TICK, PULSE, SHAKE
Of all the individuals who had their attention drawn to that strange proclamation, a firmer and most abhorrent reaction was the sight on Priscilla Barielle's face. The scarlet lady was the one who dominated the debate before it happened, as, even though she was remarkably prideful, the young woman still managed to communicate ideas in a way that made a good enough impression on everyone's ears.
Without needing further explanation, she was the one shining most in that debate, literally massacring everyone else with the best arguments, and all this feeling of showing everyone how much she was the best person, one who was above all others. It was so much more than just perfect.
That is, until he arrived and screwed up her stage with that request that didn't make any sense. Help with what? What kind of situation would the powerful Capital be facing?
It didn't matter. She didn't want to know about it, didn't want to have to look at that mere inferior being as he stole the light that should have been hers alone, meaning everyone's attention. Covering her face with the fan brought from her cleavage, the Princess brought herself to speak, acidly.
"What do you want here, interrupting the event of mine shine so abruptly and irresponsibly, as a foul attempt at mine innate victory?" She wondered. It couldn't have been bad luck, as her ability to have everything in her favor would never have failed her.
The young man directed a tired smile in Priscilla's direction, lifting the left corner of his lip just a little. Raising an eyebrow in a failed attempt to amplify that gesture, - which somehow only provided him with an ironic tone - the boy with a tear in the robe on his arm urged himself to speak.
"Believe me, you guys are going to be thanking me for interrupting later on." He said, looking forward once more.
Ryan didn't want to wait any longer, and he knew the time was short. He had lost too much in his own agony to be able to afford to tell everyone in an elaborate way what was really going on here.
"I'm going to make a request right now. It's nothing too uncomfortable to be done." He looked at the wise man Mikhail, staring at the long white-haired old man in the depths of his eyes. He was serious, trying to pass that atmosphere on, trying to make himself believed by the man.
Ryan pointed to a banner emblazoned with the Royal Family of Lugunica's crest, the image of twin large golden dragons and a sword of same color in the center, draped over red cloth.
"That one. Can you move that banner a little bit to the left for a mere moment? There's something back there, something you need to see right away." He kept his focus with each word, moving carefully so that he didn't end up generating bad reactions from those present.
But that has not stopped suspicious roars and hidden conversations of beginning to happen again. The nobles were starting to talk amongst themselves about this unusual figure, but Ryan didn't seem to mind. He had no reason to want to care in the slightest, really.
"Why do you want us to move the Kingdom's standard?" Mikhail, for some reason, allowed himself to give importance to the boy's speech, looking back into his deep eyes, which, though they didn't have much feeling, gave the impression that they were full of them not so long ago.
It was those same eyes that led him to believe, eyes of people who have seen great things, horrible things... And from his life long experience, the old sage knows that when these people say something is about to happen, they rarely are wrong. The look of a man who has lived through several hells was unmistakable and incapable of being replicated by anyone, after all, he himself saw and had that look in moments of the past.
And that's what prompted him to ask that question. Depending on the answer, he would allow it, complying with the request.
"None of you here would believe me if I just told. So, I want you to see what's there through your own eyes." Calmly, he let himself respond.
He was incredibly sure of that, and that was something everyone in the place could see. Ryan then began walking toward the banner at medium speed steps, ready to show off what was behind it.
"Stop. You won't be the one to do this." Mikhail said, stopping Ryan in his tracks. "The Royal Knight Julius Euculius must do this."
Even a little surprised, a Knight could not simply reject his duty, and that was what brought Julius to the center of it, kneeling briefly before the sage, and accepting that responsibility silently.
The boy didn't bother to step back and look as he heard Julius approaching very cautiously. Upon reaching a considerably close distance, he then looked at Ryan, and out of curiosity he had to be forced to ask for himself.
"What are you thinking about, Ryan?! Breaking into the Royal Selection Candidates meeting like this... I can't think of what's going through your mind, but I can't see anything fruitful coming out of it. This is not a space for games of any kind!"
He had to talk about his own opinion on the matter. Ryan expected it anyway, knowing it wouldn't be well accepted by the strangeness.
"Just see for yourself, Julius." He spoke. "Then we can discuss the nature of the discovery you will make behind that banner."
