Chapter 16
After a few minutes of climbing the stone stairs that connected the surface and the first floor of the dungeon, we finally saw the end.
"Lili, I sense the members of your familia that were chasing you the other day keeping watch over the dungeon's entrance. So, when we reach the surface, don't face the entrance of the tower. Just go directly to the Exchange booth, okay?" I whispered under my breath.
Her eyes widened at my words and although she nodded, I could tell she felt a little tense.
"Don't worry about them seeing you, Lili" I reassured her while gently resting my hand on her head "I'm going to distract them while you get away, so they don't see you."
She relaxed slightly under my touch, composing herself, and whispered gratefully. "I understand, Master Regis. But, how are you going to distract them?"
I could feel the corners of my mouth curling up at the tiny amount of chaos I was going to unleash.
"Oh you know, I'm just going to take them stargazing." I raised a finger to my lips in a playful shush and winked.
Taking a deep breath and keeping my right eye closed to help me focus, I started to pull from Tome a series of formulas for distant accurate sensing.
Quickly executing them in my mind's eye, I inputted the coordinates I gathered from my previous sensing formulas and constructed a simulation of the base floor of the tower. Then added more detail into the surroundings where I sensed the adventurers with a few more calculations.
The clairvoyance was more difficult to pull off than usual due to the number of adventurers around and me still being under the 'weight' of the dungeon. The contrasts between mana concentrations messed with my ability, but it was still nothing compared to trying to do this first time in the morning when the place was packed up full of high-class adventurers.
Once the simulation was complete, there I saw the two adventurers just standing next to the door with their backs leaning on the wall of the tower and more important, the configuration and position of the bricks from the pavement they were standing on.
Then, with an impish smirk, I selected the bricks from the pavement under them and used the improved and more efficient version of the first piece of magic I ever used in this world.
A second later, cries not unlike those of a cat being strangled resounded in the tower a few seconds later.
Lili jumped a little at the sound and looked at me with a tilted head to which I just trollishly smiled back while sticking out my tongue.
"See, from their cries, they are certainly seeing stars," I said innocently.
Her eyes widened in comprehension.
Then started shaking while putting a hand on her mouth to hide her giggles, before controlling herself and saying.
"Master Regis is scary."
"And don't you forget it Lili."
As we finally reached the end of the stairs, I remembered something and said. "Right, tomorrow morning, I have to stop by the main building of the guild in the morning. You don't mind if we meet there do you?"
"Not at all, Master Regis."
"Great, then see you tomorrow Lili. Be careful with the miscreants walking around and don't hesitate to go all out and hit them in the nuts if they bother you. It's what I'd do."
She giggled at my remark and said. "Lili knows. Bye-bye, Master Regis."
Then we parted ways, she walking deeper into the tower towards the exchange with her humongous back filled to the brim with loot and I towards the entrance.
The two idiots from her familia were on the ground, crying and holding their groin in a fetal position while a few adventurers were looking at them in confusion.
Man, the architect who decided to pavement the whole floor of Orario with loose stones without gluing them to the floor with cement did me a huge favor.
It was beyond easy to simply apply a vector pointing up to dislodge them from the ground and go for cheap shots to the groin.
Anyway, putting my hand on the hood of my cloak and tugging it down slightly to make sure it hid my face properly, I left Babel.
The sun still wasn't disappearing into the horizon, but it was still fairly late. The shadows from the buildings and people leaving deep and long dark impressions on the ground due to the low position of the sun.
Between going to the 10th floor of the dungeon and returning to the surface, Lili's power curriculum class and the time she spent recuperating from mind down. The majority of the day had gone past.
Once outside, I looked towards the direction of the guild, more specifically to the roofs of the district that faced the guild.
From it, I sensed the wind-aligned mana resonating to the rhythm of a rather characteristic temperamental music to my ears.
I sighed as it seemed like Miss Rage Elf had woken up in a rather foul mood today.
If I could pick up and read her AIM from so far away…
This was going to suck, wasn't it?
Conjuring a bit of water and forming a magnifying lenses over my right eye, the green figure perched on the roof from where I sensed the mana made herself visible to my eyes.
As if having a sixth sense, the moment I made eye contact with her figure, she tensed and turned in my direction. The music increasing in intensity with undertones of impatience had me tensing for a second at the unexpected hostility.
So she had been looking for me…
After a breath where I regained my calm, I pointed in the direction of the walls with a finger and signaled for her to follow me since I would rather meet in a private place than in the middle of the square.
So, I started walking in the direction of the main street. On the way, I decided to pay for a ham sandwich to have for dinner, since I could feel my stomach start protesting due to all the walking I did today, which I quickly pocketed in my bag.
The presence that was following me from behind spiked with irritation at the action.
"Jeez woman, I just spent the entire day in the dungeon, let a man have his sandwich, would you?" I couldn't help but mutter under my breath a little irritated myself.
The music swelled, pulsing with irritation at my words.
Better I keep my mouth shut. That was some really impressive hearing ability.
Not wanting to have a scene with her in the middle of the street as I felt that whatever nonexistent patience she could have had was wearing thin, I quickly turned right into a deserted alley at the first chance I got and jumped to the roofs with a wind-powered jump.
After making sure she hadn't lost me, I started dashing through the roofs. With her following behind maintaining the distance of a couple roofs.
A few minutes later of high-intensity cardio for my unblessed ass, I landed on the spot on top of the wall where I had slept the night before.
A few seconds later when I caught my breath, I sensed her softly and silently land a few meters to my right.
Her face was clad in shadows cast by her hood, so it made it difficult to discern her expression. Her arms were hidden beneath her cloak, her posture was slightly hunched and she was tapping the stone floor impatiently with the back of her foot.
If before I could sense that she wasn't having a good day, now that I had her close and away from any notable interference for my senses, I could tell she was far worse than I could have expected.
The music coming from her AIM was still the same music filled with grief, pain, and anger as the day before, but it had lost the ethereal and graceful undertones and was feeling more distorted than anything.
Thankfully, despite her irritation and general overwhelming negative emotions, I didn't sense any real battle intent so hopefully, this wouldn't turn into a fight…
"Hey there, we met yesterday but we didn't introduce ourselves. I'm Re-" I tried to say politely.
But it seemed it was the wrong thing to say, as she cut me mid-sentence. "Tell me, how can you discern the truth?" Her voice focused and demanding. Despite not being able to see her face, I could feel the weight of her gaze on my person.
A little taken aback at her forceful tone that came out half distorted, I froze for a second.
Which was enough to apparently make her snap and think that I was refusing to answer.
"Tell me! Yesterday you said that you could discern the truth just like the gods can. Tell me how can I do it!" She demanded as she took a step towards me.
I took a step back to maintain distance and a feeling of irritation arose within me at the arrogance of her demands and said. "Look, Miss Elf, It's true that I know how to discern lies. It's something that I learned because-" As I spoke, the music emanating from her field was becoming more and more distorted and glitchy by the second.
The music that once spoke of a tragic heroine was slowly turning into something unrecognizable. Her body followed suit with her AIM as she started twitching and I could somehow hear her muscles winding themselves up.
"I don't care! I already lost an entire day looking for you! Tell me how I can learn it!" She said, losing any calm she possessed as she erased the distance between us in the blink of an eye and caught me by the neck fastening of my cloak lifting me from the ground.
I couldn't react at all, the distortions in her field and lack of true killing intent made it difficult to predict her.
Her grip tightened around the fastening of my cloak, the fabric digging into my throat as I struggled to stay calm. Every muscle in my body tensed, ready to counter, but I held back since she wasn't trying to kill me. Yet.
