The moment Arian set his gaze on those sunny orbs, his anger instantly melted away. Kaidyn, on the other hand, seemed downright furious.
"Ari, what the hell are you doing?!"
"Eh?" Ari?
"It's dangerous in the forest!"
"Ehhh?" Dangerous?
He seemed so infuriated that he didn't even notice the drooling panther creeping up from behind. Arian casually sent a raging blue flame towards the sneaky creature and it burned to a crisp with a loud yelp.
Kaidyn whipped around, his gaze vigilant, but his stance relaxed upon seeing the smoldering carcass.
"See? It's fine. I went in specifically for the purpose of a monster massacre." He gave him a bright smile, his clear blue eyes crinkling into crescents.
"Hahhh… Monster massacre?" Kaidyn pinched the bridge of his nose. "Fine, then let me come along."
After he said that, he acted like it was already decided and walked ahead. Despite not even agreeing, the retreating figure kept Arian drawn and he followed behind with a low chuckle.
He jogged up to him and spoke confidently. "So you remember?" His gaze peeked at the man's face, mesmerized by how different it was from before.
His straight, long lashes cast a shadow over his shining, golden eyes. His eyebrows were defined and his raven black hair was swept to the side in volumes, accentuating his face shape and contrasting his light colored skin.
Arian could feel his ears turn hot as he tried to nonchalantly return his gaze to the scenery ahead. Kaidyn discreetly focused on the man beside him, holding back a small smile tugging at his lips as he observed the red tinged ears.
"Yeah…" He breathed. His eyes turned a bit distant.
Even though Arian was already confident that it was him, his heart jumped at the confirmation. His chest was filled with a nervous exhileration as the leaves crunched beneath his feet.
Desperate to maintain this peaceful moment, Arian secretly killed all the surrounding monsters, obliterating the "innocent" creatures easily. They walked along the path in silence, but it was strangely comfortable even with the large gap of time between their last meetings.
Taking in a shaky breath, Arian broke the silence between them. "What have you been doing… all this time?"
"Hmmm." Kaidyn gave a thoughtful hum, before replying. "I had to take the throne." A short, but relatively sufficient answer.
When he didn't continue, Arian thought that was it, but Kaidyn seemed to think that he should say more so he opened his mouth again, his voice a bit soft. "I couldn't say goodbye because the palace was in chaos at the time. I'm sorry it took so long…"
"Oh! Hahaha… No it's fine." Arian shook his head, trying to convey that he didn't need to apologize, but his nose stung against his will. A few tears welled up in his eyes.
Kaidyn paused upon sensing the crack in his voice, quickly facing him and leaning down to eye level. He held a small frown as he observed the salty drops escaping Arian's eyes.
"S-sorry. I dunno why I'm crying, haha…" He gave a weary smile while quickly wiping away his tears, a little embarrassed. That only made Kaidyn's frown deepen before he brought his hands to wipe his tear stained face.
His fingers, coarse from using a sword often, were oddly soothing and their warmth lingered on Arian's face even after they left.
"Ah… Um…" Arian didn't know what to say.
***
A few hours before…
Kaidyn stared at the scene, his gaze unreadable as a peculiar feeling bloomed inside his chest. He watched the flowing figure race across the sky, savoring the laughter that rang in the air.
He had missed that laugh, though it was bit more mature than the melodies of their teenage days, it still captivated him just the same.
The man swung around in the wind, flipping and falling before being caught once again by a net of air, until he slowly twirled and drifted down. As the figure descended to the ground, the tousled white hair and serene face looked like it belonged to an angel, lowering itself from the heavens to grace the earth with its presence.
Kaidyn's breath hitched as he witnessed Arian's pure and bright smile, his soul energy lingering in the air. It smelled like vanilla, warming his heart with a hint of drowsiness.
People who were born in or reached the higher realm had the ability to sense soul energy in a unique way: through scent. Kaidyn's scent was sandalwood, his assistant's was orange, and his mother's was lavender. Everyone had a distinct scent.
In the lower realm, the higher realm was a big mystery, only unconfirmed rumors served as small snippets of what might be in that magical place all soul warriors reached for. Its existence was a firm fact, but anything beyond that was widely unknown since few people from above could traverse to the lower realm of their own accord.
Subsequently, no one knew of seemingly trivial details like the fragrance of soul energy. Such things could easily be looked over. But even the more significant aspects were misinterpreted. For example, people without soul manifestations.
In the lower realm, if you didn't manifest a soul by the age of 18, you would inevitably be executed, but contrary to what the people of the lower realm believed, lacking a soul manifestation was actually something to be desired.
Manifesting the soul not only puts a strain on the soul vessel, accelerating its deterioration, but also limits the usage of the soul energy. The soul vessel has the tendency to pour all of the available soul energy into the manifestation, leaving no flexibility for the utilization of the soul energy's purest form. But when there is no such manifestation to speak of, soul energy can be freely manipulated and it is much more potent at that.
