Inri Plora hit the bell on the empty reception desk. Anaphol standing behind her as instructed.

  “What is this place?”

  “You guys in the Confederation have Bounty Gatherings for bounty hunters.” Inri pointing all over at the illustrated inside of the four storey building they entered. “We have Adventurers Hall for adventurers.”

  One of the curtains behind the desk parted and two people stepped forward. One male and one female. The curtain kept swishing even after they had stepped through.

  “Welcome Duchess Inri!” The male receptionist said. His gaze fell on Anaphol behind her then back to Inri. “How can we help you?”

  Lady receptionist sat down on a chair behind the desk as she pulled out two different binders from underneath.

  “We are here to know accurately what is Anaphol…” Inri turned to ask, “What’s your last name or surname?”

  Naph for a brief moment kept staring at Inri. Inri reciprocated.

  Realizing all of them may not ever know, he said, “Oh, I don’t. My name is Anaphol.” After a small breath, “That’s all for my name.”

  ‘It’s for the better that they don’t.’

  “Ok,” Inri turned back to the receptionists. “To know what is his cata mind at and all his current lesios. Is a test possible at the moment?” She only added the last for mere show, if Inri wanted to pull weight she could have had it done in the castle. ‘But where’s the fun in that?’ Suppressing her mischievous plans, she faced the receptionists with a face worthy of an unmoving statue.

  It didn’t take long. The lady receptionist Melia had guessed the reason before and had pulled out the needed documents for it. Polt stayed behind at the reception as Melia led them.

  Melia filled them while talking with Inri and Naph on the needed details for Naph’s test as they headed there.

  Naph took one note of the entire situation. ‘She did not ask my birth date. Why? Do they already know?’ He wasn’t off but he wasn’t right either.

  “So, Melia, when’s that pen’s,” he pointed to the pen in her hand, “birthdate?”

  “It’s birthday not birthdate.” Inri corrected, her right eyebrow finding her hair closer than the usual. She bobbed her head as a question on why.

  Melia confused. “Why would I be knowing that?”

  Naph found himself to be among the people that do not find his humour. This was a normal occurrence. More than normal.

  Shaking his head in disappointment, he did not answer.

  Melia and Inri continued their chat but over the few more steps they changed language ever so subtly. It sounded close to English to Naph but it wasn’t he believed so.

  He was about to ask, but Melia briskly walked ahead and opened a double doors. “Please, enter. This is the hall for cata mind testing.”

  All three entered, and Melia had already begun listing the details out loud on the documents. “Anaphol. From Tarna. Current citizenship: Confederation of Tarna. Age: 17. Guest status: Yes….”

  She went on to detail things Inri had not mentioned and Anaphol was not asked of.

  Whispering, Naph asked Inri, “What’s citizenship?” Inri glanced down at him.

  “Oh, right, you did not go to a school before.” Nodding Inri continued. “It just means where you are stated to be a citizen of. You do know what is a citizen right?”

  Narrowing his eyes, he waited. Inri was about to explain that too. But Naph broke a smile and nodded.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Inri simply shook her head. ‘Childish.’

  After merely half a minute, Naph was standing on a raised dais as he clutched two floating orbs of pure crystal. One was on his left, the other on his right.

  A light shimmered from purple to blue then to red and at times white or black. But those were the colours Naph could see.

  There were several greys mixed as well there but having the property of being visible only to someone above dream cata mind.

  Suddenly, a thought came to him. ‘Melia and Polt haven’t rebuked or ignored me?’ Unlike the people in the market close by, these two weren’t as prejudiced to Anaphol.

  “What do the colours mean?”

  Melia answered, “They just represent the lesios that are ready to be deployed by you.” Her eyebrows crunched together. Whispering something to Inri she stepped out calling back to Naph, “Don’t take your hands off them.”

  After five or more minutes of waiting, Melia came back with two more people. Melia was briefing them over something.

  The three didn’t see, but Naph noticed a slight posture correction in Inri. She too noted that Naph saw that.

  “Again it’s the first for me. I have only read about it before,” she continued reaching the other raised dais with a slab atop a table. She pointed at the slab’s surface, Naph couldn’t see what it was from his angle.

  “So, what is it?” Naph wondered.

