"well none of them are babbitt hunting, "aero huffed dropping the stack of hunting missions. he and idit decide to check out the missions while the rest of the team did their own thing. some training, some shopping some seeing the sights. aero wanted to get some paperwork done before he went to the training hall again. idit wanted to make sure aero didn't get in a fight, plus going to the training hall. she had a track she wanted to polish.

seeing that there weren't any missions available in a traveled area for the team, the two started on the paperwork for their hunt. it wasn't much at least, but they knew this was the paperwork to get more paperwork sent to aero's home when their hunt came to an end.

when that was done they moved to the training hall, taking up their rented room. not much was said between them before they started their training. aero trying out what the helper suggested to train his body, which partly touched on some muscles he didn't use in his fighting style.

which was a surprise to him, he fought to win. he'd headbutt someone if it came to it, he's used every part of him if he could. but apparently, there were muscles he didn't pay much attention to. so these exercises were fine with him, 'i'm only turning my body into even more of a weapon!' that was something aero was aiming for.

aero worked his body several ways, while idit worked on the trick. if the melodies were the effects of sound vibrating through their bodies. that meant in a way they were living instruments. while it was probably safer to just use her drum gantlets, she wasn't going to ignore the use of such information.

but the scope of her trick was hard, the trick of using two melodies at once. one with her gauntlets, the other with her body. she knew it would be hard, learning a single medley was a challenge. but preparing two at once was a new level of challenge.

after more than a dozen attempts and failing with no injury. though it came close, idit decide that she needed to try something simpler. so she decided that using one melody double was the simpler step, but still took almost a dozen tries before she could synce the melodies.

aero jumped as the loud and far-reaching sound shook the entire room. he was on his feet fist at the ready, but when he looked at the source of the sound, he found idit standing there just shocked with a bleeding arm. confused about what just happened aero focusing on the pressing injury. the room didn't have any medical supplies so aero grabbed his teammate and raced out of the room.

thankfully training accidents were uncommon so there were medically trained people in the building. they had already been on the way as the noise idit made traveled through hot the entire building, many people came out to investigate what the source of the noise was. some saw aero drag idit through the halls. other followed the trail of blood.

either way, a small crowd gathered before the room they were in and they saw the destruction idit had wrought. the training dummy was a little one then shards of wood embedded into the cracked stone walls. it littered the cracked stone floor as well, the room was a good stick away from caving in. "what kind of melody was that?" one person asked, this kind of destruction wasn't easy to bring forth.

the dummies were made with treated wood, the wood was naturally hard like rocks, then made even harder with a foul-smelling brew made from creature body fluids and then a melody. at that point, the density and durability were approaching that of a diamond. not that the people of the planet do due to the minimal mining they performed to preserve nature.

"I wonder if I can learn that," someone commented as the worker came around to clean up the room. they were shooing away the crowd, who returned to their own training. some of them wanted to see if they could reach that level of destruction, and others followed the trail of blood. which lead them to a room aero was guarding.

"what do you want?" he glared at the women standing before him. he wasn't sure what they wanted, but idit was getting treated right now and he wasn't about to let anyone interrupt that. at the same time, they had just interrupted his thinking, for some reason when he saw idit leading his heart and stomach curled in on themselves.

a feeling he only got when he thought about his mother having to receive a letter about his health going bad. like when a beast got too close to actually hurting him. he vaguely understood that he was worried about what he might call a new friend. he didn't think he was at the point he worried about anyone other than himself and his mother.

'i'm not sure if I like this feeling,' he had more people to worry about and that was kind of nice. because it meant he cared. but it kind of felt natural. he's been trying to work with this new feeling, his thoughts going around in circles and knots when the people came. he rarely likes interacting with strangers, when he was in a neutral mood.

he was in a bad mood, so he really wasn't listening to everything they were saying. but he caught enough to understand what they wanted, they saw the power that idit unleashed and wanted to know more. "she's injured! come back later!" now some of them had the sense to walk away. others did not.

"come on, we just want a word you're a girl." now the woman who said this had a foot in an area and probably a dozen years, she had scars and a necklace made from a number of teeth. none of that stopped aero from lunging at her," wow!" she pushed away his attack and the following spinning kick. "I don't have a girl!" he couldn't remember the number of times people asked about that

"oh have you found a girl?!"

"Is there a girl you are interested in?"

"oh how cute, I think she likes you."

so many times people talked about girls and who he should date, it drove up trees and mountains. look found some people physically attractive, and yes a part of him wanted to date. but both of those were overthrown by the pride as a hunter, as a fighter. something most women thought he shouldn't do, they weren't even thinking about how he wanted to focus this part of his life on his skills.

realistically he'd probably been a hunter for half his life before age and wounds made him stop, as was the avenge for all hunters. less if he suffered a wound that didn't heal right. he knew he would have time, he wasn't going to die that easily.

aero spent a few petals trying to hit the woman before pulling his temper back," don't make assumptions about my relationships" still steaming aero once again leaned up against the door, glaring at anyone who eyed it too long.

thankfully it wasn't too long before the doctor cleared idit to leave, there were bindings all over her arm and it smelled thick of medical herbs. idit didn't say anything clearly picking up the tension and deciding that they should leave for the moment. she did learn why all these people were around, getting a better idea of the scale of what she did.

