Spirit Soul

"Blessed by the God of Wind?..." Kyle mumbled as he terminated his connection with the wind affinity.

Arashi was doing the same, and it was later that the wind currents around them settled down as if they had been calmed.

While gazing at the Horse that was said to be blessed by the God of Wind with a newfound interest, Kyle was not sure what to think, but he knew that it was a formidable force.

That caused him to calm down a little because he hoped that the horse would serve as their mount and take them to the other side of the kingdom.

And if they were lucky, it might even allow him and Arashi to use their affinity to deepen their understanding.

In fact, this would be the best possible solution for every single problem they were currently having.

However, Kyle didn't have to be extremely intelligent to understand that nobody in their right mind would allow a beast like the winged horse to fly towards a dangerous area such as the borders of the Lahin kingdom.

To call it dangerous was not correct either, but the border city Yasmine was aiming at was close to the Sadorla forest, and a hostile kingdom.

This was what could be considered as dangerous, and Kyle would understand why the old man was frowning at the situation in front of him.

It was also likely for the old man's employer, that is Yasmine's family, to be against the request of using the winged horse.

But that was not something Yasmine seemed to be bothered about.

He found her behavior extremely intriguing because it showed that she was regarded highly even in her own family.

Maybe he was interpreting too much into the situation, but that didn't really matter right now as he continued to stare into the emerald eyes of the winged horse that stared back at him.

Kyle was not sure why he was unable to look away, but it almost looked as if Horice, the winged horse, felt incapable of averting his gaze as well.

Thus, several seconds of silence passed before their eye contact broke when Beatrice tugged at his clothes.

At this moment he realized that he had even stopped breathing, which was why Beatrice had poked him.

Not even a second later, he began gasping for air as he asked between taking deep breaths.

"Can you bring us closer to the Lahin kingdom?"  His eyes were fixated on the air as he continued to breathe hard before he closed them for a few moments, feeling the air that brushed past his clothes.

"I already told you that I will help you. I won't go back on my words, don't worry!"

Feeling as if it had been an indirect question to her, Yasmine answered him.

She wanted to reassure Kyle that there was nothing to worry about.

But, he was not even looking at her.

Following his gaze, both she and also Beatrice were stupefied to see what he was staring at.

When Kyle opened his eyes, he looked once again at the winged horse, who also went by Horice, Horse of the Wind, and Blessed child of the Wind God.

With a subtle smile on his face, he wanted to look approachable and make Horice pay heed to his request.

But that was not necessary because their emerald eyes spoke more than a thousand words.

A silent communication passed between them following which Horice nodded his head, accepting Kyle's request without any issues.

The old man, who was in charge of the ranch, saw this and frowned.

He wanted to intervene and clearly state that nobody except the direct descendants of Yasmine's family were only allowed to touch Horice, but not to ride it.

However, before he could even react, Yasmine held him back, which deepened his frown.

The old man had wanted to use his little authority to warn the young girl to stop before he would tell her parents about what was going on.

Yet, he was tongue-tied and he helplessly watched Yasmine's eyes change their color.

They were taking on a yellowish-gold color as they turned into narrow slits that were similar to that of lizards, but at the same time, completely different.

Her eyes began to glow as small sparks ignited tiny, and almost untraceable flames on her fiery red wings, causing the old man to halt in his tracks.

'How is…that even possible?!' He thought. In seconds, he felt his entire body go stiff as a board as shock spread through him.

He was shocked to see Horice change his behavior towards the young man in a matter of minutes.

From his earlier discontent of Kyle using the wind affinity, the horse had now simply agreed to Kyle's request without a second of hesitation.

The old man couldn't understand the reason for this but knew that because the blessing of the Wind God made Horice more intelligent than a variety of people.

There were also other things about Horice, which made the winged horse widely known for being a perfect judge of a person's character, strength, and potential.

However, that was not all because despite looking like he was tamed, Horice was free just like the wind, and nobody had ever been able to ride him.

Yet, he had accepted Kyle's request- a person whom he had known for less than five minutes!!

If Horice's response had been strange, Yasmine's reaction to what was happening could be described as even weirder.

How else could the change in the color of her eyes, and the ignited flames on her wings be described?

The old man had no idea but he knew that he had to update her parents about everything as quickly as possible.

Despite that, he couldn't leave because the scene around him had put him under a spell, preventing him from leaving.

While the old man looked at the entire situation that had unfolded in front of him appalled, Yasmine was staring at Kyle and Horice.

Meanwhile, Beatrice was occupied with Arashi, who had jumped from Kyle's head towards her, before yelping at her.

He moved his head, trying to tell Beatrice something, but as the Spirit Soul was incapable of speaking, their communication was lacking.

