Moonlight slipped through the window in a pale, unbroken beam, spilling across the wooden floor and stretching long fingers toward the table.
Moonveil was delicate and beautiful, with a slender build and a soft, enchanting face. Her hair was white, and her eyes seemed to glimmer with the afterglow of pale moonlight. She wore a modest dress instead of an armor and sat across Caster at the table.
Her figure did not move, save for the slow rise and fall of breath.
They had been sitting in silence for a few minutes, gauging each other out.
Caster, undeniably, failed at that. He couldn't even estimate how much stronger she was from him.
Maybe he could survive one or two or three hits from her as long as he wore Evermelt on him, but it was terrifying how strong a saint truly is.
She was the most beautiful woman he had ever met in his life, apart from Ki Song herself. Though, he never even dared to gauge her physical features properly.
His father is a saint too, but never has Saint Orlan seemed like a threat to Caster. So he didn't get the same feeling of danger from him.
Moonveil on the other hand, seemed as if the world was bending itself around her, menacingly.
Caster, not knowing how to start the conversation, simply said whatever he could to break the silence.
"Hello. Uhh... as you know, we're supposed to be wed to each other..."
His tone came out to be rather bleak, due to slight nervousness. The fourth wall was negating most of it anyways.
Suddenly, it felt like the world stopped bending itself around Moonveil as she replied in a cheerful tone.
Almost sounded fake.
"Hello! You finally spoke up!"
'What? Was she waiting for me to say something? Is that why we sat in silence for 3 minutes?'
Caster nodded and smiled slightly.
A forced smile.
But undistinguishable from his real one.
"Yeah, sorry I'm a little nervous. Can't blame me for that right?"
Moonveil chuckled slightly.
"I suppose you're right..."
Moonveil paused for a moment but didn't stop speaking. This time, her tone was more serious.
"I wasn't expecting to be picked actually, I'm a slightly lesser known saint compared to Revel or Eunbin... and you knew Seishan at the forgotten shore for a long time. May I ask why you picked me?"
Moonveil was being incredibly polite to her soon to be husband, however Caster could tell that the question she asked wasn't one that he could refuse.
She wasn't asking, she was ordering.
Caster gave a nervous chuckle, but inwardly he wasn't nearly as nervous. It was just a persona that he wanted Moonveil to think of him.
"Well... Seishan... Princess Seishan isn't a saint so I had ruled her out, and Beastmaster... Song Eunbin... she sort of scares me with her aspect ability. Not the best person to marry if she enthrall you and control all you do, right?"
Moonveil nodded, not taking offence in place of Beastmaster.
"As for Princess Revel and you, Princess Moonveil, I don't have much to say. I just chose you because I didn't know further about things..."
Moonveil tilted her head, still skeptical about all this. Rightfully so, because Caster is lying. He did have reasons to choose Moonveil above Revel, but he can't reveal those reasons because then he'd have to reveal his source of the information.
In the end, he just played the card of a naive kid who chose based of luck after simple elimination. That's why he made Caster appear nervous to her. To make it easy for him to lie.
Still, this persona isn't very hard to see through. Because of his deeds at the forgotten shore.
She must have heard about them.
But that doesn't mean a person can't be nervous in front of a saint. So his act isn't exactly unbelievable either.
'Gosh, I'm already lying to her...'
"Perhaps I would have had thought more if I was informed in advance. I really wasn't expecting to get wed to the direct descendents of Song... not to mention being given a choice. So please forgive me if I have offended you... by choosing you."
Moonveil gave out a hearty laugh.
"Oh, don't worry about it. I wasn't against this or anything. I've never had any incentives to marry in the past."
Caster interjected.
"Even though I'm like six to seven years younger than you? Aren't I practically a kid to you?"
Moonveil simply shrugged it off with a simple flick of her wrist.
"A few years later, the age difference won't matter."
Caster was baffled at the responses of these people.
'Does nobody give a fuck about age gap in this world?!'
But he didn't reveal this disappointment.
"I suppose that's true."
"And it's not like we're going to marry right this instant, isn't it? You need to become a master at least, to offcially get engaged to me."
