Chapter 18: 18. “It’s not your business, big one.”

"Arima, can I ask you about what happened with my sister?" While guiding Arima and Night through the town, Lifa asked.

 

"Mh? Oh, the emotion thing? What's wrong?"

 

"Actually, I also feel like her… I find it hard to believe that someone can control his emotions to that degree so easily."

 

Arima sighed. "As I said, it's not like I have perfect control over them, there's a lot of people like that from where I come from. I'm sure they can do the same... probably. Anyway, I only can keep controlling my emotions when they are of low magnitude. For instance, I once lost control to rage in the past."

 

"I see…" Lifa nodded.

 

"More importantly, who’s that person who keeps the metals?" Arima asked afterward.

 

Lifa didn't answer for a moment. "Hm, I think you can only understand that when you meet him but that person is the reason why we have that much special metals."

 

"Why?"

 

"Because it's him who refines and mines most of them. I think you already know, but to create mithril we need to refine a certain ore called 'mestil' with magic. For adamantite, physical ability is needed and there's no one more fit than him."

 

"That's impressive."

 

At that moment, a group of four young elves approached. They were Layra and the children from before. The three kids ran toward Arima with cheerful expressions.

 

"Big brother!" They shouted and jumped on Arima. Night backed away when he saw them though.

 

"Layra, why are you here?" Lifa asked surprised.

 

"The children wanted to thank the person who saved them, so when I learned that you were here, I brought them," she said and smiled. “I’m sorry if I bothered you.”

 

"There’s no problem…” Arima muttered. “Yeah, yeah, it's me. Can you stop clinging to me though?" He was trying to get the kids off him as they were clinging to him. Night looked at that with a bit of discomfort.

 

"{As I thought, I can't stand kids,}" Night said to Arima with telepathy.

 

"{Don't worry, me too.}"

 

When the three finally got off, Arima and Night stopped talking. "Flying on those birds was fun!" But they were still excited and talked to Arima about the griffins.

 

‘Birds? You're calling griffins… birds?’ He retorted in his mind but then thought of something.

 

"Hey, kids do you want to see those birds one more time and keep them?" He asked them while smiling brightly.

 

The three looked at each other and repeatedly nodded. Arima grinned. He waved his hand and three strange magic circles formed in front of each kid. "[Anima Nexum] (Soul Connection)." A ray of light flew from the circles to the chest of the children.

 

"[Tribus Bestia Gryphem]."

 

This time, from each circle, a griffin was formed. They were smaller than the ones before and they were around the size of Night in his wolf form.

 

The griffins remained immobile with their eyes closed when they appeared. People gathered around to watch but stayed away because of Arima while the guards who were already there didn't do anything thanks to Lifa.

 

"Okay, kids, put your hands on their heads, it might sting a bit," Arima said and the elves nodded. They did as they were told and felt a small pain, like a needle touching their palm. When they took back their hands, there was a small red dot on their palm.

 

Then, the griffins opened their eyes, which seemed to possess some intelligence. The three beasts looked around then walked to their respective ‘owner’ and laid down in front of them.

 

"They are a special type of summoned beasts that I created when I analyzed the soul-summoning circle. I create the body with my magic then I provided the mana as I connected your souls, spirits and mana pools to them. Finally, I took your blood to link your physical bodies. It's basically a weaker soul beast. They're intelligent and will stay with you for your entire life," Arima explained.

 

Lifa was shocked and Night groaned.

 

"I feel like I just witnessed something that shouldn’t be performed by a human… no, by any living being," the former said trembling.

 

Night looked at her and blinked. "Don't worry, happens all the time."

 

"I’m not sure it makes me feel better."

 

Night blinked twice. "Don't worry, it happens all the time too."

 

Lifa fell silent.

 

After that, Arima separated from the kids and Lifa suddenly asked him to do the same thing with the cat that was still on her shoulder. He couldn't help it so he complied. She seemed to like cute animals.

 

"Arima, do you like children?" Lifa asked him while walking.

