The Irregulars
Chapter 11
As the king requested Rein's knowledge of Life force, he denied their request and said firmly.
''it may be rude of me to deny a request of the king, however can i answer your wish when our mission to find princess Runa is done?"
''well sure, take your time I'm not rushing you"
it was a decision that Rein made out of thought that he will also reveal their mission, as promised after finding the lost princess and gaining the king's support.
on claude side his duel of debate to the elder princess is about to begun.
''now the topic of our debate is related to psychology, that is "if a kid who faced severe betrayal, what would he be like when growing up?"
the topic chosen by Luna was quite a good one for her, however the topic made claude get serious and a bit sad as the topic was a reflection of his life, the princess felt claude's sudden change of mood, a sad and lonely ambiance.
''so what is your answer Mr. claude?"
''the kid would either grow strong to stand alone to survive and live or will question the meaning of his life and will lose its purpose and will quit to live and die"
Luna got satisfied at Claude and his answer therefore she speaks.
''how about the kid will become someone who help others who is also alone and will form a unity like family? Based on his experience he should now how it will affect specially childrens"
the princess were observing Claude's behavior as she wanted to know something deep inside Claude while on the debate, however Claude reaction became emotionless as if Claude feelings and emotions disappeared.
at this moment Claude already know that the princess is trying to know something about him, it was not just a battle of wits but an examination, therefore he turned off his emotion as easy like switching a light on and off as if he was already used to doing it.
this made the princess got sad and a little bit terrified as she thought that what kind of sad life he was living that made him to be able to control his emotion.
''that will only happen if the kid is an angel or something, however the kid was just an emotional little being that can be broken, either way the kid will develop a trait that the kid will never be able to trust someone or rely on someone, by learning from being abandoned by others he will choose between surviving alone or die because of loneliness.
Claude response made the princess astonished, therefore the princess speaks to hear more of Claude's thoughts.
''then after becoming into an adult, what will happen to the kid or the man if there will be someone who will love him and take care of him, of course due to being lonely for too long the man will change overtime and will be able to trust and maybe form a relationship"
the princess made a good move as the topic is a kid who are being abandoned and the future awaits it, she made a scene where she thought that Claude will have a hard time to answer it due to his negative philosophical answers.
''princess, how many years will it take for a kid to become an adult?
''... 15 to be a full fledged adult you must turn 20"
''now imagine if the boy is you, you were being abandoned for multiple years by being used and abandoned over and over again and when they are done with you they will try to erase you from their sight"
"being tricked by their fake nice attitude,
being ignored every time you call for them even if you are sick or dying"
"for multiple years all over again and again and again"
"cause you were just a clueless kid who yearn for warmth"
"do you think that after experiencing those pains from others would you be able to trust anyone? when you finally became an adult and have the wisdom from your own experience and survival?"
''well...."
the princess feoo silent as she imagined the pain that might cause and now is having a hard time to respond as she cannot measure the pain it will cause for multiple years or being alone and betrayed.
''sigh i lose, i give up"
Luna accepted defeat on a debate to Claude as she felt sad and astonished at Claude's intellect, and she asked.
''you were so good, you made me fall silent into the last, that was impressive, however you were too serious about it, may i know why?" Her gaze af if she already seeing through Claude's life.
''its nothing the topic was almost the same of the story that i read"
''may i know the book title and its author?"
''hmm...it might be impossible because the was made by the person i know and he already died, and he said that he will not publish it and only made me read once"
princess luna already know that this is a lie, however she cannot afford to dig in more to maintain her relationship with claude. however.
''one last round claude, they say time heals does that means after a few years the kid will be able to love?"
''time does not heals but rather teach you how to survive the pain"
the answer made the princess satisfied as the reward the princess agreed to teach claude how to use spiritual arts, however she will only teach him how to use the spiritual energy for several reasons.
''okay as your reward for winning, i will teach you on how to control spiritual energy, i have high expectation to you from improving just by being taught by the basics"
''yes, I will try to exceed your expectations"
princess luna put her palm on front of claude and start's creating a ball of spiritual water and asked
''do you see this?"
''i can only see your palm getting a little blurry" Said Claude squinting his eyes.
