Mystical Journey

But in comparison, Garen was still much closer to Serin and Eeleen. After all, he had been so familiar with them for so long, making them friends at the very least, so he should still go check them out.

As he thought that, Garen could not resist but walk towards the direction that they had left in. On the way, however, he encountered two girls who seemed to be there specifically to block his way.

"Big Sis Raffaele doesn’t want you going there." One of the larger girls growled at him, she was much larger in size than Garen.

Garen looked into the distant woods, but could only see a sea of pitch black.

Soon he would need to prepare for the event at night too, so he just shook his head, turned around and left anyway. In any case, elementary school and junior high students would not harbor any deep grudges, and even if they fought, there probably should not be any accidents.

****************

The beautiful music of the violin slowly rang out on the stage.

Garen wore a small white suit, raising his violin and playing it with his eyes slightly closed, he needed to work hard to control the sound, so that it sounded normal, if he really played as he wanted, that creepy aura from before would appear again.

In the hall, all he could see was a sea of black, eighty or ninety percent of the school’s students and teachers were here.

Serin, Eeleen, and Raffaele's group were there too, Serin looked somewhat depressed, her neck all red, while Raffaele was completely unharmed, so the result was evident.

Garen put his violin down lightly, and bowed towards the bottom of the stage. There was an instant wave of thunderous applause.

He turned around and walked off the stage, hearing the emcee speak on-stage, but that already had nothing to do with him.

Once he got off the stage, he had not even changed out of his clothes before he saw Raffaele standing beside the stage, waiting for him to come down. She was even surrounded by some curious students.

"Good work, Garen, come have a drink." Raffaele greeted him with a seductive smile, handing him a wet towel and a bottle of mineral water.

Garen glanced at Serin who was nearby, she was also walking towards him, but seeing that Raffaele was there, she actually stopped walking, clenching her teeth as she waited there.

"What happened between the two of you?" he asked, frowning.

"Nothing really." The smile on Rafaelle's face sank, but after a pause, she smiled again, still that calm, proudly appreciative smile. "Do you want to walk with me? Just the two of us."

Garen ignored her, walking right up to Serin and Eeleen, Eeleen even had a fresh scratch on her face.

He looked at the two of them exasperatedly, and quietly told them a few things, asking them if they wanted to go back with him. By then, the students in the audience were already beginning to scatter.

Some of the students that had come over to call the three of them sensed something amiss in the atmosphere, and there was still the stone-faced Raffaele and crew, so the newcomers instantly fell silent, and had no idea what to do.

Garen was surprised to find that Serin and Eeleen had lost, and were refusing point-blank to go back with him, what was up with that expression that said ‘since we lost, we need to admit it’?

Watching Serin and Eeleen leave the crowd by themselves, Garen’s feelings got a little out of pace, are all the kids nowadays so self-determined?

"Now there’s no one left to disturb us, right?" Raffaele said with a triumphant smile. She very naturally hugged Garen’s arm, lightly leaning her well-developed chest onto him.

Garen felt like he had a headache coming on, and decided he was too lazy to bother with these little kids’ problems, things would probably go back to normal soon enough.

He glanced at Raffaele next to him, she had shoulder-length golden hair, a seductive face, smooth skin, long and slender legs, as well as her supple breasts pressed tightly against his arm, but he could smell a faint virgin fragrance in his nostrils.

He could tell that Raffaele’s actions were making even herself slightly nervous.

The people around them were already noticing the movements here, and there was the occasional whistle.

Raffaele picked up Garen’s hand and put it around her tiny waist, she was very confident in her own figure, leaning her entire body onto Garen’s, her face flushing pink.

"Don’t you like me?" She reached her face closer, so that their lips were almost touching. "Am I not sexy enough?"

"Although I won’t exactly look a gift horse in the mouth, but you gotta at least let me know, exactly what do you like about me?" Garen asked exasperatedly. He knew that he did not really communicate with the others except for how he chatted with Serin and Eeleen sometimes.

"I just like you, do I need a reason?" Raffaele retorted, "I want you to become my man."

Garen opened his mouth, but did not know what to say.

"Even if I can’t get your heart, I want your body," Raffaele said forcefully.

Uhh…

Why did that sound so familiar?

Wasn’t that something men usually said to women?

Garen was feeling rather confused, there really was something wrong with the trends in this town…

Raffaele dragged Garen everywhere and showed him off to all her friends, not just her girl friends, but even some of the other girls and schoolmates in the school were beginning to raise a commotion.

After the ball ended, Raffaele sent away everyone else and offered to send Garen back.

On the way back, neither of them said anything, they just advanced forward quietly.

