"... If you are indeed a member of Heaven's Sky..." Yizak glanced between me and Laurence. She appeared doubtful, but at the time seemed to have consigned to the fact. "Then we will withdraw for now. Nuel, I presume you wish to catch up with your 'old friend'?"

Laurence nodded.

"Then please do so. I will be reporting this to the palace and church as well. Until later, then." Yizak and Glenn left, leaving me with my so called "relative". I didn't actually know him though.

"So, 'old friend', shall we grab a drink inside?" The golden haired sorcerer said with a saucy wink.

"I am all for some ale," I answered.

"What? You look underaged, no can do." He said as we walked into the inn.

"Underaged? Excuse me, I don't even know how old I am so it's okay. In the first place, the legal drinking age of this world is zero, zero you know?" I argued.

"Well in my country it was 18."

"Haven't you hear the phrase legal loli? I could be in my 40s for all you know."

"??? Legal loli?" He had a look of confusion on his face.

How do I explain this? I should have known that this scholar type of person wouldn't know the meaning of those words.

"Um, someone who looks like a small child but is actually of legal age."

"Huh, is that so...? Well, I guess that could happen."

We soon reached the table where the troupe members were seated at.

"Lennor-san!" I called, and she looked to me, curiosity on her face.

"What did the paladin want from you again?" She asked.

"Nothing much, oh, but meet Laurence here. He's a sorcerer that came with them, but coincidentally we're from the same family." I said, gesturing to him.

"Hoh? I guess magic is a thing that runs in blood after all. Well, sorcerer or not, any family of our troupe's members are welcome." Lennor then got the attention of everyone else. "Today we celebrate! We've got a sorcerer and summoner in our midst, men! Prepare the ale!"

Is that something to celebrate though? Plus, I mean, Ludan is a summoner too...

When we finally finished, I was exhausted, and taking a rest in the garden with Laurence. At that moment, I remembered the important question I needed to ask!

"Laurence!" I said, making him jump up a bit before calming down and looking at me.

"What is it?" He asked as he pushed up his spectacles.

"Do you know Yun?" I stared at him in expectation. Yun, the handsome blue-eyed man who had totally ignored the beautiful and amazing moi. Also, the first otherworlder I had met in this world. It would be a lie if I said I wasn't curious about what he was up to right now.

"Hmm? That guy? The captain mentioned him you know. There are quite a number of rumors floating around. The 'Youngest General in Suisen's History', the 'First Lightning Elementalist', 'Storm Dancer of a Thousand Blades', 'Thunder Beast', etc. Etc. Even among us otherworlders, it can be said that he's a top ranking combat genius." What Laurence said slightly confused me.

"Is he an elementalist or a swordsman?" I asked, then I recalled that he could be both. Brain fart.

"I think he was something like Storm Dancer. One of those super rare hidden classes. It seems that others have mistook him as having a swordsman class plus an elementalist subclass. Hence the 'first lightning elementalist' deal." The sorcerer answered, and I nodded. I had also thought that for a moment. But super rare hidden classes, huh? My own class is probably something like that isn't it...

"That being said, don't you have a hidden class as well? I've never heard of someone being able to learn all the skills before." Laurence said, his eyes suddenly becoming sharp.

People can't learn all the skills? I didn't know that. I didn't know that, I swear. Inwardly, I sobbed, just a bit.

"What are you talking about~ I just, um, have this deception skill you know-" I tried to worm my way out of it.

"Are you trying to lie to your family?"

"Bullshit, when were you one of my family."

"Clan, family, it's basically the same thing, right?"

"Uuuuu, I guess that's true. Fine, fine. But just between us alright?"

"You got it. But no promises that I won't tell our 'family' if they ever ask."

"Alright. I have a 'polymath' class. I get plusses to every skill I learn, no class restrictions whatsoever." I said, scratching my head.

"What?! That's practically cheating!! Here we only get two classes, and you're saying you practically have all of them?" He complained, a little bit too loudly.

"Quiet down!" I snapped. "This is why I didn't wanna say. I thought everyone could learn all the skills and that I just got bonuses for doing so..."

