41 Mai Mare

After a good hour of bragging, Obrecht was extremely rejuvenated enough to forget his initial worry of Videre not liking the house. Immediately, he headed back home to fish out Videre. Arriving home, he stole Videre straight from the kitchen, exactly where he thought he'd be.

The latter was in the middle of preparing the tea and biscuits, in which he took over from Odeti, who was now sitting in the kitchen table with Amisha. They seemed to have been discussing about something, as various shiny stones littered upon the table.

"I'm borrowing Vid!" Obrecht ran into the house barefooted, his shoes grasped in one hand, while the other dominantly pulling Videre's hand.

Videre got pulled diagonally backwards, his one hand holding the plate of biscuits. He struggled to put it down on the table, almost hopping backwards on one foot, before flashing an apologetic gesture at Odeti and Amisha. The two baffled ladies watched them in surprise, before laughing and waving him off, respectively. Obrecht impatiently drew him away.

Skipping on one foot, Obrecht rushed Videre to wear his shoes, as he struggled to slip his left foot into the other shoe by the doorway. Although slightly unruly, Obrecht never forgot the basic rules of the house. His Ama would have handed him his butt if he had forgotten! Those knives in the kitchen aren't just for collection or display!

In the middle amphitheater, the many faces crowd together to look all the same. Unable to distinguish any familiar ones, Videre unconsciously pressed closer to the only conversant person on his left. He didn't expect Obrecht to have pulled him to somewhere the former knew he was uncomfortable.

"…Ob."

"I know, I know." Obrecht pulled Videre closer to his side, both his hands placed on Videre's shoulders. The last thing he wanted to happen was to lose Videre! "This only happens before every annual tournament. I heard Tita Kaivalya saying that it was moved three days ahead", Obrecht explained without really explaining.

"…" What got moved three days ahead of time?

"It's starting", Obrecht said instead of answering Videre's unspoken question.

He found a clean place near the front seats of the amphitheater. The whole place was decorated beautifully unlike the first time it was used during his trial. The endless scribbles of blue made Videre nearly blinded with the color. In his vision, everything just looked like blue! It was a good thing that elevated seats didn't have as much people as those in the center of the Circ.

A hand tapped Obrecht and Videre's back. Two other people emerged from the sea of blue scribbles.

"You're here!" Videre's head jerked towards the direction of Vera's voice.

Moments later, footsteps gathered and an array of voices all talked in exited harmony.

Videre thought: Why are you all going here?!

"How nostalgic", Obrecht remarked, pulling Videre's waist closer to himself to give more space for other people to sit down. Videre thwacked his head in an attempt for declaration to release his (Ob) arm on his (Vid) waist.

"…" For some reason, being man-handled by you so easily like this makes me dissatisfied with my strength.

Videre felt slightly annoyed and embarrassed, especially when other people gave them a glance. His body would go stiff and stiffer for every other glance. He couldn't even shake off the feeling that someone was staring attentively at them behind his back. He was merely too self-conscious to look.

Obrecht then made it all worse, as he hid his face on the crook of Videre's neck and said, "Ignore them, Vid. Just relax and think it's just the two of us. Like we're in practice."

"…" As if I could do that! We don't even do this during practice! Perverted entity! Why do you get worse and worse each passing day?!

The face behind the mask was dark enough to rival a certain someone's shadow domain. What he didn't know was Obrecht was already subconsciously claiming him as his, like a beast guarding its territory.

Both Krael and Vera decided to ignore the duo as Obrecht's clinginess wasn't that new to them. Instead, they were both excited for the event that was to happen.

In hopes of distracting himself, Videre focused on the old man that was being escorted slowly into the middle of the platform, where a comfortable-looking chair had been erected for him. Videre glances at Vera.

After feeling eyes on herself, Vera answered with a long explanation.

"My Apa told me before that the third generation of the Batrani decided to remove all boundaries as much as they could within Lumea. Whether it would be for political issues, limitations to knowledge, resources, love—everything. He mentioned that there was a right balance to removing boundary and creating a boundary; a balance in giving and restricting freedom, though to be honest, I don't really know what he means."

Vera laughed, and then continued to say, "As far as I know, every Lumean has an equal chance for everything, and that it is simply up to the person to make use of them." She paused, and then a lowered voice added, "Even for love", Vera glanced at Krael briefly with the corners of her eyes. The latter had his head turned away, inattentive to their discussion.

"A Lumean is free to love whoever they want as long as it is within the standards of morality and righteousness. It doesn't matter what gender you have as gender has no hold over in Lumea." She smirked at Videre.

Videre took a while to digest her words, but before he could understand her suggestion, she added more.

"Apa ingrained one of the most important rules to me when I was younger, and that was to always think of the majority of people whenever we make a decision. As long as it did not harm anyone, it was good. If it would help the majority, then it was all the better. The Batrani and the elders may have held a few secrets of their own for the greater good, but as a Lumean, we are responsible for telling them everything that has happened in Inferis as long as we know it. Not a single important secret is kept in Lumea, that others wouldn't eventually know. I'm sure you're already aware of that, Vid."

Deep inside, Videre thought to himself: But there are a few secrets that everyone wants to keep for themselves. Something that they wouldn't like to let others know.

"We take pride in the honesty that we give each other and the loyalty we have for our own. Everybody knows a bit of everything—that's how close everyone here should be. You can ask, and they will answer your question honestly as long as they think your question will not harm you or anyone else."

The noise around us had doubled by this time.

"Ah but, false statements, and liars have scarier punishments here than actually physically, and intentionally harming someone in a fight", Vera said so like an afterthought.

The old man on the stage had turned around and casted his eyes over there place. Videre finally saw the wrinkled face of a blind elder. All of a sudden, he picked up a faint scent of spicy herbs and of… Is that cigar? With covered eyes, Videre's other senses were always sharper than most, though he had used his time to train his senses for selective recognition whenever he and Obrecht go to the Circ.

The crowd of people here, however, made it a struggle for him to drown out the other senses and other scents, especially the clingy person beside him. Having focused his attention wholly on the man on the stage, he could faintly smell the scent of cigar. His eyebrows furrowed, subconsciously titling his head by a degree. It was so minimal but Vera had picked up on it and laughed.

"I know I said a lot, but didn't manage to answer your question why we're here right?"

Videre adjusted the mask on his face. It seemed that Vera had misunderstood him, but he really did want to know why they were there so he simply gave a nod.

"It's part of the Lumean culture and tradition to listen to the oldest Lumean elder's story annually. Even the bad stories and wrong decisions our ancestors made are also retold. This usually happens prior to the annual tournament so we get a free day in class to listen in and join. Although we do have a lot of history books, who would want to read those?" Vera laughed.

"Mai Mare's stories are a lot more interesting." Obrecht decided to pinch in to their conversation.

"… " Mai Mare?