24 An Entanglement of Emotions

The sun, without a cloud in the sky to block it, shot its unrelenting barrage of heat through the flourishing canopy of trees. In this blistering heat, a large dome-shaped building could be seen standing tall. With its might unparallel, it was named the Cultivation School. In the front yard of this Cultivation School, a boy could be seen walking toward it. His short white hair swayed in a manner similar to the way his body depressingly swung back and forth with each step. His ocean-blue eyes took on a shade of black, in dejection. This pathetic set of nicely arranged bones was none other than me, Quis Quiliae; the man who could scare off even the most shameless of maidens.

'I didn't see Pulchra at all yesterday... and by the looks of it, no one else did either. I really screwed up this time. I'll make sure to say sorry as soon as I see her again.'

I thought this as my tired body approached the front gates which were protected by some Stone Class "guards". I make a point to not call them true guards, as they don't move even a muscle when they watch Spiravit beat me up. Speaking of the damned brat, here he is now. I may have begun to try and accept emotions... but I still needed to resist the urge to beat him to high heaven. I know that if I started, there would be no way for me to stop myself.

I sighed as I readied myself for another beating.

"Oh, Quis, is that you? Fancy meeting you here... I'm sure you know what's going to happen now, so I'll skip the banter." Good, at least I won't have to listen to his clique one-liners.

Spiravit and his crew of 2 approached slowly approached me while cracking their knuckles, 'Mmr, The only reason I didn't go another path today was because I didn't care about getting beat up. I honestly felt sort of depressed, so this might help me a bit. Pain was always able to make me forget things in the past...? But I was always a Demon King, a monster unable to feel. So how did I know that pain could help you forget?'

That familiar feeling of forgetting something important crept into my mind again as Spiravit closed in on me. I was deep in thought so I didn't notice, but for some reason, he didn't punch at me even though he was in range. I noticed something was wrong and allowed sound to enter my ears as I looked around.

"...Actually, could you stay here Spiravit? Just stop using Quis as a punching bag for a moment." Huh? She was back, it was Pulchra. Thank goodness. If she was able to come to me, then she must not be too angry. A good apology should make this better.

"Ah, Pulchra. I wanted to say sorry-"

"Stop it," she said with a dullness unfamiliar to her mouth. This made me take a better look at her face. She had bags under her eyes, and she had a bad expression. And judging by the look on her face... she had cried recently. Something was wrong, and I needed to get to the bottom of it.

"Pulchra... is something wrong? If you want to you can tell me. I may be a bit dull because of the event that took place the day before the last, but I can still listen if that's what you want." She let me finish my sentence, which was good. That means there was a chance.

She bit her lower lip in deep consideration, but then she steeled herself and made her decision, "I'm sorry Quis. Hey you and you," she pointed to the two goons under Spiravit's command, "Make sure to spread the word about what I'm about to say. Ahem, I, Pulchra L'amour of the L'amour family, officially announce my apology to Quis Quiliae for making him take incorrect blame in the sexual harassment incident. It was, completely and utterly, my fault."

'Huh? Where did this come from? Didn't I specifically make sure to not tell her about that so she wouldn't find me obnoxious? How did she find out about that?' I had many questions in my head, but none of them could be answered as Pulchra was still talking, "Alright you two, you can leave now. Also you Spiravit, please leave for now. I have something I need to say to Quis Privately. That goes for you guards as well."

Spiravit clenched his teeth in anger, but in the end, still decided to leave us alone. After he entered the school with his two goons and the two guards begrudgingly following behind him, Pulchra and I locked eyes. This truly let me see into her. She was sad... No, she was depressed. I'm not sure why, but seeing her like that made the words I was planning to say to her stick in my throat, unable to leave. As I was unable to say anything, Pulchra took charge of the conversation.

"Quis, I want to say sorry again. This time for the way I acted in the cave. It was wrong for me to run away like that, so let me reply correctly this time." She took a couple of her Fireball Fruits out of her Duranian, making them appear in her hands. Then, with a sneer unbefitting her face, she threw them at me, "I don't want to have anything to do with you, so get out of my sight and don't get near me again. This is goodbye."

I was left speechless as I watched her walk into the Cultivation School. As I watched her back move farther away from me, I felt something brew within me...? At least that is what I should be feeling but... I don't feel anything.

'What is happening? I feel no emotions at such a turn of events... do I have something wrong with me? No... who is to say I even should be producing emotions over something like this? I've only known Pulchra for about a week and a half, so how could I have gotten so close to her? It was impossible.'

