14 Chapter 14: The Thing That Happened After the Tests Was ...

[Author's Pre-Chapter Note: Sorry for posting later than usual. I was sort of in a slump deciding where to direct the story from the last chapter and some second-guessing was made. I'm not even sure if this turned out well. Please let me know what you think as you enjoy the chapter.]

By the time I made it to my room, I made sure everything was closed and just laid down on the bed. My Companions came in after I called for them through telepathy and I just held them in my arms.

Fairies are capable of making such contact with the world around them while performing feats like phasing through walls because of how they can manipulate the mana inside themselves and how they interact with their surroundings. They could even cast some magic themselves to an extent depending on their levels, but if they're not contracted with a Chaperone, they can only do so much at LV 1, but it's enough to keep the nature, wildlife, and etc. maintained for all of that time. They can thankfully avoid any dangers that nature would bring like heavy rainstorms and rockslides, but it is possible to injure them with your own magic. This is why they keep themselves hidden until they know for certain they want to form a contract with us. I think that also plays in why they do it while the potential Chaperones are at younger ages, as they're more 'innocent' and honest with their actions once they've gained some form of intelligence.

That's just my summarized guess, anyway, but this isn't a good time to go into further detail on that subject.

I didn't really want to talk, I just wanted someone who was close and understood my situation the most to keep me company, hence why I just 'cuddled' with my Companions to the best of my ability despite our size differences. Even with the window closed, it was hard to ignore all of the noise that was going on outside. I could tell from the voices it was the town's mayor and some other townsfolk who were nearby that were demanding answers on what was going on. I tried to block them out of my mind as much as I could.

"God, what the hell was I doing?" I asked aloud, not being able to think straight right then. "To be pushed that far because of a damn kid … I really acted my 'age' that time, that's for sure."

"Why do you think that happened, Soar?" Breezy asked.

"It could be a number of things. The stress of last night's events putting me on edge, anxious of what Fila's and Onelri's parents talked to mine about, my renewed hormones or whatever taking advantage of that, maybe all of this energy that's been so high all of these years was finally getting too much for me to control and not go overboard?"

"What are 'hormones'?" Mist asked, but I continued without answering.

"There's not a lot I can do to expend all of this energy that isn't training and hunting. Even controlling smaller amounts while not letting loose has been making me feel aggravated lately. I have not felt the exhaustion that I had after my 'hard work.' I've continuously controlled mana through my body until I run out as part of my training and yet that has started becoming a breeze unless I put more into it. Even after how well I did my tests today, especially the magic portion, while I do feel mentally and emotionally exhausted, I don't feel that way in my body at all. I'm starting to question what my true limits are, especially after our recent large power boost and I'm getting a little worried about it until I go all out and feel that satisfying exhaustion again."

"So, basically, you've gotten tired and bored with how you lived with your magic up to now and want something different? Something that challenges yourself to expend more than what you normally would?"

"Yes! Thank you, Breezy, I don't think I could put it any better. I want to see more of what I could do with my magic, but after that performance with just my Wind Needle, I'm afraid I might destroy an entire forest if I go any further than that."

"… Maybe what you did back there was something that needed to be done."

"What do you mean, Shadina?"

"Think about it. Up to now, you're usually seen as a kid with talent, but that's just it. You're a 'kid,' in that body right now, anyway. You've done all you could to hide what you can really do to avoid attracting unwanted attention while trying to gain the adults' respects as a sort of equal, people who can take you seriously without thinking 'he really doesn't know much for one of his age.'

"In reality though, you know a lot more than others think, a lot more than they may in their entire lives. Even without the Great Sage gift and the forms before it, I'm sure you'd still be a very intelligent man, and your willingness to learn about us and the world with such perseverance has greatly earned my respect. I think Renne is the only person in this town other than us five who feels a similar way about you.

"Sure, things might've turned into a disaster at the end and your birthday may be a bust, but now they all know what you're really capable of and will have to think about how to treat you from now on. They've seen how you've 'grown up,' in a sense. Isn't that an accomplishment in itself?"