Despite the precarious situation I found myself in, the feeling of irritation within me rose sharply, why the hell was she treating me like this? I had done nothing to her. For Chaos' sake, it was her who tried to kill me yesterday. Who the hell was she to interrupt me when she was the one asking for something. My deal with Lady Astraea was to look after her, not to obey her every demand or be her servant.
As my negative feelings reached the limits of my self-control and the formulas for a fully powered Aqua Beam were nearing completion, an icy feeling in my chest stayed my hand as it set off a certain trigger I planned and applied in my class curriculum program for a certain situation.
More specifically, in the case, my mind was being compromised.
Skills that could alter your mind were a known entity in this world, not to mention of the existence of Mental Out back in Academy City. So I had planned with Frey a contingency in the form of a trigger to have a chance to snap out of this kind of attack in case I was the recipient of one.
According to the protocol I implanted during my power curriculum class, formulas of self-analysis ran at the maximum speed my mind was capable of, followed by and small uncontrolled burst of the usage of my ability that caused the elements to rampage under my clothes, causing some elemental damage to my skin. But the pain from the burst snapped me out of it and reset my emotional state while the wild use of ability actualized and purged my AIM from any possible corruption.
After grunting internally in pain at the unpleasantness of the protocol, I could feel my irritation and anger fade away as if it had been a lie from the beginning.
My eyes cleared up and my body relaxed slightly. And as I was mentally reviewing the results of the self-analysis, I saw what I couldn't see before due to being emotionally compromised.
What I saw now that I was close enough to her to see her face wasn't the face of an arrogant elf demanding answers like I first thought. Her bloodshot eyes and the bags under her eyes told the tale of someone who hadn't been able to sleep for days. And the twitching and profound lines in her expression spoke of someone who was on the verge falling into despair.
For a Level 4 adventurer, to reach this level of unwellness...
Under what kind of state of mind and pressure had she been these past few days?
The results of my self-analysis formulas gave a vague idea of what was going on.
Despite her demands, I thought that we weren't going to be able to have a decent conversation in this situation.
Never mind learning how to discern the truth, what she needed, was a nap asap.
So, I took a deep breath as if I was going to speak and instead, used every bit of will and power I possessed to tell any vibrations in the air and in the air-aligned mana to stop.
Immediately, I was hit by a wave of vertigo at the unnatural use of my ability and at the feedback of being pitted in a battle of abilities against a high-tier and highly emotional adventurer.
Wind, sounds, and clouds of imminence pressure lashed out around us for a moment, ruffling our clothes and making me close my eyes.
But I persevered through the pain and suddenly every sound and wind stilled, the air around us feeling like mud due to my magic.
The elf's eyes widened in surprise at the unexpected phenomenon and then she froze.
Despite no sound being allowed in our current vicinity due to my magic, I could still read her lips saying.
'Oh, the voices are gone.'
Before her body relaxed and she passed out on the spot from what I suspected was exhaustion, her hands slackening and dropping me down on the floor.
Reacting as swiftly as I could, I took hold of her falling body and gently lowered her to the ground.
Still gritting my teeth at the exertion it took to suppress her field, I grabbed a blanket from my bags and used it to cushion her head.
"Okay, think Regis. You've got her taking a nap. What do you need to do now?" I whispered to myself.
I couldn't keep my current level of focus for hours on end, and I could feel her AIM fighting me, forcing me to adjust my math on the fly which added a huge burden on me.
Looking over her tired expression, I decided that letting her sleep was the best possible option. She was being way too unreasonable and grumpy for me to want to deal with without her taking a nap.
The problem was that I couldn't keep my current method, not only it would exhaust me, but I was currently outputting the magical output of a Level 4 on the surface of Orario.
It wouldn't be unreasonable to think that a high-level adventurer was trying to mount an attack on the city due to the current dark age.
Not to mention, that my personal reality was based on chaos, and if there was any constant in chaos, it was change itself.
I was literally using my ability in the less efficient way possible.
So, I had to think of a method to let her sleep. From what she said before passing out, I could deduce that she had been hearing voices. There was a decent chance that these 'voices' were a factor in her inability to sleep and rest and thus her grumpiness.
Then there was the fact that her distorted field had been mentally manipulating my emotions. I already knew that AIM and the mind were closely connected. It was an obvious conclusion to make. I didn't think that this was a deliberate attack on her part. No, maybe she was thinking unkind things towards me, but the mental manipulation was accidental.
Remembering the auto-analysis formulas, I concluded that it was the musical aspect that induced my anger and irritation. It made sense since music is an easy and natural way to transmit and induce emotions into people.
The question was if her musical field could be affecting her as well. Having seen and experienced the shitty code the gods used for the Skills I've seen, I couldn't discard the possibility, but I didn't think Lady Astraea would leave her child no matter what the elf pleaded to her if she knew in what condition she was in.
I knew too little about the Falna to make a correct diagnosis. Still, with my knowledge about AIM and espers, I should be able to find an alternative solution.
I remembered reading that Esper powers followed quantum theory and obeyed physics. I called utter bullshit on that, but I couldn't negate that in my experience the experiment of Schrodinger's cat was a good way to explain them.
Basically, an esper had an area they could use their ability in. This area was delimited by their AIM field, which meant an involuntary movement. As I understood it, an espers AIM was basically the box Schrodinger's cat was trapped in. Then the esper could decide if the cat was dead or not, AKA if they actualized their power or not. The thing was, that even when the box was closed and whether the cat was dead or not, the box still transferred the heat of the cat through its walls.
Meaning that AIM was possible to measure using purely physical methods that usually were impossible to sense through the human senses.
But Astraea's child wasn't a simple human. She was a highly talented Level 4 elf whose ability specialized in wind and music.
Letting go of the formula stilling the air, I quickly felt the previously peacefully sleeping adventurer start frowning and shifting uncomfortably, her AIM roaring back to life now that I wasn't keeping it suppressed. Her melody was still distorted compared to how it was yesterday, but it was still better than when she was awake a few moments ago.
Going more on a gut feeling than anything else, I knelt next to her head and gently cupped her face with my hands making sure my fingers made good contact with her cheekbones.
I closed my eyes and immersed myself in what my math was telling me. A couple of seconds later I couldn't help but mutter "Bingo."
I quickly applied the math I reverse-engineered from the good and sadistic hunter back in Drait and I felt the elf stop thrashing around and finally relaxing.
I sighed in relief at seeing her not having woken up. I really didn't want to have to explain why I was touching her face while she was in her current state.
Never mind that I didn't want to explain why I would be in my current position in any possible situation, period.
Elves in particular were very touchy about who they decided to let be touched by and that was simple contact, never mind me gently framing her face with my hands like I was.
Stop laughing Frey!
I could feel his amusement at my predicament from a mile away.
Unfortunately, even if I ignored the elf's sensibilities, while I was able to let her sleep like this, it still wasn't a good solution. I couldn't exactly be always there for her to get a decent rest.
So I was going to have to workshop something while she slept.
Then, a sound coming from my stomach demanding sustenance made itself known.
Right, I still had that sandwich on my bag. But I had both hands occupied keeping the elf sleeping…
I took a deep breath to relieve stress, all the problems seemed to quickly be accumulating on each other…
Alright, first things first.
First, I needed to figure out a custom formula to do what I was doing but with one hand.
Then, eat the damn sandwich.
Afterwards, you can figure out everything else.
