Capítulo 66: Chapter 66 - Strange Thoughts
[Letty Wunter POV]
"I hope you understood today's things well! Because this will fall into a 'surprise' test!" Said my Professor for Elemental Gimmicks II.
"But Professor! If it's a surprise, why are you telling us about this?" Battione said, being super confused.
"Because I said that the test existed, but not when it will be done! It could be either tomorrow or a month from now. That's the surprise!" she said with a sadistic laugh and soon we all walked out of our class.
It was 3 pm, it would take another three hours for us to have our class with Professor Luz. But during that same time, neither I nor Battione had any other classes, this was our free time between classes. As we went to the cafeteria to get something to eat, I could clearly see my friend having saliva in his mouth just thinking about food.
"My god, why are we paired up?" I mentally asked myself.
Our sextet consisted of: two humans, me and Battione; a dwarf, Burkit; and three alacryans, Kai, Denver, and Alexyo. Kai works alone, as he is a DC Officer, Batt and I are a duo, Denver and Burkit are another duo, and finally Alexyo, who was just a girl on her own, for being incredibly aggressive within our group.
Arriving at the cafeteria, we ended up unintentionally coming across our Professor, sitting at a table near the outside exit of the place. Apparently he had free time at the moment and had a red haired girl next to him. They seemed to chat a lot while they had cupcakes on their trays.
Battione went to get something to eat as I approached them. "Professor Luz, I didn't expect to see you around here. How was your weekend?" strangely I felt uncomfortable when he looked directly into my eyes, but it wasn't an ordinary discomfort, it was one that made me think it was better to get away from there.
"Oh?... Letty! Good to see you here too. And yes, my weekend was amazing, thanks for the question. What are you doing here?" he asked me, while the red haired girl looked confused at me.
"Oh. Claire! This is Letty Wunter, one of my students from my Advanced Learn Runes class, she's very studious. And Letty, this is Claire Bladeheart, the captain of the disciplinary committee which is where Kai and I are working." he said, as I sat down next to her.
"It's a pleasure to meet more people who work with Kai, he's a great friend of mine." I said looking around, hoping the Battione would come soon.
"I see, Kai is a little weird sometimes, but he really is a different person when you get to know him well." She said, causing me to giggle lightly.
"Little does she know... Really, he's been doing a great job." I thought, but then looked to my Professor to answer his question. "And going back to what you asked, Battione and I are out of classes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 3pm until 6pm, which is when your class starts."
"Got it. Good to know... So is Battione here too?..." He asked vaguely as I pointed to my colleague who was heading towards us with a tray full of food.
"And I thought Sylvie and Elijah had food problems." Luz commented, causing Claire to start chuckling non-stop as I got confused.
"Sylvie and Elijah? Uh.. who are they?" I asked.
"Elijah also works on the disciplinary committee and Sylvie is my brother's mana beast. They both eat a lot, my God." He answered me as he saw the battione sitting next to us.
"Hear that, Batti? They compared you to a hungry mana beast." I said as I saw my colleague eating a large piece of meat, which was his 'snack'.
"And are they wrong?" He answered me, causing all of us to burst into laughter.
Anyway, we chatted a little longer there with them, until the girl named Claire said she had a problem to solve and walked away from us. The feeling of unease returned, and now it was telling me to run away or beg to be safe. But where did that feeling come from? Why was I feeling this? I really couldn't understand my current situation.
"Are you okay, Letty?" Professor Luz asked me, apparently I was looking kind of weird.
"I'm fine, I think... I'm just... I can't explain it. I think I trained too much yesterday and it's just now the tiredness is coming." I answered him and then looked at his tray, he hadn't even touched that cupcake he and Claire were eating earlier.
My body was getting strangely weak for no reason, as my vision at the edges went dark, I could only focus on what was directly in front of me. I put a hand on my head, and closed my eyes, I wasn't feeling any pain, just dizziness.
"I don't think you're doing that well, Letty. How about we go to my classroom right now? Today I want you to really show me everything you know. Because that silly little fight we had was extremely stupid in my opinion." I heard my Teacher's voice saying that next to me.
But what was he talking about? What fight do we have? Did we fight him?
My head finally started to ache just trying to think about these things, it hurt so much that I was biting my lips to hold myself back and not scream in pain. It was as if my mind was begging me with all its might not to think about these things, while punishing me with more pain and dizziness. I slowly accepted that and decided to take a deep breath and think about other things so I could not feel this pain anymore.
When I opened my eyes, I saw myself already standing and walking beside Professor Luz and Battione. "But how? Was I walking around without even noticing? How was that possible?" I thought, but then I felt again that sharp pain that seemed to prevent me from thinking about these questions. It was much stronger than before, making me almost fall to my knees on the floor, but Luz ended up holding me by my right arm, making me stay on my feet.
