Chapter 42: Act 1: Blue Ocean Pavilion – Chapter 42: The Return of Frederick

"HAHAHAHA!" Oscar held his stomach in uncontrollable laughter. He laughed so hard that tears started coming out.

Frederick's face turned a deep shade of red as if he was on the verge of exploding. He almost cried as he rubbed his hand over the fresh lawn.

"Laugh it up." He grumbled as he put away his things.

"What happened to you? Your letter said you took a mission with Emily. But not getting a new haircut. Hahaha." Oscar was curious about how this mission led to Frederick's current predicament.

Frederick sat down on his bed comfortably and let out his frustrations.

"We took the airship to the city, Osesas, that lied on the outskirts of the Guire Wildlands."

The Guire Wildlands is a diverse land filled with plains and lush jungles. The creatures that live there are all Exalt Beasts.

The weaker beasts linger on the fringes of its borders while the stronger ones are deeper within. The strongest creatures dwell in the center of the wildlands, but very little is known about them due to the dangers of getting there.

"The mission was to hunt blood baboons that typically lie on the Lower to Middle Apprentice Exalt levels. Emily wanted to take another mission, but I don't want to get into that."

Irritation showed on Frederick's face when he recalled the near altercation with other students. He calmed himself down before continuing.

"On the airship, she dragged me everywhere to look at the sights. She was like an excited cat making a mess everywhere that was new. I tell you, handling her is so much work."

Oscar did not say anything. He had a strange look on his face as he listened to Frederick. When did this turn into complaining about Emily? Also, he's talking too much about her.

"Should we move on to the mission?"

"I was getting to that. Once we got off the airship, we went to one of the various inns. The place is a hub of activity for travelers because of its proximity to the wildlands."

Many large cities were gathering points for merchants, other students, and estranged Exalts who didn't belong to any organization. These outcast Exalts were called Wanderers.

"We got to an inn to rest since we arrived at night. To my horror, I had to share a room with her."

Oscar choked a little, pounding his chest to catch his breath.

"Shared a room?!" Oscar was speechless.

"There was only one room available!" Frederick quickly defended his innocence. "There were two beds, so I did not sleep on the floor. That whole night I couldn't sleep in case she tried anything."

"I don't believe Emily will try anything behind your back. She's a straightforward type." Oscar said.

"She acts that way to you. With me, it's like running in circles, moving on. It was a simple trip to the outer jungle area in the eastern region of the Guire Wildlands. Blood Baboons were said to live high in the trees, hidden by the countless leaves."

"We tried luring them with some blood since that's their favorite drink, but these beasts were somewhat intelligent. They watched us from their hiding spots, silently following us. I did not use my bird anima because of the low visibility in the treetops and the possibility of retaliation."

Frederick described further the hot and humid conditions of the jungle that made even Exalts feel the environment turning against them.

"The conditions would be worse the farther we go inside. So, we decided to take a small break. That was the moment those baboons pounced on us. It was a whole barrel of them, numbering six." His face tensed up, recalling the battle they fought.

"Emily let loose her staff and took on four of them while I took on two. She's stronger now and has a weapon, so she was capable of handling it."

"Those blood baboons are known for being berserk. It must have been a tough battle." Oscar scanned Frederick and was relieved to find no serious injuries.

"Thankfully, I was able to maneuver away from their onslaught. They had a long reach with those lanky red arms of theirs."

One of the most distinctive features of the blood baboon and the reason for their name was the bright red fur that wrapped everything from the back of their hands to their elbows as if covered in blood.

"After a long extensive battle, I finally took down two of the baboons and went to help Emily. That was when this happened." Frederick pointed at his shaved head.

"One of the blood baboons lunged to take a bite out of me, but he narrowly missed. However, his teeth clamped hard on my hair and tore off a large chunk of it."

Oscar was glad it wasn't Frederick's head that got torn off. But he also could barely hold in the laughter that the baboon bit Frederick's hair.

Ignoring Oscar's twitching face approaching laughter, Frederick continued.

"Once the baboons were dead and properly harvested, Emily suggested a fix for my hair." Frederick's face fell.

"Don't tell me…."

"...." Frederick palmed his face and said, "She forcefully cut nearly all of it off, leaving me with this thin layer."

"So what happened?"

"I screamed and called her a lunatic and an idiot. She slammed my head, saying she was only trying to help. I called her a bitch. The whole airship ride back was uncomfortable. We just handed in our mission and split right after."

Oscar could tell Frederick was disspirited.

Then an idea popped into his head. Oscar got up to the bathroom and closed the door.

Frederick leaned into his bed.

The next moment, Oscar came out of the bathroom. Frederick's jaw nearly fell to the floor as he was speechless.

"What did you do to your hair?" Frederick exclaimed.

Oscar did not have slightly long hair like Frederick, but he still had a good amount. However, it was all gone. There was only a thin layer of black hair atop his head in the same style as Frederick's.

"Cut it off." Oscar returned to bed. "It'll grow back."

Frederick slowly formed a smile before exploding into laughter.

"Are you an idiot? That prison must have scrambled your brains."

"Says the one who let a baboon bite yours off." Oscar sneered in response before joining the round of laughter.

Once they stopped, Frederick looked at Oscar with a grateful expression.

"Thanks, Os." He knew his friend did it to lift his spirits

"Didn't do it for you. This suits me better than you."

"Kuh, you won't be popular with many girls with that, especially since your face isn't that impressive."

"That is too far of a thought. I'll be patient, and the right person will come by. My Mother always said that there's always someone out there."

All of a sudden, Celestina's beautiful pale face with emerald eyes popped into his mind. Oscar quickly put it out.

'She's a new friend.' He told himself.