Caster nodded and was about to say something, but Moonveil spoke up again.
"In any case, what do you plan to do right now?"
Caster pretended to think for a moment before replying to her in a calm, grounded tone.
"For now, I wish to go to chained isles and assist my friends over there."
Sunny and Nephis had both went to chained isles. Caster couldn't delay himself going there at all. He needs to kill Mordret's Mirror Beast before those two reach their. Because if they do reach it together... Nephis has a high likelyhood of finding out about shadow bond.
Caster can't let that happen.
"Not to mention... I wish to test out my awakened powers, I can't grow without struggle."
Moonveil had a pleasant look on her face, for reasons that Caster couldn't guess.
After a few seconds Moonveil curiously spoke up.
"You know that's under the sword domain right? How do you plan to go there? And even if, say, you find a way to there, you should know how dangerous it will be, not because of the nature of chained isles but because you will be outside the queen's protection."
Caster simply smiled at Moonveil before replying shamelessly.
"I was hoping you could pull some strings for that."
Moonveil was slightly surprised to hear that.
'The audacity of this guy.'
But she couldn't help but chuckle again.
***
The two of them were now standing in a training space at the jade castle.
Moonveil wished to see the extent of his skill and strength... and also his famed echo.
Caster agreed, after all, it's not everyday he'll get to fight a saint. It would be valuable experience for him.
However, he did not think he had any chance at all.
'This will be my first overwhelming loss'
The reason Caster was the strongest sleeper in existence was not because of skill, or aspect.
It was because of the overwhelming physical advantage and arsenal of memories and echos he had.
But what if he was going to fight an opponent against who, none of his advantages mattered? Because not only is Caster infinitely weaker than Moonveil physically, he's also infinitely less skilled than her, and has a weaker arsenal of memories by far.
Moonveil could bend the world around her itself, albeit to a weak degree, and she also has way more abilities than him.
That was the difference between Moonveil, a high tier saint, and Caster, possibly the strongest awakened ever.
Moonveil was incomparable to Caster.
That's how weak Caster is at the moment.
However, Caster wasn't disheartened. He knew there's a qualitative difference between saints and awakened.
Caster summoned [Evermelt] and made him into his armor.
Moonveil visibly winced slightly, she wasn't expecting such a strong effect mental defect to occur due to the echo.
It didn't do her any harm, she simply winced due to gettinc caught off guard by it.
After that, Caster summoned the [Moon Sabers] in both his hands and also summoned [Nameless Sun] to augument his swords. It was the memory he got by killing the fallen terror of crimson spire. It was a unique weapon type memory that didn't form as a weapon, but rather augumented others.
It had a multitude of enchantments, but the one he wished to use for the moment was just the soul attacking property of it.
Caster took his stance, readying himself and about to launch to attack her.
But before he could, he heard Moonveil's voice.
"What are the ranks of your memories?"
"Oh... uhh, my sword is ascended rank tier 1 and I'm enhancing it by an ascended rank tier 6 memory. My armor is a transcendent devil echo."
Moonveil was stunned. She could not believe the insane level of his memories and his echo especially.
"How did you acquire them as a sleeper?"
Caster simply smiled mischievously.
"That's a secret~"
Moonveil sighed.
"Whatever, come at me."
Caster took a deep breath and moments later charged at Moonveil with all his might, activating his hourglass charm and aspect.
The speed was more than any awakened could every hope to achieve.
Lightning itself flew out of his body.
His speed was further augmented by his essence control, despite how crude it was for now.
It wasn't anything Moonveil would have any trouble against, but she was pleasantly surprised to see that Caster was stronger than he appeared, and it wasn't all due to his memories.
By slashing his sword and creating a sound, Caster activated the moon's hymn, using it to pull Moonveil towards him.
Or at least try to.
Because Moonveil didn't even budge.
A moment later, Caster reached the small figure of the saint and struck his sword efficiently towards her knee.
With one swift motion, she simply parried the attack away, tipping Caster's fragile balance that he had due to the immense speed he had.
