Crimson Core

She walked out of her room and walked towards her father’s garden where city Lord Marshall was seated sipping something from a cup.

“Good morning, Father,” she said as she bowed towards the city Lord.

“Ahh yes, Chelsea my daughter, care to join me?”

The city Lord pointed to a seat close to him for Chelsea to sit. “Father, I have to repudiate your offer.” Chelsea bowed.

“Why so? Where are you headed?” At this point, the city Lord’s interest was piqued.

“Father, I wish to see the man I hit yesterday.”

“Ahh, yes, do go and see him, and when you are done tell me how he is faring.” The city Lord dismissed Chelsea with a wave of his imperial hand as he continued to look into his garden.

“Thank you, Father.” Chelsea left the garden and walked towards the room where Kai stayed.

In front of Kai’s room, Chelsea stood in front of the door not sure what to do. Whether to knock or just barge in. She chose the latter.

Chelsea opened the door into a dimly lit room. Although it was already late morning the blinders were still closed. “Hey, why is your room dark, open up the blinders.”

Chelsea walked to the windows to open the blinders. He had to stop her. “Wait! I like it closed, please!”

Chelsea still adamant about her decision opened the binders and forcing him to cover himself with the thick blanket to shield out the light. “See, the room looks beautiful, huh! Take away those covers and enjoy the beauty of the morning!” Chelsea dragged the blanket out of his hands.

“You are strong… Don’t be scared of the sun boy, it won’t kill you!”

“Stop, please.” Kai tried to use the pity tactic, but she still pulled.

“No, I want to see your face.” successfully, Chelsea pulled the blanket out of his hands.

Leaving his head and upper body exposed. Kai waited for something, anything to happen but nothing happened. It was clear that he was scared for nothing.

“Hmm… Well… This is unexpected.” Chelsea thought out loud as she saw Kai’s face, He guessed it was not what she expected. What did she expect?

Chelsea regained her composure. “How are you doing?” She sat down on a chair close to his bed. She was stunning, to say the least.

“I am doing better than last night.”

“My name is Chelsea Marshall what’s your name?”

He changed his laying position to a sitting position to get comfortable and get a better view of the goddess in front of him. Her blue locks of hair were like the sky on a sunny day, and her skin as he could see was flawless to a fault as though this world could not hold her magnificence.

“Kai…” He manage to say. “…My name is Kai,” He finally blurted out after some time.

“Your name is weird not from these parts I presume?”. Without letting him answer, “The northern continent, right?”

“Yes…Yes, I am from the northern continent.”

“That’s satisfactory,” Standing from where she sat. “…I wish to travel around the world. To see the northern continent, the southern continent, the eastern continent and last of all the central continent. To see what they are like not to just study them from knowledge tablets.” Chelsea paced around the room giving Kai’s eyes a moving banquet to feast on as she continued.

Chelsea didn’t have a particular reason why she was telling all this to a guy she just met.

“But my father… Oh my father! He loves me too much, he would not let me, his only child travel round the world aimlessly…Haa, it is what it is.”

She came to a stop. Kai could guess she just remembered that he was in the room. “Sorry to bother you with my concerns.”

“I certainly do not mind; you could go on if you’d like,” he smiled, for some reason he was talking so formally. it sounded weird even to him.

“Enough about me, where do you live now?” Chelsea got back into her seating position by the side of his bed.

“I just came into the city; I have no place to live.”

“You have nowhere to live?” She asked again to be sure she had heard him correctly. She already had tears in her eyes. She had a good heart or did she really?

“Yes”

“Tell me what brought you to the city?” She asked.

“Work, I am looking for work, to get some money to get a better life.”

“Maybe I can help with that what can you do?” Chelsea placed her hands on her chin looking intently at him.

“Nothing much, but I can adapt and learn quickly. I could be Gardner, a seller anything at all. I could even be a personal guard for you if you ever get the chance to travel the world.”