 

Arima laughed. "Not really. I’m not comfortable with them. You just have to look at Night, he is the embodiment of what I really think. And it's totally exposed."

 

Night frowned. "Don't say it like I don't know how to lie."

 

Lifa was surprised though. "Then why are you so nice to them?"

 

"When you grow old, the persons you come to be the most conscious of are children. Being kind to them is so important because they know what they became, and they know what they could have become if they had experienced a happy childhood… I met a lot of people like that. I met so many retired veterans who abandoned everything to help or stay with their grandchildren, and sometimes, their adopted ones."

 

"I see…" Lifa nodded seriously but suddenly realized something. "Old?" She rolled her eyes to look at Arima.

 

"I didn't tell you? I'm 134 years old. I’m older than you.”

 

Lifa stopped walking and was left behind. "…What?"

 

***

 

Arima took some time to convince Lifa and an hour later of walking, they arrived at a large lake in the forest, at the north of the elven town. From there, the distance to the Empire's frontier was not that big.

 

Lifa approached the lake. "Master Jorga!" She shouted.

 

Arima was perplexed and surprised. When he wanted to ask what she was doing, he backed away from the lake in pure instinct. The ground shook a bit, ripples appeared on the surface of the lake, and the they soon became waves until a huge pillar of water was created by a figure emerging from underwater.

 

When the water calmed down, a huge gray sea-serpent-like creature had his head and neck out of the water. That serpent had a five meters large body, his head was the size of a small truck. His body out of the water was at least ten meters long. His sharp azure eyes observed Lifa, Night, and Arima.

 

"Lifa, huh?" He said in a deep voice that resonated in the ears of those who listened. His voice carried a massive pressure.

 

Arima gaped at the serpent and turned toward Lifa. "When you talked about a 'person', you were referring to this?"

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She smiled. "Yes."

 

"What 'yes'?! The way you were talking about him didn’t help me at all to prepare myself for that! Why couldn’t you just say that it was a savant beast, or simply a freaking giant sea snake!?" He snapped at her.

 

Jorga frowned, he glared at Arima for a moment. "You… are human, right?" He inquired as if he was trying to confirm something.

 

"Obviously," Arima rubbed his temples, ignoring the giggling Lifa, and exchanged gazes with the huge beast.

 

‘Odd… I can't measure his soul,’ Jorga inwardly thought. He looked toward Lifa for an explanation. Arima also wanted to know who this serpent was.

 

"Master Jorga, this is Arimane Blade. A lot happened but he is now a collaborator of our country and he requested for mithril and adamantite. So, my sister told me to bring him here. And, Arima, this is Master Jorga. He has been the guardian of this forest for almost a thousand years now."

 

"I see," they both nodded at the same time after the introductions and locked their sights on each other.

 

"Hey, little one, why do you want those metals?"

 

A vein bulged on Arima's forehead. "It's not your business, big one. Just give it to me," he emphasized the word 'big' for some reason.

 

Jorga's eye twitched, he smirked unnaturally. "Yes, you're right. But I just can't give it to you like that, you can only try to persuade me."

 

Arima grinned. "Indeed, I suppose it's all I can do.”

 

Night watched from the sidelines along with the restless Lifa.

 

"Wa-wait, don't fight," she said in an attempt to stop them.

 

Night observed with an indifferent face as always. "The atmosphere is tense," he commented. "So much, that it looks like they're producing sparks," he added and continued watching. Then, slowly and gradually, his expression sunk.

 

"Wait! That's real sparks! What the hell are you doing!?"

 

Arima and Jorga both released their aura and clashed the other side's. Sparks was only the beginning. The land between them was crushed by the pressure and the one around them was razed and dug. It didn't stop there. The wind blew in an extremely strong way and the water of the lake became chaotic.

 

A strange fact, there was only one place which wasn't affected by the things happening here.

 

"Eh?" It was Lifa, she seemed to be protected by both Arima and Jorga.

