Chapter 9: Getup

Should he do it in broad daylight? This was something he kept asking himself. He went straight to his hut and saw Celia sitting on the bed with a blank face. She turned her head to his brother. "You are back," 

"How are you feeling?"

"You didn't save me," tears started dropping down her cheeks. "I don't want his kids. I HATE HIM!" she gritted her teeth.

"He's dead." 

Celia froze, she observed her brother. "What do you mean?" 

"I killed him. He won't bother you now and if anyone else does let me know." 

Vaelorian went to his wooden cabinet and took out a long blanket. He carefully observed the fur blanket and wrapped it around him. 'This should work,' he thought and wrapped another cloth around his face. He quickly undressed and folded them.

"I am going to make sure there are no repercussions, you take care of yourself." He spoke before leaving.

He found an isolated alley and quickly covered his body and face. He casually walked around observing his surroundings, several people were roaming around and they noticed him. He coughed a few times and started limping a little from time to time.

He had to make sure that no one was following him and for that, he needed to act natural in an unnatural getup. Vaelorian reached the designated house and double-checked before knocking on the door. He heard the footsteps and a middle-aged lady opened the door, her eyes were swollen and red from all the crying.

"Yes?" She spoke eyeing his strange getup. 

Vaelorian pointed his finger at her. "What?" She asked and that was her last words, all she saw was a blue streak disappearing into her brain. Her body fell down with a thud. Vaelorian went inside the house and closed the door.

"Are you okay honey?" A strong burly man came rushing and fell down. Blood gushing out of his brain. Vaelorian shot 10 more bullets making the count of holes 11 like the previous ones and observed both the bodies.

'Are mana bullets really this strong or are they really weak?' He was having a really hard time digesting the fact that mana bullets were the strongest. The world he had explored and the people he met were limited to a few thousand and only the Aetherholm city. He had always thought that if humans were truly wiped out and they were the last ones remaining. But because of the inability to fight wild beasts, he never stepped into the deeper forest.

After a significant amount of time passed Vaelorian carefully opened the gate and peeked before running in the opposite direction. He took random turns and when he was sure that no one was following, he made his way back taking the longest path. 

When he reached home there was no sign of Celia. He always had a hard time understanding the emotions because he never cared enough and made any effort. Celia did hold a place in his heart but she did not influence him so he never bothered enough to care about her. His mom always taught him that he must protect his blood at all times and that was the only reason Vaelorian looked after Celia. To him, the only blood siblings were those who shared the same mom as him, because he never knew his dad. And out of all the siblings, the only bearable one to him was Celia. He sighed before rushing out to look for her.

Soon it was dark and Vaelorian could only return. He sighed helplessly as there was no sign of Celia. He decided to stay here rather than return to the mansion just for the sake of Celia. He sat on his bed and started practicing what King had shown him. He circulated the mana to his palm and started extracting the element. He could feel wind gushing out in small patches before it stopped altogether. He frowned at this sight. To him, it looked like other elements were restricting the flow of air. It was like a tug of war with the elements against him. King had no difficulty in extracting so why was he having problems. Air is known for its independence so why was it bound to those elements?

He tried several more times but every time only a small gush of wind flowed out and sometimes it would happen in patches before stopping altogether. But he was also stubborn and kept trying and before he knew it sunlight reached his eyes from the gap between the straw roof. He was genuinely surprised at the sight. Time flowed so quickly but unfortunately for him, there was no sign of progress. But for some strange reason, he was not sleepy despite missing out 8 hours of sleep. 

Celia still wasn't home and he didn't bother to find her now. She would come when she wanted to and he didn't have time to look for her day and night. He ran to the Celestal Haven(the palace) for his next class. He was a little late and was worried that he might not get an entry if the King was already there. 

Fortunately, he was earlier than King Maximus and quickly found an empty seat. The population this time was comparatively lower than the previous two sessions. Vaelorian couldn't see Alex anywhere and a lot of other familiar faces were also missing. 

King made his way shortly and observed them before sighing. "You must have noticed that many are absent today. The reason is they only needed a basic spell and they all have decided to join the exploration team."

Vaelorian was surprised and he looked around but only saw a few people wearing a surprised look. Something has happened at the mansion. He frowned and looked back towards the king. 

"Today will not be the education session but rather you are going to use spells and I will supervise you. Let's start right away." King Maximus flicked his hand and target dummies sprung out from the ground. They were very simple and made of rocks, 2 meters apart from each other. 

Soon enough, everyone practiced their basic spells, and many of them managed to destroy the dummy. Vaelorian frowned at the sight because he couldn't even extract the element successfully, let alone use the spell. He can't attract the attention of the King by being the only defected one nor can he show his mana bullets and be the only anomaly to do so. He tried again and again but failed and in the end, King Maximus walked towards him.