Chapter 30: Summoning rep failed…..

ED: Hey guys, Sorry for the almost 2 week absence of a chapter, but you know real life and throat sickness is evil, I ran out of Halls and was sick in bed and couldn’t really concentrate in cla.s.ses either… And X3al with his job so ya. Anyways I was only able to do a preliminary edit on this so forgive me if it sounds weird. Hopefully you guys could point errors out? I’m still sick but I didn’t want to keep you guys waiting for too long.

30　The Explanation of Strength

“Amazing strength…”

Involuntarily muttered Asbar, who saw the whole fight from the castle. The rest also lost their words, witnessing their gap in strength that was orders of magnitude apart.

“Amazing, Mira-onee chan! 　Cool!”

Except for Takuto. Gazing in adoration at Mira, who had won the battle with the devil, he ran up to her. Looking at the Holy Knight, who was following him in a manner of honestly fulfilling the protection order, the rest of the members of Ecarlatte Carillon returned to themselves and dashed to Mira.

“I want to become strong like Mira-onee chan too!”

About the time they reunited with Mira, Takuto said that with a s.h.i.+ne in his eyes.

“Whoa, I see. As long as thou uphold those feelings, thou will surely become strong.”

Getting arrogant from the praise of an innocent child, Mira grinned, while stroking Takuto’s head. Not a single trace of the ominous magic eye remained, her eyes returned to the usual color. 

Her figure already had nothing in common with the time she fought the devil, she looked exactly as a girl of her age should. At first the guild members were taken aback, yet they were curious about the spectacle that unfolded before them. Mira’s display of crazy strength that could overwhelm the legendary enemy of the human race, the devil.

“I don’t know what else to say, but anyway, thank you, Mira-chan. You saved us all.”

“Yeah, who knows how it could turn with us alone.”

“I had not done anything worth the praise. After all, I dragged you all into that.”

Emera firmly believed Mira saved their lives, but Mira originally was going to come here alone. And that means she dragged everybody into a battle with the devil who happened to be here, so she rejected the grat.i.tude with a shake of the head.

“Putting that aside, Mira-chan is h.e.l.la strong. Is it related to your instant promotion to rank C?”

Suddenly Zef without any warning voiced the real question that worried everybody. 

Despite it worrying everybody the most, Asbar and Frica a.s.sumed there are some circ.u.mstances that made her to keep it secret and with a gasp stared at Zef. 

The one under their gazes watched Mira. He had no idea about her circ.u.mstances, but was sure she isn’t a bad person. Perhaps through a pure intuition, Zef’s people judgement was always accurate. And not only Zef but also the rest of the party saw how Mira cares about Takuto. Near him, Mira was a nice big sister and her grown-up speaking manner was way too adorable.

“Hmm, sure… Well, I could tell as well…”

After a moment of speculation about Zef’s words, considering the talk with the chief of the magician’s guild Mira concluded that they will find it out anyway. 

And in that case instead of inventing excuses when they start to ask for details, telling them first of her excuse saves her time and should be consistent. 

Because she’s a pupil of a hero, the devil was not a match for her. Really, it should convince anybody who knows about the valor of Dunbalf.

“Then… the reason why Mira-chan is so strong is…”

As expected from her or perhaps displaying the natural reaction, Emera as the most curious fixedly stared into Mira’s face, waiting for her to continue. Feeling the look of a beauty made Mira dumbly fall into confusion.

“Erm, yeah… Do you all know a person named Dunbalf? 　I’m his pupil. Thus I’m going on errands instead of the master who can’t move around.

Together with the explanation of her strength, she hinted at the reason she’s here that they would probably ask anyway. She thought that even if somebody will ask for details after hearing she’s here in the stead of one of the Nine Wis.e.m.e.n, she could just tell it’s confidential.

Mira was preparing herself to the reaction, but that reaction was unexpectedly plain.

“A pupil of Dunbalf…. That’s why she’s so strong.”

“The wiseman also known as the war power…. that’s his pupil?I got it.”

Emera and Asbar, rather convinced with it, readily swallowed her answer. A battle of unbelievable scale unfolded in front of them. And the traces of it are still carved around. Considering that power, it could easily be one of the Nine Wis.e.m.e.n, a legendary adventurer or a shogun of the Three Sacred Countries. 

They would rather doubt any other explanation of the strength of Mira, comparable to that. 

After all, considering what they saw with their own eyes, they had no reason to doubt it and even if they try, that doubt itself couldn’t explain anything. Therefore, rather than thinking about her relation to Dunbalf, they just took her words as truth.

“A pupil of Dunbalf-sama…a Wiseman.”

