Ebony's Fable

Throughout their stay in Arcta neither Ebony nor Ning Xin brought up the topic of sparring with each other.

Their Conditioning was pretty lax in comparison to their intense training montage but the Frost Elves were spurred to work harder from their laxed routine.

The Itch has started to die down for Ning Xin and she got the hang of her new physical and mental capabilities in a week after he woke up from his evolution.

She fought Korben to a draw. The draw was decided by Korta who had to stop mutual harm.

Ebony saw part of the duel.

She was just lucky or rather, Korben made a fatal mistake that pulled down his advantage. To Ebony, it seemed like a lapse of attention. That lapse of attention was enough for Ning Xin to close in but Korben’s reaction speed was quite admirable. Even more so for a mage, he managed to manipulate the mana he spread into a counter.

A mutually destructive spell or so Korta deemed it.

He didn’t have the opportunity to see what kind of spell it was.

Since they didn’t hide their training from each other, it wasn’t like he didn’t know what her new skills and spells were like and vice versa.

To them, it didn’t matter.

First of all, she wasn’t a planner. She did combat on the fly, through reactions and reflexes.

Second of all, Ebony wasn’t a schemer. If he ever tried to make a plan, there was a high chance it hurt him more than his opponent.

Against other people, sure, more information helped. But they were already so familiar with each other. Less than 2 years apart didn’t change the nature of their fighting style.

It was fair game to show each other their new capabilities.

He felt relaxed, there was no schedule to leave. He was going through each day peacefully and there were no worries.

During one of the playground meets, he asked elders about the misty silhouettes.

Vent was aware of someone dangerous being in the glades back then but all of them were clueless about a village veiled in mist that was just across Bubble Hills.

Especially Vent, he saw nothing after Ebony pointed out where the village was. For a hunter of his calibre who ‘eavesdropped’ on his and Kong Jing’s conversation in Fifth Tide from Arcta, it was hard for him to believe there was a whole village of strange beings so close by.

They trust his words thanks to the weird stealth covering Ebony and Ning Xin. It wasn’t active but the Frost Elves could sense something different about their aura from the get-go.

Hence, Vent went for a walk for the safety of the village.

The village elders and men gathered for a meeting at the Lasil’s garden after Vent returned with news that he couldn’t find anything but he knew he was being misdirected.

That scared all the villagers.

Ebony liked how close-knit the Frost Elves were.

Sure, telling the crafters about an invisible threat did spread panic but every family in the village was in the know. Personally, he felt that it was better to know about a threat and keep it in mind. Rather than a few strong combatants keeping the information to themselves.

Korta was sent to Tuctra to inform their fogey oldies. The man brought Korben along. Korben dragged the village chief’s party along. They were using this chance to learn the route to their second village. They weren’t planning to enter, just to get into range so that they could contact their second village.

‘I’m so curious, just how many Kings or maybe even Emperors they have. It sounds like only their Matriarch is an actual Emperor rank but, you never know. They can go to their ancestral home, I don’t believe they can’t come back. I’ll have to assume they have multiple generations still alive.’

Ebony wasn’t so worried with so many individuals stronger than him present. He went to his room and took an afternoon nap.

Not because he was tired or sleepy.

He just felt like it.

And it was great. It was rare for him to feel so at ease ever since arriving in Elcra. He decided to focus a lot more on his Core Skills after what he found out to develop his Core. Whatever that may be, it seemed like the way to go. So, he first had to find out why Perpetual Tranquillity Spring was so different from Everlasting Tranquillity.

The addicting feeling of power and euphoria right after evolving felt a lot stronger than before. The false feeling of confidence was fortunately suppressed by the presence of stronger individuals.

Knock knock

He rubbed his eyes and went for the door, curious. He usually wasn’t bothered when he was in his room. Thanks to the privacy settings of the house, he didn’t know who was on the other side either.

Ebony was determined to have the privacy setting built in whatever residence he would have in future. Cutting off his mana sense made it extremely easy to sleep. He didn’t have to filter information of a kilometre radius from him.

It made him less safe as he would respond to threats later but it might be a worthwhile trade-off. Perpetual Tranquillity Spring and his mind seemed to be happy about the break they got.

“Xin.” He opened the door to an unfamiliar sight, “You’re wearing a dress?” He blinked twice to make sure he wasn’t hallucinating.

“You made this, Roya adjusted the size for me. Is that all you have to say?” She stood there nervously.

Her silky long black hair cascaded down her back in one braided ponytail by a certain little gremlin. Wearing slippers because the Frost Elves didn’t have a no-shoe policy, her stance and body language showed uneasiness.

One hand crossed to hold her other arm close. She wore a cotton-like one-piece dress that clung tight to her belly and chest. Her thin waist, flat belly, slender but toned arms showed through. It was dyed ruby red since he made it during his Journeyman days and she seemed to only wear red back then.

The dress was made for casual wear and should be comfortable. It was just a plain, single-coloured dress. It should have been able to reach below her knees in the past but she grew and Roya didn’t lengthen the shirt’s hemline. She put her legs tightly closed instead of standing in a more balanced posture, quite unlike the swordswoman in her.

He made long sleeves for them since that was the fashion here and that was one part Roya lengthened to match her growth.

“It suits you. Are you comfortable in it?” There was nothing about this lady’s figure that screamed female warrior. It was honestly quite amazing how little her body was in the direction of a muscular and athletic body. ‘Must be balanced out by her appetite.’

“It’s a bit breezy without fabric on my legs. But the frostsilk and whatever other material you mixed in is soft on the skin. And cooling.”

She seemed to perk up from his comment and lost some of the nervousness and tightened muscles. Ebony felt good about giving the right response.

