| Life in Xyrus City (2) |

POV:Ráel

After removing our clothes and masks and putting on new attire, we took a carriage back to the Helstea manor.

As we arrived at the entrance, the doors swung open and revealed a little girl standing there, her hand on her hips and a half-scowl-half-delighted expression on her face, as if she were a mother about to scold us.

With graceful ease, she leaped down the flight of stairs and bludgeoned Arthur in the gut with the crown of her head.

Quickly, I raised my arms to catch Sylvie, the little beast sleeping without a care in the world.

As she looked around and saw me, her expression changed from anger to embarrassment.

However, I overheard her whisper to Arthur, "Welcome back, big brother."

"Thanks, Ellie. Good to be back," Arthur replied with a smile, and she slowly let go of him.

"Hey, Ellie, this is my friend Ráel," Arthur said, pointing at me and gently patting her head.

As I raised my hand and waved at her, saying, "Hey, nice to meet you," she smiled and waved back. She took Arthurs hand and began dragging him inside the manor, with me following closely behind, holding Sylvie in my hands.

As we went inside, I heard a woman's voice saying, "Arthur," as two adults ran towards him, most likely his mother and father, Alice and Reynolds Leywin. "My boy!" Reynolds beamed at Arthur. "You haven't grown at all!"

"Your beard's longer, old man. Trying to match the wrinkles on your face?" Arthur smirked, wrapping his arm around his dad's neck.

"Hey! That's my husband you're talking about!" his mother chided, as his father put him back down.

"Now come here." His mother wrapped her arms around him in a warm embrace. As she let him go, I could see by her red eyes that she was trying her best to hold back her tears.

"Sorry for worrying you," Arthur said, seeing the pain in her eyes.

Sniffing back a sob, she quickly wiped away a stray tear and smiled at him. "You take after your father, you know that? Always getting into trouble, always worrying me," she said, noticing me standing there.

"Why don't we go to the living room and introduce us to your friends? The other one is already here," they said, as they moved towards the living room.

"Hey guys, you're back! Took you two long enough to get here," Elijah said jokingly as he hopped down the stairs.

"We wanted a break from your unsightly mug," Arthur said, grinning. "Where is Jasmine, anyway?" he asked.

"She already went back to the Twin Horns," Elijah answered.

"The prodigious son returns," a noble-looking man with glasses said with a woman by his side, giving Arthur a big hug. "Good to have you back," the Helstea couple said to Arthur, as he bowed his head and thanked them for taking care of his family and letting us live here.

After being herded into the next room, we began discussing our time as adventurers.

Arthur left out some details for his family's sake and exchanged glances with Elijah and me when he skipped the part where Lucas betrayed us.

Other than that, we made sure to fill them in to the best of our ability.

His sister, who was sitting cross-legged on the couch across from me with Sylvie sleeping in her lap, was wide-eyed the entire time as I recalled the dungeon experience with Elijah and Arthur. Her eyes practically sparkled with enchantment

The audience couldn't believe it when Elijah continued the story and told them how we had defeated the Elderwood Guardian.

They refused to believe us until Arthur finally pulled out the beast core. It was then that they were forced to swallow their doubts as they stared in awe at the dull green orb that was smaller than his fist.

They were extremely surprised by my power, and all of them loudly murmured, "Not one but two extraordinary kids are living with us."

"Speaking of cores, what stage are you at, Dad?" Arthur asked awkwardly, scratching his cheek at the comments of his family about us.

"I have been stuck at the dark orange since you left," his dad replied.

"Perfect. Use this, then." Arthur tossed the core to his father, catching him by surprise.

"I had to use a bit while I was healing, but there should be enough in this beast core to help you break through," he said.

Reynolds shook his head with a frozen expression. "Son, I can't. This is something you fought for with your life. I can't just take this from you," he said, trying to give back the core to Arthur.

At that moment, his mother chimed in. "Honey, I'm sure Arthur isn't giving this to you on a whim. If he wants you to have it, it's for a good reason."

"Listen to your wife, Rey. The boy must have his reasons. You're his father, for God's sake. Get stronger; it'll help me as well!" Vincent laughed.

Tabitha just chuckled at this. "Alice, your son brought quite the present."

"For the amount of worrying he caused me, I'm still weighing whether it was worth it!" his mother joked, exchanging a laugh with her friend.

"You have to catch up to me, Dad. You can't let your son leave you in the dust, right?" Arthur smirked, attracting confused gazes.

His father looked up at him. "Don't tell me..."

"Yup," he leaned back on the couch, "light orange stage."

Vincent's eyes practically bulged, as his wife let out a sharp breath in awe.

"Sweet mother of—that's just ridiculous," Vincent breathed out, shaking his head.

"This is nothing. Ráel is already at the light yellow," Arthur said, pointing at me, and the entire room got silent. You could only hear the peaceful breathing sounds of Sylvie.

I just nodded as I did not know what to say in this situation. If they know I am already at the silver stage, they might just pass out here.

I smacked Arthur's hand with a little force as I said, "Don't go around telling people something like that out of the blue, you idiot," as he looked at me with an apologetic look and started to explain to them about my story, telling them, "He is a quadra-elemental mage like me, with four deviants. He awakened at a young age, and he has immense strength. He is even stronger than me."

