Shades of the New World

Chapter 235: Aran

An hour and a half later, Evin finally finished naming all the World Sprites. Although it was a bit disappointing that none of them showed any serious change in their behavior, Evin was still pretty happy with the fact that he was finally finished with this task.

He then left his shadow and glanced at the sleeping Sasha. 

'Although I trust Lady Veidra's skills, I would be lying if I say I wasn't worried,' Evin thought and gazed through Sasha's soul with his eagle vision, wondering if there was something to be found there.

Unfortunately for him, nothing out of the ordinary could be found in the state of Sasha's soul, so he could only give up and wait patiently, casually playing around with some illusions he learned from the book he'd gifted to Bella.

But, as he was waiting, he heard his father calling out his name from somewhere in the house. Sighing, he got up to see what the fuss was.

He soon saw a familiar mage sitting in the living room with Theor and Lora, waving at Evin with a wry smile.

"Look who's come. Didn't he also grow big like your boy? Though I guess he can't compare to the red-hair's growth!" Theor laughed loudly.

"Oh hi, Aran," Evin greeted and walked over to shake the man's hand.

The latter seemed to be a bit taken aback with the casual greeting, but replied accordingly nonetheless.

"Hello, Evin. How are you enjoying your holidays?"

"Pretty good. I'm actually managing to finish a lot of stuff, though," Evin said casually.

"Umm, sorry for this, but could you two leave us alone for a while? Mage business," Aran asked Evin's parents.

Theor seemed a bit unhappy, but with Lora's prodding, he left the room. Aran cast a spell to keep the sound from leaking and offered Evin to sit.

"When have you come back?"

"This morning."

"Nice to see you haven't run into any accidents on the South again," Evin commented, noticing that there weren't any more scars to be found on the man's body, at least nothing out in the open. The man's psyche also seemed unaffected, with his calm attitude oozing out a certain aura of stability and control.

'Weird how I feel like Aran's never the one to feel surprised by most things,' Evin thought idly.

"It might come as a surprise to some, but you learnt how to best survive in the south after a few months of fighting there," Aran replied sardonically.

"Now that you mention it, you're finally finished with your due diligence to the Kingdom, huh?" Evin asked.

"Oh, definitely. I'm even thinking of stilting my studies on magic for the next few years, so I don't accidentally discover something new."

"Just give whatever it is to the kingdom, I'm sure it's not worth spending the rest of your days fighting an endless war," Evin said casually.

"I guess it depends on what I discover through my efforts" Aran sighed and chuckled lightly: "But enough about me. How come I come to my house and find out that my son had become 4 years older in only half a year?"

Evin pulled out the Time Bomb from his Storage Ring and showed it to Aran.

"An accident happened and we fell under the effects of Time Energy. We both got a couple extra years of growth, which should be about my size for normal kids, but supposedly your child was destined to grow bigger than most others," Evin explained calmly.

"Is that so Well, I suppose it's not that shocking to see an actual Time Bomb, considering that you both have stronger mana-cores than me," Aran smiled wryly. 

"Hey, you yourself told me to take care of your child's growth. Don't complain after I do a good job of it. Tsk, so ungrateful," Evin tsked with a mocking smile.

"Hehe, I was under the impression that you weren't so happy to accept the task of guiding Arza. It's just a bit surprising to see such drastic effects in such a short time."

"It is a small matter for one of such greatness such as I. If you have any more requests or wished, perhaps I'll be willing to grant it for you," Evin said in a smug tone.

"I'd rather keep the surprises to a minimum. It's bad for my heart to worry about sudden consequences," Aran said meaningfully.

'Worry about consequences? Does he think there are strings attached to Arza's powerup?' 

"You don't have to worry about any future problems. As far as I know, there aren't any written obligations that Arza has to follow through. He should have a World Contract regarding that, which you could read through... Though, I wouldn't be surprised if he felt obliged to help his master back," Evin explained in a serious tone.

"Is that so? Then I'll make sure to check that out," Aran said thoughtfully.

"And also, there's also a metal skinshifter named Karan with Arza. If you're still worried, you can strike a conversation with him. He should know much more about the boy than me," Evin reminded, shocking Aran once more. He decided not to mention Karan's whereabouts when he first found him, but since the skinshifter fell into Arza's hands, Evin felt it proper to remind Aran about the fact.

"Seriously, you and your surprises" Aran sighed lightly, before asking again: "Also, there are these occasional pink lighting flashes that spark on his body now, is that normal? As far as I know, none of the Life mages I know do that."

"Oh, those started appearing due to a fairly recent event Though, I'm not sure if I'm allowed to speak of it. Did you ask Arza himself?"

"I did, but he didn't seem willing to talk about it, so I could only ask you."

"Well, if he's not willing, then I'm probably not allowed to talk about it as well. Though, rest assured that it's a good thing for Arza," Evin reassured the man.

Aran seemed a bit unconvinced, but since he knew that there were few things he could do about it, accepted the explanation without issue.

Finished with the exchange of information, Evin and Aran invited Theor and Lora into the room again, and they started to catch up. 

Evin excused himself soon after and went upstairs to stand guard near Sasha. But, when he entered the room, he noticed that the girl was already up, idly reading the piece of paper he left for her.