I had to think about it for a bit. "I mean, it's true that I wanted to be taken more seriously, and there were times I want to 'grow up' into an adult quickly, but … a part of me is kind of attached to this simpler, easier life. When I wasn't training, I would either talk and spend time with you guys, immerse myself in books, take naps, or help the adults in town. It's more than what I've ever done in my previous life. Mom may be suffocating at times to show her 'motherly love' and Dad may show me off around a bit more than needed to the point of annoyance, but they've done a lot more than what my previous parents have ever done for me, and that kind of makes me a little happy.

"Maybe I'm starting to see these things now than I have before because of how much my life will change from now on … and I'm kind of scared of that. If I knew these things before all of this, then I might've not taken Agnes' provocations so personally and not go overboard if it means I could live this simpler life for just a little longer."

"Soar …"

"Speaking of Agnes … don't you think what you said to her was rather harsh?" Breezy asked.

"Yeah … even though I knew how harsh it would be, I feel kind of shitty about it now. Annoying as she was, she was still a kid, and a girl at that. They can get really literal on some things and take them very personally despite not knowing how much they do the same to others. I don't know what got her to antagonize me so much, but there wasn't much reason for me to stoop down to her level, either. I know I intended to be that way so she wouldn't bother me anymore, but saying it aloud then, that might've been going too far."

I sighed in defeat and close my eyes. "I'm gonna try to nap and figure out what to say to her if she sticks around. I think I could at least apologize for going so out of line, but I'm not going to do the same for totally beating her in sword and magic."

"Yeah, that brat really needed to learn the taste of defeat this time around. Some people don't really learn until they fail at something. I know that much from watching my old Chaperone firsthand," Cinder commented.

"You just rest however much you can, Soar. We'll nap along with you and figure out what to do next after that," Breezy said.

"… Thanks." With that and my Companions in my arms, I tried to relax and zone out from the noise going on outside.

~~

Sometime after Soar went inside, some of the nearby townsfolk came in and was stunned in fright at the sight of the destruction left behind by a 'young' man's Wind Needle. As his parents, as well as the other adults nearby, tried to calm everyone down to explain the situation, Fila and Onelri looked at the door where Soar went inside with concern. Agnes blankly stared at the aftermath of his magic demonstration, sitting on her knees, not even bothering the stains the grass would leave on her extravagant pants after collapsing on them from what he said to her before parting.

"Soar's really upset, Onelri," Fila started out of the adults' earshot.

"Gee, you think? I am sure he is from how he ignored our calls as he got inside."

"It's not just that … did you hear what he said to Agnes?"

"No, what?"

Fila closed in and whispered what she heard in Onelri's long elf ears.

"Whoa … he said that?"

"I'm worried, Onelri … what if Soar ends up running away from his own parents like he did with us? I've known a few kids back in my school who did that when they were the same way."

Onelri shifted her gaze in various directions before whispering into Fila's bunny ears then. "I can still see his magical aura and it looks like his fairies are with him, too. After something like that happening, while I do not know how much magic he really has, I am sure he is resting right now after everything today. If I see something different, I will let Mr. and Mrs. Osmis know."

"Still, I wish there was something we could do for Soar, though …"

"Um, excuse me."

A new voice broke the silence before Onelri and Fila turned to the visitor. It was a girl taller than them, but look to be only a couple years older, wearing a modest blouse and skirt while hugging a wrapped package in her arms. Her skin was rather pale while her black locks cut in a bob shined in the sunlight. Hovering behind her was a Wind Fairy with her cerulean hair tied in a short ponytail.

"I couldn't help but overhear. Did something happen to Soar? Are you two friends of his?"

"… And who are you to invade in our private talk?" Onelri asked with a quirked brow.

"Ah! Please excuse me for being rude. My name is Claire Galloway. I'm one of Soar's classmates in this town's school."

"But you look so much older and bigger though?" Fila asked.

"We have very few classes where the age gaps between students are quite big. I'm one of the oldest being 14 years old."

