If it were up to me, I would have simply walked aboard the elves' ship, entered my space, and hid there for the duration of the journey, regardless of how it would be viewed by others. Unfortunately, if I wanted to unlock my spatial affinity, I needed help from Elovere, more specifically, her family, which meant I needed to do things their way, which even more unfortunately for me, meant following their orders...for now.

  I could go along with their plans until I got what I wanted. Everything else that happened in between, I just had to push through.

  All of that boiled down to the fact that their ideas were prioritized over mine, which meant I would be posing as a noble youth travelling around the world, which I knew from experience actually existed. While intercontinental travel was prohibitively expensive, there would always be people with more money than sense who enjoyed bragging about how much money they, or more accurately their parents or family members, had spent to sponsor their travels.

  Even if my contact with nobles other than my small circle of friends was limited, I had ears, and it seemed like every academy was full of youths who liked to brag about their unearned wealth.

  "...shouldn't take too long. They're both free by sundown if that's fine with you, my lady, and they're simply proposing an exchange of gifts and a short speech." The only elf in the room I didn't know was still making his report to Elovere, though I only caught the tail end by the sound of it.

  "What do you think?" She turned to the side, asking for Malin's opinion, but he simply shook his head.

  "Young miss, if something this small is causing you problems, then quite frankly you need more tuition." His words made her visibly anxious as her face paled, until she wordlessly cast a spell on herself, getting rid of all traces of nervousness and transforming into the prim and proper version that was on her before. When she replied to the reporting elf, her tone was far more calm and assured.

  "Tell them we accept, but we're on a strict schedule and need to leave the moment the ceremony is over. A crowd is fine, but one hundred is the absolute limit. If any of them are dissatisfied, we can add in a few more gifts on our next trip."

  "Yes, my lady." He bowed before leaving as promptly as he'd arrived, without any sight or sound marking his passage.

  "So, who was that?" I asked while there was a lull in the conversation. I was less concerned about the particulars of the arrangements being made than I was about the people I'd be spending most of my time with.

  "Oh, that was Yole, my adjutant. He's one of my escorts along with Malin and a few others," Elovere replied airily.

  "Is that something you find odd?" Malin asked, noting the expression on my face.

  "Just...he's your son, right? I would think that you'd want him in a safer profession." I was fairly confident I would never have kids for the foreseeable future, seeing as I was too irresponsible and selfish, but if I did, I'd prioritize their safety over anything else, a sentiment Malin apparently didn't share.

  Malin began laughing uproariously, clutching the wall for support while he wiped away a tear. "Oh, kid, how about you stick to being a kid and leave the parenting decisions to the adults with actual experience, alright?" I tried not to let the condescending tone affect me as he kept speaking. "And besides, safety is an illusion. Better that he gets some practice defending himself and others now while I'm by his side than alone somewhere with no one to help him when he needs it."

  ...I hadn't considered that. Welp, if anything, that just goes to show that I'm not cut out for parenting.

  "If you'd like, you can rest here until the rest of our party returns," Elovere offered.

  "I guess I will, but...if you don't mind me asking, have you recruited anyone besides me on this trip?"

  "No. In fact, the details of the recruitment drive are still being decided on, so officially, we can't accept any recruits yet...but, I do remember that the first person to register will receive some manner of bonus, so, there's that to look forward to!"

  I was glad that she had appealed to my materialistic nature instead of sticking to ideals this time, as it did motivate me a bit more to follow through, even if it was a bit of a blatant attempt at misdirection. If I had to cede a bonus that I had rightfully earned, technically speaking, due to bureaucracy of all things....that could very well be what tipped me over the edge and ignited the powder keg of suppressed emotions I kept buried inside me.

  While I sat down on the foot of the nearest bed and began fiddling with water magic, Malin and Elovere began conversing about diplomacy and other topics I had no interest in for a few minutes, before she laid down on the bed across from me and crossed her arms over her modest chest. The next thing I knew, a tiny white whirlpool manifested above her head, a swirling vortex with a palpable suction force pulling in the nearby essence, before its flow reversed, and essence was ejected out of it in a similar manner. It was all happening too rapidly for me to sense what elements were being affected, but at the very least I could tell that the water droplets in my hand had disappeared like dust in the wind as soon as she started, and that all my affinities were...resonating would be the closest term, with whatever Elovere was doing.

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  Malin walked over to me, a soft hand landing on my shoulder as my eyes threatened to pop out of my skull. "Sorry about that. I should have warned you that her practice would affect yours."

  I gulped audibly. "Hey Malin, just out of curiosity, how common is this...whatever she's doing?"

  "It's a special technique that only our family can use, so don't go thinking about getting your hands on it. Even if you wanted to use it, you wouldn't be able to. It requires an elf's constitution to function properly. As for how common it is...well, that's hard to explain."

  "...can you try?"

  "Haha! Ah, I like you kid! Don't ever lose that sense of humor!" Malin exclaimed while vigorously patting me on the shoulder. "Well, like I said, what she's doing is something exclusive to our family, but there are other families with similar techniques. In our family alone, there are six others with a similar proficiency as hers, but as far as other families go, who knows? Could be hundreds, maybe more."

  "And how many elven noble families are there in your country?"

