After watching me for a while John and Sher Aka also join in my training.
Sher Aka mostly focuses on exercises like squats, pushups and situps while John seems to practice healing magic by giving himself small wounds and then closing them over and over. Ray practices somewhere else so I’m not sure what she’s doing.
Then when I’m done with my ritual practice I excuse myself for a bit and finish my dark mana absorption training. When I come back down, Ray, Sher Aka and John are already waiting for me. Ray has a wide proud grin on her face.
“Did I miss something good, ane?”
“Kekeke, I had a breakthrough! Thanks to your tip I can absorb the natural mana now!”
“Woah! Congratutions!!!”
“Kekeke, it was only natural to happen. Now I just need to wait for spirits to approach me while we go out!”
“Hmm, even if you can do it now I don’t think they’ll approach you when you’re not actively doing the absorption while they’re around.”
“That’s not a problem, I can just passively absorb the mana while we’re out, it’s not going to be as intense as if I’m concentrating but they should still be able to see me.”
“Wait, you can absorb it without focusing on it?”
“Yeah, once you figure it out it just flows even when you’re not concentrating on it.”
“Really? Which element did you learn to absorb?”
“Huh? I didn’t just learn one, I learned all three at the same time.”
“What!? Ane, I think you might actually be a magical genius.”
“Kekeke, it is only natural is it not? As the big sister I need to be better than my younger brother after all!”
“You are really awesome Ane!”
“Yes! Praise me more!”
“You are super smart!”
“Kekeke! I sure am!”
“Yeah…Not to interrupt whatever this is but what are you guys talking about? I thought natural mana absorption was a myth.”
“It’s not, both me and oki are learning it.”
“Are you trying to become casters? What tradition do you use?”
“We’re using the spiritual tradition. My affinities are in earth, wind and fire magic. Thoma has an affinity for dark magic and he’s also a spirit mage.”
“Damn…That’s rare. And I thought I got lucky with my affinities in dark and light magic. So can you like, see spirits Thoma Ahad?”
“Yep, I can talk to them too.”
“Woah…Are there any spirits in the room?”
“Nope, they tend to not like going inside buildings. Fire spirits love kitchens and firepces though so they’re somewhat common inside buildings.”
Sher Aka smiles as she says, “I’m starting to become more and more interested in you two. You two truly are quite special individuals, both in personality and ability.”
Ray jokingly crosses her arms and raises an eyebrow, “Oh? I sure hope you mean that in a good way.”
“I haven’t decided yet.”
We then go out to eat at a restaurant specializing in elven food that Sher Aka recommends. It’s a nice and pretty quiet little sit down restaurant in the basement of a residential building. It is well lit by multiple candles and has colorful decorations in the shapes of flowers and other pnts. Seeing as we’re just hanging out I take my hat and mask off as we enter. Shortly after we sit down a human waiter comes to our table but when he sees Sher Aka he quickly excuses himself and gets an elven waitress.
“Welcome to the blooming poppy, here is our menu.”
She then looks at Sher Aka, “Would you prefer the authentic menu?”
“Yes, please.”
“How about you John?”
“Eh, I’ll just go with whatever you recommend.”
“Is there a difference between the authentic menu and the normal menu?” I ask, to the waitresses' confusion.
“Yes, the authentic menu has a few more traditionally prepared dishes that generally aren’t as liked by humans. It is also written in proper Elvish rather than the more easy to pronounce names we use for the dishes in the normal menu.”
“Ah, I see. Would you be able to transte the menu to me Sher Aka? I’d like to try some of the traditional dishes.”
“Why would I need to transte them to you?”
“Because I don’t speak any elvish.”
“Huh…Sure, I’ll transte them for you.”
“Alright, thanks!”
“We’d like an authentic menu and a regur one then.”
“Okay, coming right up.”
“Say, Thoma Ahad what nguage are we speaking right now?”
“Huh? What a weird question, we’re speaking Uni of course.”
“Wow, it’s really just like Ray said, huh?”
“It does seem to be the case, yes.”
“What are you guys talking about?”
“Nothing of importance.”
“Oh okay.”
“This is quite fascinating, say Thoma Ahad could you put your hands over your ears for a bit? There is something I’d like to discuss with Ray.”
“Uhm, okay.”
—------------------------------------
“I must say this is quite fascinating. He really does sound like a native speaker and he switches nguages effortlessly without noticing.”
“In a way he speaks better Elvish than me because I have a uni accent. But he still sounds weird, I can’t quite put my finger on it though. Do you know what I mean, Sherry?”
“I know what you mean. The thing that makes him sound different is that unlike me he speaks in a Highborn dialect. Additionally his pronunciation is unrefined, it’s like speaking with a young child. It’s honestly a little bit jarring.”
“If you had to say, how old would you guess Thoma would be just from his way of speaking? Assuming he is an Elf.”
“Hmm…Provided he’s a Highelf I’d say maybe around 80 years? Which in terms of maturity of both body and mind would be the equivalent of a six year old human.”
“That young!?”
“Yes, but it is also just a guess. For all we know the curse might affect his nguage abilities too and he is actually a lot older or he could have just learned Elvish up to a certain point and then not progressed further or perhaps he just has a learning disability that makes it hard to speak. We simply don’t know and as such it is useless to make any assumptions.”
“But still…Is it really right for me to go adventuring with him if there is a risk he is that young? Maybe I should just leave him in Rostock with the guildmaster and support him with money from my travels until I find a way to remove his curse.”
“Hmm, you could certainly do that but have you taken his wishes into account? Do you think he could be happy if you did that? If you’re not sure about the answer, why not ask him? He’s right here after all.”
—-------------------------
Sher Aka then motions me to put my hands down again.
“Hey, oki…Say, adventuring is really dangerous right? And you’re gonna see a lot of bad things on the way, do you think you’d be okay if you just stay with the guildmaster while I travel and send you money? I would make sure to search hard for ways to cure your curse and send you many letters in the meantime with enough money that you can live comfortably with.”
“Do you not want to be with me anymore?”
“No, no, no, no, no. I’m just saying it because I care about you and I’m scared about what might happen to you!”
“So you think I’m a burden…Sorry, Ane. I’ll make sure to train harder so you don’t need to be afraid of me getting hurt anymore.”
“No that’s totally not what I mean either! You can pull your own weight. I trust you.”
“Do you?”
“Yes! It’s just you’re very precious to me and I’m scared something bad might happen to you which is why I wanted to ask if you could be happy by just staying in Rostock with the guildmaster.”
“I don’t know. But I’d rather be with you than with her if I had to choose.”
“Okay. Don’t worry I’m not going to force you to choose. I love you, oki.”
“I love you too, ane.”
We then rub our cheeks together while John just looks at us with a slightly exasperated look, “You two are really close, huh?”
“Ooooh~ Are you jealous John? Do you want your big sister to do that too?”
“Hey, get off of me! That’s not what I meant!”
“Oh? Are you saying you don’t like it?”
“No…I just… Let’s not do stuff like that here in public, it’s embarrassing.”
“So you do like it! Come on here~”
