She Professed Herself The Pupil Of The Wiseman (LN) - Volume 4 - Chapter 20

Chapter 20

MIRA AWOKE FROM her comfortable sleep to sunlight radiating through the window. As she did, her mussed hair rustled and gleamed silver. Mira patted her hair and glanced next to her. There, she saw only Mariana’s empty pillow.

Already awake? She’s an early riser.

Luna was curled up, still snoozing. The sight of the adorable bunny sleeping calmed Mira as she opened her bangle’s menu to check the time. It was already half past nine.

Or am I just a late riser…?

Mira closed the menu, let out a big yawn, and got out of bed to head to the living room. As she did so, she noticed clothes folded atop the nightstand. They were her technomancy robes.

Well-prepared, I see.

Mira slipped her arm through one sleeve, figuring she might as well get dressed now, but a knock on the door interrupted her. 

Mariana, dressed in her maid uniform, peeked inside. “Good morning, Miss Mira.”

“Morning.”

“Allow me to help you.” 

Mariana didn’t even give Mira a choice as she walked over and began happily dressing the girl. She had perfect timing—almost as if she’d been waiting.

After the change of clothes, Mariana’s extra-motivated hands tied Mira’s long silver hair in pigtails with blue ribbons. Mira herself was quite satisfied with the style as she looked in the mirror; it accentuated her cuteness. A smile spread across her face.

Once Mariana had toyed with Mira’s hair to her heart’s content, she also grinned at her work. The two made eye contact through the mirror, sharing their smiles.

***

Having woken up just in time for breakfast, Mira ate with Luna and explained her general plans to Mariana.

First, she would go to the castle and report to Solomon. Depending on how decoding Soul Howl’s documents was going, she might be off on a new adventure. She might also be gone for a while, based on where the clue pointed.

Mira was apologetic over this, but Mariana smiled and responded, “There’s no need to worry about me.”

Her melancholy was replaced with the joy and purpose of protecting her master’s home until Mira’s return. After all, a few days was nothing, compared to the thirty years she had waited.

Relieved, Mira gazed at the emblem of the blessing on her hand, feeling the depth of their connection. “Well, I’d better get going soon.”

Once she had her fill of rabbit-petting and black tea, Mira stood up. 

Mariana quickly brought a basket from the kitchen and handed it to her. “I made you lunch. Please enjoy it when you get the chance.”

“Oho, really? Thank you.” Mira accepted the basket, casually patting Mariana on the head. The action was natural, unhesitant. Mira realized this was proof that the wall between them was crumbling. Seeing Mariana break into a smile under her hand, she decided that was for the best. She gave Luna a hug and added, “I leave her in your care.”

The maid gingerly took the bunny from Mira and bowed. “I wish you safe travels.”

Their concise exchange was like a married couple’s. They were quite at home with each other for a pair of girls.

However, Mira did not notice Mariana’s cheek-puffed pouting. She’d forgotten to hug someone very special.

***

Oh, I almost forgot! 

Upon leaving, Mira saw the neighboring tower and recalled an important stop she needed to make. She’d promised to tell Amarette that Lily wanted to measure her when she had time. Before heading to the capital, Mira entered the Tower of Necromancy to finish that errand.

The sudden appearance of the silver-haired girl caused a clamor. Unlike the Tower of Evocation, this tower was full of mages doing research day and night. Subject to many curious glances from folks wondering why she’d come, Mira sighed and headed to the top floor, hearing murmurs of, “Is that who I think it is?”

On the top floor of the Tower of Necromancy, Mira knocked on the office door. Soon the door swung open, and Amarette appeared—though she was not wearing her red hood.

“Aha, Mira! I already know why you’re here.” Amarette smiled. Without her red hood, her intellectual air was shockingly magnified.

Amazed, Mira replied, “You do? Well, Lily seemed quite enthusiastic. She wanted to measure you, so she asked that I send that message along.”

“Oh, my! I suppose I should pay her a visit today,” Amarette answered, smiling more broadly than Mira had ever imagined she could when they met. She picked up a package from the door-side shelf and handed it to Mira. “A token of my thanks.”

“Oh, you really shouldn’t have.”

“It’s part thanks, and part a token of my feelings. I thought it’d suit you.”

“‘Suit’ me? I wonder what it could be.”

“Hee hee! I’m sure you’ll love it.”

Mira quickly glanced at the package and put it into her Item Box with a sense of dread. “Well, I’ll be going, then.”

