After Vanessa left, I fell back on my bed, bundled deep within my cloth with my gaze lingering to the outside world.
Monts before I found myself lost in thought, I heard a click from the door and raised my head to find Alice frozen in place. She probably thought I was asleep, and my being awake might have offset her flow.
"You can co in, I don’t mind."
Sitting up once more, I assured her with a smile. Alice, much more nervous than usual, tiptoed towards my bed. As she did, I wondered what was wrong with her.
The first conclusion I could co to was the fact that I murdered soone in front of her. Back on earth, had I witnessed a murder and known the killer, I would have tried my best to avoid them. It seems such a rule also applied here.
If I wanted to be a hypocrite, I would say I was doing it to protect her, but like I said, I wouldn’t justify what I did. They ca with the intent to kill, and I did nothing but reciprocate.
It wasn’t like I was adverse to what I had done either. Each ti I had killed, each ti I felt my weapon dig into the skins of my opponents, it felt discomforting as if thousands of insects were crawling all over , and yet I pushed on.
I disguised my hatred of killing with the thrill of battle, and before I knew it, said discomfort beca the norm. As long as I live on the path of protecting Alice, I will continue to kill. I will continue to feel this discomfort, and in due ti it would rely beco sothing dull.
"Did you get your book?"
We all had been shaken by what happened one way or another, so I tried lightening up the mood, only to realize I should have chosen a different topic.
"Yes... Miss Agnes handed it to while you were asleep."
Her response was stiff, and the lively and energetic look she once had seed to have dimd. Alice had lost her innocence because just like , she wasn’t deaf to the happenings of our family.
She knew our uncle Kain wanted our seat of the Patriarch, but unlike she didn’t know how far he was willing to go. After the whole assassin ordeal, and maybe a bit of eavesdropping, she must have connected the dots and arrived at the conclusion of who wanted her dead.
Such revelation must have hurt her quite a bit... to know your own blood wanted you dead was the greatest of pains one felt. Even I, who was trying my best to remain detached, couldn’t help but be hurt at what sche my uncle could achieve.
"Here..." I said and trapped her shoulder, ".... hold my hand."
She stared at for a good old second before accepting my gesture.
"I failed you today little sis. Your enemies got far too close to comfort, but next ti, they wouldn’t even catch a glance of you."
"..."
Her breathing hitched and tears began spilling out her eyes. Bitter and terrified tears, revealing what she truly felt.
Seeing her all sad and sobbing, I wanted nothing more than to hug her, to tell my sister everything would be alright, and yet I couldn’t. My bones ached, and any unnecessary movents ant an additional day spent here. So I resorted to just patting her shoulder to cozy her down.
"Sniff... sniff... promise?"
Alice, after letting out all her tears, began to rub her eyes as she inquired for assurance.
"It’s not a promise but facts."
"What’s the difference?" She stopped crying and giggled.
"Well one is uncertain and the other is genuine."
Scratching the back of my head, I explained with the simplicity of words I could currently think of.
I knew in due ti, the little girl before would grow up to beco soone so powerful, her guard — being — would end up becoming useless. But that was decades from now. Right now, she was far from her pri, hence it was my duty to make sure she reached it, even at the expense of my life.
While I was in thought of the future, Alice, satisfied with my answer, blood into a sincere smile and tugged my bandages to draw my attention.
"Hmph!"
"Big brother, do you want to heal you?"
At her request, I blinked, wondering why I hadn’t thought of that till now.
"Ah sure, go ahead."
Instructing her to do so, I straightened my posture as she grabbed my hand and muttered a chant that encased in her mana.
Feeling my wounds nd, I closed my eyes and tried concentrating on the surrounding aura. Yes, I was trying to rank up via assimilating the aura around.
Originally, with how wounded I was, cultivating shouldn’t be in my agenda till at least a few more weeks. But with Alice’s healing magic acting as a form of painkiller to numb my pain, I could bypass such flaw.
Anyway, after finding a sufficient source of aura, I intensified my concentration and began to draw it within my core. My core burnt with life during the process, and as the aura drew near, so too did its temperature.
Once the aura seeped into my body and was sucked into my core, I felt like I had a raging furnace within my chest.
"Big brother, you’re sweating a lot."
I heard Alice whisper, but I ignored her for now and tried calming the aura running rampant within my core.
I was at the lowest of stages, but I had cultivated a few tis, hence the energy I had absorbed now was enough for a breakthrough into the E rank stage. Amplifying my concentration and taking hold of the energy rampaging in , I began to take short and controlled breaths.
Each lessened the intensity, and once it grew mild, I expanded the aura around my original core. It wrapped around it like a tinfoil and just as it fully ensnared it, I felt a sudden rush of energy before I finally broke into the E-stage.
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