Overtaken by joy. “Now you are telling me something! I will tell Father to enroll you into the Academy. You would have to pass some tests though. The more tests you pass the better the academy you would be posted to.” Chelsea was grinning from cheek to cheek as she said this.

“Thank you.” He made a gesture with his hands to show gratitude.

“it’s alright I need to go now let me tell Father about the new development.” Chelsea literally skipped out of the room.

Kai was about to get out of bed when He saw a note on the cabinet close to where Chelsea was seated, thinking it was Chelsea’s handiwork he picked it up to read. It read:

Kai, you have a lot of questions I presume,

I’ll answer them all. First, you are no longer human, you are A mage now, the last mage of blood, the very last of our kind you are a being above other beings. The beast you turned into is a GHOUL, the lowest beast species of the blood clan there would be a time you would be able to turn into it at will.

By the way, by now you must have used some of your powers. If you haven't, that's alright. you will with time.

A blue-haired girl was walking majestically through the hallway. There were no guards present, no maids, just silence. it was eerie as it was, but the silence drove its eeriness to the extreme.

She stopped in front of a black door engraved with weird designs; this was the door to the city treasure room. She stood there as though waiting for something or someone.

“Chelsea, what is it?” A gruff masculine voice resounded around the hallway, but only Chelsea could hear it.

“Father, I am sorry for the inconvenience. I want to ask something of you.”

—Creak, swish—

The huge door opened, as though it was being moved by a non-existent force.

“Come in.”

Chelsea, hesitant at first, eventually entered the room. The city Lord raised his head from his sitting position to look at Chelsea. He smiled.

“Chelsea, what is it you request for?”

“Yes, Father I want Kai to take the test for the academy.”

“Who is Kai?” Lord Marshall had a raised eyebrow. His face changed from expressionless to shocked, to happy and back to expressionless.

“Oh, sorry Father, I did not tell you, Kai is the man I hit some days ago.”

“Is that so?” The city Lord leaned back into his chair. “…Come before the tests start and collect the registration rune from me.”

“Thank you, Father,” Chelsea was about to leave.

“Wait, why do you want me to enroll him into the Academy?”

“Father…erm, he says he wants to pay me back for saving his life by being my bodyguard.”

“Run along now.” The city Lord shooed her away after a brief moment of contemplation.

“Thank you, Father.” Chelsea left the room.

—creak, swish, bam—

The door closed behind her.

“I wonder… Kai, is he the one? Sigh… I am getting tired of this place.” The city Lord’s face became poker serious, and his eyes at this point would give anybody chills.

Two weeks later

Kai still lived in the room assigned to him. During that time he was already healed but was held back because of the tests coming up in the next few days to enter the Academy and become a guard for Chelsea.

Over the past two weeks, he had had blood meals from random servants assigned to serve him. Kai was getting used to his new identity as a blood mage and what he could now do. Nonetheless Chelsea and Kai had come to know each other... that's what he thought.

It was morning and Kai was bored as hell. He had not gone out of the mansion for the duration of these two weeks.

“What am I going to do today, I wonder if Chelsea would come to see me?” Kai said to himself as he walked towards the window. “…It’s a sunny day.”

He leaned on the frame of the window and looked outside. The servants were going about their respective errands. Kai guessed they were the pure humans who had no magic proficiency, the mortals.

The black gate seemed to glimmer a mysterious black in the sunlight, and Lord Marshall’s stone statue in the center of the manor made everywhere look grandiose. The statue was holding a book, a book made of stone.

He looked closer and it seemed to have words engraved on it. He wished nothing more than to read what was written in the book, but his attention was drawn by the presence of someone at the door.

—Knock knock—

“It’s Chelsea,” Of course, He knew who it was... at least he had guessed it right.

“I have good news!” came from behind the door.

Recently his senses had heightened to a scary level, and sometimes he was in awe of what he could do.

“it’s open.” After answering, Kai moved from the window and sat down.

The door opened to let Chelsea in. She was dressed in a green dress. It looked exquisite as always, hugging her at all the right places. Chelsea stepped inside to see him already seated facing the door.

