'Is this amount of clothing really necessary for you?'
Max said as he pushed a cart full of ridiculously priced clothing.
"Yes, I do!"
Then she began to dash around the store.
The shop was enormous, decorated with a wide range of extravagant items, and had red and yellow walls, to match royalty royalty. He stood out like a sore thumb here and it was nothing like the second-hand store Max usually shopped at.
Then Max realizes that Airis led him to the man's aile.
'Why are we in this place?'
"Oh, just buying you some clothes."
Max let out a sigh.
'I'm satisfied with the ones I have, I don't need some fancy clothes, I'm getting by just fine with these.'
"I understand, but if my friends saw you like this at my party, they'd laugh at you, which I don't want."
'Like I would care what some spoiled nine year olds think out of me.'
"Come on, brother!"
Max felt slightly embarrassed when he heard her call him brother.
'Fine, just choose a few clothes and that's it.'
She ended up choosing more than a few.
Max regretted his decision as he pushed three carts around. Returning home he gave the clothes to the maids. Then he fell flat on the bed.
'Man, I really don't like this noble stuff. Im exhausted, maybe I can get some sleep before dinner.'
Just as he said that Airis burst into the building.
"Brother, I forgot my earring at the store, we need to go back."
'Great.'
He muttered.
...
'So, where did you last see it?'
"I'm not sure."
She laughed, but Max didn't.
They spent two hours looking for that damn earring. Finally, they found it in Airis' pocket.
Max complained as he walked back home, and Airis laughed at him. But then she paused and collapsed.
'Huh?'
Max quickly approached her and shook her to wake her up, but it didn't work, she was pale. She must have collapsed due to exhaustion. He summoned some maids to take her home.
But he didn't join them because he still needed to buy a sword.
Except that they didn't sell swords here, so he had to walk around the city at night looking for a store that sold weapons.
'It shouldn't be so hard.'
...
It was midnight, and he still hadn't found a store selling weapons, he'd have to ask a maid or something tomorrow.
Then he heard a scream, he rushed to investigate. He noticed a man with bright red hair like the hottest fire and brown eyes. He wore leather and was quite tall.
But none of that mattered, what did was that he was choking an innocent woman.
'Hey, let her go.'
The man turned to Max.
"Ah, it's you, child, you see this woman and her buddies attack me, so I was just giving her a lesson."
'Huh? What do you mean It's me? And why are you speaking as if we knew each other?'
"Let's just say, a buddy of mine knows you."
Max, still a little puzzled, decided to drop the subject.
'Alright, I believe she learned her lesson, let her go.'
"Who is going to make me? You?"
'Seems like I have to.'
Wait, why was he working so hard to defend this woman? He didn't know her at all and was creating himself problems. Damn you Arthur and your influence!
He then charged at him with his wooden sword, upon sighting the weapon, the man chuckled, not even attempting to dodge. But just as it was going to hit, Max flung his sword and smacked him in the face, knocking him back a little.
"Damn, smartass."
He then summoned fire.
Max used BL on his feet to accelerate and began evading the fires, he could tell they were powerful since they burnt his face when he came close to them. But he was swift enough to throw several hits while avoiding.
But he was slowing down and becoming exhausted, BL was a powerful drive, but it was also highly demanding. Finally, the fatigue hit him, he was hit by a fire.
It scorched his shoulder, Max tried to put it out, but it kept burning. Wait an eternal flame? Only demons possessed this particular flame.
A flame that will only burn out when its owner wishes. However, the only way to gain this ability was to sign a contract., but the guy appeared to have control over his body.
Realizing his circumstances. Max felt it was time to go for it, there was no way he could win. Surprisingly, the guy let him leave.
"He did mention you were a scardy cat, don't worry, I'll put out the flame."
Home Max took a first aid kit and healed his wound, then went to bed. Thinking over his questions, he came to a realization. Yes, it made sense! This man and the strange note guy were working together.
A family camping trip sounds exciting, right?
A few days passed since the shopping trip, and Airi's birthday was just two days away.
Max was eating lunch when Arthur came up with an idea.
"When I was younger, my family and I would visit this waterfall and camp nearby. I think we should do that today, it would be refreshing."
At first, it didn't seem like a bad idea to Max. He would always camp outside when he was part of the Rose family.
"What a fantastic idea, honey. "What do you think, Airis?"
"Yes!"
Then everything was settled.
...
Walking through the forest was a struggle since summer had just begun, and there were so many mosquitoes. Max, with blood type zero negative, had it worse than the rest. Fortunately, the waterfall was nearby, so they arrived quickly.
He had to admit that the waterfall did seem phenomenal. The blue water dropping on the rocks produced a soothing sound, but Max knew it would become annoying over time. With time. Arthur put up the tent.
Tent was not the appropriate term to use. It was gigantic, nearly three meters tall and five meters long and wide.
However, it needed big enough to fit the huge Arthur. It was about double Max's height, so he had plenty of space.
The most enthusiastic person had to be Airis, it's obvious that the noble child had never gone out in nature like this before. Max didn't find it intriguing. And the truly horrible waterfall noise was already becoming annoying, and unfortunately, none of them had a sound drive.
"Hey Max come with me for a bit."
'Huh, why? Im tired.'
"Just do as I say."
Max grumbled.
...
He was guided inside the forest.
'So what is.'
"You have potential, and I hate to see it go to waste. So il train you."
He threw Max's wooden sword at him. Then he got himself one.
Max smiled, at least he would be bored to death.
He used BL on his feet and launched an attack, but he sensed something was off, something is always off when your opponent does not try to dodge your strike. As the sword was ready to strike, a stone pillar stopped it.
Max backed up and attempted some more attacks, but they were prevented by the pillars. Max's exhaustion was setting in, but he tried one more attack.
