"A joyous occasion shall bring light to the darkened world."
Previously on Novus Magus: We were attacked by a red-haired girl. As Vita was about to unmask the girl, a boy wearing a tanuki mask appeared to save her. Even after receiving some info on six of the eight masked ones from our Sophomores, we are no closer to discovering their true identities- Iah
*Iah*
"Everyone, come to the living room," Ms. Key yelled, worry evident in her words.
"What's wrong?" I asked, throwing my blankets unto the table. Rubbing my eyes, I bolted out of my couch bed.
Alto ran downstairs in a flash. "Is there an intruder?"
Our teacher came out of the kitchen with her cellphone. "I just finished talking to the dorm master of Midori Dorm, Haroun."
"My brother?" Vermeil said as she descended the stairs with the rest of our classmates. Her brow furrowed. "What did he say? Was brother attacked?"
Ms. Key shook her head. "No. If anyone was attacked, it was Renshu."
"Renshu?" Adela said, startled as she descended the stairs. She leapt over the rails, landing behind our teacher. "Why do you say that? What did Haroun say?"
She took a deep breath. "Haroun told me that Renshu hasn't returned to the dorm.
Adela shook her head, eyes wide with shock and fear. "We got to find him, his life could be in danger!"
"Calm down," Hal said, leaning against the wall next to the stairs. He crossed his arms, grinning coolly. "We're bound to find him if he's still on the island. Hmm, are there any forbidden areas?"
"Yes," Ms. Key responded, nodding her head. "There's one in the west, but only a select few of us staff members can access it."
"What about the dark staircase?" Nyima suggested.
"The one from yesterday?" I asked, recalling where we had met Yuuta.
Nyima nodded as she pace around the living room in circles. "That one. " She came to an abrupt stop next to me. "Though, Yuuta said that he was guarding it. We managed to affirm that he isn't one of the eight yesterday as the tanuki-masked-boy and him were in the same location at the same time. So the chances of Renshu being there are very low."
I snickered. "Not necessarily. The first branch has the power to create illusions, however those usually involve a change of landscape. It could also be a doppelgänger spell."
"Doppelgänger spells are difficult, but if Yuuta really is the tanuki then it would have be a doppelganger," Ms. Key said. "Lucette can see through illusions, and neither the tanuki-masked boy, or Yuuta were illusions."
"Hmm, I'll try to see what I can discover," Hal said, jumping off of the final step.
"Are you really the best person for this?" Hikaru questioned, hiding a skeptical smile. "You aren't exactly a quiet person."
"He is the best suited person," Vermeil affirmed, patting her teammate on the back. "I can vouch for his skills. I'll be going with him to shield him during his search."
"I'm quite lucky, aren't I?" Hal said, rubbing his chin and nodding triumphantly. Not like he had won anything, but then again... Spending time with Vermeil wasn't a bad set up.
"You sure are," I said with a wink. "Being accompanied by the likes of Vermeil."
Nyima pushed me. "Wipe off your drool and change into your uniform."
I blushed, wiping my mouth. "I am not drooling!"
Nyima chuckled as she left to prepare breakfast.
I got cleaned up and grabbed a chocolate granola bar to eat on the go.
"Will that be enough to keep you from crashing?" Nyima asked as we sat down on the bus.
"I should be."
"That reminds me," Ms. Key said, regaining her usual composure. "We're having a festival next week. It's a Kyuu Seishinian celebration of the official start of spring. There will be food stands, carnival games, and floats. The sophomores and I are working on the float, so you freshman only have to focus on making your stand."
"Let's make a food stand," Hikaru blurted out. He slumped down into his seat, trying to hide his excitement, fearing that it might be out of place given what just happened. "I mean, if everyone else is fine with it."
"Food works," I said, nodding.
"We got a lot of great cooks in our class," Sarah said, crossing her arms. "If you like... I could also make some jian dui."
"What's that?" Hal asked.
"It's a snack made out of rice flour," I said. "It's similar to the Kyuu Seishinian dish of dango."
"Do you think we should add some Kyuu Seishinian dishes to our food stand? If we are to do that," Adela asked.
"I know a couple," Hikaru said.
Lei took out his green miniature notebook and started recording down all of the suggestions thus far.
***
We had an entire list of foods ready by the time we arrived at the school.
"The list looks good," Hikaru said, handing the notebook back to Lei.
"Thanks," Adela, who helped the most said. "But I think we could try adding a bit more Kyuu Seishinian dishes. Perhaps we should ask one of our classmates."
"Like who?" I said. "Most of them seem to dislike us."
"That's because a great deal of them agree with the masked eight," Orichalcum said.
"I could ask Ren," Adela said.
I shook my head. There was no way we could do that. "Ren could be a spy. It'll be better to look them up online."
"I wonder how close they'll be to the original. Online recipes tend to end up tasting different from the actual cuisine of the culture," the young priestess said. "Hey, why do you seem so sure that Ren is one of them?"
"One of the eight who attacked one wore a dog mask and was male. I looked up the council members last night on the school website. It appears that the only other member in the council who has the dog beast is the School President."
