Chapter 7: Year's End Festival

The sound of two wooden sticks hitting each other reverberated throughout the training hall. The two students of the Sanum Magic University that held these wooden sticks were covered in sweat, signaling the length of time that they had been sparring. Neither student could be called a master swordsman or swordswoman. In fact, they could barely be called intermediates with swords. Despite this, the wooden swords clashed again and again as the sweat flew off their bodies with each hit.

Soon it became clear that one of the two students was going to win this fight. The student that was pulling ahead was a young male, seventeen years of age, but turning eighteen within the first month of the next year. He stood at 180 cer in height but had a fairly well-built body if you looked closely. Like most young men from Rad-Towns, he had built up a good amount of lean muscles across his body. His dark brown hair was matted across his pale face, sticking still to it thanks to the sweat he had worked up. And yet he knew he was close to winning this match. His eyes showed as much. Only a few seconds later, his opponent was on her back, her wooden sword knocked to the side as the victor’s sword lay next to her neck, signifying her defeat.

“I concede. It makes sense you won, you are Master’s top student after all. There’s not much I can do to catch up.” The sarcasm in his opponent's voice caused the victor to laugh before offering his opponent a hand. Grabbing it, he quickly helped her to her feet before responding.

“Top student? Maybe. But considering we are her only two students, that’s not that hard to do. Besides, I barely had a higher amount of wins compared to you today, don’t sell yourself that short, Sarah” The minute he finished his sentence, one of Sarah’s fists punched him in the shoulder. He understood why. She was only 152 cer tall, barely 80% of his height. Her green eyes stared holes through his face for a few seconds before she quickly turned around and started towards the women’s changing room, her blonde hair in a ponytail bobbing along.

“Well, I guess it’s time for us to each get ready to go, or are you going to leave Aria waiting, Nic? I mean, if you did, I can always go meet her for you and show her an actual good time.” Nic could hear the devilish grin on her face as she spoke.

After putting the sparring swords back on their pedestals, Nic hurried off to the men’s changing room. Before he went in, however, he looked over and saw that grin on Sarah’s face as she waited for him to respond.

“I don’t think your fiance would like you bringing in another girl, would she.” Sarah’s grin quickly turned into a smile as she quietly chuckled before disappearing into the doorway in front of her.

It didn’t take Nic long to freshen up after the sparring matches he had done with Sarah. Barely 20 minutes had passed before Nic walked out of the men’s changing room, wearing a nice pair of jeans and a larger coat meant for colder weather. Quickly leaving the University's training hall, Nic stepped out into a white world.

The entire city was covered in snow. At least 5-10 cer of snow was piled onto every surface it could. And despite the sun being high in the sky, it was still too cold for any of the snow to melt. It had snowed all night and into the morning, even continuing to snow as Nic had originally entered the Universities grounds only a few hours earlier.

It was a weird experience for Nic. Sure he had seen snow before, living in a Rad-Town that was only a few days' walk from the City-state Sanum, the two shared similar weather throughout the year. But when living in S-012, the snow had always been a nuisance. Here, there were children playing in it while the adults simply stayed inside.

Nearing the entrance to the University, Nic finally got a good look at how Sanum looked when covered in snow. Sitting near the top of the low mountain that Sanum was built on, the view from the University's entrance showcased nearly the entire city on that side of the mountain. Sprawling beneath Nic was a city full of festivity. All of the main roads had been cleared of snow, and many stalls and booths had been set up for the celebrations that were starting today. The many colors that made up these stalls and booths reflected onto the snow, creating a cacophony of color throughout the town.

It almost looked like the World’s Conscious was celebrating the coming of a new year with them. Though he wasn’t religious to the point that he worshiped the World’s Conscious like the church, or believed he could interact with it like the monks at the world’s center, he still found it hard not to believe that there was something like the World’s Conscious out there.

As the University bell tolled twelve times, Nic was removed from his vacant thoughts as panic set in. Twelve tolls of the bell meant that it was now midday. He was supposed to be at the Blood Queen Square already to meet with his friends Aria, Yuuki, and Sarman.

