35 Empathy

As I was walking back from Aerin's place, I decided to go to the library to grab a book I can read with Sis and write some chapters. After all, I can't just suddenly bring a book one day who just happened to be an erotica. I need the two of us reading to become routine, plus it's a good sibling bonding activity.

"Oh? You're back again, Riel? You really love books don't you?" the librarian uncle said as he looked at me

"Learning new things is always a pleasure." I said shortly

"How studious, I wish all youngsters are like you." the librarian said in praise

"No… believe me… you wouldn't want that." I said as I sat down at the corner

"Oh? Also do you have any recommendations for someone, who's not into reading?" I asked as I looked at the librarian

"Beginner books, eh?… I think you should go to the 'epics' section, there's a lot there..." the man answered

"Oh, why didn't I think of that?" I thought to how Sis would probably get bored, and thought epics are indeed a good genre for her

I'll grab one later after I'm done with writing this, luckily I'm still kind of horny from the events earlier and coincidentally I'm writing a sex scene. So this should be pretty easy~

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'What the fuck is this?' I thought to myself as I reread the chapters

Writing took away any horny that was left in me, and now that I'm sober. I took another look into the chapters that I wrote and felt disgusted at myself,

'Isn't this part a bit rape-y?'

'What kind of sick fuck would write this-'

'Iisshhh...Yikes~'

As I reread my work, I slowly came to the realization that I shouldn't be writing when I'm horny.

My logic was 'a horny man knows what a horny man wants.'

But I didn't think things through, as my MC was obviously a woman, and I don't know shit about what a woman feels during sex. I can write chapters about how tight someone's pussy is, but what do I write from the female POV?

'Fuck it, I'll just write about how toned the Male lead's abs were and how I can probably grind meat with them. Give him eyes that are filled with desire towards me aaand that should be enough'

After I was done imagining things from the female perspective, I gathered the papers as I went towards the epics section. There were a multitude of old epics in the shelves, but I had to take the ones that would get Sis interested, so I looked for the ones where the Military was involved.

In the end, I chose 'Illnada' which was about a young elven noble, who dreamt of reuniting all elven tribes to form the very first elven empire. I haven't read it myself, but it seems like something that would get Sister's interest so it was the one I picked up.

I packed my things before going to the counter, as I wrote down the book that I took and when I took it.

"Oh yeah, uncle" I asked as I remembered something

"Hm? What is it?" the librarian uncle asked

"Who's the best craftsman we have on town? Uncle Luo or Uncle Rafael?" I asked

"Uhhh… ask someone else about that, kid... I can't judge metalwork with my experience" the librarian answered

"Oh… okay"

I was gonna ask if music boxes already existed at this time period, because if it did, I wanted to have my composition recorded in one. Though it's not exactly 'mine', since I kind of just copied it but who's gonna sue me anyway?

Since I didn't have the time to go through both craftsman today, I decided to just let it go for today.

It was still the afternoon, so I had some time to continue my magic practice.

I'm heading to another secluded spot, as I'm about to start another round of magic practice. I continued to find ways to improve my magic. For one, because I found out that I couldn't manipulate already existing plants because living things reject my mana. I then had a thought, since they were also considered as 'living things' because they reject my mana, it meant that they had some form of sentience as well in them.

Of course, they're not gonna say 'Howdy, mate~' to me. But you know, they're still 'alive' in a sense, so perhaps they could communicate in some way?

I mean, I used to see people whose powers were like communicating with animals or nature. So I kind of knew what I wanted to do.

And when I tried investing some time into it, it actually kind of worked. Right now, if I touch a tree and focus as I use my mana, this time rather than trying to use it to manipulate the trees, instead I'm using it like I'm trying to get someone's attention by poking them with my fingers, I just made my presence known to them.

Right now all I could know is the general well-being and condition of a plant. Maybe in the future, I can then interpret their emotions or communicate with them, but if I take things a little bit further, they might be able to help me track someone through the forest or they might actually then start moving for me.

Pretty useless as of now, but it has a lot of potential when it comes to growth. So I wouldn't mind training it.

It's kind of funny, how I thought that elves were this race where they were connected to nature and would protect it all costs, then I found out they were not. But now, I'm actually becoming my own stereotypical elf.

I also learned some other stuff, like manipulating sap or resins, controlling pollen, and some other stuff. But unlike the one about 'Plant Empathy', I can easily see their limits. It doesn't mean that they're not useful though. I can probably encase someone in amber or use sleepy pollen, since I can just cast those directly. The sap however disappears after a few hours, so I won't be able to do stuff like making a rubber factory or some shit.

