Chapter 114: Flirting went wrong…
But in a way, Axel’s lack of talent in the forging procedure was perhaps normal, since mage branch aspect holders weren’t supposed to be talented in that part of the weapon-making process in the first place. Suddenly, an idea popped into his head: what if he activated his 2nd aspect, then did the forging? It should be feasible, right?
Considering the bloodthirsty nature of the demons, while that aspect is active, a surge of talent should overflow in him. But that was but fool’s dream. It was like the monkey who wanted to hold the moon in its hand, beyond foolish.
How could you activate your second aspect while being in the first aspect chamber? It’s like inviting a robber into your home while knowing he will rob you. Of course, he wouldn’t be able to do it.
He had his hand on his forehead, how could he be so damn fucking stupid to even entertain such a shitty idea, of course that wouldn’t fucking work. With some visible anger on his face, which was clearly directed at himself. He started melting the sword he had now made. A faulty sword could be melted a few times to try and make it again from scratch. But that could only be tried a few times, because after a certain point, the material loses its quality components. Becomes unusable for any more tries.
Again a faulty product appeared as he took out the sword from the casting mold, but he pretty much expected it, it least this was slightly better than the last one, so he started hammering it again, after he was done hammering, he inspected it, the results were better than his last try, but it would still be labeled as a failure. Again melted this sword for another try.
There were again some small improvements, but overall, a failure. But he was so very used to failure, there was no need for expectation, no need for disappointment. No need for cursing, no need to be excited. Only effort mattered, that he would keep trying non-stop, Axel refused to believe he couldn’t do it. More and more materials were being wasted, countless tries passed, until he finally succeeded. Well, it could be said as a barely ok sword. But it was something acceptable nonetheless.
But Axel didn’t feel happy on that note, not for the fact that it wasn’t good enough, but rather that there was no need to; it was only normal to eventually succeed when you keep trying non-stop.
But Axel did not start engraving on that immediately; rather started forging another sword. He wouldn’t start engraving unless, on every forging try, there was a bare minimum amount of success. Thus, day after day, his forging continued without stop; he would only go to his mandatory classes in the first half of the day, then dive into the forging again.
Lumina seems to be keeping some distance from him for a few days, she didn’t exactly avoid him, or stop talking with him but it was as if she put some kind of invisible barrier between them, he didn’t say anything to her for first few days about it, thinking things would return to normal eventually, after all it was but a joke on his part. He didn’t know she would take it so seriously. Despite his focus on constant forging.
When things remained somewhat stiff between them even after 3 days after that day, he eventually decided to confront her about it.
“Hey, Lumina. I think we should talk,” stated Axel softly so that no one else would listen.
She looked towards him hesitantly, and seeing his serious expression, she looked and said in a whisper, “What if I don’t want to?”
Axel frowned, hearing that, “Hey? What do you mean?”
But she did not answer him anymore, yet she still obliged him when the class was over, they went towards a quiet section and sat together, seeing the usual cheerful and bright Lumina be so very quiet felt almost wrong, as he initiated the conversation after some obvious internal deliberation on his part.
“So, you’re gonna tell me what’s wrong?”
She pursed her lips and eventually said flatly, “Nothing is wrong, why would anything be wrong?”
Axel said with annoyance, “Lumina, we both know what’s wrong, just say it aloud, I don’t game, you don’t expect me to be a mind reader or something, do you?”
She turned towards him with a frown and said, “You’re the one who started it?”
There was a moment of pause between and then..
“Don’t tell me, you actually like me or something?” That’s it, he finally said the words he didn’t want to, but the conversation was going literally nowhere at this pace.
She gritted her teeth and stood up. She glared at him hatefully, but it almost seemed like she was about to cry. She started punching him out of spite, but it felt like cotton was hitting him instead of an actual human. But he still made the gesture of defending himself. He shouted towards her desperately,
“Hey, hey, stop damn it, you’re hurting me. Stop it, you fool. Just stop, okay, okay sorry, sorry..”
Her punches slowed down with each try, and then she eventually stopped. She broke down into tears that fell from her eyes. Axel had a bitter expression on his face, seeing that he immediately went forward and hugged her into his embrace softly. She also held onto him and cried. Axel couldn’t make heads or tails of what was happening; thankfully, they were in a pretty isolated area, otherwise who knew what kind of rumor would spread.
Using his senses, there shouldn’t be anyone in the vicinity. His attention turned back towards the princess who was crying in his arms. he stroked her head to calm her down, but she kept crying on him, like a baby. As much as he internally did not care much about her, it also felt bad for him to see her cry like that. It seems what he did was a bad idea, and a very, very bad idea at that. But that still perplexed him quite a bit; she couldn’t just develop a huge crush on him, just from that stunt he pulled as a joke, right? Right??
50 Golden Tickets = 1 Extra Chapter
200 Power Stones = 1 Extra Chapter
1 Magic Castle = 4 Extra Chapter