Like they planned, it was evening when Lucia and Alex stood outside of the house. Earlier, Lucia had initially wanted to stop her student by any means, even resorting to try and aim for support from Samuel, his father. To her surprise, his father was very happy that his son was proactive about something and was in full support of him. This made her instantly give up because she knew, if Samuel was supporting Alex, so would his mother, Sarah.

“Is it really necessary to meet him?” She asked her student in a final attempt to try and forestall him from meeting her father. “I mean, he’s not the only knowledgeable person around whom we can ask about how to make a contract with a Spirit of Life.”

“No, miss. It has to be your father,” replied Alex firmly and smiling sweetly at her. “Think about how sad he would feel if he learned that you bypassed him to get that information.”

His teacher snorted and replied, “Like he cares! Listen to me, Alex! He’s a cold-hearted man who refuses to care even for his daughter! So, your optimism is placed wrongly on him.”

Alex looked at his teacher’s strong mind block and could only smile as he did not feel the need to say anything that might simply aggravate her further. He did not know what had happened in the past, considering his teacher only revealed a portion of what she had experienced, which made him feel there was a missing piece to that puzzle that could only be found with her father.

“It’s fine. Better to try and fail than give up,” replied Alex, winking up at his teacher with a broad grin on his face.

Lucia looked down at her student and sighed deeply before placing a hand on her forehead and muttering, “God, please change this child’s attitude somehow. It’s becoming too excessive.”

Her student heard her muttering and merely laughed before he asked, “So, how are we getting there, miss? You know that I can’t fly, right?”

It was unfortunate, but he did not touch on the subject of flying and the only lesson he ever heard anything about it was during his initial training period with his father. Since then, both Alex and Luna had been adamant on learning to fly from the excitement of experiencing the thrill of flying through the air. However, neither of them knew how to fly, nor did their teachers bother to teach anything related to it.

“It’s okay, Alex,” replied his teacher sweetly. “Once you’ve fully mastered your control over magic and reached a certain level, I’ll be sure to teach you flying magic!”

“Yes, but what level would that be, miss?” Her student asked her, looking anxiously up at her.

This time, she remained silent for a full ten seconds before replying vaguely, “It’s… when I know you’ve reached a certain satisfactory level.” When he looked at her suspiciously, she looked indignantly at him and exclaimed, “Hey! I’m being serious! I will definitely know when because I am self-taught about the flight magic, and I am confident you will learn it once you achieve that certain level.”

Judging from her hasty dialogue, he understood that she had no clear idea on what sort of level he might need to get up to in order to learn flight magic. However, he trusted his teacher’s instincts and decided to go along with her way of teaching him magic.

“Okay, miss, but that still doesn’t answer the question of how we’ll get there,” he replied, stating the problem at hand. “Maybe use the public transport?”

By public transport, he was referring to travelling across long distances by the use of having carriages pulled by bird monsters tamed by their keepers. While most people are proficient enough to fly using their energy, some are simply incapable of flying and chose to travel by land, which takes much longer to reach their destination than by air.

“No. Not like that,” his teacher replied, shaking her head in disagreement and smiling down at him. “I’ll carry you there.”

“Carry me?” Alex asked, looking shocked and imaging himself being carried in a princess carry. Goosebumps erupted all over his skin at the frightening thought, making him take a step back from his teacher while muttering, “Um… No. Perhaps that’s not a good idea, miss?”

She was taken aback by his sudden change in attitude and asked, “Why’re you frightened, Alex? I’m only going to carry you. I promise I won’t drop you.”

“It’s… not about that, miss,” he replied, looking fearfully at her despite her efforts to reassure him. “I don’t want to be carried in your arms.”

“In my arms?” Lucia asked, and she made a gesture of cradling a baby in her arms. “Do you mean like this?”

“Yes! That!” Alex exclaimed, pointing at her action with a fierce look on his face. “Dad said it’s disgraceful for men to be carried like that! It’s usually us who do that to the woman that we love very deeply!”

