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Agnisotra: Origin Tails
Vol 2 Ch 5: Visiting the library

Vol 2 Ch 5: Visiting the library

Gregory and I woke up at 8:05 to prepare and head over to the library. We needed to figure out where to find this but we would also use this opportunity to get a better grasp on the layout of this city. I could check this with my eyes but where is the adventure in that?! Anyways, another reason is that if we know exactly where to go, we miss the opportunity to stumble upon other interesting or useful places. Randomly finding out stuff can’t be underestimated when information is important. At least I deem information to be important. Maybe we will find another good restaurant, or a nice café or some food stalls! We made sure to have everything we need in case the library would attack us. Now this might sound silly but even though Gregory loves reading and I think that information is very important, we haven't been to many libraries.

The library in Hourai palace was riddled with traps and magic spells at least where the more interesting and secret documents were stored. The public library was pretty tame but the head librarian was quite the jerk so that was a challenge in itself. Then there is that underground library under Boshi town, yeah, we don't see libraries as safe places. We do realize that libraries are supposed to be safe and quiet places for learning it’s just that that hasn't been true for us, better safe than sorry! We left the hotel and looked around.

So, I did notice that there are specific places where you are supposed to get on those floating platforms. Just hopping on and off them seems to be quite socially unacceptable. Yeah, I noticed that too yesterday, shall we give it a go or shall we walk?

Hmm, let's walk, I assume the library is a large building, I don't see very large buildings around here but the center of the city did, let's walk there to get familiar with this neighborhood and perhaps find interesting places. We walked down the road and saw mainly houses. Even though it was quite early there were still a lot of people outside.

Quite the difference from what we’re used to. Is that an antique shop?! Oh no… Gregory grabbed my wrist and dragged me to the antique shop he spotted.

Let's go take a look! Let's not stay too long. We got inside and entered the small shop. It reminded me a bit of Uraya’s shop but this one has antique-looking objects. Mainly vases. Gregory looked at some items and barraged the shopkeeper with various questions. Gregory is such a nerd; he likes whatever is related to art and history. I’m indifferent to art but I recently discovered that history is quite important. I looked around to see if I could spot anything that had ancient languages on it. Unfortunately, most of them are from the era of the Old Kaledonian calendar, while some are from the beginning of the New Kaledonian calendar. Hmm, guess no luck. I don’t know much about history but so far, I'm only interested in that what happened before the Great Eraser. I spotted an old katana. Hey now at least this is interesting! It reminds me that I should also look for a blacksmith in this city. I have everything I need to restore this if it was in poor condition but locating a blacksmith might still be useful. Maybe there are some tricks here that I could learn. There is no reason why blacksmiths from the Igrini Kingdom will have the same methods as the blacksmiths from Hjuva.

I inspected it. It was just a normal katana just very old. I picked it up. It was really heavy. I took the sword out of its sheathe. Yup, this is rusted. The smell of rust attacked my nose. It is weird why has nobody ever tried to make a katana that doesn't rust. I tried to think of reasons, it is probably easier and cheaper to make them like they have been made for a long time. Maybe it needs some exotic material to achieve this or using different metals will negatively affect their performance. This katana has seen better days but at least the scabbard looks nice. Although… I inspected the katana with my Elgards eyes. Nothing special about the katana but it seems the current exterior of the scabbard doesn’t seem to be the original one. I do know that the scabbard used to be quite ornamental and the cooler it looked the higher status the owner had. The current scabbard looks quite fancy but it's layered over a dull scabbard. Did someone in history try to fake his status? I wouldn't be surprised. Anyways, I’m buying this. I look around the store and a few items seem to be fake or just like this scabbard looks like something messed with it. These seem quite old so I doubt that the shop owner did it but it makes them either look older or more special than they are. I don’t care for the historical value of this sword; I just want it.

And do you agree that the cultural significance of this urn is…. Move over Greg, hey, I want to buy this katana. How do you keep finding old swords?

