02Claire

After freshening up, Arthur walked downstairs to the dining room. When he entered the dining room, he saw all the chairs arranged tidily around the brown-rectangular dining table. He could see his father, Alvar, sitting on the family head's seat at the center of the table. To his right, his mother Emilia was sitting.

The glass window beside the table and the hanging candelabra over the table were creating a warm atmosphere.

Arthur saw various cuisines, neatly arranged, and placed on the table.

"Big brother, I am dying from hunger. Come fast," Ava complained. She pouted and glared at him to show her annoyance.

Ava was a little girl who seemed like nine years old. She was resting her hands on the table, rhythmically tapping the table. Her icy blue hair was loosely hanging down her back.

Arthur simply nodded and sat beside her ignoring the glare.

Alvar was an adult who seemed to be in his early 30 years. His face had an energetic look, and his eyes were brimming with wisdom.

Emilia had a gorgeous face, which could rival anyone in the Ashtide village. She had the same icy blue hair as Ava. Her wavy hair stopped right at her waist. Her greenish-blue eyes gleamed in the light from the hanging candelabra as she looked at Arthur.

Everyone frowned when Arthur ignored Ava's complaint. They thought he was acting strange. It's not like his usual self to not get revenge, even if it was his sister.

'Did something happen to him?' They thought.

"Are you alright, Kanha?" Emilia asked, worry filling her brows.

Arthur was startled at her question and cursed his inability to hide his emotions. He looked at his mother's face, answering with a hollow laugh, "Not really."

"W-what happened?" She looked straight into his eyes and asked.

"Acne, Mum. They are pestering me," Arthur said tracing his fingers along his forehead and cheeks.

When he answered that, his dark pupils averted ever so slightly. He couldn't lie looking into her eyes. Neither could he tell them the truth, lest they worry for him more than they already were.

Emilia didn't get angry at his reply but revealed a slight smile. She was fine as long as he was okay. She wouldn't mind his actions at all.

Furthermore, they simply believed his reason, as they knew their son cared about his face as much as he cared for his life.

"Alright, the food's getting cold. Let's eat." Alvar talked for the first time.

"I want desserts," Ava said, raising spork and spife.

"First food and then desserts," Arthur said ruffling her hair.

"Ok!" Ava pouted but nodded her head.

Arthur smiled at her and tilted his head towards his mother and asked, "Where is Claire, Mum?"

"It's Nora's death anniversary," Emilia said with a sigh.

"Oh," Arthur said, "Did y'all visit Aunt Nora's grave?"

"We did. That silly child is stubborn and we had to leave her behind," Emilia replied.

"Hmmm. I will go and visit her," Arthur muttered and quickly finished the breakfast.

-----

The village cemetery was stationed on the eastern side of the village. Walking out of the village, Arthur arrived at the cemetery.

Comparatively, the cemetery was larger than the village. Ashton village often became victims of the best tides, and the mortality rate was high.

The cemetery was divided into three levels, the outermost level was where the villagers or victims would bury, and the warriors who sacrificed themselves to save the village were buried on the second level.

Finally, the core region was allotted to the Ashtide family and the villagers who made great contributions to the development of Ashton village.

When Arthur entered the cemetery, he didn't stop but directly walked into the core region. Nora was resting in the core region of the cemetery.

A few minutes later, he reached the destination and saw a slender figure standing in front of the grave.

Few meters away from her, a bulky man stood and sighed from time to time.

Arthur went and stood beside her as bowed his head to pay respect to the dead.

In this world, generally, the graves were built by resting the dead person's head towards the east, and feet towards the west. The headstones would be built either at the head or feet. There was no traditional rule for it.

******

Nora Layman.

B&D: 8979 AL - 9008 AL.

Good Wife and Mother.

Loyal and kind.

*****

Nora was Claire's mother and Layman's wife. Layman was the head village guard of the Ashton village and second-transformation enhancer.

Nora was a fire manipulator and died in a tragic incident. She died saving Ava a few years back during the previous beast tide.

Although there was no beast tide in the last 5 years, the damage caused by those beasts lasted to this day. It was both financial and psychological damage.

