24

Aero had long-term plans, vague they were he had them. he knew he must come up with the details to make them possible but he didn't know what details he needed or how to find them. he knew to make it to that point he must ask for help. something that stung for him, the intensity of that sting deepened on who he was asking. his mother was in first place with the least intense sting, the helper was approaching the second place, and Adir was in last place. even lower than people he hasn't met yet.

was he being a little unfair to the man, probably did aero care. not at all!

"what are things I need as a lord, like skill, items, financially?" aero asked the helper as he feed the creature that pulled his cart three days after he returned to his home.

'beside your growing skill leading, you will need people that follow you, people you can trust with certain duties! all the lord before you have built groups of there own design, like the lord of greed, she built a company to help her!' aero nodded you couldn't be everywhere at once as far as he knew. a cool trick but might not be the most useful one.

heading back into the house Aero thought on the helper's advice,' i guess making a group of my own wouldn't be that bad. fewer people questioning me!' he smiled at the thought, it would be great people to work with. 'i can't put out a team request flyer,' it wasn't unusual for hunters to work together. so it wasn't strange that people wished to put together formal teams.

this usually happened two ways! one they put out a flyer and people answer to it allowing them to pick from those who responded. the other method was calling people out by name and asking them.

aero didn't want to deal with the flood of people sure to answer, not worth his time. but the other option was also as impossible as he didn't remember many people's names, didn't feel like most people were worth the effort of remembering! maybe this was borderline arrogant or straight-up mean, but it was aero.

if you showed him that you were worth the effort of remembering he wouldn't forget you ever! if that was a good thing or not was completely up to you! few people have ever made it into his memory, currently, a few of them were hunters he wanted to work with.

"Ugh!" he groaned as he realized he should probably still think if he wanted them on his team or something. 'do they all need to be combatants?'

'if that is what you so wish every person who follows you can fight!' aero tough on the matter before deciding that it wouldn't be required but would be appreciated. pulling out a scroll aero started putting his though on paper. it was pretty basic, mostly focused on combat things but it was a beginning.

"well I guess I should start writing though letters," he really wasn't looking forward to this. 'but it must be done,' that thought he repeated anytime his pride caused his hands to still as he wrote the letters and sent them off a few days later. he wasn't expecting any kind of response any time soon, 'if they respond at all!' he made an upset noise before pushing his breath out and changing course to someone's house.

he wanted to check on the village's newest writer before heading to the library for a lesson. the guy was currently studying the writing style of other authors popular and not. so he was going through quite a few scrolls, impressive that he had time to do that while watching his child. "you doing oh so well!" aero praised the man adjusting his hold on the child. they were absolutely fascinated with his face, he wasn't sure why his face was good but not that interesting.

"I'm gonna ask you to stop," the child's actions were both annoying and cute, "I am very serious," he stated when they continued pulling at his face. "okay I'm going to stop that here," the man was quick to retrieve his child giving them a jell to swallow.

"I don't hit children," aero informed the man. he wasn't the first person to make that mistake, what was the point in attacking something like children. he prided his skill too much to use them against a child. "okay!" that made it clear the man didn't comply believe him, which honestly stung aero a bit. was his reputation that bad.

'well that's just another reason to calm down my public violence,' aero thought to himself as he headed over to the library. he found Tova was reading to some children, he hung back for the moment. going to find some scroll to read for himself while she read to the entirety of the kids. for 8 petals. "quite the story you gave them," he heard her approach but didn't look up from the story he was reading, he was definitely taking it home with him. along with the sequel!

"yeah it was nice," she made a nervous and strange movement before calming down," today's lesson I think will be about disguises methods. the one I use i-"

"that's not what you really look like?!" he remembered she was from a different planet but it hadn't occurred to him that would affect the way she looked. she blinked at him for a moment, "did you think this is what I really look like?"

"no!" not anymore at least he wasn't going to say any more than that and Tova knew enough about Aero that his pride had been struck by his own nativity.

"anyway the disguises method is something pretty common, mostly used by those who don't want to stand out on a planet. because no matter how open the planet becomes, the original race will likely still be the most dominant, and some places can be very weird about people standing out. it's something also used by famous people when they got out in public."

"so other lord have' used it?" Tova nodded, "but every disguise methods have its flaws, one of the most common is that you can't completely change your energy signature. it's simply how things are, so those sensitive enough can't be fooled." aero hummed determined to become more sensitive to people energy signatures. he would not be fooled.

Aero listen for a flower as Tova went over hundred and hundred of disguise methods, all using different types of technical, energy manipulation, and straight-up clothing. his head was spinning a bit when he stepped out of the library, with a few scrolls under his arms he took a moment to rest and get his thought in order. 'i don't have to worry about that until I leave the planet.'

going how he thought about how he was supposed to get off the planet, a previous session explained how dangerous it was to achieve space travel, even the more advanced planets had problems with it to this day. 'need to manipulate the atmosphere,' this was one thing that he's been focusing on. not only would that be useful with combat as well as space.

for what the helper was able to calculate the ability to manipulate the atmosphere started with 35 note melody. aero knew melodies up to 15, the most completed were usually around twenty. these people got taken to a healer from using.

