Deciding that they were going to get involved was one thing but figuring out exactly how they should go about it was quite another. Elise decided that the best first step was gathering some more information, so she walked closer to the boy and began talking:

“Okay, I think we started thing off on the wrong foot. My name is Elise.”

Taking that as a cue, her partners introduced themselves as well.

“Ah, okay. I’m called Leonem.” The boy said in response.

“It’s nice to meet you. But you said something that got my attention, you said that ‘we’ found a way to track those disturbances. Who’s this ‘we’?” Elise asked.

“Well, it’s a group that I belong to. We call ourselves the Lotus Defenders, since our goal is to protect this region from threats.” Leonem replied, looking a little bit embarrassed.

“I see, then it makes sense that you would come after such a disturbance.” Elise said “And you must be pretty confident in your strength, since that thing was actually pretty tough, and I’m sure other disturbances would be troublesome too.”

At that point, Elise realized that she had completely forgotten to use her ability on the boy. She wasn’t really sure why that was, the thought simply hadn’t come into her head. Still, better late than never, so she checked him.

‘Elvish Wind Walker. Among all of the magic users among the elves, wind-walkers are some of easiest to overlook. Their control of wind magic is enough to boost their own movements but not much else beyond that, so they usually work as scouts or messengers, while their combat ability is essentially the same as that of a non-magic user.’

That sounded like one of the Inishie who was part of a team they had fought in Theremis, but even worse. Perhaps that was why Elise hadn’t thought about using her ability before, it could be that her instincts had subconsciously deemed Leonem as ‘not a threat’.

That idea was reinforced by his next words “Ahh… No, that’s not really the case. I really only specialize in running fast, but one of the members of our group came up with some spell tags that can interfere with the magical structure of the disturbances to make them break apart. I’m carrying some of them.”

“Oh, and that reminds me, I’m supposed to do a report after dealing with a disturbance, so could you tell me exactly what happened?” Leonem asked.

Elise replied yes, so he reached into the sleeve of his left arm and slid something along his arm up to his wrist. It was a paper scroll wrapped around his limb like a bracelet, and when the girl began to explain the whole situation of encountering the disturbance, he was able to write on that scroll with just his finger, the words he wrote quickly disappearing afterwards.

It wasn’t a long story, so very soon it was all done and Elise decided on how to proceed.

“Since we got attacked by one of those things, this makes us involved with the current situation, don’t you think?” She asked Leonem.

“Eh? Ah, I guess so…” He didn’t seem to understand what she was getting at.

“So we’d like to help. You already know we’re strong enough not to be a burden, plus Nalia here is quite good at magical analysis, so she could give some aid in figuring out what’s happening.” Elise said.

“Ah? Err, I don’t think the others would like that.” Leonem replied.

Elise wasn’t deterred “Look at it this way. We are already determined to get to the bottom of things, so we’ll investigate anyway. Your group doesn’t have the authority to forbid us from doing so.” She knew they had to be an unofficial force, or she would have already heard about them “So wouldn’t it be better for you to keep us close to make sure we’re not doing anything bad?”

“That… It’s… I-I have to consult the others.” He eventually managed to reply.

Elise shrugged and let him do so, once again via the scroll on his arm. It took very little time for a reply to be sent, which Leonem read before sighing in relief.

“Looks like they agreed to your request.” He said “But they want me to take you to one of our bases to meet up with everyone and so they can define how this… Partnership will go.”

‘And probably also so they can get a sense of who we are and how to deal with us.’ Elise spoke mentally to her partners.

‘Do you think they might try to “deal with us” in the other sense?’ Yura asked.

‘Unlikely.’ Nalia was the one to reply ‘With the way Leonem is acting, he doesn’t seem to think that’s a possibility, which tells me their group at least acts upright on the surface. Unless he is a very good actor, I believe the chances of it being a trick are low.’

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

‘I think they may try to intimidate us into falling in line, though.’ Nina commented.

‘We’ll have to choose how we act based on the situation.’ Elise said ‘In that case, it will be a matter of pushing back enough to have our own way while not appearing too unreasonable.’

The other three agreed with Elise’s thoughts and promised to act according to her orders when the time came, as she was the best at navigating such social stuff.

The whole conversation took a few seconds, but Leonem understood that they were in communication and simply waited for it to be finished. Elise then looked at him and spoke:

“We’re fine with that. Can you take us there?”

+0+

Soon enough, the group was on the move again. Leonem could slide above the water as seen before, while Yura had her own trick, so they were able to take a direct route to the meeting spot. The elf boy had to slow down because Yura’s earth platform wasn’t even close to his top speed, but it wasn’t like they were in a hurry.

In fact, Leonem even decided to make conversation midway through:

“Err, forgive me if that’s a delicate subject, but is your arm injured?” He asked.

“No need to worry about that. Yeah, my arm is injured, why do you ask?” Elise replied.

