23 - Romantic Conflict

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A gentle caress,

Sweet words whispered in your ears,

Spending my time with you will never be a waste. 

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"Alex and Fredrick are dating?!"

Alex turned her furious scowl from her plate to Kairo, who incidentally looked at her at the same time. He flinched from seeing her reaction.

Alex was in a terrible mood, but she still maintained control of her feelings, knowing that in front of her was the lovable Kairo who was simply an innocent kid. And more than a mere guest of her lord, he was slowly becoming a part of their everyday life. She sighed and tried to hide her passionate, purple eyes with a rigid smile.

"It's nothing, Kairo-cutie. Apologies for glaring at you like that. I'm simply..." she took a couple of big bites with her spoon in the middle of her sentence, "...really hungry, is all."

But Kairo could see through her facade. He thought that she was pretty bad at lying, so much so that even her eyes could reflect her emotions so easily. To be that transparent, he couldn't imagine how invasive having those eyes could be, so he decided to play along with her charade.

"Oh, is that so?" he fabricated a chuckle. "I, as well. It is a good thing Tiraga cooked a lot of scrumptious dishes! Come, let us continue eating," he said stiffly, which Esmeralda picked up on, nearly letting out a chortle.

Alex smiled earnestly this time, relieved that she seemed to have convinced Kairo, but her eccentric eye still did not turn back to its bluish-green color. Instead, its red hue merely faded slightly and was now a calm royal purple. Ultimately, her feelings were still aggravated, but her brows were no longer furrowed, and she was now able to form a calm exterior and act more normally. Kairo wished she would return to her cheerful self.

"Normally, a child wouldn't even spare a single thought when it comes to other people's troubles in romance," Esmeralda thought to herself as she pretended to not hear their conversation, gracefully eating from across Kairo and Agata. "On the other hand, a child might turn out to be overly curious about such a situation instead, pressing through boundaries as an inexperienced runt would, but Kairo is neither of those. How interesting, peculiar even."

The next cold morning, Kairo decided to confront the gatekeeper about this before they left for training. In his search for Fredrick, his entire body was aching heavily from their training yesterday.

Every step he took was an icy breath, forming footprints in the snow. He didn't think that it would ache this much.

He thought that his travel from his village to Jamais kingdom which lasted over a month would give his body an advantage, but Aisia kept up with him. Her thievery had probably resulted in her increased constitution and agility, and he further speculated that she was trained by Grisia or the other maids in the mansion beforehand.

He realized that the drawn-out nature of his hike where he could take breaks when he felt like it may not be the same as spending most of his energy in a short burst.

"Forward. Just like always, forward," muttering as if in a trance, he limped through the snow on his own. 

He kept looking for the manor's one and only gatekeeper. Eventually, he found Fredrick and snapped out of his trance, painstakingly walking to where he stood. Every inch of movement of his joints and limbs caused him to groan and grumble.

"Mr. Fredrick, have you any idea why Alex is in a foul mood?" Kairo asked, assessing Fredrick's perspective on the matter.

"Ah, good morning, Sir Kairo. I asked her, but she wouldn't budge," he replied.

"Did you... perhaps forget about your anniversary yesterday?"

There was a considerable silence between the two of them until Fredrick burst out in genuine surprise, "Our anniversary was yesterday?!"

Kairo reflexively hit his forehead in disappointment, the movement of his arms hurting a lot more than the facepalm itself. "So, there was no surprise, you honestly forgot?"

"H-How— How did you even know about this, Sir Kairo?"

"The maids told me about it during dinner when I noticed her... unusual demeanor from across the table."

"Curses, I should've asked them! I thought she was somehow being jealous that I was talking to the other maids, that's the reason why I didn't bother asking. I was distancing myself from them. So, that's why she's been terribly irritable, and her eye color has even changed into whenever she's feeling emotional."

"You know about the eye color change, so, it's safe to assume that this has already happened at least once in the past, huh?"

"Several times already, actually," he chuckled, scratching his head in a convicted manner. Kairo sighed. "Relationships are like that. Through thick and thin, see?"

"What do we do now?"

"We?"

"Yes, we," Kairo asserted amidst the aching. "I don't like seeing Alex out of herself like that. She's like a sister I never had..."

Kairo was surprised by the words that came out of his own mouth. He thought back to the time when he, Nayani, and Kayal were talking about asking his parents for a little sister. He cherished that time before tragedy struck. A big sister would've been spectacular too.

