Chapter 27

(Ashborn's POV)

The dungeon dive wasn't as pleasant as I thought it would be. Though Ellie was positive from the start since she could test her bow fully.

But later I realized that for Ellie it's still early to kill even if it's a mindless beast, for Ellie, it's still something that is alive.

(Flashback Start)

I and Ellie were currently in the low-class dungeon. Mana-beasts that looked like rabbits were hopping from place to place trying to reach us.

Hawky took a high position so beasts couldn't reach and Ellie without worry could shoot.

"Now aim your bow at mana-beasts." I told Ellie who looked at me frightened.

"Wait! S-So I will have to shoot at those rabbits?" Squeaked Ellie while looking at mana-beasts running below us.

"They are moving targets. Only better for you if you manage to hit them." Later I regretted what I said.

"But, they are..." Ellie looked at mana-beasts with sorrow in her eyes.

"If you think that they are cute it's nothing like this. They are ready to tear apart your bones and flesh, you still think that they are cute after hearing this?" I looked down and looked at the boss of this dungeon.

Boss was also a rabbit. It had white fur and red eyes, Ellie was afraid of that certain mana-beast because of its red eyes. (White rabbits with red eyes, damn I'm soo scared of them!)

"Ellie, if you don't want, we can return home." I already knew that she wasn't ready to kill. But if by small chance she will do it now, later it might be easier for her.

"No..." Ellie's answer surprised me.

She took stance on, her legs were shaking and she almost fell off from Hawky, but I quickly caught her by the collar.

"You are shaking. Are you sure you want to do it?" I asked and she nodded.

"Mother and Father were always hunting mana beasts you know..." I said and this seemed to reassure her a little.

She got ready, aiming her bow at a certain red-eyed rabbit she pulled mana-string to her. She closed her eyes and after taking a deep breath she released the string.

She still had closed eyes. She waited for something to happen, but fortunately for her when she opened her eyes nothing was killed.

"You aren't ready yet. Let's go home, you should be tired." She released a deep sigh and nodded.

'I made a big mistake.'

(Flashback End)

Here I'm now. Sitting outside of Helstea manor, while Ellie is in her room resting. She is also pretty mad since I almost made her kill something.

I'm lucky that she didn't tell mother...

"What are you doing here Ash honey?" I heard the voice of my mother from behind.

"Just resting." I answered shortly.

"And what happened young man? Why is Ellie mad at you?" Alice asked suddenly.

'How did she...' I got shocked at my mother's intuition.

"Ellie's training was really hard." I answered while hoping that situation won't get serious.

"Is that so? But Ellie is still young and she is the girl at that. Don't you agree with me that training is still early for her?" I could only agree since behind the soft smile that she wore, I detected malicious intent.

"I couldn't say no to Ellie."

"Rey, you and Art are always the same. Come, I made a delicious dinner. call for Ellie and let's eat." She smiled and showed me a thumbs-up.

'I'm the same as Arthur? No. Not really...' (Ashborn isn't a masochist, unlike certain someone)

I did as I said and went upstairs to get Ellie. She wasn't technically mad at me, but she didn't want to talk to me because I "Almost" forced her to kill a living creature.

'Ellie is a forgiving girl. I shall be forgiven in no time.' Such thoughts flooded my mind. I really didn't want Ellie to be mad at me.

I opened the doors of her room and went inside. She was peacefully sleeping, I didn't want to wake her up.

"Hey, Ellie wakes up it's time for dinner." I softly shook her and she slowly opened her eyes.

"Oh... I want to sleep." She closed her eyes again and continued laying on the bed while cuddling to her pillow.

"You know... Arthur is hunting many animals right now, not just one but a bunch of them. Didn't you say you want to be as strong as us? You can't be hungry if you want to reach our level." Ellie opened her eyes and eyes me suspiciously.

"Brothers are such monsters, Hmph." I'm not the best option to console a little kid about something...

"So you don't want to be as strong as us? Okay." I got up and glanced at Ellie who was still lying.

"Eh... Who said that I don't want to be?!" She shouted and immediately jolted up.

"Then let's go little princess." I quickly took Ellie in a princess carry and got out of the room and went to the dining room.

"You shouldn't strain my body much. I'm still a small beautiful kid growing up." Ellie made a joke, but to me, she really is a cute little sister.

I was harsh on her. I have to think about better ways of improving someone's strength. Not everyone is like my successor.

"Here you guys, come on, today we are having a special day. Mother made her specialty, Beef Stew!" To someone, it might sound dull and boring meal, but for us, it had a special meaning.

In our family, we respect food and treasure it, but apparently, Beef Stew from mother is something that I, Arthur, Eleanor, and Reynolds really love.

