The meeting with the world leaders was a new experience, but he quickly pushed it to the back of his mind.

Outside the viewing building Kohn accurately guessed that a few more planes had landed since he arrived. The area was filled with a couple hundred people, most of them were standing idle, but here and there he could see some huddled on the ground. They were probably still in shock over being picked by the draft.

Kohn wanted to move back within the group, but for the second time that day someone managed to sneak up to him.

“Dooo!” The blue robed mage somehow managed to get closer to him in a flat area with no cover. Kohn only realized that Leete was standing nearby when he embarrassingly yelled out a word in his own language. “Hello, as you say.”

“Hello.”

“You are the free man from foolish lands?” Leete’s English was remarkably better than during the live stream that the world had watched.

“Yes.” Kohn felt he should help translate a little more. “I’m the volunteer from the United States of America.”

Leete walked around him, analyzing Kohn’s appearance.

“Why speak with leaders?”

So he was suspicious that Kohn was a spy. Looked like he was going to have some tough times moving around freely for a while. It wouldn’t be a problem so long as he was taught magic.

“They wanted to tell the volunteers about the war that we’d be fighting in and ask that we help the others as much as possible.”

Leete jerked in surprise. “Your world’s leaders spoke to you about the enemy?”

Kohn’s eyes narrowed. “Wasn’t your English supposed to be much worse?”

“Ah?” When Kohn honestly told him that the world leaders had shared a state secret, Leete had been taken by surprise and subconsciously spoke in perfect English. “Ah, yes. Well, I am a mage after all.”

“So why the charade? Why pretend that you couldn’t speak any of our languages when you first arrived?”

“When meeting the native species of new planets, it generally helps to break down the tensions by working together to learn each other’s language. Also, it takes a little while for the spell to take full effect so I really didn’t know how to speak to your leaders.” He held his arms in a ‘what can you do’ gesture, but Kohn felt like there was something incomplete in that statement.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“And it allows you to find out more about the other party when they think they’re free to talk in front of someone who can’t understand what they’re saying.” Leete had a bead of sweat run down his face. “But why didn’t you try to explain about the world heart situation? Or explain about the Prince taking over?”

Leete sighed in regret as they moved a bit further away from the rest of the gathered personnel. “I tried to dissuade Prince StoneTooth from forcibly taking control of your planet’s world heart, but the Prince has been under a lot of pressure recently. And I also agreed with him that your planet was leaderless.”

Kohn stopped Leete with an arm. “You know that’s not true. Each country is ruled by a leader.”

“Yes, but the entire world is not bound together with a common mind. A common purpose! You don’t expand, you maintain. You don’t grow with your neighbors, you destroy each other and wound yourselves.”

“Yeah. We’re not exactly the best species.”

Leete jumped on that train of thought. “That’s why, I think, the Prince decided to take responsibility for your planet. To either be that guiding hand, or in the worst situation, to be the final swing of the sword that prevents you from destroying everything around you.”

Kohn couldn’t let that go. “I said we’re not the best species, but that doesn’t mean that what we’ve been doing is wrong or that we can’t overcome adversity or become better than we are.” He remembered all the bad people he met in the past and how many of those had changed their lives for the better. When at the precipice, most people would make the right choice.

“You’re not a bad species,” Leete amended “just wild. Unguided.”

They wouldn’t ever necessarily agree. Both men realized this instinctively so they just stared off into the distance silently. The sun started to fall naturally on the horizon as the last plane landed and unloaded the last people.

Kohn just recalled something that picked at his curiosity. “Aren’t we the same species?”

No matter how he looked at Leete he seemed Human. There was nothing that he could see that actually looked different from anyone else he had met.

“We are similar it is true.” He was probably examining Kohn just as he had examined Leete. “However, we are separated by a large distance on different planets. We might seem similar, but in the kingdom we consider the living entities from one planet as a unique species.”

Kohn figured that maybe there was a problem with the magic Leete had used. Something about the usage of the term ‘species’ was off. “Here we consider living things to be of the same species if there are similar individuals that are capable of interbreeding.”

“Our two people have not yet had that chance.”

“True, but there are too many similarities between us that I don’t think there would be a problem.”

“Well. We have abilities and powers you do not. That could be enough of a difference.”

Alarmed, Kohn hurriedly questioned him about that. “But you’re going to teach us magic right?”

Chuckling Leete assuaged Kohn. “Never fear. We will teach you all that we can, but it is up to the individual on what he or she is capable of.”

“Are you going to teach me?”

“Me personally? Most likely it wouldn’t be me.”

“But you’re strong in magic right? Why else would the Prince have you at his side?”

The shameless flattering seemed to pass unnoticed by the mage who was flabbergasted at the simple complement. “We-well I suppose I’m the strongest mage with the Prince, in some aspects.” He finished in a mutter under his breath.

Kohn looked him straight in the eyes. “Then please. Please teach me magic.”