Somehow, he realized why Kayal, the eldest of the three of them, was flustered when that topic arose. The two of them must've made her quite uncomfortable. They were so innocent with such trivial worries. In his bleak reflection, Kairo felt the weight of the bags under his eyes. 

Fredrick saw Kairo's somber expression and formed a resolute look. "Sir Kairo, help me."

Hearing Fredrick's plea, Kairo asked in return, "How?"

"Make sure she never goes anywhere near that place," he pointed at a building across the gate. It was a small shack that was partially covered by the forest.

"Why, what's that?"

"It's where I hunker down and it also serves as my workshop."

"Ah! Mr. Parme did tell me about how he got a neat little custom-made wooden container from you."

"Oh, old man Parme, huh?"

"Yes, he helped me with my merchant's license."

"You're already a merchant? That's weird. I mean, that's oddly fast. Usually, registering takes..." Fredrick paused for a moment but decided not to think too much about it and congratulate the boy for his feat instead. "Well, amazing work, Sir Kairo! You're quite the smart and talented kid!"

"Thank you. So, that's where you do your woodwork?"

Fredrick nodded proudly. "Precisely. You only need to distract her for a week."

Kairo flinched in surprise, regretting his overreaction as the jolt made his body remember the pain. "A week?! Isn't that already too late for an anniversary gift?"

"Hmm..." Fredrick crossed his arms and tilted his head in contemplation. After a few moments, he answered, "It's better than nothing. I want to give her something special, even if it is already too late. And I don't want it to be something that I can simply make in a few hours or a single day, I think that would be insulting. I shall use all the time I need to make it special and thoughtful, or else, it's not worth gifting to her... is what I think anyway."

"I... I think I agree. I could get behind that. Sure, I'll help you, Mr. Fredrick!"

"Hey, we're buddies now. You've helped me a lot by giving me a heads-up about my partner, and you're even continuing to help me. I think that merits you resigning that whole 'mister' business. Just call me Fredrick. I could only imagine where our relationship would've went if you didn't step in for this knuckleheaded bozo," he then reached his fist to Kairo with a beam on his face. "Actually, you're a bonafide merchant now, I should be the one calling you 'mister'!" he chuckled.

"No, no, just Kairo is fine. We're in this together," he bumped his fist into Fredrick's. "The Quest To Calm Alex Down At Your Anniversary!"

"That's a pretty long quest title, but I'm down for it."

Kairo bid his farewell to Fredrick as Grisia and Aisia walked out of the mansion door and waited for him while they stood beside the manor gates. They went to the same flat area as yesterday and resumed their endurance training.

The air was still and the snow fell ever so slowly.

Grisia ordered them to jog around him again as he talked to them about magic this time. Curiously, when they moved their body intensely to exercise, the pain was tolerable. It's almost like it was not even a hindrance anymore.

"If you remember from last time, Sxchykrazgraamut is the demon to which the power chakra is attributed," the two concurred in unison as they went around Grisia. "This time, we'll talk about the power magic, also known as the arcane arts. Magica Arcamana, the progenitor of the arcane arts. In the legends, he was described as a god that sought incredible power, not for destruction, but for the sake of knowledge and his own amusement."

"A god this time," Kairo murmured to himself.

"Chakra's source of power is also called by the same name, chakra. But magic uses a source called mana, which is drawn from a pool within either a being's own body, from others' bodies, or from the surrounding area. This pool of mana is called mana capacity. Some are born with a large mana capacity, some not so much. Even plants have mana capacity. The more mana they have, the rarer and more potent their effects are," Grisia explained.

"I didn't notice it, but maybe that's why Mr. Parme only took some of my medicinal herbs after inspecting it closely. They all looked the same to me. This knowledge will come in handy when foraging to sell or for my own use," Kairo thought to himself. 

"Mana capacity can increase while living one's life naturally, but training can let you increase it even greater, to the point of letting you break through your limits. The manifestation of mana is called a spell. For chakra, they are called chakra techniques, elemental techniques, or simply, techniques. I assume Esmeralda already told you about incantations, Kairo?" Grisia asked, to which Kairo nodded. "Good. I've also already told Aisia about it in the past, therefore, I shall skip it. Honestly, I don't mind others knowing about my incantationless magic, but it seems that Esmeralda still worries about it."

Kairo let out a laugh, acknowledging that Esmeralda is just how Grisia described her.

Grisia continued, "Unlike chakra techniques, spells do not take an elemental form. Spells are more... abstract, while chakra techniques are more physical. You could think of it like that. Though, there are various effects that chakra can emulate from magic, but not vice-versa."

