“What's that? It doesn't look like the kind of herbs that Peter collects in the woods...”

Kasei looked at the glass flask Ed was holding. There were some blue, frosted flowers in it, and they were shimmering like diamonds in the sun's rays.

“These are the flowers created by magic. I made them myself once, but these are much better.”

“Wow...”, she sighed in awe and looked at the beautiful plants. They walked through a town that was located quite far away from their village. Merchants called on people to buy anything, poor people sat by the walls and others just chatted, or, more interestingly, showed off their magic tricks. Among such people were people similar to Kasei - people with ears of animals. She watched as weak, colourful sparks, corresponding to the colour of their eyes, came out of their hands and did some basic things – for example, lifting a stone upwards with the magic. When one with blue eyes managed to lift a fairly large stone with a blue, shiny cloud, all of the rest of the bunch of kids clapped their hands. Kasei's face was groaning at the sight.

“Wah, why can't I be a magician like you, sucker?”, she started once again. Ed smiled.

“Because fate wanted you to be my weapon, not a magician.” Kasei hit him in the face after these words.

“YOURS? WATCH YOUR WORDS!”

“I'm sorry.” He laughed, but the impact was pretty strong. “How much strength do you have, woman?”

“What, you haven’t chosen just any weapon, did you?”, she said pridefully, and went ahead. Ed laughed.

“Women” he whispered under his nose.

After a while they found themselves in the place they were supposed to come to. It was the office. Here, every inhabitant of the city and its vicinity was registered and put into the appropriate categories. Every year every inhabitant also had to renew the information about their family, place of residence and social status, because it changed quickly and made it easier to identify citizens. Gormilia was an extremely developed country, with modern laws and an army. This began hundreds of years ago, when the first king, not the queen, took the throne – it was the only such case in history, because in Gormilia’s law it was written that the heir was a woman, not a man. He turned out to be the perfect ruler to introduce many good changes – such as equality before the law for every citizen of the country, including the abolition of slavery, and so it remains to this day, no one, not even the present queen, has tried to change it. Ed, however, did not take much interest in it. He came here only out of pure compulsion, just because he had to do it. It was necessary to renew the documents so that they did not recognise them as illegal immigrants, and so that they had fundamental civil rights. He entered the civil office building, which was at the same time the main military base, where the General herself was in charge. People went out or entered, stood by the windows, were writing things down, or waited or stood in line. Ed sighed and waited for his and Kasei's turn. He approached the window, which finally was empty. The military man sitting behind the window looked at him mockingly and with boredom.

“Parents' names and surnames.” He ordered harshly.

“Edward of Rebellar, parents: General Carolina of Rebellar, and Norbert of Yodiara.”

The man froze when he heard the mother’s name. He looked at Ed and started laughing nervously.

“So you are the son of Mrs. Carolina?” He asked with a much less harsh voice. “I am very sorry about her death...”

“She died ten years ago.” He emphasized.

“Oh, right, but there’s never too much mourning... You’re here for the registration? So I invite you to go through this corridor, to the door number ten, andijo! (1)”

Ed left with Kasei. Once they were quite far away, they burst into laughter.

“It's always like this,” Ed laughed.

“Well, your mother must have been quite frightening.”

“Ah, she certainly was.”

Although they were told to head for door number ten, they didn't. They went to the door no.1, signed as "The General's office”, and they walked through it casually, as if it was their own home. Inside, behind a giant pile of papers and documents sat a tall woman dressed in golden armour, decorated with many dark green jewels. She had a light complexion, short black hair and green eyes. Her helmet was resting on her desk, right next to another pile of documents. She looked at the people who dared to walk into her room without knocking. She did not get angry.

“Hello, Edward. And Kasei.” She greeted them with a slightly serious but calm voice.“Emerald!” Kasei said, as she approached. “Finally I see someone normal in all of this mess.”

“If you're here, you probably want your registration renewed?” she asked. “You don't want to wait in queue, I understand?”

“Yes, indeed” Edward snorted with a smile. “That bodyguard in the reception showed us a lot of insolence, so I told him what my pedigree was. Oh, how the boy was surprised. Who do you hire?” He laughed. Emerald smiled lightly.

“I'll talk to him later.” She whispered and started to fill the form quickly. Kasei looked at the sheets of paper that had already been put aside and filled in, which the general was supposed to accept. Kasei was wondering what was in them.

“What is all this about? With this social status...” the redhead asked.

“Oh, you see,” Emerald said. “Since the introduction of the new system, weapons, mages and people have become equal before the law. Slavery has been abolished and social status simply means: citizen, immigrant, member of the military or a priest. Just below is the column of what kind of race you are, whether you are a magician, an animal-person or a man without any magical powers. You, Kasei, are an animal-person, so unlike average humans, you have an ability to turn into an animal, but you are also a weapon, that is, you can turn into a tool for combat. Your kind can be magicians without such a form, that meaning they can’t turn into weapons, just like you can’t use magic, so your type should be entered here as well. Ordinary people, on the other hand, are either devoid of such abilities at all, or are magicians and you as a weapon can accompany them, just as you accompany Ed and help him protect himself.”

“Yes, because Ed is a weakling”, She laughed.

“I am not a weakling!”, He protested.

“But back to the topic, there are so many of these types...”, Kasei thought about it.

“That's the way it is.” Emerald Sand said. “However, thanks to the magicians and weapons like you, the world is more interesting. Alright, that's all. I also filled it out for Peter. I have to fill a dozen or so more of them, because the officials are in no hurry. I don't have much time anymore, because recently there have been a few terrorist attacks, most probably on religious grounds.”

“Again?”, Ed asked. “They will never learn... Okay, good luck dear sister, and thanks. Come on, Kasei, let's go to Peter.”

“Ah... Okay, I'm going now. Bye!”, Kasei shouted to Emerald, who bowed slightly and went back to work.

“The army has a lot to do, doesn't it? I wonder what those priests are doing, that they haven’t calmed those fanatics down yet. After all, they have the task of controlling the situation somehow, as far as I know.” Kasei sighed. Ed lowered his head. “Something wrong?”

“No... nothing, I was just thinking.” He answered mysteriously.

(1) From Greek – Have a nice day