Ingrid, a world where one can conjure unimaginable environmental manipulation using one's mind. Not very many are compatible with its abundant capability. However, if one were to easily wield it, one would require to posses a vast imagination and a strong mind.
One must think it is "possible" before anything could fully be achieved. Essence manipulation is an extension to the soul. The more experience and knowledge of the world, the better.
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"Turn your back away from Chlad. The capital is restless."
Gazing on Lea's ruby irises, Oliver gave a nod. "Yes, okay. My only purpose for coming was to see you anyway, so I'll gladly pull away."
"Be careful in Mingzhe Dei. There are people in the shadows." She said quietly, remembering the night she saw what might seem like a ninja jumping from one roof to another.
Understanding what Lea meant, Oliver felt grateful for the warning. With a smile, he caressed her check only to be slapped away after a second. "Tsk." He said quite amiably. "You seem rather invested to this World Peace more than you let on, dear Lea."
"...Someone said I have to see it to the end."
"Hmm. One of your friends?" He said with a raised brow, which received a nod from Lea.
"Putting them significantly in your head, hmm?"
"......." She simply looked into his cyan eyes with her usual blank canvas expression. But Oliver knew what Lea's response to his offhanded remark was.
"I wish you would come to think highly of me too..."
A frown was then revealed on Lea's face. "You are strange."
Upon hearing her words, Oliver felt a passing pang in his chest. "Strange... I'm not sure. But if being strange meant I can achieve what I desire, I'll go all the way." A smirk was playing on his lips, and Lea knew Oliver was dangerous in another sense.
"I'll take my leave now. We've traveled quite a distance, and you need to go back."
"Not even a little longer? For old time's sake, Lea?"
"No." She was starting to feel nervous with Oliver's strong approaches that was getting more and more bold. He was not someone she could do harm...yet.
Before Lea could stand up for a retreat, he had taken hold of her free hand. Dragging her to his embrace, he breathe behind her nape, which gave an involuntary jolt on her.
She was restraining her hands from breaking his neck, terribly, terribly hard. Her essences had gone awry a few seconds later.
"....Let go." Blurted Lea in between gritted teeth. But her expression remained deadpan.
"No. I refuse." He said as he tightened his hold. "Your heart is beating normally, but I can feel it slightly faster than normal." He continued with mirth in his cyan eyes, and a delightful smile.
She surrendered a sigh, leaving Oliver to what he was up to.
"Oh. Now it's calmed down suddenly." He said and landed a kiss on Lea's back despite there having a cloth in between, she could still feel his soft mouth gently landing a kiss on her back.
She shook terribly, and immediately thought of disappearing, but it seems essence manipulation did not apply with atom transfer through the air. Using her arms, she removed his hold around her.
"Enough is enough. I'm leaving." Without waiting for his response, she had left the small confine of Oliver's caravan. His lonely figure now alone.
Without looking back to Oliver, Lea left to where Ulla and Imhe were.
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"Why do you want to save Ingrid, heroine?"
"Don't combine my first name and last name!" Imhe complained, but replied calmly as if the answer was as expected. "It's the right thing to do."
"...You really are a simple generated heroine... I am amazed you even exist."
Seemingly insulted by Ulla's offhanded remark, Imhe expressed a pout. "Your words are sometimes incomprehensible. You've been treating me like I'm not even living..." Her voice tinge with sadness.
Ulla slapped her mouth gently and blurted out an apology. "Sorry. You will be coming with me, right? I have others to introduce to you and they could help you if you need help in your conquest."
"Of course. I trust your visions. They are believable enough." Said Imhe simply.
"...Gullible and naive. But that's okay, for now." Muttered Ulla under he breath. Imhe missed her words.
All of the sudden, the door to their caravan opened fiercely, revealing Lea with an unusually cold ruby eyes.
With a raised brow, Ulla asked. "Did you fail?" Her voice ominous.
In response, Lea simply shook her head. "Oliver will persuade his father to stop the war preparations. He promised he'll do what he can to prevent it from happening, and that he would never join the war if there was gonna be any at all." Explained Lea in one breath.
Nodding in understanding, Ulla replied. "Good job. I think you'll be alright on your own when it comes to handling men?"
Lea shook her head vigorously fast. "Never." Her ruby eyes flickered with untouchable fire.
Ulla simply shrugged. She knew Lea would change eventually. Her attitude towards other people have mellowed, and her attitude towards the small group was quite warm. Without her noticing, Lea herself had begun to touch others freely whenever she felt like it.
"You've changed." Ulla said softly with a smile.
"........." Lea simply gazed at Ulla without word.
"She has red eyes...." Gasped Imhe.
"So do you." Said Ulla, curiosity in her voice.
"I thought people with red eyes were all gone...."
"What does it matter?"
"They are supposed to be all gone."
"You are here, aren't you?" Said Ulla with her brow raised.
"Yea. Because I was protected by my parents when I was much younger. Everyone in my village knew I was the cause of their death. And although not directly, I believe it was indeed my fault."
"What do you mean?" Asked Ulla, increasingly agitated by the suspense.
"Red eyes were precious. I don't know who spread the news, but someone started a religion wherein they believed red eyes will turn Ingrid upside down. In our village, I was ostracized because of it.
"They claimed red eyes were more adept with unimaginable things than other colors... And I later learnt there were only very few red eyed people alive to revive the fuss. Thanks to my very small village hidden in the valleys, no member of such religion ever came back to hunt me again. My parents' sacrifice was enough." She finished with a melancholic expression to which Ulla felt sympathy.
