“Where… is this?”
When the first ray of sunlight pierced through the clouds, Kaze opened his eyes. He found himself leaning against the creaking wooden window of a small room.
He looked at his shoulder wrapped tightly in bandages and zoned out for a moment. The wounds left by the black-gold flames were still throbbing with dull pain. Every breath felt like countless tiny needles stabbing into him.
“We’re temporarily safe now. We’re currently in a small inn on the outskirts of Grey Rock Town,” Ilis’s voice came from behind him, carrying her usual lighthearted tone. “But you look like you’re on death’s door, big guy. You should take this chance to rest a bit more.”
Kaze turned his head and saw the silver-haired woman playing with the metal disc that had saved their lives. The morning light danced across the teardrop mole under her left eye, lending her usually carefree face an air of mystery.
“Alyssa?” Kaze twisted his neck, scanning the room. The moment he spoke, from the other side of the room, Alyssa answered flatly while sitting upright on the bed with her eyes closed in meditation:
“I’m here.”
Kaze grimaced as he moved his shoulder. “Good, as long as you’re okay.” He tried recalling what happened last night, but his memories before losing consciousness were hazy. His brain still felt foggy, and even thinking caused a dull ache in his head.
“…….I remember now. Weren’t we being chased by that ‘Blood Axe’ Regnar? How did we end up in Grey Rock Town?”
He clutched his aching head and asked in confusion.
“You don’t even remember that?” Alyssa looked seriously at Ilis, the self-proclaimed bard beside her. “Miss Ilis saved us. At the critical moment, she used teleportation magic to get us out of there.”
“Oh, right, right…” Kaze felt a bit embarrassed by his own slow mind. “But now that I think about it, we disappeared so suddenly… The others must be worried sick about us, right?”
“Don’t worry about that,” Alyssa said. “I already sent a message to Gro using my familiar letting him know we’re temporarily safe.”
“That’s a relief.” Kaze let out a long breath and patted his chest. “Thank the heavens, I managed to keep my little life intact for now.”
Ilis plucked the strings of her harp, and a clear, melodious sound like flowing spring water filled the room:
“Hehe. How was that? I did a pretty good job saving the day, didn’t I?”
“No doubt about it,” Kaze replied with some genuine praise. “Now I remember—you’re actually pretty skilled, Miss Ilis. You even managed to exchange a few blows with ‘Blood Axe.’ Not bad at all.”
“You’re too kind. To be honest, big guy, that’s all thanks to my father’s excellent teaching—”
Seeing Kaze and Ilis casually chatting like this in such a tense situation, Alyssa slammed the tip of her ruby staff onto the floor with a heavy thud.
“This isn’t the time for idle chatter—Miss Ilis. I want to know who you really are. An ordinary bard couldn’t possibly get their hands on a teleportation disc like that.”
“I already explained it, didn’t I… Miss Alyssa?” Ilis blinked innocently, seemingly wanting to say more, but the female mage cut her off sharply:
“Stop talking nonsense, Miss Ilis.” The female mage’s expression was darker than the sea before a storm. “This is military-grade teleportation equipment. Even on the black market, something like this is worth a fortune!”
The metal disc reflected cold light between the two. Kaze noticed that the runes etched on its surface were completely different from the spells Alyssa usually used. They looked more like some ancient language, and scorch marks still remained along the edges.
Ilis’s smile froze for an instant. She sighed helplessly. “Relax, big sis. Like I said, this was a gift from my mother. I honestly have no idea where it came from.”
“Bullshit.” Dangerous red light glowed at the tip of Alyssa’s staff as she said coldly, “Ordinary mages never get to touch teleportation magic in their entire lives. The only people who can treat something like this as a toy are—”
“Stop it, both of you. Don’t fight.”
Kaze stood up and stopped the bristling Alyssa. “She did save our lives after all. There’s no need to press her so hard on this.”
“……” Alyssa stayed silent, but her gaze toward Ilis remained full of suspicion.
“Miss Ilis.” Kaze turned to the silver-haired woman sitting in the corner of the room and softened his tone. “I apologize on Alyssa’s behalf. Please don’t take it to heart… A lot has been happening with our mercenary group lately, so we can’t help being anxious…”
“Oh dear, no need to apologize, big guy. I actually understand why big sis is so worked up.”
The silver-haired woman shook her head lightly.
“To be honest, I didn’t come to Renn Town because I wanted to get involved with this mess involving the witch and heretics—Ugh, just thinking about getting dragged into all this gives me a headache…”
Seeing Alyssa about to explode again, Kaze quickly covered the female mage’s mouth with his hand.
“Then may I ask why you came to Renn Town?”
“What? You seem pretty curious about me, big guy?” Ilis raised an eyebrow. “But you look like a decent person, so I don’t mind telling you.”
Her tone suddenly turned serious:
“I came to Renn Town to look for a relative.”
“—To find… my idiot little brother who’s been missing for nearly eight years…”
…….
Renn Town, morning.
The Duke’s Mansion.
I still couldn’t fall asleep…
As sunlight filtered through the gauze curtains into the bedroom, Ileil stared blankly at the ceiling. She had been lying in this position for several hours. Her silver hair spread across the pillow like a pool of solidified mercury.
“Good morning, Ileil!”
The person greeting her this morning was neither the princess’s guard nor the cat-eared priestess—Gro’s voice came through the door, followed by a familiar rhythmic knocking.
…Is this guy crazy?
This only worsened Ileil’s already irritable mood from failing to sleep. She didn’t even bother turning toward the door and simply pretended to still be asleep.
“Hey hey… Stop pretending to be asleep, kid. I know you’re awake right now!” Gro’s urging voice reached her ears, filled with annoying certainty. “Open the door. There’s something urgent.”
Ileil slowly sat up. A sharp pain shot through the wound on her shoulder, but compared to the chaos in her heart, it was nothing. She stepped barefoot onto the cold floor and suddenly felt the urge to stab Gro through the door with her shortsword.
—Though it was only a fleeting thought.
Ileil let out a helpless sigh. After stalling for several minutes, she finally opened the door. Gro stood in the morning light, his dark blue coat neatly buttoned all the way to the top button. This unusually formal appearance caught Ileil slightly off guard.
“You……”
“Let me in first.” Gro pushed his way into the room without waiting and locked the door behind him in one smooth motion, as if he had rehearsed it countless times.