Lisa's feelings

Seth forgot for a moment about the earlier incident following her confession and bent forward, catching her lips for a kiss. His hands that were earlier wiping her tears off moved to the back of her head and pulled it upwards.

Aleena also raised her hands, shyly moving them to touch Seth’s firm back, pulling herself closer into his embrace.

“Ahem.” A clear sound from the back broke the two out of their kiss, both turning simultaneously to see Maya staring at them with a raised eyebrow.

Aleena’s face turned red, and she lowered her head again, hiding her eyes from Maya’s out of shame and guilt.

“You owe me an apology, little lady.”, said Maya, her face dead serious.

Aleena shuddered and nodded immediately: “I know. I’m sorry, Ascended Maya.”

Seth looked like he wanted to say something, and Maya turned to look at him immediately, signaling him to not intervene.

Seth shook his head and still spoke nonetheless: “That’s enough. I already told you I don’t want you fighting. Nothing major happened anyway.”

Maya frowned and turned around, not even responding to Aleena’s apology, before entering the bath again.

Aleena looked towards Seth with a sad look and said: “Sorry if I made trouble for you. I’m also sorry for hurting you earlier. I didn’t want to…”

“It’s fine.” Replied Seth with a sigh before sitting up from his knees: “Let us get in the water as well.”

Aleena nodded, and everyone quickly returned to the pool. Seth remained with Aleena and Tiana for the rest of the bathing time, continuing his earlier lessons while the others kept swimming and chatting.

An hour later, since the atmosphere was still quite heavy, the girls decided to leave and return to their rooms. Seth remained alone in the bath, his back resting against the pool wall while speaking to the system.

‘How are things with the new students?’

<Everyone is already in the dormitory, reading through the materials they borrowed from class. The speed of progress would only be calculable in a week or so.>

‘That’s good enough.’ Replied Seth before sighing and asking: ‘What about Lisa?’

<Ascended Lisa is cultivating inside her room on the ship. She’s been slowly distancing herself from the others as well, choosing to spend more time with her family instead or simply cultivating.>

<Despite Julie’s efforts, she doesn’t appear to have any intention of forgiving host’s actions.>

Sighing again, Seth looked in the distance toward the ship’s location before standing up and walking out of the water. After covering himself in a decent-looking suit, he opened a portal and teleported right in front of Lisa’s room.

It was already the middle of the night, but with Lisa cultivating the entire time, visiting her during the day or night didn’t make that much difference.

Taking a deep breath, he knocked twice on the door. Lisa opened her eyes on the bed and looked towards the door.

She didn’t know exactly who it was, but as her eyes landed on the door, her intuition told her it had to be Seth. She said loudly, taking a deep breath, “Why bother knocking when you can just enter?”

A hole in the fabric of space later, Seth appeared in her room, a wry smile on his face: “I figured it would be rude of me to just enter like that.”

“Oh, alright. Do you need anything?” asked Lisa flatly, her face not betraying any emotion."

With a sigh, Seth walked and took a seat at his desk before shaking his head: “Not as much as needed, but more like I want to ask you what would it take for you to move past what happened?”

“I already said I’m sorry and even fixed it. Can’t we just let bygones be bygones?”

A sarcastic look appeared in Lisa’s eyes as she asked: “Let bygones be bygones? What a great thought, considering it was all your doing. Also, how can I know you won’t just do it again the moment something doesn’t suit your goals?”

“I’m sorry, Seth, but I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to see you as my teacher again, not after you used your powers on my father, a simple human.”

“I understand that you might be sorry, and I also understand that it might have been your energy pushing you to do it, but I don’t want to take the chance of it happening again.”

“My family and I will continue living here as citizens of your new kingdom, and I’ll even help you if you need me to, as thanks for everything that you have taught me, but that’s where our association will stop. If that’s all you came to say, you can leave now.”

Seth sighed and looked silently into her eyes, but there was no trace of hesitation inside them at all. He knew he had hurt her indirectly by hurting her father, but he couldn’t understand why she couldn’t just put it behind after everything was fixed.

It was the same feeling that Maya’s vexation today was giving him. A sense of incomprehension.

“But I fixed it.” He muttered with a lost look: “I fixed them all? Why can’t things just be the same?”

“Because you hurt him and me, Seth, that’s why. You can take away the damage, but you can’t fix the pain I had to go through when I found my mom sobbing near my father’s unconscious, bleeding body.”

“You can’t make me forget the betrayal I felt when I realized my beloved teacher was the one who did it and hurt one of the few people I love in this world.”

“You hurt my father, you hurt my mother, and you hurt me, Seth. Even when I look at you, at the back of my mind, there’s a fear that you might hurt them again if things don’t work out for you.”

