Trace Of Wonder

Inside the store, at twelve in the afternoon. Arise finally got his license. Not much happened during his stay at the guild, a few tests and a product showcase. As expected, they were blown by Arise's products. This time, he submitted two of his products, the vanilla extract and ice cream. He figured that he could mass produce vanillin in no time due to his recent discovery. His face was laced with pride as if someone looked closely on his face, his eyes sparkled with riches.

As he walked in the Cedula district, where the guild was established. He saw a handful of people whispering to each other. Likewise, he did not pay attention to any of it. To his eyes, getting caught with any problems were more than enough to ruin someone's life. He stopped in front of a gated area. Most people near the area were huddled in the alleyways of the houses looking for cool. The summertime in the Solicia region was sweltering, the yellow rays of the sun heated up the residential area, that's because the Rosea duchy was situated near the ciaman mountains which bordered the Vescuna region.  The elaborate placement of the mountain-range redirect the warm winds of the desert region to the duchy. Resulting of the summer always hot like a convection oven.

That was why most settlers huddled near the gated noble district to at least get their cool caused by their constant use of hydrology and aerology enchants on the parameters of their wall during summer.

Then, he avoided them. 'From what I noticed, speaking ill of the Rhoeia family can get you a death sentence. Yet these unfortunate people, run their mouths about the incident days ago. I should not be associated with them' He dashed to Mel's house to prepare his product, so that he could launch by next week.

It had been days since the scandal caused by Alexandris.  Rumors spread around the common areas had been spreading like wildfire. Teetering between silence and uproar. The rumor fanned out that it started to circulate amongst aristocrats in the noble district. Most were lighthearted rumors, as defaming the duke's family is as good as death. 

A week later as the nobles attended the marquis of Cedula district's tea party. They sat in a round table filled to the brim with sweets, accompanied by a white ceramic teapot adorned with the imagery of flowers. As the hall drowned with the vibrant color of the women's dress contrasted by the dull black and brown garment by men. Each had their own topics for past week's gossip.

In a canopy on the garden, a lady with a pretty sunhat commented on the accounts of Alexandris's actions. "Oh really, the son of the Duke really did that?" 

"Good heavens, just when the Lumenian summit is arriving. How violently is he?"Another noble snide a remark. Unaware of the consequences of her actions

"Agreed, hopefully, this does not stain the Duke's reputation." A man sipped a cup of tea and joined in the gossip.

Then, the man in fancy garments commented. "Not like he has a good reputation anyway."

"Shhh, you can't make jokes like that" The woman hushed out a rich looking man. Though visibly annoyed, the man sucked up his emotions and apologized.

"I apologize, that was uncalled for. I could risk our death with that." He apologized

The crowd of nobles was struck by silence.

"..."

Ding Ding Ding!

A bell rang in the hall, it also could be heard in the garden. The marquis stood on the podium. He seems excited as he announced. "As you know, summer solstice is coming, as the celebration of the goddess Rosula's change will be held. Furthermore, the crown has announced the upcoming birthday of the prince, and you're probably invited in this event."

The crowd murmured. Each sharing their respective thoughts on the recent light. Then an old man cleared his throat, "Since the summer solstice is coming, do you think they'll align the summit to the feast of the summertime festival to show our prosperity?"

"Great question," The marquis acknowledge. Then he answered, " I do think the coincidence could be perfect. Who's in charge of this year's summertime festival?"

"That would be me," said the marquis of Rolsen, the man stood up, he looked at Cedula's marquis with his brown eyes. "I suggest we should change things up a notch."

The crowd was filled with murmuring, 'Isn't he a little too young to be a marquis?"

'What happened to the old marquis of Rolsen.'

'I heard he died, that's his son'

'Could we entrust a divine celebration to a child?'

'Don't worry, I'm sure the church is helping with the celebration'.'

The marquis then opened his mouth. "What could be that change?"

He answered immedietly, "Have you heard of a recently opened shop in Rolsen?"

"No, I haven't"

"They called themselves, Scientia.

The hall drowned in an ocean of whispers. 'I heard of that."

'It's quite popular with the commoners'

'What is their product?'

