Hayato had been awakened in the middle of the night rather easily- as it was he had not been getting a sound sleep after the events of the day. At first, he had no idea why he had suddenly got up when he noticed a strange sound from beneath him.
An intruder?
He sat up, alert.
The thing was that he would normally not worry about something like this happening, but he had just disabled his home security system. in other words, if he was really unlucky, he was going to end up as the victim of a home invasion on the one day he had turned off his state-of-the-art security system.
At first, he thought he had just been hearing things as there was silence for a few more palpable seconds, but then there was an unmistakably loud noise from below as he creaked his door open. He turned around and picked up his duty revolver and went downstairs.
At first, he thought that he had been mistaken because there was no sign of movement- until he saw the shadows shift near the kitchen. He stopped near the entrance, straining his ears for any sound that might give away a burgler's presence. When he heard nothing, he flipped the switch on and suddenly bathed the kitchen in white light as he saw what was making the noise- the girl he had picked up!
He sighed- well this sort of explained everything. He pocketed his weapon as he noticed something strange that raised his eyebrows- the girl was drinking. A bottle of one of his finest Spanish Red Wines.
This was rather unsettling given that the girl was maybe seven at most- and as he took the bottle from her he saw that it was half empty. This bottle had been new and he had not opened it.
He would've normally came to the conclusion that she had just dumped half of it in the sink, after all, that would make sense, right?
But then he saw that she had spat out some of it as she saw him, and then came to the other conclusion. But that couldn't be- even someone like him would have trouble drinking that much.
However, from her guilty expression, he began to get suspicious. He pulled her close and began sniffing her hair- she didn't seem to reek of alcohol.
Unbeknownst to him, Draudillon had a magic item with her that maintained both her clothes and her body odor. As such, she was just wondering why this strange man was suddenly sniffing her all of a sudden.
"Did you drink all of that?" he asked. He couldn't find an odor.
"Uh..." Draudillon said. She should've came up with some sort of answer- she knew that, but the thing was that she was now mildly intoxicated and in shock so she couldn't formulate a response immediately.
Although Draudillon was an adult, she found herself behaving much like like an actual child would if caught with her hand reaching into the cookie jar. As such, all that came out after that was, "Uh, hmm.. ugh, ye-"
As such she didn't even protest when Hayato picked her up and put her down on chair in the living room, flicked the lights on, and then stooped down to her eye level.
She couldn't discern what emotion he was feeling right now- if she had to describe his face it would still be a face anyone would easily trust, but now his expression was unreadable.
"Alright then, who are you really?" Hayato asked. " At first I thought that your parents were abusing you- that you had seen one of them drinking heavily, and one of them might've even let you drink as much as you want."
That was indeed Hayato's first conclusion, but the evidence left at the 'crime scene' so to speak didn't fit in with this.
"I see that you opened the bottle with a spoon handle. No kid would've had the foresight to plan out something like this," he said. He had heard of adults who could pass off for children- but those were usually adults that could pass off for teenagers. She seemed far too young for any adult to pass for her, and even if she had some sort of dwarfism her facial structure should be different from a child's. Unless she had had some sort of reconstructive surgery to make her face look like that?
He looked at her in a new light. His face was now contorted in anger. The odd calm in his voice was somehow more terrifying to Draudillon than if he had been yelling.
"Alright then, I know that there is something fishy here," Hayato said. "And I want you to spill the beans about it right now. If you lie, I'm letting the authorities know, and I can assure you they are not going to treat you kindly after what you'd done."
Draudillon didn't know this, but this was kind of a hollow threat from Hayato's end. Given that he was complicit with her for quite some time and had hid her illegally, he would most likely also get into trouble. If Draudillon's brain was still functioning properly she might have even been able to call out Hayato on this bluff.
However, she was scared, and the alcohol had addled with her brain a little. "I'm sorry- the thing is you're right. I'm an adult. I'm actually an adult."
Hayato noticed the change in her demeanor and voice. He had sort of suspected this, but given her appearance it seemed almost impossible to him. Perhaps, if the woman had had extraordinary genetics and multiple surgeries she could possibly pass this off, but why would someone?
The only explanation he could come to was that perhaps this woman was a prostitute, and the appearance was to please certain customer's tastes.
