Ebony's Fable

“I overheard you. You want to be a student?” Ning Xin came over to his daydreaming self basking under the sun.

“You don’t agree,” Ebony questioned.

“You’re dropping your act. That fake tone you try to pull off when asking questions.” She made herself comfortable beside him, taking over Roya’s seat after shifting it closer to him.

“I understand tone better now, I can imitate it and have been doing that since I was a child but I had enough fun trying to appear normal.” Ebony was fully aware of how passive-aggressive his speech pattern was. At least, that was the feedback he got.

He copied how others spoke since he was around ten. He found that it made him more approachable and it was convenient when interacting with people.

“Anyway, I think that’s fine. Just don’t learn the wrong stuff. I don’t want you to get flooded with knowledge of weak skills.” She crossed her legs and laid back after pouring herself a cup of tea.

“Mmm. What do you have in mind?” He asked since he wasn’t sure what she wanted to do.

There was something odd about her or the way she looked. He didn’t think much of it, they both evolved and changed physically. His perception had changed. Even then, he was quite sure he knew what this ‘oddness’ was. It wasn’t the change in physical figure. It was the way he looked at her and the way she carried herself. ‘One of her new fortifications must be related to charm or some mental affliction.’

“I want to open a restaurant. Uhm…if you’ll sponsor me.” Her shoulders slumped.

Ebony’s mental image of her was that she was probably very expressive if it wasn’t for her mask.

For female warriors, there was probably a good reason why they had a tradition of wearing masks. It helped to look less feminine and remove or decrease the perspective that they were weak women. The aspect of mystery, anonymity or even its defensive properties aside it also served as general intimidation. Humans were not the only creatures that judged appearances.

“You say that but we still have a lot of mammoth material. We can split the earnings.” He noticed how shy and embarrassed she was for depending on him for money.

However, she always forgot that they hunted so much that they had plenty of monster material just sitting in their bags and she had a share. She would probably have the larger share if they were to get into the specifics of how many hunts. Unless they considered the meat and edibles that were shared and consumed.

“Right! Is that enough to open a restaurant?” She bubbled with excitement.

“We’ll have to find out.” He might not have good financial sense but Ning Xin was even worse in that regard.

Ebony wasn’t caught off guard but he didn’t expect that she wanted to open a restaurant. It would do her Profession good but she didn’t seem like the type that liked to serve strangers her cooking.

‘I guess serving in a military kitchen changed her mind.’

“I’m assuming Tidal?” He watched as she raised the cups to her lips and sipped on tea. He didn’t care about how she painstakingly learned how to appreciate tea slowly anymore. Ebony casually sipped on his tea in response to catching his own…intensity.

“The Capital’s huge and the best are gathered there. So yes. Do you want to open a restaurant somewhere else? Plainston? Hata?” Ebony started listing all the towns and cities they’ve been to when they were dungeon hopping right after they evolved from Journeyman to Masters.

“Tidal’s fine.” She nodded without any exaggerated body language.

“I know, you’ve been checking out that top thousand restaurants book over and over again.” His lips raised at her forced musculature control.

His feet got stomped on. Hard.

Tidal was so large, Navin the Barrier King had to fly for hours to fetch them around. Of course, he had been carrying a Gorpede that was kilometres long and weighed a literal mountain so that wasn’t the best indicator of the Barrier King’s speed. He also had to slow himself down for Ebony and the townspeople of Hata.

The Capital had a population in the billions or so Ebony heard.

That number had ballooned ever since Navin took over and his Lord family rose to the ranks of a Royal. No matter, Navin was the one who was capable enough to cast and build barriers strong enough to last.

Birthrates had dropped in the past few decades and Ebony had never asked why in the world Imperial Knights were discussing these topics. He learned that just about anything could be a topic of conversation when he was forging rings and repairing armour part-time. The soldiers were complaining about the lack of manpower which led to the topic so it wasn’t exactly a random conversation topic.

Humans didn’t want to give birth as a Master that much. More and more of them were capable of reaching Grandmaster without dying young. The proportion of Grandmasters in Tidal was quite high compared to the rest of the continent.

As a Grandmaster, even the fertile humans had relatively low birth rates. Dwarves and Elves could be said to be unaffected. It wasn’t easy to gather data on them. There were not as many of them and few had ever settled for children as a measly Master, to begin with.

Ebony saw no better destination than Tidal. Perhaps he could qualify to apply as a student at Tidal Academy, the acclaimed best on the continent.

“When are we leaving?” She put her cup down gently and faced him.

‘Why do I feel that it’s fortunate her eyes are hidden now?’ He was beginning to think that having Perpetual Tranquillity Spring was bothersome. It was making him feel and sense too much that he used to simply ignore or put aside at the back of his mind.

“Whenever you like, I’ll follow your decision. You have better Intuition and know what your grandmother means by an opportunity to benefit more clearly than I do.”

“Trust me, I’m just as clueless when it comes to grandma’s divinations. She always says just enough that we don’t know any specifics.”

“You just reminded me, your strong intuition that bothers foresight. It's from your grandmother, isn't it.”

“Huh? Oh. maybe you might be right. Why did I never made the link?” She tilted her head in confusion.

“I didn’t either. Your skill evolved from some Instinct skill. We just didn’t link it with divination magic and affinity.”