“You might even hurt me, and there’s nothing I can ever do to stop that, but I’m not scared for me since I already gave you a way to end my life at any time when I allowed you to put your destruction energy in my source.”

“I’m scared you’ll hurt everyone I care about to ensure everything goes how you want it to.”

Seth’s smiled wryly while shaking his head: “I never placed any destruction energy in your source. It was just something I told you to make sure you never mentioned anything about space energy or decided to ever go against me.”

“I never planned on hurting your father or your loved ones either. It was a mistake on my part.”

“Maybe you didn’t.” Replied Lisa, “But you still did. And that mistake almost cost someone their life. What if, at that moment, you killed my father instead of being content with just injuring him? What then? Would you still have called it a mistake? What if you make another mistake, and this time I end up with both my parents in the ground?”

Tears started welling up in Lisa’s eyes as she continued: “How could I ever forgive myself if I was the one that caused my parents’ death? How could I forgive myself if I only repaid their love and care with suffering and senseless death?”

Taking a deep breath, Seth stood up with a nod before saying: “Alright, I understand. I won’t bother you anymore. Talk with Pearl and the others and have them set up a residence for you and your family. You’re also free to go to the academy, browse through any materials you need to read and take any vials you might need.”

“Whatever happened between us, you’re still my student, and I don’t want you to slow down your cultivation because of this. I promise I won’t interfere with you or your family after tonight unless you are the ones to seek me first.”

Lisa nodded, her face still drenched in tears, as she said: “Thank you.”

With a sigh, Seth disappeared again, appearing in front of a different door, still on the ship.

<I would advise against host’s current course of action. If Lisa finds out, things might end up even worse.>

‘It’s fine.’ Replied Seth before teleporting a note inside the room in front of him.

A few minutes later, Julie, Lisa’s mother, opened the door, covering herself with a nightgown. She bowed toward Seth and asked: “How can I help you, your highness?”

“Just call me Seth. I’m curious if you are free so we can talk briefly.

Julie looked confused but nodded after peaking inside and seeing that her husband was sleeping. Walking outside and closing the door gently, she asked: “What about?”

“Not here.” Replied Seth before teleporting them away, arriving inside Seth’s room inside his newly built Royal Chambers.

He pointed towards the table and said, “Let’s have a seat.”

Julie frowned but still nodded and sat down. Seth teleported a few cups of wine for the both of them before grabbing his own and taking a sip.

Looking at the confused Julie, he said: “I had a talk with Lisa…”

Hearing his words, Julie sighed and took a sip of her cup before saying: “And it went just as badly as you look?”

“Pretty much… She’s headstrong on having as little to do with me as possible.”

Sighing, Julie shook her head and said: “I did as much as possible, but that’s the way she is. She’s always been Saif’s precious daughter and was closer to him than she ever was to me.”

“I don’t know myself how I could help you there…”

“That’s fine. I already promised her that after tonight I won’t bother her or the two of you anymore unless you seek me first.”

Julie frowned and asked doubtlessly: “Then why did you bring me here?”

“Because I want to make a deal with you. Something I’m sure you will be interested in.”

Julie still looked uncertain but nodded as she took another sip of the wine and said: “I don’t understand how I could help you, but I’m listening.”

“It’s not so much of you helping me, but more of me helping you, “ replied Seth, pressing his back against his chair and taking a sip of wine. “I can make you an ascended.”

Julie looked at the wine in her cup for a moment, a wry smile on her lips as she asked: “I already know it’s impossible for people without an affinity to become ascended. You said that yourself, but what makes you think I would be interested in that even if it was possible?”

“Because, as much as you try to hide it, I know you want it. Power and riches. Why else would you bother to seduce your way into the Oconnor family if not so?”

Julie sighed and took another sip of her wine. “It looks like it’s true what Lisa said. There’s little you don’t know, but even then, those were just the dreams of a stupid young girl.”

“I might have thirsted for power and riches, but now I’m already quite old. None of those matter anymore; I know what a deal with the devil is. No matter what you want from me, the price for what you’re offering would not be low.”

“I’m fine, just living this life I fought to get until the end, even if I appreciate your offer. I’m happy where I am now.”

Seth smiled and downed the entire coup before creating a portal on the side: “All I ask is for you to fulfill one request from me. Nothing too difficult. It’s not urgent, so you can take your time and think about it.”

“I won’t bother you anymore, but remember, ascended don’t only have power and riches, but also immortality and eternal beauty. You might have been content until now since that was outside your reach, but will that still be the case now that it’s not just an empty dream anymore?”

Julie’s eyes became slightly clouded for a moment before she sighed, downed the whole cup, and walked into the portal without saying a single word.

Seth watched her back disappear and chuckled before closing the portal.

“Dealing with her is definitely easier.”