"Such a shame Art isn't here." Said mother as she heavily sighed.

"He is in good hands, Jasmine will take care of him." Father immediately reassured mother.

"Hmph, my brother is strong. He can protect himself." Ellie also jumped into conversations.

"Also…" Wanted I to say that he has protection 24/7 from me, but I couldn't just reveal such a thing here.

"What also?"

"Also he is… Masochist." I just blurted out these words. I wasn't sure what masochist exactly meant, but what I heard from other people this title describes him fully.

.

"Mr. Ashborn, preparations are finally done. You are free to set up teleportation gates." Kaspian told me and I just nodded my head.

"Kaspian, you might step away… for about 10 meters." I told Kaspian at which he complied.

For the first time ever…

I was going to use the power of Fragments. In other words, I will use the power of Supreme Being which are contained in those fragments and use Aether which also received its properties to make gates.

Normal people or mages, it doesn't matter since if you have little of my mana you would be able to pass through it. If you don't have it, you won't enter the gate even if you use force. Doesn't matter even if you have the power to destroy the planet.

The power of Absolute Being made a lot of things possible. Such as that one.

Mana and Aether gathered in one place, they concentrated enough to break space itself, and soon cracks in space started spreading. The density of mana was so big that black smoke made completely out of my mana expanded enough to form a 20-meter large gate.

(I will use Aether from now on, since the writing power of absolute being or fragments is confusing for a lot of readers. But it still has a difference because the source of Aether is Fragments. If someone is dumb like me, I will explain it as if Fragments giving some properties to an element called aether.)

And after waiting for some time, Gate was fully functional.

"Kaspian, you may try going in. Try without a card first." Kaspian with visible gasps put his card on the floor and then approached the gate.

Unlike others, Kaspian will be able to go through the gate without a card. Since he received my blessing, he already has my mana.

Kaspian's hand reached out for the gate. He wanted to touch a black barrier that seemed like fog. His hand went right through it, and then he went through it.

"Incredible!" Kaspian soon ran out from the gate again and exclaimed.

"It's fully functional, I will set up other gates soon enough." I said to him and returned to his office for rest.

'Human body really can't handle even this much power huh…' I decided to rest for a few minutes and calm down my incomplete Black Heart which was working on it's 100%.

"Mr. Ashborn. I thought you would like to have something to eat and drink. I brought this." Kaspian's secretary made her way into the office and placed something on my desk.

'I guess Kaspian sent her.'

"Yes, thank you. You may leave." I thanked her for the meal and soon she left the room.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

A few hours later, the job was successfully done.

Teleportation gates were all set up and all of them were connected here to the Xyrus branch. 2 new teleportation gates were located in the building of Xyrus Adventurer's guild.

It was time to once again meet with the King. Or just Blaine as I call him…

"Mr. Leywin, haven't met you for a while." This time he was comfortable around me. Not like I cared about it before, but it feels nice when somebody talks to you without fear. (Again servants and family is an exception)

"Not much…"

"Kaspian already informed me about most of the things. Now I want to share some information about the alliance of 3 races." He said and we just decided to continue this talk in Kaspian's office.

"As I said, Alliance will be made soon, and constructing guilds in Elenoir and Darv made our job easier. Now also evidence of another continent… Soon all 3 races will be united." Stated Blaine as if being proud of his work.

"Hm, then don't forget to make guild participate in political events." I reminded him at which he nodded.

"We are forming Council of Dicathen. Of course, I managed to save a place for the guild's representative. Even the king of Darv supported this decision. You see he holds Kaspian in high regards." Explained Blaine. Kaspian got support from another king? Maybe because of the trading thing?

"This is good. Now you might want to see new teleportation gates, follow me I will show you how it works." After today's work, I wanted to take a little walk and I will also have company at that.

"Oh, yes of course." Blaine quickly stood up and soon we left Kaspian's office.

"By the way, I wanted to ask if there were any problems with not accepting noble status?" Blaine asked.

"No, there weren't any." Blaine just nodded, his expression was saying 'As expected'.

"If there are any problems please inform me, I will take care of it." He told me and I started thinking about something.

I remembered some deities in this world… I mean those Asuras who could influence Aether. They might have some decent knowledge about this power. Even if Aether received only some properties from Fragments, it shouldn't be underestimated.

Aether has the power of supreme being, it's okay to be cautious around Asuras. So I will indeed ask something from Blaine in the future…

'Battle is coming… A big one at that.'

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Hello!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I reached 100 followers on Wattpad. Decided to write a chapter as soon as I saw it. Just for celebration hehe...

With this Season 3 of TBATE finally begins!

Today there will be an update for Severing Fate btw, here is the link: https://www.wattpad.com/story/284711075-tbate-severing-fate

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Cyaa