“Oh, the heirloom of… “ I’m sorry I’m not that interested in where it comes from, I just want to buy it. The shopkeeper and Gregory looked at me as if I just insulted a family member of theirs.

“Kids these days don't appreciate culture and history, why can’t you be like this fine young man over here, that is 9 silver for you, culture barbarian!” I’m sure insulting customers will make your business boom. I placed 9 silver on the counter. He looked at me.

“Your parents must be rich to have their kid spend 9 silver on an antique item.” He got out a cloth and some red rope to wrap the sword in. I strapped it on my back and went to wait outside. I made sure to not knock anything over. Gregory came out of the shop a half hour later. Did you know that this city used to be called something different 15 years ago? What was it called before then?

It was called Arehs. What a weird name.

What is weirder is that the royal family used to live here but decided to live in the capital 136 years ago after their mansion burnt down. Some items in this shop were ancient treasures recovered from that fire. Aha… Hey, you saw how the scabbard of this sword looked right? Yeah. It is not the real one, there is a layer, well it’s the real one, under it and it looks dull.

Hmm, that is interesting. So, what are you going to do with it? Restore it so that it will shatter after 2 or 3 uses. Ha! Very funny! But I guess you’re not wrong. I need to figure out why swords keep shattering when I use them.

Don’t you think it has something to do with how you swing them? I can’t say that I know how to fight with swords but the speed you swing them seems abnormally fast. Hmm, haven't thought of that but swinging it like that makes up for my lack of physical strength so it isn't something I can just go easy on if I want to cut through stuff.

Well, I guess for a mythical being your physical strength isn't that high but compared to humans it's quite good in that case hmm, might want to make something that can survive those fast swings of yours. Hmm, something stronger and flexible or something that doesn't care. Sounds like a pain…

Or master another weapon, how about a hammer? Meh, not my style, I will stick to swords. Anyways thanks for your insight. I will pay close attention to the condition and forces on the sword when it shatters to have a good idea of what is making them break.

Already decided that the sword is going to shatter, eh? Poor sword. Are you sure you didn't need to buy something from that shop?

Nah, he was acting like an asshole to you and complaining about you after you left. Aww, such a softie.

Shut up! We walked by some more places. Gregory had to stop me from visiting every restaurant and cafe we passed by. We passed by a pharmacy and Gregory went inside and tried to figure out where to get supplies for his concoctions. It seems he could get some but the factory that's in charge of making most of those has a shop somewhere that is more suitable for his needs.

He got the directions for it but I took it from him because he does love maps but he is not great at following them. Also, this place is also interesting to me. I’ll just buy whatever I deem useful and store it in my dimensional space. I followed the map and we got to the store; it was quite close to the city center. We then spent a half hour convincing the clerk that we weren’t just ordinary kids. Gregory was prepared and had his portable lab with him and showed them to the clerk. I couldn't prove that I’m a blacksmith without tools but I will just let Gregory buy whatever I find interesting. Gregory bought several small jars of white powder. I also found some chemicals that I could use. I asked him where I could find the blacksmith but it seems the blacksmith is near the edge of the city so it would be unlikely that we would encounter it. Gregory asked where we could find the library and it seems to be a bit south of the city center, where all the big buildings are. We thanked the clerk and headed toward the clerk pointed us toward. We had to go through the city square. It's like the town square in Boshi tow but way bigger, does this have a different name in cities? A plaza? I’m not sure. It's the same big open space we went through to go to the building to get our IDs yesterday. It was quite busy and I could hear some music.

Look Agnis, it’s a street performer playing the xylophone. Can you mimic a xylophone with your [Boss music]? I never tried but I don’t think so. We looked at the musician as we passed by. I could hear that he was skilled but since we could hear him, he has only been playing boring songs.

Hey, Greg, you can play the violin, right? Gregory looked at me shocked.

I’m not doing that! Chill! I’m not suggesting that you join him and help him out.

Oh, ok, I got scared there for a moment, well it has been years since I touched a violin and I wasn't that great at it anyway. I was thinking if he’s still here after we come back from the library, both of us might give him a hand. Gregory looked at me.

