Heir of Synthesis: The World Mage

After an hour ”meditating,” Priam opened his eyes.

He met Orlaith’s gaze and smiled, ”I managed to get enough Ether. With that, my Pristine Core will provide me with natural energy and heal my wounds.”

She nodded in understanding.

When Priam returned, he had indeed handed the damaged Pristine Cores to Orlaith. He had explained roughly that he had accidentally stumbled upon the massacre of one of those tribes and managed to steal the treasure from the killers. He kept one complete core for himself.

Of course, he did not say it was a Primordial Pristine Core.

There was no way to hide this, since his mother had also received a core. All the Elders who helped heal her could feel it inside her.

”Let’s eat. They’re waiting.” She spoke, and Priam stood up.

The table was already ready, with the food warmed up by the three of them, waiting for them.

...

After they ate and cleaned everything, it was already late at night.

Shione looked at Flaris and then at Lumiere. Soon, the three quickly ran to the rooms.

Orlaith entered a room at the back.

When Priam chose one and opened the door, stepping inside... he heard the sound of furniture being dragged through the large hallway.

He turned around and saw the three leaving their rooms, pulling the wooden beds, and coming toward him.

”What? I said we were going to stay together.”

Shione spoke, being the first to pass through the door, pushing her own bed into Priam’s room.

The opening was wide enough, so the furniture entered without difficulty. Noticing the bizarre expression on Priam’s face, she rolled her eyes and placed her hands on her waist.

”You’re broken and need to sleep properly. We’ll take turns on night watch between the three of us to protect you. There will always be someone awake watching over that defenseless little body of yours.”

Priam snorted, but felt a comfortable warmth grow in his chest. Those three really cared. He was absolutely certain that, if things got rough, they would throw themselves in front of a sword for him without hesitation.

”You don’t...”

”You can’t reject it!” Flaris interrupted him and entered right behind, giving Priam a sharp look that made him swallow his words immediately.

”Just because you finally awakened your talent, you became this arrogant? I remember very well when we used to share the same bed, and you cried like a weaned baby and...”

”Hey! Low blow!” Priam shot her a desperate look.

Flaris opened a smile from ear to ear. Priam kept several embarrassing secrets about her, and she had already been threatened with them before; now, she was finally getting proper payback.

Priam immediately fired back. ”If you keep this up, I’ll tell them about that day when you asked me to...”

”Shut up!” She exclaimed, stomping her foot on the floor indignantly.

Priam smiled and murmured something only Flaris understood.

”You...”

Flaris snorted and ran to him, stretching out her hands furiously, wanting to shut his mouth.

Priam widened his eyes and dodged to the side like a cat.

”Keep running from me, damn it!” Flaris became even more irritated, jumping toward him again.

The two fell onto the bed, one chasing the other and wrestling.

Shione and Lumiere watched that ”exchange” a little confused. If someone had asked them before about the relationship between those two, they would have said they were childhood friends with obvious romantic tension, about to explode at any moment.

But now? What they saw and felt there was exactly the same look of pure competition and cheap provocation that they themselves, as siblings, sometimes shared.

’Do these two really see each other only as relatives?’ they thought in sync.

They called each other cousins, but the genetic distance between them in the clan’s family tree already reached dozens of generations or more. If not for the same surname, they would be complete strangers.

Priam fought to avoid her, almost in despair. But Flaris cornered him against the wall and grabbed him in a hug. Since she was much taller, his head ended up buried against her bust.

Priam struggled for a moment...

At first, he felt comfortable there. Unfortunately, that did not last long.

”Oh? Now you want to run even from this?” She mocked, with a victorious smile.

But...

After a few seconds, Flaris’s horns detected a sudden change in him.

She widened her eyes, clearly feeling a visceral repulsion coming from him. In the same second, she let him go.

She saw Priam’s face twisted. Then she took a deep breath, sighing...

She did not know what was wrong with her cousin, and now confirmed that he really could not stand other people’s touch. Pain appeared on her face. She wanted to ask him about it... wanted to help, but he did not seem very open to that yet.

It lasted only a brief moment, then Priam calmed down.

He stared at Flaris and forced a smile.

”You’ll pay for that...” he murmured lightly, but everyone there could feel that he was forcing himself to change the mood.

With everyone settled in the spacious and luxurious room, they lined the beds side by side, against the opposite wall between the window and the door. It was a perfect tactical position to watch the two entry points and react quickly to any invasion.

Priam carefully lay down on the bed closest to the wall, but the truth was that everyone’s blood was still boiling with adrenaline. No one there would be able to sleep anytime soon.

Flaris lay down on her side, only a few centimeters away from Priam. She would not dare go any farther, and Priam knew that. She started a conversation:

”But tell me something, cousin... are you going to keep being a wimp with women? You could’ve broken those two bitches in half earlier.”

Priam immediately fired back, indignant.

”I didn’t go easy! What did you want? For me to beat their faces until they became unrecognizable?”

Flaris snorted, mocking the fact that he had not even tried to use the branch to hit the girls’ faces.

