Ebony's Fable

“You’re just going to watch? Eating while watching kids get beaten up, are you some kind of sicko?” A man’s head popped out from the window that opened under the building he sat on.

“Tidal is amazing but I hope it doesn’t heal the children too quickly. The body learns and grows through pain.” Ebony replied to his fellow spectator. That seemed sufficient to stop the man from jumping out.

They might be in a quiet street for reasons as simple as kids playing hide and seek or something but in a city full of people with superhuman senses, it would take going to some abandoned farmland or open wilds to be free from sight.

Tidal was unrealistically large but there were plenty of open spaces with farmlands that stretched on further than the eye could see. It was pretty much a few cities jammed right beside each other. There was no other way it could fit so many people.

Going from one district to another was no different from travelling from one city to the next. On the bright side, there were fast rides to shorten the travel time and wide roads to accommodate numerous lanes of carriages. There were aerial ride parking spots in every district and taking a flight was about the same as taking a plane to another country.

These children didn’t have the resources or physical strength to run out the neighbouring streets, much less districts.

The two of them still had half a second to stop the aggressive girl but figured they might as well stay their hands. The man in the building stopped not because of his words but because of the three random strangers nearby watching over the children fighting. The three strangers were just lying against the walls on the ground, out of the children’s sight.

‘Same clothes, some academy students and their teachers or maybe personal bodyguards if they're some noble. Don’t recognise the insignia since I didn’t take a walk to warrior academies.’

Ebony spent as little as half a point of mana if it could even show up in his status, to protect Umar’s spine from the full impact. It didn’t look like any of the spectators noticed.

‘Perceptive for a young girl.’ The girl who heard the crunch felt something odd and doubled down on a second stomp. She was clearly used to beating people. Ebony replicated the sound of a bone snap for her enjoyment.

“Yo! You sure that’s alright? It’s gonna leave permanent damage.” The brown haired spectator whispered. He was getting ready to stop the kids.

“I did that.” Ebony snapped his fingers and recreated the bone crunch for his fellow spectator.

“Why go so far?”

“To do what.” He didn’t understand what his fellow spectator was trying to say.

“You might as well go down and stop them.”

“What will that achieve. They will never learn. This is a great opportunity for them to learn. It's not good to instil the idea that there’s always someone who’ll save them.”

“...true that. Guess that’s how I learnt too.”

“Right.”

No one heard their conversation, especially not the three bodyguards.

Copying Raika’s voice, he whispered into Faelk’s ear, “duck two fifths a ger, bend your left leg and stretch your palms up at a seventy-degree angle.”

…

Faelk was bewildered by the whisper as if his instructor spoke in his head and received a punch right on the nose.

‘He couldn’t comprehend the information fast enough.’

With the boys injured, he believed they would remember the lesson for some time. It was time to help them as a classmate and not a Grandmaster beating unclassed children.

“Don’t cry, now’s not the time. You have friends to protect. Calm down, gather your mana.”

“Observe the situation, judge and prioritise. Umar can’t move but he’s not in danger now that your opponents are ignoring him.”

For the next fifteen minutes, he did his best to give some advice but he limited his involvement as much as possible.

They managed to give the two boys equal zaps and electrical burns but only on the forearms.

His classmates had terrible reflexes and were already injured with a scarce mana pool so they did okay in his opinion.

Faelk on the other hand didn’t even manage to land a single hit on the smaller girl. The girl had a real metal sword on her hip but didn’t even draw it.

“This is getting boring.” was all she said before she called her buddies to step back.

To rub salt in their wounds, the boys didn’t manage to fully protect the girls. Yusqly, Tia and Esme all had varying degrees of wounds from slaps to kicks.

“That was the first time we warded them off!”

Unlike what he expected, the children were cheering themselves.

‘Not a one-off thing then. It's none of my business. I’ll just get a weak combat model to follow them back. She must be almost done with dinner. Crap, I only left her three sandwiches and they’re no longer pipping hot.’

