Chapter 70: My real name (I).
Chapter 70: My real name (I).
"Something important... you've never told anyone before?" she repeated and I could feel my palms sweating.
Rose and I felt like we were the only people outside the church, the faint voices of all the people were muffling. "If you'd be free to accompany me to our special place. I think I'm ready to tell you everything about me."
"Our special place, the color changing tree." She looked at me with a saddened expression and I slowly smiled nodding to tell her that she was right. "I know that at this time of the night, we'll be completely alone. I haven't set foot in that place in two years with you, I've always been visiting it alone."
I held her hand leading her away to the very same tree I've always visited whenever I felt lost or depressed. We had a lot of memories here, from the time Rose got stuck trying to save a cat, where I had a burnt back and she went ahead applying burnt ointment for me.
Reading books together after her work at the orphanage...
Sleeping together while I let her borrow my shoulder to use as a pillow.
That place for us was definitely something special.
.-.-.-.-.
When we walked into the small hill, I noticed that the night was pretty chilly.
"The moon is really pretty tonight." (Rose) looks up where the moon was still shining clearly being surrounded by hundreds of stars twinkling with their pretty colors.
The wind brushing against our skin made me feel a sudden chill and I looked at my company beside me who wasn't wearing any extra layers.
"Wait- here."
We took a small stop on our walking trip as I hastily took off my jacket. "Hold still, it's cold- I should've thought of this when I suggested I visit this place." I wrapped the jacket around her and once I was satisfied with my work I let out a sigh of relief.
"But what about you?" she looked at the jacket worryingly and I smirked.
"You can just hug me later. That's all I need." I suggested teasingly opening my arms to show that I'm waiting for an upcoming hug from my beloved but she chuckled in reply.
I could see her raising one eyebrow before shoving me playfully.
"Are you sure you're here to tell me something important? Or is this your plan on having some alone time to flirt shamelessly with me, personal knight of mine?" (Rose) reaches for her red scarf that she wrapped around her head and took her time taking it off.
"..."
I bit my lip looking at her long flowy silver hair that was being blown by the wind and those silver gray eyes that felt like I'm being absorbed by her every stare.
"We'll be all alone together, I think its about time for me to properly talk to you without a mask." The moment she said that, the moonlight seemed to have sensed that we were having a moment and it blessed us with its light under the night. "I could feel the moon's light basking under my skin, my light magic would be very active tonight it seems."
She hums, snapping her finger and letting little glowing light orbs float into the sky.
"Very pretty lanterns isn't it?"
I looked up in awe and realized she's been holding out on me all these years with her affinity with [Light Magic]. Our surroundings suddenly became very bright, it was like Christmas lights in December.
It reminded me of home.
Home where even in the early month of September there would already be Christmas songs playing everywhere, lights, lanterns and decorations being hanged you would think the upcoming other holidays didn't exist.
"You could always do that? I mean I've seen you conjure a light orb but I've never seen it float or anything." I told her with an amazed look at my face and she pointed at a light orb before moving her pointed finger into my direction, slowly the orb followed her fingers and it stopped by the front of my face.
I opened my palm and there the light orb rested.
I controlled my magic so I wouldn't be able to absorb the beautiful scene. With how relaxed my emotions are I should have [Gluttony] under control.
"I was keeping my mysterious streak ongoing, the more mystery the more you'll be into me obviously." (Rose) puffs her chest looking proudly.
"Alright, mystery woman of mine. Why don't we get to the tree and I still have my old sleeping mat that I used when I was camping, we can use that to sit on so your dress won't get dirty." I reached out for the said mat in my [Storage Ring] and held it in my hands.
"You're still a gentlewoman as ever."
When we got to the color changing tree, Rose made a few more of her light orbs floating up and it didn't feel so scary because of it.
I rolled out my sleeping mat and patted it down gently to clean. I sat down making sure that it was safe and that there were no bugs or ants lurking to ruin anything that might happen later.
"Is the crown princess alright with this arrangement?" I turned to Rose who was holding one of her light orbs before releasing it up to the sky to float. She sees the mat that I laid out and smiled.
"The crown princess is more than satisfied." (Rose) walked over to me and sat down on the sleeping mat while she used her scarf as a little blanket wrapping it on both of us. "So that you won't get cold too. It wouldn't be unfair if you gave me your jacket and I didn't do anything to keep you warm."
I held the red scarf she's always worn, it smelled like Roses.
"Thank you." I moved a little to her side and cuddled shamelessly, I could hear the beat of my heart getting louder the moment she rested her head into my shoulders just like back in the old days.
"So about the reason we were here... What did you want to tell me?"
The reason we were here... right, I should be strong enough to tell her. I haven't told anyone- but Avery knows and possibly her other hero friends as well because of their [Scan]- that I'm not from this world.
"I... I don't want you to freak out." The mood turned serious, I gulped. "I hadn't really talked to anyone about this even my father. I wasn't sure what other people would think, that's why I didn't tell you before."
"It's because I'm not from this world."
"You're- not from this world?" (Rose) repeats what I said and I nod. She keeps quiet expecting me to continue more on explaining and so I did.
I was a professor in my old world, called Earth.
A wandering professor.
Is what I would like to call myself. Educators with the pursuit of helping children in their education, we travel far and wide to try and teach children with different outreach programs connected with my company.
From so many places.
I became so lost, I took in the role of an educator and realized it wasn't an easy role to fulfill.
"To tell you the truth, I only became an educator because... my relatives pushed me into being one. The salary is what mattered at the time for them, back in my world being a teacher also gave people this- pink tinted glass that teaching children would be an easy feat."
"This is why I respected you a lot, Rose."
Wanting to teach a bunch of kids because you like the work. It took me years before I got to that point, for the first few years I made sure to only teach and care for students within the right distance.
Everything will be professional- but everything changed when I found my daughter.
"I have told you that one work about my daughter, I got from a dream. It was a lie. I still remember her face so vividly."
From the first time she called me her mother, while it made me happy I asked her to call me Professor. Her first golden medal, her first book and her first recitals. "Vivienne, made me change what I thought about children and their education."
"They're something special."
Having a child- related to you by blood or not was the most wonderful thing that has happened to me. "So the first time I really broke down when- Vivienne got sick."
I remember that day... The school called to tell me that she was sick and was rushed into the hospital. A new form of lung cancer that was going to kill her, "Vivienne got that sickness from her old home, she didn't have a good home- her mother was a prostitute that always had new men coming over to visit."
"The doctors theorized they were smoking a new kind of illegal drug supposedly banned in Japan, and Vivienne consumed second hand smoking."
We considered having a lung transplant but realized- we needed to find a compatible donor.