'I do not know, but based on my sister's reaction when she went there, I'd like to try it'

The marquis then inquired, "What could be the change?"

"The owner of that shop, he is interesting. He brought quite a lot of innovation with him. And the thing he called 'ice cream' was quite delectable," he commented, his tone was like a cotton. He held Arise in high regard. "So, should we make that product the center point of the celebration?"

"I see, paying homage to the embodiment of change that Rosula strived to achieve." He said. "Very well them, I'm quite intrigued."

Aside from marquis, the crowd seemed interested as well.

As the weeks panned out, Arise's shop Scientia grew in popularity. Seeing a novel idea, it circulated through word of mouth as a cool refreshing desserts to combat the sweltering summer. 

Mel came from her client outside the walls, she saw a wave of people blocking the front of the store. "Interesting, I see why he's confident about his plan. What a hitter." She commented.

She squeezed her moderately sized body onto the crowd to gain access to the shop. She saw Arise and Stanzi cycling through their work. Arise concoct a mixture of cream and vanilla into a vat, then he used but it in a butter churner that he repurposed into a ice cream maker. Meanwhile, Stanzi's focused on cooling the churner with his cryology. They went in a cycle to serve people.

People constantly flocked to the shop to try the new dessert. Aside from the ice cream, Arise also created waffle sheets to combine the ice cream with.

"This establishment is already crowded, good on you mister business man." Mel said in a teasing manner.

Arise then replied while a bead of sweat formed on his head and smiled. "This is nice, I already met contract void of twenty thousand sol. We're selling so much."

"Oh wow, that's a hefty amount of money," Mel showed her surprise. Though with trust, she did not expect Arise's store to become this popular in an instant. She could also see fancy individual from the noble district. "You're attracting all sorts of customer, then what's your next plan?"

"Hm, that'll be releasing enough products so I can get my goal of fifty thousand sol and leave the duchy."

Mel looked disappointed at Arise's answer, she pursed her lips and said, "I see, then I shall accompany you. After all, I haven't teach you the complicated mechanics of equilibria."

"Haha, that's true, and I haven't fulfilled the part of my deal as well."

The buzz continued for days,  but as all popular things go, the number of customer fluctuated. Most of the time, during week days, the customer noticeably went down. Like a crowd of voters on a booth of an unpopular candidate.

It went by for weeks, with Arise training with Mel and Stanzi regaining his control over his magic. It was good, until it wasn't.

At night, when people retired from their jobs. Arise and Stanzi wiped the metal vats they used for the mixture. Stanzi cast an icy mist magic to the vats as for Arise's instruction. According to Arise, the vat could be full of harmful 'bacterias' that could threaten their business. However, Stanzi could not understand what he was referring to.

"Mr. Arise, what are 'bacterias'?" The boy asked. His curiosity piqued as he scrutinized Arise's facial expression.

Then the scientist replied, "Bacterias are tiny creatures that you could not see. While most are harmless, there are some can make you violently ill." 

"How come?" He asked.

Arise explained, "Some produces substances or poison that harms our body. Some can make food bad. And some can give you fevers."

"Fevers? I thought miasma of an evil god does that?"

"Amusing, an archaic theory." He stated. "Alas, its a bacterial attack. Fevers are induce because our body fights these creatures. Think of our body like a defended castle. If an imposter got in and the guards knew of it, they'll try fight and find the imposter. That's what our body does."

"That's cool, then why do you want me to use my magic?"

"Because they can't survive the cold. In this case, we're just slowing down their growth." Arise explained as he polished the shiny metals vats.

The wind howled as the two closed off the shop. "Today was quite successful isn't it?" 

"Yeah," Stanzi replied.

Staying with the scientist opened up paths for Stanzi, at first he was reluctant to stay with him. He thought he would bring calamity to them sooner or later.  But his 'otherworldly' knowledge, he used it for their betterment. He told Stanzi interesting stories, he grew addicted to it. Like a junkie when they tasted cocaine.

"A long day, let's close the shop for tomorrow."

"Yeah, that would be nice."

As they went home, the leaves crumbled behind them.

Crack!

A fireball hurled in the air, followed by a gust of wind strong enough to send both of them flying.

