She Professed Herself The Pupil Of The Wiseman (LN) - Volume 3 - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

“TAKE CARE.” Mira waved as the spirit prepared to leave.

The novice summoner looked on, clearly worried. “Please do be careful, dear spirit.”

“Of course. Thank you.” The wind spirit took Meowmaru’s paw and waved it back as well.

The cat was docile when wrapped in the spirit’s arms. Perhaps its mission was to continue serving as the wind spirit’s guardian. Though the identity of the attackers was still a mystery, they probably weren’t the sort to let one failed attempt be their last.

Perhaps Meowmaru’s master had summoned an autonomous shikigami to protect the wind spirit. Or perhaps the mysterious medium was using the spirit as bait to expose the hunters. Mira continued to mull over the possibilities. Despite her worries, the combined power of a wind spirit and a magic cat would not easily be overcome.

So much going on in this world of ours.

The noonday sun shone brightly as the spirit and Meowmaru disappeared back into the woods.

Mira turned to the novice summoner. “Well, then, good luck,” she said, preparing to return to her carriage.

“Um, pardon me, miss. I’m Aimee. May I ask your name?”

“I’m Mira. Aimee, is it? Keep up the good work.” Mira looked back with a serene smile more at home on the face of an elderly man than a young lady, then climbed into the carriage.

“We’ll be taking our leave,” said Garrett. “Farewell.” He bowed before stepping up to the driver’s seat. He gathered the reins and the carriage set off slowly on its way, with the sound of rattling wheels and hoofbeats echoing after it.

The carbuncle squealed and jumped into Aimee’s arms, trembling.

Mira and Garrett disappeared around the bend, leaving behind a slightly puzzled group of adventurers and one traumatized carbuncle.

***

With no further encounters of note, the pair made their way home, arriving at Lunatic Lake around noon the following day.

Mira anxiously entered the palace and was led to Solomon’s office by a maidservant. For a brief moment, she worried that she was walking into an ambush. The maids would capture her and turn her into a dress-up doll…again. But she soon found herself at Solomon’s office, unabducted.

When the maid knocked on the door, Solomon beckoned them in, so she opened it right away. The king thanked and dismissed her, and she quietly closed the door behind the very relieved Mira.

With no one else in the office, Solomon dropped all pretext of formality as he tossed a handful of papers onto his desk. “Welcome back. It’s been almost a week. Did you find him?”

“Nope. He wasn’t there. But I did find clues that might lead us to him.” Mira opened her Item Box and pulled out some of the documents that she’d found within the Ancient Temple.

Clearing some space on his cluttered desktop, Solomon began leafing through them.

“Rules governing phoenix rebirth? How to cremate an immortal? Locations of the spirits of the seasons? What in the world is he planning?”

“I think this might hold the answer,” Mira said as she handed over another document. Solomon’s brow furrowed deeper.

It was a list of restorative items and notes on their effectiveness against the seal known as the Demon’s Blessing. They ranged from common items to high-end panaceas, and almost all were listed as ineffective. The only item on the list that didn’t have an effect recorded was Holy Grail of Heavenly Light.

“Is he searching for the Grail?” Solomon asked in disbelief.

“Hrmm, that’s what it looks like.” Mira nodded and then started to tell him what she’d seen within the castle on the sixth level of the Ancient Temple Nebrapolis.

“She must be important to him.”

“Seems that way.”

The pair fell silent as they reminisced and worried about their old friend, Soul Howl. Whatever had caused his change of heart, it seemed clear that he was now traveling on a quest for the Grail.

“And if he wasn’t in the castle, we can assume that he’s chasing another clue,” mused Solomon. “If we want to find him, we’ll have to follow in his footsteps and go through these notes to unlock whatever secret of the Grail he discovered.”

“Well, yes, I suppose,” she muttered. As soon as they knew where he was headed, they—that is, Mira—would need to set off after him. 

The two turned back to the mountain of papers with visible disgust.

“But it’s definitely going to take a lot of work to go through all of this. Thankfully, I know just the person to call.” Reaching over, Solomon rang the bell on his desk twice. It hung from a small frame and looked like a miniature version of a church tower bell, but it emitted no sound.

“Was that supposed to do something? I didn’t hear anything.”

