The Third Party - Chapter 84

3rd Person’s POV (12 yrs., 8 months)

In what seems to be darkness ahead, Ken’s figure floated silently on the vast space he is in, softly holding his knees to his body, he slowly opened his eyes.

‘Ah, I’m here again, the place where I discard everything.’ he thought to himself.

Flashbacks and fragments of memories opened like a video around him, minus the square or rectangular shape, these ones were jagged and looked like broken pieces of glass.

‘I know that coming here was so I could maintain my overall balance with oneself, but I wonder if…’ he reached out for one memory in front of him. ‘if there is more for me here than just being a dump.’

Bright light enveloped him as he touched a fragment of a memory, the surroundings turned from pitch black, to the patch of dirt on his feet, him wearing jeans, white shoes and a grey hoodie.

He pulled back the hood from his head and looked at his surroundings.

‘I know this place.’ The surroundings became clear to him as the location he was at was at the back of a two storey school building.

Two boys in their school uniform, one short and one tall, under the shade of a tree, seemingly talking to one another. The short one, holding his head down as if waiting, waiting for a reply. Hands subtly trembling at his side.

“No.” said the taller one and walked away. Those were the only words Ken heard, but were enough for him as the memory became clear.

‘My rejection.’ Bright light once again covered his field of vision, once he had opened his eyes again, he was back in that pitch black space.

{Notice.

You have successfully entered and exited a memory}

‘Hmm. Just that?’ Ken fell into thought whether he should expect there to be something he’d gain from entering one of his memory fragments, or should there really be an award for it,

After all, memories are what one cherishes the most, there should be nothing that physical reward that should come out of it if someone dearly comes to reminisce of the moment, memories are the only ones one should assume to be the only thing they’ll obtain.

But people are greedy.

‘Okay, time to stop that train of thought or I’ll get nothing but headache.’ Ken took a look at himself and noticed his naked body. ‘While I’m at it, why don’t I dress myself up to look presentable.’

In a moment, the clothes he was wearing from the first memory he entered appeared on his body.

‘Guess I’ll go ahead and sort these memories, after all there’s nothing much I can do here, and it’s not exactly like I willed it for me to come here.’ He thought to himself, approaching the memory fragment he entered earlier.

A reassurance more to himself.

-Meanwhile, back at Ken’s room-

Lyn watched amusedly at the questioning expressions of the three before her. But she can’t really tease them that much when technically they haven’t shared other important information about their race.

Why should they when it’s something that only they have and more importantly, a bit embarrassing to share to others given the topic.

But with these kids, she’s sure that they’ll be mature enough to understand and make the right decision, in regards to the topic that she’ll be sharing to them, especially those concerning girls.

“Us humans have what we call the ‘puberty’ stage, where our bodies undergo certain changes for functions that will be available for us once we’ve grown older.” she started.

She held out her hand, palm facing up and a magic circle appeared, the color of purple blue, runes engraved inside the circle.

An image formed atop the magic circle complete with its 3D image of a full body of a boy and a girl, minus the other small features of a human body.

“Boys and Girls at a certain age undergo these changes, for boys their bodies grow bigger and tougher along with a few additional features, but one that is clearly noticeable about them would be their masculine appeal.” she said.

Althroughout her explanation, the image of the boy slowly turned towards what Lyn described showing a full-fledged adult male on the picture.

“For girls, they have a similar way of growing but different in certain areas, here I’ll show you.” The image of the girl slowly turned to that of a full-fledged woman as well. “The only difference is that females turn more feminine.”

The three kids stared at the image, slowly nodding, they look at the images curiously if they were going to undergo something similar as that.

“Besides that, certain functions are developed during this stage of a human’s life, one thing that is most notable of all is that they start developing reproduction functions.” she said, but the image did not portray anything.

The three stared at her in question.

“Reproduction functions, does that have something to do about being able to conceive?” asked Allen. Lyn’s eyes lit up.

“That’s correct! In the puberty stage of a human, reproduction functions are one of the most important functions that develops during that stage, their primary function is to bring new life.” Lyn happily explained, as she cancelled her illusion magic, coupled with a few modifications through the use of manual input.

The three kids nodded in understanding.

“Excuse me ma’am, how do humans bring new life through the reproduction functions?” asked Flin.

“It would be through sexual intercourse my dear.” She said. They nodded as well. Flin thought that the word was familiar, he recalled what his parents had told him when he was curious of how do they make babies.

His face heated in realization. He took a glance at Lyn, she noticed the look immediately causing Flin to bow his head. Lyn noticed the blush on the boy’s ears and she smirked. Looks like someone’s embarrassed of this kind of talk.

The other two were oblivious of the person on their middle as they were busy imagining what sexual intercourse was.

Curious as ever, but there was nothing pertaining to such a topic in Allen’s library, so what is it?

