Bursts of pain woke Sol from a groggy dream. Even before she could open her eyes, she felt every joint and muscle in her ache. The searing pain drove away the dizziness and clarity forced itself upon her.

Her mind started taking stock of her situation and to Sol’s surprise, she noticed the ground below her was rather soft. Her eyes eased open to the familiar ceiling of a carriage roof and the rhythmic beats of horse hoofs.

Bearing with the pain, Sol tilted her head to get a better glance at her surroundings. Sitting across from her, An wielded a creepy smile. Despite the boy’s smarmy smile, Sol couldn’t help but feel her eyes brim with tears.

She might be known as a monster to those outside her family, but for those within her circle, they knew the matured girl still retained her childish side to some extent. Those brimming tears spilled over after her heart finally calmed down. It appears she survived.

An allowed the girl to cry herself back to sleep. The relief on her face was enough to demonstrate her desire to survive. The twisted smile on his face eased into a solemn look. Internally, An was still organizing the information he retrieved from the bandits.

His appearance signified the beginning of the end of the young woman’s peaceful life. At first, he felt there was time to allow Sol to grow into her role, however with recent events, it was clear the higher realms realized her existence.

Sending bandits instead of a direct representative is perhaps the only bout of good luck the young girl had in this situation. It’d appear the upper realms still felt the lower planes were too weak to personally move. An’s eyes squinted at the thought.

His master certainly guessed correctly. If An hadn’t personally come down to check out Sol, the girl would have been killed off already. In a way, sacrificing a portion of his strength to descend to the lower planes proved to be the correct option.

An considered the future of himself and the girl while the carriage continued its journey. Nearly two days later, Sol woke once more. The exhaustion and extreme pain was far more mild this time around. If Sol knew it was An’s periodic healing sessions that delivered her such spectacular results, she likely would have refrained from immediately hitting him across the head.

“What took you so long!?”

An woke from his nap and covered his head. He peeked at the girl brimming with tears once more before standing up to hug her. He sighed while patting her head and calming her down.

“It’s alright Sol, the bad men are gone. You’re safe now.”

Embarrassed from the childish words, Sol pushed An and broke away from the hug. She wiped her tears and recovered her mental state. The cushion absorbed the impact as she sat back onto it. An chuckled at her embarrassed look, but he became solemn right after.

“Sol, that team was after you, but it has nothing to do with Iridescent or the Royal family.”

As her interest was piqued, Sol’s eyes ordered An to furnish the information.

“Long story short, someone put a bounty on you, but the bandits didn’t have a clear idea of who placed the bounty. You’ve got a reputation Sol, they went so far as to poison the bandits and withhold the antidote until your head was brought back to them.”

“That explains their determination.”

Sol was clear that the bandits who chased her and Leory into Dominatic Forest were abnormal. Their attention to detail was unnaturally heightened and their persistence to complete the job in one attempt was something highly unusual.

Normally, an organized group would lay ambushes and plot repeatedly in the background until finally achieving success. All or nothing was a style only those at their wits ends would engage in. As her thoughts turned, she realized the carriage was different from her usual.

“Since we don’t know who’s behind them, we can only investigate slowly then… An, who’s carriage is this? Also, what happened to Sir Leory and the rest of my protective unit?”

An grasped the carriage rail and stood up to reach the door handle. Sliding it open, Sol managed to catch sight of Sir Leory atop a horse riding beside her. The man looked surprisingly healthy. Sol felt somewhat frustrated at the difference between their final states and unconsciously held an unreasonable grudge towards the man.

Just as Sir Leory glanced over and waved at her, Sol hurumped and looked away in clear distaste driving Sir Leory into a lost state. He exchanged looks with An who only shrugged helplessly before shutting the door closed.

“As you saw, most of them survived. The moment the bandits caught up and realized you weren’t with them, they abandoned pursuit and tried to rejoin their leader. I managed to intercept most of them along the way.”

“Then you managed to find me? How?”

“That’s a secret for now, but since you brought it up, Sol… It’s about time you and I had a talk. Over the years, I’m sure you’ve noticed something strange about me, no?”

“You’re still single and enjoy cross dressing for fun on long trips.”

An sat in place dumbfounded at how childish this girl was. Wasn’t she some ultra mature monster? His thoughts apparently showed on his face as Sol’s face scrunched up slightly before finally relaxing.

“Sigh… Fine, fine, fine… This Lady is above grudge holding. You’re right that I’ve noticed something strange, but I couldn’t tell you what it was even if I wanted to. It’s nothing more than a familiar sensation or intuition.”

“Hoho? That’s better than expected. Then was this the feeling?”

An raised his finger as if to write into empty space, yet ripples trailed behind his finger. Sol’s eyes snapped open immediately after her body felt a resonance with An’s actions. Like a marsh after a long drought, or a smell triggering a fuzzy childhood memory, Sol felt an instinctive desire.

Her greedy eyes fell into An’s sights, however rather than think her reaction to be disgusting, he felt such a thing was normal. Any creature that lost the equivalent of its wings, eyes, and ears would react the same when tossed the potential to recover what it lost.

An completed his gestures and halted the resonance bringing Sol’s gaze to meet his. It was clear he had her full attention. Those pitch black pupils revealed an undisguised eagerness that resembled someone An knew long ago.

“This is magic. It’s something anyone with potential to use will recognize. It just so happens that it can also boost an individual’s health and even extend their lifespan.”

Sol’s gaze sharpened as one would expect. A potential solution to her life threatening situation was right before her. Despite the reveal though, Sol kept her mouth shut and continued to listen.

“Magic has different levels of complexity, various forms of consumption, a myriad of ways to utilize it, and a near infinite number of results when applied to any particular problem set. In general though, users of magic are called Assemblers. Both you and I can be considered Assemblers.”

Despite knowing nothing about the world of magic, Sol felt as if something inside her was triggered. There was no knowledge or memories, but a sort of internal barrier was released. She had long felt stuffy as if she were trapped inside a small box or cage despite having the freedom to move around.

With the trigger, her body acted on its own and she felt a cool sensation flow throughout. She blinked her eyes in surprise at the sensation and found her vision gradually taken over by a strange haze. It flickered in and out of existence as if it were an unstable existence.

An remained silent as he watched Sol’s irises become stained with silver then fade to black over and over. He knew at glance that the girl was unconsciously tapping into her skills, yet without any magic to fuel it, she was reliant on whatever magic happened to cross her path.

The sporadic fuel led to the dizzying situation and yet An just allowed Sol to live through the moment herself. It was clear the girl attained a form of internal enlightenment. Such moments were rare for practitioners and their trip was long.

Rather than interrupt the begrudging girl and get lambasted, An turned his thoughts to the future while allowing the girl to ride out the experience on her own. There wasn’t much time left. After discovering the bandit’s failure, the person behind them is bound to make a move.

It’d be best if the person themself made the move, however it was more likely that many smaller trials would be sent Sol’s way first. A bandit team failing to kill a little girl was still within the realm of natural results. Soon though, mystic elements would be enlisted.

Once those teams failed repeatedly, there’s little An could do to remain secretive. His eyes flickered as he thought more about which force was moving behind the scenes.