Chapter 76 - Good To See You (1/2)
VIRION ERALITH’S POV:
What in the name just happened? What was that bizarre aura around Tessia? What did the boy do anyway?
I was just barely able to spot that orb shoot out and get sucked into my granddaughter’s body. It seemed sort of like an elixir, but I wasn’t really able to tell…
Anyway, I’m just glad that she’s safe now.
I almost feel bad for the boy, he had just crawled back up to the surface after falling into an underground dungeon,-G.o.d knows how deep-, and now he had to deal with all this.
Was I doing the right thing revealing all this information to Arthur?
There was a bitter taste left on my tongue after I finished explaining everything to the boy; I forget sometimes that he’s actually younger than Tess.
It’s odd though; I can’t quite put my finger on it, but more and more, my instincts tell me that despite his monstrous ability in mana manipulation and latent potential as a mage, his cognitive acuteness, his mental capacity that doesn’t belong to a prep.u.b.escent child, is what’ll make this brat so scary in the future. It’s just that, currently, his level of power has yet to catch up to the level of his intellect.
“Mmmm… what’s going on? Why am I sleeping on the ground?”
My ears perked up immediately at the sound of my granddaughter’s feeble voice.
“G-Grandpa? Where am… ART!!!!”
My arms were already stretched out wide, ready to embrace my one and only beloved granddaughter, but oddly enough, instead of coming into her grandfather’s arms, her body bolts away from me and towards the boy.
My granddaughter… you’re going the wrong way.
“ARTHUR!!!! You’re alive!!” Tess almost knocked the boy back down onto the ground from how fast she bolted into his arms.
Meanwhile, my arms stayed stretched out.
Maybe the pa.s.sing breeze would accept my embrace…
ARTHUR LEYWIN’S POV:
As Tess’ faint voice reached my ears and with her teary eyes locked onto mine, she bit her lower lip to keep herself from breaking down; I stood there at a loss. A wave of different emotions, half of which I didn’t even know I could feel, washed over me.
“ARTHUR!! You’re alive!” Her face was already buried in my chest as she finished her sentence.
“Yeah…”— I gently petted her hair—“I’m alive.”
I turned to Virion, and I swear I could almost see his petrified body crumbling into bits with his lonely arms stretched out.
His head turned like a badly oiled robot, revealing his gaze, which was anything but automatonic image he projected.
Traitor.
Grandpa should still come first.
You’re dead to me, Brat.
These were the thoughts that might as well have been tattooed across his forehead by how blatantly his foul mood was leaking out.
Giving Grandpa Virion a sympathetic smile, I looked back down at Tess who was still in my arms. Only when my old robe, that she had been wearing, slipped slightly off of her bare shoulder, did I remember that she was completely naked underneath.
“KYUU!”
Sylvie was bouncing up and down trying to get Tess’ attention as the latter clung onto me like glue, but to no avail.
‘Twas a shame Tessia wasn’t fully developed…’
“The last thing I remember was you handing me over to someone. I can only recall bits and pieces of what happened after because I was in too much pain then. B-but I heard broken pieces of conversations about how you didn’t make it out,” she said as her arms were still clinging onto me like an infant koala. The way she looked up at me with those tear-filled eyes made me almost lose myself.
“I’ll fill you in on what happened, but for now”—I peeled her off of me, wrapping her tighter with the only piece of clothing covering her—“let’s get you decent, Princess.”
“What are you talking…” was all she managed to say before looking down, her eyes widening in horror.
“KYYAAAAAAAAA!! NOOOOOOOO!”
*BOOOOOOOOOM! *
Without even the chance to react, Grandpa Virion, Sylvie, and I were knocked back by a surge of mana that seemed to have come out of nowhere.
I managed to recover in time, landing on my feet. As I looked to my side, I saw that Virion and Sylvie were both uninjured. Surprised, but uninjured.
Not even caring about the throbbing pain in my chest, I stared, slack-jawed at the sight before us.
Tess was at the epicenter of a storm of translucent emerald green vines, dozens of meters in length, all snapping and whipping around chaotically. What was even more strange was that it looked more like an extension of the bright green aura surrounding Tess, who was now curled up in the fetal position.
“T-this… mana formation of this magnitude… shouldn’t be possible for her!” Grandpa Virion’s stood there, gaping.
“You have got to be kidding me,” I mumbled to myself.
Cupping my hands, I yelled out, “TESS! YOU NEED TO CALM DOWN!”
“SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP! GO AWAY! I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU DIDN’T TELL ME I WAS NAKED!” she screamed, her eyes still shut tightly in embarra.s.sment. Something told me that those semitransparent tendrils responded to her emotions because they were swaying even more fiercely right now.
“Didn’t you learn that telling a screaming girl to calm down never actually calms her down?” Grandpa Virion said, shaking his head in mock disappointment.
Of course… I’m the ignorant one I guess.
What good was having been a king? Psh… only the strongest in my country? What good does all of that do, Arthur, if you can’t even quell the anger of a 13-year-old girl.
“TESS! It’s your grandfather! Open your eyes!” Virion shouted out this time.
“Huh?”
As Tess peeked from one eye, she finally realized what was happening.
“What’s going on? What is all of this?” The fl.u.s.tered Tess looked to us for help.
“Try controlling your emotions, it’s making your mana flow go out of control,” I tried to explain in a more reasonable tone.
Tess looked to Virion, who was nodding in agreement with me.
As realization dawned on her, Tess closed her eyes and began meditating, the translucent emerald vines slowly dissipated, fading out of sight.
The three of us rushed to where Tess was curled up as soon as the vines, that seemed to be made up of pure mana, disappeared.
“Quick, Gramps, check her mana core.”
I was going off on a hunch, but I was kind of scared to hear the truth.