It was only when they could vaguely see Garen’s double-story house ahead, that Raffaele finally stopped walking.

"Tomorrow I’ll come get you, just wait at home like a good boy, okay?" She approached Garen, temptingly letting her twin peaks brush against Garen’s chest.

"If you listen to me, I can give you a little incentive~~~"

"We’re so soon, does this count as puppy love?" Garen asked, somewhat flabbergasted. "Although I don’t dislike you, I’ll still be with Serin and Eeleen tomorrow. So you don’t need to come get me…"

"They won’t come." Raffaele laughed, "The competition between us has already decided everything, this is a battle between w...women, no one can break an ancient oath like that."

When she mentioned the ancient oath, there was a looming and strange feeling in her eyes.

This got Garen’s alarms ringing slightly, it seemed that the duel was not just a skirmish between kids as he had first thought.

"You are already mine," Raffaele stressed again. "Even if you don’t choose me, they can’t break the vow and approach you."

"That’s why I hate presumptuous kids who act like adults the most…" Garen felt a headache coming on.

"Aren’t you a kid as well?" Raffaele could not help but laugh. She reached over her soft hand to touch Garen’s neck, and then left as fast as the wind, disappearing into the night in an instant.

"See you tomorrow."

A clear voice came from the distance.

Garen watched Raffaele leave speechlessly, shook his head, and walked towards his own little home.

"Mom, I’m back!"

Opening the door, Garen changed out of his shoes and walked inside, closing the door behind him.

"There’s cream of corn soup in the microwave, I added some black mushrooms, go heat it up yourself." His mother Trish’s voice came from the study, she was evidently hard at work again, recently she was writing a research paper, and hid in her room all day. She never left her computer once she sat down in front of it, and even most of the house chores were left up to his father Emmer recently, all she did was occasionally make her children some nourishing soups.

"Got it."

Garen threw down his bag and violin case, putting them back in his own room, and he saw that the door to his brother Jason’s room opposite his was wide open, Jason himself was sprawled on his bed, reading a book.

"Jason, do you know Raffaele? She’s an upperclassman."

"Raffaele?" Jason turned around, he was already in high school and almost as tall as his father, having undergone a growth spurt, his room was covered in posters of boxers and the King of Boxing, each poster full of muscles and sweat.

His dream was to become a great boxer, in other words, the legendary King of Boxing. Perhaps Garen had contributed in part to this dream as well, having grown up with countless beatings at the hands of his little brother, Jason had always had an almost perverse craving for strength, he trained his muscles every day, increasing the power of his boxing.

"I know, Raffaele Dockman, right, she’s a huge force in the school, pretty, confident, proud, she and her people have dominated the school’s changing room, tennis club, music club, about a third of the territory there, she sets the rules in those places, and is a very forceful kind of girl." Jason turned around and glanced at his younger brother, "Why are you asking about her suddenly?"

"Big Brother~~~" Their little sister Vivien ran over to them with a spring in her step, and threw herself into Garen’s embrace, the little fella had inherited their mother’s good genes. She was already in third grade, and looked like a pretty little loli, unnaturally adorable in her small white nightdress, her long golden hair let loose, her huge eyes blinking, and her little mouth pouting.

"Big Bro, you look so handsome in this outfit!"

His little sister gave Garen a thumbs-up and a huge grin.

"Was the performance a success?"

"Since Vivien helped me rehearse, of course, it was successful." Garen reached out his hand to pinch his younger sister’s cheeks, those fair and puffy cheeks were his favorite place to pinch, he yanked them here and there, appreciating their texture.

"I drew your portrait in art class today, do you wanna see it?" Little Vivien looked at Garen expectantly.

"Of course I do."

So the night passed quickly with all of his sister’s shenanigans, Garen slept very early, and he did not even know when his old pops who had gone out for a survey returned.

After completing his routine secret technique training, he soon fell asleep, and it felt like the first time he had slept so well.

The second level of the Insidious Poison Hand was truly focused on building up Insidious power, to the point where it could be used on the enemy. He could also gather up all the poisonous substances in his body in one place, turning it into Insidious power, a side effect of that being a better quality of sleep for Garen himself.

The only thing Garen was not satisfied with was the speed of advancement in this level of his secret technique, it had already taken him so long to reach the second level, but he was still stuck here after all this time. Although he could feel himself making progress, it was simply too slow. If he continued training according to this speed, he would need at least several years to reach the third level. The time required for every level of the Black Sethe Secret Technique increased proportionally, Garen’s own talent had already drastically decreased the time needed, but even if he did decrease it, it would still mean he could only reach the third level when he turned twenty, and who knows how long it would take to reach the fourth level.

There was only one way to solve this problem -- potential points.