“Oh?” His teacher asked, looking amazed by his knowledge about it. This caused her to close in on him and put on a cheeky smile as she asked, “Does this mean you’ll give Luna a prince carry in the future?”

“Huh?!” He exclaimed sharply, taking another step back from her and looking shocked. “Me… carry Luna… like that…?” He asked hesitantly while looking nervous.

“There’s nothing wrong in doing it to the person you cherish,” replied his teacher with a wink.

He looked down at his hands and, for a moment, imagined himself carrying Luna in his arms as he treated her like a princess. In an instant, his facial expression changed to that of embarrassment, but he instantly became flustered when he heard his childhood friend’s voice coming from the entrance to his home.

“What are the two of you doing?”

She asked innocently, but with the thoughts that had been plaguing him until recently, Alex quickly turned around and waved his hands while saying, “It’s nothing! It’s nothing at all!”

“Nothing at all even though it looked pretty serious?” Luna asked innocently, tilting her head a little to the side to look cute, causing him to become even more flustered.

Lucia looked at the embarrassment her student felt by the situation he found himself in and chuckled to herself. Then she turned to Luna and explained about their plan to visit her father to learn on something important. This instantly ignited the flames of curiosity in Luna because she hurried over to them and looked at them with eyes glittering with excitement.

“Can I come along too?” She asked hopefully, causing them to become stunned. “It’ll be my first-time meeting someone other than Lucia and Alex that uses magic.” Then she seemed to think she might be a bother judging from their silence and added, “I promise I’ll behave. I swear I won’t do anything silly or get in your way!”

“That’s,” began the magic teacher and momentarily paused.

She glanced sideways at her student, who was silently staring at her with an imploring look on his face to not allow the young girl to come along. Inwardly, she sighed and looked back at Luna in order to refuse her, but the sheer magnitude of the cuteness that the young girl radiated was overwhelming to the point that it dithered Lucia from what she had intended to do.

“That’s not a problem at all!” Lucia said, beaming at her and causing Alex to look thoroughly shocked. She glanced sideways at her student and apologised in a low voice by whispering, “Sorry, but Luna’s just too cute to turn down.”

Alex could only look at his teacher before dropping his head in defeat and sighing in resignation. The main reason he did not want for Luna to come along was due to the earlier conversation that he had with his teacher regarding him carrying Luna in a princess carry. It made him blush a little in embarrassment each time he remembered about it, thus making him want to keep her away for that day.

Trying to think of a way to keep her away, he turned to his teacher and asked desperately, “Miss, how can you carry two people at the same time? I think it’ll be a burden for you.”

He thought he was being smart, but he did not notice that Luna looked a little hurt by his words. However, the young girl cheered up instantly by Lucia’s reply to Alex’s complaint.

“Good point, but I’m quite capable of carrying two youngsters such as you and her,” replied Lucia with a wink as she knew her student was trying to evade Luna that day and did not want to give him such a chance.

“That’s great to hear, miss!” Luna said excitedly, feeling triumphant at the prospect of going somewhere beyond their neighbourhood with Alex. She bowed deeply to the magic teacher and said respectfully, “I’ll be in your care for today, so treat me well.”

Lucia chuckle and said, “Relax, Luna. Don’t be formal. Let’s be friendly to each other, okay?”

The young girl looked very happy to hear it, and she instantly replied, “Yes!”

Nodding her head in satisfaction, the magic teacher beckoned the two of them together to stand in front of her. Then she swung both of her hands to wrap around them back and bring them to stand together shoulder-to-shoulder. Both the young boy and girl were startled by her sudden action before hearing the explanation for it.

“I’ll be carrying the two of you, so I need you to stand together like this. Do you understand?”

They looked perplexed, turning to look at each other and quickly looking away with embarrassed looks on their faces. Seeing this, Lucia smiled kindly at them and thought to herself in a wry voice.

