"I combined ether with my blood." Karl spoke with an emotionless voice.
Hearing Karl's words Kevin's and Derek's face contorted.
"You did what!?" Kevin asked in shock.
"I controlled ether and-"
"How did you control ether!?"
"..."
Karl just stood silent at the question, making Kevin turn towards Derek.
"Can you control ether?" Derek ignored Kevin's questioning stare and asked Karl.
"Yes." Karl answered in the same voice, devoid of any emotion.
At Karl's simple answer both Derek and Kevin stared at each other for a few minutes.
"Is there any risk to the method?" Derek asked again.
"Yes."
"What is the risk?"
"Death."
"Did you try to risk Luna's life?" Derek asked coldly after a pause.
"No."
Derek became puzzled at Karl's reply yet feeling slight relief.
"Then?"
"..."
"How do you remove the risk?" Derek asked again, understanding his lack of words.
"By making stable etherised blood." Karl answered which brought back the frown on Derek's face.
"How do you make stable etherised blood?" This time Kevin asked.
"By perfecting the method."
"How do you perfect the method?"
"By combining ether and blood." Karl spoke.
At Karl's answer Kevin turned to look at Derek who shook his head.
"I guess that is the limit of the spell." Derek said to Kevin who gave him a nod.
Derek started chanting again and after a minute, Karl's eyes regained focus.
"Huh?" Karl blurted as the memory of all that happened returned to his mind.
'What the... fuck?' Karl felt betrayal at everything that had happened and that feeling of betrayal quickly birthed to anger.
Karl looked at Kevin and Derek with cold eyes as his body again radiated white energy, which was ether.
As soon as his body radiated ether he turned and made a run towards the exit at full speed.
But as soon as he reached near the exit he found himself back at the same spot, in front of Derek.
Karl could feel a hand gripping his neck, which he quickly guessed belonged to his father.
Karl's face's seethed with fury as he felt disrespected, used and powerless.
He closed his eyes and clenched his jaw hard, showing his denial to converse.
"Karl this is not something we can ignore. Please explain to us how you did it?"
Derek spoke in a calm fatherly voice but Karl did not move a muscle.
Derek and Kevin kept asking him questions sometimes promising him gifts and the other time threatening him but Karl remained still.
This continued until-
"Karl do you know that one can not control ether?" Derek asked as he thought of the possibility.
And he was correct as this time around, he got some reaction from Karl. He frowned.
'One can not control ether? Are they lying?' Karl opened his eyes to sneak a peek at Derek's expression and as soon as he did, he knew that Derek was not lying.
Derek understanding Karl's surprise continued,
"Karl, no one is capable of controlling ether. That is why we want to know how you can do it."
At Derek's words, Karl's mind went haywire.
'He is lying right? Nah no way such a thing is possible! It is mentioned in the novel that everyone controls ether as the first step or wait!' Karl's eyes widened as he thought of a possibility.
"Karl that is why we convert ether into mana and aura. Because we can not control it. So please tell us how you do it. It is not a method we can let go so easily." Derek continued unknown of Karl's thoughts.
'Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! There is no way the novel was wrong! No fucking way!'
Karl's mind kept getting more frantic until Derek had to cast some magic on him.
"Karl please tell us how you did it. We are just worried about you." Derek spoke worriedly.
Karl looked at Derek's face for a moment and then sighed.
'Yeah, I can just think it all later. For now I do not want to tell them a single thing! They fucking controlled my mind!'
Karl fumed inside yet calmly closed his eyes, again becoming uncooperative.
This continued for half an hour with Kevin and Derek trying different things, none of which worked as they resigned, leaving Karl all alone.
***
Karl laid on his bed thinking of everything that had gone real wrong.
'My plan was to make Luna form an ether body along with making her stay to save-'
Karl jerked his body, stood up and ran out of the door.
'Fuck! If she goes then she will die! There is no way humans killed her on elven land in the novel so she must have died on her way back!' Karl thought as he ran towards the entrance of the manor.
Karl looked around, trying to find anyone from his family but could not so he ran to the nearest butler and asked him where others were.
Karl ran in the direction of duke's manor where at the entrance he found Kevin and Derek standing along with Ercia and Aria and... Luna.
As Karl saw Luna relief flashed before her eyes.
Luna also smiled when she saw Karl.
"Karl she can not." Kevin gave Karl a bitter smile.
Karl ignored Karl and looked at Derek who also had a bittersweet expression.
"I have something to tell you." Karl spoke with a serious voice.
"Hmm?" Derek hummed meaning Karl to continue but Karl stayed still.
Derek sighed and spoke again.
"They won't hear us now. Speak." Derek spoke his expression turning serious.
"My dreams always come true. My dream yesterday was that Luna died on her way back."
'Enough with planning. I will get fucked in the worst ways anyways so it is better to rush head in.' Karl decided.
Unaware of Karl's thoughts, Derek frowned after hearing Karl's words.
"You sure have talent in shocking people." Derek spoke with a bitter laugh.
Karl just continued staring at him.
"You sure you are not just doing this to get back at me?" Derek asked again seriously.
"I have better ways to take revenge." Karl spoke his eyes turning colder.
Derek bewildered by his reply stared at him for a moment.
"You mean you will get revenge on me and your father." Derek spoke with a twisted laugh.
"With interest." Karl stated coldly.
