Chapter 169 - Development (12)

Later that night.

The moon shone brightly and illuminated the place with a cool blue hue. The stars twinkled in the night sky. The cold wind of the night blew gently against his bare skin and sent a shiver down his spine. The dreary silence that surrounded the place, not a single thing heard except for the sound of the leaves rustling. The night was peaceful and quiet.

Harrison leaned against the tree as he admired the lake, the clear water replicating his surroundings. The trees glowed in a beautiful and enchanting way, he could only let out a sigh as he stared at the beautiful scenery around him. The lake near the Wistalia Palace where he first saw and met Alexandra. It was an unexpected encounter, who thought that he would meet her and become close to her. The days that he had spent with her were fun and filled with interesting things, even when it is just talking about nonsense things late at night or eating the cookies that were made for her inside her room in the afternoon. Sometimes, he would come to her room just to complain about a few things and she would also complain about what she was currently experiencing.

But he wasn't here to reminisce about those old memories, he was actually here to do some important business. Harrison stared at his reflection in the water, if he could describe his face right now, it looked like he went through so many days without sleep. Blame Elise for that, with her continuous bugging and training, Harrison never got any time to rest properly. Not even his friends, Luke and Jerich, would bug and disturb him continuously knowing how he gets irritated easily yet she… was completely different and that annoyed him but what can he do? They had a promise and he just couldn't break it easily. Because of that one mistake and carelessness, he was brought to that situation.

Should I bring Alexandra to another country or kingdom when I'm taking her out just to avoid that girl? But that would be a waste of mana, I only have a few mana left because of 'that'. Come to think of it, that person is late, he thought to himself and let out a sigh.

He took a bite from the Wistalia fruit that he got from the tree that he was leaning at. He was in the middle of the lake, standing on the small land with the huge tree behind him. He could feel mana flow into him as he took a bite from it. One way to recover his mana was to eat the fruits the Wistalia trees bore yet it could only recover few. Aside from that, the trees only bore 3-5 fruits each. Another way to preserve and maintain his mana was to stay in this child form. He could lessen his use of mana because of this.

He was quite an impatient person so he doesn't like waiting, he would always arrive right on time and doesn't want to be late. It feels like he missed so many things even when he was just a few minutes late. He was waiting for that person to arrive since earlier, 20 minutes ago. He took one last bite from the fruit that he was holding.

And finally, after a long time of waiting, the person that he was waiting for finally arrived. He could only just let out a sigh as he emerged from the trees and their gazes met. His crimson red eyes bore on his figure and he raised his eyebrow before he opened his mouth to speak, "Why are you late?" He asked in an annoyed tone of voice as he stared at him. His long blonde hair was tied in a ponytail and he was wearing his usual formal wear except for the cloak, it would hinder him while walking through that forest.

"I apologize. Something happened earlier and I was involved," The man said with a smile on his face. Harrison only let out a sigh before he spoke once again.

"You know how much I hate waiting, Friyedor." He said and he slowly flew towards Friyedor and landed on his two feet once he arrived in front of him. A few steps away from him and he just remained at where he landed.

The man who was known as Friyedor only let out a soft chuckle. "Yeah, yeah, I know. Anyways, it has been a long time since we last saw each other up until now," He said and placed his hand on his waist as he slightly tilted his head while he looked at his friend who was just standing still not far away from him.

"Did you already recovered all of your mana yet? It seemed like you woke up from your slumber and you have no plans on going back to sleep once again knowing that you were spending time with that girl," The slumber or sleep that he was referring to wasn't like those usual ones where you fall asleep in your bed and wake up the next morning, the one that he was referring to was that you would be asleep for years, maybe hundreds or thousands of years. Kinda like sleeping beauty but you don't need a kiss to wake up.

"Do I looked like I recovered all of my mana?" Harrison pointed at himself. He was still in his child form and he wasn't emitting this kind of aura which tells that you that he has a huge amount of mana. Friyedor just let out a sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose, being friends with him was like a hard task or mission. He was hard to deal with and he was hard to read, always doing unexpected things. "What kind of things are you doing recently?" He asked he knows it. He knows that he was doing some things that he didn't tell him.

"I entered the academy."

"Oh, I see, you en—Wait, you entered what?!"

