The afternoon sun streamed through the window of a quiet room, dust motes dancing in the warm light. Lenna was still sound asleep, curled peacefully under the covers and wearing a simple, elegant white nightgown. For long-lived races like the elves, time moved differently. When there were no urgent tasks to attend to, their bodies often entered a state of deep, restorative rest, allowing them to sleep much longer than a normal human would.
A sharp knock echoed from the door, breaking the peaceful silence.
Lenna stirred, her brow furrowing in her sleep as she let out a soft, questioning mumble, but she didn't wake.
Outside the door, Kerina, Riko, and Ayaka stood waiting in the hallway.
Kerina, growing impatient, knocked again, louder this time. "Lenna!" The only response was another sleepy mumble from within.
Ayaka held up a hand. "Wait," she said. She closed her eyes, and a faint silver light flickered around her head for a moment as she focused her mana. She was seeing through the door.
She opened her eyes and sighed. "She's still lying down, completely asleep. It's no use, Kerina. She's in a deep elven rest. She's not going to wake up from a knock unless this place blows up."
Riko, however, stepped forward, a glint of mischievous ingenuity in her eyes. "Unnecessary, a more direct stimulus is required."
She knelt down in front of the door and placed her palm flat against the wooden floor. A thin, snake-like tendril of pure, crystalline frost emerged from her fingertips. It slithered silently across the floor, slipped under the crack of the door, and disappeared into the room. Inside, the tendril of ice crept across the floor, up the leg of the bed, and onto the pillow, stopping just beside the sleeping elf's warm, exposed neck.
Riko's tendril of ice touched Lenna's neck.
The reaction was instantaneous.
"Gah!"
Lenna's body jolted, and her eyes flew open wide. She shot upright in bed with a sharp gasp, her deep elven rest shattered by the pinpoint of intense cold. She looked down, seeing the frost dissipate from her nightgown.
"Ice...?" she murmured, her senses coming online. "Wait... that mana signature. It's Riko's."
As if on cue, a loud, impatient banging came from the door. "Lenna, open up! We need to talk!"
Lenna let out a long, weary sigh, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. With a tired, dismissive flick of her wrist, a soft golden light pulsed from her hand. On the other side of the room, the heavy lock on the door made a clean, metallic snick sound, and the door swung inward on its own.
Kerina, who had her fist raised to bang on the door again, froze in the hallway. She, along with Riko and Ayaka, looked inside to see Lenna sitting up in her bed, still in her nightgown, with an unimpressed expression on her face.
Lenna pulled the covers up slightly, looking at the three of them with a tired, unimpressed gaze that settled on Riko.
"I trust there was a good reason to send a shard of ice crawling into my bed," she said, her voice flat.
Her gaze then shifted to Ayaka. "And you. The last I heard from Riko's report, you had betrayed the party."
Ayaka sighed, the memory clearly still painful. "It's better if Riko explains."
"We have a problem, Lenna," Riko began, her voice low and serious. "Ayaka has returned. And it turns out the Hero Party didn't betray us. They were brainwashed."
She continued, summarizing the grim report. "Ayaka only escaped because her unique skill allowed her to break free from the mental attack. She told us the truth: there's someone with the Ice King, a man named Jester, who has the power to control minds."
Lenna blinked, rubbing the last traces of sleep from her eyes as she absorbed the horrifying report. As her mind came into focus, the air around her began to shimmer. One by one, about ten different spectral books, materialized and floated in a circle around her. Their pages began to flip rapidly on their own, as if searching for a specific piece of information.
"I have some idea of how his power works," Ayaka said, her voice drawing their attention. "The specifics... I don't know."
She recounted the final, terrible moments in the throne room. "We were all there. The Jester was standing beside the Ice King and he just... started talking. I can't remember a single word he said, it's like a blank space in my memory."
She looked at them, her expression grim. "But I know this for certain: the attack is auditory. The mind control works by hearing his voice."
Ayaka's words acted as the final key. As soon as she confirmed the attack was auditory, the ten spectral books floating around Lenna stopped flipping. The ten separate tomes converged, merging into a single, heavy, ornate grimoire that floated before her, open to a specific page.
