It had been three days since they departed from the capital of the Arkite Kingdom, Lunatic Lake. Mira smacked her lips at the local cuisine she tasted on the way in a mountain village and by this point, she finally started getting used to carriage travel. By now, the carriage went through the gates of the Requiem City of Caranach located next to the rank C dungeon, 『Ancient Temple Nevrapolis』 and entered the main street.
「Have we reached there yet?」
Popping her head out the carriage’s window, Mira took a glance around the lively street. As it was a little past noon, people were taking a pause from their workplaces and massed into restaurants for lunch.
「Yes, thanks for your patience. I will be accompanying you to the inn.」
「Yea, I’m relying on you.」
Amidst the noise of hooves, Mira returned to the carriage and sat down. At a glance, the carriage looked like a common and modest wooden carriage, but with resin wheels which dampened the vibrations and a spring incorporated into the axis for increased comfort.
This kind of quality also applied to the interior arrangements. The seats were comfortably soft, so much that it was possible to have a good sleep despite the carriage being on the move and the table placed inside had small cavities to increase stability in a situation of emergency braking. All in all, it made up the appearance of a typical carriage without cutting on function and commodity, the incognito carriage ordered by Solomon.
While taking in the remainder of the scenery, they reached the premises of a large 3-story building, entering its wooden stable.
Guiding the carriage towards the designated spot covered from the sun, Garret parked and was approached by the inn’s stable administrator.
「Welcome. Will you be staying here?」
「Yes, we will.」
「Very well. I will contact you later about the management of the carriage and horses.」
「Understood.」
The administrator gave a ticket to Garret and stepped back with a salute.
「Miss Mira, we have arrived. Let us check in first.」
「Alright.」
Calling her from the perch, Garret jumped off the carriage and opened the door.
「Pardon me.」
He moved fast enough that, as he opened the door of the carriage, Mira was still stretching on the seat.
Mira lightly hopped off the carriage and followed behind Garret as they both walked towards the reception desk. The inn’s name, ‘Summer Lantern’, was engraved on a large marble next to the entrance when Garret opened the door and entered inside with Mira. The interior was closer to a hotel rather than an inn.
While maintaining their professionalism, the busy uniformed workers hurriedly but calmly walked back and forth behind the front desk. On the other side, sitting next to a window, myriads of adventurers in various splendorous robes and armors spent time together at where it seemed to be a resting area. The combination of a western hotel interior with the Middle Ages fantasy concept provided an indescribable atmosphere to the place. There was a garden in view outside the window with neatly arranged trees and a flower garden along with kids running around.
「This is quite a luxury.」
「It’s a Caranach inn after all.」
「Isn’t it expensive though? I don’t have that much money.」
Along with that answer, Mira held her hand over the waist pouch the maid gave her. This pouch, which also matched her black outfit, contains the reward money she obtained before.
「You shouldn’t worry about that, King Solomon is covering for all the expenses of this journey.」
Garret answered, adding a sly smile.
「I also wanted to stay here at least once,」 he merrily murmured.
「Good grief, were you such a person?」
Lured by him, Mira couldn’t help but return a smile.
Having no particular goal in mind as Garret was busy checking them in, Mira spent her time glancing over the various furniture and paintings near the entrance. She wasn’t aware, though, of how she became an object of attention and admiration of the adventurers staying in the inn. In spite of that, as it would be expected of a high-class inn, their customers were easily able to conceal the direction of their interest.
After having the formalities properly completed, Garret and Mira were led by an employee towards the designated room they were assigned to. The room they received belonged to the average class for the inn but in comparison to the ones they had frequented before, it was more than sufficient for what would be seen on a high-class inn. It’d have been unfair to dare compare the room to the apartments of the Towers.
「Alright then Miss Mira, I have an assignment to finish so let us meet later at dinner.」
「Ok.」
「To reach the Spellcaster’s Union, go out of the inn and turn left, proceed straight ahead and you’ll find it soon enough.」
「Understood.」
「And if a stranger approaches you, you mustn’t go with him」
「Umm…s-sure..」
「In case you get lost, you need only ask the people wearing a white and blue armor regarding the best inn in the city to be given the directions on how to get back here.」
「I’m not a kid. I’ll be fine so go away already.」
The more Garret continued, the more his words became closer to instructions that’d be given to a child. As such, Mira promptly interrupted and urged him with a poke to go already. Garret couldn’t help but worry about her, but as he already heard about Mira’s strength, he reluctantly went to his room. Unlike Mira, Garret was staying in a regular room on the bottom floor.
While Mira was happy he worried that much about her, she wanted him to address his way of treating her like a child.
Left on top of a table in her room, Mira found a memo listing the various tips and services of the inn such as ‘leave the key at the front desk when you go out’, ‘call service with the bell next to the entrance’, and the times for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Briefly reading the note, Mira left the room and after leaving the keys at the reception desk, departed towards the Spellcaster’s Union.