"Hmmm?" Frederick noticed something odd and started touching Oscar's arms and legs, making him leap away like a bunny.

"What are you doing?!" Oscar shouted.

"When the hell did you build your body like this? It's rock solid. What happened in prison?" Not noticing Oscar's flustered action, Frederick's asked about the horrifying prison.

However, at that time, the dorm manager pounded on their door.

"Be quiet! It is late at night. Either go outside to talk or shut it! Or else I'll take away contribution points."

Oscar and Frederick apologized and went to sleep.

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"I'll tell you tomorrow."

"Night."

…….

The next morning.

Oscar and Frederick were on their way to the Commune for breakfast. Oscar did not want to talk about his life in prison until he had some food.

The stares from the people along the way made them feel so embarrassed that they wanted to dig a ditch to hide in. They were all bewildered by the pair of lawn-heads passing by.

"Suits you, right?" Frederick attacked while his face twitched from all the stares he was receiving.

"Who do you think I'm doing this for?" Oscar countered with empathy, making Frederick clench his teeth. There was no retort to that.

The two quickly moved to the cafeteria.

Behind them were audible gasps and short yelps of shock. They turned around to see what had happened.

They stared with jaws dropped at Emily, who made her way toward them.

Her short ponytail was nice, but it was gone. Her hair, now, only reached as far down as the back of her head. Each hair was short and unable to be gathered up to tie in a style.

"Morning." Her orange eyes stared daggers straight at them until she noticed Oscar with his shaved black hair. "What the hell did you do?"

"What did you do?" Oscar asked back.

"This is…." Emily turned to Frederick and bowed. "I'm sorry."

Her apology made Frederick feel confused. He never expected to get an apology from her.

"What did you say?" Frederick asked while cleaning his ears.

"I said I'm sorry for rudely cutting your hair like that. So I cut my hair shorter in penance."

Frederick looked at Emily, meeting her orange eyes. They were clear and pure in intent.

"Thank you for the apology, but you didn't need to cut your hair like that. I didn't want you to make a joke of yourself."

"What's the point if I don't feel punished." Emily shook her head, making Frederick feel that this girl was not that wild after all.

"Besides." Her next words would wreck that notion. "I have two stooges that are far worse than me here."

Her pure, clear eyes twisted in amusement at Frederick and Oscar's hair.

"Hey, I thought you were feeling sorry." Frederick's veins popped out on his forehead.

Sensing a fight about to happen, Oscar stepped in and said, "Breakfast first!"

All of them were hungry and so agreed to a truce.

Emily and Frederick were astonished at the amount of food Oscar ate. Once they were done, they left to one of the resting rooms in the Commune with a table and couches.

"Could you feel those stares all around us?" Frederick shivered.

"I didn't feel anything." Emily said cooly.

"That's because they all started staring at Os and me with hostility."

Emily's admirers thought Frederick and Oscar were dragging her into weird antics and let out their hatred towards the two. How dare they corrupt their lioness?

"Oscar, what happened in prison?" She ignored Frederick's complaints and focused on Oscar. Frederick also stopped and glanced at Oscar to listen.

"After they dragged me out of that court…."

Oscar explained meeting with the warden, fighting in the cells, digging in the pits, and training. Frederick and Emily expressed worry, shock, excitement, and curiosity while listening to Oscar's tale.

"That's the end of that."

"So this 'Awaken'. Can we learn it?" Frederick was interested in the prospect of meditating while moving.

"It was a grueling process. I can try to help you understand and get started. But as I mentioned earlier, Master had to try to kill me for me to learn it properly."

"That ataerstone is interesting as well. It cleans and purifies the Ein for you to store or absorb?" Emily's eyes shined with desire.

"I'm going to try it out later in my room. I can't risk anyone else knowing about it. It's a secret of the Abyss Prison, after all."

"That means we can't carelessly let it slip out either." Frederick warned Oscar.

"Oscar. I want to try experiencing this 'Flowing Mountain'. Let's go to a training room."

At Emily's suggestion, They reserved a training room.

Oscar removed his weights to fight Emily at his best.

Emily stared at Oscar with a fierce expression. Whatever technique he learned from the Warden was sure to be effective. Her lips lifted in a warrior's smile. She was eager to fight.

"Begin!" Frederick signaled for the start of the spar.

Emily bolted straight to Oscar and let out a fierce punch wrapped in orange Ein.

Oscar put up his guard and blocked the blow.

'Reis Awaken'

He saw the Reis coming in from Emily's fist, trying to break through his guard. His Ein was stopping Emily's orange Ein from wrecking his arm.

With the Ein clashing and holding each other back, Oscar flowed the Reis to his free hand and swung at Emily. This was the first time he used the 'Flowing Mountain' with a fist strengthened in Ein.

Emily blocked the punch but was forced back several meters. Her face was serious, and her arm was slightly trembling.

Being a more powerful Exalt also meant the body would also strengthen, and the Ein was a stronger supplement. But Oscar's physical power was beyond a Lower Apprentice Exalt's.

"All that physical training can do this?" She was amazed that an Exalt training their body could have this much effect.

Frederick was equally shocked.

"That attack had everything I could do, yet you were only blown back that much?" The protection of Ein and the physical abilities of a Middle Apprentice Exalt was astounding.

"I still felt it in my arm, and you're a Lower Apprentice Exalt. Imagine the power when you advance. But you are right to be wary. Although this may increase your physical power, it won't help you against Ein that overpowers you."

Emily's analysis was correct. Oscar could fight with Reis, but Exalts were primarily a battle of Ein. All this could provide was that advantage against opponents at his level.

"Again!"

Oscar waited for the next round.

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