New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

"I\'m sorry Grandpa. I just got so excited to meet Player Astaroth and I got carried away."

While saying that, he dispersed the mana around his hand, scratching the back of his head with an apologetic smile.

Jack turned his head to look at Alex, whose hair was still white.

"I see you met our other resident, Mr. Leduc. Would you mind changing back? I know you mean no harm, but that form is quite… dangerous."

Alexander smiled. He then closed his eyes, imagining himself letting go of the little flame next to his soul.

As soon as he did, he felt the surge of power slowly recede. Fatigue also slowly crept up on him.

\'My mana capacity is still so low here.\'

"Good. Is it too late to join you for lunch?"

Alex was about to tell him to take a seat, but when he looked at the half-cut table, he chuckled. He grabbed his tray of food, which was still untouched, and walked to the next table over.

Mr. Boudreau sat down across the table while some food was brought to him. Alexander was half expecting him to get some food of much higher quality, but he was brought a tray from the cafeteria.

Seeing the frown on Alexander\'s face, the older man laughed.

"Young man, I was in the military before getting rich. I\'ve had much worse food."

The old man started eating the food on the tray like it was some gourmet five-star meal. Alexander shrugged and ate as well.

The food was good, although bland. While they ate, Mr. Boudreau explained a few of the tests he wanted Alexander to go through.

They were mostly to learn about his abilities and see if he had full control over them. Alexander agreed to the testing since he also wanted to know where his limits were.

The conversation then took another twist.

"Mr. Boudreau. I wanted to thank you for saving Violette\'s life. And also for helping when the situation didn\'t concern you."

Alexander lowered his head as he said that. He knew full well that even if he was the one to pull Violette out of the water, he couldn\'t have reanimated her.

Alexander knew nothing about CPR and how to do it. He would have been useless beyond just pulling her out of the water.

He also wasn\'t sure he could have tapped into his Soulmancer powers if Violette hadn\'t been in grave danger. And since he didn\'t know what the goon was going to do to her, he wasn\'t sure they would have appeared in time.

"Don\'t worry about it, Mr. Leduc. I only intervened because it was the right thing to do. As for saving the Bellemare girl, I\'m not entirely sure it was all me."

Alex frowned at his statement.

"What do you mean? You are the one that performed CPR on her."

"Indeed. But something was weird when she coughed out the water in her lungs. It floated around in the air for a second before falling to the ground."

"She used magic!" the boy next to them exclaimed.

Jonathan had been listening to their conversation with rapt attention. At the mention of floating water, his enthusiasm flared up.

"Jonathan. You know that interrupting an adult conversation is rude."

"I\'m sorry, Grandpa."

"Also, what are you still doing here? Don\'t you have some studying to do?"

"But Graanpaaaa! I hate studying. Why do I even waste time with that, when I can do magic?!"

"Your abilities are irrelevant to the need to study. Go do your homework, young man."

"Fine," the boy grumbled, getting up and turning to leave.

"One day I\'ll fly away and escape from all that homework!" he said, punching his hand to the sky.

"Bye, Mr. Astaroth!"

After saying that, he took off with uncanny speed.

"At least run at a normal speed, so you don\'t hurt yourself or someone else!"

After shouting this, Mr. Boudreau sighed loudly.

"The more his magic grows, the more of a problem he becomes."

Alexander chuckled. He could imagine how Violette would soon start acting the same way with him or her parents.

"You called Violette a Bellemare. I take it, you know her parents?"

"I know her father quite well. I am an investor in his company. It wasn\'t the first time I saw the girl, although last time she was just a baby and still had a twin brother."

"So I assume you stepped in because of her?"

"She was part of the reason. Sadly, when I asked her stubborn father to have her brought here for examination, the man almost bit my head off."

Alexander laughed at the statement. That sounded very much like the picture he had of the man.

Even if he despised the man for becoming abusive, he could tell he was still an overprotective father deep down inside. His reaction to seeing him for the first time was a testament to that.

"The man was rambling about some young man being an incompetent fool. Something about him sending a certain Alfred after him."

Mr. Boudreau said these words while looking at him with a knowing smile. Alexander gulped nervously.

"I believe you will have to go make amends with the Bellemare family."

"Yeah… I just hope I live to tell the tale, ha ha…"

"I think you have bigger problems on your plate. Like the Bianchi family."

At the mention of the name, Alexander\'s traits darkened. He still had to find out where they were and give them a piece of his mind.

"By your expression, I take it you were able to learn their name from the goon you killed. Your methods might have been tasteless, but they were efficient."

"Twice they attacked me. This time, they need to pay the price."

Alexander didn\'t realize how angry he was until he felt Mr. Boudreau\'s intense stare. The old man looked him in the eye before looking down at his hands.

Alex had gripped the side of the metal table and unknowingly used mana. The table now had a hand-shaped dent in it.

"Sorry."

"Think nothing of it. But we need you to get to control your newfound abilities."

"Why are you helping me, Mr. Boudreau?"

"Because I have a feeling there will soon be more of you. And having a capable enforcer that owes you one isn\'t a bad thing."

That made some sense in Alex\'s head.

\'So he\'s preparing for later already? A businessman indeed.\'