The bright sunlight passed through the bedroom’s window in the tower, slowly dispersing the drowsiness filling it. The girl’s disheveled silver hair glistened under the light as she slowly rose.
(She’s already awake, even though it’s so early.)
Mira looked to her side, only seeing an empty pillow. On the other side, Luna was still sleeping on her pillow, curled into a ball and breathing slowly. She smiled a bit watching Luna, and then opened the menu of her bracelet to check the current time.
(Oh, I just woke up late…)
It was already past 9:30am. Mira closed the menu and stretched out, then got out of bed and headed to the living room. On her way there, she spotted a certain outfit left on a small table. Clothes with a very familiar design on them.
(It’s so well made.)
She picked it up and held it in front of her, it was her Magic Robe Set. Mira decided she might as well put it on, sliding her arms through the sleeves, but a knock on the door stopped her, soon after which Mariana in a maid outfit peeked her head through the door.
「Good morning, Lady Mira.」
「Good morning.」
「Let me help you.」
She understood exactly what Mira was about to do, so she came at the perfect moment to help. Without waiting for Mira to accept or reject her help, she approached Mira and quickly began helping her get dressed.
Mariana was also very willing to make Mira’s hair, taking two almost transparent blue ribbons and tying her hair to each side. Watching her already cute appearance be enhanced with those twin tails, Mira looked quite satisfied with herself when she stood in front of a mirror.
Mariana was also quite happy with the result, mostly because she was able to touch Mira’s hair a lot. They spent some time in front of the mirror, and turned around and smiled looking at each other.
Luna woke up just when the girls were about to have breakfast, which was the best way a pet could wake up. After everyone ate, Mira explained her next plans to Mariana.
She would first report her findings to Solomon, and depending on how the decoding of Soul Howl’s traces went, she could have her next destination set already. If it was a very distant place, it would be a considerable amount of time before she came back again.
Mira felt bad about that, but Mariana told her to not worry and just smiled, though there was slight loneliness hidden in it. Still, Mariana would not grieve any more, knowing her master would definitely return again was enough to keep her motivated.
Seeing that Mariana did not mind it too much, Mira felt more relieved and looked at the mark on the back of her hand, being made aware of how strong that bond was.
「It’s time for me to go now.」
Mira said standing up, having finished a cup of black tea after breakfast and petted Luna’s fur for plenty of time. Before she left, Mariana went to get a basket from the kitchen and handed it to Mira.
「I’ve prepared lunch for you as well, make sure to enjoy it later.」
「Mm, thanks.」
Mira thanked her as she took the basket, mindlessly patting Mariana’s head. That act happened completely naturally and without hesitation, which surprised even Mira. But it also meant that a wall that stood between the two had crumbled, and as Mira saw Mariana smile happily under her hand, she knew that was the best decision they could have taken.
「I’ll leave the rest in your hands.」
Mira hugged Luna tightly and then gave her to Mariana, who received her carefully and bowed to Mira.
「Take care.」
While it was a short exchange, and both of them were girls, the endearing tone of Mariana’s voice made it sound like a wife that was used to seeing her husband off like that.
But Mira was still oblivious to that, as well as the slight pout on Mariana’s cheeks who was still expecting to be hugged. Noticing that would be Mira’s future homework.
Mira walked out of the tower and got ready to take off when she saw the tower standing next to hers, which made her remember something. That was the Tower of Necromancy, and Mira had promised Amaratte something. After talking with Lily, the maid, she said that Amaratte could come to the castle any time to get her measurements taken.
(I almost forgot about that.)
Mira decided to take care of that before she left for the city and entered the Tower of Necromancy.
When everyone noticed that a young silver-haired girl entered the Tower of Necromancy, their gazes all focused on her and stayed silent. As opposed to the Tower of Summoning, there were quite a few people working day and night in research there. Being made painfully aware of that fact, Mira’s shoulders drooped as she headed to the top floor. Everyone watched her go, starting to murmur amongst themselves 「She’s that girl」, not even wondering why she had come there, instead talking about rumors they heard about her power, as well as her appearance.