I took a deep breath and stood up as I placed Pulchra's discarded Fruits in my Duranian. I walked step by step into the school, my body pushed by the absence of emotions.

I was foolish to think that it was so easy.

I was foolish to think that I could fall in love.

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Gulp! Gulp! Gulp!

"Holy shit! Quis you're downing that beer! I've never seen you drink so well! I guess I taught you well... In that case, I won't be shy either!"

Beulus joined me in chugging the glass of beer we both ordered. After both of our mugs were empty and slammed on the table, he wiped the beer off of his lips and looked up at me with a smile on his face, "You have the talent to be a master drunk Quis, please become my disciple." Jokingly, he bowed his head to me, awaiting my response.

"Oh yeah? Then how about to celebrate you accepting a new disciple, you buy me another glass?"

He looked up at me with his eyes shouting incredulously, and he said with a worried tone, "You never have more than one glass... Are you alright Quis? I understand the want to drink, but you are still a student... it wouldn't be good to have a hangover when you need to learn. You surely know that... so is something wrong Quis?"

Was something wrong? That was a great question. I feel like something should be wrong. I was able to ignore it until now because I was focused on learning... but now there was nothing to stop my thoughts from roaming. It's not as though I was sad or even angry because of what happened this morning, I was more upset about how I reacted. I didn't feel anything, but I should have still pursued it. Something was obviously wrong with Pulchra... But then again, I don't feel any real regret. If that was what she wanted then so be it.

I shook my hand at Beulus with a nonchalant expression, "There isn't anything wrong. I was just reflecting on something that happened this morning and made a hasty decision. In fact, I have something to take care of tonight, so ignore my previous request. Tell me something interesting about... the Stone Region." I decided to just change the subject. If Beulus heard about what happened with Pulchra and me, then he would go on and on to me about being a man and going to take her back or something stupid like that.

"Hmm... alright then, if you say so. Let me tell you a story that my grandpa used to tell me before he died. He actually went to the Stone Region on business you know? As you know, the Kingdom of Stone is one of the Great Nine Powers, and the only power located in the Stone Region. But did you know that one of the current Royal Family is a genius who founded a new Branch recently? It is called the Music Branch, and apparently, it's under the Technology Path, derived from the Sound Branch that is under the Magic Path. Isn't it interesting how that works? He also spoke of this interesting board game they called Fichille..."

And so the night raged on with Beulus answering most of my questions. It was pretty calming to not be focused on Pulchra. I always have something to do: I'll be learning in school, I'll be cultivating, I'll be searching for the inheritance, or I'll be hanging out with Beulus, Hasrem, or Telferr.

It was with these distractions, that another week passed by.

____________________________________________

"Again? What is wrong with you? You really must be a pervert."

"Th-This is an accident. It's your fault for paying attention to it!"

Hasrem frantically released me from her grasp which pressed me against her chest just a moment ago. She grabbed the brown hair that lay on her shoulder and placed it behind her while blushing. She then placed her hands together and nervously rubbed them against each other before timidly saying, "You know... we find ourselves in that kind of situation quite often... It sort of has me thinking you might do it purposefully... Do you have something to say Quis?"

"Ohhhh, you're quite the seductress, Ms. Attu. It's too bad you lose all of that beauty when you're caught peeping in the male guards' changing-"

"I'm sorry! Please don't continue that! A little more than a week has already passed since then, and I said sorry to each of those cute guys, so could you stop bringing it up?" Although she said something strange in that sentence, I decided to drop it after she expressed real remorse.

"Let it be that then, but Ms. Attu... why did you make me stay behind... again."

Her face turned serious and, noticing my focus increase, she spoke: "Quis, I need to ask you something. Did something happen between you and Pulchra? Normally you two leave school together and act all lovey-dovey, but that hasn't happened at all recently. I have 50 Dschungels on you two making out in public before the end of the school year, so you better explain yourself." Although she said this with the utmost seriousness... her words betrayed the stern atmosphere she created.

"What do you mean by that? How many people are in on this bet? I'm not one for violence, but I'll make an exception this time."

"Pretend I didn't say that. Just answer my question!"

Seeing her anticipated expression I sighed and spoke, "Not much happened. She just said something along the lines of, "I don't want anything to do with you anymore, so get out of my sight, and never let me see you again-"

"WHAT!!!" She jumped out of her seat and her eyes were practically popping out of her head she was so surprised.