'either need to improve my body or find a way to lower the note count...no wait I can just do both...aren't melodies just a way to manipulate energy?' he remembered the helper stating this, he directs the question towards the helper who quickly responded that is the truth, aero ask if it's possible to mix it with other energy manipulation methods.

'as long as you plan to mix the same type of energy, mixing energies is risky business. explosive mostly,' they didn't vocalize it was a matter of skill knowing that would likely start a fire under the young lord. maybe in a few hundred years, but for now they ran the energy equation to find out the best method to use along with the music, 'don't they dance as well.' they had no data on that so they disregarded the matter, except for a note to ask for data collection.

the next day the helper makes that request, aero paused where he's working out his feeling toward what he thinks is the helper's presence in his mind. "that's not an easy request but I know how to complete it," there wasn't a real reason to deny helping them learn this knowledge. thinking he knew of two situations that dance would happen, incredible natural disaster. or big shows, like the eclipse festive something that won't happen until aero is twenty-six.

"Ugh!" he groaned as he realized the option that was open to him, " I have to fill out so much paperwork," becoming a hunter caple of dancing in tune with a melody. 'well I should be a good challenge to learn and what could people say to that' more that he thought about the question the more excited he got about the matter. learning to dance would be something truly to be proud of.

"now how do I tell my mother?" as far as he knew the classes were at least four weeks long, and definitely weren't held anywhere near his hometown. might need to rent a room, definitely going to earn more money before that happens. 'i'm going to burn through a bit of my savings,' he struck the tree extra hard in agitation he just finished recovering from buying the cart. 'could I sleep in the cart?' Nah that wouldn't work long term, too many people would get in his business and he would lose control and drop them.

'to prevent such a certainty I need to rent a room,' finishing his training Aero headed for the main station, he need to request something. "hello!" he smiled at the woman behind the desk. he probably should have felt something when she jumped besides being slightly amused. he doesn't recall fighting her in the slightest but probably got violent in front of her before. at least she wouldn't try something with him." I need to request some form!" she worked fast as she could to get him out of the building.

After filling out the necessary forms to request the information and form that he wanted aero left the building heading straight to the hunter building to look at some missions with good rewards. there were a few that he could quickly complete, so he took all four. 'lot of traveling in my future.' he should go over his supplies and make sure he wouldn't be in trouble with all that traveling. counting onward after that he had his lesson with Tova before talking to his mother about his plans.

during the entire short conversation, he didn't take his eyes off Neora but didn't do any more than that while his mother was in the room. he did start cleaning his clothes for the trip. the water was cold but he didn't bother as he scrubbed at the new and old stains in his clothing. not that they were very notable, the dark shades he wore hide the blood stains very well.

several days of work passed before aro was ready to head off, "okay!" he dropped the final bag of food into the back of the cart, mentally checking everything he patted himself on the back. got everything he need and had orders in to replace the supplies he using, they would arrive before he returned. "all that's left is saying goodbye, then you can continue that story about pirates." the helper hummed in agreement before.

aero has never heard of pirates, or anything close. they had the rare bandit but only in large groups or they wouldn't survive the wilderness. they were usually some really desperate people, not that there was anything notable about these groups as they never lasted long.

"see you in about four weeks, if things go well at least, but shouldn't be more than six weeks." there was a little reason he should be that late anyway, the mission didn't have anything that would cause him much trouble and he was definitely going to scout before engaging the mission. 'i will not repeat that mistake.' holding his mother close until he saw her again aero climbed on his carriage and started directing it south.

when he cleared the town the helper started on the story, '-it its okay men women others! as we head into the storm-" it was a calm first day as he drove south. it was pretty far south, it would be four days of traveling through the entire day and party at night. which was risky as more creatures were active during the night, but tended to ignore sleeping people. some people said they were smart enough to notice what would invite trouble.

the second day was as uneventful as the first, 'the weather's changing!' Aero noticed past half-day at the change in the clouds, how they glowed with energy and lighting darkening with the weight of their loads. 'that a storm and I beat some had put the zaltes of storms in a bad mood. her story was an interesting one, I mean who doesn't like someone who caught a bolt of lighting to throw it at their rival. just to prove a point, Aero saw some similarities between them but wouldn't speak on them.

'my cart's storm ready so I should be fine,' but he was still going to grab his storm cloak. lighting rain and stones weren't something he wanted to face on the road unprepared, bad weather on Augustine came in lighting form, flooding rains, or stones falling from the sky. the last was actually not the worse, the floods were. you could easily prepare for falling stones by reinforcing roofs and hoods but the water that so much harder to defend against it, it was impossible to predict it or how much force will be behind it.

Aero was relieved to find the weather was mostly lighting, something pretty easy to deal with. it made a nice backdrop, and aero could appreciate the beautiful danger of nature.