////////////////////////////////
Ryuu Lion Pov
The cold hard and unyielding stone pressing against my back was the first thing that I noticed when I came back to a sleepy awareness.
That and the absolute silence in my mind. No voices were urging me forward or backward. Just as there weren't any voices telling me to kill myself or that I deserved to suffer either.
Just a sleepy contentedness of having had a good night sleep and a refreshing feeling.
Now if just this bed was softer, this would be perfect…
Wait, bed? Did I go to sleep yesterday? I remembered having spent the entire day looking for the mage, to ask him how to learn to discern lies like he implied he could.
But I couldn't find him anywhere, so I eventually decided to wait in a vantage point near the guild or Babel since those were the places newcomers to Orario always visited.
What happened later?
I remember eventually finding him leaving through the entrance of Babel and then…
A torrent of memories of him noticing me and guiding me to the walls of Orario and then of feeling so angry and irritated at him going at his own pace and of my inability to find him faster… that I… attacked him…
Again.
A spike of panic coursed through my spine that brought me fully out of my sleep. Suddenly I recognized that the blanket under my head and around my body didn't smell like they usually did, not to mention the warm feeling in my hand.
Warmness in my hand…?
Fully opening my eyes I was confronted with a starry dark sky and with the mage I demanded answers from sitting next to me with my hand in his, resting gently on his lap. I was about to jolt and jump away when he spoke. "Please, don't move. It was tiring enough to keep my magic stable while you were asleep." He said while tightly keeping a tight hold of my hand.
I was about to jump away, my elven upbringing demanding me to cease all contact with strangers, but the weariness in his voice stopped me.
He said had been looking me sleep all this time? Wait…
"Magic? Are you using your magic on me? What are you doing to me?" I asked alarmed. It was never good to have an unknown person cast magic on you. I had experienced and read of many curses after all.
"Yes, but don't worry too much about it. I told you yesterday didn't I, that I was your ally." He wearily said.
But, even if he said he was my ally, that didn't mean that I would accept what was basically a stranger to cast magic on me.
"Besides you don't hear any voices anymore, do you?"
But his words and the oddly relaxed feeling coursing through my body made me withhold my retort.
Because he was right.
Ever since my familia death, I had been feeling like I was drowning inside my head, no matter what I did.
Right now, while I still felt the burning hatred and pain in my heart, my mind was clear.
I actually felt like myself for the first time since then.
He took my lack of answer as an affirmation and continued. "If I let you go as you're right now, you'll start hearing them again. Your musical field has just recovered, I would rather you don't unmake my work, please." He said in a pleading and tired tone, and now that my eyes had adjusted to the darkness, I could tell that there were bags from exhaustion under his eyes.
How long had he been using magic on me? Musical field? What was he talking about?
Never mind that, it was night already, how long had I been sleeping! Why had I been sleeping in the first place?!
I took a deep breath and luxuriated in the relative peace and the ease with which the air entered and left my lungs.
I had a lot of questions. But in the end, if he were to will me ill, he already would have done it hours ago while I was defenseless and asleep. Besides Lady Astraea had vouched for him…
Not to mention…
'You hear me Leon, if someone manages to grab your hands. Don't you dare let go!' The memory of Alise telling me this while dramatically pointing her finger at me came to my mind.
Tipping the balance in me deciding to put my trust in the mage and stay put.
I was going to ignore the fact that the warmth of his hands on mine was the first positive human contact I felt since I lost everything and that I didn't want to let go.
It definitely wasn't like that.
Looking at the blond-haired mage sat next to me, holding my hand, of the hundreds of questions running through my brain one stood out above all else.
I still didn't know his name, and I was letting him touch me. I realized with a rush of shame and embarrassment before I shook it off.
I really had been awfully rude to him, hadn't I?
So to remedy that, I said. "My name's Ryuu Lion, what's yours?"
His eyes widened and chuckled a bit to himself. "I'm Regis, just Regis. You know I tried to introduce myself before right…"
I could feel a little blood rushing to my face before I shook my head to dispel it, it wasn't time for that, I had to apologize and I still needed to ask for his help.
My mind might have been compromised and my manners lacking, but I still needed to know how I could tell whether someone was lying to me and I guessed I needed to know how he made the voices go away. I wouldn't be able to get my revenge if I collapsed due to sleep deprivation.
"I'm sorry about that, I wasn't my usual best self," I said apologetically.
"Yeah, or at least I hoped so, if your best self was you trying to kill me from ambush when you first thought I was your enemy and then proceed to mug me for knowledge when you knew I was your ally. I don't want to know what your worst self would be like. Probably terrifying." He laughed sarcastically to himself.
Embarrassment, shame, and a little annoyance surged through my mind, and the blush I was trying to dispel from before returned full force, so I looked away in the other direction to hide my face and said. "I apologized already…"
"Yeah, I know. Well, we finally know each other's names. I can't say it's been a pleasure knowing you, but I have high hopes that it will be better from now on." He said with a more sincere smile.
"I'm sorry," I said
"You're forgiven." He replied seriously, causing the turmoil and embarrassment inside me to wane a little to give space to warmness and gratitude at him.
"Can I ask you a few questions?" I replied while facing him, now that I was calm again.
"Go ahead." He replied with a nod.
"What's happened to me? How did you knock me out and how are you suppressing the voices." I replied while hating how vulnerable my voice sounded.
"Going for the hard ones straight away, aren't you?" He said as he rubbed his soft-looking hair in thought and suppressing a yawn.
"Alright, this is going to take a little of explanation, so please bear with me for a bit, okay?" He said to which I nodded.
"So you know how all adventurers possess an aura, or presence right?" At my nod, he continued.
"Well, I'm what's known as a natural ability user. That means that I could access the skills I could potentially develop with the falna by myself through understanding, belief, and practice."
"I've heard of your kind before," I replied. "Kaguya, one of the member of my familia was like you."
His eyes widened a little in surprise. "Really? I might ask you a little about her later then.
Anyway with my ability, I can sense and manipulate the basic elements in great detail and precision.
Through it, I learned that an adventurers aura is composed of two different types of auras which overlapped with each other. The first aura is generic among adventurers and it's determined by the strength of their level. This aura is the one that enchants your body with the physical characteristics of your status.
But what's more important and the one I studied more is the second part of your aura, the part that's composed of the strength of your skills and magic.
This part of your aura, which I call the AIM field, is what flavors one's aura and makes them unique. In your case, I can sense that your aura is composed of wind, moonlight, and music-aspected mana.
Most of your Skills from the falna are related to those elements aren't they?" He said with a knowing but tired smile.
My eyes widened at the implications of what he was saying. If what he said was the truth, that would mean that he could guess and anticipate what kind of skills other adventurers had at a glance. And I was inclined to believe him since it was true that most of my skills and magic were related to those elements.
So I nodded to which he responded. "Great, well there's a couple of characteristics from this aura that are important to answer your questions.
The first is that this field is closely connected with your mind.
You can't feel it, but the falna on your back right now is running a code, numbers, or some kind of magic circle inside your mind that makes your skills work and manifest. From what I know, everyone has their own unique method.
Anyway, through my ability I can detect that there's some kind musical skill in effect in your field. You can't hear it because it's not properly physically manifested as sound, but it still affects the world inside your field.
Now, from here on is speculation on my part, but here is what I think happened.
This skill, while not properly manifested, still affects the physical world around you and more important, in you.
Those voices you said you heard, I think they're a result of this skill and your out-of-control emotions. Since extreme emotions strengthen your AIM but lower your control, I think that your Level 4 constitution, has been acting as a resonance box catching all these vibrations and amplifying them over time. Eventually, they became strong enough to make your bones vibrate and from there reach your ear.