"What? It's not a big deal. I'm fine with it. I mean, I only felt numb when she said those words, so I must harbor no true feelings toward her. So it's fine."

She picked up the chair she was just sitting on and threw it across the classroom in some strange mix of emotions, "Seriously! What the hell is wrong with the both of you?! You are both so stupid! Quis, you are probably feeling like that because you are unconsciously protecting yourself from doing something stupid, but you need to do something stupid right now. Ugh, why do I even need to explain this?"

I was shocked by her sudden burst of rage, but after I started thinking about what she said, that surprise dissipated, 'Just what was she talking about? I felt numb because I was protecting myself? How was that possible? It has to be because there was nothing there to begin with... right?'

As if feeling my doubt, Hasrem fell to the ground and, in some kind of mix between anger and pity, said, "Quis... are you serious? Just how dense are you? A girl who obviously has a crush on you suddenly dumps you, and you just accept it as it is? I don't care about how you feel about her, but you still have an obligation to help her with whatever is wrong with her. She likes you damn it! So go and comfort her!"

Her anger made me angry, and I began to shout back at her, "Oh yeah?! She likes me huh?! Then what was that about her saying she basically hates me?!! If she hates me then so be it! I couldn't care less! So just get your nose out of our relationship and stay where you should be! She hates me! And... I... am fine..." Tears began to fall down my face. I didn't want Harem to see me like this after I just lashed out at her, so I ran out of the room and shut the door behind me.

"Quis wait!"

Slam!

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A week passed after that, and thankfully Hasrem didn't make a huge deal out of it. I said sorry for yelling at her, and she returned with her own apology. She definitely told others about it though, as even Felferr seemed to be treating me more carefully recently. Tears held a lot of power.

I have spent the past week cultivating, searching for the inheritance, and thinking. I have broken through to the 3rd Level of Dirt Class and have also decided on how I would deal with the entire Pulchra situation. I have decided that I do like Pulchra. I am unsure of how deep these feelings go, but I do know they're there, with my tears as proof. So I will confront her. Then I'll see how far my emotions go for her and how far her emotions go for me. But as for searching for the inheritance... nothing.

I took a deep breath as I walked around in the jungle searching for the inheritance while also cultivating. It was just too difficult to search the entire campus. Almost a month has passed since I've been here, and I still have only searched about 70% of it. But there is no sign of it. I guess if it were easy to find, then it wouldn't have been hidden for the last 100 years. And that's assuming it's even here...?

As I was complaining to myself about the difficulty of this task, something caught my eye. A seemingly normal tree, matching the thick trees that surrounded me stood in front of me. It looked exactly like every other tree, except for one thing. It had some kind of silver drawing on it and this drawing was very familiar to me.

'A magic circle?'

That was definitely what it was. It was a magic circle that could be found in my past life... but something was off about it. It was very small, yet extremely detailed. It held unfamiliar letters of a language I couldn't recognize and the amount of Genesis Essence it radiated... it was denser than even the Genesis Essence that hung around the old Magic Arts teacher. Suddenly, an idea struck my mind.

'It's a magic circle... that is the same silver that represents the Firearm Branch... and it's slightly hidden within the school campus... there is a chance that it could be...'

I had a sneaking suspicion that I had found something incredible and to test my theory, I did the only thing I could think of. If this was what I thought it was, then it would need an authentication process, and there is only one thing that I had on me that could verify me.

I searched in my Duranian for the small pile of Crossbow Bolt Fruits I stashed inside one of the town's houses and pulled one out. I teleported it directly into my stomach to skip the slow process of eating it, and its effect was immediate. From the center of my body, a surge of power extended to my hand, making a stop at my right hand. As the strange energy stopped in my palm, I aggressively pushed it forward, as though I were striking the air with my palm.

Out of my palm shot out a burst of silver light, and a loud thud could be heard as the light hit the middle of the small magic circle. Sticking out of the tree was a crossbow produced by my Crossbow Fruit... yet there was no reaction. I sighed and approached the tree, but just as I was about to pull the bolt out of the tree in despair, the magic circle began glowing.

As it lit up, the tree started shifting, and soon enough, a doorway big enough to enter while standing opened with the magic circle at its center. In this doorway was a spiral staircase, seemingly carved out of the tree, that lead downwards.

My deduction was correct, it really did exist.

The Firearm inheritance.