Foot traffic on the main roads was far higher than normal, due to the Year End Festival. The streets seemed more like a melting pot of people from all walks of life than ever before. He squeezed his way past a family of raccoon demi-humans before nearly being trampled by a horse demi-human also trying to get through the crowd. As far as Nic could tell, there were nearly every single type of demi-human in the street that he knew of, and even more that he didn’t. Of course, regular humans were still the main group he saw, as the number of regular humans outweighed that of demi-humans, especially in the regions surrounding Sanum.

As the cacophony of “Come and get…” and “This is only a few…” rang out from vendors on all sides, the chaos was more than enough to make Nic’s head start to spin. Hoping to catch a break, he quickly ducks out into an alley off the street. After taking a minute to catch his breath, he noticed that the alley was far less crowded. Realizing it would be faster to cut through alleys, Nic slowly started making his way toward the square at a far faster pace.

“Please Jax, you can’t go out like this!” The sound of a young boy came from beyond the corner that Nic was coming up on. As soon as he rounded it, he saw a scene that shouldn’t have been happening in Sanum.

Leaning up against the wall of a building was a man who was probably in his early twenties and looked sickly. He was wearing a nice outfit, similar to Nic’s, and was probably trying to get on his way to do something similar to Nic as well. But in his way was a younger boy, trying to push the man back towards the open house of a door. But what caught Nic’s eye the most, and what scared him to his core, was the black mist coming off of the man’s body. The younger boy could not see it. Most people couldn’t. Nic only knew of one person besides himself that could. The black mist was the telltale sign of Irradiation, and anyone who was radiating it was clearly sick with Irradiation Sickness.

“Savannah… She’s waiting. Waiting for me…” The man could barely croak out a simple sentence as he continued to try to drag his body along the wall.

“You! Please, help me get him in our house!” The kid had seen Nic and decided to ask him for help. Nic hesitated. He wanted to help, and he was probably the only one that could help this man at this point. But he had made a promise to Aria less than 3 months prior that he wouldn’t use his magic again until they had figured out how to activate his purification abilities. Nic didn’t want to hurt Aria by breaking that promise. Yet his body slowly started moving on its own, and soon Nic was helping push the man back into the house.

As the only one known to be able to absorb and purify Irradiation, Nic understood that he felt it was his duty to help those inflicted with the sickness. He would have to hide the fact that he did this from Aria, and that would hurt him, but he couldn’t let this man stay sick. A single case of Irradiation Sickness could spell the end of Sanum as it currently stood. Nic had to absorb it before it spread. As he got the man inside the house, the young kid quickly brought a small folding chair for Nic to sit the sick man on.

“Thank you, kind sir… I will make sure my brother doesn’t try to leave again, I’m sorry to have taken up your time.”

Nic stayed where he was in silence as he looked between the two brothers.

“Can you keep a secret?” Finally, he asked the younger brother a simple question, who responded with a resounding nod of his head.

Taking a deep breath, Nic raised his right hand and put it on the sick man's forehead. He closed his eyes and focused on the feeling in his hand. Slowly he visualized himself absorbing the Irradiation out of the man in front of him, activating his magic. As it activated, he could feel the Irradiation enter him, and he shuddered ever so slightly. He had only absorbed Irradiation a few times before, and every time he had hated how Irradiation had felt. It was like the worst grime he had ever seen was being injected directly into his blood. Only a few seconds later, Nic opened his eyes to see no black miasma radiating off of the man. He had absorbed all of the Irradiation within him. Next to him, the younger brother was staring in confusion, having never been able to see the miasma.

Barely five seconds later, Nic was in front of a small bucket, puking. The effects of absorbing the Irradiation had hit him hard almost instantly. Behind him, the two brothers were slowly starting to realize that the older brother was no longer sick.

“Jax? Are you alright? Does anything feel weird?”

“I’m fine? I feel perfectly normal. Ummm… who is that?”

The older brother had noticed Nic barfing into a bucket in their home and was understandably concerned and worried. He looked between his younger brother and Nic multiple times before the younger brother finally spoke up.

