Chapter 30: Chapter 23: Busy Week and Gratitude.

Echoes of Fire and Shadows

Chapter 23: Busy Week and Gratitude.

---

“WHY. WON’T. YOU. WASH. OFF!?” I shouted with anger at the bloodstains on my shirt…

It has been almost a week since we had returned home from Norvek and I took care of that tribe of goblins. Things have been pretty uneventful since then.

Well… Not really uneventful since, true to her word, my mom and I ended up having a very long talk and she grounded me at the end of it for a few reasons… 

Those reasons were: 1) the fact that I lowered my guard and almost got stabbed by that goblin, 2) the horrible sight of those goblin corpses right in front of our front door, 3) She was not happy that my new clothes were ruined, and 4) the fact that I fainted and that I made her get worried…

“C’mon! This is the third time I have washed you today!” I complained while vigorously scrubbing my shirt with a small brush made with the hair of the tail of a horse and lots of soap that I then washed with magic.

I can’t really blame her for grounding me for those reasons… Especially considering the second one… Man, I don’t think I’ll be ever capable of eating melted cheese again…

Ah, yeah… Those goblins I hit with my new spell… The most easy-to-understand explanation I can give is that… Well… They got fucked!

You see… I hit most of them right in the heart, or at least close to the heart, and one of them in the head. Those who got hit in the heart or near that had an enormous gaping wound where their hearts were supposed to be, and the skin around that was completely melted… Surprisingly, the other one didn’t have any injuries to speak of.

Of course, you can’t really talk about injuries in the head if the creature doesn’t have a head, to begin with…

So... The minuscule and harmless spell called [Light] suddenly became a laser of gruesome death… This is something that I must definitely not use against other people… Unless I want to gruesomely 86 them, of course. Something which I hopefully won’t have to do, since it is not a sight I would like to see again…

Anyway… Because of that nightmarish sight, I was willing to accept any punishment that my mom wanted to give me.

The punishment she decided was quite simple actually and also… Quite effective…

Basically, I had to clean up my mess… 

Thankfully, I didn’t have to do it alone, but still… Sigh… Let’s just say that all of those Did-You-Know facts my mom told me were all true…

As I looked at the stains on my shirt, which simply refused to disappear, I started trembling as I remembered every single detail about last week…

Gods… I can still remember the putrid smell of the blood of the goblins… The shit they smeared on our windows even smelled better than their blood!

And their organs… I can’t even begin to describe their smell! I feel like vomiting every single time I remember myself cleaning their guts from our front door…

Yeah… I can’t… I can’t keep talking about that…

Quite frankly, it is good that only my mom and my dad saw that and hid the corpses before my sisters, Mia or Klein could see them… 

As for the house, things were pretty messy due to our messy and unwelcomed green visitors. It was like a tornado had passed through our living room… The table and the chairs were all broken, there were knives stuck to the walls, the couch was completely ripped apart and the entire living room smelled like shit… Like I said before, it smelled better than their blood, but it was still quite bad.

So, our living room? A total wreck with only a very few things we could salvage.

Fortunately, they weren’t able to get into our rooms. It is not that they didn’t try, but that I interrupted them when they were just about to do so. The proof of that is the door to my room which now has a cute little peephole in the shape of something that was hit with an axe or a very sharp blade…

But hey, at least we can still use our rooms. That’s the silver lining here, I guess… 

As for the outside of the house… Dad says that we will have to replace a lot of the wood from the walls as they had a lot of scratch marks and some were broken even. Replacing all that wood will be very time-consuming.

“I give up! This soap isn’t going to work either!” I shouted angrily, throwing my ruined shirt back into the bathtub and then sitting on the floor with my arms crossed.

Although I’m ABSOLUTELY LIVID right now, I have made some improvements in a lot of areas after the attack of the goblins.

I believe that the first thing that I should mention, should be my soap.

For reasons that concern the poor state of our house and my new clothes, I decided to tweak my soap recipe a little bit to see if I could make something that could help us with the situation at hand.