“Hm? Oh, it’s a Calling Bell. A useful tool. Only the person you intend to summon can hear it. The range is a kilometer or so, and the person I was calling is…”

“King Solomon, you summoned me?” a familiar male voice echoed through the office door.

“Indeed! I have a small request. Please come in,” said Solomon, switching back to his royal persona.

“At your service,” said Suleiman, sketching a bow as he entered. The blond-haired elf wore a tastefully subdued outfit.

As she caught sight of him, Mira remembered just what it was he specialized in—knowledge of ancient history and spirits. Knowledge was largely intangible, yet it was as valuable as any artifact. It could only be stored for as long as the brain allowed and could only be gained by learning from someone or reading it from a book. The breadth of knowledge was so vast that no one person could hope to know it all…but that didn’t stop Suleiman from trying.

He noticed Mira’s presence and offered her a formal bow as well. “Welcome back, Lady Mira. Did you make any progress?”

“Hrmm, I think I found a lead at least.” She smirked and looked toward the desk. Following her gaze, he took note of the pile of papers and immediately understood the cause for his summoning.

“So I see. Your lead appears to be…comprehensive.”

“From the look of it, it will require someone with knowledge of both spirits and ancient times, and you were the first person who came to mind,” Solomon said as he placed a silver key atop the pile. “I would like to know what information can be deciphered from these documents. You are hereby officially granted access to the A-Rank archives of the grand library.”

Alongside his vast knowledge, Suleiman had shown great talent for organizing and deciphering information over the past thirty years. His combat skills were abysmal, but none were his equal when it came to paperwork. It also helped that he was loyal to a fault.

“Understood. I shall devote my knowledge to your cause, Your Majesty.” He bowed deeply, then carefully tucked the key into his breast pocket. Ingratiated by the need for his knowledge, he loaded the materials onto a small library cart before turning to the pair once more.

“I will be in the stacks if you need anything,” he said and then set off with great enthusiasm.

A satisfied smirk stole its way across Solomon’s face as he watched Suleiman leave. “All we have to do now is wait.”

“Truly, you are a master of delegation.”

“It’s just finding the right person for the right task. That’s all there is to this job.”

Mira laughed at the characteristic response before throwing herself down on the sofa. As she twisted around in search of comfort, she opened her Item Box to grab an apple au lait and noticed the demon’s horns.

“Ah, right. Mind if I give you one more problem to delegate?” asked Mira as she burrowed into the cushions.

“Sure, why not? What is it?” Solomon replied as he idly rearranged the papers he’d pushed to the corner of his desk.

“Well, you see… I ran into a demon on the bottom floor of the catacombs.”

“A demon?!” Solomon’s face drew tight.

“Yep. Came out of nowhere. A third-rank Earl. It attacked me. It lost. But why it was there in the first place is a mystery.”

“Well, that certainly is strange.”

After a brief pause, Solomon returned the papers to the corner of his desk and reached into a drawer to pull out a sealed file. Mira wandered over and looked down curiously at the file as he opened it.

“I’m not sure what stories you’ve been told about the Defense of the Three Great Kingdoms, but the demons were believed to have been completely eradicated during that war. That was ten years ago.”

“Hrmm, I’d heard something to that effect.”

“But the truth—as you’ve seen yourself—is that a few remain. They’re hiding away here and there, plotting and scheming. This file is all we know, a collection of sightings and traces.” As he spoke, he pulled some papers from the file and laid them out. All were marked top secret.

“Hrmm, classified, huh?”

“The public thinks they’re gone for good. That they’re still alive is a fact known only to the upper levels of the government and the Union.”

Solomon’s words and manner spoke to the severity of the situation and Mira’s mind flashed back to Emella and the other adventurers she’d met while in Karanak, City of Requiem.

“Really, now? Guess I should have been more tight-lipped about it…”

“You—?! You told someone?!” Solomon’s head snapped up as he looked at Mira, who was still looking over the documents on the table. She looked back at him, thinking to herself that the panicked look rarely graced his kingly countenance.

“Not like that! It was just the other adventurers I was with when we ran into the demon.”

Trying to soothe him, she explained what had happened in Karanak, with young Tact, Emella, and the rest of the party. She told Solomon about finding the Mirror of Darkness, not finding Soul Howl on the sixth level, and the demon appearing as they went to leave.