He didn't hesitate a bit, and it made the greatest of all Knights tremble. Whatever it was, Ryan was sure in the extreme about whatever he was talking about.
"I really hope you aren't trying to tarnish the Kingdom's honor. Know that the type of repression for this type of action is quite strict." Julius tried to scare him, always acting like the practical rule-follower that he was.
…But Ryan just smirked, crossing his arms.
"And I really hope you hurry. It won't take you long to find out what's back there... It's just the way I'm saying it - none of you would believe me if I just told you what's there!"
Still hesitant with that, Julius placed his left hand over the fabric, gripping its side section. The coat of arms was specially extended over a pillar, hiding part of the white marble composition that descended from the top to the ground, carved by a skilled artist in straight lines.
"I'll pull." He stated, taking a breath of air, ready to move the object.
Julius pulled the cloth. Fabric and a little dust flew through the air close, and the shadow cover slowly revealed the dangerous object that was positioned there.
... ... ...
Even the greatest of Knights in terms of merit jumped back in absolute dread at being confronted with it. Julius felt himself just stepping back, not sure how he was supposed to react. The man almost fell, maintaining his composure with a good deal of difficulty, almost like tap dancing on the red carpets.
"What does that mean?!" he asked, exclaiming with eyes so wide one would think thought he could take in the entire world within view.
"Knight Julius Euculius, what's behind the banner?!" Mikhail asked, also as surprised as the Knight himself and the multitude of nobles who saw it happen.
Anastasia also displayed great concern - that was her knight above all, and something that belonged to her. The merchant woman could not afford to lose something so important or have such a thing at risk.
Upon realizing that he was fine, even after the scare, Anastasia summed up her reaction to just lightly tightening her scarf, instead of saying anything.
Julius, on the other hand, was astonished at it... The man with extensive combat experience and a training to maintain a resolute mood didn't expect to see just that sort of thing, slipping unnoticed by everyone.
After all, there, in a space that appeared to have been dug into the pillar with the use of elaborate tools, was a bag with something that shone in a very characteristic and familiar way, even if uncommon to most of the inhabitants of Lugunica.
There, glowing orange ever more intensely with every blink of an eye, releasing a great deal of heat and light simultaneously, was a huge pile of Fire Magic Stones.
Julius shivered in place, almost freezing inside. That was a massive, simply enormous amount of ore normally used in residential heating and functioning of certain Metia as a source of power. The difference was that, in contrast to their common use, those crystals appeared to be in their most unstable state, getting closer and closer to a certain event.
"... This whole place is going to explode...!" Julius yelled, revealing the news to everyone in the room. The way he revealed the situation was not in the least professional.
He didn't expect this. There was no way to act in a completely honorable way at that moment! The place was just minutes away from exploding, and all those people were there at the same time...
... Was this really happening?
The same question began to run through the minds of the nobles, who at first didn't react with anything but a little surprise. However, after a few seconds, an inexplicable amount of chaos and agony cut through everything, like lightning that appears and disappears out of nowhere in the middle of a storm.
Everyone started screaming. Widespread panic and the greatest amount of despair that this place seemed to be experiencing was seen to arise in that mere second when the information was consolidated as fact. It was not a lie - the place would blow up entirely, and no one could be saved.
Mikhail wanted to say something, but even he didn't seem to have the words to get everyone's attention. There was no need for that if the place was to just be blasted away in the next few seconds anyway. What he could bring himself to do was keep silent.
In what was only less than ten seconds, the place became incredibly comparable to the scene of a building in intense flames - everyone was trying their best to escape successfully.
The nobles began to trample and push each other, vying for who could make the fastest way to the doors, which even the Knights no longer tried to protect. Nobody wanted to die, nobody wanted to have to suffer for being there, even if for that it was necessary to climb on top and topple others.
The place was filled with screaming and crying, and many of those who didn't run just stood there, crying or muttering words of denial before finally being forced to take action or helped poorly by knights, trying to hold on to the slightest possibility that this was just a mistake on the Knight's part. Humans make mistakes and this was a common fact...
... Is not that right?
The fact is, no one could do anything. The candidates themselves, with the exception of Priscilla, who had every reason, were also consumed by rising panic. Even trying to maintain their composure, the women couldn't help the heavy hammer of death anxiety from hitting hard.
