Alex had gotten many acquaintances after living on Gaia for so long. It wasn't much of a surprise.
Expect that one was the Museum Manager, who he always contacted through Aqua Communicators.
You can consider him as the kind of friend who listened to troubles when others needed someone to listen. It was entirely the reason why he came to talk to the young man he hadn't seen for so long.
But enough about the Arcanist's past, as we should first focus on the two who had fallen out with each other... Jasmine and Spencer's relationship drama was reaching its climax after an incident happened.
There was a reason this happened seemingly out of nowhere…
It was because Spencer Blanche was more impulsive than he let on.
After hearing about what happened, this non-combat Class actually confronted the Weapon Mistress about what he heard from his acquaintances. Nothing good had been said.
He was disappointed in her and made a decision:
"I'm breaking off my relationship with you." This ultra-serious guy told his childhood friend frankly.
"...No." Jasmine's brain short-circuited, but she instinctively rejected his heavy decision outright.
"Your 'Cult' attacked and even injured a few friends not long ago. Do you think I'd overlook your crazy actions?" Spencer's eyes were cold. He didn't know how his insults towards her religion held true.
"We only following our God..."
"He's a normal human being...! Not God!!"
"You just don't understand!!!" The woman became more agitated, she wasn't really a good speaker at times like this. Jasmine knew how it looked, but she also knew her fiancé wouldn't understand.
He needed to experience 'it' to do so...
"I don't need to. You've crossed the line..." This Museum Manager himself wasn't going to be soft.
It wasn't that he cared about what others would say about him, but because he was a staunch upholder of his moral code.
There was absolutely no way he'd let himself be associated with someone who would take citizens as hostages in a brawl against the The Order.
He would rather cleanly cut her off no matter how he felt about her.
"You don't understand me...!"
"Jasmine..."
"You just don't understand me...!!!" She yelled at the top of her lungs, only to see him walking away.
She came here again with the intention of explaining what happened back then.
Although the Demon Lord was their leader, his actions were sometimes spontaneous and unplanned.
She might have foresaw that they would get into conflicts with the Church, but she didn't expect her Lord to allow the true believers to act so unbefitting of the image they built up...
…without considering future goals.
However, there was no guilt in her heart about the actions she took that day. The only thing she was conscious of was that he was misunderstanding her. She wanted Spencer to understand her side of things, and to support her in the faith she had.
"Wait, you can't leave me...! You are my fiancé, so you can't just leave like this. Where are you going to go anyway? Your workplace is here!" There was a creepy smile on her face as she told him this.
"I've already applied to transfer to the Magic Kingdom of Ketran. I'll be heading south to where the Dark Mountains are located. Don't you dare follow me...!" His eyes were sharp when shrugging her off his shoulder, then continued to walk away.
As they had grown up together and knew each other for a long time, he expected himself to fall head over heels in love with her. This was especially true when he finally became her fiancé.
However, she never confided him in anything and refused to trust him. This damage their bond...
...and the splinter in their hearts only deepened.
Never once had they said they loved each other even while holding feelings for one another, and this hurt Spencer... Especially when she suddenly joined the Mirror Religion without consulting him.
He was able to let go of his resentments time and time again for the sake of their past affections, but what she had done today only made him run out of patience...! Even if he was just a Manager of a mere Museum, he was a principled man at heart.
If she had understood anything about him, Jasmine would have seen this coming a mile away.
He was not that complicated as a person, after all.
Ever since she entered the Cult, they became even more out of sync because of her brazen attitude.
This was the demerit of being a 'Tsundere'...
"Oh yeah, you can take back this ring as well. Give it to someone you can actually treat like a friend who is on equal grounds with you." He pulled off the once special ring on his finger and threw it over.
Jasmine's expression blanked like this: ( º _ º)
She was unable to cope with what she was listening to. It didn't sound real to her one bit.
Spencer would always be patient no matter what she did. Never shouting, and always forgiving her.
He'd done that a lot in the past, so why can't he do it now? What had changed between them?
She stared blankly at the expensive ring she had once given him, thinking about their time together.
Jasmine loved him dearly. He knew her feelings, and yet he dared to throw them away like this after all they've gone through? She couldn't believe their long relationship would be broken so easily...
Memories flooded her mind. She looked at the accessory in her hand. Especially those of their springtime of youth, when they worried less about important stuff and were passionately believed that the other was in love with them without saying it.
She was a loud and abrasive person back then who would always deny it, but everyone knew how much she cared about Spencer. If there was one person made her heart uneasy though as they were growing up into adults, it would be him...!
He never showed as much interest as she did in him, making her feel uneasy and anxious. It was the man who was supposed to be more forward about their affections, yet he didn't let anything slip...
Like an iron-wall, he seemed immune to beauty and treated every girl in his life equally.
This couldn't help but make her feel more anxious back then as she focused her efforts into perfecting her Sword Skills...
If he was going to be a Museum Manager in the future, she wanted to work as a guard at whatever place he chose.
To protect his livelihood!
This was an excuse, though.
All she really wanted to do was be with him for the rest of her life. She was a romanticist who wanted her extreme rationalist of a boyfriend to understand the feelings she held...!
However, he never changed and was still the same type of guy he always was even as they grew up.
…No, you could even say that he became less of a person who made decisions based off emotions and more of one who did things out of pure obligation. A true Gaia Human to the bone.
