Staying with kale

After tending to some issues from this morning, Me and Lilith haven't made up and couldn't apologize to each other. It seems like she somewhat remembers what happened.

She remembers that I almost confessed to her, which made things a little awkward for the rest of the day. It was already nighttime and She spent the whole day avoiding me in the house. I was just going to give her the day to recollect, So I just spent the whole time with Kale who explained the magic production in the city at the kitchen table.

Speaking of Magic production, it was quite interesting to hear. In the city, they have a production site for Magical items. In that facility they imbue the equipment or item with small magical circles that are basically intertwined with each other. Causing effects to activate for that certain item. A Magic Enhancement. When I asked Kale about how'd that work, he shrugged and said "I'm not a mage. I slash and swipe at things."

Touché.

Though it is said that Prusha was a major magic producer, Kale said that since not many people are well trained in it. Only about five thousand items are made every four seasons, which is basically a year. That's still a lot every year if that much labor is going into them. And these items go for an expensive amount. The cloak that Synthia gave could go for about forty thousand Rubees just due to its magic effect. Which reminded me, what was the cloak's ability? It saved my ass from most attacks, except when that icicle got a clean hit on me. I gave Kale my cloak and he looked at it for a moment.

He then grabbed one of his swords casually and proceeded to stab the cloak.

"Hmm…" He causally hummed. "Interesting Piece your mother had…"

"Can you stop stabbing my Mother's treasured item she gave to me." I Slowly dragged the cloak back to myself as he looked up.

"I was testing what it does and I got it figured out." He laid his sword onto the table, Pointing at it.

I kept staring at it…and staring…until I looked back at him unamused.

"What am I looking at?" I asked.

"The cloak basically mitigates anything from physical things, It seems like it's only just a Beginner ranked enhancement. Must've been done by Someone in the Eastern Continent." Kale explained. "That's why my blade, when it's magic effects aren't active, won't cut through it."

I Held up the cloak and examined it, Looking more closely at the stitches of it. I saw that they were glowing a bit. That must explain it's shimmer.

"Well what does your sword do?" I pointed at his sword.

"Oh, this baby? Watch." Kale lifted it, and it seemingly activated its magic enchantment once he pressed the bottom of the handle. "Some weapons or items need a specific way to activate it. My Left side sword needs to be touched at the bottom to activate its effect. Which basically allows me to paralyze anyone for a short time." The sword glimmered a more greenish color than it did before.

"Did you use that against Lilith?"

"Yes, but when it was not activated."

"Another question…" I wanted to confirm my thoughts and Edward's thoughts when I saw him fight Lilith. "Were you really using Fire King style?"

"Uh, yeah? Why are you asking?"

"Because Edward noticed how you weren't as aggressive with her or you didn't really do what Fire king users usually do."

"Ok, first of all." He scooted his chair closer to me. "I'm not going all out on a Twelve year old who I'll be training. That whole evaluation was to just evaluate her. Learn what she can do and see if I can build off it, not to demoralize her with my skills and possibly kill a child. You were speaking with a mercenary, Kota. Remember that." Kale kept pointing a finger at me, which annoyed me.

"All that smack talk I did during it was to see if I could get that eye of hers out because to be quite honest, I'm very intrigued by it. I haven't seen a Dragon hybrid in my life and I am not losing this opportunity!" Kale got up and exaggeratedly punched the air. "God, it's going to be so cool to train her!"

But then he turned back to me and pointed. "And we'll see about sending you to the university. Hopefully, just possibly, you don't have Tera as your mentor."

"Speaking of Tera, What relationship do you have with her?" I asked, somewhat amused.

Kale rubbed his chin, looking at me now. "Do you really wanna know? I can't…really tell a eleven year old about this kind of stuff." He said awkwardly.

"Your secret's safe with me."

"Hmm…well, Gerald did say you were smart for your age." Kale eyed me, smirking. "Alright, I'll let you in on how we met."

"Ok, go on."

