As we were walking, silence took over and made the atmosphere a bit gloomy. Much of the blame for this is mine, as I'm wearing a rather unfriendly expression at the moment. The girls noticed it right away and decided to just stay silent as they followed me two steps behind.
Honestly, I don't think I have a reason to be any different; problems are piling up, and just when I think it's over, another one comes along to add to my list.
It starts with the fact that I can't even manipulate aura in an 'acceptable' manner, which means I can't cast any kind of magic that requires sensitive aura manipulation. I can barely perform some enchantments with the help of my core.
Then there's the fact that I'm not improving, and I'm unlikely to achieve satisfactory results. At best, I'll be able to cast basic spells, nothing complex and powerful.
My core has also stagnated in its growth, which means it's experiencing a bottleneck. But there's a risk of me getting stuck in this bottleneck for a few years, causing my core to remain stagnant until then.
The observation period will end in less than 1 year, but we have more than enough reasons to believe that the Triad Council has some plans prepared for me. It possibly involves the start of my learning and training with Lord Akachi.
Mother is becoming increasingly unstable due to my possible departure, which is causing some problems in territory administration. She's also stagnant since she's not training aura tuning to avoid causing a dangerous overload in my Aura Core.
Abigail is trying to balance her time between activities in her own territory and activities in Avior. She's a bit overwhelmed with administrative issues and the problems Mother isn't able to solve.
Besides all this testing my patience, I also have the damned Mecatium Necklace around my neck, which is suffocating me. A perfect sphere of indigo blue color is attached to a thin golden chain, this is the Mecatium Necklace that I can never take off my neck.
If I remove it, some kind of phenomenon will occur that will make my emotions intensify and be transmitted to the people around me. It's as if I'm transmitting them through aura, and anyone can feel them.
Obviously, wandering personal feelings around is not a good thing. But the worst part is that this can trigger a bond to form. I haven't researched much about it yet, but feelings are the key to that.
From what I've learned, Mecatium is responsible for camouflaging aura in a person's body. It's like wearing a coat to cover the clothes I'm wearing, but in this case, it's my aura. I have no idea why I have to wear the Necklace.
Mother said that an aura core is capable of radiating aura mixed with my feelings whenever it's ready to form a bond. This happens with all Aura Cores, but mine does it even without being ready to form a bond.
At first, I only wore the Mecatium Necklace , but now I also have to wear 2 Mecatium bracelets very similar to the Necklace . Still, my feelings leak whenever my emotions are too strong.
That's why, even though the girls may want to say something, they don't speak. My feelings of anger and frustration are definitely flowing. And none of us said anything until we were approaching where Mother and Abigail were.
It was at this moment that I decided to try to improve the mood so that we wouldn't stay like this for longer. And the best way to do that is to divert everyone's thoughts to something more cheerful and fun. Fortunately, I have something in mind to suggest.
So I took a long sigh, relaxed my shoulders, and then returned to my normal posture. That was enough for me to control my emotions a bit and not let them escape. As soon as the problem was solved, I started talking to the girls:
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't let my feelings flow like that. It was uncomfortable, I know, but that was a mistake."
Although I didn't look back and continued looking ahead as we walked slowly, I knew the girls were paying attention to my words. So I kept talking, but now I changed my tone of voice to a more cheerful and expectant one:
"I ask that we put this aside, we shouldn't dwell on something so troublesome. That's why, girls, I want to go to the village later to relax and have some fun. Who wants to come with me?"
"Young Lord, I believe your outings have been becoming more frequent lately, I fear Lady Nala might think you're trying to escape from your training."
"She always comes to get me whenever I'm late, Marien, I can't miss training even if I want to. Let's go..."
In fact, Nala always gets angry when I'm late, so she's used to turning into a dragon and coming to get me wherever I am... Maybe that's why most traders are afraid whenever I enter the shop.
"I'd rather avoid it, Young Lord."
The first to refuse to accompany me and face Nala's wrath, possibly, was Marien. She has been reprimanded by Nala a few times, and one of those times was yesterday. That's why she doesn't want to go with me today.
"Come on, guys. I'll try not to get distracted and come back at the right time..."
"Sorry, Young Lord..."
The second to refuse the invitation was Aglaya...
"Young Lord, I need to prepare the medicine, so I'll go ahead."
And finally, the third and last to refuse was Mahara... She literally ran away because she didn't want to answer the question. She could have at least said no; it would have been less humiliating for me.
"Is this serious??? No one is going to accompany me to one of the villages? What happened to all that talk about 'our loyalty is yours, Young Lord'? Was it all just talk?"
I couldn't stand it... I had to abruptly stop my steps and turn around to look directly at Marien and Aglaya, since Mahara just went ahead without us. She may have escaped, but these two won't have an easy fate.
I was really upset; none of them wanted to go with me. I've already said I'll talk to Nala later, why are they still so evasive? Even if we were caught, I would suffer the worst consequences.
"Young Lord, today is an important day, we all have crucial tasks for the success of the commitment scheduled for today. Being unconscious for 2 or 3 hours because of Nala's training is something we can't afford on this day."
"... ..."
Aglaya was the one who took the initiative to explain the reasons for her refusal, and I have to admit she has a great reason. Still, I'm upset, and my expression betrays my feelings. I want at least something in return...
"We can't fulfill your request, Young Lord, but I believe Sonia will go to Village 8 tomorrow very early to do some shopping. It will be a great opportunity, and it will be much better than going today."
"I liked the idea, Aglaya, it may even be better since I'll have time to convince Ribs or Blackie to take me there. Although Ribs might be a hassle."
Aglaya gave me a good idea; she's great at that. Going to the village today is a bit complicated, and I'd have to settle for the aura vehicle. Which isn't bad since the vehicle is spacious, comfortable, and elegant, but I much prefer to go there with the carriage.
It may seem ironic, but the carriage has an incomparable charm. But that's not why I like to go in the carriage; in fact, I don't like to go in the carriage either. What I really like is to go to the stable and interact with the animals there...
I'm strictly forbidden to go there alone, only with one of the girls. This is because the animals there are extremely strong and 'capricious', they can easily hurt me just because I passed by one of their beds.
There are more than 50 domesticated animals, most are aura beasts, but there are also some aura animals and normal animals. Ribs is the one I'm most familiar with, a Fire Black Bear, classified as a level 3 aura beast...
He's the oldest and strongest of them all, but there are some others that also stand out, even if they're not as flashy. Like, for example, some huge horses, birds with shiny feathers, apparently normal cows that disappear out of nowhere...
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So... now he must become a statue in feelings? Supress them and so on? I would smash my head in a wall before that happens
You understood the concept perfectly... hahahaha
How old he is?
Nice