It's the Same Colour

With a short walk after Elizabeth, Taurion, Lester, and Heinrich arrived at the Sea of Trees, they now stand before the semi-transparent barrier that surrounds Astur's house.

"This place practically hasn't changed at all since the last time I saw it, so long as we ignore the footprints. If anything, the vegetation looks even more overgrown than before, more so than what it should be," Lester says, looking around.

"I've never been here personally before, but I have heard stories about it. My understanding from what I've heard is that this barrier is impossible to penetrate, despite numerous attempts to do so. But if we ignore the out of place house and barrier, the scenery here is quite serene," Heinrich says, admiring the tall evergreen trees while listening to the flowing river.

"I agree, the scenery is rather nice, if not for the threat of monsters. That Terror Hawk we encountered on the way here seemed a little strange, it felt much stronger than the monster I remember living here," Taurion says as he goes to lean on the barrier.

But as Taurion makes contact with the barrier, to his surprise, he passes through and falls to the ground. Ignoring their friend who fell, Lester and Heinrich also try to pass through the barrier, and like Taurion pass through with no difficulty.

"Seems like Astur is already aware of our presence," Elizabeth says, extending her hand to help Taurion up.

"Thank you, Miss Elizabeth," Taurion says, giving his friends the stink eye as he brushes the dirt off his clothes.

"No problem, but we should head on in. Since she knows we're here, we shouldn't keep her waiting," Elizabeth says, moving ahead to guide the trio in.

Compared to the homes of the three noble scions, Astur's house is a modest one, only having one floor other than the ground floor and the workshop connected to the side of the house. Lester mentions that the place does look a little messy, with empty bottles laying around and a large assortment of trash laying about randomly. Hearing this, Elizabeth mentions that this is after the house was cleaned.

Leading the group from the entrance to the living room, they see Astur facing them with her blunt in hand while sitting on the sofa and in front of her is a rectangular table with another sofa on the other side.

Letting out a puff of smoke, Astur says, "the flat one sits next to me," signalling Elizabeth to come in a way Astur knows Elizabeth doesn't like, "the rest on the other one," beckoning the others towards the sofa opposite to her.

Although they're a little dissatisfied with Astur's attitude, Elizabeth had already briefed them on Astur's personality and how she is even more unhinged when under the influence, so they just silently sit opposite to Elizabeth and Astur. Elizabeth had previously suggested not to try and be polite towards Astur, while less so than others, the Taurion and Heinrich still have some pride as nobles and intend to at least try and keep a facade of politeness. Lester, on the other hand, has no intention of changing his ways and based on what he's heard so far, thinks he could get along well with Astur.

At the same time, Elizabeth is thinking, "since when did she have a second sofa? And it looks like a lot of things in the room have been rearranged."

"You've heard my name already, so I won't bother with any introductions. Want some water, tea, or perhaps some wine?" Astur asks.

"I'll have tea, if you don't mind," Taurion says.

"Tea sounds nice," Heinrich nods.

"Same," Lester says, lazily.

From seemingly out of nowhere, three glass cups appear on the table, filled with a light brown liquid as Astur says, "here, some Oolong tea."

Although everyone else, including Elizabeth, are confused at where the three glasses came from since it didn't look like Astur withdrew them from the storage ring on her finger, being preoccupied with lighting another blunt, they accept the drink regardless, being a little tired from the walk through the forest.

But after taking a single sip from his drink, Taurion begins coughing as he yells, "this is clearly not tea!"

"No it's tea, it even has the same colour," Astur says, bringing Taurion's glass closer to her, "look you can even light it on fire," she says as the tea starts burning.

"Why can you light it on fire!? Doesn't that mean it's alcohol!" Taurion yells.

"Fine, have some water instead," Astur says, placing a glass of water on the table.

Opening his hand towards Lester, Taurion says, "I know you have one, let me borrow your lighter."

Amused by the situation, Lester tosses his lighter to Taurion as he drinks his Oolong tea while Heinrich frowns at the whole ordeal, taking a single sip of his tea before placing it back on the table.

With Lester's lighter, Taurion tests his water, and to no one's surprise, the surface begins to burn.

"... why can you light it on fire?" Taurion asks with an empty expression.

