[WMMAP] White Magician

White Magician 2.3

Ever since Opal came out of the island, Helios noticed the change in him. Opal seemed to be more calm and active.

What did not change was how unfriendly and unsocial he was towards other people. He hated being in the spotlight and unfortunately, the nobles did not care for it. The nobles were jumping at the opportunity of Opal being distant from the Emperor and Opal had given birth to a proper heir to the throne but the previous White Mage did not care about that. All he wanted was to rest and pass time with his son in any comfortable place.

Currently, Opal was humming a song from somewhere he did not remember and did not bother remembering as he twirled with his son's hair. Helios, the sun, was exactly that even though he cried a lot. There were times where the child would say something ridiculous but apparently, it was something Opal had taught him.

The Opal of before surely loved to tease his child. The Opal now would not deny it either. It was quite entertaining how Helios was so expressive.

Like that other time when Helios had asked if the emperor was a demon.

"Opal, is Claude really a demon?"

The Emperor was not a demon. The reason why the child came to such a conclusion was that the emperor was beautiful and Opal would agree that the emperor was a beauty compared to demons but to be fair, demons were beautiful in their own way.

Their monstrous appearance made them weirdly attractive and eye-catching. Their appearance was something one would not normally see in one's ordinary life which made people just stare in awe. The demon would use that and start to mind break them and lure them.

Opal had a fair share of encounters with demons. Sadly for the demons, Opal had no real-life pleasures and was apathetic to everything when he had encountered them so they could not seduce him.

Helios, fortunately, did not have a chance to encounter the hideous creatures so it was somewhat (not really) understandable for the child to think that Claude was a demon.

"Helios, you do know that you are his son as well as mine?"

Opal had responded nonchalantly.

"Oh yes! I wanted to ask about that too! I thought boy and boy could not have a baby together."

That was correct. BOYS were still immature so they could not make babies and they were BOYS so they did not have a womb to procreate (well, if they were human boys at least).

"Helios, I am an Albanus so our body is different from that of humans."

"But... don't we all look the same? We have two arms, two legs, a nose, and so on. What makes Albanus different?"

Opal sighed and wondered how to explain to a child the difference between an albanus and a human.

"Ah right. Mermen, Beastmen, Dracos, Elves, Dwarves, Dryads, and Albanus. Almost all of them are like humans. In terms of physical appearance, the closest of them all are Elves, Dwarves, Dryads, and Albanus. Albanus, on the other hand, are somewhat similar to Dryads and Beastmen in terms of gender."

Opal watched as Helios tilted his head in confusion and the previous white magician sighed before continuing.

"Dryads are plants so some boys can have babies with other boys but I believe there was a procedure. I don't remember what it was and I am not interested either. As for Beastmen, like Albanus, we have a third gender. The difference is that Beastmen are mammals and Albanus are godly reptiles."

Helios had given Opal an indescribable stare and the parent could only raise a questioning brow.

"What's with that look?"

"Nothing, papa."

Helios had responded while looking away and Opal had huffed in response to that.

Sound of the door being knocked stopped Opal from humming. The previous white magician turned to look at the door, trying to guess it could be. He gave up when Helios stirred in his sleep. He was probably going to wake up.

"Come in."

Opal answered as he watched Helios sit himself up and rub his eyes. The previous White Master did not flinch when the person who entered the room had stretched out their hand from behind Opal to pat Helios's head.

"Good morning."

Helios had flinched at the contact but he didn't cry like the first time that it had happened. The child was still getting used to having another father and getting attention from someone other than Opal and the dolls.

Now that Opal thought about it, maybe Helios needed a real human friend... wait. Why just a human when Helios could have a friend from each race?

Dryads were easier to deal with. The previous White Master had a dryad "friend" of his own. It was annoying to go see the damned "friend" since it was in another dimension that traveled in space and time. The friend had the duty of connecting and keeping the world together, the World Tree. Sure Opal would visit the ancient tree uninvited and threaten them to chop them down if they didn't give him an answer. There were also times Opal just just test if he could fuck up the World Tree's mentality. So far, the World Tree was a sage of patience that was slowly running out.

Opal decided Helios should have a dryad friend first.

"Helios, go and befriend the giant brocolis."

"... what?"

Claude asked dumbfoundedly.

"B-but Opal... I've never made friends with dryads before."

Helios complained timidly.

"Hence why I am telling you to make one now. I thought you wanted to be like me? I have Dryad lacke—"

Suddenly, there was a small tremor, one that lasted 4 seconds. It was the first in Obelia to have a tremor.

"... I have a Dryad friend. Go make one yourself now."

Opal placed Helios on the ground and started to nudge him towards the garden.

Helios timidly made his way to the garden but kept looking back at Opal for confirmation. The previous White Master huffed and shooed his son.

The young prince slumped in defeat and dragged his feet to take himself outside. Once the prince was out, Claude turned to Opal with a somewhat complicated expression.

"Is one of those trees a Dryad?"

Opal shrugged.

"He might fish one out if he is lucky."