After hearing the full story, Solomon nodded and stood.

“All right, I suppose that makes some sense. I’ll take care of this. You said the guild was Écarlate Carillon and the boy’s name was Tact, correct?”

“Hrmm, that’s right. I was with Emella, Asval, Flicker, and Zef. Oh, and their captain, Cyril.”

“Got it. I’ll contact the Union over there to sort things out. Wait here for a moment.”

He left the office and headed for the communications room. With the absence of in-game chat channels to facilitate long-range communication, Solomon’s technomancers had created a device that allowed for two-way communication across vast distances.

Alone in the office, Mira snagged one of the papers from the desk and sat down as her eyes skimmed across the page.

The first reported sighting had come from a forested region in the mountains on the western side of the continent. It stated that a black horned figure had been seen atop a cliff spying on a group of knights while they were training. It disappeared when sighted and had been far enough away that they couldn’t confirm whether it was actually a demon.

She glanced over the other reports, but none seemed very credible.

Bored with the documents, Mira passed the time gazing out the wide office windows at the surrounding scenery.

Quite the view from up here.

Spread out below was a panorama of the crescent-shaped lake that was the city’s namesake. The capital had sprung up around the shore, and Mira’s vantage point offered her a great view of the vibrant and bustling city. But as the palace was the center of the city, she could only see the half that lay across the shimmering surface of the water. Letting out a sigh of admiration, she focused on the most prominent facility before her—Alcait Academy.

It’s bigger than the university I went to.

Students from across the continent gathered to study on its sprawling campus. Her brows creased as she thought back to her own university experience filled with first meetings and final partings.

Alcait Academy took up nearly a tenth of the city’s real estate. It was centered around three massive school buildings and was second only to the palace in size. The school was divided among beginning, advanced, and specialized departments of study. As befitting the character of the Kingdom of Alcait, many of the departments were dedicated to teaching the magical arts, and popular opinion held that it was the best school of magic on the continent. 

Anyone and everyone hoping to be a mage yearned to attend the academy. Nearby residences had become makeshift dormitories for the growing student population.

It was also one part of Solomon’s Five Elements, a grand urban development plan he had devised for the city when the game had become reality.

As Mira stared out at the academy, packed with the hopes and desires of its students, Tact’s carefree smile rose unbidden in her mind.

I wonder if Tact goes to school in Karanak? He had adored her. Surely, he’d put the effort in to be a fine mage someday.

Her musing was cut short as Solomon returned to his office.

“How’d it go?” Mira asked, turning from the window as Solomon fell back into his chair.

“I think it’ll be fine,” he replied, letting his expression relax. “I spoke with the Union leader over there, and he said there were only a couple rumors about demons floating around.”

“Hrmm, makes sense. They didn’t seem like the type to gossip.” She smiled as she thought about her newfound friends.

As veteran adventurers, Emella and the rest of the party would be well aware of the power such information could hold. And from what she’d gleaned from her conversations with Cyril, their captain and a former player, she didn’t think he’d go out of his way to cause chaos.

“Well, with that in mind, it might be best if you also keep quiet about all this. Rumors are one thing…but someone fighting, surviving, and defeating a demon is pretty darn conclusive,” Solomon reminded her as he leaned back in his chair.

“Got it. Though from the look of things, I’m guessing you also don’t know what a demon might have been doing down there?”

“Nope. I’m not certain, anyway. I should probably send a survey team down to the sixth level of the catacombs to see if it left any clues. I wonder what it was up to in a place like that?”

“That sounds like a good idea.”

Everything she’d brought back from the Ancient Temple had been related to Soul Howl, one of the Nine Wise Men. After she defeated the demon, they got out of the dungeon as fast as they could. There was a chance that a formal investigation might turn up something they’d missed.

Leaving the window, Mira flopped back down on the sofa and stretched.

“By the way, that new robe looks like just your old one,” Solomon remarked, giving her a quick scan. “Decided to go for a replica?”

“Yeah, in Karanak.” Mira stood and posed, showing off the new robe. “What do you think?”

As a replica, it was far inferior to the original article, both in craftsmanship and stats. But the color and shape were similar, so it met Mira’s most valued criterion: the looks cool factor.

“I see. It suits you to a T.” Solomon smirked. To him, she looked like a little girl playing dress-up.

