Chương 30: THE EMPEROR AND THE STAR

Elias stared at Aina, her face a perfectly sculpted mask of indifference. Her emerald eyes, so like his mother's, held no warmth, no flicker of amusement, no hint of the frustration he felt boiling within him.

'Her personality?' He wanted to scream. It was an impossible assignment, a cruel joke.

"Well?" Aina's voice cut through his internal monologue, sharp and impatient. She didn't wait for an answer, merely turned and walked to a nearby bookshelf and floated off her feet to take some books from the top. With a soft thud, she dropped a stack of leather-bound tomes she'd harvested onto the polished mahogany desk. The top book, its title embossed in severe, gold lettering, read: The Hierophant's Guide to Discipline: Spare the Rod, Spoil the Child. Elias stared at it.

"Start with these," she commanded, her tone flat.

"Or don't if you want to fail. Failure has consequences." She then picked up a small, ornate silver clock and placed it precisely in the center of the desk, as if daring him to touch it.

"I'll be back in precisely one hour. I expect progress." With that, she turned and glided out of the study, leaving Elias alone with a pile of intimidating books and a profound sense of exasperation. Elias slid off the chair, landing with a soft thud. He walked around the desk, eyeing the books with a mixture of dread and morbid curiosity. He picked up The Hierophant's Guide, flipping through its pages.

It was filled with rigid doctrines on Flow control, discipline, and the importance of adhering to established methods.

"Dogmatic, indeed," he muttered, remembering Ortis's assumed personality. He tossed it aside and picked up another, Understanding the Fundamentals of Flow and its Relation with Anti-flow.

"Might as well," he said with a shrug and put the books on the ground, lying beside them. He spent the next twenty minutes poring over the texts, his brow furrowed in concentration. He cross-referenced the descriptions of the Traits with every fleeting interaction he'd had with Aina.

'The Chariot': Driven, disciplined, victorious, exerts strong control. That certainly fit her brutal training methods and her general demeanor. She was definitely driven. Her gravity manipulation certainly fit, as it was a Cosmic Class Trait. Or 'The Emperor': Authoritative, disciplined, controlling, protective, establishes order. This also resonated. And she did try to protect him from getting hurt by using non-lethal force with her electromancy, which she was sure she had plenty of.

He shuddered remembering that charged particle beam she almost used on him. He scribbled notes in his personal journal, using a mix of English, as he didn't want to forget his old world, and besides, it would be ideal for encrypting his notes, as well as his invented Flow notation made from real-world mathematical symbols. He was writing down her behavior he'd seen so far and trying to match it to the abstract concepts of the Traits. He was so engrossed that he almost missed it.

A faint shimmer on the page of The Cognitive Mind: Illusions and Perception. A small, almost imperceptible scribble in the margin began to shift, the ink swirling. It formed English words:"Hint: She's a tsundere. Google it. -D" Elias blinked, puzzled, then slammed the book shut, a frown appearing on his face as he realized who it was.

"That bastard!" he hissed, glaring at the innocent-looking cover. Deus. So he was watching. He'd been silent for over three years, and now he was giving him information. He wanted to throw the book across the room, but he remembered Aina's "consequences." He settled for a low, guttural growl. The incident only fueled his frustration. He wasn't sure if Deus was just being petty and toying with him. But at the same time, he could be right.

'But why speak to me now after three years?' When Aina returned, precisely on the hour, Elias was sitting stiffly on the chair, The Hierophant's Guide open on his lap, feigning deep contemplation.

"Progress?" she asked, her voice flat.

"Big Sister," Elias began, forcing a wide-eyed, innocent look.

"I've been wondering, if you were… a tree, what kind would you be?" Aina blinked. Slowly.

"One that drops heavy fruit on idiots." Elias scribbled furiously in a notebook.

'Disruptive... The Tower? Or perhaps The Emperor again? Authoritative tree?' He risked another question.

"What's your favorite color, Big Sister?"

"The absence of color. Like your intellect." Elias's pen scratched.

'Death? Too edgy. Or The Hermit? Solitary, dark? No, her traits are Cosmic and Existential class. These don't fall under those two.' He sighed internally. This was like pulling teeth from a stone golem.