Ah, he had the same reaction as Alexandra when he told her that. It's kind of funny, he thought to himself before he spoke once again. "The academy. You know that academy where you are being taught with magic and such," He said.

"Why would you even do that? You are just wasting your mana."

"I was looking for something or someone. Besides, I'm not using my mana that much."

"Although that few mana that you have left were like twice, no, triple the amount of mana a regular boy would have, you shouldn't be careless and just use it on such useless things. Aside from that, why would you even enter the academy when you already learned everything about magic?" After 'that' happened which made him lost almost all of his mana, Friyedor was always the one helping him recover the mana which he has lost. It was hard and it took so much time yet it still haven't even reach half of his original amount.

"I told you, I was looking for someone."

"You're hopeless."

Friyedor was completely different when he is with Harrison and when he is with other people. He's more like a mentor or a mother when he is with Harrison, always scolding him and pointing out his mistakes even though Harrison was way older than him.

"By the way, Harrison or should I call you Grim Reaper?"

A being who wields a scythe as a weapon, wearing a dark cloak to cover its body and face. He resembles death. No, let me rephrase that, he was death itself. That was what Harrison was even before when he vanished without a trace, he was the Black Wizard. The powerful human being who can use the three elements of magic. Dark, Holy, and Light. The wizard who lives in an abandoned castle alone. Nobody knew what he looked like as he always covered his face, so they thought that he was afraid to show his face because he was ugly or he was a monster.

He aids in war and is always on the front line, killing anyone with just a light swing of his deathly scythe while wearing a cloak to cover everything about him except his eyes so he could see. If he stood on top of the mountain of the lifeless bodies which he killed, he totally looked like grim reaper while holding that scythe. And when there was no war anymore, he vanished. It was like he only existed just for war but it wasn't.

That Grim Reaper who only appears when there was war was now standing in front of him in a child form with an annoyed expression which was immediately replaced with disgust as he heard what Friyedor called him. He let out a groan before he spoke, "Don't call me by that nickname, it's sending a chill down my spine. How do people even come up with that nickname anyway?" Was what he said. Friyedor just shrugged.

"By the way, let me continue what I was about to say earlier."

"What?"

"What is your business with the young miss, Alexandra? Seeing that you even gave her a mark. Be thankful that only a few people can see that mark on her wrist," Friyedor said. At the time where he was going to read her palm, he saw the mark. Harrison hummed before he responded.

"It's none of your business."

"But—"

"I said, it's none of your business. You don't have to care at everything I do, I know my limitations. I wouldn't give her that mark for nothing," Harrison interrupted what he was about to say and narrowed his eyes on him as if he was glaring. Friyedor gulped and felt the intimidating aura that Harrison held and he let out a sigh knowing that he couldn't ask him anything further, he didn't even get a single answer that he wanted to hear from him.

"And also, because of what you asked her, I went through a hard time. Alexandra always doubts everything and just by some simple words, she would spend her whole day thinking about what she just heard. It's like she was always solving a puzzle," He said and recalled what happened before. Well, anyone would find it weird why someone would suddenly ask that question just by some palm reading.

-- "Do you know Sir Friyedor?"

-- "Are you, acquaintances, with him? How did you know each other? How old are you? Who really are you?"

Because of that, he used a spell on her just to make her fall asleep so he could avoid those questions. He still wasn't prepared to answer all of that and think that it is still not the right time yet. "I apologize," He heard Friyedor said, the smile on his face was wiped off. Harrison could only let out a sigh before he looked up and stared at the night sky. Thinking of what he should do right after this. Maybe he should rest, Alexandra isn't awake at this time of the night. It's past midnight already.

"I need to go back now, I still have many things to do," Harrison said, breaking the silence that surrounded them. "Wait, before you leave, why did you even call me?" Friyedor said, curiosity lacing his tone of voice as there was a confused expression on his face. Harrison stared at his confused face before he opened his mouth to speak.

"Just like what you said earlier, it has been so long since we last saw each other since I was asleep trying to recover my mana. It seems like you were doing well, after all," He said and showed him a faint smile. Before Friyedor could even speak and respond to what he said, Harrison vanished into thin air in a blink of an eye.

Friyedor just sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. That guy, always leaving without even letting me respond to what he said, he thought to himself.