Chapter 381: Bad Omen
~~~~~~ Character Profile ~~~~~~
Character Name: [Aurora Beaufort]
Age: [18]
Level: [26]
Grade: [3]
Element: [Water]
Class: [Knight]
Exclusive Class Attribute: [Battle Cry]
Bond Name: [June]
Bonded Ability: [Absolute Zero]
Exclusive Skills: [Pale Panoply - Lv10], [A Touch of Ice - Lv10], [Ten Horae of Eternal Dawn - Lv2]
EXP: [9100/10,000]
~~~~~~ ============== ~~~~~~
’She’s already at level twenty-six? How’s that even possible?’ Cedric mused to himself in disbelief.
Several meters in front of him, Leon turned back slightly, and when he caught sight of Cedric, his face lit up with a welcoming smile. Then he turned and said a few quick words to the two girls, gesturing toward the academy building as if to say, I’ll catch up with you later in class.
He then turned and walked over, looping his arm casually around Cedric’s shoulders.
"Hey there, big brother," Leon greeted warmly. "Why have you got this disbelieving look on your face?"
Suddenly, as if a lightbulb had gone off in his head, Leon turned to look back at the two retreating girls.
"Ah..." He turned back to Cedric, and a knowing grin spread across his face. "Could it be that you are interested in one of them?" He nudged Cedric playfully. "I can put in a good word for you and set things up, you know. I’m a very dependable wingman, heh heh."
Cedric exhaled exasperatedly. Then, he reached up, took hold of Leon’s arm, and threw it off his shoulders with a deadpan expression.
"Don’t get too cozy with me, Leon. I’ve already got my eyes set on someone else."
Leon’s eyes widened in shock.
"You do?" He gasped, and his face instantly lit up with a gossipy curiosity. "Who? Who is it?"
"Someone who makes me move from a ten over ten to a hundred over ten when she’s next to me," Cedric shrugged.
"Wow..." Leon stared at him blankly for a second as he thought of just which noble had caught Cedric’s eye. "It’s times like this I hate not being able to instantly read you. God, I’m so curious!"
Cedric changed the subject. "By the way, tell me. How is the princess’s level already this high?"
"Oh?" Leon smirked, crossing his arms. "So that’s what you are curious about."
"Yeah." Cedric rolled his eyes. "You have answers, so shit it out."
"It’s because of her father," Leon explained.
When Cedric turned to look at him, he added, "I heard from my father that those with essence cores can create beings in their inner sanctuary." He lowered his voice, and looked around imperceptibly before adding, "I also heard that the king is a man who does not care about the lives of the beings he creates."
He chuckled lightly, shaking his head. "When I first looked at the princess and saw that her level was this high, I had the exact same expression you have on your face right now. So I looked into it and found out that the princess has been entering her father’s inner sanctuary to slay beings far higher than her in level, and perhaps even Grade."
"Ah..." Cedric nodded slowly.
...That made sense.
"That’s how she’s been able to gather lots of evolution quotients over the months," Leon continued with a sigh. "I wish my father would let me do something like that, you know. Create beings and have me kill them for evolution quotients. But... the man cares too much about them. He said that if I were to do that, it would be no different from slaughtering an innocent person in cold blood just for the sake of power."
Cedric turned to him, though he didn’t say anything and just reflected on what Leon had just said.
That was indeed another way of seeing things.
All beings created and given life, were beings with consciousness, desires, and the capacity to feel pain. When looked at from this angle, killing an innocent life just to farm power was wrong, plain and simple.
So Cedric could understand why Leon’s father or the few others in the Grade Seven would not do stuff like creating beings and having their children kill them, just to farm quotients.
That aside, they walked on with Leon chatting until they eventually got to the academy building, after which they separated.
While Leon left for class Alpha, Cedric left for class Delta.
When he got there, he stepped in and looked around the classroom.
Obviously, that feeling of ostracism he had felt on the first day he stepped into class was no longer there. When he saw Audrey, he involuntarily brightened and began making his way towards her.
She was scribbling something on her book and didn’t seem to notice him at first.
’Something’s different about her,’ Cedric thought as he finally reached her.
She looked uh... how should he put it, quite a bit more elegant than before.
When she was done writing, she rolled it up and put it inside a small, golden cylindrical container, then shut it.
This tube was called a whisper-tube. There weren’t many ways for those in the Cradle to interact with a Dominant after they had journeyed to the worlds beyond the veil. Even the whisperscript was not enough. So, the whispertube was later created so that one could at least be able to send small messages or items. The bigger the tube, the more expensive it became.
Unlike the whisperscript and the whisperglobe, which were common in all three continents, the whispertube was only available in the Lumierian Empire.
It was this technology that those in the cadet merchants used to receive certain goods from the empire, which they sold to the other cadets in the rings.
It was unfortunate, though, that food could not be sent through it due to its perishable nature.
Judging from the size of this tube, it was obviously only used to send messages. Though even something as small as this could be bought for not less than ten thousand gold.
Once Audrey was done, she finally turned to see Cedric, sitting next to her and resting his chin on his hand.
Startled, Audrey gasped slightly. "Oh, uh, hey Cedric."
He smiled. "Hey."
Audrey quickly looked away sheepishly. ’God, his smile is always so bright!’
"What are you up to?" Cedric asked curiously, gesturing with his eyes at the cylindrical tube.
She looked back and adjusted her glasses. "Oh, uhm... I was writing a message to my older sister, Aria."
"...." Cedric bobbed his head back in acknowledgment.
"She had journeyed to the second ring during this eclipse," Audrey continued in a low, somber voice. "According to her last message, her party had safely arrived at the red bridge’s location."
She paused and a worried look clouded her face. After adjusting her glasses, she added, "That was three weeks ago."
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