“Wait were you— You were expecting me?” Chelsea said in shock before she walked towards the bed and sat on it.

“Maybe… What do you think? But firstly, the good news; lay it on me.”

“Beg me…” Chelsea had an indignant expression on.

This was not what he expected. Never in a million possibilities did he think she would answer like that. He just had to play along with it. “I beg you, Chelsea of Blue Dragon City. Please tell me, what is the good news.”

“On one condition…” At this moment, Kai began to wonder what He had gotten himself into.

“You have to take me out today.”

“But I have no money,” he blurted out, almost out of instinct.

“Don’t worry, the crimson stones I have should be enough for whatever we spend today. I just want to leave the mansion, the air here is stale. Please~” Chelsea said with puppy eyes. “So, what do you say?”

At this point, he had to agree; she was his benefactor after all. “Alright, but I don’t have any clothes.”

“Not to worry, I have you covered; VICTORIA!” Chelsea called out to no one in particular. It was clear that she had it all planned out.

The door opened and a little blonde maid entered the room with some clothes.

“Place the clothes there.” Chelsea pointed to the small table in the room.

“Yes, milady,” The maid dropped the clothes there and left the room.

“What are you waiting for? I don’t have all day. Put the clothes on let’s go!” Kai walked towards the pile of neatly arranged clothes.

As he took off his clothes, he heard a gasp behind him. As an act of reflex he ignored it, folded and placed his old clothes by the side of the new clothes.

After putting on the new clothes He expected to hear Chelsea’s voice urging them to go but he didn’t. Kai knew she was still in the room. He turned around and saw her eyes almost popping out of their sockets.

“Erm, Chelsea is there a problem?”.

As though coming out of a daze. “You just changed in front of me! I saw— I saw, why did see it? Now I can’t unsee it!” She screamed.

“You did not leave the room, I thought it was normal to change in front of you.”

“I’ll try to unsee it…” Chelsea heaved, trying to calm herself down. “… You are done, yes? Let’s go.”

Chelsea stood up, straightened her dress and stepped out of the room, with Kai following behind her. Outside the manor, Chelsea called out to her Butler.

“Gilbert!”

“Yes, milady,” A ring of fire appeared on the ground and Gilbert stepped out of it. He was a pyromancer. “Milady where are we headed today?”

“WE…” She said as she looked at Kai. “…Would be going to the inner city.”

“Is he going with us?” Gilbert pointed at Kai with an expression of disgust.

“Yes, Kai will be accompanying me. Do you have a problem with that?” Chelsea asked with a raised eyebrow.

Kai was a bit shocked, He knew Gilbert did not like him. But what he didn’t know was why Chelsea would root for him, in front of who he might call a long-time servant and won’t be entirely wrong.

“No milady I have no problems at all. AVETIFIT,” As he spoke another slightly bigger ring of fire appeared beside Gilbert, inside it, the carriage appeared and the ring of fire dispersed.

“Let’s go.” Chelsea stepped into the carriage Gilbert had opened, and Kai followed behind her. They sat in the same position they were at the time she had hit him. The ride was silent; Kai liked it but he could see Chelsea was not comfortable with the silence.

“Chelsea,” He said breaking the silence.

“Yes?”

“I kept my end of the bargain. I am accompanying you. Now tell me what’s the good news all about.” He asked very calmly.

“Ahh! Yes…” she began, “You know that my father had agreed to enroll you for the test. Here is the token of entry.”

Chelsea handed Kai a rune that was black and hexagonal. It had his name engraved on it, and it read:

Name: Kai.

Household: Lord Marshall.

It had a shine to it, as he looked closely at it. After a few moments, he handed it back to Chelsea, who then kept it inside a space within the carriage for safekeeping.

“Thank you, lady Chelsea, how do I ever repay you?” Kai gestured thankfully at her, he could not let her see the uncertain feeling he had. Everything was rushed! he hadn't even gone back to his old home town. But at this point, after letting those words fall out of his mouth he began to regret them.

