[Intermission] Out Last Banquet Together (1)

Liliath's tea banquet which had started out as a small group together with Wendy and Saria, sometimes me, had come to expand larger as the weeks passed. Soon enough, many of us would accompany Liliath to the cafeteria to have some tea while talking about plain gibberish.

I don't know if it's because of her infectious enthusiasm for tea or some weird voodoo charm but-- everyone drinks tea on a daily or weekly basis now. Well… not everyone. Kai and I would drink coffee occasionally as a substitute, Nine also preferred other kinds of drinks-- you get the point.

On that note, the tea party had grown to quite a size and it was during one of our discussions that Voux volunteered that we use his dorm for a weekend tea party gathering. It was then that we learned that Voux and Kai stayed in the same dorm. The other two roommates were going to be busy outside on Saturday so there weren't any problems calling everyone in.

The dorm was a simple one. Two rooms for sleeping, one bathroom, one kitchen and a living room. The washing machine it placed close to the bathroom by the way, if anyone is interested to know.

Moving on, all of us gathered in the living room, and since there wasn't enough space around the table, some had to sit on the couch, others situated a little further away.

The number of participants are as followed:

Girls: Liliath, Prune, Wendy, Eunice, Wendy, Lyndia, and Saria.

Males: Voux, Wake, Kai and me.

Bisexual: Nine.

Taking a sip of tea, Kai then spoke.

"How about we share the weirdest experiences we've had due to our TALENT?"

It's very similar to that time he asked us about the weirdest TALENT we've ever seen isn't it?

"Weirdest experience, in what sense?" Liliath asked. If Kai was the idea generator, Liliath would be the coordinator.

"Like, an interesting incident that has to do with our TALENT. A brief example would be Bryan eating a part of his orange dragon. Everyone knows Bryan right? The guy with the orange fruit dragon."

Yeah. About that. I'm starting to think that the orange juice from the dragon is it's excretory product-- Wait. What does the dragon eat for it's meals then? Oranges?

"What?! That's cannibalism!"

"You're using that term wrong," Eunice corrected Wake.

"I will agree that's an interesting topic to discuss. Then who should start first?" Liliath asked.

Nobody was willing to go first. How strange. I turned to Kai and prodded him with my eyes. He shrugged without doing anything.

"I think we need some time to recall," Prune said, hugging her tail on the sofa.

"I actually have two to choose from," Wendy said in a soft voice.

"Qui has one too!" The rabbit yelled and slammed the table.

"To the washing machine you go later," Wendy quickly pulled it back but some of the spilled tea spilled on it's fur.

"QUI!?!"

"Liliath, um.." Saria got up from her seat and went towards Liliath, whispering something to her.

"I'll give you permission since-- that ability of mind has already been known. I believe there would be no problems in mentioning that."

"Thank you. I'll go first then!" Saria pumped herself up.

I wonder what her story was?

"I think it's more of a personal thing but the most interesting thing that happened was when met Liliath and Noel."

"Ah yeah. Those two are like, the epiphany of weird," Nine said, sipping his warm chocolate milk and marshmallow combo-- with a straw.

Ignoring Nine's retort, Saria continued, "I don't know if you know this but I had lung cancer a while back."

"""HHUUH?!"""

"What? I never knew?" Lyndia's comment was delayed a beat.

"Oh yeah. I remember that. And what happened? So you bumped into Liliath and Noel and they cured you up?" Voux deduced, I guess he knew about it since the two were classmates before they entered Mondai High.

"Something like that," Saria lowered her head and peeked at Liliath. She was shaking a little. Liliath merely nodded with a wryly smile. "The interesting part was when I saw their colours mixed together. It usually only appears in this way between a summoned creature and a summoner. So I was confused when I saw Liliath and Noel's colour connected.. so I went up to them-- you know. Since I knew my life was about to end back then if the surgery fails, I just mustered up the courage and went up to talk to the two of you. Even if the surgery did succeed, I would have to go through chemotherapy and.." Saria said with a self-depercating laugh.

"I didn't know that.." Lyndia said.

"But I'm incredibly lucky to have met the two. Though I was totally scared by Liliath in the beginning, she was the one who cured me from cancer," Saria then turned to Liliath, "Thank you Liliath-- for saving my life."

Liliath nodded, continuing to smile wryly with a gentle look in her eyes.

"So.. Liliath, you can cure cancer?" Nine asked.

