She Professed Herself The Pupil Of The Wiseman (LN) - Volume 4 - Chapter 15

Chapter 15

THE MAIN STREET was livelier than ever with customers searching for quality wares. Cyril and the others stood off to the side with seven merchants—including the one Latry had negotiated with—and two guards.

Mira approached and eavesdropped behind Emella, gathering the gist of the situation from what she could hear.

Apparently, monsters had stolen cargo from the last car in the caravan. The two guards chased them, but there had been an enormous number of monsters, many unfamiliar. The guards had rushed to report, while one merchant and eight bodyguards remained at the scene to fight.

“The last car was…Noland’s, right? I can’t believe monsters stole from him rather than the three wagons ahead. Those all sold food, after all,” Cyril murmured to himself and glanced at the bustling main street.

Every large carriage was drawn by two horses. On the carriage roofs, a sort of family crest marked the owner of each.

Eight merchant houses—owned by a mix of individuals and trading firms—had joined this caravan. In the village square, seven sets of three carriages bore different crests, making twenty-one total cars for the front seven firms. However, only two carriages parked in the square had the eighth crest; the monsters must have attacked the missing carriage.

“It’s strange that monsters were the thieves,” one merchant muttered. Monsters instinctively attacked living things, rather than objects. It was clearly unusual for them to ignore guards in favor of theft.

“Noland works in shipping, right? I wonder what might’ve been in his third carriage… This could make sense if he was transporting small pets, but still,” another merchant suggested, turning back to the main street. A shipping company owned Noland’s cars, which explained why there were no customers there—only the coachman watching over it.

“No living things. The freight should’ve all been rock fragments and the like that some scholar requested,” said the first merchant Mira had seen. He seemed to be the leader of this caravan, since he knew the general contents of each vehicle.

“Why would monsters want rock fragments?”

“Maybe they thought the carriage had food, since the ones in front did too?”

Monsters that devoured crops did exist, so it would be understandable if they were after food. But none would ever mistake stones for crops. Were the rocks their aim, after all? That was unlikely, given their tendencies so far, but stranger things had happened.

“Well, standing around won’t get us our answer,” the leader declared.

Nobody here was an expert, so they had neither the knowledge nor the qualifications to compare the incident to prior monster behavior. As such, the caravan leader decided there was only one thing to do. He turned to Cyril. “We’ll have to send a scouting team to get a detailed grasp of the circumstances. Can I trust you with that?”

“Of course. We’ll confirm the situation,” Cyril agreed and faced the two guards who had come to report. “Lead the way.”

“Yes, sir!” The bodyguards nodded in agreement. 

Finally, Mira peeked out from behind Emella and approached Cyril. “Might I come with you?” She was curious and apprehensive about the unfamiliar monsters.

“You’d be most welcome. You sure?” Cyril asked happily.

“We’d love to have you, Mira!” Flicker also said cheerfully, but for different reasons.

Mira side-eyed Flicker as Emella moved to hold the girl at bay, then directed her attention to Cyril. “Yes. You could call it professional concern, I suppose.”

As the incident with the lesser demon proved, monsters occasionally did strange things when demons were involved, but most people believed demons to be extinct. Only a select few—namely, veteran players—knew the perils beginning to crop up across the continent.

It was important to check…just in case. Besides, Mira liked Cyril’s guild and wanted to lend a hand.

“Sure thing, and thanks for your help.” Cyril asked the bodyguards to lead on once again, but they stared at Mira in disbelief. She clearly looked too young to be involved in this sort of business.

“Er, should we really take her? There are monsters out there. It’ll be dangerous…”

“She might hold us back…”

After all, Mira looked like a normal twelve-year-old girl. Mages couldn’t be judged by strength alone, but she was clearly too young to have much experience.

“She’ll be fine. She’s probably the strongest person here.” Cyril’s tone carried some envy along with its sincerity.

The guards looked at Mira rather uneasily and then back to Cyril. “Seriously? Including you?”

“Including me,” he answered promptly.

“And us,” Emella chimed in. Zef and Flicker backed her up with grins. The guards’ confusion must have reminded them of when they first met Mira, and how her strength blew them away.

The guards looked shocked. The leader of the famous guild Écarlate Carillon was nearly legendary. If he said that Mira was stronger than him—assuming he wasn’t joking—then they were clearly out of their depth.

Mira was not yet aware of Cyril’s full strength, but she confidently puffed her chest out and smirked at the two guards. They shuddered.

***

The guards guided them back the way the caravans had come, changing paths and pushing through brush to take shortcuts.

It was midday. The sun still blazed in the sky, but their surroundings were dim, and fog covered the forest. The deeper the group went, the thicker it became. Yet the guards never got lost as they proceeded. Red marks had been made on trees here and there, showing that they were experienced scouts who knew how to tag a return trail.

Monsters occasionally attacked the group, but Mira’s partially summoned Dark Knight’s sword cut them down with ease. Each time, the guards were amazed.

