Future Plans

Azraeus reflected on himself whilst he walked towards the room the others were waiting in. He had spent a while talking with Laura and exchanging stories until she had fallen asleep midway through his. He hadn't even noticed she was asleep and continued talking as if absorbed in his own story. His time retelling the story brought back the memories, it didn't bring back the feelings of that time as Azraeus had detached himself from those in order to avoid the pain he felt back then. Azraeus realised he had begun feeling something for Laura, first it was pity, then the sense of nostalgia and finally a small feeling of similarity. He subconsciously began to feel the need to distance himself from Laura, the twisted thought he had when Tissa died had long since cemented itself in his mind, he had not cared for anyone nor anything and he was not emotionally in the three years since regardless of what happened.

The stronger the feelings he felt for someone the more his subconscious urged him to get away from them to protect himself. This combined with the thoughts he had unanswered from the system when sealing Laura's mana, that were still floating in the back of his mind, made him pose the key question.

'How do I leave Earth?'

The reason he had not left yet was due to his internal conflict, the small seed of ambition along with his excitement about exploring things he did not know and the realisation that, even though he was now a mage, it wasn't exciting as he thought it would be, made him want to leave Earth. On the other hand the more negative parts of his personality had hindered him from asking, the parts that questioned why he should change when he was fine as he was, the part that asked what the point was going somewhere new and the part that realised it would be difficult to start again with no support, not even an identity. He had made a small connection with Elise but didn't feel anything particular for her, Laura on the other hand was different as his feelings were more powerful, this small point of subconsciously feeling the need to get away from Laura, had been enough to tip the balance in his mind and set his decision as that of trying to leave Earth.

[You can leave at any time, just tell the system. However, it is recommended to collect the available magic resources on Earth before returning to the main reality.]

Before he could further question how to or why he should do that, he had arrived at the room where Elise, Monet, Veronica and Isobel had been waiting. When he walked in the sounds of conversation stopped as their heads all turned towards him, expectation showing on their faces.

"Before you ask I was able to cure her paralysis and Laura is now asleep so don't disturb her." Azraeus answered their question before one of them asked him. His confirmation caused them all to visibly relax back into their chairs. Isobel quickly decided to excuse herself as she was on the verge of tears from relief. Monet immediately took out his phone, seemingly sending a message to Laura's grandfather, the chairman of the Golden Circle who was abroad at the moment, as Azraeus had found out earlier, to inform him of the good news. Veronica was sending a look of respect towards Azraeus thinking he had used light magic to heal Laura. Elise was the only one with a slightly different reaction, she was confused by the care Azraeus seemed to show Laura. Although it wasn't much, his extra warning to not disturb her sleep was more than Elise would expect from Azraeus given he didn't seem to care about her at all.

After that, Veronica decided to stay in Laura's residence as she apparently wanted to continue talking to her friend Isobel. Monet walked back to the main building with Azraeus and Elise, he left to arrange for a small meal to be prepared for both of them in the dining room as they had missed dinner time. Elise and Azraeus decided to just wait in the dining room assuming it wouldn't take that long. They sat in silence for a few minutes before Elise asked about the thing that had been on her mind since Azraeus informed them of Laura's heeling.

"Is it just me or do you seem to care about Laura? You're usually so closed off but you showed some concern and care towards her more than I would expect with your personality."

"I had feelings of pity and sympathy for her," he replied, not bothered with talking about his emotions, perhaps the only upside of his mentality.

"Pity I can understand but Sympathy?" Elise cocked her head to the side with her question, indicating her lack of comprehension.

"She is like me, in some aspects."

"Heee, why's that?" Elise's curiosity was piqued as this was the first time she heard Azraeus talk about himself.

"Her past shares some similarities to mine. If you want to know more, ask her about it tomorrow, I don't feel like repeating it." 

"Since you've given permission I will then." Elise pouted a bit at not being able to get an answer out of Azraeus, though she understood that his past may not be something he wanted to talk about, especially if it had similarities to the tragedy that Laura's was. Elise may not have been that close to Laura but they had met and studied magic together a bit several years ago as Laura was the only one her age who outclassed Elise in magic. She didn't yet know that she wouldn't get the full story, only the part up to where Azraeus joined the school as that was the point Laura's memory cut off as she fell asleep.

Their meal was a simple but tasteful and filling meat soup, which they quickly ate in silence, both of them lost in their thoughts. Over dinner Azraeus had conversed with his system about locating valuable magic items on Earth before leaving. The system had told him that magic items would always hold some value in the main reality no matter their level or purpose, simply due to their nature of being magic items. He spent a few EP in order for the system to scan the Earth and inform him of where he needed to go to collect these items, the system produced a map for him with several magic items in each country. He quickly realised that some of these items were in places of importance such as museums or mansions when he took a detailed look at the map, he then spent another EP and asked the system to exclude those that already had owners. As much as he wanted to collect magic items he didn't want to steal them from museums or their rightful owners and cause chaos on Earth when he left. Having decided on his plan he began explaining it to Elise, with a few lies thrown in to make her accept it.