“Don’t worry too much, just take it as you owe me~” He could feel Chelsea being smug.

“Okay.” At the moment he had to refrain himself from saying anything else.

“Now about the test…” she paused to get his attention. “…During the tests, three qualities of yours would be tested. First would be your elemental magic proficiency. A total of 5 points, 3 points are considered a genius, and 4 points are unheard of only a handful of people ever got close to above 4 points on their tests. Only the present head of magic the light mage Sullivan ever had a 4.9 point.” Chelsea adjusted in her seat.

“The next quality to be tested would be your speed potential, it would check how fast your body could go when trained to its highest, it is measured with 4 points, and the only person to get close to 4 points as the legends have it, was the great assassin, Khan, he disappeared after hundred years ago. No one knows if he is still alive; But there have been rumors of him starting an assassin clan, the night crawlers…” She paused again. “…Any questions?”

“No, please do go on.”

“The last quality that would be tested would be your body’s endurance. In this test, you would fight monsters, the longer you last against them the higher your score. According to the legends only the grand Terramancer, grand mage Nikon had a total time of 48 hours before he got defeated…sigh.”

“My lady is everything aright?” Kai asked seeing that her eyes had lost a bit of luster.

Chelsea looked towards Kai with a dubious look. “…if only they had not changed it, what I just mention would have been what you would have gone through, but they changed it. Now its a lot more simple and less fun, at least that’s what my father said.”

Kai could only look at her in disbelief.

“Milady, we have arrived at the entrance of the inner city,” Gilbert stopped the carriage.

“Okay, we have to alight. We go on foot from here, during the walk I will explain more concerning the tests and the academies to you.” Gilbert opened the door and helped Chelsea come down. Kai came down after Chelsea.

“Gilbert, you can go back.”

“But milady I—”

“Gilbert, please! Go home, I can take care of myself!” Gilbert’s words were cut short as Chelsea interrupted him.

“Yes milady. AVETICUF.” Gilbert and the carriage were enshrouded in fire, then the fire dispersed and he was gone.

Chelsea and Kai walked through the inner city. The inner city was beautiful, the grey walkway made of stone in between shops and houses, and the city was well organized.

“So Chelsea, what exactly are we doing here?” He had to ask, they had been walking aimlessly for quite some time.

Although the scenery was nice and the environment boisterous. There were no carriages allowed in the inner city, causing the inner city to look like it was drawn out of a painting. The quiet air seemed to affect the way Kai felt about this place.

“Kai, I just wanted to get out of the mansion for a breath of fresh air.” Chelsea turned slightly left and started walking towards a bistro. It looked exquisite and meant for the rich. “Let’s go and eat.”

“Ok.”

The bistro’s attendant came rushing towards Chelsea. “Lady Chelsea welcome to the grand fish pavilion, let me take you to your table.”

The attendant led Chelsea and Kai to the highest level of the pavilion. The entire space was almost empty, only a black table at the center of the huge room filled the void.

The attendant led them to the table, and they sat down opposite each other, Chelsea and Kai.

“Lady Chelsea what do you care for today? Will it be the usual?” the attendant bowed.

“Now not the usual, bring the menu let my friend here choose what he wants to eat,” Chelsea looked at Kai with a smile that could kill a thousand men.

“Yes, of course,” He signaled a wait-person, and she brought the menu and handed it over to him.

Kai looked over the list and was dumbstruck by the prices of the food there. He wondered if they were made in heaven. The cheapest meal cost 3000 crimson stones! Luckily, he had a rich lady by his side.

The only meal that was compatible with Kai diet was the half-cooked Phoenix flesh. It cost a whooping sum of 90,000 crimson stones.

Chelsea saw his hesitant look, chuckled a bit before she whispered, “Kai you are making me look bad, pick whatever you want.”

“If that’s the case... I want the phoenix’s flesh,” He said as he passed the menu over to Chelsea for her to make her choice.

