The spell of Affection

Aluxio woke up first from the sun rays poking at his eyes and thought about closing the curtains.

He opened his eyes, saw Estoria's face, which seemed to be glowing in the sunlight; her cheeks had a natural red color to them, and her white porcelain skin was as soft as a newborn baby's. Her red lips had a bit more color than usual because of the swelling.

His head was lying on her chest, so they were extremely close to each other; Aluxio could feel her breath on his face.

Estoria's hand was resting on his head, and her fingers were tangled in his hair, as if she was petting his hair and fell asleep.

Her other hand was placed on his body, which wasn't on top of her, fortunately, or Estoria wouldn't be sleeping this comfortably right now.

Aluxio stared at her for a while, suddenly realized the time, and got up carefully but urgently.

Aluxio wanted to find Tyrion since he hadn't come to find him first. He looked back at Estoria for a little while longer, unable to part. He gave her a kiss on the forehead before leaving.

Aluxio detected Tyrion's mana nearby, so he sneakily went over and found himself in front of Eston's bedroom door.

Aluxio confusingly knocked on the door, and it took Tyrion strangely a long time to open the door, but he still seemed half asleep, and his clothes were a mess, not even bothering to button his shirt.

Aluxio didn't mean to peek into the room, but as he looked at Tyrion, his eyes also caught the sight of Eston lying in bed, and he was naked...

"Did you really sleep with Eston? In the same bed?" Aluxio asked hesitantly.

Tyrion had no reaction. He looked back once, replied with a nod, and closed the door on Aluxio.

Aluxio stood there staring at the door, dumbfounded and a little shocked.

Tyrion would never ever sleep in the same spot with another person. Even when they had to set camp outside, he would only share the same space with him, but he would never ever allow anyone to sleep with him.

Seeing Tyrion sleep in the same bed with Eston awakened Aluxio right up. He probably wouldn't be able to sleep for at least 3 whole days after this.

Tyrion took another long interval for him to finally come out, and they both went back not on time.

By the time Estoria woke up, there wasn't a single speck of Aluxio's mana left in the mansion. She even thought about it being a dream at first, but then she heard from Eston that Tyrion had indeed come to meet him late at night.

Estoria sulked for an entire day, and another, and another...

"How could he leave without waking me up first?" Estoria thought and sulked for an entirely...

And just when she was starting to get over it, Ria asked.

"Is something bothering you these days, Estoria?"

Ria had seen Estoria's expressionless face a lot ever since she had lost her memories, and somehow it got worse over the past few days. Her face looked dark and gloomy. Somehow, Ria wasn't sure if it was a mother's instinct, but she could tell something was bothering Estoria.

Estoria had come to ask Ria to teach her how to take control of her powers some days ago, and Estoria couldn't get her powers to come out at all. So Ria had thought that was the problem, but she still wanted to ask her.

Estoria thought about it for a bit. There was no way she could tell Ria the truth, so instead, she asked for some advice.

"How did you and Dad meet? Did you confess to him first?"

Ria's eyes shone brightly golden at the question. She completely forgot about everything else.

"It wasn't me; your Dad confessed to me first, and I rejected him," she told proudly.

And thus, she began to tell her whole love story for the entire day.

Ria had just run away from the dragons' realm when she met Isaac for the first time, and Isaac just ignored her that day.

He was just a student at the magic academy at the time, but he was considered a genius with a magnificent amount of mana for his age.

Ria was very interested in magic of humans since it was different from the usual powers of the dragons, so she would sneak into the academy with a disguise and attend the classes as well with the other students.

Ria didn't interact with the other students in case she would be blown out of cover, but she couldn't help crushing over Isaac Stallion.

The student who had most of the girls' hearts at the academy couldn't care less about them and busied himself with practice all the time, and he was hard to talk.

There was a whole crowd of girls and some boys who watched him practice every day, and there were many times girls came to talk to him, but Isaac had a record of never ever replying to a single girl.

He literally acted as if the other person didn't even exist.

Ria liked impossible challenges and Isaac even more, so she came over to talk with him every single day.

Isaac ignored her, obviously, but Ria was unfazed. She talked like there was no tomorrow; she just talked a lot...

They seemed like best friends to others, even if it was just Ria following him everywhere and doing all the talking. It had become natural for them to be together.

Today, Isaac was struggling with a spell; it was an easy one everyone else did in the class, but he couldn't do it and resigned himself to practice it after class.

All he had to do was place a seed in the soil and pour his mana into the soil for the seed to grow and sprout.

He tried over and over again; Ria watched him attentively until she couldn't take it anymore.

"You shouldn't do it so forcefully! Try to be more natural; it's not a difficult spell, but you're treating it like one. That's why it's so difficult for you to just do it! Watch me do it." Ria took the seed from his hand and placed it in the soil. After covering it, she placed her hand on top of it, and instantly a sprout popped out of the ground.

Isaac watched seriously, but he looked cute in Ria's eyes, so she wasn't upset about him not saying anything right now but then...

"How do I do it naturally?" Isaac spoke.

Ria paused for a good while, broke into a wide grin, and took his hand, placed it on the soil.

"Look at me and don't think about anything; just follow my lead and send your mana with mine into the ground," Ria said, looking at Isaac.

Isaac stared at her as told and followed her lead.

"Look, the sprout grew a flower!" Ria happily exclaimed.

Isaac didn't respond; Ria took it as him ignoring her again and sighed in her heart.

"At least the flower is pretty..." She mumbled.

"Hmm," Isaac replied.

Ria looked at him in surprise and was even more surprised when she saw him. Isaac was still staring at her, with unmovable, red eyes.

Did he even look at the flower? Ria thought.

The other students also stared at them, holding hands, staring at each other with loving eyes and knew it was over.