Diana and Vulcan walked up, sitting down across from Caelus and Tellus. "Ugh, Why do I have to be nice to her... She acts so righteous and all."
"But if Mother said so, then I shall, I need to get closer to the Princess, according to her." Diana thought to herself, finally letting out a rough sigh, both a grunt and an exhale from her.
"...Hmmm, I’ll be nicer to them, they’re trying to change from the looks of it." Caelus blinked, noticing Sol’s aura. He turned to the side. "Hey, Sol." Caelus waved as his tail uncoiled, laying down across the ground.
"Hi Caelus, it seems you’ve already congratulated Tellus on taking her somewhere soon," Sol replied, covering his face with his fan.
"Well, yes, she deserves something like that, though what are you going to give? Chocolates?" Caelus replied, turning his back on Vulcan and Diana as his legs stretched out to stay on top of the other bench nearby, which was empty.
"Why does this Dragon sit so casually? Well, I guess he’s powerful enough to be able to do that, I guess." Diana thought. "Ugh, I’ll just deal with this later."
"Precisely so, and well, I’d like to give her some advice since it’d help for future needs," Sol replied, a muffled laugh from behind the fan.
"Wh-What do you mean by that?" Tellus replied, her head perking up. She was conversing with Minerva, but just hearing this surprised her and made her a little... Uneasy. "Oh God, is he going to tell me something about how to-"
"It was more on how she could get better with the Sword, to be frank, her grip on the blade isn’t as strong as expected, along with how she moves it, I mean, I saw one Cultivator at Pseudo Sage in the tournament despite being Soul Formation just like me." Sol continued. Clearly interested in that person, but also wanting to use that to help someone here.
"Oh? Well, then I guess I’ll-" Tellus replied, her voice a little higher-pitched, almost excited.
"This feels a lot better, and they don’t seem to be against how I act... I do wonder, should I even reveal if I’m reincarnated?"
He thought for a bit. Noticing it’d been about ten minutes of him contemplating, with Tellus poking his nose for him to open one eye. "Hmm? Yes, Tellus?"
His words came out right before he spoke. Already knowing it was Tellus.
"Differentiating people from others, looks like you’re getting better at cultivation-"
"No, it’s just my smell, Minerva smells like fish, and you smell like sweat." Caelus interrupted, replying, his voice a little blunt, and also finding it amusing if he did that, since he wasn’t dragging only her down.
"Fish- Okay, I ate that ONCE, and it was like two days ago," Minerva replied, her voice steady but still showing annoyance.
"Sure, whatever makes you happy, Minerva," Caelus replied, his voice both teasing and calm.
Minerva sighed, turning away as she then looked towards Vulcan, making eye contact with him.
"What, Oh, did I offend you by saying that about your... Girlfriend?" Caelus replied
"No, it’s fine, she just wants to hang out with me because she’s annoyed," Vulcan replied, yet his voice was only going to Caelus, so no one else could hear.
Noticing this, Caelus chuckled, watching Vulcan get up and begin walking away with Minerva.
"Well, Tellus, you can go with Sol right now. I’m not busy, so you can probably find me outside the Empire or somewhere at the stalls."
"Well then, Caelus. I guess we’ll be going now." Both Tellus and Sol left to train while he was here, leaving him with Diana, who was looking at his hair on his back.
Tilting his head back far enough to see her face, he finally spoke. "So, you got anything to do right now?" His voice was steady. Seeing her black hair, he noticed dark crimson streaks at the tips; her dress was made of silk, so he knew it was something the masses couldn’t get.
"I’d rather just ditch my old self, sure, being human is fine, being myself is fine... But this is also myself, so I can just make both of myself into one; I don’t need to drop one, but both." Caelus finally took a moment to rest, not the one he did while sleeping, nor with the seals, but this moment let him rest his mind, which had been working overtime listening to every conversation.
"Using barely any of my brain now... Oddly comforting, no, not oddly, perfectly comforting."
"If you need anything or want to ask anything, Diana, then just poke my horn since they’re sensitive," Caelus spoke.
"...Okay?" Diana looked a little puzzled, but went back to minding her business. "I do need to warn you, the Church is advancing in technology for people, so now they have more things, and they also figured out that there are small creatures on your body or near you that cause diseases. So they’re going to make something which helps the people with that."
"...Germ Theory? Well, I guess it makes sense. This is a medieval-like era. At least it’s earlier than usual, and probably because they need more trust after the entire Yunlei situation. The Clan reacted violently, but when they found out it was Nyx, they backed off. Makes sense, I doubt anyone, but the Church would want to mess with her."
"I see, well that’s good, luckily I don’t need it much, do you though?" Caelus asked, curious
"Well, not really anymore, I just made my body stronger so it could fight it and also differentiate between the small things like pollen."
"Ah, alright, well at least you won’t be dealing with those problems." Caelus stopped for a second. "Couldn’t be me, I’m just built differently," Caelus spoke, his voice clearly sarcastic for that line; even a child could tell he wasn’t serious when he said that.
