Chapter 17 :Bonds and pacts

Nobe's cooking is the best. I expected his noodles to be basic, you know, like what restaurants or food joints serve but no. This dude cooks to perfection. When he finished cooking, he brought the noodles to the bedroom, I asked him why we can't just eat from the kitchen and responded.

"we're doing the bedroom warming party first, then the kitchen warming party."

Naturally me not knowing what the hell he meant by those just went on with it, he then placed the bowls on the stand and proceeded to claim the bed to the right as his and with me having no issues took that to the left.

Picking our bowls, he decided to give me the first bite. Naturally I did, I could already smell the chill before even taking a bite and it seemed to me like it was going to taste bad because I couldn't smell anything else but the chili.

Placing an ample amount in my mouth, I slurped it in and begun lightly chewing as I rolled my tongue around, at first, I could faintly taste the chili, which was odd but then I began to taste the beef ant then a whole bunch of other spices and finally I could fully taste the chili that then washed away everything else.

Finishing the first bite, I looked a Nobe who hasn't begun eating yet. "So? How is it?" he asked with an expectant expression on his face, it looked like he is already aware of how good his cooking is.

"Tasted better." With that brief reply I continued eating. Staring at me dumfounded then confused and finally in fear he shouted, "Are you one of those unfortunate souls who can't taste?"

It was a weird claim since I said, and I quote 'Tasted better.' Looking at an idiot I put the bowl down and looked at him, "How the hell did you reach that conclusion?"

"You know I'm a time user, right?"

"Yes."

"Then you should also know I'm from the house of time, right?"

"Figured as much, why?"

With a sigh Nobe gave up and looked at me pity. Utterly confused I asked, "What does you coming from the house of time have to do with your cooking?" and instead of responding with an answer he responded with a question of his own.

"What does you coming from the house of space have to do with hair?"

I don't know if I mentioned it, but the house of space has an addition to a lot of things and being an adept hairstylist of some renown barbers are part of those addictions, in short, we have skill second to none when it comes to hair. Applying the same logic to the house of time and what Nobe just said I realized what he meant.

Just like the house of space, the other houses have their fair share of additions and skills the excel in. normally I would have known what he meant but the skills of the other houses didn't interest me until now.

With a laugh and then a sigh I responded, "So you're telling me that most of the famous chefs in utopia are time users?"

"Why do you think the population speculate about their element and why they never reveal it?" and he responded with a smug grin as he begun eating and while his mouth was full, he continued "You must either be unable to taste or just have some rare condition to call a time user's food basic, or you just wanna start a fight."

After that I apologized and admitted that his cooking was good, he just smiled and pushed me to eat. In truth I did feel kind of bad because of someone came to me for a haircut and then later tell me it's trash, I'm sending that guy to the void. And because of that now owed Nobe a favor, which I made sure he remembers by placing a symbol of broken crown on his left forearm.

"Why a broken crown though?" he asked as he looked at the symbol of a cracked and broken crown drawn on his skin like a tattoo. He seemed to like the symbol despite his question.

"Not sure you know this, but every element has a symbol, for time it's a clock and anything related to one, the same goes for other elements. But for space, since there isn't a defined symbol on our 4th birthday our parents must give us a unique symbol to mark our existence, it's practically a ritual and the broken faded crown is mine." I then took off my shirt and pointed at my heart.

"I don't see anything." Nobe looked at me confused and in which I responded, "I haven't allowed you to." Infusing mana to my chest, more specifically where my heart is, I groaned in slight pain as the symbol of a fading broken crown slowly drew itself. As it did, it borrowed into my skin drawing blood, Nobe looked like he wanted me to stop but it already finished.

Once it finished it flashed silver and begun glowing with a sliver hue coming out of it. "Each symbol has a specific meaning behind it, we are never told what that meaning is as we have to find out ourselves as we grow." After a while the symbol faded and so did the mark on my chest, just leaving the blood it brought out, "Every member of the house of space has a different symbol. The symbol has many uses once we get strong enough to actually use them but I'm able to use two of its functions and one of those functions is on your arm right now."

With a wave of my hand the blood on my chest vanished as I put on my shirt. "Dam man, that's deep and I don't mean the wound." Nobe chuckled at his own joke while I just smiled at it. "I also have one of those although it plays a different role and it's kinda different." Nobe continued as he rolled up his right sleeve.

Just like mine, I couldn't see anything yet. Looking at Nobe who seemed to want me to ask what he asked, I sighed and asked sarcastically "I don't see anything." With a triumphant smile he started his rubbish which went in one ear and out the other.

After feeling happy, Nobe then infused and surrounded his entire right arm with mana. From his shoulder till his wrist, a tattoo of a chain wrapped around his arm as if it was a snake, during its formation, the time on the black wrist band begun to move randomly from 3 am to 12 pm instantly until the chain fully formed. Once the chain reached his upper wrist it moved straight and begun to form a circle on his upper hand, that circle soon turned into a sort of pocket watch that encompassed hi entire upper hand, once the clock was formed five more chains sprouted from it in different directions, each chain moving to a finger and then stopped.

"I don't have a name for this clock thing on me yet, but it's main function is to maintain my time flow, without it I could randomly become an adult version of myself or a baby version of myself. It has more functions but I'm too weak to actually use them and this isn't its actual form, apparently it's supposed to be an actual chain and clock forming on my hand and it's meant to be part of my body."

I was honestly surprised by the sight of such a thing forming on his hand, I couldn't even begin to imagine the uses my symbol has not to even bother mentioning his. Nobe looked at me and asked for my left hand, showing it to him, the roman numeral of the number 12 formed on my lower forearm (XII).

"That symbolizes the start and end of a day as well as the half point of one, in short the symbol for when we first met aka friendship, the half point of our friendship and the subsequent end of that friendship"

"So, in short a bond?"

"Yes, our little pact. Just like how you trust me with your symbol I shall trust you with one of mine."

Although this felt rushed, I don't really have a lot of friends or people I can trust so I won't argue. Looking up to Nobe and his fading clock thing, I smiled and said, "This is very cringe."

With an award smile, Nobe laughed and said "Yeah very"

"Let's just sleep."

With a nod Nobe entered his bed, "Your turn off the lights though."

And with that a cringe moment was killed. Well, it wasn't really cringe I was tired and wanted to sleep 'cringe' was my only excuse and I'm sure Nobe knew that to. And with that our bond was made, he woke and finished his noodles though and so did I.