***

“Porcelain skin, shining silver hair… Black is the perfect choice. Don’t you agree, Charlotte?” Amarette asked, prompting a tall woman to emerge from a side office. 

Charlotte was the aide of the Tower of Necromancy, and a daywalker—a type of vampire. Her slender frame was bedecked with black clothes, as if she were in permanent mourning. She had perfectly sculpted facial features—save for her vacant right eye, which an eyepatch covered. She looked every bit the part of a vampire.

“I would have suggested nothing but white.” Charlotte gazed toward the bottom of the tower, as if trying to follow Mira as she took the elevator down. Her eye flickered with spectral sight, beholding Mira even through the floor and other obstructions.

“Goodness. A difference of opinion?”

“I will not yield this, even to you, Miss Amarette.”

As they smirked fearlessly at each other, a haunting air filled the room.

***

Mira left the Tower of Necromancy and made her way to the Tower of Sorcery to see Luminaria. The girl had obtained an Yggdrasil Chip, so perhaps that would do in lieu of Yggdrasil Charcoal.

“Heeey, Luminaria! You there? Open up!” Mira shouted, banging her hand against the door as hard as she could. She dodged back as the door was kicked open.

“Give it a break, already! Ack, why is this nostalgic?!” Luminaria said with irritation and amusement as she lowered her leg.

“Isn’t it? That’s why I went all out this time.”

“Really? Well, I hope you didn’t expect me to thank you.” Luminaria seized her smug friend’s face, but put no power into her grip, as it was merely playful. “So, what brings you here?”

She gently pushed Mira’s head away and leaned on the door, turning only her face toward Mira as she toyed with her own hair.

“Among the things you requested was Yggdrasil Charcoal, yes? Well, I happened to find this,” Mira said, fiddling with her bangle to produce an Yggdrasil Chip.

Upon receiving it, Luminaria looked it over and asked, “Is this an Yggdrasil Chip?”

“Correct. I don’t recall ever doing this, but is there any way to turn a Yggdrasil Chip into charcoal? If so, that’s one objective complete.”

“I wonder. Never tried it myself, so who knows? Anyway, it’ll probably be fine if I just ask the Artisans’ Guild. I tell you, that place is a zoo; they’ll experiment on anything, no matter how rare it is. Betcha they’ve tried it.”

Yggdrasil Chips had many uses, making them precious materials. Yggdrasil Charcoal was mainly used for a special item called a Purification Stone, which was less in demand.

“‘Artisans’ Guild’? Does that exist?”

“Of course. Farmers’ and Fishermen’s Guilds, too.”

“This world is starting to look a lot like our old one. I expect a UN in the near future,” Mira joked, shrugging.

Luminaria laughed. “We actually have something like that already!”

When Mira asked about it, Luminaria explained that the organization was called the Hinomoto Committee. It was a secretive gathering of the monarchs of player-made countries. Since they were former players, they had modern ideals of peace. Now that this was a real world instead of fantasy, the general idea of not treating it as a war game had appeared.

The Hinomoto Committee had begun when the largest former-player faction, Atlantis, invited the leaders of every other nation to a summit. They’d reached a general agreement to ban war declarations, and conflicts sharply decreased as a result.

Naturally, that did not end war altogether. After all, there were non-player-led countries, and some had existed in this world longer than players had. The committee called those “native countries”; they far outnumbered player-controlled territories.

There was a major difference in the philosophies of war between those people born in this world, and those in player-controlled countries, who mostly shared Japanese ideals. In the worst cases, player-made countries surrounded by native countries could be attacked, and only diplomatic whims kept the peace. Some player-led nations grew so tired of native-country invasions that they declared preemptive war themselves.

Unfortunately, the Kingdom of Alcait was one nation surrounded by native countries.

In response to this phenomenon, the next meeting of the Hinomoto Committee had added a stipulation that they would mutually support smaller countries. The committee banned wars between former players, alongside many other arrangements. These bans extended beyond military activities, exerting economic effects and the like as well.

“The real problem is relationships with native countries,” Luminaria explained. “They don’t stop fighting until the underlying problems of a conflict are resolved. They fight for country, wealth, survival, and better lives. That’s not necessarily bad, per se, but it ends up looking wrong due to our values. There are a lot of ideological differences that we can’t seem to work out. But, hey, it’s not like I understand any of that.”

Then she added, “We can only fight the fires as they blaze up. Not much else.”