Anastasia's group was already preparing to leave at full speed, making their way between the various entrances filled with people in panic, even if forced. The Demi-Humans that made it up used sheer force to move people. Protecting was paramount in that second. She didn't want to leave Julius, as he was a precious belonging – but in the end ended up being convinced by the circumstances.
The same was imitated by all the others, who tried to escape in the way that was most convenient. Felix and Wilhelm actively knocked out everyone who got in Crusch's way, who even though thought of it as wrong, couldn't help thinking of her own existence as being first in order of priority.
Priscilla walked away from there calmly, aware that nothing much special would truly happen. Being literally carried in what appeared to be a makeshift chair by the man named Aldebaran, she saw the spaces between people naturally widen, as if the world itself were aiding her escape.
Reinhard was having to worry both about Felt and the Council of Wise Men at the same time. The Sword Saint had been ordered to prioritize the lives of the most important people in Lugunica at that time, even if they were a group of incapable elderly.
All were on the run. All except Emilia, who although she knew the whole situation, was still very confused by it all. The Half-Elf didn't know exactly what to think or how to act, and looked at everyone not knowing what to do.
It was then that, feeling all that despair mixed with doubt, a certain gray cat appeared with a blue glow from the crystal, materializing with immense speed. He was serious about what he was going to say, and that was seen early on, when he wasted no time with something trivial like landing on her shoulder or head.
"Lia, you heard the knight. We have to get out of here right now, for your safety!" Puck assumed the most serious tone he possessed in an attempt to assert himself in front of Emilia. "Your safety is the highest priority. Let's get to safety before the entire structure is engulfed in flames by that bomb!"
Emilia gulped, feeling the freezing in her fingers expand from just the tips to her entire hand. Although that seemed impossible, considering the silver-haired girl's skin color, she did in fact turn a little paler, missing the sliver of pink that guaranteed her the warmth of life.
A sudden increase in heart rate was felt with the touching of the palm. The legs began to wobble, the breathing became noticeably more labored, and the saliva literally stopped being produced, causing an almost immediate sensation of dry mouth. That's when she realized she was in real danger.
"Come on, Lia...!" Puck pushed her even harder to make a quick decision.
Emilia stared at the chaos for a few more seconds. There was no reason to stay here, let alone a justified feeling. Everyone was leaving, and she had to leave too. Puck was the one who always knew what was best for her, so, as usual, she would be a good girl, and obey her father, even if it meant giving up everything.
"Alright, Puck... Let's go..." She nodded, albeit very hesitantly.
"Yes, let's get out of here, Lia!"
Emilia prepared to take the first step at running pace toward the nearest exit. Determined to leave the place at last, she started to run, when...
... ... ...
"What is it, Lia?! Why did you stop?!" Puck tried to get the girl to return to the race.
Emilia looked behind for a moment. She had forgotten something. Yes, how dare she forget about that thing? Looking back in the opposite direction from what should have been happening, she reminded herself of that person.
"...Puck, I'm going back there!"
"What?!" he asked, outraged. "You can't do this, Lia!"
"But I need to get to Ryan...!" She announced what started to burn inside her heart.
"Lia, please...!" Puck remained resolute about not letting her go. "I know you're worried about that boy, but nothing at the moment is more important than saving your own life! And knowing that kid, resourceful as he is, surely he must have some plan, so don't worry about it any more than you do."
But to Puck's utter surprise, Emilia raised her hands to her face, vehemently denying it.
"But he is my friend, and I made a promise! I can't leave him alone... Please, Puck! I have to go...!"
Puck pressed his teeth together. He knew that Emilia would not forget that, and that she would keep thinking about the possibility of returning even after they had escaped. This was a risky move, too dangerous to be done this way.
... But at the same time, he couldn't keep himself so resolute in the face of that determined gaze.
The gray cat knew he would regret making that decision, but even so, he decided to grant that right to Emilia.
Like the father figure he played, Puck took in a great deal of air just for the sake of drama, crossed his arms, and led himself to assert.
"Alright... But I'll go with you, and after we get the boy out of there, let's get out of here immediately!"
With a determined nod of understanding, Emilia soon left in the opposite direction of the exit, accompanied by the cat. She was going to save her best friend, the person she was closest to. She had to save him.