“He helped me get you inside, and then put his hand on your forehead and did something. I don’t know exactly what he did, but you are now fine and he is… Well, you can see how he is now.”

Nic slowly turned around, having finally finished barfing, and struggled to stand up before getting helped by the brothers. He was about to respond himself, when the older brother noticed something on him and rushed over, pulling down the collar of his shirt. Underneath, black veins raced across the right side of Nic’s chest, running down his arm until it stopped at his wrist.

“What…? What happened?” Nic brushed the brother’s hands off of his clothes before straightening his clothes.

“It’s a side effect from absorbing the Irradiation out of you. Though, if you would be so kind, don’t tell anyone what I just said. No one can know that I can absorb Irradiation, otherwise, she will kill me herself.” An exasperated sigh escaped his lips as Nic tried to think of a way to hide the veins for now until they disappeared. As he was thinking, the older brother, Jax, walked away and came back with a pair of winter gloves and a scarf. He held them out to Nic for him to take.

“Put these on. It’s the least I can do to thank you for saving me from the Irradiation. They should cover up your veins. Whoever you are going to meet today shouldn’t be able to see them.”

Nic took the garments from him, quickly putting them on before heading for the door, knowing that he was significantly late at this point.

Blood Queen Square was a fairly large, popular central hub within the city of Sanum. Erected in the honor of the one who rid the city of Irradiation soon after it was unleashed on the world, a little over two centuries ago. In the center of the square was a giant stone statue of a female Elf, the “Blood Queen” supposedly. However, with the statue having been created nearly fifty years after she had been in the town of Sanum, no one knew if it was an accurate portrayal of her. One can find many peddlers and small stalls lining the square year-round, but during the city’s Year End Festival, the square was always overstuffed as everyone tried to get their stalls set up there.

However, this year, on the first day of the festival, a bit after midday, one corner of the square had a small ruckus brewing, owed in full to the trio at its center. Three students from the Sanum Magic University had been waiting in the corner since midday for their fourth member to arrive.

The only male of the three was a well-built black man. His winter clothes were made for warmth but also showed off his well-off upbringing, as they were clearly formal in nature. Many who passed by knew his name, Sarman Chapman, the son of Sanum’s current Head of State. Not only that but Sarman was known to be the current possessor of the Fire Spirit Progenitor; Salamander. Because of this, he was seen as one of, if not the most powerful, mages of the newest generation of mages.

Standing in front of Sarman, trying to get him to calm down, was his childhood friend, Yuuki Ito. She was also wearing a formal-looking winter outfit that matched Sarman’s, though hers had a hood that she had up, despite it no longer snowing. Though her winter clothes somewhat masked it, Yuuki has a very lean body, with extremely lean muscles built from years of learning how to use a sword. Unlike most people at the Sanum Magic University, Yuuki was unable to use Magic, and only attended the school thanks to the pressure Sarman’s dad had on the place.

“How could you have not gotten where he was going before he left this morning?! If we knew that, we could go find him ourselves! Instead of just waiting here for who knows how long!”

“Well, I’m sorry that wasn’t on my mind. I was helping Aria with her outfit for today. It’s not my job to know where Nic goes every time he leaves your home. If anyone should, that would be you.”

Things were getting heated between the two of them as Sarman and Yuuki put all the blame of their current situation at each other’s feet. Behind them, the last member of the group, Aria, was watching the passing crowds with a worried look on her face. She had been ignoring the other two since their argument began, having heard this same argument time and time again whenever anything went wrong with their plans. It was clear that while they were fighting about the situation, Aria was looking out for the catalyst of that conversation, just in case he missed their incessant bickering. Feeling a bit cold, she tried to hug her light jacket to her body even closer than she already was.

Unlike Sarman and Yuuki, Aria’s winter clothes clearly went for a cute look over actual functionality. And looking at the fact that her hair had been done up specifically in a ponytail with multiple braids leading to it, and the makeup on her face, it was clear that she had spent a decent amount of time on her looks for the day. Many boys and men, and a few women and girls too, stole glances at her, wondering who would have the balls to keep someone of her current prettiness waiting until her face was contorted with concern.

