Knock. Knock.
"Come in." A voice answers from the other side of the door.
When I walk into the room, Lord Sol isn't alone. Chief is here as well as the man from the gate and an elf I've never seen before.
"Take a seat, Iris."
Lord Sol point to the empty seat beside Chief. Facing me is the other two guests. I feel their gazes on me from the moment I walk into the room.
"I believe introductions are in order." Says Lord Sol.
The elf who is sitting closest to Lord Sol goes first.
"My name is Luda." He says while gracefully doing the elvish greeting. "I have heard much about you from Lord Kinai."
"I'm Roy. Mercenary." The human man simply says his introduction.
"I'm Iris. A pleasure to meet both of you."
On closer look, the human Roy and the elf Luda bear a striking resemblance. Roy has dirty blonde hair paired with red eyes. When he describes himself as a mercenary, in my head I imagined a rugged-looking man with more muscles. Sitting on his right is Luda with a distinctive green hair instead of the trademark blonde hair of the elves. That means he's a rare case amongst the elves. I immediately share a sense of comradeship with Luda. Lord Sol notices that I keep staring at Luda this whole time.
"Luda is my successor as a sage. He is also Chief's disciple. If you are curious, you can question him afterwards."
Since he's Chief's disciple; he either has a fire or earth magic attributes. It's one of the two options. My guess is earth because of his green hair. Meanwhile, Luda shows me a pleasant smile.
Lord Sol continues saying, "On the other hand, Roy was trained by Lorelai, like you."
They are my seniors. I wonder if they won't mind me asking some questions about magic. They could provide different perspectives from the ones I already heard from the three sages. As I'm thinking that, a shimmering green light gleam and Auntie El incorporeal body materialises beside the head of the table where Lord Sol is sitting. Luda and Roy promptly stand on their feet and respectfully bow to Auntie El.
"It is an honour to be graced by your appearance, Elder Spirit." Luda deeply bows towards Auntie El.
"It's wonderful to see you are both growing well." Auntie El softly says in response.
Luda smiles bashfully while Roy shows a mature demeanour. After the short exchange of greetings, Auntie El walks over to my side.
"The dress suits you, Iris." Auntie El compliments my attire.
I beam a smile at her. "Thank you, Auntie El."
From the corner of my eye, Luda and Roy are baffled that I'm addressing the Elder Spirit in a friendly manner. A soundproof barrier is evoked in the room to prevent anyone from listening in. This reminds me of the first time I came into this office. A lot has happened since then. From the head of the table, Lord Sol commences the meeting.
"Before we begin, I would like to clarify our status once more to Iris before there are any doubts. Even though this is not an official gathering, I am named Sol of Kirashira; sage of the elves."
"I am the chosen Chief of Kiln Mountain; sage of the dwarves."
"I am Elder Spirit; sage of the spirits."
Unfazed by the sudden change of ambience, Roy and Luda reintroduced themselves respectively.
"I am Roy; sage representative of men."
"Likewise, I am named Luda of Kirashira; sage in training."
I instinctively lean back when each one of them smoothly takes turns to introduce themselves towards me with an air of significance.
In a daze, I blurt out these words. "I'm Iris; an otherworlder."
Luda and Roy blankly stare at me. After realising my mistake, I try to explain in a hurry but failed as I couldn't find the right words for it.
"Ah, you see..."
Auntie El says, "It's alright. They know you received the blessing of the goddess."
"I also told them that you have a peculiar eccentricity." Lord Sol state my charming quirks.
Chief adds by saying, "Let us not forget the goddess bestowed you in our care to be your guardians."
"Technically, she told me I could trust the sages," I mumble to myself.
I look up to see what kind of expression Luda and Roy are showing. Surprisingly, it doesn't seem to affect them that much, or maybe they had time to process before I arrive.
"Who else knows?" I ask carefully.
"There is another sage and his successor. I told him of your existence." Auntie El answers me.
"How did he react upon hearing it?" Chief asks Auntie El.
Chief's low tone with grim expression suggests the importance of Auntie El's response whilst the tension in the room becomes heavier and painstakingly quiet.
"He expressed his curiosity towards Iris." Auntie El glances my way.
"That could have several meanings." Lord Sol remarks with a complicated face.
"He will not harm her. I am certain he will grow fond of her." Auntie El says to put them at ease.
Judging from the way the four of them are reacting as opposed to Auntie El's untroubled words, whoever this sage is, sounds like a very frightful being. Let's hope we don't get to meet soon or even have the chance to. Even if Auntie El says it's safe, the majority of them are behaving differently.
