"But what does that have to do with the fruits?", he questioned. Making sure not to show any surprise at the flame mana or the magic students. Careful not to blow his ignorance.
"I'm coming to that", Thalion mumbled as he continued onwards with the cooking, making some sort of meat.
"They eat the fruit of the Ytivarg tree. In order to make sure that its not set aflame by the bird, it does not proved them the opportunity to rest on its branches. Instead, you it uses its innate polarising nature, to repel its fruit upwards, using a mixture of magnetic effect and gravity magic."
He paused in contemplation
"…Though I suppose magic might be a bit too much to call it, but that's what its referred to as in books. Since the flamebirds grab the fruit from where its floating above the tree, they rarely ever actually sit on the tree and take it home to feed their young or maybe to someone's home, if its their pet"
Adam was curious now. His inner scholar was always fascinated by natural phenomena such as these.
"Whats the point though? Wouldn't the fruits just burn up from the flames too?", he queried in Thalion's general vicinity from the living room, where he had gone to observe the floating cup.
"While the outside of the fruit does burn, the seeds are incased in a super hard shell, that can withstand high temperatures. That's what the cup is made out of. The shell. So it floats above the leaf."
He paused to catch his breath and fiddle around with the crockery before continuing, a smile on his face seeing Adam's eagerness.
"Since the fruits rotate in order to maintain balance in mid air and make sure that the gravity magic is pushing them up equally, it also prevents spills. Because you have to put in effort to remove it from the gravity magic's binds, you cant accidentally spill it.
See how the cup's rotating?"
The cup was, indeed slowly rotating. Adam flicked the side and it kept in place, the gravity magic not allowing it to leave its clutches.
"Do the leaves just keep their gravity magic and polarising effect even off the tree?", Adam asked. He was getting back in to the spirit of a student now.
Thalion quite enjoyed it.
"You're really similar to Luna. You both ask questions like an imperial scholar. It'd be mighty reassuring if you did accept our offer."
"I-I said I'll think about it!" came the indignant sputter.
Thalion chuckled good-heartedly.
"To answer your question, they keep it for two or three days after leaving the Ytivarg tree. The reason why we're using these is because we have one of those trees in the backyard, but since its not autumn, they're not blooming yet."
Adam blinked.
"They…bloom in autumn?"
"They're weird like that", came the offhanded voice, now that Thalion was more concentrated on cooking
Seeing this, Adam started to help, setting the plates down on the living room table. Thalion smiled, seeing this through the reflection in the window. Such a good kid.
(End of flashback 1)
It is to be noted that he did in fact design the sword and he and Luna spent countless hours in his room attempting to make a good enough schematic for the blacksmith in the eastern sector to be able to develop.
It turned out to be a beautiful Nodachi, with a golden and white scabbard with the same simple design being on the lower end, below the cross-guard.
The cross guard itself was slightly bigger than normal, since Adam didn't remember what size they were supposed to be but still wanted a Nodachi as a reminder of home, sorry, Japan.
Home was elsewhere now. The Dwarven Blacksmith, whose name was Agnus, a stout fellow with a hearty guffaw, had even been kind enough to throw in some gauntlets for free, since he had come at Thalion's bequest.
'What if they got armor, eh!? This piece ain't got a pommel big enough to be hitting em with the back and you couldn' half sword with it if ya tried! Just punch em with the gauntlets if they're wearing metal, heh. I'd like to see em get up after that. I'll even make em white and gold like ya scabbard too! Who ya even fighting with a sword this big? I put a leather strap on it but are ya sure you can even carry it with ya while slinging it over ya shoulder?What you even fighting to need something this big!?'
Above is one of his long, enthusiastic rants during the visits that Adam made to him during the two week crafting process, where he had taken quite a shining to him.
He even had the sword delivered to Thalion's door, by the hand of his apprentice, a human in his early twenties, who was covered with soot from the forge and a gaunt face.
He refused any payment from delivering and rushed back, muttering that 'too much work was piling up' and 'Master Agnus never says no to any orders, no matter how strange'