Chapter 10: Kate and Sia

However, he was on edge for more than one reason.

However, she gave them a look that clearly said 'don't talk to me,' without them having said a word.

He had managed to make friends his own age, especially among boys, but with girls... it was a completely different story.

                              ***

I'm all alone... in a room... with a girl. What am I doing? I'm skipping steps.

To understand what was going through Ryouma's head, it was necessary to look back at his past social life.

As a child, the boy spent most of his time alone. He rejected others, and even when he decided to open up a little later, it wasn't easy. After ignoring people for so long, he had almost forgotten how to interact with them.

His former coldness and contempt had transformed into a pathological social anxiety. To the point where he couldn't hold a normal conversation. But Ryouma had made an effort. Little by little, he improved. In middle school, he still had communication problems. 

In high school, he was already able to talk to others and make friends without too much difficulty. But there was one last step left for him to take, and not an insignificant one with girls.

In truth, he wanted to get rid of this abnormal and antisocial side. Like any boy his age, he would have liked to have a girlfriend, a pretty girl to start a family with. But he had never found a girl he really wanted to be with.

He saw his friends falling in love, going out with girls from school, having their first romances... and him, nothing. None of them had ever attracted him, neither at school nor outside.

So naturally, he wondered if the problem was him. Maybe he just wasn't interested in girls? But he immediately dismissed the idea. The last thing he wanted was to be even weirder than he already was.

Exceptionally because Ryouma wasn't the type to plan his life in broad outline, il had still developed a very specific plan on how he would build his relationship with his future girlfriend, step by step.

Step 1 — The Spark: He had to be attracted to a girl first. There's no point in dating for the sake of it if you don't feel anything.

Step 2 — The Request: Ask the famous girl out. He had already prepared his statement, all that was missing was the right moment. Depending on the answer, he would either move on to the next step or have to return to the first step.

Step 3 — The Date: Take her on a date, choose a nice location, prepare the groundwork, and most importantly, hold her hand. Nothing better for building bonds.

Step 4 — Restart: Repeat step 3 with variations, in order to get to know her better and deepen their relationship.

Step 5 — The act: finding yourself alone in a room… and doing what a boy and a girl do when they are alone.

Step 6 — Marriage: If all the previous steps went well, it meant she was "the one." So, don't hesitate to take the plunge and start a family with her.

That was it, his methodical 6-step plan.

However, he had to make a small correction. Her mother, Ayaka Kirishima, was a very traditional woman, and for her, there was no question of doing anything stupid before marriage... under penalty of taking the “angry mother’s fist”.

After this quick adjustment, step 5 became step 6, and vice versa.

However, step 1 was a wall he couldn't get past. It's like being stuck on the first level of a game when it's the easiest. Just when he thought he would never find love, he stumbled upon Sia.

He wondered why he had reacted like that to her, among so many other girls. Thinking back, he remembered that he had also had a revelation while talking about Katerina... even if it wasn't exactly the same kind of shock.

Comparing the results, he drew a conclusion as quick as it was absurd. Apparently, Ryouma was only attracted to girls who were heiresses.

In other words, girls descended from another world who shared something closer to his true nature. And normal, human girls didn't interest him.

Wait a minute, I wasn't actually a misanthrope, I just hated humans and had no attraction to human girls. It is an instinctive, physiological reaction, like when an animal only seeks to mate with its own kind. It sounds weird when you say it like that... but at least now I know I'm not asexual. Thinking about it, it made me a little uncomfortable too. Because if I'm right... that means I'm definitely not part of their world.

Since this whole thing had started, Ryouma was slowly seeing the world in a new light. With this truth revealed about his true nature, he had just made a discovery about himself that completely changed his outlook on things.

"Well, let's start the training with a little expedition," Sia said, clapping her hands.

"An expedition? Where?" asked Ryouma.

"To Eldrath, of course."

"Hiii!!" he inadvertently exclaimed.

"What is it?"

"No... it's just that I had a really bad experience the last time I went there. And to be honest, I'm not psychologically ready to go back."

"I understand that it may have been traumatic. You must have gone through some difficult times... and the fact that you survived there, alone, for an entire day, proves that you have incredible survival instincts."

Sia gently placed a hand on Ryouma's shoulder, smiling broadly.

"Joy told me you're a quick learner, so I'm sure you'll do well. I will make sure to teach you everything and I will do my best to teach you the tricks of the adventurer's trade."

"Adventurers?"

"Yes, that's what we're called in the guild. We, the exploration team."

"Miss Sia..."

"Just call me Sia."

"Sia, please teach me everything you know!" Ryouma said, bowing slightly, almost as if speaking to a master.

"Count on me!" she replied cheerfully, her bright smile still present.

Then she continued in a more serious tone.

"Do you know why you were assigned to the exploration team?"

"No! Not really!"

