Chapter 44:

“Badges,” The Wind Palace soldier said, addressing Rine’s group.

The group stood in front of Sirocco’s main entrance, having finally reached their turn in front of the long line. It seemed like most of the guilds would be arriving this week as well.

Speaking of arrivals, the journey to the fortress was rather smooth; what would have taken them a week, took a mere three days thanks to the help of various wind magicians who sped up the carriages.

‘But this is already a lot,’ Cort thought as he watched the vast amount of people shuffling in line.

After registering their arrival, the soldier handed each member a map of Sirocco and informed each of where to go.

Finally, they entered the fortress and stood in the main hall where they found even more people moving from place to place. Interestingly, Cort noted that most of the people here had adventurer’s clothing, meaning that the number of guild members actually exceeded that of the army’s.

He couldn’t help but ask himself if this was really okay, after all, most adventurers hated being here so what was stopping them from deserting or worse yet, forming a revolt? Though he did concede that the latter possibility was unlikely as they were deep within the Wind Palace’s domain the former surely wasn't.

‘There’s something missing…’ He thought to himself as the party came to a stop.

“Looks like we are separating here,” Amelia said with a tinge of sadness as she hugged Calvin goodbye.

“Take care,” Calvin replied curtly, but Cort noticed him tightening the hug.

“Take care, Cort!” Unlike Calvin, Rine had a calm smile on his face.

‘And then there’s this problem....’ Cort thought as he studied Rine’s face. “Take care,” He replied, ignoring his thoughts.

As Cort and Amelia watched the two walk away she asked. “Do you think they’ll be ok?”

“I’m sure we’ll all be fine,” Cort replied with a reassuring smile.

…………………………………………

“This is wrong! This is so wrong!” Lucy said as she paced around the spacious carriage. Her frazzled hair and messy clothes showed just how difficult the past few days have been on her.

Lucy nibbled on her nails as her eyes darted around the carriage stopping every so often on the suspiciously human-shaped lump of cloth resting against one side.

‘Is he still alive? Why isn’t he moving?’

“You need to relax, sit down for a bit. Enjoy the ride, it’s not every day we can get to enjoy this type of high-end carriage from Mach. Look at how smooth the ride is or how spacious the carriage’s interior is. Damn,” Rain said as she sipped on a glass of wine, occasionally swirling the liquid inside around before bringing it to her lips. Unlike Lucy, her clothes were creaseless and stylish as if she had only just changed into them.

“You think he is still alive?” Lucy ignored her friend's suggestion and brought the subject back to the matter at hand.

“I dunno, let’s test it,” Rain said as she stood up and lazily walked toward the lump of cloth. Arriving before it, she studied it for a moment before delivering a fierce kick to its side.

Miraculously, the lump came to life as it started writhing in pain, with occasional hushed sounds of someone struggling to speak.

“You see he's fine~,” Rain said before winking.

Lucy sighed as she saw her friend’s playful expression. She knew that Rain was enjoying this.

…………………………………………

Two days ago.

Rain had just teleported them away from the library and quite suddenly, Lucy found herself in an unfamiliar land with only Rain by her side, the latter of whom, upon intense interrogation, confessed to them being somewhere deep inside the land of fire, near a city called Phyllis.

Apparently, the merchant who sold her the map was from here. Rain had come across him during her travels and she was talked into buying the map at an exorbitant price, minutes into their conversation. If that wasn’t enough, the merchant even had her do some difficult tasks as a means of proving herself worthy of purchasing the map. He was a swindler, straight through and through.

After a day of searching around, the two found the merchant. He had set up a store in a secluded part of the city. Lucy wanted to come up with a plan on how to approach, but just as she was about to suggest one, Rain barged through the door. As such, the two found themselves seated in a lavishly decorated room behind the store.

“So how may I help you, Miss Fox?” The merchant asked with a sleazy smile.

Fox, Lucy learned, was an alias Rain used during her travels.

“I just came back to thank you once again for selling your precious map to me Merchant Todd,” Rain replied with her own smile.

Lucy lost interest in the conversation as both sides began exchanging pleasantries. Tuning the pair out, she began scanning through the items in the store. Most of them were regular weapons, but all were of excellent quality; however, the real goods of the store were the artifacts. They were numerous in number, and while most were common grade, there were some superior grade ones as well.

Lucy knew that the limit of the items found in the storefront would be superior-grade, anything higher than that would be hidden away only to be sold secretly behind closed doors. Perhaps even in this very room.

‘Speaking of this room,’ She remarked to herself as she studied the room they sat in. The large room was littered with expensive trinkets that served no real use other than to impress. On the floor was the skinned fur of a powerful beast that resembled a lion, on the walls were various heads of different Origin beasts. Even the shelves were lined with oddities, some giving off an odd glow.

Lucy’s eyes narrowed at the sight of a set of vials arranged neatly next to one another, each a different color from the last.

