At just seven years old, Rio didn’t have a very extensive vocabulary. But he knew that speaking rudely would just make the men hit him, so he had learned to speak while judging other people’s moods. With his mother’s original influence and Amakawa Haruto’s personality returning to him, Rio’s mentality had grown and changed his speech into that of an adult’s.

“S-Sorry, I shouldn’t have asked that,” Celia apologized in a fluster.

“No, it’s fine...” Rio answered rather listlessly.

“...”

Celia’s eyes widened by a fraction, as though she had seen a glimpse of an unknown emotion deep within Rio’s eyes.

“Celia, let’s return after we change our clothes,” Vanessa interrupted. She had been quietly watching on.

“What are you saying! We have to hurry or she’ll—”

“That’s right!”

The two small girls frantically protested.

“If our information is correct, we still have some time. Don’t forget — we’re moving against protocol. We cannot afford to make a wrong move and mess up the official search party’s efforts. Don’t you agree, Christina?”

“...Then let’s hurry and buy the clothes,” the little girl named Christina said, frowning unhappily at Vanessa’s explanation.

“Celia, are there any suspicious sources of essence nearby?”

“Umm... give me a moment. Zona Revelare!”

Celia took a deep breath and chanted some words that Rio didn’t recognize. A geometric circle of light began to rise from beneath her feet.

Hm?

A strange sensation immediately washed over Rio. It almost felt like some kind of... pulse. At the same time, he could see a faint wave of light being released from Celia herself. Was he hallucinating? Rio rubbed his eyes to check, when—

“Oh. You...”

Celia inspected Rio’s face up close.

“What about the child?” asked Vanessa.

“My area search reacted to him. I’ve adjusted my magic to react to a certain level of magic essence, which means this child has a fair amount of it flowing from him. He has the potential to use sorcery.”

“Ah, right... even an orphan can have the potential,” Vanessa said.

“This kid has essence?”

Whereas Vanessa accepted the situation easily, Christina tilted her head doubtfully.

“There are some humans outside of nobility with enough essence to use magic. Their parents might not have much essence, but they may have had an ancestor up the line that once did. Even so, none of that matters if they don’t receive any training, since they won’t be able to detect it otherwise. Most people go their whole lives unaware,” Celia explained simply.

“Huh... Guess you can’t judge everything by appearances,” the still unnamed little girl muttered.

“Hmm, makes sense... but he’s still an orphan. Essence is irrelevant.”

Vanessa shot a pointed look at Rio.

Magic? Essence? Was essence the strange pulse of light just now? I definitely felt something... but they said I shouldn’t be able to detect it without training...? What does that mean?

Rio listened to their conversation in confusion.

“So were there any suspicious essence reactions?”

“Nothing within a radius of 50 meters, at least. The only one caught by my search was this child here,” Celia explained.

“I see,” Vanessa said. “Sorry for making you come out here, but you’ve been a great help. Zona Revelare users are rare and no one else can compare to your search range.”

The two continued their puzzling conversation, leaving Rio completely lost, until Celia broke off and turned to him again.

“Thank you. Will you accept this in exchange for the information you gave us?” she asked, and handed Rio five large silvers. He accepted the coins and looked at them in shock. Five large silvers was worth way more than the information he told them... Perhaps this girl didn’t have a sense of money? He looked at the girl in wonder, but...

“Oh, is it not enough?” she asked.

“...No.”

After a beat, Rio shook his head. He would accept whatever money he was given — he didn’t have the freedom to refuse out of politeness in his current situation.

“Thank you very much,” he said, bowing his head at Celia in gratitude.

“Just to be clear, this also serves as hush money. Forget what you saw and heard here,” Celia warned in a slightly colder tone.

“I understand.” Rio nodded immediately.

These four were probably nobles, and Rio had absolutely no interest in sticking his neck into the troublesome business of nobility. Curiosity killed the cat, after all.

“Well... thank you. For telling us so kindly,” Celia thanked him awkwardly.

“...It was my pleasure.”

“Bye, then. Take care of yourself.”

Celia seemed to have formed an attachment to the orphan during their short interaction, as she gave Rio a somewhat regretful smile from under her hood.

“Let’s go, Celia.”

“Yes.”

The four of them turned on their heels and walked away from the entrance of the slums. Rio watched their retreating backs, straining his eyes when he noticed a strange light faintly flowing out of their bodies. With a gasp, he fixed his gaze down at his own body. The same faint light that the girls had was flowing out of himself. It wasn’t a hallucination. He could both see and feel it. The light flowed through his entire body like the blood in his veins. It streamed out of his body endlessly, like water from a spring. The group of four gave off the most light in the descending order of Celia, Christina, Vanessa, and the one who might have been Christina’s attendant. However, the amount of light flowing out of Rio’s body was far greater than even Celia’s.

When did this light first start to release out of him? Were Celia and the others aware of it? Such questions passed through Rio’s mind, but he couldn’t find an answer for any of them.

Can other people see this light too? Would it be bad if they noticed it?

In a panic, he focused on decreasing the amount of light coming out, only to find it was surprisingly compliant with his will. There was still some leaking out, but it was much less than Celia’s group’s, so it probably wouldn’t be an issue. Rio sighed in relief.

Is this light “magic essence”...?

If it really was an essence, he should be able to do something with it intuitively. But attempting such actions without any knowledge of it risked things spiraling out of control, so he needed to pick a better time and place for experimenting with it.

It would be bad if he returned late as well, so Rio decided to head back to the shack for now.