Legacy World 2.8 It's Noisy

Since this was her final night sparring with Violet and Stephan, she spent more time sparring with them. Still not trusting Stephan to be alone with Alice, they made it a doubles match after her spar with Violet. The improved relationship and chemistry between Stephan and Violet made it harder to defend against their attacks and attack them. However, the lead couple could not gain much of an advantage over Ethan and Alice either. They already shared good chemistry and their abilities were tricky and flexible in nature. Alice's improvement was what levelled the playing field somewhat. As a result, they were caught in a stalemate for almost the entire hour.

Ethan sent a tidal wave that travelled a lot faster than what would happen in nature. Alice covered his blind spots in the meantime. At the same time, a loud crack suddenly rang throughout the hall. Recognising the sound, Ethan's head snapped up and found the black cloud right above Alice. His body reacted before he could think. He propelled himself towards Alice. At the speed he had to go, Alice's neck would have snapped if she was not ready to be swept away by the wind, so his only choice was to personally get her himself. When he reached her, he wrapped his arms around her with one hand supporting her neck. A loud explosion filled the battle hall and deafened everyone present. The smell of char wafted into everyone's noses. Ethan kept Alice enveloped in his embrace a few feet away from the blackened and smoking ground, where the lightning struck. His heart pounded violently from her close shave with death. Ethan loosened his hold around Alice then pushed her loose hair out of her face gently. "You okay?" He whispered.

Alice separated herself from Ethan by taking a step back. "Thank you." She whispered, with her eyes glued to the singed ends of his blazer.

"No need." He then admitted their loss for the other two to hear. "It's our loss."

Violet finally recovered from her shock and pouted. "Stephan, that's not fair of you." This was the strongest attack Stephan had ever used in a sparring match.

Stephan merely shrugged. "All's fair in war."

Violet punched his arm. "Firstly, this isn't war. Secondly, what would have happened to Alice if Ethan did not save her on time?"

"Well... She wouldn't die..." Stephan averted his gaze but could feel Violet's glare on him. After a while, he sighed lightly then faced Alice to apologise. "Sorry, I got too excited and carried away trying to win." He smiled wryly.

Alice shook her head to show that she did not mind.

"Speaking of which, this was probably the best and most fun match we ever had!" Stephan glowed with satisfaction.

Violet shook her head but agreed with him. "I have to say, it really is the most exciting so far."

Alice and Ethan nodded in agreement.

"This is a great match for a last one." Violet continued sadly. "Alice, let's hang out some time?"

Alice was prepared to reject her but the words stopped at her throat when she felt a fierce glare on her.

/BaoBao, is he glaring at me?/

[Very much so.]

"Of course, don't we see each other for lunch?" Alice tried to reject in a roundabout manner.

"I meant besides lunch. There is an upcoming school event for Christmas! It is in around 2 months time. How about we meet up for that?" Violet proposed.

Feeling an intense gaze on her, Alice nodded curtly.

Ethan smiled. He was now in a good mood. He liked that he had the chance to spend time leisurely with Alice.

Everyone called it a night and went their separate ways. They no longer tailed Alice as they were convinced that she was now strong enough to at least secure an escape route for herself.

The next day, Alice had lunch with the same people under the plum blossom tree.

Ever since Leah's friendship with Violet stabilised, she no longer bothered with Alice in class. She did not worry about Alice ratting her out because Alice had never bothered with anything. So, Alice had only been seeing Leah during lunch as well. Again, Ethan was the only one who noticed that Leah no longer even spared Alice a glance.

While the girls happily chatted with each other, Ethan covertly looked at Alice as usual. The sun rays filtered through the leaves and shone on her, illuminating her features, highlighting the blue in her hair, and lighting up the golden specks in her eyes. After around 2 months of eating together and observing her, he had long noticed how the golden specks hidden in her grey eyes would appear every time it catches the sunlight. Today was no different.

Suddenly, Leah directed the conversation towards him. Besides Alice's especially cold and nonchalant attitude towards Leah, this was the other reason why Ethan did not have a good feeling about her. Every time he began to admire Alice's unassuming beauty, he would be interrupted by Leah. He only continued to respond politely for Violet's sake.

/This girl is really friendly with Violet./

[Is there something wrong with it?] BaoBao asked.

Alice silently looked at Leah with a contemplative gaze in her eyes. After a while, she returned her gaze back to her food and wondered. /How do they keep talking? They meet everyday./

[According to the history of everything they have talked about, topics span from studies to current affairs to making plans to personal stories to gossip... Oh, sometimes they even talk about the weather.]

/What a bother. Too much noise./

BaoBao giggled a little. He had not noticed it but he had actually grown accustomed to Alice's silence. So, this constant chatter was indeed a little noisy for BaoBao's preference too. He had been curious about how long Alice would be able to tolerate it and she finally said it.

Alice was fed up. She had been waiting for the day when they would forget about her and peace and quiet would return again. However, they kept returning to her spot under the tree.