That's what I'm presenting right now." He said while squeezing my hand for emphasis. "I'm preventing these vibrations from physically occurring with my magic so you could rest in peace."
My eyes widened in disbelief at what he was saying and I could feel my mouth open and close a few times before saying. "So, what you're saying is that what I've been hearing wasn't the voices of the dead trying to tear me apart from the inside?"
He looked surprised and my words, before he started shaking and looked away.
Then I suddenly registered what it was that I had exactly said aloud and my face became alight again at how ridiculous it sounded.
Why did I phrase it like that!
Why couldn't I stop being embarrassed before him!?
Keep your composure, dammit!
He eventually composed himself and put on a forced sympathetic smile on his face which slowly turned true and said.
"No, Miss Ryuu. You don't have the power to hear what the dead want to say. I don't know exactly what you were hearing, but I can confidently say that what you were hearing couldn't possibly have been coherent, right?"
Trying to remember my mental state during this past few days I realized he was right.
But…
"You're right in that the voices weren't coherent, but I could feel real emotion in them and I could understand the intent in them. From hatred, to love, depending on the moment and what was I focusing on. How could incoherent voices transmit so much to influence me like this?" I said feeling frustrated and puzzled.
"Ah, that's because the voices probably weren't voices at all and were music instead. Music doesn't need to have lyrics to make you feel in a certain way. Ah, but don't take my word as law, please. I can't know for sure what's happening with your AIM. Your AIM is unique and personal, and I'm interpreting it with my own that's also unique and personal, so it's not like I would know for certain how it works completely." He waved his free hand dismissively at himself and blushed a little as he recognized he started rambling a little at the end.
'Cute' A traitorous part of my mind said which I quickly silenced.
Anyway, so it wasn't like he knew exactly what was happening, but from what he said, I understood that the voices that didn't let me sleep had been the result some kind of side effect from my skills and emotions being out of control and a misunderstanding on my part causing me to enter into a downward spiral.
I guessed that in a way after what happened, I couldn't be blamed for that.
Seeing that I wasn't saying anything, he continued speaking. "Anyway, as for how I had knocked you out, well I simply suppressed your AIM field forcefully.
Since the AIM and the mind are so closely connected, when your AIM is suppressed so thoroughly, your mind kind of blanks for a second. Usually, you would only miss a step at most as long as the one suppressing your AIM didn't outmatch you completely, but you were so exhausted that that instant was enough for you to pass out."
"I see, I'm sorry," I said again nodding my head a little and making eye contact with his dark green eyes due to all the problems I had caused him.
"It's fine, I'm just relieved that we got to talk like '*Yawn*' this." He replied with a closed-eyed smile that was interrupted by a yawn. "Anyway, so since I had around five free hours while you were napping. I took the time to make a couple of things that would hopefully prevent this from happening again."
He could make things? Didn't he say that his ability to control the elements?
To my disbelief, after rummaging for a few seconds through his bag, he took a tiny folded handkerchief from the bag and carefully unfolded it in front of me.
A couple of earrings and a necklace were presented to me. The earrings took the shape of a quaver while the necklace was a diminutive diapason attached to a chain. All of it made of a beautiful shade of green translucent crystal that sang to my senses.
My instincts sang at me, that they were part of me. Even if I knew it was impossible.
Their outward form was smooth and without imperfections, to my inexperienced eye they were perfect.
Although there appeared to be some irregularities inside the crystal.
Curious, I took one of the earrings between my fingers from my free hand and held the earring between my eye and the moon. Multiple symbols I didn't recognize appeared superimposed inside the earring.
Wait, were those runes that were engraved inside the material?
Not only could he use magic, but enchanting too? Without the Falna? Was there anything he couldn't do?
"These are beautiful." I ended up saying sincerely. I wasn't one for jewelry, but at the sight of these, even I had the urge to put them on.
"Hehe, right? Feel free to sing my praises. Anyway, as you probably suspect, these are magical items. If I did them right, the earrings will help you get a hang on your hearing things problem, while the necklace will help you in other ways." He said with the largest smile I had seen from him all night.
Glancing at the jewelry, I wondered if I really deserved to have them.
"Is it alright? For me to have them?" I asked him.
"Hah!? Of course, it's alright! You would cause me problems if you didn't accept them."
Seeing that I was still hesitating, he continued. "Take them and put them on already, stubborn elf. I'm not having a repeat of this past couple days because you decided to be an idiot!" There was some exasperation and real annoyance in his voice for the first time making me wince.
Deciding to not annoy the mage next to me anymore, I quickly put the earrings in my ears and the necklace on my neck. It was a little awkward doing it with only one hand, but my high dexterity allowed me to put them on without much difficulties.
Now that I had them on, I didn't feel any different though. I felt the magic in the jewelry and they felt comfortable on my skin. But I didn't feel any different.
"Was something supposed to happen?" I asked.
"Not yet. Since the falna hides how it manages your ability for you, I had to make a workaround for you to synchronize with them. But it would be better for you to connect to them without any of my magic in the mix. So I'm going to stop using my magic on you.
To connect to them, simply drop a bit of your blood on them, please.
I'm going to stop using my magic, so prepare yourself." He warned me.
I took a deep breath and nodded at him. "I'm ready."
And he let my hand go and I shifted to a sitting position.
Oddly enough, the first thing I noticed, were the sounds coming from Orario that for some reason I hadn't been hearing before.
Dogs barking, people walking in the streets, and the chatter and laughter of some distant bars.
Hearing the distant sounds of laughter coming from Orario, reminded me of the people who were still alive and were responsible for my familia's death. Which reminded me that I should be out there, hunting them all down.
Anger and guilty thoughts at myself for losing so much time without doing anything to advance my quest started echoing in my mind which was starting to hurt.
A low angry buzz started playing in my mind adding stress to it.
Between all the noise, a warm hand on my shoulder snapped me out.
"Ryuu! Bond with the earrings, please." I heard Regis say.
Looking at him, I saw him slouched on the wall. His eyes were half closed in exhaustion, but I could still feel his will in them, telling me to hurry up.
I cut up the fingertip of my index finger with my nails and quickly touched both the earring and the necklace.
A feeling unlike any other I ever experienced came over me, suddenly I could feel and see the world in a way I hadn't experienced before. The world turned white and black, except for Regis and my immediate surroundings which were pulsing in an array of different colors and sounds.
The next moment, everything turned to normal and I was back into the real world. The buzzing in my mind still continued, but I could instinctively feel a mental lever in my earrings as soon as I focused on them.
The mental image that appeared in my mind, was that of a lever with a minus and a plus sign on each side.
I mentally pulled the lever towards the minus sign and the buzz of angry sounds in my head slowly receded.
I sighed in relief and turned towards the mage who made this possible.
"It works!" I exclaimed, just to see him slouched against the wall with his eyes closed.
"Mister Regis?" I said to him shaking him slightly.
"Mmmm..? Tired…" He mumbled back, his eyes not opening.
"Nononono, wake up!" I cried out at him, shaking him a little more assertively.
His half-asleep mumbles were the only response I received no matter what I tried.
A few minutes later of checking his vitals, I recognized why.
Mind zero.
He had exhausted himself making sure I could rest.
I felt really conflicted once I realized it.
On one hand, he had worked himself to the bone to ensure I rested. Meanwhile, he figured out what was wrong with me. Not only that, he designed and created the magic items that I didn't even know I needed to remain sane.
