Tbate: Starting Anew

Chapter 29: Two Brothers

Arthur POV

After finishing the latest meeting in Taegrin Caelum I waited for Agrona in the hallway. Unsurprisingly Kiros didn't show up. He hasn't since the meeting where he stormed out. Any attempt to contact him by the other sovereigns failed. Today's meeting was precisely about discussing possible explanations for these events.

"Oh Arthur, Do you want something?" Agrona said as he exited after making sure no one was around.

"I wanted to ask about what happened to Cadell's retainer since his position is still not filled?"

"Oh retainer Lyra became Dragoth's second retainer. Why?" He asked looking at me with suspicion.

"I have candidates for filling both the Scythe position and even their retainer."

"I have no objections as long as we examine their capabilities properly."

After agreeing on a proper time for the examination I returned to Dicathen where it was still nighttime. I fell asleep after laying next to Tess on the bed.

By the time I awoke from my slumber, the sun was already higher than what I could see from the window. Ordinarily I would have been worried, but today was Saturday so I knew I still had time. Even though my asuran body made it possible for me to only sleep a few hours a week I still enjoyed sleeping in on lazy days.

I searched for Tess's signature expecting her to be somewhere on campus doing her presidential duties, but she was merely in the other room sitting at her desk. A few days ago we decided to use her room for studying and other duties and use my room to actually live in. this resulted in a few modifications to the rooms, but the bed she had in her room was still there, since it would be suspicious for people who would come into her room only to see no bed. This came in handy last night when she called the other girls over.

The reveal of my identity went just as well as I hoped, but that resulted in Tess demanding that we also revealed our relationship to my friends. We agreed that tonight I would call the boys over. This meant I had a pretty packed afternoon. At 3 PM I need to go to Elenoir to train with Noah, and Bairon who had gotten official permission from the royal family to train with me. At 7 PM the guys would be arriving in my room.

The time was 11:30 so I still had time to get ready and find the others to tell them about today's event. I finally got up after around 20 minutes of laying around and got dressed. For the first time in a while I dressed casually instead of either my uniform or my sovereign clothes.

Walking into the other room I saw that Tess was to focused on her council work to notice me coming in. I decided against disturbing her and just sat down on her bed taking a book I took from Taegrin Caelum's library out from my dimension rune and started reading it. For the next hour there was nothing but calm silence in the room. I was surprised that Tess had yet to realize I was in the room. She only saw me as she stood up to get a glass of water.

"How long have you been here?"

"I have been here for like an hour, but I saw you were very busy so I decided not to disturb you." I said walking over to my fiancé and hugging her. We talked about our plans today for a few minutes. Tess came up with a smart plan for the reveal tonight and I didn't really have a choice in it since I didn't ask her last time.

Soon after I left the room to let her work and searched for my friends. Curtis was out patrolling with Feyfey so I knew approximately where they were. On my way to their patrol area I ran into Jarrod and Lilia so I also invited him.

Not long after I arrived next to the clocktower where Curtis and Feyfey were taking a break sitting on a bench. They quickly noticed me and called me over. We agreed about meeting up tonight and Curtis even said he'd bring snacks. To my surprised he offered to bring alcohol, but I quickly declined. We didn't need drunk people there and we were all underage. After a short conversation they told me that Theo was in the DC office, so after saying separating from them I walked towards the office. The halls were mostly empty as expected since other than high level special classes nothing else was held on Saturdays. As I arrived near the office I could hear voices from the inside. 2 to be specific: Doradrea and Theo. By the sounds of it Theo was telling jokes to our fellow DC officer and she was laughing at them.

I decided it was a good idea to knock. In response to my knocking the door was opened a few seconds later by Theo. I told him I was merely here to invite him to tonights party and didn't want to intrude since they were having such a good time.

"Arthur, this isn't what you--" He started as his face grew red from embarrassment, but I cut him off.

"Theo, it's none of my business what you two are doing. I came here to invite you for a party I was holding for all my guy friends and that's it. I am also in quite the hurry so I'll leave you to whatever you were doing." I said turning and walking away.

Walking back to the dorms I decided to take the more scenic route. The trees were beautiful this time of the year and I also decided to stop by that Lángos place again for a quick lunch. After finally arriving in our room I quickly told Tess that I was only going to be back around 6 PM. I opened a portal to my room in the elven castle and went through. This has become routine for Saturdays since this was the time everyone was available to train. I decided not to train the two brothers separately since they always seemed to push the other to their fullest capabilities just by being there. They both wanted to show each other how strong they've gotten.

I walked through the decorated halls of the castle towards the training grounds. The staff greeted me with smiles, I even talked with the ones who've known me for years. Not long after I arrived in the training grounds a few guards escorted Noah and Bairon in.

We didn't want to waste much time, so the training began immediately. I decided to have noah work on a water barrier type spell since despite being an augmenter, he was quite skilled in using his element like a conjurer. Bairon's presence was especially useful today even though I wasn't focusing on him for now.

"Noah, do you know why a water barrier is ineffective against lightning attacks?" I asked knowing his answer would only be partially correct.

He explained the basic knowledge every water mage had about how water conducted electricity as I listened, I nodded along and even Bairon was surprised by how much his brother knew about the subject.

"If water conducts electricity, how do you explain this." I said conjuring up a water barrier that was so clear some would've mistaken it for glass. "Bairon, attack me."

The lance did as he was told and used a basic lightning spell knowing that against water mages that should be enough. To his surprise the water rather than conducting his attack acted as an insulator.

After a few moments Noah admitted that he couldn't explain what he just so prompting me to reveal how I did it.

"Water does not conduct electricity. The impurities in it do. Meaning if you can create a completely pure water barrier you have the best defense against lightning attacks. Pure water is an incredible insulator, and it has the added surprise factor. Seeing you are a water mage your opponent might grow overconfident thinking he's got the upper hand while in reality you can easily defeat him."

For the rest of our training time Bairon and I helped Noah practice purifying water. I was using my water magic to show him the ropes and Bairon tested each of his attempts. By the end of our session His water became pure enough to only let a little bit of electricity trough.

As the two left I had just enough time to return to Xyrus and prepare for the party.

This is going to be a fun night.

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Well, hello there!

I almost forgot the author's note!

Please tell me honestly what you think of this new writing style. I like it, but if you guys want the old one I'll switch back. It's more difficult to write like this, but I enjoy it more.

Also official release time changed to 3 PM GMT everyday.

This has been Salty and see you all tomorrow!