I am concerned that there is a high chance that you suggested this not because you wanted to help him out but because you have your own agenda, will you be fine though? You can’t use your tails here. That is exactly why! I need to figure out how to do this unassisted. It is probably going to be super hard but I have to be prepared for anything!

Right… and do you need me to play violin for that? I don't even have a violin on me. Well, it is to lessen the burden on me, I can play some simple violin sounds and you do the main ehh violining. Also, I can make a violin for you with ice and wires!

Do you even know how a violin works? It is one thing that you can mimic its sound with wires and lightning magic but to make one you need to know how it works. Uhh…

Thought as much. Well, it's a good thing we’re heading toward a library! I can look up how instruments work! Let's go! I grabbed Gregory’s arm and dragged him toward the library.

Why do you always have the wrong motivations to do the right things? Don’t worry I balance it out by having the right motivations to do the wrong things!

That doesn't make it any better! We located the library and stepped inside. Gregory and I took a battle stance.

“Hey, youngsters! This isn’t a battlefield!” A tall old man with a long grey braided beard approached us. There are no books here that swallow us or fungus that tries to poison us here?

“Of course not! This is a library!” We look at the old man skeptically. “Hmm, it seems you guys have gone through some rough times.” You can tell?

“I used to be an adventurer in my young days, I might have found a library or two that sound similar to your descriptions but be at ease this is a safe public library, I’m the head librarian Peter Peterson.” That name is a joke, right? Gregory smacked me.

That’s rude! I am Gregory and this is Agnis, we are here looking for some books related to mythology for our school project.

“Ooh, mythology, go up the stairs there, head over to the right and it should be to your left after you passed the 3rd pillar. It should have a sign that reads ‘Legends and Mythology’. I hope the information there suit your needs.” Is there anything related to the composition of musical instruments and maybe another one that’s related to teaching magic skills?

“Some broad interests you have there, musical instruments should be over there to the right, about the teaching of magic skills… we have removed and banned those from libraries all over the country a year ago. Other countries are likely to follow this example soon.” Oh, how come? Excuse us, we’re not from around here or this country.

“Hmm, well there have been cases where individuals came to the libraries to learn strong magical spells and use these to commit crimes. So, the board of head librarians has declared that all documents containing methods of teaching magical skills will be removed and banned from public libraries all over the country. The only method of acquiring these are from university libraries, which are heavily guarded, or specific libraries or laboratories, either way, they are inaccessible to the public.” Hmm, that makes a lot of sense. Hmm, yeah, I’m surprised that it took until only a year ago for people to abuse it. Agnis!

“He is correct in thinking this, it only took several severe crimes involving the same specific magic skills to make a movement like this. The skills that were used weren’t that rare but they were still quite uncommon and it was confirmed that the separate crimes had no connection besides using the same specific magical skillset that could be found in a specific document, it became quite popular before those crimes so it was quite easy to draw those conclusions after some investigations. Anyway, I will no longer hold you youngsters up, in the unlikely case, you find books that swallow people or poisonous fungi, don't hesitate to contact me. I will be walking around on the main floor and in case you can’t find me, report any issues to Clarice, the receptionist.” He gestured toward Clarice and walked off.

Right, I’ll study up on some musical instruments, I will join you in a bit! I split up with Gregory and headed over toward the section Peterson pointed to. After 5 minutes I found the correct section and picked up some books. I saw detailed schematics of various musical instruments. I stored these in my archive but I kept studying to try and understand them better. It is one thing to know something but something else to understand it. I was spending the most time on the piano and violin. I could mimic their sounds quite decently. The violin was near perfect but I need to understand how to make one for Gregory.

