“Let’s continue with our annual meeting then.” The king declared. “But first I’d like to discuss what Conroy’s assistant saw. As some of you know, he has a special ability. Jasper, explain further.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.” Jasper, Conroy’s assistant, slightly bowed then stepped forward. “With my ability, I can visualize a person’s personality into three parts: The instinctual, the moral, and the mediator; the one that balances the two and makes most of the decisions.” Jasper paused to let the nobles gossip and comment for roughly a minute.
“The thing is, Your Majesty.” The nobles slowly quieted down when Jasper spoke up. “I couldn’t visualize Cain’s personality until he let me.” The king raised an eyebrow in slight surprise and amusement. “He let you?” Some nobles tried to take this slight pause to comment more but were quickly shut down by Jasper’s response.
“Yes, Your Majesty. If he didn’t, I’m afraid whatever Cain was using to prevent me from visualizing his personality would have killed me.” The nobles gasp and some complain at how overpowered Cain is. The king strokes his chin while mulling over the consequences of what Jasper said.
“I see… What did you see, since he let you visualize your skill.” The king commented after his contemplation. “That’s the other thing, Your Majesty. It was completely balanced. Normally the skill represents itself with the iconic angel and devil on either shoulder then a mini version of the person on their head, as these were the type of books I grew up on. Their height in the air represents how much of their personality is influenced by that trait.
“For example, that bald noble who fled earlier. The devil on his shoulder was meters above the mini him and the angel. For Cain, they were, without a doubt, of equal height.” Jasper paused to let the attendees process the information. After a few seconds one noble chirped up, “Isn’t the mini person useless though?”
Jasper shook his head then spoke with a clear, almost rehearsed tone. “No. Another way to put it, is that the mini person is their logical side.” The noble nodded his head in understanding. A few minutes pass by as the other nobles discuss what Jasper saw. “Does this mean that we can’t bribe or corrupt him?” “Not even that, I don’t think seducing Cain is an option either.” “Pfft, I have yet to see a man who can’t be seduced by these dumplings.” Their chatter continued until a high ranking nobles addresses the king.
“Your Majesty, if I may, I would like to present the findings of my butler in training. He also has a special ability that might shed some light into Cain’s personality and possibly power.” The king nodded and waved for the duke’s butler to come forward. “Come here Jimmy, explain to everyone your ability.” The duke ushered the teenage boy to come forward then slightly bowed towards the king.
“My apologies, Your Majesty. Jimmy is quite shy and it hasn’t been long since I took him under my wing.” The king chuckled slightly then replied, “No worries Duke Francis. We were all young at one point.” The king’s hearty mood inspired Jimmy to step forward from the crowd. He slowly stumbled forward then introduced himself.
“M-my name is Jimmy a-and I have the a-ability to see the spirit animals o-of people.” Jimmy pauses and fumbles for a moment while steeling his nerves and collecting his thoughts. The nobles wait patiently in silence, something that is not seen often. “The spirit animal that I see represents the person’s personality. How detailed I see it represents their strength. In some cases, the spirit animal’s actions represent the person’s current mood. I-if I may use Your Majesty as an example.” Jimmy bowed courteously to the king during his last sentence.
The king gave his permission with a firm nod. Jimmy cautiously looked at the king, a small light appearing from the depths of his pupil. “The king’s spirit animal is a tiger. Although I cannot see what direction its fur is in, or even the color of its eyes, I can see the vibrant colors of its pelt and some of its muscles. Based on this level of detail, I conclude the king is roughly at the 7th-circle, halfway to the 8th.”
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Jimmy bowed after his analysis was reported to the king. The king nodded with a content face, especially satisfied that Jimmy did not state the current actions of the tiger. From the shock and slight fear the king read from Jimmy’s body language, it would appear that he saw the tiger’s actions reflect his mood: cornered, fearful, and powerless.
“What did you see from Cain, young lad?” Before any nobles had the chance to question the tiger’s current actions, the king spoke up and changed the topic. “T-that’s the thing, Your Majesty. There were three spirit animals behind Cain.” Jimmy's voice trailed off towards the end, drowned in the astonishment and bewilderment from the nobles. “Three?! Doesn’t that mean he’s extremely powerful?!”
The nobles continued to speak fervently until the king shouted “Silence! Let the lad explain himself. Continue, Jimmy.” Jimmy nodded meekly and continued from where he left off. “Y-you misunderstand. The amount of animals don’t reflect how strong he is, just the details. There have been some cases of a person having two spirit animals because of the depth of their personality, but I’ve only seen this occur with elders.
“Cain’s first spirit animal was a dragon.” Some nobles immediately tried to question Jimmy’s ability and even his eyesight, but were quickly shut down from the king slamming his fist against the throne. “If anyone speaks before Jimmy is done, they will be tossed out by the guards. Continue.” The king gave his final warning then gestured towards Jimmy. He nodded then picked up from where he left off.
“There was a dragon lying in a hammock and an owl on the right post of the hammock with a phoenix on the other. I could see every vein within every feather of the owl and phoenix, every fiber of the hammock, and even the crevice between each scale of the dragon. There were also a lot of snacks below the dragon. If I estimated it correctly, there was enough for a family of four to eat for a month.
“The thing that shocked me the most was that I could hear each and every breath of the spirit animals. I could even smell the food. This has never happened before despite Duke Francis showing me thousands of different people of different magic circles. Even when the 8th circle sage who is usually in the tower visited me out of curiosity, the only sense involved were my eyes.
“As for the state of the animals… Well, I’m almost certain they were all asleep, despite how it may sound. Only the dragon was half awake, and I concluded this due to its half open eye.” Jimmy concluded his explanation and retreated back to Duke Francis’ side. The nobles immediately used this opportunity to discuss the results.
“Doesn’t this level of detail mean Cain is at the 10th or even 11th circle?”
“No… I don’t think using our scale of power is an accurate way to gauge his power.”
“Yeah, you saw how he casted that weird magic with just words.”
“...then what are we supposed to use?”
The nobles sat in silence until another asked a pressing question.
“Wait, weren't Cain’s spirit animals all asleep despite one that was half-asleep? Doesn’t that mean he saw through and lectured us despite not being fully awake?”
“Your hurt pride isn’t the thing we should be focusing on. Rather, despite the fact he wasn’t fully awake, he was able to lead the meeting without losing control once and even negotiate as a nation.”
“I agree. It’s truly frightening imagining what would happen if we were completely awake.”
“This is a crazy theory, but hear me out. What if the half-asleep animals represent his brain power? You know that dull groggy feeling you get after not sleeping enough or too much? To the point you’re not able to think about complicated things?”
“Indeed… that’s a good point.”
“Yes… it’s almost as bad as a hangover…”
“That’s… you know what? Nevermind…”
The nobles continued to discuss the results attempting to get an accurate conclusion. The discussion continued for roughly 30 minutes until it concluded with no concrete conclusion.