"Thanks... I don't know what's going on... This is so weird... Could it be... Am I really more tired than I expected myself?" I spoke quietly, and it seemed like he could hear me perfectly.
"You're just trying to fight something you don't understand. So take a deep breath and don't overthink it. Okay?" He said, as he helped me walk to his classroom.
Arriving at the laboratory, it appeared to have been arranged to be used in the best possible way. With all the tables and other items leaning against the walls, leaving a big space in the center of the classroom. He guided me to one of the chairs and helped me to a sitting position, giving me a slight, gentle smile as he started to walk away and write a few things on the chalkboard.
I looked around for a bit, my eyesight still poor, and I could see Battione sitting in a chair on the other side of the room, he seemed to be behaving kind of...different? With his legs together, and hands resting on top of his own lap, he was still staring at what Professor Luz was writing. So I decided to also look in that direction and see what he was doing.
On the chalkboard, I saw my name and those of my teammates, but I was surprised when I noticed the way he spelled our names. He was making a kind of form, where the first column had our names and in the first line he had written some characteristics, like "strength", "agility", "reliability" and things in that parameter, leaving me wide-eyed when he wrote "spellrunes".
"How did he know that? This is a class to learn runes in an advanced way. What does a form like that have to do with the class? What is he planning?" I ended up thinking again about questions about what was happening and my head hurt again, as if my subconscious was screaming and begging me not to do this.
"Ah! What's going on?!" I screamed, my body being thrown to the floor as my hands were tightly gripping my brown hair.
Luz quickly turned to me and gave a smile that didn't seem to be from someone so friendly and companionable, as the reports said. It was an incredibly sadistic smile, with one of his pupils glowing yellow, while the other was still cyan, but something was different, the cyan in his right eye, it looked like a great abyss in the middle of the ocean.
All of that made me act impulsively, lifting my hand towards him and shooting a gravity pulse. My attack seemed to affect objects around him, but it didn't affect him. Realizing what I'd done, I quickly tried to get up, but I couldn't.
"I-I'm sorry! I-I don't know what's happening to me. My body feels weird, I didn't mean to attack you, I just did it without thinking! I-I'm sorry!" I don't know why, but talking like that seemed right to me.
"Relax... Calm down and take a deep breath." He said and I did, for some reason this seemed to be working way more than it should.
"That's right, take a deep breath and calm down, okay?" He was now kneeling in front of me, gently holding one of my hands for me to get up, I don't know why, but this time I managed to get up with his help.
"Okay... Thank you... Professor Luz...?" I said, finding it strange to call him that for some reason.
"What's it?" He said, helping me to sit in my chair.
"No big deal... Professor...?"
"Oh. Maybe you're uncomfortable with something? Maybe because I'm a younger boy than you helping you so much?" he gave a soft laugh, for some reason this was music to my ears and it calms me down, until slowly, everything goes dark.
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[3rd Person POV]
"It's no big deal, it's because it's strange that I call you Professor, you're much more than that, Master Luz." The human girl said, now with a simple smile, and with her pupils showing that she was trapped in deep thoughts.
"Oh. I understand what you mean." Luz said as he simply created a blade of wind and cut his own wrist, bringing the cut area closer to his student's face. "I think your mind tried to fight my dominance. You can have a drink to make yourself feel better."
The girl gently held Luz's hand and drank from his blood, which was tainted with corruption thanks to Zalgnity. After a few seconds, he took a bandage and put it on the wound itself, while the girl slowly wiped her mouth stained with corrupt blood.
"She seems to be pretty strong mentally to have started to resist after a week, don't you think?" Zalgnity spoke, but only in the boy's mind, with him appearing as if he were a hologram, again, only Luz saw him.
"If that were the case, Alexyo and Kai would have gotten out of our control as well, but no, they haven't shown any signs of resisting so far." Luz said openly, since there was only him and the corrupted slaves in the lab.
"Maybe it's related to mana core? After all, Zalgnity's power works here like a pseudo beast will." Sirius was the one who spoke now, like the demon, the boy of Vritra blood appeared in the room as if he were a ghost that only Luz sees and hears.
"This might have something to do with it, after all my power of corruption worked to kind of brainwash them, but not to the point where we could literally enter their minds. Which means my power isn't at its maximum, due to our mana core being at a 'low level'." Zalgnity commented.
"This also makes sense when we think about how Soul Speed and Soul Strength spells are working. The maximum potency of these spells is increasing exponentially compared to the evolution of 'our' mana core." Luz added that comment and the three agreed.