The thought was rather unpleasant to him given that he was the father of a young girl himself. It reminded him of one particular person who seemed to be into little girl types, Peroroncino, who had opened up to Hayato a little bit about his fantasies once upon a time, though Hayato had shut him down rather quickly on this and Peroroncino never mentioned something like that again to him. The two of them still technically were friends, though perhaps Peroroncino had become a bit embarrassed at revealing a bit too much to someone like himself and so seemed a little distant after the incident. As it was Hayato was not too sorry if they maintained a completely 'professional' relationship in the game.
He was rather against the existence of 'lolis' in general and thought that most of the time it was just a way to get around laws regarding age of consent. However, as it was the current censorship laws were fine with it so long as they followed certain guidelines.
Or was there another possibility? Perhaps she was another kind of criminal, perhaps even a smuggler, which would let her pass by places without drawing suspicion?
His train of thought was interrupted by Draudillon babbling what to him was absolute nonsense. Something about her being the Queen of a large nation, who took this form only to deceive most of her countrymen.
"Enough games," he said in a low voice. "I want the truth."
Draudillon knew there was little salvation at hand save for this man, so she thought her best option was to reveal her true form. It would not confirm the fact that she was royalty, but it might calm this man down a little. Plus, it had the added benefit of being extremely appealing to men. Perhaps it would save her better than this one? Either way, she was running out of any other options or trump cards to play.
And so, she began transforming into her true body.
It was over in a matter of mere seconds, as her body grew older and became that of a woman in her early twenties, and a fairly attractive one at that. Her clothes were designed to grow in size in case she had to revert to such an appearance, and as such she was thankfully not standing around naked, though the design of the dress was a little odd for a grown woman to wear.
Hayato couldn't believe what he was seeing.
This had to be a dream- right?
He took his gun and shakily pointed it at her. "Just what the hell are you?"
"Please don't shoot me," Draudillon said. "I am a Dragon Lord, and this is what I really look like. As I said, what you saw before was me pretending to be a child because I thought it would be safer."
"A Dragon Lord?" Hayato asked. The sudden rush of adrenaline made it hard for him to think.
"Yes, my ancestor was the great Brightness Dragon Lord," she said. "If you place your weapon down, we can talk and I'll explain everything."
Hesitantly, Hayato lowered his weapon. Just what had he managed to get himself in to?
Now that Tabito was safely snuggled onto the bed of his room back in the guild base of Ainz Ooal Gown, Suzuki backed away a few paces.
Tabito was still sleeping, owing to the fact that they had been gentle while transporting him.
The only other inhabitants of the room were Albedo, Hiroshi, and Solution Epsilon.
Solution had been brought along because they needed someone to watch over Tabito twenty four hours until he woke up, and to take care of anything he needed. Also she already was up to date about the whole deal with the guild members being human so they didn't have to explain it to anyone else.
Suzuki still felt several deep pangs of guilt for taking Tabito away like this, and he could only imagine the pandemonium that would ensue once Tabito came to his senses and realized where he was.
"I've realized something, Suzuki," Hiroshi said.
"Ah, yes?" Suzuki asked, his train of thought now interrupted.
"Well, shouldn't we do something about Nigredo?" Hiroshi asked. "Albedo is fine with leaving him like this, but what if Nigredo gets wind of it?"
Suzuki simply said, "Then we don't tell her about it."
"Well, yes, but she was the one who saw him in the first place," Hiroshi said. 'Who says she won't find him again just out of curiosity wondering how he's doing?" Given how much attention Solution showered on him, it wouldn't be something completely impossible.
"Ah, the guild has defenses against that kind of magic," Suzuki said. "She probably only saw him since he was outside."
"But are you sure friendly fire is enabled even for that kind of spell?" Hiroshi asked.
Suzuki pondered it for a moment. If up till now, it turned out that friendly fire was on, it would mean that most likely it was also on for divination type spells. Though they couldn't be one hundred percent sure of that. Additionally, given that Nigredo was still inside the guild itself there was a chance that its defenses would not work.
Even worse for Suzuki was that this conversation led his thoughts to the one place he did not want them to go- namely the fact that the reason that Nigredo was such a problem while Albedo wasn't was because he had tampered with her character sheet. What was Tabito going to say when he woke up and found that out? Granted, it was a joke and Suzuki had not known the consequences at the time, but in a way, Suzuki had tarnished Tabito's creation.
Given that, how would have Albedo reacted to this scene if he had not done that to tamper with her character sheet? Would she have defended her creator, or perhaps tried to prevent them from taking (Suzuki tried hard not think of it as 'kidnapping') him away like this?
