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Chapter 15: I Can See Five Colors

By the time the party reached Dawn Forest, night had already fallen.

The adventurer squad lit two campfires in the woods and sat around them, chatting and bragging, looking perfectly content.

Reiner sat against a tree at the back, gnawing on black bread together with the two beast-eared girls.

He had nothing in common with those rough old men and preferred resting alone in a quiet spot.

Most importantly, Nora and Martina disliked crowded places as well.

After eating, the three of them sat beneath the tree to rest.

Martina already looked sleepy, yet the number of humans nearby kept her from dozing off comfortably.

“If you’re tired, just sleep; you don’t have to worry about anyone bothering you.”

Martina nodded and closed her eyes, leaning on Nora’s shoulder.

Just then a knight accompanied by a retainer walked over.

He was as young as Reiner, barely in his twenties.

“Why haven’t I seen you before?” The knight raised his chin slightly, looking rather arrogant.

“I happened to be heading for this forest too, so I tagged along when I saw you on the road,” Reiner answered honestly. “There are plenty of bandits around here; it’s safer to travel together.”

The knight stayed silent, his sharp gaze making one’s hair stand on end.

“What’s wrong?”

“Show more respect when you speak next time,” the knight said coldly, then walked past him.

A hundred question marks popped up in Reiner’s mind.

What did that even mean?

Did he really expect to be addressed as Sir Knight or Your Lordship?

Reiner cursed under his breath at the knight’s retreating back.

Martina muttered beside him, “What’s he so proud of? He’s probably not even stronger than I am.”

She closed her eyes again and promptly drifted back to sleep.

Reiner looked over at Nora and rubbed her furry ears. “Aren’t you going to sleep?”

“Master, you rest while I take the first watch, and I’ll wake Martina in the second half of the night.”

“No need; you sleep first, and I’ll wake you after midnight,” Reiner said while scratching the down inside her ear.

Nora yawned sleepily, squinting at Reiner. “Then I… really will sleep.”

“Sleep.”

With Reiner’s permission she closed her eyes.

(Martina is so heavy… and the tree behind me is so hard…)

“You can rest your head on my shoulder.”

Nora stole a glance at Reiner, still a little hesitant.

After struggling internally for quite a while, she finally leaned over gingerly.

(Am I too heavy?)

“Don’t keep your neck stiff; relax and get some rest quickly, because I need to sleep after you.”

“Oh, okay.” Nora obeyed, exhaling deeply as she let her body fully relax.

(That’s much better; Master is so considerate.)

Nora herself failed to notice that she now followed whatever Reiner said without the slightest doubt.

Soon she fell asleep, leaning against Reiner.

Reiner quietly watched the distant adventurers, who were hopping and dancing around the fire, looking very merry.

At that moment a familiar figure walked toward him.

It was Junice.

“So you were hiding here? Aren’t you going to join them?”

“Shh!” Reiner pointed at the two sleeping beast-eared girls beside him, motioning for her to keep her voice down.

Junice hurriedly covered her mouth and sat down beside Reiner.

“I like peace and quiet, so I’m not joining their fun. How about you?”

On top of that, the culture he grew up with was different, so Reiner shared almost no common topics with these people.

To him their moods changed on a whim.

One moment they might be happily drinking and bragging, and the next they could be brawling over some trivial matter.

“I’m the same; I like quiet places too,” Junice whispered.

Propping herself up, she looked at the sleeping Nora and murmured, “She seems to trust you a lot; it’s the first time I’ve seen a demi-human so completely off guard.”

She sounded as though she dealt with demi-humans quite often.

“Are you a slave trader?”

Junice shook her head. “My family has many demi-human servants, so I’ve interacted with them a lot.”

With that, she took out a book and began reading, conjuring a small fireball in her palm for light.

It was the first time Reiner had watched a mage cast a spell up close, and he couldn’t help finding it extraordinary.

The flame literally sprang from her palm out of thin air.

Junice looked at Reiner and smiled lightly. “Looks impressive, doesn’t it?”

Reiner nodded. “Can you teach me?”

Junice hesitated, looking a little troubled. “I can try to teach you, but let me say first: not everyone can learn magic; you might work for a long time and still gain nothing.”

“All right.”

Junice sat opposite Reiner, took his left hand, and said, “Close your eyes; I’ll give you a simple test.”

Reiner closed his eyes, and everything around him went pitch-black.

Junice whispered, “Don’t be afraid, calm your mind, and tell me… what do you see?”

“My eyes are closed, what could I possibly see? I see nothing.”

Junice chuckled softly. “You’re funny; I’m not asking you to see with your eyes, but with your heart.”

Reiner grew more and more confused.

Junice sounded like a seasoned street charlatan, leaving him in a fog.

Suddenly, within the darkness, a giant translucent crystal appeared as if by a miracle.

Reiner lifted his head, stared at the crystal, and said slowly, “I see… a crystal?”

Joy colored Junice’s voice. “You’re lucky; you have the talent to become a mage. That is a mana crystal, the place where you will store mana in the future, and its size determines your maximum capacity. How big is it?”

“Hard to describe… like a mountain. I can’t see the end of it, so I don’t know exactly how big,” Reiner said with utter seriousness.

Junice suddenly sounded puzzled. “Really? Some mages’ mana crystals are the size of an apple, others a big tree, but I’ve never heard of one as massive as a mountain… what else do you see?”

Next, a streak of pale green appeared in Reiner’s vision and slipped into the mana crystal.

“Green… a light green mist… it’s gone into the crystal.”

Junice whispered, “Congratulations; that is the wind element, one of the five basic elements. You are chosen to wield wind magic.”

Immediately after, Reiner saw a streak of yellow.

Then came red, then purple, then blue…

“Let me ask you something: are there mages who can use more than one element?”

Junice laughed again, her voice full of pride. “Of course, and one is sitting right in front of you! I can use water and fire magic proficiently.”

“Then are there mages who can use three elements?”

“Unheard of… having two elements is already rare in this world.”

Cold sweat broke out on Reiner’s back.

He hesitated for a moment, then whispered, “What if someone can see five colors?”

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