In the morning, a loud knock on the door woke Raymond up. He turned to look on his right, but the bed was empty. He smiled to himself as he thought about Lily and the night of passion.

“Fuck! She left me here alone…”

Raymond jumped down the bed and answered the door while taking note to dress himself on the way.

“I’m sorry your highness! There is an urgent messenger for you,” Gylfi lowered his head and informed Raymond the reason behind the offensive action of disturbing his sleep.

“Oh! What’s the problem?”

“Lady Miranda has called for you at your home.” Gylfi shuffled to the side after saying those words while continuing to keep his head lowered.

“Shit!”

There was a sense of Déjà vu for Raymond. The last time he had been with Shania something similar to this had happened not quite later. He hurriedly steadied his clothes and armor and after tossing a couple of gold coins to the old man at the side of the door, he ran down the stair and out of the building.

…

“So?”

Miranda tapped the table after she settled on one of the chairs. There was a loaf of freshly baked bread on the dining table along with a line of various condiments. Raymond, though, was not in a mood to touch any of them. It was the first time since that fateful day that he was alone in a room with Miranda and was sure that no one could disturb them. Miranda had told him as much.

The memory of their kiss and the soft, sexy figure of Miranda kept on playing in his head. However, that was an image far removed from the nostril flaring and sharp eyed woman who sat opposite him.

Raymond glanced at her from the corner of his eyes and thought to himself, she’s still so beautiful though…

“What do you have to say for yourself?”

Miranda lifted her right leg over the other one, and her fair skin peeked out from below the brown, long skirt. The greenish, full sleeved blouse was fastened tight to her hourglass figure while she had kept her long hair in a loose ponytail.

“I-I don’t understand,” Raymond stammered under her furious gaze. He was never good in confrontation with her and frankly, he was unsure of the topic of their conversation, distracted by the impulse to free her hair and stare at it.

“Why didn’t you come to see me yesterday? Do you know how worried I was? DO You?”

Raymond was speechless at her sudden outburst. It was plain to see that she was really angry that he hadn’t met with her after he returned from the forest. He had wanted to tell her that he did, in fact, come to see her, but she wasn’t to be found anywhere, yet the words never left his mouth.

She will kill me if I said that as an excuse…

The fault laid with him, that’s what Raymond thought, and decided to apologize just to pacify her a little, “I’m sorry!”

Raymond guessed that Miranda didn’t want to keep on scolding him and that he had looked so ashamed and repentant that she decided to forego her anger, “I’m sorry too. I know I could have looked for you myself.”

“Here,” She extended her hand and took his palm under her own.

Raymond smiled as the clouds of confusion and guilt cleared from over his head. He was never any good at handling Miranda’s ire, and this time he had really overstepped his bounds. At the end of the day, to kiss her was no joke. There was the thing that they hadn’t actually cleared the air between them, but he was much more at ease. From the way Miranda was acting, he reckoned she had decided to overlook the matter. And he was fine with them pretending that it never happened.

Maybe it’s for the best…

Though he couldn’t get rid of the myriad of jumbled feelings, when the smiling face of Lily flashed before his eyes his mind became calmer. The soft voice of Miranda and the warm feel of her hand would have his heart racing any other time, but at the moment he pushed those emotions down and tried to keep them away. He decided that the best thing would be to behave like he had always behaved, even if it may seem a little unnatural, and ignore the complicated feelings inside his heart.

“I have something for you.” Miranda smiled mysteriously as she stood up, though her expression darkened after she turned around from him. Wistfulness engulfed her whole being, seeing that she had somehow ended up worse than how she had started.

“It will be tougher from here on…”

“Did you say something?” Raymond felt as if Miranda muttered something to him and asked her about it. 

“I said to wait right there while I go get it,” Miranda spoke without turning back and went towards her room.

After a few moments, she was back with a leather pouch and proceeded to hand it to Raymond as she took her place opposite him.

“Open it!” Miranda coaxed.

“Alright…”

What came out of that pouch was a magic stone of considerable size. Raymond was stunned by its texture and weight. He had never seen a magic stone with such dense mana and of such huge proportions.

