The Thoughts Of The Heart

"I win."

Asher grinned victoriously right after dodging Aurora's attack.

Bang.

At roughly the same time he did so, the ice daggers fired at Aurora's teammates exploded even as they utilized their various blocking or dodging techniques. A strange mental pressure erupted from the centre of the blast and latched onto the targets.

Because of the size of the ice daggers and to keep them hidden from the senses of his opponents, Asher had only applied a tiny bit of mental pressure in the form of a spell formation onto them. Although it was small, it was still powerful enough to slow his targets down for a second and in worse cases, freeze them on the spot for the same duration. While one second sounded too little, in a battle such as this, a second mattered a lot.

"Ahh!"

Three of the weaker students in Aurora's group, one of which was the loudmouth kid, were forced to a halt for a second and so couldn't react to the ice shards that formed from the explosion of the daggers. More than seven pieces of ice shards were buried into each of their flesh and worse of all, the cold from the little shards began to rapidly spread through their body. Within just three seconds, they fell to the floor gripping themselves while shivering.

As for the other three in the team, they only slowed down a bit and by relying on their skill and strength, they forcefully dodged the shards albeit they still got pierced by one or two of them. Nonetheless, the damage from those one or two shards was seemingly negligible and incomparable compared to their shivering teammates.

"I told you all. Just myself alone is enough."

Asher stood up confidently with his back as straight as a spear and his gaze as intimidating as an emperor's overlooking his subjects.

"You…" Aurora began to lose her composure.

This was the first time she had tasted a loss. Ever since she was born, she had everything she wanted. Whether it be toys, resources, wealth, land, or even people's lives. All she had to do was just ask, and her father would give it to her.

Blessed with a heavenly constitution and physique while wielding control over two powerful elements, Aurora was destined for greatness. Even her twin sister who was born alongside her seemed to have a weaker light compared to herself. As a result, Aurora had never met a match, much less one who could not only take her on but also six others at the same time. What's more, this person was a null.

"You…I am going to kill you." Aurora glared at Asher, lightning flashing occasionally between her eyes.

Lyn, who stood off in the distance, frowned as she noticed what was happening. She wanted to step in but felt that she might incur her younger sister's wrath[1] so she remained where she was.

'I hope you can live through this. Otherwise…' Lyn thought as she felt her heart go into turmoil.

She already resolved that if things went too far, she would step in and put an end to the fight.

Others thought that she was unwilling to gang up on Asher along with her sister, as both of them individually were already very powerful, much more together. However, the truth was close but yet far from that. Lyn refused to join the battle not because she found it beneath her to gang up on someone, but because she had feelings for Asher and only she knew the truth.

This began roughly five years back. At that time, it was her ninth birthday and the king had hosted a grand celebration for a whole week. Since it was for a week, duke Darius had no reason not to attend and it wasn't a wise move to do so when considering his clan's situation. So two days after celebrating Asher's birthday, he travelled to the capital to join the event. Surprisingly, Asher had gone along with him. It was then that Lyn set her eyes on Asher for the very first time.

. . .

"Hey, what are you doing here?"

While the party was going on, little Lyn had sneaked away to one of the back gardens of the palace. She wasn't a fan of crowds and had already got tired of meeting so many esteemed figures during this period. Even if she was a genius, she was still a nine-year-old.

This garden was one of the less frequented ones and was often ignored by members of the royal family. This was because of a rumor-turned-truth that the waters were cursed as no fish could survive within the lake in the garden, but due to the history of the garden, it wasn't demolished by the king.

As a result, it became easy for Lyn to turn the garden into her little hideout since no one bothered to come here. However, she suddenly found a young boy of her age standing before the lake and staring at it with full concentration. Even though she couldn't be said to be completely versed with the family tree of the Castellans, Lyn was pretty sure that this boy wasn't a part of the familiar. This was because he lacked the usual blonde hair and had hair as white as snow instead.

"What am I doing here?" The boy repeated the question as he turned around.

"I wanted to take a look at the fishes."

He pointed at the lake.

"You, you can see them?" Lyn widened her eyes in shock.

Maybe because she was shocked or she was too young, but Lyn had failed to notice the flash in the boy's eyes after her reaction.

"Of course." The white-haired boy replied as a matter of fact.

Suddenly, Lyn felt her world brighten up.

She had always been called weird whenever she mentioned seeing fishes in the lake and this led to some thinking she had mental problems, including her maids. Having found a fellow kindred, someone who could see what she could, Lyn was thrilled and finally felt that she wasn't alone in this world.

In the end, Lyn stayed a few hours with the boy chatting on different topics ranging from the fishes to her life in the palace and so on before the boy left.

However, little Lyn didn't know a thing about his identity and got interested in it. It took her a couple of months later to find out the identity of the young boy; Asher Wyss Arnhaunt, duke Darius' son as well as her birthday mate.

Due to various reasons such as distance and political stances as well as her status, Lyn was unable to meet with him again but that first impression from the day they met stuck with her.

Occasionally, when the Castellans had something to do in Red Maple province, she would tag along if possible just to get a glimpse of the boy. Sometimes, she succeeded and would go home with a smile on her face albeit a tad sad that she wasn't able to strike up a conversation. Most times, she didn't manage to find him and would be down although she managed to hide it with her cold outlook.

With time, her interest in Asher had developed into something else.

. . .

Lyn became glad when she realized that Asher would be applying to study in the First Dawn academy just like her and would also do some in the same year as her, leading to the both of them being in the same division. Although she wasn't allowed to relate to him, having to see him every day was something that made her happy and satisfied, even though it was just a little.

When she found out he was a null, she was sad for him but couldn't do much as she was under constant surveillance by mages from the palace. It was only during this exercise that she was finally 'free' and had decided to find Asher one way or the other for a part two of their first conversation.

Now her wish had come true, albeit not as Lyn had expected. She was currently torn on whom to side with, but Lyn hoped that Asher would make it out alive and if possible, unhurt. Even if it would irritate her sister or cause the rift between the two of them to widen, Lyn had already decided to protect Asher if things get too heated for him.

'No matter what, I won't let any harm come to you.'

[1] Of the two twins, Lyn is the older one, but due to her weaker abilities, she takes on a lower rank between them.

AN : I didn't talk much about Lyn's emotions and how they grew because I didn't want to drive the current flow of the story away from its main focus, the battle (PS: The backstory could take a whole chapter or more). The backstory would be left for another chapter.