Nonetheless, she was able to perceive that Arashi was jealous of Horice which caused her to understand him.

Jealousy was a nasty emotion, and something new for Beatrice, so she could gauge how Arashi was feeling.

With that in mind, she was just about to hit Kyle's shoulder once again but stopped midway.

She could clearly recall the unbearable pain that had coursed through her arm not too long ago.

This caused goosebumps to spread over her entire body.

Thus, she simply decided to tug at his shirt yet again, instead of hitting him.

It was a simple move, but more than enough to drag Kyle out of the focused state he had been.

Turning towards Beatrice, he saw Arashi who yelped at him before jumping straight at his face.

He bumped his head on Kyle's forehead as an act of revenge before merging with his body.

Confused, Kyle could only look at Beatrice, but she turned away with a simple but destructive, "hmppf!"

Not understanding what was going on, he shot them both a bewildered look.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a faint glimpse of Yasmine's appearance, just before she changed back to her usual self.

With a doubtful expression, he looked at her, only to see her grin as she approached him.

"It looks like Horice adores you…but I don't think we'll get permission to ride him, let alone harness him to a chariot."

At this moment, the old man jumped into the discussion, finally freed from the spell he had been put under as he hastily added,

"That's correct. Not only will Horice not allow anyone to ride on him…normally…he won't even allow anyone to put a harness on him. However, even if he allows that my Lord will never allow anyone to touch Horice!"

His last line was aimed at Yasmine, who was in deep thoughts, thinking about the words that had just been saying.

She had a weird feeling about Horice, and could clearly sense that he had perceived something just as it was the case with her.

Kyle might not have noticed anything, but there was something weird about him.

It was as if he was some kind of magnet, attracting people without being aware of this.

'Is that because of this ability of his?' Yasmine asked herself, trying to figure out if she had been bewitched, or if her senses were being altered by Kyle.

However, after a few moments, she shook her head and discarded the idea. Kyle was not even using the energy that coursed through his body at the moment.

In fact, he had used almost everything to tend to Beatrice after she had hit him.

Unsure of what was going on, Yasmine only knew that her body had reacted before her mind. This was probably the same that occurred with Horice, who had also noticed something.

And once Horice noticed something and made his mind, he would act however he pleased because nobody could restrict him.

"Unad…what if Horice allows to be harnessed, and willingly decides to pull a chariot?…would you or dad be able to restrict him without force? What do you think will happen the moment you two use force? Horice will never trust you or my father ever again…so how about you let me talk to my father, and then we will see."

Determined to help Kyle, Yasmine finished stating what she wanted to say before turning towards Kyle and Beatrice and asked them,

"If it's not too much to ask for, would you two like to meet my father? He should still be in Lynar, so we can ask for permission to ride on Horice…even if I think he will reject it.

Either way, as long as nobody wants to feel the wrath of a mother, they will leave Horice alone. Nobody would interfere and they would allow him to do whatever he wants as long as he is underage."

Kyle was not sure how Horice was supposed to be underage because he looked like a perfectly 'normal' winged horse in its adulthood, but he just nodded his head, thinking that Yasmine was correct.

However, before he followed her, Kyle couldn't help but take another glance at Horice, using his Nurture ability with Soul force..

This allowed him to see some hues, while many more were still hidden from his sight.

In the end, this was not abnormal as he had not used much Soul force to empower his ability, but it made one point clear- Horice was powerful!

'It looks like the Nurture ability doesn't have enough energy to see all the hues. It's the same with Beatrice and Yasmine too…so, does that mean I'm surrounded by beings with great potential, while my current potential is…low, I guess?

Well, it's only for now that I'm weak, and hopefully won't stay for long either…'

Smiling dryly, Kyle finally followed Yasmine, who had already dragged Beatrice along her.

She was suddenly acting as if they had known each other for decades, which was weird for Beatrice. However, at the same time, it made her feel much more at ease than before.

Initially, Yasmine had been like an enemy to her, but now, this was slowly changing. Beatrice had slowly started to take a liking to the young-looking woman who had long reddish-brown hair cascading down her slender back.

Because of that, she didn't even notice that they had entered the ginormous house that was located right next to the ranch.

And what she was also missing out on were the strong energy currents released by the guards that let them pass without batting an eyelid. Neither had she noticed the ginormous emblem that was suspended high in the air, showing a bright flame that flared up, revealing an image that had previously been hidden.

Without knowing why this seemingly simple emblem caused Kyle to feel weird. He kept staring at it, and the existence that seemed to be hidden by the flames was unveiled as he mumbled,

"Don't tell me she is a…"