Lenna's eyes scanned the ancient text, a look of grim recognition dawning on her face. "I've found it… I remember his power."
She looked up at the three women watching her. "It's an ancient and forbidden art called 'The Sovereign's Voice.' It imbues the caster's words with a will-shattering enchantment. The mind control isn't just in the sound; it's in the magical frequency of the vibration itself."
She shook her head. "Simple hold your ears will not be enough. The magic would seep right through."
Her gaze returned to the book. "But it has a weakness. A specific counter-enchantment. A form of deflection magic known as the 'Mantle of Concord.' It's a defensive aura that doesn't block the sound, but creates a field of magical harmony that purifies the hostile intent from the words before they can reach the mind."
The single, spectral grimoire snapped shut with a soft thud and vanished, leaving the room in normal, quiet light once more. Lenna looked at the three of them, her expression crisp and final.
"You all came here because you wanted to know the weakness, right? I have done so. My part is finished."
She made a subtle, dismissive shooing gesture with her hand. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I would like to return to my rest."
Riko let out a long, patient sigh. "No, Lenna. We're not going. We don't even know what a 'Mantle of Concord' is. We only just learned the name from you today."
She crossed her arms, her analytical gaze unwavering. "Telling us the name of the cure isn't the same as giving us the medicine."
Lenna was silent for a long moment, considering Riko's point. With a final, reluctant sigh, she conceded.
"Tsk, fine… I will help you prepare the enchantment. Come back tomorrow morning." Her eyes then took on a strange, academic gleam. "But I have one condition. Bring Hayato with you. After long night research, I believe he has an incredible, latent potential for manipulating mana, even if he can't produce it himself. I need to run some diagnostics."
Kerina and Riko exchanged a shocked and confused look.
Ayaka, however, was completely lost. "Hayato?" she asked, her brow furrowed. "That name sounds vaguely familiar. Is he another Hero? Someone summoned from another world?"
The question hit dangerously close to the truth. Kerina, who knew everything, immediately adopted a neutral expression and kept quiet, as if nothing had been said.
It was Riko who answered, giving Ayaka the official story. "No, nothing like that. He's a new C-Rank. The one with the duplication power. He's from a remote village, but he's very smart in how he uses his ability."
Ayaka processed Riko's explanation, the tension leaving her shoulders. Oh… So he's not another Summoned. But the name sounds japanese. She mentally filed the name away as unimportant and focused back on the mission.
Lenna, seeing the conversation was over, gave them their final instructions for the next day. "Now, regarding the 'Mantle of Concord'. "It is an enchantment, not a spell I can cast directly on a person. It must be bound to a physical object to be worn."
She looked at them, her expression serious. "You will need to procure a vessel for the magic. A coat, a necklace, even a simple ring would work, but the material must be of high quality."
She gave a final, dismissive nod. "Bring me the item tomorrow morning. I will perform the ritual and place the enchantment upon it then."
***
Kerina returned to her home as the afternoon sun began to dip towards the horizon. The meeting was over, and the others had dispersed to handle their own affairs. She walked through the gate into her yard, expecting to find Hayato and Elina relaxing.
Instead, she found her sister training.
Elina, who was supposed to be resting, was swinging a heavy wooden sword at a training dummy. Each swing was filled with effort, and Kerina quickly saw why: strapped to Elina's slender wrists were thick, black leather bands. They were Kerina's own high-intensity training weights.
She must have taken those from my room, Kerina thought, a mixture of annoyance and surprise bubbling up.
Her gaze then shifted to Hayato. He wasn't just watching. He was coaching. He stood nearby with his arms crossed, his eyes critically analyzing Elina's form.
"Your stance is too wide," he said, his voice calm and concise.
"You're losing power before the swing even connects. Feet shoulder-width apart. Twist from your hips."
Kerina watched, completely bewildered, as her magically-gifted little sister took combat advice from a man who, by all accounts, had never held a sword in his life.
She started walking towards them, her footsteps heavy on the grass.
To Be Continued.