When Mira reached the top floor, she used Life Sensing to figure out that there were people in both the aide’s room and the office. Since Amaratte was the vice-elder, it made more sense for her to be in the office. With that conclusion in mind, Mira opened the door of the office. Soon after she felt someone approach her, it was Amaratte without her usual red hood.
「Oh, it’s Mira. I guess you came because of that favor I asked, seeing you came all the way here.」
Amaratte smiled softly seeing Mira, quickly realizing why she was there. Mira nodded, while at the same time wondering how it was possible that Amaratte’s appearance could change so much by simply removing the red hood.
「Lily looked quite excited to work with you as well. They would like to measure you, so they wanted to know at which time you’d be free.」
「I see. Thank you, Mira. Maybe I’ll go today even.」
Saying that, Amaratte smiled broadly, something that seemed impossible from the first impression Mira had of her. Next, she went to a shelf next to the door and took a small package from it, 「here’s your reward」 she handed it to Mira.
「It was nothing big, there’s no need to thank me.」
「Well, it’s not just to return the favor. Take it as my appreciation, and something I thought would fit you perfectly.」
「Fit me? What even is in there?」
「Hehehe, check it later. I’m sure you’ll like it.」
Mira looked at the package for a bit before storing it in her Item Box. 「That’s all I had to say, see you later,」 she said while walking into the elevator and going down to the ground floor.
「She has white almost translucent skin and silver hair. Black is the perfect match for that. You think so as well, right Charlotte?」
Amaratte asked someone else, and a tall woman walked out of the aide’s room. She wore a thin black outfit, reminiscent of a mourning dress, and had almost too perfect facial features. Her right eye was covered with an eyepatch, while her right one was black and hollow-like, appearing brittle in a weird way. The woman called Charlotte was the Tower of Necromancy’s aide, from a vampire tribe known as Daylight Walker.
「I can’t really agree with you on that. I still believe white would be a better choice.」
Charlotte’s gaze followed Mira as she went down the tower, clearly ascertaining her opinion. Her pupil wavered like some sort of spirit, still following the silver-haired girl even though she was occluded by a wall.
「Oh, our opinions differ once again.」
「Not even you can change my mind on that.」
They smiled eerily at each other, contradicting auras welling up around them.
When Mira was outside that tower, she went straight towards the Tower of Magic. She had to visit Luminaria next to ask if the sacred tree wood shavings she had could be used as a replacement for World Tree Ash.
「Heyyy, Luminaria! Are you there? Please responddd!」
Mira spoke loudly as she violently battered the door of Luminaria’s room. As the loud banging spread around, the door was swung open by a bright red figure.
「When are you going to learn?! Though I have to admit I kinda missed this!」
She sounded annoyed, but also somewhat glad as Luminaria lowered the leg she lifted to kick the door.
「I know that much, that’s why I decided to go all out today.」
「I see, that’s very… I guess not really thoughtful of you actually.」
Mira spoke while puffing up her chest, but Luminaria grabbed her cheeks with one hand and pulled her closer, though it was not with much force and only for show.
「So, what do you need?」
She gently pushed Mira’s head away as she let go of her face, then reclined against the door frame as her forelocks danced in front of her face. Mira began browsing through her bracelet.
「You asked for something like ashes of a sacred tree, yes? This is what I was able to get.」
She took a portion of the sacred tree shavings she had and gave them to Luminaria.
Mira spoke of ashes, but instead Luminaria received some wood shavings. Still, Luminaria could hardly think Mira would give her some miscellaneous items when talking about something else, so she asked to confirm her suspicion.
「Are these World Tree Shavings?」
「Yes, exactly. Maybe you can use them to make ashes? I’ve never heard of someone doing that before, but maybe it could work? At least it’s a possibility.」
「So that’s what you had in mind. Still, I wonder if that would really work. I’ve never tried it either, but I’m sure we’ll know if we ask at the Crafter’s Union. That place is filled with weirdos who have no qualms experimenting on any item no matter how rare it is, so I’d bet they’ve tried it.」
World Tree Shavings had many varied uses, as well as very strong properties, but it was still very rare to come by and pricey. On the other hand, World Tree Ash had only one use, as an ingredient for a unique item called Secret Stone of Purification, so there was nowhere as much demand for it as the shavings. It was still possible to get the ashes, but they were much rarer to find, and there was no point in having them unless someone really needed a Secret Stone of Purification, so no one would waste such a rare ingredient as the shavings to produce an almost useless item.
