“Alright, so, let us get some things clear here, I am just a supervisor for your mission. Granted, a group of dune wyrm’s is more than a group of three Star Sages is supposed to face, so I’m here to even out that playing field.” Everburn stated, raising a hand and pointing upwards in an explaining pose.

The S-Class was considering whether or not that was standard for teachers or not, they had seen Jonathan do it a few times too.

“Okay, so this is essentially our mission?” Edward asked, getting a nod from Everburn who gestured towards the chosen leader of the class.

“Indeed, in fact I’m basically another Sage under your command… though know that I hold the ability to veto any decisions you make. I am also a certified grader for this ‘exam’ of sorts, so what you do will be judged.” The last bit was said with a much deeper voice than Everburn usually employed, Everburn usually sounded slightly feminine with a deeper undertone, now this was said in a manly voice as if joking slightly.

The sudden change brought a blush to Jade and Leah’s faces at the voice, though none of the boys really noticed… Liza ignored the voice in favour of getting comfortable in her seat.

“Understood miss Everburn… by the way, why do you wear that armour? Unless your Clad is an Aura…” Edward added, and the class agreed to the question, it was valid, given that no one knew Everburn’s gender because of that suit.

“Well, that’s part of the reason… I do not actually use an Armament, or Clad, or Manifestation.” That drew wide eyed stares from every single student as Everburn once more raised a finger in explanation.

“I am actually quite destructive when fighting at full power, my Diversity causes me to constantly expel flames regardless of whether I want to or not, which is why I wear the suit, it contains the flames.” Now that got worried looks from the first years as they realized what Everburn was saying.

“Don’t worry about it, I was quite shy even before I ended up like this. Anyway, my Clad is an armour type, my Armament requires me to remove my suit, and my Manifestation is only good at widespread destruction.” That sent the idea into their heads right away…

When wearing the suit, Everburn was limited, but able to be around other people, but without the suit Everburn was much stronger and hurt everyone around her.

“So due to all that, I ended up really good at the controlling/generating part of the Six Arts, especially considering I generate flames automatically… I’ve gotten to the point where I can minimize the energy, or ‘Essence’ used whenever I make flames.” Everburn reminded the group that Essence was actually a relatively new discovery, even if there had been Essence users before, it seemed that there were only four left in the world.

“Wow, so that must mean your fine control is really good… and it’s still too dangerous though… what is your suit made of, by the way?” Jade asked, curious as a Metal Sage seeing the armour plates on parts of the suit.

“Ah, the King of Metal himself made this suit for me, from beginning to finish, it’s mainly made using Unt, the nine Star high metal.” Ah, they hadn’t heard of that metal before, the highest one they had heard of before was hihirokane, the seven Star high metal…

Jade had become capable of creating Damascus recently, though she couldn’t create huge amounts on the fly like she could the steel used for her blade bombs.

“Uh… Unt? Which mythology is that from? Hihirokane is from Japan, Adamantium is Greek, Mithril is Empire, what is that from?” Jade asked, having learnt about every high metal except for the top two…

Understandably, the only person who knew what the seventh and final high metal was, would be the King of Metal himself, and he absolutely refused to create it for some unknown reason… and just about every one of the metals were considered legendary.

“Perhaps you’d better recognize the name if I called it Uru? The metal found in the centre of a dying star? A certain God of Thunder had a hammer made of it?” Everburn’s voice got more and jollier as she hinted at the amazing ‘history’ of the metal her suit was made of…

Well, her suit was made of Mjollnir essentially… yeah, they doubted that any attacks would be getting through that suit anytime soon… after all, breaking through it would require a nine Star Sage at minimum…

“Though I must admit…I was only really given Unt instead of the eight Star high metal, Orichalcum, because I could easily burn through that overtime.” Well, that made a bit of sense…

“And because my power is a bit much… if I fight at full strength I could probably damage this suit, maybe not destroy it like a ‘proper’ nine Star Sage, but I could damage it very well.” That was a disturbing implication…

As three Star Sages, the first years would all be capable of breaking Damascus weaponry, hence why all their equipment was upgraded to Mithril like Edward’s gauntlets and greaves, and they were given such equipment because they couldn’t break them.