“I’m no good at this stuff either,” Mira groaned. “Why don’t we leave it all to Solomon?”

“That’s the best way to do it.”

They snickered together, mentally thanking Solomon for taking the brunt of politics and keeping them in the shadows.

To bring things back on topic, Mira said, “Anyway, if you can make that Yggdrasil Chip into charcoal, all that remains is the Sword of the Crimson Lotus King.”

“Yep. Good luck!”

The two said a quick goodbye, and Luminaria went to summon Lythalia to get in touch with the Artisans’ Guild.

On the elevator trip down, Mira thought about Alcait’s position—specifically, the fact that native countries surrounded the kingdom.

If war breaks out, it’ll be ugly for sure. That’s why we need deterrents.

***

Newly aware of the weight of the duty laid upon her, Mira left the Tower of Sorcery and rode Pegasus away from Silverhorn. A few hours later, she reached the royal palace in Alcait’s capital city, Lunatic Lake.

After a quick exchange of greetings with the gatekeeper, Mira was in the castle. She looked around the entrance hall to find someone who could tell her Solomon’s whereabouts.

The interior amazed Mira yet again. She saw endless luxury, as befit a royal palace: chandeliers, paintings, suits of armor, lamps, and a wonderfully embroidered red carpet leading up the central stairs.

Precisely as extravagant as an entrance should be. But who made those paintings over there, I wonder?

The largest was a painting of half-naked spirits gathered around a lake. Mira was unsure whether to call it tasteful or trashy. The second was a lively, medium-sized depiction of girls running around a river. Next was a smaller one, in which a girl in thin clothing and a flying angel just barely touched each other’s outstretched hands. Finally, there was a portrait of a very familiar-looking silver-haired girl wearing a bunny costume.

Mira scowled. In their old world, those paintings might have stayed in the realms of fan art. Here, however, they were magnificently framed and put on display.

Pointless, perhaps-lewd thoughts swirled in Mira’s mind as she gazed upon the paintings until she noticed someone familiar approach. It was Solomon’s aide, Suleiman, pushing a hand truck full of books.

“Oho, Suleiman! Perfect timing.” Mira ran over, prompting Suleiman to stop and return her affable smile.

“Well, well, Miss Mira! Welcome back.”

“Thank you. I just returned last night.”

Suleiman let go of the hand truck and saluted. Mira returned his greeting and glanced at the books on the cart. They had a wide variety of titles, but every one seemed to be about ancient history.

“Apologies for making you do all this,” Mira said. “I would love to help, but code-breaking is decidedly not my forte.”

“No worries! Honestly, I should thank you. I never thought my knowledge of ancient history and spirits would ever be of use. Work is fulfilling of late, and it’s all thanks to the materials you delivered.” Suleiman was overflowing with joy, for he was truly one of those people. “Are you here to make a report, Miss Mira?”

“Indeed. Speaking of which, where is Solomon now?”

“At this time of day, probably in his office. Would you like me to escort you?” Suleiman offered, dragging the hand truck to the corner.

However, Mira did not want to intrude on his decoding. “Ah, no, thank you. I’ll let you get back to work. I can see myself up,” she said, glancing in the direction of the office.

“Very well. I’ll be in the reference room for a while. Call me if you need anything.”

“Right. Apologies for detaining you here.”

Mira made her way up the central staircase toward the office, while Suleiman pushed his cart across the hall.

***

In the king’s office, Mira and Solomon exchanged quick greetings, and Mira lined up the Primordial Pips atop his desk.

“Here’re the goods.”

“Whoa! Nice! You really got ten of them. Thank you.” Solomon checked the Primordial Pips over and put them in a box he pulled from a desk drawer.

“Cat Sith found almost all of these. He knew just the right places to search. It was easy work after we discovered that ability of his.” Mira leaned back into the sofa as she praised her minion.

“Really? That’s an incredible ability. I almost felt bad for you…but if it was that easy, maybe I should ask you to find more stuff for me. Man, this is great.”

“Urk… Perhaps work closer to home would be better.” Mira kicked her feet up on the table, telling herself to cease bragging.

Solomon smiled excitedly. “Sooo, how’d it go?”

“Well, the Elder offered his testimony. There’s no doubt that Soul Howl is searching for the Holy Grail.”

“Fantastic. If we keep this going, maybe we can catch up to him after all.”

