The Beginning After The End novel Chapter 163

Chapter 163

Chapter 163: From Lance To Brother

Leaving Sylvie in my room to rest, I ventured through the brightly-lit halls of the castle. Looking down at my feet as I made careful steps, it was the first time I had noticed the vibrant patterns of the thick carpet in the upper residential halls. It was a funny thing to note; I’d always been in such a rush and always had a goal that I never even looked down to enjoy the subtle pleasantries around me.

It didn’t take long for me to find Ellie. She was sitting by a large window, gazing outside the sea of clouds while idly combing her fingers through her bond’s thick fur. Boo opened an eye, sensing my presence, but went back to his nap after seeing that it was me.

“May I join you?” I asked.

“You don’t need to ask,” she smiled weakly, taking a glance back at me before gazing out at the blue sky once more.

I sat down next to her on the ground, admiring the rolling clouds’ twinkle and shine from the rays of sunlight above. I could see the tip of a mountain in the distance, but besides that, only an endless expanse of white and blue.

“Do you miss them?” Ellie spoke in a soft voice. “Mom and Dad.”

“Not much as I should,” I admitted. “I worry for them—I know they’re safe out there, but so many things have been going on.”

There was a moment of silence as my sister simply continued petting her bond.

“You know, there are a lot of adults and kids that come up to me saying how lucky and fortunate I am to have a brother like you. The ones that aren’t jealous of me are jealous of you—that you’re a lance, that you’re so talented in magic and fighting, and that you have the recognition of all of this continent’s leaders. You know, some even say that you might become one of the next leaders when you get older.” My sister let out a scoff. “But it’s funny. I never told you this, but there was a time when I hated you. I felt like it was because of you that my life was like this now. I blamed you for Mom and Dad feeling like they needed to help out in the war too, and I blamed you for my not being able to have a regular life in school with classrooms and a bunch of friends.”

My sister was looking away from me as she turned her body toward Boo, but I could see the hand petting her bond trembling while her shoulders quivered. “Ellie...”

“But the funny thing is, I don’t blame you anymore. How can I blame you when your life was worse than mine? Most of the memories I have of you were you coming in and out of the house full of injuries, with unbelievable stories of how you faced this monster or that monster. It was really fun and amazing to hear back then—I thought you were so cool and strong—but I feel like I know better now. The things you had to give up to get where you are today...”

My sister hurriedly wiped her eyes with her sleeves and turned back to me with red eyes and a wide, forced grin.

I reached out to her, but she grabbed my hand and shook it before getting up. “Whew! Now that I got that off of my chest, come on! I want to show you something.”

“What is all of this?” I asked as we reached the outdoor terrace of the castle.

My gaze swept through the dozens of wooden planks hanging from various tree branches. While there were arrows protruding out of the planks, more were on the ground and the tree trunks around them.

“What I’ve been working on!” my sister proclaimed proudly as her bond curled up on the ground beside her with an aloof yawn. Ellie was abnormally perky after our conversation by the window as if she was trying to forget about it.

Trying not to dwell too much on my sister’s inconsistent behavior, I watched as she picked up a peculiar-looking short bow propped up against a pillar and a stray arrow with its tip buried into the nearby grass.

Raising the flexible bow so that the nocked arrow was at eye level, she held her still trembling breath and took a moment to aim before letting go of the string.

The thin arrow whistled as it sliced through the air, curving ever-so-slightly around a plank and hitting a different wooden target behind it.

Genuinely impressed, I applauded my sister but she held up a hand and shook her head. “Now, watch this.”

Raising her bow once more, she mumbled a brief chant. The tip of her guiding finger that was holding onto the bow began emitting a soft glow and when my sister slowly pulled the string back, the mana took form into a thin glowing arrow.

I remained silent—half from focus, half from surprise—while Ellie fired the mana arrow at a nearby target plank. The arrow let out a soft hum rather than a sharp whistle as it hastily approached its target, but before it was able to reach the plank, the arrow dissipated.

Letting out a sigh, my sister’s shoulders sank. “I swear I was able to reach the target a couple days ago.”

“That was amazing!” I exclaimed.

“I failed though,” she replied, disappointed.

“You’re barely twelve, Ellie! Most kids your age can barely conjure a ball of mana let alone shoot it out that far away,” I said, my voice still laced with enthusiasm.

My sister was silent for a moment as she absentmindedly stared at her bow.

“Aren’t you glad that your dear brother is impressed after all of that practicing?” a voice chimed from behind.

I looked over my shoulder to see a rather odd duo walking out into the terrace: Emily Watsken and Helen Shard.

“Surprised, General?” Helen smirked, noticing my confusion.

While it was reasonable for Emily to be in and out of the castle since she was apprenticed under Gideon, seeing her with the leader of the Twin Horns and current head of a large platoon of soldiers made for a head-tilting moment.

However, with the peculiar bow in Ellie’s hand and her sudden adeptness in archery, I could only put two and two together.

“I won’t deny that,” I replied back with a smile.

“You look like you’ve been through a lot.” Emily noticed my injuries.

“Just about as any other soldier out there,” I shrugged.

After Ellie and I greeted the two friends, we talked around the round patio table. We discussed how my sister was struggling in mana manipulation despite awakening at an early age.

“You’re having a hard time?” I asked my sister. “Why didn’t you tell me? I could’ve helped.”

“You’re a general now, and even before then, you were always busy. I didn’t want to bother you with it. Besides, Mom and Dad were helping me before they had to leave.”

My sister tried to sound cheerful, but the faint sullen tone in her voice, along with our conversation earlier, made my chest ache.

“I stopped by one day to check up on her after finishing a dungeon tour and she asked me for help,” Helen chimed in, trying to lift the mood. “I’m not a conjurer so I couldn’t exactly help her, so I asked the artificer, Gideon, to run some tests on her. He pawned off what he called ‘a chore’ to Emily here, and that’s when we found out about her little gift.”

Eleanor let out a shy laugh as she rubbed her head. “I wouldn’t call it a gift.”

“What gift?” I demanded, my curiosity growing.

“I think it’ll be easier for you to just show your impatient brother, Ellie,” Helen chuckled.

“Okay,” she agreed. Raising her hand, she concentrated on the center of her palm when a faint orb of mana manifested. While there were no attributes, the pure orb of mana began slowly changing shape until its once spherical shape turned into a seven-pointed star.

“You see, after I assessed Eleanor,” Emily stressed her participation as she leaned forward, “I realized that she had a real knack for molding mana into detailed shapes. Normally, whether you can make a fire ball into a fire cube doesn’t really matter, but if you’re able to conjure the exact shape of an arrow along with a particular arrowhead, then you can potentially have an infinite arsenal of arrows that enemies won’t be able to predict.”

“Well, coming up with the arrow solution was my idea,” the leader of the Twin Horns added.

“All right, stop bickering,” I cut in.

My sister let out a giggle. “They’ve both been a great help! Helen has been really strict but helpful in teaching me archery and Emily made me this bow as a training tool.”