Eleven years later, the sun slowly rose from beyond the horizon, shedding its light upon the sprawling forest and the Harmony Grove crater. Within the shaded grove, the cacophony of disorganised chirping crickets filled every inch of Harmony Grove while kicking up enough wind to even disturb small plants and weeds.
At the centre of the grove, where the cricket's chirping did not reach, sat a large glistening crystal clear lake and situated at its centre recided a small island, containing a lone larger version of the tree populating the rest of the grove. Mildly swaying from the gentle breeze and its wooden boards faintly creaking; a house-sized wooden hut remained suspended from the large tree. A small figure walked along the tree house's veranda, tilting her body in the opposite direction of the floor's swaying to keep herself from falling over. She periodically stopped along the veranda, finding extreme displeasure in any oddity she saw, and readjusted any loose sections of the practically transparent bug net back to the bannister.
Inside a room shaped like a curved trapezoid, a weak ray of light crept through the blinds of the bedroom and superficially divided the cluttered but somehow organised bedroom, with a desk lined with stacks and stacks of thick paper along with the floor littered with various trinkets. At the base of the light-seeping window rested a mound of knitted pillows encased by a wooden ring. The centre of the sea of pillows housed a sleeping Zalto, identical to how he was the day he was reincarnated, with only his head exposed to the air.
Feeling the strange desire to sleep in, Zalto sunk his head deeper into the pillows, allowing himself to bask in the afterglow of a perfect night of sleep; however, the distant roar of Ravenger snapped Zalto fully awake and making any further attempts to return to sleep impossible as the desire to learn what Ravenger called him for slowly gnawed at his brain. He sunk even further into the pillows, mentally groaning before climbing out of his bed as a few pillows tumbled out of the bed from his movements.
The naked Zalto tumbled out of his bed, limply swinging his arms about as he fell, and flopped onto a fallen pillow. He grumbled into the pillow, yawning with enough vigour to expel his remaining fatigue into it before raising a finger to the ceiling. With the wiggle of his fingers, three white mana spheres shot out of his finger and twirled around the air. The mana spheres radiated a faint glow which only intensified as lines formed between them with distinct runes beside each of them: Nieon(Portable), Yoreu(Storage), and Aceuoe(Space). A white mama ring formed around the mana triangle before all the mana constructs collapsed on themselves and formed into a plate-sized circle.
Zalto remained still on the ground, waiting for the circle to do its thing, but as nothing appeared to happen he raised his head before his clothes dropped on his face from his item box. Zalto dropped his hand to the carpeted floor and groaned defeatedly as he pulled his clothes off himself.
After getting dressed with the bare minimum effort to look tidy, Zalto exited his room before he immediately felt a barrage of hands wash over him to correct all the mistakes with his outfit. The individual eventually became satisfied with Zalto's attire before stepping back and inspecting it, nodding contently with her work.
(The girl was a twelve-year-old, slightly tall kid-sized human-looking individual; she has pale bleach blonde neck-low poofy spike-shaped hair, a single hook-shaped ahoge, slightly large blonde pupilless eyes, pure white skin, a slightly large diamond-shaped citrine on her chest, and a shark-like tail made from multiple of the same gem as the one in her chest with the end part being a larger one with two half gems sticking out of it)
(She is wearing a pure white knitted maid dress with a diamond-shaped hole on the chest)
"Morning, C- I mean Zalto," the maid girl said, bowing to Zalto before briefly adjusting the tightness of Zalto's sandal straps.
"Good morning, Keu," Zalto said groggily, his voice low in tone as Keu added more micro-adjustments to Zalto's clothing. Zalto stood still, allowing Keu to adjust at her leisure, but felt his patience being stretched as the time Keu took dragged on longer and longer. At the sound of Ravenger's slightly more clear roars, Zalto slumped forward and Keu nodded in understanding as she took a step back, covering her eyes to keep her impulses in check. Zalto felt a tinge of guilt at watching Keu's pouty frown, signing in resignation as he raised a hand and patted her on the head.
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"I'll let you continue once I've seen what Raven wants to show me," Zalto stated, putting a smirk on Keu's face. Zalto mentally noted the smirk, wondering if it meant she wasn't actually upset and was simply faking it, and removed his hand as five mana spheres formed around him.
The spheres joined into a pentagram, enshrouding Zalto in white mana before he warped away, and reappeared on the dark grassy ground below the treehouse. Zalto took a quick glance around, swiftly spotting Raven sitting in front of a fairly small marble hut while being hunched over like a gamer to be able to fit her head in the marble hut.
"What may be the issue, Raven?" Zalto asked as he walked up to Raven, goading her to pull her head out of the marble hut and point a claw into it. Zalto leaned into the marble hut and inspected the room, appearing as if it were cut using industrial equipment from how straight it was. Zalto followed Raven's claw and tracked its trajectory on the chisled wall displaying a map of Harmony Grove covered in small magnetic discs.
Locking onto the disc Raven pointed out, Zalto watched one of the discs flash a bright red, leading him to lower his head in frustration and ruffle up his hair.
"Even after all this time, there are still people who ignore Topaz's ban," Zalto grumbled, pressing his knuckles into his forehead in frustration. He sighed as another teleportation mana circuit formed under him before he whisked himself off to the location designated on the map.
Meanwhile, a kid trekked through the dense forest, her height no taller than three feet, and effortlessly got through the foliage like she was a breeze in the wind. She emerged from a bush, poking her head through it with leaves clinging to her hair, and darted her gaze around to check her surroundings before hopping out of the bush.
(The girl is a short eleven-year-old human female; she has curly sporadic purple with hints of orange hair, extremely faded yellow to purple gradient eyes, and tanned skin)
(She is wearing black leggings, slightly baggy green wool shorts, a black sleeveless tunic, green wool vest, and green boots)
"Alright... this is the place mother's pieoxa keeps flying to, what or who could she be talking to that I don't know of?" the girl mumbled as Zalto poked his head out from behind a tree branch and dangled upside down from it.
"I believe this could be considered snooping and at worse stalking," Zalto remarked. With the sudden appearance of a voice, the girl's eyes shot fully open and she lept from the spot while shrieking in terror as she blindly booked it in a random direction. Zalto watched as the girl ran at a remarkable speed before immediately tripping over a shallow hole and crashing into a small slime pond with a small splash, filling the air with the taste of salt.
Zalto itched his forehead, shaking his head with resolution, before smirking and dropping to the ground. Kicking up some dirt, Zalto landed on the ground before strolling over to the girl as she floated atop the slime pond, defeatedly staring to the sky at realising escape was impossible from the slime's viscosity.
"Ooh, Ametrine... looks like your... desire for the truth has gotten you in over your head. This is it for me...," Ametrine muttered meekly, laying her head to the side in resignation before gagging slightly as the salty smell of the slime hit her nose.
"So, is my help not wanted?" Zalto asked. Ametrine took a peak at Zalto before closing her eyes at seeing his appearance, deeming she must be hallucinating to be seeing a kid in Harmony Grove; however, after a short moment to ponder and remember she was a child herself, Ametrine sprung up, although not moving very far and making the slime bounce her around.
"What's a kid doing here!" Ametrine exclaimed in astonishment.
"Are you going to ask questions or ask for help," Zalto asked with a frown on his face, leading Ametrine to sink into the slime sheepishly and meekly nodded.