PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

321 Chapter 321 A Brief Peace

“There’s nothing more to report.” With slight apathy tinging her icy voice, Silvia finished her report as she gazed deep-eyed at the man in front of her.

Just from the tone of her voice, one would think that she actually hated the man or had some kind of resentment towards him, but only she knew that her current attitude was nothing more than a defense mechanism so that she could keep her shyness under control.

The reason? what other reason would she have besides the man who was now looking at her with a penetrating gaze, that gaze that always caused a tingle both uncomfortable and attractive.

Completely unaware of how his gaze stimulated the masochistic tendencies of the woman in front of him, Desmond was currently thinking about the events that had just happened.

A month had passed since Desmond had returned to earth, since then he had been busy with his duties as a lieutenant, especially with the recent increase in mutated beasts in the area; It seemed that even with Athena’s presence acting as a deterrent it was impossible to contain the seeming infinity of beasts that inhabited the forests and mountain ranges to the east of Green Seed Town.

During this month, in addition to being busy with his duties in the military, Desmond had spent a considerable amount of time training the new inhabitant of the Astryd residence; Estela.

Estela was the name Desmond had given to the titanium and jade maiden who had come to life about a month ago. As soon as the adorable little creature came to life, it showed almost absolute fixation and obedience to Desmond, the maiden’s emerald green eyes sparkling with deep adoration reminding Desmond of the way the maidens of Kryzsha looked at her; as if she were their god.

A god, a concept widely known to the human race, an aspiration and a belief; but never something tangible. That was why the notion of another intelligent life form looking at him that way made Desmond so uncomfortable, but Desmond was still smart enough to recognize why...it was in her nature.

It was exactly how the hunter book had described the species these little golem-like creatures existed for the only purpose of serving a Natura, the reasons were unknown to Desmond but he at least understood as much.

.....

So Desmond swallowed the discomfort of being seen that way and spent at least a couple of hours a day training little Estela so that she could fulfill her duty to serve him.

Quite counterintuitive by human standards, Estela was incredibly cheerful whenever she learned new ways to serve her Master, yes, Estela looked at Desmond as her Master.

Although unable to speak, Estela was able to express simple ideas through mana communication in a similar way to how Kryzsha did, in that way Desmond was able to communicate with her to guide her in her tasks.

It was also in this way that Estela took the initiative to be trained to serve her Master, with a quite agile mind and quite mature thoughts for a newborn creature; Estela was anxious to fulfill the reason for her existence.

One thing Desmond had to admit was that Estela really did have talent, this was something Desmond expected given the description he got from the hunter’s book and his experience in the Kryzsha cave but still, Desmond was extremely surprised with the results.

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With just a couple of hours of training a day, Estela had managed to master all the housework in a month, this didn’t sound entirely unbelievable if one thought that these tasks were limited to cleaning or something similar but these tasks also include cooking.

In just thirty days Estela had managed to master the basics of cooking and her culinary prowess was in no way inferior to Desmond who had learned to cook five years ago investing a significant amount of effort into it for Claire’s sake.

This was the difference in talent, unlike Desmond who relied on his keen senses to exert a high degree of control while following a recipe to the letter, Estela had true culinary talent, her delicate hands moving with extraordinary grace and agility while her insight and innocent but focused mind made her quickly develop her cooking prowess to the embarrassment of Desmond who was never talented at it, to begin with.

As if that wasn’t enough, Estela had many other abilities, not only did she use fine control of various mana elements to perform her household chores with incredible efficiency but she also possessed abilities unique to her species.

It was thanks to these abilities that Desmond’s small training place made of stone had been upgraded with Estela’s inexplicable ability to harden or enhance stone and minerals, so Desmond could train with his newfound strength without fear of breaking his training place.

Desmond simply had no words to describe how much Estela’s existence had made his life easier, perhaps the only problem was the incident that led to Estela’s birth.

Every time he thought about it Desmond couldn’t help but get a headache, all because of Kyuru.

Going back in time to when Desmond and Kyuru had gone through an incredibly mysterious state, they both woke up from their unconscious state only to see Estela looking back at them curiously.

It took both Desmond and Kyuru a moment to get back on their feet but as soon as they both regained their senses, an awkward mood developed between them.

Desmond wasn’t sure why, but he instinctively knew that what had happened a moment ago, though dim in his memory, had been special; special, and intimate.

This was immediately proven to be true as Kyuru was completely covered in a deep blush before flying off at full speed leaving behind only: “Perverted Desmond.”

Weeks passed before Kyuru spoke to him normally again and the fairy’s state of discomfort had even been transmitted to the rest of the Astryd household giving Desmond a headache.

Desmond still remembers the feeling of relief that washed through his chest when Kyuru returned to treating him normally and recognized once again how precious Kyuru was to him.

Yet Kyuru had refused to talk about the incident no matter how much Desmond tried to get her to open up about it, so Desmond had to rely on his limited knowledge of fairies and his own experience with women to make an analysis and the conclusion left quite stunned.

Although vague and somewhat nebulous, the memory of that state still existed within Desmond’s mind, it felt strange, it was as if he was not himself but he was, being someone else but himself, a strange state full of peace and joy; but there was an emotion that was even more persistent than the previous ones... the feeling of being one with Kyuru.

The word fusion flashed through Desmond’s mind but it was quickly dismissed by him, although somehow the phenomenon seemed similar to the fusion superpowers that appeared in animated cartoons; Desmond knew this was fundamentally different.

This wasn’t as simple as combining a lion with an eagle and getting a griffin, Desmond knew that and that wasn’t all, Desmond also knew a few things about fairies and from his knowledge about fairies two details led Desmond to its conclusion; the empathic ability of fairies and their spiritual nature.

Regarding Kyuru’s empathic capacity, Desmond had a lot of experience in this regard, it was her spiritual nature that puzzled him because he understood little of the concept but from his little knowledge Desmond determined that Kyuru had both a physical and a spiritual form although the exact functioning it was beyond his understanding.

In any case, it was because of these two traits that Desmond came to a rather shocking and uncomfortable conclusion, if Desmond was right, what happened that day between them was for Kyuru the highest degree of intimacy she could have.

In a certain way that state was for her something even more intimate than sex, although Desmond did not know if the fairies even had sexual relations but the point was that for Kyuru that state was something special and very intimate because it symbolized the true combination of her with someone else; become one with her mate in a quite literal sense.

Hence, Desmond’s headache came back every time he thought about it, Desmond was not stupid, he had already noticed that the general attitude of the fairy towards him was slightly different, she is more shy and aware of his presence than she had been in the past but Desmond didn’t know how to deal with it.

The problem was that humans and fairies had different perspectives of the world and their nature was too different on a fundamental level, if that wasn’t enough, Desmond and Kyuru were incompatible even on a biological level; How is Desmond who was almost six foot nine supposed to have a relationship with a fairy who was thirty centimeters tall.

That’s not even mentioning that Desmond didn’t look at Kyuru that way, the only saving grace was that it was those same fundamental differences that somehow maintained the status quo, it was just as Desmond believed; fairies see the world differently.

For Kyuru her relationship with Desmond had reached the highest possible level of closeness and she would be satisfied just being close to him feeling his emotions, somehow despite the intrinsic change in their relationship; the mechanics of it had barely changed.

“One problem less... but I don’t think the peace will last long.” Snapping out of his thoughts, Desmond recalled the report he had just received from Silvia who had left the office a few minutes ago, and pondered the uneasiness of the mutated beasts.