"Then that would just be too overpowered. How did you get that class anyways??" He looked at me curiously.

"Some former king or duke guy gave it to me as thanks. He served a council in this place called the Kingdom of Seven Stars, or something."

"What?? That legendary country?!"

Are all fallen kingdoms legendary or something. They won't just be satisfied with the Kingdom of Sages, you got to have fancy fallen democratic kingdoms too.

"Err, maybe...?"

"Ahh, ahh, I wish I got the luck you have."

Luck, huh? Now that I think about it, isn't the reason I'm so lucky because of my passive title, which pretty much increase my luck? Or rewards, or whatever. It was along those lines.

"Well, don't they say that truly great people make their own luck?"

"That's true! Just watch me, I'll show you what this old man can do!"

... What? Old... man...?? Ehhhh, even though you don't look any older than 20?!

I repeated that out loud and he looked at me.

"Didn't you know that they change everyone's age and appearance? The races are also randomized, at least according to Isolde. We all pretty much end up beautiful though. For the record, I'm actually in my sixties if I remember right."

"Wait, then why did you say I couldn't drink ale?"

"Ahahaha, it was a habit, a habit."

"..."

I sighed, giving up. We registered as friends before he left to go back to the church. I spent a little more time outside, deciding to summon Khari. No circle needed, since that was actually just a show for the crowd. It had even said in the skill description that otherworlders just needed to use the verbal incantation "Summon" in order to conjure up one's familiar. OPness has been acknowledged.

Khari appeared, her usual smile on her cute and tiny face. "Yes~ Khari at your service!"

So cuteeeeeee~

I rubbed my cheek against her, making her giggle. Letting go, I coughed and regained some semblance of elegance. Not really.

"So, I was wondering, how strong do I need to be to survive the spirit world?" I asked, turning my lavender eyes on her.

"The spirit world? Well, I would say... if you're going by yourself, then [Level 20] should be fine. Oh, but if you go with the summoner boy, [ Level 15] would be okay in order to increase your survival rate to 100%."

I am still level seven right now (since I hadn't gotten any quests or anything after I came to this city), so that meant increasing my level by 13. Or 8, if I convinced Ludan to come with me.

First thing's first would be...

"Can I go to the spirit world?"

Even though the silver key had already gone to Khari, I still had hope.

"What, it was only something like that?" Khari laughed.

What, is my question that funny? I mean, I don't think I'm that funny of a person... in the first place, what's there to laugh about?

"The thing is, the kings had wanted to invite you in the first place, so the answer is yes, you can go. To be honest, I think they said something along the lines of 'even though it's such a weak and greedy human, we should thank it since it went through a lot of trouble, even giving up the key. Perhaps their race has some virtue after all'."

Well, excuse me for being a weak and greedy human that got the important key you just happened to lose. I'll show them.

"Khari, forgive me, but tell them I can't go until I've become stronger."

"Eh? I think you're fine right now though. Since they said to give you the 'Fairy's Blessing'."

"No, that's not the point!" This is a matter of my pride right here!

"E-eh? It isn't?"

I shook my head. "Nope."

"If you say so..." She looked like she didn't get it, but that's okay. Since I'm just a weak and greedy human after all.

All fired up, I went back to my room. Only Ludan was inside, the others probably still drinking and partying hard. Still in the throes of passion, I pushed him do- no, that's the wrong type of passion.

Anyways, what I really did was go up to him, grab his shoulders, and stare straight into his startled golden eyes.

"Seir Ludan."

"Y-yes?"

Wow, now that I get a good closeup of him, this guy is way too beautiful. His fair skin is smooth like a baby's, and his eyelashes were long, framing his almond shaped eyes. Hiding these eyes, that glittered seductively in the light of the candles, with his bangs was just a pity.

Ah, I'm getting distracted.

"Seir, please teach me your summoner skills."

"How did you know I was-"

"Never mind that, just teach them to me!"

He fell silent. Was I being too forceful?

"Fine. But first..."