Arthur sighed and conjured another pillar, not expecting to be pulled to the ground. And because of his confusion and lack of focus, he was unable to block Max's next blow.
He chuckled.
"Looks like you hit me."
Max fell to the ground.
'Yeah, but I'm so tired.'
"You truly did great, I didn't expect you to hit me, this training was just for me to see how long you could use your drive, your soul capacity."
'Soul capacity?'
"Yes soul capacity, your soul seemed to be pretty big for your age."
'Im still pretty confused.'
"When you go in your soul what do you see? Exactly your drive. Every time you use your drive it uses some from your soul, that's soul capacity."
'What happens if your soul capacity is small?'
"Most of the time you would be able to use your drive for a small amount of time, and if your drive to powerful for your soul, you would be unable to use it at all."
Ah, so the damn dragon was right after all. So Max was born with a drive, his soul was just too weak. He laughed, at least it was better than his powers coming out of nowhere.
'Is there a way to use your drive even tho your soul capacity is running low?'
"You can also use outside sources."
Netami told him about this, the whole water example. But would he have to wait for a thunderstorm or something to use this method, and what about dark matter?
"Let's go back."
Max spent the rest of his day playing with Airis. He had to say he had begun to really like this girl, he didn't want to admit it but if she were to ask him to be her friend again he definitely would accept. But he didn't want to wait for her to ask.
'Hey, Airis... are we friends?'
"Huh, oh no of course not."
'I see...'
Max's face darkened a bit, of course, why did he even think there was a chance that they would be friends?
"You are my brother, not my friend."
Max was dumbfounded and pretty embarrassed, but on the inside, he was also really happy. She reminded him a lot of Isabelle.
At night they spent time eating some smores. Tomorrow Max had plans, he had to get a gift for Airis.
Sleeping in the tent wasn't so bad if it wasn't for that damn waterfall.
Max noticed that everyone else was still sleeping, so he went outside and stretched to ensure that his mind was fully awake. Sleep was not ideal, but it was also not horrible. It reminded him of the time he spent sleeping on the hill. Max tried to wake up Arthur when he returned to the tent, after all, he didn't want to break his possibly decade-long run of not oversleeping.
But he wouldn't, it appeared that the large bear was hibernating, he then attempted to wake Raina, but she, too, refused to wake up.
'Weird.'
But Max suspected something was seriously wrong when Airis too, refused to wake up. He took a closer look at them. They were pale, and the wrinkles on their parents' faces had increased. Even Airis was different.
Max summoned some maids to come get them.
Back home Max thought about what was wrong.
"You still haven't realized."
'Huh, who are you?'
"It's me dumbass."
Max chuckled, the dragon hadn't talked in so long that he had forgotten his voice.
'What do you mean still haven't realized? Realize what exactly?'
"Everything that's happening."
Max was truly confused, he didn't realize what the dragon was saying.
'But everything is just fine.'
"Life energy is the outlawed power that the person you observed performing that ritual had obtained. It permits him to get stronger by stealing people's life energy, essentially taking their lives away.
Max's face plummeted, he was so caught up in this whole family thing that he didn't even try to figure it out. How could he have been so careless? He had let his guard down.
'What can I do now.'
"You have to kill him, that's the only way you can save them."
That was all he needed to say; Max used BL on his feet, but considerably more than normal. He stormed out of the house and into the city, sprinting through every gap, but he found nothing.
But he got an idea. He went to the place where he had first found the man. And he was right, but he wasn't alone, the fire guy was with him.
"Looks like you finally realized kid. I hav-"
The next second he was brought to the ground, he didn't know by what. Max then used his dark matter on his sword.
Only the fireman was astonished to see the ancient drive, the other knew for some reason. Max stabbed the man's arm, causing it to bleed, but then he caught fire, it appears he had to fight both rather than just one.
Max exited the building for more space, and the men followed while attacking him.
He was able to dodge the majority of them with the help of BL, but some still hit him.
He extended his hand and conjured a spike beneath the guys, who managed to evade but were dragged to the ground by a liquid arm.
With this opening, Max stabbed one of them, causing him to scream. He was winning but also burning. But he couldn't cry over it, as another fire was approaching. He dodged and attempted to penetrate the man but was knocked back by the wind.
A wind drive? But who had it?
'It doesn't matter. I can still win.'
As he spoke those words, he collapsed, he had overused his drives, and his soul couldn't take it.
...
As Max woke up the sun was rising, he had failed, and there was no way with how vulnerable he was at the moment to win. He went back to the house. There his family looked even worse than before. He stood there for some time. Until it was almost midnight.
He went and stayed near Airis, what he didn't expect to happen was for her to talk.
"Brother is that you."
'Yes, it is!'
"I hope you got something nice for my birthday."
Two minutes were left until midnight.
"I want you to have this."
She handed him her black earring that caused him so much trouble when they went shopping.
'Why?'
"It was my grandma, she gave it to me before she died, and now it's my turn to give it away before my death."
'Don't say that! You're going to live!'
One more minute before midnight.
"But it is the truth. That's fate."
'If it is fate, il break fate. You won't die!'
"You know I love you, brother."
'Damn it'
The clock hit midnight.
"Happy birthday to me."
She said while tears flowed from her eyes.
'Happy birthday...'
Looking at her cry made his heartbreak.
"You know brother, I don't want to die!"
She said while wiping her tears.
"I want to grow up and become a noblewoman, just like Mom. I want to get a husband and have a child to love."
'You won't I promise!'
"You know, I'm happy it's you who is here, at least I won't die alone."
She kept trying to wipe her tears off but they continued to come.
"Max, please, live your life for the both of us."
She said as her hand fell on the ground and her eyes lost their color.