"If you would permit it, Momonga-sama," Albedo said. "I would propose that for now, we imprison her within the Frozen Prison and have several powerful vassals guard over her to make sure that she cannot escape."
"Eh? Is that really necessary Albedo?" Suzuki asked. Her callousness surprised him- he assumed that Albedo must think of Nigredo as a sister, but it appeared there was no love lost between the two.
"It would not do for her to betray you, Momonga-sama," Albedo said. "As such, such harsh measures are absolutely necessary, unless of course you would simply wish her executed. It would be far simpler and would cost fewer resources."
Now this chilled Hiroshi too. From what he had seen up till now, especially at the bar, the NPCs all seemed to get along pretty well with each other. "There is another idea though- we could just send her outside the guild base. That World Class item of ours prevents anyone from looking into the guild from the outside."
"Send her where though? We can't let her be spotted outside," Suzuki said.
"Well, we could just send her to my apartment and tell her it needs cleaning," Hiroshi said.
In response to this, Solution turned her head so fast it was almost unnatural. "Herohero-sama, I beg of you, if there is a task such as cleaning your room that is required, please permit me to do so. It would be the greatest honor!"
"Uh, my apartment doesn't really need cleaning," Hiroshi said, now rubbing the back of his head apologetically. She seemed so eager it felt like a shame to refuse her. "It's just a dumb task I'm giving out to keep Nigredo busy."
Dumb tasks with no other purpose than to make people look busy were nothing new to Suzuki, so he thought it was a fairly decent idea. Especially when compared to Albedo's alternative.
"Alright then, Solution, do you have the necessary tools?" Suzuki asked.
"Indeed, Momonga-sama," Solution said and bowed. She was far more formal and serious while addressing Suzuki than she was while addressing Hiroshi. She had added several scrolls to her inventory which were spells that she could use to safely restrain Tabito in case it was necessary. Granted, she already could keep humans prisoner for several days, but none of them wanted to subject Tabito to something like that.
Instead she had scrolls with the spells Charm as well as Sleep on them, allowing her to contain Tabito if he got too aggressive without hurting him.
As far as Hiroshi could tell she would obey their orders over any that Tabito would give her. This was either because Suzuki was Guild Leader, or that Hiroshi was her creator. He didn't want to think too deeply about what would happen if he and Suzuki gave her conflicting orders.
"With that taken care of, I think I should give Nigredo a visit," Hiroshi said.
Suzuki then felt a mental Ting! in his head as someone used a Message spell to contact him- it was Pestonya.
'Momonga-sama, shall I prepare the humans for your speech?'
Oh right, he had told Takeshi he would address all of them and explain what was happening.
Suzuki told her to tell them to wait for half an hour. He didn't want to leave Hiroshi alone. And though he didn't admit it to himself, he also didn't want to face a crowd all alone by himself.
"It's no problem, I can handle it myself," Hiroshi said.
"Do you remember what you have to do before you enter her room?" Suzuki asked him.
Now that Hiroshi thought about it, he couldn't remember the exact sequence of steps you had to take before entering her room. It was something involving dolls. "No. Do you still remember?"
"Yes," Suzuki said.
"Even after all this time..." Hiroshi muttered to himself, awed at how dedicated Suzuki had been to the game. There was probably no one else in the game as dedicated to the game as Suzuki was.
They teleported to the Frozen Prison. Normally a damaging wind would be present in the area, but Suzuki had turned it off as it cost gold and he had no current way to get any more. Sadly, in Yggdrasil there were no classes that could make or farm gold from nothing.
It was still super chilly though, and Hiroshi shuddered. Suzuki rummaged in his inventory and tossed him a cloak. It was not a rather impressive item by Yggdrasil standards, but it shielded from cold. Someone like Suzuki would have no real use for such an item, it was just something he had forgotten to store while collecting. It turned out that being a hoarder in game had its advantages.
They approached Nigredo's room.
"Ah, you have to take a doll right?" Hiroshi asked.
"Well, that's only assuming she's in her room," Suzuki said. "If she's still overseeing the members of the Kenpeitai, then she'll be somewhere else and we won't need to do this. But if she's currently inside after having finished her duties..."
"Right," Hiroshi said and picked up a doll.
Nigredo, however, was in the room.
She was there in her usual position- cradling what appeared to be a baby in her arms as she sobbed. "My baby... what happened... something's not right..."
She then turned to look at the two visitors. "You two! You took my baby!"
