The Sea of trees home to over millions if not billions of foliages people all burdened with the stigma of plant life growing out of parts of their body in place of body hair, they also have pointed ears but no one really cares about that because of their peculiar stigmata. They find that living in more progressive places burdens their bodies needing more open and less stifling sources of oxygen as well as an easy form of access to things like dirt and water for which the plants growing out of their body will occasionally need depending on the types of plants that grow on them. In some circles, the types of plants grown can be seen as a form of status while in others growing plants that can either develop particular types of poisons or other forms of deadly matter could be seen as a threat to society and it therefore shunned upon but of course, the leader of the foliages and

master of the Sea of trees is the Great sage. The Royal representative of this race sadly enough the Great sage is a royal bloodline that is non-linear like the drakians instead of one based on genetics. It's based on spirituality. The Royal bloodline for both drakians and foliages follows a spiritual group in which the soul diverges from the original Royal onto its descendants and those with the strongest spiritual connection to the Royal line is to be dictated as a sage or Grand chieftain which can result in different circles or tribes becoming the Royal air. In this instance, Lisa has already been determined to have the highest spiritual connection next to the current acting sage and is therefore the rightful next sage something that a lot of other circles do not appreciate nor approve of when it was later found that her qualities as a paladin were just as high reaching the standards of triple s. Those circles had a brilliant idea as known by most people in very high points of authority all paladins votes within s rating of anything above. S are not allowed to participate in anything government-related as far as work is concerned which includes Royal positions. So the only thing they had to do was find her armory which luck was on their side. The kingdom of Romania just happened to find a certain individual on there Kingdom with a residence level that is exactly matching Lisa's. That's the show of Goodwill between the two acting nations. He was sent out to retrieve her and bring her back to normania as is tradition. International law also dictates that all armories must remain in this nation that they're born in with little exception. The only times and armory is to leave their Nation is it's acting under explicit direction of the paladin meant for them. Any other paladin would be seen as a criminal act in the paladin would be executed while the armory would be detained they're correct. Paladin can be found and guide them to the correct path hearing that. Lisa 's. Armory had been found and was then explained that she is to take up a position as a paladin in this nation of normania as an emissary for the Sea of trees, which caused her to lose her direct access to the position of sage. However, Lisa did not even care about the position and was rather excited about the idea of leaving the forest or becoming a paladin. Her hope was that City Life would be interesting, although she did worry about the challenges of being a foliage in the city things like soil, water and other nutrients that the plants that grow and her body needs may not be as easily provided for her and therefore a challenge for her survival on the day she finally meets her armory. It was rather fascinating. Of course, since this was an international interaction, it was a very public affair with plenty of people watching. The man himself was taller than her and was for some reason wearing a suit of some kind. The material not of natural origin, but the design is something she's familiar with. Having met normanians before. The items in question were a blazer, something that a lot of normanians like to wear to look fancy as well as a dress shirt and tie things with odd names. And of course even there are pants were made of a material that seemed to

have hints of animals, materials, but also had other materials that seemed astray far from nature. Quite the odd get up. He had this

representation of himself. Made him all the more

appealing to Lisa's curiosities.

Mugen: greetings young Lisa, my paladin my name

Mugen Augustus as many of you may have guessed, I am a half Romanian half underworlder.

Moving proceeds to lift up the back end of his

semi long hair revealing patches of white then opening up his mouth rather wide to reveal things. The crowd stares in fascination but backs away a bit slowly.

Mugen: my father is an underworld or Noble.

Hearing this Lisa's eyes begin to widen sparkle. This is her first time meeting a half bread. Half braids are rather rare due to the stigmata risk. In some cases, the two separate stigmatas will either merge to create a super strong one or a super weak one or a one of moderate results displaying your interest wide open. She gets rather close to Mugen clearly invading his personal space while the The other s tried their best to distance themselves from the man uncomfortable Mugen proceeds to reach into the coat pocket of his

Blazer, pull out a cigarette, light it and then exhale. Lisa, stares at the cigarette with fascination not just the cigarette but is whole attire plus him being a half-breed. The whole experience is novel normanians rarely ever visit the Sea of trees. Fact is they've considered the place to be a hillbilly society and if that wasn't enough, half-breeds are not very common for reasons mentioned before but there are a few out there. They're about as uncommon as guns for people of the sea of trees. Guns aren't commonly seen within the forest. Only collectors really have them after the crowds fascination with Moog and had cleared, he then

proceeded to present a letter to the sage. The letter verifies he's believed compatibility to Lisa as her armory of course, upon reading it, the sage

grimaces.

Sage: I will have the two of you team up to fight one of our own paladin armory pairs.

Excited by the prospect of teaming up with her

armory for the first time. Lisa, lets out a gleeful! Yay! While Mugen moves a cigarette from his mouth in size, having already expected this to be the case, he secretly hoped that they would forego tradition and just hand her over so that he could be on his way. He hates doing the extra work that

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

he doesn't have to. Then your idea crosses his

mind.

Mugen: since we're doing this, why not make this cultural exchange a bit more fun for the people who have to witness such a boring process.

Sage: oh what did you have in mind.

Mugen: nothing too Grand since it's an exhibition

match to confirm compatibility, why not do a little wager as I'm aware a couple of your people like to collect knick-knacks from other nations as a hobby. I for one happen to have two oil lamp

lighters on me. I'd be willing to wager it on us winning the bout.