Contrary to Emera and Asbar, who calmly accepted that explanation, Frica repeated those words over and over. 

Frica saw that overwhelming strength with her own eyes so she barely doubted it. There were some premonitions of that before the fight with the devil. But, unlike Emera and Asbar, Frica was a magician and knew that such a thing never happened before. None of the Nine Wis.e.m.e.n took any pupils at all. All the magicians at the Silver Towers were only researchers and, while they could ask the wis.e.m.e.n to teach them something, it was the most they can do. Not disciples, nor even students. And obviously there was n.o.body who got all the skills through private training with any of them, as she heard. 

Before the Nine Wis.e.m.e.n disappeared there were no rumors about pupils, and the only one who had returned, Luminaria, definitely had no pupils too. 

Having in mind that she couldn’t explain her strength otherwise, Frica started considering the existence of the first in the history pupil of wiseman.

“That’s cool! 　Sure, I know. Even I heard that name. And you are a pupil of such a famous man. Mira-chan, you’re cool!”

As the most carefree of them, Zef showed his admiration with gestures. Then, contributing to the fuss further, he added, staring at the Holy Knight who stood at the side: “Looking at him again, that dignity is something!”

For Zef the fact Mira defeated devil and thus saved them all mattered more than whose pupil she was. And Mira definitely was nothing more or less than strong.Just that. In a good sense he couldn’t read the atmosphere..

As for Takuto, he knew who was Dunbalf but that knowledge haven’t extend past the “a hero of tales and picture books”. Compared to that, Mira was a hero that defeated the devil and his eyes s.h.i.+ned from awe when he gazed at her.

Mira, antic.i.p.ating questions, prepared for answers on terms ‘Yeah’ or ‘No’ but it wasn’t needed so she happily took her rest without need for the further explaining at all. 

She was expecting questions because, to begin with, the Nine Wis.e.m.e.n still counted as missing. And anybody could call themselves a pupil of someone whose being alive, let alone the whereabouts, were unknown. But everybody here accepted her without even considering that or any proof. For Mira’s viewpoint it was strange, but for the rest it was the only plausable explanation of her strength. After all, her strength was that aberrant.

“Strange, you all believed it so easily.”

Disappointed by it, Mira finally said that.

“Eh? You lied!?”

Just calmed with that explanation Emera started to urge Mira again. Staying too close to her.

“No, I didn’t. Also, too close.”

Mira slightly shook her head and averted her eyes downwards. Her face began to paint red.

“I mean, my master is missing now. And n.o.body wonders about that.”

“AH, about that.”

Emera nodded in understanding.

“There are some theories about their disappearance, of course. They could went to the demon realm,or kill each other in an epic discord, or even called to heavens by some G.o.d. 

But it’s just jokes popular among some people. For the rest, the Wis.e.m.e.n are hiding somewhere in this world far away from the world affairs. 

And a pupil appearance is not strange now since three decades pa.s.sed already. “

She wasn’t alone in that. As she finished, Asbar, glancing Mira from head to tiptoes, said

“And also, miss, your fighting style exactly matches one from my father stories.”

He followed that with a grin. It was the main reason to believe the Mira’s story for him.

“My father too often told such stories!”

“And my father too. Right after he understood I had the potential to become a magician, he often read stories about the Nine Wis.e.m.e.n.”

“Well, he would. Rather, I don’t think anybody born in this country haven’t heard about them.”

Following Asbar, the rest three people agreed and started to recall that stories. They were very similar to the scene of Mira’s fight.

“Stories?”

As Mira tilted her head, Emera began explaining the details. 

They were talking about stories themed on the Nine Wis.e.m.e.n, very popular among the entire Alkite kingdom people, young or old. And inside that sagas Dunbalf was depicted as a hero able to control a thousand of summons, although one story was the most popular. That story told he mastered both summoning and Xian skills and practiced mostly the unheard for a summoner closed-quarter combat. 

Dunbalf’s das.h.i.+ng through the summoner beasts fight. Every child loved that story. That common knowledge from the childhood lead them all to outright believing Mira.

“I had no idea such stories were around…”

Emera briefly yet pa.s.sionately retold the content of stories. Takuto went excited as well, and his cheering”Cool, cool” got Emera carried further and further away.

“Mira-chan, that’s just the prologue! 　The saga about your teacher, Dunbalf, is not over yet!”

Right when Emera’s spirits arose even higher, she crouched, being hit by the further end of Frica’s cane.

“Emera, that’s enough. Let’s think about returning first. I don’t want to delay the report about that devil appearance.”