It didn’t take long for their questions to be answered as Nic came rushing into the square from a nearby alley. Having heard Sarman and Yuuki’s conversation from a few alleys over, he had come rushing to the square, knowing that if he took any longer, Sarman was sure to try and kill him immediately for his tardiness. However, as he was pushing his way through the crowd he suddenly felt a force tackle into him, nearly causing him to fall back on his butt. It only took him hearing her muttering to realize who it was and embraced Aria in a hug.

“If she wasn’t in between you and me, your ass would be on the ground right now.” Nic looked up as he heard Sarman’s threat and gave him a shy smile.

“Look, I’m sorry I’m a little bit la-” Nic wasn’t even able to finish his thought before Sarman cut him off.

“A little bit?! It’s nearly an hour since midday! You call that a little bit late?! Aria let go of him and let me punch him right now.”

“Hey, let him finish his sentence, maybe he has a good reason for being late.” Yuuki’s voice had gone much quieter compared to her argument with Sarman mere minutes earlier. Nic silently thanked her for allowing him the ability to continue.

“I got held up on my way here, okay? I was helping a young boy get back to his home with some medicine for his sick brother.” Nic had come up with this excuse as he had been running here from the home of the man with Irradiation sickness. He used some real aspects of what had kept him in the hopes that Sarman wouldn’t be able to see through the lie.

“Hmph. Don’t forget that today is the only day the university is giving us off to experience the festival.” Before any of the other three could respond, Sarman had already walked off into the crowd, planning on leaving the others behind. Yuuki shot Nic an apologetic look before running off after him. Nic thought he saw her wrap her arm around Sarman’s as she caught up to him, but he quickly lost the two of them in the sea of people.

“As much as I’m annoyed by his attitude, you were really late today. I was starting to get, you know, really worried that something had happened. Like you had gotten found out somehow, or something like that. I was scared you weren’t going to show, even after everything…” At some point during Nic’s brief conversation with Sarman, Aria had stepped back from Nic’s hug without him realizing it. Now she was standing in front of him, her head down, and with what Nic thought were red cheeks.

Having actually looked at Aria in full now, Nic also realized that she had dressed up more for the festival than she usually did. Feeling like he had taken a rock to the gut, Nic turned his face slightly away as he thought about why he was late. He originally hadn’t wanted to tell her because he knew she would be mad at him, but now he was scared he would ruin a day she had clearly been excited for.

“I, uh, I…” Nic stammered as he tried to think of something to say. His heart ached while a part of him was saying that it was better not to tell her anything.

“I… I… No, I can't do this.” Unable to take the pain from lying to her, he quickly grabbed her hand and pulled her into the nearest alley he could find. As Aria tried to speak up, Nic continued until he found a secluded offshoot of the alley with no one in it. He pulled Aria as far back into it as he could before finally turning around to look at her.

“What the hell are you doing?” Aria was instantly in front of him, face full of anger and confusion, as he let go of her hand, causing him to back up into the wall fully.

“Can’t do this? What can’t you do? What big secret are you keeping? And I swear if you tell me you got caught but escaped I will find Sarman and tell him you are a Verilo.”

“Hey hey hey. Let me explain everything. No, I didn’t get caught, but…” Nic slipped off the glove on his right hand and moved his sleeve up enough to show the black veins in his arm. As soon as she saw them, Aria’s face quickly morphed into one full of concern. Seeing that she recognized it, Nic put the glove back on, covering the veins again.

“How? You promised me you wouldn’t absorb any meaningfully. For those to show up, you had to have absorbed a decent amount of Irradiation. We still don’t know how you activated your purification ability last time, so any amount of Irradiation you absorb now could lead to your death. Did you think about that?”

“Yes, I know. I thought about all that. I’m sorry I broke my promise to you, but I couldn’t just let that man continue to live in this city with Irradiation sickness.”