"But if so... Well, Letty is a Light Orange. We have this mana core in the Light Yellow Stage... Wait a minute Zalgnity, when did you get access to this skill?" the Vritra boy asked, sitting atop the lab's main table.
"Well, it's an old, classic power of mine, but I felt like I could do that kind of spell in this world, when we hit the... Solid Yellow Stage." The demon said slowly, finally realizing what was happening. "So Letty just held on a little because of our current mana core level. That is, when we reach the Initial Silver Stage, we will be able to control people on the Orange Stage 100% without problem."
"Maybe even more. Don't forget, the potency of our abilities is exponential, but it doesn't follow the same level of evolution of a mana core." Sirius spoke, making the three of them agree on one more detail regarding this.
"And by the way. What about that plan? From what happened yesterday, you changed a few things." The vritra said, and the demon was confused. "What change of plans?"
"Yesterday, I took advantage of the fact that it was Sunday and went to have a conversation with Cynthia so that she would be aware. In a few months, I will infiltrate the group of these spies and traitors. But before that, I want to improve even more in my power. So I asked to her too, if I could make school trips to an already discovered dungeon that has several traces of ruins and runes." Luz was talking as he walked to the chalkboard.
"So this written form is going to be for you to analyze the best of these controllers. To use them in these 'school trips'? But why? You alone are enough!" the Demon exclaimed as he tried to hit the chalkboard, but his hand went through.
"Because I also want them to be strong. After all, they are the first in 'our cult'. Being the first, they have to show that they are powerful to the people who join later." Luz smirked.
"Argh... Is this for real? A crazy reason like that?" The Vritra boy sighed.
"Not only that, we still need to test some things in relation to them." Luz said as he looked at Zalg, who soon realized what he meant.
"Oh! That's right! It's been over 40 lives since we used this corruption control ability, we don't know if absolute corruption is active as a passive consequence or not! Ohoho! Good job already finding a way to test this, kid!" The demon said proudly.
"Absolute corruption? Passive consequence?" Sirius looked at the two of them, confused.
"It's just that when we did that, there were high chances of our infected becoming half monsters. That's why most people from the public groups we had, joined us on the basis of faith or fear, and never because of mind control." the demon and the reincarnated said at the same time in sync, something that made Sirius send a complete shiver down his spine.
"Never, ever talk at the same time again, this is bizarre... To say the least... But then... Are you planning on training in the deep areas of Beast Gladers, with your little group of 3 alacryans and 3 traitors of Dicathen. Just to look for more corrupted mana beasts and to see if with heavy training, your little group turns into monsters? Is that it or am I missing some detail?"
"Well, there's also the part of us infiltrating their group so we're well aware of the situations, but yes, what you said is the preparation part of the plan." The elder boy said as he picked up a scroll.
"Okay, we already have 2 people from that group here. What about the other 4?" Sirius asked looking at the two traitorous humans who were sitting there and smiling sympathetically as they stared off into space.
"When they arrive I'll put them in a trance too. Today they'll be on stand-by. That way people think I taught them, they'll think they had a class when they left here, and I use the free time to fix little problems I've noticed in my project!" The hero said putting the scroll on the table, it was the hoverboard project.
"What's this project for? Remind me." Sirius said massaging his temples as he approached the table again.
"As you said before... You are from a continent that seems to be invading ours. In other words, it would be amazing to invent a means of transport so that elite mages can move quickly from one place to another, if there is no access to a teleport portal or if they are not on the white stage." Luz smirked again.
"Okay. What about your other inventions?" Sirius asked.
"Still in the trial period, relax~"
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Timeskip, current period: 2nd month of school year, end of first week.
[Kathyln Glayder POV]
Today I had no training with my mentor and I had already done all my school activities for the week, so I was now sitting on my bed, hugging my Luz life-size plush. This plush was so soft that I could never let go of it, with my head always resting on the doll.
"Hm..." I could hear someone knocking on my bedroom door, making me get out of bed, without letting go of my plush, I went towards the door and spoke without opening it. "Hello, what do you want now?"
"It's me! I was wondering if you'd want to do anything today. I'm planning on cooking up some treats that will last all week." The voice I heard was angelic to my ears and made me smile, which even though it was simple, would make my brother confused as to how I gained so much facial expression.
"I'll have nothing today, so I can join you." I said holding my voice so I didn't sound too excited and opened the door.
In front of me was the man of my dreams, he was wearing the pants of the men's uniform of the disciplinary committee, wearing a dark blue tank top and seemed to have several colored bracelets on both arms. His hair was styled as usual, with a part covering his right eye. Yes, those cyan eyes that looked like a beautiful ocean with unexplored depths, but for some reason, they widened a little.