"I'm Fila Gartner, and this is Onelri Gulzu. We came from out of town. I want to say we're Soar's friends, but … I'm not sure right now."

"He told us he never interacted with the other students in his class, though, so what brings you, a classmate of his, out here asking for him?" Onelri asked.

"… Huh? He didn't mention me?" Claire asked more to herself as she looked away with a hand to her chin.

"Not even once."

"I mean, it's true that I've never seen him play with the others but he's always let me sit in the same table as him at the library while we read books together, though he always seemed so immersed that not much would distract him from reading. Come to think of it, I don't think he even looked at me at those times, let alone talked. Did I ever give him my name?" Claire mumbled to herself further.

"Um, have you known Soar for a while, Claire?" Fila asked.

"Huh? Oh! Yes, I wouldn't say I've known him personally, but I've seen him in class since he first enrolled in school."

"Could you tell us more about how he was with the other kids in school? What they think of him, possibly?"

"Well, let's see … what he said about not interacting with the other kids is true. He was fixated on his studies the moment he started school and always shut himself away from the other kids. Even when one or two of them tried to invite him to play, he'd turn them down politely at first, but when they get persistent enough to bother him, he'd have Ms. Renne come in and break it off. By that point, they'd talk behind his back about being a teacher's pet in a bad way."

"The foxkin beastman? He does seem pretty close to her," Onelri commented as her eyes shifted to Renne who was calming the other townsfolk down. The fox-girl teacher's own eyes would occasionally shift up to one of the windows of the second floor of Soar's home, showing not only how concerned she was about her star student but how she even knew where his room was.

"He looked like he knew what they were talking about but he didn't confront them about it at all and just went on with his studying," Claire continued. "Even though he was bad at getting along with the other kids, he was very intelligent in class. He even asked Ms. Renne and the other few teachers at our school to allow him to sit in on the older kids' classes after his own would end for the day. You would think a kid his age at the time would be distracting everyone in the room but things went on like he wasn't even there. Thanks to that, even though I moved up to the 'older kids'' class by the different age group, I'd still get to see him and how he observed everything. A short while after that, I even caught him practicing magic on his own once."

"Soar was good at using magic back then, too?" Fila asked, eyes widened and floppy rabbit ears perked straight up in shock.

"Um … how old was he when you saw him?" Onelri asked.

"That had to have been when he was 5 or 6 years old if I remember right."

""What?!"" the two girls exclaimed. Even Agnes, who was listening into Soar's school life, jerked her head to them with widened eyes.

Onelri dropped to all fours on the grass and hung her head in defeat. "What the heck … me, a dark elf, could not start magic until eight years old, and yet here is Soar, a human boy, who started three years earlier. Even if he is a 'Fairy's Child,' what kind of cruel joke is this?"

"'Fairy's child?'"

"Ah, she means a person who's blessed with magic," Claire explained to Fila. "While there are talented Magicians of any race, there are some who are more apparent by their distinguishable bright hair and eye color that match. Since fairies have a similar color scheme, we call these people 'Fairy Children,' but some would call them the 'Maidens' Children' as it was said the Six Elemental Maidens who helped bring fairies to this world were the ones that blessed these people a gift in magic. They don't show up very often, though, I heard there are usually 1 in every 300 people. The owner of this town's popular restaurant is the only local other than Soar who's one with light green hair and eyes, but that handsome man with the navy-blue hair and eyes along with the girl here having them in the scarlet color would also be called as such.

"Anyway, going back to Soar, he seemed really interesting to me, he wasn't like the other kids," Claire continued as she looked down on the grass and smiled while hugging the wrapped package close to her chest, recalling the memories. "I wanted to get to know him, become a friend of his despite our differences in age, but I didn't want to bother him and his studies. So, I settled with reading books next to him in the library and watched him from afar. I guess he didn't really notice me all of those times, and from the sound of it, I don't think he ever really learned anybody's names from our school, other than the teachers', anyway."

"Wait, so you basically stalked him all of this time?" Onelri asked while looking up from her defeated pose.

