A little creature

Since they decided to take on small missions while traveling, the group has been looking through every city's notice board and asking around the towns, even engaging in conversations in bars in search of a job to take, but they came across no proper missions. There were only some minor tasks that paid so little that it wasn't worth their time. 

Finally giving up, the group decided to stop searching for a while and wait until they reached the near-most mercenary guild contact point. 

-Master, for how long are you gonna ignore me?

Dangling from Ian's head, the blue-furred wolf pup rubbed its nose against Ian's skull as he whinnied nonstop just like the past few days.

-I told you I'm sorry. I won't do such a thing again. Master, dear master, my most beloved master! 

"Let's take a break here and have lunch. I don't think we can reach a city soon enough."

Everyone followed Ian's words without any objection. The group had developed the habit in the past few days, of doing as Ian told them and to ask for his opinion in everything. Despite it being nice that they listened to him so well, it was also annoying that they didn't do anything on their own without Ian telling them to. 

'Seriously, are you some kids? You are big old adults!'

They were all close in age to each other, with Alaric being the same age as Ian's current body, a 21-year-old big child, while Raven was less than a year older than him. Ian wasn't sure about Miss Eleen, but she didn't seem much older than the other two. 

'Hmm... They might actually still be children... They are young despite being adults...'

And none seemed willing to be responsible for the rest of the team. What else could Ian do but accept the responsibility thrown at him, even if it was bothersome?

-Poor me! Poor Lior! His master is ignoring him, poor little wolf, sigh.

Despite having difficulty seeing his surroundings with a fluffy tail covering his eyes, Ian didn't ask nor force the child to move away from atop his head.

"Ian! Ian! How do I stop this? How? Help! This is going that way!"

Just when Ian was about to disembark from the horse's back, Alaric's shout from behind caused him to pause in his tracks and look around. The man who didn't know how to ride a horse was taught the method in the past few days and was forced to ride his own horse today, mainly by the black-haired swordsman; however, it seemed that he didn't know how to stop the animal. 

"Try to figure it out yourself."

A hoarse male voice answered before Ian could.

"IIIAAAANNNN!!!"

Screaming, the young master got dragged further and further away by the horse that was oddly running at maximum speed. Three people stood side by side, watching him vanish from sight.

"...Go fetch him, Raven."

"Can I not?"

"Go."

"This is a rare opportunity to get rid of-"

"Bring him back right now."

"...Okay."

Sullen and dissatisfied, Raven jumped atop his black horse and shot toward the direction where Alaric was dragged at full speed. The remaining due watched him leave before beginning to set up their temporary camp and prepare their lunch. 

After his job was done, Ian moved slightly away from the group to concentrate on his Aether and train his power like he did every day. He needed to get back stronger as fast as possible, so he didn't neglect his training. 

Closing his eyes and cutting all his senses using Aether, Ian found himself in a familiar darkness that seemed endless and infinite. He was floating, rather, falling down without a thing on his way to catch his weightless body, or presumably his soul. The bone-chilling cold relentlessly stabbed his heart and fear crept up his being like a hungry phyton. 

"Huuu...."

Fighting the fright while freely falling down, Ian stretched out a hand to the front, to the unfathomable pit, pushing to seize the thing within, the twinkling star concealed in depth of the darkness.

"Gasp!"

However, his struggles were futile as always. 

Gold dust burst everywhere and engulfed him whole, pausing his fall and warming his soul. His fear automatically triggered his power and protected him from the unknown, stopping his approach for yet another time. 

'Damn....'

The light he'd been pursuing all his life seemed as unattainable as always; out of reach, out of touch. Only a sensation of it lingered in his soul, causing him to yearn for more. That single star had been his goal for a long time, yet he never managed to get in contact with it. The closer he got to the light, however, his Aether strengthened and his power boosted. At the moment, the Aether surrounding him was thicker compared to yesterday as he'd managed to fall closer to the star yet weaker than how it was in Ian's past lives. 

'I only need some time.'

He was doing great. Rather, in comparison with his previous lives, he was doing better than ever before. The Aether accumulation rate was faster than it ever was and its circulation was smother. Ian wondered if he needed to consider this as another peculiarity of this round. 

'Whatever!'

He could think of it at a later time. Assuming that, he slowly opened his eyes. 

"...."

-...

A pair of round, deep blue pupils were staring at him. A head was dangling from above, and two paws were clutching his hair. Lior was lying atop Ian's head and staring at him from above. 

Blink Blink Blink

The round eyes opened and closed repeatedly. 

-Lior wonders how long can master resist!

"...."

Resist what?

-Lior's so cute and adorable that Master can't hold himself back. Look, his eyes are twinkling. Hehe, master you can't stop yourself, can you? Don't force yourself. My cuteness will break all your defensive barriers and attack your soul. You've been barely holding on in the past few days but no more. Lior won't let it drag on any longer. It's his ultimate attack, the gaze of the cute! 

"..."

Blink Blink Blink

The child tilted his head from one side to the other, smiled, and rubbed his nose against his baffled master's face. 

-Hmmm~ Master can't resist~ Master can't keep ignoring this little sweet creature~ Ehehehe master's face is hot~ Master's eyes are wide~ Master's hands are twitching~ Master's heart is beating fast~

"...."

Ian took a deep breath. 

Forget about disciplining the child, Ian would die from a heart attack at this rate. The child knew him way too well and was using that knowledge to poke Ian at his weakest spot!

'This little-' 

His hands moved up uncontrollably and reached toward the wolf pup on his head.

However, before he could grasp the child, something pressed down on him from above. Tad! A pair of hands appeared out of nowhere and wrapped around Lior. Someone was standing right beside Ian, his golden hair fluttering in the air. 

"...."

"...."

-....