"Yeah?"

"An unmarried girl shouldn't be..." He blushed.

...

I let go. Which one of us is the unmarried girl again? It's me right? IT'S ME RIGHT?

"Anyways, how did you know I was a summoner?" He said, coughing as he regained his composure, arranging his robes so that he looked a little more presentable.

"Oh, Khari told me." I sat down in front of him, my feet under my bottom. It was the position that people in Japanese dojos sat in, although I don't know why that was the first example that came to mind.

"Ah, I should have known..." He muttered, sighing. "From what I've seen, you don't need to learn anything more though."

"Why not?" I tilted my head in confusion. It was true that I had learned the skills in the instructor's center, but that couldn't have been all that I needed to learn was it?

"You know the circle you used for Khari's summoning?"

I nodded, taking it out.

"It looks similar enough to trick a beginner magician, or a commoner" - like me? Beginner magician here you know - "but it's actually a circle for summoning a celestial being. In other words, a more powerful version of normal familiars. When you invoked the spell, it looked like you were using it properly, but the flow of magic was all wrong. In the end, you summoned a normal, if not high ranking, fairy. From this, I can infer that you're powerful enough to not use a summoning circle. Yet, despite not using a circle, you were still able to contract with a familiar of Titiania rank. Plus, to have that high class magic circle means that you are most likely a summoner of greater strength than I." He took a sip of water from the cup next to him.

"Eh, I'm a beginner though."

Wahh, what a beautiful rainbow... is what I thought as he spit out his drink, coughing violently while choking a bit.

"W-w-what? A beginner??" He said after he finally stopped dying.

"Yeah. I learned those skills on the day I met you. The summoner circle is something I sto- ahem, borrowed from someone." I was about to be a little bit too honest there.

"I-i see. You have amazing talent. Even though it took me so many years to reach the point of..." The last sentence was mumbled and I could barely hear it, but I detected a hint of envy and anger in there. Only a hint though.

"Well since it's like that, let me ask, what summoner spells do you know?"

"Hmm~~" I pulled up my skill list. There weren't that many summoning skills, since those murderers had snatched the good ones (at least I assume they were the good ones) beforehand.

"Summon, Guardian Contract, Slave Contract, Soul Bond, Shattered Chains, Guardian's Heart... and that's it."

Active Skill:

Guardian Contract

Beginner's Lv.1

Costs 5 levels

Can only have one Guardian Beast at any point in time (will increase up in leveling the skill)

The familiar who has become your guardian may be summoned without the use of mana and can stay in the physical realm for an infinite amount of time. Can only be used when the familiar has granted their consent.

Active Skill:

Slave Contract

Beginner's Lv.1

Costs 50 levels

Can bind a familiar so that they will be forced into the "Guardian Beast" status even without their consent.

Active Skill:

Soul Bond

Beginner's Lv.1

Costs 500 MP

May cast any of the familiar's Beginner Level skills without the use of mana within 5 seconds.

Active Skill:

Shattered Chains

Beginner's Lv.1

Cost 1 familiar and 30% of your current health

By breaking the contract between yourself and your familiar, you may automatically regenerate 20% of your mana in order to cast any one skill that is one rank higher than the rank of this skill that any one of your currently contracted familiars possesses.

Active Skill:

Guardian's Heart

Beginner’s Lv.1

Restricted to Guardians

Costs 1 Guardian

In exchange for the contract between yourself, and one of your guardians, you may automatically regenerate 50% of your health and mana.

I felt that, despite being only beginner level one, they sounded pretty powerful...? Or rather, the costs are too high! Some of them had that last resort ultimate skill type of feel, which made me wonder if the murderer had actually only taken the good skill books. If he did, how powerful were those skills...

"Those skills... why do you have those skills?" The bard looked at me in astonishment.

"Eh? It's weird?" I tilted my head. Although they were the last attack sort of spell (at least some of them were), I thought they sounded like skills any summoner should have.

