“She died?!! What happened?!" exclaimed Wen, "oh wait, I think I have heard her story from my dad! It was the reason why the war was won by Cailea's side, though after that both of the goddesses disappeared along with all the Zanjs.”

Lucia coughed purposely, so Wen would notice her.

“Oh yeah, all of them disappeared but one,” said Wen toneless, as if she just realized her presence, “anyway, so turnip man, you make it sound like you actually knew this Eireen Silver. Didn't she die a long time ago? Pretty sure you aren’t over 21 years old at the moment. If you did know her, isn’t that mean you are around five or six years old at least? That if I predicted your age correctly.”

“Turnip?!!” Jace’s eyes widen, then squinted as he glared at Wen, “who are you calling turnip?!”

“You, of course. I don’t know anyone names but Z, Lucia and Yuu. Your hair is yellow like turnip skin so I decided to call you that,“ Wen shrugged as she answered, “and to be honest, it is that obvious that I am not a fan of any of you. So--,”

“Wen!” Yurika warned Wenona and shook her head fast, worried what Jace might do to her friend.

Jace stood up harshly from his seat, his face was red and his jaw clenched hard.

Sudden loud laughter came from Lyall, he had leaned back in his chair and was laughing uproariously.

“Oh my goddess, that’s so funny. So if he is a turnip because of his yellow hair, then what am I? Tomato or carrot? I guess that would make Marc a potato, Scry an eggplant and Amierra lettuce,” he said between his fit of guffaw. Lyall’s laugh was more like a burst water main arching into the brilliant summer sky soaking everyone around him with unrestrained gales.

“Shut up Lyall!” Jace said with his arms folded in front of his chest, eyebrows arched.

“Oh come on, it is funny! Calling us as a group of veggies, especially when we are actually in a vegetative state. Maybe we should change our elite army code name to Vegetable instead of the Ursa,” Lyall laughed so hard that tears started to peep on the corner of his eyes.

“I said shut up!” Jace said, trying his best to keep a straight-face.

A giggle came from Amierra, she had done her best to stop herself from laughing. Her poker straight mouth twitched upwards and she was giggling. It was proven infectious as Marc, Zeke, even Scry started to make a soft snorting noise before they finally had to stop themselves when Jace glared on them.

“The Ursa?!” Wenona gasped hearing the name.

“Okay calm down everyone,“ Lucia's voice once more broke the air, “I guess I should have introduced you to each other before giving out the Goddess’ order.”

She turned her attention toward Wen and started to point out the people inside the room. Started from Lyall.

“This is Lyall Ursa the third prince of Ursa kingdom, that person next to Z is Scry Treeoaks the second prince of TreeOaks kingdom from Oryn Treeoaks lineage, then the man leaning on the window is Marc Albeques or Jhaartael Adris the crown prince of Nisse kingdom. But he rather to be known as Marc.”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Marc rose up from his spot with raised eyebrows. Yurika eyes widen hearing that Marc was also noble blooded. All this time Eireen’s memory didn’t show that she had known about him being a prince, a crown prince too.

“Don’t be so surprised. I have been keeping tab on you guys since a long time,” said Lucia, as she knew the question that has rose up on everyone's mind, “then this beautiful girl with long hair is Amierra Llama the youngest princes of Marama kingdom and last but not least this man is Jace Ursa the youngest and last king of Ursa Kingdom.”

“Ursa kingdom…, The Ursa …, Oh my goddess,” Wen gasped.

Jace made an obvious proud face, “now you know who are you dealing with. Mind your mann—“

“You guys are so old!!” Wen exclaimed, “but wait… why don’t you look like one?”

Lyall made another snorting noise, “you are funny, little one.”

“Stop encouraging her Lyall!” Jace’s sternly glared at his brother. Lyal snickered and shrugged.

“It’s a long story Wen. To make it simple they are blessed with eternal youth by the Goddess,” Lucia added as she brushed her hair annoyedly. She then clapped her hands, “please let me continue. This young girl is Wenona Alstair a friend, no—best friend of Yurika. She is a talented Crafter Mage and with this chance, I also wanted to request her help to accompany us in our journey to bring back the Goddesses and world balance.”

“A Crafter Mage? I never heard that class before,” Marc spoke up.

“A crafter mage is a new class with the ability to infuse objects with elemental magic, creating bombs and traps with high damage in mere seconds. I am sure her strength will be a great help to us,” Lucia explained, “her special and uncommon ability would be a good support to our party. She is also the one that knew Yurika the most. I am sure Yurika would feel much more comfortable with her presence.”

Yurika turned her head toward Wen; pleading.

“Of course I will accompany Yurika,” she answered without a second thought, “but why she must go with a bunch of strangers from the first place?"

“Isn’t she Z’s girlfriend?” Lyall piped out.

This time Wen turned her head towards Yurika; surprised; “girlfriend?!”

Yurika made a small quick shaking with her head gesture, “I’ll explain later, “ she added in a whispering tone.

Jace watched her reaction. His face was unreadable.

“She needs to go with the Ursa because they are the one the Goddess chose to accompany her journey. That’s one of the reasons why they have the youth blessing,” explained Lucia.

Wen looked thoughtful but then she nodded, “Okay, just don’t ask me to be nice to them. I don’t mind to work together but don’t expect me to be friendly.”

“So that settled. Now let me gave you the order from the Queen Aine. Since The Star Keys were destroyed and the pieces were fell to Isrant, the first order would be to go search for clues and found their pieces all around the world.”

Then she turned her attention toward Jace, “ Jace Ursa you will be the leader of our group and I’ll be your adviser. But one thing you need to know, Jace…”

Jace’s blue eyes looked straight into the Zanj’s eyes; waiting.

“You will have no power over the chosen one, she isn’t one of your subordinates. She has an equal position as you are. So please respect her and her friend opinions and thoughts.”

“What do you mean?” a protest came from Amierra, “Jace’s always respected everyone’s opinion and treats everyone equally.”

“That’s not what I heard back then when Eireen Silver was the chosen one,” Lucia retorted calmly.

Hearing the name almost everyone’s face in the room went sour and gloom.

“Do you understand Jace Ursa?”

Jace didn’t respond at first but he finally nodded.

“Can I have your words for that?”

Jace stood up from his chair and bowed to the Zanj, “You can have my word, I Jace Ursa who pledged to serve Goddess Aine will keep my word.”

“Good,” Lucia nodded, “now for the first journey, we will go to Marama main district. I got reports about monster and beasts that suddenly lately became more ferocious. We need to do some investigations there.”

“Marama?!” Wen and Yurika said almost at the same time. They looked at each other worriedly.