I know that I've consented to it… but who the fuck puts 20 kilos worth of clothes on their 7 year old brother when they tell them he wants to train?! Like seriously! The explanation she gave me about the training was also so confusing I barely even remember it, I just remember the usage of the word mana being so excessive that it overwhelmed any other words. We've been walking for about half an hour now, and frankly speaking I was destroyed. My muscles were all burning, and If it wasn't for Maia restoring my stamina with magic, I would've dropped dead a few minutes ago already.
"H-how long do we have left…?"
"What, you're tired already? You're not going to get stronger this way, you know?"
"To begin with… I don't even remember why I'm wearing clothes this heavy right now…"
"Weren't you listening when I explained it to you?"
She sighed in disappointment, as if for some mysterious reason she had the right to do so, but quickly followed it by a shorter and easier to understand explanation.
"Your mana stomach is underdeveloped. And your mana pool is too empty. However, the 2 of them work relative to each other, and will always be that way."
"…Meaning?"
"Let's say that your current mana pool is filled to about 10% of its capacity. Not that there's a specific limit to it, but for the sake of the argument let's act like it does have one. By exhausting your body, your mana stomach is forced to produce not only the amount that your pool needs to allow you to use magic or mana manipulation, but it also needs to produce enough for your body to naturally regenerate itself. Your fatigue, and the muscle fibers that get broken whenever you're overworking them. By doing that, at a certain point, your pool should slowly but gradually get some of the remaining mana that your stomach produces but isn't using. And if your pool gets to 11%, your mana stomach will always produce enough to fully achieve that 11%."
How can you talk so much?! She tried to use the word mana less but it still came out confusing… maybe Maia just isn't good at explaining things.
The whole conversation was taking place while walking, and the burden was a lot heavier on me. The small ounce of humanity she had inside of her probably felt that, and stopped walking out of the sudden.
"Let's just take a break for now. The goal is to overstimulate your body and exhaust you, but there's no point to it if you faint and pass out. I can't use earth magic though, so don't expect any chairs. The ground will do."
I don't think I've ever dropped to the ground faster in my life. I didn't even care that it was cold or hard on my ass. At that moment, the ground I was sitting on felt like the most comfortable seat money could buy, and I couldn't have been happier to finally be able to just sit down and relax for a bit.
"You sure love the ground, huh?"
"You idiot… who doesn't?! Mother Nature has given us such a beautiful and comfortable land, who in their right mind wouldn't be joyful at the prospect of sitting on the cold, and hard ground?!"
"Oi, kiddo. Watch your mouth, I can still make your clothes heavier."
"N-no, no! I didn't mean it! Haha, how could I ever call my beautiful, strong and dependable older sister something so vulgar… haha, my apologies, kind lady…"
"Hm, very well! You're forgiven!"
Thank god!!! The weight is distributed enough for me to not be dying from the clothes just being on me, but if they got heavier I wouldn't even be able to stand, let alone walk!!!
"Still though, how much do we have left until we get there anyway?"
Instead of answering right away, Maia reached for her backpack then pulled out a beanie, and walked towards me, putting it on my head.
"It's pretty chilly outside, it's still early after all. We have about an hour and a half left at this pace."
It was definitely a believable thing to say, but I had a gut feeling that there was more to it, so I didn't hold back and just asked right away, to find out if my doubts were accurate or not.
"… is this to cover my hair?"
She gave me a weak smile, which pretty much confirmed it.
"It's just a bit from the top that's white for now after all. Or silver white ? I'm not really an expert of colors, but nonetheless, that's right. I think you're smart enough to realize this on your own, but even though people probably won't start throwing rocks at you, that hair will still give you a hard time for now. It's better to cover it."
"But what about your eyes?"
"The friend I mentioned to you a while back gave me some contacts whenever I would come here, so I didn't have anything to worry about, but I don't plan on hiding them this time. I want you to know, Cael. Just how cruel the people can be, just because of our eyes or hair color."
"Is it to teach me a lesson?"
"No, it's nothing like that. The reason I want you to know the reality is so you can enjoy the change I'll bring to it alongside me. Once I'll become the commander's lieutenant and clear our name, you should remember how badly these people treat us, and enjoy their change in demeanor."
"Talk about petty…"
"Do you think it's a bad thing to be petty about it?"
"…no. I'd probably do the same if our roles were reversed."
"You are my little brother after all, haha. Are you done resting?"
"Yeah, let's keep walking."