There had been reason to think Soul Howl had only collected information, not actually made a move on the Holy Grail. Now that Mira had followed his trail firsthand, though, they were clearly on the right track. Given this good news, Solomon’s mood improved immeasurably.

“Furthermore,” Mira added, “when I saw the state of the Elder Tree’s sliced root, it looked to be an old cut. Knowing that might help narrow down where Soul Howl is now. The Elder did not seem to remember when he’d stopped by.”

Mira could not figure out the exact date, nor did she know enough about the Elder’s growth rate to estimate one. Thus far, she had worked hard to procure leads for Solomon to follow Soul Howl’s original path, but if the necromancer’s work was progressing smoothly, she figured they could skip past his preliminary steps.

In fact, the idea had already occurred to Solomon. “Agreed. I was hoping the Elder would reveal something, but you know gods; they’re all careless. As for the next lead, we’ll need specific information to figure it out.”

Solomon couldn’t afford to waste so much time on one runaway necromancer either. He was eager to move on to more promising clues to expedite the search.

“Hrmm…” Mira said. “The best information we have now is that Soul Howl apparently said that he needed something black.”

“Something…‘black’?”

“Right… Something to carve the Grail, I believe.”

“Carve, huh? Something black, and something that can carve. But why black?” Solomon cocked his head at the incoherent information, repeating the words to himself.

Mira leaned back in her seat and looked up to the ceiling, repeating “Black… Black…” as if meaning would somehow fall out of the word.

“All the mumbling in the world won’t get you or me anywhere. This is new info, so let’s call our specialist.” Solomon flicked the call bell. Before long, there was a knock at the door, and Suleiman peeked inside.

“Suleiman, what’s the status of your decoding?” Solomon asked, lowering his voice as if to sound dignified.

“I just determined that we’ll need some sort of natural material to process the root. And it must be done in a specific place. Unfortunately, the location itself isn’t named.” Suleiman bowed apologetically.

“Hmm. I don’t know if this’ll help you, but Mira received information from the Elder that Soul Howl wants to carve the Grail with something black. Any idea what that might mean?”

“Sorry to ask this while you’re busy,” Mira told Suleiman. “But we’re stumped.”

“Oh, no! All part of the job. I’m honored that you would consult me.” Suleiman bowed again.

Mira succinctly repeated what she’d heard from the Elder Tree. With a cryptic expression, Suleiman mentally squared his decoding work against what she said. A few minutes later, he announced cheerfully, “I see. Thank you, Miss Mira. I think we know our next destination!”

“Wow! That is fantastic.”

“Where is it, Suleiman?”

That’s Suleiman for you, Mira and Solomon thought as they leaned in to listen.

“Pardon me,” Suleiman said. He produced a complete map of the Earth continent from his pocket, spreading it atop the desk. He pointed to a mountain range in the east, north of the Holy Kingdom Alisfarius. “I theorize that these ruins are the place we need to search.”

“Hmm. Why those?” Solomon asked.

“First, Soul Howl would need a natural base to carve the Grail. Based on the difficulty of processing the Elder Tree’s material, we can assume it is quite hard. Next, he would only be able to enact this process in one location. Miss Mira, your ‘something black’ hint gave me the final piece of the puzzle.”

Suleiman shot Mira a thankful glance and continued. “I recalled a place in these ruins known as the Crystal Shrine. When sunlight hits the deepest floor, the brittle black crystal there changes into white crystal harder than any gem. That could carve the Elder’s root, but the white crystal changes back after a few minutes, so the carving would need to be done onsite. That fits all the clues!”

Mira and Solomon nodded, finding Suleiman’s evidence convincing.

“I believe it,” Solomon said. “Even steel has trouble cutting the Elder’s roots, but those crystals should be able to do it. Good work, Suleiman.”

Suleiman bowed reverently. “Your praise honors me, King Solomon.”

Just then, Solomon remembered something that came up before. “Suleiman, if Soul Howl processed the root at the Crystal Shrine, there might be shavings left over. Could we tell when he did it by examining those shavings?”

“Tell from the shavings? Hmm… I think so. I can make no guarantees, but the location is a ruined city—and the crystals are deep within the shrine. The Crystal Shrine shouldn’t be disturbed by wind or rain, so if Soul Howl just abandoned the scraps there…”

“Hmm, I see. It’s decided, then.” Solomon nodded and looked at Mira.

She knew what he wanted already. She shrugged and collapsed on the sofa, waving one hand in surrender.