"Does that mean I can't launch a fireball with arcane arts, but with chakra, I can? And I can augment myself with a wind chakra technique to make myself float, similar to a floating spell?" Aisia asked in her own words, surprised that even with her aching body, she was doing well, listening and jogging at the same time.

"Impressive. I'm glad you're listening well, Sia. Precisely, you can definitely be flexible with chakra. You would think that it eclipses magic in almost every way, but magic still has its own value," Grisia raised his pointer finger. "In fact, magic has a lot of things chakra cannot replicate. Complex needs such as healing, summoning, illusions, and object manifestation can commonly be achieved through magic. But as exciting as it may seem, you cannot dish out spells all willy-nilly."

The two of them looked at each other. They looked as if they realized they had the same plan but were told it was utterly foolish from the get-go.

"Spell use is limited by a concept called mana output. You can only use a certain amount of mana at a time before risking injury, or even worse, death. Your remaining mana also affects your physical self. Trust me, you will know when you're out of mana. You will feel fatigued and your spells will be considerably weakened. Push yourself any further and you will end up deathly exhausted, unable to cast any more spells until you've rested, or as I've mentioned earlier, you may outright die."

Kairo grimaced at the thought of it, but if push came to shove, he thought about taking as many of those red-robed fiends as he could down with him, but meeting Grisia's perceptive stare, Kairo remembered Grisia's words.

While jogging, he slapped himself in the cheeks with both hands. Aisia noticed this and was puzzled. He refrained from going down that thought process again, he had a lot of people that he cared about now.

As if to support Kairo's resolution, Grisia spoke, "And that is why I started your pretraining with endurance training as a warm-up. Your goal is to reach one hour and longer. Until you've built up your stamina to at least that point, I will not be teaching you any magic spells, chakra techniques, or any other power. Though, Aisia already knows how to make use of her chakra to create and manipulate fire, among other things," he admitted.

Kairo remembered that he still had to gain or look for a chakra mark on his body to assess his options.

"So, jog as if your life depends on it, Kairo. If you still seek vengeance, then this is essentially something that will decide how far you'll go."

Grisia was only testing using Kairo's drive for vengeance as a way to motivate and push himself. Due to this, Kairo's eyes became relentless and his movements became much sharper, causing Grisia to see how effective that method was. Though, the dark aura, Kairo's ki that Grisia had been noticing since he met Kairo, also started to appear slightly. This made him rethink using the idea of revenge to provoke him.

He remembered how unhealthy of a drive revenge was when it came to「 Ki 」practitioners, though this was the first time he saw someone radiate aura without being able to see or be aware of what「 Ki 」was themselves.

It simply didn't make any sense. Did Kairo somehow lose his memories? A single traumatic experience cannot awaken one's ki that easily. He had to have met a teacher or a master that awakened it for him. His thoughts then turned to that strange, young girl, Remi, who had been following Kairo around.

"Can you repeat it again, Grisia? The thing about mana output! I got distracted," Aisia huffed, snapping Grisia out of his deep thoughts.

"Fine, to put it simply, mana output is the bottleneck. No matter how large your reserves are, you can only use so much of your mana at a time. As long as you remember this: do NOT use too much mana at once and do NOT deplete all of your mana. Otherwise, well... if your powerful, risky attack does not work, when you inevitably drop on the ground like you did yesterday, you will be at the mercy of your enemy. Do you understand?" 

The two shouted their agreement and continued their jog. In the end, they were able to break their previous record by about two more minutes before dropping on the snowy ground. Aisia didn't pass out this time, Kairo supposed that she was able to sleep soundly after being so exhausted yesterday.

Grisia lifted them from the snow with the same floating spell that he used on Aisia yesterday. "You'll get cold," he also added in a minor adaptive coat of temperature spell. "Keep it up, running away is also a viable option. I do not consider it cowardly. My master simply called it a... strategic retreat."

"Your master?"

"Yes, but he's dead now," Grisia said, making the two of them widen their eyes at how casual he said such a morbid thing. "Or not," they sighed in relief. "I haven't really kept in touch with him. Also, he's basically ancient, I wouldn't be surprised if he was already buried in a grave somewhere."

"Like master, like student," Aisia teased. Grisia noticed her teasing him about being an old man again and reverted the spell, raising her sensitivity to the cold instead. "Ack! Cold, cold, COLD! I'm sorry, I'm kidding, I take it back!"