“Excuse me auntie, what is a ‘sexual intercourse’.” asked Celine. Lyn smiled and said…

“An intimate act of both man and woman with the end goal of having a baby.” The other two only looked at her blankly, while the other’s blush deepened.

“You do not understand?” Lyn asked, the other two only shook their heads. She narrowed her eyes looking forward, forefinger poking her cheek in thought. She shrugged.

“You’ll eventually know of it once you’ve grown older or accidentally learned of it.” She said, quickly noticing the retreating figure of Flin, she stared at him amusedly. This woman is such a tease.

Celine can’t help but tilt her head, still confused. Allen on the other hand took a deep breath and nodded to himself that this new knowledge he gained may become useful in the future.

“Oh right, auntie, what does this have to do with ‘transitioning’?” he asked, turning to Lyn.

“I’m glad you asked, for puberty and transitioning have similar procedures, they make you grow bigger and stronger, of course the part pertaining to increase in magic power also applies to puberty, so both stages apply to both human and beast races alike.” she said with an educational tone.

“Not to mention that it happened to my son.” she gestured to Ken sleeping, to which the three followed with their gaze.

“But it’s so different compared to ours.” argued Allen, but still with that respectful tone.

“Yes, I agree, I must admit that I haven’t seen this kind of situation before, but nonetheless, we’ll stay here to observe how my son’s puberty and or transitioning goes.” she replied, Allen nodded.

“I suspect that you have witnessed how your transitioning happens and it’s nothing similar to my son’s since you’ve had one.” added Lyn, Allen nodded again.

“Yes.” He replied. Celine feeling left out, turned her gaze to the already calm person beside her.

“What does happen during transitioning?” she asked to Flin.

“Well, it usually envelops a person in what looks like a silk made out of light, and once the process is done, they are not cocooned but instead freed from the covering bearing more strength and maturity of one’s body.” He explained.

“Does this happen to only a select few?” she could not help but ask.

“No, it happens to all of us.” replied Flin.

“Then why haven’t we seen one?” Celine said, genuinely curious.

“Because, transitioning bursts out a huge amount of magic, and children are not supposed to be close to them, do you remember that time when Wilbert curiously stared at a floating orb from a distance?” said Lyn.

“Ahhh, I get it now, that’s why the adults transferred us to another location during that time.” exclaimed Celine.

“Exactly.” nodded Lyn. The four engaged more transferring from one topic to another, the three can openly talk about almost anything since Ken’s mother have very well integrated into their circle.

Not treating them much as children, lesser or higher than that.

Curiously, without them even noticing, specks of white slowly formed around Ken’s body, the tip of his hair slowly turning silver.

Allen having noticed the sudden fluctuation of magic in the air felt himself getting suffocated, but before he could say anything regarding the situation, the feeling stopped, and a sucking sensation appeared out of nowhere.

But it did not come off as harmful as it did not affect them.

Finally, having itself charged up, thirteen white orbs formed atop Ken’s body catching the four people inside by surprise, and even the other three by the door who wanted to barge in and join in on the conversation.

They all watched stunned as that silk white covering Flin described from earlier slowly took form and covered Ken, the source being the balls of white. The covering was transparent so they had still watched outside the covering.

The silk fully covered Ken, and almost in an instant, his figure undergone a drastic change, his hair lengthened the silver color already settling at the hair’s roots, his body growing bigger and more defined.

Subtle muscular features were visible, as well as the contours of his face became manlier, exuding that certain type of appeal men always has.

The process stopped, and finished, the area pausing, everyone having difficulty catching their breath, for the image before them, looked as if he was a god who had descended from above, and if one would look closer, they would deduce that the person before them looked like the younger version of Alfred.

After a few minutes of silence, the silks slowly unwrapped themselves, it’s magic falling, but the orbs of white orbited above Ken’s body and slowly, one by one entered Ken’s body, covering him in white light.

Everyone covered their eyes as the situation deemed them so, once the light subsided, they all squinted their eyes to look at the person on the bed, Ken was back to his original form, still a little bit skinny but cute.

His eyes opened, and he sat up, he looked down at his long hair, caressing the strands with his hands, he closed his eyes and with a little bit of fluctuation of his magic, the length of his hair shortened.

Giving him a fresh look of someone one could call “The Boy Next Door”, with that boyish features, hair shorter at the side but slightly longer at the top. Ken conjured water on his palms and froze it into the shape of a mirror.

He observed the look of his hair, changing the angle of his face to see whether the haircut suited him. He nodded to himself with a smile and thawed the ice.

He closed his eyes again and the same sensation as before returned as he lengthened his hair to the same length as before. Once he had seen his long hair again, he smiled and said…

“I did it.”

And then he softly laid down his head and returned to sleep, now in an even more comfortable position, his back facing the others.

The group weren’t able to say or do anything as they only stared blankly into space at what they had just seen, emotions swirling their being, drowning them.

Everyone had but one thought.

‘What just happened?’

——-