Path to Transcendence

Chapter 150: Not Quite Even

Julius pulled out a book from his storage ring, it was called Elven Wars: Blood Era. The book was a fictional story about a real war that occurred thousands of years ago with another continent where the elves primarily resided.

It was actually quite an interesting story. He found himself enjoying a good book whenever he wanted a break from his manic training regime.

And people accuse me of not relaxing enough, Julius chuckled to himself.

He took breaks occasionally, that was what helped him keep focus on his goals better. It didn’t have to be long, but sometimes, an hour of doing something that didn’t revolve around stretching him to his limits helped more than many would think.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to enjoy his book. Just as he was beginning to read, he sensed the two of them walking toward his little corner of the library.

When Grace approached him, he pretended to be absorbed in his book. It wasn’t until she sat down in front of him that he looked up at her with feigned surprise on his face.

He observed as Grace licked her lips anxiously before speaking. “Hello,” she said tentatively.

He closed his book and smiled at her. “Hey, Grace. Fancy seeing you here this early.”

His friendly attitude seemingly put her more at ease and her shoulders relaxed a hair. “Yeah, I like to come here in the mornings to read. It clears my head before the day begins. But I could say the same to you,” she said with a smirk.

He shrugged his shoulders. “I guess my reason is pretty similar to you. It’s a nice way to relax before I have to head to class.”

She nodded her head, agreeing with the sentiment before opening her mouth to say something else but hesitated. She looked down at the table between them, closed her mouth, and furrowed her brows before opening her mouth again. “I want to apologize for what happened the other week. Amelia has always been overly protective of me, but she went too far.”

Julius took the time to look directly into her eyes before shaking his head with a chuckle. “I don’t think you need to apologize to me. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

This time it was her that shook her head at him. “No, I should stopped it before it got to that point. I wasn’t paying attention, I was too busy with…” she trailed off.

“With eating delicious food? I noticed,” he said with a teasing smirk.

He saw her blush a little bit at that comment but smiled knowingly. “Yeah, I guess you did,” she said.

Julius turned his attention from her to look around the room again. “The others and I don’t hold any hard feelings for you,” he assured her.

She bit her lip worryingly. “And Amelia?” She asked hesitantly.

“Eh, I couldnʼt care less about seeing her again. I find myself not making time for rude people,” Julius truthfully told Grace.

Grace nodded her head and nervously picked at the hem of her uniform. “Does that mean we can’t be friends?” She asked quietly.

It was quiet enough that Julius was certain that if not for his enhanced hearing, he wouldn’t have been able to hear what she said. Still, he was able to fully catch her question.

He didn’t answer right away and waited until she looked up at him. He then gave her a soft smile of his own and said, “I don’t see why not. You still owe me a cake after all. If we weren’t friends then I wouldn’t be able to exchange that offer.”

He saw her eyes water around the edges before she looked away again, but this time with a smile of her own. “What about Amelia?” She asked him.

“What about her?”

“She won’t affect our friendship?” She asked.

Julius just shrugged. “I mean that depends a lot on you and her. What kind of relationship do the two of you share?”

Grace tilted her head in thought. “She’s someone who keeps an eye on me while I am at Goldencrest. But more importantly, she’s my friend. Probably, my only friend,” she admitted sadly.

“Well not anymore,” he told her with a smile. “And I don’t know about the others, but I can tell you that they liked you. I know for sure that they enjoyed your appetite, especially Edgar. But he’s biased.”

She looked up at him with a brilliant smile upon hearing his kind words. But then frowned. “Biased?” She asked confused.

Julius waved his hand. “Eh, itʼs not really important. He just likes anyone who eats a lot because it makes him feel less guilty about him eating his family into poverty.”

She visibly flinched “What?”

“I know, sad business,” he shook his head morosely. “Anyway, I don’t see why she would affect our friendship, I just wouldn’t want to hang out with her,” he said switching back to the original topic, leaving Grace slightly confused and off-kilter.

However, she quickly got back her bearings. “What if she apologized to you directly?” She asked curiously.

Julius paused and put a hand on his chin. “That would certainly help,” he admitted.

An apology would go a long way. It wasn’t like he wasn’t unaware of where Amelia was coming from. He had teased Grace a little bit and he could see how someone who was very protective of a person would perceive that in a negative way.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Additionally, he wouldn’t have lost his own composure that night if he hadn’t seen House Greyson just a few minutes before. If it was any other time, he would have brushed it off like no big deal.

Grace smiled at that. “I will have her apologize immediately,” she promised.

“Thanks, I would appreciate that,” he told her, feeling good about resolving that issue.

There was just one single thing that was bothering him now.

It was that Amelia was currently breathing down Julius’s neck. And he meant literally breathing down his neck. She was so close to him that he could reach behind him and touch her.

She had maneuvered around him the second Grace entered the room. The only thing that made him okay with it, was that she wasn’t doing anything that would alert him.

Her body was oddly non-threatening. The main thing she had been doing, was staring at him. But there were times that Julius suspected she was testing him and whether or not he could sense her.

He almost laughed out loud when he sensed her fake lunging at him. He remained his act though. He was pretty confident that Amelia wouldn’t blindside him in front of Grace. That was what he was hoping for at least.

He looked at Grace who was also looking at him with an awkward look on her face. However, after too much time passed to be comfortable, she sighed loudly.

