The sun was halfway below the horizon when BaoBao disappeared. Alice knew this meant that Ethan has returned. BaoBao had been flying around the trees and above water to enjoy the view while Alice continued to practice her martial arts. 

She focused her spiritual energy in the different parts of the body that she attacked with. This made her attacks so strong and fast that it caused the fallen leaves to fly up and dance around her.

This was the scene that greeted Ethan upon his arrival. He felt his breath taken away. Alice looked so soft and welcoming but he knew that her moves were deadly. His sour mood was lifted and his gaze softened.

"I'm back with dinner." Ethan announced.

Alice caught a whiff of the tantalising smell. "Seafood chowder?"

"Mm."

Alice went over to get it from him. Just as she did so, her stomach growled. However, she did not seem to be bothered that he heard it as she continued to make her way to the chowder. It was refreshing because other girls would normally act all bashful and such. 

He saw her face lit up after taking the first mouthful. "Do you like it?"

Alice nodded and continued to eat. Ethan smiled. It was the best chowder place in this vicinity. He was glad that she liked it. He then took out his clam chowder to eat.

By the time they were done, the sun had set. The luminescent stones embedded all over the roof of the pavilion brightly shone and dimly lit up the pavilion. What a romantic setting. Could his brother be a romantic? Alice wondered to herself.

They rested for a while before heading to the lake together.

"Take off your shoes and enter. It's a gradual slope, this part is only ankle deep." Ethan instructed.

Alice did as he said. The moment she entered, she felt a familiar energy in the water that is very gradually seeping into her. Her eyes grew wide. How is this possible?

"Surprised? My family were too. We think that it may be a side effect of my brother altering the land of our garden to this extent. The trees started bearing edible fruits that contained this energy too."

"What is this?" Alice feigned innocence.

"My family's not sure either. We only know that it is energising."

"What do you do with this lake then?"

"We made it my family's secret. We have thoughts about using it as a training ground but could not think of how yet."

Perhaps it is possible to cultivate in this world after all. "Let's try sparring while in the lake first." Alice suggested.

Like Alice expected, sparring in the lake slightly lengthened the time she could spend sparring under Ethan's instruction. At the end of slightly over 2 hours, she did not care about getting her uniform wet and sat in the lake to meditate. The body of this world did not seem adapted to absorbing the energy. Even with her control and meditation, the energy was at most trickling into her body. 

Ethan did not understand her actions but did not bother her and just kept watching silently.

After half an hour passed, Alice felt like her weary body recovered most of the lost energy. She continued to cultivate for another half an hour to test if the human body of this world was made to be able to store more spiritual energy. It worked. She felt a slight increase in the amount of spiritual energy in her body.

She stood up abruptly which captured Ethan's attention. Sometime while she was cultivating, he sat on the bank beside her and started to practice altering his water ability. The frozen ball dissipated into scattered frost as he looked at Alice.

Alice focused the energy into her right leg then kicked. The water where her right foot was at flew along with her foot and the spot stayed dry for a second before refilling with water again. Her kick was faster and stronger than before.

Ethan knew that something was different but could not place his finger on it. He patiently waited for Alice to be done with whatever she was up to.

However, she only stood there in deep thought for awhile before she turned to face him. "I know a way you could train in this lake. It's only for the physical body though."

Ethan stared at her blankly for awhile and blinked once. He had been trying to figure out why she would tell him so. "You can use this lake whenever you like then. Even after you graduate from school." Ethan said sincerely.

"You're not going to ask me how?" Alice felt like the day was full of surprises.

"You're the one who figured it out. You have the choice whether you'd like to share your knowledge or not." Ethan said with a soft smile.

"...Since you're giving me access to your garden and lake, it's only fair for me to share it with you." Alice continued to explain what she understood of spiritual energy and how it could be circulated and stored in the body then used in attacks.

Ethan frowned deeply trying to understand what Alice was saying. Her mind really works differently from us. First it's her ability and now it took her less than a day to figure out how to use the power of this lake.

Alice found that it amused her to see the second male lead struggling for once. "You know how being in the water feels like right?"

Ethan nodded with his brows still furrowed.

"Try to identify this feeling that has always been coursing inside your body."

She could tell that it befuddled him since he slightly cocked his head in response. 

"How about we start with you getting used to how it feels to have the spiritual energy entering your body?"

Ethan did as she said and sat in the lake like she did earlier. After a while, Alice coached him step by step on how to allow more energy to enter his body at once. It was to act like a sponge. 

Ethan struggled with this far more than when he was altering the state of his water ability. He was still only barely understanding this whole "flow of energy" concept and feeling. In the past, he only noticed that he felt more energetic when he used to play in the water with his brother. This made him respect and admire Alice's strong will and determination even more. She really never ceases to amaze me.

Due to this, they spent another 2 hours together when they would normally part ways. Alice smoothly cultivated while Ethan continued to struggle. In the end, he still did not have a grasp on controlling the energy flow in his body. However, because of the prolonged exposure and immense focus on the sensation of it, he was more aware of the feeling of having this "flow of energy" into and within him.

"That's still something." Alice commended him with a slight smile. It was a new feeling to finally be in the role of the tutor. It felt oddly empowering. How interesting... Alice thought to herself.

Ethan nodded and thanked her for everything she has taught him today. Alice has unknowingly caused the start of a powerful family whose name will go down in history as the only family who has supreme physical abilities coupled with talented ability users.

They walked through the canteen then Alice bade Ethan goodbye expecting to part ways from there. However, she found him following a step behind her. She looked at him quizzically.