Moving to sit beside Imhe, Ulla patted Imhe's back. The latter accepted it silently.
"............." Lea processed the information, and said. "Are there any books concerning eye colors?"
"I don't know... If anything, there is a huge intricate black market in Sabio. A merchant from there stumbled in my village once, selling me different kinds of books. I had to work months and months without pay for asking the amount I needed to pay for them..."
"...Sabio.... There are plenty of slave transactions in that city too..."
Surprised at Lea's words, Imhe gasped. "You knew?"
"I met a trader named Carlitus once." Lea simply said.
"I have only heard about it from other people, especially in Mingzhe Dei. That's terrible..." She said, her voice slightly shaken. Her childhood was similar to that of a slave, but she could find time for herself while a slave would not have any. She could strongly empathize with the innocents made into slaves against their will, and she wished she could do something about it.
"We will leave for Chlad, then Sabio." Lea quietly said.
"I'll be coming with you!"
"Of course you are. You have a lot of work to do, heroine." Said Ulla with a smile.
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Before the three girls separated from Oliver's parade, he embraced Lea one more time. Imhe was very surprised at seeing the prince acting very affectionate with someone.
With Lea in his embrace, he whispered into her ears. "Be careful, Lea. And.. I lo-- I'll miss you."
Feeling her ears tickled, Lea moved her head away slightly. She gave a nod to Oliver's parting message. "You too. Oliver, I'll see you when things have been settled. Watch out for anyone carefully. I need you alive."
Surprised by Lea's words, Oliver couldn't contain his giddiness. "I will! I definitely will see you again. Soon!" He promised with his charming smile.
With a slight frown on her forehead, she reached to ruffle Oliver's hair once again. Noticing her actions, Oliver moved his head closer to Lea's height level for her to do whatever she wanted more comfortably. He then closed his cyan eyes as Lea started playing with his raven hair. The scene could be a synonym to romantic tranquility.
Ulla and Imhe were spectating the whole scene in the sidelines with their mouth agape. "....If I knew he was such a romantic..." Was all Imhe muttered to herself.
To her barely audible mutter, Ulla simply nodded her head. She thought she better find a man who would look out for her very well too.
Their eyes expressed envy, but silence prevailed the surroundings.
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On their way to Chlad, the three girls finally found a time for themselves once again. As they leisurely walked, Imhe had taken upon herself to get to know the other two.
"Since we are all around the same ages, maybe we should talk about our dreams!" She started.
"............." Lea listened quietly.
"Dreams huh... I never thought of it."
"What? How could you not? We are old enough to join the working people!"
"Really. Sounds very early." Ulla replied as she pondered the plot's societal laws.
"Most young people have found work at the age of 13. Some even join the battle ranks at the age of 6."
"Because of the beasts?" Ulla guessed.
"Yea. You guys are really quite informed huh."
Ulla shrugged, remembering Lea's words the first time she had asked where she learnt about many things in Ingrid. "Books."
"Not all would under-----"
"ROAR!!!"
Imhe's words were cut by a vicious roar in the direction of the perilous cliffs where it was surrounded by abundant trees and other plants.
Startled, Ulla and Imhe turned their head to the direction of the cry.
"A beast so huge. What happened?" Lea quietly said behind the other two.
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"Remind me again why we are here?"
"Because we heard a beast laying its eggs around here! We need to sell it for money." Replied the man to other's inquiry.
They were adventurers, and were currently facing a group of terribly huge beast that resembled that of a dog but two great wavy horns on the head. Their eyes glimmered with hunger as they looked on the delicious adventurers below.
"The scout team were annihilated."
"We should have never checked on them until much later!!"
"Shut up! You are provoking them!!"
"I can't... I can't die here... My wife, my son.... They don't have----"
"ROOOOARRR!!!" And with the cry came the start of a bloody massacre.
One of the gigantic beast had its mouth open and immediately bit off one of the adventurers' head, causing the headless neck to burst with blood like a fountain. With crimson blood splattering about, the rest of the adventurers were bathe in red and fear.
"N-no Noooo!!!"
All of them tried to run, but with one sweep of the beast's paws, their body was thrown to the side. Heavily injured by the impact, the adventurers found themselves incapable of escape.
Despair engulfed their soul as they watched on the approaching gigantic beasts who were growing in number.
".....Maria... Sorry for not being able to come home....." Whispered one of the men who had one of his legs violently twisted far from normal.
"*Sob*... Hic... I can't... I don't want to die...."
"Crying won't help you. Just close your eyes before they take a munch off you." Advised one of the more heavily injured man. He seemed to have broken his spinal cord.
"*Sob*... Why... Why did this have-- *Sob* to happen--" Was all he could say when he realized he had lose the other half of his body. "......."
The sharp tail of one of the beasts had sliced him horizontally in half. His eyes remained open, but masked with terrible fright and despair. A deathly face for everyone to see. This caused everyone else to shout and urged themselves to crawl away for their life.
"Ngggng... NO!!" Shouted one of them as he tried to stand up with his broken leg and arm. "I won't d----"
His words unfinished, his body gone, leaving behind his legs on the ground that collapsed by themselves. A crunching sound of bones being chewed could be heard by the rest. Foretelling their fate would soon end.
[A/N: Drawn myself just to express how huge the beasts were (There were 2, then 3 and more coming in the story). Like a dog with horns on its head. Didn't do well with making the tail look like a blade, but will do. Applied semi-color enhancement with GIMP.]