"I-I wasn't stalking! They were all coincidences! Really! It wouldn't be hard seeing him since he helped the adults in town with chores or some other community service!"

"Wow …" Fila said, her eyes brightened and sparkled with interest the more she heard of Soar's exploits.

"So … Soar does not get along with other kids around his own age, but he does it well enough with the adults. He started casting magic at a young age but did you ever see him do it anymore after that first time?" Onelri asked after getting back up.

"… Actually, now that you mention it, no, I didn't. I don't think I've ever seen him cast magic again until he officially moved up to higher education with the rest of those in his age group. In those classes, we would start participating in demonstrations and practice sessions involving magic. I have heard him receiving some private tutoring from Ms. Renne at times, so it's possible he's practiced with magic more with her at the least, but when I first saw him participated in the practice sessions with the rest of the class … it didn't look like he improved that much since I first saw him, which surprised me from how much he studied on the subject."

"And yet, Soar's parents, Mr. Osmis' former hunting party, and even Ms. Renne talked how much he has improved over the years … which means he has been holding back his full potential for far longer than any of us had realized," Onelri concluded.

"Why would Soar do that?" Fila asked.

"Well … just look at that and the answer is clear. I do not think even he knew how powerful that was until today," Onelri tilted her head at the direction of the aftermath from Soar's magic demonstration.

Claire and her Wind Fairy looked over at the site and both of them paled. "W-Wait, he …" Claire stuttered while pointing at the destruction.

"Soar knew his talent would bring a reaction like yours on other people, too. He did not want to cause a disturbance and he did not want others to bother him, either. With that in mind, he has been controlling how his magic would be seen by other people for the longest time, to show that he was indeed growing, but not so much that it would go above and beyond anyone's expectations over a kid."

"As expected of a dark elf, you are a sharp one for your age."

"Mr. Osmis …" Fila trailed off as she and the others saw Gullivan, his wife Carol, and Renne joining in the conversation. Gullivan's former hunting party continued with talking the townsfolk down and out of earshot. Fila's, Onelri's and Agnes' respective parents/guardians were talking amongst themselves off to the side.

"Wait, have the three of you known how capable Soar was all along?" Onelri asked.

"We've known Soar was a special boy since he was a baby … just not how much," Carol started before giving a wry smile.

"Aye," Gullivan followed. "We were in shock when Ms. Renne here told us Soar just destroyed the record for being the youngest human to cast magic for the first time. We were wondering how soon it would be for him to make a contract with a Fairy Companion … and wouldn't ya know it, he shattered another one not too long after Ms. Renne first broke the news to us. He didn't just make a contract with a Companion at the youngest age of 5, he made it with three at once. I believe one would expect some elves and those from nobility to be a Chaperone of that many. It's uncommon for someone in a backcountry town like ours to even be a Chaperone for two, let alone three."

"Th-Three fairies …" Agnes stuttered.

"How do you know Soar had three of them?" Onelri asked.

"Ms. Renne here's got some perceptive eyes," Gullivan answered. "She was able to see his fairies not too long after she told us of his magic demonstration. We've … also known how he started training and going off to the woods on his own once he got a handle of battling monsters, despite us telling him not to unless we say otherwise. We had her keep an eye out for him whenever she could. Us three were the only ones who knew of this."

"Why have you not punished Soar for breaking the rules? Or actually, why have you trained him to battle monsters to begin with?" Claire asked.

"Well, he was the one who asked me to teach him how to use a sword to start with," Gullivan crossed his arms and closed his eyes, taking a trip through memory lane. "Even back then at his age, he possessed remarkable talent and he took my lessons well. I had him show his stuff to Seal and the others not too long after we started and they took an interest in teaching him their specialties as well. I guess at some point, we didn't need to worry much because of how well he could watch out for himself without causing problems for others, and with three fairies watching over him? Don't even get me started. I suppose you could say we made his training sessions harder as an unannounced punishment for ignoring our rules, but from the look of it, we might've gotten carried away despite how he had gone through them with little to no issue."