For the piano, I was a bit off. It sounded like a piano but to people who play piano or have listened to many piano pieces, it might sound off. My general knowledge of how it works was good enough to approximate its sound but there are obviously things I don’t know. Wind instruments roughly speaking are just vibrating columns of air so I have those mastered pretty decently. I also looked through some other instruments to attempt to improve their sound but the violin and piano were my main focus. The problem was that I was in the library so I couldn't just make some out of ice and test if they sounded good enough. Does that mean I have to ace them on the first try? Unassisted? I don’t know if this is going to go well… this sounds harder than our Boshi town adventures. For the violin I decided to focus more on the exterior, Gregory can tune the strings if I mess up the string part. I hope. I spent 30 minutes studying the violin and an hour on the piano. The piano is the biggest obstacle, and which madman invented this complicated instrument, surely, he had too much time to spare. I should have a high success rate with the violin now, and the piano… probably 50/50 I will just have to try out and make a physical piano out of strings and ice and play it a bit somewhere in the middle of the [Boss music], I want to add a piano solo but I have to use it before the solo to make sure it sounds and works ok.

Feeling that I’ve spent long enough on this and that I probably won't increase my success without actually making the piano, I put back the books and headed toward Gregory. Where was it up these stairs and then 3 pillars to the left or right? I have to try to rely less on my eyes to find shit, come on brain remember! In the end, it’s 50/50 so I can just guess. I decided to go right. I found Gregory absorbed in a book. He seemed to be halfway. I guess instead of finding out information about where our home might be or what kind of beings could have a clue, he managed to find some old legend or kind and was reading the whole story. It isn't very often that Gregory is useless in what he set out to do. I called out to him but he didn't respond.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Greg! This is terrible! A sewer line broke and this place will soon be submerged! Gregory closed the book.

We need to get out of here immediately! I grabbed him since he tried to get up and run away and sat him down.

Just kidding, you wouldn't respond otherwise, there is no water incoming. Did you learn anything? Ugh, I got absorbed in this story about some hero who drove off a dragon. This dragon seemed to have 3 heads and 3 wings.

Wha? How is it supposed to fly with 3 wings? And as far as I know, every dragon type has 1 head. Hmm yeah but maybe this dragon was of the 4-winged kind and lost one.

Hmm, I've only ever seen no winged dragons even though 2 winged dragons seem to be the most common. Well 4 winged dragons seem to be the rarest kind but this legend is from about 500 years ago. The dragon was terrorizing the area, it doesn't say which, and this hero fought it but this book was full of quite uninteresting or irrelevant details so that is pretty much all I got from this legend, it did however go into great detail about the hero’s personal preferences and daily routine when off duty.

Off duty? Is that a thing for heroes? Like yoo, a dragon is burning my field! Oh, I’m sorry I’m off duty, I will slay him tomorrow though! I don’t know It was a bizarre story… So why did you continue reading this for 1.5 hours?! I grabbed the book out of his hand and put it back.

Weren’t we supposed to find clues about how and what we need to do to go home? Hmm, you’re correct it just has been a while since I could read some fiction. Most of them were encyclopedias, safety procedures, protocols, and the kind.

Oof, the author would probably be upset if he knew you called his book fiction, I’m pretty sure he believes in the crap he wrote. I started to pick out random books. I decided to cheat on these. I looked around and nobody seemed to be paying attention to us. I activated my eyes and rapidly flipped through all the pages.

Meh, useless! I wanted to make a useless pile and throw the book on it but Gregory looked at me and shook his head. I swear sometimes it looks like he can read my mind. I carefully put the book back and took another. We spent an hour trying to find any clues but most didn't seem to be remotely related to anything we need to know. I guess it makes sense, my mom made Hourai to escape and hide from the gods and mortals alike. It would be a shitty hiding place if everyone knew it existed and where it was. Gregory found one documentary but it mainly showed us what the perspective of the humans was on us as mythical and legendary species. On the same tier as gods. Great now we get lumped with those assholes. I was about to give up when I found something about nine-tail foxes. Gregory also seemed tired of the search so I urged him to come to take a look.

Hmm, it started interesting but then it started to go on about how whenever disaster struck, nine tail spirit foxes were spotted. This caused the humans and some of the other dominant species on the Mainfloor to think you guys were the cause and started hunting you guys down and also using your tails for the fur… Are you ok? I tried to find the comfort of my tail but I was hiding it so I couldn't. I nodded.

