Myra suddenly leaned in closer to him and whispered in his ear "Trust me, we should do that together."
Her voice now didn't sound nearly as solemn as when she was talking to Cedric earlier; it was almost excited.
"Is she hiding something again?" Rhamn was rightfully suspicious.
Catching the slight tone of anticipation in Myra's voice, Cyril began thinking this little bomb might give him some benefits.
As a result, he agreed to her plan and went to put the Black Tulip in his own drawer.
Looking at the time, the lessons were about to begin, so Cyril grabbed what he needed and went to attend to his studies.
It was a day like any other. Leo still stared daggers at him but didn't actually do anything for now.
He had their usual duel with Myra. He once again felt that the distance between them shortened.
Together with Myra, they were clearly the favorite students of their instructor. Despite his scary looks, the man was quite friendly to them, always speaking with a smile.
Though Rose and other students had a different experience. To them, this battle-obsessed maniac was anything but friendly.
But Cyril didn't care about that.
The rest of the day passed by unusually slowly; Cyril couldn't completely focus on the lessons, which was noticed by their demonology professor.
Unlike Richard, their professor of Spell Making, who didn't care if the students slept during the lecture, it was their choice after all, this woman took personal offense whenever someone was not paying proper attention to her words.
This resulted in her calling the distracted Cyril to answer a few questions about the common weaknesses of cyclopes.
Thankfully, Rhamn was able to help him out; she had a good memory after all.
Eventually the end of the lecture finally came.
Cyril immediately headed back to his dorm, eager to deal with the thing.
Under Rose's confused eyes, the two of her friends bolted out of the room at the same time, but in different directions.
She didn't think too much of it; the library awaited her visit.
Back home, Morpho welcomed him back; Cyril decided against taking her with him on lessons.
Morpho protested it a lot, but for now she wasn't successful in changing his mind.
Cyril took out the Black Tulip from the cupboard and sat down on the bed.
He felt less disturbed now that the stone was under his watch. The thought of it somehow going off kept creeping into his head from time to time during the lesson.
"Myra did say the explosion would be powerful, but I wonder how powerful exactly?" Rhamn had some unhealthy levels of curiosity.
He sat like that for some time, before he heard a knock on the window. This was the sign they had previously agreed upon, that Myra was ready.
Cyril didn't waste any time and went to find her. Together they went behind the dormitory to where no one would see them.
He noticed that Myra was in a good mood; perhaps things are better than he thought?
"I've confirmed it; this is a great opportunity. The true value of this stone lies in the fact that it can nourish your body, enhancing the quality of your mana." Her voice was hushed.
This was good news to anyone wishing to get stronger, Cyril included. "How do we use it?"
She pointed to the Black Tulip and explained, "All you have to do is keep the rock in contact with your bare hands and try to move mana through it, like you want to create a magic circle on it. As long as you keep doing that for about 2 hours every day, in a month you'll begin to see the improvements." Her enthusiasm was not shared by all. "Isn't that a bit slow?"
Being able to enhance your talent is a tremendous achievement, so what if the process takes a bit of time? Cyril didn't share Rhamn's complaint.
"Alright, alright, you are correct." She waved her hand and continued to stand by his side.
Seeing that Cyril remained silent, Myra continued, "We'll leave it with you first, then I'll use it; after that, we can try giving it to Rose and Edmund. He will definitely be glad to get something like that." The more she spoke, the more excited she became.
"I never expected for something so lucky to happen. It seems fate is smiling upon me once again." She put her hands on her waist and smiled approvingly.
"Seeing her like this makes me wonder if she lied to Cedric and Anna in some way to leave them out of this." Rhamn doubted everyone, like usual.
Cyril wasn't against this plan, but he still had a few questions left. "And what about Lapis?" They were still a problem.
"We will try to hide for as long as possible, and if they somehow find us..." Her expression changed from happy to confident, even challenging "We will deal with them then."
Standing in that pose with her auburn hair slightly moving with the wind, Myra at this moment looked quite heroic.
Her arrangement satisfied Cyril; he no longer had any questions.
They said their goodbyes, and Cyril took the stone back home as agreed.
He lay down on the bed and held the Black Tulip with his bare hand, trying to feel something.
Rhamn lay down by his side; they were shoulder to shoulder, observing the same black rock.
As Cyril tried to inject mana into the stone, he started feeling a response. It was a peculiar feeling; he felt like, beginning at his hand, a warm current started going through his whole body.
Quite comfortable. Now all he had to do was wait like this for 2 hours.