Up until now, her face had been covered by her long hair.
But, it was when she ran towards them with scissors in her hand and her face was revealed to them that Hiroshi lost himself.
Granted, he knew what was going to happen- but that face, those eyes and teeth without any skin! It had been horrifying enough to see that in game, but in real life, there was only one way his mouth could describe it.
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" Hiroshi screamed, dropped the doll he was carrying, and made a run for the exit.
This immediately alarmed Suzuki as he had neglected to pick up a doll himself, meaning that he only had a few seconds to react with his rather low dexterity.
He put himself between the two of them, picked up the doll, and showed it to Nigredo just as the scissors were about to make contact with him.
"Here's your baby," he said.
Behind him, Hiroshi was sweating and panting. "Damn Tabula... I don't feel bad at all for taking him away now... man... that was... intense..."
Though it was rather inappropriate for the situation, Suzuki found the whole thing rather funny but had to work hard to try and suppress his laughter until seconds later when a strange calmness came over him and that fleeting moment of happiness was gone now. He would have no trouble not laughing anymore.
"What can I do for you, Momonga-sama?" Nigredo asked, bowing and seeming unaware of the effect she had had on Hiroshi.
"Oh, we have a job for you Nigredo," Suzuki said. "You are to go towards Herohero's apartment and stand sentry there."
She cocked her head quizzically to look at Hiroshi. Hiroshi shuddered- her face was indeed a thousand times worse in reality than it had been in game. And in game, it had been so horrible everyone had started attacking her the moment they saw her.
"Is that Herohero-sama?" she asked rather cutely in a voice which didn't at all match what she had done earlier. She asked it as if she had no idea what she had done wrong just now- which Suzuki considered was a possibility.
"Indeed," Suzuki said.
"Pardon me for asking this, but would not someone else be better suited to such a job of guard duty rather than myself?" she asked.
"Ah..." Suzuki said, before he got a lightbulb moment. "This is a training exercise- we wish to see if you can perform this duty well. You are to remain inside his apartment at all times, and to avoid contact with any other humans."
"I see. I will not fail you, Momonga-sama, or you, Herohero-sama," Nigredo said and inclined her head.
"Go ahead and see Albedo," Suzuki said. "She'll tell you about the details of the mission and also teleport you to the required place."
He then remembered something. "Ah, Albedo wouldn't know the location. In that case, I'll make the Gate spell to take you there."
"There is no need for one such as yourself to exert such effort for myself," Nigredo replied with her head still lowered.
Suzuki felt like sighing. All of this bowing and prostrating was beginning to get on his nerves.
For one, it felt odd, especially given that Hiroshi was right next to him. Granted, the NPCs did treat him but they seemed to put Suzuki on an extremely high pedestal.
Moreover, it wasted a lot of time.
"No, no, it is nothing," Suzuki said and put a firm grip on Nigredo's shoulder, letting him teleport her outside the Tomb from where he could open a Gate spell. He would have also invited Hiroshi to join in, but he looked like he needed a minute.
As the ring activated, the world around him went black for an instant.
The PDL's journey in the strange machine known as a 'helicopter' was uneventful to say the least.
Or at least, it was for him.
It honestly just made him wonder why none of these people had thought to use a spell such as Greater Teleportation to reach their leader.
Was it the case that one could not teleport to where they were going? One could not teleport directly into the castle of the Eight Greed Kings as it was a guild base.
However, as over two hours passed, he reasoned that an anti-teleportation spell could simply not cover such a large area that they would have to fly for so long. Even in case of a teleportation-blocking barrier one could always teleport to the edge of the barrier and enter in from there.
Or was it that in this world, teleportation was completely blocked?
As he did not know about this- and did not want to reveal his potential ignorance, he kept quiet.
Still, did they have to fly so slow? He could outstrip the speed of this machine, even using his armor and not in his actual body. Or did perhaps some of the soldiers not know any spells that would let them fly?
While PDL was preoccupied with these thoughts, he barely noticed the strange looks and calls going around him. Given that he was not human, he had some difficulty reading human expressions and so was blissfuly ignorant of what was going on in the heads of the other soldiers.
After what felt like an eternity, the machine finally touched down on the earth.
As PDL emerged, he was blocked by a guard.
"I'm sorry, pal, but given the situation, we would like to see your face," he said.
PDL thought about it for a moment before choosing to wing it.
"Forgive me, but my warrior code forbids me from revealing my face," PDL said.
The man took a step back.
