Chapter 9: Jean

Grey then gave her bread and water while he gathered wood to start a fire. When Grey failed a few attempts in starting a fire using two rocks, the elf pointed her index finger and said "fireball", then a small ball of fire came out of her finger and ignited the wood.

"Thank you" said Grey while the elf just nodded. Grey just looked at her while she was eating the bread quietly.

"Oh yeah, what do you mean obtain?" asked Grey to Seraphim. "make her follow you." Seraphim answered.

"Why?" asked Grey. "She has a high affinity for light and spatial magic." Seraphim answered.

Grey was surprised and asked again "are you sure?". "I'm certain" Seraphim answered.

Grey knew that light and spatial magic were 2 of the rarest magic one can have an affinity with.

"What's your name?" asked Grey to the elf. The elf remained silent for a moment and answered "…I.. don't have a name anymore.". Grey just nodded and asked again "I'm Grey, do you have anywhere to go?". the elf then replied after a moment of silence "…I.. don't".

Grey nodded again and smiled brightly, "Do you want to follow me?" asked Grey. The elf stopped eating and looked at Grey "why?" she asked.

"Because you can use magic." Grey said. "that's all?" the elf asked with doubt. "yeah." Grey replied.

The elf still looked at Grey with her dead eyes. When Grey saw her eyes, he suddenly said as he reached out his hand "if you don't have anything to live for then, live… for me. It'd be a waste for a beautiful woman like you to just die."

When the elf heard that, she suddenly trembled. She looked Grey in the eye and suddenly said "that's cringey you know." Grey smiled bitterly and awkwardly retracted his hand. "but because of that, I've decided to follow you for a while." suddenly said the elf.

Grey was surprised but immediately felt happy because a beautiful woman was going to follow him. "Great! Erm… it's inconvenient if you don't have a name. How 'bout I name you, erm… Elfi, Elfa, Elva."

When the elf and Seraphim heard Grey's trashy naming sense, they both frowned. "How about Lumiere." Seraphim suddenly said before Grey could say anymore names. "Oh, that sounds nice." Grey replied.

"How about Lumiere? You like it?" Grey said to the elf. "Lumiere huh? Yeah… I like it." said Lumiere as she smiled lightly. Grey froze when he saw her smiling lightly "you're really beautiful" he said.

"Well, your just a kid after all." said Lumiere. Grey smiled bitterly and said "wait till I grow up, you're only about 15 years older than me at most." said Grey before drinking some water.

Lumiere looked at Grey with surprise and laughed lightly "I'm past 90 years old though." she said.

Grey instantly spat out the water he was drinking. Grey then awkwardly laughed and said "nice joke.". Lumiere just smiled and didn't bother to correct Grey. When Grey saw this, he sweated and asked Seraphim "Hey, is that true?".

"Elves live much longer than humans do." Seraphim answered indirectly.

"WTF?" Grey opened his eyes and mouth wide when he heard this. It was only after several breaths that Grey's face became normal "Damn!" he thought.

"Well, let's get some rest first." said Grey as he leaned to cave walls and was about to sleep. Lumiere was confused when she saw this "aren't you going to make a slave contract with me?" asked Lumiere. "Why?" Grey answered Lumiere's question with another question.

"Aren't you afraid that I'll kill you in your sleep?" asked Lumiere. "Then that just means I'm not worth following." Grey answered and smiled confidently. Lumiere looked at Grey and smiled, she then laid down and closed her eyes intending to sleep with Grey's cloak over her.

"You're pretty confident aren't you." suddenly said Seraphim. "Based on her earlier performance, I'm stronger than her." said Grey.

Seraphim laughed lightly and said "She's currently a B rank Mage, much stronger than you. But don't worry, you can trust her. "

Grey was surprised as he frowned and smiled bitterly, "She must be laughing at me in her dreams." Grey thought.

Lumiere woke up in the morning the next day. The first thing she saw was Grey feeding a big horse, this was previously the horse of the big fat man. Since Lumiere was now going with him, she needed a horse for her to ride on, Grey couldn't possibly bear to make her run like him.

When Grey saw her, he greeted her with a smile, Grey then gave her his remaining bread and water "Eat first before we depart." Grey said. Lumiere looked at the bread and then looked at Grey "what about yours?" she asked. "don't worry, I can go on for days without eating or sleeping." Grey answered with a smile while Lumiere just looked at Grey silently.

