After a moment’s pause, the next person to step forward was the fire spirit.

“My name is Ember. I was born in the depths of the Ariex.” Yura knew that was the name of the biggest volcano in the Lotus Lake Zone. It had been inactive for decades at this point but it seemed logical that a fire spirit would be born in a place like that.

While the elf was thinking that, Ember continued speaking “I spent quite a while wandering around training my fire magic before taking up work as a mercenary, mostly in helping guard merchant caravans passing through, but I never really had much of a reason to try and earn money.” She smiled wryly “So when Ricardo approached me and invited me to be a part of the team, I decided to go for it. I’m not as passionate as some of the others, but it’s cool to help people nonetheless.”

After a moment’s pause, Nalia asked a question:

“From what I know fire magic is really destructive and hard to control, right? So how do you manage to fight as a team along with the others?”

Leonem replied immediately “Ah, she’s really good at magic, so there’s no problem at all. She can attack enemies that are right next to one of us and we barely even feel warm.”

The agnis shot him an exasperated but fond look before nodding to confirm what he said.

“You must be quite talented, then.” Elise piped up.

“How so?” Ember asked.

“Your fire magic is all self-taught and yet you’ve managed to reach such an impressive level of control. That’s not something just anyone can do.” The contractor clarified.

“I… I suppose you can say that.” Ember replied a little hesitantly.

There were no other comments, so she passed the turn to Naiou, the undyne.

She sighed, clearly annoyed with the whole situation, but kept her tone polite as she began to speak:

“My name is Naiou. I was born in the northeastern fountain zone.” That place was one of the biggest tourist attractions in the Lotus Lake Zone, a conglomeration of natural water fountains of many shapes and sizes “I was part of a group that earned money by using magic to perform water shows.

“I ended up getting into a disagreement with the rest of the group, though, so I struck off on my own.” She paused for a moment, as if trying to decide how much more to say “And well… Ricardo saved my life when I was in danger, so I decided to join the group out of gratitude.”

The man in question smiled slightly, perhaps in remembrance, as Naiou went silent, waiting for questions.

Yura was fairly sure she wouldn’t reply if asked about the specifics of that incident, so instead she asked a different question:

“So the magic you use as part of the team is developed from what you learned in your previous group, right?” Naiou nodded in response “Leonem mentioned that it had to do with water constructs, so it sounds pretty interesting.”

‘Specially considering what I’ve been training.’ Yura thought.

Naiou gave Leonem an exasperated look before sighing and replying “You’ll probably have a chance to see it soon.”

There were no more comments forthcoming, so Naiou stepped back to let the next person introduce themselves.

‘She didn’t seem all that prickly.’ Nina noted through the bond connection.

‘She clearly respects Ricardo a lot, so she may just be trying to be on her best behavior in front of him.’ Elise replied.

‘That makes sense.’ Nalia agreed.

At that point, Onyx stepped forward to make his own introduction.

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“My name is Onyx, I was born in the Lorena cave. I was raised by a local wizard called Milena, who taught me quite a lot about general magic.” He paused for a moment “She’s no longer with us, but I had learned enough from her to be able to work in magical analysis, mostly improving enchantments.” He turned to the team leader “Then Ricardo contacted me, since he was looking for a magical analyst on a permanent basis. I accepted and then here we are.”

“So that’s why you’re a magic generalist.” Nalia commented “I’m the same way, and I already mentioned it to Leonem, but I’d like to check your research about this disturbance to see if I can help in some way. Also, I’m sorry for your loss.”

“It’s fine, it’s been more than ten years since then. And I wouldn’t have a problem giving you the information.” Onyx replied.

Yura noted that he had looked over at Ricardo as he said that last sentence, as if to check if it was okay.

The knight didn’t say anything against it, and the next one to comment was Elise:

“I guess we have some things in common.” She smiled “I was also raised by people who weren’t my parents, and ended up being deeply influenced by them. Though in my case it was a lot o people, rather than just one, and none of them were contractors.”

“I suppose I can see that.” Onyx replied neutrally.

