CHAPTER. 151: STELLA

Stella, that was her name that was the name that had been bestowed upon her by the Guardian of the Forest, the majestic Dragon of Wind. That said, centuries had passed since she left Ivyfall, she did hope her fellow kin were doing great, but Stella felt like she had to spread her wings, and that’s how she became an adventurer.

She saw joy, but for every moment of happiness there were two of sadness, three of grief and five of despair. It was a miserable experience, but one she deemed necessary for her to grow. After many years, she attained S Tier, she had gone through so many teams and so many friends, however, she never sought power, instead she had one goal and one goal only.

And that was to be a guiding star for new blood.

To be a Guildmaster of the Adventurer’s Guild.

That way, she could control things and ensure no unnecessary deaths occurred, that way the ignorant would remain safe. She had hundreds of memories of boisterous young blood overestimating themselves and then dying. That was what she wanted to prevent and that was what she actively prevented now.

She clenched her fist with anger.

And that was what she was preventing right at this moment.

A woman⁠— a homeless woman was trying to say that she could take on a hydra. Normally, Stella would’ve said a flat no, but given the fact that she had free time she decided to teach the woman a lesson. The hydra’s strength had been assessed, it was S Tier but barely. Stella could easily take care of things if things went awry, and Lily was around too so that’s why she made her decision.

She would let the white-haired woman realize how powerless she was against true power and then save her ass. That way, she wouldn’t overestimate herself ever again. Stella was tired of it; of the pointless deaths, and while just saving one life wasn’t going to change the world, if she kept at it, eventually she was sure she would make a grand difference.

This woman was just one of many she had saved and would save, and one of many that she’d go out of her way to teach a lesson.

Perhaps I’ll invite her for a meal after all is said and done, Stella thought, I’m no tyrant after all…

She closed her eyes for a second before resolving herself. She carried herself forward through the city of Zurm, drawing the gazes of the cityfolk. Her appearance always drew attention, few knew of the elves, but now all eyes were on her; she was the Guildmaster of Zurm’s adventurer branch after all, and she had made a name for herself due to her values.

Ultimately, she hoped that the sights made the woman scared, everyone was looking and pointing at her, but when she turned she seemed uncaring and unbothered. Not even nervous in the slightest. Stella assessed the rest of the people coming along, first was the Black Fang party; the leader was looking at the woman, and the other two seemed bothered. Then there was Lily who looked panicked.

Stella found the situation weird but just shook her head and continued to the city dungeon. There things would be different.

Still… what kind of artifact is that ice leg? Stella wondered, she could sense great magical energy within it, whereas the woman had… essentially none. Perhaps the woman was more than just talk, but Stella was completely sure that the hydra was something that the woman couldn’t tackle.

She wouldn’t be dressed like that otherwise…

In the end, Stella decided to stop thinking about it and just act. And so, thirty minutes later with her authority as the Guildmaster they went into the dungeon at the end of the city. Dungeons themselves were rare, and those that had civilization around them were a lot rarer, it was the reason that Zurm was the capital of the nation.

The dungeon itself supported the economy of the city with its monster materials, which was also the reason that the hydra presented a huge emergency. Hence the emergency request, it however, also presented Stella with the perfect opportunity to personally teach the woman a lesson. In terms of overestimation, she didn’t think she had met someone as deluded as this homeless girl.

So, with great excitement she guided everyone towards the bottom-most floor of the dungeon. The 10th floor. As soon as they arrived, they heard a venomous and aggressive hiss. The room was illuminated by crystals and at the end of it, resided a twisted figure in an offensive stance, multiple heads moving like snakes as it looked dangerously at everyone.

Stella smiled, turning to the woman. “Now you see the difference in power?”

“Not really…?” The white-haired woman tilted her head. “I mean, maybe it could kill me if I stood still and let it attack me for a couple of hours.”

Stella blinked but the woman continued.

“Anyway, do I get money if I kill it?”

Stella sighed. She truly was homeless. Finally, she decided to indulge the woman a bit.

“Yes, but if you are going to attack it, it must be from where we stand.”

The woman blinked and stepped in front of Stella. “Huh, okay. Good opportunity to test what changed since I got out of that hellhole.”

Hellhole? Stella felt confused but watched the woman raise her hand to the air, and⁠— immediately tilt her head.

“Hm… Arcane magic isn’t all that much different from normal magic after all.”

Stella heard her weird mutterings and had enough, she couldn’t even sense a speck of magic on the woman.

“Will you stop playing around⁠—”

The woman brought her hand down⁠. “Frost Lighting.”

The world boomed and everything went white with a thunderous explosion. Stella closed her eyes on instinct, but not a split second later there was just silence and that’s when she decided to open her eyes only to see destruction.

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“What the…”

Everything in front had been turned into a frozen wasteland, and the room had been expanded dozens of meters forward. The hydra was nowhere to be seen, only a frozen red splotch was in its place. Stella just stared with wide eyes, the ice was… the ice around was charged to the brim with magic but sometimes it would also be devoid of it.

What the fuck happened?

She turned only to see the woman thinking with a hand on her chin. “Interesting, I guess I can thank the fake Hero of Arlas for that? Well, I’ll try to kill him if I see him again.” And she shrugged.

That reaction was enough for Stella to lose her mind.

“W-What did you do?!”

“What do you mean?” The woman tilted her head. “I just used a skill on it⁠, if it can be considered a skill at this point.”

“W-What…” Stella stuttered, unable to know what to make of things.

She turned only to see the entire room looking with surprise⁠— except for Lily, the girl just sighed for some reason. It was an odd reaction. She knew? Stella turned back to the woman in a hurry.

“Who⁠— what are you?”

The woman blinked. “Oh, I’m Arc, sorry for the lack of introduction. I’m the Heroine of Frost.”

