Selen raised a brow and threw a curious look his way. Her face was contorted into what seemed to incredulity and genuine surprise.
"You noticed me?" She tilted her head and disabled the enshrouding aura of invisibility.
Lieren's eyes narrowed, then shot back open. Now that he had been made more aware of other things like people and magic, his sense of perception and time had come back to haunt him. The wave of fatigue that he had been stubbornly holding off crashed onto him like a heavy tsunami.
"Yes, I'm not an idiot. I have the prudence to know when to analyze my potential opponents."
He threw a glance at her flowing robe and light clothing, then sighed. The intricate golden embroidery was much more prominent than the last time he had seen them, as though it was begging for attention. Lieren pointed at it and yawned.
"Hah~ That robe you're wearing, or rather the stitching on it, is a manifested item, right?"
Selen shifted slightly. Her face was neither surprised nor dark, hidden behind a mask of indifference. However, to Lieren's sensitive eyes, it may as well had been transparent. He saw right through her ruse and peered her discomfort and panic with just a casual, sleep deprived glance.
"That's an interesting theory. Please, do tell." Her voice was calm, but her heart was not. Lieren could see that even with just one eye open.
"Fine. If I don't, I have a feeling that you'll bug me until I tell you, anyways."
He sighed and caressed the black cube with his index figure. It was smooth, fine, and sharp. All six sides were sleek like leather and was neither hot nor cold, while the four edges were so pointy that he almost pricked his finger. The sixth — or was it the first? — which had a rough crack running down the middle of it was the same sleek texture, as well. It was as if the white crack that separated the impenetrable darkness was just a figment of his imagination or his eyes playing tricks on him.
Selen's eyes narrowed considerably.
"You use a high quality, peak performance mana-conductive material — probably from some kind of monster like a Troll or an Orc Shaman — as a base condition for your spell. You also use this same condition to your advantage; you cannot cast it without something to use as a catalyst. That's where the golden accents come in, as well as its striking appearance. It might seem just that, accents for aesthetic purposes… but, huh, that's weird. You didn't strike me as the kind of person who would care about such things. Especially with your fervent academic zeal, which seemed to cut through everything else in your life."
Selen put up a brave front and ignited Manavision, flaring her sapphire eyes with the same inquisitive light that Lieren always displayed, with nowhere near the same intensity. What caught his attention, however, were her round glasses. They glowed in response to their wearer's intent, activating the runes etched into the temples with next to no delay whatsoever.
Lieren almost let out a smile, but felt the fatigue in his body pulling the thought away. It was so obvious that he could practically hear it.
"Really, now. That's a bit of a stretch, is it not? You barely know me to make such assumptions like that," Her tone was calm, genuinely so. She was no novice when it came to verbal back-and-forth because of her privileged disposition; this was nothing to an expert like her.
Still, Lieren was disappointed. If it wasn't for the obvious cracking of her mask, which Lieren was so conscious about that he could almost hear it break, then he would not have been this enticed to continue on.
"Maybe, maybe not. But the fact still stands. That golden embroidery becomes more pronounced and intricate the more you use your spell. It's easy to tell what you are and what you can do if you pay enough attention."
A grin crept up her face.
"Which is what, exactly?"
Lieren shrugged, looked her dead in the eye, and said flatly:
"That you are an Artificer with the ability to manifest magical golden thread to weave into mana conductive fabric with the rare enchantment of invisibility. As well as its restriction of becoming more pronounced the more the mage wearing the finished product uses the invisibility enchantment. It's a high-risk, high-return spell that puts the mage at risk the more the enchantment is activated, further empowering the clandestine capabilities of that navy robe."
The peeking sunlight from the horizon bounced off Selen's glasses, reflecting it back into the world and hiding her sapphire eyes from view. Lieren knew exactly what face she was making right now.
One of pure, unbridled surprise and shock.
"So, you've figured it out…"
Finally breaking the façade, Selen spoke in her true voice. The mask she had stubbornly held onto crumbled into tiny pieces and fell away, pierced through by Lieren's inquisitive gaze. However, contrary to his expectations… there was no unexpected shock or sudden sock on her face. Instead, there was just the sweet sense of satisfactory glee evident in her dark face.
He scowled and tried to peer deeper into her, only to find that her topmost layer, at least the one that he could see with his current abilities. What he saw was the real her, the "self" she had kept hidden all this time, for as long as she had known her.
…Which was, comparatively, not a very long time. Literally everyone but him in this Mansion knew the dark-skinned woman more, which made him shudder for some reason. The thought of somebody being this devious while others knew of her real nature was, to him, somehow more dreadful than if it was not.
Lieren's eyes narrowed as his gaze fell onto her brown face. A smile parted her cheeks and curled up her face. It was as if a new expression was being carved on her beautiful face. She seemed to be… glad, if not a little impressed. One thing stood above all things that her expression held however, and that was a sincere level of satisfaction that washed over her like a waterfall.
An almost deafening clap resounded in the sunlit room.
"…What?"
Selen was clapping, her smile fully formed and resting comfortably on her face, which disturbed Lieren to the point where his body visibly shuddered from fear as his gaze fell on the satisfied expression she boldly displayed. She muttered aloud, her voice echoing sonorously in the sunlit room:
"Congratulations, you've passed the first test of your training."
Lieren glanced at her suspiciously.
"First test? What do you mean?"