<h4>Chapter 405 134 - Meeting by the crystalke (part 1)</h4>
|What should I do...?|
Zoemi was pondering, exiting the jeweler''s shop after leaving Surou with a few of his sentinels for protection just in case.
"(Eat a meal...?)"
"(Return home~!)"
"..."
The sentinels residing within his shadow answered naively making the ck-haired boy smile.
|That too, we didn''t tell grandpa or Burushi that our little practice excursion would take so long, they are probably worried about us.|
Zoemi thought, clearing things up and making his sentinels stay quiet waiting for him to be more precise this time.
|What I originally meant was, I wondered how should I let the situation between Burushi and Surou y out... just in case, little ones in Burushi''s shadow...|
"(Yes, master?)"
"(Do you need something?)"
Which the ck-haired boy did, but then he also immediately called out to the other sentinels for some additional answers – and got an immediate response while walking down the mostly silent street.
It was past midnight, veryte but still too soon to be expecting sunrise.
|Are there any signs that she knows about herself being the recipient of Surou''s love only because of the hex that somebody has cast on him?|
Zoemi thought, tensing up because of the subject he himself has brought up...
"(Eeeehhhh?!)"
"(No. She will be really sad when she learns about it...)"
...but the sentinels were so confused, that only one of them gave a coherent answer to the question.
|I see... she might not be aware of anything.|
The ck-haired boy nodded to himself.
|But she might as well know about everything and just be ying a long game... stay vignt around her. Help her when necessary but do not overexert yourselves in a case she would be able to make things work on her own.|
"(O-okay...?)"
"(No favoritism, understood!)"
Zoemi instructed the listening-in sentinels protecting the blond heroine, and his words caused them to have quite the amusing disparity in a tone of eptance.
|Oh, and before I forget and make things awkward – please do tell Burushi that I am fine and that I will take some more time before returning. Don''t go into details about where or who I am with.|
"(Alright~!)"
"(Yes, master!)"
The ck-haired boy added hurriedly before the connection between him and the sentinels guarding Burushi was cut off.
"Now then..."
Zoemi breathed out, nodding with satisfaction, and turned into one of the sideroads even though e could clearly see that there was no one following him.
|Alright. Let''s move along with the n. Take me to Aspakeony, please. I need to have a word with her.|
*WHOOOOOM*
When he confirmed that the alleyway he chose at random – before asking his sentinels and getting swallowed by the murky shadow underneath his own feet.
-------
*WHOOOOOM*
*thump*
A murky-ck gate showed up in the air out of nowhere and spat out a ck-haired boy, who this time managed tond properly on his feet.
"...huh...?"
Zoemi furrowed his brows looking around in honest surprise.
Because he fully expected to be transported to the Aspakeony Academy.
Maybe not to the headmaster''s office itself, but at least in front of it...
Where he showed up instead was a walkway amongst the forest, that he seemed to recognize somehow.
"Isn''t this the way towards the crystalke in my territory...?"
The ck-haired boy asked out loud in confusion.
In the end, he did ask to be taken to Aspakeony – if the sentinels misunderstood him, he should have been at least transported to the Academy.
Then how did he end up back in the Banemor territory that was half of the kingdom away from that ce?
"(It is!)"
"..."
The confidence in the message sent to him by one of his resident sentinels made him furrow his brows.
No matter how smart they got, their murky-ck orbs seemed to share a distaste for exining themselves unless they got directly asked for context.
"... I see..."
Zoemi sighed and nodded that information.
"...?"
The ck-haired boy turned to the side and raised his brow – from his position he actually could see a faint glowing from that direction, making things visible even for people who unlike Zoemi did not have the night vision.
This clearly must have been the crystalke, Zoemi''s initial thought about his location was spot on.
Well... Might as well check it out. They seem so confident about bringing me here... It''s worth checking. Maybe Aspy went for thete-night swim or something...|
Zoemi thought to himself, making sure that his thoughts would not be passed to the sentinels, and begin walking towards the faint light.
As he was moving along, he was reminded that the crystalke wasn''t just some measly pond but an actualke...
Basically, what that meant was that the walk-up to theke itself took him a lot longer than he expected.
With each step the glow that theke was giving off would grow in intensity, ending in the area basking in the beautiful rainbow brilliance.
After a few more steps Zoemi passed thest trees obstructing his view and the crystalke presented itself in front of him in all its glory.
Although this wasn''t his first time seeing it, the ck-haired boy still had to stop in ce to take in and appreciate the view of this most popr tourist location in the Banemor territory, as if he never witnessed it before.
It was a truly magnificent sight, one truly fit for a fantasy world full of magic and wonder. The crystal clear water wasn''t obstructing the beautiful formation of blue-tinted crystals pulsating under its surface like hundreds of thousands of beating hearts.
It was incredibly charming and even Zoemi forgot for a moment about his troubles and worries.
There was something soothing about this scenery, some sort of ancient charm...
And on top of all of that, there was someone there – someone with a unique shadow in the form of half-girl half-slug.
And since the shadow wasn''t leeching to another unique shadow, this must have been the original body.
"Good morning, Aspy."
"Beautiful, isn''t it?"
Zoemi called out to the gray-haired youthful-looking dark-skinned girl, sitting just a few meters away from the spot he was standing, and she reacted to his presence but did not respond to him directly, instead, looking at theke showing the boy her back.
There was a small pier going into the water and the gray-haired necromancer was sitting on the edge of it.
She was wearing a simple ck one-piece, with a ck ribbon in her gray hair and she had a pair of ck silk slippers sitting next to her and she was dipping her bare feet into the water.
"I can assure you it is always just as gorgeous, no matter how many times you look at it..."
The dark-skinned girl said mncholically and sighed while putting her hands on the edge of the pier and leaning back to look at the moon.
"Though the crystals sure glow brighter when the moon is full..."
Without a doubt, that girl was none other than Aspakeony, an ancient necromancer and the true headmaster of the Aspakeony Academy.
"..."
As the ck-haired boy approached her, he looked between theke, the moon up above, and the gray-haired girl, for the first time realizing that her hair and eyes are more silvery than actually gray.
"Breathtaking."
Zoemi smirked and nodded, without looking towards the spectacle of the hundreds of shining mana stones.