She didn't know what had happened so that he wasn't there at the time, but somehow she could feel an immense amount of faith in the boy, especially after seeing how he seemed to have just been involved in a fight. The first thing I noticed was that Emilia cut in clothing fabric covering horizontally the region near the shoulder.
/
"Damn… At this point, no action movie helps. There's no red or blue wire to cut on this thing...!" Ryan told me aloud to himself, putting a hand to his chin.
He was kneeling, right in front of the bomb... Only the boy himself could describe the great amount of panic, despair and desire to simply flee from there that was taking him at the moment.
The heart beat like a hydraulic pump, moving blood with record speed, and breathing as heavy as the pressure of steam exhaled through the tubes of a boiler. He scratched his head, thinking about exactly how to solve this problem.
The glow kept increasing, filling everything around the bag, he kept thinking as he moved one of his legs like a spring, in a kind of tic.
What the hell was he supposed to do in that situation...?
"Ryan! What do you think you're still doing here?!" Julius, the only one still around, also filled with great fear, asked.
"Thinking of a way to take care of this... Now be quiet because my bright mind needs to think here." He replied rather dryly.
Realizing this cold response and that didn't seem to care about anything on Ryan's part, Julius felt everything in what he always believed being hurt at that moment... How could a person act like that, as if he wasn't paying the slightest attention to the immense problems?!
"How can you be so calm in the face of this?!" he asked, displaying all his bitterness. There were a lot of things he couldn't say, as usual, because of his professionalism. "How can you talk like it's nothing?!"
Julius could contain himself no longer, and found himself losing control of his actions. He lunged for Ryan, grabbing him by the shoulders, controlling himself as best he could not to choke him out of the sheer desperation coursing through his veins.
He threw Ryan to the ground, holding onto him. The looks were interspersed, and once again that reaction was seen by the Knight. Ryan was still unfazed, serious to the limit... He didn't even look the least bit angry about it...!
How could anyone care so little?!
"How could you come here so casually and point the bomb like it was nothing?! Saying you need help... That I should check the standard a little more quickly! Why weren't you serious about it?!"
People, no matter how controlled or moral, always had a threshold of tolerance for stress caused by dangerous situations, and Julius was getting closer to the end. The Knight renowned for being the best of all when it comes to the general aspects of what it means to be a Knight Royal was finally losing his mind.
Julius couldn't consciously care about his own posture. Everything was being lost, and due to the state of the bomb, death was already announced. The Mana contained within each small stone, in quantities sufficient to destroy an entire village, was about to escape in the form of a powerful explosion that would engulf everything in flames.
... And he was still calm?! Julius wanted to see that in his face... That despair, the anger he had at that gesture. As incredible as it might seem, the Knight of Knights even wanted to be killed at that moment, just so Ryan would show some kind of emotion.
But nothing came. He was still expressionless, as if that didn't mean anything...
"That… doesn't mean anything to you, does it? I forgot that you're a foreigner, that you don't have the values of the Dragon Kingdom's people... That's why you don't want to do anything and don't even care, is it?" Julius tried to rationalize that. "That's why you're so calm, isn't it?"
... ... ...
"What...?" Julius wondered, seeing that reaction.
Ryan had just started laughing. It wasn't an apprehensive laugh or anything like that. It was just an ordinary laugh, as if someone had told a brilliant joke. He laughed so much... Laughed to the point of emptying his lungs and starting to feel pain at the base of his diaphragm.
"Why are you laughing...?"
Julius let go of his shoulders, stepping back. That couldn't be normal.
Ryan rose from that place on the floor, remaining seated. Stopping laughing, he wiped a tear from his left eye with a finger, slowly breaking his smile. After the short burst of laughter, he gave Julius a small smile, then asked.
"Hey Julius...Want me to tell you a secret?" He asked, still careful not to laugh again in the same violent way when he ended up remembering it.
Julius remained silent. A secret...? What impact would any collection of words have on his life at that moment? If anything, he should be running out of there right away, abandoning everything he's lived for just for the sake of life.
So... A secret...? What sense would there be in counting on listening to a secret?!
"I will take your silence as a confirmation." Ryan rose to his feet, still smiling with the corner.
