6 A fruit and a cube

"He was just tired from the burst of source power earlier. I'm surprised it only took effect just as we got back in."

Three also dropped down to her knees and her bottom plomped on the floor after relaxing a bit.

"Young miss!"

"I'm alright, just resting."

"I was quite surprised that your movement spell was that fast."

"It wasn't me, it was actually him."

Having a puzzled look, Sorn looked at the boy that fainted.

"Surely, no source spirit? How? From just yesterday..."

***

Meanwhile back at Borollo quarters, a blinking golden light instantly appeared above the skies where the grandmaster's office was located. Seeing there were still two golden circles of light glowing and attempting to resist the sinister red light, he heaved a relieved sigh and made a hand gesture towards below.

After a few chants, small golden sparkles of light could be seen erupting from his fingertips, and transformed into birds that moved erratically and attacked the red light. Golden light flashed again and the guy was nowhere to be found, only to appear again below and in front of the grandmaster within a few seconds.

Dorother's father erected a barrier around them, not including the white-robed woman. After that he sent out a few waves of golden light that flew directly towards her, but each one of those waves were easily brushed off like dust.

Few seconds later, around ten Vates cloaked in black robes also came which was led by two people. Reinforcements came, and the woman started to hesitate whether she should stay or kill the Grandmaster.

"That was quite fast. I only needed a few books here and there, but your brother won't budge and tell me where they're located," the woman looked unaffected by Dorother's father appearing, and she just twirled her hand and the red clothing she held became white and disappeared in a blur.

"You're quite confident, and bold to just attack in the middle of the day, are you?" Dorother's father's eyes flickered with a glint, which held quite the murderous glare. Yet there was a slight hesitation if one would keenly observe him.

"Seeing as your source power had an increase in quality, that's quite the news. If you had been as yourself a few years ago, I'd have ravaged this place already. Unfortunately..." the woman let out a flicker of her wrist, sending out an old yellow parchment with strange characters, black flames enveloped her along with the red mist and disappeared, as if nothing happened. The site of battle though, almost destroyed everything within fifty meters.

The roof was gone, the walls almost razed to the ground, pieces of wood scattered...

Later on, the people that disappeared from the school came from outside, confused and some of them panicking.

The Borollo higher ups let out news that there would be no classes for a week, and instead had volunteers clean and vacate the surrounding area.

All of the Vates were sent to patrol at various places in the city, making the people anxious. Luckily no other invasions had occurred in the meantime, but news of what happened still circulated.

Near the west outskirts of the city, inside a mansion, a boy was drawing a few diagrams, crumpling a lot of them one after the other, and a girl on her side kept watch as if looking at a pet.

***

"If it weren't for dad telling us to stay at home, I would've just went to the market and checked out new clothing. Why is the Vates attire black anyway?"

Right now I'm just trying to replicate what I did the other day when I calculated Three's movement spell. I thought I would try it again, but I can't figure it out now. Maybe it was just the adrenaline in my body and some sort of luck that I happened to do that within thirty seconds. Right now let alone a minute, I can't even understand this thing even if I tried again and again.

My nose would probably bleed first before I would be able to do that again.

"Hey. I'm bored, let's go out. Let the spells rest for a bit and maybe they'll let you understand them."

"Do spells have to rest?" I asked with widened eyes.

Three laughed for a while before stopping with a cough and almost choked, before she said that it was just a joke.

I thought I stumbled upon some good discovery there but it turned out to be some kind of folly.

But what if that wasn't the case?

"It's just a joke, just a joke, I'm bored I'm bored I'm bored~!"

Three continued to sing for a bit before Sorn went in and brought us some snacks and that weird tea.

Later on, Three stopped pestering me and invited me to their library just so she can get me to go outside the room.

The day went on as I read and hadn't realized that night already came and Sorn called us for dinner.

I asked Sorn if there were any books that contained about other languages but told me that he couldn't read. A few moments later, Dorother's father also came in from a spark of golden light from the distance. That speed sure is convenient, I thought. I was only about to have my seat but then I greeted him politely instead.

"So it's the boy my brother keeps on talking about!"

I suddenly felt heavy pressure once again and I kept standing. Why do these people keep flaunting their strength like a showcase? I can't blame them for trying to test me out for truth though. I swear one day...

"Good! Very good! No wonder he spoke so highly of you! Give him one of our Origin Fruits."

Someone banged the tables after the sentence. I saw Sorn slowly walking out the dining room by the side. "But I want one! You won't give me even if I asked!" Three said after gulping her juice, wiped her mouth, then pouted and stood on her chair.

She really doesn't seem to be a spoiled young princess, and more of an ordinary girl growing up. Crazy enough, to know she was able to do such level of magic and with a bright mind to boot. The thought of her being given special medicine to be this powerful though...

Her ranting continued as I sat and started to eat instead, then I saw Sorn going back with a box on his hand, and brought it near my plate. Only after that did Three piped down and stared at the box, then towards me, and pouted fervently. The box had a few mathematical engravings on it. It... looks like a school project from my high school days. Three's dad then prompted me to open it.

What layed inside is a blue translucent cube where its core glowed faintly. It was as small as half a finger. Everything in this thing speaks of magic. Should I just eat it or slice it first? How do you even consume this thing?

I touched its edges and find it soft and a bit rubbery. Is this really a fruit?

Seeing my confusion, Three's dad chuckled and just continued to watch as if he was a bystander. Three was also silently giggling on the sides. My reaction was probably phenomenal, if not unexpected.