「The Crafter’s Union? First time I hear of them.」
「Well, there’s also the Farmer’s Union and the Fisher’s Union, you know.」
「Things are really starting to become like our former world here. At this rate, we might even get something like the United Nations soon.」
Mira said with a dry laugh, drooping her shoulders, but Luminaria laughed saying 「There’s already something like that.」 When Mira asked what she meant, Luminaria gave a brief explanation.
There was a group called the ‘Rising Sun Committee’, created secretly by the leaders of all the countries founded by former players. Since they all were not originally from this world, they held modern pacifist morals, and now that this world stopped being a virtual one and was reality, they decided they had to put a stop to the warring games from the past and try to spread those ethics throughout this world. All of the members introduced themselves with their real names, and agreed on that plan.
Atlantis, the biggest player made country, took the lead of the group, inviting the other countries for the first meeting they had which ended with them banning any form of war declaration.
Thanks to that, wars had gotten much less intense after that, though there were still a few cases. Those were caused by the remaining countries, ruled in the past by NPCs, which were much harder to influence by the former players. The Rising Sun Committee members called them Primeval Countries, which were much more numerous than those led by former players.
There was a large gap between the ideology of former players who all held modern Japanese ideals, avoiding wars as much as possible; and those who lived their entire life in this world. As a result, some of the player-ruled countries that were surrounded by Primeval Countries would constantly get harassed by them whenever they showed weakness, in some cases leaving them with rather deplorable lifestyles. As a result, some of them ended up getting fed up with those constant attacks and ended up returning fire.
So the Rising Sun Committee’s agreement was amended, stating that only war between two countries led by former players was banned, while it was highly dependent on the situation when it came to Primeval Countries.
「From what I heard, they’re still constantly trying to find ways to make other countries comply. Though for that they need to get rid of the source of conflict first. There are those who fight over territorial disputes, or economic reasons, others just to survive or to get better living conditions. They’re not exactly bad reasons, but it still feels wrong. It would be so easy if we could just get together and be friends, but ideologies, history, geography and other invisible evils get in the way. Though well, in the end, I’m not really the best at this kind of things, to be honest.」
「Same here, I just trust Solomon will do a good job.」
The two spoke in a lively tone at the end of their conversation, though Mira secretly thanked Solomon for taking care of all those things.
「Anyway, if these can be used to get ashes, then next comes the Crimson King’s Sword, right?」
「Yup, good luck out there!」
They parted ways after that. Luminaria immediately called Litaria and told her to contact the Crafter’s Union. Mira went to the elevator, where she began rummaging through her memories to picture Arkite’s location on the map. If things were still similar to the past, then there were many Primeval Countries near Arkite.
(It’s taking a while to sink in, but that’s what war means now. Once the fighting starts, people will truly die. And we need to stop that from happening…)
As Mira left the Tower of Magic, she was made aware once again of just how heavy and important her current mission was.
Summoning Pegasus, Mira left the towers and Silver Horn behind. A few hours later she arrived at the castle in Lunatic Lake, the capital of Arkite.
She quickly greeted the guards keeping watch at the entrance, then entered and began looking around for someone who could point her to Solomon’s current location. As was fitting for the royal castle in the capital, the ceiling was decorated with chandeliers, walls covered with paintings, sets of armor lining the corridors illuminated by nearby lamps, and the floor covered in a magnificent red carpet with detailed embroidering. Mira marveled once again at the luxurious building as she walked through it.
(Even the entrance is this magnificent. I wonder who painted that on the wall though.)
One of the paintings caught her attention, making her wonder if it was made in good taste or bad, a large painting portraying a lake with half-naked spirits. They were all female, drawn as they ran along the water, imbuing the picture with a strong sense of motion. Then there was another painting, this time in a smaller frame, displaying a girl covered only by a thin piece of cloth holding hands with an angel flying in the sky. In her previous world pictures like these would have been considered mundane illustrations, but here they were displayed in gorgeous frames.