“… I’ll have what he is having”.

“Excellent choice! What entertainment would you like while you wait?”

“A bit of tunes would be satisfactory.” Chelsea said with a wave of her hand.

“Yes, of course, anything else?” This was Kai’s cue.

“Yes…could you not cook the flesh, I mean my meal don’t cook it. And don’t add any spices I like it fresh, could you do that?”

“Erm, ye— yes, I’ll take my leave then.” The attendant looked shocked at his request. He tried his best to avoid presenting himself as unprofessional. He had served a lot of aristocrats, but this was the most eccentric dish he had ever served. As soon as he left their table, and the soft tunes began.

“Kai, is everything alright?” Chelsea looked concerned as she asked, “Why did you request for that?”

“Erm, Chelsea raw Phoenix flesh is very nutritious for me. Sorry if I discomforted you in any way.”

“It’s nothing, I guess you have your preferences. But how did you know?” Chelsea was awfully intrigued.

At this point he had to cook up a story to back him up, “My grandfather had found a dying Phoenix and killed it, and brought back its meat home. I was curious and tasted its blood.”

“Oh that explains a lot, so tell me about them, I mean your grandparents?” Chelsea asked, leaning forward. The story he told was flimsy and almost no grain of truth to it, he was shocked that she believed him.

“My parents abandoned me in the forest and the woman I call grandma picked me up and raised me, but now they are dead…”

Two men were in a room that looked like a throne room; one of the men was seated on a throne-like seat while the other was kneeling with one knee with his head bent.

“My Lord the test is soon to hold and there is no sight of Salinger’s last son,” The man said with his head low.

“Find him, he will turn up soon, its about time he did so.” A low but hoarse voice embedded in elegance came out of the man sitting on the throne.

“Yes, arch-magi!” The man who was formerly kneeling was enshrouded in flames and was no longer there when the flame dissipated.

“…Where are you?” The arch-magi’s eyes glowed a dangerous light.

Lord Marshall was standing on top of the patio, looking into the horizon. A ring of fire appeared behind Lord Marshall and Gilbert stepped out of it and knelt on the ground

“Milord,”

“Where is Chelsea?” Lord Marshall said still not turning around.

“Presently Lord, she is in the inner city. I assigned 2nd-rank soldiers around the walls of the inner city for her protection.” Gilbert said still not raising his head.

“Is she alone?” Lord Marshall walked towards a chair nearby and sat down with his line of sight on Gilbert.

“Now, she is with that boy, Kai.”

“Gilbert?”

“Yes, my Lord.”

“Do you remember Arch-magi Salinger?” Lord Marshall said as he took a sip out of the drink that was on the side table.

“My Lord, how could I forget? Did something happen, milord?” Gilbert asked with furrowed brows.

“Well yes, I suspect that that boy is the last son of Arch-magi Salinger.”

“My Lord how could this be?” Gilbert asked, partially shocked.

“Honestly, I do not know, and I am not sure but, his test results would tell us the truth about him,” Lord Marshall stood up to lean on the rails. “…Keep an eye on him till we are sure of his identity.”

“Yes, Milord.”

“You may leave,” Lord Marshall looked away into the horizon, his demeanor grandiose as always. He seemed to be lost in thought, oblivious of the fact that his butler was still kneeling behind him.

“Yes, AVETICUF” Another ring of fire appeared, and Gilbert was no longer there when the flames dissipated.

The meals had been served. But Chelsea and Kai were still talking. “Chelsea, I want to ask but am not sure if you would answer.”

“Ask; I would answer truthfully.”

“I am not to ask, but I have lived with you for almost 3 weeks, and I have not seen Mrs. Marshall, I mean your mother.”

“Is it just that? To be true, I don’t remember much of my mother; to be precise I remember nothing at all. She had been killed after I was born by assassination; a sword to her heart, I heard that my father mourned for weeks before he was in his right state of mind to see his first child.”

‘This girl’, Kai thought to himself, ‘…can endure pain.’