She Professed Herself The Pupil Of The Wiseman (LN) - Volume 4 - Chapter 13

Chapter 13

“WELL, THANK YOU ALL for everything.” With breakfast and cleanup done, Mira thanked the group for the information and the night’s stay.

“We should say the same to you,” said Silver, his voice weighty with gratitude.

“I hope you find who you’re looking for!” Blue added, wishing her safe travels.

Mira said goodbye to the others, summoned Pegasus, and ascended with the pure rabbit in her arms.

Blue and Silver watched as the celestial horse sped off, spreading lightning. Between Pegasus and the medal, the little mage might be a useful trump card in their upcoming battles.

HQ, please don’t screw this up, Blue prayed from the bottom of his heart.

***

After a few hours of soaring away from the towering Elder 

Tree, Mira decided to enjoy a late lunch at the inn in Hunters’ Village. Soon, she was tucking into a sandwich with herb chicken, cheese, and vegetables along with a honey au lait. The pure rabbit chomped away at carrots on the tabletop at her side. Mira couldn’t help but smile when she looked over.

As Mira wolfed down the sandwich, she gazed at the map Silver had given her and confirmed the location of the Isuzu Alliance’s headquarters. The Forest of Seasons, eh? The Isuzu Alliance must be a big deal if they secured a base in the spirits’ sacred land.

The Forest of Seasons was situated in a valley in the center of the continent; four mountain ranges surrounded it. It was said that the spirits of seasons lived there. Some people called it the Forest of Spirits, since tribes of spirits made their home there.

That’s a long way off…

The Forest of Seasons was far north of the Forest of the Devout. Even riding Pegasus, it would take days to get there. If Mira went directly to the Forest of Seasons, she would not be home for quite some time.

She still had to deliver the Primordial Pips and vital information on Soul Howl and the Isuzu Alliance. After a moment of thought, Mira concluded that it would be best to report to Solomon first.

She closed the map, licked sauce from her finger, and asked the proprietor, “Has Alfail already left?”

“Yeah. The day after you beat him, he gathered his things and headed out. I’d never seen him look so excited.”

“I see,” Mira said. She washed down her last bite with honey au lait, excited for the day she’d see Alfail again.

“I thought I heard some conversation! A customer at this time of day, huh? Whoa, hey! Is that you, Mira?!” Mira turned to find Latry—the man she’d met back at the forest fortress—bearing a load even larger than himself on his back.

“Ooh!” the proprietor called out. “Good to see you made it home safe, son.”

“Father, I’m sorry for worrying you,” Latry said with a forced smile before turning back to Mira. “Thanks again for all you did. It’s only due to you that we made it back in one piece.”

Mira recalled that the proprietor had said that his son was at the fortress, and was the second-strongest young man in Hunters’ Village after Alfail. It seemed he had been describing Latry. It made sense that the young man was the one who struck the killing blow against the tyrant spikeback.

“Do you know her, Latry?” the proprietor asked, rather surprised.

“Yeah. I owe her my life.” Latry placed his things next to the counter and explained what had transpired at the fortress.

***

“Incredible. I had no idea,” Latry’s father muttered in relief. He bowed to Mira and said, “Thank you for saving my son and his fellows.”

The older man had known that unusual monsters were appearing, and that the hunter the fortress sent to call for reinforcements had arrived safely. According to the proprietor, Hunters’ Village had formed and dispatched an emergency-expedition team two days later.

After Mira left, Latry said, those who still had the energy had departed the fortress by horse. Along the way, he’d met the expedition team and told them the situation was resolved. Then he’d continued to the village to deliver the good news.

“Mira, I know this is a poor reward for everything you’ve done, but take all the food you like. My treat.” Latry offered an appreciative smile as he sat at the counter.

“Don’t be silly, son. Anyone who saves my kid’s life eats on my tab. Mira, anything you want, on the house.” The proprietor poked his son’s head lightly and grinned at Mira.

“Really? Then might I have a second helping of honey au lait?” Mira requested. There was a squeak next to her wrist. When she glanced down, she noticed her pure rabbit had finished eating and was looking up with pleading eyes. “And another carrot for my friend here, please,” Mira continued, still petting the bunny.