As soon as he let it out that the man he had saved lived in the city, Aria took a step back in shock. City-Nations and Nation-states were recognized as such because they were completely freed of Irradiation within their walls. The mere fact that someone with Irradiation sickness had gotten through Sanum’s gate was greatly worrying.

“He was in the city?”

“Yes. I don’t know how long, but it shouldn’t have been long. His younger brother didn’t have any Irradiation on him, and it looked like they lived together.”

“Ok, that’s good,” Aria let out a small sigh of relief. “I don’t like that you broke the promise you made to me, but I can’t be mad at you for helping that man. If you had let him go, he could have spread it to this entire city.”

Aria slowly put her hands on Nic’s chest before leaning her body in. He let out a sigh of relief as she did so, taking the act as a sign that she wouldn’t kill him. Betting on that, he slowly wrapped his arms around her again, holding her against him.

“Thank you for understanding why I did it. But, uh, does this mean we can just go back to enjoying the festival like planned?”

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m still mad that you broke the promise. For that alone, you are gonna get a punishment from me, I just don’t know what yet.” Nic’s body stiffened. Whatever she thought of, he had a feeling that he was not going to like it. He let out a small forced laugh.

“Well, you can think of it while we have fun at the festival, right?”

“Oh! I thought of a part already! For the rest of today, you have to participate in everything I want to do. Any booth or stall. Any game I want to play. Any place I want to go. That’s the first part of your punishment.”

As Nic looked down at Aria’s face, the devilish grin on her lips as she spoke sent shivers down his spine. Despite what she said, a few of the places she planned on taking him were bound to be either horrible, embarrassing, or horribly embarrassing. And there was no way for Nic to get out of any of it.

“Alright, I’ll do it. Just please have mercy on me when deciding where we go.”

Aria stepped away from Nic, her grin changing into a genuine smile.
“Alright, first stop, Food. Since we had to wait so long for you, I. Am. Starving. So we’re gonna go find as much food as we can and try it all!” Aria quickly pulled Nic into the alley proper before wrapping herself around Nic’s arm. “Now protect me, oh valiant knight of mine, as we traverse through these seas of people.”

With strong sarcasm underlying her last sentence, Aria forced Nic along the alley until the two arrived back in Blood Queen Square. As they entered it, Aria hugged herself a bit tighter on Nic’s arm, unwilling to let go. A myriad of smells hit their nostrils as many of the stalls had food sitting in front of them for purchase. Many of them were baked sweets, a staple of this time of year in Sanum. Though a few had regular dishes. Some fried monsters, grilled fish from the river, and fawns roasted in a hot fire were interspersed throughout the square.

As Nic was taking in the sheer amount of food being sold, he heard a small noise from beside him, and looking over at Aria, he found her looking down at the ground in front of them, trying to hide her face. Hearing the sound again, he realized what it was and looked back at the food stalls around the square.

It wasn’t long until Aria had pulled him along to one of the many food stalls and the two ate their fill. Nic, while having not had fried monster in a while, had quite enjoyed the meal overall as it reminded him of the meals he always had with his parents when he was younger. Fried monster was usually seen as cheaper meat compared to that of regular animals, and was often quite cheap to get. But when cooked right, Nic thought it tasted better than most regular meat.

As the meal ended, Aria began leading Nic to many different stalls and booths. She indulged herself in everything she wanted to do. If she wanted a sweet or commemorative trinket, she bought it. If she wanted a prize from a game, she had Nic win it for her. Well, most of the time she did. Sometimes she just wanted to let loose herself and win a game or two, outclassing most other participants in seconds. They quickly left Blood Queen Square and made their way down one of the many larger main roads of the city.

Street after street went by, and yet they still kept finding stalls to visit. The sun was getting fairly low in the sky as they came up on a particular booth. Despite being located on a main street, the booth had very few customers compared to every booth around it. The reason was simple. In front of the booth was a sign that said “Get a glimpse of your future here! Time magic will help you on your path!”