Two men ambushed them, they were imposing like a wild animal encountering a prey. Arise stood up as he guarded himself with a rudimentary shield magic.

"[Gust wall]"

This wall of wind cannot fend most attacks off, because it was a low level spell- and Arise's equilibria magic was not strong yet. The men unleashed their magic to the shield.

A festival of orange flares and strong gust of wind ensued whittled down the shield.

"Now's the time, run"

Stanzi nodded as he ran, but the man cast a horizontal mass of air and tripped the mage down.

Then Arise commanded, "Stanzi, block them off with an ice wall."

Aetheric energy gathered into Stanzi's hand, he unleashed the energy and cast. "[Cryologic emergence]

The air turned crisp and cool as the wall of ice blocked them directly from the other mages.

"What do you want from us?" Arise shouted, demanding an answer. Hands behind him as he secretly drew a symbol to a paper.

Though the dark blotted out their face, he could feel their smirk through the tenebris. It was hubris, pure unadulterated arrogance. "The formula, give that to us."

Hearing that, he got confused. What kind of formula? Are these people taking drugs?

He asked them. "What do you mean?"

"Oh come on, you know what we meant. The ice cream, give us the formula or we'll kill you."

"Hah," he scoffed. "Tough bluff muscle brain, what do you think will happen if you kill us?"

"It doesn't matter, we can always search your shop."

"You're a witless fool. That formula is in my head."

"Witless?"

He sighed, "I can't believe this."

Arise was stalling time, as Stanzi continued to burn through his energy reserves, Arise gathered enough energy for them to use Mel's aetheric conveyance spell. However, due to the nature of the spell, the energy requirement was too high, so Arise had to collect the energy off the air.

Woosh!

A blade of air sliced through the men like butter. Their blood stained the ice wall which froze solid. 

A cold voice could be heard in the distance. "Turbulent blade"

A blond man emerged from the shadow, along with number of his men. His mouth parted as he as met Arise's gaze through the transparent ice. "So we meet, purple eyed man. I can't seem to know your name."

"Alexandris... How violent." 

"Oh, you know me? Then why aren't you bowing down?" The nobleman taunted the Scientist. But his remarks were quite ineffective against Arise. 

'I don't know what he's planning. But I just need this spell to work.'

"Stanzi, cover it with spikes."

A flash of blue light emanated from the wall, as ice spikes emerged from the wall that separated from them.

"How hostile, very unsightly." 

Alexandris walked through the spraying blood of the two merchants, his blond air swayed with the wind. He held his arm as coalesced wind encircled his arm. His blue eyes were filled with murderous intent.

Then he released the wind magic from his arm.

BOOM!

The sound of the wind was deafening, an explosion which destroyed Stanzi's walls. Both of them hurled into the air as they crashed into the windows of the house.

Their battle caused commotion as the people started waking up. They were shaken up as they saw the merchant's dismembered body on the streets. 

Stanzi and Arise's body felt numb, like they were given a shot of anesthetic. Alexandris did not hold back.

Alexandris's sauntered, his eyes looked condescending. He said, "I can't see the reason why my father wanted you. You're weak, what's so special about you?"

He sounded annoyed, angry even. He felt invalidated, the fact that a commoner was more desirable to the noble's attention sickened him to the stomach.

Arise however was confused, as his body slowly felt the sharp pain of glass shards on his body. He breathed heavily. He wondered why the Duke wanted him. There's nothing special about him, other than the fact that he came from the other world. Then he was filled with panic. Did he really know that he's an otherworlder? What would happen to him? He do not want to know. So in protest he let aetheric energy flowed to his entire body. It supported his wounded body and allowed him to go up like nothing happened.

"Rhoeia pigs, I won't allow you to take me or Stanzi." He took a stance as he took a deep breath.

"So, you're fighting. What could you hope for? Your elemental magic is feeble."  Alexandris retorted.

"Don't judge a book by it's cover. Well never mind, I'm a commoner, I should not have access to books." He taunted him.

The man gritted his teeth, as he clenched his fist. His brows furrowed in anger. "You do know how to anger me don't you?"

"A simple man like you?," He said. "That's easy to do."