On the other hand, he still hadn't told me how I could discern the truth from the lies. That was like the whole reason why I had been looking for him all day!
I sighed aloud.
The temptation to leave him there and go hunt for Evilus members for the remainder of the night was strong in me. But I recognize that I couldn't do so.
With my mind my own and no buzzing disrupting my reason, even with all the hurt and grief inside me, now I could easily recognize that leaving him alone and defenseless as he was now would be the actions of a monster.
Lady Astraea, Alise, and the others would tell me without hesitation to at least return the favor and stand guard while he slept.
I took a deep breath and thought about the positives.
If I spent the night next to him, then I wouldn't need to look for him the next day. Besides, I also had questions about what happened when I connected with the jewelry.
With the decision taken, I sat next to him.
Sleeping slouched like he was right now would be murder on his back in the morning. So I let him lean his head on my shoulder and covered us both with his blanket.
There wasn't any reason not to share the warmth. It was pretty cold in the night and an ability user he might be, he was still unblessed.
This was the best way to make sure he didn't disappear in the morning… Somehow.
He felt light even when he was heavily leaning on my side, but he didn't smell bad, and sharing the warmth with someone wasn't bad.
As the hours went by and I stood guard and I tried to distract myself. I found myself playing around with my hair as it was tickling my face.
'This hair is so soft… Softer than mine…'
Then I realized what was going on, blood rushed to my face and my hand retreated back to my side faster than I would kill low-level monsters.
'Ryuu! You Idiot! Don't just play with his hair!'
And why did it feel like someone was laughing at her!
Chapter 17
The morning sun woke me up from my uncomfortable sleep, its warm red glow filtering through my eyelids.
Covering the yawn that was threatening to come out of my mouth with my hands, I opened my eyes.
My breath caught in my throat as I flinched back. Sky-blue eyes, narrowed and intense, hovered not a foot away from my face.
"Eeer, Miss Ryuu? Good morning?" I ended up saying, trying to think through my sleepy and foggy mind to figure out why the hell she was looking at me like that.
After I recuperated from the jump scare that is. Because holy shit, that was one hell of a way to wake up for someone like me that isn't used to being surprised.
Usually, Frey would alarm and wake me if someone got this close to me while I was asleep.
Speaking of Frey, he was emitting an alarming amount of trollish and amusement feelings into the air.
"Good morning, Mister Regis." The elf replied in a monotone that sent chills down my spine.
"Is there something the matter?" I asked cautiously.
"Oh, I don't know. I spent the night watching over you, making sure no one ambushed you while you were vulnerable. But, I spent these last few hours feeling like the butt end of a joke for some reason." She somehow managed to infuse annoyance in her completely flat voice. "Don't you have anything to say for yourself?"
'Frey! What the hell did you do to her!' I screamed internally at the spirit, to which he responded by emitting a feeling of innocence that wouldn't fool a blind and deaf man.
I sighed at that. "First of all, I would like to thank you for looking over me while I was asleep. I appreciate it."
She nodded slightly at that accepting my words.
"Secondly, Frey, you little shit! It's enough! Show yourself, now!" I said aloud and with a stern voice.
A long second later in which the elf looked at me like I was a complete lunatic, a light blue orb emerged from under my clothes and interposed itself between us.
"A spirit?!" The elf exclaimed as she took a couple of steps backward, her eyes were wide in surprise.
"Yeah, I'm really sorry about him. He's really mischievous, but he doesn't mean ill." I said with a wry apologetic smile.
"Wait, so when I felt like someone was laughing at me all night, it was him?!" She said a little shocked.
"Wait, he had been watching me all this time too…" She murmured to herself, her left hand covering her face and her voice wavered slightly in embarrassment.
I was going to ignore whatever it was that she did that she was panicking about. She was already in a bad mood. Call me a coward if you want, but I didn't want to tease her right now.
Oddly enough despite her general grumpiness, I noticed that her AIM had undergone a small shift. It was subtle, but her melody was a little calmer and less depressing sounding than I remember from the night before.
I guessed I knew why Frey had been messing with her so much.
"Yeah, he usually pranks me as well when I'm not in a good place, mentally speaking. He really hates it when people are overcome with negative emotions. If he's been relentless for most of the night…" I said in a leading manner, not needing to finish the sentence considering the amount of baggage the elf needed to work through to be labeled as someone emotionally stable again.
"Oh," She said her eyes widening in realization. "It seems I owe you an apology again Mister Regis. And to you too little Frey. Although the methods used…" She replied with a complicated and apologetic smile, that wasn't all that happy.
Despite that, the spirit started radiating smugness into the air.
So I had to bring him down before he became too cocky and said. "Oh no, please feel free to give him a hard time. He can be a little shit even if he's well-intentioned. So please, dump all your grievances on him. He can take it, I guarantee it."
Seeing the smug spirit freeze in the air in betrayal and the elf cracking a slight smile at my words warmed up the chaotic little gremlin that was living in my heart.
Besides, going after the spirit to deliver some deserved payback was always cathartic. Frey usually saw it as a game, so he was a good sport about it.
While Ryuu was messing with the spirit and trying to intimidate him with her angry stare after catching him with a lightning-fast move.
In my opinion, it just made her look cuter so I didn't know how effective it was.
Though Frey as usual had the decency to let himself be manhandled and acted cowed to the elf so maybe it was because I wasn't the recipient of the gaze?.
Anyway while they got to know each other, I started running a few formulas to start my day.
Ugh, my mind felt kind of slow today. I guessed that mentally exhausting myself until I more or less fainted wasn't something that I could do without suffering from some fatigue the next day.
Eventually, when I gathered the necessary focus, a heated orb of water condensed itself in front of me which I used to wash my face. Then I proceeded to mentally will it so that it scoured my skin, hair, and clothes and removed and dissolved any dirt and harmful bacteria.
It left me soaked entirely, but since the water was heated up I didn't mind.
This was the fastest way to clean myself and do the laundry. Then, I willed the water to dissolve anything that wasn't part of what I considered my body or the saved state of my clothes that I had stored in my Tome when I first got them.
Finally, while that particular formula was going on, I summoned another water orb and put it into my mouth so that it cleaned my teeth and bad breath. A couple of minutes later, both orbs of water left my body clean, dry, and odorless, ready to start the day.
With a simple flex of will and a quick formula, I willed them to go over the wall to outside the city and programmed them to evaporate before touching the ground.
As I was about to start packing things up for the day, I noticed that the elf had stopped doing the angry stare thing with Frey and was staring at me with a weird expression on her face. I thought it was a mix of shock, fascination, and annoyance.
Don't ask me how I managed to read that of her facial expression, because I didn't. Her expression by all means could be read as flat or focused. But I was cheating by peaking into her AIM.
"Is anything wrong, Miss Ryuu?" I asked her.
"No, it's just a bit of a shock to see magic being used effortlessly and wastefully." She replied.
"Is it truly? I thought magic was fairly common in general. What with the falna gifting it to adventurers. And I thought that elves in general had a high affinity with it? And what do you mean wastefully?" I said a little confused. I mean, even the villagers from Drait used their skills and magic from time to time.
She sighed at my confusion. "It's true, that the falna gifts us magic. I have a couple of spells myself. But it's not something to use lightly nor something that everyone possesses. Magic, to us adventurers, is often a hidden trump card. A valuable resource that should be kept secret until the time is right. Not to mention that magic tires our minds which impairs our judgement. So we have to be careful with its use. Seeing you use it like this, is a waste to my eyes." She ended up saying with a little annoyance. "Besides, the reason you ended up passing out from mind down last night before you could answer my questions was because you overused your magic thoughtlessly over the day, didn't you?"