‘Settle down mana, don’t you spread out now. Hmm, seems like I’m more lecherous than I thought I was. So I’ve always been interested in her body? I guess she has the perfect musculature for swordsmanship. Her lithe…comparatively and mostly lithe body is built for evasion battle styles and she makes full use of it so much so that I learned a lot from it.’ Ebony no doubt admired the sword woman's body.

Since he came to Elcra, he knew good musculature when he saw one and this world had far better average so he didn’t think much of it. He knew how hard it was to get a toned but useful body, hence his admiration. From the early days, he stared at her legs as they were pretty much perfect for movement and footwork. It was better than his own legs’ musculature but he couldn’t exactly copy that. He didn’t have the body of a woman.

But if there was anything Perpetual Tranquillity Spring reminded him of, it was her body when he taught her how to swim. That…disturbed him a little. At that point in time, he wasn’t just admiring her well-built body.

‘She probably sensed what I felt. Is she disgusted by it?’ Ebony’s gut wrenched when he noticed his own subconscious actions. He was far less self aware than he assumed.

Although he was said to be harder to sense emotions from, he was pretty sure it didn’t apply to her. Perhaps she couldn’t grasp what he was feeling accurately since he was not aware of it himself back before Everlasting Tranquillity evolved.

‘Right, she can sense emotions. If she sensed that from me she wouldn’t have acted normal. I guess I have to be careful from now on. I don’t have everlasting tranquillity anymore and I still don’t know the exact difference.’ Ebony concluded that she did not sense any subconscious lust from him since he didn’t even notice that himself. It clicked into place for him as to why he got the biological reaction he thought he had full control over.

‘This is quite intense, I’m feeling every single thing and it's making me uncomfortable. Is this karma for ignoring normality?’ Ebony knew that eating a delicious meal usually made one feel good but to someone who numbed out most emotions, a simple joy seemed extreme to him.

Roya’s dissatisfaction with his idea of moving out would be put in the furthest corners of his mind in the past but now, he felt like he had to tip his toes around her. Meeting her felt awkward as their stiff daily interactions were bothering him far more than they should.

Ebony had begun to settle into his evolved body, mind and skills. He decided that it was a good change instead of getting annoyed by how cluttered his mental space was. It was clear despite being cluttered.

‘I see, I like this change so I feel no dissonance. Tranquillity huh…I guess I actually don’t understand what that means but I feel it.’

The corners of his lips raise naturally at his acceptance. He raised his right elbow in front of Ning Xin.

“Shall we go for a walk.” He said so in his shorts and tee shirt.

“Let’s.” She said without hesitation, seemingly prepared to walk around in a dress. She intertwined her arm with his at the elbows. This was how couples on Elcra walked or showed affection publicly. Hand holding was apparently too intimate and Ebony saw men invite women for a date on a couple of occasions.

“Oh right, shoes. Hmm, let’s ask Roya what matches. I’m not too familiar with shoes that go with dresses.” They walked together in perfectly matching strides without any communicative actions before he stopped in two steps.

“Boots. I’m wearing boots. There’s snow outside. And you, shorts are too casual.” She was quite adamant, having already decided that boots were the way to go. He gave her a chance to critic what he was wearing by stopping her.

“...I’ll change into a pair of pants.”

Ning Xin looked left and right but relaxed after a sniff of the air.

‘Haha, she must have picked this timing because the market just closed up, the playground just disbanded and everyone’s in their houses. Wait, did she expect me to bring her out? Intuition is scary.’ Other than morning, most villagers returned and remained in their homes for the majority of the day. Hence, he knew the hurdle of walking around in a dress in Arcta shouldn’t be too high.

Just then, the expressionless mask turned to him and she pinched his sides. “I don’t like what you were thinking.”

“Huh? Are you a mind reader now?” Ebony couldn’t help but let the surprise show in his voice.

“I’m not. It just felt like you thought I was scary.”

“...That’s what I call mind reading.” He couldn’t believe she got it spot on.

“So you did think that.” The tips of her hair turned red.

“Your dress will burn.” He continued to pull her along as they walked around the village.

“Hey! Slow down!” Her hair turned black as her hands rushed to push her shirt’s hemline down.

“Never thought I’d hear you say those words.” He surprised himself with the chuckle that escaped his mouth.

‘This is fun.’ Ebony was intrigued by how wondrous and colourful a simple interaction could be. He had truly been missing out by ignoring and numbing out these feelings.

A fifteen-minute walk brought them back as she couldn’t go far before she gave in and insisted they return. They patted the snow off their boots on the front porch. Putting the slippers back on before they entered the house.

Ebony caught himself looking at how the white snow contrasted with her bare legs and decided not to feel bad about it, “You have amazing skin.”

“Wha?”

“You’re making snow look dull and basically reflecting light at this point.”

“Is that supposed to be a compliment? Why are you so random and sudden, I don’t know how to react.”

“Yes, it’s distracting and keeps catching my attention. You should cover up.”

“So you don’t like me wearing this dress. It doesn’t suit me after all.”

“I do and it does. I’m trying to say you’re attractive enough so don’t go catching other’s attention.”

There was a short pause.

“I don’t care about that, I’m trying to catch your attention. I’d say mission success.” She hurried back to her room right after spouting those lines. As calmly as she tried to say those words, it took a lot of effort.

“I see, that’s what flirting is like. Oh, I’ve been doing that for some time. Mission success indeed.” Ebony nodded and linked it with his past actions. Fascinated, he started writing a diary or journal. An exploration of emotions and daily experiences.

‘Heart pounding. A symptom that should not occur with our level of bodily control. Unexplainable elation. A gush of chemicals in our brains? I don’t sense that.’

Some habits were just hard to break.