"We met down in Ithryll and joined as a group. It's also where I was getting hammered from drinks at a bar."

Oh…

"And I was about to finish up my final cup, she showed up. She looked the same as she does now, Only shorter. And she spotted me getting hammered. We've been in each other's group for some months, so she kinda already knew why I was down there."

"Ok, why were you down there?" I asked.

"Oh, I was dumped by this girl who was in our group for a couple of months. Real harsh story, but the story we're focusing on is the one with Tera. Anyways…" He continued. "She noticed me and decided to assist me out of the kindness of her heart. Taking me to the inn where she helped me recover. And at that moment, she confessed to me."

I gave him a confused look. Wouldn't they be together then? Unless something happened, but then wouldn't she just hate him in some way? I took from a cup of water that was on the table.

"I rejected her." I spit out the water as he said that.

"You what?"

"Yep, I didn't commit!" Kale said cheerily.

"And from then on, she's been teasing me and basically begging to have me as her lover. Did you like that story of us?" Kale asked that as he sat down again.

"N-no..? So you just don't want to date her?" I asked him, which he then shook his head.

"No, I would absolutely date her. But…" he trailed off. "I wouldn't want to make the same mistakes I've made with her."

"I see…so you're just going to keep it as is?"

"Exactly, though it hurts my head. I feel it's better this way."

Huh, so he can't commit but wants to, it seems like his past love life has really messed him up. He's afraid of making mistakes and ending up back where he was.

There was an awkward silence between us now.

"Ahem…anyways, what's this…what's this thing between you and Lilith? Are you guys like waiting for that age when you guys turn into teens or like none of you want to make a move?" Kale broke the silence with that.

"We're like eleven and twelve ."

"Do you know the age most people lose their virginity here in Prusha?…Don't actually ask me that, that was a dumb…oh boy." Kale awkwardly sipped his cup of water. "Gonna cause quite a stir with that one, haha."

"Look, I'm just asking if you ever thought of being with Lilith when you guys get older."

"That's up to her."

"She made it very obvious when under the charm spell."

"But that was a charm spell."

"Hey, you heard what Tera said. Charm spells show the true feelings of people."

"And can we trust Tera with her words? I mean she did use it originally for you. Maybe she was just teasing you?"

Kale thought for a moment, before shaking his head. "No, I think she was telling the truth. If she really was going to tease me, she wouldn't have said anything. To be quite honest, I'm assuming she really was testing you."

"W-with a charm spell that I should deactivate?"

"Disarm. But yeah." He corrected me.

"Why do you say disarm instead of deactivate?"

"I don't know, I'm more used to saying that in sword fights." He gave out a little chuckle after saying that.

Talking to Kale reminded me of talking to Gerald. It was weird, but everything felt somewhat natural. I gave Kale a smile as he laughed.

"Haha…anyways, You should go check on Lilith. The girl is upset." Kale got out of his chair and headed to the living room.

Actually thinking of it now…Kale has like older sibling energy. He's supposed to be responsible for us, but he seems too chill and relaxed for that to really happen unless it is forced like with Tera. Man's got the chillest vibe I've seen here.

I headed upstairs to our room and I heard Lilith inside, it seemed like she was rummaging through something. Maybe her backpack.

"Lilith?" I knocked on the door.

The rummaging noises turned into a bunch of frantic noises before it settled down.

"Come in…" I heard her say. Was that nervousness I heard in her voice?

I opened the door and noticed instantly that she had rummaged through my backpack, my clothes scattered and my books now gone from it. And now she was standing in the middle of the room.

"What, um…what's going on here? Did you want to read my books?" I noticed she was holding "The world of Zenith" in her hands, The book about the continents and regions.

"I-I just wanted to do something while…avoiding you…"

"You thought I was Kale? I asked to come in, you should've known it was me."

"I…wasn't really listening…" Lilith kept avoiding eye contact with me, which made me feel awkward.

How would I make things not awkward between us? What would Gerald do…

Maybe I can read her this book? If I remember correctly, I don't think I fully taught her how to read yet since the Inn in GrassHorn.