Stella felt her brain stop.

She looked at Arc, the Heroine of Frost. She had heard of what happened in Draliz, even through rumors. And now the woman was here. But… Her eyes wandered around Arc and her attire. Why is she dressed like that?!

“Anyway, with that out of the way, could you please pay me? I need money to get food you see, I’m quite hungry. Food was quite non-existent in the Forgotten Places.”

“Right…”

Stella processed. She had little idea of what was happening, but given the lack of animosity of the woman she decided she had to capitalize on it.

“I’ll see that you get your payment, it might take some time to confirm the hydra is dead due to it being reduced to a puddle of blood.”

“Oh, alright, let’s do that then.”

Stella suppressed a sigh of relief as she decided to guide Arc, and… Lily too to a place to eat, leaving the adventurer group behind.

* * * * *

I truly didn’t care about my identity anymore. In comparison to what I went through in the Forgotten Places all my worries seemed a bit meaningless. It was a bit of an existential dread. I of course was worried about Ceylon so I planned to arrive to Draliz in a week’s time at the latest. But for now, I truly needed food.

We traced our steps back in the dungeon, though the adventurers were left behind which was helpful. I moved my magic slightly and my ice broke⁠— a scream resounded through the dungeon. The man that was… looking at me like a predator was hopefully not going to be able to do that to anyone anymore.

“What?!” The Guildmaster turned.

“It seems the creepy adventurer suffered an accident.” Lily smiled. “Well isn’t that great.”

The Guildmaster turned to Lily. “You can sense it…?”

“Yeah, but they have a healer so he’ll be fine. We should get food for Arc,” she said smiling.

The elf paused. “Right… I’ve heard nasty things about that man so I suppose that so long as the rest of his party is safe then it’s okay.” She nodded. “Let’s go then.”

And with that, we left with the Guildmaster. She took the time to introduce herself as Stella to me and offered to buy me clothes, an offer which I declined. I did take the chance to ask her if everything was fine in Draliz, she mentioned two revolts and businesses on strike sometime ago but apparently they had been taken care of and it all seemed fine now according to her. After that, she brought us to the most luxurious restaurant in Zurn. Something I appreciated. We even got a table isolated from most people. Finally, after I made my order to the waiter that looked at me weirdly, Stella spoke.

“Arc, how did you meet… Lily?”

“Oh, I intruded in her cave by accident,” I explained. “I had just gotten out of huh…” I spaced out thinking about Alfina and Asok. “I had just gotten out of the Forgotten Places and I met her there.”

“You keep saying the Forgotten Places.” Stella sighed. “You mean the place where the corruption resides?” she asked in a whisper.

“Yeah that one,” I said simply. “The Hero of Arlas threw me in there after I killed the Hero of Flames⁠— well fake Hero of Arlas, there is a Hero of Arlas in the Forgotten Places too.”

“Right… I’m finding what you are saying hard to believe. Also you trust Lily with all of this?”

“Sure, why not?” I asked. “Also, I’m just telling you stuff, I have no reason to lie about it. I almost died and lost my leg there, I also almost got corrupted too.”

“Right…”

I paused thinking. “Oh, and I got this dagger, and I also got a spear and a sword if you’d like to see them, though…” I frowned. “Attempt to steal the spear or sword and I’ll kill you.”

“Right…” The elf shrunk. “I… I’d like to see everything.”

“Alright, first this is the dagger.” I pulled it out from my waist. “It’s kind of whatever but I’m using it to store my spear at the moment.”

She stared at the dagger. “I can’t really sense mana from it.”

“Well that’s because it has a different kind of mana,” Lily said with a small frown. “It’s not something that belongs to this world.”

“Right…” Stella nodded.

“Anyway,” I dismissed. “Now I’ll show you the spear.”

I pushed mana into the dagger and tore a hole into space, much to the amusement of Stella and the waiter that was passing by ⁠— the man jumped but quickly recovered ⁠— then I put my hand in and took out my spear. The head came out first and Stella⁠—

Jumped from her seat.

* * * * *

It happened on reflex.

Stella was a few meters away now, and she was looking at the object that was being pulled out of space. Arc gave her a weird look but said nothing. However, what… what the fuck was that spear?

Its mana was so dense that it felt as if she was staring at a weapon of mass destruction. It was something that… she had never seen before. What…? At that moment, Stella felt compelled to trust everything that Arc had said⁠—

“Do you still want to see the sword and spear?” Arc raised her brow.

Stella let out a breath. “No…”

“Okay.”

And with that the spear vanished back into space. Stella took a moment before deciding to sit down, Lily seemed unfazed and so she turned to her.

“Lily, doesn’t any of this bother you?”

Lily jumped. “I mean… it did but I’ve come to accept it… it’s… it’s…” And the girl shrunk.

“It’s?” she asked but Arc shook her head.

“I’ve put Lily through a lot in the past few hours, please don’t press her,” her tone was casual but it was enough for Stella to just back off.

“Right…”

And a minute later the food came as Arc began to eat.

* * * * *

I felt a bit bad for what I put Lily through, I really did. I was sure she got anxious because she didn’t want to expose the fact that she was a dragon, so I’d make sure that didn’t happen. The elf seemed afraid of me and that was okay, everything was pretty okay at the moment.

Though perhaps I should register as an adventurer again?

I looked at the elf and changed my mind. I didn’t want to stay in this place for too long. What if the adventurer I hurt tried to do something to me? Of course, I wouldn’t die or anything but it’d be annoying.

And so I decided.

I’d stay the night and leave the next day. I had to get to Draliz after all. That said, knowing everything seemed to be fine I decided that I might do sightseeing.

Today was fun.

I smiled and took the first bite out of my food as I failed to suppress my joy, making both of the people present confused.