Shades of the New World

Chapter 145: The End of the Observation.

Arza walked up and opened the door. In front of him stood a tall man with an icy gaze. 

"You are Arza, right?" the man asked.

"Yes, who might you be?" 

"Lady Deminte wishes to meet you. Please follow me," the man declared in a no-nonsense way. Something about his tone implied that he wouldn't take no for an answer.

The three kids inside, gasped in surprise, as Evin's guess became the truth. But they didn't dare say anything out loud, as they could guess from how Evin was acting that this was supposed to be a secret. 

"Then please give me a second," Arza replied and had the other three go out of his room. Right before he was about to close the door and lock it up, the man suddenly stopped him and leaned down to the ground. His eyes scanned the underside of the bed. But then seemingly not finding anything, he got up like nothing happened and let Arza lock the door. Bardom and Koya looked slightly surprised, with only Rantz looking a bit worried.

Evin, on the other hand, didn't dare look at the man from his shadows. He heard the room get locked and the footsteps fading away. 

"Finally, I can go back and sleep," Evin murmured blissfully and prepared to slide through under the door and leave.

"You should probably have me portal you out. The man put down a trap near the doorway. Oh and also, don't get out of your shadow," Rith reminded. 

"Really? Okay, just get me to my bed," Evin said and a second later, he appeared inside his own room in the form of a shadow and plopped out with Rith.

"Finally finished" Evin said and sprawled on the bed. 

"But it was very worth it. And you should probably get used to working like this, since a lot of times, mages would have to go through phases like these to become stronger," Rith comforted him from the side.

"Are you sure I will be able to change skills from my gestures? I don't want to be left with this move-set forever, you know?" Evin asked warily. The reason he trained his mind to cast so many spells without really caring for the overall quality of the spells, was because Rith told him that it could be changed in the future. Evin really didn't wish to be stuck with weak spells on his code words.

"It's a bit difficult for some, but it should be pretty easy for you. The reason being that most mages usually practice gestures similarly to how you practiced it at first. Just endlessly practicing, until it works. But after that, they can almost never change it. But you have a certain amount of control over it, since, as you've explained yourself, you can spectate how your subconsciousness constructs these spells and you can affect them to some degree. You don't know how hard that is usually," Rith explained with some pride. 

"Well, if you say so," Evin chuckled and his eyes fluttered slightly, before he went to dreamland.

After properly covering the boy with his blanket, Rith got comfortable and entered the World of Space. Inside it, Abvelgail was waiting for his sister with a piece of paper floating in front of him.

"Is it finally approved?" Rith asked, eyeing the piece of paper with some anticipation.

"Yes. I believe they would have a difficult time refusing, since you've been so passionately positive in your report," chuckled Abe. 

"Who will be the instructor?" Rith asked without hiding her emotions. 

"The task will fall into your hands" Abe said slowly. Rith was overjoyed, but her brother wasn't finished: 

"But remember, after you are finished with the instruction, you will not be allowed to linger near the boy any longer, as per the rules of our Group. Sure they can permit you to become his contracted Cosmic, but I don't think our father will be so happy to see you spending time with the boy for so long," Abe reminded with a worried face.

"You think I'm so desperate to fall for a human male?"

"It has happened before, no?" Abe retorted sarcastically.

"Urgh, don't remind me of my shameful past. Anyway, don't bother worrying. I will teach him all I can and that'll be the end of it. But I won't say that I won't keep in touch with him afterwards. Just don't try to meddle between us. My stubborn bones might take over and I might do something unsavory," Rith said half-jokingly.

"See, I understand that you would do something stupid if people kept prodding you continuously, but others might not. So at least keep a neutral front when you're dealing with other Cosmics," Abe reminded and gave Rith the floating piece of paper alongside a Storage Ring, which contained some necessary materials for Evin.

Rith glanced through the contents and found that most of the things that she had to teach Evin were the typical stuff. But there was one thing that caught her attention.

"These are the resources and spells for a separate dimension, no? But it's heavily leaning into the Dark World, instead of the usual World of Thoughts What's this about?" Rith asked.

"Oh, think of it as a little promotion gift from me. Heard you loved to live in Evin's shadow, so we decided to give you some renovation methods," Abe said with a shrug.

"Promotion gift? Did I get promoted?" Rith asked confusedly.

"You still act like my silly little sister sometimes," Abe laughed and the white stars on his body slowly turned bright blue.

"You're a lesser-imposer now!" Rith exclaimed with shock and pride.

"You're catching up pretty fast yourself, aren't you? I heard you asked about buying a complete World Core from the headquarters a few days ago. What color do your stars look like now?" Abe asked.

"They're almost white. And yes, I've been thinking about it But they're still a bit too expensive for me," Rith smiled bashfully and replied honestly.

"If you want I can lend you some money for it," Abe offered with a sly smile.

"You think me stupid? I almost got kicked out of the Group trying to pay back one debt I owed you. You're worse than most land-sharks," Rith refused instantly and shuddered a bit, thinking of the memories of that time.

"Ha-ha-ha, well, if you don't have anything else, I'll be on my way. Have fun with your student," Abe said and started working on a portal.

"Wait, there must be something else, right?" Rith asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Don't play dumb, there's no way father would allow you to casually gift a Mana Complex to a random boy, as gift nonetheless," Rith said skeptically.

"Hmm, well, I suppose it's difficult to hide this from you. We did talk extensively about Evin and our family's situation. Although father might look neutral in how he deals with Evin, it's quite obvious he wants to prod him a bit and see what it brings," Abvelgail explained.

"I don't really feel like Evin's someone interested in money. As long as he feels that he has enough, he'd most likely stay passive..." Rith said and thought a bit.

"You're getting a bit slow on the uptake, huh? The Rith from 40 years ago would've seen through father's plan two minutes ago," Abe joked and gave a hint: "Think about how much money and effort goes into maintaining an entire dimension."

Rith immediately noticed the bait.

"Sure he makes a lot of money, but it would never be enough to support a dimension... which would force him to consider selling another idea to us..."

"See? Your brain juice is still working fine," Abe smiled and flew out into the portal he was making.

"Evin's going to get busy again Ah, shit, I have to eventually bring him to see the old man as well," Rith muttered under her breath and exited the World.