With so many logs and fallen trees lying around due to my dad cutting an absurd amount of them before he and mom adopted me, I basically have an unlimited amount of wood ashes. This means I can make as much soap as I want due to easy access to lye (potash) after leaching those ashes.

That’s the good thing about living in a forest, you have all the lumber you’ll ever need. Of course, I’m gonna replant those trees, since I don’t want to experience global warming in this world too… 

Moving on… I didn’t do much besides playing with the ratios of salt, lye, water, and scented oils I produced with some flowers we found in the forest. Luna helped me a lot while I was doing this. I’m really glad that she felt the need to transcribe all the nonsense I was saying at the time since I clearly had forgotten to write down the ratios I was using…

Mia and Liliana were very helpful when I was collecting ingredients to make more soap. Mia, because of her powerful sense of smell, and Liliana because of her great knowledge of the Flora of the immediate area of our house.

Thanks to those two, I was able to get my hands on a few different types of flowers that smell really good and it was easy to make oil out of them.

I'm really grateful to all three of them, without their help, I wouldn't have been able to make so much progress.

Of course, there were quite a large number of failures while I tried to make a new recipe for my soap… Some of them smell quite terrible and some others were quite toxic and almost deadly, but in the end, I managed to get some nice results.

The current ‘soap’ I’m using is the result of my twelfth attempt at altering the original recipe. It works perfectly for cleaning surfaces and even utensils, however, as you have witnessed, it doesn’t really work with clothing…

“Maybe if I use Akrena Oil on the recipe instead of Abudlae Oil, it could do a better job on fabrics… Though, it might destroy the shirt if I use too much of it…” I muttered my ideas for a new soap.

Akrena and Abudlae are the names of the flowers I had the most success with when I made my new recipes. 

The soap I made with the oil from the Akrena Flower is quite basically a very powerful industrial cleaner in the shape of a white and slightly dense liquid if the right ratios are used. Okay, I’m exaggerating a bit, but it is extremely good!

The first soaps I made with this oil were the ones we used to clean the blood and guts of the goblins from our front door. And they were stupidly effective since there wasn’t a trace of their blood after we were done with that traumatic experience…

With this one, the less you use in the mix the better since I was warned by Lia that apparently Akrena Oil can become quite toxic and deadly if it is mixed with too much Lye.

I was not going to try to find out about the veracity of that information, so I decided to stop experimenting on it since I pretty much got what I needed from it. Just for now, at least.

So, the recipes that contain safe amounts of Akrena Oil serve as your run-of-the-mill industrial cleaner. Since it is so powerful, I’m reluctant to use it with clothes since… Well, I have never made this kind of stuff before…

Anyway, as for the Abudlae Oil, when made into soap, it acts basically as a detergent. This is mostly used to wash plates and utensils since it is not as powerful as the previous one, but it does smell much better than the soap made with Akrena Oil.

This oil is pretty safe to use, but… It doesn’t work with clothes as I had originally intended! 

Fuck!

“Sigh…” I sighed (and cursed) as I mourned the loss of one of my new shirts… “Status…” I summoned my status screen with a whisper.

---

STATUS

Name: Julius / Crux Navar

Race: Human

Age: 7 years old

Ability Points: 250 points

Titles: Reincarnator(?) / Transmigrator(?) / Novice Lady Killer / Goblin Slayer NEW! /

Jobs: Unemployed

Level: 8

---

Attributes

• HP: 224 (92 → 224)
• MP: 601 (110 → 601) 
• STR: 77 (26 → 77)
• VIT:  200 (79 → 200)
• DEF: 40 (18 → 40)
• RES: 31 (20 → 31)
• LUCK: 56 (34 → 56)
• SPD: 60 (32 → 60)
• INT: 149 (130 → 149)