“Aha. Indeed, these monsters should not be here,” Mira noted.

After marching deeper for a while, the group arrived at a grassy clearing as the fog receded. Ahead was the bodyguard team sent to search for the lost cargo. Many were lightly armored warriors, and there were three mages among them. Fatigue was evident on their faces, and things seemed to be going poorly.

One of the two bodyguards ran to the merchant and reported, “Noland, we brought reinforcements.”

Noland was in his early forties, and he looked so brawny that one might think he was a guard instead of the manager of a shipping firm. He turned around and let out a joyful cry that swept away all the wafting despair at once.

“Why, it’s Écarlate Carillon! Your presence is much appreciated!” 

Likewise, the other bodyguards saw Cyril and breathed sighs of relief before thanking him. Based on their reactions, Écarlate Carillon clearly had a reputation.

“Sorry to rush, but can I get a summary of the situation?” Cyril asked, and Noland nodded. Soon they were looking over a large map of the territory marked with detailed scouting information.

Noland traced the part of the forest where the fog had spread. Scouting had revealed that the cargo was taken that way. As the scouts approached the center of the location, the fog had grown increasingly dense, and monster attacks came more frequently. Stranger yet, whenever they tried to push to the center, they found monsters attacking them on all sides—then, abruptly, they walked back into the clearing.

“It’s as if we’ve wandered into some looping trap. We have no idea how to solve it, and we’re at the end of our rope,” Noland finished, excusing himself and sitting down.

On closer inspection, half the group were wounded and receiving treatment from a priest. But fatigue had taken a greater toll; it was clear that they had been fighting a difficult battle.

“I think we’ve got a grasp of the situation. We’ll take a look for ourselves. You all rest for now,” Cyril suggested. He pulled a few bottles of honey lemonade from his Item Box for everyone. Cyril figured that if they hydrated with something sweet, they might perk up a bit.

Noland and the others accepted the drinks graciously and downed them.

Entrusted with the map, Mira’s party stepped into the foggy forest.

***

“Noland was right about the horde of monsters,” Mira mused.

As the group proceeded into the fog, monsters attacked over and over. Worse yet, none were native to this forest. The monsters came in all types, with numerous attacks and special traits. That made fighting them a complex task.

It was clear why the guards had struggled. That said, Cyril and his Écarlate Carillon had Mira at their side. Their progress was dramatically faster than the previous attempts.

“They’re all numbers and no power, really,” Cyril added.

Mira and Cyril mowed down monsters in single strokes. Emella and the others maneuvered with ease as well. The party had strength to spare.

Mira’s Dark Knight was perhaps the biggest help. Made purely to topple foes, it easily cut through the brush. Maneuvering around the forest was more difficult than dealing with the trifling monsters, so the Dark Knight was quite beneficial indeed.

It stoically cut through the foliage, clearing a path. Reduced to being a glorified machete, sorrow seemed to waft behind it as it went.

After ten or so minutes of progress, they suddenly realized they were heading back toward the clearing and stopped. It seemed they’d turned around at some point.

“Ah!” Cyril exclaimed. “It really does feel like a loop.”

Loop traps were common in dungeons…but in a forest?

Cyril looked around and turned to face the way they’d come, noting that the downed foliage was still there. The path the Dark Knight had cut extended into the forest. One could hardly imagine that the group would’ve randomly taken a wide turn along the way.

Yet here they were, back where they started, and they had no idea where the loop had occurred.

“The number and variety of monsters are strange too,” Emella agreed as she wiped the blood off her favored sword. This was weirder than anyone had expected.

Mira and the gang tried a different path, but the result was the same: after fighting countless monsters, they found themselves back at the clearing.

“This clearly isn’t your average forest,” Zef grumbled, looking down at a carcass they’d stumbled across. It had once been a large ursine beast known as a Papa Bear. It was an animal rather than a monster, indigenous to the Forest of the Devout.

The Papa Bear was at the top of the food chain here, even preying on monsters. But something had left it a mere pitiful husk, as if it had been chewed up and spat out.

Everyone was speechless.

Dense fog, non-native monsters that threw the ecosystem off-kilter, and a loop that kept anyone away from the center. The Forest of the Devout was all wrong. It would have been foolish to continue without a plan, so Cyril and the gang paused to think.

“Hrmm. An abnormality in the forest…” Mira gazed into the foggy woods. Suddenly, the word “forest” brought one possibility to mind.

When in doubt, ask an expert.

Mira announced, “I’m going to summon a little something.”

[Evocation: Korpokkur]

Two magic circles appeared as portals heralding the appearance of twin leaf buds. The leaves gleamed once, and twin korpokkurs leapt out.

“Aww, cute!” Flicker smiled.

However, Mira gaped in astonishment at the twins.

“A fine day to you, Madam Chief! It’s been ages!” one cried.

