Kinesis never failed to be amazed or amused at the eccentricities of Maple World. Sure, they had interesting technological advancements in this world, like Kerning City resembling Seoul, or else magical sights like the entirely natural Ellinel that was built around a giant tree and having actual fairies as their residents.

(Seriously, that was cool shit.)

Still, one thing that she still couldn’t understand despite reading as many tomes as she could about the topic was the polearm Maha.

“Let me get this straight,” Kinesis started, elbows braced beneath her as she leaned forward. “The warrior Hero Aran once wielded a magical polearm called Maha, but in the battle against the Black Mage, Aran got cursed to be encased in ice. So, Maha decides to send both his wielder and himself to a tiny isolated island Rien for safety.”

Nero nodded even as she nibbled on a mysterious snack that had been prepared by the weird wolf guy. “Yeap. And 100 years after the Black Mage got sealed, Aran woke up again on Rien, weakened and amnesiac. Maha deemed that Aran wasn’t worthy of wielding the polearm yet so Aran is still training to become stronger again.”

Kinesis leaned back with a frustrated groan. “But I still don’t understand! The picture books all say Aran had a normal sized weapon before the curse happened, but the weapon is apparently A GIANT POLEARM?! And Maha is apparently an invisible weapon spirit that is gold in color and can only be seen by Aran? How is this even possible?” She bemoaned.

Nero just shrugged. “Why don’t you go see for yourself and talk to the locals about it then?”

Kinesis sat up. “Wait, I can go there?”

A flat look. “Did you not go to Rien to help out before when they asked for help investigating mysterious incidents?”

“Oh, there was a call for help? I thought that was just Jay playing a prank on me.”

That earned her a groan of despair from Nero.

“Just, open up your inbox and accept the letter. Someone will use magic to teleport you to Rien,” Nero grumbled.

Kinesis shrugged and stood. “Are you coming along as well?”

Nero shook her head. “I’m not interested in cold environments.”

With an amused smile, Kinesis waved goodbye even as she opened the letter from Rien, allowing herself to be transported to the island.

(Magic was cool - no need to wait for buses/trains when there was apparently someone who had enough magic to teleport you across the world just so you could be there when they needed you.)

Kinesis blinked even as she found herself in a snowy landscape, eyes landing upon the giant polearm that was apparently encased in a glacier. She whistled softly at the sight as she gazed at it wide-eyed.

Huh, so the stories were true after all.

She took out her phone to snap a photo for Jay, only to be stopped by a curious voice.

“What are you doing?”

Kinesis turned to see a blue haired girl with equally blue eyes staring at the smartphone Kinesis was holding. Her attire was in the style of the Rien locals, but her looks suddenly reminded Kinesis of Nineheart. Still, gotta answer the question.

“Me? I’m taking pictures of the polearm!”

The girl still stared at her. “Taking… pictures? With such a small thing?” The doubtful note in the girl’s tone made Kinesis grin harder.

“What? Don't you believe me? Come closer and I’ll show you!” The blue haired girl stared harder at Kinesis before moving closer to Kinesis with doubt in her eyes. Kinesis just grinned and let the girl see her phone screen, the camera still open to show a view of the giant polearm. Sure, the quality wasn’t the greatest (maybe it was time to ask Jay for an upgrade?) but it was enough for her to prove slowly how she took the picture of the polearm with just a simple tap of the screen. The girl beside her made awed noises.

“Amazing…” She whispered. Then she focused her gaze on Kinesis. “”What else can you do with this… thing?”

“Tell me your name first!” Kinesis returned. The girl huffed in annoyance but was quick to reply.

“I am Lilin. I’m the caretaker of Maha and the only human who lives here permanently. Sometimes I also act as mediator between the different races as they see me as someone who is trusted to be unbiased,” the girl - Lilin’s - introduction was frank and to the point. It was only after hearing the name that Kinesis reacted.

“Wait - you’re Neinheart’s sister!” She exclaimed.

Lilin stared back in surprise. “You know my bro - Neinheart?”

Kinesis laughed and nodded. “Who doesn’t? That guy has been seriously annoying in both worlds to be honest - as Student President Neinheart in Seoul, he’s a constant wet blanket who always shoots down my fun ideas for collabs between our schools. In Maple World, he keeps sending me letters to join the Maple Alliance. Even after I joined, he never failed to badger me into attending every single meeting! He’s still an annoying disciplinarian whom I can never escape!” She declared dramatically, eyes wide with a plea for sympathy. All she got was an unimpressed stare.

“You still haven’t told me how you know that I’m his sister.”

Kinesis winced. “Right. I was getting to that.” She cleared her throat. “Apparently chatting with a bored Knight Instructor is the best way to get gossip. Chief Hawkeye was eager to tell me about how Neinheart had a sister called Lilin, but no one had apparently seen her because she rarely attends the meetings unless Aran gets back from training in time to go for a meeting. So yea, I didn’t realize who you were till you mentioned your name.”