Essentially, Arian had incredible potential compared to people with a soul manifestation. The only problem was there was no clear criteria for ascending to the higher realm, leading people to believe that these individuals were deficient and worthless.
At that, Kaidyn was once again reminded of his goal: to bring Arian up to the higher realm with him.
***
Despite confirming their past, Arian didn't notice much of a change. They would meet in the woods and walk beneath the tree canopies, both(Arian) talking about various things. But apart from that, daily life was more or less the same as before.
Arian would gather herbs, frantically curate the batches so as to meet the quota, and then sleep. A droning routine with a small period of laughter in between.
And Kaidyn would go god knows where to do god knows what. Arian had no idea what he was doing all day, but even though he was curious, he refrained from asking, afraid to be a bother.
***
"These people… Do they take me for a fool? Leonard, tell me, am I being too soft…?" Kaidyn sat in front of a desk, his eyes squeezed shut in frustration. He turned his head to his assistant, asking him with a probing gaze.
"Your highness, with all due respect, you have always been soft…" Leonard spoke bluntly as he looked up at his superior with a cool expression.
"As straightforward as always… You know I'm not soft. He… he rubbed off of me… I have to be careful so that he doesn't reprimand me…" Despite his serious tone, Kaidyn felt like smiling as he thought back to his childhood.
"Ari, why are you crying?" A teenage version of Kaidyn approached a tearful Arian with a pained expression.
When the white haired youth didn't answer, only sobbing harder, Kaidyn clicked his tongue in disdain. It wasn't for Arian. No, it was for the people who made him cry. His hands clenched into fists, but he oddly maintained a genuine and gentle tone as he spoke.
"Tell me who it is. I'll take care of them."
At those words, Arian stopped crying abruptly.
He looked up at Kaidyn with red eyes and a flushed face, looking rather pitiful, but his tone was firm and clear, if not a bit hoarse. "Don't say such things. It's not good, nor is it necessary for such action."
This was a common occurrence and like the immature teenage boy Kaidyn was, it took him a long while to learn and adjust to the morals of the person he cherished. The only person he cherished…
Now it had become a subconscious habit to be "excessively" merciful when Arian was involved in any way. It was something ingrained in Kaidyn and also something he didn't intend to get rid of.
But the situation called for a crack down. These ignorant nobles were trying to court, not their children, but their deaths. Kaidyn was far past tired as he ran left and right to accommodate to these nobles.
Frustratingly enough, he needed their permission to take Arian to the higher realms. Kaidyn found it utterly incomprehensible that the future king of the higher realm had to gain the allowance of the lower realm's soul priest.
That's right, future king. Kaidyn's position was secure, but he hadn't fully embraced the role of king since his father had yet to step down.
In all honesty, the higher realm's ruling system was incredibly unorthodox.
The first three offspring of the royal family would rule their own respective regions and the king would rule over them. Then, when the king was deemed to have surpassed a certain threshold by the inheritance artifact, all of the possible candidates would ruthlessly compete for the throne.
The decision of inheritance was entirely placed on a sentient artifact from their ancestors, and it's decision for the inheritance was law.
The candidates would all compete for the throne through three aspects: strength, strategy, and morals, undergoing numerous tests across multiple years.
In the end, Kaidyn had claimed the throne and now he just had to wait for the artifact to announce his full aquisition of it.
Of course, right now he had less authority than his public position conveyed and lashing out was out of the question if he didn't want to incur his father's wrath.
Still, he had gained the resolve to be a bit stricter, reasoning with himself that Arian would understand.
Once he decided, the heavy atmosphere lifted subtly. "Call the king." Kaidyn waved Leonard away with a sigh.
"Yes, Your Highness."
After his assistant left, Kaidyn sunk into his thoughts, his heart fluttering as Arian came to mind.
When they were walking that day, he was fully aware of the disappearing presences, fading one by one like candles being blown out. He knew it was Arian who had done it, and Kaidyn only interpreted it one way: he didn't want to be interrupted.
If that really was the case… It made Kaidyn's heart race in anticipation. He tried hard to suppress both the desires and the doting he felt when around him, but it wasn't very efficient if he were to tell the truth.
He was such an important person to him. It was hard to look away from both his beauty and his personality.
Everything coming from Arian felt like gold, something to be treasured.
He had noticed everything, scouring every detail and etching it into his mind, eager to commit this person's every beautiful gesture to memory.
He had seen the cute, red ears. Felt the soft skin grazing against him. Heard the emotions in that mesmerizing voice. Smelled the comforting vanilla wafting through the air. He had sensed it all, and each moment made him feel like he was on cloud nine.
He wanted to see him every second of every day, hoping to grasp that hand and never let go. Everything about him was perfect no matter which angle Kaidyn looked from. It was freeing and suffocating at the same time, these emotions. But he'd never trade them for a single thing. That man was his solace.