He wasn’t trying to change the subject but talking about skills was habitual.

Silence pervaded the front porch all of a sudden.

‘Why did she go silent? Should I say something? Wait…silence is good. Perpetual Tranquillity Spring is too different from Everlasting Tranquillity. I’m not in the same mental state of meditation.’

It was silently decided that they would just leave whenever they felt like it. They were in no rush to go anywhere and did not have information that suggested they hurry somewhere. It wasn’t like they had a location given to them either. All they had was a deadline of 2 years before this ‘opportunity’ came by.

Supposedly, one so big they couldn’t miss it.

Ebony took those words as a hint that location doesn’t matter. He just hoped that ‘opportunity’ wasn’t some Emperor or Saint kidnapping them. That would indeed make location irrelevant but it didn’t sound like a big opportunity to him. He leaned towards the fact that things would just fall in place whatever they decided to do or where they decided to go. There was no need to think so deeply about a measly divination.

His divination resistance remained stagnant over the years so he was either not under some sort of divination magic or the strength of the divination was beyond what he could build resistance against. If there was no spell on him, he didn’t trust a divination from a couple of years back.

‘I’m underestimating divination magic a little but things change all the time.’

Kong Jing limped through the front gate unenergectically. Her eyes were gleaming, unlike her body language.

They looked over from the porch and tilted their heads at the same time. Waiting for her to speak up instead of prodding.

“Apparently, some death mana is stuck on me. I’m leaving. Don’t fight, I’ll be going back to Clatter Rattle. Not immediately, I’ll be in some deserted forest or mountains for some time. Call me whenever.” Her body stretched and disappeared.

‘She stretched…although I already knew it wasn’t teleportation but spatial compression. Space magic is weird.’ Ebony saw Kong Jing’s movement with a newfound perception. Although he had been spatially moved after he got his Core Skill to evolve, it was the first time he looked at her while she ‘teleported’.

He wondered what the movement looked like to Ning Xin who can perceive everything in slow motion. Technically, he perceived things in a similar fashion. Everyone did with higher stats. She just brought it to the extreme with multiple skills like mental acceleration and even Fortifications.

“I guess she got what she wanted from the elders here. I hope she hadn’t been too rude to them. Mmm, I feel satisfaction from the elders' direction so I guess they helped each other.” Ning Xin wasn’t phased by the sudden disappearance, long used to the way Kong Jing was.

‘A range or sensitivity increase for her perception of emotions. Knowing how others feel sounds tiresome. I can’t even pinpoint how I feel.’ Ebony pitied her sense for emotions, as useful as it was.

“So, what was Roya feeling?” He might as well make use of it.

“Figure out yourself.”

“But you agree, don’t you? You want to have a house of our own here.”

“Our?”

“Did I stutter?”

“Khmm. No, you didn’t.” She took a deep breath and whispered, ‘okay, I’m not going to lose.’

‘Did she whisper or am I imagining things.’ Ebony did not think there was anyone capable of whispering so softly, it honestly felt like the voice was echoing in his head instead of going through his ears.

Roya was not happy, that was all he managed to conclude from dinner time. The fact that Kong Jing just disappeared without warning didn’t help.

Kiva didn’t understand the conversation about building another house beside the Thoya family. If they were right beside and the humans would still visit daily, all’s right for the little girl. Clovis didn’t care either way. Halvis also didn’t see an issue with his suggestion. And that seemed to anger Roya even more.

Ebony was reassured that he was not the problem and his suggestion wasn’t out of whack. Roya was overreacting.

Ning Xin didn’t say anything but he was sure she was of the same mind. Her constant cooking made the house smell of fat and oil which was not exactly pleasant for the Thoya family. Cleaning product and scent cleansers’ efficiency and efficacy aside.

Other than that, the issue of a private room for Kiva was still in the air.

“Sorry about that Halvis,” Ebony spoke out when he saw Roya shutting herself in her workshop.

“It’s alright, she’s just moody. She’s been troubled by how Clovis is in such a rush to leave the nest. And you dropped this news on her.”

“I imagined this to be good news. Having a house in the village means we would be more attached and maybe stay for longer periods.” Ebony replied.

“Living under the same roof means a lot. You're young, yet you've already matured and branched out like a thriving tree. Wistful, reluctant. She just wants to keep family close.” Halvis rubbed both of his children’s heads before clearing the dishes.

“...I understand.” He couldn’t come up with any logical comebacks.

Both ‘humans’ went silent from listening to Halvis’s comment.

He helped with cleaning up while babysitting duty was left to Xin. Tiring out the young girl so that she could sleep well at night was a routine with great responsibility. Despite being a couple of years old, night cries or even bed wetting was not uncommon.

Clovis practised wiping the dishes dry with the clothes using just strings of ice mana.

“Clovis, let’s continue our conversation. I have more information to share before it completely fades away from memory or by some freak accident, I lose the books.”

“Yes! To the study!” The short and scrawny boy ran up the stairs and got his writing tools ready in a hurry.

They stayed up all night. Having Clovis’s perspective and theories that added to his was a nice touch. After he recounted his experience, it was mostly Clovis talking and him listening to the Frost Elf theorise.

The scholar couldn’t stay awake for much longer and went to sleep after a light breakfast. Halvis allowed a delay in morning practice for his son.