Eventually, after about an hour and 50 minutes or so, we had finally gotten close enough to see the town's gate. There were 2 guards at each side of it, and frankly speaking, those guys looked like they would let anyone in as long as they didn't seem too dangerous or suspicious, but honestly they'd probably allow them in anyway. My hopes were getting pretty high while looking at the 2 deadbeats in front of us.
As we were about 100 meters away from them and slowly walking, I glanced over at Maia to see if she was alright, but honestly I don't even know why I did that, since her face was as casual as usual. Maybe I was getting worried for no reason, but I had a bad feeling about it. When we eventually got close enough for them to see us properly, that's when I expected the worst to happen, but they didn't even look at us. Was it going to go smoothly instead? Of course not.
It took them a few seconds, but as soon as they glanced at Maia and saw her bright golden eyes, their jaws dropped, and they quickly stopped us.
"Wait a second, you two."
One of them had stopped Maia specifically, holding on to her shoulder. Maia simply looked back, looking him in the eyes while staying as calm as possible.
"Oh, my… what seems to be the matter?"
"We've seen you a bunch of times already, but what's up with those eyes?"
His voice was full of suspiciousness, but Maia kept her stance while the other guard pulled me away from them, and dragged me a few steps behind.
"I do recall seeing the 2 of you, but I'm not sure what you're talking about… would you believe me if I said these are just colored contacts?"
"No one would be stupid enough to choose that color for their contacts. Come with me."
He pulled her a few meters away, and that's where it all started going south. My heartbeat sped up, and I started getting anxious about the whole situation. The guard that was with her clearly had no good intentions towards her, and I didn't know what to do.
"Kiddo… you may not know yet since you're young, but you shouldn't hang around with someone that has golden eyes. Ever."
don't fuck with me…
The one that was with me, had gotten on one knee to match my eye level, and was talking with genuine concern in his voice. His eyes were the same that someone would have while looking at a poor individual who just got betrayed, and it pissed me off. They didn't know anything about Maia, and they were both assuming that I was some kind of victim here.
"… why?"
"A kid wouldn't understand. But trust me, it's better if you just stop hanging around that girl."
"… why are you… acting like my sister is a bad person when you know nothing about her?!"
After shouting that from the top of my lungs, I took off my beanie, and watched as his face went from concern, to shock, and finally to anger. I threw my beanie in his face, then tried to run towards Maia, but it was useless. The weight was just too much for me to even manage to run a few steps before the guard caught, and held me to keep me immobilized.
"L-let go! I said let go, dammit!"
"It was my mistake. For assuming you were just a poor kid that was being deceived by an Ashford… but to think that you were one of them. What's with that hair? Only part of it is white… What kind of monster are you?"
"Cael!"
Maia had shouted as she noticed what was going on, but she suddenly got a flabbergasted expression, then for some reason looked up in the sky, standing completely still while looking at some clouds.
"I'm not a monster… I'm her little brother!"
I bit off his hand arm, trying recklessly to do anything I could as long as it meant to get closer to Maia, but he quickly grabbed me again, and made sure I had no way of hurting him anymore, as he pinned me down with his arm around my throat, and the other one on my head.
"Damn Ashfords… you're all just dirty pigs that betrayed us all and gave up your very humanity. Siding with the dragon king was the worst mistake you could've made."
"W-we didn't do anythin-"
"Shut up."
He then covered my mouth with one hand, not even allowing me to speak back and try to defend ourselves. In the meantime, his colleague had gotten a disgustingly disturbing grin on his face, while Maia stood still, then he spoke.
"Hey, what do you say? Should we teach him what he and his family deserve?"
The guy that was pinning me down took a second to reply, but then we both noticed what he meant as he made Maia raise her arms and stay still in order to get "searched for any weapons". My blood started boiling, and I tried to scream, but it was all futile. My struggles to get up only further fed their desire for entertainment, and they weren't going to stop.
no, no, no, no! Stop it, stop it, stop it! Don't touch her! … if only I didn't have these stupidly heavy clothes on… if only I was stronger…
The guard started searching for weapons on body, starting from her arms, and slowly going down… towards her chest. I struggled as hard as I could, tears were streaming down my face as I tried to get up, but it was all in vain. His hands were almost reaching for her chest, and at that moment I felt as if my world had come to a stop. But not in a negative way. At that moment, in a split second I had noticed that there was a very dim light coming from Maia's hands, and in that same moment… I felt it. The weight of my clothes was reduced to normal, but that wasn't all. My body was also enhanced. At that moment, without wasting a single instant, I freed myself from the guard pinning me down, pushing him off me, then ran as fast as I could at the moment and punched the guard that was touching Maia, sending him on the ground.
