Stellar Echo: Heart of the Myst-Chapter 161: VOL 2 - 106: Collaborate.

A while later, Erik and Liliana sat facing each other on the beautiful sofas in the living room, while they received cups of tea from Seraphina, who, after serving them, stood behind Erik with a professional smile on her face.

"My master told me you wanted to talk to me about something."

Seeing the nervous Liliana, Erik commented with a smile, wondering what the girl wanted to discuss, which led Liliana to take a couple of deep breaths to gather her courage. Then she looked Erik directly in the eyes, at which point she began to speak in a serious and almost formal tone.

"Erik, the truth is that I've realized my mistakes and I want to move on, so I want to talk to you seriously to apologize for my previous behavior and, if possible, to start over."

Liliana's words caused a confused expression on Erik's face, who turned to look at Seraphina as if asking for explanations, but the beautiful, perfect maid simply smiled elegantly without saying anything. Seeing that Seraphina didn't want to explain anything, Erik had no choice but to sigh in defeat and ask the chocolate-haired girl.

"Liliana, honestly, I don't understand why you want to apologize to me. Did you do something?"

The question caused a confused expression to form on Liliana's face, who looked at Erik, not very sure if he was serious or just making fun of her. But as always, that fool seemed unable to lie even if his life depended on it, which brought a small smile to her face and gave her enough courage to start explaining.

"Yes, I did quite a bit, and I know you're aware of it: how I treated you with indifference, what I thought of you, and that I didn't behave like a proper older sister."

A bit surprised, Erik looked Liliana up and down, but upon noticing her expression and realizing that she really meant what she said, the star-haired boy couldn't help bursting into laughter. Meanwhile, the teacup he was holding began to float in the air thanks to a phantom hand.

After laughing heartily, Erik wiped a few small tears from his eyes and spoke as he tried to calm down. Then he began to talk, still looking genuinely amused, while Seraphina, with swift and practiced movements, began to tidy up the clothes and the beautiful starry hair of her young master.

"Hahaha, you're really very sweet, Liliana, haha, and that's not something to apologize for..." Erik had no choice but to take a couple of deep breaths to avoid laughing again, and shortly afterward, he continued speaking.

"I already told you before that not even money is liked by everyone, much less a person. And if I may add, much less someone like me—so as not to make myself look too bad, let's say I'm a bit peculiar. So, whether you like me or not is irrelevant. Whatever happens, you're still my master's disciple and therefore my older sister, so it's unimportant—don't try to make it bigger than it really is."

Somewhere between astonished and confused, Liliana watched Erik rubbing his stomach, trying not to keep laughing, but the star-haired boy quickly continued in a calmer tone, taking back his floating teacup.

"Besides, you talk about treating me with indifference, but can I ask you when you did that? Because honestly, I never noticed until now, and in my opinion, apart from a couple of times so many years ago, you've always treated me with respect. At this point, I really have no complaints about you."

"... But I never treated you like a sister. I always ignored you and pushed you aside. Also, there was that time when I insulted you, and that other time when I left you to your fate on the street when master asked me to guide you..." Liliana couldn't help retorting with a strange expression, feeling incredibly uncomfortable because of Erik's words and calm demeanor. He simply smiled serenely and started speaking.

"You ignored me? Honestly, I never noticed. And if by insulting me you mean that time you called me a coward and such, well, that's not an insult—or at least not to me. You even helped me a lot that time because if it hadn't been for you, I really might have affected my masters' reputation. So before you apologize, I should be thanking you."

"But, but, I hated you. I wanted to see you fail. I thought you were nothing more than a useless lucky fool, a coward, a stinky hermit terrified of the outside world, and I wanted my master to abandon you..." Liliana spoke almost in a panic upon seeing how all the things she considered great offenses were nothing but trivialities to Erik, but the star-haired boy spoke again calmly after sipping his tea.

"And what's wrong with that? After all, you're not entirely wrong. I really am a lucky fool; I'm also a bit of a hermit, I don't like socializing much, and to be honest, I'm also somewhat cowardly—I don't want to die too soon. So getting angry over the truth makes no sense, no matter how uncomfortable it is.

"Besides, I think it's pretty normal for you to hate me. After all, I came out of nowhere, and Master Eleonora almost focused all her attention on me, so in my opinion, you handled it quite well since that 'hate' stayed only in your thoughts. You know, at first, I thought you and Desmond would make my life impossible, but that never happened, which was a big relief for me, and honestly, I'm grateful for that."