“Doesn’t it?” Mira said, oblivious. “Why change a winning formula, after all?”

She sat back down with a look of pride. Then she remembered that her actual robe should still be back in her tower. After the eventful time she’d had while relieving herself and dashing to the bath on her first night back in Silverhorn, she’d carelessly chucked it into the changing room.

I’ll have to head back and pick that up sooner or later.

She began to plan her next steps. They couldn’t go after Soul Howl until they figured out where he was going from the documents, and that was the only clue available to them at the moment. Thus, she figured she’d pull what supplies they might need from storage at the tower. She found herself thinking back on what had occurred on her trip back from Karanak. They did have another clue as to the possible whereabouts of one of the Nine Wise Men…maybe.

“Oho, that’s right. There was something else I wanted to ask you about.”

“All right, shoot.” Solomon kicked off against his desk, sending his chair rolling off toward the window. He’d been doing paperwork for what seemed like ages, and a chat with his friend was a welcome diversion.

“I’ve heard that there have been multiple incidents of spirits being attacked. Know anything about that?”

Mira thought he might have some background on what she’d learned from the wind spirit. Slightly taken aback by Mira’s question, Solomon let out a small, impressed huff. “So you know about that too? As far as we can tell, it started in the forests north of Grimdart…maybe nine years back or thereabouts. Almost all of the spirits in that region vanished.”

“Almost all?”

The Grimdart Empire was the northernmost of the Three Great Kingdoms. They worshipped the God of Justice, and the empire was also called the Kingdom of Chivalry. Along Grimdart’s northern frontier was a vast forest that stretched to the ends of the continent and covered an area nearly five times as large as the Kingdom of Alcait. A forest like that must have been home to countless numbers of spirits.

“They haven’t done a full inspection for remaining spirits yet, naturally, but rumors say the place is deserted. The reason was completely unknown at the time—and Grimdart took the lead on the search—but similar reports started coming in from the surrounding nations. At first, it was blamed on an outbreak of Elemental Eaters and subspecies were identified…but a survey team sent out to look for remaining spirits discovered the group that was capturing them. The perpetrators were described as armed mercenaries transporting a number of spirits in cages.”

“Hrmm. It seems the issue is spreading.”

The wind spirit had mentioned that quite a few spirits had been attacked, but based on what Solomon had just told her, it seemed the problem was far worse. The survey team only had a few members suitable for combat, so rather than foolishly engage the mercenaries, the team chose to return with the information.

“Each country is conducting their own investigation into the matter, but the reason behind the kidnappings is still unknown. I made some discreet inquiries into the trafficking markets, but there weren’t any spirits for sale. All I know is the name of the implicated group—the Chimera Clausen.” Solomon stared out the window and muttered, “A fancy name for an atrocity.”

When his brief surge of anger passed, he turned back to Mira with a lighter expression. “The Union has been informing adventurers of A-Rank or greater about this, and there’s a reward for more information. But it’s being kept quiet from the general public for the time being. You apparently heard about all this, though. Who did you hear it from?” He assumed it had come from one of the guild members Mira had mentioned earlier.

“On my way back, I ran into a wind spirit. She told me about it.”

“Oh… A wind spirit, you say…” he replied, stunned. As a warrior, he was unable to see or speak with spirits. It seemed that what was commonplace for Mira was miraculous for him. 

“She was playing with a little black cat shikigami,” Mira added, an amused look on her face. She went on to tell Solomon about the encounter and what the wind spirit had heard about the attackers from her kin. She also mentioned how the spirit had been attacked before Meowmaru jumped to the rescue, and how the cat seemed to be sticking with the spirit as a protector.

“Meowmaru? That has Kagura written all over it. I wonder if she’s mixed up in this?”

“I had the same thought. The spirit said it hadn’t met any mages. Anyways, seeing as we don’t have any other leads, we might as well look into it.”

“Indeed. A medium standing up against the Chimera Clausen. Very interesting. Maybe I’ll assign some spies to look into the matter.” Illuminated by the light coming in through the window, Solomon smiled as though he’d just come up with an ingenious idea and rocked back against his chair.

The two longtime friends devolved into idle chatter and enjoyed each other’s company. To Mira, it was merely conversation, but for Solomon, it was a precious respite from a deluge of paperwork.