So that was why she was still annoyed at me, I sheepishly realized and remembered that I hadn't answered the question about how to discern between truth and lies last night before I fell asleep.
Still, better to nip this misunderstanding in the bud before she gets even more annoyed at me for using my ability for everything later.
"You're right in that I passed out last night from exhaustion because I used magic for a lot of things throughout the day. But that was because 17 hours of continuous casting is a bit much even for me."
"17 hours?! Wait, are you implying that you're using magic even now?!" She replied shocked.
"I mean, Yeah? If I didn't use my magic constantly, I would have died when you ambushed me at the shop. I would have never been able to react in time if I wasn't already casting and my mind was ready to react. Besides, I have trained myself to have the mental stamina to have my mind perpetually active, magically speaking."
She winced slightly at the reminder but quickly composed herself and replied.
"But that's absurd! You can't use magic continuously. Even Nine Hell's, the greatest mage in Orario, would exhaust herself after shooting magic continuously for a couple of hours."
Now I was confused. I mean adventurers were also perpetually casting magic if they possessed a passive skill. She was doing it right now.
"If I were exerting myself to the maximum, I would tire relatively fast too, you know. Besides, you do know that, you're using magic yourself right now, don't you?" I mean, her field was singing like an orchestra like usual.
"What? I'm not!"
Sighing, I ran a formula through my mind and raised my hand in front of me. On my hand, a slightly green orb of pressured air started forming. With some mental gymnastics, I connected my sensing formulas to the orb.
A slightly tragic and agitated melody started to resonate through our immediate surroundings.
To tell the truth, I felt like I wasn't doing the melody justice, my manipulation of sound just wasn't where it needed to be to truly capture the beauty of her music, but it was enough for her to step backward a couple of times in shock.
The music played for a few dozen seconds shifting in rhythm and harmonies at the speed of her emotions shifting from shocked, to puzzled, to bashful realization, to completely embarrassed when she realized that I could literally hear her emotions.
"Alright! That's enough! I get it!" She said as she swung her hand at the musical orb to disperse it, her face completely red.
After a couple of seconds where she regained her composure, she said. "I get it now. I remember you saying something yesterday that the falna was running some kind of code through our minds to make our skills work, right? That's what you're referring to when you said that I was casting magic. And you're trying to tell me that little magics like what you were doing aren't tiring for you to cast"
"Yes. That's exactly the point I was trying to make." I said with a pleased smile on my face.
"I guess I can't tell you not to use your magic now at the risk of sounding like a hypocrite." She said with a sigh. "Couldn't you have told me that without playing the music? Now I'm going to feel self-conscious knowing that you can know more or less what I'm constantly feeling."
I smiled internally at seeing my little test was positive and my little ploy working. Now, If she wanted to stop me from reading her emotions like a book, she had to learn how to control her AIM.
A little extra motivation was always welcome. Hehehe.
"I could have, but I wanted to know if you would recognize the melody. Being able to sense your own AIM field would be the first step to discern lies from truths. The fact that you could instinctively recognize that it was yours is good news."
"Can't you just tell me how to tell if someone's lying without all this?" She asked.
"I could, but it wouldn't serve you for anything. You wouldn't be able to use it as you are right now. First, you must learn to sense your own AIM." I told her.
She pursed her tightly and clenched her fists in frustration. "Isn't there a faster way or another way? Apart from you, I have never heard of anyone ever sensing this field that you speak of."
"Not that I know of." Seeing her AIM die a little at my words, I hastily continued. "Let's make a deal. I know of someone else who can sense her own AIM like I do. Today, I was going to teach her about perception and sensing spells. Why don't you come with us to the dungeon, I'll see if I can teach you how to access it too."
"I don't know… I want to get back to tracking Evilus as soon as possible. Is there any hope for me to learn? I'm not a natural ability user like you." She replied a little downtrodden.
I approached her and put my hand on her shoulders making her jump slightly and look at me.
"I believe in you," I said with as much conviction as I could. "Besides, what do you think the necklace I gifted you yesterday was for."
"Wasn't it to silence the voices?" She replied a little flustered.
"The earrings were there to help you deal with the voices, but the necklace was to help you sense and teach you how to manually access your ability," I said with a smile.
"Besides, if you genuinely try to learn, I promise to help you check people for lies until you manage it to figure it out."
"Do you mean it?" She asked, her eyes a little misty and her voice a tad higher pitched and vulnerable than usual.
"I promise."
The elf's eyes shimmered as her body relaxed completely for the first time since I met her.
///////////////////////////////////
The main guild building was bursting with activity as I reached the entrance.
Adventurers and civilians moved in and out with purpose, while guild employees struggled to keep up with the rush.
However, I found that the general mood was slightly more panicked in the adventurer's and guild members' expressions than the civilians. I wondered what it was about?
Despite my dislike for large crowds, I found that I preferred to have the building this full as it was easier to come and do the business I had to do without being found as my presence and steps were concealed by the people bustling about.
Making sure that my hood covered my face, I proceeded to get in the line of a certain half-elf brunette who seemed a little overwhelmed by the situation and all the people waiting to be attended by her.
I was currently alone. After our chat, Ryuu told me that if we were to enter the dungeon then she needed to get some extra supplies.
Although Frey had confided in me that while I was busy cleaning myself, she had subtly smelled herself and realized that she probably needed a shower. I usually filtered bad smells to sleep, so I didn't really notice.
Anyway, she also preferred avoiding entering the guild if she could since it was a really public space and there was a high chance of being monitored by Evilus, so I ended up giving her a description of Lili.
Which ended amounting to searching for anyone chibi-sized with a big backpack whose name was Lili since she could transform to be virtually anyone.
"Welcome to the guild! How can I be of service?" I heard a familiar voice call out ahead of me.
Oh, it seemed that it was my turn.
"Good morning, Miss Eina. I'm here to revise the contract from a couple of days ago." I said while lifting my hood slightly so that the half-elf could see my face.
"Regis! You're alright!" Her eyes widened in recognition and relief, but she quickly regained her composure, glancing around to see if anyone noticed her slip.
Then she shook her head slightly, composing herself, and said in an even tone. "Right, would you mind coming to the back room? Since the contents of the contracts are sensitive, it would be better if we discussed them in private."
"I don't have a problem with it. Please, lead the way." I nodded in reply.
"Great!" She replied excitedly. "Misha, cover for me! I need to take my adventurer to the back."
Suddenly a few gazes filled with hostility stabbed me in the back making me tense.
Gee, I guessed that Miss Eina was fairly popular among the adventurers if the strength of the gazes was any indication.
Well, it didn't really surprise me.
She gave off that serious but kind and gentle vibe which combined with her young and beautiful appearance made for a charming young lady.
"Eh?! But Eina?! I'm swamped here already." Another worker cried in protest.
"Thank you, Misha." She said ignoring her coworker with a smile.
As I walked behind the guild advisor towards the private room, I saw even more employers of the guild running around and comparing papers with one another with frustrated expressions on their faces.
"Mister Regis, please enter here." The half-elf said while holding the door for me to enter.
I entered the room and saw that it was the same one from the other day. It was a simple room with a table in the middle that had a few drawers attached and a few chairs on the sides. There was also a big bookshelf on the left wall full of different books and notebooks.
As I sat down, Miss Eina took the chair opposite me. Her expression flickered through a few emotions before settling into a neutral one, and she said. "Right, the contract first."