"I had some feeling he was holding back some time after he started training," Renne said. "When I heard how well he was doing, I think all of us had the same idea of wanting to see what Soar could do at his full potential."

"Seal had that idea in mind when he brought Lady Agnes over," Gullivan continued. "He was starting to get some sense of Soar holding back as well and was wondering what to do to pull out his full potential when Lady Agnes mentioned wanting to see Soar. Having someone of a similar age, experience with the sword, and at the same aptitude for magic, even if we took the number of their fairies out of the equation, I guess both of us thought the competitive rivalry would draw it out of him."

"So, Soar … was pushed to giving his all not just by Agnes, but his parents and their friends as well, even though he didn't want to. And now he's upset because he felt he did something really bad. I could tell that much from the tone of his voice and how quickly he ran up to his room as he left," Fila summarized while pointing to her ears, showing how she could tell with her hearing.

"I guess at the end of it all, Soar only wanted to live in peace without others bothering him … he didn't think his own family and their friends would do the same," Claire added.

"No," Onelri argued, "it is because of them, all 'responsible' adults, that Soar felt he should not let their egging-on get the better of him and continued to 'train' with minimal effort up to today. He had probably got used to the treatment over time, and things would have been the same this time around, too … if it were not for one girl who he knew that method would not work on if he wanted her to stop bothering him for good."

"You mean Agnes …" Fila trailed off as she and the rest look over to the boyish-looking, red-headed girl as she stared at the ground, bangs covering her eyes to make her expression unreadable. Her lips were moving, but the words were quiet and incoherent.

"Lady Agnes, are you—"

"Claire Galloway!" Agnes exclaimed while her head was still down, interrupting Renne and surprising her along with the others around them.

"Y-Yes?!" Claire responded in slight fright.

"That restaurant you mentioned! Does Soar frequent it?!"

"Huh? Oh, uh, yes. I've seen him go there sometimes for lunch while studying and he has been there for dinner with his family. I think he and the restaurant owner are good friends."

"Seriously, are you sure you are not a stalker?" Onelri asked with a quirked brow.

"What's a stalker?" Fila followed while tilting her head in confusion.

"Never mind that! What is the name of that restaurant, and do you have a popular place for sweets and pastries?!" Agnes exclaimed.

"The restaurant is called the Hungry Wolf, and for sweets and pastries … that would be Donovan's Sweets. They both should be around the same area."

"Melissa!" Agnes called. The maid who was with Onelri's and Fila's parents quickly came to her call soon after, despite drawing the attention of some of the remaining townsfolk who were hanging around inspecting the damage on the yard.

"We will return soon. Please excuse us for our abrupt exit—"

"Have you not done enough already?!" Onelri exclaimed, making Agnes jump. "You crashed Soar's birthday and you have done nothing but antagonize and talk down on him! He floored you in both sword and magic! What more could you possibly want after all of that?! I do not care where you stand in class and talent, Agnes Zanri, if you are looking for a rematch, you will have to go through me first and we will see who is 'superior' between the two of us!"

Onelri silently summoned a Dark Ball while holding a hand up, ready to unleash at any time while staring down on Agnes' scarlet eyes with her own that burns with determination and resolve. Fila stood next to her dark elf friend, uncertain of how to stop her from going too far.

Though surprised at first, Agnes didn't cower or falter under the young dark elf girl's heated gaze. On the contrary, her face is collected and poised.

"… Onelri Gulzu, and Fila Gartner, correct?" Agnes asked while exchanging glances between the two respective girls. Then, much to everyone's surprise, she gets on one knee and lowers her head before the two of them. "If I have offended either of you, then please accept my sincerest apologies."

""Huh?"" the two girls uttered, Onelri deactivated her Dark Ball spell in the process.

"I also assure you that I no longer harbor any further ill will towards Soar," Agnes continued as she got back up and stared straight into Onelri's silver eyes with a fist to her chest. "It is because I must return as soon as possible in order to atone for my disgraceful behavior towards him and the rest of you all today. That said, Onelri, Fila, if you would allow me a moment, I wish to ask the two of you a favor …"