"Are you from the rescue party?"
I studied her for a few moments, taking in every detail. She wasn't from Arcadia or any other island I recognized. Every line of her posture, every flicker of her golden eyes, suggested someone who belonged to a higher plane of skill and knowledge. Lying to her didn't seem like a good idea. My gut told me that she could see through any attempt at deception.
(image)
"I'm not," I said, choosing my words carefully. "I'm from the island of Arcadia. I'm part of an exploration party."
"Arcadia?" Her voice carried a mixture of surprise and mild disdain. "That wretched place… I guess even islands like that can produce someone with mana of our caliber. I am Liraelith, but you can call me Lira. And you?"
"Maximillion," I replied. "But you can call me Max."
Her gaze seemed to pierce straight through me. It wasn't just curiosity—there was assessment there, a careful weighing of my potential and, perhaps, my danger.
"I have never heard of a mage from Arcadia with that name before," she said, tilting her head.
"I'm not a mage," I admitted, shaking my head. "Just the third son of a farmer."
"Bullshit!" Her eyes narrowed, slitting like golden blades. "You need at least as much mana as I to open that door."
I shrugged. "Yeah, the door drained some of my mana, but opening it wasn't too much of an issue."
I had always known that everyone in the world had mana, but few could control it without tools. Mages were the exceptions, people who had learned to channel mana into spells.
Lira's golden eyes glimmered, calculating. She stepped closer, circling me like a predator analyzing prey, poking my arm lightly. "Interesting. You still have mana?"
"Yeah. I'd say the door only took about a quarter of it."
Her eyebrows shot up, she smiled, and she clapped her hands together softly. "Really?! How strange! I must research this more! Ah, but first things first… do you have any food? The door locked behind me when I entered; I've been stuck in here for about a week, and I ran out of supplies yesterday!"
I froze for a second, imagining her trapped alone for seven days. My stomach tightened at the thought. Then, as if to punctuate her plight, a low rumble echoed from her stomach. She blushed slightly, embarrassed.
Without a word, I reached into my [Pouch of Holding], retrieving my [Daily Bread Box] and [Bottomless Waterskin]. Her eyes widened in surprise, though she didn't comment. I opened the bread box, and the faint smell of warm, fresh bread filled the chamber.
I split the loaf, handing her the larger piece. She took it greedily, biting into it as she continued speaking between mouthfuls.
"That's a [Daily Bread Box], right? They're very rare nowadays," she said around a mouthful.
"I'm not sure how rare," I admitted. "I found it in a ruin about a year ago. It's kept me fed ever since. Better than the bread they dole out on Arcadia."
She tilted her head, studying me with renewed interest. "I've heard that Arcadia doesn't allow ordinary citizens to keep items from the ruins. How have you held onto this for a year?"
I nodded, feeling an odd trust toward her. "I… hide things in the pouch."
Her golden eyes sparkled. "I see. I'm still hungry, could you make some more bread from the box, please?"
I frowned. "Make more? It only gives me one loaf a day."
"Ah, nonsense," she said, waving a hand. "These boxes respond to your channeled mana and produce bread on demand. Don't tell me it absorbs enough of your leaking mana to produce a full loaf every day?"
I shook my head. "I don't really know what you mean by leaking mana, but it really only produces one loaf per day."
Her curiosity only deepened. "May I see it?"
I handed her the box. She held it up, turning it over and inspecting every angle. Then she closed her eyes. The box glowed faintly in response to her mana, and her breath grew ragged. After a moment, the glow faded, and she opened her eyes. She pulled out a single piece of bread.
"Incredible," I whispered. I hadn't realized she could sense or manipulate mana in that way.
"You're the incredible one," She said. "That loaf took about ten percent of my maximum mana capacity to produce, but you… you leak enough mana in a single day to make one without effort. Most people only leak half a percent of their mana per day. Your reserves… they're very high."
"Huh?" I said, blinking.
"Don't 'huh' me, Max!" she snapped, though her tone held amusement. "If you'd been born on an inner island, you'd have been assessed and trained. But as an outer islander, Arcadia, no less, they never bothered."
The revelation left me stunned. I'd never considered that my mana reserves were unusual, just a farmer's son doing what he could to survive.
"I had no idea," I admitted.
"I can see that," she said, nodding. "Tell me… Max, how do you feel about Arcadia?"
"It's a floating nightmare," I said bluntly. "I've been trying to save enough to leave with a traveling merchant. And after today, I probably can't go back."
"Why not?"
"I… fired a mana pistol at another explorer who tried to rob me. A guard showed up, and if I'm caught… they'd probably execute me on the spot."
"A mana pistol? You can fire one of those?"
I nodded. "Yeah. It was tricky at first, but I learned to control the output. I can choose how lethal the shots are."
She gasped. "The first time you fired one, what happened?"
"The kickback sent me sprawling, and the bullet flew off into the sky," I admitted, grinning faintly.
Her mouth opened, then closed, then curved into a smile. "Max… most people can barely use a mana pistol to stun an enemy, let alone throw themselves backwards. You… you're remarkable."
I felt my face flush. I might be uneducated, but I understood what she was saying. I wasn't ordinary, and she knew it.
"Alright," I said finally. "I'll keep that a secret."
"No need," she said. "With you here, we're escaping these ruins. And I want to hire you as my assistant."
"Your… assistant?"
"Yes." She smiled, eyes gleaming. "Allow me to properly introduce myself. I am Liraelith Umbravale, research skyfarer, by special appointment of the Meritous Adventurer's College of Magical Arts. And I would like to hire you as my new assistant."