Naph coughed.
"Yes," Inri resigned to answer.
It had been four hours since Naph got tested for his cata mind capacity. "When did I make or gain a dream cata mind?"
"You haven't." Inri answered while turning the page on the list of lesios of Rian no Tera. "Next."
"Oh, so you are answering." Naph hummed as his head bobbed in acknowledgement. A ridiculing acknowledgement at that.
Inri turned another page. Melia had escorted them out of the Adventurers Hall on Inri's request. She requested that to reassure Melia nothing would happen to her, but Inri knew Melia may get targeted. The chance was now there. By whom? She brought him herself.
'All this just because that Hont woman backed Ennet.' Inri clicked her tongue.
"Haven't?" Anaphol scrunched his face remembering quite viscerally his test result and the orbs clashing.
"Dream cata mind only means to say that you have cata. The very essence, thing, energy or what you may want to call it, is there in you." Inri wished to answer more, after all she is a duchess. Yet, she did not.
Naph waited for a continuation. After a minute he asked, "Ok, so what is illusory lesio?"
"Hmm, that is best left to be explained in the academy."
"Why can't you?"
Inri lifted her gaze from the book, and ever so slowly turned to face Anaphol in the same hall that Bulwark was in. "Guess?"
Naph matching her dramatics waited, staring intently at her, and slowly shrugged.
Anaphol did not and had never understood why a noble or royalty or anyone of political power chose to do something, except that one time in the past when he attempted to.
Irrespective, he did not give a breather to Inri. "Ok," Naph chose to bite, "what is that book?"
Inri still staring at him did not respond. Her mind wasn't contemplating the pros and cons of answering. It was totally blank. Not that she forced it, but was forced on her. And she knew who could do that after all she was in their castle primarily.
Anaphol slapped his thighs. "Great, now I have a mute." He uttered a stifled scream and stood up.
"The book is a list of lesios of Rian no Tera." Anaphol heard the same wise self-controlled feminine yet soft voice of his host. It took her a few seconds to grab the actions and thoughts that had been erased from her. And she believed she will have to do it again after saying those exact eleven words.
'Leave her alone.'
Inri's pupils widened. "Emperor!?"
It was not a whisper. Naph immediately stood up. Hoping and waiting for the Emperor Stelart Keyriftrian himself to step foot in here. But he was not here. He was not coming.
Emperor Stelart was not even on the platinent Jhorime at the moment.
Seeing Anaphol's sudden reaction and him adjusting his hair, Inri chuckled. "I was teasing you, you dumb."
Naph halted abruptly mid combing his hair. He spun his head slowly but as if it was on a stony platform rotating towards her. He was about to say some niceties that would be considered an honour in The Outro Restro.
"I am not only your host." Her smile stopped, it didn't drop, a weird existence in-between. "I am the only one on this platinent who will actually give a damn. So watch it." And then, her smile widened.
Naph could have contemplated the meaning behind it. He had the moment and command over himself for it. Yet, unknown to his consciousness he still said, "So, what lesios are in it?"
"I or any citizen of the Keyriftrian Empire will not and does not address Your Highness as simply 'emperor.'" Inri on purpose chose a different writing script of English to speak. Obviously to normal people, changing the writing script while speaking the language does not do anything. But could the same be said true for people who had lesios?
Naph took it in for a later questioning. He asked again, "So…lesios? That?" He pointed at the book she was holding.
Switching to another different writing script, Inri said, "You could ask." She did not have to imply what.
Naph's consciousness felt a bit of fog in his understanding. The language was the same, the speech pattern was same as before, yet something deep within him ignited. He could tell there was a difference.
Putting that aside for later scrutiny, he continued.
"You wanted me to ask so I asked." Shaking his head spontaneously, he internally said, 'We can play imply-imply.'
The smile did not waver or vanish from Inri's lips. She waited. Even after everything that Naph could pull, she knew she was the bigger fish in this wing.
He too knew for a fact he is stuck with her and probably she is the one gatekeeping his attempt at saving the one person he owes most of his life.
One has to bite. And one certainly did.
"It…it felt odd the last two time you talked."
Naph's eyes narrowed. "What did you do?"
"Hmm, you still need coaching in proper communication and languages." Inri's smile flickered from being devious to intriguing. "Just something I read about," with reverence interlaced through her speech, "Rian no Tera."
'She did bite in.' Naph congratulated himself.
In the market when he had shown himself to not understand anyone, he only showed that he did not understand what was spoken. But he did not need that to understand. Anaphol didn't know the language he speaks now when he first entered the surrounding nations of the Confederation of Tarna, and all throughout that time he had relied on his understanding of human nature and empathy.
And that did not betray him today as well, he could comprehend close the meanings everyone was talking about or screaming of in the market.
What Naph had captured was the core essence of a language. A requirement needed to proceed to actually begin understanding the words or form them in the first place.
Becoming dramatic, Naph flailed his hands around saying, "What could that even be?" Stopping abruptly with a darker tone continued, "Given its that book."
"Tch," Duchess of Knowledge closed in on her set trap letting Naph believe it is he who crafted it, "Don't worry I am not forcing something on you." Her lips retreated to be a gentle smile.
Naph, who had been standing since Inri's supposed prank, leaned forward. "There's two things I know. Learning can be passive, and a lesio can be learned as instructed in the grand hall," pointing his fingers at every inch of the hall, "of this very castle."
'Wait, how did I enter or leave with Inri?' This thought surged within. Naph felt it as odd. Not only because of the content of the thought but because it somehow felt different.
Closing the book, Inri asked, "Are you wondering about something like access to a place?"
"Uh, kind of," Naph focused on Inri but his subconscious caught a rare alarm feeling surging and dying.
"Of where?"
"Here."
Nodding she answered, "Unless told, no one knows or remembers how to enter or leave Plora's Wing. It is infact an effect from a lesio by the original Duchess of Knowledge Plora."
Tilting her head a little high, she asked mockingly, her script for the English language changed again, "Want to learn that?"
Naph sat down back on the sofa, "I am guessing that one's hard since it's not Rian no Tera's. And aren't you already teaching me one?"
"Nope." She lied.
"Well, the so-called council or the Emperor Stelart Keyriftrian is not coming." He pointed again at the closed book, "What are the options?"
Bringing up the book in between her and Naph, "Many. There's lesio for flight, lesio for perspicuity, lesio of mirage, lesio of the elementals like fulminar, terra, fire."
His patience running asunder, "Is there one about languages?"
Hearing that Inri dramatized her searching through the book, while she asked, "You want an easy one, moderate, hard?"
"The one you were teaching," Naph bit his lips.
Giving him a questioning look of implying stupidity, he exhaled. "The easy one."
Nodding to his acceptance, she chose the medium hard one she had been teaching him passively since he first woke up. "The language of comprehension."
"Heh?" 'Why is it called language? And not lesio.'