Ebony hurried home after the show, he recalled when he used to be in the same situation. Of course, he didn’t know it was bullying then. Just some strangers who liked to swing their arms and play catch with him.

“Fish?” He opened the door and put the bag with his shoes down. The gluttonous foodie smelled his catch before he even saw her.

“This is to summon you.” He walked in to see a masked face pop up from the sofa in the living room.

“I see two bags but only one less than half full.”

Ebony forgot to toss the empty bag on his way back in his haste. He passed the bag over and looked over to the kitchen. “You haven’t started dinner prep?”

“I just got back, held up by some sales talk. My body’s sore from this morning’s race and the long talk didn’t help so I’ve been lazing here since.”

She suddenly turned quiet and her expressionless mask stared at him for an extended period.

“The same woman’s scent on you.”

“She introduced me to a shoe shop.”

“Hhumm. Help me wash the veggies and dice the russets. I’ll start once I finish these sandwiches while they're still warm.”

‘Potatoes, nice. I wonder how she's planning to cook them.’

The answer was baked.

“I know what I want for my prize. Give me a massage later.”

“Okay.” Ebony hadn’t put much thought into a present but he already had an idea. Now he had one less present to think about. It was also about time he got some sort of massage skill that helped to relax muscles faster or better. Since he was good at it, it must be the lack of practice that he never got the skill.

“Put the trailer outside too, I’m sleeping there tonight. My bed is more comfy and the construction is going to begin tomorrow isn’t it?”

“It is. I’ll take it out when I water my pet tree. And tend the garden.” Ebony might have been a little more entranced with his magical tree than the real, live plants and flowers he was growing.

Since they were going so far as to contract someone to build deeper underground their house, they saw to improving the privacy function as well. The construction was from some human company and the privacy one was sourced from the Mage Association themselves, the Enchantment department.

The commonly used one was a form of Enchantment and not a runic variant. Seeing how Enchantments generally have a stronger effect at the cost of high mana expense and low durability, it was quite suitable for something like camouflage or household privacy.

It wasn’t something they had to cast over and over again in a short time and the expense was unreasonable even for a ten-year enchantment. He got the best package they sold publicly but there were no doubt better mages or enchanters that could cast something better not for sale. It was exceedingly expensive.

The price depended on the size of his house and the number of rooms so it would come after the construction was completed. It shouldn’t even take two days for the construction.

He spent an hour tending to his new garden, the flower seedlings had sprouted already. The weird thing was that he saw Ning Xin take a book into the trailer.

‘I guess she’s studying new ingredients.’ Unable to see the book, he ignored the oddity and was just glad she found another pastime.

After washing his hands with alchemic hand soap to get rid of any earthy scent he changed into casual wear, shorts and tee-shirt.

The trailer was in the same state they last left it.

He heard a loud snap the moment he entered the trailer.

“Learn to knock.” Ning Xin sat up from lying on her belly on the sofa. She ran up and returned without her book. “Here, you can get started. I’ll be quiet.” She sat back down and tapped her shoulders.

“Mmm.”

They both ignored when his thumbs rubbed over the straps under her shirt. He remembered that underwear seemed to be just a camisole or a silky negligee that only covered the chest. It wasn’t modern and didn’t have the hold that normal bras had, which might be why she had her bodysuit adjusted.

She lied as she wasn’t quiet at all but it didn’t matter.

He worked his way down to her back after getting her to lay on her belly and finally down to her legs. He obviously skipped a portion on the way down.

He was taught that the feet were a no-go as well. When he was giving his parents massages anyway. He didn’t know the reason, especially when he was taught how to give foot massages for himself. The best reason he could come up with was that the feet were a human weak point. Or the weak point of any creature that used legs and feet to walk. Hence, it was probably just basic courtesy and respect.

“How was it?” He was rather confident of his skills and her reactions told him that he didn’t have to ask.

