18 Breaking Barrier’s (18)

Casmir was woken to a subtle feeling of cold loss, as he opened his eyes a blinding light snaked it's way into his eyes...

'Ah... I forgot to close the curtains again.' Casmir thought.

He had again been woken up by the morning sun as it pierced through his bedroom window, this time however it had woken up Elena first.

Elena had reluctantly left Casmir's embrace, resulting in him waking up, in order to quickly close the curtain before wiggling her way back into Casmir's open arms.

"Haha.... are you sleepy?" Casmir asked her softly as he looked at her droopy eyes and ruffled hair.

Elena simply grumbled back at him, clearly unwilling to do anything but rest.

Casmir stopped himself from laughing, he didn't want to disturb her further. Unfortunately for Casmir he couldn't fall asleep again after being woken up, he laid there thinking about his plans for the day, occasionally he would look over at Elena and simply watch as she slept peacefully.

This small and unassuming action led Casmir to realise something important, laying there with Elena he had no worries or complaint's, only the beautiful sight of a sleeping young woman who trusted him completely.

Elena's had total trust in him, she shared everything about herself with Casmir and yet, he kept something from her.

The Life Giver Orb, a young man's fantasy turned into Casmir's reality that changed Casmir's once simply life.

'I'll tell her... tonight...' Casmir decided.

He wanted to earn Elena's trust fully, not borrow it from her attempting to reluctantly pay it back in the future.

Casmir formed a plan, he would write everything he knew about the Orb down, drawing a few of the crystal symbol's to help her understand everything, then this evening, he would tell her everything.

As Casmir was thinking, Elena woke up again, this time she complained at Casmir for not getting her any breakfast.

"... ughhh.. Casmir.. get me some breakfast..." Elena grumbled.

Casmir could only awkwardly smile, Elena was his maid after all, this was something she would sometimes do for him.

As their relationship had evolved this title had come to be honorary, Casmir didn't mind really, he hoped that they would help and rely on each other in the future, something as simple as making breakfast was nothing.

In fact, Casmir realised he didn't want Elena to be known as his maid at all, truthfully it was already a mostly empty title so that people wouldn't concern themselves with Elena's position in the household.

As Casmir thought about this more he got up, leaving Elena to lounge about, so that he could go down to the kitchens and make some food for Elena, while remembering to divert the hot water to his bathroom.

After he had returned and laid down Elena's breakfast on a bedside table, Casmir went into his bathroom and filled up a hot bath for Elena.

When Casmir attempted to wake Elena up, she was still reluctant, covering herself up like a child but this time Casmir had a plan. He sneaked his way under the covers undoing Elena's dress that she had been wearing all night and with a sharp pull, he relieved her of her outer clothing.

Elena didn't realise what Casmir was doing until it was too late.

"Ahh... Casmir!... my.. my dress!" Elena cried as she was shocked into fully waking up.

Casmir didn't respond to her as he took away her blanket, revealing a youthful beauty wearing only her pure white underwear.

"Haha... time for a bath Elena.." Casmir said as he wrapped his arms around her.

"W-what do you mean 'time for a bath'?" Elena said in confusion as she tried to cover herself up.

Casmir suddenly picked her up like a little princess, he was fairly strong for his age and Elena was very light so it wasn't a challenge.

Casmir took her through to the bathroom as she constantly protested, however when she saw the steaming bath she quickly realised what was happening.

"Casmir! At least leave so I can get changed..." Elena cried out.

Casmir smiled oddly as he heard her, he had already gotten the bath ready and intended to help 'bath' her.

He knelt down lowering her gently into the bath, Elena let out a pleasant moan from the sensation of the warm water, Casmir then let go of her and simply knelt by the bath admiring her.

Elena's white underwear was rendered useless at covering her sensitive parts as the water rendered them translucent, giving Casmir a lovely view.

Casmir leaned in closer to Elena.

"You're beautiful you know, you don't have to hide from me I only want to appreciate you...." Casmir said softly.

Elena didn't want to be coaxed by his sweet words, she had only been with Casmir in this way for a short time and didn't know how to properly act. She knew that Casmir was honestly opening up to her and simply trying to ease her, but she didn't want to show him everything all the time....

"Later... I-I'll show you everything this evening... but before then you need to do everything I say!" Elena said shyly but strictly.

Casmir smiled, he wanted to break down every barrier between the two of them.

"Ok." He said as he nodded.

Elena was happy, she quickly ordered him to leave and fetch her clothes.

Casmir did as he was told, he collected some of her clothes from her room and because she wanted to bath alone, Casmir returned to his room.

During the time Elena was bathing and changing, Casmir took the time to write down the information about the Life Giver Orb, he hid the information away before Elena left the bathroom.

The couple soon shared a pleasant breakfast while they talked about Heldan academy, soon enough it was time for to leave for the academy as planned.

======

The Heldan Academy is one of many Universities in Ellaris, it is located in the Northern district of Ellaris only 40 minutes walk from where Casmir lives. Although it is called an academy, that is only because of it's historical purpose, it is a University in every way.

Casmir and Elena took their time walking to the University, it was early in the morning so they had plenty of time.

As they walked, Elena explained to Casmir what she wanted to do at the university, she wanted to be accepted to one of the specialised course's ran by the Greenlight Association, hoping that she would be able to become a Qi Healer by studying under them.

The Greenlight Association is the predominant Association that Controls the teaching, training and Grading of the Qi Healer Class in the region.

An Association typically describes an organisation that aligns itself with one or more type of Qi Class, For example the Goldenbody Association aligns themselves with Qi Warriors, specifically Elemental's or other race's with similar Qi training systems.

However because Qi warriors are a very common and broad Class, they are one of many associations in the Heldan Republic and the surrounding region.

