Was It Worth It In The End?

"What happened?" Malleus glanced over curiously.

"Nothing." Peony grumbled and opened the window.

"Then, let me clean it up." Malleus responded as he glanced over to the shattered porcelain.

"That's if you want to scare our sylphs again." Peony glared at him with a scowl.

"Sylphs?" Malleus looked up in bewilderment.

"When using your magic, aren't you aware of the massive aura you give off?" Peony sighed, "Not every creature under the sun and on the earth can handle such power. Perhaps you aren't made aware of this or maybe you have, but, if one power can awe others, it can certain intimidate other creatures. You were so focused on your own actions that you haven't realized that there were sylphs and other fairies living in this mirror all this time. Many of which has gone into hiding ever since you and Lilia started using magic in the dormitory on many occassions."

She softly summoned some slyphs in using their native tongue and they quickly reappeared from under her bed much to Malleus's surprise until he noticed their weak powers. Malleus noted, "They have weak magic in them."

Hearing this, the sylphs frowned. Peony sighed, "You should clarify your intentions. They are very offended after hearing your words. If you tease them later, they will naturally complain to me next. You don't want to be kicked out of the room again, if that were to happen, right?"

"But I was just stating the obvious." Malleus noted in surprise.

"There's a time and place for stating fact." Peony glared at him with a pout of annoyance, "Let me clarify why most of them are angered by those words just now. Because you did not specify the intention of your words, it sounds as though you are belittling them by stating facts. Your words made it seem as though they are very fragile and can't do much in defense due to their weak magic. Your words made it seem as though you have overlooked their own individual talents that stems from their specialties of their "so-called-weak" magic. Since I am here, I may as well say this right now. When speaking to our people, it is best to state the intention. After all, it is not a secret that light faes and dark faes relationships are still weak and the last to be reconciled in recent years. Rather than stating facts as they are, you may as well clarify your intentions."

"Ah, is that so?" Malleus huffed, "Then..."

"Malleus..." Peony intervened with a foreboding feeling, but it was futile.

"I was simply impressed that they were able to hold out this long under the pressure of my magic all this time." Malleus continued with a smile.

Peony sighed in dismay as the sylphs seem to grow angrier, "At this rate, nothing will be solved unless the hearts are shared..."

"Then, what is the problem?" Malleus responded, "I can't use my magic to clean up this mess as it would harm the fairies?"

Peony thought about this for a bit before she sighed, "Forget it. Just wait here."

Hearing this, Malleus actually frowned and furrowed his brows, "I can still clean just fine without magic."

"With those finger tips?" Peony pointed out at his blackened fingers with a scowl, "Seriously..."

Malleus frowned seemingly upset as the cold mana accumulated around them. As the fairies began to hover around her, Peony sighed and waved the cold air away, "As I thought, you can hardly control your own emotions on your own, can you?"

"Hm? Of course I can." Malleus responded with a frown.

"Uh huh..." Peony raised a brow and gestured to her terrified people now hiding under her ponytail as closely as they could.

Seeing this, Malleus wore a look of offense and glared at her, "I can control my emotions just fine."

"What a blatant lie." Peony huffed, "You can't even control your own emotions around me. How can you control it when your retainers and granny aren't around? You even placed yourself into that place of your consciousness out of all the other possible places you could've gone to. I told you, only those lost and confused can venture there and I've been there and back plenty of times myself because my practice in mana is what makes me go there in the first place. You are there as a magician because your powers are too powerful. Naturally, you are placed there instead by instinct. If you keep this up, something worse can happen instead. For now, just stay in that spot until we're done."

"You-" Malleus scowled and folded his arms as he noticed her taking up a nearby dirty cloth. Malleus reached out and grabbed the cloth instead.

To their surprise, Malleus was trying to clean up the mess but, with his finger tips in such a state as well as not having done this often before, he messed up and accidentally spread the mess instead.

"Enough." Peony frowned and picked up the cloth but winced as it slipped out of her weak fingers.

The sylphs gathered around her in surprise and worry as one of them noticed her palm and nearly fainted. As Peony caught the fairy, Malleus frowned and reached out to her other hand with a swift move before she could pull it back. Malleus narrowed his eyes with traces of grave expression in his eyes, "What fire was that?"

"... Nirvana flame." Peony responded and pulled her hand back as she turned to place the fairy onto the bed, "It has the power to burn away anything ranging from rocks and life down to the ashes, blot and souls."

"Such a flame exists?" Malleus looked to her in bewilderment.

"It does." Peony responded, "It's just hard to come by... because it is one of its kind and only one creature possesses such a powerful fire."

"One such creature?" Malleus hummed, "So, you mean the Phoenix."

"It's the Vermillion Bird. It is one of its kind and even stronger than phoenixes." Peony explained, "If the phoenixes are the god of the birds, then the Vermillion bird is the primordial god of birds. Even phoenixes must pay respect to its existence."

"There's only one?" Malleus looked to her in confusion, "Then it must be an ancient creature. To think such an ancient creature formed a familiar pact with a human."

"The pact is special. It is one that is formed with the soul and not the body. When the body dies, the familiar will follow the soul they pact with to the next life. So, this one came with me to this life." Peony explained, "However, this is hard to achieve, because a familiar pact to these creatures called spiritual beasts are like a life of servitude that does not end. When the body dies, these creatures will enter a deep slumber until they are reborn into the next world and will awaken once the person awakens their magic to a certain level of power. Even now, the little bird was all it can muster under its slumber."

"So, it's still asleep." Malleus looked to her in deep thoughts, "Then, it must trust you well enough to form such a contract that others despise."

"Trust..." Peony muttered in deep thoughts as she hummed to herself, "Yes... They trust me, but so do I. Because, I've only reached this far with the help of others. I can say that I am smart or talented. I can even say that I am powerful. But, none of these can bring me to where I am today. It's meeting other people, creating and strengthening our bonds that actually brought me here. This is the bond called trust. In my country, we like to display this by calling these people we trust as 'our' people. This displays that the people, regardless of their status or circumstances, are people we have built a bond with. Their safety and well beings are also our responsibilities, likewise, we are also their people. They trust us and care about our well being. At times, this reference can even be one sided. At others, it may be for business purposes. However, the people you cherish and call as your people are people that you want to protect. To claim them as yours is to say that nobody is allowed to touch those you protect. Nowadays, the current cultivator society uses this to lay such claims like that rather than the former."

With her sigh, Malleus could see a hint of grief in her eyes as she continued masking that emotion, "The world of cultivators is very complicated. However, when one takes the time to study the order of society and social etiquette there, it would become much easier as they live amongst the people."

"So it must be experienced first hand, then." Malleus nodded, "It seems that it would be more immersive to take that option."

"Immersive perhaps, but dangerous for certain." Peony responded, "Because regardless of the rules of the society, only one rule stands above them all. Survival of the fittest. Only the strongest gets to make the rules and to prove that is to eliminate whoever is stronger than them till they reach the top. Your ally just an hour ago can turn around and feed you to the wolves the next if it benefits them. Hence, there is a term of a dog eat dog. To give up your own person to save your own hide, especially ones who trusted one another deeply one moment ago. Nothing is more important than reaching the top. Rather it is for glory, riches, power, or such desires, it is said that all can only be attained when the reach the top of the food chain. Compared to the society here, it is not difficult to say that it has taken primitive to another level when it comes to society."

Peony shook her head and pulled out another porcelain bottle and added softly under her breath, "However, a life's journey is long. By the time they reached the top, just how much will one have to lose to attain such a position? In the end, was it really worth it for them?"