D. God Original Chapter 87

Olive shuffled Jiran out of Professor Saltaath’s class just before the lunch wave rolled through the academy. She held his hand in a strong grip until they were lifted into the air toward the palace as if afraid he might run off.

The butler, Toduerr, was waiting for them outside the mansion when they arrived.

“Greetings, Your Highness, Young Master Jiran,” He bowed to them each in turn.

“Toduerr, I did not expect to see you here. Has something happened?”

“No, Ma’am, things are well in order without my interference. I thought you might like to know that Master Cameron and Master Dommell will be arriving tomorrow.”

“They finished already? That’s fantastic news! Thank you, Toduerr.”

“You’re welcome, Ma’am. I shall take my leave then. Good day Ma’am, Master Jiran,” Jiran turned to Olive as Toduerr left.

“How exciting, Jiran. We should prepare for their arrival. I haven’t seen them in nearly two seasons. I wonder how much they’ve grown,” She gently clapped her hands in front of her chest with a large smile.

Those names sound a little familiar. Am I supposed to know who they are?

The front door opened and a maid that Jiran didn’t recognize stuck her head outside. When she saw the two of them her eyes went wide. Stepping fully outside she bowed to them both.

“Welcome home, Your Highness, Master Jiran.”

Jiran barely registered the girl as a heavenly aroma wafted from within the mansion causing his stomach to rumble like a caged beast. He heard a matching sound come from Olive as she gulped in anticipation of the late breakfast.

“I’m going to go get Mayalyn so we can all eat together,” Jiran was already turning away before he finished speaking.

“I was just about to fetch her, Master Jiran. Would you like me to do so?” The maid spoke hastily.

“That would be lovely, Frelsha. Please let her know we are waiting for her,” Jiran stopped in his tracks when he felt Olive’s narrowed eyes burrowing into his back.

Frelsha dashed off toward the lab leaving Jiran alone with Olive once more.

“Jiran, it is important to allow the maids to do their work. Poor Frelsha would have been beside herself with worry that she was failing in her duties had you not allowed her to go. She likely would have spent the rest of the day holding back tears, fearing she was to be dismissed.

“The palace staff value their service and we must value them in turn,” Her lecturing tone was so far from her usual voice that Jiran could tell she was reciting someone else’s words.

“I understand. Thanks for setting me straight,” He couldn’t help but wink at her to lighten the mood.

“You say the strangest things sometimes, Jiran. ‘Set me straight’ is such an odd turn of phrase. I suppose it is fitting though. Shall we?” She held out her arm to him which he gladly took.

Once inside she hurried toward the stairs.

“I’m going to get changed before Mayalyn arrives. I’ll meet you in the dining hall.”

As he watched her leave, a familiar presence descended around him. The weight of a heavy hand fell on his shoulder and a deep voice whispered in his ear.

“I can’t help but notice how happy my daughter is. I haven’t seen her smile like that since she was a little girl. Keep up the good work. Oh, and excellent job with that Rook, Son,” Dominus’s presence vanished as if it had never been.

Of course he knows about the Rook, he was probably there watching the entire fight. Maybe next time step in before I have to sacrifice an arm!

It is nice to know he was watching Olive. It was pretty stupid of me to take her into that fight. She seems so strong that it’s easy to forget she’s a freaking princess.

Olive and Mayalyn entered the dining room together. Mayalyn still wore her forge attire and Olive had dressed to match her. The moment Mayalyn spotted Jiran her face blossomed with a happy smile and she rushed to sit beside him.

“Jiran, you come see forge after eat? I make good blade. Show you, please?”

“I would love to see what you made, Mayalyn. I promised Olive I would get some rest though so it’s up to her,” They both turned to the girl in question, their pleading faces quickly overwhelming her defenses.

“Father let me know that he thought you were fine and that I shouldn't force you to rest if you do not desire to,” She pouted.

Jiran contented himself with merely imagining himself leaping into the air with a fist pump.

I take every mean thought back. You’re awesome, Dominus! Thanks for the save, old man.

“Well then, I’m eagerly awaiting a real tour of your lab after lunch,” He said with a diplomatic smile.

Three maids entered the room each carrying a tray of food that smelled so good he closed his eyes and took a deep, slow lungful of air through his nose.

Mayalyn was drumming the table impatiently with her fists and the moment the plate was set in front of her she dug into it without even waiting to see what it was. Olive watched in horror as the blue-haired girl shoveled handful after handful of food into her mouth.

“She’s not even chewing! Jiran, do something,” Her expression fell on deaf ears as Jiran was only slightly slower than Mayalyn.

Giving up, Olive laughed nervously while she shook her head. Her bites were small and delicate as she slowly polished off her plate. By the time she was done with her first serving, Jiran and Mayalyn were finishing off their fourth.

“Wow, that was amazing,” Jiran groaned while rubbing his stomach.

“Sho gwood,” Mayalyn agreed while struggling to walk straight as they left the mansion.

“I cannot believe you two. Please tell me that’s not how people normally eat.”

“Sorry to say, that when the food is good enough, anyone would eat that way. I think you’ve just had too much good food. Maybe you're ruined for life now.”