"Take care of her." When Layman saw Arthur had arrived, he felt gratified. As father and daughter were not on good terms, he knew Claire always listened to her young master's words.

Assuring himself, Layman left silently.

Arthur solemnly nodded. He silently kept glancing at Claire's face. She loved her mother a lot. It was evident from her face.

Her eyes were puffy and red from crying continuously. The tears left a trail across her cheeks and were yet to dry fully. Her shoulders were bouncing up and down. She clasped her hands together and looked at her mother's grave unblinkingly.

Even after a few minutes, she didn't notice Arthur, who was standing beside her and just kept staring at the grave. He frowned, thinking it's not good.

"Claire," Arthur called out.

She didn't respond.

"Claire," He yelled and tried to poke her.

However, when he did that, Claire started to fall to the ground. Arthur immediately went behind her and caught her from falling to the ground. She fell into his embrace, and weakly raised her eyes, and cried, "Young master…" before fainting.

"Silly girl," Arthur said lightly, flicking her forehead.

Then holding her in his arms, Arthur walked out of the cemetery and quickly made his way into the village.

When the villagers saw a handsome boy carrying a young girl, a myriad of thoughts ran through their minds and they revealed meaningful smiles.

However, Arthur ignored them and walked straight to his room and gently placed her on the bed, and walked downstairs again.

"Mum," Arthur said.

Emilia was still in the kitchen doing the dishes. When Arthur called her, she surprisedly asked, "You came so fast? Where's Claire?"

"She is in my room," Arthur replied.

"In your room?" Emilia asked as she raised her eyebrows suspiciously.

Arthur nodded and sat on the benchtop as he said, "She fainted. Help me wash her up. She was sweating profusely. Her knees are bruised from kneeling there. Mom, please?"

Emilia frowned when she heard Arthur's words. Ever since Nora sacrificed herself to save Ava, she treated Claire in the same way as Arthur and Ava.

Women might accept a stranger as their husbands easily, but children were exceptions. The same went for Emilia, but she forced herself to accept Claire, albeit slowly.

Five years was not a small amount of time and she had a lot of situations to express her emotions. Although she couldn't say she loved Claire like her own children. However, she did love her.

Now when she learned Claire fainted, she was worried and ran upstairs.

Arthur sighed at his mothers' hurried actions and busied himself with cooking. Knowing Claire's character, who knows how long it had been she took the food?

Manipulators were not like the enhancers and they had weak bodies. In fact, they needed to consume more food compared to enhancers.

Manipulating mana in the surroundings was not an easy action to perform. Furthermore, Manipulators would need to convert the mana into elemental magic.

That itself would demand a freaking amount of energy. That's why manipulators could only cast a limited amount of the spells in the early stages.

Whether the casting time or amount of spells a manipulator could cast depend on their mental energy.

Mental energy corresponded to the magic circles. The more the magic circles formed higher the mental energy would be.

Not to mention, elemental symbols need mana to preserve, and it would keep absorbing the mana in the surroundings. Even for this action, mental energy was needed.

Claire awakened the fire elemental symbol. Thus her daily intake should be high. However, for her not taking food more than a day, fainting was an option.

There was also a famous saying in the world - Manipulators were cursed beings.

The normal human body could easily last more than a week without eating. In the manipulator's case, they couldn't live long without food. There was even a case where a manipulator died after not taking the food for just five days.

That was a serious drawback of the manipulators.

Arthur placed the stewpot over the stove and lit it. Then he poured the water and allowed it to come to a boil. Meanwhile, he took out the variety of dry mana herbs and powdered them in the small-stone mortar.

He cut the vegetables and prepared various spices, and added one after another professionally.

A few minutes later, he brewed a brown-colored soup. Then he took the ladle and tasted the soup.

"Hmmm...That tastes good," Arthur said as he enjoyed the taste, closing his eyes.

From childhood, Arthur liked only a few things. One of them being, hitting on girls. When he researched how to pick-up girls, many books told him to learn cooking.

Arthur didn't think much and asked Emilia to teach him cooking. She felt strange at his abrupt request, however, she taught him happily.

According to her, teaching meant spending more time with her beloved son. One was happy thinking about the process, the other one happy about the outcome.