Lieren inspected the young lady with a curious and innocent gaze.
She seemed to be in her early twenties, possibly younger, and had sky-blue hair and round glasses. Her eyes, though invisible behind the dense wall of her eyewear, was still somewhat perceivable through Lieren's eyes. Two sapphire gems imbedded themselves in the young lady's eye sockets, perfectly outfitting her brown skin. Her eyes glowed with inquisitive light, studying the world with palpable interest, as if to question the very world themselves, studying every single part of it simultaneously.
The woman wore a navy flowing robe with intricate yellow accents embroidered into the material with careful technique and astounding skill. It reached down just before her feet, draping over her like a waterfall. The cloth was baggy and thus hid her figure. A shame for some people, but not for the young boy.
She had a large staff that arced at the tip, where a large crystal of emerald was situated at, hovering as though separated from the world itself.
Her glasses had intricately carved rubes that glowed with incandescent light ever since she suddenly appeared right beside him.
Come to think of it…
"How did you get here? I could have sworn you weren't there earlier."
The young lady, Selen Votum, raised a brow and shrugged. She said with an indifferent undertone:
"You must have been mistaken, then. I've been here the entire time."
Lieren scratched the back of his head. He was certain that she was not there just a moment ago.
"I guess so. Silly me. I just woke up, you see…" Igniting Manavision at the same time, he gave the lying woman a surreptitious glance.
This time, his gaze held a glint of something else.
'Well, that's interesting,' Lieren mused as he witnessed the brilliant shine of mana leaking out of the young lady's concealed figure.
The spell that the lady made seemed to bend the light around her in a sphere of influence that perfectly traced her figure, even hiding the flashy mana signature of her staff, as well as other magic items she had on her person.
"Are you done?" Selen's voice was indifferent and passive, as though she couldn't care less of the state of the world.
Realizing that she had already noticed that he was using Manavision to analyze her spell, Lieren dismissed it, instead putting up the best impression of a poker face that he could craft. Which was, ironically enough, his normal inquisitive expression. Unlike Selen's gaze, his questioned the world. Not in disbelief, but of pure, gluttonous curiosity.
His smile held a tinge of untruth in it, which he despised most of all, but nevertheless brought up in defense of the woman's beholding gaze.
"Yeah, just about," For some reason, the woman's gaze seemed to turn icy cold as she edged closer, her boots clicking on the tiled floor of his assumed residence.
The air grew dour and sullen as the woman approached, the small distance that should have taken no longer than a few seconds bleeding into an eternity of suffocating silence and mental asphyxiation.
And in the midst of it, the deafening sound of glass shattering into millions of pieces overpowered the bleeding silence with its sharp tone and striking power.
…And soon, the dour and sullen atmosphere disappeared. Time moved normally once again.
Lieren's eyes glimmered with retaliation, a look that Selen noticed with her piercing gaze.
The young woman sat on the edge of his bed. Glancing to the side, her expression switched from indifferent to triumphant. The shadow of a smile crept up on her tanned face.
'What is she…'
Then, as if he was struck by lightning, a shock ran down his back like an arc of electricity. His eyes shot open as well, the dreadful realization forcing his back straighten as he sat up with a start, ready to run should the worst come to pass.
Her following words echoed throughout the room like a dissonant whisper, sending chills to his bone, freezing him in place.
"Magic Resistance, huh…"
There it was, the truth.
Knitting his brows, Lieren fortified his body and willed his Resistance to become even thicker. Though he had not done the latter before, nor did he have the insight to reliably expect it to happen, the power within him responded all the same.
The translucent film-like aura became denser and thicker, its nullifying power increasing even more according to the will of its master.
…At the same time, he felt more detached to the world than ever before, much more than even before he had willed his Resistance to reduce as much as he could so as to absorb mana passively instead of regularly having to meditate to replenish his reserves.
He could also feel the light frustration of something burning inside of him, which wasn't his, but somebody else's.
'As I thought, that guy has his secrets after all…'
But he didn't have any time to revel in this new information… for now.
Much bigger things were in front of him, things he has to deal with before anything else happens.
Selen's smile seemed to grow wider and larger, breaking through the cold and indifferent façade like a sledgehammer to a wooden door. She leaned over with an insidious smile on her lips, edging closer. Time slowed down once again, even without the perception-bending spell.
"Hey, why don't you—"
"I HAVE COME TO VISIT!!"
A shock of surprise ran down Lieren's back and made his hair stand up.
"What… what was that?"
Glancing to the side, he found the familiar visage of a sickly-pale girl floating—no, flying by the window sill of his room… outside.
For a moment, time seemed to come to a standstill as the sunny girl's brilliant smile permeated the heavy atmosphere assailing the room.
Lieren blinked a couple of times, lingering for a long while, then finally asked:
"Umm, uh, may I ask what you're doing?"
The sunny girl smiled even brighter somehow.
"You may."
He lingered for a bit, just a little confused.
'…Oh, I can? That's a surprise.'
For some odd reason, Lieren had an inkling that she wouldn't open to such obvious questions. Or, rather, expected that she would just state her reason for being in the first place… like a normal person.
Sighing, Lieren hung his head. The tension on his shoulders dissipated at the same time.
Right, the term "normal" couldn't possibly apply to her. Being the only daughter of the most powerful family in terms of pure military strength means that she grew up in what he can only described as…
"Absolutely bonkers."
Selen looked at him with an incredulous expression, as though she was looking at some strange, foreign creature.
"What?"
Lieren flushed with embarrassment, turned away and desperately tried to steer the conversation another way. He said with just a bit of shame evident in his shaky voice:
"So, uh... what are you doing here?"
As though she had just remembered what she was here to do, the young scion suddenly looked up, opened her eyes wide, and flew inside, guided by her conjured wind.
She stopped just a foot shy from Lieren's bed and spoke hurriedly, in fear of something:
"Master Liu is waiting for you at the training grounds."
Lieren immediately got out of his bed and dashed towards the corridor.
"Oh crap!"