"Ah, like a luchador, huh?" he asked.
"Beg pardon, for I do not know what a 'luchador' is," PDL said.
"Ah, well," the guard stammered, seemingly unsure of what to do now.
There was yet another agonizingly long delay as the guard seemed to want to ask his superiors what to do.
Finally, the guard said, "I'm sorry, but we just cannot let someone walk up to our President without knowing their details first."
"I understand that might be usual protocol, but can you not make an exception just this once?" PDL asked.
"Sorry, no can do," the guard said. "If it is that much of an issue, we can take you back all the way to your HQ and you can send someone else who doesn't have the- uh, restrictions that you have."
PDL suppressed his urge to punch the man in the face.
In his old world, there were numerless species and cultures within each species. As such, interactions between two civilization which had never met each other were not exactly rare.
As such, one would need to be extra careful when encountering another country for the first time. History was filled with countless tales of countries being destroyed because they had messed up and violated another countries' beliefs in some manner.
However, given the circumstances, PDL supposed he had no other choice other than to go back. He lifted his helmet- and the guard was surprised to see that there was no one inside.
"I am this armor," he said. "My soul is infused into it."
"Uh huh, right," the guard said, nonplussed. He didn't make any remarks on how PDL had lied to him just a few minutes prior and seemed to have forgotten about it entirely.
Outside, PDL could see that the sky in this part of the world was also blighted. In front of them was a building which the others referred to as the 'White House.'
Well, it might have been white once upon a time, but as PDL saw it he could only see a hideous shade of brown.
What followed was another barrage of (to him at least) completely useless procedures.
No, he had no idea what a 'fingerprint' was and this led to a delay of ten minutes. Neither could he provide a 'DNA sample' in any shape or form.
Many people assumed that dragons, given their long lifespans, were creatures that possessed great patience. That was only partly true. As a matter of fact, one could not even call their patience true patience, but rather laziness. A dragon could easily lay atop a mountain of treasure for centuries without feeling the need to stretch his wings- but on the other hand, if their attention was brought to some matter, especially if it was something important, than they could be more inpatient than even the most entitled of human nobles.
As such, these delays were very tiring, but he managed to keep up the facade long enough to be led to a room where there was a group of people standing behind a wall made of glass.
It looked fragile- like he could destroy it with a single punch, but he could not be sure until he tested it.
The only one on the other side who was sitting was an old man. He was dressed in a suit rather than the armor the others wore.
"Ah, a pleasure to meet you. I would offer to shake your hand, but ah, well, security protocols and all," the man said.
Even though he was in his armor, his ears were still about as good as that of a dragon's. As such, he had picked up on various things that these humans most likely had assumed he had not heard. Granted he filtered most of it all out given half of it was in code anyway, but he did pay attention to the parts he felt were relevant.
One was how they addressed their leader- it was important that he greet them properly.
"I understand, Mr. President," PDL said. "On behalf of my country, and my lord, the Platinum Dragon Lord, I, Riku Aganeia, greet you."
"Ah," the old man said. 'Well, on behalf of the United States, I too would like to extend a warm welcome. Ah, the first matter I would like to discuss is the matter of your flying fortress which is encroaching on our air space."
"I apologize, and so does the Platinum Dragon Lord," PDL said. "It was not by our choice that we were transported here, rather, we originate from Vanaheim."
"Ah, right, from Yggdrasil, right?" the president answered.
The way he said that raised doubts in PDL's mind. He talked about it as if he had never heard the name before.
"Pardon me, but are we not in Yggdrasil?" PDL asked.
"Oh, we kind of are," the president said. "Only thing is we sort of don't think of ourselves as belonging to Yggdrasil. We are called Midgard."
PDL was unsure of what to think of this. "What do you mean, that you don't think of yourselves as part of Yggdrasil?"
"Well, we kind of never had heard of these other worlds before," the president said. "Only in myths and legends. And truth be told, we do not know about this magic that you demonstrated, until a few days back at least."
He then turned to a stack of sheets. PDL did not recognize the script, though he was rather unfamiliar with the scripts that humans had developed in the last three hundred years or so. "A few days ago, a strange wall of light enveloped the world, and people all over our country- and other countries as well, suddenly developed magical powers. It's been a real doozy, I tell ya, trying to rope everyone in. People are out on the streets believing that the end of the world is near. In other countries the secret police are snooping around imprisoning people- we can't do that here. Not in this day and age at least."
