The sound of knocking could be heard from the front door in the late evening. The Rivera siblings were busy with each of their own things when it sounded. The brother was training his martial arts in the backyard after dinner while the sister was washing the dishes. Noticing that the brother couldn’t possibly have heard the knocking on the door, the sister went over to see who the visitor could be.

“Hey. I’m back already.”

Hearing the words spoken by the unexpected visitor, Slyvie’s face beamed.

“Cliff! You sure are back fast, not that you aren’t welcomed. A day haven’t even past! Are those two the companions you spoke of?”

Sylvie finally noticed the one that were half-carried by me and the other one that was behind me after her initial excitement. The color of her face glowed as if it had became warmer as her eyes darted to a certain person.

“Yeah, certain things happened. I remembered that you were a healer and we got injured, so I was wondering if you could fix us up? I also had another favor to ask for.”

“Eh? Of course, come in, come in! I’m sorry for making you all wait outside and not noticing your injuries. Quickly come in and sit down. I’ll get Raoul to come over and get some tea at the same time. Then I’ll fix all of you up.”

“Thanks.”

Only after Sylvie went off did Chris spoke up.

“How did you get to know her? Was it during the time you were missing?”

“Yeah, that’s the case. The siblings took care of me after the accident that I had. I also helped them with one of their problem that occurred before I returned.”

Sylvie came back quickly with Raoul in tow. He was still wet with sweat from his training. The glistering sweat that covered his half naked body with the light provided by the lamps created the illusion that he was sparkling. He had a towel which he used to wipe his sweat in a useless attempt to prevent them from dripping towards the floor.

“Cliff, nice to see that you’re back. I apologise to the two guests for seeing my current appearance. Mind for some introduction and explanation, Cliff?”

I gave the introduction of each members to both sides. I then proceeded to explain the circumstances for our injuries and the accident that I had. While all of these were going on, Sylvie was doing her best to heal each of us with her abilities as a healer.

“That does explain certain things, but how did you know that my sister was a healer? I don’t think that either of us had mentioned that during your stay here.”

“Well, you see, I do have this ability to view statues. I just happened to noticed that her class is that of a healer and you of a martial artist.”

“That, that kind of ability is rare. No wonder you were able to take out those thugs so easily. You must have knew before hand what kind of tactics or moves they were limited to.”

“Not really. I was just confident that I could overpower them just based on the stats differences.”

“...Okay. Putting that aside, what’s the other favor that you’re asking from us? We’ll do our best to help you.”

“Yeah. Although we probably don’t have much ways to help you in, we really want to help you in whatever you’re doing!”

“The thing is, I don’t really know my past. I only awoke to my current self around a week ago. Things have been kinda weird for Chris and Aston since I joined them, so we were wondering if it had something to do with my past. I heard from Chris that Mavic Schooler would be coming to the city soon and wish that he would be able to explain the mystery of my past. I was hoping that you two could somehow get us to meet him with your status as a fallen noble.”

“N-noble? What are you talking about? We’re just orphans of merchants. Y-yeah, rich merchants.”

Although surprised by my revelation, Raoul was too busy trying to cover up his noble lineage to question it.

“You know that you can’t lie well Raoul. Even if you could, with the exchange between you and the thugs, I could’ve easily guessed. And as for the getting to meet Mavic part, it probably wouldn’t be easy as you two are no longer actual nobles.”

Raoul sighed while Sylvie continued to stay silent and focus on her task of healing, which had now moved on to Aston. I declined her earlier as my injuries were minor and had almost recovered by itself.

“Yeah, we were nobles. I guess I just couldn’t lie to you so easily. On the part of Mavic Schooler, I think that we might still have enough influence to enable us to meet him. If I didn’t remember wrongly, he used to frequently visit Flussufera back when it still wasn’t a city. Our family were quite influential back then so I supposed he would have heard about us. He may allow the meeting if we go along, though I cannot guarantee that.”

“Alright then. That is already good enough. Thank you, my friend-”

A gurgled interrupted our conversation as I turned towards it’s source. It came from the dwarf which tried to look away to hide his involvement in the creation of the sound. For some reason, Aston wasn’t the only one with his face red. Slyvie’s face had turned red too.

“S-sorry! I didn’t noticed that all of you haven’t had dinner yet and made you wait. I’ll go make dinner for you three now!”

Sylvie dashed off in a hurry before I could stop her. I turned back to Raoul and asked him a question.

“Ah. There she went. It wasn’t her fault that we haven’t had dinner yet, but I do appreciate her concern. Also, is it just me or is your sister not acting like herself?”

“THAT! THAT CANNOT BE!”

He spoke that out loud and stomped off. We could only wondered why the siblings had such reactions. The three of us had dinner soon and the food was even better than the usual. The two siblings joined us at the the table with the previous mood. When Sylvie’s food was complemented by the other two, she blushed once more, prompting anger from the brother again. We were then offered to spend the night there as it had became late. We graciously accepted the offer and went to rest. I slipped out in the middle of the night while the others slept to spread red cloud of terror in moderation instead.

Morning arrived and we suggested to help with the chores that they had to do to repay them for the meal. Chris stayed behind with Raoul to clean up the house and proceeded to exchange pointers in practice fights while Sylvie, Aston and I went to get the grocery. On our way back, we heard news from the marketplace that Mavic Schooler had pushed his schedule ahead and will be arriving on the same day instead. He would be resting in the best inn in the city, “The Honey Lantern”, and would be provided with many experienced guards during his stay there. We rushed back to inform the other two of the news.