  “Hi, I am sorry we did not introduce ourselves.” Both of them were male, except one was younger than Anaphol. Pointing to the younger one, the one who spoke said, “This is Reyno. I am Baron Yun.” He did not give a single glance to Duchess Inri Plora.

  Nor did she.

  “Melia, here was explaining to us how you have many lesios and just so little for cata mind capacity.” He turned to Melia in a nod. “That is quite fascinating. Abnromal even. But not rare or unheard of. It’s even recorded for many others who have gained lesios from dead caestres’ lesios to have more than they would have formed at such low capacity.” He looked down at the glimmering symbols and graphs on the slab surface smooth enough that air above it couldn’t stand still over it.

  Duchess Inri’s lips slightly twitched. Baron Yun took that exact moment to turn to her giving a surprised look. “Ooh my! Melia!! You did not tell me that Duchess Inri was here too!”

  Reyno found it funny but quite alarming. His eyes told while his lips quivered.

  “Good day to you too, Yun.” Inri did not show any physical changes, not even a twitch. Yun about to say, but Inri cut in. “Tell us about Anaphol. And weren’t you the one who laughed in the audience when Naph was brought?”

  Baron Yun instinctively raised his arms up, “Oh, absolutely not! That was not me.” His lips contorted to a sheepish smile. “Yes, I was in the same gallery and even very close to where that one stood. But I have never met her.”

  “Hmm,” Inri knew the one who laughed in the assembly back then had a male attribute to it. “So that she was a he?”

  “I don’t know,” he just shrugged it off but he never once addressed Duchess Inri Plora as if she were higher in the order of nobles.

  Naph did not know about what was the order of nobles in Jhorime let alone Keyriftrian Empire. But he knew one thing, Inri was wiser than Yun here. His instincts had caught that.

  Baron Yun continuing on, “Anaphol, you did present a good proposal to the empire. And I’ll back you for that if you ever need help,” he did not glance at Inri but his eyes did move to look past Anaphol, “I may not be as resourceful as Inri but I’ll do as well as I could.”

  “Could just cut me the drama and let me know about myself?” Naph caught his quip.

  “Of course, of course! You have about eleven lesios, not completely an abnormality” for confirming something Yun asked Melia about the graphs next to the lesios detected counter but he did not ask it in English.

  “Stick to English.” Inri’s voice resounded in the near empty hall.

  Reyno shaken to the core by her intent. “Yes, Duchess!”

  Yun simply gave a smile and bowed lightly.

  Melia confused turned from Yun to Inri and then to Naph. Naph shrugged on feeling Melia’s gaze. ‘Yun and Reyno does not cause that sensation.’

  “As I was asking, why are these graphs not marked to show the categories in which each lesio is in?” Yun translated.

  “Uh, this is a new measurer equipment. So, the one who put it up did not tune it to show it written. I’ll ask for one of the tuners from the business.”

  “You don’t even know which business sent it do you?”

  Inri tilted her head to her right. Its gaze at Yun and Yun alone.

  Baron Yun corrected his stance, “If there is any problems, like this do tell me or the masters.” Turning to face Anaphol from behind the monotonous white slab, “Now, lets see what is your cata mind capacity as per categorization. You can let go of them.”

  Naph did not wait and stepped forward.

  As he did the orbs flew out toward opposite ends trying to escape the air above the dais. But then they stopped and turned inwards to the direction to crash into each other.

  And they did.

  The orbs did not merge, they did not shatter into large chunks. They simply smashed like they were made of dust. Shimmering dust fell down to the floor of the dais, Naph by then had stepped off the dais and got closer to Inri.

  For some reason known to her alone, she chose to shield Naph with her arm stretched out.

  The light trapped within the orbs did not fall down with the dust. It recollected and flew into the slab. Yun placed his left hand down on an intricate pattern waiting and pulsing.

  Baron Yun whispered, “English.”

  A projection of light formed above the slab. At first it looked like a sphere, then it flattened to a circle. The circle deformed and three words were written in its place.

  “Dream Cata Mind.”

  Yun nodded. “Hmm, so Ennet wasn’t wrong in her judgement.”

  The words weren’t the only thing that caught Naph’s attention. It was the resurgence of the two orbs back by the opposite sides of the slab.