A Story Of How He Became The Man I Will Always Love [Part 5]

Aedin and I continued to see each other at school, but after that, I was disallowed from seeing him. My father even hired a cyber security expert to monitor and make sure I wouldn't be contacted by Aedin.

The news of this event had made it in the local news exclusively to the upper floors, and the scheduled fight was also going to be open to the public if they had any type of importance in society. The fight itself was not as big of a deal as the fact that amongst the ancestral cold war between the houses of Hearts and Souls, a story of love had ceased all animosity temporarily. The seed of love had sprouted, and it was to be seen whether it would strengthen and hold firm in an unfriendly terrain.

To me, it was a roller coaster of feelings, from the relief that my father hadn't outrightly rejected my feelings and had respected them enough to give Aedin a chance, however on the other hand it also felt as if Aedin was at a disadvantage, for being given lesser time than needed to be able to hold his own against my father.

"Aarin, what should I do? What should I do? Will he be able to win against my father?"

"I cannot say that he won't be able to win, but U strongly think your father wants him to grow before he gets with you. In other words, he may have said yes, but sees potential in Aiden. That is a good thing, no?"

"Still, the news of the match is officially spread all around, and that means if Aiden loses, than my father will have to uphold his words and then Aiden will lose."

"That could be a problem. It's up to Aiden to be strong enough to hold his ground. We can only hope for now, and get stronger ourselves. Surely Sir Aiden would be training very hard right now. You have to believe in him."

"Yes. I believe in him. May he emerge victorious."

"Really, Princess Laiba? Do you want your father to lose that badly?"

"I'll have to kick you now."

Days went by like this, and Adem who had been part of my class had stopped bothering me now. Even the students in the school who ignored and made fun of me stopped doing so. I had become a type of celebrity, because not only had I been a cause of a major step towards peace between the radioactive families, but everyone had seen the combined power of Aiden and me, and Adem was not seen as a symbol of pure talent anymore.

Although his class had changed, and he would look away if we ever crossed paths in school, it was strange that his magical aura was increasing significantly faster than before.

"Princess Laiba, at this rate, he will become even stronger. This could become a real problem, so I really want you to train and get stronger."

Aarin's timely warnings played a major factor in my daily training and my father was surprised when I told him that I wanted to train harder. Initially, I had always tried running away from extra work, but recently, my new resolve had piqued my fathers interest in my education; a topic not much discussed before in our family gathering.

"So you too have decided to take your position as the heiress of the souls family of Air seriously?"

"Yes father. I have decided that I too will not hold back any longer. I will train hard and fight to maintain the honor of our family name in the future, and I will do everything to surpass the potential that I currently have."

"Always remember Laiba, that no matter how strong you get, never think of yourself as the victor before the fight ends. No, even after the fight has been won, never for a second lower your guard. That is the first lesson I have for you then, starting from today."

My new timetable was even more vigorous than the ones before, and I was devouring all my day to prepare my body for the future. It didn't seem useful at first, but my coach and also my cousin, Neezo, would spend hours motivating me to give it my all. She wasn't much older than me and had chosen a path of athlete training. Although she lived in a very posh area on floor 90, she had accepted my father's request to train me hard.

"Get ready Laiba. This is our first training session together, and I'll make you remember it well!"

She yelled at me, and gave me a very tiresome workout routine, with five hundred pushups on day one. By the end, my hands had become so sore, that it felt as if she secretly hated me and wanted to render my arms useless. However, Neezo specialized in healing magi-code. She first activated the warm air magicode and my broken muscles relaxed. Then she applied the cold air magi-code, and continued the cycle.

"Athletic Massage MAgicode: Activate. Deep tissue massage MAgi-code: Activate."

"Neezo go home, you old hag!"

I would scream at her and she would continue to smile.

"It's very common for athletes to express their anger, Princess Laiba. Please do so without holding back."

"You're too persistent. Go back and heal attractive male athletes. Isn't that why you became a sports athlete."

Neezo stopped smiling and deliberately pressed her elbows against my sole thighs.

"Hehe. Will you say such a dirty thing again?"

"Ouch stopppppppp."

Our fights were not very serious, and at the end of the day, I'd be thanking her for training me so hard. She understood perfectly well, and returned the sentiment in kind.

I would stare at the moon, wondering how Aiden's training was going. I had heard that his house had hired the dragon tamer to train Aiden. The dragon tamer was an infamous slaughterer of dragons on Mars, and had been the former rebel leader who had almost killed the three brothers who had ruled mars. Strangely he had lost a winning battle, but it could be said that in a fight victory wasn't always loyal to the strong. Is this why my father had instructed me not to ever lower my guard down.

Slowly the days passed, and the process of growing stronger, a never ending loop, came to an end. A year had passed and I sat on my bed, wrapped in a blanket with my head on Aarin's lap.

"I can't sleep today."

"Then don't. The moon is beautiful, is it not."

"I would like to see the real moon, though. I wonder what the lives of the elites on the moon are like."

"Do you want to visit the moon, Princess Laiba?"

"Yes."