As she observed those paintings, her mind thinking of miscellaneous things, she noticed a familiar face further along the corridor. Suleyman was pushing a trolley loaded with countless books.
「Oh, hello Suleyman. You came at the perfect moment.」
Mira ran up to him while saying that, which made Suleyman stop and turn to look at her with a smile.
「If it isn’t Lady Mira. Welcome back.」
「Mm, I’m back.」
He let go of the trolley and quickly bowed to Mira. She also returned the greeting before taking a quick look at the books he was transporting. The titles were very diverse and varied, but there was one common trait between them, they all were about historic events from long ago.
「I’m sorry I’m pushing so many things on you. I’d love to help you, but I’m really bad at decoding things like that.」
「No need to worry about that, I’m actually grateful to you. I never thought a day would come when all my knowledge on history and spirits would be of use to His Majesty Solomon. But now I feel fulfilled every day, and all thanks to everything you’ve brought back from your travels.」
A friendly aura irradiated from Suleyman as he spoke, glad from the bottom of his heart. Hearing him, Mira was reminded of how he always had a positive personality like that.
「Are you going to report your new findings now, Lady Mira?」
「That was the plan. So tell me, where’s Solomon right now?」
「At this time he’s usually in his office. Let me take you there.」
Suleyman started taking the trolley to an inconspicuous corner so he could leave it there while he guided Mira, but she felt bad for interrupting him while he worked.
「No, it’s fine. You look pretty busy as is, and I remember the way there anyway.」
Saying that, she turned to look towards the direction of the office.
「Alright then. I’ll be over in the reference room for the time being, so if you need me for anything feel free to come by.」
「Mm, sorry for holding you here.」
Leaving the entrance behind, Mira went upstairs towards Solomon’s office, while Suleyman pushed the trolley going to the side.
「Here, the things you wanted.」
After a brief greeting, Mira threw the Founding Seeds she got from the Tenma Labyrinth Primal Forest on the desk.
「Wow, this is great. You even got ten of them, thank you very much.」
Solomon checked the Founding Seeds, thanking her, surprised to see she had brought more than he needed at that moment. He then took out a box from a drawer and stored the seeds inside it.
「You see, my First Lieutenant found most of them. He knew exactly where to search for them. It was my first time seeing him use an ability like that, but it helped make searching for them much easier.」
Mira plopped down on the usual couch, proudly talking about her Cait Sith.
「Is that so? That’s quite a useful ability. But if you can find them so easily, then I guess I can always ask you when I need more, that’s good to know.」
「Eh… well, I guess I can if I’m somewhere nearby.」
Mira forced a laugh as she stretched her legs out. Solomon looked at her with gratitude, before continuing into the main topic 「And so, how did it go?」
「I have the elder’s account. Soul Howl is definitely trying to get the Brilliant Chalice.」
「Well, in that case, we should eventually run into him if we continue tugging on these leads then.」
Solomon was also considering the possibility that Soul Howl only gathered the materials but never proceeded to actually do something with the Brilliant Chalice. But from the traces Mira had found, they were certain that they were going in the right direction towards Soul Howl.
Following the traces had not been fruitless, which brought Solomon a great deal of relief.
「Mm, I also checked the roots he carved, and it looked pretty old. Though the elder said he did not remember how long ago it happened, so knowing that much I think we should move faster here as well.」
Mira had no technical knowledge on how to determine the age of such a cut, and even if she did, it would not be of much more use considering the irregular growing rate of a sacred tree. But if Soul Howl’s preparations were going favorably, then it was safe to assume that he had completed the preliminary requisites.
「That’s true. To be honest, I was expecting the elder to remember when that happened, they’re supposed to be all-knowing deities after all. But well, I’d love to move faster with our own preparations, but we need some very specific materials for that.」
Solomon also had other things to worry about than just Soul Howl, so he always tried to find as many shortcuts as possible. But in their current situation, there was nothing pointing to a concrete direction, so all they could do was follow his steps in order hoping to find any information that way.