"That's because you're an Ebonveil."

"An Ebonveil? You mean... the race I belong to?" Ryouma asked, a little confused.

Sia nodded.

"Exactly. In the exploration team, we prioritize mobility. Each species has its own attributes and skills, but those that excel in evasion, flight or stealth are the most recommended. Those with detection and surveillance capabilities are also sought."

"I see... By the way, Joy told me about the species he's descended from. He said 'Dark Lord,' but he didn't specify what it was."

"Ah, that!" Sia replied with a chuckle. "A 'Dark Lord' is actually a Dullahan."

"Dullahan… as in the Headless Horseman?" Ryouma asked, taken aback.

"Not quite. You know, the elements of Eldrath have greatly influenced Earth's history. They are the source of many legends and myths, and even the basis of certain religions and occult practices. Of course, over time, the stories have been distorted. Some facts have been mixed up, others deleted, or altered. But as I like to say... every myth always contains a grain of truth."

"Ahh..."

“It’s like in manga and anime, you know? Authors often draw inspiration from mythology to invent new stories. The content remains the same, but the details are changed to make it a unique story, distinct from the original."

"Okay, I understand now."

"What about Katerina?" Ryouma asked curiously.

“Katerina is a 'Velhares'.”

"..."

Sia interpreted Ryouma's silence as an admission of incomprehension and used a more familiar term.

"It's a bunny girl."

"A bunny girl!" Ryouma exclaimed in disbelief.

His imagination immediately ran wild. He pictured Katerina in a bunny girl costume. Her incredibly proportioned body molded into a tight leotard that brought out her sinuous curves, her generous chest highlighted by a plunging neckline, her long, shapely legs wrapped in fishnets... and to top it all off, long bunny ears.

Ryouma blushed visibly just imagining such a scene.

I've seen bunny girl cosplays before, but just imagining Katerina in this outfit makes me feel like this... I'm officially attracted to heiresses, for sure.

"Sorry to shatter your dreams, but it's not what you think it will be," Sia teased.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he denied awkwardly.

Sia just snickered before changing the subject.

"Here, let's take your case as an example. According to legends and myths transmitted by culture and religions, The Celestines are the equivalent of angels, and for convenience, the Ebonveils are known as fallen angels. Like Lucifer, the angel of light who was banished from heaven out of pride for defying God. The fallen angels committed acts that represent one of the seven deadly sins."

"And you, Kirishima, what is your sin?"

"Um... I'd say laziness."

"Pffh... That's funny. Joy said you were a hard worker, that you studied hard throughout the holidays for your university entrance exams. Your image is far from that of a lazy person."

"Hehehe... that's true. Hey, he said a lot about me, Joy."

"Yeah. He was excited to talk about you. He said you're his best friend."

"He said that? I'm not surprised."

"And he also asked me to be nice to you because you've never been with a girl."

"W-what... no?"

Joy, you son of a... you'll pay for this.

"Forget everything he ever told you. He's full of nonsense," he demanded.

Sia nodded with a smile.

"Okay, let's go! I'll show you my 'Elfae' form when I get there."

"Yeah!"

"All right, now give me your hand."

"H-huh? Why the hand?"

Everything was moving so fast. He had skipped stages again, skipping first and second to go straight to third.

Thinking back, Ryouma considered the expedition to Eldrath a sort of date, and therefore, they should hold hands. His plan was already starting to fall apart.

"Let me explain. We use amulets to teleport to Eldrath. They fulfill our desire to go to our world, the world of our origins. Only heirs can use it. You must visualize the place where you want to be transported. Then, by holding hands, we make sure we land together in the same place."

"So we can teleport together by holding hands?"

"It doesn't work like that. If two people hold hands, it's enough for one of them to think of a particular place to go there with the other. But for this, both people must each have an amulet. Otherwise, for the teleportation process to work, a number of amulets equal to the number of people is required."

With that, Sia took out her amulet. A round metal plate with inscriptions engraved on it and a green stone embedded in it.

Ryouma did the same and took his amulet in hand, his being different from the young woman's by its hexagonal shape.

"It's not very practical. The number of people is limited by the number of amulets. So you have to... hold hands, that's it."

"Absolutely," she said, her hand outstretched, waiting for him to take it.

"Okay, fine. Let's go!"

He took Sia's hand and looked into her eyes.

"Clear your mind and let me decide where to go."

Ryouma nodded, handing over the controls to his instructor.

"Close your eyes."

"W-why's that?" Ryouma asked, his voice rising an octave.

"Otherwise you will be blinded by the light."

A dazzling glow erupted from the two amulets and instantly enveloped the entire room. Ryouma closed his eyes, feeling a strange, vibrant warmth run through his hands. When he opened them again, the world around him had disappeared, replaced by a dazzling white that almost blinded him.

"Oh !"