 

"Hey!!" Meanwhile, Night was trying his best to hold his ground. His claws were firmly planted on the ground. "Why are you protecting her and not me!?" He shouted. He looked around and rushed behind Lifa to protect himself. He laid on the ground shamelessly. Even the cat on Lifa's shoulder pointed his paw at Night as if it was mocking him and meowed.

 

"Shut up, shitty cat."

 

At that moment, Lifa looked at the sky and gasped. The clouds were gathering in the sky above them. On Jorga's side, the clouds were gray and very dense and on Arima's side, the clouds were black which meant that they were thunderclouds.

 

"Hey, hey. Those two are releasing their aura with their attributes in them," Night remarked. "They're trying too hard."

 

"…" Lifa was just gawking. She knew that Jorga was strong but although she knew it, she never saw it and then there was Arima, a human she had met by coincidence, who possessed a strength that she couldn't even imagine. In the end, her thought process bugged.

 

"This girl lost it," Night glanced at her and turned back toward the two and his expression changed once again. "How far are they going to go?"

 

Thunder was already rumbling and lightning was connecting the clouds together while on the other side, it started raining and a tornado was forming in the distance. If the two clashed now, the forest would be destroyed within at least a fifty-kilometers radius.

 

Of course, something like that couldn't pass unseen. Everyone in the Alliance saw the gathering of clouds of different nature. Especially the rulers of the Free City and the Elven town, which were the closest.

 

They wanted to rush to the source the moment they sensed something but when they realized that one of the auras was Jorga's, they cast the idea away because they knew that they couldn't win against someone at the same level as the forest guardian. It wasn't only limited to the Alliance, the strongest individuals in other countries also felt it.

 

After a few minutes of intense clash, the two auras receded and vanished. The clouds dispersed and the weather reverted to normal. A part of the land near the lake was totally messed up but Arima and Jorga were laughing in the middle of it.

 

"You're pretty good," Arima remarked.

 

"You too, human. Let me introduce myself, I'm Jorga Manda. Descendant of Jormungand."

 

"Jormungand? The World Serpent?" Arima was surprised this time.

 

"Yes. When I was born in this forest, thousands of years ago, I received the blessing of Jormungand.”

 

"I see…" Arima squinted his eyes. ‘Are some of the legends of this world the same as in my own?’ He thought. ‘Or perhaps even real?’ He frowned at that thought.

 

"What is this…? Am I missing something?" Lifa was confused.

 

"Maybe that's what you can call respect between warriors. If you can call a giant serpent a warrior of course," Night said, full of satire.

 

"I see. Yes. I got it," Lifa smiled as if she had unraveled a great mystery.

 

"Huh? Got it? Got what? You can't understand something you shouldn't be able to, you know? I only saw that they were on the verge of killing each other. Hey, you hear me?"

 

Lifa stopped listening and was lost in thought.

 

"You wanted mithril and adamantite, right?” Jorga said. “How much do you want? Usually I make the elves do something for me or make them pay for it, but I'll give it to you for free."

 

"Thank you, but I won't take it for free. What about this? You can ask me any favor."

 

"Oh, that's more than enough. Having someone like you behind me is already an unfair trade. You’re still a bit on the weaker side but I’m sure you’ll become a powerhouse in no time. I certainly won't hesitate to accept your offer," the huge snake smirked.

 

Arima smiled. "That's good then. I'd want two units of mithril and one of adamantite."

 

In this world, one unit of a liquid or a metal was more or less equivalent to a cubic meter.

 

"That much?" Jorga was surprised but still lifted three spherical rocks from underwater. "I suppose you know, but the silver ones are mithril and the dark blue one is adamantite."

 

Arima immediately put the three rocks inside his storage. "Thanks, I'll be sure to come back soon," he said and left after he gave Jorga a telepathic link for him to ask his favor whenever he wants.

 

"Lifa, can you find me a smithy?" Arima asked once they were back in front of the city.

 

"A smithy? I don't think you'll find a good one here. You'll have to go to Free City. But why do you want one?"

 

"For the first thing I thought of when I saw the characteristics of these two metals," Arima smirked. "It's time to go back to the good old weapons."

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