He brushed some dust off his clothes, and once more headed back to the vicinity of the bomb, which now resembled more a pile of active embers, at the peak of their combustion.
"You know, Julius… I'm not the kind of person who laughs like that or makes that kind of jokes… I'm pretty serious all the time, it's true! And usually a little more responsible too." He stated. "Want to guess the only situation when this happens?"
Still, he hadn't stopped laughing at something in the back of his mind. Ryan seemed to be thinking about something highly trivial right now.
"... That's when I'm especially nervous." He admitted it. "If at any point you hear me trying, even if it fails, to tell a joke, make a reference to something or act like someone who wants to buy trouble at all costs... Know that something bad is going on."
He reached a hand up to the stones, feeling some of the heat that emanated.
"At these times, I can consider myself to be anything, except calm." He finished. "I'm not even the least bit tranquil or carefree, and believe me when I say this one thing..."
Before getting back to what he was doing, he directed a cold look in Julius's direction, one that made every bone in his body dance almost outward with nervous shock.
"I really don't need to waste my time continuing to do this." He said it, in an enigmatic way, but very direct and serious, which didn't make Julius doubt it. "Now, let's see what we can still do with this here..."
You could see Ryan's tongue slipping between his teeth as he kept his mouth open and one hand on his chin. The truth was, he already had the outline of a plan to make this work, but there was also a huge problem in its resolution.
"Hmm... I kind of know how we're going to get this out of here..." He revealed, much to the Knight of Knights' happiness and relief.
"How do you want to do this? Do I need to help with something? If it is to save the place that holds so much of Lugunica's history, I would even give my own life...! Let me know if there's anything I can do!" He put a hand to his chest, immediately volunteering.
Ryan smiled a little out of the corner of his mouth. It wasn't a mocking or playful smile like the others, but something much purer and more considerate. He knew about that feeling – the desire to want to be someone useful.
But there was still a problem in the elaboration of this entire process...
"Well, I realize you want to help, Julius, but…" He looked back at the pile of boiling orange. "I don't think we're going to make it... Not under current circumstances."
Julius gulped his saliva dryly, once again panicking internally, almost immediately. This time, the Royal Knight managed to contain himself a lot more, just shivering a little. Directing a startled look at the news, he questioned.
"What are you talking about? What prevents you from being able to make this plan happen...?" He asked.
"Well…" Ryan withdrew his hand from his chin.
Quickly, he took a small object from his pocket, displaying it with a kind of juggling act between his fingers. It was a rectangular apparatus made of some kind of metal, which had a small fire magic stone at its center.
"Who knew a lighter would be useful when explaining what's going on here…" He took a deep breath, tossing the object into Julius's palm. "Hold this and listen to what I say now. I can't promise it will make any sense, though."
Ryan released a large amount of air. For the first time, Julius could actually see how tense he was about the whole situation. The gesture of putting a hand on the chin actually only served to hide the tremors, and the whole posture was just used with the mere intention of not appearing desperate about the situation.
Ryan parted his lips, proceeding to put it in the simplest terms as possible.
"To put it pretty easy for anyone acculturated in Physics to learn, these stones are in an advanced state of instability, when the energy is especially unbalanced… Look at this thing I threw and see – this stone doesn't glow at all. That means it's stable."
Realizing that Julius was somehow paying attention, despite all his panic, he continued.
"The point is that these stones become quite violent if there is any kind of disturbance, whether from a very strong friction, or an impact... Or if they have been super energized by an external source... And the problem of when they are in that form is that..."
Ryan closed his eyes for a second, generating a repudiated second of silence.
"The slightest touch or change of position will cause a chain reaction. You might think not, but right now, these stones are still stable – but that won't last. The energy within them will expand more and more, to the point where even a single wind breeze would be enough to make it all explode."
He then looked at Julius.
"I wouldn't be a bit surprised if, right now, the air exhaled in my speech is enough to cause the explosion. The slightest impact, touch, or positional change in space will make that happen, so there's nothing I can do."
He had thought of using [Transport] or [Gate] – anything that would send those rocks to an isolated space where they could safely explode. But the problem with this plan was precisely the movement, which even if it was minimal, would trigger the bomb.
"So there's nothing we can do?!" Julius, incredulous at the explanation, questioned eagerly.
