A Story Of How He Became The Man I Will Always Love [Part 4]

Some time ago, I had regained consciousness and had found myself in the school's medical room. Next to my bed, lay the prince, who was already awake. A nurse had come into the room followed by the principal, who sat on one of the chairs near the doctor's desk.

The school principal was well known amongst the students and the teachers, as a very jolly fellow. It was an odd sight to see him joking or smiling, because his attitude did not match with the powerful aura he gave away. From the perspective of a regular onlooker, the principal was just a normal man with a large body and we too used to think the same. It all changed, when we grew up, and began sensing other people's magical aura. Some of the students grasped the concept first, and the weight of the energy around them began to weigh down upon them as a burden. Slowly, they would get less and less carefree and even stopped participating in the classrooms. One by one the class had gone silent, in that year when we newly began to detect aura. Although everyone was old enough to get used to it, and go about their lives as usual, we would still feel the immense pressure around those people who particularly had larger reserves of mana compared to the rest. The principal was one such person. He deliberately turned off his mana concealer, and would expose the students to the immense pressure of his mana so that we could all get used to it. Even now, when me and the prince were injured, he was not holding back.

"Well then I'll be stepping outside for now."

The nurse squeaked, as she left the room quickly.

"Where's Aarin?"

This was my first question. Aarin had been in a more injured state than me, and she was a commoner with very little defense magic. A strong hatred filled my chest, as I remembered the entire scene unfolding in my memories again.

"I understand that you are angry, Laiba Turbinis Vasti. Please find condolences in the fact that Adem will be properly punished for his actions. Aarin is safe and doing well. She was admitted to the hospital and is being taken care of by the best bioinformaticians."

The principal said, in a low voice. Then he turned towards the prince.

"I have also seen your act of bravery, Aedin Dominum, for standing to protect the dignity of a fellow student, even against the values your house upholds. For that act, I have arranged the proper procedures to elect you as the next student council president. This verdict is final, and nobody amongst the students and teachers will be able to change it. Thankyou for your bravery."

I felt at ease knowing that Aarin was safe, but I still wanted to talk to her. Should I VRCall her? I tried to sit straight, and log into my cloud computer, but realised my hand was fractured, something I hadn't realised up until then. Also, my neck was plastered in a metal tube like thing, with multiple small chips attached to them, various small bulbs attached to them.

"What is this!?"

"It'll be okay. Your entire skeletal structure is safe and you'll recover within a week. This device is the latest state of the art correction device that monitors the entire body and the nervous system. Nothing to be afraid of."

Then Aedin spoke, slowly and regretfully.

"I don't remember anything after being struck by Adem. I was not strong enough to stop him. Did the teachers stop him before he caused too much trouble?"

"It seems you do not know, young man."

The principal waved his hand and showed Aedin the cut scene of his fireball throwing Adem away, through the wall.

"Do you doubt your strength? Ofcourse, if you want to thank anyone, it should be Miss Laiba. She increased the attack power of that fireball exponentially, thanks to her quick thinking."

Aedin's eyes filled with bewilderment, as he saw the fireball inflating in size and intensity. Then he looked at me, shocked.

"It's got to be oxygen. Did you really do that?"

"I had to. Otherwise you wouldn't have budged."

I smiled, slightly disappointed at missing the chance of directly asking Aedin his name. Still, this was also a nice start to our friendship, I wondered. I was surprised that although Aedin had fought more than me, his body was in a much better state than mine.

"It seems to me as if you two have learned something more important than any lesson. I am glad there is something good that came out of it all. Well then, I will now take my leave. Your teachers will help you out with the missed lessons."

Once the principal had left, both Aedin and I took a sigh of relief. His aura had been pressing down on us and had almost created an environment of suffocation.

"I wonder what they'll do with Adem now."

"Nothing, to answer fairly."

"What? Why?"

I was shocked at Aedin's reply, and directed my frustration towards him.

"His father was appointed as the Chief of Radioactive Staff only today. The school has the right to discipline students, but knowing the Bodies family and their arrogance, they'll try deescalating the whole thing without losing their authoritative symbol in the face of students. The school can't really spank any student in the first place so there's nothing too much to expect."

"Aaarr, I hate Adem so much!"

Aedin laughed as he looked at me.

"You're really strong. I mean, I saw you fight, and those invisible wind blades could be a real problem you know. Be proud of yourself, Laiba."

"Ohhh? You think? So.. against your fireball and my wind blades, which wins?"

"Hmmm? You're strong Laiba, but don't think you can win against me."

We continued our jests for a few hours and Aedin told me how he had trained really hard to grow stronger, in order for his family to regain their position as the number one and I had told him to first fight me.

"Surely you're not forgetting that to be number one, you'll have to first beat number two and number three, right?"

"Let's spar once our injuries are healed, okay?"

I accepted Aedin's challenge, and after recovering, the day came when we both went to the sparring ground after school. I was especially nervous, because a new trend had emerged recently, where couples from the nobles would go on dates to see people spar in the indoor sparring arena. I personally didn't think it was fun to be on a date, and make the highlight of the date a violent one. Now that I was in a similar situation, I realised that I had gone ahead and done an even stupider thing to actually spar with Aedin, something even more extreme than simply looking at a fight.