"Uh... Kathy?" he asked, showing confusion.
"Yes, any problem?" I said with my calm, neutral expression.
"What plush is this?" He pointed to the life-size plush of a version of him when he was 9, that is, when I met him and he saved me.
My entire face got incredibly hot as I tossed the doll onto my bed, walked out of the room and locked the door. "What plush are you talking about?"
"...." He stared at me for a while and then faced the door. "Forget it. Let's go to the committee kitchen, I had already finished getting the ingredients."
He and I walked to the kitchen on the floor we were on. It was an average kitchen, simple and with a large central space, enough for three people to be using this place at the same time, without any problems. On top of one of the counters there was a box of eggs, flour and other ingredients that I couldn't say what they are, because they are in pots with no name indicating.
"So what are you planning to do?" I said watching all that.
"I'm thinking of making a cream cake with a little strawberry in it. What do you think of that?"
"I loved." He laughed at me when I answered him, I was confused, but then he grabbed a rag and wiped my chin. Apparently I started drooling just thinking about the candy, without realizing it.
So I went to help him get some bowls and so we started to prepare the food. Most of the time, I was just watching the things he did, Luz seemed to use wind spells to mix the ingredients and beat the eggs, while he was cutting the strawberries with his own hands, using a kitchen knife.
I was slightly impressed by the level of coordination of using spells in a space like this. And he did it so well that it looked like the spell was actually someone else.
"I said I want to help..." My cheeks plumped up and I was pouting as he looked at me, he gave a defeated sigh and deactivated the magic.
"Then beat the yolks and the whites of the eggs. They have to be well mixed together, but for now keep these things well separated." He said as he gave me a fork to do this. I looked confused, as I expected that I would need a spoon for this, but he immediately replied "With a fork is better. I learned it after many experiences in the kitchen."
"Ooh... So he's the one who cooks at the Helstea house?" I thought, looking at the bowl and started to do what he asked.
It didn't take long and two more people appeared in the kitchen, they were Claire and Arthur. The committee captain stared at the strawberries Luz was slicing, while the other vice captain held her by the arm. But I could see them extremely confused when they saw me helping in the kitchen.
"Apparently princesses are allowed in the kitchen. I thought that you had maids for this." Arthur said, and in response to that sentence, Claire punched him in the stomach, using no mana, even if she wanted to say the samething, it was rude to say at least.
"Can we remember that you date a princess?" When she said that, Luz started laughing and Arthur had his face completely red.
"D-don't talk like that. Because Tess completely follows elven customs, if I ask her out on a date, it will actually be a proposal as well." When Art said that, Luz laughed harder.
"So you mean you just didn't ask her out on a date because would that lead straight to marriage?" The owner of those beautiful cyan eyes said as he finished cutting the strawberries.
"There's also that other reason, man." Art said that and soon his brother dropped everything he had in his hands, approached him and slapped him hard on the cheek, turning his face to the side. Claire and I were wide-eyed at what we'd just seen.
"You're Arthur Leywin! Got it?! Stop thinking about that bullshit! No matter the fucking situation, live your life! Isn't that what you promised Sylvia about?!" He stopped talking a little, heaving a sigh, looked at me and Claire, and then went back to talking to his brother. "You're not just a commoner. You've literally lived with Tessia for 3-4 years, you're the first real friend she had as a child. Even Grandpa Virion clearly knows that the two of you have feelings for each other. If you really love her, and it's not just a mess in your head, go out there and ask her out on a date or something."
"Hm.....? Who's Sylvia? The name Virion.. Obviously it's Princess Tessia's grandfather. But that other name I've never heard... Wait a minute, it sounds like Arthur's bond name... isn't it?" I thought, still silent.
It took a few seconds for Arthur to say something "But what if she doesn't love me back?"
"Man, you guys are literally the most obvious love affair between noble and commoner I've ever seen." Luz said, causing Arthur to chuckle lightly.
Art went to a drawer to get a jar of cookies, and then tried to change the subject. "Anyway, do you want help over there?"
"No. I'm fine... How about you Claire? What are you doing here in the kitchen?" Luz said looking at our captain.
"I was just following Arthur while we were talking. No big deal." The redhead said, for some reason her cheeks were red.
"I see. And what was the conversation about?"
"She wanted to know how I unlocked my deviant forms. I told her it was best to see this with you, as you are both fire/wind duo-elementals." Arthur replied, eating some cookies to calm down from their conversation.
"Okay, we'll see about that later. Now if you'll excuse us, Kathy and I are working on some stuff."