「I believe he said to turn left.」
Turning left as she left the inn, Mira walked forth. Along the way, she still found many people roaming on the main street. However, it wasn’t as many as before as the traffic had died down since she came. Despite that, it was still bustling enough with people going back and forth to various places, so Mira chose to stay by the edge of the street to avoid drawing attention.
「Hmm, is it here?」
Just like Garret told her, going straight forward for a bit she found two similarly-looking large stone buildings before her. With their signboards on the doors, the left one indicated it was the Warrior’s Union while the right one was the Spellcaster’s.
As Mira was about to reach for the door after checking the signboards, a troubled voice came from the neighboring building.
「I beg you! I heard everybody here is strong. Please!」
The door of the Warrior’s Union opened and a boy about 10 years old jumped out as if he was being thrown away. A muscular man clad in some kind of metal armor walked out after him, sporting a troubled expression on his face. It seems he’s the one who took the boy out of the building.
「We’d be glad to hear you out but right now the highest-ranked adventurer among us is D. We can’t grant your wish, lad.」
Just for a moment, Mira thought that the boy was being bullied, but it proved to only be an adult troubled about how to deal with a selfish boy.
Other people kept coming outside to calm the desperate boy. Currently having no business whatsoever with the Warrior’s Union, Mira opened the door of the Spellcaster’s Union.
The interior of the Union was well-organized with reception desks lined up into a single row, while a large bulletin board and chairs were placed in front of them.
Momentarily overwhelmed with the scenery which at a first glance could be mistaken for a government office, Mira looked around. The majority of people here were magicians and even then, while that majority wore robes, some unbelievable figures also appeared around them.
「Is it…normal?」
Mira’s attention became focused on what the girls that seemed to be about 15 to 18 years old around the room were wearing. However and wherever you looked, they were magical girls. When Mira first wore the robe designed for a magical girl and again with her current Gothic magical girl dress, she was genuinely concerned about mocking glances directed at her as she thought nobody would be wearing such attire.
However, she has now found there were several more girls wearing similarly styled clothing. Just from the fact she wasn’t alone in wearing these clothes tugged strongly at her heart, along with immeasurable relief at the proof of not being the only one with such unique clothes.
Sporting an expression as if she was freed from a weight on her shoulders, Mira walked towards what seemed to be the reception desk, there was only one amongst all the others labeled with ‘Registration of New Adventurers’. Reconfirming the resemblance with government offices because of how the reception desks were designed in dealing with different tasks, Mira quickly found her way towards the one dealing with her case and started a conversation.
「Do you have some time now? I would like to apply to the union.」
「Yes, I do. Are you here for new registration, miss?」
「Yea, that’s right.」
The woman attending Mira showed her a smile on a beautiful face along with long blond hair tied in a ponytail with a ribbon. A nameplate hanging from her neck read ‘Eureka’.
Startled for a moment at her smile, Mira nodded while regaining her calmness.
「Then fill this form, please.」
After a careful examination, Mira remembered the recommendation letter she was given and put it on top of the form.
「I have a recommendation letter with me.」
「Recommendation, you say? Allow me to take a look.」
Holding the recommendation letter in her hands, Eureka halted as soon as she turned it around and read who was the backer. Registering with a recommendation letter wasn’t that common but it wasn’t that rare either. Eureka herself already received several recommendation letters from nobles registering their private guards in the union to obtain valuable items in dungeons or from high-rank adventurers who recommended newcomers with good potential.
This letter, however, was clearly different. She judged that the girl before her was a magician due to her appearance and for these magicians, looking like a weak or short girl mattered nothing as in most cases, magical power couldn’t be measured by the physical appearance.
With those thoughts in mind, she considered it could be a recommendation from any high-rank adventurer or even from a noble family aiming to register their daughter. Her assumption was the latter by how Mira was dressed in such a cute way and wished to know the noble family she came from. Her shock came from the name of the referee being neither of those possibilities.
The referee turned out to be Solomon. The king of the Arkite Kingdom, King Solomon himself.
「I… I’m sorry, wait here for a moment!」
With her smile vanishing from her face, Eureka dashed into the depths of the building. She never heard about any recommendation letters directly from the king, let alone seeing one. With how much significance this letter had, she saw herself unable to judge it and decided to ask for instructions from the union chief.
Left behind without understanding what was happening, Mira took a pen from the desk and started on filling in the required fields on the form.
「I apologize for making you wait.」
Having completed filling the form and looking around the room, she looked towards where she was being called from. As she turned around, she was met with Eureka’s usual and calm smile.
「I filled it, is that enough?」
Eureka took the papers, checked for any skipped fields and nodded.
「Yes, there are no issues here. However, about the recommendation letter, miss, can I ask you to proceed towards the union chief’s room?」
「Hmm. I don’t mind.」
Mira accepted, thinking that a sudden promotion to Rank C requires a verification by the union chief himself.
After letting another employee take charge of the reception, Eureka led Mira upstairs to the third floor towards the chief’s room. At her knock, a quiet elderly voice answered ‘Come in.’
「Excuse me.」
Eureka opened the door and entered with Mira behind her.
