Draconia Offline vol. 2

96.3. Without Erik - Part 3

"I-I did?" I widen my eyes.

"I'm fine with both English and Japanese, but that's not the issue here," Advin shrugs. "You subconsciously wire yourself towards us, my prince."

I bite my lip. Switching languages isn't a problem, we do it in Europe all the time. The problem is that I do it without realising and that it's an alien language nobody besides the Divementis understands. No wonder my partner, Liana and my subjects feel awkward. They have no idea what we've been talking about.

"Sorry, I'll be more careful from now on," I apologise.

I pretend to be busy with the food on my plate so that I can quickly check everyone's emotions. As expected, my people are extremely distressed whenever I act too Divementis in their eyes. They don't have a problem with me being half-Divementis; that's not what this is about. They just feel threatened every time there's even a slight sign I might start preferring the Divementis instead.

As for the Divementis, it's quite hard to say. Some of them leak their emotions so I can pick them up and analyse them. The more skilled Divementis, however, are unreadable to me unless I'd really push which I won't do for obvious reasons. Still, it seems that it makes the Divementis happy when I seamlessly switch to their language.

"Zetraya asked to come together with our research team," Liana announces out of the blue. "I approved his request because I assessed that having a psychologist would provide invaluable insights. Celestial mentality is quite different from Divementis and since other races will soon come as well, it can't hurt to be prepared for possible clashes of views."

"Why do I feel that there's another reason?" Gotrid gets suspicious.

"Well," Liana gulps a spoonful of porridge, "Zetraya might or might not have decided to come after he spent several hours on call with Erik last night. Still, whatever the reason, I think it's a brilliant idea. Our transformation was as physiological as it was mental and we have to take it into account if we are to cooperate closely with other races."

I look at Advin again and ponder how different his thinking is from Celestial or human thinking. He might enjoy social media and human entertainment and he was born here, but he's pure Divementis who grew up in the Divementis community. Is he allowed to go outside I wonder? Can he disguise himself as a human and go explore Tokyo?

"Your Highness, could you please not to...?" Advin twitches nervously. "Your telepathic pressure is too strong."

"Sorry," I murmur. "I wasn't trying to pry or anything."

"I know," he nods. "It's just... you were thinking about me right now, weren't you? I could tell because you subconsciously sent your mind to me. I have to admit that I'm still in training when it comes to telepathic mastery and your raw power is too much."

"How does it work with the Divementis? Do you have to train your telepathy from an early age?" I ask and pull my mind back.

"Naturally," Advin confirms. "An untrained telepath is not only potentially dangerous but also easily susceptible to other telepaths and prone to migraines because of telepathic noise from other races."

"So that's why Your Majesty has been suffering from headaches," Liana is happy about the discovery. "With proper training, you could get rid of them entirely."

"Well, maybe not entirely," Advin has to mitigate her enthusiasm. "When it's too much, it's simply too much. It's not unusual even for a well-trained telepath to get a headache from a telepathic overload."

"Are the Divementis permitted to go outside the premises?" Liana is interested to know.

"We are... under certain conditions," he says slowly. "We have to always go in pairs and carry a tracker. It happened more than a few times that a Divementis fainted from a telepathic overload. Tokyo especially is an overpopulated area that's high-risk to us."