"Unbelievable..." I muttered, hardly able to accept the reality before me. Where did she get that item? I wondered as I stood there, staring at everything from the staircase to the separate rooms, evenly spread out for each person.

  "It created a house..." Kimmel muttered with the same dumbfounded expression I was probably wearing. It was like we were transported into a white world, and as we stood there gawking at the bizarre scenery, Phildina came out of her room with excitement in her eyes.

  "Daphne, you're finally back!" She came dashing into my arms, but I sidestepped to avoid her hug, causing her to nd face-first on the white floor.

  "Ow, that was mean," She looked at me with puppy eyes, but that only served to tick me off even further.

  "Where did you get that item?" I began the interrogation.

  "A friend gifted it to me a while back," She answered while avoiding eye contact. I understood what she was referring to and suddenly felt bad for pressing her like that.

  "I see. Guess I'll overlook things this time."

  "Huh?!" Kimmel couldn't believe what he was hearing. They know how strict I can be with matters like these, but knowing what I know, I can't really fault her for this.

  "Just don't forget to tell me about any other gifts you might have." She escaped with a sp on the wrist, but I could not be lenient with the next person. Lucia, I'll pull all the stops and use every argument I can to convince you, I thought as I made my way to a room. I opened it hoping to see Lucia inside, only to find Batti stitching up a torn-up doll with the happiest look I'd ever seen on his face. We made eye contact, and I quickly shut the door, thinking to myself, What in the world did I just witness?

  "Oh, Daphne, you can be so silly sometimes! Lucia's room is over there!" She pointed at her room and started ughing at me like I hadn't let her off easy ten seconds ago. I forgot to ask, okay? Jeez... I followed her direction, knocked on her door, and heard,

  "You can come in." Good. She's here, I thought to myself before allowing myself in. "I already know what this is going to be about," She began before I could even sit opposite her on the white round table in her room. "You want me to become a Sage, right?"

  "Yep, I'm gd you know what this is going to be about," I replied as I sat on the floor. "As your tactician and someone who has your best interest at heart, I think Sage is the better choice."

  "Yes, but promotion into a Magic Knight will greatly boost my mobility and increase my Con stat." She was right about that at the very least. The Con stat was one among three invisible stats that only appeared during a promotion. It was a stat that dealt with the size and physical bulk of a css. Unlike the other two, it was more general, and almost all csses experienced Con stat growths during promotion, but Sages, Bishops, Swordmasters, and other such csses were excluded. These csses retain their physical bulk, so their Con stat never changes,

  "You're right about the Con stat, but aren't you ignoring something?" I asked.

  "I don't think I'm..." She started, but I would not let her finish.

  "The Tomes that you wield are lighter than other weapons, so it doesn't affect you guys like that." She had been calm all this while, but now, the cracks were starting to show.

  "W-well, what about mobility?" She asked, but I had an answer for that as well.

  "I'd take a highly mobile unit over a less mobile one any day, but we're already covered on that front. I trust that Kimmel, Sarde, and Phildina will perform as expected."

  "Well, Magic Knights can use staves!" Now, she was just grasping at straws.

  "We already have a healer, and Sages can use staves and light magic." Under my relentless assault, she was starting to crumble, but I would go for a final push. "Lucia, why don't you want to become a Sage? Looking at your potential and the enemies we may have to face, it really does seem like the best option, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart. Didn't you want to be strong?"

  I watched as she fidgeted nervously before lowering her head and saying, "I-I just don't want to use light magic."

  "Why?" I asked, genuinely curious to hear her reason.

  "Because Arturia!" She looked at me with tears in her eyes before lowering her head once more. I see now. Arturia must have been a light magic user...

  I embraced her and patted her back as she sobbed silently. As I did so, I couldn't help but notice how small she was. In this world, she was probably older than me, but we were the same height... and her robe was hiding a bountiful crop. No, no, no, no, no! I must banish all perverted thoughts! I didn't want to ruin the mood and make her hate me by doing something stupid, so I began to slowly separate myself from her, only to be surprised when she tightened her arms around me. As 1001 possibilities of what this could mean flew through my mind, Lucia looked at me and said,

  "Thank you, Daphne. I feel like I can finally move on."

  "Oh, uh, well, yeah, you're welcome," I struggled to find the right words to say as she let me go, but contrary to what I expected, it seemed to have worked in my favor.

  "You can be so strange sometimes, Daphne," She said with a soft ugh, which brought a smile to my face. I was happy to see her happy again. "I think I'll take you up on your offer." Yes! I managed to convince her somehow...

  "That's great! I'm sure she'd be gd to see you use light magic!"

  "Yeah, Arturia was really fond of it," She said with a slightly sad smile. Why did I steer the conversation back to that? I asked myself, confused at my ck of delicacy. Lucia, as if sensing this, said, "It's okay. You don't have to worry about me."

  "O-ok," I answered, but it didn't do much to ease my worries.

  "Shouldn't you be worrying about your promotion options?" She almost got me there, but I'd already made up my mind on that ages ago. I just hadn't done anything because I was hardly thinking about myself.

  "Yeah, I think I'd be better off as a Ranger, " I answered quite honestly.

  "Hmm? Why is that? I'd definitely protect you if you were a Sniper." I was really happy to hear her say that, and I didn't doubt it for one moment, but... If I find myself in another battle like that, I'd be toast, even as a Sniper, I thought to myself as I remembered the fight with the Skeleton Lancer.

  "I don't doubt your willingness to protect me, but I must account for all possibilities. What if we get separated? How would I defend myself in a close-range battle?" I expined. The Sniper css had its benefits, but its inability to attack at close range was a fatal fw that could not be overlooked, so the Ranger css was better in that regard.

  "It's understandable," She said as she let out a yawn.

  "It's getting te, so here, feel free to use it when you want," I said as I handed a Limit Break to her. She thanked me, and I left the room, thinking to myself, Now, she'll be able to fully realize her potential as a mage. I can't wait to see how strong she'll become!

  Kureous

  [colpse]