Interlude 1: Glen and Tris

A thunk echoed through the room.

“Wh—!?”

“What!?”

Chelsea, daughter of Baron Eucharis, and owner of the brand new Skill [Seed Creation], slammed her head against the table in front of her. She didn’t move an inch afterwards.

I jumped up from the couch, running over to her and checking her out. I didn’t have to use my [Appraisal] to hear her snoring gently.

“Why’d she fall asleep so suddenly!?” Tris exclaimed, standing half off his seat.

Turning [Appraisal] on silently, I looked at the status floating above her head and saw that her mana bar was flashing red, empty.

“It looks like she ran out of mana and fell asleep.”

“Oh, that’s right, you’ve got a High Level [Appraisal] Skill, huh!”

I forced a smile. [Appraisal] was a Skill that let the user see things about a target, and could be used silently once they practiced enough.

Skills were divided into 5 levels: Sage Level, High, Upper, Mid, and Low. According to a person’s [Appraisal] Skill level, the user could learn the target’s name, age, health points, mana points, status ailments, Skills, class, titles, all kinds of things. But for every level but Sage, the target would be able to hide things if they wished hard enough. Aside from that, statuses other than the truth could be shown, if the target had been convinced elsewise by the people around them. For example, if a kid who didn’t know their own birthday was told, “today’s your birthday,” by someone, and they believed them, the kid’s birthday would show up as that day to [Appraisal].

Things someone really wanted to hide, and things they’d been convinced otherwise of, could only be seen by Sage Level users. And there weren’t even enough of those Sage Level [Appraisal] users in the world to count on one hand... But I miiiiiight have been one of those few.

Unlike all the lower level [Appraisal] users, Sage Level users were special because they could increase the amount of information shown to them according to how much mana they used to do it. Seeing the target’s name, health, and mana bars barely took any mana, for example. But on the other hand, using enough mana to put me out of commission for the day, I could see everything... Including things that the target themselves didn’t know, or had been hiding.

Honestly, since it was such a cheat Skill, I just told people that I was High Level instead. The only ones who knew the truth were the King and his Queen. And by the way, I could easily count how many times I’d actually exhausted myself using [Appraisal].

“But she’s only made ten seeds total. Does Miss Chelsea’s Skill really take that much mana to use?”

“No, the Skill doesn’t take much mana at all.”

“So why’d she fall asleep, then?”

“Because her total mana is ridiculously low. The Crown Prince has more at three-years-old than she does now.”

“That’s way too low!” Tris nearly shouted in shock as he stumbled backwards.

Chelsea grew up abused in the Eucharis Barony. Since she was barely given the absolute minimum nourishment necessary, she was much shorter than a twelve-year-old should be, and withering away. Plus, she’d been beaten, whipped, and suffered mental abuse as well. I could tell all that immediately from the status ailments on her.

Since her situation was so severe, it would take a Sage Level [Cure] user to heal them all. Sage Level users could bring anyone to their normal state, as long as they weren’t dead. Be it lost limbs, severe burns, difficult status ailments, they could all be cured. But they couldn’t heal illness... Because it was such a miraculous Skill, Sage Level [Cure] users were worshiped as Saints, and there were only a few.

I may or may not also be a Sage Level [Cure] user, too... The only ones who knew that were the King and Queen, and the Royal Healer, Ishel.

If I could, I wanted to heal all of Chelsea’s status ailments. But if it was discovered that I was Sage Level, the Church would make me a Saint, and I’d probably end up having to leave the country. Since I owed so much to His Majesty, I wanted to avoid that.

“Let’s move her to the sofa for now,” Tris said while I was lost in thought, scooping Chelsea up. “Wow... She’s twelve, right? How can she be lighter than my eight-year-old niece?”

He looked upset as he laid her down on the sofa. Oh yeah, when I first lifted her up from the shrubbery, she was just skin and bones... Of course she would be, since she’d barely been fed. I hadn’t checked her weight when I used [Appraisal]. It’d be rude to do that to a twelve-year-old girl.

Wait, has anyone with the [Appraisal] Skill other than me checked her out? I’d reported that she had a bunch of status ailments, but I hadn’t specified any further. If I got the King’s permission, I might be allowed to use [Cure] to heal them all!

“I just feel so bad for her...”

“So do I. Which is precisely why I need to go check in with the higher-ups.”

“What? The only person higher than you is...!”

I nodded at him, and left the room.