As Erik's words echoed in her mind, Liliana raised her head toward the ceiling with a distant look, almost experiencing an existential crisis. She felt that all the courage she had gathered and her realization about her relationship with Erik had been a waste of time. The fool didn't even think she had done anything wrong—he really was a hopeless idiot.

Although things were better in the Arcane Order, the pride, or even the arrogance, of mana users was no joke. So a normal one would hate her, curse her, and some of the most extreme and crazy ones would want to take cruel revenge on her, "repaying the grudge ten thousand times". But that star-haired fool had actually thanked her for not making his life difficult—it was truly a mystery how his foolish head worked.

"Don't be like that. If you really feel you want to reconcile with me, how about collaborating on a project?"

While Liliana was lost in her little existential crisis, Erik spoke with a predatory smile on his face, almost as if he were carefully sizing up the prey he was about to devour—something Liliana did not notice and simply asked as she looked at him again.

"Collaborate? In what do you want us to collaborate?"

Liliana asked with mixed feelings in her heart, to which Erik replied with a calm and friendly smile on his face, having completely erased the predatory expression from just a moment before.

"Actually, there's a project I'm working on where a light mage would be very helpful..."

As he spoke, Erik took from his storage ring a beautiful black-covered notebook with golden edges, which he placed on the coffee table between them, then slid it over to Liliana with a smile.

"..."

Upon seeing the notebook, Liliana picked it up and opened it. On the first page was a detailed introduction to what the notebook contained, and when she read it, Liliana couldn't help but open her eyes wide in surprise. She quickly began flipping through the pages, finding notes, explanations, and all kinds of magical spell prototypes.

The more she read, the wider the eyes of the beautiful girl became, rapidly shifting from surprise to disbelief, realizing the absolute madness her younger brother was working on. The guy really wasn't a genius—he was a damn monster so strange that she really wanted to open his head to see what he had inside, even doubting that he was human like her.

"Is this real...?"

With a voice that sounded almost like a gasp, Liliana asked with an expression that showed disbelief and astonishment at the same time. So Erik smiled confidently and stretched out his hand, where a beautiful magic circle with runes around it formed out of nowhere. He quickly conjured a beautiful torch made of solidified Myst, which had runes all over its surface. Soon after, it began to emit a pale blue flame, at which point Erik's calm voice resonated.

"Very real."

"...This is research worthy of an Auric Award... I can't accept it; my pride won't allow me to take advantage of you like that." Liliana spoke somewhat in a panic, surprised and a bit frightened by how absurd her younger brother was. He simply smiled calmly, then began to speak.

"You're exaggerating. Although it really is something that could be considered revolutionary, as it stands now, it's nothing more than an academic curiosity. Only useful for me because, as far as we know, no one else can move solidified Myst constructs the way I do.

"But if we manage to make it work with magical affinities, the story changes, and then we really could be talking about Auric Awards. And since light constructs are the most compatible with my Myst constructs, that's the best route to start with, don't you think?"

Erik spoke, trying to sound calm, but around him emanated the aura of a dishonest merchant looking to take advantage of a poor, innocent soul that had accidentally fallen into his hands.

Which, by the way, is not as if he had been thinking of ways to trick his poor older sister into helping him with his project, nor had he almost jumped for joy when he heard that she "wanted to make peace with him." Of course not; nothing of the sort happened.

"Do you really want me to take part in this project...?" Liliana asked, half-convinced and half-doubtful, to which Erik nodded confidently, then extended his hand toward her in a handshake gesture, speaking calmly.

"Of course, you're exactly what this project needs to go a step further."

"...Then I'll be in your care." After looking at Erik's outstretched hand for a few seconds, Liliana extended her own hand, initiating the handshake, speaking with traces of disbelief in her voice.

"Hehe, it'll be a pleasure working with you."

After the handshake, Erik commented happily while Seraphina placed an opulent tray filled with special cookies on the table, which doubled the happiness of the star-haired boy. He began eating with enthusiasm and even shared with the wolves that appeared beside him without them having to start their usual dramatic show. After all, happiness has to be shared.

(Hehe, what good luck! I finally have a "work partner" with the rare light affinity. If I manage to convince her to collaborate long-term, many of my stalled projects can move forward at an accelerated pace. But for now, let's take it step by step—let's not scare the little fawn that fell into the net. Everything in due time...)

With a mischievous smile on his face, Erik thought as he watched Liliana study the impressive agenda attentively. Meanwhile, Seraphina began to massage her young master's shoulders with an incredibly refined technique, discreetly picking up the orbs that hovered in stealth around the room at the same time.

***

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