'Save us, please. Someone save us!'
Niken's steps stopped right then and there.
"What's wrong?" Kazuto was confused as to why his inamorata made a sudden stop.
"Did you hear that?"
"Hear what?"
"A cry for help. It seems to be from..." Niken glanced at the mermaid, who was still busy with their singing.
"We should go back to the inn. It seemed one of the mermaids starts to enter your mind. Let's get out from here."
Without waiting to be instructed twice, Kazuto immediately put Niken's hood on to block Niken's view of the mermaid. Kazuto gently turned Niken's body back and pulled her away from the lake.
Now he regretted letting Niken nearing the lake. They shouldn't have come to see the mermaid show.
The four people walked away from the lake area completely oblivious to the pair of eyes from the mermaid watching them. More precisely, the mermaid lay her eyes on Niken.
***
In the inn called Crystal Inn, Kazuto booked two rooms. One for Niken while one for Kazuto and Lionel. Zehell deliberately did not invite them to his house because he did not want to create chaos.
Mix-blood wizards as his siblings hated Elementalists, especially Elementalist knights. They felt the jurisdictions of the hakim were unfair. Hakim forbad pureblood and mix-blood wizards from using magic among the Elementalists, while Elementalists were allowed to fight the wizards.
This was the same as demeaning the wizards—supposedly the wizards who were in charge and control of the East country. But because of the massacre which now leaves only a few purebloods, the world casually throws away the wizard's power.
Not all wizards have kind hearts like Zehell or Zephyr. If they were allowed to use their magic whenever they wanted, this world might be chaotic because the wizards vent their anger by suppressing the Elementalist. Even elemental knights would not be able to fight them.
Unfortunately, instead of complying, most mix-blood wizards hate Elementalists even more. Secretly they oppressed and suppressed non-Elementalists.
Fortunately, there was a special force called Ace Force consisting of wizards and Metal Elementalists. Only Metal Elementalists were able to confront the wizards' magic because they had magic deterrence techniques that no other Elementalist had.
These troops were only given the task of finding criminals who use magic alone. In contrast, the task of hunting down criminal Elementalists will be left to other Elementalists.
Lionel himself was previously a Metal Elementalist before becoming a knight. And he had joined this force under the leadership of Zephyr, who was once his mentor.
But ever since he became a knight, he resigned because Elementalist knights were not allowed to interfere in Ace Force matters. After that, he met with Denzel and Xiao Feng from Nishian country.
As usual, shamelessly, Lionel told Kazuto to book a room for the three of them. Lionel, along with Niken and Zehell, waited at the cafe next to the inn to enjoy the camellia tea.
The fragrant and the light atmosphere quite improve Niken's mood. She also didn't feel dizzy anymore, and she felt quite calm.
"How do you feel now?"
"Much better. Thank you."
"I had no idea that one of the mermaids would influence your mind. Even though you have indigo level magic energy, it shouldn't be that easy. Kazuto looked as usual while watching their performance, so why they could penetrate your mind?" Zehell gave his opinion because he also was surprised by the ability of mermaid.
A mermaid might be able to influence the minds of humans or weak Elementalists. But not all mermaids were able to control the mind of wizards on the land, especially wizards who have indigo magic circles.
The three of them talked while enjoying their tea. Suddenly there was a ball rolling towards Niken's feet.
Niken took the ball and saw a child jogging towards her. Niken smiled and instantly handed the ball over to the little boy.
"I believe this belongs to you."
"Thank you." The boy said with a big smile showing his white teeth. "Oh, you are the fairy."
"Ah?" Niken wondered where she had heard a fairy for her, and then she remembered a child who accidentally bumped into Kazuto on the train. "Ah, you are that child. Where is your mother?"
"She..." the child looked back and then pointed at a woman who was negotiating prices with the clothes merchant. "She is buying warm outfits for us."
Niken smiled kindly and ruffled the boy's hair before letting the boy walk back to his mother.
"Well, who would have thought you were quite skilled at handling a child. I guess you're ready to be a mother." Zehell teased with a mischievous tone made Niken blush.
"Very funny." suddenly, Kazuto had been sitting next to Niken casually while insinuating Zehell.
"So what? You don't want to have children with Niken?"
Niken choked on her drink at the question. Kazuto deftly patted Niken's back gently while glancing sarcastically at Zehell.
Zehell only tilted his head with a 'What's my fault?' look at Kazuto.
"It's late, let's go back."
"Aw ... even though we only went to one place today." miraculously, the one whining is Zehell.
Is it true that Zehell is more than two hundred years old?
Well, they couldn't blame Zehell. His entire life was only surrounded by mix-blood wizards who hated Elementalists. And now he made an Elementalist knight as his legacy disciple, making him felt over the moon. He felt like he had found his long lost son that come home.
Therefore, he wanted to spend time with Kazuto and Niken before they leave for another country.
"By the way, how long will you guys be staying?"
"Maybe a week is enough. Niken has to go around this area to visualize the East's range," explained Lionel.
After finishing their drinks, Zehell returned to his house while Niken and Kazuto and Lionel returned to their inn.
At first, there was no suspicious event, and they slept soundly in their respective rooms. Until the middle, Niken was awake because of a singing voice.