Yeah, it also says that we didn't put up much resistance… I don’t understand why… This is from after the Great Eraser so your numbers should've already been quite low, why would they choose not to resist?

I don’t understand… I don’t know. Maybe my race is pacifistic? Hmm, your mother is quite like you, Viridian is an assassin and so is his daughter of the 4 nine-tailed spirit foxes that I know none seem pacifistic. It doesn't really help that you 4 might be about 2% of the total population…

Wait what? I told you before, right? The last time I heard about the state of the population of the ninetails I overheard my mother talking to your mother, it seemed that the nine-tail spirit fox population is close to hitting double digits.

Ah right… 2%... this is bad… Let’s see what else this book says… Are you sure you are, ok?

Not really but finding something like this was to be expected. Let's try and find out how to get home before my race loses another member… I’m starting to miss your optimism a bit… We didn't find out much from this book. Only that the humans suddenly noticed that we disappeared and that things seemed to get worse after that. Some scientists started to speculate that we might have been trying to keep things from getting worse which explains the frequent sightings close to disaster and now that we have been driven off or driven to extinction, that nothing was stopping those disasters which became worse and more frequent after the last sighting of a nine-tailed spirit fox. Another speculation was that the nine-tailed spirit foxes didn't seem to fight back because they knew that if the humans would wipe them out, they would be sealing their own fate by doing so. I’m not so sure about that one but it holds some truth. I don’t know if my mother and I would just let us get killed with the thought that it would come to bite them later. Gregory picked up another book and I tried to not think too much about this.

Vampires seemed to be real but they also disappeared. I mean we exist; I don’t think we of all people should be surprised that weird creatures exist.

It is interesting, they seemed to have disappeared at about the same time Hourai should have been created. I don’t remember seeing any vampires in Hourai.

Me neither but the last sighting matches the rough time period as the last sighting of the nine tails in that other book and when we know Hourai was created. Typical, we try to look for answers and we find more questions.

Anyway, this information is useless for now. They seem to be a royal pain to fight, near immortality, super strength, and regeneration. Their magic depends greatly on which original race the individual was. Some of the most troublesome vampires seem to have been witches turned vampires. Oh shit, if Azu got turned into a vampire it’s game over for the Mainfloor. They are supposed to be physically weak right? Becoming a vampire just wipes out her only weakness although she seemed quite physically strong to me…

Yeh, I don’t know how accurate this source is but the regular sunlight and garlic weakness bullshit doesn't seem to apply to the stronger ones, the few ways to defeat them was using their true name against them. True name? Like their surname?

It says that vampires, demons, and devils have a true name besides the names they normally use, it points to their origin their true being, know that, and you can control them or inflict great damage. So, can you kill them without knowing those?

I don’t know this book seems to suggest that a true name is the only way they could find. But only 2 minor vampires have been killed like that. If they don't mean us harm then there should be no problem.

This book doesn't suggest that they are docile. Just the regular vampire stuff. Do they know how we can get home? Don’t know, but we’d have to find one first. I grabbed the book out of Gregory’s hands and put it back.

Well, that means this information is useless! Let’s go, we've been here for almost 3.5 hours. We need to stretch our legs! Ugh, fine, how late is it?

14:12, we've been out for quite long. I hope Raishin didn't vaporize the hotel. Ted is with him so it should be fine. We looked around to make sure there weren't any poisonous fungi in the library and we left the library and headed toward the plaza.

I was hoping he wouldn't be here but he still is… Yes! Let's go help him with some boss music! We approached the man who was playing some slow sad song on the xylophone. It didn't seem like he earned much today.

Hey, mind if we help you out a bit? We don’t need money we just want to tes… help.