"by the Zalts and Zaltess that impressive," she wasn't trying to play up her ability. she was generosity impressed by what she had done, it was incredible and she could help but feel a sense of growing pride, 'if that what it can do now. I can wait to see what happened when I perfect it.' aero watched her excited expression grow as they walked out of the training hall.

he couldn't help but that a curious peak at her pride,' Is it changing? no growing in a way?' it wasn't hard to connect the change to what idit figured out. the problem was aero's lack of people understanding of people and the rules the energy was bound by. 'is her pride growing because of her accomplishments?' either way the energy was leaking out, and seeing it made aero wonder if he should teach his team to seal the leaks.

"maybe for another day," for now he would focus on watching Idit's pride. it was an interesting thing to watch the change, he asked the helper to share the data with Xoqax. he figured the scientist could use the data, maybe he would be able to figure something out.

another reason for keeping an eye on his teammate's pride was if it grew too big, he wouldn't let the beast notice her and...' what happened when someone draws the beast's attention?' he might not have heard this, or he has and just forgot. the helper was quick to answer their lord.

'they will push their influence on them, at best they will have dreams as you have. at worst the best will completely crush their minds and use their bodies like puppets.' there was a horrifying moment when aero didn't say anything, idit was quick to notice his expression. "is something wrong aero?"

"nothing for the moment," though he said this he quickly asked the helper if there was anyone in the puppet state. the answer was far from happy news,' only your planet less than a dozen, in your star system, a bit more than thirty. the number grows the further out.'

'so I've got loads of work before me, how do I help these people?' the helper said that aero would be better off learning how to identify them first, 'after that, you must cut the connection between them and the beast. would you like for me to give the general location of the nearest?'

'wouldn't it be better for you to tell me their exact location,' the helper made a disappointed sound.' I'm ashamed to say this but the beast of pride is caple of preventing me from seeing too much about its location and doings.' the helper also admitted that they could only tell it was using people as puppets because of the way it had to break through it cell to maintain these connections.

aero and idit had arrived back at the inn, idit returning to her room so she didn't aggravate her wounds. while aero hung around the lobby staring at the pride of the people going around. trying to imagine how he would notice the connection to the beast, it really wasn't going all that well.

'how many people on Agustine have any kind of connection to the beast?' the helper was silent and at that moment aero figured he wasn't going to like this answer.' about 83%.' if aero had been drinking anything he would have to spit it across the room, ' you were a candidate for the lordship because despite you massive pride you managed to block a connection.' the helper added before leaving aero to digest the information.

it took aero a while to wrap his mind around the scale of the beast's power, just how much trouble was coming his way. 'it's not like I can't deal with it,' he was sure he could handle it somehow. problem was how long it would take and how should he deal with it. "so much work for me to do?"

he thought about how he would have to take care of for a while before turning in for the day. he was stressed, he also used two orbs of his stored energy to forge chains and rope for the beast. just so he felt like he was doing something, just for today.

he slept with a vivid nightmare about the beast, who was clearly less than pleased by the extra bindings despite them being little more than an annoyance. "DOn't DIsreSPect me CHilD!" aero responded with some of the galactic swears he learned from Tova and the helper. along with many insulting gestures, "you won't have my respect anytime soon!"

he woke up with a mild aching in his head, but that wasn't too bad thanks to how smug in the fact he managed to annoy the beast. "now how to give it even more trouble to the beast?" that was the simple matter learning to see the connection then breaking. the helper informed him of the nearest puppet, the person with the strongest connection.

'thank the zalts,' the location was actually near a babbits nest. which meant aero didn't have to change his team's plan, of course, he still had to talk to them about why he was looking for a specific person. 'how much should I tell them?' aero wondered as he ate his first meal with them.

'they've shone to be pretty open-minded, so it probably not worth it to lie. so aero started completing his explanation, though he didn't spend too much time on it as he didn't need to say anything until the team got closer. so he spent his day doing other things, a bit of training before he got called by Baili's guards.

"she wants to speak with you more," aero grumbled but followed them, he honestly would have preferred spending the day doing anything else. he knew it was needed, on the walk up to the Baili's office aero tried to mentally prepare himself for some very dull conversation.

when he arrived it was just as dull, no more than he thought. the woman only wanted to clarify some information and also talk to him about the political implications of the change that was coming. aero wasn't ashamed to admit to saying a lot of what she said when over his head and past his ears, thankfully the helper was able to keep him up. they didn't provide aero with any response for aero.

the young lord was more than happy to give his own opinion on the matter, maybe it was a bad opinion in terms of politics. but aero didn't give a single thought or inclination.