Chapter 231: Drunkenness and a Sudden Kiss
Outside the walls of the holy city.
The deafening roar of the battlefield had faded, and in a hidden cave, a pair of eyes, which were themselves now hidden under the shadow of a hood, narrowed.
Fin, one of the Seven Sages of Destruction. He had, with great effort and a great deal of his master's own power, brought forth this wave of a pure and unadulterated destruction. And he had been on the verge of victory. But all of his plans, all of his ambitions... they had all been reduced to dust by a single, terrifyingly powerful, and completely unexpected, beam of light.
And he, himself, he could feel the last of the psychic energy he had poured into the monster tide... it had been instantly vaporized, with not even a single, fleeting pang of a feedback pain. That power... it was beyond his comprehension.
"The god-slayer... Rhodes."
The name was a bitter taste in his mouth. To be so utterly, and so completely, defeated... a wave of a pure and unadulterated rage washed over him. The man... he had not only destroyed their plans for a global domination a thousand years ago, but he had, by some unknown means, lived for a thousand years, and was now, once again, standing in their way. Even their new king was wary of him. And he... he had thought... with his master's own blessing... but no.
Before him, he was a mere clown on a stage, a puppet in a play of his own, deluded, making. And to stay here... it would be to just become another speck of dust in the light of his own terrible power.
"Hmph."
With a final, frustrated growl, he turned and left. He had to report this to his king. And the next move... it would be his to make.
In the deep of a night in the holy city.
A cool breeze was blowing, and the streets were now empty. Rhodes quietly opened his eyes. He had not been asleep, just in a state of a light rest. And the aura of the one in the next room... it had changed. She was gone.
He got up and, following the faint and familiar magical fluctuation, he came to a wide, open terrace at the back of the ducal palace.
And there she was, sitting on the railing, her golden hair now undone, a cascade of a liquid moonlight that flowed down her back. A few empty wine bottles were at her feet. The air was thick with the scent of a rich, full-bodied wine, and the sharp, spicy aroma of a dwarven spirit. She's been drinking, he thought, and frowned. The strong stuff.
He walked over to her.
She did not turn, and he did not know if she had not heard him, or if the sound of his footsteps, a sound that had been a constant and a comforting presence in her long, long life, had just... not registered as a threat. She just looked up at the moon, and her eyes, her usually sharp and clear eyes, were now a little... hazy.
"Can't sleep?" he asked, his own voice a soft and a quiet sound.
She slowly turned, and her eyes, they struggled to focus on him. She did not answer him right away, but just held up her own cup to the moon, her movements now a little... slow, a little... soft. "The moon," she murmured, and her own voice, it was a soft and a breathy sound, a sound that was a world away from her usual cool and detached one, "it seems to be... wobbling."
He couldn't help but laugh. She was drunk. He reached for her cup. "Alright, that's enough. Give it to me. You'll regret it in the morning."
But she just pulled away, like a child who was afraid of having her candy taken away. "No. I'm fine," she pouted, and to prove it, she tried to stand up straight, but just ended up wobbling even more, and almost fell.
He just sighed and let her be, and leaned against the cold stone railing beside her.
"Rhodes," she said after a moment, and her own voice was now a low and a quiet sound, a sound that was filled with a deep and a heavy weariness, and a new and an unfamiliar confusion, "don't you think... this is all... a little boring?"
"Boring? There's still a Demon King out there."
"But you're here," she said, her own voice a simple and an unshakeable statement of a faith, a faith that was almost a blind and a childlike one. "You'll deal with him. I won't even have a chance to do anything."
"And what if I can't?" he said, and gave her a small flick on the forehead, a gesture that did not seem to have any effect.
"...Then that's that."
She looked down at her cup. "I've been in the forest for so long," she said. "All those spells... I can cast them with my eyes closed. All those books... I've read them all, a hundred times over. And any new research... it's all so... slow."
He understood.
An eternal life, a power that was at its absolute peak, and a lack of a new and an interesting stimulation... she was bored. Even with a threat still on the horizon, in the depths of her heart, she was so sure that he would deal with it, that she had nothing to do.
"So you don't want to go back to the forest?" he asked.
"No," she said with a firm shake of her head. "It's no fun. I want to do something different."
To see her like this, without her usual armor, her usual mask... to see her so... lost... a new and an old idea, an idea he had been nurturing for a long, long time, now came to the forefront of his mind.
"If you're bored," he said with a smile, "and you want to do something interesting... I have an idea. Do you want to hear it?"