Usually, a magic stone was barely bigger than the length of a finger with varying thicknesses. However, the magic stone given to him by Miranda was nearly the length of his palm and wide as his fist. Most importantly though, it was of earth type, incredibly rare and precious one inside their kingdom.

Raymond gulped unconsciously and gazed at Miranda with worshipful eyes. Without thinking, he left his seat and hugged her tightly.

“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”

“Congratulations on awakening your attribute!” Miranda whispered to his ear as she tightened her hold on him.

“But I wanted the fire element…!”

“Ha-ha… Did you say that to Lily?” 

Raymond smiled sheepishly as he sat back down.

“The poor girl!” Miranda sighed and then added in a low voice, almost as if regretful, “You should pay more attention to other’s feelings…”

“Yeah, I think so too!”

Raymond muttered, but all of his attention was on the magic stone. It was a magic stone of an earth attribute beast. A magic stone was the condensation of mana of a beast and could be obtained after processing its dead body. If he could absorb all the mana within it, then his power would surely skyrocket. There was even a chance that he would directly improve his star level.

“It’s just what I needed. Thank you!” Raymond grinned widely at the smiling Miranda.

He didn’t ask her how she had gotten it or if it would be better utilized by herself. He didn’t ask these questions because he was long used to being treated like this by Miranda, being spoiled by her. Miranda had always saved the best of things for him. Even when they were kids and living at the palace, she would secretly take out something precious and give it to him.

It was similar to the time when he had thought about Miranda as soon as he had awakened. He just couldn’t explain it, but it felt like the most natural thing to think of her whenever there was ever a happy incidence.

“Now all I need is a new weapon!”

“Why? What happened to your sword?”

“Lily forbade me to use it… She says that since I am an earth attribute awakened, I shouldn’t use a sword anymore.”

“Ha-ha… I believe she pulled one over on you!”

“Really?” Raymond’s skeptical tone changed to overjoyed in an instant, “You mean to say that I can still use the sword?”

“Yeah…”

Miranda chuckled sexily, and her ponytail came undone because of shaking her head back and forth. She took the few loose strands of hair and tucked them behind her ear.

“You should really start to pay attention to others…”

“Hmm,” Raymond absentmindedly groaned at her seductive turn and the throaty whisper. He was spellbound for a second and almost repeated his actions of that day, but at the last moment, he checked himself. He decided to escape before he did something really embarrassing.

“I have to leave!” He stood up from his seat and tried to make his way out hastily.

…

“Wait!” Miranda sauntered to him and fussed about his clothes and armor. By now, she had become used to the abruptness of Raymond. He had a tendency to dodge and delay the things he found uncomfortable. She didn’t exactly like that about him, but now it didn’t bother her as much as it used to do, a few years earlier.

Raymond was brave, she knew that, although not when it came to dealing with his family. However, she had decided to wait. Because, after all, she had an unshakable belief in him; an unshakable belief that, no matter what happened, he would always come back to her. She just had to make sure that it was sooner rather than later.  

“I don’t know what you will have to do once you reach Ostorth…” Her eyes turned piercingly serious as she concluded her sentence, “But remember this, no matter what happens in the future, no matter how much time has passed, Ryhor will always be our home!”

“Our only home!”  

***

(Part 8)

 

Ostorth, the capital of Gelodesh was considerably bigger than the only other two cities in the kingdom. The streets were wider, the buildings bigger and the population larger and livelier. Moreover, the weather was more pleasant too.

The palace in the middle of the city was the largest, the grandest place in the city. Any passerby would stop for a few seconds to marvel at the structure. It was built in a style that was quite different to the palaces of the neighboring kingdoms and was much more reminiscent of the southern kingdoms.

Golden in color and with tall towers on all four sides of it, it was an airy palace with a good number of windows and a large garden. Considering there was snowfall in the city, even if it wasn’t heavy like in the two northern cities, the design was a little conspicuous. Nonetheless, it was very beautiful.

A large carriage stopped in front of the palace and Raymond alighted from it. The first thing that caught his eyes wasn’t the grand palace, it wasn’t the magnificent artistry on the walls, and it wasn’t the palace guards standing at attention for his arrival.

No! It was a woman. It was an alluring woman with fiery red hair and a wide smirk on her face.

“Yo!”

“… Rose!”