Aarin slowly put her palms on my eyes, coving them to block away the light. Then she began to shake her thighs rhythmically, to make me fall asleep. It was a trick I knew very well, and still my mind would calm down because of it.

"Have you heard that people on the moon are very strong? They have a lot of things going on in their bodies, all sorts of gadgets to make them strong."

"Play: Summer and my arena of glass."

"Aarin, I've told you before, haven't I. Stop playing my favorite song when I'm trying to sleep. Otherwise I'll get bored of it quicker than a new one can replace it. Then I'll have nothing to listen to. Also, did you eat your food? I'm not too good at cooking but you know, I've improved a lot."

"Yes, it was delicious."

Then, I woke up in the morning.

All the servants were running around in the house, and preparing for the big event. This was because of my father's instructions who had said that in case he was defeated, he didn't want to make Aiden wait. Still, it didn't feel real to me at all. Too many things were going on, and when I thought about it in an objective manner, my mind failed to comprehend that I could even get married today.

"Aarin, if me and Aiden get married, you'll have to come live with me. Have you packed your bags?"

"I haven't told you, Princess Laiba. If the good news of you getting married happens, I will be relieved of my duties and we will part ways."

My world turned blank when I heard those words, and I remember clearly, crying my eyes out and begging my father to go back on his decision. He refused, however.

"Aarin was hired by me to be your caretaker, not a lifelong friend or a slave. If you wish to keep her, then ask first, if she wants to stay with you."

"What kind of a thing is that to say? Is that even a question to ask?"

"Aarin, come here. Tell my father that you want to stay."

"I'm afraid, Princess Laiba, but that is not what I would like to say to your father. In the case that Lord Aiden wins you, I would like to embark on a new journey, and discover myself. My life is different from yours, and so are my worries of a different kind. By staying here, I will not continue to grow stronger, not will I find a place amongst the nobles. For me, a commoner, the journey with you was a beautiful one, and we will continue to be friends, so please, don't make me cry."

"Aarin, don't you want to go to university, after graduating from school. We have a few weeks before graduating, and I even shortlisted universities for us to apply to. Remember that one next to the lake, and we decided to live in the same dormitory?"

The tears in Aarin's eyes were the answer, her tears reflecting ehr resolve. I could not ask her again, because that would be like holding her back.

Just like in the fight against Adem, I again found myself stuck in a difficult situation.

"Do I want Aiden to win even now?"

I remember asking myself and my father laughed, as he proudly looked at me and Aarin.

"Laiba, do you think I was going to test Aiden and Aiden alone? I care about the young boy, so I would never want him to be stuck with a woman who does not respect his struggles. For a year, he has prepared for this battle against me, day in and day out. I have been watching, yes. If you do not want to lose Aarin, just say it, and I will call off the fight. I will go back on my word and not care about the public's opinion. You can spend more time with Aarin, this way."

"You're putting me through the test first, father. You really made it harder for me than for him."

I saw Aarin, who was smiling as she looked at me, and wiped away her tears. She came closer to me, and kissed my forehead.

"Do you think, mere distance can separate us, Princess Laiba. Conquer your heart first, for it is harder to conquer that little piece of meat beating in your chest, than it is to conquer this giant rock called Earth, orbiting around the sun."

I pulled Aarin closer to me, and tightly gave her a hug. I don't remember letting go. I just absorbed the moment, feeling all my life spent with her, in the warmth of her reliable, trusted arms.

"Thankyou Aarin, for being my friend. My sister, my cave."

Then we all headed to the Arena, our family had owned, where a large crowd of nobles and elites awaited.

I was seated in the front row, wearing a bright green dress stitched in golden threads and various precious gems. The light radiated from them, and the cameramen recording the fight, had to experiment with various angels to capture my alluring dress without ruining the footage from the reflections.

Aiden entered the arena from its eastern side, and my father entered from the western entrance to the center. Both of them were laden in heavy armor, but I doubted it had anything to do with the actual battle. Their attention to the performance itself, seemed like a cute consideration.

"Men are simple, aren't they, princess Laiba?"

"Mhm. So much advancement, and still humans resort to fighting, an animalistic way of resolving conflict."

I was surprised by my reply. It was a little more woman-ish than usual.

"It seems like the dress you're wearing has had significant effect on your thought process, princess Laiba."

"Then you don't wear it, or you'll start forgetting things out of all the wisdom it'll bestow upon you."

We both smiled, and our mere jest was interrupted by a loud blast. The fight between my father and my beloved began, and among the screaming crowd, my world became silent.

Time passed rather slowly as the fight between my father and Aiden raged on. In the beginning, Aiden dashed through the air, lighting everything in the area on fire. However, my father summoned a greater wind and blew the flames away, only to find himself being sabotaged by the fire approaching him from behind. He quickly created a bubble to protect himself, and tried to manipulate Aiden's neaurachips. Aiden saw through that and tightened the encryption in his mind while also protecting his chip from overheating. As my father threw DDoS attacks at a rate of 12 million per second to consume Aiden mentally, he also attacked him in all directions.

"Multi threaded fire balls maximum power: Activate."

Still, occasionally the dense orbs of wind would hit Aiden, who although had put up a promising fight, began to seem helpless under the heavy barrage of my fathers attacks.