At least he had someone to talk to while he rotated the Black Tulip at all angles out of boredom.
After a bit of time, however, something weird started happening. The longer Cyril stared at this stone, the stranger he felt; he got an unexplainable desire.
This looks a bit... tasty? He never felt like this with any food in the past. It was hunger, but something was different.
"This looks way too tempting! Cyril, how about we try it!?" Eventually Rhamn couldn't resist and directly put her mouth on the stone in the futile attempt to taste it.
Cyril was starting to slowly lower the stone. "If you think about it, eating it counts as skin contact as well." What's the worst that can happen?
Eventually he brought the rock to his lips, opened his mouth, and licked it.
"This...!" In his whole 18 years, Cyril never tasted anything better than this. The taste was strong, overwhelming, and pleasant, but, strangely, he felt like something was not quite there.
This was not the proper state of this thing; it's long since past its expiration date. Still superb, but it could be better. Such thoughts somehow ended up in Cyril's head.
Soon his willpower managed to pull him out of his intoxicated state, and he reflexively threw the stone away from him.
It rolled a few times and stopped on the wooden floor.
What the hell was that!? The fact that this was a potential bomb was now way lower on Cyril's priority list.
It was an incredible feeling; without realizing it, he almost ate the whole thing. That was a scary state of being.
"Maybe it's a good thing; I say we should eat it!" Rhamn was even more affected. She sounded desperate there, like an addict.
Cyril didn't reply anything to her; he closed his eyes and calmed down his breathing.
"Huh... How peculiar." Judging from her tone, she came back to her usual self.
When Cyril finally opened his eyes, he still didn't dare to look in the direction of the Black Tulip; instead, he focused on Rhamn.
I don't like this. We should not eat that. According to Myra, there was a tremendous amount of energy there. He didn't think consuming it all would be a good idea.
"Yeah, we might burst from all that mana..." Rhamn lowered her head in contemplation before coming up with some idea. "But what if we just lick it until we are full?"
She still didn't give up. "You can feel it yourself, can't you? Your mana quality just increased."
It was as she said; after tasting that rock for a few moments, his mana quality increased by a visible degree. He felt more powerful.
"It's not only that. I also feel something different!" Rhamn exclaimed in joy.
"It's like I am more... aware? ... of your body structure." That didn't sound too wholesome.
He sat up on the bed, thinking about what she just said. Something was different about the atmosphere around them.
"My intuition is telling me this is very useful for us. Cyril, this is an opportunity!" She seductively smiled and gently poked with her finger in Cyril's chest.
Surprisingly at this moment Cyril could distinctly feel the warm touch of another. But how? You are not...
He tried touching her, but his hand, as it was supposed to, passed right through.
"It's just some small tricks." Her smile turned slightly bitter. "Whatever this stone is, it's important to me. With it, I feel I can get new possibilities and advance somewhere beyond who we currently are."
Cyril had never seen Rhamn in such a state before; her eyes were unusually bright at this moment. If he wasn't mistaken, she looked... hopeful?
"If there is only one thing in this life that you will do for me, Cyril, then, please, make it this." She was begging him at this point.
His earlier fear was replaced by befuddlement. Now Cyril didn't know where to look; her red eyes were too heavy.
Morpho landed on his leg, sharing her desire to help Rhamn.
Fine, I'll see what I can do. In the end he couldn't resist her plea.
"Thank you so much!" Happy, Rhamn hugged Cyril, staying like this for a while.
This time too, Cyril felt actual warmth coming from her. This hug perplexed him a fair bit.
Eventually, she let go. "Hehe, this is my new 'ability,' I guess. I am not actually touching you; I am just simulating your body's response to being touched." This was an unexpected ability, to say the least.
Are you saying you can control my body? Cyril wasn't sure how that made him feel; he wasn't disturbed.
"Don't put it in such a bad light." She paused and continued with a playful smile. "Come on, we have a stone to eat!"
He did say he will do it just now. He got up from the bed, walked a few steps, carefully picked up the fallen pitch-black stone, and brought it close.
It still gave off a strong temptation. It took a lot of his willpower to not eat it whole.
After taking a breath, he put it in his mouth and tried his hardest not to swallow.
The taste was still intoxicating, but with prior experience he didn't lose his rationale this time.
He stood like this, exercising restraint for some time, before he started to feel 'full'.
At this he immediately took out the stone, put it on the table, and turned around, not wishing to look at it any longer than necessary.
Rhamn got into his field of vision wearing another playful smile. "By the way, I've discovered something else. I have a physical 'body' within yours. I am your heart, it seems." She winked.