  "None. I know you humans love your hierarchies, which is amusing considering everything about your race and the state of the world, but elves don't have nobles as you know them. We have families that take up leadership roles, true, but our way is more akin to the dragons, with a council and elders making most of the major decisions." He smiled at the puzzled look that made its way onto my face despite my best efforts. "You're not the first person to enter their home, and you won't be the last." As he walked away, I accepted that Malin had an annoying habit of making vague statements without following through on them. I took a deep breath and moved on.

  I laid down on the bed and tried to get some rest before we departed, while Elovere's silent yet still somehow distracting display of magical prowess continued across from me. While I tried to rest with my eyes shut, my mind was in my space, organizing everything I had in there.

  My 'quarters' where I slept was now in a corner of the room, although judging by the large gaps of empty space, it wouldn't be a corner for much longer. My everyday apparel was laid out here in a mess, clothes, boots, sachels and bags, coats, anything meant for daily use was kept here. I would need to buy new furniture and some shelves to organize everything, but for now, all my clothes were folded and stacked together, courtesy of my ability to exert full control over my space. My battle-related equipment was all in another corner, comprised of a few backup weapons, various pieces of armor, and accessories that would supposedly help in casting spells, none of which I was likely to use. I was coming to terms with the fact that my physical attributes would probably never win me a fight, but I had to keep at least some kind of weapon on me, even if only to serve as a distraction in my opponent's mind.

  Then there were the residents in my space, the voranders and various beasts I had tamed. While the voranders were unmoving, waiting to be called upon, the other animals were sleeping on the floor, laid down haphazardly as body parts crossed over each other without any of them noticing or waking up. Even a certain antlered companion of mine was snoring while laying on his back, his tongue lolling out of his mouth. There wasn't much I could do about them, so I let them do as they wished.

  All the trash and waste that had accumulated since I'd last cleaned up were dispelled with a single thought, vanishing into the ether. I had no idea where it all went, and was just glad that cleaning up in here was so easy. On a whim, I tried to see what else I could effortlessly change about my space and went with something low-impact for the first time: a subtle but definite scent of vanilla. I grinned as the change was instantly noticeable, the grime and stink of consistent living without any maintenance washed away and replaced with the much more pleasant scent of vanilla that I was familiar with.

  I couldn't help but take in a deep breath, even as my body in the real world mirrored the act. The comforting scent nearly overwhelmed my nose despite my lack of a physical presence in the space, and I was tempted to just lie down and bask in the good feelings. In the end, my curiosity overpowered the temptation and I continued switching scents, starting with the most common ones I could remember, and eventually reaching the realm of things I'd only come across once or twice before. The space seemed to be capable of reproducing any scent I'd experienced before, though it hit a wall when it came to things I'd never personally sensed which made sense. I set the scent to lavender and moved on to the next sense, taste.

  Reproducing tastes was a bit of a mixed bag, as the space was capable of letting me experience any past tastes, but not any of the food that came with it. I wrote the idea off as a loss and continued with my testing, trying my best to shove down my disappointment at not being able to materialize food whenever I wanted.

  Manipulating the surroundings was just as easy as the previous tests revealed, and with nothing but intent my childhood basement was transformed into my college dorm, the room at the beastfolk inn I had just vacated, Elder Dusk's enormous cave, an empty parking lot, and the beach where I'd washed up on this world. Each background had its own unique texture and feel that perfectly mimicked what the real thing felt like, the only difference being the sky, as it lacked the sun, moon, and stars, and was just a multicolored twinkling kaleidoscope. I tried to manipulate the sand on the beach into a sandcastle, just to see if I could, but while the attempt failed, I felt my earth affinity being...tugged.

  Could I?

  Though my intent alone had failed, once my earth affinity was brought into the mix, the result was a different story. The loose grains of sand were now a waist-high sandcastle, complete with all the features I had envisioned, even a little moat surrounding it. Even though I should have been gratified by the result, the process somehow struck me as off. If the space, or I, was capable of changing everything according to my desires, why would my magic be needed all of a sudden? It conflicted with what I knew about the space, which admittedly was not that much, but it still seemed off-putting in a way I found hard to describe. In need of a change of scenery, I quickly changed the beach into a parking lot outside my local mall, the neutral location doing its job of lifting my mood.

  Moving on to the next test, I found that I could replicate any noise I'd heard before which only meant one thing to me at that moment: I could finally listen to the songs from Earth!

  Oh damn! Taking it a step further, if I combined everything I've done, with these tests, wouldn't that mean that...

  It took but a moment for a glowing white screen to pop up in front of me, the audio perfectly in sync with the images on the screen.

  "There's a hundred and four days of - "

  "He told me you killed him!"

  "Kaizoku ou ni ore wa naru!"

  "Look for the, bare necessities, the simple -"

  "Oh! Right there! Right there! OH god yes -"

  The screen died as I realized I could perfectly replicate anything I had seen.

  Anything.

  A light pat on my shoulder brought my attention back to the real world as I saw Malin standing over me.

  "It's almost time to leave. You okay kid?" he asked.

  "Yeah, I just...thought of a new technique."

  "Hmm. Good job. Anyways, you should get ready soon, we're leaving within the hour." I hopped to my feet, noticing the beds in the underground bunker were almost completely occupied, and gathered what little possessions I had on hand, ready to pose as a noble youth with bad luck hoping to bum a ride from the benevolent elves.

  Anything to get my mind off the fact that I could now view po-

  Nope. Don't even say it. Just focus on your little act.