We prepared for the meeting with Mavic Schooler and ate our lunch. Most of the preparation involved getting dressed in appropriate clothings while the remaining involves teaching etiquette to the three of us. In the late afternoon, we set off towards “The Honey Lantern”. It was in the noble district which the siblings live in, so the walk only took us around ten minutes.

“The Honey Lantern” was an inn that gave off the warmth and sweetness like honey. It was way larger than the other buildings surrounding it and was painted in shades of gold, with most of it in golden yellow. It was already a feat to keep the color from dulling due to time and weather. I suspected that magic was involved. The shades of gold painted on the brick wall of the building made it hard for people to stare directly at it during the middle of the day while it remains brilliantly bright during the night as well. There were knights wearing shiny silver armor which harmonize with the gold from the building surrounding it at the same time.

Undaunted by the knights in silver full plate armor, Raoul and Slyvie both stepped towards the entrance of the inn, the three of us followed behind them. A short distance before they could actually reached the door to the inn, one of the knights pull out his sword and pointed at Raoul. He uttered,

“Halt! Who are you and how dare you attempt to enter this place!”

Raoul spoke out, each word flooding with etiquette befitting that of a noble.

“I have come to request a meeting with Mavic Schooler. I am Raoul Rivera and this is my sister Sylvie Rivera.”

The knight responded rudely to Raoul and stated,

“I don’t care who you are! No one gets to meet Mavic Schooler unless given the permission by himself or the governor of Flussufera!”

“But-”

“No! If you still insist on seeing Mavic Schooler, obtain permission from the governor. Else, if you were to take one more step forward, we will treat you as hostile and cut you down!”

Feeling stuck in a corner as he knew that trying to meet the governor will result in a similar scene, Raoul desperately thinks for a solution. It was cut off by a voice from within the inn itself.

“You said that your name is Raoul Rivera and the one next to you is Slyive Rivera?”

The voice came from a figure looking out the window of the third floor. We were unable to clearly see how he looked due to the reflection from the golden bricks of the building. Raoul could only answer back and hope that the interrupter could help with the situation.

“Yes, that is so sir.”

“Okay. Slyvie Rivera may enter. The rest will wait outside.”

The knights replied with a “Yes, Sir!”

We wondered if it was fine for just Sylvie to enter by herself but she didn’t mind and went in by herself. I looked through the same eyes as Sylvie did and thought that I would rush to save her if she ran into danger. She was led up the stairs swiftly on to the third floor and was brought in front of the door which led to the room that the window was connected to. She gave a knock and a man which sounded ancient allowed her to enter the room.

An old man that was around the same height as his brother was in the room. He looked pale and had long straight hair that reached way below his shoulders. His moustache and beard were thick and covered the lower part of his face, reaching near his chest. His hair were a dull silver and he had black eyes with silver iris that seemed to pull people in. He wore a blue robe that covered most of his body and had a cane to balance himself. It seemed like he lost his lower left leg and the cane was a sort of replacement for that.

“Come here and sit down, you young brat.”

Sylvie obeyed obediently, unwilling to anger the old man before her. They sat on the chairs that surrounded a table in the middle of the room. They were seated facing each others and Sylvie couldn’t helped but be nervous.

“Now, Slyive Rivera right? Give me your hands.”

“Eh?”

A sound of surprise escaped her lips as that wasn’t something that she could’ve expected. Ignoring the confusion on her face, the old man commanded,

“Just give it to me!”

I wondered momentarily if I should force my way into the room as he could meant harm towards Sylvie but decided against it. Sylvie obeyed meekly and the old man held her eyes, before closing his eyes. He opened it a second later and a smile appeared on his face before he let go of her hands.

“You may not remembered it but we had met before, same goes for Raoul down there.”

“Eh? EH!?”

“No need for the surprise, you were both fairly young then and probably don’t remember it. You two brought some companions over right? There is probably something that you’re asking from me and you’ll want them inside here too right?”

Before Sylvie could answer, Mavic had already stood up and walked towards the previous window with the aid of his cane. He commanded the knights to lead the remaining of us into the room.

We were invited to sit down on the chairs surrounding the table and he said,

“So what do you want?”

He shot a straight ball and I decided to do the same. I spoke up before the others could react.

“View my statues with that ability of yours.”

Everyone was surprised at me being so direct at it while the old man felt curious instead that my request was so simple.

“That’s all?”

“Yes. That’s all. You’ll need to hold my hands right? Here, get on with it.”

The old man was a bit stunned at me knowing about the need to hold hands but decided to ignore it. He proceeded to held my hands and closed his eyes, just like how he did so for Sylvie. Instead of keeping it closed for just a mere second, this time he continued for roughly half a minute. As each second past, his expression kept on getting more serious and strained. The others were worried about why he looked so strained, even more so was Sylvie who knew that it only took a second for the ability to work when used on herself. He suddenly broke contact with me as he pretty much threw my hands away from himself and opened his eyes wide. The aura of importances and uncaringness from him was replaced by that of worriedness and doubting. Only one word left his mouth,

“Impossible…”

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