Even though Emma tried to hide her sadness, still Xion, who was watching her, could see that Emma was aggrieved. He patted the girl"s shoulder and squeezed it softly."Don"t give up. Later, when we get to Akkadia, you will be able to train more to defeat Therius. Five years is a long time to develop yourself."
Emma raised her face and hurriedly wiped her tears so that she didn"t look weak in front of Xion.
"Hmm ... may I have some wine?" asked Emma.
"This?" Xion turned to the wine bottle in his left hand. Without batting an eye, he handed it over to Emma. "Take it. I think I like drinking with you. I"ve always been used to drinking alone because the ice prince can"t drink."
"Hmm ..." Emma then downed the wine in the bottle that Xion had just given to her. She closed her eyes and gulped many times until the bottle became empty.
"Ehh ... gosh ... ouch ... you said you will only drink a little," Xion grumbled. He hurriedly s.n.a.t.c.hed the wine bottle from Emma"s hand, but he was too late. All the remaining wine had disappeared into the girl"s stomach. "Jeez ... you"re a monster, huh."
"Uhm .. sorry," Emma said. She rose from the floor and walked to the lounge. "Can I get you some more wine?"
"Of course!" said Xion. He followed her to the lounge. After he sat on the sofa, he hurriedly waved his hand and pulled Emma"s waist to sit next to him with a sweep of his hand. It was as if an invisible hand made of air grabbed her waist and pulled her to sit down. "Just sit."
Emma, who was slammed to the couch, initially wanted to protest. However, after she sat on the couch, she actually admired how Xion used aeromancy to make her sit just now.
"You can make a giant hand out of the air... I think it"s very impressive. How can you do it?" Emma asked curiously. "I want to be able to do it too."
"Oh .. you will definitely be able to do it one day if you can hit the bullseye 200 times in a row. Trust me ..." said Xion. He then pointed to wine bottles lined up neatly on the counter. "The first way to train your power is to use it as often as you can. Did you see the wine bottle at the counter? Try bringing one here using aeromancy. Then you can apologize for finis.h.i.+ng my wine by pouring one for me."
"Eh ... how do you do it?" asked Emma.
"Like this," Xion said. He raised his left hand, and a moment later a bottle immediately drifted toward them. Before Emma could catch the bottle, Xion had sent it back to the counter. "Now, you try it yourself."
Emma bit her lip, trying to focus on the various bottles of wine on the counter. She could lift herself and Haoran into the air and fly as she pleased, but she always used a lot of energy.
If she just wanted to take just one bottle of wine from the counter, it seemed she had to carefully use only enough wind to lift the bottle, and not more. If she used too much power, the bottle could charge toward them and hit her or Xion.
"This exercise is good for precision control," Xion said. "The more accurate you can control your power and direct it well, the more skilled you will become at hitting your target."
Emma nodded in understanding. She adjusted her breathing and then focused her attention on one of the wine bottles at the counter. She carefully sent a breeze to circle the bottle and lifted it into the air ... then, slowly but surely moved it towards her and Xion.
GRAB!
Before Emma could catch it, Xion had already grabbed the bottle and opened the cap.
"Very good! You are a brilliant student," Xion said, ruffling Emma"s hair as he would to a child.
His praise could not improve Emma"s mood because the girl did not like her hair ruffled like that.
"Sheeshh... I"m not a child," grumbled the girl. "And I am not your student. You already said you don"t want to accept me as a student, and I also don"t want to have a pervert teacher like you."
"Huh ... apparently, you are quite petty," commented Xion, not caring about Emma"s curt att.i.tude. He had poured wine into Emma"s gla.s.s and handed it to her. Then he poured himself wine.
"I"m not petty. I"m a fair person," Emma said. "People who do good to me will receive good, and people who do evil to me will have to pay for their evil deeds."
"Your words actually sound just like Therius"," said Xion. His tone was obviously teasing her.
Xion knew that Emma hated Therius and did not like being a.s.sociated with the man. For some reason, Xion found excitement in annoying Emma, so he intentionally said those words to incite her anger.
Ever since he met the girl, he just liked to annoy her and make her angry. He thought it was better for her to get angry than to cry. The girl"s anger felt like a fun distraction from their boring journey in s.p.a.ce anyway.
"I don"t sound like him, okay," Emma said. "Don"t spout nonsense."
"Uh, I"m not lying about the Akkadian belief, by the way. We do believe that people who have similar appearances are actually fated to be together. It"s like they are destined to be married since they were in the wombs. They are among those few lucky ones because they could find their soul mates easily just from their looks. Others, who are not so lucky, have to rely on normal courts.h.i.+p and meet all the wrong people before they could find the right one."
Emma rolled her eyes when she heard Therius"s words. "If you were a girl, surely I would have thought you were in love with Therius. You always defend him and treat him like he is all that, like a lover."
"Do you think so?" Xion asked in amazement. "He is my best friend, the person closest to me in the whole universe. So of course, I treat him like a lover because I do love him."
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