Rebirth of the Phoenix God

Chapter 135: Cleo's constitution (1)

In one moment, the atmosphere in the room turned so tense that it basically asked for someone to pull out a knife and start cutting it into pieces. 

With his eyes still locked on the girl, Fen's pupils lost their focus. While noticing that his sight was directed towards the girl was easy, deciding at which exactly part of her he was looking for was already a task that reached the limits of what was possible.

"NO FUCKING W"

"FATHER! Stop!"

Budging a bit when her father rose up from his chair and started shouting, Cleo quickly shut him down both with her words and deadly serious stare.

"Dear, what do you want to say?"

Surprised by the sudden reaction of his daughter, the mercenary looked at her determined face, only to switch his sight back to the young arcanist. To the surprise of the burly man, Fen didn't seem to be perturbed by the sudden shouts of both of his guests. In fact, he didn't move an inch ever since uttering this shocking statement, as if trying hard to figure something out within the confines of his mind.

"Father. I was sick, but I wasn't unconscious. I know that there is no way that you could normally afford a petal strong enough to heal me."

Rapidly standing up, Cleo looked at her father with a determined look in her eyes. Yet, this bold act of her was quickly proved to be nothing more than and act, with how her entire body was slightly shuddering.

"If that's the price I have to pay to preserve my life, then so be it. What's more, he is not that bad looking for me to feel repulsed or anything like that."

Shrugging her arms, Cleo suddenly caught the stripes that held her outer jacked on top of her body, quickly unravelling the knot that held the stripes together. With the piece of cloth falling to the ground, her inner clothes were revealed to everyone to gawk at, exposing her entire stomach to the young man. Even though it was only her outer part of the dress, right now only a narrow piece of cloth wrapped around her chest area remained on top of her skin with the exception of the simple pants that she was only now starting to undress.

"Dear"

"Father, I think this is the time where you should leave."

Stopping the actions of her shaking hands, Cleo looked at her father with a silent plea in her eyes. Just from this single expression of hers alone, one could tell that while she was willing to go for great lengths to repay the debt of saving her life, fully undressing in front of her father's eyes seemed to still be a little bit too much for her.

"I Please, I will Eh."

Attempting to come up with something that he could say to salvage the situation, the middle-aged mercenary quickly found out that he had nothing that he could say in this very moment. With all the energy and happiness leaving his face and the rest of his body, the burly man stood up with his head hanging low on his neck.

"Ah, sorry. I wasn't paying attention for a moment. Wait, why are you leaving?"

With his eyes regaining their clarity, Fen noticed the changes that happened to the room during his short moment of the inner debate. Taking a quick look at the determined yet scared look on Cleo's face along with her exposed waist and the depression oozing out of every single inch of her father's body, Fen's face quickly changed. With a powerful slap to his own forehead, the young man pushed his left hand forward in the commonly understand order to stop.

"Guys, I think you misunderstood what I said. Or rather I apologise. I was too shocked by what I saw to use a less confusing term."

Standing up from his chair, Fen moved two steps forward before leaning towards the ground and picking up the outer cloth that Cleo already dropped on the floor. Moving two steps further, the young man nearly hugged the girl when he threw her own piece of cloth around her back before allowing it to fall down on her shoulders.

"Let me start from the beginning. If you think that you saved her"

Completely ignoring the shocked and confused girl, Fen looked to the side where the burly mercenary was as stunned by the unexpected turn of the events as his own daughter was.

"Then you are wrong. All that you achieved, was buying some time for her."

Only now did Fen's words reach the minds of the two people that were listening to him. With a look of terror appearing on the mercenary's face and an expression of desperation quickly turned into a surrender surfaced within Cleo's eyes.

"Would you mind explaining what do you mean?"

Plummeting right down to his chair, the middle-aged man asked. Following his example, Fen calmly returned to his seat before gesturing at the girl.

"Come over for a second."

Instead of answering the question right away, Fen waited for Cleo to hesitatingly approach him before the young man reached with both of his hands forward. Placing one of his palms on top of the girl's forehead while his leading hand moved right on top of her naked stomach, his eyes closed down. 

Invoking a small fire within the palm that was caressing the soft skin of Cleo's belly, Fen actually pushed it forward in a gentle manner, focusing his inner sight at the changes that his fire introduced to the girl. In just a few moments, a deep frown appeared on Fen's forehead as he retracted both of his hands and relaxed on the chair.

"Tell me, how much do you guys know about arcanism in general? Or to be more specific, the differences between Draconis and Phoenixian bloodlines?"

Despite how he was clearly the one in control of the entire situation, his voice seemed weak and fragile as if infusing just a little bit of flame into the girl's body managed to somehow sap his entire strength.

"Draconis arcanists use the power they saved, while Phoenixians use the power that constantly flows through them. Isn't that right?"

Still puzzled by what the young man wanted to tell, the face of the mercenary already changed. He seemed to no longer worry about his daughter's chastity, as the current development of the situation implied that Fen was actually leading the discussion towards some specific clue.

"You are not exactly wrong, but not right either. But that allowed me to judge just in which way I should explain it to you."

Standing up from his chair, Fen ran towards the kitchen of the house only to come back with a set of an empty cup and empty bowl. Placing them down on the table, he moved back to his seat. Putting the cup in the middle of the bowl, Fen moved his right hand on top of this strange construction.

"As annoying as it is, this way of explaining things will once again be as far from the truth as it could be, but it will at least give you a sense of what I think is the problem with your daughter."

Closing his eyelids for a slight moment, Fen invoked his fires only to filled the cup with a small blaze. Once there was no more space left within the cup, some of the flames overflew to the bowl, quickly filling it up.

"This is how a Draconis arcanism works in general. While your body has a bit of fire in itself, one mostly condenses it all within the confines of his core."

With a single snap of his fingers, the bowl seemed to suddenly grow in size, with its walls extended by a static fire created by the young arcanist. Once the height of the bowl was greater than the highest point of the cup placed inside, Fen simply filled all the space inside with his flames once again, before stirring them up to make it look as if the fire continued to spin around the centre point of the bowl.

"On the contrary, this is how the Phoenix arcanism work. Rather than creating a core, Phoenixians simply make use of the fire that flows through their bodies at all times. So far, this is just a way of picturing out what you said yourself a moment ago."

Looking over at the faces of his two listeners, fully focused on the small presentation that he was performing, Fen felt a sting in his heart. Now that the basics were covered, he was about to unleash a hellish message on the two of them. Even though he was not at fault at all for the current situation, it still wasn't a pleasant feeling to bring down the depressing reality on them right when they were about to start celebrating Cleo's recovery.

"And now we are reaching the problematic part. Do you remember when I called her a bastard?"