Lilin was still staring at her. “You mentioned your world had a Student President Neinheart. Tell me more about him.” Kinesis tapped her chin in thought. “Well… OK then. I’m not from Maple World to be honest. I’m actually from another world - dimension to be exact - where there’s no magic but our technology far surpasses many of the technology in Maple World. My world is called Earth, but I actually come from a country called Seoul. I never knew Maple World existed till a handsome bastard who calls himself White Mage made a ruckus in my world to lure me into his trap. He then forced my powers out of my body and created a huge sinkhole in my homeworld. In the middle of all that ruckus, I got teleported to Maple World and got told that I’ve got to train to stabilize and grow my powers.” She grimaced. “As for Neinheart, well, that stuck up is my equal in another school. He studies in Shinsoo International, which is a private school that has no principal, run instead by a lady called Miss Cygnus - Empress Cygnus in your world. You might think her naïve at first, but she’s actually rather cunning! I almost convinced her to let our schools have an exchange program party for the sake of increasing our rapport but Neinheart was such a grump about it, preventing us from putting our plans into action.”

Lilin blinked at Kinesis’ rambling but didn’t react beyond hesitating slightly then asking another question. “Is there - is there a Lilin in your world too?”

The hesitance in her words made Kinesis blink, staring at her for a while before replying softly, “Neinheart never mentions anything about a sister, but according to Miss Cygnus, Lilin did visit their school once. But she didn’t stay long - just confirmed that her brother was alright in Shinsoo International before leaving.”

Lilin sighed softly at Kinesis’ words before shaking her head and facing Kinesis with a determined stare. “Enough talking about Neinheart. Tell me more about this black object that can take images.” Kinesis didn’t react to the sudden change in subjects, instead grinning and flipping the camera to selfie mode, which made Lilin gasp in surprise. “This black object is called a smartphone. It’s a common and necessary device in my world because of the many purposes for it. Taking a photo is just one of the many tasks it can do. Let’s take another photo together, shall we?”

Lilin nodded hesitantly, moving closer to Kinesis so that she could see her reflection. With a grin, Kinesis took the chance to take a selfie, which made Lilin blink in surprise. The image came out fine, however, which made Lilin exclaim in awe.

“There we go! That wasn’t so bad, was it?” Lilin nodded slowly at Kinesis’ cheerfulness. “Want to try taking more?” That got her more eager nodding.

So, with a grin, Kinesis prepared the camera again, taking more photos with Lilin, later on with the penguins as well since they were very curious about her phone and wanted to try having their selfies taken. They even took a group photo at the giant polearm encased in ice, since that was the only place that could cram the island full of eager penguins into place for a single photo. Kinesis was their photographer this time, snapping a few candid pictures of them. She had to deny all the requests eventually due to her phone battery running low. But she did promise them that she would have their photos printed, which incited another wave of surprise and demands that she had to run away from due to their overenthusiasm. As Kinesis activated the skill that would let her teleport back to her home in Seoul, she took the chance to browse through the photos she had taken.

Even as she greeted Jay and waved off Yuna as usual, she continued browsing through her photo gallery, laughing at some of the more awkward photos taken or else deleting the truly bad ones. When she got to her massive group photo, Kinesis smiled at the cheer on everyone’s faces. (Those penguins were too cute!) Then something caught her eye, making her frown and double tap on the image to zoom in closer. She expanded the image, only to stare at the edge of the axe on Aran’s polearm, which had a golden stranger next to it - a stranger whom she did not recall snapping a photo of or meeting.

Said stranger’s body was entirely gold in color, his golden hair tied back in a long ponytail even as he frowned in the direction of the camera with his arms crossed. While she would have passed it off as forgetfulness - perhaps she forgot running into him, which was kinda impossible due to the sheer brightness he exuded - but one thing was clear, there had been no penguin on the bamboo platform that held the stranger. Everyone had crowded around the bottom of the ice or else on the steep cliffs of the glacier, but the bamboo platform had been empty since Kinesis had told them she didn’t think she could fit in the platform as well. So no one had been there. Also, another thing came out as weird to her - the stranger was hovering in the air. His feet weren’t even on the platform, instead, the stranger had hovered at the very edge of it as he stared into the camera.

After a while, she stopped staring at her phone, tossing it aside with a heavy sigh as she mused aloud over the events she had witnessed for herself.

“Fact 1, giant weapon has a golden spirit. Fact 2, said spirit can only be seen by Aran. Fact 3, my phone camera captured the photo of a golden spirit next to the polearm.” She thought over it for a while before shrugging.

“Huh - I guess Maha does exist after all.”