“Ohmigod, Chief! How’s it hanging?” the other korpokkur asked.

Mira had made a contract with the twin korpokkurs. They had been short, somewhat airheaded rural girls wearing traditional shrine-maiden garb. At least, that was how Mira remembered them. Yet these sisters, once less than a meter tall, had undergone serious changes since she last saw them.

What’s with these two?!

The older sister, Uneko, wasn’t much different; she was like a granddaughter who had come back home after a year working at a big company in the city. She was just a little taller now, and her trademark red ribbon was unmistakable. The real difference was the younger sister, Etenoa.

“Ah, um… I’m glad to see you haven’t changed much, Uneko. But you… Er, you are Etenoa, yes?”

“You’re, like, hilarious, Chief! I literally can’t even!” Etenoa answered, shaking her blue ribbon.

She looked as though she was going out clubbing—revealing clothes, loud accessories, and a flashy pose. Most devastating of all was that she was nearly twice Uneko’s size. Etenoa embodied a high-school girl strutting around a bustling city of young people.

“You’ve, erm…found your style, I see.” Mira stared at Etenoa in awe. She was the other granddaughter come home from the city…the one who spent all her time partying.

“Aww, you’re so sweet! Speaking of style, you look totally—”

“Not now, please!” Mira rushed to stop Etenoa from speaking. If the korpokkur spilled the beans, she’d truly blow Mira’s cover. Cyril seemed to have an idea, but Mira was desperate not to confirm his suspicions.

“They’re…unique,” Cyril said, bringing things back on topic. “But korpokkurs are among the spirits most versed in matters of the earth and forest. I see your reasoning, Mira.”

“Uh, er, right. Yes, that was the plan. Best to ask the experts instead of speculating among ourselves, no?” Mira put Etenoa’s new appearance aside for the moment as she explained why she’d summoned the sisters, trying to convince herself that she’d made the right decision.

Uneko and Etenoa were residents of a village in the space between forest and earth. As such, they had great general knowledge of forests—even if one sister no longer looked the part. Mira was happy to meet them again, but the change was still too much for her.

***

“Yes, Madam Chief! We’ll look into the matter immediately.”

“You got it, Girl Boss. Leave it to us or whatever.”

On Mira’s orders, the korpokkur sisters looked into the forest. They raised their human-sized butterbur sprouts aloft and closed their eyes, focusing and searching throughout the woods. In that instant, the air seemed to change. The gang gazed at the spirits as if observing a religious ritual.

Etenoa’s showy outfit certainly didn’t fit the mood, but the sisters hit upon the cause of the issue within a few minutes. They saw how the flow of mana around the forest had been disrupted, causing one portion to distort. That distortion warped the space nearby, becoming a portal that summoned all sorts of monsters.

Most forests had spirits who maintained the proper flow of mana. However, for some reason, the sisters sensed almost none here. 

Mira hit upon it immediately. “Chimera Clausen!” she exclaimed. The abnormality of the forest was the result of kidnapped spirits. “But what do we do about it?”

“We can’t just leave it. At this rate, the stagnant mana could cause untold harm to countless people,” Cyril said as he gazed into the depths of the forest. As someone who believed in working for the greater good, he couldn’t overlook the issue.

“Right. We can’t abandon this forest,” Mira agreed, remembering the tyrant spikeback and fortress hunters from the other day.

“Yeah! We gotta solve this,” Emella chimed in.

“Yep, let’s do what we can!” Flicker said.

“Can’t just ignore something like this,” Zef added.

Their goal now established, they discussed how to tackle it. Once again, Uneko and Etenoa’s knowledge came in quite handy. As it turned out, a traditional korpokkur rite could undo the stagnation. Once that was done, the forest would go back to normal…but only for a year. This would be a temporary measure until the spirits returned. Additionally, the sisters had to perform the rite next to the center of the stagnation.

Temporary or not, this was their best and only option.

“So, how do we get to the center? The place is looping, isn’t it?” Zef asked, pointing out the most pressing issue.

According to the korpokkurs, this distortion was deep within the forest—past the loop the group had failed to make it through thus far. Mira wasn’t quite so bothered by that as the others; she could always fly.

“Whoooa. Yeah, it’s wicked warped, but I bet we’ve got this,” Etenoa said.

“We’re happy to lead you on a stroll through the forest, Madam Chief,” Uneko added.

The sisters offered to play the role of guides. They claimed that once they read the forest air, they could find the source of the distortion.

“Hey, awesome!” Zef piped up. The others thanked the korpokkurs as well.

“Very well,” Mira said. “If you’d please.”

“Leave it to us, Madam Chief!”

“Aww, yeah!”

The sisters responded eagerly and walked up front. Incredibly, the foliage parted for them as they went, as if they had power akin to Moses’s here in the forest.

After a while, Mira dismissed the Dark Knight that had been slicing open a path for them. Surely the visible depression emanating from the summon had just been her imagination…right?