---

Skills 

• Cooking / Level 6 ↑ LEVEL UP!
• Crafting: Soap Making / Level 4 ↑ LEVEL UP!
• Crafting: Building / Level 1 NEW!
• Stealth / Level 2 
• Archery / Level 2 ↑ LEVEL UP!
• Hunting / Level 3 ↑ LEVEL UP!
• Magic: Fire Element / Level 3
• Elemental Resistance: Fire / Level 1
• Magic: Dark Element / Level 1 
• Elemental Resistance: Dark / Level 1
• Magic: Earth Element / Level 2 ↑ LEVEL UP!
• Elemental Resistance: Earth / Level 1
• Magic: Wind Element / Level 1 
• Elemental Resistance: Wind / Level 1
• Magic: Light Element / Level 3 ↑ LEVEL UP!
• Elemental Resistance: Light / Level 2 ↑ LEVEL UP!
• Magic: Water Element / Level 3 ↑ LEVEL UP!
• Elemental Resistance: Water / Level 2 ↑ LEVEL UP!
• Mana Manipulation / Level 5 ↑ LEVEL UP!
• Mana Perception / Level 4 ↑ LEVEL UP!
• Swordsmanship / Level 3
• Poison Resist / Level 2
• Pain Resist / Level 1
• Enhance Mind / Level 3 NEW! - ↑ LEVEL UP!
• Paralysis Resist / Level 2
• Charm Resist / Level 2

---

That’s another thing… After I turned the rest of the goblin tribe into a popsicle after trapping them in that pit I made with [Chasm], it turns out that I leveled up… Not only once, but several times… 

I am currently at Level 8. My stats have risen much more than I could ever imagine… I have 5.5 times more MP than I had when I was a Level 2, which means I could cast [Chasm] more than thrice and I would only use half of my mana pool! 

I also have enough HP and VIT that I can basically endure even longer and harsher training with my dad. 

My STR stat is enough to make me able to crush a small rock in my hands like it is nothing! And let’s not forget that time yesterday when I fell off the roof and came out unscathed due to my high DEF stat! 

Hell, I can even run around the house in less than a minute if I go at my top speed! Even my memory has gotten better as well… This is obviously due to my INT stat rising almost 20 points.

While this is good and all… Amazing, in fact. There are a few things that have been bothering me…  

First, the new title I got…

“I feel like I’m going to get sued just for having this title…” I muttered as I looked at my status with concern. “Never mind that…” 

Having a title that raises your damage against a certain type of enemy is always convenient. I really need to test it out whenever I have the chance…

The second thing that has been bothering me a bit is a skill I got this week… 

“Enhance Mind… It sounds like something Chris would say when he’s stoned.” I chuckled a bit as I remembered my best friend from a past life. “I haven’t had much time to learn what it does since I have been busy cleaning my mess… I guess now it is the perfect chance.” I muttered nonchalantly.

<Enhance Mind: Skill that reduces the risks of a mental breakdown provoked by stressful situations for the user. With its current level, the user’s stress levels are reduced by 14%.> The artificial voice echoed in my mind as it explained the purpose of the skill.

“I see… I do feel slightly calmer right now, and this week has really been a bit stressful…” I nodded to myself as I painfully remembered having to clean the guts of those goblins…

No wonder this skill got to level 3 so quickly…

Ah. That would be another thing. Several of my skills also leveled up during this last week. Mainly the ones related to magic, especially Mana Manipulation and Mana Perception.

Due to the increase in the level of Mana Perception, now I can see what Elemental Mana actually looks like.

The first time I saw it, Mana looked like a faint blue-colored mist. I genuinely thought that I was looking at the world through the filter of a camera.

Well… The world looks more like a canvas full of color now. If I look at a tree, I see three patches of color that are almost touching but not mixing, those are blue, brown, and yellow/gold. Those colors serve to represent the Elements of Water, Earth, and Light, which absolutely makes sense to me.

If I look at the shadow of that tree, I see purple. That color represents the Element of Darkness. If I use the lumber of that tree and set it ablaze, a powerful orange color will immediately cover the burning wood.