Yura felt a small stab of jealously at that exchange, but it was quickly quashed by the thought of the family she now had.

The next one to step up to the plate was the sylph.

“I’m Silvie. I was born in the Zenos village.” She introduced herself “That place has always had a deep relationship with sylphs like me, so it wasn’t like I didn’t have a place there, but…” She hesitated, before continuing to speak “I just wanted something else with my life, so I decided to use the magic I learned there for something else, and that’s how I ended up joining this group.”

Yura could understand that, even though she couldn’t really empathize, so she just watched as Elise asked a question:

“Based on what you said, I would guess that village is within the tornado triangle. Is that right?”

“Yes. Which is why that relationship with sylphs was so important to them.” Silvie answered.

Yura could guess that the tornado triangle was an area of the Lotus Lake Zone where the flows of magic caused lots of tornadoes to form. So it would certainly be difficult to live there without some way of dealing with them.

There were no other comments forthcoming, so after an exchange of glances, the next member of the group introduced herself:

“I’m Lauria.” The fairy said “I’m actually not from here, I came from the Vivendi city in Lordran. I studied magic in one of the schools they have there, which are pretty good, since I was always interested in magic.” She paused for a bit, thinking of what to say next “I came here because it sounded like an interesting place, and I joined this group… Well, it was kinda on accident, but I like it here.”

“Liking magic is definitely something you have in common with Nalia here.” Elise said with a smile.

“Yeah, but I’m more of a generalist, while apparently she specializes in enchantments.” Nalia said.

“I had a talent for enchantments, so that was what I studied most.” Lauria confirmed.

“Also, I heard about Vivendi city.” Elise said “It is one of the places I was planning on visiting later.”

“Ah, I think you’ll like it there.” The fairy nodded.

“It might be interesting to check those schools you mentioned, then.” Nalia said.

Lauria agreed to tell them more about the city later on, and since there were no more comments, it was then time for the last introduction.

“I’m Hazel, but you already knew that.” She smiled “I was born in one of the Green Islands of Montemar, specifically island 7.”

That was another well-known place in the Lotus Lake Zone, a group of islands that were absolutely filled with dense vegetation. The islands didn’t have individual names, both because they were too small and because there were more than thirty of them, but that certainly seemed like a suitable place for a dryad to be born.

“And there’s actually a pretty dramatic story behind how I learned healing magic, but I’ll try and keep it short.” She gave Ricardo a look, who nodded in approval “Basically, there was a really big storm and my birth tree ended up getting destroyed.

“As you may know, losing one’s birth tree usually means death to a dryad, but I was saved by a healer called Illyrio.” She paused in reminiscence “I was inspired by his ability to save others, so I asked him to teach me healing magic. And he accepted, though he was actually only passing by, so he just taught me the very basics.

“After he left, I practiced on my own until I was good enough to start healing other people, and I ended up being recruited into the team because people knew of me as a healer.” She finished.

“That Illyrio person must have been an interesting kind of healer, since your technique was fairly natural, based upon the body’s natural ability to heal.” Nalia commented “Pretty different from what I’ve seen doctors do, even taking their lack of magic into account.”

“That’s probably just because he didn’t teach her much.” Elise argued “Considering she only got the very basics from him, it’s natural that her technique wouldn’t have anything fancy.”

The fairy conceded the possibility and then Yura decided to make a comment of her own:

“I think it’s nice that you wanted to help people. And hopefully being a part of this team is fulfilling that dream for you.”

“It is.” Hazel confirmed.

There were a few moments of silence as everyone waited to see if anyone else had any other comments, but then Ricardo spoke:

“With this, the introductions are done.” He then looked at Elise “What do you intend on doing next?”

“Well, first we want to check the data you’ve already gathered, like we mentioned before.” She glanced at Onyx “And after that, if there’s no other business, we would like to check out the areas where those incidents occurred, for some field research.”

The knight nodded, agreeing with that idea.

And that was the true start of the alliance between the Lotus Defenders and Elise’s group. And no one would be able to guess what would be the ultimate result of that alliance.