Affinities are tested in the Academy, a core institution for all of human civilization, where everyone goes to learn about affinities, abilities, and the current state of Earth itself.
The age of admission is 18 years, because those who haven't awakened by then will never become awakened.
But he didn't have to wait that long...every single lineage house has an affinity tester, so he could naturally show himself awakening at the age of 17, past 6 or 7 months, while lowering his affinity.
If he did that, Lysara's parents themselves would nullify this engagement.
But oh boy, he was again unaware of some very important fact that had truly compelled others to engage them in the first place.
House Luminara had just visited to talk in person about a very important matter, none of the houses had even thought of discussing engagement or anything similar.
But when Lysara went out to stroll, how could her mother let her do it alone? She also didn't want to stop her, as this was her first time visiting here, so she let Lucen tag along secretly, and since Lucen was going, Zareth tagged along too.
So they had seen everything... Lysara approaching Vaelen, them talking, cooking the fish, and finally, when they saw the reaction they had after touching each other's hands...even they were shocked and called everyone.
When everyone saw them awakening, they were shocked at first but relieved when they awakened successfully. They didn't approach them, as Vaelen's mother suggested otherwise.
She knew Vaelen's personality, and he would definitely want to keep it a secret, so they all went back and discussed further decisions on it. After everything settled down, she would talk to him personally.
After their discussion, they came to a single conclusion. Although House Luminara had something important to discuss...they didn't really have to visit with family. But for some reason, they did. Not to mention... it was the first time Lysara had gone somewhere other than her own house.
The second layer is about to break, and they had two children who awoke at the age of 14. It was as if the Universal Law was giving them one more chance to gain a better foothold in this world.
It was a quite plausible assumption, so they decided to engage both Vaelen and Lysara.
...
Vaelen had just completed his thought process for the future to get his engagement voided.
When he heard Lysara's mother.
"What happened, dear? You don't want it?"
Lysara's face became a little red. How should she answer that? She had just met Vaelen for the first time... no doubt he was the first person she had talked to other than her family members.
But they had only talked for some time..they didn't even know each other well. Although engagement didn't mean marriage, it would still connect her to him in some way.
Inwardly, she didn't find this repulsive. She didn't know why, but just looking at Vaelen, she felt like talking to him. Even though her element felt agitated around him, it only compelled her to talk to him more. It was only that—aren't they too young? And what if Vaelen himself didn't like this idea? After all, he even thought she was clumsy.
In the end, she just shook her head and looked down..she really didn't know what to say here. She left the choice to her mother; she wouldn't do something wrong for her anyway.
When Vaelen saw that she lowered her head without denying, he was stunned. Didn't that mean she accepted it?
What the hell? Was she against this engagement or not? Could she be more specific than going wide-eyed and accepting it later like it was nothing?
Seriously, what was she thinking? Wasn't he being mean to her? He didn't know, but while thinking...his eyes were fixated on Lysara, and unconsciously, his thoughts went to how beautiful she was.
Lysara was beautiful, far more beautiful than any girl he had seen until now, even the girls his brother always showed images of, asking to introduce them to him.
It was, in fact, a trait of the Luminara family... they were exceptionally beautiful, and Lysara definitely stood out even among them.
Suddenly, his mother nudged him, and he snapped out of his reverie. He was surprised by his thought process....damn it, that was totally not like him.
"You should eat... it's getting cold, you know."
Ah, yes, the food was already served.
He avoided looking at Lysara, and the talks during dinner were simple, while his brother emphasized that soon they would have a strong familial bond.
Vaelen really wanted him to choke on his food and die there. How good would the news be that a Rank 3 awakened died by choking on food? It would make him more famous, fulfilling his eternal wish.
After finishing the food, everyone stood up.
Just as Vaelen thought he would finally be relieved from all this drama, he heard his mother's voice.
"Vaelen, take Lysara with you for a stroll... we have some matters left to discuss."
He looked at his mother, wanting to decline..not because he hated Lysara, but because this would give his brother one more topic to annoy him with.
But she was looking at him with a serious expression, and whenever she had that expression, even his dad didn't mess around.
Come to think of it, his dad hadn't spoken much about his engagement. Maybe they really were discussing some important topic, or else he would have heard one or two jibes from him too.
He sighed and walked toward Lysara, who had already started walking out again.
They came outside again, and he sighed. Too much had happened in just a few minutes.
First, he met a girl who was too talkative and activated his elemental agitation, then he awakened along with her, and then he found out he was getting engaged to that girl.
To be honest, this might be the most eventful day in his entire life.
When they reached the riverside, Lysara stopped.
He stopped too.
Lysara turned around and faced him. Actually, he was maintaining a little distance from her; their elemental agitation was no joke, and unless he could control his element perfectly, he doubted he could stop it.
"Sorry, everything is my fault. If I hadn't approached you, nothing like this would have happened. Guess everyone is right to say that I am too curious for my own sake."
Vaelen was stunned, as he really wasn't expecting something like this from her. This was totally different from the way he had assumed her personality was.
Her way of talking was childish, but right now, it was completely different.
"I know that you don't like the idea of getting engaged to me. Don't worry, I will never mention this to anyone, and I doubt our parents will make it public anyway, so if you ever want to break this engagement in the future, we can always do it without creating much ruckus.
Now that everything is clear, I hope you don't hate me."
Lysara meant every word she had spoken. She really didn't want Vaelen to hate her...he was the first person other than her family with whom she felt she could talk naturally, although he wasn't much of a talker himself.
Vaelen looked at her smiling face for a few seconds. Now, inwardly, he felt like he was awful...it seemed his adamant reactions to their engagement had given her the wrong impression.
He sighed internally.
"Sorry too. I think you got something wrong, though. I don't hate you, and the reason why I was even overly against this was because, from now on, my idiot brother will definitely use this everywhere he wants to."
Vaelen wanted to say more, but he thought this would be enough. After thinking it through, he really didn't understand why he was acting like it was the end of the road for him. He didn't have someone he liked, nor did he plan to pursue anyone.
In fact, just a moment ago, he had felt attracted to her, and this feeling hadn't gone away. It was the first time in his life he had felt this toward any girl he had seen, whether in images or parallel world streamers.
But he just didn't want to admit to his own feelings....it was like his personality didn't allow him to do it.
But there was something definitely wrong here. Now that he thought calmly, everything seemed too surreal. No matter how lightly their families dismissed the importance of the engagement, it was still an engagement.
Not to mention him meeting her and then getting awakened in almost a similar way...these things just didn't fit reality quite easily, more like they were driven by something.
Wait… his eyes widened. Wasn't the second phase about to start? In the first phase, humans received nine meteors as help. What had they gotten in the second phase?
Weren't beasts still the most dominant race in this world? How much would their power increase in the second phase? It would definitely be more than humans.
So didn't this mean that humans needed another help? What was the chance that people who could awaken with 95 percent or more affinity would appear now in the world?
Because he was sure that his and Lysara's affinities were definitely above 95 percent.
Maybe others wouldn't awaken like him and Lysara at the age of 14, but at the age of 16, they might awaken in just a few days, reaching above 95 percent.
Maybe he and Lysara would have awakened in a similar way at the age of 16.
But there was one more thought he couldn't get out of his head...what if their meeting itself was woven by the Universal Law?