As for the wind element… If I look at the sky, I see it is mostly light green-colored. There's also a lot of yellows, representing the Light Element which must be the light of the sun.

All in all, it is pretty beautiful to be able to see something like this. Though… I somehow have the feeling that there’s something deeper within those colors… As if something else could be done, but I’m missing the bigger picture yet…

I definitely need to ask either Lia or my mom about it soon.

As for the Mana Manipulation…

I immediately stretched my hand and started focusing. Just like blood, my mana traveled through my body, but the pace at which it did simply couldn't be compared…

In less than five seconds, I had 6 small spheres of each element the size of a marble hovering over the palm of my hand. A small ball of fire, a gentle ball of wind, a warm sphere of light, a mysterious orb of darkness, an ordinary pebble, and a drop of water… 

“I haven’t had the time to give it much thought to this either, but using magic is starting to feel almost like second nature now, even though I have barely been learning for a month… I guess being the descendant of a literal God of Magic does have its perks huh...” I muttered as I observed the 6 spheres with interest.

The time I spent learning as Crux doesn’t count since I don’t remember it.

“Ah… That reminds me…” I immediately dismissed the spheres as I recalled my mana into my body, and changed my focus back to my status. “It really is strange… I don’t know if it was intentional or not, but it is really driving me crazy…” I frowned as I couldn’t find what I was looking for.

It is a tiny and unimportant detail that I was probably the only one who would feel annoyed by its absence…

“So the usual stats that appear in every RPG ever are here in this status. Those numbers are supposed to quantify my strength, right? So, why isn't there a Dexterity stat? Or an EXP bar? How will I know how many goblins I need to kill to level up again?” I asked myself those questions with annoyance as I looked at the status…

The part of the God of Magic that became the Status System really messed this up…

I’m not annoyed because I desperately need those things, but rather it is the principle of the matter… If you’re gonna make an RPG system, you need a DEX stat and an EXP bar!

“It is just a pet peeve of mine, but it would be nice if someone were to fix it…” I shrugged as I spoke with a bit of sarcasm.

<Understood. Feedback has been received. Those functions are a suitable addition to the System. These new functions will be implemented in the next bug-fixing update.> The usually artificial and devoid of emotions voice of the system spoke to me with what seemed to be delight…

“Umm… Thank you?” I thanked the system with a little bit of disbelief since I wasn’t expecting the system to actually listen to my rambling.

The voice didn’t give me any reply.

“Well, that was… Odd…” I was confused. 

Why does it listen to my feedback? It can’t be possible that not a single person before me asked for an EXP bar or the DEX stat to be visible… Is it because I am the descendant of the God of Magic that the System listened to my feedback?

Ugh… So many questions without an answer… And I can’t even ask Lia since she’s busy protecting our homeland right now… 

“At least I will be able to know when I'm gonna level up next instead of just hoping for the best.” I simply shrugged again as I decided to ignore the weirdness of the system and the questions I had.

IF we leave all those things behind, things have been pretty decent this week. I haven’t had much time to play with Liliana, Luna, Mia, or Klein since I was busy helping dad fix our house and making the foundations for the house that will belong to Mia’s family. Hence why I got the skill Crafting: Building.

“Aaanh~! Right there! Don’t stop!” A pleasure-filled voice that belonged to a woman came from the second floor…

Ah… Right…

I DO have another thing to complain about… Now don’t get me wrong, but this is seriously starting to make me feel really a tad bit uncomfortable!

For starters, have you ever heard of a person going into heat? Me neither! That’s why it was a complete surprise for me to learn that most subspecies of the Beastfolk can go into heat just like animals.

You are reading story Echoes of Fire and Shadows at novel35.com

I had to do some research about it to inform myself on the topic since my mom didn’t think I was ready to have the talk about the Harpies and the Bees (even though I already know what the whole thing is about and have even done it) and Lia was too busy to tell me about it, so I learned that despite what you might think about them going into heat, they still can have sex whenever they feel like it and get pregnant if they aren’t doing it a safe day just like humans.

