REN

NINA

I fed them cabbage rolls with some ground beef, just to add more flavor. Now I know what to look, I can finally see the white orbs taking over the purple slowly. It was a little more time when there would be more white. Apollo told me that this place is rich in mana because it is undisturbed.

I walked over to where Sylvia was lying. She woke up earlier and I let her drink water. She was parched and I gave her share of cabbage roll. She smiled thankfully at me.

Next I went to Cellon's side. He woke up right after Sylvia but he still looks pale. He was sitting cross-legged with his eyes closed. He was siphoning the available mana in the air and I saw that his aura was black. Apollo told me that a black aura is a bad sign. It's a signal that a mage is almost depleted with his mana reserves.

I looked back at Sylvia and she was doing what Cellon was. Someday, I'll learn how to do that. I shook my head and went to the drawing room. I gave Ren and Ling their share of the cabbage rolls which they ate greedily. Their aura still has white but it was dangerously thin.

Ling looked at me and croaked out a thank you. I smiled at him and sat beside Ren across the couch Ling was sitting on.

"So, how was the first day of training?"

Ren looked at me, his eyes a storm of emotions. He shook his head and said, "As much as I wanted to say that it was a disaster, it turned out okay. I finally saw the extent of both of their powers."

I smiled at him, "Aw, I was looking forward to showing off."

Ren chuckled, "I know. I was itching for a fight too. But I guess we need to stop right here. Everyone is dead tired, and our mana reserves are reaching their limits."

"I know. That's why Apollo and I gave you mana-rich foods available here. Although it's not that great against when you absorb, but it's a great start. We can't risk depleting the already sparse mana in the air."

"Did Apollo teach you that?"

I nodded, smilingly, "He did."

Ren sighed, raking his fingers through his white hair.

"Nina, I'm sorry for failing to explain to you about magic, about the world we live in, about everything. It's just, I was very stressed out about the problems, and I was so focused on training you how to defeat the beasts."

I held his hand, squeezing it. "As much as I wanted to berate you, scold you and be mad at you for failing to do that, I think it's counterproductive. I won't gain anything from it and its all well already. I have many mage friends to help you in that aspect."

I faced him, still holding his hand, my other hand reaching out to his jaw to face me. "Don't burden yourself by blaming everything was your fault because you didn't do something. Not everything can be done by a single person. That's why humans and mages alike are never alone. They have each other to perform tasks and help each other become the best version of themselves."

Ren closed his eyes and squeezed my hand that was now resting on his cheek. He kissed my palm, unaware of what he's doing is giving me ideas of his intentions to me.

When he opened his eyes, there was some unknow light to it. I can't point exactly what it is showing but I wasn't afraid of it. In fact, I was feeling okay with it.

"Thank you Nina."

I raised my brow at him, "Thank you for what?"

"For that wonderful pep talk."

I chuckled, "Silly. I'll do anything for you." Oops that came out rather odd. I panicked, searching for a way to somehow reverse it. But before I could say something, he said something that woke up the butterflies sleeping in my stomach.

REN

"As I to you," I said to her, shock and disbelief evident on her lovely face.

Now that we're here, I couldn't deny the fact that maybe I was falling in love with her. The earlier talk I had with Cellon woke me up. Cellon, my bestfriend couldn't stop laughing that the aloof Commander was now have feelings.

He was right. As soon as my powers awakened, I started to drift away from other mages. The Councilors started to train me nonstop when they discovered that my magical ability could be in the Commander rank.

I stopped playing with my friends. I stopped being a child and now focused myself on training and making my powers grow. I pushed people away, afraid that they can persuade me to come play with them. Cellon was the only one who bravely talked to me. He did not persuade me to change my routine, but when I got home after a day of training, he would welcome me at my family's gate and talk about how his day went.

Over time, I have grown accustomed to him that I told him eventually what my day went. It went like that for how many years until the time I was appointed as the Commander at the age of 20.

Being the Commander, my time was limited. I was at the beck and call of the Great Mage and I was assigned for the security of Agrissi. Opening the bar was a risk but I had to do it. I need to keep an eye on the human city when the first attacks happened. The Councilors said, "If there's an attack in the human city, alert us. When the beasts are in the human realm, they are bound to find the nearest magical city and attack."

Cellon was the only one I called to help me. And everything happened after that.

"Ren?"

I shook my flashback moment away as I heard Nina calling me.

"Hmm," I said.

"You're spacing out."

I chuckled, "Sorry. I was just thinking."

Nina cocked her head to the side, "Care to share?"

I shook my head as a smile graced my lips, "Soon. For now, I have something to tell you."

Her face morphed to serious mode which made me chuckle. She slapped my shoulder making me laugh more.

"What is wrong with you?" She asked me angrily.

I raised my hand in surrender, "Sorry. It's just, you are too cute when you get serious."

And now her mouth opened in shock and she stuttered, "Wha- what?"

I sighed and caressed her cheek, "We should talk outside."

I held her hand and we walked out of the house hand in hand.

We sat at the stairs leading to the house, watching the night descend on us as stars started to shed their light. Nina was silent beside me, looking up at the sky.

I was beyond terrified of her answer. I was afraid of her rejection, of her not believing me. But Cellon said I need to act right now or else it would be too late.

But I knew better. I know we are meant to be together, from the first moment I first saw her, I was compelled to take care of her. When she collapsed in front of me after she was chased by ghouls, I couldn't stop myself from picking her up and taking her home.

I knew her address because I stalked her before as what I always do to our regular customers. Call it paranoia but I was afraid some of them are mages and they are pulling the strings of the beast attacks.

I knew beforehand that she was Nina, the owner of a rising designing company. But it didn't stop me from pining for her. I really didn't' hate rich people, it was just a façade to gauge if he would hate me if I show her I hated it.

But no. She stuck to me like a sore thumb and my unknown feelings for her grew then. When she died during that crash, I was livid and very angry at the manticore that I lost all logic and attacked it fiercely. I was a Commander for god sake but I couldn't defeat the manticore. I was consumed by my anger that I failed to gauge the situation.

Now that I knew she was a mage, I tried to teach her and train her to let her be strong against the beasts. I saw how strong she was, but as I was unsure of her capabilities, I taught her nonstop on how to defend and attack, forgetting that I should have taught her the basics about magic.

I was consumed of thinking how to keep her safe that I forgot of her well-being and to let her meet the other mages so that she'd feel like one of us. Instead, I isolated her. I made her to experience what I did before.

Good thing Cellon was always there to say something about it. But before I could change my ways, everything happened. And now I was full of regret. But she was very understanding. I know she is very mischievous and sometimes I wanted to tackle her to the ground because of the pranks she threw my way but I couldn't deny the fact that some feeling was growing inside of me for her.

Being soulmates was the nail in the coffin. It affirmed that our crossing paths was never a coincidence. I knew that something was drawing me to her and now I know it was probably the bond of our soul.

In all of history, it wasn't uncommon that soulmates ended up being married to each other. The pull of the bond was strong and fighting and growing side by side further strengthens that bond. There was only one couple in history that didn't end up married but that was because they were brothers.

I looked at Nina again. She was still looking up at the now dark sky, her lips pulled up in a soft smile. It took all my willpower to stop myself from kissing those lips when she abruptly looked at me.

"We are sitting here for a couple of minutes now Ren. What do you want to say? Do you want to marry me?" she asked with a smirk.

I couldn't agree more.