I stepped forward into the room which Lilith responded by jumping into the bed.

"Oh, look! Heh, it's bedtime!" Lilith said.

"Lilith, you know you're going to spend a night with me here. We share this room." That caused her to freeze up.

"Sleep here? With you? Um…" she finally looked at me, her face a deep red.

"Lilith, you know I wasn't the only one doing some wild things too right?"

"What do you mean?"

I then explained what happened when she was under the Charm spell. All the things she's done, what she made me do. It made her crawl under the bed covers to hide her face.

"Ok, ok! Don't say anymore!" Lilith then put her head under the pillow, screaming into the bed.

I must've just blown her mind with the fact that she rode me and got a little freaky.

…Not actually riding, it was like she was on top of me, damn it.

"Aah, I can't believe I did that!" Her voice was muffled and She kept kicking the bed with her legs.

"Hey, if it makes you feel better, you didn't confess anything." I lied right there. But at the moment, I really didn't want to tell her about what she "wanted" when under the spell. I intentionally left that out just so she wouldn't die of embarrassment.

Lilith stopped and slowly lifted the pillow off her face. With teary eyes, she looked at me. "I didn't?"

"Yes, I had to almost say some things to knock you into your senses."

"Oh…" she wiped her eyes as she said that. "But what you were about to say was real though?" She let out a smirk.

"I-.." I stopped myself from finishing that sentence. I almost fell for that. I could see her now giving a shy smile.

Blushing, I decided to change the topic. "Hey, how about I keep teaching you about reading? We haven't finished our reading studies since we left the inn." I walked towards her, grabbing the book.

She didn't seem to mind my company anymore, she casually moved aside on the bed and laid next to me as I opened the book.

We made up that night, the awkwardness seemingly evaporated when I explained the situation in full. I must've spent the whole night just teaching her how to read as I finally noticed she fell asleep, her head drooping onto my lap.

Shit, have I been teaching her the last page while she was asleep? I was so into the book towards the end that I didn't even notice. I didn't even realize that Prusha was near the ocean. In fact, where we are in Anos is next to the ocean named Behna Seas. That's probably the reason why Prusha even had a port. I remember reading that part during our trip here, but I was so focused on the road to Prusha that it never really crossed my mind again.

I looked down at Lilith as she slept, Patting her head. I've known this girl for a couple months now and somehow it feels like we've known each other for longer. I started reminiscing of my school days and the last day before I fell into this world.

I wonder how that other girl that fell down with me is. Hopefully she's in a better spot now. I should probably feel guilty about having her killed since she did fall down with me. Maybe she isn't even dead, Arael was very vague about her. Perhaps the Goddess of death sent her somewhere else, a different realm or something.

I never even caught the girl's name. Shit, maybe I should've asked. I could possibly find her in this world. But she wouldn't recognize me…

I shook my head. I shouldn't be thinking of this stuff right now. I'm in a bad mood now, thinking about it. What else can we think of?

Oh. The University of magic.

I don't really know much of this place other than the fact that it's a school for magic. And Tera is going to be teaching there…After today, I'm not sure she'd be the best teacher for me. Let's just hope I don't get her when I actually attend the university.

I'm probably jinxing myself right now.

Carefully moving Lilith's head, I got ready for bed and laid on my side of the bed. It's nighttime and Kale is probably asleep now. I turned off all the candles and laid in bed as the moon light invaded the room now.

Some point, I'll head to the university and figure out what I'll do there. In the meantime, I'll have to explore the city and get more comfortable with My surroundings. Perhaps a week or so?

Yeah, that'll be good enough. Plus it might be my chance to find the prince and I'll be able to fulfill my task.

I turned to my right and saw that Lilith had moved in her sleep. Only problem was that her feet had smashed into my face when she did. I guess I'll sleep the other way.

I gotta figure out how to avoid getting hit by her sleeping body.

Ignoring the stinging on my face, I slowly but surely fell asleep.