The thing about the beastfolk going into heat is that their desire for passionate hugging is amped up to 110% and their chances of making a new family member or even a few also rise exponentially. 

Well, it turns out that this kind of thing is especially intense for the Rabbitfolk, so much so that they cannot even resist their urges… They desperately look for their partner and they don’t stop until… Well, they passionately hug them…

This is the CLEAREST explanation I could formulate since the book I used to inform myself had things like: ‘Do the Glafurlgar’ or ‘Beat the good old Hragenxas’, which I have absolutely no idea of what it means, and quite frankly, I prefer it that way…

“Ooh! Natalie, I love it when you do that!” Harold shouted with delight, followed by some creaking sounds.

As you have just heard, I have been listening to this the entire week every time I went inside my house… My parents gave up their room for Harold and Natalie, while they sleep in the twins’ room. All of us kids are going to temporarily sleep in my room.

Ever since then, they go at it for hours on end until they are satisfied and then come downstairs as if nothing ever happened, only to then go back upstairs thirty minutes later after they have rested for a bit.

I mean, I get it… Couples have sex, and I am no stranger to that as I was a healthy young man in my previous life. But since I am currently a CHILD whose ‘innocence’ should be protected at all costs, I can’t help but feel uncomfortable thanks to my future in-laws…

“Thank the gods I haven’t heard any gagging noises like last night…” I immediately covered my ears as I heard the familiar sounds of a bed creaking.

That was bad, yes. However, it isn't remotely close to the worst things I have heard them do...

“OH, GODS YES!” Natalie yelled with ecstasy… The creaking sounds instantly became more frequent and even more intense.

Yep, that’s more than I can handle right now… I’ll go outside, exercise for a bit and then meditate in order to forget about this whole ordeal.

Leaving my ruined shirt in the bathtub, I quickly started walking towards the door.

“OOOOH! JUST A BIT MORE! KEEP GOING!” Natalie’s screams suddenly became louder, which made me feel a thousand times more uncomfortable than before.

“That’s it… I’m not growing up… Fuck puberty and adulthood, I’ll be a child forever…” I muttered as I tried to run outside as fast as I could, far away from the unbearable screams of my in-laws…

I don’t think I can ever experience the act after this traumatic event… 

Seriously! Mom and Dad sleep in that very same room and they are not as loud as those two! Huh… Now that I think about it, I don’t think I have ever heard them doing the deed…

And now that I think about it, I deeply regret having that realization…

“OH! YEEEES! I'M ABOUT TO…-" Natalie was not going to quiet down any time soon…

I simply couldn’t run away fast enough from them and the sounds made by their lovey-dovey time…

"Soundproofing! I have to soundproof the whole house!" I said to myself as I was running away while covering my ears.

I spent the rest of the afternoon swinging my practice sword and casting magic at the same time to forget what I had just heard. A routine that had become all too familiar for me in the last week…

---

-----Luna’s POV-----

"Focus on the gains! Focus on the gains! Focus on the gains! Focus on the gains!...-" Julius was repeatedly swinging his practice sword at an abnormal speed while chanting to himself.

There were also a few balls of water he had made with magic floating around him. He was using them as targets. He just kept hitting them at random before making even more of those [Waterballs]. 

"What's up with him? Today he seems to be pretty out of it… Do you think he went crazy or something?" Klein tilted his head while looking at Julius.

"I'm not sure, but I hope that’s not the case…" Liliana said with a bit of concern. 

Julius has been pretty absent-minded today. He didn't even realize we had been observing him for a while now. We even tried to call his name a few times but he didn't even listen to us.

He has supposedly been here behind our house practicing for hours.

"I bet it has to do with Mom and Dad! They were being really loud with that thing they do when they close the door." Mia said nonchalantly as she admired him.

Ah… Well, that would make sense… I have no idea what they do upstairs, but they are really loud and they do say a lot of strange things. Because of that, our mom has encouraged us to spend most of our time outside.

