Chapter 18

"Tired."

One word that perfectly described his current physical and mental state slipped out without any thought. Navile's honest answer that seemed like a whimper and his innocent face when he said that word immediately made Neil unable to help himself from laughing. Neil tried to cover his mouth tightly so that his facial expression looked strange, but he still couldn't hold back his overflowing laughter.

Without even looking, Navile knew that his uncle was laughing at him silently. So, he opens his mouth and says something in an annoying tone.

"Is there anything funny, Uncle?"

Rather than going away, Neil's will to laugh grew stronger. And so he laughed until the veins in his face bulged and his eyes formed an arch.

"Nothing. But... it's a lie. Your face is usually flat and without any expression, but suddenly it's become like that. How could I not laugh. This is such a rare opportunity. I can see Navile pouting like that." he replied in a voice that vibrated as the tickling feeling grew stronger. As hard as he tried to hold back his uncontrollable laughter, then Neil continued his words.

" But once you get into this pool, your body should be better, right? Sorry... sorry. I was going to be too serious and put you in the corner because we haven't practiced in a while. But, Navile... you're really bad, aren't you. You're forcing an old body to move to the point of exhaustion."

Navile turned his head angrily and glared at Neil sinisterly.

" What old body?" he said spontaneously. Then, he let out a harsh sigh. With a slight lowering of his voice he continued his grumbling. "Uncle's body is still very, very young, you know. Then again, I don't see any signs that you're tired either. Why do you keep lowering yourself, when you're so strong? It makes me sick."

Neil scratching his head as he was speechless. Seeing Navile's expression, he felt guilty for being too hard in this sparring match. On top of that, he had not expected Navile to get angry at his joke.

But then he opened his mouth slowly as if to say something, and then he shut it again. He wasn't sure Navile's mood would be better and more pleased if he answered the same way he always did, that he was just a regular old man who sells cakes. He bet Navile was already tired of that kind of answer, he thought.

Neil can' t explain everything yet. The reason he and Kana were keeping so far away. Choosing a ship that was away from the center of the fleet as a place to live and trying to be ordinary civilians. Neil was sure that now was not the right time to explain all that to Navile. Because it might disrupt Navile's concentration on protecting the Whistle Fleet during the Defender recruitment exam next week.

Finally Neil gave up making excuses, and leaned back on the edge of the pool, letting the toes of his long legs rise to the surface of the water. Thinking that Navile would get better on his own without him having to make excuses that would make his pupil's mood worse. Navile was different from Sachi who would keep asking questions until she got the answers she wanted.

"Uncle...at least give me an explanation! How could you do something like that?"

Neil was surprised to hear that Navile was more interested in the training session that they were finishing by force. Expecting Navile to be so excited because Sachi had been able to do it first, even Sachi could move Elysion's wand as she pleased.

"Hmmm... which kind was that?" he asked pretending that he didn't know.

Navile, who had been staring at the dividing wall between the recovery pool area and Neil's private lab, immediately turned his head and shot a glare as if it could shoot through Neil's body.

" Earlier during sparring practice, how did Uncle form the sword and move it so easily?"

Actually, Navile wanted to respond to the strange behavior of his uncle with a sarcastic answer, but once he saw the expression on Neil's face that seemed to really not understand the meaning of his question, he decided to refrain and ask politely. After all, he had to be nice to someone who was older than him if he wanted to know something, right?

"Oh… what do you mean it's like this?"

Instead of giving a boring and long explanation, Neil activates the photon art while staying in his position, his body swaying with the calm water current. A green aura covered his right hand, then formed a short sword and a few seconds later turned into a longer sword.

" Yeah... that one. How did you do that, Uncle? I got tired so fast because I wanted to do something like that."

"I don't know how I did it either. it was formed by itself," Neil replied with an innocent face that looks like a fool. More like he was pretending to be stupid to cover up his ignorance. Then he opened his mouth again because he remembered Navile's power based on his imagination.

"You didn't forget about your abilities, did you? The power from imagination. It seems like it will work that way," he noted as he continued to change the form of the aura in his right hand into a sword, spear, then dagger.

"Is Uncle's ability like mine?"

" Same like yours?" Neil repeated Navile's words, half surprised that Navile could figure it out so fast. He couldn't be evasive and chose to give Navile the explanation he wanted.

" After all, I was created with a high level of intelligence. Otherwise how could I be Veda's personal bodyguard, right?"

After hearing Navile's words, a tingling feeling came back to Neil's belly. He could no longer pretend to be a calm uncle and listen to Navile's words without laughing. The veins on his face showed and his eyes turned into curved lines with a teardrop showing at the edges. He was thoroughly amused by Navile's innocent words.

"Th-that's right. You're really making my belly twist, Navile."

As Neil let out all his laughs, Navile just made a completely expressionless face, seeing his uncle laugh afterwards made him completely not understand. How could there be a strong man in this world who had a habit of laughing and smiling as much as Neil?

Navile sighed slightly to get rid of the nagging feeling in his heart. His intention to pretend he didn't know was responded to by Neil in a foolish manner as well. He admitted that finding information from Neil was a bit difficult, unlike Kana who could easily tell him everything, except for the reason they secluded themselves and became a strange couple in the middle of modern Civilization.

"Well...the point is that if you understand your own power, you can do many things, Navile. You just haven't really understood the power of imagination itself. I'll show you one more time. Look carefully."

Neil changed his posture, lowering both feet to the bottom of the recovery pool to maintain a balanced posture. The dagger-shaped greenish aura in his right hand slowly transformed into a boomerang. Neil formed a stance, then threw the boomerang into the air.

After doing that, Neil then turned to Navile who was very seriously watching the green light trail from the direction of the boomerangs of aura until it finally split the air and disappeared in the distance without hit anything.

"Have you seen it? That's how it works."

Navile nodded slowly without saying anything. He processed everything that happened in front of his eyes with a heart filled with curiosity to try. But in reality he didn't understand what Neil meant by just looking at it, he had to try it himself if he wanted to be able to do it for real.