Time magic is widely viewed as one of the weakest forms magic could take, especially for born magic. While many would hope it would allow you to slow down or speed up time, no one has ever been known to have those abilities. Most time magic only allows its users to see small, mostly unclear, visions of the future. Because of how unclear most predictions become, most people steer clear of those who use time magic, believing it to be a waste of time as they rarely get any meaningful look into their future.

“Time magic? Really? At a festival like this? That seems like a bad way to get hated by a lot of people. Let’s move on.” Quickly dismissing the booth, Nic turned to leave but was stopped by Aria tugging on his arm.

“I want to do it.” Aria whispered quietly behind him.

“You…? Want to do it? Why?”

Hearing no answer from her, Nic turned around to look at her, only to find a beet red face in front of him.

“Because I want to make sure that everything works out, y’know? That we won’t have any surprises.”

“I guess we have to then if you want to do it. That is my punishment and all.” Remembering their earlier conversation, Nic let out a sigh after he answered and walked over to the booth with Aria in tow.

Sitting there was a middle-aged man. In front of him were a young couple and an even younger kid standing a bit away from the table. The kid looked familiar to Nic, yet he was having trouble figuring out where he knew him from. As the couple sitting there got up to leave, they and Nic caught a glimpse of the man’s face and everything clicked into place. Standing before him was the man he had healed just a few hours prior. The woman with him had to be the one he had been trying to go meet. Though Nic was confused as to why his younger brother was with them.

As they walked by Nic and Aria, both of the brothers gave Nic a small head nod, and Nic thought he heard a female voice say “thank you”. Yet by the time he had turned around, the trio had disappeared.

“Who were they? They seemed to recognize you.”

“They were… the older guy was the one I healed earlier. I wasn’t expecting to see him here.”

“Come on up, you two, and have a seat. I’ll get started on your future info right away.” A bright and cheery voice, completely antithetical to the way the man looked, came from the middle-aged man sitting at the booth. The sudden interruption shocked both Nic and Aria and it took them a second to realize he was talking to them.

“Alright now give me each one of your hands.” As soon as they had sat down, the man held out both of his hands, one to each of them.

“Come on, come on, I won’t bite. I promise.” Seemingly wanting things to go fast, the man reached out and grabbed Nic’s left hand and Aria’s right. Seeing as their other hands were still holding each other, this was the only option for the booth owner.

“Alright, here’s what’s gonna happen. You’re gonna feel a rush of emotions for a few seconds and maybe see some flashing images appear in your vision. That’s all very normal and I will help you understand what they mean afterward. But whatever you see or feel, do not let go of my hand. You hear me?”

As the two of them nodded in affirmation, the man took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Nic could tell that he was starting his magic, after all he did something very similar when healing people. Knowing that he might get overwhelmed by what was to come, Nic closed his eyes, hoping to calm his nerves.

Immense grief took hold of his body. He saw someone crying at some stone. Fear took hold next as his vision filled with a smoky substance. Relief came as what looked like two people hugged. Finally, everything ended with happiness as Nic seemingly looked down from atop a hill.

Everything was over within seconds. As the emotions and visions disappeared, Nic finally opened his eyes again and took a deep breath. As he tightened the grips he had with both hands, he realized he had been crushing Aria’s hand. He turned his head to apologize, but his voice caught in his throat as he looked at her face. She was still in a daze, and a few tears were sliding down her face.

“Hey Aria. Aria. Hey, look at me.” Nice waved his now free left hand in front of her face, causing her to snap out of the daze she was in. Realizing what had happened, she quickly wiped the few tears off her face and looked at the booth owner. When Nic looked as well, he saw that the owner was looking at the two of them in surprise.

“That. Has. Never happened before. I’ve never had a vision so clear and emotions so strong.”

“Is that a good thing?” Nic posed the question, hoping for an explanation. What he got was the middle-aged man standing up in excitement.

“Yes. Yes! This is a very good thing! Because it was so much clearer than before, I’m sure my deciphering of it will be all the more accurate!”

“And what did all of… that mean?” Aria whispered. She was scared of the answer, but asked anyway. If she was going to know, she wanted it to be of her own volition. Nic understood that and stayed quiet, leaving the man to answer.

