章 60: Ch 60: A Place of his Own
"I thought you said there was nothing between you and that saintess you're sponsoring?" Levanya said.
"What? There isn't. I'm only sponsoring her because it's good for the trade company." Baldeur replied.
"Really then why are you looking to get a place for the two of you?" His mother asked.
"Where did you get that?" Badleur said.
"It's just very convenient that you are sponsoring a beautiful woman for immigration and wanting to move out."
"Zeerous will be handling her accommodations. I just want a place of my own. I want to be a little more independent."
"And a woman has nothing to do with it?"
Baldeur paused for a moment, "Not a specific one but I would like to date at some point and bringing a girl back to my parents place isn't ideal."
"You don't need to be dating, you're only 18."
"I'll be 19 soon and it's not like I plan to marry or settle down. I just want to meet people and date casually."
"Well good because you're still too young to be thinking of those kinds of things. Your father and I were in our 30s when we met and didn't get married and have you until we were in our 40s. You have centuries of life ahead of you. Moving out doesn't have to happen so suddenly."
"Baldeur what your mother is trying to say is that don't feel like you have to grow up quickly. We're your parents and we love having you with us." Vivek chimed in.
Since his father knew of his past lives, Baldeur was able to understand the undertones in the way he spoke. He reached his hands across the table and took their hands in his.
"You will always be my parents. The ones who raised me and helped make me the man I am today." He made sure to look into his father's eyes as he stressed the last part.
"And it's not like I want to immigrate through a gate. I'll just be a couple streets over. I can still stop in for dinner. I mean I'm not much of a cook so, mother, I'll have to rely on you for sustenance. I just want a little more independence."
"Is it Arisha? I know you two have been close since childhood but you don't have to rush into living together." Levanya said.
"It's not Arisha." Baldeur said in a flat tone.
His father had to hold back his chuckle. He saw their interactions at Zeerous and knew Baldeur found the girl a bit scary. He also knew his wife had wanted to see them end up together since the day they met.
"Maybe it's that Aisling you went through training with. You did just have a life and death mission with her. Son, those types of feelings can be temporary. You can't start living with every girl that you almost die with." She said.
"I swear there isn't any woman that I intend to start living with. I will be alone." Baldeur said.
"I know it can't be Renie, she's not interested in you."
"What do you mean she's not interested in me?"
"Well she just sees you as a little brother."
"How do you know that?" In his heart Baldeur feared that was the case and his dreams of dating the bunny-kin were dead before they began.
"Ulmira and I talk from time to time."
"Well I'll have you know…." Baldeur stopped as his indignation had caused his mother to start to chuckle.
He realized that at some point his mother had started to tease him about the different women in his life.
Once her game was over, she got up and went to hug her son.
"Oh honey, I'm sure you'll be fine on your own but you'll always be my little boy. Even though I think it is too early, I'll support you whenever you go in life."
"Thanks mom."
After Baldeur left the room, Vivek turned to his wife.
"I think we need to tell him about how we met and about our families." Vivek said.
"He doesn't need to know any of that. We aren't involved with them anymore." Levanya replied.
"You know they know where we are and everything about our children. He has three Sources. My family might not care about him since he doesn't have Qi, but your family will surely come to recruit him in the future."
"Oh so it's just my family that's going to cause us trouble."
"For Baldeur and Ilanka, yes. Once the other three come of age, I'm sure my family will try to get them to join their sect. Both our families care about their Sources. It's why they were against us getting married.
"But since all our children have multiple Sources, they will come for them eventually and if we can't prepare them, they could end up as pawns in some game of theirs."
"They haven't cared up until now even when I reached out to them when you… I just don't see them caring." She knew her argument was weak but she didn't want to admit something she feared deep in her heart.
"Baldeur is a prodigy just like us. He's third circle in Mana, third choir in Divinus, and has two aspects in Anodular. How could they not want him for their games?"
"He's just in the lower third, he can't possibly be useful to them. He'll soon hit the barrier of progression all of us hit and it will be decades before he'll be able to progress to the middle thirds."
"We were both around his age when we hit that same barrier and it didn't take that long for us to overcome it. And we only have one Source each."
Sources like Mana, Qi, Divinus, and Infernius that have nine defined levels were divided into three areas. The lower third was not too difficult to progress through with a barrier of difficulty to reach the fourth level. The middle third was more difficult to progress through with each breakthrough being nearly twice as hard.
Most were unable to get past the fourth or fifth level.
The true challenge was breaking through to the upper third. The difficulty of each of those breakthroughs was enormous compared to earlier breakthroughs.
Based on their speed of breakthroughs, both Vivek and Levanya had a good chance of entering the upper third. It would take them a long time but they would live for centuries. Since their children seemed to be progressing at a rate similar to theirs, they had no doubt that they would also be able to reach the upper limits of their Sources given enough time.
Levanya sat in silence for a few moments, "You're right. I just don't want to be involved with them. But we need to be prepared."
Unfortunately, their families were already making their moves.
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The following day while the younger children were in school, Levanya accompanied Baldeur to the district housing authority.
While people could sell directly to each other, most sales of property would go through the district offices. The only entity that could rent property to others was also the district housing authority. It was a revenue stream for the Dukes along with being a way to control crime and homelessness.
The two of them met with an agent that went over their options. When he mentioned wanting to stay close to his parents home, Baldeur learned they lived in the second best area in the district and that was out of his price range.
The best part of the district were independent homes with their own yards. Since there weren't too many of them, they were beyond expensive. The large townhouses that his family currently lived in were more abundant but also the most sought after. There were very few available and were slightly out of his price range.
In a few years he might be able to afford it.
He could afford a smaller townhouse but they were further away from his family than he liked. In the end he went for a three bedroom apartment not too far from his parents.
Since the city buildings didn't decay or need general maintenance there weren't any sections of the city that were considered poor or run down. The only undesirable areas were close to the mist since it ebbed and flowed the areas didn't have consistent amounts of Source energy.
The evening his family had a celebration dinner for the new purchase. His siblings alternated from being excited for their brother and upset that he was leaving them.
He had to make a bunch of promises of gifts and sleepovers to calm them down.
The next few days he and his family went to various stores to purchase furniture and other household items. Baldeur didn't have much of an opinion on decorations and only stepped in a few times to keep his mother and Ilanka from going too overboard with their vision of his apartment.
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