Chapter 20: Kaisha's advice

"Dears, I know that drinking is fun, but try to keep it for the evenings. Here you go."

With the old, dignified looking lady once again approaching our table and placing two pairs of two completely different cups on the table, I was once again reminded about the difference in lifestyle between village and city. Even without proper the proper education, just the rich aroma steeming from the cups was enough to enlighten me about its content.

"Let's start with the toast then!"

Reaching forth with her arm, Kaisha gracefully picked one of the smaller cups, as short as half of Fen's fingers, and thick for two fingers of his. Yet, despite how silly it looked like, it was actually the good drink when compared with some kind of strange liquid oozing bubbles in the huge cup beside.

"Come on, it's our first drink, so let's do it properly!"

Playfully scolding Fen as she stood up from her seat, the young man had no other choice but to replicate her movements. In the short moment when the small glass moved closer to his nose, he could tell that while smelling insanely well, the actual alcohol content within was actually only average!

"Ah, you might not know how to do it properly. Let me teach you."

Hit with the realisation, Kaisha quickly put her own glass on the table. With her hands now free, she instantly grabbed Fen's arm, angling it at his elbow. Despite how simple it was, with this done Kaisha was already satisfied! Grabbing her own drink back between her fingers, she snuck her arm in the free space between Fen's hand and his chest before raising her cup towards her mouth.

"Cheers!"

Maybe it was just the young man, but with their elbows interlocked, as both of them raised their glasses to their mouths, this girl once again got a bit too close to him for his own comfort! He met her only a few hours ago, so there was no way he could be comfortable around her, especially after his privacy was already violated by Firo back during what was supposed to be his bath!

"Cheers…"

Although without much enthusiasm, Fen responded to the toast and swallowed the silly amount of content within the cup in one go. In one instant, his palate exploded with all sorts of flavours! From the delicate taste of some kind of fruits, through the spiciness of some herbs all the way to the mellow taste of the grain that this alcohol was made with in the first place, one could easily claim that this drink was truly delicious!

But for a man like Fen, used to the rough booze he, Basil and their master would open from time to time, this drink was nothing more than an appetizer!

"Ah, I love how hot it is!"

Finally freeing her hand from the lock she herself created, Kaisha returned to her seat, not even attempting to hide how her face covered with a slight blush. On the other hand, while the young arcanist apprentice felt a slight tingle in his throat, it was more likely to be caused by the spicy herbs rather than the alcohol itself!

"Anyway, let's get back to the topic. Feel free to drink the wine at the pace that will satisfy you."

Encouraging the young man with a wide smile and her actions at the same time, this strange girl picked up the cup and slightly wet her lips with it. But this time, Fen's disappointment was even greater!

While he heard about this strange drink called wine back in the village, heck, he even tasted it a few times when his haul from the hunting allowed him to splurge a bit, but to compare it to a beer?

Rather than caressing one's body while soothing one's mind, this strange, thick drink should be actually called a juice! Even after multiple attempts, ranging from small sips to swallowing nearly half of the massive cup in one go, Fen still failed to feel any agitation coming from the alcohol!

"I see that you can hold your drinks…"

Noticing how different Fen's actions were compared to what she most likely expected, Kaisha could only shrug her arms before finally getting to the main point of this meeting.

"First thing first, I assume that you know about talent grades, as its the first thing that has to be explained after or during the initiation. Let's move to a more interesting topic then."

Seeing the lack of reaction in Fen's disposition while she spoke about the talents, Kaisha nearly instantly changed the course of their discussion. For some reason, the young man couldn't help but get the feeling that she was trying her absolute best to keep him interested in her story.

'Isn't that a bit out of the line for just a small, friendly favour?'

Curious about the girl's reasoning, Fen sadly had no way to dig her real motivations up. But in reality, those didn't really matter all that much. As long as he could get the information he sought for, he would be satisfied!

"Let's start with conjuring your flames."

A small flame appeared on the tip of Kaisha finger as if her nail was actually a small candle.

"Depending on your talent, the amount, intensity, temperature of your fire will be different. But in general, no one is ever capable of creating greater flames than what their talent amounts to. What we are trying to achieve in the school, is to learn how to fully control our ability to manifest and shape those flames we can produce."

Starting with the absolute basics, Kaisha surprisingly managed to put the parts that Fen already managed to deduce himself into something that was actually far easier to understand!

"While I can't tell you one right route to develop your talent, nor can I give you a sure-fire way of managing it, you need to remember one thing. Anyone that claims otherwise, is a scammer."

With Kaisha dropping this kind of bomb without any hesitation, Fen realised that despite how the beginning of this meeting looked like, listening to her could actually give him way more information than he ever expected to receive!

Due to this change of mindset, his body disposition also changed. No longer focused on the silly content of his cup, Fen leaned slightly over the table, resting his head on his cupped hands. With his eyes glued to Kaisha's face, she had to be stupid to not notice that she now had his full attention.

"Oh, don't you look at me like that, you are embarrassing me!"

Suddenly dropping a cute little giggle in the middle of the conversation, Kaisha instantly managed to diffuse the tense atmosphere that Fen inadvertently created.

"But don't worry, there is one thing that I can tell you. While the way in which you will develop this skill depends solely on your own understanding of your talent, nearly every arcanists use a certain trick."

Spreading her arms, the girl wanted to gesture at something to make her words easier to understand, but the one thing she managed to achieve was to draw Fen's attention right back to her jiggly bosom.

"By combining all the fire that your talent can produce within your body, you can force yourself to keep sustaining it. Not only it has a chance of improving your talent a bit, but it will also allow you to get used to operating on your full potential, allowing you to unleash all your power at will, rather than relying on your mood and mindset to do so!"