As he had a clearly view of Alexandris. He felt his body tremble, he can't understand what he's feeling. His once purple eyes turned blue for a split second. It glistened in the moonlight as it gazed upon Alexandris. He felt a disgusting familiarity. What the hell was that?

Alexandris rushed and unleashed Turbulent blades on Arise's path. As the shearing wind traveled, Arise swiftly dodged each one of them, teetering to be hit, barely touching him. His body bled as his wound from the glass shards were aggravated by his movement. He sucked all the pain up and continued to face Alexandris.

In return, he cast a ball of wind, it bursted violently, albeit weak compared to Alexandris's. He shrugged it off as he was being hit by a barrage of aerology.

"Is that all you can do? That was weak." 

He unleashed a ball of air again, as Alexandris readied to block it; it vanished in the air.

"Aha, so this is a magic- a commoner can do."

As he stood with hubris, the air bubble suddenly reappeared in front of him. And bursted into a squall. 

"Argh!" The nobleman was fell to the ground, the dirt hugged his figure as Arise stood in the distance. "H-how the."

"So, that's why equilibria does."

Fury erupted as he realized he was hit by Arise. His face popped veins as he slowly rose from his fall, he dusted himself and shot daggers at Arise.

"How humiliating..."

He sucked all the blood emanating from his mouth and spat it out. "This time, I won't hold back."

"[Spell Release:Ventus alis lampyris]"

Surge of adrenaline filled Arise as he heard Alexandris say Spell Release.

'What the hell is that... Mel never told me that before... I got a bad feeling.'

Alexandris was covered in a 'carapace' of wind as it formed into an elytra. Tendrils of wind slithered in the outer carapace as the noble stood calmly.

In a split second, Arise felt a gash arm as he instinctively blocked. The iron smell of blood wafted into the air as it started to from arm.

'WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT, I CAN'T SEE WHAT HIT ME."

Another surge of adrenaline filled again, he tried to harden his body with aetheric energy.

Crack!

He sustained another wound; the visible wind tendril dripped off Arise's blood. 

Crack!

As Arise blocked, he felt hundreds of blade whipping him. Wounds emerged seemingly out of nowhere. Arise mindlessly released wind blast to avoid the tendrils coming for him. Sharp pain emerged from his body. He bottled up as much as pain as he could as he was bleeding profusely. 

The pain slowly numbed, from a slash of blade devolved to a belt whipping onto his body. Alexandris continued to hit him with the tendrils until he decided. "I'll just make an excuse, it would be a waste to not kill you. I'll just take that icy prick instead as consolation."

He did not hear any of it. All he could hear was a voice of a man, a voice he could not recognize. It kept telling him to look inside. As god's gift shall not go to waste.

[Don't you feel it?]

[Its calling to you]

[A moment of danger, it tried to emerge]

[Save yourself, unlock what it needed to be unlocked]

[Feel it yourself]

He dug through the deepest dregs of his soul; swimming in his past regrets, mistakes, knowledge, dreams, goals. What was the thing this person wanted him to look for? He opened each 'wooden door' leading to his memories.

His first graduation, the summer day with Eishi...

Ayase's protest to the company...

Mel's advice...

And... The crystal ball

Beep... Beeep... beeep

As the static of the ball in the memory continued to cycle through, a number of shows formed a message, corresponding to the word they say.

A chemist teacher with cancer said [A]

The red demon representing radio seemingly said in a distorted radio filter [Gift]

The personification of the devil in LA said [Should]

A ninja with orange jumpsuit said [Be]

A talking yellow flower said with beeps and dialogue [Used]

A pink haired woman who wielded a gun blade said [Look]

An purple haired goddess with lightning powers said [Into]

An old broke god who loves contracts and osmanthus wine said [Yourself]

And the last character finished the message. A cripple jockey who learned to spin balls who defeated the president of the united states said, [A gift should be used, look into yourself, and find out]

He swam through the river of memories, all he saw a sea of nothingness, above a beacon of light. It radiated into the power of a thousand suns. Bright enough to blind a person, but he swam to it, neglecting the burns he had; he wanted to know, what was this thing? Why is it important to him? 

"What are you?"