"What is it?" she asked, her own eyes now a little more focused, a little more curious.
"Let's create an organization," he said, and his own gaze now turned to the starry sky, "an organization that is beyond the boundaries of a nation or a race. A magic association for all the mages of the continent."
"A magic association?" she repeated, and a new and an interested light now shone in her own eyes.
"Yes. Right now, the ranking of mages... it's a mess. The court certifications of the humans, the levels of the different academies, the ancient traditions of the elves... there's no unified system. We can create one."
"And why would anyone join?" she asked.
"Simple. For any mage who passes our final test, we will grant them any one spell they desire. And the highest rank, the very pinnacle of a magical achievement... we'll call it a 'First-Rank Mage'. And the sole and final judge of that rank..." he paused.
Her own eyes were now wide, and the last of her own drunken stupor was now gone, replaced by a new and an all-consuming excitement. "Me?" she said, her own voice a breathless whisper.
"Yes," he smiled. "Who else? The strongest mage on the continent... the sheer force of your own magical power... it would be enough to make any applicant tremble in their boots. And you would get to meet them, the mages of the continent, with all their strange and a wonderful talents. You could take on any of them as an apprentice, and you could study all the new and the interesting fields of a magic that you have never even heard of."
She was now completely sold. All of her own boredom and her own confusion... it was all gone, replaced by a new and a vibrant excitement. The only examiner of the first-rank mages... it had a nice ring to it. "It sounds... interesting," she said with a happy and a slightly-drunken giggle.
She stood, to express her own full and an enthusiastic agreement, but she had overestimated her own, now slightly-impaired, motor skills, and she stumbled, and she fell.
He, of course, was there to catch her. And he was fast. But perhaps... the moonlight was too beautiful, and his own movements... they were just a fraction of a second too slow.
And they fell together, in a heap, on the cold stone floor, he on the bottom, and she on top. And the first thing she felt... it was not the hard and a cold stone, but the soft and a warm feel of his lips on hers.
They both froze.
Her golden hair fell around them, a curtain of a shimmering gold, and in their own, small and a private world, the only sounds were their own, now ragged, breath, and the frantic pounding of their own hearts.
A single, fleeting thought now went through his own mind: 'Was that an accident?'
Her own mind, it was a blank, a void, a place where all of her own, carefully-constructed, composure had now completely shattered. The feel of his chest, the warmth of it, and the feel of his lips on hers, a feeling that was now a searing brand on her own memory, a new and a complex and a confusing emotion was now flooding her very being, and she was so stiff, she had even forgotten to breathe.
A second, two seconds... an eternity.
And then, she was scrambling away from him, her own face a new and a brilliant shade of a red. "You!" she said, her own voice now a squeak, her own mind a jumble of a confused and a contradictory thoughts.
He, for his part, just sat there and touched his own lips, a faint taste of a wine still on them. He saw her own, now flustered and a furious expression, and a new and a different kind of a grin now spread across his own face. The first kiss of him and her... and it had been an accident. But to see her like this... it was a new and a wonderful thing. He wanted to see it again.
"It was an accident," he said, and the grin on his face now widened. "You were the one who fell. I was just trying to catch you."
"And you just happened to catch me like that? Do you think I'm a fool!?" she said, but her own voice was now a little... weak. She could still feel it, the racing of her own heart.
"Alright, alright. My fault," he said with a smile.
"That... that magic association you were talking about..." she said, her own back now turned to him, her own voice a little too loud, a little too forced. "How... how would we even start?"
And in the place where he could not see her, she was now gently touching her own lips, as if to savor the lingering taste of a wine and a... surprise.
"First, we'll need a rigorous system of an examination, a hierarchy of a three ranks. And the final test... in the Kingdom of Ersten? The history of that place... it has a certain weight, don't you think?"
"It does," she said, her own voice now a little more... composed. "But the standard must be a high one. Not just any... rabble can become a mage."
"Of course," he said with a smile. "And all the mages of the continent will come, to be judged, to be tested, to strive for the highest rank. Just think of all the new and the interesting people we'll meet, the new and the interesting ideas we'll encounter."
Her own eyes were now shining with a new and a different light. Yes... this... this was much more interesting than just sitting in a forest. And she, she was already thinking of all the new and... "rigorous"... tests she could devise.
The awkwardness of the moment had now been washed away by a new and an exciting future. But the seed of a new and a different feeling had been planted. And in a corner of the terrace, in the shadows, another figure had seen it all.
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