“Eh? Sure, I was planning to leave after this song but I can do another one. You two don't seem to have musical instruments on you though…”

That is understandable but I got this! I released the wires from under my clothes and made my [Boss music] setup. It had ice pipes of various lengths, widths, and thicknesses as well 2 boxes that had wires going through them. I made the percussion out of ice. The wires all started at my fingertips. I made pointy ice caps for my fingers and every icecap had 3 wires going out of them. I can now mix lightning with ice so I can run this through my whole setup. I also froze a violin for Gregory and let him tune it. I gave a short explanation of the moments he could pause. I don’t know the musical term for it. I think he is skilled but he just doesn’t know any exciting songs. I’m confident that he can follow the song quite nicely. I even gave him a xylophone solo!

That is quite the setup you have… It is not complete because I don’t have the usual preparation. I will have to do everything with my own brain. This is going to be rough.

Why does it feel like you seem to find this harder than fighting any encounter we had in Boshi town? Because it is! Have you seen the madness that is the piano? Which madman invented that thing? I might mess up my first piano part. I will play it a bit in the background to make sure my failure wouldn't bring the boss music down.

This is all unnecessary but whatever… I finished the tuning, I’m ready whenever you guys are. You have no issues following the flow of the song, right?

I surely hope so, you didn't give me a solo right? Uhh…

Take it out! But…

Take it out! Meh, fine… party-pooper. Anyways let's go!

Gregory started with the violin and the man joined him soon after. And then I started. I ran lightning through the 2 boxes made out of ice. It produced quite an electronic sound but it would make the beat for this boss music. I also added some light percussion. The man and Gregory looked at me in surprise while still continuing to play their parts. The moment the electronic beat hit everyone on the plaza stopped and pointed their attention toward us. The man was keeping up with the fast beat and Gregory could rest a bit. Just some flutes and the xylophone now. Followed by some extra layers of electronic music. A crowd started to gather and put money in the man’s hat. I added a little bit of organ and we returned to the chorus where all of us were playing. But near the end of the chorus, I added some strings to compliment Gregory’s violin. The crowd was going wild and the man’s hat was overflowing with money.

The crowd doesn't know yet though, the best is yet to come. We extended the chorus and I froze myself a piano. Time to try this. I did a piano part. It sounded good but not great. I covered it with another electronic layer. I figured out what was wrong with my piano. I could fix this before my piano solo. We went back to the chorus with some extra strings and wind instruments. We finished the chorus and it was time for the xylophone solo. This man was shredding it. I revised the piano and froze a bigger one. I started to play some notes at the end of the man’s solo which transitioned into mine.

I shredded the piano It reminded me of how Paul was playing the piano. I’m not saying I’m as good as Paul, but I think I was quite close. Both the xylophone and piano solo was intense and the crowd was loving it. After my solo, it blended into the same verse as our solos combined but everyone was playing now and we turned the intensity up higher. I prefer playing the piano with just running lightning through strings and the like but physically playing one has its charm and actually playing it feels like I’m making a bigger impact. It is just hard to keep up with the other instruments running while I manually play the piano. I think I managed it well. My head started to hurt from all this concentrating. After this intense part, we had the outro which was a quiet part with just Gregory playing with some strings in the background to which the man joined and ended the boss music. The crowd cheered and started throwing money at us. I sat down utterly exhausted. Yeah, I’m not doing this ever again without my tails prepping. This was crazy.

“We want more! We want more!” Oh hell no! Can’t these people be more considerate?! Are you ok? You look exhausted.

“That was crazy! Thank you, guys! Are you sure I can keep this money?!” Take it, it’s yours. I do have to admit, even though I played a part in this, this was insane. Sometimes I wonder what is going on in your head to think of stuff like this.

A lot when doing this. I had to keep moving my fingers and hands around and apply the correct color and amount of lightning, but because I can’t higher than blue in public, my options are limited, I have to keep the beat and music progression going, and the different instruments I need and how to imitate them and get the tempo and timing right, then there was the piano, holy shit that was hard! I think I managed it decently… So much… stuff going on. I think you did well, look! Gregory helped me up and pointed at the crowd who kept shouting they want more. The man took his money and vanished. Since my setup was still standing the crowd seemed to think there would be more.

Ugh, humans are merciless! You do know you brought this on yourself, right? Fine! I will do one more but I will be mainly using the piano! Do you need my help?