“I’m… ruined?” Jiran hid his grin seeing the devastation his words had wrought on her face.

In the lab, Mayalyn dragged Jiran into the room she had adopted as her own. She handed him a blade with beautiful carvings of laurel vines all along its length. The silvery metal shone as if she had polished it for a week.

“Mayalyn, this is amazing. How did you make this in just a few hours?” Jiran's honest praise caused her to shuffle her feet cutely while hiding a wide smile behind her hand.

“Tools good. Try tell you need tools good, never listen. Now you know,” Mayalyn said with a firm nod.

“I want to watch you make the next one. Can you show me how you did this later?” She nodded again as Olive practically dragged him out of the room.

“Look, Jiran. These are all my current lance prototypes. What do you think?”

The room she led him to had multiple weapons of various lengths and thicknesses stacked against a wall like cue sticks in a billiards hall. Jiran lifted one from its brackets and tested the weight and balance.

“It’s surprisingly light. Why isn’t it heavier with how much mana is stored in the material and the cores?”

“Oh, those cores aren't fully charged yet.”

“Really? How do you convert the cores without charging them? Every time I tried to convert a core I had to fully replace all the mana inside. Whenever I tried to only do a portion of the conversion it would fail.”

“Your method sounds very different from my own. I think we should watch each other do a conversion, that should clear up the confusion,” Jiran nodded along with her suggestion.

Olive grabbed a small rune-covered box from a nearby shelf. She tapped three spots on the lid where glowing symbols intersected causing the glow to fade and the lid to pop open with a hiss.

She pulled out five cores before sealing the lid and powering the glowing runes with mana.

“Father is much better at this than I am,” She said with a shy, depreciating smile.

Jiran watched as she lifted the marble-sized core into the air with her aura. She then closed her eyes in concentration as the core began to shake gently. He watched in fascination as her aura slowly sapped the beast-mana out of the core causing most of it to disintegrate into dust.

The color drained from the core along with the mana and after several minutes, all that remained was a jagged piece that looked like broken glass.

“Hmm, a less than average success. Often, the remaining shard is a little larger. All that remains is to shape it with heat and a file so it can be socketed into place.”

“That is very different from my method.  Can you quickly explain why you are doing it this way before I show you how I convert them?”

“Certainly. When I was younger and under punishment, unable to leave my room, Father showed me what he thought was a neat trick. He converted a core with this method, and after injecting his mana into it, he gave it to me as a gift.

“Several seasons later, I was looking at it and realized I could store extra mana for a fight with this method, so I asked him how to do it. As for why we do it this way, I don’t know.”

So basically her dad was just playing around and she thought it was cool. I should have known. They are both ridiculous.

“Why are you looking at me like that? Did I say something wrong?”

“What? No, I was just thinking about Dominus. I’ll show you my method now.”

Jiran grabbed one of the cores and held it firmly in his hand. He ran his mana over the outside of the core searching for the input and output points. When he located both, he opened his palm and began to slowly but firmly inject his own mana through the input.

In the past, he had forced his mana inside the core which had a high chance of destabilizing and destroying the core. After watching Olive, he had an idea and was excited to try it.

He gently provoked the output point with his aura, steadily draining the beast-mana while simultaneously injecting his own.

This method is a lot closer to the way Mayalyn’s core works as part of a larger mana circuit. It certainly feels like the mana is moving smoothly through the core. I hope this works!

Jiran’s excitement spiked when the core was nearly converted, causing the mana inside to oscillate dangerously. The vibrations rapidly escalated uncontrollably until the core popped completely into dust. Jiran gave Olive a sheepish smile before snatching another core and starting over.

This time, he maintained a firm grasp of his mental state until the core was completely converted. It changed from a dull brown to a bright green and weighed far more than it did before the conversion.

Olive greedily snatched the core from his hand and ran off to a corner of the room where she scooped up a wand with a clear crystal embedded in its tip. She tapped the crystal to the core and when it turned orange she turned to Jiran with a look of complete astonishment.

“This has nearly a third of my total mana capacity stored in it! How on Madra did you do that?!”

She mumbled to herself while counting on her fingers before looking up at him with pure bafflement.

“You did that twice, the first time nearly succeeded. I could see the mana in the core nearly stabilized before it failed. Then you did it again. You used one-third of my mana both times. I can tell you aren't out of mana yet either. Father said you are tier four? How do you have so much mana?”

Oops. I didn’t want her to find out about red density yet. If people knew, they would go out trying to solo beats two tiers above them and they would all get killed.

I need to make sure they have the knowledge of how to fight up two tiers before I open this pandora’s box.

“I don’t want to lie to you, Olive. That information is something I would like to keep a secret for a while longer. It’s dangerous and could get a lot of people killed.”

Time froze as reality warped. The atmosphere thickened and the soft light that permeated the room darkened. Dominus’s sudden appearance caused Jiran to fidget nervously as he looked between father and daughter.

“This space is sealed. Not a soul will overhear this conversation.” He spoke in the most serious tone Jiran had ever heard from the man.

“Speak,” His bright blue eyes bored into Jiran’s soul, demanding answers.