"That is apparently the case. Please refrain from leaking this information outside the known group. Though I understand those with authority already know about this, I trust you all enough to protect this info from those who remain under the dark," Liliath advised.

"Understood." "Okay."

"Liliath, thank you," Voux said. I guess in position as Saria's friend.

Liliath shook her head.

"Liliath, just asking. If Saria's cancer regresses, are you going to treat her again?" Eunice asked, pressing her spectacle frame.

"I will," Liliath nodded.

"I don't really get the regulations of healing TALENTS that much but isn't there some sort of law for those who have cancer curing TALENTS? Like to limit their activity or to be under government supervision," Kai said.

"It's rather complex. The fact that Liliath is in possession of so many abilities is itself an issue.." Eunice replied, then turned to Liliath. Everybody turned to Liliath. Liliath then turned to me, her eyes pleading for help.

"Uh.. so who's next to share their story?" hiding the stupid pride and awkardness that I'm feeling, I tried to pass the baton to someone else.

"I'll do it," Lyndia threw a life-line.

"Uh.. go on," Liliath said.

"It's not really that much of an interesting story but it is something unusual nonetheless. What happened was, when I got my TALENT, I realized that I could heal parts of my body that felt sore. That time I didn't realize how I was actually hurting people so I told the teacher that my TALENT was to do with healing. So I cut myslef a little with a small pen knife and used my TALENT.. on the teacher. That was when I learnt that it isn't actually healing, but transferring the injury to someone else," Lyndia hung her head.

"Anything else happened after that?"

"I had to apologize to my friends that I hurt them, I didn't know it was an internal injury. Fortunately the nurse in our school was able to heal it."

"Speaking of which, what about the part about self defence? You don't have any badges anymore," Kai then asked.

"It's no longer necessary, that's why."

"Self-defence? Those wounds you had on yourself were for self defence? Doesn't it hurt to carry around those wounds?" Prune asked, a little worried.

"It's not a big deal once you get used to it," Lyndia smiled bitterly.

"I'll go next," Kai said, wetting his throat with coffee before continuing, "The weirdest thing that had ever happened to me was most probably the most recent incident where Lyndia used her TALENT on Noel. No hard feeling okay? I'm just being honest."

"And how exactly does that relate to your TALENT? The only thing you did was suggest that it's possible to transfer wounds," Lyndia raised one of her eyebrows.

"Well-- that's the point right? You know, my TALENT is really a confusing one, you know?"

"I thought you said it changes favorability?" Liliath prodded, suspiciously.

"Okay. Time out, time out. Does everyone here know each other's TALENTS? Cause I do not. What is Kai's TALENT?" Wake interjected. Yeah.. I mean, it's not like everyone shared their TALENTS to each other.

"Me too. Then we'll just use this chance to learn about it then? Since we're all part of Liliath's tea party."

"But you're drinking chocolate though."

"Chocolate is still a drink. Liliath, the tea master has no problems with it so.."

"As Nine said, I think now is probably the best time to talk about each other's TALENTS. Where was I again? Right. My TALENT, asides the ability to gauge one's mental strength and mental capacity, can also change another person's favorability towards me."

"This is what I don't get," Lyndia craned her neck.

"Kai, is that all your TALENT has? Because I feel that it's even deeper than that. Just like Nine's TALENT and Noel's TALENT," Prune raised her hand.

"Maybe?" Kai shrugged.

"Is it an active or passive TALENT?" Eunice asked.

"It's an active one."

"Then try it on me and see if you can raise my favorability towards you."

"Okay. There, feel anything?"

"No. Nothing particularly," If anything, I feel like Eunice is even more suspicious of Kai.

"And about the incident, though I'm not directly involved, I'm sorry that it happened, Noel," Kai said to me.

"Nah. It's alright. I'm sure it's not just because of the two of you.."

Kai was actually interrogated after the incident. There wasn't any hint to his relation to the incident. He only played a minor role. The fault still lies with Lyndia? -- or not.

Because my own TALENT had a part in it-- or does it? Ugh.. this is so confusing. Hey wait. What if Kai's TALENT was a passive one? Like what Prune said, a TALENT deeper than what we can comprehend in a normal sense. What if it's just like the distortion field in my TALENT?

That would make a lot of sense wouldn't it? Then again-- it's just a speculation. Whatever. The talk has already gone out of topic, Kai didn't even tell a story.