Truelip just came out of her house and lock after which she turned around towards Elliot.

“Okay, let’s go.”

“Is she gonna be okay?” he was, of course, referring to Tiara.

“She looked around a bunch of the house before I could finally manage to get her to behave and go in her room and stop snooping around.”

“Is it a problem if she looks around…?”

“I don’t want to have to clean after her. Which is also what I threatened her with if she refuses to listen – I told her that she’d be cleaning after herself and she won’t get food until she does so.”

“That makes sense I guess… though maybe you’re treating her too much like a child…?”

Truelip just gave Elliot a look saying ‘are you kidding me’ before she replied “Pretty sure children would behave more than her. And would listen more.”

“I guess you have a point there...”

After his awkward pause, they decided to go on their patrol route for the day. They again walked about in silence until they finally got out of the crowded area and things got a bit quieter which was their queue.

“So is there anything else you want to know? Or did I finally satisfy your curiosity?”

“Nothing that I can think of right now… oh” he was about to ask something he remembered, but he was too late as he gave Truelip the opening she was looking for.

“Okay, because that’s the only part of you I will be satisfying.”

Elliot’s mind would usually go blank when he hears something like that, but Truelip’s straight face didn’t make it look like it was a flirt and it definitely didn’t help if it was meant to be a joke so he just looked at her with an uncomfortable expression on his face not knowing what to say.

“So what were you going to say?”

“There were actually a lot more things I wanted to ask, but new ones kept popping up and I forgot most of them…”

“I see.”

Hearing that basic reply reminded him how he constantly says that to them when they explain things and started thinking how she should probably stop or change it up so he doesn’t sound annoying after which he tried to focus his thoughts again on the question at hand after noticing the expecting Truelip.

“Why do you look like that…?”

“Like what?”

Due to him being distracted he didn’t think through his question and came to regret it now since Truelip’s reply sound slightly irritated towards the end.

“I-I uh, I mean l-like you-you look so young, y-yet your personality is so mature a-and…”

“Ah that. Well like I said it depends on the person. Like I said if they’re like childish then they’d be young so that’s why I’m young and as for my personality, just because I act indifferent instead of playful that doesn’t make me mature.”

“I see… Though I’m pretty certain that’s what childish means…”

“Hmmm” Truelip made that sound as she cupped her chin with her hand while pondering as they walked a bit in silence before she finally continued. “I guess it’s better to say that just because I’m indifferent that doesn’t mean I’m not childish and just because I’m not energetic doesn’t mean I’m mature like there are teenagers who just aren’t that interested in moving around and my mental age is 15 so I am basically a teenager right now and you don’t look much older yourself.”

“Yeah, I’m 16… and I guess that kind of makes sense…” he replied timidly before Truelip uncharacteristically made a face showing as if she just understood something and responded “Ah, I got it! Basically, my mental age is 15 which is why I look like a 15 year old. I might be able to understand mature topics and concepts, but that doesn’t mean I myself am that mature. Just like how I might act like a playful, but if my mind is that of an adult then I’d look like one so I guess it’s more correct to say that you look based on how you think and not how you act.”

“That makes more sense, yeah.” He replied trying to not sound repetitive.

“Yes!” she said sounding very proud with herself about finding a good way to say it although it wasn’t even close to showing on her face which prompted Elliot about something else he had noticed.

“By the way, you can make any emotion with your face whenever you want, right?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Why do you always choose to have none then…?”

“Meh, I don’t know. Just don’t feel like having one. You don’t see people just randomly walking around all smiling, don’t you?”

“I guess… but you still don’t show it often…”

“I guess? I don’t really which is why I usually remove my cheek muscles since I rarely use them.”

“Wait, what…?”

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“Oh, you don’t know? I’m a sprite so I can change my body at will, remember?”

“No…?”

“When Cathy said that spirits decide to make a physical body and they make it with their mana and since they made it they obviously know how to change it by applying more mana.”

“I see… but why waste mana on your changing your cheek muscles then…”

“Well like I said I rarely use them so it's not that much and it saves far more energy if I had them and used them reflexively”

“Okay…”

“So does mean you can change everything about you…?”

“Yeah,” Truelip replies while lifting up her arm and it changes, along with the armor, to a grey color and splits at the middle along with her hand which instead of fingers now had elongated claws before she just as quickly returned it back to normal.

“Uuuuuh…” he was, of course, dumbfounded and didn’t know how to react at first but then his curiosity got ahold of him again. “So then why do you choose to look like that…?” he hadn't learned his lesson from earlier and he quickly realised that it sounded similar, but it was a bit better so he hoped that it was good enough not to upset her but it seemed it didn’t catch her attention, or at least she didn’t react as if it did.

“Well this is how I spawned in this world, but I want to look like this so that’s why I spawned like that. I don’t know I just like it.”

He tried not to ask any questions about her proportions and why she chose them and instead attempted to ask a different question in such a way that could answer that one if she takes the bait. “So then why did you choose that body shape and not something more… deadly…?”