If this was before his attribute [Below Speed] evolved to [Traveller], he'd have lost his balance most likely. But now, not only did this attribute improve his perception, it also made it so that he could sense other's movements.
Which allowed him to get ready for him loosing his balance.
But he still lost his balance.
'What?'
However, he didn't give up. Standing back up, Caster swung his sword at her multiple times in all sorts of deceptive manner.
Moonveil stopped all attacks Caster executed effortlessly, and she was barehanded.
The 'fight' went on for a while, because of Caster's stubborn nature of not giving up.
However, when Moonveil saw that it wasn't going anywhere, she stopped the fight by slamming her fist into Caster's chest, sending him flying away towards the edge of the room and slamming into the wall.
However, Caster stood up. His echo seemed to have tanked the attack.
Rushing at Moonveil again, Caster dismissed his armor this time, sending Evermelt as a boiling gold liquid to attack instead.
Moonveil was slightly caught off guard, not expecting that to happen, but she dodged it nonetheless.
However, Caster knew that would happen and was already preparing for the next moment.
For that, he simultaneously used the [Celestial Cord] to bind Moonveil for a moment and unleast the golden tide enchantment of [Evermelt].
A hude wave of boiling golden liquid rushed out of [Evermelt], completely draining Caster's essence. Moonveil had to genuinely escape the tide by first breaking free from the ascended cord, else she'd take some, albeit low, damage as well. The hot golden liquid came from a transcendent echo after all.
After seeing Moonveil escape, Caster stopped. Giving up.
"Alright, I yield."
He dismissed all of his memories, except the [Ashveil Tunic] that he liked to wear, because it looked good.
Moonveil looked at Caster with surprise.
"You're pretty strong for your rank."
Caster chuckled.
"I'm not a divine aspect user for nothing."
'I didn't even use Book of Books, my main attack.'
"Despite your lackluster sword skills and crude essence control, your battle sense is incredible."
Yes, Caster's sword skills had plateaued a long time ago. Because of his lack of close ranged battles. At one point he could say he was a better swordsman than Sunny, a swordsman who was on par with Chainging Star's skill... however soon after his skill level stopped increasing.
The cause for it was was Caster himself.
He relied too much on his memories, his echo, and the ranged attack that the book of books allowed him.
It made him the strongest on the forgotten shore, but it wouldn't remain that way forever.
Caster needs to improve his swordsmanship, along with his essence control and weaving.
But he can't improve in all of them at once.
So he chose the basics, essence control. He wanted to get better at swordsmanship too, but he needs to learn to make memories earlier than learning to get better at the sword.
Because of his damned flaw!
Ever since becoming an awakened, the effectiveness of his charm decreased a ton. Because it was only an awakened memory.
Caster can't use his aspect for as long as he could before.
He needsd to improve the memory as soon as possible.
Or make one that could replace it.
Nonetheless, Caster couldn't focus on swordsmanship for now.
"But that isn't the most impressive thing. Your physicality is by far the greatest advantage you have on other awakened, ignoring your transcendent rank echo."
After a pause she continued.
"While it isn't master level physicality, it isn't that far from it. And your speed... it can even give some weaker master's a run for their money. Truly, an incredible level of strength. However, it seems you don't have control over your ability properly do you? You exuded lightning out while you used your aspect to augment your speed. Get in under wraps. That's just a waste of essence."
Caster was perplexed but didn't show it on his face as he simply nodded back.
'What? That hasn't happened before? Is it because of my attribute stormsong? Or has my dormant ability improved from the past in some way... I'll have to research this.'
"I'll work on it."
It was unfortunate that Caster didn't have a physical amplification effect due to his aspect like Sunny or Nephis, because he will never be able to compete with those two in terms of pure physicality later on.
Moonveil seemed to continue speaking after that.
"Well, I'm impressed. Genuinely. You are rough around the edges but... unmistakenly a monster at your rank. Though... I wonder why you didn't use your lightning powers on me."
Caster smiled, still keeping the naive guy persona.
"Thank you for the compliment..."
Caster didn't want to reveal the book of books, thus he didn't use the lightning abilities. But he still needed to give Moonveil an answer.