"It's late today." was all he said.

Alice raised an eyebrow then ignored him and continued to make her way back to her room. The second male lead is behaving weirdly again. This world is dangerous no matter what time of the day it is. 

 

Time flew by and its was a few days before the school's Christmas event.

Ethan had began spending more time with Alice. He gave Violet the excuse that he would be busy with his family's matters after lunch. He would study with Alice at the pavilion then practice altering his abilities. He has already mastered altering water into its gaseous and solid state and could change it at the same speed as Alice. However, he was still lacking creativity for his wind ability.

While Ethan was having his abilities practice, Alice would run through her martial arts moves. Thanks to their daily cultivation, her attacks were now powerful enough to destroy the pavilion. So she had to practice in the lake where it's an open area. This caused droplets of water to fly all around and scatter around her. When the droplets capture the sun rays and glittered, the sight would never fail to dazzle Ethan.

The whole time he was apart from Violet, there would be nagging feeling inside him that told him he should be with Violet instead. However, the satisfaction and peace he felt when he was with Alice overrode that feeling. It was more tolerable than the feeling he would have whenever he was with Violet. 

During the 2 to 3 hours he would spend with Violet and the others in the late afternoon, he would feel a soothing blanket-like feeling attempting to cover the strong yearning to be with Alice that caused anxiety and an itch in his heart. It was so complicated that it put him in a perpetually bad mood whenever he was with them.

Violet was used to having Ethan follow her around and never paid attention to his expressions. This was why she never noticed that he no longer smiled around them and always had a stone cold expression on his face.

Nobody knew that his expressions would turn incredibly soft and gentle whenever he was around Alice because Alice no longer joined them for lunch. She just disappeared one day and none of them could find her in her room or the canteen. Violet whispered to Ethan to check if Alice was fine and he had whispered back to explain that Alice wanted to be alone. With that, Alice was quickly put at the back of her mind as Leah pulled all their attention back on her. Stephan was now more aware of Leah's manipulation of Violet's attention. However he let it be since Violet was happy.

Ethan would return to the pavilion with dinner in his hand by evening. They would eat together while the sun sets then spar for 2 hours. Later, while Alice would cultivate in the lake for 2 hours, Ethan would practice manipulating the flow of energy in his body. It took him slightly more than a month to finally get used to absorbing the energy into his body "like a sponge". The next step was learning to properly merge the new energy taken in from the lake into the existing energy in his body, before learning to focus the flow into a specific part of his body such as his arm or leg.

At the end of their practice, Alice would usually walk back to her room with half of her body dripping wet. Overtime, when the weather got colder, Ethan decided to attempt drying her skirt off using his wind ability. The first time he did so, he did it suddenly and without warning so it made Alice jump in surprise. The upper part of her skirt was blown downwards while the edges of her skirt was blown upwards. Everything was kept decent and her skirt was blown dry in a minute or so. It then became part of their routine after exiting the lake.

Meanwhile, on Violet's side, Leah's emotions were increasingly clear for anyone to see. Her happiness would show on her face each time Ethan joined them in the late afternoon, and her disappointment would pour out each time Ethan left in the evening. 

During one of the nights, Leah looked incredibly down and she could not stop sighing. Almost two months were up and Ethan was never once free to be with them in the night or the day. Every day there would only be that 2 to 3 measly hours when she could try to wriggle her way into his heart. The only person he listened to was still Violet.

Violet noticed her sour mood and asked her what was wrong.

"It's just... I wish that I could spend more time with Ethan." Leah pretended to be all shy and bashful as if she just admitted to some big secret.

Violet felt a little awkward. She could guess Leah's interest in Ethan but knew that Ethan had never shown any interest in any girls. "Sorry, but he's apparently busy..."

"What's he so busy with that he can't be with us for even one day or one more hour? We aren't even allowed to tag along too."

Violet shook her head to show that she did not know.

"Do you really not know? Are all of you hiding something from me?" Leah pressed on for answers with a pitiful look and a sad voice. This made Violet feel incredibly bad.

Stephan placed his hand on the top of Violet's forehead, pulled her head back to rest against his chest, then rested his chin on the top of her head. He looked down at Leah and said, "Hey, watch what you're saying. If you want Ethan, go get him yourself. What are you doing spending time with us then?"

Violet was surprised by Stephan's actions then lightly jabbed him with her elbow to get him off her.

Leah looked panicky and apologised, "I didn't mean anything. Sorry, I was just getting anxious..." Things felt a little awkward after that. Then Leah suddenly held onto Violet's hands and looked at her with puppy dog eyes, "I'm planning to confess to Ethan during the Christmas event... I hope you can support me?"

Violet's eyes grew as wide as saucers. She was not only surprised at Leah's enthusiasm and determination to get Ethan but she also felt a little uncomfortable with it. Ethan was her childhood friend she was used to having around after all. No other girls has tried approaching him so straightforwardly too. She smiled wryly at Leah. "I have no say in who he likes but you have my support..."

"I don't expect you to do much! Just maybe help put in some good words for me?" Leah looked at her hopefully.

Violet nodded slowly and continued to smile wryly. "I'll try..."

Leah smiled brightly and was cheered up for the rest of the night. This made Violet feel even more pressured. She knew Ethan would not like it.

At the end of the night when Stephan was sending Violet back, he suddenly rubbed her head gently and said softly, "Hey, don't fret too much. Let Ethan handle it."

Violet smiled thankfully at Stephan. "Goodnight."