Theo looked toward his sister, who was thinking out loud. Lucien nodded to that in agreement.
Elara shifted forward, her voice soft but heavy. "We will have to talk with Father about this. I have not heard about unique affinity tamers being treated like this, Lucien," she stated with confusion.
There was a pause for a few seconds before Lucien spoke thoughtfully.
"Hmm, I find it strange too… but I have heard about it happening in the past. I mean, unique affinities are a miss-or-gain asset. If they figure the affinity out, becoming a powerhouse is rather a given, but the odds are more toward failing than winning in this case, as not much is known about a unique affinity. I mean, it's only unique because of this reason," Lucien stated in an analytic tone. He had a hand scraping on his chin every few seconds. Continue reading stories on My Virtual Library Empire
"But I think Theo is onto something… and we won't be able to hide it any longer either."
"What do you mean, elder brother?" Theo asked with a frown. Hiding the fact that he had achieved something in it was important, as even if he had progressed, it was still nothing.
"You only have about two years till you can join the academy, Theo. But before that, if the emperor really takes interest in you, then Father has no say in hiding what your affinity can do," he stated, making Theo sigh in relief.
"I doubt we will meet him anytime soon... As for the academy, it's still two years, right? That's a long enough time, elder brother. I think I will figure things out by then."
Lucien paused and looked at Theo with an amused expression. "little brother, you sure are interesting," he stated with a light laugh and continued, "I am curious. How much time do you think a unique affinity tamer can take to reach a certain level of prowess?"
Theo thought about the question. It was rather simple.
"I do not know what level of prowess you are talking about, but in the case of reaching level five and breaking through, I think it wouldn't take more than two years at most," he said while thinking.
Both Lucien and Elara looked at each other and, a second later, burst out into laughter.
They were like that for a few seconds, and Theo only smiled. He knew they wouldn't believe him.
"You sure make me laugh a lot, Theo," Lucien said while trying to stop from bursting into laughter again as he continued, "I would want you to achieve what you said as you're my beloved brother, but unfortunately, history says otherwise."
He spoke and took a moment for the sentence to settle in, and when he was sure Theo was on the same page, he continued.
"While I may not be an avid reader like you, I sure know this—that most of the unique affinity tamers tend to be stuck below level five till they are about twenty years old," he said with a big sigh.
"What?" Theo frowned. In all his days in the library, he had never stumbled upon a book about unique affinity. And to hear such a statistic about unique tamers almost made him shout in shock.
"But like I said, I think you may be onto something. I have never heard of anyone being able to harness their affinity as I have heard you do. Father and Alfred told me about the species change in detail and how you call it 'evolution' just like your affinity name."
Suddenly, Lucien went a little serious, and Elara seemed to notice it first.
"Say, Theo, can you do this to other beasts too? This evolution?" Lucien asked, his face unmoving.
Elara looked at Theo intensely too. It was a question that seemed to be in their minds for a while.
Theo could feel some greed looking at Lucien, yet he only shook his head with a light sigh, "For now, it is difficult to say, elder siblings."
There was a look of sudden disappointment on their faces. The Merrick children were not ones to hold back their real emotions most of the time.
"But… I wouldn't want you to lose motivation just yet. Maybe… someday I might be able to do it. Who knows?" Theo said with a genuine smile. He wanted to at least look out for people who were on his side, or at least seemed to be.
"Hahahaha! You're a big talker, aren't you, little boy?" Lucien burst out laughing and ruffled Theo's neatly done hair with his big hand. Only after the deed was done did he realize.
"Oops." Lucien looked at Theo awkwardly, his hair all out of line as if he had just woken up.
"It's okay." Theo just swept his hand once, making it normally set once again.
After that, Elara and Lucien asked some other random questions that Theo didn't know himself. Bram just listened in and reacted.
The questions were mostly about what he thought about his ability. They were questions that Theo himself needed answers for.
Soon enough, they stopped again, and Theo jumped out of the carriage with a hop. He was finally free again.
While he was stretching his body, he saw his mother too, who already had her social face down, a warm smile stuck to her face now. His father, who was right beside her, stretched his body too and yawned. They were finally home.
When everyone was out, the Baron suddenly screamed, "Alright, you brats! We will have a dinner meeting today right after sunset. Don't be late!" he stated.
Many groaned, and Theo could tell that everyone was just tired at this point, mostly the younger ones.
Theo met up with Clara and went back to his beloved room, where the mantis was waiting for him.
"Wasn't the food really good today, young master?" Clara said while her eyes were sparkling. Theo could swear he heard a slurp too.
"Yeah, it was good," he said thoughtfully, "I wouldn't mind telling the cooks to start making some of those dishes on a daily basis."
"Really?!"
They were walking in the hallway when they finally came in front of the room.
When Clara opened it and Theo went in, he froze. His jaw almost fell to the ground looking at what was in front of him.
"Oh no…"