“I can barely muster any strength, even better than a hot bath. Your hands are nice and warm” She grumbled about not being able to experience a ‘hot bath’ anymore.

Normal lava might not even qualify as a hot bath for her. It would take unnaturally hot mana-infused liquid to allow her to experience a hot bath.

“Glad you liked it.” Sensitivity to temperature was all over the place with her body temperature being lower than his, not being burned by natural fire but still being able to say his body temperature was warm.

“I’m going to sleep, carry me up.”

With permission to enter her room, he tossed her there and went out.

“Her back and leg musculature is different from what I estimated, I’ll remake the glacial model of her. It can probably mimic her footwork better.” He went back to clockwork practising magic.

He nodded at his new work, the internals should be more accurate now. ‘I can be a professional sculptor back on earth.’

“Huh, it’s daytime?” Ebony saw the sun peeking out.

‘That can’t be, I only made one model. I started on the 24th hour so I spent almost ten hours on one model? I’m very sure I wasn’t in a trance…’ He went over the entire night in his head to confirm that he remembered every second clearly. He had no choice but to admit that he really spent ten hours to recreate her sculpture one for one.

Making models of other people was mostly a waste of time. He was Ebony, the Will he imbued would be based on his abilities. While imbuing Will onto other shapes was based on his memories and understanding of their abilities. The difference was staggering.

There were advantages in the clear difference in Model abilities. Models of Ning Xin were faster and more suited to speedy opponents and models of himself were more suited to agile opponents. Hence, he thought it was not an issue as long as he continued to increase his understanding of the figures he copied.

The 4th hour of the day should have been the start of their morning conditioning but he didn’t see anyone coming out of the trailer so he tested out his new Model. After an entire night, he had more than enough Will recovered for a couple of Models.

He was content with the noticeable improvements in movements. His manipulation of ice was getting so good that even a casually imbued Will could make the Model’s clothes and hair flutter as if they weren’t solid. They could blink and even simulate breathing if he wanted to.

“Ready to go?” Ebony asked the mask that peeked out of the trailer door.

“You go ahead, I’ll skip today.” Instead of walking out the female warrior declined morning exercise.

“You sure?”

“Mmhmm.”

“I smell berries, you were eating weren’t you? I don’t recognise the scent.”

Steam started to leak out near the top of the open door. “You’ll find out in future!” She slammed the door closed.

“Go ahead and sleep, I’ll get going then.”

‘Huh, that was the most forced sentence she ever muttered.’ Ebony didn’t care about some secret fruit jam or whatever was in creation but he did learn to look forward to new flavours, especially fruits. After all, travelling and looking for new sights came in tandem with experiencing new sensations. Food was an integral part of travelling.

After his morning exercise, he came back to see that breakfast wasn’t prepared. Ignoring that, he went to school.

“You’re early, what happened to you?” He asked the children that surrounded him as he entered the class.

His classmates who got attacked still had bruises. Bilal and Tristan had their arms bandaged and Umar couldn’t stand straight. Faelk on the other hand was walking about with no visible injuries. Despite receiving the worst physical injuries, he also healed the fastest.

‘Great, the city’s healing works differently for everyone. Maybe it also checks how serious the wound is and simply promotes faster personal healing. I doubt the city’s mana reserves are endless so this makes more sense.’ Ebony considered the taxes but there was no chance that such a massive magical construct could heal every single person from any injury or illness.

Most people wore Myriad Bracelets and the amount that the bracelet can't absorb and convert inefficiently is low. Different people needed different strengths of healing and there were so many types of injuries he couldn’t wrap his head about how they were keeping it sustained.

“Big broo! You have to help us!” Tia grabbed his wrists with both her arms.

He listened to them recount the situation and asked for the reason they were in such a situation.

“No. Solve it yourself.”

Ebony shut them down, their grieving voices and recounting wouldn’t change his mind.