"So, let us begin with the introductions. I am Kalor Seff, chief of
Understone village. This lady here,"
Kalor looked at the lady
sitting right beside him tenderly, and continued, "Is my wife,
Alona."
He then glanced in the direction of the twin girls and started
again, "These beauties are my dears, my daughters Vin and
Cent."
One of the two smiled brightly and said something.
Of course,
Warret and others couldn't understand a single word. But upon
hearing something which sounded like Vin, they assumed her to
be so.
"Well, I know you can't understand her, so let me translate for
her. She's Vin."
As soon as he said that, the other girl looked startled and
shouted at her father, clearly agitated. Hearing her words, Kalor
frowned and tried to perhaps calm her down,
"Ah sorry my dear,
you two look so alike that I mistake one for the other... sorry
Vin."
When he said that while sighing, that girl giggled and whispered
something in Kalor's ears. His back straightened up instantly,
exasperation clearly visible on his face.
"Haha, I bet this one's Cent, and she was pulling her dad's leg."
Ashu told this to Royo who then started chuckling.
Kalor's che
ek twitched as if he heard Ashu. He continued, "I'm
sorry, Cent's a bit too mischievous, anyways, he's my son,
Warren."
"W-wha---"
Maina, Amene, Royo, Ashu and Warret, all of them had similar
reactions. Warren appeared to be nervous at first, then he
waved at them childishly.
"He's cute! I've rarely met fifteen year olds who are so cute!" Maina looked at him with sparkling eyes and waved back
energetically.
"Warret, now we introduce ourselves. After that, leave all talking
to Me and Amene."
Ashu whispered this in a hushed tone.
Soon after the introductions, the next discussion started.
"How did you people end up here?"
"We were caught in a teleportation spell. Where, we dunno. Perhaps we hit our heads right after teleportation. Or
maybe this is the effect of the teleportation spell itself... but our
memories are locked away, Amnesia I guess."
Amene tilted her head, a thoughtful expression painting her
face.
Ashu nodded. Warret and Maina looked confused. Warret had a
hundred questions to ask, but he managed to keep himself in
check.
"Interesting, a teleportation spell, teleporting different targets to
different places?" Kalor downwards with his brows scrunched.
Ashu raised his head in shock. Glancing sideways, he found
that Amene was looking at him, motioning him to ask the
question all of them wanted the answer to.
"Different places? How did you come to know that? And do you
know the name of the people who claimed a similar thing? They
might be our companions..."
"Hmm? You had companions?" Kalor stared at Ashu intensely.
"We never said we were a party of five people."
Ashu managed to utter a reply, he was sweating inwardly under
Kalor's sharp gaze, not daring to breathe.
"Hm, there were four people recovered at Another town. Alison, Gareth, Nesson and Aster.
They were rescued in Salred town, quite close to here."
*Clank*
A wooden spoon fell to the ground with a soft but clear sound.
All heads turned turned towards the direction of sound. Maina
was sitting, her face stone cold, fist tightened into a ball. She
was struggling to hold back tears.
"Can anyone explain the situation?" Kalor asked, genuinely
confused.
Ashu took the initiative. "My best friend Mino is still missing. He
might have landed somewhere alone, which is something to be
worried about. He is her... good friend you see? She's
worried."
"I see. It pains me to see tears instead of smiles in such a
radiant face. I'll try to contact the other village chiefs.
Considering the fact that all of you have a lot of potential, I'm
sure that he would be able to take care of himself."
His statement couldn't be further from the truth.
"Excuse me..." Warret raised his hand, he wanted to ask a
question which had been bothering him for a lot of time.
"Yes?"
"How are you talking with us?"
"Ohohoho... that's because of my skill 'Language
Comprehension'. It allows me to understand speech of any
language. Too sad, I can't understand the script though." Kalor
explained cheerfully.
"Skill?"
"Heh? You don't know? Well, one thing's interesting about you
guys. I appraised you, but couldn't see anything."
"Appraise?"
"W-what! You don't know anything!"
Ashu snorted, "Hmph! We told that we forgot everything, didn't
we?"
"H-hey...don't be so rude..."
Maina was fidgeting.
"Well, then let's come to my study, I have to show you
something."
Kalos stood up and shot towards one of the doors.
All of them had finished their meals, so they were just sitting
and chatting.
"W-wait!"
Warret tried to rush after Kalor, but he was stopped by Ashu,
who then told, "At least thank them for the meal!"
"Oh! Sorry!"
All of them turned towards Alona and bowed while muttering,
"Thank you for the meal."
Although she didn't understand
anything, she appeared to be happy and nodded.
===========================
In Kalor's office.
The five people were standing by a study table. The table was
unorganized, dishevelled stacks of paper were scattered.
All of them were holding something. It was like circular like a
coin, as thin as a lamina.
"What is this? Will this help in explanations?"
Amene narrowed her eyes and asked Kalor, who was standing
quietly. He replied, "Of course. It will clear up all of your
confusions regarding skills and appraisal. You people seem to
have lost yours, or rather don't have them in the first place,
which is rather strange."
"But what the hell is this?"
Ashu asked.
"We call it a status badge."
"Status badge?" all of them glanced at the middle aged man
curiously.
"It shows you your stats and skills."
"Stats, skills?!"
"Ugh... don't tell me you have forgotten such basic stuff... or
rather, do you even know them in the first place?" Kalor eyed
Amene with a curious look.
She was quick to offer a riposte. "We sincerely hope that you
will explain it to us. Perhaps with enough explanations, we
might regain our memory."
"Arrrgh.. fine." Kalor scratched his head, it appeared he was
quite annoyed.
"For that, you have to put a little of your blood on there." he
instructed, tapping the badge with his index.
Kalor took one of the small boxes kept on his untidy table and
opened it. It revealed five long needles. After taking them out,
he took the jug of water and poured himself some water in a
metal tumbler.
Then, nodding in satisfaction, he snapped his
fingers. Much to the surprise of the group, a small bluish circle
appeared just above the tip of his outstretched index, and a tiny
flame began to flicker.
"W-what the hell!" They couldn't manage to hold in their
surprise. It was magic! The stuff they previously had only read
or heard about, the stuff of fantasies! Right in front of their very
eyes!
Kalor kept the flame over the metallic tumbler, and the needles
in the water. Soon, the water started boiling, a bubbling sound
could be heard.
After some time, he took out the needles and offered them to
the group.
"Here, I've sterilised the needles. Now, please activate your status badges, I'm quite impatient to
learn about your statuses..."