made by me." The Traveler continued his lecture. "Can you feel the raw Energy, and how it immediately converts to different varieties of itself?"
Elise focused on doing as he said but as soon as she opened her mind to it a raging headache followed her attempt. She did not expect it to be this chaotic. The Energy was gushing out and colliding wildly with the surroundings, exploding and transforming. She could not keep up with it.
Her focus shattered into pieces. It was too much for her. She unintentionally closed her eyes to not look at it but it had nothing to do with sight. She couldn't gather her focus back to resist the chaotic senses that were rushing into her mind. She almost gave up but before that, the senses faded and then disappeared.
Elise opened her eyes. She was holding her head with two hands. The Traveler was standing in front of her and there was no trace of the space distortion. She needed to catch her breath first but she also had questions.
"Why was it so different than the other realm? You said that was raw Energy too."
The Traveler looked back at the place where the distorted space was. "The realm we visited was also a materialized space like all the other realms. So, the Energy had already adapted to that space. Yes, it was still raw and wild but the Energy tends to resonate with its surroundings."
"This one just now came from a place that is not materialized. It is hard to explain and is harder to understand without feeling it personally but you aren't even close to being ready yet."
He looked at her face and saw her unsatisfied look, then he added. "The Energy tried to materialize but the material also tried to be Energized. That is why all that chaos happened. Is this enough explaining for you?" His voice was filled with sarcasm in that last sentence.
Elise was eager to learn more but decided not to push it and answered him with a nod. She was beginning to figure out the Traveler's behaviors and gestures. When he decided on something, insisting had no use. There was still so much to learn, drawing her in more and more.
"You look fine enough, let's keep going. We are close." He turned back and started to walk. "Don't let it bother you, everything has a time."
That was how he was. If you took your time to work harder, you could overcome everything. Giving up was not an option. She rushed to keep up with him, still eager to learn more.