While she rummaged through the drawers, I could feel Frey slip out of my necklace and slowly sneaking his way toward the girl and withheld a sigh because I could already see this meeting chaotically spiraling out of control.
I mentally apologized to Lili and Ryuu as I would probably keep them waiting for a little while.
"Mister Regis, here is the contract that the guild master gave me for you. If there's anything problematic, please don't hesitate to tell me." She said as she handed me the document.
I nodded at her and started reading through it. Well, at least it got to a good start as I read that the ban on studying and researching things related the dragon wasn't there anymore.
That was my main complaint about the previous contract.
Considering that to my understanding the Black Dragon was connected to the world in some way, it would mean that the instant I signed the document and looked into anything with my ability, I would have broken the contract and the guild would be able to brand me as a criminal.
But, this contract was much more reasonable. The whole thing could be summarized as me not telling anyone the current position of the dragon and not trying to interfere with their whole plan which include the sacrifice of the remaining Drait villages.
It left an awful taste in my mouth. But the retired adventurers in those villages accepted being there, and considering the alternatives… it was reasonable for them to not want me to interfere.
After one last look at the now deeply familiar runes framing the contract and making sure that there wasn't any hidden clause. I took the pen Miss Eina had left next to me and with some bile rising from my stomach, I signed my name on the document.
"So that's it?" I asked as I handed her the document.
She received the paper with both hands, looked at my signature, and nodded saying. "Yes, everything is in order."
She put the paper in a folder and saved it into the drawer. Then looked at me, her face slowly losing its professional demeanor, took a deep inhalation, and exploded.
"I'm so glad you're okay! I was so worried that something happened to you when the guild was suddenly submerged in mist when you left. What happened? Are you okay? Orario can be pretty crazy toward newcomers. You have bags under your eyes. Are you sleeping alright? What happened this last couple of days? Did you go to the dungeon? Please, tell me that you didn't go too deep. Kyaa!" Her worried tirade was interrupted by Frey who positioned himself behind her and poked her spine which made her jump in surprise.
Normally, I might've felt a bit underestimated, but after the last few days, I kind of understood her reaction.
"Wha?" She said disoriented her glasses half falling from her face had a look incomprehension as she bounced on her chair a couple of times.
Oh, it seemed that Frey found her reset button.
Anyway, better to tell her something before she starts her tirade again.
"Miss Eina, I'm sorry I worried you, but I'm fine. It's certainly been a crazy couple of days. But as you can see I'm in one piece." I said taking my hood off and giving her a smile.
My words didn't seem to register to her as she just looked at me and slowly started blushing.
After a couple of seconds of waiting for her response and seeing that she wasn't responding, I wondered if she was like those old computers that you needed to reset multiple times.
Although it could also be because she was tired, now that her glasses weren't properly covering her eyes, I could see some bags beneath them.
So I asked Frey to poke her again.
"Kyaa! Stop it, You mischievous spirit!" That seemed to do the trick as she snapped out of whatever world she was in and began the now familiar dance of catch the mischievous ice spirit.
At this point, I could swear that it was Frey's favorite game.
After a couple of minutes in which Eina finally caught the playful icy orb and tiredly sat on her chair, she said in whatever dignity she had left with a slightly flushed face.
"Ahem, I'm sorry about that. Are you truly fine? Can you tell me what happened that caused that mist?"
"Yes, I'm fine. As for what happened…" So as I told her, what happened a couple of days ago. One of my formulas started pinging in my head.
It seemed that Lili was waiting for me in an alley nearby to the guild.
"I see, I'm glad that you managed to escape those adventurers from the Apollo Familia, and it's good that you managed to save that little pallum as well." She said with a sigh.
"Yeah, I'm glad as well. Lili has been a lot of help. Miss Eina, Can't the guild do anything to stop the Apollo Familia from continuing their attempts to kidnap me?"
She put on a remorseful face and said. "I'm sorry, but if you were part of a Familia, the guild would be able to mediate and try to reach a solution. But since you're currently unaffiliated unless they deal a considerable amount of damage to the city. The guild's hands are tied. Wait, attempts?!" She said standing up and slamming her hands on the table. "They tried more than once? Where? The guild didn't receive any report of another altercation."
I couldn't help but laugh nervously a her questions and said. "They tried again in the dungeon. Remember the girl I saved? She is a supporter, and to return the favor she proposed to show me the ropes in the dungeon. I detected them while I was in the first few floors so we went a little deeper to evade them."
As I said that her face went pale and shakily said. "W-Which floor did you reach?"
"The tenth floor," I said.
Her pale face suddenly looked even worse as she started shaking even more and her eyes went bloodshot. "Are y-you an idiot! Do you even know how close were you to dying!" She suddenly shouted at my face.
'What the hell was happening?' I couldn't help but think as she started ranting at me. This girl was in severe need of relaxation. Seriously.
So I asked Frey to poke her again.
"Kyaa!" The response was immediate.
Once she calmed down again, I asked. "What is it, that has you so altered, Miss Eina? I haven't known you for that long, but I feel like you aren't your usual self."
When I met her a couple of days ago she seemed like a very composed and intelligent person, now… it seemed like it was the opposite.
She closed her eyes for a couple of seconds and took a deep breath. "I'm sorry Mister Regis, it's just been a stressful couple of days. Yesterday we received a report about a new irregular black monster coming towards the surface from the tenth floor. And we, the guild, have the duty to search for any scrap of information we have on it to help defeat it. Some of us even stayed up all night looking through our archives but we haven't found anything on it. The fact that you were so close to it…"
A black monster…
On the tenth floor…
As she spoke, I couldn't help but start sweating bullets and look anywhere but at the poor sleep-deprived half-elf.
She was talking about me, wasn't she?
She noticed my abnormal behavior. "Mister Regis, you know something, don't you?"
"Hahaha…" I laughed nervously at her narrowed eyes. "So, you know how I told you that I was being followed by the Apollo Familia in the dungeon? Well… since I was with Lili who carried a huge bag with her, and they were guarding the stairs towards the ninth floor, I couldn't exactly sneak past them so I had to go through them. But I didn't want them to know anything about me, so I took on a disguise you could say." As I spoke, I invoked some iron sand from my pouch and slowly made it take form on the palm of my hand.
The iron sand slowly shaped itself in the form of a mini bear and I had it walk back and forth my hand and then made it release a tiny roar.
Looking back at Eina, I could see her eyes widened at my little performance before they started twitching.
"So, you're telling me, that the wasn't an irregular black monster, and that we spent the whole night pouring over a huge amount of books for nothing."
"Hypothetically, and only if the report about the monster came from the Apollo Familia. As far as I sensed no one else saw me."
"Hypothetically, you say." Her expression started twitching even more and it seemed like she was about to explode again when she sighed and groaned while resting her head on the table. "That's such a relief! I'm so glad that it wasn't truly a monster. Thanks for telling me, Regis."
Now, I felt kind of guilty.
"I'm sorry Miss Eina, for all the worry and stress I caused you," I said apologetically.
"It's fine, I understand why you did it." She said with a slight smile which slowly turned into a teasing one. "What even is your life anyway. Next, you're going to tell me is that you were also ambushed by a beautiful woman and somehow managed to sleep with her the next day or something like that." She said jokingly.
I couldn't look her in the eyes, as Frey started laughing next to her.
Feminine intuition was scary…
"Eh?" Her head darted between the spirit and me. "Wait, don't tell me…"
"Nononono, it's not what you think." I tried to stop whatever misunderstanding that was forming inside her head.