''its because you have not known what spiritual energy feel's like, so you cannot understand it and see it let alone control it, Spiritual energy is like a part of your body you see, in your situation now its like you have a tail however you cannot control it because you don't knew you have a tail, something like that"
''then how about my fight with yesterday, i can see my spiritual attack's using a book, even Gen and Rein who has no Spiritual energy were able to see it"
''may i see the book?"
Claude handed the book of sorcery to Luna, how ever this made luna surprised as she looked into the book, it was engraved with a high level of complex sorcery that made the people to see its effect with the naked eye.
''where did you get this Claude?!" Luna screamed in shocked.
Suddenly he became wary as he noticed the risk of what he gave.
''i also got this book from the dead author as his gift for me"
''you see the book you are holding contain a very complex high level sorcery. that our current sorcery would not be able to comprehend it"
after this Claude tried to change the topic back to keep his secret, will of course the princess also know that Claude wanted to avoid the topic therefore she did not pry much.
''i see then how will i be able to see it?"
''hmm there are two thing's, first is Get hit by spiritual energy hard enough to open your spiritual sense or meditate for several month's until you will awaken it on your own"
however Claude is desperate to get stronger so he took the riskier way.
''then please hit me hard enough"
''don't worry i will do the safest way"
Claude prepared for the attack as the princess is also preparing to attack.
princess Luna manipulated the water and made it surround Claude and started to drown Claude, he was covered with thick water that is spinning very fast that it could twist his body if he won't use enough strength to retaliate.
Claude only sees a blurry surrounding because of the sorcery little by little he began to see a transparent energy surrounding him, after a few minutes he saw the water spiraling around him, like his eyes just woke up, therefore princess Luna stopped.
''i thought you were going to hit me not drown me" he said.
''because spiritual attacks will damage one's spirit, will at least your safe"
as Claude started to rest the book brightened and suddenly the book became normal however it is filled with basic description of summoning, sorcery, spirit fusion and various details.
on the other side, Gen was walking aimlessly on the palace until he found a middle aged mage walking on the hall, desperate for new spells he asked the mage.
''umm....hi may i take your time for a moment?"
the mage became aware and faced Gen, however the mage recognized Gen from the king's trial he accomplished before, therefore.
''oh! your that kid who defeated the Saber-tooth right, is there any problems?"
''...nothing, i was just wandering aimlessly and now i'm lost, do you know where most mages gather?"
as Gen said he is lost however this was typically what he wanted, to find a mage and follow it to find another, to copy their magic"
''well, since your talented and i heard your taking the royal family request so sure"
''information travel's fast huh, anyway thank you"
the mage accepted which made Gen happy inside like he won in multiple Gacha pulls, for a few moment Gen followed the mage and tried to use his ''Copy Magic Skill'' on the mage and he found out that the skill has limitation, first is he cannot copy any magic that is stronger than his magical energy, second is he cannot copy any magic if he has no elemental affinity for it, and the last thing is he can only copy one magic per individual.
Gen felt letdown as his affinity is light and dark which is very hard to find, therefore he did not copied any magic spells.
''i see, well if this skill could copy everything then the God's has a high chance of noticing the sage's interference into the world, at least i should be happy after receiving this gift"
henceforth Gen asked to the mage.
''is there any magic user here that has light or dark affinity?"
''hmm, dark affinity aside there is one that has light affinity here however he is a Royal mage, well there are still multiple user of light magic, like the church that has priest and holy knights and paladin's, however the church are very strict to non believer's especially on an individual with dark affinity, thought they will not torture it but rather change it to be a believer, they will take anyone who has light affinity in magical or spiritual however you can still choose freedom from them
after hearing this Gen gave up to the thought of going to the church and will proceed to the royal mage, therefore he asked.
''how can i get a contact of the royal mage?"
''hmm, well that's hard, you need to join the mage military or have enough fame and connection"
after a few hours of talking a knight was looking for him saying to go into the king's meeting place because they are waiting for him, therefore he bid farewell to the mage, after a few moment's he arrived to the room escorted by the knight where everyone is present except him,
as he saw Rein is getting serious he sensed something deep, however when he saw Claude whos looks tired yet enlightened and optimism, Gen knew something had changed forever.