"Why don't you like it?! Every man alive is helpless before this — it's an absolute essential for any big sister worth her salt!"
Frieren's face was a picture of pitiful, teary-eyed misery, and Yuna found herself at something of a loss — not quite sure how to comfort her.
She had always assumed all elves were like Serie: composed and seasoned, serious and practical, long-lived beings who preferred to keep the world at arm's length.
The elf standing before her now, however, seemed to be the polar opposite of Serie in temperament.
How to put it… there was something endearingly scatterbrained about her.
"Um… are you heading to the magic city of Vasastre, Frieren-sama?"
"? No, no, no… I'm planning to go around that place on this trip."
At Yuna's question, Frieren shook her head in rapid denial, like a rattle drum.
"..."
After a moment's hesitation, Yuna swallowed the words she had been about to say. Apart from her staff — the most precious thing she owned — she had nothing worth using as collateral. Asking to borrow money from someone she had only just met, even having done them a small favour, was simply beyond what Yuna's pride would allow.
"Is something the matter?"
Noticing the subtle shift in Yuna's expression, Frieren tilted her head.
"No, it's nothing." Yuna offered a small smile to show that all was well.
"Are you truly sure you won't take it? This is a magical tool you won't find easily — if it goes out of stock, you won't be able to buy one again for more than a decade." Frieren patted her brown travel case.
Yuna shook her head. She had been on the verge of saying her farewells and going her separate way — but in that instant, a thought suddenly flashed through her mind.
"Actually, Frieren-sama — as an elf, you must have lived for a very long time. You must have encountered a great many forms of magic."
The question seemed to land squarely in Frieren's domain of expertise.
Her expression brightened at once with unmistakable self-satisfaction. She straightened up, puffing out a chest that was, to put it charitably, rather modestly proportioned, and her voice rose a note or two.
"Hmph. Naturally — collecting magic is the very meaning of my journey."
"Then, Frieren-sama… have you ever heard of… Seeking Magic?"
"Seeking Magic?"
Frieren paused, struck by a strange sense of familiarity.
"Mm… that Seeking Magic?"
She turned it over for a moment — and then, quite suddenly, the image of an orange-red figure surfaced in her mind. Flamme.
Back in the days when she had been skiving off her magic studies, Flamme had always managed to track her down — and this was the magic she had used to do it.
At first, Frieren had been utterly baffled. She had hidden her Mana, and yet Flamme had invariably found her with pinpoint precision at the first opportunity.
Only later did she discover: every morning, when Flamme combed her hair, she had been quietly pocketing a few strands to use as a medium for the magic.
"Could you show it to me? I need to confirm whether it is the same magic I know."
The moment magic was brought up, Yuna noticed that Frieren's habitual languid air was replaced by something sharper — not just in expression, but in the very quality of her presence.
"Of course."
Yuna cast Seeking Magic once more, and the result was the same as before.
The arrow of Seeking Magic reappeared — and kept spinning, with no sign of stopping. Mana was bleeding away rapidly.
"How nostalgic. This is indeed the magic I know… but…"
Watching the arrow turn without cease, Frieren narrowed her eyes. The flow of Mana was strange — the direction the arrow pointed seemed to be… everywhere at once.
"Everywhere at once? Or… a presence simply too vast to pin down?"
Frieren murmured softly, her gaze fixed on the arrow.
As the arrow's rotation grew increasingly erratic and frenzied, Yuna was forced to break off the magic — any further and the Mana would have detonated outright.
"Hah… So? What do you think?"
Yuna let out a long breath and put away her staff. A faint sheen of sweat had gathered at her temple; the Mana she had spent in the magic city had yet to fully recover.
"In all likelihood, whatever you are searching for still exists in this world. However, Seeking Magic cannot locate its precise position. I have never encountered a situation like this before, so I cannot offer a definitive conclusion."
Frieren's reply was grave and considered.
"…"
Yuna found herself thinking, all of a sudden, that in certain ways Frieren and Serie were very much alike — when it came to magic, they both brought an uncommon seriousness to bear.
"I'm sorry I couldn't give you more in return. I hope you find the one you're looking for, before long."
"Not at all — this is more than enough. And I wish you fair winds on your own journey, Frieren-sama."
Elf and human exchanged a small wave, each offered a quiet "goodbye," and then they turned and went their separate ways.
With Frieren's answer in hand, the slender thread of hope within Yuna's heart began, slowly, to grow.
The world was vast. She had not yet walked every corner of it to make certain. Nanoda-sama was surely still alive — perhaps at this very moment she was somewhere in a distant reach of that great continent.
I will find her… I will…
Carrying that thought within her, Yuna continued along the forest road.
Meanwhile, Frieren — who had only just parted from Yuna — had not walked far before something seemed to occur to her.
"Oh dear, I think I forgot to warn her — there's a troublesome spot on the road ahead that you have to go around… but…"
Brief as their time together had been, the impression Yuna had left on Frieren was a good one.
Frieren pulled her scarf tighter around her neck and gave a small shiver. The weather seemed to be growing colder and colder. She shook her head and muttered on to herself.
"Well, that child is a capable Mage well enough — she'll notice and steer clear, I'm sure."
Some distance further along the road, Yuna came to a halt near a fork in the path.
"The right fork is the way I came…"
Within the reach of her Mana Perception, several unusual Mana signatures had appeared — in the direction the left fork led, there were distinct currents of Mana moving with purpose.
As a relatively neutral territory, Vasastre drew Mages from all over, and that was the very reason the magic city prospered. The villages in its surrounding area, by contrast, were rather sparse.
Could those Mana signatures belong to a pack of magical beasts? Then again, the possibility of a village with Mages could not be ruled out either.
"If it's a village of Mages, I can find a way to earn some travel money… and if it's magical beasts…"
Yuna looked at the staff in her hand. A resolve settled over her features, and she turned toward the left fork.
If she took the road she had come by, it would likely be several more days of walking before she encountered even a handful of scattered villages.
For now, the only option was to go and try her luck.
…
"Fog?..."
Without Yuna quite noticing when it had begun, a pale grey mist had risen all around her. Whether it was the deep-autumn chill that came with it or something else entirely, the temperature was falling steadily — and with each breath she exhaled, the air turned white, wisps of vapour dissolving into the grey fog around her.
Her Mana Perception began to grow sluggish and indistinct, and the Mana signatures she had detected earlier started to drift and waver.
When she looked back the way she had come, the path behind her had already faded to an undifferentiated pale grey. A cold foreboding settled in Yuna's chest. She tightened her grip on her staff and held herself on guard, eyes and senses sweeping the surrounding mist.
Should she turn back the way she had come?
The thought had barely formed when, out ahead, a striking brilliance blazed to life within the fog.
"Shk!"
Snapping to the sudden movement ahead with sharp reflexes, Yuna flung both arms out — the crimson, spear-shaped staff swung to level itself directly at the source of the light that had appeared without warning.
An oil lamp hung suspended in mid-air, floating amongst the mist.
Its flame flickered and danced, casting a red glow.
____
👻🔥+40 ch: Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Path of Elation in Warhammer 40K
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