Theia clapped at the sight of Luna's victory. Her eyes widened, her mouth falling agape as she applauded relentlessly towards Luna.
Vii bowed deeply and said, "Well done, My Lady. Then I'll go now to prepare the necessary items for the departure."
Luna let go of the hug as Reed stepped back and sat on the ground.
"Already?" Luna turned her head asking.
Reed looked towards Vii as she turned towards him and bowed. He looked back at Luna, saying, "Yes. I predicted that you'd impress me and contacted that man—the one who will be your master from now on—a month ago. So you'll depart tomorrow morning or the day after."
"Thank you, dad!" Luna smiled from ear to ear, revealing her shiny white teeth.
Luna looked back at Theia, who kept relentlessly applauding her victory. She extended her arm and showed a thumb up at her.
Theia, seeing Luna, immediately stopped what she was doing and burrowed her face in her legs.
Haha, cute as ever,
Reed slowly stood up, telling, "Then, Luna, for now please refrain from using magic and listen to your Master's every word."
Luna looked at her dad and raised an eyebrow, saying, "Why?"
"Normally, people mix the elements in hand before applying it to action, but you skipped it, immediately applying it to your sword. It greatly depletes one's mana, so you should firstly work on building your mana up through repetition. If you deplete your mana without building an immunity to it, you will get hurt badly."
"Ah, okay," Luna said. "But who is my master?"
Reed brushed off the dirt from his trousers and explained, "He'd rather want to introduce himself than have me introduce him to you, so you have to be patient. He's rather… how would I say… a perfectionist, or rather just a strict man."
"Well, once you get to know him, you'll understand."
"He wants to do everything perfect since his second disciple, Don't get angry at him because he shouts a lot, remember it."
Luna nodded excitedly but frowned her eyebrows, thinking for a while. "But didn't you, dad, just introduce him to me?"
"Well, don't tell him I did," Reed responded.
"Oh, okay," Luna added.
"Then I have to go now. It was really fun to duel with my daughter. I'd hope that you will find time to duel with me again…"
"What are you talking about? I have free time anytime for you!" Luna affirmed excitedly.
"Not for long," Reed muttered to himself as he turned his back to her, walking towards the exit.
What? I didn't hear that, Luna thought.
"Well, I have adoption papers to fulfill now, so I have to go. We'll meet tomorrow on the departure day, probably."
Reed and Vii walked out of the training center and down the corridor. Luna observed them as they did, but once they were far away, Vii's head turned towards Reed, telling him something.
Vii forcibly wrinkled her forehead and frowned her eyebrows. A second later, she drove her fist into his side, making him immediately bend forward, gripping his stomach.
"Hahaa!" Luna laughed, amused at seeing her father in a different light.
She turned towards Theia, who was still sitting on the ground, and extended her arm towards her, saying, "Then let's go play!"
Theia, seeing that gesture, jolted towards her, gripping her hand tightly, and said "Yes!" under her breath.
"Then there we go!"
Luna and Theia walked out of the training center and strolled towards Luna's room, where they would play until the end of the day.
Huh, I wonder where Theo went. I forgot to ask dad…
***
Luna and Theia sat across from each other on red, leathery sofas as a lit fireplace to the right crackling wood sounding occasionally. Luna was drawing a stickman representation of her family with their names written underneath: Dad, Nyx, Aria, Luna, Theia, Lilly, Aisha.
Those six people were Luna's family. But as Luna sat straight up and looked at the drawing once more, she found it strange, like a few people were still missing. She scratched her neck with her nails and thought for a while, but nothing came out of it, no memory of people she could've missed
So she brushed the idea to the side and kept drawing.
Theia just sat on the sofa, hugging a pillow with her legs curled up to her chest, touching the pillow. She observed every stroke Luna made silently, following with her eyes the pen that moved, Luna's every move, every hair strand that glided, every time Luna blinked, every time she breathed. She watched her precisely as her face was brightly lit with a blush.
She kept her gaze relentlessly, but the second something came up to her mind, immediately her face brightened even more with a smile. She spoke, her voice barely a whisper into the pillow "Luna."
"Hmm?" Luna muttered, looking up at her.
"Is there something that you want to tell me?"
It's obvious she wants to tell me something. Just one look at her is telling me everything. Heh, she's really cute.
"...Can I-I ask you something?" Theia muttered.
Luna nodded as she tilted her head, observing her.
Theia's eye twitched as she tried to keep eye contact but was unable to, so she resorted to fidgeting with her fingers to calm herself down. Finally taking the courage in, she looked up with her eyes and asked, "A-am I t-the most important p-person to you?"
Luna, hearing those words, stared at Theia and immediately said, "No."
"Huh?" Theia said while staring at luna with hollow eyes