“Uh…that’s a pure rabbit, isn’t it?” Latry stared at the blue rabbit sitting with Mira with equal parts curiosity and astonishment. Such creatures always stayed far from humans, yet here was one right before his very eyes—how could he not be blown away?

“Yes, it is.”

The proprietor placed honey au lait and a carrot stick before them. The bunny lunged at the vegetable and gnawed it for dear life. Mira took a sip of honey au lait and patted the rabbit’s blue fur, savoring the relaxing moment.

“Wowie. You’re just full of surprises, Mira,” Latry said with a chuckle.

***

Just as Mira and the rabbit finished their meal, there was a clamor outside.

“Looks like they’re here,” the proprietor said as he glanced out.

“Ooh. Just in time, eh?” Latry replied with a big grin.

“Who’s here?” Mira asked, curious about their exchange. She strained to see through the door and spotted a crowd of people running by.

“How about you go and see for yourself, kid? It’ll be fun.” The proprietor smiled and winked.

“Guess I’d better get going now.” Latry stood, picked up his heavy luggage, and trotted out. The clamor outside grew louder.

Mira slowly stood up and muttered, “Whoever they are, they seem to be enjoying themselves.” She instructed the pure rabbit to stay put and followed Latry out the door.

A crowd had formed on the main street in front of the inn. Seeing the boisterous group, Mira quickly understood what was going on. Looks like a merchant caravan.

“Once every two months, the caravan goes through Hunters’ Village, and we return from the fortress to sell what we’ve hunted,” Latry explained excitedly. With his pack full of game and pieces of the tyrant spikeback, he walked away to sell his goods. “Have some fun, Mira!”

The many carriages began to sprout stalls and shelves, which were soon dotted or heaped with products. Latry started negotiating, while a man in fancy clothing—likely a well-off merchant—surveyed the hunter’s loot in admiration.

“Hmm?” Mira noticed a familiar man next to said merchant. She jogged over and accosted him from behind. “Cyril, is that you? What a coincidence!”

Cyril, the leader of the Écarlate Carillon Mira had met in Karanak, was hard to mistake with his tall stature and long red hair. Hearing his name, he turned around, and a smile burst onto his face.

“If it isn’t Mira! Coincidence indeed,” he answered happily.

The carriage behind him lurched.

“Mira’s here?!” The scream came from inside the vehicle, and out lunged Flicker with a predatory look in her eye. Her advance was cut short by the figure following behind: Emella. 

Mira was grateful for the swordswoman’s impressive reflexes. “You haven’t changed.”

“Mira, it’s been so long! Wait there a sec.” Emella peeked over and greeted her before popping back into the carriage. After a long bout of the carriage rocking back and forth, Emella showed herself again, Flicker-free. “I never imagined we’d meet in a place like this!” she said, voice bubbly with excitement.

“Neither did I. Are the others here?” Mira returned Emella’s smile and looked around. The area was full of merchants and villagers gathered to purchase their wares. Hunters like Latry haggled to sell their loot.

“Asval and Kilic are with the second party of bodyguards, so they’re not around. But Zef is here! He’s running around delivering messages right now.” Asval had journeyed into Nebrapolis with her. Kilic was the dark knight to whom Mira had given the scythe the demon wielded. It seemed they’d left after the rest of the party.

“Aha, I see.”

However, Zef was there. Mira looked into the distance, but there were too many people to make him out. Still, she decided she would probably see him sooner or later. As she turned around, there was a bang, and Flicker emerged from the carriage after wriggling free of the rope meant to bind her.

“Mira’s here… I wasn’t dreaming!” Flicker shot a wary glance at Emella and managed to maintain her cool as she alighted from the carriage. “Mira, may I have a hug?”

“Hard pass.” Mira’s blunt answer caused Flicker to stop in place, arms held wide open, then collapse into a heap of despair. Cyril chuckled and apologized for her, and Emella shoved her back into the carriage.

After Flicker was dealt with once again, Mira added, “I see you’re guarding caravans? How adventurer-ly of you!” It was clichéd, but intriguing work nonetheless.

“Isn’t it, though?” Cyril grinned, sharing Mira’s excitement.