Luda changes the subject to lift the mood.
"You can be at ease, Iris. Any matter known by the sages is well-kept knowledge. Therefore, the matter of your coming about to us will not spread." Luda reassures my initial concern.
"Now then, I called for everyone here because there is an important matter we need to discuss before the rangers' evaluation." Lord Sol begins.
"It has been over a year since Iris began learning magic. What takes an average person several years, in this case, an average human," Lord Sol look at me when he points that out and goes on saying, "to master their mana and learn magic, Iris has perfectly mastered from the basic to the most advanced spells within a short time. Furthermore, she has taken advantage of her vast pool of mana to create new spells which require strict supervision from Elder Spirit and myself. To summarise, Iris is reckless when it comes to magic, much like the crestfallen expression of the rangers after duelling with a battle enthusiast Roy."
The last part left me a puzzling look while Roy shows an annoying face. Why am I being compared with Roy?
Lord Sol respond to my unsaid question. "The two of you don't know how to restrain yourselves."
"Those rangers lost because they became overconfident in their skills." Roy retorts.
"I heard from Lorelai they were newly inexperienced rangers who were still undergoing training. Because of you, the head trainer had to revise their training regiments before they could be accepted as an official ranger."
"Isn't that a good thing?" I ask Chief in confusion.
"Iris is right. It was a good lesson for the young elves to learn." Chief support my words.
Lord Sol resumes the talk.
"As I was saying, Iris, do you remember what I told you about mana the first time we met?"
"You said it's dangerous to leave the mana inside a person's body as it is without knowing how to control it, else it'll burn the soul."
My response gains everyone's nod of approval.
"Despite our general understanding, you were perfectly stable before learning to control it. It could be because you received the full blessing of the goddess as evident by your appearance when you brought here by Bane." Says Lord Sol.
Wait a moment. He mentions something interesting just now.
"Full blessing of the goddess?" I raise a question.
"In the past, those with the goddess's blessing, their mana cannot be measured by the crystal orb. Scholars who have been researching records of those with the goddess' blessing noticed that the shades from either the eyes or hair varied between each person. It is impossible to know for certain if that is true. Regardless, speculation arises that the more streaks of the goddess' colour on their hair, the more mana they possessed."
To my surprise, the person who's answering my question is Roy, not Lord Sol.
"She doesn't appear to receive the full blessing. The colour is almost faded that I wouldn't know she has them." Roy notes his observation.
Lord Sol ask me to show them, but only a small amount of it. If I let all of them out suddenly, it will alarm every creature in Kana Forest. It sounds exaggerating, but it actually isn't. Chief is eagerly looking forward to it.
"I understand."
I close my eyes and visualise the white glass where the warmth (mana) is sealed inside. Then, slowly letting out a very small amount of it. Someone is gasping. When I open my eyes, Lord Sol and Auntie El remain indifferent while Chief is in awe of my brief transformation. Luda and Roy turn rigid in their seats.
"Fascinating." Luda murmur after regaining his thoughts.
His recovery mode is even better than Lord Sol.
Chief notices something different about me other than the hair.
"I sensed there is more mana surrounding you than before."
"I let some of it out."
"Let some of it out," Chief repeats my words.
"You didn't use concealment magic on yourself?" Roy asks.
I shake my head in response.
"Wait a moment. Are you saying this whole time you are only using a small portion of your mana?" Luda asks in bewilderment.
I simply nod at him.
"Impossible," Chief mutters.
"Chief?"
Chief burst out his thoughts out loud. "The materials for the weapons I had in mind would not be strong enough. Curses! I will scour the vault if I have to."
I stifle a laugh. Chief's train of thoughts eventually leads to crafting again. I tell him the bow from the blacksmith shop comes out unscathed after using it with the amount of mana I usually go with. He wouldn't stop grumbling until I pour out rose syrup water with milk in a cup. Chief becomes quiet after that with the cup in his hand. I always store ready-made drinks and foods in my storage for emergencies.
Roy chuckles.
"Oh, sorry. Let me pour you some too. Do you like sweet drinks? If you don't, then it's better to have it with water then milk."
I offer Luda and Roy some drinks as well. It would be rude not to since I'm the one that offers it first.
"I will have it with water, please."
"I as well."
Luda and Roy tell me their preference respectively.
"I would like one with milk." Lord Sol chimes in.