Tbate: Starting Anew

Chapter 25: The Night of Truth

It has been a few weeks since Noah first visited the castle. The boy quickly became part of the family and he has been here at least twice a week. Of course his relationship to Ellie has been kept a secret form the general population who don't even know I have a sister. I have been training with him whenever he visited and honestly the Wykes family made a huge mistake. The boy had potential. A lot more than they could imagine.

Tomorrow school starts. Tessia has been at Xyrus for the past year and has once again been assigned the position of student council president. With my initial push and thanks to Cecilia helping her ever since Lilia was also able to get into Xyrus right when she was supposed to. The aetheric experiments with Cecil were not in vain. We successfully unlocked her earth affinity and ice deviant. We did however both agree to attend the academy as dual elementals. Cecil opting for water and earth, wanting to train her earth magic and ice deviant so she could control them how she used to, and I opted for using fire and wind. This was I could still use my illusions and would have an excuse for my absurd speed that comes with my asuran physique.

Tess and I spent this day together in Zestier. We wanted to get the most of this day since we won't be back for a while. We did everything we used to do. Went to restaurants, walked around town, reminisced on a certain lake shore. The day was just perfect. I decided to introduce Noah to Tess since she had yet to meet him.

She was delighted Ellie found someone she cared about and was surprised at Noah abilities while watching us train.

A few days ago I finally brought Sylvie to meet his father and obviously Agrona wanted her to stay with him. I didn't have any objections, so Sylvie was staying with Agrona for now. That meant at least on the surface I wasn't going to have a bond at the academy. Regis was still going to be in my core, but the wolf with the burning fur became an iconic part of the Note image so revealing him meant revealing my identity which I still didn't want to do.

Nico and Cecil were also getting ready so everyone was going to be there just as planned although something didn't quite go as planned...

Director Goodsky asked me to talk to her. She wanted me to become the leader of the DC. I accepted knowing trying to argue would be futile. I knew that Zireael reestablished contact with her after I removed her curse without being noticed during the time I recommended Nico to her. The Director still didn't know my identity as Sovereign Grey and I believed that to be best for now.

With all preparations complete I knew only one thing remained. I had planned this night years ago, it was time to actually do it.

After dinner Tessia and I retired to our room and before we got to bed I decided it would be best to tell her now.

We sat down on the sofa and I began to tell her everything. From I was originally reborn to then meeting her and the years that followed. I told her of the war. Of how different our relationship was. I told her how the world came to an end and how the other convinced me to try again. All the while she was just listening quietly. I could see tears forming in her eyes when I told her how much I've lost during the war.

After I was done, I stood up.

"I know how hard this is to process and I know you need time. I don't know if you can accept me like this..." After finishing what I had to say I left the room before she could say anything. It might have been a dumb thing to do, but I just couldn't have handled it had she told me to get away from her or anything along those lines.

I opted to spend the night in the Helstea manor. After I came through I closed the portal connecting the castle and the manor knowing that Tess was going to be arriving in the city by carriage anyways to keep up appearances.

I could not sleep a single moment. Scenarios were running through my head one after another. What will our next meeting be like? Does she hate me? I imagined every possible scene where she tells me get out of her life.

The next morning I went to school along with Lilia and Cecil. Both of them could see that there was something wrong with me, but chose not to mention it. I was of course not in my princely form trying to stay under the radar. At the gates we separated since they needed to go to the student council room to prepare for the opening ceremony both of them being members. Not long after I met up with Nico and went to the ceremony. The opening went largely the same the only difference being that to me it was obvious Tess also couldn't sleep during the night. Her makeup was done well enough to hide that fact from everyone else, but I knew her too well.

After the ceremony we once again ran into the fight between Nicolas and Broznean. I interrupted them again, but this time I didn't just pretend to see Tess. I actually stood between them. This obviously pissed Nicolas of enough to attack me. I evaded every one of his attacks with ease until we heard a stern voice.

"Stop, right there!" said the vice president from a distance.

As the council walked up to us I saw Tess's face. Cold. She was using a mask to hide her emotions, just like I used to do.

"What happened here?" asked Clive turning towards me.

I calmly explained the situation while Cecil called an emitter for Broznean. After finishing up Tess finally spoke.

"Nicolas! You continued a duel after it ended and attacked a student outside of one. This is going to lead to consequences. The director is going to decide your punishment. Clive, please take him to the director, while I deal with the first year." She said turning towards me. "Leywin, you're coming with me."

Her voice sent shivers down my spine. This was it. Our relationship was over. I was sure of it. I could only nod in response to her words.

The walk towards the Council building was silent. I could not read Tess's expression at all and even Regis stayed silent. When we reached the council room, I heard her lock the door behind us. I knew it. This is where it ends. I turned towards Tess expecting the worst, but I was stunned at what she did.

She hugged me.

"Tess, Wha- I thought--"

"What did you think? That I was going to hate you just because you were honest with me?" she asked tears streaming down her face. "You shouldn't have left! I wanted to ask you questions, wanted to know more, so I could at least help you with the pain you went through."

This was when my own tears started falling. She never doubted me for a moment. She just wanted to share my burden.

For what felt like hours we sat there and talked. She asked all sorts of questions and when I couldn't answer Regis did. After some time, I told Regis to get me the other two. After they arrived, we filled in Tess on everything. She was shook but was sad that we had to go through it all.

Apparently, she sorted her feeling about the situation out pretty quickly after talking to her grandfather. Gramps was obviously surprise to learns that I had a life before the one I told him about, but quickly accepted it.

After Tess's questions were exhausted we all decided to put our stuff down in our rooms. As the leader of the dc I was given a pretty big room right next to Tess's. After putting my stuff down I notice something weird. The room had 4 doors. An entrance, a bathroom, a wardrobe and a mystery door.

My curiosity got the better of me and I opened it. It was only after opening it that I realized which wall the door was on. As I opened the door I saw Tess sitting on her bed.

'The old witch connected your rooms!' Regis shouted in my head laughing.

The nonchalant look on Tess's face told me that she already notice the door and was just waiting for me to do the same.

This Academy life is sure tuning out more interesting than I thought.

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Well, hello there!

I hope you liked today's chapter! I do think I subverted many expectations!

As I said yesterday I went airsofting... And got stung by a wasp. So now my neck is a bit swollen. And on top of that we lost... But you can't always win, can you?

Also, do people actually read these notes or am I just talking to myself here?

This has been Salty and see you all tomorrow!