{Cara}

{A Week and a Half Later}

"Ready?" Cara asked Eve. The fairy nodded as she floated in the air in front of her. With a deep sigh, Cara turned around and faced the Mages Guild representative who'd been sent to assist her. "And you?"

"Such a hostile way to treat someone who's lending their assistance to you. Even after I agreed to camp out in this filth and dirt for so long," Sye replied with an added "tsk, tsk"

"Just say 'yes' or 'no', already."

"Why would I? It's fun to get you exasperated like this, adventurer," Sye cackled. "Yes, I am prepared."

"Come on, then."

The three of them then continued heading east, deeper into the mountains beyond Libera. They, and some other random adventurers who had volunteered to help, had already searched a few different places, the edge of the Crescent River northeast, and some of the mountains just beside it, but they were reaching their limit. They were running out of places to check, and Cara was fearing the worst.

Today was the last day they would be out here after Cara had suggested that maybe heading into the uncivilized land to the east would yield some results.

Of course, Eve was essentially the only reason finding Rin was even possible. Having her come along and be able to scout from the skies had proven to be invaluable in this search, and in being able to save some time.

Still, searching for Rin was taking up too much of Cara's time, and if she wanted to properly prepare the students for their next mission, which had been paused but was coming up soon, she needed to be able to put all of her attention on them. However, she also believed that they hadn't covered enough ground before, and needed to make a more dedicated effort to find the girl. That was why they were a week deep into a trip in the mountains right now, while other adventurers did the same north and west of Libera.

But, at some point, they'd need to call it quits. So, unfortunately, today represented their last shot to find her.

They passed by pieces of an old, broken-down highway, and Sye spoke up:

"Fairy," she called out.

"Uh, yeah?" Eve asked, with some clear annoyance that Cara picked up on, but that Sye didn't.

"I wanted to let you know that from what I've seen, I sense there being some measure of potential inside of you."

[Oh?] Both Cara and Eve were surprised to hear that.

"Oh… Uh, thank you!" Eve replied, smiling a little.

"Of course. For your kind, you seem quite talented."

And that smile went away immediately.

"Focus up," Cara said, wanting some peace and quiet. "Just keep an eye out for anything."

It wasn't just that Sye was particularly good at getting under people's skin, it was also the fact that Cara knew somehow, someway, the Mages Guild was involved in what had happened to her student. Beyond just Rin, though she did consider that to be important, Cara was worried that someone in that guild had gotten the idea of working with monsters.

And, considering how they attacked both Rin and Cara, they clearly didn't have good intentions. As far as Cara knew, Sye could very well be in on it, so she was not about to let her guard down around this woman.

They moved through the land for a few hours, walking in silence as Cara tried to concentrate on both the distant trees and Sye who was to her right. Eve flew over their heads, searching for Rin during this time.

Just as they were about to enter the mountains ahead, a pair of Rank C monsters jumped out from behind a pair of bushes. Two land crawlers, lizard-like creatures with exceptionally long heads and claws as sharp as any sword.

Cara unsheathed her greatsword, walking up to them.

"I'll take the one on the right," Sye told her, and Cara didn't respond.

Instead, she waited for the land crawler to the left to jump on top of her, and when it did, as they usually liked to do, Cara spun. She slashed the creature with a wide arching swing and sliced it in half.

To her right, Sye drew a spellsign in the air and a Mundane spell came out in the form of red lightning, that obliterated the monster approaching her, reducing it to chunks of meat amidst a pool of green blood.

So far, at least, Sye had shown she was perfectly capable of fending for herself, which Cara appreciated since if she had to choose between saving her or Eve, her student, she would choose Eve every time.

"You work well, adventurer," Sye said, strutting over to her. "You swing that sword around with just a tad more intelligence than the common brute."

Cara just rolled her eyes, ignoring her.

"Come on! I doubt we'll be finding this student anytime soon, the least you could do is banter with me a little."

"Uh," Eve called out, and Cara was thankful for the distraction.

"Yeah?" She asked from below.

"Still no sign of her."

[Hm… It's been almost four weeks since she disappeared,] Cara noted. [If she ended up anywhere really dangerous… Yeah, she's probably done for. Hell, even this place is teeming with Rank C monsters. We might just end up finding a dead body.]

Still, Cara just told Eve to keep searching, and they continued.

Again, though, Eve stopped.

"Cara!"

"Yes?"

"I think it's going to start raining soon!"

"Hm?" Sye hummed out some confusion. "What does that matter?"

Indeed, someone inexperienced might have considered this to be an unimportant announcement to make. However, Cara had specifically told Eve to keep an eye out for any grey clouds. The reason was simple.

"Some monsters are stronger in different weather, and at different times in the day," Cara replied. "Water sprites, for example, are almost twice as strong whenever it rains. Storm golems get stronger too. It's worth it to make note of these things whenever you're out in the field. I'm sure a mage like you wouldn't know about that though, so, it's okay. Your confusion's understandable."