The Greenlight Association is the only Qi Healer organisation in the Heldan Republic, due to the scarcity of Qi Healers. The Greenlight Association maintains a good relationship with the various universities in order to find more potential Qi Healers and train them at their earliest stages.

Elena hopes to be accepted onto a course run by them so that she can become a Qi healer, she was a bit older than most students but this wasn't uncommon, many people would change paths in their early lives.

Elena wasn't worried about not being accepted, Gloria had personally written her a reference and seeing as she was an associate professor at Heldan Academy, it was all but guaranteed.

Eventually the pair made their way to the University, it occupied a large area of land with multiple Campuses and designated area's for different subjects. People from across the Republic would come to Ellaris to study at it's Universities, with Heldan Academy being one of it's best, huge amounts of people would live nearby or on campus.

As the couple passed the old cobblestone wall which surrounded the university entrance, they started seeing more and more people.

Compared to the variety of different race's you would see in the city, the variety here was vastly more diverse.

Many young people from various strange animal or Floral races walked by, Elemental's of all shapes and size's dominated in terms of numbers but one could also find some extremely rare races in the crowds.

There were even people flying, some using their wings but other's seemed to be moving without any external help, these people were likely wind attribute Elemental's or other even rarer species, they could natural fly and were often very skilled at it.

Eventually Casmir and Elena reached a small plaza with a fountain, this is where the two would separate, Casmir needed to head to the admission's office while Elena needed to head to the faculty building as her admission was atypical.

"I'll see you later then Elena, you'll have to tell me about what course you get later." Casmir said with a smile, he had no doubt that Elena would be fine.

Elena on the other hand was more worried about Casmir, she didn't want him to be stuck in a lower teaching class or on a course he didn't want. Casmir had good grades but lacked any Qi cultivation which was more significant for the course he would be applying for.

Before Elena could worry any further, Casmir pulled out his recommendation from Gloria, it was signed by her and everything, typically he wouldn't need this but because he was signing up for a dual course he might be rejected without Gloria's recommendation.

"It's fine, don't worry Elena." Casmir said having already guessed her concerns.

Elena's worries were put to rest as she saw Gloria's recommendation.

"Ok, ok. I'll meet you at this plaza later, if I can't find you by 1 o'clock, I'll head back home." Elena said.

"Sounds great. I'll see you later then." Casmir replied as he started to walk away.

As he walked further away, Casmir turned back to watch Elena fade into the crowds.

As she disappeared Casmir felt a slight sense of loss, but he soon refocused on getting to the admissions office, it would likely be busy today because it was the last day for admissions.

After ten minutes he arrived at the signposted admissions office, as he did he noticed a familiar group of three people waiting nearby, he walked over to them and called out in greeting.

"Balon! Guys! I didn't expect to find you all here today, did you all wait until today as well?" Casmir called out, drawing their attention.

These three people were all of friends of Casmir's that he knew from his previous school.

Although Casmir was mainly home schooled he also went to a private school at least once a week, of course that was before he graduated a couple of months ago.

Balon recognised Casmir first, he was from the human race and had short black hair and naturally bronze skin due to his lineage originating in the warmer Oriental regions. He was strangely tall and thin for a human which gave him a rather odd appearance, however when placed in the diverse environment of the academy, he seemed all but strange.

Casmir had a good impression of Balon, he was friendly if a bit shy, he liked sports and he wanted to be a Qi Warrior and join the army. Balon had already progressed in this regard, he was already a Grade 1 advancement 2 cultivator.

Casmir's two other friends were a twin brother and sister pair, Harry and Alona.

They were both Elemental's and they each had their own unique appearance.

Harry took the form of a reptilian man with the head of a Chameleon, a human shaped body and scaly green skin. He wore a seemingly well kept white shirt and smart dark brown trousers but although this clothing looked perfectly normal, it was in fact a part of Harry's body that he had transformed into this appearance.

Overall Harry seemed very unusual but he liked the idea that he was unique, always attempting to separate himself from the presumptions of others.

The last notable characteristic of Harry's was a light green colour that vaguely surrounded his body, this was his aura and it represented his affinity to Flora.

Standing next to him, Alona also had a light green aura surrounding her however she took on a much more pleasant form.

Alona had an upper body similar to a humans with pale white hair that shimmered with a green tint, her upper body resembled that of a young woman's wearing a green dress. Her lower body however was like a snakes, light green scales coated her lower body that was coiled around itself as she stood there.

Her appearance resembled someone from the Lamia race, a human-reptilian sub-species.

As the trio saw Casmir, they all called out in greeting.

"Hey Casmir." Harry said happily.

"Hi." Alona said shyly.

"Oh hey Casmir, yeah we all waited until today." Balon responded, he was the most familiar with Casmir.

"I thought you were going to the Hammond institute... maybe I'm misremembering." Balon asked curiously.

"I was going to but I recently change my mind, I realized it was better to in roll here." Casmir said.

As Casmir looked around, he realised that there were a lot of people gathered around outside the admission's office, so he questioned Balon about it.

"Oh, the office doesn't open for about 10 minutes yet, most of the people here are simply early." Balon replied.

Casmir nodded in understanding, he decided to wait here with his old friends until the office opened.

As they waited, they spoke about their plans and Casmir found out that coincidentally Alona wanted to be a biologist, she would likely be studying with him. Harry was applying for a course studying plant life, apparently he wanted to inherit his family's Herbal nursery.

Meanwhile Balon was also applying for the Qi studies course, Casmir would likely be studying and training with him there as well.

A few minutes later the admissions office finally opened, an Elemental with a fiery red aura, an imposingly muscular body and the head of a tiger walked out in order to organise the new students.....