Jason looked at his masters who returned his gaze as both sites waited for the other part to say something.
Shane and Dalia were unaware of what Jason wanted to say while he wanted to wait for his masters to tell them what they wanted to do.
The whole situation turned awkward with nobody saying something, as Dalia said
"Jason you can start. You said you have something important to tell both of us? If we start talking, Shane might already sleep once we finish. Go on!"
Supporting him with an encouraging smile and hand sign, Jason took a deep breath, as he said straightforwardly without holding anything back.
"To be completely honest, I could roughly understand what the foreign races talked about. When the envoys arrived, my whole body felt as if it would burst apart, while my soul world and my eyes itched and trembled violently."
In the end, it was better for him to take one step at a time, and he looked towards Dalia and Shane, who remained silent, without a single change in their expression, as if they knew that he wanted to continue.
"When the Shadow walker envoy called out Shane, he stopped in his track for a second, right? After that he said something and scanned through all of us, can you two remember that?"
Nodding their head, Dalia became suddenly anxious, while Shane's exhaustion subsided as if he had to hear what Jason was going to say.
Taking two deep breaths to calm himself down, he announced.
"The Shadow walker said that there is a bastard from the Celestia race and afterward all of them inspected me extremely carefully as if I was made out of porcelain or glass. They also continued to gaze at me weirdly, and right now I don't know what is going on…"
The room they were inside was suddenly eerie silent and Jason couldn't even look at Shane and Dalia, because he didn't know what to do.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})'Was it the right thing to tell them everything?' Jason wondered, but reassuring himself, he was sure that telling someone would ease the tension building up within him.
Furthermore, there was the possibility of the Shadow walkers returning in order to search for him, while other races could also figure out his presumed origin, even if he could still not completely accept that he was not a full-fledged human.
However, in the end, Jason told himself, that he was Jason Stella and nobody else...what should his race matter?!
If Shane and Dalia were to push him away and reject him as their Disciple for such a thing, Jason could only accept it.
Suddenly he heard someone approaching him and Jason looked up, only to see Dalia smiling at him, as she ruffled his hair gently.
"So you want to tell us that you think you're the halfling? With you here, there are always new surprises, huh? Don't be so tensed up, you are still the same Jason we know, or not?"
Hearing what Dalia said, Jason felt touched and he immediately nodded his head vigorously, as his eyes turned slightly red.
He didn't want to cry and prevented the worst-case scenario, as Shane faintly said.
"You're a good boy, don't let this thing hinder your path...I can't say much for now, but you are one of the most honest, caring, and diligent youth I ever saw!
In the end, our origin doesn't matter, what matters is what we do with it. Don't create a hindrance for yourself by thinking too complex and give your best"
Finishing his speech, Shane's eyes trembled and Dalia said "Just sleep Shane! I'll take care of the rest!"
Smiling she also added "It won't be the last time you'll see him...It will just take some time!!"
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})Hearing Dalia saying so, Shane smiled lightly, before saying "See you soon, Jason!", before closing his eyes to recuperate from his severe injury.
Jason and Dalia left the small room in order to give Shane some peace, as Dalia curiously asked.
"Can you explain to me what exactly happened, when the envoys from the foreign races arrived? So you can understand them somehow? Just like that? What exactly did they say?!"
Astonished about Dalia's calmness when she just found out that he could be from another race, at least half, Jason smiled lightly.
'Is that their experience with surprising news or am I the weird one?' He began to wonder before he started to explan everything that happened this morning from his perspective.
Listening carefully, Dalia's eyes widened, with a shocked expression, that turned confused and then frustrated.
"So...the main point for them to let us exist on Canir...is really to nurture superhumans or whatever they want to call it? And we live in a lower world at that?.... What does that even mean? To get to know that we are really only considered the other races livestock is more frustrating than expected...."
Comprehending what Jason said, she added
"If they call Argos a lower world or planet, there must be more than one planet with Argos being one of the worst...Can we even fight against other races?!?"
Jason didn't know what to answer because he was also unsure of that and it was unknown how strong the foreign races they knew really were.
The only proven fact was that they could send sovereign ranks to the lower planet, without creating chaos in their defenses, which indicated their superiority compared to humanity's current powerhouses.
Suddenly Dalia, jumped from the chair she sat on, as she remembered what Jason said
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})"Didn't you say that they eyed you weirdly as if they were greedy or something like that?"
Nodding his head, he roughly understood what she was going to say
"Doesn't that indicate that your existence as assumed halfling is special? Are they normally unable to procreate with humans? What use could it have for them?!"
This was also what Jason asked himself as he said the only plausible reason, he could imagine.
"Maybe it's because of the soul awakening? At least this is what makes us humans special, right?"
Looking at Jason with shock, she exclaimed.
"That has to be it!! Your soul world is not only vast, but your soul energy also replenished much faster than everyone I know… As if that was not enough, you can form soulbond contracts with all or almost all affinities…"
Jason nodded his head lightly feeling weird, even if he wasn't sure if that was really the truth.
'Why can Dalia accept me being a halfling from another race better than I?!' This was the thought squirming in his mind because he was still not able to accept this fact.
But understanding the reason for the other races to let humans survive and how valuable the information about Jason's existence as a halfling to the foreign races was, Dalia went suddenly completely silent, as she mumbled to herself.
"If other races figure this out, we may have to face an even bigger crisis than the last 300 years…The Shadow walker race won't spread this information… right?"
Not being able to answer this question, Jason could only remain silent, as Dalia looked at him once again, forcing herself to smile lightly.
"Let's change the subject… this is too heavy for now, don't you think so?"
Nodding his head, Jason assumed that Dalia wanted to talk with him about the rough departure date his masters had to go in order to remain safe from the other big families.
Pricking his ears, he hoped that the two of them would remain on Astrix as long as possible, but what Dalia said, immediately crushed his small hope into smithereens.
"I don't want to lie to you, Jason… Shane is extremely weak and it will most likely only take a few days for the Drake family and their reinforcement to arrive on Astrix.
Because of Shane's injury, we can't use his spatial affinity, which would make everything less complicated.
As such, the two of us decided to depart tomorrow. I'll take care of everything, but the sooner we go the better!"
Jason looked at Dalia complicated because he could understand her reasoning on one side, while his selfishness didn't like this idea, as he subconsciously uttered
"What about me? And my teaching?" He was still only 14-years-old and even if he acted mature most of the time, there were still times, he was unable to suppress his immaturity, which caused Dalia to smile gently at him.
"Haven't you heard Old Drake and Shane talking before? I don't know if the Big-Three tournament is still happening, but Old Drake said that he'll send you to another island or even Canir, as an exchange student. That means it will take less than two months until we can see each other again, alright?"
Turning serious she added.
"You can't always rely on us or others….It's impossible for us to be always there for you and I doubt that you can't take care of yourself! The journey you experienced through the four-star rift told me that you can!"
"In the end, we are still there and we won't let you stay on Astrix just like that...We prepared more than enough tasks and there are still goodbye presents from us!"