"To be very realistic… No. There is nothing we can do. We have to let the place explode."
Ryan stood up, brushing some of the dust off his clothes as that noxious core came closer and closer to releasing all its energy. He held out a hand, preparing to open a portal.
"That kind of warp in space... So that's something you can do..." Julius recognized that feeling through his contract with the spirits.
"This is our escape valve. I had it all figured out in case things were really going to go so wrong as they are now, so... Get in there. This will end up in front of the appa stand of a certain acquaintance, which is far away from here."
"Appa stand...?" Julius could no longer understand anything. There were virtually just the two of them left there, so there shouldn't have been any more people to evacuate.
He couldn't understand anything about that boy. The two were almost the same age, but the ways of seeing the world were yet so different... Who would really be Ryan Savoia?
"That's it. You won't be able to do anything staying here, let alone me! You are a Knight, Julius, and you have a duty to your people. People like you maintain moral cohesion by serving as symbols of security and hope, which is why you have an obligation to live." Ryan licked his lips. "We talk more outside, about Elsa and everything... Oh, I don't know! Just get in there, go."
In a last bit of resignation, Julius felt that, in fact, his own life was much more important. As much as he didn't like to think of himself as a mere element of "moral cohesion," as Ryan put it, he was forced to accept that fate.
"Okay... You'll be following right away, won't you?" He asked, before touching the dimensional gap that behaved like a vertical water edge.
"Yes I will. You can count on it. One day I'll still challenge you to a sporting match and give you the opportunity to smack me in the face until I pass out with a wooden sword for crashing the Royal Selection... Though I don't know what kind of greater force compelled me to say this strange combination of words right now." He said. "Maybe I'm getting crazy."
Julius laughed a little, bitterly.
"Then I will accept this madness. One day we'll see which one of us is really the best, Ryan Savoia."
He finally entered the portal, being transported to the front of Kadomon Risch's appa stand.
... ... ...
"Very well, I still got this one problem to deal with..."
Ryan looked at the bomb. He already knew what he had to do.
"I'm not taking any chances with this thing. Better off letting this explode." He started walking towards the portal.
... ... ...
"Ryan...!"
A voice called for him. Ryan felt a strange familiarity hit him in the chest, freezing his fingertips with a shock... What was she still doing there?!
"Emilia?!" He forced himself to look back. "Why are you here?! Why didn't you run away with the others?!"
It was no one but Emilia who was there. She had taken her chances, leaving the chance to just walk out of here, all to come after him.
"I can't leave you here by yourself! Remember? We are friends! We have to run away together...!" She sharply countered any kind of concern he was showing.
"This is irresponsible, Emilia! It's a bomb! This place could have completely exploded and you would have died...!" He then turned his gaze a little to the side. "And, Puck?! How specifically could you have agreed to this?!"
The cat took a deep breath, raising its paws up in a gesture that meant "what to do?"
"Lia insisted on coming here and finding you, so I had to protect her, of course! With me here, she wouldn't suffer even the slightest scratch if these magic stones exploded!" Puck assumed a heroic stance.
Ryan covered his eyes with his hands, exhaling at once all the immense amount of heated air that had accumulated.
More people would have to go through the portal, which only symbolized a greater Mana waste, the bomb was just seconds away from exploding, and although the cause was commendable, Emilia had acted in a childish way once again...
"Nothing goes according to plan, does it...?"
Ryan knew that the only way to stop it from exploding was to reduce the immense speed at which the Chaos was growing, until it had a more stable flow for that entropy.
Unfortunately, he couldn't do this process, just the opposite. If anything, the Magic he used would do nothing but increase the bomb's potential energy. Ryan could only heat and redirect energy.
"If I could just freeze or cool things..." He thought, before trying to enter the portal.
The only way to undo that would be to dissipate the excess unstable energy through highly effective thermal exchange – a luxury he didn't have at the moment. All that was left was to get Emilia through the portal and let the place explode as safely as possible.
... ... ...
"Wait... 'Freeze or cool things'..."
"Puck." Ryan suddenly looked up again, taken by a different expression.
"What is it, I ask? My contract doesn't extend to protecting you, so if you want me to cover you with an ice dome next to Lia, you'll have to ask nicely!" The cat has found a way to try to be funny in a situation like this.
