Time- One Week Later
"So..."
"Hmm?"
"I feel like I am a third wheel," Akeru said with a wide grin.
They were currently in the capital and were heading towards the Knight Headquarters as they were summoned.
'They' referred to the group comprising Akeru, Noelle, and Asta.
"What do y-"
"Th-That's not true!" Noelle said with a flustered face as she punched at Akeru's shoulder.
"Ouch! That hurts!"
"I told you before, that's not the case." Noelle ignored his fake cries as she stared at him dead in the eye, her expression gravely serious.
"Tch, fine, I won't tease you again."
Akeru relented under her serious gaze.
Noelle sighed in relief before asking again for confirmation.
"Really?" Noelle's face changed from deadly serious to something innocent, at least in Akeru's eyes.
"Uhh, I will try... No promises, 'kay?" Akeru changed his mind on seeing her face.
'How could I say no to her if she asks me with such a gullible face? She's asking to be teased!'
"Moooa, that's different from what you said," Noelle whined as she sent a punch at Akeru's shoulder, only for the latter to side-step and dodge it.
On seeing this, she hurled multiple punches at him, only for him to dodge all of them, barely, which only caused Noelle's frustration to increase.
"Just get hit once, damn it!"
"Ara Ara, are my ears playing tricks on me, or did I hear royalty curse? How disgraceful?"
"Your ears are playing tricks on you; get them checked!" Noelle ignored him as she focused on punching him.
Asta just looked at this with a puzzled look.
What is just happening?
Before he could ask, he spotted familiar people and waved his hands at them.
"Oh, it's good, people of Golden Dawn," Asta said before looking at the duo who had surprisingly stopped messing around and were standing with a regal aura around them.
Asta, for a second, even saw the tangible form of an aura, making him rub his eyes.
The Golden Dawn people finally stood in front of them.
"Asta, are you really fine?" Klaus asked as he checked Asta's body.
"You guys are so childish," Mimosa said while putting her hand on her mouth.
'She saw that!'
Asta and Noelle had the same thought in their mind as they gazed at each other for a moment.
"The sky is bluer today," Akeru tried to change the topic.
"Yeah, it almost feels like it has turned violet!" Noelle also agreed with him on changing the topic.
"I don't think violet is blue increased to the intensity, or is it?" Akeru was confused by her statement.
"Hmph, I am royalty. Whatever I say is the truth."
"You know that statement has considerable dark implications, don't you?" Akeru just deadpanned at her.
"Uhh..." Noelle didn't have any comeback for that.
Mimosa was also speechless.
Akeru was trying to say that the royals are the ones who are controlling the narrative in the kingdom, which, though it held some level of truth, is a can of worms that she doesn't want to acknowledge at the moment.
"Anyway, we can talk after this meeting. It's been too long anyway," Akeru was mentioning the meeting Mimosa wanted, especially about how he has "developed" or used his recovery magic.
He was successful in changing the topic.
On seeing his potential downfall, Akeru didn't run away but rather embraced it.
He also was sure that Mimosa would forgive him after hearing his logic.
At least, he hoped it would happen like that.
"Yeah, it has been so long."
They talked a bit more about what they were up to last week and whatnot.
After that, the group of 6 started heading towards the Knight Headquarters.
"You guys are finally here."
On reaching the headquarters, they saw a flashy guy welcoming them.
Everyone blankly stared at him.
There were two different reactions, actually 3.
One were ignorant peeps, the commoners— Asta and Yuno who just saw him as a flashy old guy.
The second group comprised almost everyone other than those two who knew that in front of them stood the Wizard King.
The man is a sovereign of the country.
So, it was natural for them to be taken aback by his presence here.
The third reaction was of Akeru, who had known beforehand that he would see him here, so he was the first one to kneel on the ground and salute.
He had learned the special way of saluting— the Three Leaf Salute- from Erza a while ago.
The others also followed suit, apart from the oblivious rivals.
"I didn't really get any chance to thank you properly for the last time," Akeru sincerely said with gratitude.
If not for Julius, he would have been a goner.
"Haha, I can't let the promising embers of the kingdom be snuffed out, can I? Anyway, I have been very curious about your magic for a long time now. Your abilities are also astounding. I guess Rill wasn't doing justice to you when praising you."
"Who's the flashy guy?" Before Akeru could reply, Asta interjected.
He was then educated about the man in front of him and got the answer to reach the same position as that man.
"So, your magic is Bystander Magic, right?"
They were now standing on the top floor, on a balcony.
"Yeah, well, I named it on a whim, but I think it doesn't do it justice for the spells I have. Like one of the spells allows me to increase my focus by nearly 10 times while the other helps me to blend out of existence." Akeru decided to give away the information he had given to his royal friends before.
He didn't mind leaking it to Klaus or the other two here.
Even if this information got public, it wouldn't really affect him in the long scheme of things.
So, what if he could increase his focus by 10 times? What are they gonna do to stop it?
So, what if he could blend out of existence? With his '3D Witness', he could ambush them before they could ambush him.
"Ohh, I can see how you could learn so many different attributes."
What followed was a discussion about the detailed workings of the spell between Julius and Akeru, which soon derailed into a discussion about some random techniques distantly related to what they were talking about.
Both sides were shocked by this discussion.
'This guy knows his stuff.' Akeru instantly realized that Julius had an advanced level mastery in the Rune Array field.
Julius, on the other hand, was not expecting him to have this level of mastery in the Rune Array.
Even though he now knew the pillar technique of Akeru's skill set, it was still baffling for him.
While this happened, the others were just looking at them with blank expressions.
Everything went above their heads.
Next was a talk about Julius being curious about Yuno and Asta's spells.
Asta, who now knew the real attributes of both of his swords, along with deeper knowledge about his grimoire due to Akeru, mentioned it proudly.
'Mental Reminder- Remind this idiot to not give away all the information about his abilities.' Akeru resisted the urge to facepalm.
He made eye contact with Noelle, who was on the same wavelength.
'Educate your guy later.'
'Ok- wait, he is not my guy!'
Both of them talked just with their eyes.
'Wait, since when was I able to talk to someone with just my eyes?' Akeru did a double take, as seeing by Noelle's expression, he could tell that she knew she was being teased.
She seemed not to realize that they communicated with just their gaze.
'Am I getting this predictable? I don't remember talking to anybody in this manner. I could do it maybe with Captain Yami due to both of us knowing how to sense Ki, but this is really crazy.'
After some more talk here and there about their mission, they moved on into a hall where the award ceremony was going to happen.
On entering the hall, Akeru felt a lot of eyes on him.
'Hehe, to a third person now, I would seem no different than Asta due to not even a minuscule mana being released from me.' Akeru internally smirked at that fact.
He also heard multiple whispers throughout the hall after enhancing his ears with mana.
"Is it really him? I don't feel any mana from him..."
"He is from Black Bulls? Those barbarians? Was he tricked?"
"We are talking about that average-looking guy, right?"
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A/n- We are 100 chapters in, Guys! How are you liking the story so far? Is the new Volume up to your previous expectations? Drop some suggestions or ideas or just criticism or any complaints you have about any point till now.
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