Cara couldn't resist.

"And here you said you aren't fond of banter," Sye replied with a chuckle.

[Is stating facts considered banter nowadays? I must not be talking to people enough.]

"Come down a little," Cara told Eve. "Can you still fly in the rain?"

"It's harder, but yeah!"

"Okay, be careful though!"

With that, they continued. Eventually, those grey clouds that Eve had found became visible to Cara as well.

[Oh,] she noted. [It's going to be raining for a while, isn't it?]

Hours passed mostly without incident as the rain had started to fall. Sye complained about her cloak getting wet but Cara didn't pay any attention to her. Instead, things took a turn when Eve called out once more, a while later.

"U-Uh, Cara…!"

"Yes?"

"I think I see someone!"

"… Wait," Cara told her. "Come down, all the way."

There was no guarantee this would be the person they were looking for. In the event of it being a zombie or a bandit of sorts, Cara wanted to be the first one to approach it. So, Eve flew all the way down, as Cara's pace picked up a little.

Hope bubbled inside of her, which Cara hated. It showed that, to some extent, she was still the same adventurer she was three years ago. Pushing that out of her thoughts though, she searched and searched until…

"IT'S RIN!" Eve called out and she flew ahead in a hurry.

[What!?]

Shaking her head, Cara snapped out of it and yelled:

"Wait!" Even if it was Rin, the woman could have actually been turned into a monster. It was a common occurrence, after all.

Eve didn't listen though. Instead, she flew ahead before either Cara or Sye could catch up. However, just as Cara started to search for the woman Eve had apparently seen, she saw someone with raven hair and amber eyes walking in their direction.

And her jaw hit the ground.

---

{Rin}

{Moments Earlier}

"Oh… I think it's gonna rain," Rin told Xhez as she looked up at the sky.

"That is good!" Xhez replied as Rin took a bite out of the last bit of the fruits, she'd gathered a day ago. Those, and Xhez's specially-made water, were all she'd been surviving on throughout the entirety of this mess. "The rain always makes us feel better!"

"Really?"

"Are humans not like that?"

"Nah, we just get colds," Rin replied. "It's probably gonna get a lot harder to walk through the mud too, so let's make some progress while we can."

After the events at Derain, not much had happened. They'd encountered a couple of monsters here and there, but every time they did, they'd either hide or Xhez would use some strange, high-pitched song to force the monsters to run away from them.

No, all they'd done in this time was talk.

"So, I have been meaning to ask you something," Xhez said.

"Yeah? What's up?"

"Do you remember what you told me about 'jobs'?"

"Well, yeah, I said it, after all," Rin chuckled.

"Right, right," Xhez chuckled in return. "I was just wondering… Did you have one of those?"

At that, Rin stopped.

"…"

She looked back at Xhez for a moment, before answering.

"Yeah."

"What did you do?"

"… It's complicated. I'd rather not confuse you with the details."

"Oh, I see."

And Xhez dropped the topic. However, what she didn't know, was that Rin had been thinking about her old job quite a bit.

How practical it was back then, and how practical it could be at Libera.

The two of them kept walking, following Rin's map which suggested they were, at most, a couple of weeks' walk away from her city. However, before long, Rin heard something and her eyes snapped up at the sound of it.

"IT'S RIN!" She heard a familiar voice yell, and Rin froze.

"Hm?" Xhez asked next to her. "Someone just shouted your name."

[… Are you serious?] Rin asked herself. She wanted to cry when she saw the fairy she'd known back at the Academy flying up to her. [Is this actually happening?]

That question was confirmed when she looked behind the fairy and found Cara, walking in her direction.

And, Rin's eyes widened for a different reason.

"U-Uh, shit, Xhez," Rin said, turning toward her, and dragging the sprite behind a nearby tree.

"Yes?"

"Get in the bag, quick! And don't say anything!"

"O-Oh, alright," Xhez said, not questioning her as Rin took the bag and held it up. The sprite jumped up, shrunk her size down in mid-air, and landed in the bag, filled with water, with a plop.

And as soon as that happened, Eve showed up in front of Rin.

And her little arms wrapped themselves around Rin's neck in a tight hug, which nearly made Rin drop the bag she was holding as she wanted to return it.

"EVE!" Rin yelled.

"RIN!"

She laughed as she held the fairy, tears coming out of her eyes as it started to sink in that she'd been found.

Eve kissed her cheeks multiple times as Rin continued to laugh, and Cara walked up with a look of disbelief in her eyes. Next to her, an unimpressed-looking dark-skinned woman that Rin didn't know was accompanying her.

"This is the student?" She asked Cara.

"… Yes," Cara replied as she walked up to Rin.

"Holy shit," Rin laughed as more tears came out of her eyes. "You found me!"

"We're here to take you home," Cara announced to her, and Rin nearly fell to her knees, right then, right there.

And, finally, her time in these strange lands was about to come to an end.