"Interestingly enough, the timeline seems to coincide with when we were transported here," PDL said. "Though as I have said earlier, we were not responsible for this phenomenon."
PDL was unsure of what to believe. The words this man were speaking- they contradicted everything regarding what he knew about Yggdrasil. If he was telling the truth, was this some sort of hidden world in Yggdrasil but separate from it?
"Can you take me back to Vanaheim? I mean, all of my people, of course," PDL said.
"Uh, no, sorry. I was actually hoping that perhaps you would know a way to cross realms," the president said.
"Ah, so you know of other worlds but cannot travel there?" PDL asked.
"Indeed," the president said. "Now, what exactly are your intentions now that you are in this world?"
"Oh, we come in peace," PDL answered. "We have no intention of declaring war on your people- or the other people of Midgard. We would only be interested in going back home."
The president relaxed a little. "Ah, that's excellent."
"Is it a problem if we continue remain where we are for the time being?" PDL asked.
"I suppose so, though I'll need to iron out a few details with Congress first," the president said. He muttered under his breath, though PDL could still hear him, "Imagine what I'm gonna tell them."
"Ah, regarding this matter, I think it would be good for us to communicate some more," the president said. "I would like to meet your leader in person."
"That can be arranged," PDL said. "I am certain he will be happy to welcome you."
"Well, thank you," the president said. "Though as you can understand, we are kind of busy here and I just got a call from someone else. Can I get you a room or-"
"That is not an issue," PDL said. "I can return in an instant with magic."
Though these people might not have magic, it occurred to PDL that perhaps this 'science' of theirs compensated for that. As such, he did not want to end up offending them. Spells such as Charm and Dominate could not be used to get to the truth.
As it was, he was certain they were hiding something, much as he was currently.
"Ah, well, we can arrange for an escort for you-" the president said.
"There is no need," PDL said. His patience was now exhausted as he cast Greater Teleportation to leave the place.
To his surprise, there was nothing getting in the way of his spell as went back to his base.
As it was, he had a new mission to get to now.
As PDL had disappeared, the room where he had been was in shock understandably.
Once he was sure that the strange armored man was no longer around, he then pressed a button to make a call.
A woman who was about ten years younger than him answered.
"Madam President, I hope you heard all that went on?" he asked.
The woman, who was the sixth in history to hold the title of President of the United States while being a woman nodded her head. "Indeed I did, Gerald. Do you think he fell for it?"
"Seems so," Gerald answered. "I don't know anyone who doesn't know who the President is, nor the fact that this isn't the White House. It seems he really is from a different world or planet."
They were somewhere in California.
"Not to mention," Gerald said. "I don't think the Chinese or the Russians have access to magical dragons, or we'd get to know a lot sooner."
"Have you thought about the fact that it isn't a dragon?" the president asked. "It could be an animatronic. I've taken my grandkids to Disney World- you wouldn't believe the details on some of the machines. And I'm far more inclined to believe that armor is just a drone rather than the soul of someone fused to metal."
"And about the magic then?" Gerald asked.
The president was silent at that.
"Either way, let me go ahead and meet this dragon on your behalf," Gerald said. "Though I got to tell you, Madam President, the thought of Vanaheim being real..."
"Indeed," the president said. She had been forced to take a class on the subject rather unwillingly given that it was a graduation requirement for them to take some sort of course in mythology. "I do believe that is the realm of the gods."
"I thought that was Asgard," Gerald said.
"No, there was another tribe of gods- the Vanir, which lived there," she said and shook her head as she figured most people were only familiar with the Aesir- the Norse Gods which Odin led. "I'm still rusty on the details, I'm getting every single professor in Norse mythology to start briefing us soon."
"Understood."
"How dangerous do you think these people from the..." the president shuffled through some messages. "...Argland Council State are?"
"If they can disappear and reappear whenever they want, very," Gerald said. "Especially given we have no clue what they are capable of." He smiled. "Though perhaps- if we went ahead and found a way to train people in magic, we could find a way to counter them."
"No one's been able to teleport yet," the president said. "Heal wounds, make fireballs, cast lightning, summon monsters and angels- yes, but no teleportation." She then paused. 'There was this one person though- who could turn invisible. Could it be he's still in the room with you- only you can't see him?"
"Heat sensors and radar detect no other life forms in this room," Gerald answered. "I think we're safe in that front."
The president shook her head. "Oh no, we're not safe. I don't think we'll be or feel safe for a very long time."