The brief silence and stillness that descended upon the frozen group lasted for a second before breaking with two loud cries. 

-KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"

"What the heck!!!???"

-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!

The screaming and alarmed child wiggled like a worm and scratched Alaric's hands, who was also yelling atop his lungs, moving around as if he'd touched hot water. The nobleman let go of the wolf out of reflex, almost throwing it away and staggered back before falling to the ground, shivering and gasping with a pale face. 

"What the fuck did you just do?"

Before Alaric could get ahold of himself, his collar was grabbed by a bluehead, who shot to his feet like a thunderbolt. Alaric got yanked back by the force, his body hit the ground as Ian climbed atop him, restricting Alaric's movements with his knees and body weight, smashing his head to the ground and grasping his neck. 

"What did you do?"

"I-I... Wait! Ian! Cough-"

The hold around his neck tightened brutally, not minding his near-to-chock expression and his pleas, and the man's knee pressed down on his stomach as if to crush it. The other person's blue eyes had narrowed to lines, burning up with a threatening glow; his eyebrows intertwined and teeth gritted. He had an expression Alaric had never seen, a kind of rage on his face that was unfathomable to him.

Alaric's mind screamed in alarm, but he was unable to free himself of the other man. All his movements were restricted without a small gap to set free. 

A surge of electricity ran down Alaric's spine, spreading throughout his body and forcing his hands to jolt up. Pale orange energy whirled about his fingers for an instant before shifting around, taking the form of a circle with various complicated symbols within. 

Boommm. A gust of wind burst out from within his palms and shot around, pushing on everything in the area except for Alaric himself. The servant restricting his movements was no exception. Ian's body got flung up, flying back and falling down a few meters away from the mage. He rolled around a few times before finally finding his balance.

"Huff! Cough, cough!"

Alaric raised his body and coiled up, gasping and coughing nonstop. Before he could even catch his breath, a snap of golden ray slapped his eyes, forcing him to close them shut and curl his body even more. He couldn't understand what was going on. 

-Master! Master stop! Stop! 

The golden surge of light came to an abrupt halt. 

-I'm fine. He didn't harm me, I just got scared! You nearly killed Alaric, master, calm down! Snap out of it.

"....."

As the last remnants of the magic spell swayed Ian's blue hair, the Aether circle that was opened in an instant vanished from the jungle, returning everything to how it looked a few seconds ago. 

"...Ah!"

Ian glanced at the wolf pup that was climbing up his pants and then at the young man plopped down on the ground. He only then realized what had just happened, only then did his mind clear up a bit.

'...He touched Lior... He grabbed it...'

And Ian attacked him out of reflex upon hearing the child scream. 

'But how could Alaric possibly...'

"Cough, I-Ian? I... Ah, I..."

Alaric's gaze wandered around as he stuttered with a shaking voice. He needed to give an explanation but he didn't even know what he was supposed to justify. While searching through his words, Alaric's eyes landed and halted on Ian's shoulder. His face paled and his fingertips began to shake without his notice. 

"T-there! There is something." He pointed at a spot over Ian's shoulder, "I've been seeing it, but I wasn't sure. There is nothing but it's there at the same time, like some kind of invisible mass! It was atop your head when I tried to touch it to see if it was real or not!"

"...."

What?

Ian's eyes shifted to his side and locked with Lior's, who was standing atop his left shoulder, bewildered. The child looked back and forth, attempting to make sure that the subject of the conversation was him, not something else in the area. 

"And I touched it!" Alaric exclaimed. "It left scars on my hands! It's invisible but I touched it!"

Looking closely, Ian could distinguish some scratch marks on the back of Alaric's hands. How was this possible? Lior could leave scratch marks on other people? No one was supposed to ever see him, not to mention touching. Ian had tested it many times with many people!

"T-there is a ghost!"

"...."

Pardon?

"A ghost! A ghost is lingering around you!"

"...."

Looking at Alaric's panicked yet serious face, Ian couldn't even laugh at the ridiculous statement.

-....Master, I don't understand what is going on but... Lior isn't a ghost...

'I know that...'

Argh, such a mess! Ian was getting a headache from thinking about the situation.

"Hey! Is everything alright? What happened here?"

A loud voice diverted the bluehead's attention from Alaric to the due running to them in the distance. Eleen, who was gone to collect medical herbs, and Kieran, returning from his daily training, were rushing their way while inspecting the situation. 

"We heard screams and there was a loud boom! What were you guys doing?"

Eleen approached Alaric who was still in a daze and helped him up while checking on his expression. Ian, with his usual carefree expression, put his hands in his pockets and walked past the three young individuals. 

"Alaric wanted to show me his new spell. I guess he made a mistake and the spell backfired, hitting him instead."

"Uh? But you also seem a little bit-"

"The wind blasted on the both of us so yeah, but it's alright."

Kieran opened his mouth to intervene, but Ian was faster than him. 

"Pack up the stuff and let's leave. The weather will get dark soon enough."

He didn't wait for the others and started to gather their belongings and prepare to move. Eleen and Kieran exchanged dubious looks, but they got into working soon enough. Everything was packed behind the horses soon enough and the group was ready to move. 

"There is no need to push master Alaric."

The three youths paused on their actions upon Ian's sudden words, spoken in a gentle tone and soft voice. 

"It's getting dark, it might be dangerous for him to ride a horse without having mastered it. Young master can ride with me like before."

"....."

Disregarding Alaric's fear-stricken face and Kieran's fierce eyes, Ian dragged his master and helped him up his horse, sitting him behind his back. It was better this way. They could have the rest of their conversation without anyone interrupting. 

"....."

Alaric stiffly clung to the horse, silent. The fire was extinguished, their belongings were packed, and the group left their temporary camp, moving to the nearest city.