It seemed other adventurers had originally been meant to do this work, but they were wounded in the zombie outbreak at Karanak. Cyril’s relatively unscathed party took the contract in their place. They would accompany these merchants all the way to the Ozstein territory in the western part of the continent.

“So, Mira, what brings you here?” Cyril asked.

“Hrmm, well, an acquaintance asked…a favor of me. I’m on my way back from doing it,” Mira grumbled with a smile, annoyed at Solomon’s whip-cracking nature.

“That so? Last time, you went all the way to the bottom of the catacombs. I wonder where you went this time?” Cyril mused aloud, genuinely intrigued.

“The Elder Tree and a Devils’ Labyrinth, but I can’t tell you why!”

“A Devils’ Labyrinth, hm?” That certainly sounded special. “I hear they don’t give permission to just anybody.”

Cyril didn’t probe any further, although he was rather surprised to hear that one of Mira’s destinations was a Devils’ Labyrinth—a highly restricted area. Even first-rate adventurers such as himself would have had trouble obtaining a restricted-area pass.

“The acquaintance I mentioned pulled some strings—but only to foist his work onto me, of course.” Mira might have easily gotten a permit thanks to the king, but it came with all sorts of caveats.

“He sounds like quite the guy. Though I do hear you’re the pupil of a Wise Man…” Cyril winked. “Guess that’s why you get the tough jobs.”

Mira sighed and nodded. 

While the two conversed, a male merchant stepped up. “Sorry to interrupt, friends, but these negotiations will go on for a while. Could I trouble you to tell the other guards that they’re free to rest and stand by?” He had seen Latry’s vast quality and quantity of loot. This stop would take some time.

“Understood. I’ll let them know,” Cyril replied.

“Thank you,” the merchant said, ushering Latry into his carriage. No doubt they would soon be hard at work negotiating the finer details.

“It looks like we’re off for a while. Since we’ve reunited, how about relaxing with us for a bit, Mira?”

Any other woman might have swooned at Cyril’s dazzling smile. Just as Mira began to ponder his offer, Flicker burst from inside the carriage once more.

“Agreed!” she shouted. “Let’s talk about lots of stuff, like how Tact is doing!”

“Not fair!” Mira cried.

Bringing up Tact was a low blow. Mira had been planning to accept Cyril’s proposal anyway, since there were things she wanted to discuss with this group, but emotional blackmail was cheating.

Mira’s pure rabbit was still waiting for her at the inn, so they decided to chat where she had just eaten. While Cyril and Emella informed the other bodyguards, Flicker accompanied Mira inside. The pure rabbit leapt into Mira’s arms, and she took her seat again.

“Mira, is that…?” Flicker gazed at the pure rabbit with consuming envy and fell facedown onto the table.

“Isn’t it adorable?” Mira responded proudly.

“Not fair…”

***

After a while, Flicker finally recovered. At Mira’s urging, she shared the news about Tact. It seemed the people of Écarlate Carillon had looked after him after Mira left.

“He’s my responsibility now as an apprentice of Écarlate Carillon,” Flicker said. “We got permission from his gramps, of course. We’re delighted to have him; more priests mean we can save more people, after all.”

Tact had chosen to be a priest so that he could heal his allies. It seemed that Flicker was passing on the study techniques she’d used as a child to teach him the basics.

“Hrmm, I see. It feels like I dropped a burden on you, but…thanks. And good luck to Tact.” Mira quickly bowed her head as she reminisced about Tact’s carefree smile.

Just as Flicker was about to pounce again, Cyril, Emella, and Zef appeared.

“Whoa, it really is her! And she’s even cuter than before!” Zef’s lack of filter was the same as ever when he saw Mira’s perfectly tied pigtails and new wardrobe. The two women glared daggers his way.

“You’re terrible…” Emella groaned.

“Mira’s mine,” Flicker growled.

“I didn’t mean it like that.” Zef sighed, slouching at their prickly words.

“She is actually cuter than last time, though,” Cyril agreed. The ladies’ response was nowhere near as hostile when he said it.

When Zef noticed that, his shoulders slumped even more.