“Ahh…. you’re right. Let’s return…”

Emera answered in a m.u.f.fled voice. When she unsteadily got up, some tears appeared at her eyes.

“Ahh, since I heard it already, I could stop her as well instead of thy.”

It wouldn’t hurt Emera if she stopped her herself, thought Mira while watching holding her abdomen Emera.

“No, Mira-chan! 　You shouldn’t worry since it’s Emera’s fault!”

“Oohh!?”

Frica almost cracked her voice into falsetto when she s.n.a.t.c.hed Mira to hug her. Quickly she buried Mira’s face in her breast and began cuddling her, obviously just to fall to the ground on a chop of Emera. She reaped what she sow. 

Right before Frica collapsed, Emera grabbed Mira and put her down to ground.

“I’m sorry for her.”

“She was normal just a moment ago…”

“Perhaps as soon as she relaxed, she couldn’t control herself anymore.”

“It seems hard for her.”

Saying that, they watched at writhing, yet happily rolling on the ground with “She was sooo fluffy!” Frica.

“Such a disappointment.”

“Well, that’s the charm of Frica too.”

Asbar sighed and Zef argued, justifying everything with the beauty.

“Still, just like Dunbalf in the stories, when he engaged in close combat with Xian and summoning, you managed to learn it too, Mira. That was amazing.”

As Frica was coming to her senses, Emera began her pa.s.sionate speech. Indeed, it was the Dunbalf’s combat style, deviating from the combat of any decent summoner.

“Xian?… She quickly disappeared and reappeared then. The Xian is cool.”

“Nothing special in that.”

“Me too couldn’t follow her with eyes sometimes. Can all the Xian fighters do such insane movements?”

“No idea about others. Nothing special in that.”

“It was like running over the air. We have some Xian fighters in the guild but I don’t think anybody of them can do that.”

“The Sky Stride is just usual Xian move. Nothing special in that.”

Mira was quite high-skilled Xian fighter too, and coupled with the splendid visuals it was somewhat supernatural spectacle. The actual battle was way more intense than in stories. And that vivid scenes of course engraved in their minds.

“Xian is amazing!”

Voicing the everyone’s thoughts, excited Emera said that. Along with her words, the members of the Écarlate Carillon changed their minds about the Xian mastery. A pupil of wiseman, while being a summoner, could do so much with the Xian. And that Xian skills overwhelmed the devil. Of course they were fascinated.

“…What…thou…say..”

She was going to show off the power of summoner skills, but at the end only Xian was judged. Mira’s gaze went far away as she tried to find where was her mistake.

“Hey, isn’t that pretty nice stuff?”

The next time. As Mira bet on the dubious chance to recover the reputation of summoning on their way back, she lift her face on the voice of Zef from afar. When everybody turned their looks, they saw the remains of devil and his weapon at the feet of Zef.

“Nevertheless, he got quite bad.”

Asbar said that while tracing scars all over the devil’s body. He lightly hit it with the back of hand and gasped at the unbelievably robust armor. He wasn’t sure that his full swing would leave even a single scratch on it. 

With the same feelings Emera put her hand on the hilt of sword and swore to herself she will double the amount of training starting from today. A scenery out of this world burned onto eyes of the devil, like he was trying to say that everybody will eventually meet the same end.

Contrary to the group, surrounding the body in admiration, Takuto hide behind the Mira’s back as soon as he saw the devil. Mira gently stroked his head, repeating “Don’t worry”.

“So, I’m about this stuff. It’s a bit heavy to carry for me.”

Zef with struggle lift the scythe with both hands and carried it to Asbar. Receiving it, Asbar instantly distorted the face.

“The…It’s quite heavy.Huh!”

With those words, he grabbed the scythe with both hands and made a large swing. Along with a high-pitched metallic sound the blade pierced the ground.

“How’s that? Can you handle it?”

“This burden is too heavy for me. And I never used a scythe before. To begin with, this scythe belongs to the miss who defeated devil. Well, she doesn’t seem to need any weapon at all but it should yield quite a price if sold.”

“Ah, so. And there are sealed stones and magic crystals too, Mira got quite a haul. Can I get one tenth as payment for collecting items?”

Zef jokingly smiled. The issue was that all the items they got into the Ancient Graveyard bar the first ghoul belong to Mira.Of course Zef understood that before picking them up, and rest members weren’t going to say anything about that. 

Except Mira.

“What? Usually such stuff is evenly divided. Since I’m bad at math, I leave that to thy.”

Her words rendered the members of the Écarlate Carillon completely blank. The gathered sealed stones and the devil’s weapon, scythe. Without estimating much, it was quite a fortune. 

