"Why are we in this empty room?" I asked, feeling perplexed.

Emilia gestured towards the empty space, "This is the Discussion room, Lady Aster. Once Maurice brings that stupid traitorous fish here, you'll see why."

Odeta turned to her, "Oh! Is this one of those enchanted rooms that the Guild has?"

"Oh? You're quite well informed. Are you a Mercenary or a Dungeoneer?"

The Amrap puffed her chest out proudly, "I'm both! And I'm an E rank too! So is Lady Aster!"

Emilia moved her gaze to me, "Ah… When you mentioned going on dungeon dives, it was as a Dungeoneer?"

I nodded, "That's right. I'm also the same rank as Odeta too, by the way."

"Eh? Then how is it possible that Lady Aster doesn't know about Revive Bands? Or are you using a Sacrificial Band?"

I tilted my head at her, "What's a Sacrificial Band?"

Emilia actually stared at me with wide eyes for a good long moment before finally asking, "Are you actually serious, Lady Aster? Are you not wearing something like this on you?"

She pulled back her left sleeve to reveal a silver band made of metal on the upper part of her arm near the elbow.

I was curious so I used my [Screen] on it.

[Enchanted Silver Arm Band. Enchantment: Resurrection]

I shook my head, "Unfortunately no… I don't have anything like that."

Emilia grasped my arms, "Lady Aster… Does the Head of the Nilm family actually despise you and wish for you to perish?"

Eh? Where did that come from?

Although I can hardly imagine Mother would hate me actually, considering that most of the time I'm practically smothered by her motherly love for me.

Odeta was the one who answered for me, "No way! Sister Aster's Mommy loves her a lot! She loves her as much as sister Aster loves sweets!"

What's with that comparison, Odeta? I'm pretty sure Mother loves me more than I love sweets! I don't sleep naked with my sweets!

…

Ok I admit I do have that wish of having a cake big enough that I could jump in it, but that's beside the point!

I decided to change the topic back on track, "So… What are these Sacrificial Bands and Revive Bands? I mean… I suppose I already guessed what the Revive Band does and I assume Merrick was wearing one?"

Emilia nodded while rolling her sleeve back down, "What both that stupid fish and I are wearing is commonly known as a Revive Band. As Lady Aster had seen, it basically functions as a resurrection spell where it automatically activates a few seconds after the wearer dies. The caveat is that these are incredibly expensive as it requires a highly skilled Enchanter and Iatromancer to craft one and the process itself is both time consuming and difficult. To get one, you'll need to find them in auctions and one might even spend an entire Platinum coin or more just to get one."

Wow… That's a whole million Creas…

"I'm going to guess that these things break after a single use?" I asked.

Emilia nodded, "That's right, but it's worth the price of course and the people who are rich, influential or both would usually have one. Which is why I'm so surprised that Lady Aster doesn't have one of your own…"

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Hmm… Mother definitely did not give me a band like that before… I think?

"Then what about Sacrificial Bands?"

Emilia smiled at me and rolled up her other sleeve, revealing another silver arm band.

"Those are a little different from Revive Bands. These things basically will protect you from a blow that would have been fatal otherwise."

I pointed at her other arm, "You can wear both types at the same time?"

"Of course. In fact, it's normal to wear a Sacrificial Band and Revive Band at the same time since a Sacrificial Band does not protect the wearer from poisons and the Sacrificial Bands are at least a thousand times less expensive than the Revive Bands."

A thousand times… That means they're about a thousand Creas? That's still pretty costly… But it also means that you pretty much also get a second life too.

What's more, it's also something that I can afford with my current savings too.

"Where can I get one for myself and Odeta?"

Emilia rolled her sleeve back down, "They can also only be found in auctions I'm afraid. I'll introduce you to several places when we get back to my ship. Actually, I can even give you a VIP pass to them too, it'll make sure that you get the best seats and treatment there."

Odeta then went ahead to point out something I was curious about too, "Why don't you just wear like a whole bunch of those Sacrificial Bands or whatever they're called? Won't that make you invincible?"

Emilia giggled, "Hehehe~ I don't blame you for thinking so, but the effects aren't stacked like that. Even if you were to wear ten of these, they will all break at the same time if you were hit instead of breaking sequentially. That's why you should only wear one on you as the most sensible choice."

I tapped my chin, "But what if you were to keep multiple of them on hand and switch them out as soon as one breaks, wouldn't that work as well?"

"Ehehe~ As expected of Lady Aster~ That's actually what some people do though most are not fast enough to use this method reliably," The Nekomata laughed before pulling out a small satchel from within her sleeve.

She untied the neck to reveal that there were even more Sacrificial Bands inside of it. I suppose with her Dexterity stats, she could switch the bands out quickly if she needed to.

I then pointed to her other arm, "I suppose the same restriction applies to the Revive Band as well? They all break at the same time if you wear multiple of them?"

Emilia shook her head, "Actually, no one knows, or at least it's not common knowledge. It's expensive to test after all and as far as I know, no one has come forward to tell everyone about it if someone did test it."

Hmm… I'm pretty sure the people enchanting it must have at least tested it before but just decided not to tell everyone about it for some reason.

"Does it have to be in the shape of an arm band?" I asked.

"Not at all. It's an enchantment after all, it's just that it's more commonly enchanted as an armband since those are the easiest to make. But since they are destroyed the moment it takes effect, it's a waste to put them on something that one would not wish to lose after all. If you were to put it on a piece of armour or your clothes, you're going to be left naked after that."

That's true.

It's a shame that the Crown Capital City branch of Aerialla Academy did not teach Enchanting or Smithing skills… Apparently those were either too dangerous for beginners or there weren't any teachers there willing to teach those subjects.

Ironic that Alchemy was fine considering what kind of things you can brew with it…

I guess I'll take those classes when I get to the main academy.

That was when we heard the sound of a door opening and we all turned to look at the other side of the room, finding Maurice appearing out of a hatch from the ground that I did not notice the first time around.

He leapt out from the hatch and pulled out a still tied up and unconscious Merick, tossing him to the side of the room.

In an instant, that side of the room was suddenly filled up with water while our half of the room somehow remained dry. It looked as though there was some kind of invisible wall separating the two rooms which prevented the water on the other side from flooding our side of the room.

The weird thing was that the pool of water literally sprang into existence instead of flowing out of some hole in the wall or anything like that.

"What just happened?" I asked, still staring at the water in disbelief.

"Heh, heh~ This never gets old. The Guild knows there are many different races in this World so the possibility that there are times where someone needs to communicate with other races but the parties involved might not be able to meet normally, like this case for example. Thus, most Guild branches where multiple races gather have enchanted rooms like these known as Discussion rooms which would have the room adapt itself to the occupants, allowing both sides to interact freely. Or in our case… To torture~"

Wow… Putting the torture aside, this is actually really cool. I wonder how an enchantment like that works? And under what kind of magic discipline would this magic fall under? Is it one of the ones I already knew or is this something new altogether? Would these rooms also expand to accommodate larger races like giants?

I went up to the other side of the room where the wall of water separated us and reached up a finger to touch it, marvelling at how my finger just sank into the water wall without any resistance.

This is so cool~

I've been out here for less than a month and I've already learned so many things~ I really can't wait to set out on a journey on my own once I'm done with school!

But before that… Time to torture this guy!