Meanwhile, in the hub fortress of the Adventurer's Guild, the spacious hallways of Silverwood-textured marble with its ceiling raised high above the average level reverberated the distant sound of echoing footsteps, held up by equally tall pillars of marble, and its walls adorned with framed paintings of historical events and banners bearing the insignias of various countries, the Zelkio Empire included. Briskly rushing through one of the many hallways, an adventurer frantically scoured every nook and cranny of the hallway, checking around every single pillar before slumping her head in defeat.
"Miss Ninia, now is not the time to be messing around... you need to have your morning tutoring so you're ready for the academy," the adventurer pleaded, her voice hoarse from exhaustion as she spotted a rose and dark red mana clover flutter out from behind a marble pillar, accompanied by childish giggling. The adventurer exhaled deflatedly, relief washing over her at seeing Ninia hadn't actually run off.
"Miss Ninia... can you please come out now?" the adventurer requested. The giggling behind the pillar only increased as a super long rose and dark red striped cat-like tail popped out from behind the pillar, followed by five more identical tails emerging in a similar manner before swishing back and forth. The tips of two fox ears, sharing the same colours as the tails, poked themselves out from behind the pillar, teasing the adventurer with Ninia's presence by wiggling about before Ninia jumped out and ceremoniously unveiled herself with her four fists raised to the ceiling.
(Ninia Ruhikasana is a short seven-year-old-looking, ten-year-old humanoid female unidentified cat-like demi-human; she has fluffy rose and dark red hair, large rose eyes, four arms, six super long cat-like rose and dark red striped tails, her entire body is covered in rose and dark red striped fur, and ears that look like two conjoined fox ears)
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"Do I have to? Can't I just use my clovers to get through the hard stuff like mom said?" Ninia asked playfully, swaying her arms back and forth as she bounced on the spot. The adventurer placed a hand on her hip and gave Ninia a vaguely amused side eye, making Ninia awkwardly chuckle as she placed her hands behind her back.
"And what would your mother say if she caught you doing that?" the adventurer asked with a faint sternness to her voice while shaking her head, finding it hard to believe such drastically different types of people could have a kid. Ninia meekly dropped one of her conjoined ears, rocking from side to side and fiddling with her fingers as she defeatedly groaned, faintly from embarrassment but mostly from frustration.
"She'd say I'm acting stupid for trying to cheat on a task like Gruncle Zalroth would...," Ninia whimpered, kicking the floor with frustration. The adventurer's face softened slightly and she weakly raised a hand to the back of her head to scratch it, feeling a pang of guilt in her chest at hearing Ninia's sulking.
"At least you understand, now can we head to the study before Sylvie and the others decide to come looking for us, please?". Ninia's eyes shot wide open, her conjoined ears straightening out into the shape of an X from the shocked surprise she felt rush through her; at the mention of her friends, her pouty emotions evaporated into the air, finding she couldn't hold back her growing grin as she couldn't contain her excitement.
"Sylvie and the others are here?! Why didn't you tell me," Ninia exclaimed in an excited pout as multiple rose and dark red mana clovers popped into existence around her. Not allowing her the chance to respond, Ninia bolted it over to the adventurer and whisked her off the floor in one swift motion, booking it down the hallway as purple lightning mana crackled off Ninia's body.