"It could be him then."
"Only issue is that it's a she. That leaves Ren as the only one. Likewise Yuuta, Shiori, and Mayu are the only ones who are tanuki, weasel, and snake."
"Are you sure the masks correspond to their animals?"
"Their leader clearly has snake eyes, plus her sex matches that of Mayu. I suspect that the others also match their beast."
"What if they recruited people who have the same sex and beast as the council members, thinking we would suspect them?"
"That could be their plan." I crossed my arms. "You seem awfully defensive about this. You should avoid getting attached to Ren or the other suspects, you might get hurt."
"Hey," a familiar voice rang. The door opened and in came Ren as if summoned by our words. "Oh, hey Adela. Oh, so this is your class?" He gazed up at the giant blue rose in the center of the room. "Wow, is this a part of your float? It must have taken a lot of work."
"It did," Orichalcum said, eyeing him suspiciously. "Do you need something?"
He opened the door fully. He was holding a folder with a few papers. "It's the documents for the festival. They're due in three days."
Ms. Key took the folder and smiled. "Thanks, I had forgotten to get them when I came."
"No problem. There's not much for us council members to do other than sign off on the events. Do you need any help?"
"Don't you have your own homeroom?" Lei said.
Ren sat down on one of the tables. "My class so huge that they ended up not needing me, other than to give them ideas." A phone beeped. He took out a black cellphone out from his blazer. "'Ren, we finished the stand. We just need your recipes so we can start testing some of them out.'" He read out loud. "See, they're fast. I'll just send them a digital copy I have saved here...and tada." He glanced up. "So, what kind of stand are you making?"
"A food stand," Ning responded. "It'll have a lot of yummy Aiefian foods."
"Not just Aiefian, there will also be Xianian, Minan, Wahkan, Seran, Uanian, Hoinian, Harunian, and even Riosian foods," An said.
"Wow, that's the most diverse arrangement of foods I've seen in a festival. Will there be any Kyuu Seishinian dishes on the menu?"
"Yes, but there's only a couple. I'll like to add some more to the menu," Adela said. "Do you have any that you are willing to share with us?"
Ren smiled. "Well, as you just heard I have a ton of them." He got up from the table and showed her his phone. "Here, you can look over a couple, just don't copy the ones highlighted in yellow. I am still working those out."
"You mean you made these?"
"Yes. Those highlighted in red are modified dishes to suit my taste. The ones highlighted in blue are the so called traditional dishes. The ones in yellow are recipes I am modifying to my style but that have something lacking. For example the first one you see here is too salty despite putting only a tablespoon of salt."
I looked over Adela's shoulder. Ren's list wasn't only highlighted, it was also neatly arranged into columns depending on the type of food it was. For example there was a column for soups, and another for desserts.
Adela scoffed. "That's because you are using Aking mushrooms. They have a natural salty flavor to them. I advise you either change the mushroom or avoid putting salt in the first place."
"That simple?"
I glared at him. "You made all these recipes, yet you don't even know that one of your ingredients has a natural salty flavor?" I said.
"It was my first time using Aking mushrooms, well actually second time since the first time ended up being very salty. The recipe I modified it from used Oban mushrooms which have little natural salt content."
"Why did you change it?" I questioned. "Isn't Aking more commonly eaten in the north while Oban is widespread across Kyuu Seishin?"
"I heard that Aking allows a dish to retain its freshness. I thought that it would be a perfect fit for a festival in which food isn't always eaten immediately. If I put Aking then one can eat it later and it'll taste just as good as when it was made."
"Good idea," Adela said, smiling. "We should try getting some Aking too."
"We're going to have to look at other stores than the one we went to last time," I said. "I didn't see any Aking when we were there."
"Aking isn't sold around these parts during this time of year. It is only sold around fall and winter. I know a farm in the north that can ship you some," Ren said.
"Really?" Adela said. "How much would it cost to ship them?"
He shrugged. "I'll have to ask Nobuyuki first."
"Why Nobuyuki?"
"His parents are the owners of the farm. I'll go and call him. Let's exchange information so I we can get in touch."
Adela took out her phone and exchanged contact information with Ren by using their phones' infrared communications. Once they were done, the dog-like boy waved good bye and finally left.
I pulled her in closely. "Should we trust him?" I questioned, glancing over at the door to make sure that he didn't return. "Those mushrooms could end up being laced with poison or something that could hurt us in some shape or form."
Adela sighed. "You're being too paranoid. We will just have to have Hal check them for poison in order to relieve your doubts."
Hal put down his hammer and glanced over at us.
"Poisons?" The young poison mage said with a grin. "I can detect them so long as they aren't dust-particle-sized-poisons. I'm still not strong enough to detect those. Luckily those are very rare. I doubt that they'll be able to get a hold of them, even if they do turn out to be our enemies."
**Solar Notes: I'll also like to thank you all for your support thus far *bows*. Speaking of support, this chapter was dedicated to DragonRiderEXE as thanks for the advice and support he had given me when I first published this work, thanks a lot D.R. ^_^. **