I was about to explain when I felt a couple of AIM fields approaching Lili with malicious intentions.
I stood up but quickly recognized that I wouldn't get there in time.
"Mister Regis?!"
I could try to scare them with some spells from where I was, but using magic from so far away was complicated unless they stayed stationary. By the time I could complete the extensive and complicated math needed for it, they would already have moved from the spot, and I could easily hit Lili if I wasn't careful.
Luckily, I felt a certain musical field approaching the guild through the roofs. So I used the earrings as a reference point to simplify the math to transmit my voice to her ear.
"Miss Ryuu, the girl I told you about is about to get mugged. I'm still at the guild, could you look out for her please?" I said aloud and quickly transferred the sound of my own voice to her.
'Tell me her position.' Her reply came swiftly and without need of explanation.
Despite the situation, the tips of my mouth curled up. It always felt good to work with professionals.
I quickly did so and I felt her changing directions towards Lili's position. I sighed in relief and looked up to see Miss Eina looking at me with stars in her eyes.
"So the girl you slept with was the Gale!?" She said with a gleam in her eyes and curiosity in her voice. "Please, tell me the story! How did it happen?"
This girl was seriously out of control.
But I could use this.
"I'm sorry Miss Eina, but I have to leave." I had to make sure that Ryuu didn't go overboard.
"Eh, but you can't leave me like this." She whined.
"And I'm telling you that what you're thinking didn't happen." I sighed at her disbelieving stare. "Tell you what, I need some data from the archive of the guild for my research. If you help me, I'll tell you the story the next time we meet."
"Deal!" She agreed instantly to my surprise.
'What are you doing girl? What you needed right now was a nap not more work!' I wanted to exclaim at her.
Now I felt kinda bad. Probably her being so sleep-deprived helped with her agreeing too.
I quickly told her what I needed and she nodded.
As I was picking up my bags, she said. "Right, so I expect you tomorrow morning for your lessons about the dungeon."
"Eh?"
"I'm sure that this supporter of yours knows a lot, but it's my responsibility as your advisor to make sure you're properly equipped to brave the dungeon. So I expect you here tomorrow morning, alright?" She said adjusting her glasses and a slight smile.
"But-" "I mean, You want that knowledge from the records somewhat soon, don't you?" She said her smile widening slightly.
'Was… was I being extorted for the story?' I couldn't help but think bewildered that I had been played.
I thought I saw her try to hide a fist pump when I ended up agreeing.
How much did she want to hear that story, or was it because she wanted to give me classes?
At this point, I could only admit that I had somehow been outplayed by my sleep-deprived advisor.
As I told Frey to say goodbye and was walking towards the door, I felt her tugging my cloak.
I turned to look at her just to be hit full blast by her upturned pleading eyes. "Please, be careful. You're the first adventurer I advise, I don't want anything to happen to you."
As blood rushed to my face I managed to nod at her and said. "I will."
In the back of my mind, I added psychological warfare to the tools the half-elf had available.
Because holy shit, that face was just plain unfair.
As I power-walked through the corridors of the guild, I resolved to not underestimate the cute half-elf advisor in the future.
I realized that sleep deprived or not, when she put her mind to something, Miss Eina was scary.
Keeping my fast walking pace, I quickly exited the guild and broke into a sprint towards where I sensed the alley Ryuu and Lili were in.
Using my precognition to quickly zigzag between adventurers and civilians, I finally turned right, just to see Lili with a face of wonder looking towards the elf who had her wooden sword out and was ominously walking forward towards the two lowlifes that had been harassing her.
Really, they were the same couple adventures that were waiting for her yesterday at the entrance of the dungeon. And now that I focused on them I realized that they were also the ones that were chasing her the first day I met her.
Just how despicable did you have to be to be so focused on bullying and stealing from a little girl?
The thought alone pissed me off.
As the two adventurers realized how outmatched they were against the elf that was approaching them menacingly, they started backtracking. "Gale, you can't do this, we're from the same familia. Meaning that you can't but in." When he saw that he was just making things worse as Ryuu started walking towards them faster he continued. "It's not like we were about to do something bad to her. She just needs to return something to us. Right, Liliruca?" Said the man with raccoon ears.
"Yes, what he said. You tell her that we're all right, right Liliruca." Said the blown-haired man next to him with some emphasis implying 'or else' in his voice.
I could see Lili start trembling and I just couldn't contain myself anymore.
At this moment I decided that I would put the fear of the vastness of the Chaos Sea into them.
So I started by running some formulas to decrease the temperature of the air, reduce the concentration of oxygen, and electrically charge the air around them as I started walking in their direction at the same rhythm as Ryuu.
The effect was felt immediately as they started shivering and breathing heavier.
"Oh, surely if she just needed to return you something, you could have asked her for it in your Familia home. I mean, you've been constantly stalking her this past couple of days." I said and they jumped in fright at my voice.
Both adventurers started trembling in fear and despair as they noticed that I had cut off their escape route. Not that they could have ever escaped from Ryuu if she wanted to catch them.
The raccoon man eyes widened as he saw me and said. "Y-You're the one that pitted us against the A-Apollo familia…"
I simply ignored him and started to lightly suppress their aura with my own similar to how the dungeon did it.
They started tensing and panicking looking for a way to escape.
So I decided to give them one.
"Now, you have three options," I said aloud. "First, you can promise to leave Lili alone and not harass her anymore, if you sincerely promise this, I'll let you go free. Second, you can try to fight me and I would gladly introduce the pavement to your most intimate parts." I said without expression and made the pavement start shaking minutely beneath their feet. Their hands moved to protect their family jewels and they winced as they remembered the pain I inflicted on them the day before.
"Or you can try to flee and then your fate will be decided by the last child of the Astraea familia. Which spoiler alert, has long since run out of fucks to give." At my words, they looked at her and they almost pissed themselves at the glare she gave them.
"Choose." I gave them an ultimatum.
"We promise to leave her alone! As long as you two protect her, we promise to leave her alone! It won't be long before she betrays you, anyway." The raccoon man said desperately while showing a disgusting grin at the end.
Ryuu made to attack them, but I stopped her with a quick gesture of my palm.
"They are telling the truth," I told her at her confused expression.
I returned to look at the couple of adventurers and said. "If Lili ever tells me, that you've tried anything else with her. I'll make you wish you were dead." I said while suppressing their AIM as much as I could without developing a specialized counter to them.
I didn't know how exactly it affected them. But considering that their shaking got worse and they looked about ready to pass out. I considered it a success.
"Now, scram!" I shouted at them for the first time.
They didn't need me to tell them twice, considering that they half-sprinted, and half-stumbled out of the alley as fast as they could.
For some reason, I couldn't help but feel an ominous feeling in my gut as I saw them disappear on the main street. As if I just made a grave mistake.
"Master Regis!" Just for the feeling to wane as I felt my disciple rush in my direction and hug me tightly.
As I gently patted her head, I faced the elf and said. "Thank you for rushing to her help. I'm sorry I involved you in this."
She shook her head sideways and replied with a sad smile. "I don't mind. This is what being part of the Astraea familia was supposed to be about."
"I see. You alright, Lili?" I asked the pallum.
She nodded into my cloak and said. "Lili's fine now."
"Great, let's get going to the dungeon then. Today I'll teach you how to use your magic to sense your surroundings. That way you won't get ambushed again."
"Could Lili learn to do that?" She asked curiously.
"Of course you can. Come on, let's start today's lesson.