"You know no one who said such thing to me or him is-" Derek stopped recalling that he was talking to a kid but as he looked at Karl's cold eyes he continued "alive."
"If you were not family then I would not be stupidly blabbering here.
And that is not what I am here for. I have said the important part.
The dream can be changed but if one does nothing it is bound to happen. In the future she died so... change it." Karl stated.
As Karl got an affirmative nod from Derek, he turned around and walked away, back to his room.
Derek stared at Karl walking away then turned to look at Luna who was staring at Karl with a heartbroken face.
"I am leaving alone. Kevin can you take care of Aria and Luna for a few more days? I will be back then." Derek asked as he looked at Kevin with a serious expression.
Kevin frowned but nodded seeing Derek's face.
Aria and Ercia also frowned after hearing Derek's words but stayed silent like Kevin while Luna... smiled.
Derek looked at Luna and again said with a bitter sweet smile.
"At least pretend you will miss me."
Luna flinched at Derek's words and spoke in a hurry, "I will miss you dad!".
Everyone along with Karl sighed at Luna's words.
"Should I also come?" Kevin asked but Derek shook his head.
Derek sat in the carriage and started casting some spell as it took off.
***
Meanwhile Karl again was lying on his bed as he started thinking... again.
'With this at least Luna will stay safe though I am surprised that uncle agreed to me so fast.
The biggest issue I have right now is that... novel was wrong.
I can not trust the novel anymore.
At least formation of ether body is as it was mentioned but unlike as it said in the novel people can not control ether.
Now that I think of it, it is very understandable fact. If people could control ether, why would they convert it to mana or aura.
I lack info but more than that what irks me is my helplessness.
Wrong information is worse than right information.
I can cross check whether the novel was right or wrong when it comes to easy things but things like dungeons that need me to risk my life... but if what is found in them is true then the risk will be very very worth it.
And about what uncle and father did... I feel angry as soon as I think of being controlled like a puppet! If they were not my family, I would have started planning to somehow kill them!' Karl fumed.
"Ceremony will happen in 4 days. I will just learn everything then. Till then..." Karl muttered when he suddenly heard a knock on his door.
"Young master, young miss is waiting for y- Wait young miss!" Voice came from outside.
'Couldn't have understood more without seeing.' Karl smirked as he understood what would have happened outside.
'So he left her here? I thought he would just take father along with him. Yeah this works too.'
Karl walked up to the door and as he opened it and went out of the room, he saw the maid 20 steps away from the door looking at him with a sorry expression.
"She ran away?" Karl asked with a knowing smile to which the maid nodded bitterly.
Karl ran to the direction the maid said Luna had ran off to.
'Got the perfect time pass right here.' Karl mused as he started thinking of ways to tease Luna.
As Karl made a turn, he saw Luna standing against the wall at the end of the hallway with a red face.
***
Afternoon the next day.
"Kekekek"
Karl was laughing loudly, rolling on the floor while clutching his stomach with his hands.
"STOPPP!!!"
Luna shouted, whining but Karl kept laughing when suddenly the door banged open.
Derek as soon as he entered the room was overwhelmed by the sight he saw.
Karl was rolling on the floor laughing while Luna was making a teary face while... her hairs were straight up in the shape of spikes.
"DAD!!!"
Luna as soon as she saw Derek rushed towards him, pointing at her head with a face asking for help.
Derek also broke into laughter as he looked at the spiky silver head of his daughter.
Luna started crying out loud as she saw even Derek laughing at her.
Derek flinched at Luna's cry and quickly spread his mana, making her hairs turn normal.
"Its ok now Luna." Derek spoke warmly but Luna did not hear it as she kept crying.
"It is okay now Luna." Derek spoke in a higher pitch finally being audible to Luna as she started touching her hairs in relief.
"Luna, I and Karl have something to talk about, can you wait outside for a minute." Derek spoke as he patted Luna's head.
Luna nodded as she walked out the door.
Karl had stopped laughing when he heard Luna shout 'father'.
As Karl stared coldly at Derek, Derek stepped forward.
"Thank You Karl. You saved her life." Derek spoke as he gave Karl a bow, shocking even Karl.
"I did it because she is mine." Karl spoke with a straight face not showing his surprise outwards.
Derek made a dumbfounded expression at Karl's words.
"Kid are you the same age as my daughter?"
"What happened?" Karl asked ignoring Derek's question.
'I was also curious how she died with even him present there.'
Derek raised an eyebrow as Karl changed the topic but sighed as he started explaining.
"On the way back, some organization teleported away the whole carriage.
At the place we got teleported to, three tier 7 aryas were waiting for me.
If Luna or Aria were there with me... I might not have been able to protect them."
Derek spoke as his eyes glinted with anger.
"Which organization?" Karl asked.
Derek sighed at Karl's words.
"I thought my daughter grew up fast compared to children her age." Derek muttered with a sigh as he turned around and exited the room, ignoring Karl's question.
As soon as Derek came out of the room, Luna tugged at his clothes as she started grumbling, "Dad, Karl-" Luna could not even start as Derek interrupted her.
"Luna we will leave in 5 minutes. Say goodbye to Karl and come to the other manor." Derek spoke as he continued walking away, ignoring the whining of his daughter.
Luna stood dazed for a few seconds as she ran inside the room.
Inside, Karl was sitting on the bed, looking at her... coldly.