"Yes, it's weird! Those are all class B skills! I mean, I have them too, but those aren't something a beginner summoner should have." He said. Class B? Only sounds second rate. Does that mean the murderer stole nine class A, or wait, even class S books? Or something.

"Is that so?"

"Yes! Spells are ranked from class F to A, and then as S, SS, and SSS. I would say, roughly 20% of mages know class B spells, and 5% know class A, 2% know class S, 1% class SS, and only 0.001% know class SSS spells. That's out of all the professional mages in the five empires."

Twenty percent, huh? Meh...it's only okay.

"Hmm, well I just temporarily sneaked a peak in some spell books I found lying around." I laughed, embarrassed. But Ludan is amazing like I thought! He's part of the 5%~

"..." He let out a long and deep sigh. "I'll teach you some class A spells... but this is only because I appreciate you standing up for me the other day."

"Oh, then can you teach me your other class skills in the process?"

He looked as if he's given up on life. The eyes of a dead fish, or something like that. Don't be like that Ludan! I'll share some of my treasure with you so you can appreciate the beauties and riches (literally) of life!

"I only know three class A skills, but this is actually impressive considering that half of the 5% I mentioned earlier will only be in possession of one class A spell."

I nodded, making sure I looked like a good little student. Even though I wouldn't really be paying attention while learning. All that stuff goes over my head anyways, and it's fine since even if I don't listen I can still learn the skill.

"The first spell is called 'Spells of the Holy Sacrifice'. Basically, what happens is that by sacrificing your familiar, blah blah blah will happen, which results in being able to cast one of the three holy spells of the racial elemental pair, doing blah blah blah, and etc. Etc."

Of course, he didn't actually say blah blah blah, and etc. Etc. But that's what it sounded like to me. I just suppressed a yawn as I watched the loading bar fill up.

*Tting*

«You have successfully learned the skill "Spells of the Holy Sacrifice"!»

I swiped away the skill window since even though I wasn't paying complete attention to him, I did catch the basic explanation if the spell's practical application.

"The second skill is 'Starry Night in Silence'. This is actually restricted to a dark fairy familiar, which is my main familiar. There is a class A spell for each type of familiar, so it would probably be better for you to just wait and learn the water fairy spells..."

"Nope, continue!"

He sighed. "Are you even learning this properly?"

"Mm, yeah, probably."

"Probably...?"

I continued to stare at him wide eyed until he started to explain again.

"'Starry Night in Silence' is a spell that makes use of your familiar's power to invoke itself. Like I said before, there is a separate spell for each type of familiar. The way it works is blah blah something I didn't understand, more blah blah blah stuff and what happens is that the area surrounding you is completely enshrouded in darkness and your power will be increased while every ally and yourself are granted maximum stealth and night vision, etc."

I made it my decision to contract a darkness type fairy next.

"The third spell is 'Bonds Under Heaven's Skies'. You can temporarily contract any friend of yours under the same sky as your familiar and use any one of their skills, yada yada yada, something or another or whatever."

This would be useful to me until I reached the point where I had learned every skill under this wide open world~ But that probably wouldn't happen anytime soon, if ever.

"Thanks for the knowledge~" I clapped my hands together as if in prayer.

Ludan sighed, mumbling to himself gloomily. "She can't actually have learned it properly from just now did she, all my hard work, this is why geniuses are..."

"Now, what's your primary class?"

"... it's bard."

"No, it isn't."

If it was that simple it would have already revealed itself.

"Fine. I am actually a... 'Daemon of the Four Songs'. Or more accurately, a 'Bard of Shadows'."

I took a glance slightly upwards.

Seir Ludan

Bard of Shadows Lv.??? | Summoner Lv.???

| Voice of Silver | Weaver of A Thousand Tales | Nightingale | Blood Stained | Shy | Daemon of the Four Songs | Minstrel of the New Moon | ??? | ???|

Now there were only two hidden titles left. What's the difference between a minstrel and a bard though? I asked Ludan.

"? Why are you curious? A minstrel is a singer and a bard is a storyteller, though." Even though he said something like that at first, he still answered my question. But if it's like that then what would you be if you're both? I asked the question aloud.