"...well, I just assumed it'd be ineffective on you. I judged a higher chance at progress with my echo."
It was a lie, just a simple excuse.
"Alright, well anyways, you should know what to focus on, right?"
Thankfully she bought the excuse.
Caster nodded.
"Yeah, my essence control."
Moonveil nodded.
"Correct, even more than your swordsmanship. It's decent enough for now. I'll help you out with the essence control."
Caster was pleasantly surprised, again.
"Really? Thank you!"
He replied enthusiasticaly.
'I guess this means I'll have a fast growth in my essence manipulation skills.'
Moonveil wasn't done complimenting him.
"Honestly, I think with that echo of yours, you can even take out some masters, granted you outsmart them."
Caster flatly replied.
"It's reassuring to know that I won't be helpless even in front of masters."
Moonveil raised her hand to hold her chin and nonchalantly replied:
"I guess so. But don't stupidly make some master your enemy."
'Sure I'm playing the part of a naive person, but no way you think I'd make a mistake like that willingly! Come on! Did I act too naive?'
"Yes, yes, of course."
Caster wished to ask for some memories as well, but he wondered if it would look too shameless. In the end he spoke up about it anyways, since he's going to be given full support nonetheless.
"Can I issue for some memories, Moo- Princess Moonveil."
She looked at Caster with intrigue in her eyes.
"Please, just call me Moonveil, or simply Moon."
'Oh?'
"Okay, sure. I'll call you Moon... from now on. Anyways, the answer?"
"Which ones do you need?"
That was indirect confirmation that he'll get them.
"Okay, uhh I need a storage memory, the kind that can store things in my soul sea... I'd also like a memory that can act as a food source, at least enough to last me in emergencies..."
Moon nooded.
"That shouldn't be hard to arrange for."
"Yeah, but that's not all. I wish to find a memory that could... help me resist and fight against my flaw."
Moon's face seemed to light up with intrigue.
"Your flaw?"
Caster nodded. He didn't wish to reveal this, but he knew he'd have a better chance at finding memories to resist his flaw like this.
It was another flexible decision he made based off the circumstances.
"Yes... my flaw is that I'll age the more I use my aspect."
Moon looked at Caster with pity.
"Terrible flaw."
Caster shrugged.
"I know."
She sighed before replying.
"Alright sure, I'll look for memories or anything that can help you with that."
Caster nodded.
"Thank you, Moon...veil. Gah! It feels weird to call you simply 'Moon'."
Moon chuckled before asking something.
"If you don't mind me asking, how do you look so young? If you have a flaw like that, shouldn't you look much older by now? Or are its effects not too prominent?"
Caster shook his head.
"Ah, no, it's nothing like that. I have a charm that slows my aging, and also makes it so that I can replace my 'life force' with something fake, to fool my flaw... of sorts. Normally, it would be useful for medical emergencies, but in the case of my flaw, it works perfectly..."
After a pause he continued again.
"...However, It doesn't have massive capacity. It is just an awakened memory after all. At the stage of sleeper it worked wonderfully. Now I expend a lot more of the charm to use my aspect."
Moon nodded and simply said: "I see..."
However, Caster wasn't done speaking.
"One more thing, towards the end of the forgotten shore, I looked to be in my late twenties to early thirties. However after awakening, I basically seemed to regress in age..."
Again, Caster didn't stop, only gave a pause before continuing.
"...and as we know, ageing slows down as one advances through the ranks, so perhaps my flaw will weaken eventually. I just with to not be turned into an oldman by the time I reach such a level though."
Caster let out a hearty chuckle.
Moon looked at Caster with a level of understanding.
"I understand, I'll look for this too."
Caster bowed respectfully.
"Thank you."
Afterwards, he turned around and tried to leave.
"Where do you think you're going? We need to train your essence."
'Oh shit, I thought you'd leave now.'
"Uhh, I just need to go for a moment, I'll be right back."
Moonveil nodded with a slight glare.
"You weren't trying to escape, right? Right?"
"No~ Why would I do that? I have no incentive for that. Haha."