He staggered, nearly falling into the void, but his feet miraculously found support on a solid surface. Blinking to adjust to the light, he saw a breathtaking landscape. A field of clouds stretched as far as the eye could see, and he stood on the top of a mountain of dizzying height, whose summit exceeded the clouds.

The surface of the mountain was anything but natural. It was perfectly flat and circular, as if carved with supernatural precision. The air was crisp, charged with a strange energy, and a light wind made Ryouma shiver, reminding him of the vastness and unknown of this world.

As he gazed at this unusual landscape, Ryouma felt a strange sense of familiarity. He ran his hands over his body to check. His long, wild gray hair was there, a large, thick horn adorned his forehead, and imposing black wings spread out behind his back. He was dressed in a wizard's robe and the breastplate on his chest was marked with a claw left by the chimera.

I'm in this body again... that means I'm back in Eldrath.

"Welcome to Eldrath! So, Kirishima, how are you feeling?"

Ryouma was immediately drawn to Sia's voice and turned to look at her.

"Sia, is that you?" he asked incredulously.

"That's me!" she smiled, giving a thumbs-up. "Well, Kirishima, you've changed a lot, even your voice is unrecognizable!"

"You've changed too," Ryouma replied.

Compared to the difference between his human form and his Eldrath form, Ryouma had changed a lot, but Sia had remained relatively similar. She had dark skin and her hair had become platinum blonde, long and went down to her hips. Her emerald green eyes shone intensely.

She had also gained a few inches in height, and Ryouma couldn't help but notice that her chest, previously of average size, had almost doubled in volume. But what remained most remarkable were his long, pointed ears.

That's it! She looks like a dark elf!

"You're probably thinking I look like a dark elf, huh?" Sia said, snapping Ryouma out of his thoughts.

"That's really it. When you look at you, you'd think you were seeing a dark elf, like the ones you see in fantasy stories."

"It's true that myths and fantasy are inspired by it, but you'll see that there's always a difference between reality and myth."

Ryouma nodded even though he hadn't really caught Sia's words. He then turned his attention back to his surroundings.

"Where exactly are we?" he asked.

"We're in Eldrath," Sia began, adopting a tone that was both serious and educational, "more precisely in the Northeast region, Area 41, which is called The Angel's Fall. This area is entirely dominated by huge pillar-shaped mountains. Their size, length and width vary greatly, but the minimum height is at least ten kilometers, and some can reach up to eighty kilometers."

Sia moved a little closer to him, her serious gaze contrasting with her encouraging smile.

"I'll guide you, but you'll have to stay attentive and learn to assess the terrain. The slightest mistake could cost you dearly."

Ryouma felt a shiver run down his spine. He wondered how high they were, but he couldn't estimate. The bottom was completely veiled by dense, opaque clouds, leaving an eerie mystery about what lay below.

"This area is 15 kilometers from zone 40: the White Sea, also called the Cloudy Sea, because the density of the clouds is such that one could almost swim in them as in a sea. Now you understand why there are so many clouds here, but they are not quite the same." Sia declared as Ryouma tried to see the ground through the thick cloud cover.

“I must now speak to you about the exploration team’s mission,” Sia announced, adopting a serious expression, a marked contrast to her usually playful tone.

Ryouma turned to her and listened carefully to understand what his mission as a member of the exploration team would consist of.

“To begin with, you should know that over time, previous generations of Eldrath survivors had no memory or knowledge of their homeworld. This world was completely new to them, so they decided to explore it. All they know about Eldrath is that it is enormous, at least ten times the size of Earth."

"So if we assume that Eldrath is a planet in another dimension and that it is ten times the size of Earth, It would be equivalent to Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system,” Ryouma says, using a scientific approach.

"We see it that way, although this information is from a very long time ago and there is no way to verify it, unless, of course, we map the world of Eldrath. This is precisely the objective of our team. The Exploration Team aims to catalog all of the various unexplored regions and domains of Eldrath to mark them on this case."

Sia showed Ryouma a cylindrical tube that opened vertically in two by pulling on the sides, causing a plaque to appear. The plate lit up and displayed digital data as well as a graphic map labeled with names. Some areas remained in the shadows, corresponding to places still unexplored.

Ryouma couldn't believe it. This device was high-tech, at least a hundred years ahead of human technology.

“Since the founding of the Legacy Guild and the creation of the exploration team, 46 areas have been listed so far. We still have a long way to go. I'm counting on you to help us in our quest."

“Of course, you can count on me.”

“That’s good! You’ve got the right mindset, Kirishima. Now start your training.”

"Very well!" Ryouma replied briskly.

Sia circled around Ryouma, inspecting him from every angle.

“Give me a flying demonstration,” she demanded.

“Uh… well, I mean, I don’t know how to fly.”

“Not yet? Now you can do it. It’s instinctive, like baby birds, you just have to take the leap.”

