Routine Machine (04)

"Hey, dad! Alban's not here today? Did you do something to him??" Nimra got up dim and early, a night like any other. She stood in front of her window, admiring the moonlight like she normally would. As she gazed around, she noticed that something was missing. The lack of a certain handsome savage was glaringly obvious to Nimra, who still didn't know why she paid so much attention to him.

Her mind whirred in sudden excitement, her thoughts jostling against each other in a bid for a suitable answer. The eventual notion Nimra settled for was the idea that whatever it was, it was her dad's fault. It was the best explanation to her, the lazy old man never did anything EXCEPT to beat and annoy people. It made sense that the wild and untamed Alban wouldn't tolerate Nimral for much longer, at least to her. 'I mean, he looked really annoyed yesterday so I've gotta be right? Right? Yeah, I'm sure."

Nimral awoke to a young woman's tyranny, the girl in question smacking his head and shouting in his ears. This wouldn't have been much alone to Nimral, as she had long dropped any pretense of respect for him. He was pretty much used to being battered over the head and caving in quickly to his daughter's demands...she was always so insistent that it would leave him afraid at times.

No, the painful bit was the fact that she was slapping her dad over another man! A man who was more like a cub than a full grown adult to Nimral. I mean, out of all the strapping young lads around the town she had to pick that pretty boy she hadn't even known for a week? Nimral didn't want to admit it but Alban was definitely alluring, handsome looks coupled with a chiseled physique that even gods would admire...but that boy was seriously not boyfriend material!

'That punk would be more likely to eat someone whole than to get a girlfriend.' Little did the old man know that he was indeed right in his slandering assertion. Alban's hunger was definitely on a higher priority than getting someone to love him, he was truly feral in that aspect. He wouldn't even understand anything other than friendly or familial affection as a form of endearment.

Nimral attempted to ignore his daughter, keeping his tears on the inside and his eyes clamped shut. Yet Nimra's outraged tone kept punching into his ears...the old man was pretty sure that if he didn't stop her he'd get tinnitus. He had never wanted to punch someone more...he recalled a lovely time when boys wouldn't even be able to approach his offspring. For the first time in his life, he was regretful that he sent Nimra out to hunt in his stead. Old habits die hard, though...

Tiny globes of water threatening to spill out of his eyeholes, he sat up and angrily replied. "Look, he was supposed to show up early today! Like the last two! It's not my fault he's not here, okay?!"

Silence.

Nimra's arms retracted from her unpleasant dad's head and steadily folded against her chest. The upper limbs weren't impeded at all, pressed tightly against the flat board that was also referred to as cleavage by some more considerate people. The grey skin on her face blackened considerably around the eyes, an outline of a vein streaking across the side of her forehead. Her sharp gaze and lashing tail were merely icing on the cake...it was easy to see that she was not happy, to say the least.

"Then. Go. Find. Him."

"Of course I'll get to it. I'll beat him down even harder today for daring not to show up on time, so don't worry."

"You misunderstood me. That's okay! I meant now." Her tone was cheery for a bit, but the implications of her fury were not lost on the old man for even a bit.

"But-"

A menacing whisper soon followed Nimral's pitiful attempt at a protest. His daughter's face was no longer looking down at him. The young woman had gotten really close, so close in fact that the father daughter duo's noses were almost touching. "Now." That was the only reiteration that Nimra would repeat. Nimral had no idea what she could possibly do to him, but he wasn't gonna stick around to find out.

—-

While a certain old man was scrambling to find a certain young wild teen, the adolescent in question was celebrating. He had finally done it! The first step of his journey was finally achieved. Alban had successfully multicasted.

Though...the only thing he really had to show for it was a spike protruding out of his hand. He could fully push out the spike, but that made it resemble a stake more than a stalactite. The fire was bound around it loosely, circling the chunk of earth leisurely. He...was completely clueless as to what the shaped mana could achieve, but the most important part was that he did it.

"Hey! Master Chiyo! I finally did it, so you can wake up now." The snoring was interrupted by Alban's shouting, and the monoya teacher quickly snapped awake. She was still a bit fatigued though. It couldn't be helped, she was a deep sleeper that constantly forced herself to wake up at the drop of a hat during her chief days.

"Hwuh? Mmm..." The vocalizations that escaped her cherry lips reflected her current tired state. Rubbing the drool that spilled down her cheeks as she slept on her side, she flexed her arms and yawned rather loudly. She rubbed her nose a bit before looking down at the student that progressed along at an amazing pace, though the young man himself had no ways of knowing that.

"Umm...morning. What are ya gonna do with that?"

"Ah. Stab something, I guess...?"

"How about you try shaping the earth first, and then trying to combine your flames with it with an intent in mind? After that, you can multicast it into an actual form. One that actually has a meaning instead of looking like a cruelty waiting to happen. At least make it a cruelty that looks cool too, geez." Chiyo's sluggish voice sweetly reminded Alban that he didn't have to just...push things out? That would make magic more like constipation than anything...

Alban recalled the fire back into the confines of his soul and tried to shape the earth. To his surprise, the earth was not only more responsible but much more pliable. It was a lot more cooperative with him, no longer lagging behind in following Alban's commands.

The earth was a bit different from the flame in it's movements. It was not like the curious and inquisitive fire, much more stubborn and obstinate. It let itself coat Alban's hand and tightly clung to it, not really moving unless Alban instructed it. That wasn't to say it was any less subservient, although it still wasn't half as easy to deal with as the warm and friendly flames it felt much more familiar to him than before.

Pulling the earth back into his body, his attention was brought to the increased size of both the fire and the earthen elements in his soul. The fire noticed Alban's gaze and subtly waved, before condensing itself into a stronger and hotter blaze. The earth instead expanded itself even further, a stretch of land about a meter wide floating around in the black recess.

"Oh yeah, weren't you supposed to be training with Nimral now? You can come find me here later today, so you should hurry up and go. Shoo, shoo~" Alban was drawn out of his inspection by Chiyo, remembering that he had another teacher all of a sudden. Well, a teacher in the sense that he was learning things from him, not really as a result of any guidance but more out of preservation. Oh well, his body was feeling restless after sitting down so long. He figured he could go for a couple rounds. It was a good thing he decided that too, as Nimral was rapidly approaching the plains in the front of the forest.