Richard's expression turned solemn. His eyes furrowed deeply as he kept his fingers wrapped around my wrist. His eyes slowly turning more and m0re incredulous. Senna's anxious voice broke through the weird atmosphere as she asked with a low voice "Richard?". Her words caused Richard to slightly flinch as he quickly released my wrist and quickly got onto his feet.

He looked briefly down towards me before he fixed his gaze on Senna's face. He slightly shook his head as he said: "We can't let Syhna return while we conduct our experiments". As he spoke he pulled out a flat object from his clothes. The object reminded me of all the strange things I saw in the airship... I couldn't get a good grasp on it even after staring at it...

Richard held the strange object in his hand as he looked down towards me on the ground. He reached out and held the strange object in front of me as he explained "This is something called Manatech..." he slightly shook the object as he apparently wanted me to take it... The object gave off a weird familiar yet completely strange feeling at the same time...

I glanced at Richard's face before I slowly reached out and grabbed the object... I felt the texture with my fingers as I fiddled around with it briefly. It felt smooth with small intricate forms carved down into the surface. I focused intently with my eyes as I circulated my mana to improve my vision. The grainy texture slowly parted as the intricate forms carved finely into the surface faintly lit up. I tried to push my mana through the object as I did on the objects in the airship.

As I pushed my mana like always I faintly saw a brief change in the intensity of the intricate forms around the surface... Maybe that's... An idea struck me as I stopped pushing my mana through it mindlessly. I used my previous training in mana control to steadily and dynamically feed my mana into the object. With each passing moment, I clearly saw the once faint forms slowly turn more and more visible...

I could hear Senna's voice in the background as I continued to concentrate...

"It's pretty amazing, right? Henrik called us after she apparently used a communication's orb..." she slowly said. Her words caused Richard's intense gaze to switch to Senna's side profile. He looked at her incredulously as he said: "You already knew that?...". Senna nodded slightly as she explained the situation in detail. As I listened to their conversation slowly lost my concentration as she continued speaking... I didn't pay attention to their conversation anymore... The beast I thought was captured was actually just their friend's image? Long-range communication orb? That means that everything I did with that... orb was completely meaningless?...

When I returned from my stunned state I saw the strange object lying on the grass underneath my hands... I looked up at Senna's face as I slowly asked her: "That head was not inside that round object...?".

Senna looked at me for a brief moment before her face changed into a bright smile as she turned back towards Richard and continued her story:  "Richard. You should've seen Syhna! After Henrik called us and told us about Syhna's presence in the airship..." she took a few gasps of air as she continued narrating in a bright and clear voice "When we got down into the hull she had actually taken Henrik's face captive!".

Richard's facial muscles cramped up and I could clearly see the mana inside his body slightly stir as he kept his laughter down! I felt extremely wronger at this very moment. Senna's voice faded into the background as my mind worked on a way out of this situation. Suddenly a bright idea flashed before my eyes as I immediately rose to my feet.

Senna's expression turned weird as she started to narrate how I tried to hide the orb underneath my clothes!

I immediately forgot my bright and skilfully planned tactics as I shouted "Stoooooop!". My sudden shout caused both Senna and Richard to switch their attention to me. But their facial expressions made me clench my tiny fists as Richard's eyes clearly concealed a faint trace of laughter as he looked down on my great intellect! Senna's face had a slight smile as she tried to stifle a laugh!

I really wanted to yell out and clear my name... but I really couldn't figure out how to resolve this! I originally wanted to talk my way out of it... But with some of my darkest moments out in the open... I would need to say something extremely brilliant to clear my name!