Chapter 140: The Stranger With Scales And The Claim!
"Oh! So that’s what happened," Cael said after Neve had finished explaining everything about the dragon talon powder and its magical effects.
He rubbed his chin thoughtfully, processing the information.
"I can’t believe it didn’t work for you," Cael continued, his expression confused. "The powder gave abilities to Popi and Sable but nothing to you. That’s strange. What about Popi? Did you test it on her yet to see what kind of ability the powder gave her?"
"I haven’t," Neve shrugged. "I don’t know what kind of ability the powder had given her. I don’t want to be surprised when she suddenly develops some random power."
Cael rubbed his chin and stared at Sable who was still invisible, his disembodied voice coming from empty air.
"When you said you wished for me to be invincible, I became invincible," Sable said, his tone thoughtful. "What if you do the same for Popi? What if you wish her to have a specific ability?"
Popi immediately shook her head.
"What? I don’t want invincibility," Popi said firmly. "I don’t even trust your ability. What if you turn invisible and do something bad to Neve in the middle of the night? What if you use your invisibility for something perverse?"
"I’m not a pervert," Sable said coldly.
Popi gritted her teeth and a loud sigh escaped from Neve’s lips. He did not understand why these two had bad blood between them. They had been pretty close during that first week when Sable was hiding in their cave.
Something had changed. Something had happened between them.
The memory came back to Neve. That day. The day Sable had grabbed her clothes accidentally while she was cleaning in the corner of the cave.
That day, Popi had taken off her clothes and placed it somewhere she thought was safe. She was busy cleaning herself when Sable, who was cleaning up the area nearby, had found her clothes. Without understanding their importance, Sable had picked them up and tossed them out into the snow as part of his cleaning.
Popi had almost run naked through the cave looking for her clothes until she found out that Sable had thrown them outside into the freezing snow.
From that day on, Sable had become her enemy. Even though it was obviously a mistake. Or maybe it was because Sable had refused to apologize properly for the incident.
After all, Sable had told her coldly, "It’s not my fault you kept your clothes somewhere I could discard it. You should have been more careful."
Neve sighed. If Sable had just apologized sincerely, their relationship would have been so much better by now.
"I’m not sure what ability Popi actually has right now," Neve said, trying to move the conversation forward. "But I’ll just think of an ability and wish for it. Let’s see what happens."
Popi’s eyes lit up with interest.
"I want to be able to make foods appear out of thin air," she said eagerly. "Like, imagine never having to cook again. Imagine just thinking about food and it appearing in front of me."
"That’s not going to work," Neve said, shaking his head. "That’s too vague. Too complicated. Let’s say..."
He paused, thinking about what ability would actually be useful for Popi.
"I wish you had telekinesis," he said finally.
"Tele...Nisis?" Popi tilted her head, not understanding the unfamiliar word. "What’s that?"
"You’ll be able to move something close to you with your mind," Neve explained simply. "You can make objects move without touching them. You can lift things and move them around just by thinking about it and focusing your will on them."
Everyone gasped at the explanation.
"I want it. I want it!" Popi’s eyes widened with excitement. "That sounds so cool!"
Neve smiled at her enthusiasm. He had already said the wish word, but he was not entirely sure if it would actually work. It had been easy to tell if it worked on Sable since invisibility was a clear ability with obvious visual proof. But with Popi and telekinesis, it would be harder to demonstrate.
"I guess I should try with something small first," Popi said and turned around to look at the forest around them. She was searching for something small to use for practice. A stone or anything, but the ground was completely covered with deep snow.
"Ugh! What do I use?" she asked, frowning in frustration. "I need something small and portable that I can practice on."
"Hold on," Neve said and reached into his inventory. He pulled out a small fruit and held it in his open palm. "Use this."
Popi clapped her hands together once and stared intensely at the fruit in Neve’s hand. She was trying hard to concentrate. Her eyebrows furrowed. Her fingers buried themselves in the corner of her head as she focused all her mental energy on moving the object.
A grunt escaped from her lips as the fruit suddenly lifted off Neve’s palm and flew through the air, landing in the snow several feet away.
"I did it!" she clapped excitedly and Neve joined her clapping, both of them celebrating the successful demonstration of her new ability.
"You did well," Neve said warmly.
"Oh! It’s fun, but it’s so difficult to hold the focus," she said, breathing heavily from the effort. "It’s exhausting to keep something moving. I had to stop before my head exploded."
Neve also stopped clapping but they could still hear someone clapping.
Slow, deliberate clapping coming from somewhere else. The sound of hands meeting in a steady rhythm. Applause.
"That’s enough clapping, Sable," Popi pouted, flinging her hair to the back of her head in an annoyed gesture.
"Clapping? I wasn’t even clapping," Sable said, his invisible form still standing beside Neve.
Confusion crossed Popi’s face.
"If you’re not the one, then who has been clapping?" she asked, looking around frantically.
Someone came out from behind one of the large trees.
The figure was drop dead gorgeous. Absolutely stunning to look at. The man had scales beside both of his eyes, shimmering in the pale winter light. The scales were delicate and beautiful, arranged in a pattern that suggested he was something other than a regular beastman.
His hair was dark and his eyes held a predatory intelligence.
He was looking directly at Neve with an expression that was possessive and dangerous.
"Nice to finally meet you," the man with scales said, his voice smooth and filled with certainty. "My Neve."
The words hung in the air like a declaration of ownership. Like a claim. Like this stranger was asserting his right to Neve without any hesitation or doubt.
Neve parted his lips, wanting to say something. Wanting to ask who this person was. Wanting to demand an explanation for the presumption in his words.
But nothing could come out of his mouth.
He was completely stunned.