"Don't… touch my sister, you dirty pigs."
My moment of glory didn't last long however, because the next instant, the rush of power I had gained was already gone. And my clothes were back to their previous weight, sending me straight on my knees. And to make everything worse, I heard it. From behind me, the sound of someone running towards me. I turned around, and I saw the guard I pushed off earlier, as he was about to strike me with his sword. I closed my eyes, ready to catch the slash, happy that at the very least, I had stopped Maia from getting groped, and waiting for the worst.
"W-wha-"
What was that? Seeing that I didn't get cut whatsoever, and the sound clearly came from the guard that was about to attack me, I was fairly confused, but then as I slowly opened my eyes, I remembered once again… that I had nothing to worry about.
"I've allowed you to do whatever, as I didn't want to cause a scene. But if you touch my brother ever again, I'll burn your bodies until not even your ashes are left."
Maia had caught his blade in between 2 of her fingers, then casually snapped it in half. Then she threw the severed half in her hand towards the clouds she was looking at earlier, putting up another show. The one that I had punched earlier was still on the ground, and Maia helped me get up. She brushed off any dust I had on me, then ruffled my hair a bit before taking me by the hand and walking past the guards, and towards the gate.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Do you think it's a bad thing to be petty about it?"
"…no. I'd probably do the same if our roles were reversed."
"wuahh, talk about pettiness!"
A voice suddenly exclaimed, but it wasn't out loud.
mana communication, huh?
"I did say you could watch, but do you need to also partake in the conversation…?"
"Of course I do. Though I can only do it with you. Can you imagine how awkward it would be if I just watched you from above without a word?! I'd just seem like a stalker at that point!"
"Wait, you're not one??"
It took her a good few seconds to reply, and she definitely seemed annoyed from her tone. Serves her right, for interrupting my conversation with my dear little brother.
"quit it. I'll kill you."
"Alright, alright. Well, I don't think Cael will be able to talk much until we get there anyway, so let's kill some time talking until then. We're about to go anyway."
And so me and Cael went on our way, while we kept talking, mostly about small things. Nothing really worth mentioning. Eventually, we got close enough to the gate to see the guards, and I could feel Cael looking at me, probably out of concern. Seriously, he's just painfully considerate. Even though he knew I could just blow this whole town up, he was still worried on my behalf.
"Wait a second, you two."
One of the guards grabbed me by my shoulder and stopped us from walking, and while I didn't want the hands of a pig like that on me, I couldn't cause any trouble yet.
"Oh, my… what seems to be the matter?"
"We've seen you a bunch of times already, but what's up with those eyes?"
"Well, that's surprising. Didn't expect them to remember your face."
"I would've preferred it if they didn't honestly."
The other guard then took Cael a few steps aside, while I kept trying to not make a scene.
"I do recall seeing the 2 of you, but I'm not sure what you're talking about… would you believe me if I said these are just colored contacts?"
"Maia… were you always this bad at making up excuses?"
"Shut it."
"No one would be stupid enough to choose that color for their contacts. Come with me."
"See, he's not buying a single bit of it… you could've said something like "they were always like this" and he would've looked like an idiot or something, but no! They're colored contact… yeah…"
While she rambled about it, rubbing salt on the wound for some reason, Cael and the other guard seemed to be talking about something, but I couldn't really hear them.
"… why are you… acting like my sister is a bad person when you know nothing about her?!"
But I definitely heard him shout that from the top of his lungs. I turned around, and that idiot had also thrown his beanie in the guards face, trying to run towards me. I was touched, and I really wanted to just hug him, but at the same time he kinda just threw away my efforts at not causing a scene, didn't he? But nonetheless, none of that mattered, because soon afterwards, the guard actually managed to get up quickly enough and held him down, immobilizing him, and my blood started boiling.
"L-let go! I said let go, dammit!"
Cael shouted at him, but he obviously wasn't going to listen. However, there was still a chance we could have solved the whole matter peacefully, so I reluctantly watched for the moment.
"It was my mistake. For assuming you were just a poor kid that was being deceived by an Ashford… but to think that you were one of them. What's with that hair? Only part of it is white… What kind of monster are you?"
But that was my breaking point. I wasn't going to stand and watch as they treated him as a monster.