"Where is your family, Ráel?" Alice asked me after slowly calming down and accepting the situation.

"

I lived with bandits till I was four years old. After that, I have been living in the forest near Xyrus City all my life," I explained to them, and at the mention of the bandits, Arthur's parents got a sad and angry face, because of what happened to them when they were coming to Xyrus City.

"Oh, right, before I forget, be careful, Dad. That core has a beast will inside it, and according to Ráel, it's not safe to use it," Arthur warned his dad.

As Arthur said, all eyes were on me waiting for an explanation of some sort.

"It's a corrupted beast. When someone fuses with it, the beast will try to take over, causing damage all around. It's even possible that its wielder will die, so I would recommend just absorbing the mana to breakthrough, then destroy the mana core," I explained as simply as I could.

At first, they were surprised, but in the end, they were shocked by the implications of my words and started to look at the core in a different way.

"Then better destroy it now. We don't even know if the mana might be dangerous to us," Alice said, not wanting anything to happen to her husband.

"Don't worry, Miss. Arthur and I have already absorbed mana from it, and everything is okay. Don't worry," I said as Arthur nodded in agreement.

"Yes, Mom. I would not give something dangerous to Dad," Arthur reassured his mother that everything would be okay.

The next order of things had to do with me, Elijah, and if we could attend Xyrus Academy with Arthur.

"I would like both of them to join the academy with me if it's possible, Uncle Vincent?" Arthur asked.

"I'll have to talk it over with Director Cynthia. If I can make that old woman squeeze in some time for me, but I don't see why not!" Vincent answered with a grin. His eyes twinkled underneath his glasses as he studied us. There was no doubt that the inner businessman in him had flared in excitement.

Investing in future generations of mages was a large part of what rich folks did to maintain their power and status later on.

Vincent excused himself first, saying he had a lot of work to do now as Reynolds went straight to training, leaving only me, Arthur, Elijah, Ellie, Tabitha, and Alice.

The two women tried to get even more details out of us on our adventures and made sure that Arthur was safe.

Me and the boys excused ourselves, saying we were drained from all those events and respectfully wished them goodnight.

"Goodnight Brother, Goodnight Elijah, Goodnight Ráel," Arthur's sister Ellie chimed in carefully, handing Arthur his bond back.

"You two wash up first; I will go and manage my things," Arthur said as we both entered separate bathrooms to wash ourselves. Just then, I heard Elijah scream, "Hey, I am naked."

As Arthur responded, "Relax, Princess. I can barely see anything because of the steam," obviously lying as he left the bathroom, coming towards me.

"Hey, those clothes are for you," he said as he was surprised to see my body fully with muscles and some scars around it.

"Damn, you are probably the most muscular 12-year-old kid I have ever seen."

I just lightly shook my head at his words as I continued washing and enjoying the warm shower.

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Laying side-by-side in the one large bed that occupied one side of the room, Elijah and Arthur began talking.

"Is this line of pillows between us really necessary?" Arthur asked, placing Sylvie on the pillow above his head.

"Shut up. It's weird already that two boys are sleeping on the same bed," Elijah retorted, stacking more pillows between them.

I couldn't help but realize that, in the mind of a twelve-year-old boy, being uncomfortable in this situation wasn't odd.

"And why does he get a bed all to himself?" Elijah asked, sounding angry and pointing at me resting on my bed at the corner of the room in peace.

"He had a bed inside his storage ring. If you have one, then take it and sleep there," Arthur said and turned towards me, looking at me wierdly, why do you have a bed inside your storage ring?"

"Do you have one for me too?!" Elijah asked looking at me full of hope.

"You know living in the forest isnt that comfortable so i brought the bed with me incase i needed to sleep away from my camp" i repleid completly ingoring Elijah and his beggin expresion.

After some talking about what they want to do with Lucas Elijah ask "Hey guys do you think i will find a girlfriend at Xyrus academy?

"For such a serious-looking guy, you sure worry about normal things," Arthur chuckled . "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll meet some black-haired girl with glasses . Then you two will get married and make cute little babies with black hair and glasses and live happily ever after" he said as he started to laugh out loud

"Do you think babies are born with glasses or something?" Elijah snorted. "Besides, I'm sure you two won't have any trouble getting the ladies with your disgustingly prince-like features.

"One being the nice and caring Prince he said as he pointed at Arthur and the other with his cold and aloof appearence pointing at me i might even say that Ráel looks even better than you my dear friend Arthur." Elijah said

"Am I smelling a hint of envy?" I joked.

"You're smelling just a hint?" Elijah asked.

"Meh, don't worry. The girls our age just look like babies to me, Arthur comforted. "I won't take your thunder, my four-eyed friend. Until you find yourself a nice girl, focus on getting better control of your powers.

"You're right, Elijah muttered from the other side of the bed. "Thanks and goodnight you two i hope you both fall on your faces while you sleep"

"Goodnight to you too" Arthur grumbled

"Goodnight" i said as i turn on my side my mind wich was once filled with various plans for the future, faded into a dull bulr as sleep overtook me.