It was generally impossible to break, let alone damage a high metal higher than your own Star level, but Everburn could actually damage the second-to-last high metal with her flames?

It meant that, at least at some level, she could deal damage equivalent to maybe a beginner nine Star Sage.

Fighting across Stars was a near impossibility, only bridged by outside context situations, like Sages with two or three Elements, a Sage with a unique Element or a Sage with a Diversity which they use to bridge the gap.

Note that even though the first years all fell into that group they still couldn’t actually do such a thing, it was one thing to say it was possible, it was another to actually do it, much like how it was ‘possible’ for a Light Element Sage to move so fast they basically teleported.

That didn’t mean that Light Element Sages actually reached such speeds, with the possible exception of the King of Light.

“Wow… that’s impressive miss Everburn… by the way, might I ask, is that your actual name?” Leah asked with a squeak after Everburn turned to face the quiet girl.

“Thanks for the compliment, Leah right? No, Everburn isn’t my name, it’s my title, like Steel-heart for example. Given my Diversity, I think you get why it’s my title.” Oh, yeah, considering her body constantly expelled flames, it made sense that ‘forever burning’ would be then turned into ‘Everburn’.

“It is amazing though, you’re the strongest Fire Sage I know… my brother is now second.” Edward reluctantly admitted, knowing that Gregory Valzard, the Dragon, was most likely only a six Star Sage in comparison to Everburn.

“Ah, you are Edward Valzard right, one of the nobles of the Empire… I’m actually from the Empire myself.” Everburn admitted, bringing a hand to her chest to gesture to herself…

Liza, who was surprisingly observant for someone who slept so often, noted that Everburn probably did such exaggerated gestures to help whoever she spoke to.

Expressions help understand and humanize the other person, with the inability to see her face, Everburn was using body language to convey emotion and make herself more ‘human’ compared to her appearance.

“Oh really? So you know my brother then?” Edward’s question could be looked at as self-centred but it actually wasn’t, despite not being the strongest Sage within the Empire, Gregory Valzard was one of the most famous Sages in the Empire due to his position as a general.

“Indeed I do, we’ve even met a few times, I helped train him back when he was still starting out… he’s a good person, a bit too kind for his position, but that’s a whole other issue.” Everburn said with a crackling chuckle, leaving the first years smiling as well.

“Wow… that’s amazing if you helped train my brother, miss Everburn…” Edward was realizing how powerful the person in front of him was, and wondering how to get lessons himself considering one of his Elements was Fire.

“It’s not that amazing, his talent was what helped him progress that quickly… well, that and the gifts he was given at birth.” That drew a raised eyebrow from every single one of the students as Everburn’s ‘eyes’ widened.

“Oh, did Jonathan not talk about Elemental Origins with you?” there was a group shake of the head, except for Liza who was still trying to meld into Kazuya’s side to steal his body heat.

She really acted like a cat sometimes.

“I see, my mistake for talking about something you have no prior knowledge to, let’s correct that.” Everburn once more went into her ‘explaining things’ pose.

“Elemental Origins are factors that determine which Element is most suitable for you, they aren’t noticeable under most conditions, but sometimes they influence Sage’s a lot.” There was a bit of confusion amongst the first years as Jade and Kazuya removed a pen and a notepad to write this information down.

The rest of the students would get the information from those two… luckily they were the only people in this train carriage; Sage’s only to hold private conversations.

Some Sage’s didn’t bother to use it if they weren’t on missions, and other Sages used the carriages even when they weren’t on missions for… private, use.

Kazuya did not need that information from his parents at all… even if they said it would help them become grandparents.