After Lumiere finished eating, she walked towards the horse and asked "if I remember correctly, there should be 5 horses, why did you only take this horse.". Grey looked at her and replied "I prefer running, and it's good training." Lumiere looked at Grey weirdly while Grey just scratched the back of his head with an awkward smile.

After a day of traveling, Grey and Lumiere reached a village. There, Grey bought food and clothes for Lumiere. When Grey saw Lumiere after she cleaned herself and wore the clothes he bought for her, Grey became dumbstruck.

Lumiere was wearing high tight leather boots that were until below her knee, black pants, leather belt, white long sleeve shirt, and a brown leather vest. She has long slender legs, slender fair hands, beautiful long blonde hair, big firm chest, thin waist, large plump behind and flat stomach. Lumiere was 6 feet tall, taller than most girls. She has cold eyes and a noble bearing that makes men feel inferior, but it's exactly because of this that a woman like her is worth conquering.

When Lumiere saw Grey's dumbstruck face, she laughed lightly and flicked her finger at Grey's forehead "Stop staring you brat" she said lightly. Grey rubbed his forehead while smiling bitterly and cursed inside his mind "Fuck! Wait for me to mature!"

The two then traveled together, headed towards the Clear sky kingdom.

It has already been a month since Grey and Lumiere traveled together. In this past month, the life in Lumiere's eyes slowly started to return when she was together with Grey. Lumiere noticed that Grey was reliable and more mature than he looks, he also always trains when he has time.

In this past month, Grey taught Lumiere a mana circulation technique called Enlightened Reality art as he felt that this was superior to what she was currently practicing, since Grey can't teach her magic, this was all he taught her.

Seraphim said that a good mana circulation technique can also help cast magic spells faster and more fluidly.

At first, Lumiere was in doubt when Grey said that he wanted to teach her a better mana circulation technique, but after Grey taught her it and trying it, she became surprised "How can this be? My former mana circulation technique was definitely one of the best in our race! If I didn't have a high potential in magic, I wouldn't have gotten a chance to learn it at our Imperial library. But he just taught me this superior technique so casually." Lumiere thought.

"So? How is it?" said Grey as he smiled smugly. Lumiere found that Grey's smile this time was much more pleasing to the eye than normal, she smiled genuinely and said "thank you" before flicking his forehead.

They were now close to the Clear sky kingdom. After another day of traveling, Grey could see the big and tall walls that surrounds the kingdom that helps prevent attacks from monsters, demons or other races.

Grey was amazed when he saw this, while Lumiere was indifferent, as if this was nothing special.

Grey and Lumiere then headed towards the kingdom gates to enter the kingdom. there was an extremely long line in front of the gates, and judging from how slow the guards take in people, Grey guessed that it'll be hours before they can enter. Grey and Lumiere have no choice but to wait.

"Damn! What that old man Albert have to call me for." said a handsome looking man that looked about 30 years old, has short red hair, unkempt face and shabby clothing.

"Hmm?" the black ring with strange lines that was on the man's left middle finger vibrated slightly when he was near the people that were waiting to go inside the kingdom. The man instantly became surprised and looked at the people one by one seriously with sharp eyes.

When the man's gaze landed on Grey's back, the ring on his finger vibrated more intensely. Grey turned around when he felt the man's gaze, the two then locked eyes with each other. The man just smiled and waved his hands at him while walking towards Grey.

When Lumiere saw the man walking towards them, she was surprised and instantly became deep in thought while frowning and looking at the man's face.

Seraphim was also surprised when she saw the man and looked at him doubtfully.

The man sized Grey up from top to bottom when he was in front of him. "Hello young man, my name is Jean, could I possibly know your name?" asked Jean while he stretched out his right hand intending to shake hands with Grey.

When Lumiere heard those words, she instantly paled and was about to kneel down when suddenly a strange force prevented her from doing so, Jean then stared at Lumiere.

"Hmm? Could you be-" before Jean could finish his question, Lumiere nodded and said while her forehead was covered with cold sweat "My name is Lumiere.". Jean just smiled and didn't continue.

"The name's Grey" said Grey and looked at Jean after looking at Lumiere. Jean nodded to Grey's reply and said while smiling "Grey huh? Could you follow me for a sec?"

Jean then turned around and walked away. But before he did so, his and Seraphim's gaze met.

When Seraphim saw this, she sighed and thought "it is him."