As I recounted what I've learned, I then lay one of my hands on a nearby tree as I tried to feel if it had any birds perched on its' branches, or if there were any parasites or insects that were eating away at it's trunk.

'Two, no, three birds' I concluded, before looking up

And as if to confirm my thoughts, I saw exactly three doves perched on on some of its branches. I could also roughly feel, that nothing was really harming the tree right now and that it's in a relatively safe spot.

"Serene Winds" I cast as magic gathered on my hands, before I lightly blew them upwards towards the birds' direction

Slightly-blue powder then flew upwards as it made its way towards the unaware birds. After some seconds the doves were then put to sleep as they fell down the branches. I didn't want to kill the poor birds, so I lightened their fall with some wind magic. To make sure they atleast wake up alive.

I was enjoying this 'Nature' magic that I made. There's just something about things that look so harmless and gentle, but is actually so deadly.

Whenever you see someone cast fire or lightning, you immediately know that they're going for an attack. Wind and Earth is a little bit more versatile, since they're not only used for purely offensive purposes.

My personal favorites are Plant and Water magic. They're both peaceful and calming to look at, they can look so beautiful and your victim wouldn't know that you're already taking his life until the very last moment. And that's something that resonates with me.

I remembered one of Confucius' famous quotes,

'It is only when a mosquito lands on your balls that you realize there is a way to solve problems without using violence'

and I think that's beautiful.

As I got too deep into thinking about silently killing people, I saw the sun was about to go down before I finally headed home.

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When I finally reached home, we ate dinner as usual while talking about what happened during the day.

I also said that I wanted to spend some time with Sister as I went inside her room.

We were in our sleeping wear, as I asked her about reading.

"Hey Sis, are you interested in books?" I asked her

"Hm? Not Really..." she thought back before answering

"Well, do you remember when you used to teach me letters as you read?" I said

"Oh… Yeah, I remember those" she said as she reminisced back to when we were kids

"Well, I kind of want to do the same thing again~" I said as I took the Illnada book that I borrowed from the library

"Are you an old man already? Come here~ I haven't done this with you for a long time..." Sis giggled as she sat down on the floor at the side of the bed

I sat down next to her, as I strengthened the light of the lamp with my fire magic, as Sis opened the book.

"Where'd you get this?" Celine asked, the lamps orange light cast a glow on her beautiful face as she looked at me

"I borrowed it from the library" I answered her

"Figures~" she smiled lightly, before she started reading it out for me to hear

We took turns on reading chapters, as to not tire our voices out.

Is this the world's equivalent of siblings staying up late to watch movies together?

To be honest, after I massaged Aerin earlier I thought I'd need some release later on. But I think peaceful times like this is also fine in it's own way. I already lost my pent-up emotions when I was writing at the library earlier, now I just felt like I needed to relax.

The book was much longer than expected, and if we continued at our current pace. It would probably takes us few more nights to finish this. I was pretty tired from the rest of the day, so finally having some relaxing time I involuntarily dozed off.

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-Celine POV-

"Let's continue tomorrow, okay?" I yawned as I felt myself getting pretty sleepy

Hearing no reply from my brother, I looked at my side and unexpectedly found him already sleeping. Since he wouldn't be moving any time soon, I had to put his book away to the table, as well as the lamp.

I then carried him up into the bed. He was a little bit heavier than he used to be, but it still wasn't any real problem for me. Him bringing back up the memories of us reading together got me a little nostalgic. We are still very young, but those days seem so faraway to me now.

I looked at his sleeping face, and nothing much has really changed from back then. Sure he's a bit taller now, but his face is still as defenseless as before. Seeing him so defenseless like that, I gave him a quick kiss on the cheeks before I also went to the bed.

"Let's do this again tomorrow, okay?" I said as I hugged Riel from the back

It was pretty rare that I got to spend time with him like this nowadays. Usually he would be practicing or studying magic for the entire day. I remember when he used to beg me to sneak out with him to teach him about the basics of magic.

He was so small back then, and he was always following me around with sparkling eyes. He was so amazed by the most basic things, I remember having him fawn over me just to teach him how to spark fire.

We're both growing up though, I'm gonna start studying soon and I'll start seeing him even less. Unlike me who is always quiet, he wouldn't have any problems making friends with other people.

Cherishing the last few weeks when the only people he knows are the old folks in this village, I hugged him a little bit tighter. It's already starting to get cold as Autumn ends. I pulled the blankets up as I slept with my younger brother on my arms.

I couldn't help but think that maybe I shouldn't have decided to go to the capital.