“Well, this is just what fits me and my personality. After all, like we said this world gives you bodies that fit you and this one fit my combat style perfectly. In fact, if it wasn’t for its petite frame I would only be a spell blade instead of a jack of all trades since I’d lose the maneuverability it adds.”

“That makes sense I guess.” He kind of got the answer he was looking for but was too scared to continue the subject.

“Speaking of you are going to be a magic knight, right?”

“Yeah… how did you know? I haven’t told you yet.”

“Oh, well I just thought that would be best for you since it wouldn’t waste your magic potential. I didn’t know, but I was going to suggest you be one if you weren’t going to.”

“I see… Catharine said the same thing when she suggested me that…”

“I could see why. Your physical potential isn’t really that high. They’re about the same actually.”

“How do you know it…?”

“Magic sense of course. Have you checked your stats yet?”

“No, Catharine checked them for me.”

“You do know you can check your stats at the library?”

“No…” he replied slightly irritated with himself for having to ask so much and hoped he wasn’t annoying her and while she didn’t show it, he now was certain that she might choose not to and he’d never know.

“Wel now you do I guess.”

“How does it exactly work…?”

“Well, it measures your bodies abilities and shows them up as stats like Strenght, Dexterity, Speed, etcetera.”

“I see… so then what are yours…?”

“Oh, I haven’t actually gone to check them out yet.”

“Why’s that… do you wanna come with me then…?”

“You see most people use those stats to be able to judge people power so, for example, their base their strength on their own so if you were in a party and you saw that your warrior is weaker than theirs, but your tank with plate isn’t then you can get a guess how strong they are but you don’t really need to know exact stats for that one I guess…

But it becomes useful when that information becomes more widespread about said person and if you meet them you can decide whether your team can beat them instead of just having the random information of X party’s warrior is stronger. Another use is when looking for a party member you know exactly how powerful they are and how they fight.”

“That makes a lot of sense, but it’s all party related…”

“Yes and for starters, I don’t really party up so it’s irrelevant to me, but more importantly I use my magic sense to gauge an opponent’s power and I know it’s very accurate so I don’t want to also have to consider stats and end up misjudging due to having too many things to consider.”

“Okay then, I can get behind that too.”

“So that’s why I don’t be measuring them with you, but I can take you to the library after your shift?”

“Ah, n-no thanks… I’d rather not…”

“Don’t worry. We’ll be going on main streets so they’d be open and less likely for something to happen and plus I’d be with you so there’s not much to worry about. It’s a quick process so you should be able to get to your inn before sunset.”

“Okay…”

“Good.”

They continued talking from time to time about whatever they could think of while on their patrol. A few hours had passed already and it getting close to sunset.

“Oh, by the way, did I tell you why there are different guilds?” Truelip suddenly asked him while she was peeking in the alleyways.

He already had an idea why but decided to ask anyway. “Why?”

“Well obviously they all provide training and work for their respective profession, but all the guilds actually have quest boards in their guild halls. The adventuring one is more diverse quests that sometimes require parties while the others are more tailored towards what they need and can often be performed by a single person.”

“Then why do you usually stay at the adventures one?”

“Well, stronger adventurers can also solo some quests so there’s that.”

“I see…” at this point he was tired and couldn’t spare the energy to not sound repetitive.

“But the most important asset is their specialised training. I mean the Adventurer’s Guild also provides specialised training but its more like helping with directions while the others provide very precise training regimes and opportunities to learn from professionals.”

“So you learn what you want to do from the adventures and the perfect it in the others?”

“Well, kind of. You learn the basics from the adventures, then focus on it in the other guilds and then you go back to the adventures to further specialise and learn how to improve on your own if your build is more specific.”

“Are magic knights specific…?”

“Not even close. You’re just a knight that uses a few spells to help you here and there.”

“That’s good…”

“I actually prefer helping those with more specialised builds since most teachers themselves struggle with them, but with my build, I have a better understanding of how to help them improve.”

“That’s good at least.” He said as he looked up smiling at her.

Then he remembered she can't really smile and she looked at him, looked like she considered smiling, but didn’t do it at the end which kind of hurt him, but he expected. Surprisingly to him, she commented on that specifically.

“Oh, right. You know about the cheeks now. Sorry for not smiling, I’m just really lazy.”

“It’s okay…” he can’t lie that he still felt kind of disheartened, but also felt a bit better that she went out of her way to comment on it. It also added proof to his theory that she also overthinks things like he does as she didn’t take long to reach the same conclusion as him, which he thought was from worrying about how everything she does ends up looking like.

“But like I said don’t expect me to satisfy anything other than your curiosity as a way to make up for it.”

She said in a slightly teasing voice, almost like Tiara which wasn’t a good association to make for him, but he couldn’t help but blush at that remark even though she still looked disinterested.

She continued while looking up with closed eyes and both hands lifted horizontally at the elbow to the side dramatically. “After all, I don’t even have cheeks!”

He couldn’t help but giggle slightly at that one.

She is definitely doing all this on purpose…

He mused to himself, although he didn’t mind it that much as shown by the slight smile on his face.