A lightbulb went on inside Ryan's head. That was exactly it!
"I need you to create this ice dome around that thing." Ryan pointed to the bomb, speaking quickly and somewhat excitedly. "Multiple layers, all as thick as possible, one on top of the other, always with the upper one being reinforced in relation to the previous one, as if they were several domes that become more and more compact."
Exchanging a final look with the cat, he asked.
"Do you think you can do this?"
... This question Puck just grinned at.
"That's what I like about you, boy. Always with a plan..."
"Is that so? The way you said it sounded so negative..."
Puck almost immediately began putting the plan into action, creating several domes around the increasingly unstable jumble of crystals. Starting with a "core" dome, which directly surrounded the stones, Puck created several layers that surrounded this core, making them more and more solid, a fact that was visible because, with each layer, the ice became more opaque and less permissible to light.
By the end of the process, Puck had created a total of twenty thick layers of ice, which took up a good portion of the hall used in the Royal Selection.
"That should be more than enough for that amount... I hope it is!" Ryan commented, seeing the large ice hemisphere that, viewed from below, would be very reminiscent of textbook models used to explain the various layers of Planet Earth.
"Or an onion. Onions have layers, ogres have layers. They both have layers."
That was exactly what Ryan had been thinking about - the creation of what he called the "Core Effect" at the time. The core of Planet Earth and many other solid planets are in a state of constant explosion, always trying to expand infinitely in all directions.
The reason such colossal energy is not felt on the surface is that it is lost along the way, absorbed and contained by the layers. Volcanic eruptions are the result of cracks in these layers, which allow the violently expanding material to partially escape.
"No… This will hold the explosion. I am completely sure." He concluded, a little proud of his own logic. "Thanks for your help, Puck."
"Ah, but it's not me you have to thank, boy. Say that 'thank you' to Lia's stubbornness!" Puck looked at the one he considered his daughter.
"Puck...!" Emilia tried to protest, blushing a little and raising her fists to her face.
Noticing Emilia's innate and somehow so comforting childishness, Ryan couldn't help but smile. After all that, it would be a lot more than just wrong and incompetent of him not to thank that girl.
This was not the right time to use the prettiest words or the most elaborate terms, but he had to say something, even if it was something small. He needed to let Emilia know how much he appreciated her for everything, especially after all those things he'd been forced to see and experience.
He still had some difficulty accepting that, in this world, there was someone who trusted him like that. Ryan had always been the kind of person who liked to imagine that he was independent, that he didn't need others, or that he could work it out on his own, but now that was far from true. Once again, he had been saved by the trust of that girl so perfectly innocent and idealistic.
Looking back now, Emilia had given him everything. When he had nowhere to stay, she asked if he wanted to stay where she was. What kind of person would do that, if not one who really cares about your well-being? She could as well have paid him in some way for the insignia trouble and never looked him in the face again.
When he had no one to talk to other than his own thoughts inside the Mansion, she was the person who approached him to start talking and trying to build something positive, even though he was reluctant and was still so proud about do things by himself. How many times had he been more stubborn than she was about simply accepting it, as the normal, common gesture it was?
And not to mention that… The way she, without even thinking about the consequences, jumped through a forest full of hungry Mabeasts and saved him in the middle of the night, when Puck wasn't active and there wasn't much chance of victory.
She worried about him all this time, tried to get him out in every way possible from the project of importing inventions from the other world... How many times had she said that it wasn't necessary, or that he should just rest?
Emilia brought him to the Capital, thinking that he could have a little fun and calm down with the selection process, but instead he just complained and negatively criticized all the things he saw on the first day.
Damn, he almost threw up in front of her and made the poor girl feel guilty...!
Ryan had been nothing but a burden to Emilia – fact that, at the end of the day, was ironically funny! At that very moment, as he thought about it, the boy was laughing internally as if this was something incredible – laughing at his own ability to be someone so selfish.
He'd thanked her once – but the problem was that those words never became fact because of a death, and that wasn't comfortable. And instead of repeating the words, he made her feel so bad that-
"I don't want to think about that." He immediately rejected the conclusion of the thought.
Simply put, he had failed to be so kind and helpful. There was never a serious "thank you" or anything that really meant how grateful he should be.
Looking down a bit after thinking all this over, he made himself think one last thing.