The sage furrowed his brows at Mugen's. Unprofessional suggestion, but before he could refuse stating that it's unbecoming of such a

official proceeding, one of the other foliages in the crowd speaks up.

Foliage civilian that's my collection I'd love to

wager you some of this. I've been growing back home.

Mugen begins to chuckle at the idea before he

says anything. The sage attempts to speak up turning down the idea but then another foliage from the crowd speaks up.

Collector foliage preposterous that lighter wouldn't be wasted on that fool's collection. My

collection is where it would truly shine. I'll be wagering this alcoholical orange juice that I have been developing one sip in your on your way.

Growing frustrated. The sage tries to interject one more time, but more and more people start to speak up, provoking a laugh from Mugen. Given how deep and healthy the laugh is, many could tell it was genuine.

Morgan look I'm happy if you guys wait you're all

that and then you can host an auction for the ladder. All I'm looking for is er to pass the time.

While all of this is going on, Lisa stood to the side silently staring in awe at the expressions she got to witness from her partner. They just started and already. She's learning so much about him. She

could just feel it in her gut today and the future was going to be purely amazing.

After sorting through the whole arrangement of

the wager they made their way to an open area used for combat practice. The sage had picked one of his guards in a-rank paladin as the sparring

partner. Although both Lisa and Morgan are SSS in ranking, they would still be considered amateurs and therefore not as capable enough to give the a rank. Too much of a run for his money at the perfect test for their compatibility. If it's truly the case. If not, even if they both are of the same rank their quality would at best be s rank or lower.

then

The Paladin readies himself. His armory partner transforms into a tribal shield The paladin reveals from his back a peculiar-looking spear that appears to have a mechanism that allows it to collapse in one itself. Lisa, feeling spry does some

quick stretches and then reaches out to shake

Mugen's hand seeing the gesture Mimics reaches out on his end to grasp her hand before they knew it. Something interesting happened at the moment of the connection the two's eyes met

at no point before had he actually look at Lisa. Now that he is, he could feel their natural connection that the two of them were meant to be together his body instinctually admitted an all-encompassing glow the glow then began to morph his form into a sash that wrapped itself around Lisa's toga forming a cummerbund resembling a thimble for a thread wrapped comfortably around her waist on her left side hanging and sheaved.

He's a straight arm-length kolonna with a handguard that resembled a sort of weaving symbol of interlinking squares, the handguard 2 was wrapped in a rather Stern-looking rope with woven patterns on it. The referee of the match drops down his arm signaling the beginning of the fight. The a-rank paladin rushes. Lisa with a furry

Mugen: Dodge left then right then down then jump then left again.

At first, startled by Mugen's commands hearing

him out of nowhere despite him being nowhere.

But on her waist, she at first is frightened by the sudden conversation but then trusts him and follows his commands. None of the airing paladin attacks lands a hit on her mugen. Chuckles at his brilliance.

Instinctually Lisa reaches for Mugen's hilt when

she grabs it and then sheeps him and an intense red aura erupts from her body the a-rank paladin picks up on this and attempts to withdraw but before he could he notices something strange. His arm is stuck. He looks to a shield-wielding arm and notices blue twine wrapped around his wrist and pinged to the ground with a large metal pin resembling that of a sewing pin. He looks back to see that Lisa had disappeared. He tries to withdraw him himself to get free of The binding but then his legs had been bound as well. Morkins have surrounded him. He attempts to use a speeder to cut it. But before he could, Lisa intercepts it with Mugen. His Spears blade struggles to game Force while Lisa manages to deflect it and get a couple of gashes on the man without restraint while he is on arms. She attempts to go for more using all of his strength.

The a-rank paladin to guard the strike of Morgan's blade on to the armory shield, call Eric natural repelling effect a cut appears on Lisa's shoulder. Seeing it, Reese's eyes begin to red in and a smile

takes hold of her face. She moves faster causing her to disappear. More slashes appear on the paladin's body. He attempts to move his

shield to guard as much as he can, but each time when he tries to move or break Free more bindings pin him down the paladin has been

defeated the match before he could die. Seeing the site, the sage did the obvious thing he commanded his advisor to go and retrieve an eye them. What was the advisor was absent? He approaches Lisa attempting to congratulate her on her battle. Move him back into his human form. Takes a smoke at a distance looking indifferent to it all the other foliages give medical attention to the paladin that had fallen The attendant soon returns with a red card. He gives it to the stage who gives it to Lisa and instructs her on what to do with it. They then prepare her things to lay the forest at the edge of the florist is an extremely large lake with a dock plus a one-way ticket for the ship that doc's there that will take them back to Normania as they get ready to board moving put a fist to his palm remembering something as if it's the most natural thing in the world.

Mugen: since you're my actual paladin pretty sure

it's important you know paladins of s and above get a a boon one Boone per each s. Since you have three s's you get three boons, I'm not going to tell you all of them right away, but one that I think you should really know about is the ability to manipulate luck. I get this ungodly feeling that it's going to be important at some point.

After saying that he shrugs puts out a cigarette and grabs their thing so that they can board the ship. I'm not really sure what to make of this news. Lisa also shrugs and follows him.