“Elemental Origins are a bit odd in that there are quite a few, for example, your date of birth, the year you were born in, your personality, the Elements of your parents, and a host of other small things.” Everburn’s words got an incredulous look from most of the class as Kazuya raised his hand.

“Sorry, but, that kind of sounds like star signs and the Chinese zodiac has an impact on our powers?” It really did sound strange when it was put like that, but-

“That’s exactly what I’m saying. The star signs are divided into the four base Elements, and so are the Chinese zodiac. Even your personality. Even the area you were born in, depending on weather patterns and such in that area.” Everburn then opened her palm, flames appearing above her hand…

They twirled into shapes, showing four quadrants at first, as she began to speak.

“For star signs, they only consider the base four Elements, Air, Fire, Water, Earth. There are twelve signs with three signs going to each Element dividing them equally.” One of the quadrants grew, with the word ‘fire’ written inside.

“Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius are Fire Elements, and Gregory is in fact a Leo.” Edward was quick to nod, his brother’s birthday was the fifth of August.

“As for the others, Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn are Earth Elements; Gemini, Libra and Aquarius are Air Elements… and yes, I’m aware that it sounds strange for Aquarius to be an Air Element.” The snicker that went through the seven students was natural, keeping the lesson from being boring beyond the fire show.

Kazuya was beginning to wonder if all teachers were that good at their jobs, but then again, Everburn apparently taught Gregory Valzard, the most powerful Sage of his generation, and Jonathan taught the really powerful Yusuf along with his wife…

Kazuya was beginning to contemplate the career of teaching, though he probably wouldn’t only do that if he did take up the career.

“For Water, it’s Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces, completing the twelve star signs. Depending on yours, you will find the aforementioned Element slightly easier to work with compared to other Elements, ignoring your main one of course.” Everburn added, stopping the fire show to point once more.

“If your Element is Water but your star sign Element is Fire all it means is that you’d find Fire just slightly easier to use in comparison to Earth, it’s not even noticeable… but again, if your Elemental Origins match up to your main Element, it will just boost you that much more.” They got the idea, each one thinking about it.

Liza was a Gemini, Kazuya was an Aries, Edward was a Taurus (the jokes about minotaur strength were soon to come), Jade was a Virgo, Tony was a Libra, Vince was a Leo, and Leah was a Pisces.

“Then there are the Chinese zodiac which are even more complicated, suffice to say I won’t go into the whole detail, but they embody five Elements, Wood, Metal, Fire, Earth and Water, based on what year you were born, and then there’s a secondary Element after that which I won’t get into detail on.” That… did sound a bit complicated, depending on the year you were born, you’d get different Elements given the Chinese zodiac you fell under…

But then that Zodiac could have a secondary Element too? Nah, even if they just got the focus one it would work out.

“You all should be born in the year of the Rabbit by that standard, the Rabbit is an Air zodiac, so that’s another Elemental Origin.” For Liza, that meant that two of her Elemental Origins aligned with Wind, same as Tony, ironic that neither of them had the Wind Element which Leah had.

“Okay, so I think we can understand a bit more about these Elemental Origins, they’re outside factors which influence our connection with specific Elements right? What about Darkness and Light?” Edward asked after a moment, leaving Everburn to tap her helmet in thought.

It looked kind of funny actually.

“Darkness and Light are the only Elements that don’t quite have a clear Elemental Origin, though personalities can be considered ‘dark’ or ‘light’ in their own ways…” A pause…

“I could guess your personalities in relation to Elemental Origin, though I don’t honestly know you all personally… your place of birth can be affected by Light and Darkness though, people born in sunny areas are more likely to have a Light Elemental Origin and vice versa for Darkness, even time of birth, being born at midnight might equate to a Darkness Elemental Origin.”

