Finding Stardust

"You ... know him?" she asked.

"This is my old school mate," Therius explained.

Marlowe looked at Emma in surprise. He felt that something had changed in Therius. This man was unlike the Therius he had known at the academy. 

It seemed Therius had become more expressive and ... happy?

As long as he remembered, Therius was aloof and didn't talk much. He was the opposite of his best friend, Xion, who was warm as the sun and loved talking. The two were famous for being so different, like heaven and earth, but became the best of friends.

But now, Therius looked so warm to the girl beside him. And, oh .. Marlowe just noticed that the two looked very similar. Was this girl Therius' sister?

Meanwhile, Emma immediately realized that Marlowe must be a powerful mage, whose level was far above her, maybe even level ten like Therius. It made sense since he was Therius's school mate. He must have trained as long as Therius and Xion.

Emma couldn't read Marlowe's mind at all, so she couldn't figure out who the man was and what he thought about her and Therius.

"This place is off-limits," said Marlowe, repeating his words.

"Xion and I often came here. We were never in trouble," Therius replied.

"It's been a while that they closed this area to the public," said Marlowe. "Two years ago, we started to put some dragons in the forest across the lake. We don't want to take the risk of people falling prey to these animals."

Emma swallowed hard. They had dragons in the forest across the lake??

"Since when did you put dragons in Foxvil forest?" asked Therius in amazement. 

"Since the research team brought in a new dragon species from planet Daneria," replied Marlowe. "We feel that Foxvil is the best place to raise them."

"Let me guess... It's your doing?" asked Therius. Marlowe did not answer, but because Therius knew him well, he concluded that Marlowe was indeed responsible for the dragons in Foxvil forest near the Mage Academy. He scoffed at the man before him. "I see you haven't changed."

Marlowe just shrugged. "I'm a consistent person."

Emma tried to guess from the tone of voice these two men used whether they were friends at school or foes, but she couldn't be sure. Both Therius and Marlowe men shared the flat, inexpressive style of speech. She couldn't judge whether they were hostile or friendly.

Emma took a good look at Marlowe. This man was clearly Therius' age. His appearance was a bit messy, similar to Xion. The man had a handsome face with very light brown eyes. They almost looked golden.

Emma could see at least two scars across Marlowe's chest from his slightly open shirt. Were they scars from a fight ... or was he scratched by one of the dragons?

"Since you are my schoolmate, I will not report you to the forest rangers. You'd better get out of here soon," said Marlowe to Therius.

Therius had to keep his laugh to himself when he heard Marlowe would report him for trespassing the place. Wasn't he King Licht Wolfland, the monarch of the Akkadian Empire? He basically owned this planet.

There was no place on the entire planet that he couldn't enter.

However, because Therius still didn't want to reveal his identity, the man just nodded.

"All right. We'll leave after sunset."

Marlowe frowned. He just saw Therius holding Emma's hand. It was then that he started to feel that his guess was wrong. This girl must not be Therius' sister. A man wouldn't hold his younger sister's hand like that.

He turned to Emma and then Therius alternately. "Who is this girl?"

"My name is Lee Wolfland," said Emma hurriedly. "I am Therius' girlfriend. He wanted to show me this beautiful place, so we went here. We did not know that this area is closed to the public. If people are not allowed to come here, there should be a notification at Stop No. 51."

Therius tightened his grip on Emma's hand, and his chest puffed up slightly. To his delight, Emma introduced herself as his girlfriend, letting Marlowe know that she was not a single girl that he could approach.

Before Emma entered the academy, she and Therius had agreed to choose a new name for her. She deliberately used the name Lee after Haoran's last name, which she wanted to keep in his memory. While the name Wolfland was taken from her husband's family name.

Even though the current King of Akkadia had the same surname, they were sure no one would think that the new student had a relationship with the king. The name Wolfland was not only exclusively owned by Therius' family.

"The notice is near Stop 51," Marlowe snorted impatiently. "You guys must be flying to get here, so you didn't see the announcement. Fifty meters from the tram stop also had barbed fences installed to keep people out."

"Oh ..." Emma turned to Therius. Apparently, Marlowe was right. Because he was eager to get to the lake quickly, Therius took Emma fly so they didn't see any notice below them.

"We're sorry," said Emma. She then furrowed her brows. "Are you one of the forest rangers?"

She didn't know whether the man in front of her had the right to stop them from entering this place, or if he just happened to be passing by.

"He's not a ranger," Therius told Emma. "He's a Beast Master."

"Oh ... I didn't know it was a job," said Emma. She looked at Marlowe again and then at his two pet dragons, who looked very obedient standing beside him, left and right. 

The young man in front of her looked really cool. Emma could imagine other girls would go crazy about him when they saw him like this. A handsome man who was accompanied by two large, scary dragons ...

"Well, if Herbomancers can control plants, Beast Masters can control animals," Therius explained. "Marlowe has long been known to prefer animals to humans."

"Animals can't lie and pretend to be kind to you, but they stab you behind your back," Marlowe added. He didn't seem offended at all when Therius said he preferred animals to humans.

Marlowe's indifferent attitude made Emma feel that the young man fit right in with his animals.

"I've never met a Beast Master before," said Emma. "I learned something new today."

"What are you doing here, anyway?" Marlowe asked Therius. "Aren't you a city boy? As far as I know, your family lives in the capital. This place is very far from Winstad. I don't think you guys went all the way here just to go on a date, right?"

"Lee will enter the academy this year. I'm here to take her," Therius replied briefly.

"Oh ..." Marlowe nodded and looked at Emma again. "You will see me again then."

"Why? Are you going back to school?" asked Emma in surprise. 

Marlowe almost laughed at Emma's question. He shook his head. "I am not a student. I am the new Beast Teacher after Mr. Olten died."

Therius' mind flew to the past, thinking of Mr. Olten, whom Marlowe had just mentioned. Olten was the Beast Teacher at the academy when Therius was still there. He often punished him and Xion with doing physical work around the academy. Therius didn't like Olten, but when he heard that his teacher had died, Therius couldn't help but feel touched as well.

However, the nostalgic feeling in Therius' chest soon disappeared when he saw Marlowe turned and looked at Emma intently. The man then let go of his grip on Emma's hand and instead hugged her waist intimately.

"Your two dragons are waiting for you." He tilted his chin towards Marlowe's dragons, who started looking agitated. "You better take care of them. We'll continue to watch the sunset and then go back."

Marlowe stared at Therius's hands that were hugging Emma's waist, and rolled his eyes. As a man, he knew Therius was marking his territory by declaring openly to Marlowe that the beautiful girl in front of him was his and his alone.