「Hmmm, well, I don’t know if this is related in any way, but when he left the sacred tree he apparently mentioned needing something black.」
「Something black?」
「Yeah, and then… something about shaving cups.」
「Shaving… huh. Maybe he meant something black to carve a chalice from the roots. But what would that something be…」
Solomon tilted his head trying to comprehend that nonsensical information, muttering 「Black… shaving, black…」 to himself. Mira leaned back on the couch, staring at the ceiling as she also tried to comprehend what that meant, also repeating 「Black… black」 in a low voice.
「Either way, there are other people who can figure that out better. This still counts as new information, so let’s call a specialist.」
Solomon quickly gave up, taking out the bell he used in the past and let it ring. A few moments later there was a knock on the door and Suleyman made his entrance.
「Suleyman, how far did you get with decoding?」
Solomon spoke, forcing his voice to sound deeper and with more command.
「Our latest findings tell us that a certain naturally occurring object is needed to prepare the roots. Also, apparently, it needs to be done in a very specific place for it to work, but we have no information relating to that place at all, which is leaving us a bit stumped.」
Suleyman explained where they were at, hanging his head at the roadblock they encountered.
「I see. I don’t know if this will be of any help, but we just earned some bits of information directly from the elder, passed on through Mira there. Apparently, he needed something black to shave or carve the roots, does that say anything to you?」
「Sorry to bother you with how busy you are, but we have no idea how to proceed.」
「No need to worry, this is also part of my duties. It’s an honor for me to be summoned here.」
He smiled happily, even though he had been called to load more work on him.
Mira then relayed everything she heard from the elder to Suleyman as well.
After that Suleyman remained silent, his face stern as he combined that new data with everything he already had. Some time passed and the blurry mess began to clear up in his head.
「I get it now. Thank you, Lady Mira, I know where you should go next.」
His minutes of pondering gave him the conclusion, his face clearing up as he announced.
「Really? That’s amazing.」
「Well, don’t leave us hanging Suleyman, where is that place?」
「Excuse me,」 he said, pulling a map out and spreading it on top of the desk. It was a map of the entire Ark Earth continent, housing the Three Gods’ Countries and Arkite. Suleyman pointed at a mountain range on the northern part of Alispharius, an eastern country in the continent.
「I believe the place is in this abandoned city.」
「Hmm, and why there?」
「Let me explain. First, we already knew that a naturally occurring item was necessary to process the roots, and considering how resilient they are, that narrowed down the options of what items to use. The next clue was that it could only happen in a very specific place, but we had no leads as to its location, but from how it was described, it’s easy to surmise that it’s the only place where the roots could be processed. But when Lady Mira mentioned something black, that was enough to narrow the possibilities down a lot.」
「I remember there’s this special place in that abandoned city, called the Crystal Temple. The deepest room in it is this special place, with slits letting light in, and if you take one of the black brittle crystals growing there and expose them to the light, they turn white and capable of cutting through even the hardest gems. I presume carving the roots there should be possible as well. The white crystals also turn back to black after a few minutes, so it’s impossible to take any outside, which means that’s the only place where the roots could be worked on.」
When Suleyman was done explaining, Mira and Solomon both nodded, convinced.
「That’s true, the elder’s roots are so hard that not even steel can cut through them. But a white crystal would definitely do the job. Good work, Suleyman.」
「You’re too kind, sir.」
Suleyman bowed respectfully to his king. Then Solomon recalled another matter from earlier.
「And so, tell me, if there were any traces left from the carving of the chalice there, could you find out how old they are if you could research them yourself?」
「From traces like that..? Well, I can’t say for sure, that place is the Abandoned City after all, though it’s inside the temple… so there should not be any deterioration due to wind or rain. If they’re well conserved, I could give a rough estimate.」
「Hmm, I see. It’s decided then.」
Hearing Suleyman’s reply, Solomon nodded deeply and then turned to look at Mira again. It was easy for her to know what Solomon meant, she shrugged, stretched on the couch and waved her hand in agreement.