The star signs, zodiac, they didn’t touch Light and Darkness, but other Elemental Origins could as well…

“There is an opposite though, it doesn’t have a term though I supposed you could say they’re mental blocks to using an Element, a person who almost died in a Fire might find it impossible to use Fire even if they were once capable of it, trauma essentially… the King of Ice, for example has a trauma against Fire.” That was a worrying implication right there…

The man was a King, at this point he probably didn’t care to use some other Element in lieu of his own, but something apparently happened to make a King afraid of another Element?

“Do not be worried really… Yule Argos can fight Fire Sages, quite successfully, he can be around fire, he just can’t use it. It’s the result of encountering the King of Fire in his youth.” This was still a worrying implication because that implied that the Kings weren’t quite as united as it seemed, if one of them was the cause of trauma for another.

“That’s… I can’t imagine something keeping me from using an Element…” Kazuya especially had to worry about this, as versatility was his calling card, being capable of using all ten Elements equally, but if he lost one, he’d lose a facet of his power.

There was a bit of silence as the students digested all the information, knowing that they would have to consider these things, even if they didn’t heavily impact their current lives, they might be affected in the future.

In the end, the students fell asleep on the train, waking up to notes from Everburn guessing as to their personality Elemental Origins…

They each kept it to themselves, not really needing to share, still trusting the others regardless of things like that.

But when they did wake up, it was to learn that the train was pulling in to the last station, Jerusalem.

Considered one of the most holy cities in the known world, it was also considered a strange place for one reason, fighting was not allowed within the city, and no one who sought sanctuary was to be refused…

As a result of the latter, there were Fae that lived within the city, though it was rare to encounter one, they did in fact live in the city.

“If we do happen to encounter a Fae, no fighting. Jerusalem is the nominal realm of the King of Light, fighting here will be stopped by Elior himself.” Everburn warned, and the first years had mixed reactions about that…

Leah, understandably, did not like the idea of just letting the Fae go free if they happened to encounter one, despite her passive nature her family was killed by the Fae at some point, she still held a grudge against them.

For others like Kazuya, it did not matter much, not having much encounters with Fae to colour their views, though they understood and accepted Leah’s views…

Liza and Tony on the other hand agreed with leaving the Fae alone unless attacked themselves… Leah wouldn’t blame them, and they wouldn’t blame Leah for her views.

You learn quickly to ‘live and let live’ as a Sage because having an open mind was practically a tool of survival for Sages.

“That being said, we’ll be staying in Jerusalem for a day before we trek towards the Gaza Strip, we should be able to make it in a day, maybe two if we encounter Mystic Beasts on the way.” Everburn warned, Liza nodding in agreement, knowing the distance between the two points to be about one hundred kilometres…

Having a train system throughout Europe was brilliant to ensure fast travel, but having the line head through Gaza and into Africa wasn’t quite possible as the majority of powerful Sages stay in Europe/Asia.

Africa had some powerful Sages sure, the continent had the highest concentration of eight and nine Star Sages, but that came hand in hand with the fact that most Fae lived along Africa and Mystic Beasts on the continent were on average stronger than Mystic Beasts in other places.

The Gaza Strip was also unfortunately structurally unsound to use, considering that Mystic Beasts existed in the oceans around it, meaning that Africa had to have their own train system instead of using the Europe/Asia one.

“Well, a day in the religious centre of the world, is it alright if we explore a bit?” Edward turned to ask their supervisor, who in turn looked at the interested faces of the students with a bit of humour.

“Sure, go explore, though I’m going to need one of you with me to handle messaging the rest of you… difficult to use a phone with these.” Everburn raised her blocky, gloved hands, in answer to the unasked question while the first years looked among themselves.

“I…I think I’ll sit back…” Tony was kind of nervous about the whole situation, and no one begrudged the boy for wanting to sit in the hotel room waiting for the rest of his classmates instead of going around the new city.

The only reason they managed to get him to go around with them in Berlin was because he had lived there for a while.

“If you’re sure, then that’s okay. As for the six of us, what say we split up?” Edward asked as the other five classmates who were going to walk around considered the option.

