Chapter 51: Checked the Boxes

After greeting everyone, Umara smiled.

“It’s great to meet you all. I’ve never seen any of John’s friends or family before.”

“Oh, we haven’t either. I think he’s just a loner.”

“Would you shut up?”

I kicked Plex again as he trash talked me, making him jump and back away. 

Rayla spoke. 

“We all work with John at our company.”

“What company?”

“Divine Distribution. We deliver cargo, messages, what have you.”

“I see.”

Umara nodded as her smile turned to more of a curious grin, causing me to smirk. 

This girl, always trying to poke deeper into my business. There was no way she didn’t know that what I did wasn’t normal since even her mother mentioned it, but now she had more people to pry information from.”

Not that she could do much with the company name. Anything she could find officially wouldn’t tell her anything. 

Rayla suddenly smiled, looking between Umara and I. 

“So, how long has this been going on?”

“O-Only a few weeks. We haven’t actually been on a proper date since we’ve been on a military base, but I think we made it work.”

“The closest thing to a date we had was fending off a horde of Scourge beasts.”

“And you got injured there too. I’m starting to think you’re a magnet for trouble.”

“What can I say? I do my job well.”

I smiled and shrugged, causing her to pinch my arm. 

Rayla chuckled a bit. 

“Well, I’m happy for you guys. It took you long enough, John.”

“Yea, I was starting to think he was messed up in the head somewhere. This guy passed up every damn girl we put in front of him!”

Plex smirked from behind Libitus, causing me to shake my head. 

Umara just laughed. 

After that, we had a few more conversations before Umara and I were let go. We still needed to go back to our dorms and unpack. 

The two of us walked back together after grabbing our chests. We didn’t talk much, but I had a lot on my mind. 

It was easy to fake pleasantries, so I wondered how Rayla was handling the news. 

We had been close, definitely closer than good friends should be. But we hadn’t gone past a certain line ever since we slept together. 

It had been long enough since then, but there had always been a bit of suspense between us. Now, that was all dashed away with Umara’s appearance. 

Not that it was going to be any other way. 

I had a lot of time to think during the trip, or more precisely, fill my mind with things other than the emotional conflict between Rayla and I. And I realized that there was no use in putting off the inevitability. 

I wasn’t going to date or marry Rayla. Maybe I didn’t want to accept it before, and so I convinced myself that perhaps it might happen. 

But I could have made it happen at any time over the past several months. There were countless opportunities to shatter the thin barrier between us and engage in a proper relationship. 

But I didn’t. I didn’t want to, even though I hated myself for that. 

Now, I was pursuing Umara, and she unintentionally showed me exactly why I didn’t pursue Rayla. 

It seemed that whenever I was with Rayla, there was a dark shadow hanging over both of us. Sure, the two of us were mature and carried ourselves as such, making for a rich relationship. But the shadow was too much for me. It was selfish, but if I wanted the best for myself, then I wouldn’t find it with her. 

On the contrary, Umara and I only seemed to have fun while still being able to engage each other intellectually and emotionally. And we still had a long ways to go in regard to our intimacy, which only made me excited. 

I had already decided that I needed someone who was at my level, who fit me better. 

It wouldn’t take anything away from my friendship with Rayla, but now, the lingering tension between us was no longer there. The line had been clearly drawn. 

I didn’t look back as Umara and I disappeared into the fourth year dorms. 

We went to Umara’s room first, which was on the top floor like mine. But whereas my room was 312, her’s was 344. 

It was down a hall, but not that far thankfully. 

“This is me.”

“Mm.”

I nodded as she used her feet to open the door, kicking it open and heading inside. 

I followed her in, setting my chest down by the door and looking around. 

When the light came on, I saw a moderately decorated room that looked pretty normal. There were two paintings, one medium sized plushie on her bed, and then a large poster containing a diagram of what I could only assume was a spell formation. 

Umara spoke as she put down her chest. 

“I’m glad I was able to meet your friends. They seemed nice.”

“Well I’m glad they seemed that way.”

“Heh. Now I just need to meet your family since you met my mother.”

“Oh. Did I not tell you about that?”

“About what?”

She looked back at me weirdly. 

I felt odd while explaining. 

“Well, I have a family. It’s just that I won’t ever be able to see them again.”

“…What do you mean? I thought you came from a village.”

“I did, but I wasn’t born there.”

“So you lied about growing up in Yumir Village?”

“Yes.”

I confessed directly, deciding that it was best to get some things out of the way. 

“I traveled to the capital from Yumir Village, but I have no relation to it or anyone there. Besides the Chief who gave me the ride here.”

“So then…”

“I’m from a place very far away. So far that I’ll never be able to go back. And my family is there, so I won’t be able to see them again.”