"Cael!"
I shouted, trying to reassure him that I would take care of it, but to my terror, I was stopped. Not by either of the guards however.
"Don't, Maia."
I looked at the sky towards the cloud she was hiding in, astonished that she out of all people was telling me to stop.
"Explain yourself. What do you mean by that?!"
"Move another finger and I'll personally come down and deal with you. Just stay still, and comply with anything they say. I cannot allow you to cause any problems, and we need the 2 of them alive at the court later."
"But-"
"Maia."
"I'm not a monster… I'm her little brother!"
I'm sorry Cael. It must've been extremely painful for you. Seeing me seemingly give up, while you couldn't do anything about it. But I understand her point. At the end of the day, she was right. Even if you managed to escape, even if just for a second, I was happy that you were trying so hard for me, but also extremely pained by the fact that I couldn't help you.
"Damn Ashfords… you're all just dirty pigs that betrayed us all and gave up your very humanity. Siding with the dragon king was the worst mistake you could've made."
"I think I know where this is going… Maia, comply. And at my signal, make a dim light appear at the extremities of your hands. Trust me. I'm sorry for the rough treatment, but this is for the best."
I didn't reply to her, but I kept it in mind, watching as Cael struggled, but unable to help him.
"W-we didn't do anythin-"
"Shut up."
"Hey, what do you say? Should we teach him what he and his family deserve?"
"So this… is where this is going."
"I'm sorry. But-"
"Alright, Alright. I know this is hard for you to watch too. And you're right. We'll need them alive and well. Don't apologize anymore"
I lifted my arms in a T shape, and allowed him to start touching me, as he started with my arms, slowly going down, but I wasn't scared, nor worried anymore. I had also realized what she had in mind, after all.
"Now!"
His hands were on my armpits, but I immediately did what I was told to as soon as the signal was given to me, and as I thought. Cael noticed the light, and then she had reduced the weight of his clothes, alongside temporarily enhancing his body. The light from my hand wasn't just to make it seem like I did it, but it was also a signal for Cael himself.
Before the guard could move his fingers on my body any further, Cael freed himself and immediately rushed towards me, punching him and knocking him out cleanly with one punch.
"Don't… touch my sister, you dirty pigs."
"I reversed the weight of his clothes and stopped enhancing his body. The rest is up to you."
"Got it."
Cael quickly fell on his knees, and the guard he brushed off himself earlier was sprinting towards him with a sword in his hands. Do they not have any shame? Trying to genuinely strike a kid just because of his hair color… but it didn't matter. He closed his eyes, probably thinking that he was going to actually get hit, but I quickly stepped in front of him, and caught his blade in between 2 of my fingers.
"W-wha-"
"I've allowed you to do whatever, as I didn't want to cause a scene. But if you touch my brother ever again, I'll burn your bodies until not even your ashes are left."
"You better not Dodge this. I'll take 3 of your fingers for this."
"Want me to spread my fingers so you can have a cleaner shot?"
"No need."
I threw the snapped up blade towards the clouds she was hiding in, and of course… I did not miss my shot.
"Are you happy now?"
"I'm as joyful as they get."
She didn't say anything else for the time being, and I just took Cael by the hand, and we walked past the guards and inside the town… but as we walked a few meters in, I took notice of something, or I guess someone I didn't expect to see. She was leaning against a pole, as if waiting for us.
"Oh, Maia!!"
She waved her hand as she quickly walked towards us, with her straight blonde hair waving around, and her blue eyes glowing with the sun's raylight on them.
Cael looked at me confused for a second as she approached, asking who she was.
"Remember that friend I mentioned a while back? That's her…"
Well, kind of at least. Due to her perfect control over surrounding and her own body's mana, she could also change her appearance at will. Of course, her fingers were already regenerated too. With her new changed look, she came down from the sky.
"What the hell is going on?!"
"Did you really think I'd miss this chance to spend some time with him? Did you get dumber or something, Maia?"
We smiled at each other as Cael introduced himself, and she was quick enough to get all over him. Playing with his cheeks as she got on his same eye level, which had my sweet little brother blush. It was absolutely a sight I was grateful to see, but I didn't think she'd actually participate in our day… After playing with his face for a few moments, she finally backed down, and introduced herself to him.
"I'm so glad to finally meet you. Maia always talks about her cute little brother, so I couldn't wait to finally meet you."
"R-right…"
"It's nice to meet you, Cael. My name is… Luna."