"They looked pretty young, how old are they?" I asked Jerry.
"They're thirteen and six. What about you? You don't look too old, what are you doing out here on your own?" Jerry asked me.
"I'm sixteen, should be seventeen in a few days. And I was exiled from the Kingdom because they were suspicious of me. That's when I met you guys out there. Is everybody outside of the Kingdom friendly, or only in this city of Gaia?" I asked him, looking over at the several stands of people selling food. Some of them were carrying infants around as well. Even the babies knew illusion magic?
"Everybody is friendly so long as you don't tell them you have any connection to that awful Kingdom Sieve. Well, we're here." Jerry told me. I looked up at who was supposed to be Old-Man Henry. He looked fairly young. A young child, in fact.
He lived inside of a sparkly purple and pink tent in the far reaches of the town. I enjoyed my walk through Gaia and its architecture, especially because it was so much more unique than Sieve.
"Welcome, Jerry! And whoever your friend is! What can I do for you today?" Henry said. He jumped down off of tall, wooden scaffolding within the tent. As high as the ceiling went.
"My friend here has some questions about being a Mage, think you could help him out?" Henry took one look at me. He smiled, then nodded.
"Not a problem at all! What can I help you with?" Henry asked me. Jerry chipped in once more, stating that he had to go grocery shopping and would be back in twenty minutes. I nodded and stared at Henry with a nervous look while he asked his question.
"I want to learn certain types of Magic, like Illusion. How can I learn something like that?" I asked Henry.
"Illusion Magic? I've never heard of such a thing. Where did you get that idea from?" Henry asked me. I got even more nervous. If I told him where I learned that, I would jeopardize my standing here in Gaia! As Jerry said, I can get by if I don't tell anybody I come from Sieve.
"I heard it from my city..." I lied to Henry. Henry looked puzzled once more and then nodded.
"New Olympia? Dorrendale? Yugon? Zyphilia?" Henry started to spit out a bunch of names and it confused me even more. I shouldn't have lied!
"I'm just pulling your leg, Anima. I know where you come from." Henry said. I was totally surprised by his reveal of my real name.
"I didn't even tell you my name! How did you figure it out?!" I asked him.
"I'm not the Old-Man Henry for nothing. I know a lot. Well, you heard that the Demons on Erinautis exist outside of the Kingdom of Sieve and they use Illusion Magic to disguise themselves as humans, right?" Henry said. He absolutely nailed it, getting every detail correct. "I used to be from Sieve as well. I was exiled on the same premise. I was accused of being a Demon. That's what they did to you, right?" Henry asked me. I slightly nodded. I was ashamed he could predict me so easily.
"Fear not, I know about keeping it a secret. Nobody knows my secret at all either." Henry told me.
"How did you get everything right about me being exiled though? I highly doubt we both went through the same thing." I told Henry.
"We did. Ostracized as a Hero who had skills he shouldn't have." Henry told me. He even got the detail about me being a Hero right.
"I was the first Ranged Hero, about a hundred years ago," Henry told me. I was dumbfounded by almost everything he was saying at this point.
"Slow down! There's a Ranged Hero? Oh... there must've been, that makes sense. You use Magic, how could you be the Ranged Hero? How did you know I was a Hero? And... a hundred years ago? Why do you look like a young boy then?" I asked all at once.
"One! Proficiency in your specific Hero Class allows you to learn two, but it takes a hundred years. Two! All Heroes can tell another person is a Hero instantly! Three! It's called reverse aging." He told me that it would've explained anything on that last part.
"As long as you're not a small girl who appears to be young but is actually a thousand years old, I can deal with your young appearance," I told Henry.
"I know, isn't it annoying how they try to justify big-boobed children by saying they're centuries-old? Weird, isn't it?" Henry asked me. We both laughed, he was surprisingly quick-witted, and smart as well. I had to trust him at this point.
"Then, there's no Illusion Magic at all?" I asked him.
"I'm sure there is, but I don't know it. I know Magical Attacks and some Element Skills, but nothing like Illusion Magic. That's impressive that you brought it up though because I'm sure of another Mage that would know something like that." Henry told me.
"Really? You don't know it but everybody else here does? And who's the Mage?" I asked Henry. He looked at me for a few seconds with a blank stare. Then, he looked up, snapped his fingers, and walked closer to me.
"You're not seeing illusions here. These people aren't using illusion magic. They're Humans, like you. They're referred to as Demons because the Kingdom of Sieve runs on a different political system than any of the other cities. These are Humans, just like you." Henry told me.
My whole world felt like it had been twisted inside out as Henry made that reveal.
"So... nobody was using illusion magic... why did the King and the others murder those humans in cold blood?!" I asked Henry. His smile turned into a frown and he crossed his arms, looking disapproving of my question.
"For the good of the Kingdom. I'm sad he tricked this world's two Heroes into thinking that, especially since we were so close to world peace." Henry told me.
"World peace? Then... that's why Kingdom of Sieve was 'the last one standing'" I admitted to Henry. Henry seemed to have understood what I meant by that, and even revealed some other ideas to him.
"Do you have contact with your Hero partner? You could tell him and he could talk to Sieve about it." Henry suggested.
"I'll have to do that. But... if Heroes are summoned in to fight the Demons, then where are the Demons?" I asked Henry.
"Usually it would be the other way around. Heroes would be summoned in to fight off Kingdoms that still worked on that political system, but the Kingdom got Heroes to be summoned before we did, and he tricked you guys into fighting for them." Henry said.
"What kind of magic can you teach me? I have a unique way of getting my partner's attention, so I'll worry about that when you teach me something." I told Henry.
Henry nodded and told me to take out my staff. I pulled it out and he went on to teach me a unique skill involving [Bullet].
"Every skill you have right now, between the three you have, can be evolved or expanded upon a little. So, I'll teach you [Bullet 2]". Henry said.
"Bullet 2... not very creative, but I'm grateful. How do you learn magic skills?" I asked Henry.
"By doing three days of rigorous training! We'll start tomorrow!" Henry told me. I wasn't sure that I had time to waste because I had to go tell Fuki… but I also wanted to learn this skill.
"Alright, I'll go tell my hero partner... is there a way to tell time?" I asked Henry, but he just stared at me confused again.
"You don't have any of your interfaces either, I can tell. Alright, I'll teach you everything after you come back!" He said.