“Three groups of two? We shouldn’t need to worry that much about thievery and things like that given the King of Light himself polices this city so much… but who will go with who?” Jade asked, and everyone ignored how Liza was giving her own version of puppy dog eyes at Kazuya, who was ignoring her with the rest of the class.

She looked eerily like a certain cat that wears boots in that movie featuring an ogre and a talking donkey.

“Let’s think about our roles and then assign groups like that.”

The answers were there already and it was simple, Edward would go with Liza, Jade and Leah, leaving Vince and Kazuya to walk around together.

Liza and Edward because he could use the mapping to better plan out their mission, Vince and Kazuya because both would deal with food in some sense, leaving Jade and Leah to go together.

The five students ignored Liza trying and failing to get to Kazuya while Edward dragged her along with him, the other two groups going their own ways…

Within a few minutes Liza was walking next to Edward, unwilling to use her taller classmate as a mode of transportation instead of Kazuya, something about ‘not being a cheater’.

“Liza, we both know you could have broken past my grip to get to Kazuya… you were just putting up an act, huh?” Edward asked, getting a roll of the eyes from the smaller Sage, leaving the tallest member of the class to chuckle and scratch the back of his head.

“Must remind him that I care.” Liza mumbled, leaving Edward to look at the white haired girl with a curious look before shrugging.

“That’s your prerogative I guess, though I have no idea if Kazuya would even catch any subtle hints… I mean, he hasn’t caught any hints I sent.” There was a record scratch as Liza stared at the muscular Sage with wide eyes.

“…Gay?” Liza asked the one worded question as Edward gave a rumbling chuckle, eerily reminiscent of a certain Tyrant.

“No, I’m bi. Though I doubt Kazuya is, he admitted to only liking women once.” Edward thought, walking next to Liza, who was still a bit shocked.

Again, Sages were quite open about things, though Edward had a fiancé, because of that he did not go around looking for a girl to date…

By his own fiancé’s words though, he was free to get any ‘guy’ he wanted, but she would be his only woman.

It sounded legit to Edward, though he was certain that he wasn’t going to be ending up with any of his classmates.

“…Unexpected rival…” Liza glared at Edward who just laughed at the glare he was being given.

“Don’t worry about it, I’m not chasing after anyone at this point, training is more important. And I’m only attracted to feminine men… and you have to admit…” Edward left it open, and Liza stifled a giggle of her own, recalling Kazuya’s irritation with his ‘housewife qualities’.

Liza swore to find out where he lived and see Kazuya in an apron at some point in her life… if only Kazuya wasn’t capable of detecting her whenever she tried to tail him through Berlin…

“He didn’t catch hints?” Liza asked, just to make sure, and Edward nodded with a sigh.

“Yeah, I asked him if he wanted to go out sometime and he just said he’d send the rest of the class the message to hang out…” Edward’s words got a laugh from Liza, recalling one outing where Edward just looked tired for no reason.

Sexuality wasn’t something that the class talked about openly, there wasn’t a reason to say it, and besides, how would they know Edward was bi if no one ever asked?

And no one asked because to the class in general it didn’t really matter, knowing that a person wasn’t the sexuality you thought they were doesn’t suddenly change who they are or were.

“That’s a surprise… a nice one.” Liza admitted with no falsity in her voice, getting a raised brow from Edward.

“When my elder brother found out he couldn’t look at me straight for a week, and you just going to accept it so easily?” Edward’s question was met with a shrug from Liza.

“Learning more about other people lets you understand them more… I like understanding others.” Liza said as the two turned a corner looking for a place to get a map as someone knocked into Liza, sending the girl stumbling backwards.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I should have checked where I was…walking.” The person who knocked over Liza had a hand extended outwards to help her up, and Liza had already taken the hand when she and the person finally looked at each other…

And Liza found herself face to face with an Elf.

