The Only Son Amongst The Daughters Of Eros

"Your Mother's Class is Phantom and her Main Skill is [Possess], right?" Aeric decided to begin with simple questions, going to slowly build up to see her reaction and the Crest's.

"Yes," Melina answered slowly, finding the question suspicious as that was common knowledge.

Aeric leaned forward, looking into her eyes. "Tell me her other Skills."

Melina frowned. "What? Why do you want to know that?"

Aeric didn't react at all. "I'm sorry," he said plainly. "Are you the one asking the question here, Bondservant?"

The Crest threatened to glow, and so Melina quickly replied. "Okay! Okay! She has [Mind Bend], [Suppress], [Haunt], [Project], [Insight], [Mind Shield], [Reveal], [Forge] and [Flare]. There could be many others, but that's all I know. I swear."

Aeric glared into Melina's eyes once again for a while, and then he said okay.

That was the thing with Moonlighters, especially the Awakened ones. Those who have the power to or the means, usually use a [Mind Shield] to protect themselves against the kind of attacks they inflict on others.

Since the people of Moonlight were used to abstract Skills and attacks as it was their main kind of attacks, protecting their mind with different graded [Mind Shields] was very important.

Earlier, when Aeric had joined the Royal Institution, Melina had only had a C-Grade [Mind Shield] but it seemed she had upgraded it recently to an A-Grade. Perhaps in hopes of fighting back the Crest of Obedience.

Now, Aeric could no longer pierce into her thoughts like he usually did and he couldn't tell if she was telling the truth.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

So, he had no other choice than to depend on the Crest of Obedience to punish her if she did.

Aeric also wondered. If there was a [Mind Shield], could a [Soul Core Shield] exist too? Something that could stop him from accessing a person's Skill kept in the Core.

The possibilities... his mind wandered. Back to business, he gave Melina a subtle scrutiny.

"What did your mother tell you about me?" he asked.

Melina's brow slanted worriedly, cheeks reddening. "Uhm... she said... She said you killed Erimyra, and that you will kill many others. She called you an abomination on our world and told us to make life hell for you in the school. She told us to give you a great physical injury, but we never expected you to heal so quickly."

Aeric's face remained expressionless as he thought. 'Why does everyone in this world do terrible things just because someone told them to do it?'

"Does she plan to kill me?" he asked Melina.

Melina grimaced. "I don't really... know — ahhhh!" The Crest burned on her chest, glowing red. "She did. She planned to murder you to spite Mother Guinevere, but I don't think she does anymore."

Ugh! Melina's head fell forward and she panted heavily.

"What does that mean?" Aeric asked her. "How do you know that?"

"Last night..." Melina said through heavy breaths. "We told her about what you did, but she didn't rage or swear to punish you like we expected. She almost defended you and admonished us rather. That's unlike Mother to do that."

Aeric shrugged. "Maybe she was just being rational."

"That's the thing, Mother is not rational when it comes to things concerning you. She used to only care about making you suffer! Last night was different." Find adventures on empire

After being silent for a while, Aeric placed a finger on his chin. 'Hmm. Could be a change of plans on her part. Or she's gotten some good news and doesn't want to destroy me in order to build up her Region.'

His eyes moved to Melina. "How many Knightguards are around the Castle of Moonlight?"

"What?"

"How many?!"

"I don't know the exact numb— ahhhhh!" It burned. "Fifty seven!"

"How many Knights do you people have at your disposal?" Aeric continued.

"What? What kind of questions are these? Ngh— ahhhhhh!" she pushed her head back in pain. "Forty one thousand! We have forty one thousand!"

"And how many would you have after the Wave War?"

"I don't kno — ahhhh! Twelve! Twelve thousand Knights will stay back."

Aeric put on his thinking hat once more. That was less than half of Starlight's stay back force. This was good, it meant that Starlight had a better chance of protecting themselves for the next year even after the Wave War.

"Will your sister, Luna, fight in the Wave War?" Aeric looked at her. 'Hmm?'

Melina's head was low, she was panting, tired from the numerous burns in her chest. What had she just done? She just told very important and private national information to an enemy Regioner.

Was this why? Was this the only reason Aeric wanted to brand her with a Crest of Obedience? Just to get the Moonlight Region's secrets?

Why? Is he planning to attack? Has she just helped the enemy by telling Aeric all of this? Had she helped the abomination bring evil into the land?

She began to cry to her mother, begging her for forgiveness. Saying that it was not her intentional to be a traitor. Although, she was saying all of this in her mind, and only a tear dropped down her cheek.

Aeric did not hear anything, but he did see the tear drop down her jaw.

"Yes," Melina said softly and sadly. "She's going to lead the army against the Snake Queen. She's earned the title of Moonlight Commander. It's her duty now."

Aeric stayed quiet, leaned closer, elbows resting on knees, peering through Melina's hair at her silver eyes.

"Hey?" he called her. "Lift your gaze. Look at me."

Slowly, like her head weighed a tone, Melina raised her face, her hair shifted out of the way as her watery, moolighted eyes met him. She even looked prettier when sad.

"Does it hurt a lot?" he asked her plainly.

Eyes still locked with his, Melina nodded.

Then, Aeric slowly extended his hand and placed it on the side of her face, feeling her pale cheek.

Melina didn't draw back or reject his touch, she just stayed still, frozen, looking at him as his strong palm rested and caressed her cheek. Her heart kept pounding, and she waited for him to say something.

Finally, his lips parted to speak:

"Do you remember the names you called me on my first day?"

Melina's heart dropped.