Hmm… Julius said he was older in his previous life, so perhaps he knows what Mia’s parents are doing and he’s simply uncomfortable? I mean those strange noises that come at night from their room seem like they were made by a monster and were pretty scary at times…

“SEX IS TEMPORARY, GAINS ARE ETERNAL!” Julius suddenly shouted something completely incoherent.

“He might have gone crazy…” Liliana looked really concerned now.

“You think?” Klein let out a sarcastic chuckle after showing us a smirk.

“I… I will still love him regardless of that…” Mia smiled awkwardly while averting her gaze from Julius.

This is starting to worry me… Maybe I should call mom. She should know what to do to help him.

…

…

…

Or… I could try to comfort him...

That doesn’t sound like a terrible idea.

“Shouldn't you guys call your parents or something? Maybe your dad hit him pretty hard during their morning training and that’s why he’s like this right now.” Klein seemed to be pretty amused.

“That’s not…! Huh… That’s actually pretty likely…” Liliana frowned when she realized that Klein could be right.

“So my Beloved Prince didn’t go crazy? That’s a relief…” Mia let out a big sigh of relief.

While those three were still focused on finding out what was going on with Julius, I simply walked up to him but stopped at a safe distance since he was still mindlessly practicing with his sword.

“Alright…” After a few moments of hesitation, I was able to gather the courage to do what I wanted to do. “[Waterball].” A huge sphere of water hovered above the palm of my hand.

Hmmm… It is funny that when I met Julius, he couldn’t use magic at all nor could he see mana. I still remember his excited attitude when he saw Liliana and I use magic for the first time and even my embarrassing mistake afterward… And now look at him, masterfully creating several [Waterballs] after destroying the ones he created before. He was repeating this process again and again.

“...” I focused my gaze for a moment on the [Waterball] above my hand. It was perfectly calm and stable. There were no signs that it was going to explode like last time.

This is all thanks to him… When he became able to use magic, he practiced whenever he could. Because of that he quickly surpassed my sister and me before we were even able to realize it… But instead of flaunting about it or being cocky like those cruel kids from the capital, he started asking us to practice with him… 

He gave us tips for imagining things and visualizing the spell we wanted to use. And when we couldn’t understand what he was trying to say, he would give us a demonstration.

Thanks to him, I can cast [Grade 2] spells of most elements without much effort and I don’t even struggle to keep maintaining them. I can cast them in just a moment just by thinking about it like it is nothing…

He has done everything in his power to help us to catch up to him, encouraging us, teaching us, and even slowing down his own progress for that purpose…

I don’t think anyone else realizes just how much he does for us either… He wakes up really early in the morning to train with dad and hunts with him after their daily training. When he returns he helps mom to cook, with laundry, set up the table (when we had one), and clean up the house (even though she has never asked him to do that before he was grounded) as well as spending time playing with us and helping us study magic… He has even made things like his soap to improve our lives… 

It is not like Liliana and I don’t have any chores, it is just that Julius does most of them before we even wake up…

But it is not just all that… He has also started helping dad build a house for Mia’s family as well as fixing our own from the damages caused by those goblins…

All of those things always make me think, what if he just didn’t do any of those things? What if he just focused on studying magic and improving himself? By now, he could be easily casting [Grade 5] or [Grade 6] spells with ease…

I can't lie about this, but there have been times where I have felt envious of him despite liking him…

On moments like that, I genuinely wished I was half as talented or brave as he is, or wished that I could come up with things like that soap, or to be just as kind as he is with me...

But, every single time, as soon as those kinds of negative feelings appear, he simply blows them away with that reassuring smile of his… A smile that makes my heart beat faster every time I look at it…

Before Marina appeared, I was comfortable with how things were. It was just Mia, Liliana, Julius, and I, and I truly believed that it would be perfect if things stayed like that... I was slowly opening myself to him and feeling more confident to tell him whatever was on my mind.