Diana stared, blinking for a second, her shoulders shaking. Caelus noticed her trying not to laugh, clearly from the sarcasm. "So, Diana, do you do anything other than mess with Tellus? Hunting or something?"
"...Did he already figure out I was here for Tellus? No, probably not, given how he speaks before it, it’s probably about how I was a nuisance to her before. At least that’s what Vulcan says."
"I do go out hunting sometimes, without using Cultivation. I suppress it to the awakening realm so I can actually do it properly."
"I see, well, then I might need to try that later, it seems fun," Caelus replied, his eyes half-closed, moving his head forward once more. "Oddly quiet now, but I don’t mind it."
"Well, Apologies for going so early, but it seems my Mother is calling me from over there." Diana pointed somewhere, but Caelus couldn’t see where her hand was pointing; he could only see the lady waiting, just standing still. She looked similar to the one he’d met at the jewelry stand. "Ironic, well, I guess I’ll be going as well."
Caelus got up. "Alright, well, have fun. I’ll probably be walking around the Empire." In almost a split second, Caelus disappeared, reappearing near the entrance of the Empire, well, one of them.
Finally reaching a path made of dirt rather than clean-cut stone, he felt a sensation up his spine, causing his entire body to shiver and twitch. "AH! Okay, what the hell was that?" Caelus thought to himself, stopping for a bit as his tail panicked, moving side to side.
Caelus would investigate that later, instead of worrying about it right now, continuing forward so his tail didn’t accidentally destroy something or someone’s legs.
Looking to the side, he noticed three anthills, each a few kilometers apart from each other. Right now, it looked like they were taking back food from somewhere.
Along with that, he noticed the wetness of each blade of grass, along with the dirt he stood on, the amount of sunlight it got, and more than just those. But that was too much detail; he only wanted to see it without that.
"Oh yeah, Diana had the same idea."
Caelus suppressed the Mana at least in his head, which removed the hyper-enhanced senses. Of course, he still had incredible senses, but nothing comparable to before.
"Okay, wow, this feels a lot more relaxing than just not using my brain for a bit, well, obviously, other than the basics."
Caelus found it amusing that even now, he thought he was talking to someone despite no one being here. Only now, realizing how quiet Aphro has been, usually she’d say something by now, or ruin his mood. Touch up on something or give him a mission.
"I guess she’s just being nicer, huh? Well then."
He didn’t put it to mind. Turning left, he started walking into the grass, away from the water, feeling it against his scales. He didn’t find it anything; it was how it was. He wouldn’t comment on it like that.
Reaching the trees, he touched them, feeling the bark and its texture. He tilted his head to the side, and he noticed a pack of wolves nearby, at least one that was walking past this area inside the trees, a weird place for them to be, but he ignored it.
Turning away, he was about to continue walking, only to bump into Sol. Looking ahead, he leaned back against the tree so it was easier to make Eye contact, lowering his own height a little.
Yet even now, his Mana stayed away from his head.
"Well, you seem to be having fun, Caelus, but I do want to ask if you’re fine since I’ve never seen you like this. It’s not that I think you’ll do something, but it’s because you used to be very, very quiet and introverted." Sol replied, his Fan closing, hand moving down, full eye contact with Caelus.
"I’m fine, just getting more used to the people here. I’m not used to talking much, but I changed to talk a bit more; I guess that counts." Caelus replied, a smile on his face. "But I’m not keeping track of how happy or comfortable I am now, I’ll just let it be unless it’s an immediate problem or threat."
Caelus continued, making sure Sol knew he wasn’t naive right now, assuming friendliness from everything was downright insane.
"How was the Tournament Sol?" Caelus asked.
"Oh? Well, it was fun. I met other people like me, and I even met a group of kids who, let’s say, adopted another kid who was being bullied. He’s only at the awakening stage, but he has incredible potential. Since he fixed his broken meridians, which has only happened twice in history." Sol replies.
"The fixing part, the broken Meridians are more plausible." He clarifies right after, so it doesn’t seem so easy to do that.
"Well, I guess you can tell him a Dragon is giving his congratulations for doing that, if you do meet him once more." Caelus’s voice was collected and genuine. He didn’t do it for any particular reason. It was right; thus, he did it. His brain reacted the same way it always did with good. A baseline.
"...Hmmm, Wonder how Tellus is doing." He thought to himself, "Ah, her appearance, I almost forgot to even memorize it and file it away... Dark hair, gray eyes, her skin paler than usual, I guess it’s probably something to do with where she’s born. The tips of her hair are pure white, not the gray old people get, probably dyed hair."
"Her face is beautiful, of course, and for her clothing, I’m having a hard time remembering for some reason."
"Oh, wait, Sol is here. I should probably reply to him." Caelus stopped daydreaming, looking towards Sol as he waited for Sol to say something about it. Since he said nothing. Caelus replied. "I was thinking about something, apologies for not replying."
"It’s fine, Caelus. From the looks of it, you’re having fun with that." Sol replied, his fan covering his face once more.
[...Good Job.]