“What was that place called?”

“Earth.”

“Earth…”

She stared thoughtfully for a few moments before walking over to me. 

Her arms wrapped around me in a hug. 

“…I know there’s probably more to the story, but no matter what, it must be difficult not seeing them.”

“Yea… But I’ve made my peace with it. There’s nothing I can do anyway.”

“Not that it makes it any easier.”

“…”

I was silent as I returned the hug. 

It really was difficult, but I found solace in the fact that we had only separated. While they didn’t know that, and that worried me, I knew the truth. It was enough for me, mainly because it had to be. 

Still, I found some comfort in Umara’s arms. I felt bad that I had lied to her, but her understanding only made me like her more. 

After a while of that though, I smiled a bit and broke the silence. 

“So, your mother is fun.”

“C-Can we forget about that?”

“As if. Honestly, I don’t know how you’re more embarrassed than me. I’m the one who had to answer those questions.”

“I mean…”

She went silent, gradually burying her head in my chest. 

“…I almost died.”

“Hehe, I saw.”

I chuckled, but being honest with myself, those questions and my answers had gone a bit deeper than I thought our relationship warranted. 

I had essentially said that I may marry Umara in the future. For the sake of even being able to try, I didn’t hesitate to lay out the truth like that. But it could be said that we had taken a rather big step just then, laying everything out on the table so clearly. 

Suddenly, Umara backed away, her ears red and her head dipped.

“Alright, go and unpack. I need to meet my mother soon anyway.”

“Fine.”

We separated after she turned me around and pushed me out. So grabbing my chest, I went back to my room and settled down.

After that, I decided to run some errands and say hi to my mentor, as well as see if I couldn’t start baiting out any latent threats. 

……

“Aahhh!!”

Umara jumped face first into her bed after John left, kicking her legs sporadically while squealing into her pillow. 

Her mind was entirely filled with what she heard earlier. 

After being so embarrassed by her mother that her blood boiled in shame, she listened to John speak words that made her heart flutter and breath hitch. It was so overwhelming that she curled up on the floor and buried herself in her robes. 

She couldn’t help but fixate on that one word: marriage. 

She barely kept up as her fantasies flew out of control. She wasn’t even able to look John in the eye. Even just hugging him made her feel tingly. 

Her last resort was pushing him out to give herself some room to process her spiraling emotions. 

That, and she needed to prepare for dinner with her mother. 

Dressing up took time, so she unpacked while thinking about everything before calming down and picking out her clothes. 

But she encountered a conundrum. She went through all her dresses, some of which were stored in spatial sacks, and tried on 6 before she caught herself. 

With every dress, every piece of jewelry, she pictured herself walking down an aisle. 

How would it look beside him? Is it too noble for his tastes? Would our colors match?

Before she knew it, she had spent an entire hour debating the validity of every dress she owned for a scenario that only had a chance of happening years in the future. 

At some point, she could only pick out her nicest black dress, feeling it was barely satisfactory. 

And after putting on some light makeup, slipping on her earrings, and wrapping a bracelet around her wrist, she put on a fur coat and left her room. 

On the way out, she passed by John’s door and knocked, but to no avail. He was gone on what she could only assume was business. 

With a sigh, she left the dorms and arrived at the gates, seeing a large carriage. 

Jumping inside, she sat across from her mother who was similarly dressed. 

The Duchess looked her daughter up and down. 

“Did you dress for the dinner or for him?”

“I just dressed nicely!”

*Rumble*

The carriage rolled as Umara shouted exasperatedly. She was beginning to reach a limit today. 

Sensing that, the Duchess smiled and looked back down at her Aerial. 

On the screen was a picture of John along with the bounty of 40 thousand coin. 

Below that there were several details about him. More specifically, the Duchess paid attention to one number.

Estimated kill count: 108

Before the Duchess, there was no hiding. Over the course of just two hours, she had already collected nearly every piece of information there was to know about John Cooper. 

But everything she saw only made her more curious. 

A kill count recently surpassing the triple digits, a number that probably didn’t match the true number, despite only being Authority 3. Then there were the weapons he used to carry that out.

But more interesting than that was the complete lack of background. 

He had appeared out of nowhere. Even villages had to take a consensus and submit records to their ruling counties. But there wasn’t a single record of John’s existence. 

And that wasn’t even considering that he was nothing like a village boy should be. Anybody who came from those backwater establishments was uneducated, unrefined, and poor. 

But John wasn’t any of those things. Although he didn’t carry the air of a noble, he still knew his manners. Then again, he was more ignorant than she initially thought since he didn’t even know that the title of Duchess was equal to that of a Duke, the highest noble title only under the King himself. 