"This is bad, Aarin. It doesn't look good for him."

I tightly grabbed Aarin's arms, and she patted my head.

Aiden then created a fireball as large as the one that had knocked off Adem, all by himself this time, and then created five more, which surrounded him in all directions. 

"Is he going to attack using all five of them?"

I was now sitting on the edge of my seat, looking at how much he had improved since last time. Still, it was not intimidating at all, because I too had gotten stronger. It was going to take a lot more than that to make me look in awe.

Surprisingly, instead of attacking my father with those five orbs of fire, Aiden raised his hands and the five orbs rose in the air, and began to rotate, both in the x and y axis. As the orbs gained speed and for the regular onlookers, the rotation became an orb in itself, my father created a hurricane in the air himself, a way to cut the oxygen supply to stop the orbs from gaining more momentum.

"These orbs are not just regular fireballs that need magic and a supply of good oxygen. My magic energy is directly turning into fire to keep these orbs burning. Your tornado cannot do a thing to it."

"I will deduct points from you, for explaining your next move to me, Aiden. Even if I know that my tornado is ineffective against your orbs of fire, I know I can hurt you with my tornado. Arrogance is often the reason why great people fail."

"Aiden dodge it!"

I screamed, not wanting him to lose, but also because I was now fully immersed into watching the fight.

"You let your guard down. In reality, my orbs do in fact need oxygen to thrive as well as my magic. Thankyou for providing exactly what I needed."

Aiden quickly directed his fire sphere at the tornado and surely the two fences combined. Aidens sphere of fire absorbed my father's tornado and became dangerously large.

"He's going to throw that at my father?"

"Princess Laiba really does care about her father too."

Aarin continued to make fun of me, but I was eager to see how such a giant ball of fire was going to be countered by my father.

"I expected you to grow stronger, Aiden. However, the product of one year is still not satisfactory for me. So, I will end this here and now."

"Jupiter, the king of the hurricane: Reverse Activate."

The hurricane that was now absorbed and spun in the middle of the giant fireball slowly died out and then began to rotate in the opposite direction, thus creating a canceling effect on the fireball.

"What? No- no it can't be!"

I saw Aiden, bewildered and scared, for the first time. He quickly looked at me, an apology in his eyes, before starting to collect more energy.

"This- can't be. I Aiden losing, Aarin."

Aarin didn't give an answer. Her silence was.

The next ten minutes were spent as everyone in the crowd looked at my father beat Aiden to a pulp. The good atmosphere slowly disappeared, and the Hearts family of fire began to leave. It then struck me, the reality of the situation.

The cold war had not ended, and the Hearts family of fire had been checkmated by my father, because of Aidens stupid move to ask my father for his daughter's hand. He had made a fool out of Aiden, and in front of everyone. There was no chance of Aiden winning. There never was. It was stupid of me and him to think, that a years worth of training would be enough to defeat my father, the third most powerful radioactive on Earth, and because nobels specially on the 99th floor upheld their word to the highest degree, no one could do anything to save Aiden once he had agreed to my fathers conditions.

My sight gave away, and everything turned dark. Reality had set in on me the hard way, and I turned to look at Aarin.

"You knew all along, didn't you."

"I had my doubts, but doubts they were. I dared not speak about it to you."

"You wanted to leave me, hoping I would choose to leave Aiden, so that all of this wouldn't happen. You wanted me to understand, but I failed."

"Yes. That is why I chose to leave you. To force you to make me stay, in exchange for losing Aiden. Your father wouldn't have ever agreed, in any case."

I took a deep breath trying to relax, but my attempt failed as I saw Aiden crash into the arena wall. The fight would have been over by now, but Aiden kept standing up. His eyes had gone blank, and just like last time, once again, it seemed as if he was scraping the last bit of magic he had in him. On his knees, he summoned the last fireball, a tiny little orb barely visible, right in the middle of the arena.

"I need to help him. It's just like last time!"

I raised my hand, readying to gather oxygen around the fireball, when suddenly a foreign hand, warm and heavy, pulled my wrist back down.

In a heavy voice, the man whose hand had stopped me, spoke in a voice I had never heard before, nor do I seem to be able to forget it today. A cold, heavy voice, which seemed to contain the experience and horror of millennia tucked under it. A voice that made me unable to move, to breath even, without wishing to run away from the palace as soon as possible. I wished to look up at how it was but my head felt too heavy, my nape hurting from the pressure in the air.

"Wh-who?"

"I am your well wisher. I will tell you something. Your oxygen will be blocked by the invisible anti magic barrier around the arena. Moreover, your father is planning on breaking the poor boy's soul."

"Impossible-"

 See his hand? See how his index finger is moving inwards?"

"Yes. I see it."

"Well then you're familiar with it. The forbidden technique of the Souls family. To manipulate air in the opponent's lungs, and puncture them. Right?"

"Please, help him. He'll die."

"No need to say it dear. That is why I am here. To help you, and to help him. I just have one small condition."

"What? Say it."

"His life will be saved, and in return, I want you to give up Aarin to me, forever."