"It's combustible," Astur says as she picks up a half-empty bottle next to her that with a label with Spyritus 96% written on it, drinking straight from the bottle, " quit worrying about it, it's the same colour," she says, tossing the now empty bottle behind her.

"Is colour the only way you can tell drinks apart!?" Taurion yells, unknowingly slamming his hands on the table, causing the glasses to briefly be lifted into the air.

"Hey, don't be mean to Mister Table just because you can't handle or don't like alcohol," Astur says shaking her head in disapproval.

"So you admit these drinks were alcohol. And how did you know he didn't like alcohol?" Heinrich asks, taking a quick glance at Elizabeth, which doesn't go unnoticed.

"I didn't say anything, I wasn't even aware of his dislike for it until just now. I hadn't even told her that I was bringing you all here," Elizabeth says in denial of any responsibility.

"Indeed, I hadn't mentioned this to Miss Elizabeth before, so I already knew it wasn't any fault of hers," Taurion says, having calmed down a bit.

"I went and found out on my own over the past couple of hours. And I got the exact reaction I wanted to see. I must say, I'm quite proud of myself for being able to find such minor information out in so little time," Astur says with a satisfied smile.

"Haha, it's nice to see my good brother all worked up like this. If I may ask, Miss Beautiful, can I buy some of this special tea or the method to make it, I would like to pull off a similar prank at the next party my family is holding," Lester says, placing his empty glass down on the table.

"Hmm.. when I read the information about you online, I figured your eyes would be looking down a bit when speaking to me. Good to know you aren't a complete scumbag, but I've also heard about your preferred type and I'll say in advance, I'm not interested. But I won't turn down the offer to buy some of my tea," Astur says.

"Miss Astur, I don't believe you wanted to speak with Taurion just to pull off a prank, so why don't we get to the main topic," Heinrich suggests.

"Umm, I did actually call him here just to pull a prank though."

"..."

For a moment, everyone is too stunned to say anything. Taurion and Heinrich can't help but think, "we came all the way here for this?" But the silence is broken a few moments later from Lester's loud laughing.

"Haha, this is great. I had a feeling I would like you from how Miss Elizabeth described you, and my gut feeling was right. Should you ever need a favour from me or even change your mind about earlier, you can call me on this number," Lester says, handing her a small slip of paper with his phone number on it.

"Don't expect much," Astur says, pocketing the paper, "oh, looks like time is almost up. I suggest you three sit up unless you want a repeat of what happened to Taurion and the barrier."

The three of them aren't entirely sure if Astur is telling the truth, considering her poor track record so far, coupled with her annoying personality. Deciding it's probably a trap, Taurion and Heinrich remain seated. But Lester thinks something interesting will happen regardless of what he does, so unlike the other two, he follows Astur's suggestion.

A few seconds pass after Lester starts standing as Heinrich says, "see, I figured it was nothing."

But just as he says that both the sofa that Taurion and Heinrich were sitting on and the glasses they had been drinking from suddenly disappear, as if they never existed in the first place. And just like Astur said, both Taurion and Heinrich end up crashing onto the floor.

"How rude, talking my goodwill as falsehood," Astur says, letting out a sigh.

"You are the last person I want calling me rude," both Taurion and Heinrich think as they pull themselves up while Lester is trying to stifle his laughter.

"There should be a few foldable chairs in my workshop, Elizabeth, can you go and get them?" Astur asks.

"Sure," Elizabeth says before leaving the room.

As soon as Elizabeth is out of sight, the atmosphere around Astur suddenly shifts as her left eye begins to glow with a bright blue hue.

"So are you serious about it?" Astur asks, as she stands up and looks down on Taurion.

At first, neither Taurion, Heinrich, nor Lester, know what she's talking about. Seeing the signs of confusion on their face, Astur adds, "Elizabeth," and the first who to figure out the meaning behind her question is naturally Taurion.

"Yes, I'm completely serious about her," Taurion says with no hesitation.

"From what I've gathered, you aren't as loose as Lester, but nor are you as Heinrich. As her current guardian, I need to make sure she ends up with the right person. For your sake, I hope you don't disappoint."

Before the conversation can continue, Astur's ears twitch as she hears the door to her workshop open and she immediately sits down as her left eye ceases glowing. A few seconds later Elizabeth returns with a few plastic chairs and sets them up for Taurion and the others.

Once everyone is seated again, Astur says, "Now then, I have some proposals for you."