"I plan to leave in the morning, since this is my first time in England I want to go sightseeing a bit whilst I decide what to do with myself now that I know about magic."

Elise had a brief look of confusion at his statement before coming across the realisation that Azraeus was a normal person a few days ago, in fact he was an orphan, thus he wouldn't have had many if any opportunities to travel. It was only for things like this that Elise resembled the young lady of a prominent family of awakened as her usual down to Earth attitude was very easy to get along with.

"Are you not coming back to my place?" Elise asked in a bit of panic, she hadn't forgotten that her father wanted her to draw Azraeus into her family in some way. Whilst she might not display the attitude of a prodigal young mistress, she always kept her own position in the back of her mind.

"No, I am grateful for your family's help and you training me to use magic but I can't intrude anymore."

"Mrrr." She grumbled at his reply which showed his intentions of not returning with her, thus she changed tactics and declared, "in that case I'll come with you."

"Err, I'll go alone, but thanks for the offer." Azraeus shut her down quickly. He didn't want to be accompanied by anyone as he was used to being alone, and more importantly, how would he explain how he knew where magic treasures were without exposing his system.

"Are you sure youll be ok, do you have enough money?" His refusal of her offer made it clear he wanted to go alone but she was worried about him being alone, especially after just awakening. His personality may be one where he keeps to himself but it wasn't the healthy sort. Realising that asking if he would be ok would result in an obvious 'yes', she tried asking if he was ok financially, afterall he was an orphan.

"Yes I have enough, if the chance presents itself I will visit your family in the future." Money had naturally lost his value to him as soon as he made his decision to leave Earth. It was quite amusing that the thing that he had tried hard to earn in order to improve his life had become meaningless due to a single opportunity, albeit a very fantastical one. In order to get Elise to accept his decision he even stated he would visit her family again.

"Suite yourself," she said, finally relenting, "but are you not going to visit Laura before you go?"

"No, I won't. Goodnight Elise. "He forcibly ended the conversation by entering his room intending to get an early night's sleep, leaving a dissatisfied Elise at the door.

The following morning, just after the sun peeked over the horizon, three people were standing at the door to the Golden Circles mansion. Azraeus had a rucksack packed with the clothes and necessities needed for daily life standing just outside the door, Monet was wearing his trademark butlers uniform looking exactly the same as yesterday holding out a black card for Azraeus to take and Elise watched on from the side looking like she had just been dragged out of bed, her hair a mess and her clothes dishevelled.

"Lord Azraeus, this card contains £500,000 and is both a reward and a thank you from the chairman for healing his granddaughter." Monet explained the card as Azraeus accepted it with a thanks, whilst he might not care about money anymore, he didn't actually have that much to use so this was greatly appreciated as it would allow him to spend his last few weeks on Earth in luxury during his magic treasure hunt.

"Are you sure you wont hold off your departure to say goodbye to Lady Laura? She doesn't like goodbyes but will be even more dissatisfied if you leave without saying it, especially as you healed her?"

"I won't, if she's going to be upset either way it doesn't matter, besides she's got more important things to focus on now." Azraeus shrugged at Monet's question. He also hated goodbyes, especially to people he had started feeling emotions for like Laura so he decided to just leave quietly.

"Bye Azraeus, come visit me anytime, especially if you have no place to go." Elise said her goodbyes, holding back the yawn that threatened to spill out.

"I will."

"Also, don't be alone too much ok, I know you don't like being with people but it's not healthy to stay the way you are right now. That's my advice as someone older." Elise added on a little extra to her goodbye showing she was still concerned about his well being as she had been last night.

"You're only a year older, but I'll try." Azraeus replied, with a small but genuine smile towards Elise. He may not care about her and probably would not remember her for long before his mind categorised her as another thing that passed by in his life, but for now, he would respond sincerely to the care she showed him. Despite the wall he put up and his subconscious urging him to move away from caring about things, he was still human after all, he still craved the care given by others, more so than most.

Azraeus turned around and walked swiftly towards the car that had been waiting for him at the mansion, not minding the cold or realising the smile that had bloomed on Elise's face at the most human interaction she had with him, which quickly turned into a yawn she covered with her hand. Whilst Azraeus packed his stuff in the car Monet turned and asked Elise if it was alright to let him go alone as he had also noticed the warped nature of Azraeus' personality. They both watched the car drive away, its destination: the place called the Garden of England, an apt place to find a magic herb of some kind. Once the car was fully out of view Elise finally answered Monat's question.

"I don't know why but I have the strange feeling we'll see him again, very soon at that, so let's leave him be for now."