“Ah…” Liza was still helped up, though the Elf was staring at her, eyes wide for a solid minute before narrowing in thought, then turning to look at Edward, then back to Liza.

For a moment the two younger Sages thought they might be in danger, but recalled the information about how Fae were accepted in this city surprisingly, even if they were still discriminated against, no violence would occur.

“It’s… okay. We should have checked the corner before too.” Liza finally spoke out, unwilling to deal with the silence as the Elf stared at her, and she noticed Edward’s stare.

Indeed, the Elf man was beautiful whether you were a male or a female, you could acknowledge a mountain range as beautiful much in the same way you could accept that the man in front of them was supermodel level.

No wonder Jonathan joked that Elves would probably clean out beauty pageants if they knew they existed.

“Ah… I suppose… It’s still partially my fault m- ahem… sorry I haven’t caught your name? My name is Basil Gael-fern, and I’m an ambassador from the Fae.” Liza and Edward were only momentarily surprised at the Elf’s status before reasoning that it made sense to have an ambassador considering the tumultuous peace currently being experienced.

“I’m Liza von Krown, and this is my classmate Edward Valzard.” The Elf, Basil, turned to look at Edward with a narrowed stare.

“Valzard, the Fire-born… pardon my dislike of your classmate Miss Krown, but I know not of an Elf that would be friendly with a Fire-born. We tolerate them, but…” the Elf dismissed Edward after a moment, once more looking at Liza, making Liza aware that the Elf was treating her… respectfully?

“I’m sure he can understand… well, it was nice meeting you mister Gael-fern, but we have to be getting a map, going on a hunt in Egypt.” The Elf listened to her words, looking to her with a long stare, as if seeing beyond Liza.

“I see… here, miss Krown. Take this.” The Elf reached into the pocket of his green coat, removing a golden seed, placing it into the hand of Liza, Basil closing her fist around the seed.

“Keep it safe… should you ever be in danger, plant it. Think of it as my way of apologizing for knocking into you, a gift.” Basil added, and Liza looked to the seed with a confused look.

“Thank you… I’ll hope to never use it though.” Liza admitted, getting a smile and nod from the Elf as the two students walked away, waving goodbye to Basil.

After standing still for a few moments, Basil began to move once more, coming out of the maze of backstreets in front of the famous Temple Mount, not willing to go inside…

For inside prayed the King of Light, and while the Fae respected the man, they feared him equally… no, Basil wasn’t here to actually meet Elior Lux.

“Ah, I see you got here in time, nice to see you again Basil. Any interesting things happen with the Elves recently?” Basil looked at the Prince of Lightning, Rick Adohira, before turning his head to glance back into the city.

“…Yes, I believe I’ve seen something interesting… but we can talk about that while we discuss peace.” Basil turned back to the Prince of Lightning and his hound.

“Something interesting in the city? Normally you’re bored… whatever it was must have been really intriguing if it caught the attention of an Elf.” Basil narrowed his eyes at the Prince of Lightning at his words.

“I’ve been thinking this since we’ve met, but aren’t you way too casual in addressing me? I’m pretty sure I fought your father back before he became a Paragon.” Basil reminded the Prince of their age difference, instead getting a scoff from Rick.

“It doesn’t really matter much, I’m just as strong as you. That, and I barely treat my father with respect, why would I treat my friend any better?” Basil sighed, recalling that despite his attitude, Rick was truly someone the Elves respected.

The Prince of Lightning was abrasive and casual regardless of whom he spoke to, but he was honest and did as he said he would in almost all parts of his life.

Basil found him to be annoying… but tolerable.

The three walked to the inside court of the Temple Mount, knowing to not enter the building, though other pious believers walked further inside, these three would be meeting outside of the building…

Time to talk peace… Basil took a moment to think to the seed he had given away…

Inside Liza’s pocket, the seed glowed for a moment before dimming its light once more, waiting to be used…

But it wouldn’t be used today… soon, but not today.