"Perhaps her Trait is The Devil? She does seem like a perfect match." He muttered under his breath, hoping she wouldn't hear. The air in the room suddenly crackled. A small, ornate metal quill, previously resting innocently on the desk, shot forward with astonishing speed and impaled the wood precisely between Elias's outstretched index and middle fingers. The tip quivered, barely a hair's breadth from his skin. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"Incorrect," Aina stated, her voice devoid of emotion, her eyes fixed on his. Elias froze, a cold sweat prickling his skin. He swallowed hard.

'I'm a three-year-old, dammit. Have some sympathy!' Aina simply watched him, her gaze unwavering, that same flat, unreadable expression on her face. The silver clock on the desk ticked with unnerving precision, each second amplifying the silence. Elias felt his frustration mount. He couldn't provoke her into a meaningful reaction, couldn't decipher the nuances of her 'personality' when she presented such a blank wall. Then, a thought clicked. Deus's hint.

"Tsundere." Elias had a vague recollection of the term from his past life, a Japanese archetype: cold and hostile on the outside, warm and affectionate on the inside. It was a ridiculous notion for Aina, but what if it wasn't about her true personality, but about her actions? Her actions were consistently about control, order, and… guidance perhaps? She did seem to want to fix him into a person deserving of Mellou blood.

He remembered her earlier demonstration: the way she'd manipulated gravity to lift the books, the precise way she'd controlled the metal quill, doing it so that he'd understand by witnessing. She didn't have to, but she did so he'd grasp the concept better. He glanced at the Flow Spectrum chart again, specifically at the Cosmic and Existential classes. Existential: The Emperor. Authoritative, disciplined, controlling, protective, establishes order. This fit her perfectly.

Her desire to impose discipline on him, her precise movements, her calm command of gravity – even her coldness could be seen as a form of control, preventing emotional chaos. Cosmic: The Star. Hopeful, inspiring, connected, guides others, and renews spiritual essence. At first glance, this seemed completely wrong. Aina was anything but hopeful or inspiring. But then he recalled her electromagnetism. She didn't just blast him with raw lightning; she manipulated metal. She created a shield.

That wasn't just destructive power; it was about realigning, restoring order to the scattered particles, preserving her form. It was a form of renewal, a subtle healing or mending of the environment around her. She had also said she could control metal as well—implying an expansion of her initial lightning ability. The lightning itself, a raw force, could be seen as a destructive aspect of a trait that was fundamentally about cosmic balance and renewal.

The pieces began to fit, not by reading her emotions, but by analyzing her actions through the lens of the "tsundere" hint – a hidden, almost perverse form of care expressed through rigid control and a desire to "fix" what she perceived as broken, like his "unrefined" Flow. But then again, he could be thinking about it too much in the wrong direction. He took a deep breath and swallowed.

'I should have written a goodbye note to Mom since Aina is gonna cook me. But I guess I'll be dying sooner than expected.'

"Well? We don't have all day, you know."

"Y-yes." He stammered.

"Your primary Trait, the one you use for gravity manipulation and overall control, is The Emperor from the Existential Class." Elias paused, watching her.

"Its personality is authoritative, disciplined, controlling, and establishes order. You use your Flow to impose order on your surroundings, to control and discipline, much like an emperor rules his domain." Aina's expression remained neutral, but Elias thought he saw a slight tightening around her lips. He continued. Her Traits could be anything at this point, a fork and a spoon for all he knew, so he was just saying anything.

"Your secondary Trait, the one you use for electromagnetism," Elias said, choosing his words carefully, "is The Star from the Cosmic Class." He saw a flicker in her eyes.

"Not the hopeful, inspiring aspect, but its deeper meaning: renewal. You don't just control; you restore, you realign. Your electromagnetism isn't just about force; it's about mending, reshaping, bringing things back to a state of order, like repairing metal particles. And the way you use it to protect yourself, to form a shield… that's a form of preservation, a renewal of your form, or the environment around you." Aina was silent for a long moment. Elias held his breath. Then, she nodded.

"That is correct," she pronounced, her voice still flat.

'Huh, really? I just said some random bullshit and that was really it?' He let out a silent sigh of relief, then quickly jotted down the discovery in his diary. > Diary Entry (Encrypted): Age 9. Aina's Traits: Primary: The Emperor (Existential - Control freak, order-obsessed). Secondary: The Star (Cosmic - Glorified handyman, fixes everything). > Deus's weird "tsundere" hint actually helped. Still going to slug him though. > Note: Test water-balloon theory on Deus.

Hypothesis: Direct application of chaos may disrupt divine complacency. <