"The weathers nice, isn't it Aedin?"

I had decided to say just something very ordinary so I was surprised to see his face grow stern.

"The weather huh? Well, do you like it a lot?"

"Yeah, I mean, it's not too hot, and gentle breezes make the smell of spring specially hit the right notes. Today's weather was sponsored by Lotus Flower. It's an emerging luxury perfume brand and this is their advertisement for a new room freshener I think. Maybe they tweaked it a little. A wind blew across my face, and my hair flew into Aedins face. He quickly dodged.

"You seem to like flowers a lot."

"It's not very nobel to make a lady self conscious about the source of her nice scents."

"I use the same shampoo actually. I wash my face with it. My sister is always screaming at me to stop wasting it."

"I will do her the favour of beating you up then."

In the end, I lost the fight with Aedin, and we were covered in small bruises and a lot of sweat. I, who had been very choosy with my selection of clothes, was thankful that Aarin at the last moment had practically forced me to wear sporty clothes, because had she not foreseen the future, I would definitely have spoiled the long black frock I was tempted to wear.

"Princess Laiba. It does not matter what you think of this sparring match. In my opinion, the activities today are physically demanding, so wearing a dress that doesn't fit the occasion is like telling Sir Aedin of the internal thought process in your mind. Please, think clearly!"

I blushed, and glanced a gaze towards Aiden's arms, where they had been scarred from the burns, a backlash of his magicode. Maybe I had forgotten to look away, and by the time I realised it he was looking at me looking at him.

"These scars are a symbol of my descent. If you ask me, I'm proud to have them."

"Better than tattoo's on any day!"

"We should stop for juice, what do you think?"

As we crossed a juice bar, which was well known amongst the students since it didn't serve alcohol and was a trusted place even by the parents, the wholesome atmosphere inside was a perfect place to take a breath.

I ordered a milkshake, where Aedin ordered a completely unhealthy Moonsoda. Moonsoda was made by compressing high levels of oxygen, with very cold temperatures of carbonated drink that were filled with sugar and black salt. To top it off, there was a lot of frozen fruits and artificial flavors in it, and a bioluminescent bacteria to make the drink glow.

"Even alcohol is healthier than this trash."

"I think it's interesting, so I like it. Also, look at it glowing in the dark."

Aedin said that and cupped his glass to block light in order to highlight the glow even more.

"Now I'm beginning to see these simple creatures called men."

At that moment, I began to reach a horrible realisation. One that would make me strangle Aarin back at home.

"No no no no no, this isn't possible. Aarin saved me. Please make it go away!!"

"Nothing can stop a person from falling in love, Princess Laiba. It happens at our age, as I've read."

"You're enjoying this a lot aren't you, you vixen!"

"I'm only telling you. Oh and by the way, maybe you should also know that when you came back home, your thought encryption was malfunctioning. It must have lost connection with your mind during the fight. If that's the case, I wonder if Lord Aedin is the type to peek into your thoughts."

"Why are you telling me this now, Aaaaaaarinnnn!"

A burst of wind broke my window and Aarin laughed away playfully leaving me standing on the mattress of my bed.

Is this it? Has my pure maiden heart been corrupted by love?. The heiress of the Souls family of Air… liking the heir of its rival house of Hearts. Oh my god please don't give me more pain than alreadyyyyy!"

At that same time, in his home, Aedin punched the wall in his training room, feeling guilty at peeking into Princess Laiba's thoughts. In that one second he had found the answer to his question. She too felt for him, what she made him feel first, and this knowledge made the temperature of the training room rise to the point where the fire alarm began to sound.

Soon ,my father, the head of the Souls family of Air, found out about my affair with his rival's son. The incident stirred an event that would go down in the history books of nobel's and their drama's. In an astonishingly merciful decision with all my family members involved, and Aedin standing at the other end of the table, my father said his memorable words.

"If you want to continue to see my daughter, I have two non-negotiable conditions for you."

"Yes Sir. I wish to be bestowed with your conditions. I will do everything I can with this body of mine, to fulfil them."

Aedin knelt down on his knee.

"Stand back up on your feet. You are not my knight, but a suitor for my dearest daughter, so I will not be selfish enough to make you bend your knee before reaching my final verdict. My first condition is that you will face me in a battle, and claim victory by defeating me. You ill be given a year to train. The second condition is, that if you lose, you will never show your face to my daughter again, and in the event that you are able to win, you will marry her immediately."

"Wait father! How can he fight you, the head radioactive of the Souls family, the third most powerful radioactive on Earth!? One year is too harsh!"

"Silence. This is my condition. If you find it harsh, forget about her."

I tried to speak ahead of my father, but Aedin cut me off.

"Princess Laiba, I have always told you that I plan on relieving the title of weakest from my family name. There is nothing more honorable for me, than to have the opportunity to begin my endeavor officially. I will kill two birds with one stone, by representing myself as a representative for the Hearts family next year. I will fight for the honor of my family, and I will welcome you as part of it at the same time. I accept these conditions and upon the name of the Hearts family, promise to uphold all its conditions. I, Aedin Dominum, shall return in a year."