"I don't think that's a good idea," Ryouma replied, looking down where he couldn't see anything.

"But yes, I assure you, you just need a little help. Why do you think we came here and why it's called 'The Angel's Fall'?" She said, pushing Ryouma into the void without warning.

"Ahhhhhhh!"

Ryouma cried out in fear and surprise as he fell through the clouds.

"Go ahead, Kirishima! Flap your wings!" Sia yelled, carrying her voice to him.

Ryouma flapped his wings desperately, but couldn't fly as he wanted.

Sia watched as Ryouma continued to fall, disappearing behind the clouds, looking like he was struggling.

“Well… well, it’s a failure this time.”

She dropped her arms, stretched backward to maximize aerodynamics, and quickly caught up with Ryouma, who was flailing in the air like a fish out of water.

Sia grabbed Ryouma and hugged him, his face nestled between her chest.

A pair of butterfly wings appeared from Sia's back, allowing her to fly with them to another mountain peak and land smoothly.

"It's okay, we're back on dry land," Sia assured, while Ryouma remained clinging to her, feeling strangely comfortable between the softness of her chest.

He abruptly pulled away from her, an embarrassed smile on his lips, before letting himself be completely swept away by this dangerous happiness.

“Thank you for saving me.”

“That’s normal, since I was the one who pushed you into the void,” Sia replied with an embarrassed smile, scratching the back of her head. “It allowed me to gauge your abilities.”

She then thought while holding her chin, while Ryouma couldn't help but admire the shape of her wings. They were magnificent, with luminescent reflections, and with each beat a fine fairy dust dispersed into the air. She looked like a fairy from a story.

So that's what an Elfae is... The fusion between a dark elf and a fairy.

"For a first test, it wasn't bad," Sia said optimistically, the opposite of Ryouma who seemed completely discouraged.

"I don't think it's possible to fly with my wings."

"No, don't say that. Maybe the second time it will work."

"Exactly…" Ryouma replied, lowering his head. "This was already the second time I've fallen from this height, and despite all my efforts, I couldn't fly."

In truth, he would have loved to fly in the sky. He wanted to know what it felt like to glide freely, to flutter like a bird. But his wings wouldn't allow him to fly. It wasn't that they were completely useless. They could generate gusts of wind and create air currents, which was useful... depending on how you used them.

"You know, they say that Celestines are able to control air currents with their wings. If that's the case, your wings are just out of practice," she said, approaching him.

“You need practice. You'll probably fail more than once, but if you keep at it, you can fly. And I can assure you, it's the best feeling ever.”

Sia tried to comfort him, giving him new hope. But something in her words struck a chord with Ryouma. Air currents... He remembered that his wings could generate powerful gusts of wind that he used to move. An idea then crossed his mind: "What if he could go further than that... what if he could actually control the air around him?"

As he thought about it, he realized that his wings weren't just made to flap like a bird's. Every time he deployed them, they generated violent gusts. A gust was nothing more than a deflection of the airflow. This meant that he already possessed the power to manipulate this fluid. It wasn't a problem of incapacity, but rather a problem of finesse. Until now, he had been content to shake the air like a child hitting water with his hands. What he had to learn was to direct this flow, to use it not as a simple brutal push but as a fluid continuity that would carry him.

If he could generate pressure below him while reducing resistance above, he could create lift. If he learned to play with the opposing flows, he could glide through the air like a glider. And even better, if he could carve out real wind corridors, he wouldn't even need to beat his wings; his body would naturally follow the path traced by its own currents.

Air is a fluid, and if he could control it, he could move freely within it like a fish swimming in water. In other words, he could fly through the air.

Remembering all the times he had used his wings' powers before, Ryouma walked to the edge of the mountain and jumped into the void without hesitation.

Sia rushed to look at what was on the back of Ryouma's head. Her butterfly wings were ready in case she needed to come to his aid if necessary.

Ryouma was subjected to gravity, falling into the void. Yet, unlike before, he remained calm and focused. Rather than flapping its wings uselessly, it spread them wide, capturing the airflow around it. His body gradually slowed down in its descent, until it came to a standstill, suspended in the air with nothing to hold or support it.

Sia, initially surprised, let out a proud smile.

A powerful beat of his wings gave Ryouma momentum, and he soared back into the sky, returning to his starting point.

"Amazing! You managed to fly on your third try." Sia exclaimed, beaming at Ryouma's performance.

"They always say third time's the charm, and it's all thanks to your advice! But I'm still a long way from getting the hang of it. I hope you'll help me again, Sia."

"Of course! After all, I'm your instructor."

Ryouma felt a renewed sense of excitement. He had finally managed to fly, and his enthusiasm had returned with renewed vigor. But he knew that was only the first step. Now he wanted to understand his abilities more deeply, test his limits, discover how far he could go. How high would he reach? What peak could he climb?