“I meant now,” she said in a surprisingly stern and commanding tone.

Julius calmly watched with his two eyes as Amelia suddenly appeared in front of him.

He saw her looking at him with extremely focused eyes. Then she smiled and laughed, turning to Grace. “I told you,” she said proudly.

Julius looked confusingly at Grace who then smacked Amelia on the shoulder. “Not the time,” she scolded her.

“What do you mean? Are we just going to ignore the fact that he didn’t even seem remotely surprised to see me?” Amelia asked in disbelief.

“That’s not the point. We already suspected that he could. But I asked you to appear to apologize, not to talk about his perception skill,” Grace said.

“You’re not a little bit curious?” Amelia asked knowingly.

Grace paused and conceded her point with a nod. She turned to Julius with an intrigued look. “So you can perceive her,” she said matter of factly and with a knowing grin.

Shit, I forgot to act surprised. Julius literally slapped his own forehead in frustration. It was such a simple mistake.Though, he hadn’t been prepared for Amelia to just appear out of thin air. He had been expecting them to continue to hide it since that was kind of the point of staying invisible.

He thought about denying it, but he had also just said that he and Grace were friends. Lying about whether or not he could perceive her wouldn’t be a good start to their friendship. Especially, not a lie that was easy to see through like this one.

They both seemed pretty confident in their deductions. It was actually likely that the only reason why Grace had told Amelia to show herself.

Julius just nodded. “Yeah, I can,” he admitted.

“So that night when we first met…”

“Mm-hmm.”

Amelia jumped in, the attitude she showed that night was no longer on display. If anything she was very interested. “So how can you sense me?”

Julius just looked at her with a deadpan expression. “You want me to tell you?”

Amelia nodded her head vigorously.

Julius looked at her like she was dumb. “You want me to tell you about an ability of mine even though you were just insulting me last week and then tried to strangle me with your aura? You still haven’t apologized for that by the way,” he said sarcastically.

Julius watched as Amelia got an annoyed look on her face and was about to say something, but stopped when Grace, who was now next to her, smashed her with an elbow to the ribs. Amelia’s face went through the five stages of grief in the blink of an eye.

First, there was denial, then there was anger, which quickly changed to contemplation, then to sadness, and finally after she glanced over at Grace her face demonstrated acceptance of her fate.

He observed as Amelia bowed toward him. “I am deeply sorry for my behavior the other night. I misunderstood your intentions and lost my composure. I sincerely hope that my actions do not affect how you view Grace. My actions were my own and I will accept any reprisal you have for me,” she said solemnly.

In all honesty, Julius was a bit surprised at how sincere her apology was. He was half-expecting some bullshit apology that was mostly thinly veiled insults wrapped in pretty paper. However, as far as apologies went, her apology was a pretty damn good one. He wasn’t able to find any fault in it, which was annoying.

Although he was still a little bit displeased with her, he grudgingly appreciated her sincerity. She had been able to swallow her pride, something Julius could immediately tell she didn’t do too often in order to say sorry.

That in itself said a lot about how Amelia felt about Grace and the importance she placed on her happiness. It also said a lot about the type of person she was.

After she said her piece, she didn’t lift his head, apparently waiting for him to accept it or at the very least say something in response.

Julius brushed a hand through his hair and sighed dramatically. “Why couldn’t you have just given a shit apology? It would have made it so much easier,” he said to her.

She looked up at him finally with confusion evident on her face. “You would rather me give you an awful apology than a genuine one?”

He put his hands up and shrugged his shoulders. “No, but it would have made it much simpler to continue to dislike you. Having a good apology makes me want to sympathize with you and that just feels wrong,” he said more to himself than to her.

She was about to respond but she instead chose to stay silent. Electing to look at him a befuddled look on her face.

He then had a wandering thought and turned to look at Grace. “Did you write that apology for her?” He asked. For some reason, the apology seemed a little too genuine. Almost like someone had told her how to.

He spotted a flash of amusement across her face. “I don’t know what you mean,” she denied with a smirk.

Julius pressed his lips together disappointedly. “How long did it take for you to convince her to memorize it?”

At that Grace did chuckle. “It actually didn’t take that long. I think she was sincerely sorry about how that night went. It barely took much convincing.”

He looked over at Amelia who was becoming a little red in the face, whether that was from embarrassment or anger, or perhaps a mixture of both.

“Are we good?” Amelia finally asked Julius.

“Nope,” he said offhandedly while scratching his chin and looking off in the distance.

“Perfect, that’s… wait, what?”

“I said that doesn’t make us even,” Julius said casually, ignoring the growing ire on Amelia’s face.

“What the hell does that mean?”

“You said that you would accept any reprisal from me, correct?” Julius asked.

He could sense Amelia grinding her teeth together hard. “I did,” she acknowledged unhappily.

Julius clapped his hands together elatedly and looked directly at Amelia. “Well, that’s wonderful! Now, I can’t think of something at the moment, but I will let you know once I think of it,” he told her with a smile.

If looks could kill, Julius would be buried ten feet in concrete. However, Grace gave Amelia another elbow to the chest, and Amelia showed Julius a hideous smile while nodding her head. “Of course, just let me know when you decide,” she managed to grunt out through her gritted teeth.

Julius didn’t let her angry look bother him. He just continued to smile at her with a toothy grin. “Oh, I will.”