However, when she appeared and she started spending more time with us and Julius as well as getting closer with him and saying nonstop that he was her best friend, I started feeling insecure… 

I felt insecure and jealous because of her despite knowing that it was more than likely that she didn't have the same feelings for Julius as I do and simply saw him as a friend.

By the time I realized what had happened, we were already leaving Norvek and Marina had already become my friend as well as my rival…

I'm genuinely grateful to her. Our friendly rivalry made me realize that I didn't want to keep being the same shy girl that hid behind her older sister and parents whenever she was bullied by the older kids when we lived in the capital…

"Julius… Catch!" I shouted as I launched the [Waterball] towards my loved one.

Since his full attention was on his training, he didn't even notice the spell that was about to crash against him.

SPLASH!

The [Waterball] crashed against the back of his head, immediately making him lose his focus on his magic, and thus, the dozens of small [Waterballs] floating around him fell to the ground like rain. Of course, Julius and his clothes were now completely drenched.

"AAAH! COOOLD!" He shouted as he started looking around in a panic.

The moment we made eye contact, I took a quick step forward and wrapped my arms around him as tightly as I could. I was not going to let the opportunity to catch him by surprise go to waste, even if that meant that my clothes would get wet as well. 

"Oh! So bold! I can't believe I didn't even think of that! Good thinking, Luna!" Liliana praised me from afar.

“Aaaand we’re back to normal… Can you guys not become all clingy in front of me?” Klein complained, even though he sounded a bit amused.

“That is simply not possible, mister!” Mia gave a quick refusal to her little brother.

I wasn’t really paying much attention to my sister, Mia, and Klein. I was more interested in the reaction of the one I like.

"Luna…?" He looked at me with an extremely confused look.

"Yes?" I replied while hugging him tightly.

“Umm… For how long have you guys been here…?” Julius asked while sounding extremely mortified. He had finally noticed the other three that were here with us.

"I wonder..." I gave a vague reply. "I-I-I think it was when you started to focus on the gains~." I tried to imitate Liliana's usual teasing tone, but I couldn't get it right since I ended up stuttering a little…

"..." Julius suddenly became silent.

As I pulled back from our hug, I could see that Julius' entire face was painted red. He was blushing from the embarrassment while averting his gaze from mine.

It was such a rare sight to see him blush this much, so simply engraved it into my mind before hugging him once again.

"I think I'm going to open another [Chasm] and bury myself there for the next century…" He muttered to himself, but I was able to hear him clearly.

"Don't be so dramatic. It wasn't that bad~." I tried to comfort him and even managed to nail my sister's teasing tone.

"Ugh… It is… You all are not gonna let me live this one down, I know it..." Julius suddenly hugged me back, as if he was trying to hide from the others.

"There, there." I simply patted his back in order to comfort him as mom does.

I want to become even bolder. I need to change so I can tell him how I feel. 

I don't want to hide ever again behind my parents, my sister or Julius to be protected… I want to be right beside them, especially right beside Julius.

"Thank you." I whispered in his ear.

There were many things I wanted to thank him for… 

I want to thank him for being my brother, for helping me with my magic, for playing with me, for his kindness, for his smile and… For being the person that motivates me the most.

But, I still haven't been able to get rid of my shyness, as I could only whisper those two words...

"Luna, what are you thanking me for?" He said with a mix of confusion and embarrassment.

"Who knows~?" I separated myself from him and smiled at him before walking back towards Liliana, Mia, and Klein.

Julius was left even more confused because of what I did.

From now on, I will do my best to catch up to him when it comes to magic and I'll give my all into becoming as extroverted as my mom and my older sister are. All for the sake of the day when I'm confident enough to tell Julius how I feel about him.

---

Chapter 23: Busy Week and Gratitude.

Act I: Family.

END

 

You can find story with these keywords: Echoes of Fire and Shadows, Read Echoes of Fire and Shadows, Echoes of Fire and Shadows novel, Echoes of Fire and Shadows book, Echoes of Fire and Shadows story, Echoes of Fire and Shadows full, Echoes of Fire and Shadows Latest Chapter