Breakfast

Inside the bedroom, Luna picked up her umbrella on the study table, tidied up her bed, and closed the room's thick violet curtain. She continued checking if her room was clean enough to keep herself busy and avoid thinking about insignificant things. She even checked the bathroom but when she went towards the laundry clothes, it was already clean.

'Magic again?' Luna guessed.

When she took a bath earlier, the laundry wasn't washed and she also left her bedroom clothes there only to find it all neat and clean. 'How fragrant,' she thought as its newly washed smell could not be compared to Earth's detergents nonetheless, it was just magic.

When she had nothing to do anymore, Luna paced back and forth in front of her bed and suddenly went startled when she heard knocks from the wooden door.

'Ok then, I'll just act normal. Why do I even need to be nervous?!' Luna thought. She inhaled and exhaled deeply, stared at the door, and held the doorknob to open it.

Akiro's usual icy, blank face and neat, elegant gray formal suit welcomed her. Only the color changed because it was still the lavishly dressed Akiro. 

"Breakfast is in the living room. Let's eat quick and get to work," he said. After that, Akiro turned back and walked towards the small rectangular glass table in the living room. There were different kinds of bread and two sets of utensils on the table. Hearing him, Luna suddenly felt hungry. She quickly went outside her room and closed the door.

"Good morning," she greeted shortly.

Akiro nodded and sipped his tea. Luna sat opposite his and placed some pieces of bread on her plate. When she saw the other white ceramic cup, it wasn't filled with tea, instead, it was coffee and there were also other tall glasses with cold orange juice and plain water.

"The drink's for you since you dislike tea," Akiro uttered.

"Really?!" Luna said, shocked. Nonetheless, she took the coffee and tasted it. She felt incredibly good as she thought that she had to learn to drink tea for it seemed to be the norm in this world. With her good mood, she happily ate the moon-shaped bread and drank her coffee.

'The combination's good!' Luna thought.

"Anyway, what do you need from me earlier?" Akiro asked as he remembered the scene earlier.

Hearing that, Luna's right hand stopped mid-air. The silver fork with a small piece of moon-shaped bread failed to enter her mouth as she answered him nervously.

"I-I have gotten curious about the said emperor in this country," Luna uttered while her cheeks turned light red after she remembered what had happened earlier but did her best to avoid showing how she was flustered by the turn of events. Luna focused on eating and savored the food. She hoped to forget what had occurred earlier.

Akiro was startled after hearing her question as he didn't know where Luna heard about the emperor. "How do you know about that?" he asked.

Luna almost rolled her eyes and said, "Well, I brought books that I stumbled upon in the bedroom I used in your mansion. Since I don't have enough information about this world, I brought some with me."

However, she thought of something. "Wait, am I not allowed to bring the books outside? I apologize if I borrowed it without your permission. I'll give it back to you if you want but I hope you'll let me read it first," Luna continued.

Akiro shook his head and lightly smiled. He took down his teacup on the table and explained his views. "I don't mind, you can have it. I didn't expect that you like reading books especially history since you mention the Magus Emperor," he said.

Luna awkwardly smiled. History was not that interesting for her but she read a lot of it when she's younger and grown uninterested after not finding something new about history. Nonetheless, she shifted to novels especially fantasy and action genres which she enjoyed.

Anyway, it was different when it comes to Vermillion. Reading its history was like reading a fantasy novel for her. It's hitting two birds in one stone. She would enjoy reading and make use of the information she read about Vermillion at the same time.

"Since you wanted to know, I'll tell you some. The Magus Emperor stays in the North Village where the Magus Estate is located. It's where the other Archmages also live. The current Magus Emperor rules for over 400 years and is currently waiting for the candidates to be announced. Being 400 years old means you're already an elder and the younger generation should take over," he said.

Luna went baffled after hearing the emperor's age. The life span in Vermillion had a huge difference from Earth. However, something bothered her. "Then hmmm, how old are you? Are you a hundred years old person already?" she asked, remembering how she treated him so far.

Her question made Akiro's brows furrowed. He looked at her sharply. "Wrong, I'm a twenty-two years old man. Do I look old enough to you already?" he said while frowning.

Luna hastily shook her head in fear and said, "It's just that our life span's only up to 100 and knowing about a man who lived for 400 years is unbelievable."

"So that's the reason huh," Akiro uttered as he stood up and walked towards Luna.

"W-what?" Luna uttered.

"Of course, we're leaving, we'll use teleport," Akiro said.

Luna waited for him to touch her shoulder and snap his fingers but it didn't happen.

"I forgot, we should be going back to the past," Akiro said.

"O-okay, so how do you perform it?" Luna asked.

She, too also forgot about what they currently needed to do.

Akiro formed his golden pocket watch in a blink of an eye. Luna admired how he did it perfectly. Unbeknownst to her, Akiro secretly praised Luna for her unexpected potential as a magic-user that even surpassed most of them.

Then Akiro touched her shoulder and began chanting a spell, "Through the powers of the time, hear thy call, I open thee, the door of the past."

Luna watched how their room vanished and found themselves floating in a place similar to an outer space but it wasn't black. Everything was filled with different colors and a white door appeared in front of Akiro. Luna's face was left with astonishment.

'Where are we?' she thought.

~~To be continued..