[Maybe you should find somewhere else to eat.] BaoBao finally internalized Alice's attitude about not getting too attached to the main characters of the book. He was disappointed in how easily they neglected Alice once Leah entered the picture.

/I'll probably look for a new spot after this. I can't keep having my appetite spoiled by having so much noise around./

Just as Ethan managed to kill the conversation by giving curt and short replies, his heart became very unsettled. He looked at Alice. She had an incredibly bored look on her face and was picking at her spaghetti without making any move to eat it. They were seated in almost a circle while she sat slightly out of it with her back against the tree. Although nothing was different, Ethan could not help but feel like she suddenly felt very distant and cut off from the group.

He stood up, wanting to sit beside her, but Alice happened to get up at the same time. Their sudden movement done totally in sync with each other completely captured the other three's attention. Alice and Ethan were individually surprised by each other too.

"What happened?" Violet asked.

"I'm done eating, I'm leaving." Alice bade them goodbye and left without waiting for their response.

Before Violet recovered from her surprise, Ethan also said, "I was done with mine too. I also have to get something done, so I won't be joining the three of you for the rest of the day." He felt panicky. Somehow, he felt like if he let her go now, he would lose her. At this moment, their still ongoing daily night practices was completely forgotten.

When he turned to leave, Violet suddenly asked, "You won't?"

This made him freeze in his steps. He frowned deeply and gritted his teeth. As he looked at Alice's receding figure, his heart yearned to chase after her, yet there was a force in his body that compelled him to stick to Violet as if that was the most natural thing to do.

"Ethan? Are you okay? You've been weird for the past few months." Violet touched his hand.

His body relaxed and a soothing force swept over his heart. At the same time, a small part of it throbbed strongly as if to fight off that soothing balm. "I'm fine. I'll find you once I'm done with what I have to handle." He croaked out.

Violet seemed satisfied and returned to talk to Leah. Leah responded in kind but her attention was covertly on Ethan. She noticed how his taut body relaxed at Violet's touch so she knew that Violet held a special spot in his heart. Burning jealousy filled her heart but not a bit of it was shown on her smiling face.

Ethan walked briskly in an effort to catch up to Alice. Upon reaching her, he asked, "Where are you going to?"

"Back to my room." Alice replied in a flat tone.

Ethan was unconvinced. "I'll walk you there then."

"Why?"

"I've nothing else to do."

Alice stared at him wordlessly. That was no what he told them a few moments ago. Not wanting to change her plans to fit him, she admitted, "Follow if you want then. I'm just strolling around school."

Ethan smiled. He could tell that she was being honest now. "Is there anything you're looking for? I can help you. I'm familiar with the school grounds." Ethan never thought that the aimless wandering around school grounds that Leah put him through with the others would become of use. They had discovered some nice hidden spots that hardly anyone knows of nor visit.

"Somewhere nice and quiet."

He thought of the places that he went to with the other three but felt that none of them would suit Alice. Suddenly, his personal favourite popped up in his mind. He liked going there whenever he felt down, so he was sure that she would like it too. "I know a place."

Alice raised her eyebrows. Her search was far easier than she predicted. "Looks like I'll drop by my room after all."

Ethan nodded and gestured for her to lead the way.

When he saw her come out of her room with study materials, he asked her while leading the way to his private hideout. "What else do you do in the afternoon before our night practices?"

"Some physical training."

"In addition to you keeping your ability activated the whole day?" He had already noticed it. Ever since she improved her endurance and control over altering the state of her element, she no longer maintained an imperceptible water barrier around her. Instead, she expanded it to cover a large radius around her. It was also so well maintained that unsuspecting people would not feel a difference in the air. They would step into her attacking range and could get killed without knowing a thing.

Alice nodded.

Ethan smiled gently. /There is really no one who can match up to her./

He circled around the large field that had the plum blossom tree to avoid the three people who were still there, then brought her through the canteen, and through a small walkway in the far corner of the canteen. Finally, they reached a dead end. A tall stretch of plain grey wall stood imposingly before them. Along it was a dark, gloomy, narrow, and abandoned back lane.

/Was I mistaken to trust his taste of a nice place?/ Alice wondered to herself.

[I think what he's referring to is the place that lies beyond the wall.]

/Huh?/

At the same time, Ethan spoke. "We have to jump now."

Alice eyes widened a little in surprise.

"You'll be able to make it with your skill. This place is secretive because only a handful of people still work on their physical skills and only a few people could use their abilities to fly." Ethan smiled then jumped up easily with a little help from his wind. He stood on the top of the wall that reached as high as the third floor of a building to wait for Alice. He stretched his hand down to her, worried that the height was still a little beyond her capability.

Unbeknownst to him, his guess was accurate. Alice was sure that she could not reach him without the use of her spiritual energy. She gathered all the spiritual energy she could into her legs, then jumped and reached for Ethan's outstretched hand.