***

After exchanging greetings, the members of Écarlate Carillon ordered a late lunch. Between bites, they conversed and doted on the pure rabbit. Knowing that its fur was a good-luck charm, Zef begged Mira for even a single hair. She responded by offering to give him one if it came off while she finger-combed the bunny.

She began stroking the rabbit’s fur with her slender fingertips. Perhaps out of luck, or perhaps because it was shedding, she was able to give everyone a single blue hair of good fortune—including one for Tact.

“When we get back, I’ll make sure to give it to him,” Flicker promised, accepting the fur and managing to squeeze Mira’s hand in the process. After many failures, her strategy to capture Mira was starting to improve.

“Incidentally, you said you were going west,” Mira said. “Does that mean you’ll travel through the Forest of the Devout?”

To reach Ozstein from here, one had to either go through the Forest of the Devout or take a wide detour. The direct route was faster, but the detour was much safer. There were fewer suspicious folks and monsters prowling outside their territory that way.

“That we will. After a few days here, we plan to go through the woods to Ozstein. Why? Is there…something we should know?” Cyril asked, wondering why Mira would pose a question she already had the answer to.

“Two things. First, I fought a tyrant spikeback in the Forest of the Devout a few days ago.” Mira gave them an account of the events at the fortress. She expressed her dismay that monsters were showing up in places they shouldn’t be.

“Is that happening here too?” Cyril asked. As it turned out, he had seen monsters outside their habitats as well. He thought he might have been mistaken…but given Mira’s story, he was now sure he was right.

“Oh, so you’ve seen them? Depending on the conditions, stronger monsters might appear. Be cautious.”

“Of course. If monsters from Ark are appearing, we can’t let our guard down.” Cyril looked outside, his face stern. If another tyrant spikeback appeared, his strength could manage it, but the other bodyguards might not fare as well.

“Anyway, that was one problem,” Mira continued. “As for the other… Do you happen to know of Chimera Clausen?”

“Yes! The Adventurers’ Guild Union told us a few things about what’s going on.”

Solomon had mentioned that he shared information about the situation with adventurers of A-Rank and higher. Surely that included Cyril.

“Oho, right. That makes this easier,” said Mira. “So, about that… I ran into a member of Chimera Clausen in the forest yesterday, but I also happened upon an organization fighting against them. We caught the Chimera member, and I handed him over. But it will take them time to transfer the prisoner. Chimera might be lurking in the forest to save their ally. Don’t underestimate them. I’m warning you now,” Mira spoke in a low voice to keep the secret as discreet as she could. Members of Chimera Clausen were powerful and cruel; since they could hide in the woods, one could never be too cautious.

The group leaned in to listen. Flicker took this opportunity to try to get close to Mira, but Emella stomped her foot to keep her in check.

“Really?” Cyril replied. “That’s shocking, to be sure. I agree that we should be careful. Thanks for the warning, Mira.”

Cyril considered telling the caravan leader what he had heard in hopes of finding any suspicious folk among them. He sipped his tea, then lowered his own voice. “I wish I could share some useful information with you in return…but we still don’t know anything about the dates you gave us.”

He was talking about the dates on which the Wise Men Mira was searching for had arrived in this world. Cyril’s guild had people with access to historical records searching the archives for unusual events surrounding those dates. So far, that had proved fruitless.

“It’s no big deal. I didn’t expect it to be easy.” Mira had never assumed that clues would come up so soon. She downed her third cup of honey au lait.

“By the way… Are you a fan of fantasy clichés, Mira?” Cyril suddenly asked. 

The question set her heart ablaze. “I’d never have come here if I wasn’t,” she answered obliquely, though she really meant I’d never have played Ark Earth Online if I wasn’t.

Her present circumstances were the result of her love for magical worlds. That was true of both her and Cyril, though Emella and the others could only tilt their heads in confusion at the sudden turn in the conversation.

“That’s good,” Cyril replied. “This might not be enough, but I do have three rumors to offer you.”

“Oho, rumors? You know I love a good rumor.” When it came to fantasy clichés, rumors were truly some of the spiciest.

Knowing that Mira had not been here long, Cyril had decided to offer her some juicy rumors he’d heard during his travels. Solemnly, though with a childish gleam in his eye, he began to weave the first of the three tales.