"Hm.. Can I help?" Claire said, approaching Luz, but why did I feel my face getting hot?
"Of course you can. Help Kathyln finish mixing the ingredients." He said to her as he handed her the plate of sliced strawberries.
Arthur waved and walked out of the kitchen, leaving just the three of us there. As expected, Claire and I worked together while Luz helped us out at times, wanting to see what we were like in the kitchen. Having Claire's help at that moment was better, as my mind began to fill with confusing questions.
Luz said all that to Arthur, but maybe I should take that advice too? I adore him so much, and I want him to know in every word how much I love him. But I don't know where to start... Maybe ask him on a date? But where could we go? I wanted something really expensive to show that it's worth every gold coin I own, but we can't go to that fancy restaurant, I want something different, and going somewhere we've been in the past month would be irritating.
Maybe go see a play? Or walk around the square? But if so, we would have to leave the protected area of Xyrus Academy. And I can only leave here with my parents' permission... That is, I would have to tell one of them about it to do something on this level! Argh! Wait... Maybe telling them I want to go out with a group is a great idea. And after that, just lie saying that most refused at the last minute. That! I will do that!!!
"Hey, now let's get everything in this tray here." I snapped out of my thoughts when I saw him with a rectangular tray. His hands were smeared with flour and the pan was also the same so the cake wouldn't stick to it as it heats up. I looked at the ingredients and noticed that while I was stuck in my own mind, our captain had put chocolate and milk in the mix.
Claire and I lift the bowl and pour things into it, but we realize we've done too much. So Luz took a tall, circular pan, causing us to pour the rest of the cake batter into it. We left the pans on the countertop.
"So, let's fill that fire crystal with mana....?" I asked, after all the oven in the kitchen we were in was working with the use of a fire elemental crystal.
"There's only room for one loaf pan in there. Then I'll heat the other pan myself. Claire, you can put the circular pan in the oven." He said, as he took the rectangular pan and started to use fire magic, it seemed to create small spheres of fire in his palms, which slowly heat up the pan he was carrying.
Claire did as requested and took the other pan to the oven, I helped her open the compartment and took the fire crystal out for her to fill. As she was a fire mage, the crystal lit up very quickly and she put it in the compartment below.
While we waited, we sat on chairs, and the cyan-eyed boy continued to heat what he had in his hands. We talked a little about our school week. Luz said that he had a very irritating period due to some events that happened in the basic classes he taught, while the advanced class was actually much better behaved.
I commented a little on how my classes were going, most were related to very basic things that Claire had obviously been through, but Luz never needed to have a class, when I mentioned the class Arthur taught for me and Feyrith, I could see him giving a I sigh deeply, for those methods were the same as the two of them use in their common workouts. In Claire's turn, she commented on what she said to Art before, regarding her wanting to find out if she can use deviant form and that's why she's planning to take classes on this same topic, in the same class as Theodore.
To my surprise, Luz commented that he could feel that she had an affinity for deviant form, but that she just couldn't quite work it out. That way, he promised that he would help her when he had time.
Still waiting for the cakes to be ready, I finally plucked up the courage to speak. "Luz... You are a person who always helps others... I would like to reward you in some way... Would you like to... Go out with me to a place in Xyrus City?"
He looked at me with a strange smile, as I noticed also a strange look coming from Claire. "I don't see anything wrong with that. It'll even be nice for me to buy some things we don't have at the Downtown Academy." he replied and then looked at Claire, approaching her, he whispered something to her that left her with a smile on her face.
"Um...? What...?" I thought, I was extremely confused about this.
He looked at me, with a calm smile and noticing my confusion. "Relax. We talked about it that day. By the way, when do you want to do this?"
"Next weekend. I don't want to interfere with your teaching commitments, and I have nothing scheduled for the day. Besides, I have to ask my parents in advance to do this." I said, a slight smile on my face.
"Great. I accept the idea, luckily, even though Reynolds and Alice are my adoptive parents, they put me in my own care. I mean, I can get out of here whenever I want, so you better tell your parents that you're going to go shopping and will have some powerful colleagues as bodyguards."
"That way I won't have royal guards on my tail. Great idea." I commented on what he said.
Soon I heard my brother's voice approaching, and when he saw us, he gave a cry of surprise. "WHAT THE FUCK?!?!"
"Huh? Did something happen?" I asked, confused.
"I've never seen you smiling wide! And why are you holding a knife like that!?! It even scared me!!!" My brother said, making me realize, I was wearing a smile that would make my parents think something strange was going on, and soon look at my right hand, this whole time I was with a knife and didn't notice it.
Status de energia semanal
-- Ranking de
Poder 
-- Pedra de
Poder