"There's no real term, but if I had to say, it would be a jongleur or a jester."

Hmm... is that so? I've learned much today (although that whole stuff was mostly useless knowledge). Now that I think about it, isn't it fine if the world just came up with an entirely new term to classify someone who's both a bard and a minstrel?

*Tting*

«System Update! Those under the classification of both bard and minstrel have been given the new class of "Barstrel"»

OIIIIIIIIIII WHAT IS WITH THAT UNBELIEVABLY LAZY NAMING RIGHT THERE!!! No words could describe how hard I tsukkomi'd at that moment.

Ludan-san forgive me your class name has turned into something lame, may god bless all the poor men and women who must carry this "Barstrel" title for the rest of their lives.

Or rather, if you're gonna be that lazy just keep it as bard!

*Tting*

«System update! Those under the classification of both bard and minstrel shall remain as "Bards"»

Phew, that was close. But still. Even though I should be used to it by now, having my thoughts invaded by the world makes me feel quite awkward.

It makes me wonder if they listen to my inner thoughts during the time I shipped Miki and Leo, or when I drooled over so and so, or when I stripp- yeah let's not go there. As a pure maiden of innocence and virtue, I totally don't have those sort of thoughts about the beautiful men and women of the world. Totally don't.

"The basics of my class are- are you even listening?" Ludan waved a hand in front of my face, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"Yes, I am. What's the difference between your class and the normal Bard class?" I asked.

"If you were really listening then... never mind. The difference is that I am specifically a dark elemental bard. This is actually a class advancement that resulted from my daemon blood and dark fairy affinity. It basically means that my songs are more powerful at night, or when the shadows are stronger. Additionally, my debuffs have greater effects than my buffs, since the majority of a bard's buffs rely on their light or nature affinity."

"What? Wouldn't that mean that there's a different type of bard for every elemental affinity?"

"It depends on how high your affinity is... high elemental affinity is pretty much equivalent to a high mana pool, so the majority of those with a good enough elemental affinity to receive a special class advancement would only be in possession of one of the five main magic classes in the first place. Take me for example. My dark affinity is great enough for me to have become a necromancer, but since I had decided to take on the bard class, it automatically changed itself to suit my magic constitution."

A lot of those words sort of went over my head but that's okay~

He would only teach me one skill, because according to him since my affinity is water I wouldn't be able to learn half of his bard skills anyways. Even though I remember having something like affinity to all elements...

Active Skill:

Song of Ice and Shadow

Beginner's Lv.1

Requires High affinity to either Dark or Water element

Costs 300 Mana

Temporarily immobilize or slow down enemies with ice while decreasing the accuracy of their attacks by blinding them. Lasts 10-15 seconds.

Did he teach this to me because of my water affinity? In the first place, I actually think Ice is a slightly different category than Water (even though it's pretty much the same thing). I do know, at the least, that Khari is unable to use any ice spells. We're restricted solely to water spells.

Well, either way, I took the skill gratefully, leaving Ludan be. I went downstairs, to find all the troupe members sprawled across the dining room in an undignified manner, their faces red from drinking too much. Here we are in a prestigious hotel that even nobles and royals come to, yet they're...

I joined them. Let's sleep until noon, yeah!!

-----

The man glanced at a blue window before him. It had a list of twelve names on it. "Luna...?" He muttered, his cold blue eyes staring at the white name emotionlessly.

His hand rested onto the hilt of his katana.

"General, it's time." A feminine looking man with a soft voice said, his peaceful smile partially hidden by his fan.

He looked up, dismissing the window with a swipe of his hand. Suddenly the aura around him grew dark. It was an aura that could kill. The soldiers before him all cowered, taking a few steps backward, unable to handle his oppressive blood lust.

"Let's go."

~~~~~

Sorry for the information dump, I tried to lighten it up with some humor though so forgive me. To be honest, I wanted to spice up the story with some action this chapter but once I started writing it turned into the opposite pretty much hahaha. Anyways I hoped you guys enjoyed it please look forward to chapter five.