Priam had clearly avoided doing that.

That was when Shione entered the conversation, without the slightest filter.

”She’s right. Against men, you aim straight for the balls without a drop of remorse just to destabilize the poor bastard. So why spare girls? Hitting the bust is much easier, and the impact area is huge! And I’ll tell you an anatomy secret: a good hit to our ’thing’ hurts as much as a kick to the balls. You, who love humiliating opponents, are going to become gender-selective now? Pain is the same for everyone, so hit without mercy!”

Lumiere almost choked on his own saliva, completely stunned by his sister’s lack of shame.

Flaris, on the other hand, only clapped and nodded energetically. In a few seconds, the two joined forces to pressure poor Priam side by side.

Since forever, Lumiere — or any young boy born in that world — knew that brutality did not choose gender. No man would have any hesitation in a life-or-death fight against someone of the opposite sex and would use everything within reach. Anyone could be a potential killer, so they treated everyone equally.

But Priam had the mindset of a very well-educated boy from Earth, which was extremely strange for that world.

He was gentler with girls almost by instinct, and both Flaris and Shione had already noticed that.

Even so, they liked that trait in him, because Priam had a natural tendency to treat the two of them much better than they should deserve. Because of that, they felt obligated to return the favor and, at the same time, completely comfortable by his side.

The conversation quickly went off the rails.

Shione began suggesting completely bizarre and politically incorrect combat tactics for Priam to use in the future. Flaris was crying with laughter while adding even more sadistic ideas to the list.

It did not take long for the subject to change completely. Soon, the four of them were sprawled across the beds, talking about the most random things possible.

Lumiere and Shione began telling stories about the Alliance clans they had met in the past. Even without knowing at the time that the supreme leader of everything was a race of Primordial Chaos Beasts, since their mother was the leader of the Ylisse clan, it was not uncommon for her to meet those figures in meetings.

Because of that, the two of them — and their former Big Brother — also participated sometimes.

They recalled the way those big shots had always treated them like complete trash.

”But now?” Shione laughed loudly, staring at Priam with shining eyes. The four of them were separated by only a few centimeters, sitting on the bed.

”Those bastards in the hall looked like they had swallowed their own shit with farofa after what you did!”

The four laughed lightly, and the two girls exaggeratedly described the changes in the big shots’ expressions while Priam fought.

The luxurious room turned into the typical scene of a group of teenagers gossiping and laughing loudly in the middle of the night.

Three of them were nineteen, while Lumiere was twenty.

But for young people who had spent their entire lives locked away, training and studying Magic day and night without stopping, their minds — free from the pressures of the outside world — were still deliciously immature and chaotic.

At some point, Priam noticed that Shione, in front of him, had her eyes fixed too much on him.

He became confused when he noticed it. But soon relaxed, thinking it was just her intense personality.

Even so, he could not help noticing her curves, as she wore a light sleeping dress.

Unlike the time when he had met her, she had really grown physically. She was no longer completely flat, though she still did not compare to Flaris in that aspect.

Added to her natural beauty, she had definitely become a woman of intimidating beauty. She was like a brilliant crystal of immaculate ice, but her personality was the complete opposite... which granted her a unique charm.

Upon noticing the complete change in her, his imagination could not help but stir.

Priam, who had never lived something like this with friends — much less experienced any kind of romance with a girl — could not even understand exactly what he was feeling. But unfortunately... he knew that not even in dreams would he be able to touch her.

He made an effort for a while, avoiding looking too much at Shione. It was almost as if his eyes were being drawn somewhere they should not. Fortunately, a short time later, he ended up forgetting about it.

He only thanked internally that Shione had not noticed. But... he did not know that she had not only noticed clearly, but had also been disappointed that he had stopped looking.

...

In the middle of the night, after a lot of conversation, Priam finally began to feel tired enough to sleep. This was a special night, even though he had already lived two lives.

Before turning to the side, he looked at Flaris.

”You still have contact with your demonic family, right?”

She nodded lightly. ”I have a special emblem. I can exchange messages and receive replies at any time. I can ask them for anything.”

Priam nodded in satisfaction. To the Fem-Ignis, Flaris was the race’s greatest treasure; so they would do anything for her.

”Great. Tomorrow, I’ll need your help with something important.”

”Oh?” She became thoughtful upon hearing that.

Priam slowly smiled.

”If I simply go back home in five days, and then leave for the Divine Plane... do you think the Supreme General will just accept that?”

At that instant, Shione and Lumiere froze.

Indeed, there was a great chance that, if Hahho really did not recover, the Supreme General would decide to pour all his hatred onto the Ylisse Clan.

”That’s why... I need to resolve this properly. In these five days...” He yawned in the middle of the sentence, while the three of them remained tense. ”I’ll try to settle everything... or create such huge chaos that this Bastard General won’t be able to do anything anytime soon.”

The three of them were frightened.

Resolve it? Create even greater chaos than what he had already caused? How was that even possible?!

Priam said nothing else. He only closed his eyes, turned to the side, and fell asleep peacefully.