“Well, the first two clearly are showing us that something terrible will happen to the two of you. But, it seems that despite whatever may happen, the two of you will always be able to find your own happiness together, as we saw in those last two visions.”

“Is that… It? That doesn’t seem like a lot to go off of.”

“Trust me, that’s way better than what most people get. I wonder why it was so much clearer with you two. Maybe you are destined for something great that only you can do? Or maybe you just have a very strong connection to one another.” As the man sat down, Nic reached to grab his coin purse to pay the man, only to get stopped before he could even get the bag out of his pocket.

“You two gave me such clear visions that I will count that as your payment.”

“Are you sure?” With only a nod in response, Nic and Aria look at each other for a minute before standing up. As Nic stepped away from the table, Aria stayed back.

“Thank you, for showing us that. I… I am glad to know that things will end well for Nic and I. So thank you again.”

“No problem, miss. I hope that one day we run into each other again! And when that day comes, I hope you two will be able to show me even clearer visions! Yes hahaha. That would be great.”

As she stepped away from the table, the booth owner waved her goodbye. Nic and Aria were once again trudging the crowded streets of the festival’s first day. While Nic didn’t know where she planned on taking him next, he figured anything was better than having a time mage use their magic on him again.

“How did it get so late? The sun’s already setting! Nic, come with me, I have somewhere I want to show you, but we gotta be quick.” Without giving him a chance to respond, Aria grabbed Nic’s hand and sped off, dragging him along behind her.

It didn’t take long for them to get to where Aria wanted to go. In the southern part of the city, there was a gorge that ran through the mountain, and by extension the city. However, the people of Sanum had built around it, leading to the upper side having a wall that acted as a great scenic spot to look out on the plains outside of the city. It was also commonly used as a lookout position as it was very easy to see any incoming army from the plains to the south from there.

By the time Nic and Aria had reached the lookout, the sun was nearly below the horizon. Because of this, deep red rays of light canvassed the snow-covered plains in their color. What had been, just a few hours earlier, a pure white surface as far as the eye could see had become a deep sea of red with hints of gold here and there. It was a sight that Nic would never have thought possible, and it took his breath away.

“It’s pretty, isn’t it? Yuuki thought about it this morning, and thought it would be a great place to end our little day together.” Aria spoke up from her place next to Nic. She slowly leaned on the rail as she looked out at the plains.

Nic quickly stepped behind her, wrapping her in a hug from behind. He lost all sense of consciousness and simply held her in his arms. The warmth of her body brought him immense joy. If he could, he would want to hold her like that forever.

“It’s beautiful, just like you are. I hope you don’t think I didn't know how much you dressed up for today.” Nic gently whispered in her ear. “I just didn’t want it to seem like I was trying to butter you up after, well,” Nic lifted his gloved right hand, clenching his fist in front of her. “After this.”

Aria leaned back into his chest. She grabbed his clenched fist and brought it in close to her own heart. Nic could feel the heat from her body clearer than ever before.

His heart raced and his face grew hotter. Nic felt like the snow around them would melt just from how hot he was. The hand surrounding his own tightened.

It was comforting.

There was no pain in it, only a warmth that reassured Nic.

Aria turned around in his arms and put one of her hands on his cheek. She leaned up and kissed him. Nic could feel the longing in the kiss. The last time they had contact like this, Nic hadn’t been conscious. For him, this was the first kiss that he actually remembered. The kiss didn’t last long, only a few seconds, and as they slowly separated, Nic couldn’t help but long for it to go on longer. Aria slowly rested her head on his chest, letting Nic absorb her in a deep hug.

“No matter what happens, I’ll stay by your side, Nic. I couldn’t care less how much Irradiation you absorb. As long as it doesn’t kill you, I will be there with you. If you’re on that edge, then I will stop you. I won’t let you leave me. Do you hear me? Never leave me.”

The whisper of hers resonated in his chest. Nic couldn’t find any words to say, he could only feel at that moment. Hugging her even tighter than before, he searched for the words he wanted to say. They wouldn’t come.

The words he wanted to say were right out of his reach.