Of course, after her interrogation, she confirmed that his intentions with Umara were pure enough. In fact, compared to some snobby noble boys, she quite liked him. 

But his background was a complete mystery. She had at least wanted to know where he came from, but the only name she found on record was Yumir Village, and he most assuredly didn’t come from there. 

She wanted to interrogate him more, but she also knew when she was overstepping. She held herself to certain standards and, as a Duchess, wouldn’t stoop so low as to force the information out of him. 

As for everything else, well, she had already found it. 

A delivery man who had a relationship with the Tavera Family and was employed directly under the notorious Plex. Admitted to the school as a fourth year under the recommendation of Maxwell Albarain, a name she was very familiar with. There was even a piece of information mentioning the Golden Key he obtained from the Key Master of the Black Spider Hotel, as well as interacting directly with Sawn of Sawn Industries. 

It was like the kid was a walking magnet for notoriety, interacting with some of the most famous underground names out there. Of course, he also fought tooth and nail to keep his life under those circumstances, but there were many others who had died due to far less. 

Which brought her more interest in his summons and his power. Training under Maxwell for less than a year had brought him up to Authority 3. And after just a few days at Calatrop base, he had already become an Elite, a most recent piece of news. 

Every detail painted an extraordinary picture, and the only thing that amazed her was that he wasn’t more famous. Of course, if he kept on his path, that would change very soon. 

For now, the only decision she had come to was that he was worth keeping around, and that her daughter coming in contact with him was actually lucky. 

As she thought about those things, the mother and daughter arrived at the nicest restaurant in the capital, besides those behind the Black Spider Hotel. 

“Welcome, Duchess. Your table awaits.”

After stepping out, they were greeted and led to their table directly. For a Duchess, there was no such thing as waiting or a lack of personal service. 

Taken to the top floor, they were given a private room that overlooked the nighttime capital city. It was a gorgeous view that even Umara couldn’t help but take in with wonder. 

“So, tell me about your trip. I hear it was eventful.”

“I was. We were attacked a few times.”

Umara went on to recollect the events of the trip, like the siege, their search and destroy mission, and then their last patrol. 

In each event, she always ended up talking almost strictly about John’s side of the combat.

There was one detail that surprised the Duchess. 

“He can utilize his Aura?”

“Mm. He told me about it. He said it’s still useless for anything besides reading the atmosphere, but he eventually wants to use it for something that can help mitigate his weaknesses, like invisibility.”

“I see. So his talent is up to standards as well. Seems you picked a good one.”

“Y-Yes…”

Umara ducked a bit bashfully. 

The Duchess looked at her daughter while resting her chin on her palm as if scrutinizing. 

“Dear, do you truly like this man?”

“Yes? I wouldn’t pursue him otherwise.”

“I understand that. But you’ve always been rather apprehensive about dating. For years you’ve refused to humor all the handsome suitors thrown your way. And then two months go by during your fourth year at the Magisterium and you come home from a trip with a new boy. You can understand why I’m more than a little surprised.”

“W-Well he just seemed to check all the right boxes…”

“Like?”

The Duchess’ eyebrows raised, causing Umara to fidget. 

“He’s smart.”

“Doesn’t seem that smart to me.”

“He’s not from around here, so he doesn’t seem to know much of the culture. But from what I’ve heard, he’s shockingly well informed on lots of topics, even by our standards. It’s why I never believed he was from a village.”

“And what has he spoken of?”

“Well, lots of things. He knows about the human body, like how it’s composed of billions of individual living things called cells. Oh, he also talked about light and said that there’s such a thing as invisible fire. There was also some stuff about space?”

Umara described what seemed like a dozen different scientific concepts, and her mother was confused as much of the information was entirely foreign to her. 

As someone who stood at the top of the world, there was very little she didn’t know about. She was someone who was more than able to push the limits of magical research, and technological development, even the most bleeding edge science, could be browsed on a whim. It was all well within her grasp. 

But she hadn’t heard about most of what Umara mentioned, let alone how most of it seemed completely made up. 

Eventually, she shook her head. 

“Nevermind that. Continue.”

“Oh, okay. Well, besides being smart, he’s rather charming. We can talk for hours. He’s also strong for someone who isn’t a knight. And… he’s kind of fearless.”

Umara glanced out the window and toward the city. 

“I’ve never seen him scared of anything. Even when our Hummer was flipped, he was the calmest one, even though he’s just a summoner. Even when he was attacked and almost killed, I didn’t sense an ounce of fear. Almost like it had nothing to do with him.”

“Sounds reckless.”

“I would say that for every summoner who dares to step foot on a battlefield.”

The Duchess didn’t refute, smiling with unreadable thoughts. 

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