As the doorbell rang, the gate opened to reveal Kristen and a woman, whom I presumed must be his wife, Lylia, standing in front of the gate with warm smiles.
"Rayne, Zei," Kristen welcomed us in. "How are you kids doing? I am sure staying with Asher must be tedious."
"We're doing great," I replied
"Thank you for inviting us," Zei added politely.
"Did you have any trouble arriving here?" The woman spoke in a soft tone. I could feel the warmth in it.
"Not really, aside from the long time it took to reach here, everything else was manageable."
"As you both must have guessed," Kristen added, "this beautiful lady is my wife Lylia, the head of the Research and Armament Division, the one who crafted the prosthetic arm and bionic eye for you."
"We're deeply grateful," I said, bowing politely. "We owe you more than I can express."
"Aish, you don't have to do that, it was no big deal," she said with a chuckle.
"Let's talk after having lunch, you kids must be hungry after the long journey. Your Uncle Kristen is skilled in cooking, you'll love it for sure.." Lylia smiled."Your rooms have already been prepared. Go wash up."
"We understand."
Kristen turned to Asher, "There is something I have to talk about, come with me." With a sigh, Asher nodded.
We went to the hallway, however, upon reaching there, we noticed something strange.
"There's only one room here". I muttered to Kristen, confused.
"Ahh, right," He cleared his throat. "The other room is currently occupied at the moment. So you both will have to share a room, that shouldn't be a problem for you, right?"
I looked at Zei, her face remained unfazed, yet I could see a faint blush on her ears.
"If you want, I can lend you my room," Lylia offered.
"No, that's fine!" Zei quickly said, I looked at her, stunned "We can't trouble you any further."
"Oh my," Lylia chuckled, amused, "Then I'll leave you both to it." With that, they left the hallway.
"...Shall we go inside?" After a moment, I whispered to her
"L-let's go," she stammered, making her way inside.
The room was quite spacious and clean, everything felt so modern, opposite of Asher's home, in the middle was a big enough bed for two people. The faint scent of lavender lingered in the air.
"I will go wash up first," she said, unpacking her stuff and heading to the shower. The sound of water droplets falling echoed in the empty room, and my heartbeat started to beat faster.
"This must be Kristen's doing..." I muttered quietly, it's not like I had any problem with us sharing a room, however, it still made me nervous, and a strange anxiety settled in my heart.
"But Zei also didn't reject the idea," I thought. "In fact, she almost seemed willing for us to be in the same room, so it shouldn't be a problem, right? It's not like anything will happen, right?"
As I was preoccupied with my thoughts, the door to the bathroom suddenly opened as Zei came out, droplets of water falling down her damp black hair, a towel wrapped around her. Her skin was glowing slightly under the light.
"Why-why are you not wearing clothes?" I stammered, quickly turning my head away.
She didn't say anything, simply walking forward, each step, water dripping from her hair. My heart began to quicken.
"..Can you dry my hair?" She whispered into my ear.
I looked at her, perplexed, yet her gaze fixated on me, with a slight blush on her cheeks. Despite the scars on her face, she still looked beautiful, if anything, it made her expression even more striking.
"Will you do it?" She asked again.
"...Fine," I gave up.
A smile crept up her face as she sat leaning her head onto my chest. I brought the hairdryer and switched it on, letting the warm air brush gently against her damp hair. She was wearing a bath towel, so I had to be careful not to be distracted by any useless thoughts.
"What kind of people do you think we'll meet at the ball tonight?" She asked after a while.
"I don't know, like Asher said, there is a high chance we might meet some skilled people, but whether to befriend them or not is a different matter."
"There will be a lot of beautiful women as well," Zei teased.
A mischievous idea came to mind as I replied, "Well…who can say, some girl might just fancy this face of mine. I can't just shove them away, can I?" She twitched as the words left my mouth. I continued to brush down her hair neatly. Suddenly, she turned, her face devoid of any emotion, which sent a chill up my spine.
"H-hey, I was just joking, of course," I said quickly, "Why would I even be interested in a woman whom I just laid my eyes on for mere moments, right?"
However, she didn't back down, bringing her face closer to mine, her breath brushing against my cheek.
"So you want to gawk at women, trying to hook up with them, huh?" She uttered, her voice as cold as ice.
"H-hey, that was just a joke, I am not going to do anything, of course, how can I even dare to do something like that, considering our situation?"
"So you would have done it, if the situation were right?"
"N-no, what are you talking about? I don't mean it like that." I blurted, helpless.
She wrapped her hands around my neck. I wished someone would interrupt and open the door, anyone would do, but no one came.
"Rayne.." She whispered in my ear, the hair on my body stood up."I don't like it," she added, "so don't test my patience."
"I-i'm sorry."
She pulled back, her expression softening with a faint smile. "Good,"
"I'd rather have you look at me than anyone else," she whispered in a barely audible voice.
I pretended not to hear it, the tips of my ears becoming hot.
"Hurry up and wash up, or else we'll be late," She huffed lightly, turning away.
I showered quickly and got ready, my heart still beating abnormally, and made my way to the dining table where Lylia and Asher were already waiting for us.
"You sure took your sweet time. Hurry up," Asher said.
We sat next to him, Kristen seemed to be busy in the Kristen, and Lylia stared at us intently with bright and curious eyes.
"So," she began, "How is your training going?"
"It's going well. I am still unable to unleash my attribute, but have been making great progress, Zei, though, has already unleashed hers."
Lylia froze, her gaze lingering on us and then Asher. For the first time, I saw him nervous as he avoided her gaze.
Finally, after a few moments, she asked, "...didn't you start your training just a few days ago?"
"That's right," I replied, "Though we are still lacking, we will be able to catch up and reach the level acceptable for the academy."
"No, No…this doesn't make sense," Lylia said, turning sharply to Asher. "What did you do to them?"
"I don't know what you are talking about," he said.
"No one in this living world can unleash their attribute or even attempt to unleash it without a stable core and proper Ember channels. What were you thinking, letting the attempt to unleash their attributes? Are you trying to kill them?"
"I might have pushed them a bit too far, I admit however, it was them who chose this path, not me."
"You shouldn't have given them such a choice to begin with," Lylia snapped. "In the first place, for a person to develop an ember channel this fast is abnormal, let alone awakening an attribute."
"Tell me what you did to them," she said. I could feel the pressure emitting from here.
"Well…Kristen gave me a few vials of liquified Ember," Asher murmured, "It forced their cores to stabilize and their Ember channels to form prematurely. I hadn't anticipated it to take root so violently, but it worked exceptionally well."
Lylia turned her eyes towards Kristen. He stiffened, then calmly set the dishes down, refusing to meet her eyes.
"Let's eat something first before talking, shall we?" He said gently, "You two must be hungry after all," He turned to Lylia, "You haven't had anything since morning, either, right dear?"
"Don't change the topic, Kristen," Lylia growled.
"I'm not, I'm just suggesting we should all eat first, and then I can give you an explanation for all of this."
"There was chilling silence throughout the meal, " Lylia's eyes lingered at us with concern and turned into a sharp glare as they met Kristen and Asher.