Chapitre 37: The Coming of Age Ceremony

The few days Eden spent before Athis' coming-of-age ceremony passed at a very high speed.

Athis stayed in the room assigned to him by his mother when he came with Eden. He didn't leave this room, and even seeing the servants coming for delivering food to him made him uncomfortable.

In addition, the fact that Eden only kept him company during the evenings made things all the more complicated. He had to stay alone all day. There was practically nothing he could do in this room that seemed so small, but at the same time so big.

Finally, there was nothing he could do but think about the things Eden had told him the first day when he had finally to woke up.

'What should I do? I want to stay with him, but is it a good thing for him? Aren't I selfish to want to remain friends with him when I have nothing to offer?' It was this kind of thing that Athis was thinking about while he was alone.

On the other side, Eden had a bunch of things to do, and he managed to accomplish more or less all of them.

The first thing he did when he let Athis sleep after he had spoken with him was to find Aether's contact information.

He suspected something when he saw the behavior that Athis had with the members of his family that a few things were not going well, and he needed answers.

Eden then tried to ask Karaine, Rosalyne, the guards, or even the servants, but everyone seemed to be sewing mouth. Even Christian didn't tell him anything about it.

So he decided to take Aether's number, which he obtained through the Empress, to ask him what Athis had, and above all, why he behaved like this.

At first, seeing that Eden had contacted him, Aether was overjoyed, only to be disappointed by his friend's requests. Aether wanted to spend some quality time with Eden, but the latter had more important priorities than caring for his childish behavior.

So Aether told him everything that had happened. Everything from his childhood to now.

Athis' father who was different from that of Christian and Aether was only a commoner, while those of his brothers were respectively a nobleman and a merchant with great influence.

Athis' father, whose name was Shöto, was at first completely with Karaine. The two of them made Athis after only a few crazy dates.

They were both very happy. A child was a good omen after all, until the day Karaine learned that Shöto had cheated on her with another woman.

That day, the latter died, leaving Karaine who was 8 and a half months pregnant alone to take care of the future Athis. However, after she saw Shöto deceive her, she also wanted to kill the bastard's son who was in her womb.

Unfortunately for her, the moment she wanted to do it, Athis came into the world. After that day, Athis was abandoned by his mother, then by his mother's subjects who followed her in her every step.

He grew up in fear of the next day, in fear of not having food on his plate, or in the fear of being tortured by his brothers who beat him until his last breath, before healing him, to repeat the process once again.

The two princes didn't know why they were doing it, but it gave them pleasure, so it was a sufficient factor for them.

Things got even more complicated when Athis received his class at the age of 16. On Hydrel, all those who were not of the first generation of elected were granted a class at the age of 16 by the system. The class that was attributed was often related to those of their parents. This class was also subsequently influenced by the parent with the most value in the 'eyes' of the system.

Christian obtained for example the power of his mother's, the control over time, but only the offensive side, while Aether obtained the support side. Athis however obtained the class of his father, that is to say, the summoner.

This class was off-records in every single library or forum, and after seeing the uselessness of it, coupled with Athis' cowardliness, his harassment had only worsened.

Hearing the story of Athis, Eden wanted to set fire to the royal palace, but he calmed down quickly when he saw that protections were placed everywhere, in any corner of the palace.

"Can you tell me what changes does a status brings to an individual? Surely you were not stupid enough to judge a person with this, right? I'm sure if he was the son of a nobleman, no one would have touched him." Eden asked Aether in an annoyed tone.

"Things are not that simple, Eden. No matter what kingdom they reside in, every person must obey the rules of those who protect them. Here, in this case, my mother protects the kingdom, so each person who lives there must live according to these statuses." Aether replied proud of himself.

'It disgusts me. All these things they inflicted on him just for a simple rank? Just for a simple cheating?' Eden thought after calming down once again.

After talking with Aether for a while, the two men went their own way once again. Aether still had a lot of work to do, and he had abandoned it when Eden had called him.

The second thing Eden absolutely needed to do was to find a cure for his mana channel problem. Just thinking about it made him nauseous, and if he didn't want to end up useless, he had to find one.

Unfortunately for him, he found absolutely nothing about it. Nor did he want to ask the Empress for fear that his debt would only increase. And then, he was sure that he would find something at the academy. Surely they would have a giant library with a lot of books on these subjects right?

Thus, Athis' coming-of-age ceremony came very quickly. The latter was both grandiose and devoted to emotions. It looked like a book written by an amateur. It was certainly grandiose since it had been made by talented people, but there were no emotions inside as if it were to show the feelings that the royal family felt towards Athis.

The ceremony took place without any major events. But even though it was Athis' birthday, no one was interested in him. People only had eyes for Christian, Aether and finally Eden towards the end of the evening.

Their behavior made Eden angry to no end, but he remained passive throughout the evening, with the most beautiful of his business smiles.

After the ceremony, and after seeing all the attention he received because of his race, Eden decided to use his connection with Karaine to ask her for something that could hide his race, and those, even inside the academy.

He could certainly predict that the academy would have protections against this, so that's why he asked the Empress to get him one. He suspected that those he had seen in the virtual markets through his watch would not be enough to pass the protections of an academy where all continents sent their children. The academy couldn't let this kind of thing pass, and it did everything in its power to avoid a dire situation.

Karaine then gave him a small silver ring with a tiny diamond on top.

After inspecting it, and hearing Karaine's explication about the ring to input his mark in the magical object, Eden left her and went to spend his last days before going to the academy with Athis. He didn't know if they'll be together again once there, so he wanted to enjoy some time with his best friend as much as possible before it was too late.

And above all, the most important thing, since they had to leave the next day very early, Athis had to give him his answer.

Eden hoped that what Athis was going to tell him would be what he expected with all his heart. Unfortunately, Lady Luck is a cruel mistress, and this last one likes to leave when she was needed the most.

So Eden arrived at the door of their room before the sun could even set completely. Taking a deep breath, Eden knocked on the door

"Athis is Eden, can I come inside?" He asked in an angelic voice.

"Of course, it's our room, not only mine," Athis answered from the other side of the door.

Upon entering, Eden could see Athis lying on his bed, with his pajamas already on. He was lying down and was looking in the opposite direction to Eden.

Seeing his back, Eden sighed. He was not afraid of what Athis might say to him, but he would be very sad if he told him that he wanted to cut ties with him.

"*Siiigh*, Athis, I think we have to talk," Eden Said after a long sigh, before sitting on Athis' bed who still had his back turned.

"Yeah, we need to talk"