163 Farewell (1/2)
The moment the music faded away, Greyson released Eris and wanted to quickly leave. That was already the third dance which meant that it was socially acceptable for people to start leaving now if they wanted. Actually, he was not the only one with this idea as he could see a small amount of people start to head towards the exit. Now that he was not distracted, Greyson could feel the odd and questioning glances focusing in on him. What was their deal? His curiosity only lasted for a moment before he decided to just ignore them. This was neither the first nor the last time he would be the center of attention. Nobles seemed to enjoy making a spectacle out of him since he was just a commoner in their eyes. Although Greyson had strong pride in his true identity, he was not so petty or bored to pick a fight with every single person who disrespected him.
Once he was outside the palace, he let out a sigh of relief. Somehow, even though the ballroom was definitely spatious enough, Greyson felt that the atmosphere was stuffy. Letting his shoulder relax over a little, he almost ran home. His suit was stiff and hard to maneuver his arms in, plus these new shoes were not broken in so they started to give him blisters. He was dearly missing his old leather boots back in his room. Looking formal sure was uncomfortable!
When he reached the room, Greyson pulled the suit off gingerly, afraid to damage it. After all, it was something provided by the Emperor, wouldn't he be rude to rip it already? The suit was once again hung neatly in the closet, before Greyson used a quick water element spell to clean himself. As he stretched out some of the kinks due to his earlier stiffness, he threw on comfortable pajamas and fell onto the bed. Learning their lesson from all the previous times, all three of the animals gathered to sleep at the corner of the bed to avoid Greyson falling on top of them. Only waking up for a moment, they snuggled closer to him before continuing to close their eyes to sleep. Feeling the warm bodies, Greyson's eyes began to droop. Barely lasting another second, he soon fell asleep.
...
With the chirping of the birds and sunlight peeking in, Greyson began to stir at dawn. Bursting up out of bed, he checked the clock to see that he still had plenty of time to make it for the first day of training. Knowing that he would probably be worked hard, Greyson wore a light cotton shirt and pants with his old boots. These things were cheap and easily replaceable, so even if they get ruined his heart would not ache. Buckling his belt, Greyson also hooked on his sword sheath. Instead of keeping it in his space like usual, he decided to have Genesis out beforehand. Double checking everything once more, Greyson opened the door to head out.
”Wait! I'm coming along this time.” He heard a voice add in from behind.
”Snow, too!”
”Count me in!”
Lucius bounded up onto his shoulder while Theo found his place on Greyson's head. Snow tried to hop onto Greyson's shoulder, but found it to be too small now.
”Oh? Snow, have you grown a bit?” Feeling the weight more than usual, Greyson put the Moon Leopard down to take a good look at her. Just as he thought, it seemed like she was almost double the size she was before! Earlier, she always stayed in her small form that he believed she could control her size. But it seemed that the truth was that they could make themselves bigger, but their true form was still a cub. Now the cub was maturing, so she could only grow bigger?
”There are a lot of magic beasts who are able to transform into their mature forms for a short while to fight better. The only reason Gold could keep it up for long before was because he was only running and not fighting. All his mana could go to sustaining himself. Their original forms were small. Eventually, though, they will permanently be that big.” Surprisingly, it was Theo who cleared his doubts.
”Oh, I do remember hearing of such abilities. But, it's usually only the higher-tier bloodlines that are able, right?”
”Yes, they normally have a longer maturity period. So, in order to increase their chances of survival, they can use this ability.”
”Heh, Theo, you are more knowledgeable than I expected.” Lucius commented.
”I am a popular mouse, what can I say? I made a lot of friends in the Plateau. Plus, my mother introduced me to most of the magical beasts, so that I would know when to escape and how to attack weaknesses.” Puffing out his chest a little, Theo bragged happily.
”Snow doesn't want to be big, though.” Tail drooping, the leopard began to pout.
”Really? But I would be glad to see you big!” Greyson encouraged.
”Daddy wants me to be big?” Snow looked up, eyes sparkling.
”Of course! I would be proud of a bigger and more mature Snow.” That way you would finally look threatening and cool! But he held the latter part of his sentence inside.
”Okay! Snow will try her hardest to grow bigger!” Perking up happily, Snow threw away her earlier sadness and bounded down the steps.
Greyson grinned widely as he cheered on the inside. Only Lucius watched everything knowingly and just snorted before closing his eyes.
Waiting in front of his housing, Greyson was surprised to run into the rest of the Idris team. Scratching his nose, he realized his bad habit had resurfaced. He had completely forgot all about them! They all looked ready to journey home. Were all the contestants returning today? But he did not see his teacher among them. Even Quinn Ventus was nowhere to be found...
The Old King noticed Greyson first and he greeted him very enthusiastically.
”Greyson, you did splendid this time around! The Idris Kingdom will surely be rewarded well for your performance! When you come back from the competition, do not hesitate to put forth any request.”
”Yes, we were all able to hold our heads up high thanks to you.” Nicholas joined in on the praise.
”Very impressive, indeed.” Palmira nodded politely.
”Grey Grey, big sister here even fell for you.” Seirina winked seductively. Ignis's expression changed a little hearing those words, but still bit his tongue as he knew that he could not match up.
Sebastien looked as though he wanted to add something, but felt awkward complimenting someone who he previously had bad relations with.
”Uh, thank you for you kind praise.” Greyson responded with a forced smile. ”Are you all leaving now?” He tried to change the subject.
”Yes, now that the selection is over, it is time for us to head back. Many things in the kingdom still need taking care of, plus we must bring back your good news as soon as possible. Actually, most of the higher-ups already know, just it was better for us to personally announce it to the public.” The Old King replied.
”I see. Where are my teacher and Quinn, then?”
”Ah, they both claimed to have some personal matter to take care of. We do not need to force them to come with us, so we are getting a headstart and leaving now.”
”Oh, okay.” Why didn't teacher let him know... Greyson wondered inside, but he did not think much of it. Maybe it was not something hard, just that he had some material to buy or an old friend to meet. It was not like his teacher reported to him.