He was a principled man, indeed... but it was also this adherence to principle that made her feel alienated sometimes. She felt like it was her own fault that she lacked understanding of him, and was tempted by the Mirror Religion due to this fact.
When she heard of how the Spell Slot they were giving to true believers actually gave them a higher rate of empathy towards each other, she couldn't help immediately join them out of interest.
She wanted to see if it was the truth...
Who would have guessed that she would be fortunate enough to find the kind of romantic ideals she was looking for after joining them? And even quickly grew to become a Mirror Priest on top of it?
The first time she experienced the Spell Slot was when she became fully invested in the Cult. She was a lonely girl that couldn't get enough of the sensation of being able to 'feel' the emotions of her comrades...! Thus becoming zealous henceforth!
Her attachment to the Cult only growing over time.
Little did she understand that…
…it was her insistence on a flawless relationship based on romanticism that separated them as time went on.
Being able to sense the emotions of her fellow believers and being able to share her experiences with them without words made her lazy, especially in her effort to interact with Spencer over the years.
She became over reliant on the Cult's Spell...
That's why, in the face of rejection and not being able to understand what her fiancé was feeling despite being straightforwardly confronted with them, she caved in easily, and her eyes started to glow dangerously.
She wasn't obsessed with her love like a Yandere, but she had definitely crossed the line of no return.
The Weapon Mistress looked at his back…
'It is not my fault...!' She didn't blame herself for them not coming to an understanding. In fact, she blamed him instead. Jasmine believed that their relationship wouldn't be ending this way if they could just understand each other's emotions.
Spencer felt a strange sensation go through his heart before stopping for a moment to look at her momentarily. He felt a bit guilty for using this style of rejection, but he HAD TO put his foot down.
He wasn't going to leave too abruptly, and was going to stay for a few days until she could persuade him. Though he was a serious person and a principled man, he was also someone who knew how to punish someone if they were wrong.
As long as she confided in him and stopped relying so heavily on him 'understanding her' when she had already closed him off, then their relationship can function as good as it did on the past.
Sure, he hadn't once expressed things like whether he 'loved her' or not, but he had always shown that he cared for her, without fail. If she hadn't been so laser-focused on finding the word 'love' among his words, then she would've figured this out.
He DID love her. Would he deal with her antics otherwise? Who else but him could stand her?
'You were always dense...'
This Museum Manager wasn't good at expressing things like 'love' because he hated emotions that were hard to define. He liked her and cared for her wellbeing, but he didn't know if that constituted as truly 'love' since it was colder than expected...
There weren't any times he wanted to do something crazy. He just lived the way he acted.
He wasn't sure if he could say that he 'could not live without her', since he was a chill guy who rarely experienced such extreme emotions. However, he COULD say that he would miss her if she was gone... Spencer was just that dumb and awkward.
His serious face was not a sign of intelligence, but merely him being inflexible on all of his beliefs.
Until he properly identified an emotion, he wouldn't express it no matter how hard others wanted him to. He didn't know that this very part of his personality was his greatest flaw in a relationship.
He rationalised emotions too heavily...
This was why he was unable to expect that the moment he turned to leave once again, Jasmine would react violently.
There was a radiance that covered her body as her figure flashed in front of him.
He didn't have time to react as a sword cleanly bisected his body and shook his Magic Pathways down to their core, causing him to fall on the verge of unconsciousness... Then he heard Jasmine say:
"If you won't join willingly, I'll force you into it!" She was anxious about whether he still loved her or not like in their youth, but believed that underneath his exterior was a loving future husband only for her!
Unaware of his true feelings or exactly why he rejected her in the first place, she reached out towards his collar and was about to drag him back to the Mirror Sanctuary. This was kidnapping him!
[Rune Formation- Ensnaring Shadows!]
As soon as she reached out towards him, the Dark Runes thrown over by Alex activated as he kept his distance. The power went out as well after he electrified the fuse to made all the lights turn off.
One Lightning Rune was enough succeed…
"Who are you to interfere?! Show yourself!"
'Sure, like hell I will...!' The scholarly freak retorted in his head. He wasn't going to put himself at a disadvantage just from a cheap provocation. The years he spent in the Dark Forest made him very careful when dealing with those kinds of people...
The strengths and weaknesses of Beasts weren't always clear-cut. putting yourself out there always resulted in bad results.
This also paired with his inherent cautiousness in his early years of being a Martial Artist on Earth.
Throwing away one's advantage was never a good decision.
Alex was too pragmatic to reveal himself now!
Who would give up such a good environment?
The sun had already set and his opponent was clearly unaware that she was giving away her location by covering herself in a layer of Light Mana, which were perfect circumstances for him.
His Dark Runes could be drawn more easily under the cover of darkness, which allowed him to throw out another Skill while she was cutting away his first one with a Sword Type Spirit Essence.
Merely one moment of distraction made it easy for him to whisk the unconscious Museum Manager on the floor to someplace safe.
Seeing that she wouldn't be able to take her fiancé away until she dealt with the person lurking in the shadows, she calmed herself down. Although she used to be impulsive, her experiences had made her more attuned to using many different tactics.
Alex also wasn't going to hold back as looked at his hand and concentrated his energy, allowing him to pull his 'Qi Armament' shaped like a rapier out of his blood. The black weapon made by the Dark Attribute was perfectly hidden within the shadows.
Now, it was time for the Arcanist to see just what a Mirror Priest of that certain Cult was able to do!
The scholarly freak stalked the sword user...
