Chapter 59. Magic at the hot springs ( III )
The ball of water morphed, compressing into the crude outline of a rose, but before it could complete its transformation...
Splash!!
It burst, falling into the water below.
"Ahh..." Kai wailed, her head hanging in defeat.
She turned to Alaric, tears glistening in her eyes. "I can’t do it..."
"She gave up..." Alaric couldn’t help but chuckle.
He walked closer, squatting beside her. "Let me show you how it’s done..." He looked at the water intently, his eyes glowing a subtle hue.
The mana threads became visible.
Just like he had seen Kai do it, he tried to weave the threads into a small blanket, attempting to scoop a ball of water from the mass.
The threads sank into the water, yet nothing happened.
"Am I missing something..." He tried again. The threads submerged into the pool, re-emerging without a single drop in them.
"Nothing is happening..." Kai said from the side, her head tilted.
With how confident he had been, it looked embarrassing from any point of view, as he squatted like someone doing number two, yet couldn’t do what was right in front of him.
"See..." He laughed nervously as he once again pulled a misty flower from the white vastness above above.
"No, you said you would show me how to do it with water." Kai’s lips pressed into a thin line, unimpressed.
"Hahaha... Why should I? I can do it with vapor..." Alaric tried to act tough, though internally he felt embarrassed.
He thought he had completely gotten the hang of water control after watching how Kai moved it, even understanding why her flower construct didn’t hold.
Yet when he tried it himself, as he had observed, the water refused to obey.
"...I don’t like you..." Kai crossed her arms, her cheeks puffed in rage, Alaric smiling internally at how cute she was.
"Don’t be like that. Try again, I will help you make it..." He poked her puffed cheeks.
"Arghh... It’s hot!" Lilly screamed from the other side, the two children sharply turning their heads in her direction.
Lilly jumped out of the hot springs, steam rising from the pool faster than it climbed the spiral elevator.
"Mommy, are you okay?" Kai ran to her mother’s side.
"Sigh..." Alaric sighed, already aware of what could have caused this.
He looked in Raika’s direction, the latter’s nostrils literally fuming in jealousy.
She had noticed Alaric poking the little girl, her rage suddenly spiking the temperature of the hot springs.
"...I have to deal with this nature of hers later..." He made a mental note before stepping into the now almost boiling hot springs.
"Why the long face, Mother?" he asked courteously, blue eyes staring at Raika with innocence.
"It’s nothing..." Raika puffed her cheeks.
Alaric understood what she wanted.
"These types of women are always difficult, but she is my mother in this world..." He poked her cheeks, Raika smiling despite her supposed rage.
"The water is too hot for Kai’s mother. Can you rein in your mana..." Alaric pointed out.
Raika’s eyes widened in surprise. She hadn’t noticed it.
"Sorry, lass..." She reined in her mana, the temperature dropping to a bearable degree.
Lilly, with a pained expression, smiled awkwardly.
"Why don’t you head back first? Ask Philip for an ointment..." Alaric noticed her reddened thighs.
"Kai, take care of your mother..."
Kai nodded as she and Lilly left the hot springs, leaving behind a guilty Raika and an exasperated Alaric.
He shook his head before swimming to the other side of the pool. Raika’s eyes widened as she looked at her son’s depressed back.
"He wanted to play, and I ruined it..." Understanding dawned in her eyes.
She hadn’t really paid attention to her obsession. Not that she realized it fully now, but she felt she might have overreacted.
"He isn’t old enough for that. I shouldn’t assume..." She made a mental note not to overreact, something she would have to remind herself of over and over again in the days to come.
She moved toward Alaric, who sat by the corner, playing with a misty construct of a toy she couldn’t recognize.
A sniper rifle.
"What is that?" she inquired.
"I was just making toys since I have no one to play with..."
"But I am here. We can play..." Lightning crackled as a crude, almost unrecognizable sniper rifle formed from lightning.
If not for its outline, one might have mistaken it for modern art, crude and chaotic.
"Even lightning can be shaped like this..." He looked at the crude sniper rifle, impressed by Raika’s control over the element.
From the little he had learned and what Raika had told him,
he knew this was a Third Resonance spell, shaping the element to your will, even if it didn’t naturally do so.
"Then how come I can do it... Is it because I am a Champion of Water?" he wondered aloud.
"Can do what?" Raika tilted her head in confusion.
"I mean, I am First Resonance, so how come I can move the element as I do when it’s supposed to be a Third Resonance skill?" he asked.
"Oh... Resonances are just the nodes in our spines." Raika pointed to her back.
"Your affinity for the element and your comprehension determine your Resonance level, not your mastery..."
"You are the son of the Thunder Princess and Hell Flame. Though you are only First Resonance, your mastery might confuse others into thinking you’re Third Resonance, which means when you reach Third Resonance, your mastery will surely be mistaken for Fourth or even Fifth. You shouldn’t think too much about it. That is the perk of being my son..."
Alaric nodded in understanding, ignoring the final comment.
"I guess I am somewhat special..." he concluded, though it had been evident since his birth and from single-handedly evaporating a lake.
He had seen all of that but needed further evidence to conclude. This was his first time in the human kingdom, after all.
"Stay close..." Raika whispered, her glowing red-golden eyes looking ahead at the gate.
From her senses, she could feel hostility, killing intent, though well hidden.
But her brows furrowed in confusion. It wasn’t aimed at Alaric or her.