‘Potions?’ She thought to herself in disbelief. ‘No. Impossible…’ Looking closely into them, she concluded that they were most likely just some kind of colored liquid. Potions were very rare, so much so that in all of Himmel, potion masters were regarded as national treasures. The art of potion-making was a difficult thing to teach, and an even more difficult thing to learn. That and the fact that the number of potion masters in Himmel dwindled by the second, most dying of old age, meant that each potion was so valuable that even if one was acquired, the owner would surely rather save it for emergencies than drink it right away.

Even Lucy, who was a former noble, only got to see potions once or twice in her entire life, and those sightings were from afar.

Thus it made no sense that some random merchant had them, much less had the gall to present them so brazenly.

Unless….

‘He’s not some random merchant,’ The horrifying thought had just passed through her head before she heard the sound of a table being broken apart.

“What do you mean you do not know?” Rain’s angry voice sounded as she dusted off her clenched fist. She was standing now, directing her furious gaze at the man sitting before her.

“W-what are you doing? Stop!” Lucy stood and tried to calm her.

“You insolent wench!” Merchant Todd stood up with a face reddened in rage. His protruding belly was bouncing up and down from the sudden movement. “I have already told you that the map is unique in existence, in all of Himmel I’m sure you’d struggle to find anything remotely like it."

“Bullshit! Lucy, tell him about the map you found,”

“Uh-um…” Lucy struggled to find anything to say.

“I fear it is you who is speaking nonsense, leave now before I call the guards!” It seemed Todd had had enough.

“We’re not leaving until you tell us where you got the map from,” Rain said, refusing to move.

Soon enough the guards appeared from a previously closed door. They wore expensive armor that looked brand new and hardly used, but that was not the frightening part. Lucy could see that at their hips were swords that had inscriptions on their bodies. Recognizing what these inscriptions were caused her face to pale.

“Rai- Fox, let’s leave, it looks like he truly doesn’t know,” Lucy pleaded with her friend.

Rain was hesitant, but apparently, she too realized what the inscriptions were and thus was also a bit fearful.

She was an expert in the field of runes and inscriptions, thus she knew that the ones inscribed onto the guard’s sword were ones that allowed Aura to freely flow into the blades. Meaning that these men and women were likely warriors who tapped into the strength known as Aura.

“Tsk!” Rain clicked her tongue as she turned to leave, Lucy frantically following behind her.

…………………………………………

A few hours later, they were in the inn, resting. Lucy was sitting next to the window, keeping a lookout for any signs of trouble. She had already chewed out half the nails on her right hand.

Unlike the vigilant Lucy, Rain was - for the lack of a better term- on her bed throwing a tantrum.

She screamed into her pillow as she began rolling from side to side. All her built-up frustration was being released.

Lucy looked on helplessly as her friend kept on rolling. She knew that her friend’s pride had been hurt today. Lucy always knew that Rain had a streak of competitiveness within her. It seemed like the fact that they had to run away with their tails between their legs really affected her.

For what it’s worth, Lucy didn’t really care. It was clear that since the merchant had Aura users as his guards that he was some big shot. He might even have ties to the Fire Palace, and while Lucy and Rain had their own ties to the Fire Palace, she still didn’t want to risk offending him.

“We should go home,” Lucy said and Rain stilled momentarily. “Who knows, maybe the map is nothing actually important. I mean, if that merchant saw any value in it, then why would he sell it? Besides, I’m sure that Cecil and Sophia must be awfully worried right about now, not to mention my parents…”

Rain remained silent for a while before uttering a small “Fine.”

Lucy smiled.

“But we’ll do it in the morning. I need time to write another Teleportation talisman.”

“Sure sure,” Lucy said with a smile.

‘Finally, I can rest…’ She thought as she grew tired quickly. The accumulated stress of the day finally caught up to her.

Lucy slept soundly, no longer looking out the window.

…………………………………………

Rain watched her sleeping friend with cold eyes.

She knew it was wrong, but she hated it. The mere thought of that merchant smiling as they ran away lit her heart ablaze with anger.

Ever since she was a child she hated losing, but what she hated more was not even having a chance to fight. That was why she ran away from home when her father signed her fate back then.

Which was why...

“I’m sorry, Lucy~” She whispered as she snuck out the door.

…………………………………………

The next morning Lucy woke up to the feeling of a smoothly moving carriage.

“What happened?” She asked, perplexed.

“Oh, nothing much, I just thought that it would be better to take a carriage home, I’m embarrassed to admit it, but I seem to have failed drawing the teleportation talisman,” Rain replied as she elegantly sat next to the window drinking tea.

“Ohh, that’s fine,” Lucy said as she joined her friend for tea.

‘It can’t be helped,’ She thought, pouring herself a cup. ‘Talisman drawing is pretty tough. It’s already a miracle that she can do it in the first place.’

Sitting in a fancy carriage while drinking expensive wine, all while talking to her friend, Lucy thought that it wasn’t so bad.

If only she noticed merchant Todd’s tied-up son, who was tossed into the corner, earlier while they were still in Phyllis. Perhaps what happened next could have been avoided.

…………………………………………

‘This is a bit too cliche’ Cort thought as he watched Lucy being harassed by a group of men her age or older.

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