Is this a prank?

Oh well, it seems nothing bad would happen if I swallowed this thing directly.

I threw it in my mouth, and these guys' faces were of shock, and Dorother even ran and lifted me up. She grabbed the back of my neck and as if wanting me to vomit, brought me up and held my feet; shaking me up and down with strength not of a seven year olds'.

"Let me...!"

As if some higher being wanted me to suffer more, her dad then proceeded to replace the daughter. His hands bigger than my head gave a vicegrip on my legs, my whole body outline glowed with a golden barrier, his wrists flickered along with me, and just for a second though, I felt my innards almost shift for a bit, as if a passenger bus I was riding in crashed on a wall. It wasn't painful, but it gave me quite a fright!

I did not even had time to get dizzy from the sheer speed my whole body moved and only saw everything blur!

Was that supposed to be something that can force your food out from the mouth?

Her dad turned me upside down and slowly put me on my feet.

If my mom saw what happened, would she have slapped these people for doing that to me?

"Ehem... We were quite obnoxious back there."

The atmostphere became gloomy, and no one said a word.

"It seems I've swallowed something else different from the Origin Fruit, " I said while scratching my head.

"To be precise, it was containing the fruit itself. Never did I imagine that this would happen. We'd like to have a doctor check up on you just to be sure that it hasn't blocked anything nor harmed your insides. Sorn?"

"Yes, master."

Harm my insides? You shook my insides!

Sorn left, and the father-daughter combo had sweat on their foreheads.

...

Three laughed a bit later instead, and broke the silence.

Her dad led me to a bedroom for temporary guests then sighed and went away.

Did I ate some kind of expensive wallet?

***

The next day, I found out that what I swallowed was a tool that nurtured fruits. You put the fruit inside, the tool absorbs source power from the surroundings, then injects it into the fruit. Quite an important tool. As important as... nothing I can imagine yet.

I somehow found myself unable to take a dump. Luckily I was only sitting on the library whole day, trying to study. The library had a lot of books, and most of them are related to the outside world.

There are four major cities, and our city is one of them. This city is named Phione, which was named after a heroine who once lived here before perishing of old age. Her shrine is located somewhere south of the area, which I haven't really reached yet. On the world map, we were on the far northwest. The two other major cities, Holm and Factia are located on the far east, near each other. The last major city, Allpeak, is at the center of the world map.

Allpeak was named as such because most of the magic users visit the Allpeak mountain, which consisted of mountain peaks. A book said that Allpeak Mountain had a different dimension, and has another world inside of it. One required source spirit to enter as they would only pass through air and get lost in the mountains within the dense fog the mountain was shrouded in.

I can't imagine how a city housed a lot of mountain peaks, but I bet I won't be able to see it anyway. It's too far, and with carriages, it would take probably 5 years.

There are also a few minor cities that surround each major city, but they are all far away from each other. The main transportation here seems to be horse and large worm carriages. There are a few custom carriages too which are pulled by uncommon and large beasts.

Besides the Vates' God Hamion, there are two more deities the people here worship.

One is the Beast God, Felix, which is described as a large three-headed azure bird and had a hundred rainbow veins on its back. His feathers glow into crimson red when angered, and the people that meet and worship him in person gain source magic. It made me remember what Skip said; gaining source spirit at a cost.

The other deity is called Valon, and a few people really know about him besides the fairy tale about him beating the other two gods in battle. The book said that mountains are pulverized with a single fling of his arm. It does seem kinda sketchy though.

Hamion is the deity which most humans worship. His main shrine is located at Allpeak, where everyday a thousand foreigners come to visit and bring offerings. Humans that worship him also gain source power by prayer, at least if one has a source spirit only then can he gain magic power. But Gemmatria seems to be a requirement for those that want to be a part of the Vates, which is the case for every person.

I still couldn't figure out how these magical things work and maybe I would be able to come up with something else instead. I refuse to stay as an ordinary human, of course. For now only a scratch on my head will suffice.

Sorn seem to see that I was absorbed by the books and decided to leave my meal at the desk.

After a while, I searched for books related to other languages but I could only see a few ones that had different language, yet barely anything that could be served as a guide. Is there only a universal language here? I wanted to learn a different one while my brain was still fresh.

I had stomach ache for a while and limply walked back to my room when I heard voices speaking. It was the doctor and Three's father. Three was on the side with a worry on her face. I listened well and also understood the words, but I can't make out the meaning. It seems they use a different kind of language. Paying it no mind, I greeted them and went back to my room to rest.

Looks like mom will be missing me today, too.

Oh, I realized that Three also understands what the two were saying. Maybe I'll ask her later.

***

It was after we met when Three and I met then escaped the mansion. Her face was pale enough to let me know that something's not right.

They're off to cut me up and get the thing inside me. If it wasn't for her also trying to find me, then I would've been staying there forever as a corpse under some kind of tree.

It was surprising that the way we got out wasn't discovered by anyone else until after two days later where we saw a few wanted posters all over.

Three told me that she used to have this sneaking spot whenever she wants to go out of the house and flaunt her powers like her relatives, and we went exactly that way and now we're about to go to a different city. A minor city on the southwest where we'll be able to find ourselves a bit of time to get the thing off my stomach in a different way.

I told her to at least let my family know where we are about to go but she insisted and told me that they would probably go there first. Not wanting to be caught, gutted, and getting my mom implicated, I agreed.

With a few heavy pouches containing dangling coins, we discreetly hired a carriage to carry us towards the next city.