And everybody here saw Mira as the owner. But the owner herself told to split it like it was obvious. Division of the loot after defeating monsters together is a common sense for adventurers but now, when they knew the Mira’s strength, they had no doubts they just came along with her.

“But, hey, your summon defeated them.”

“Aren’t we a party?”

As confused Emera tried to tell her the circ.u.mstances, Mira with a grin returned a question. 

Mira was going to do it from the start just because it was ingrained in her as the player’s common sense. And, bad at disputing about drop Mira considered the equal splitting between members of party as the ideal.

Mira and Emera mutually tilted their heads while looking at each other. Takuto tilted the head without understanding their talk.

“This generousness is another great side of Mira!”

With that words Frica jumped out and hugged her. Mira with eyes demanded Emera to do something. 

Dropping just another chop on the head of Frica, Emera giggled.

“You can’t measure Mira-chan with common sense at all.”

“Agree with that.”

Asbar hugely nodded to a half-amazed yet gentle smile of Emera.

“Money aren’t that big trouble for me.”

When needed she can simply coax Solomon.

“Well, speaking about somebody who stays at the Summer Lantern, it’s true.”

Ohh, you had to say that.”

“I did. I’m kinda envious to the lack of issues with money.”

Emera with slightly distant eyes recalled the inns of the Requiem City Karanach. They visited the Summer Lantern only once, as a celebration of victory in battle. A lot of elaborated dishes and clearly different from the cheap inn interior and furnis.h.i.+ngs. Emera remembered a night when she, soaking in princess’ mood, excited with her group.

Asbar and Zef remembered that time too, though the first thing that came to their minds was the pleased giggle, not fading from the face of Emera. Apparently, rather than the princess mood, Emera loosened her face without being aware of that.

“Err, are you really fine with that?”

“I’m fine. Also if there is somebody able to use that scythe in thy guild, thou can give this scythe to them.”

She can’t equip it but, since it’s a rare weapon, not giving it to somebody who can actually use it would be a waste. It was another unspoken rule from her player times. When equipment piece dropped, it goes to one who can do most with it. Mira was always following it and had no intention to change that. 

Her word said with such feelings caught everybody in surprise again. Emera amazed, Asbar wryly smiled, Zef burst into laugh.And recovered Frica tilted her head, looking at their variety of reactions.

“I’m not sure how much without examination, but that thing alone is worth quite much, you know?”

“As for equipment, if somebody has a friend that can use it, that equipment is better to go to them. I don’t need that. Can any of you use it?”

“Hmm, for me it’s somewhat harsh but there is a darkness knight in the guild and he should be able to use that, I think.”

Asbar equivocated, not exactly understanding why she would give it to somebody who isn’t even here.

“Whoa, a darkness knight. It looks nice. Then thou can give it to him.”

“Wait. It’s nice since it would make our guild stronger but you should understand it yourself. We simply can’t accept that.”

“Yup. I am grateful for your proposal, Mira-chan, but, you know, it’s too awkward to get.”

No wonder Emera and Asbar hesitated. All the high-level adventurers pay attention to the money but this one is on whole other level. As for Mira, she doesn’t use scythes and don’t have that much troubles with money either. 

And still, she didn’t like the idea to sell it. After all, she was mostly worried that the scythe will end up in hands of a villain. And if you such powerful weapon to villain, the damage would be disastrous. 

It’s possible that her loot would be used for evil. That’s why she believed pa.s.sing it to Emera’s guild would be way better. Even after such short time she could tell that everybody in her party are without a doubt good people. The act of coming here in worry for a child proves it better than anything. Also, following the traces in a famous guild should be easy too.

“As for me, I don’t want for villains to use it if I’ll get bad luck when selling. Thus, I’ll be worrying less if it ends in hands of a trustworthy person, don’t thou think so?

With that words Mira looked up at Emera, who, still stunned, was gradually becoming excited. Emera reacted to the trust behind that words. And it hit straight in her honest heart.

“I got it! 　I will take the responsibility for that!”

After such declaration Emera held the hand of Mira and exchanged looks with strong will in eyes.

“Are you serious? 　The words of miss have some sense but we met with her today!”

“Well, he’s right. I mean that, you know, it’s way too fast, right?”

“I am not going to betray Mira-chan ever.”

Without a doubt Frica a.s.serted that. Contrary to her, Asbar and Zef were happy inside, yet still said reasonable things. They cared about the future of Mira but she herself was perfectly aware about that.

“If something happens, I’ll go to take it back myself.”

Mira daringly smiled and members of Ecarlate Carillon, understanding what she means by that, were forced to accept it.