You can if you want, I’m just going to play the first song we heard Paul play. Hmm, I think that piece seemed to be made for only the piano with maybe some slight assistance from other instruments. That is fine, you can go and collect their money then! I froze my improved piano and started to play the intimidating boss music. Also, secretly as a sign to intimidate them to not ask for more afterward. I added a few strings for some extra ambiance and an organ playing softly to make it extra intimidating. This was still hard but not as hard as that crazy music we did before. The crowd seemed to listen but I could see that the music had intimidated them a bit. This piece wasn't that long but it could be easily looped so after 2 loops I stopped. Gregory seemed to have collected quite the amount. They cheered but not as loud and I broke off the setup. I got a headache from all this concentration and magic manipulation.

That sounded even better than I remember. I gave it some extra. I have a massive headache though…

Your magic control must be insane to pull all of that off and all for [Boss music]? At first, I thought it was useless but after seeing it in action up close, I realize that this requires an insane amount of magic control. Yeah, it was harder to master than I admit but I’m glad that I got the hang of it. My piano sound is still a bit off but it seems to be hardly noticeable.

“Excuse me! Would you like to join my agency?” I’m sorry, I’d rather keep my organs.

“What? No, I work in the music industry! I recruit young talent! Here is my card, you may or may not have heard of me but I’m responsible for making the new idol group Tails of Symphony” What? Who came up with that hard-to-remember name? How can people remember them? Only you have problems remembering names… And you really seem to be collecting these cards.

“What?! Someone beat me to the punch?!” Not really… I showed him the card Terry gave me.

“Jeremiah Odell from Yttroz Industries? What does he need from a musician?” Actually, I’m a blacksmith…

“Excuse me? A… blacksmith? Ehh… you’re pulling my leg, right?” Don’t bother making sense of all this, of everyone you could find on this continent this guy probably makes the least sense.

“So ehh will you consider joining our agency?” I’m sorry I have other goals I need to reach.

“I see… Anyway, keep the card in case you change your mind!” The man made a polite bow and headed south. You sure are popular, shouldn't an assassin keep to the shadows? I’m not an assassin though.

You move, think, and act like an assassin, I don’t see how you’re not one, you’re just a bizarre assassin. I didn't do this to draw attention though! I just wanted to test my [Boss music] unassisted!

Yes, that makes this even worse, anyway… Hey guys! Oh hey, Raishin, Ted, and hmm do I know you?

See! I wasn’t lying when I told you I know them!

“It is nice to meet you Gregory and Agnis, my name is Shania, and the performance you 2 had was marvelous!” Aha… Hey Ted what is going on? Greetings, I’m Gregory and this strange rude guy is Agnis. Well, some things happened and… Hehe Agnis and Greg, meet Shania, my girlfriend!

What? Excuse me? I pulled Ted to the side.

Hey Ted, is this chick blind? Or did he drug her? Hey, I don’t know! She seems genuinely interested in Raishin! Gregory joined us.

Hey, Ted, this isn't a trap, right? An attractive and seemingly intelligent woman falling for Raishin? Is today the day we die? See! I was thinking the same! Maybe she is one of those assassins who use the ‘Honeytrap’ technique to ensnare Raishin! Ooh, I like me some honey! Wait what is a honeytrap?

Well, you see…

“Ahum, you guys know that I can hear you right?” Shit, she is on to us! We should have prepared against eavesdropping! I took out a dagger and took a fighting stance.

“Haha, you were right your friends are really interesting!” I know right? I inspected both Salia and Raishin. Nothing seems to be amiss with both of them.

Psst Saria, if he is holding you against your will blink twice. Hey! I didn't do whatever you think I did! I looked at Seline.

“My name is Shania, by the way.” I jumped back. A mind reader! No dumbass, Ted or Raishin probably told her that you suck at remembering names.

Oh. We talked a bit with Salie and determined that she is harmless.

“Agnis, my name is Shania.” Stop mindreading! Haha, Agnis you're so forgetful!