What Happiness Feels Like

They sat at the table once more, this time with another extra seat to the side. Erin sat there.

"Why would you confront Elias, you idiot? Are you aware of how strong he is?" Zale asked through gritted teeth.

Melchior could feel the large man's stare bore a hole straight into his chest.

"I had to,"

"Tell me then. Why did you have to?"

"To prove myself," Mel said, unflinching.

"Prove… yourself?" the man repeated.

"Correct. I needed to prove that I'd grown powerful and obtained useable power, otherwise Elias would only continue to try to pick on me. People like him are like that. Of course, I know it could have gone wrong very quickly, but it was something I needed to do, nevertheless."

Father and son stared each other down, exerting their stubborn willpower at the same time. It was like a clash between fire and ice.

"Well, it's good that you know that much about the situation." His father snorted, backing down, "BUT, do not forget that you're not at a level where you can afford to be arrogant yet. In the real world, you'd be killed by much stronger people for even looking wrong at them."

Melchior didn't doubt that. He was killed just because he was crossing the area where the two brothers landed on Earth.

That changed nothing for him, though.

"I understand,"

"Good."

Afterwards, the situation calmed considerably. Erin shot him a mischievous glance, then stuck a tongue out. He couldn't help but roll his eyes in response.

Alissa changed the subject quickly as well.

"I didn't expect Melly to have so many friends," his mother said, beaming from across the table, "And they're all pretty girls too,"

Melchior felt his blood go frozen as soon as she said that. He looked between Erin, who was currently devouring a mountain of food, to Circe, who was just plain weird, and merely sighed.

How didn't he think of this possibility?

"It's nothing like tha-"

Alissa giggled, "Kukuku, oh you don't have to tell me about that, Mel. I know very well. Just make sure you take care of them well."

Melchior sighed, not even sure how he would argue this.

'Whatever. She'll probably come to her senses soon enough.'

Zale remained quiet over the time they ate, but he didn't look as disagreeable anymore. It was a mostly quiet lunch, but it was a good one.

A bunch of memories came to mind. Of his past life, and everyone there. Then a realization came to mind.

'I've never had dinner with friends and family like this before…'

It was always his mom and him. His dad had been gone since he was young, and he had never had any friends whatsoever except Lora. Even then, he never invited Lora over for the longest time because he was so scared of confronting his feelings for her.

So now, eating dinner with both mother, father and two friends just felt very surreal to him. He sat there for several seconds, stunned at that realization. And shook his head at the other that came to mind.

Unfortunately…

'I have to leave,'

. . . .

*A few hours later*

A bit had passed, and it was already midnight. Melchior stood in front of the clear blue lake, and soon after, Damjan's large body emerged from the depths.

"It's good to see you again, your Majesty. I was worried,"

His voice was flat, without any of the usual reverence that the snake offered when speaking. 

Anger. Damjan really liked to do his job well.

"Hey, before you star-"

"I notice you have a tendency to put yourself at risk, sir." the snake deflated comically, "How are we to keep you alive if you go picking difficult fights everywhere?"

"It was only the hounds!" Mel started,

"Don't even try lying. Sir Tirun informed me about everything that had occurred after that. Really… confronting one of the strongest beings in this town?"

"Uhhh…. Wait, you can communicate with Tirun? How?"

Damjan slithered around the waters slightly.

"The link. As we became your attendants, a link formed between ourselves and you. Each attendant has a separate link that connects you, but with you as the bridge, we may use the link to exchange information between ourselves."

Melchior nodded, but much different thoughts passed through his mind.

'Tch, exchange information, my ass. You mean gossiping.'

The snake continued.

"In any case, I know I need not remind you that you aren't invincible. Not yet, at least, sire. We still have a long way to come to that."

Melchior nodded, "I'm aware, Damjan. That's most of why I'm here today."

The boy stopped for a second to summon the familiar screens in front of him and process the information. It had been a while since he had last seen his status window, but quite a lot had changed in it since the last time.

[Status Window]

Name: Melchior E'al Zale (Son of Zale) | Title: Divine King of Spirits

Race: Human | Spirit Bond: N/A

Layer: First

Techniques: Fallen Angel Circulation Technique

*****

[Attributes:]

Physique Lvl 1

Spirit Lvl 1

Charisma Lvl 1 

Intuition Lvl 1 

*****

[Skills]

Basic Weapons Training, Basic Hunting and Gathering, Basic Marksmanship Basic Rune Comprehension, Dignity (Lvl 1), Flow (Lvl 1), Innate Spirit Energy Manipulation, Surge Jump (Lvl 1), and Primitive Channelling.

[Abilities]

Flood Tide, Hailstorm, Whirlpool, Dark Vortex

[Attendants]

Damjan the Storm Eater (Activated), Tirun the Underworld Gate (Activated)

************

There was a new section that indicated his layer, and just below that something about a technique. Aside from that, his stats had increased as a whole, and two new skills were added to his arsenal.

While it may not have seemed like much, it was still very substantial considering what he could already do before. Surge Jump had already proved invaluable on multiple occasions now.

But that could be ignored for now. He was more curious about the glowing line that said:

Techniques: Fallen Angel Circulation Technique

And so he asked.

"What is a Circulation technique?"