“It’s because of one of my teammates, Hazel. She’s a healer who loves to help everyone she can, so she would definitely want to take a look at your arm if possible. But she’ll understand if you decide to refuse for some reason.”

“Oh, is she the type who just heals people without asking for anything in return?” Elise asked.

“Yeah, that’s just the way she is. And she’s really good at healing too, I’ve seen her fix some really bad injuries.” Leonem said.

“That could be nice.” Nalia was the one to reply “Elise went through a lot of medic operations and is recovering well, but having a magical healing expert look over her arm would be good to cover all bases.”

Elise did not mind Nalia taking over the conversation, given that the fairy just wanted what was best for her, but once the two stopped talking she decided to ask Leonem something else:

“What about the rest of your team? What are they like?”

“The team? Well… I suppose the best place to start would be our leader. He’s called Ricardo, and he was actually a knight serving the kingdom of Linus, but he left his order because he didn’t agree with some things they were doing and went on a journey until ending up here. He’s quite strong, using a combination of sword and shield, and he leads the team while in the middle of danger.” Leonem spoke like he had just been waiting for someone to ask “I admire him a lot.”

“He must be pretty skilled to be able to command the rest while fighting.” Nina commented “Is he another elf like you?”

“Ah? No, Ricardo is a human, actually.” Leonem replied “In fact, everyone in the team are all of different species.”

“Really? That’s… Unusual.” Yura commented.

“It’s not that hard to believe, though.” Elise said “This place is famous for having quite a lot of different spirit beings and the like running around, for the same reason there’s a lot of variety in the environments.” She turned to Leonem “What species is Hazel, then?”

“She’s a dryad.” He answered.

“I probably would have guessed that, given her name.” Nalia said “I’ve always been curious about dryads, since my home forest didn’t have any. I guess I’m finally getting the opportunity to meet one.”

“Yeah, dryads are only born based on relatively specific circumstances.” Elise said “Simply being a forest full of magical power isn’t enough. Ah, but we’ve gone off-topic. Please keep telling us about your teammates, Leonem.”

“Okay. I suppose the next person to talk about is the one I mentioned before, who came up with the spell tags to deal with the disturbances. He’s called Onyx and is pretty quiet and reserved, but he’s super smart, specially about magic. I’m sure he’s working hard to figure out the root of the problem right now. Ah, and he’s a gnome.” He said.

“He sounds like someone I would want to talk to.” Nalia said “And it would be nice to get an idea of the magical disturbance situation as a whole before trying to do anything.”

“I’m sure we’ll be able to get that information.” Elise said “They won’t want to reveal everything, but it shouldn’t be too much to ask for some of it.”

Leonem waited a moment to see if anyone else wanted to talk and then continued his explanation “Another important member is Ember. She’s probably our biggest heavy hitter because of her powerful fire magic, but she doesn’t act overbearing because of it. She’s actually quite chill and a very good listener. And she is an Agnis.”

‘That means a personified fire spirit.’ Elise spoke mentally for the benefit of the others, though Nina was the only one who wasn’t already aware of that.

‘At least she’s not an elf.’ Yura replied, her tone only slightly heavy.

Leonem could feel a weird mood among the girls, despite not knowing about that exchange, so after a few moments he decided to just keep going:

“After that there’s also Lauria, she’s another member like me who’s not that good at combat, but her specialty are protective enchantments she can put on other people to make them harder to hurt.” He looked at Nalia “And she’s a fairy like you.”

“Interesting. It’s not gonna be the first time I see a fairy who wasn’t part of my village, since there were traveling fairies who stopped by before, but I’m curious to know what she’s like anyway.” Nalia said.

“Lauria is a bit spacy, I’d say.” Leonem spoke “She looks like she’s always living in her own world. Honestly, I don’t understand her much because I have no idea how to talk to her.”

“There’s also Naiou. She’s an undyne who’s kind of the prickly type. Please don’t take it personally if she says something nasty. She’s a good girl at heart.”

“We’re not just gonna take insults lying down, but we’ll keep your words in mind.” Nina spoke for all of them.

“I guess I’ll take it.” Leonem replied “Naiou specializes in manipulation of water constructs, by the way. And last but not least is Silvie. She’s a sylph who specializes in long range wind magic strikes. In terms of personality, I’d say she is a bit lacking in confidence.”

“You mean like you?” Elise teased.

“Ouch. I guess I deserved that. But she’s definitely quite strong in battle, different from me, she just doesn’t really do well in face-to-face confrontations.”

“Hmm… It sounds like quite an interesting team overall. I’m excited to meet them.” Elise said.

“Well, you’re gonna get the chance soon, because we’re almost there.” Leonem said before pointing forward.

And already in sight was a small red house. Leonem didn’t have to say anything else for them to understand that the house was the promised meeting place.