"I really am a horrible person, huh… Taking advantage of her for so long..."
He released the air from his lungs slowly. It was time to finally let her know what he should have said from the beginning.
"Emilia." Ryan opened his eyes. It was time to break the pride once and for all.
She focused her attention on him, almost as if confirming it an unspoken way. Emilia's silver hair blew everywhere, covering the space the wind carried. At that point, he couldn't stop thinking about how beautiful all of that was.
And then, naturally, the words came out. No weight, no heroic strength. It was just the plain and simple words of a 19-year-old "human" – a boy, for the sake of wording.
"I need you."
... ... ...
"I can't do a miserable thing without you – it's even a little impressive when I finally stop to think about it more. Every time you were with me, helping me, trying to do something for me, anything... And it's looking at those moments that I finally realized that I can't be anyone if not through you."
... ... ...
"'Hero of the Village', 'Sixth Royal Candidate'... And many other things. I can't be any of these things by myself. I was only able to save the village because you were there with me, and most of all, because you provided me with your home when I most needed shelter... I would never have figured out this candidacy stuff if I hadn't met you, also...!"
Although he had started out well, Ryan could already feel himself wavering with the words. He couldn't keep his composure in front of a scenario like that, even if he tried his best.
"So…I want to say that… Uh… I want to say that I'm very grateful for all that I've lived by your side, and most of all, for all the help you've given me… I'm nobody without you, Emilia... I've never done anything...! I never saved the day without you around..."
He could no longer maintain eye contact, but still forced himself to speak.
"And I… I feel like I've never been very fair to you about this… I mean… I've only been taking advantage of your favors, never giving anything in return… And I regret this very much. … So… I kind of just wanted to let you know that…"
He swallowed, looking straight ahead. Ryan was being torn apart by his own inner agony, which could be seen through the heavy bead of sweat that trickled down his forehead.
"...I'm sorry, Emilia... Even though I wasn't the best person, even though I could still have done so much more... Even though sometimes I've lied and kept things from you... Me... I just wanted to apologize for causing all these problems, for being such a burden... For- "
Ryan was interrupted. In that second, in the mere space of the blink of an eye, he felt himself enveloped in heat.
"That's not the right thing to say."
It was Emilia's voice. She, with her gentle way of being, lifted her fallen face so that the two could face each other, as it should be.
"It's much better to say 'Thank you' once than to apologize ten thousand times, Ryan. That's what I want to hear from you."
"Emilia..."
"And I want you to promise me something… After we get out of here, I want to know every detail about these things you've been hiding! Let's have a really long talk about all this, you bad boy!"
Ryan laughed a little dryly, looking down before rising fully.
"It's a promise, then. Let's get through this, and then I'll let you know everything... But for now..."
Ryan looked to the side, toward the ice dome.
"Hold on. We will have a whole lot of impact. It will shake a lot."
"All right. I'll hold on to you then." She said, bracing herself for the big impact.
"Funny thing is that I was right about do the same…" Ryan admits, laughing at the end.
"So let's hold on to each other from now on, always."
AUTHOR NOTES
Well, finally got an actual Office pack... Less typos! Yay! I'm getting more and more surprised with my ability to go beyond 5k words... Or at least I hope less typos! Don't want to delve much longer on this arc, guys... So I'll be hurrying a little bit! AND, HERE GOES SELF-PROMOTION TIME! After much waste of time, I'm finally translating my original works!
The story is about teens with superpowers that do a lot of crazy stuff and beat people! (I still try to keep it on tracks, though... The plot is pretty reasonable, though I'm biased as it is my own story) As I said, I already have a lot o chapters (35+), but they need translation and fixing. ... And I'm finally doing that! Got the three first chapters done and fixed. I must warn there really isn't much to the story yet (they are introduction chapters) but I promise action won't take long to appear!
The story is heavily inspired in both JoJo and My Hero Academia, so expect to catch hints of both! And the MC's name is the same (That was my sloth - I couldn't think of a different name for the OC of this fanfic, so "Meh, let's just use this MC I have here!")
Here goes the link! (You don't have to read it now - the first three chapters are kinda weak).
s/3357055/1/Project-Genesis-Masked-PersonalitiesThanks, guys! Have nice days!