Aethernea : Soulbound [Book 1]

Episode 28 - Transmutation Magic

Kiel's eyebrow twitched. "No. Stop. You and I aren't close enough to warrant anything endearing. Just call me like everyone else, by my..."

Elaru interrupted him, completely disregarding his opinion. "Iceblock it is!"

Kiel's eyebrow started twitching more violently. She wouldn't care for his objections at all. He was wasting time arguing.

Elaru smiled at him widely. "Let's try this again: Good morning iceblock. Did you sleep well?"

Kiel closed his eyes, pinched the bridge of his nose and then exhaled. "Yesterday. What. Happened?"

Elaru rolled her eyes at him. "You fainted. Duh." He narrowed his eyes and glared. "How did I faint?"

She shrugged her shoulders innocently. "Why are you asking me? Shouldn't you be clearer on what happened? Did you go overboard with your mana tempering?"

He stared at her warily. No smirks, no chuckles, no mischievous gleam in her eyes. She looked so innocent it was suspicious. "What happened after I fainted?"

"What do you think happened? I carried you back to Ashar. You slept the entire night away."

Kiel sighed an internal breath of relief. So he only slept through the night. He was worried that he had been unconscious for a longer period of time, missing the exams.

Maybe he did go overboard with mana tempering? He couldn't come up with a better explanation.

Kiel shrugged the matter off and jumped up from the bed energetically. He stretched his limbs. He felt great, his muscles didn't even feel sore. Elaru was right. Their body did have an enhanced regeneration. The damage he caused to himself yesterday was completely gone.

He felt his stomach quiver silently. He was extremely glad that it didn't choose this moment to let out a grumble.

"I'm going down to eat." He declared. Elaru smiled. "Go ahead. I ate already."

Kiel's eyebrow twitched. "I wasn't inviting you to join me. Just stating my future whereabouts."

She shrugged, a soft smile still plastered on her face. "Enjoy your breakfast." She turned her back on him and continued her work.

Kiel's mouth twitched. Oy. Oy. Why does your personality shift all the time? He shook his head and left for breakfast.

* * *

Kiel didn't remember the last time he ate so much for a single meal. Was it because my body expanded energy to heal? It made sense to have a larger appetite after recovering from an injury.

No one bothered him this time. He was initially worried that the waitress would come to chat with him. Yesterday morning, she kept giving him puppy looks. She was practically wagging her tail whenever he smiled at her.

However, to his surprise, she kept her distance. In fact, she seemed to be avoiding his gaze entirely. Whenever she accidentally met his eyes, her face would flush, and she would scurry away like a startled pechuh.

Kiel felt a foreboding feeling when it happened. Is this...a second stage of a crush?

After a while, he shrugged the feeling off. It didn't really matter. Whatever the reason, it granted him peace and quiet. And he wouldn't be staying here for much longer.

In a few days, after the exams finish, he would be moving into the Muni dorms. At that point, whether she developed some puppy crush on him or not wouldn't matter.

After the satisfying meal, Kiel returned back to the room. Yesterday he went over all his basic mage specs. Today, he should learn some transmutation spells. There were many incredibly useful transmutation spells he should learn asap – such as cleansing. While Elaru's execution of the spell was very pleasant, he didn't want to depend on her.