Chapter 61 - Shiny

She shook hands with Reyan and Kairen before stepping back and staring at them with sparkling eyes.

"What about me? Hello?"

Serria pushed Kairen and Reyan aside and stood in front of Asa, but she didn't even look at Serria. Asa clasped her hands behind her back and tapped the ground with the top of her feet.

"Then, what are your names?"

She looked between Kairen and Reyan with curious eyes.

'What's with her?'

Kairen looked at Reyan who was also looking back at him and tilted his head slightly. Did she work here? Should they treat her like a superior or something?

The two boys were sweating under her piercing gaze, but she didn't seem to care.

Pat.

"Don't bother them too much. You may scare our new friends."

The young man named Rai patted Asa's head while saying those words in a soft voice. His straight and soft-looking light brown hair that was covering his forehead fluttered slightly in the air as he lowered his head to look at Asa. The color was lighter than Kairen's hair, almost like dark blonde.

"I'm not bothering. I just asked their names. Also, don't pat me, it's disgusting!"

"Ah!"

Rai smiled and withdrew his hand quickly. He turned his head towards the three newbies and sked in a friendly and soft voice.

"She is right though. Can you please introduce yourselves?"

Kairen and the others who were dazedly staring at the man introduced themselves one by one.

Rai smiled brightly again and clapped his hands lightly.

"You have such nice names! Ah, I'm Rai. It's nice to meet you all."

"...."

He kept on smiling at them even after he said his words.

"Why are you smiling like that? You seem so happy"

The three people couldn't even listen to what Asa was saying as they were all looking blankly at Rai.

'My eyes! This man... He is too shiny!'

Kairen wanted to avoid looking at him but the smile on his pretty face was so refreshing that people couldn't take their eyes off it.

"Move aside!"

"ACK!"

Asa punched his side and pushed the shiny creature away. Rai rubbed his side, his face distorted from pain.

The teenager didn't care about him, she turned her head to Reyan with sparkly eyes and opened her mouth.

"This esteemed young handsome man seems to be an aura wielder, am I right?"

It wasn't hard to guess that looking at Reyan's physique but Reyan visibly flinched at her words. It was because of her mischievous tone.

"Y-yes. I'm a swordsman."

"Wow! Then we will have two swordsmen now-Ack!"

Rai, who had started talking with a bright voice, was hit by Asa's elbow once again. He looked at the girl with dejected eyes and distanced himself from her.

"What about you?"

She pointed at Kairen with her finger.

"I'm a mage..."

"And... and you two are friends?"

"Yes..."

"Gasp!"

She gasped again while looking between Reyan and Kairen. Her eyes now seemed to sparkle even more.

"A typical friendship between a mage and a swordsman... how... nice..."

They could hear her mumble something under her lips. Her lips suddenly curved to a weird smile and she seemed to be filled with an unknown joy.

'What's wrong with her?'

'Why is she looking at us like that?'

Reyan and Kairen exchanged glances with each other. Kairen had an eery feeling while looking at Asa.

"I'm also a swordsman. I'm a mage as well!"

Serria pushed aside Reyan and Kairen again and said those with an irritated voice. Not receiving enough attention seemed to have made her really annoyed.

It was Rai who replied to her instead of the wired teenager.

"A magic swordsman?"

"Right!"

"I've always wanted to work with one. How nice that one will join us soon!"

"Hehe!"

Serria laughed and rubbed her nose with a finger.

"Did the team leader choose them because Zak got retired?"

The woman reading a book that had been watching them for a while asked that.

"Hmm, that may be the case."

"It sure is hard to fight without him around."

"Yeah."

"Who is Zak?"

Serria asked that question from the woman and Rai who were conversing.

"Mr. Zak was our previous attack mage. He retired five months ago and his position was empty until now."

"I see."

Deputy team leader Bray that was watching them silently till then interrupted their conversation while grabbing Asa's shoulder.

"Stop chitchatting and go back to your work. Asa, you come with me."

"What? But you said I had an hour?"

"I changed my mind."

"Wait, sis. I said I'll study more later."

"Study?"

The deputy team leader shook something in her hand. It was the girl's backpack that she had picked up from the floor at some point. The zipper of the bag was opened and some books were visible inside it.

"You sure that these are the books that people use to study?"

"...."

The color left the girl's face and her eyes widened. She jumped to take back the bag but she couldn't reach it with her short height.

"We have to talk about some things I guess."

"T-that, you didn't- That is not fair!"

"Yeah yeah."

The deputy team leader started walking towards his office while dragging Asa away.

"W-wait..."

Asa made a sniffling voice while being dragged away. She looked at everyone in the room with pleading eyes as if to ask them to rescue her but no one paid her any attention.

Clack

And she was helplessly thrown into the deputy team leader's office.

"...."

'What is going on here?'

Kairen looked around at the people in the hall. No one said anything and they all acted as if nothing strange had happened.

'Was that normal?'

It seemed that the people here were used to things like that.

The woman put her book aside and walked to Rai's desk. She said that she was free now and could help him with anything he wanted. Rai gave her some papers and started explaining things to her.

The man that was sleeping stood up while nagging about how he couldn't sleep well because of all the noises that they were making and went to wash his face.

The other man that was playing with his phone got a call and went to the archive after answering it.

Rai called the three newbies and handed them some documents, saying that they were about the most recent missions of the unit and they had to read them all.

Kairen looked at the unit members one by one. He felt kinda weird. This place didn't resemble the descriptions that he had heard about it.

The atmosphere was warm and the people were friendly. The members of the powerful and almighty unit 5 looked like ordinary people to him. Well, except a certain teenager.

'Maybe I was thinking too much...'

"Here you are."

Kaien sat down at a desk and started to read the papers that were given to him.