“These two are so stiff ever since the incident with Luna getting hurt. Well, maybe this is an opportunity to advance their relationship one step further? Let’s just hope for the best.”

She smiled at them and said, “Flight.”

In an instant, the air around appeared as thought something had happened to it and began to rapidly change.

“Alright! Hang on tight!” She advised them, causing both Alex and Luna to wrap their arms around her back for a firm grip to hold onto. Smiling in satisfaction, she exclaimed, “Here we go!”

As she cried out in joy, she kicked off the ground and soared high into the air with high speed. The wind buffeted against the two youngsters, who momentarily winced with fright before realising that it was just the fast blowing wind and looked towards the front in which they flew at.

“Wow!” Luna exclaimed excitedly, her eyes sparkling with great happiness in the soon to be setting sun. “This is… amazing!”

Alex also felt the same like his childhood friend, but he was more feeling the nostalgia of flying through the air. He was unsure whether it was because of the flight journey he experienced while as a kid, or the familiarity he felt from the experience he had in his past life.

“This feels so nostalgic,” he muttered, smiling softly as the wind blew past him.

“Nostalgic?” Lucia asked him, looking amazed. “Is this not your first time travelling through the air? I mean, other than the one you probably experienced when you were still just a baby.”

She was guessing about that part because she knew all babies would normally be taken home by their parents through flight with the rare cases done through the public transportation.

“Well… Maybe?” He said vaguely, smiling uncertainly at his teacher as he did not feel the need to fully admit about it.

On the contrary, his teacher found that so shocked, she exclaimed, “What?!” and almost dropped the two of them from the air. She quickly grabbing them and calming herself, looking apologetic before looking at him in amazement.

“Really?” She asked uncertainly.

But he shook his head as he did not want to admit the truth and simply said, “No. It’s just this familiarity as if I experienced this a very long time ago.”

This relieved his teacher, making her chuckle and say, “Don’t be silly, Alex. You wouldn’t be able to remember anything that had happened before the age of seven. Maybe it was just a feeling that got ingrained into you as a kid when your parents flew you around.”

“That’s so nice,” said Luna, smiling sweetly at her beloved childhood friend. Then she said in a slightly sad voice, “I wish I could remember or feel how it felt like when I was with my parents.”

Alex noted that she looked a little sad at the thought of not being able to meet her parents in all these years, with a simple reason of them travelling around the world. He looked a little sad, and he was joined by Lucia, who also knew about the tragic fate of Luna’s parents but she did not feel the need to interfere and reveal the truth as it concerned her wellbeing.

“Maybe not knowing the truth could be considered a blessing,” she admitted in her thoughts, seeing the happiness the young girl was filled with in contrast to the enormous sadness she would surely experience once she discovers the truth. Then she shook her head and thought, “No. I should just focus on the present for now and think about it later.”

“Is something the matter, miss?” Luna asked, looking anxiously up at her.

“Yeah. You look like you’re really worried about something, miss,” Alex pointed out beside her, looking up curiously at his teacher.

Lucia smiled down at them and replied, “I’m fine. In fact, I was just thinking that maybe it’s not such a good idea for us to talk like this in case we end up swallowing bugs.”

This piece of information instantly alarmed Luna, who asked, “Bugs?! You mean we can swallow them if we talk while flying?”

“Not all the time,” admitted Lucia with a relative smile, “but when we do by an unfortunate accident, then we’d be experiencing stomach pains, high fever, severe headaches and much more! It’s truly horrible, I hear.”

Luna became so alarmed and scared, she instantly shut her mouth so tight that her face looked a little strange. Alex did not completely believe in her story, but he decided to follow his childhood friend’s example and shut his mouth tightly so that no bug could enter into his mouth.

The magic teacher inwardly laughed when she saw their reactions and thought to herself, “Such lovely kids. I’m the silly one here to worry needlessly. Let’s focus on the present and meet dad. I’m actually kind of nervous to see how he’ll respond after seeing me at his doorstep,” and she smiled sadly as they continued flying through the air towards their destination.