As it would be expected from the chief’s room, it was arranged with fine taste, adorned with soft furnishings without being extravagant, complementing the coloring of the room. A large bookcase stood behind the desk, containing a large variety of books, showing off the thirst for knowledge that the owner of the room, the union chief, had.
「My apologies for all the trouble to get here. I am Leoneil, the chief of the Spellcaster’s Union.」
Introducing himself as such, the union chief, Leoneil, stood up and bowed to Mira. His aged wrinkles around his face accented his mature and composed aura.
Moving towards the desk for receiving guests, Leoneil sat down while also suggesting Mira to sit.
「I’m Mira.」
With a short answer and a pause, Mira introduced herself and sat down where she was indicated. An office clerk brought in tea and sweets in a timely manner from a side room of the office, bowing after presenting them on the table and returned to the same room he came from.
「Mira is it?」
Strongly observing the girl in front of him, Leoneil accepted from Eureka the form Mira filled after asking for them. Looking down at the papers; Mira’s name, class, and country fields were all filled.
「Are you perhaps the rumored pupil of Danbulf?」
He had asked as if he knew it already.
As the chief of the Spellcaster’s Union, Leoneil gathered information about the general state of the country and any news that’d spread around the kingdom. He was so focused on information gathering that he even had a department solely created for that objective.
Between all the various pieces of information he gathered, it included the rumor of the sudden appearance of Danbulf’s pupil along with the description of how the beautiful silver-haired girl looked like.
With that knowledge, reaching the conclusion that the summoner girl who named herself Mira was, in fact, Danbulf’s pupil was a simple matter.
「Yes, that’s right. I didn’t expect the rumor to reach this far.」
「I see. I can now understand why King Solomon gave you a recommendation letter.」
Despite still being surprised by that fact, Leoneil quickly accepted it. He put the paper on the table and placed a seal on it. He thought of arranging a test to adequately assess if she was strong enough for Rank C but deemed it unnecessary due to the king’s recommendation and being the pupil of a famous hero. On the other hand, the receptionist Eureka couldn’t follow the flow of the conversation and forget about keeping her professional smile, she was only able to dumbfoundedly stare at Mira.
「Wait, wait, excuse me for a moment! That ‘Danbulf’ you said is about THE Danbulf, right?」
Despite being aware that it’s rude to interrupt them, she was unable to stay still without confirming what she thought.
「Yes, the hero Dunbalf. The pioneer of refining techniques and the country’s hero since founding times. The one who was called Danbulf the Army.」
Leoneil spoke as if it was obvious who they were talking about.
Mentioning the name of a war hero and a Wiseman of the towers who has been missing for a whole 30 years with his pupil in the conversation was too strong of a shock for Eureka. It felt unreal and even Leoneil would have taken more time accepting all this if he didn’t have the information beforehand.
Repeatedly mulling over those words in her mind, Eureka’s smile spread all over her face, far brighter than before. Having the suspicion that if he left her alone, the city would be filled with rumors about this, Leoneil ordered her to keep this confidential and handed over the sealed papers.
「I’ll let you handle the formalities.」
「Ye, yes! Leave it to me!」
Lively answering with a cheerful voice, Eureka carefully took the papers with both hands and after a last glance to Mira, she left the room to finish the registration procedure.
「We are finished with the registration then. From here on, it’s a personal matter of mine so it’s alright if you want to go now but if you have time for it, would you please keep me company for a while?」
The verification required for the recommendation letter was done, however, Leoneil had an interest in many other things about Danbulf that Mira should know about as she hasn’t revealed himself or anything about him until now.
「Hm. Well, I don’t mind.」
With the status of the chief of the Spellcaster’s Union, he had ample influence. Thus, Mira agreed with the consideration that doing so would improve relations and in the future lead to various advantages.
The two of them sat on the reception seats.
With the information she remembered hearing from Mariana and Luminaria, Mira kept the conversation going. She said she doesn’t know if Danbulf’s still in the Town of Phantasmal Beast; she is able to summon a dark knight with strength on par with Danbulf’s one and various other similar things, keeping to answers that wouldn’t cause her any issue. Along with small and timely breaks in between, she took small bites of her cake and sips of the herb tea. Having in full view Mira’s genuinely delightful manners, Leoneil received her nod in acceptance when he offered seconds.
「That was a wonderful feast. See you later.」
「The adventurer ID will be ready by tomorrow, you can get it at the reception desk.」
「Yea, understood.」
With the guidance of the clerk that brought the second serving of cake from inside the room at the side of the office, Mira left with Leoneil looking at her back.
She was undoubtedly hiding something, but he couldn’t feel any ill intent. While she looked like a cute girl filling her mouth with the cake and having some cream stuck on her face, her gestures and choice of words gave an impression far from a child.
With the conviction that having lived with Danbulf was enough of an explanation for that, he sunk in his seat, opening the recommendation letter.
「Si~gh. Unlimited access huh.」
After throwing the recommendation letter on the desk, he faced upwards. On the paper that danced to the corner of the desk, there was a sentence that requested issuing a pass for the forbidden area that was the Primal Forest.
