As the first rays of the morning sun crossed over the the eastern hills, it was clear that the damage to city had been extensive. Although the breach had been held thanks to Naviya's discrete help, it seemed that the city had been breached in a least 4 more places, judging by the smoke rising from various parts of city that Adrea could see from the wall.

The reinforcements that Yilse had requested had arrived only a bit after Naviya's sky beams - Adrea was not sure what to call them - had vaporized most of the demons. This had ensured that the remaining demons were quickly dispatched. A runner had then been sent communicate the situation to other parts of the city, and after another runner had come back, about half of the soldiers had headed to other parts of the city, leaving only a token force to guard the breach. The remainder of the night had been tense, but uneventful.

By this point, Adrea was beginning to feel very tired, and was spacing out a bit, when Yilse's voice brought her back to reality.

"You look like you're about to fall over."

She did not seem that much better off herself, but at least she was also not angry at her, as Adrea had feared.

"Look, I'm a bit on edge right now, but I'm really just tired, and my hand is beginning to hurt, alright. You're still technically my responsibility, and I would not be where I am if I didn't take those seriously. We just have to wait until the day shift comes at the first morning bell, and then I'll find us some place to rest. You can handle the wait, right?"

Adrea nodded.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Excellent. That's the right attitude to have. Just wait here. It shouldn't take too long."

The wait was indeed relatively short, and Yilse came back to them just a bit after the first morning bell rang. Together, they briefly looked over the guard tower where Adrea had been sleeping, and Yilse agreed that it probably was not safe. She offered to let them stay at some relative's house to rest for a bit. They walked there in silence, and after some quick introductions, they were shown to a bed. At that point, Adrea was beginning to recover from the sleepiness, so going back to sleep was a bit difficult but she still managed to get some rest.

She was awoken by Naviya lightly shoving her. Looking outside, she realized that it was probably well past midday.

"Big Sister, they told me to wake you up since it was getting late."

There was not much that she could do about it, and she was not feeling that tired, so Adrea simply put her clothes on and headed to what she assumed was the living room, where she was greeted by Yilse, still wearing her armor, along with two other guards whom she did not recognize.

"Unfortunately for everyone, you're still my responsibility, so that means that I have some questions for you. So let's get started right away. Are you ready?"

"Um, yes?"

"Good. So I understand that you will be turning 16 this autumn. Is that correct?"

"Y...Yes"

"Noted. So considering your circumstances, you'll have to become an explorer, and that means that I'm in charge of finding you a master. From your showing yesterday, I'm guessing that you don't have any real military background. Do you?"

It took a couple of seconds for Adrea to register the question.

"Um, not really, but I did practice using a sword for a couple of weeks."

"Noted. That brings me to the next question. That sword that you're dragging around, how did you get it?"

"It was... it was..."

She felt herself begin to tear up. She tried to push the words through.

"It was my father's."

At hat point she could no longer control herself. She remembered his death, then the faces of the few people who had mattered in her life. They were all dead. As she began to sob, she caught herself saying "please don't take Naviya from me". Her little sister was all that she had left...

It took her some time to calm down. The people in the room had tried to comfort her as much as they could, and although all of them except Naviya were clearly at a loss about what to do, Adrea felt that their efforts helped her. She wiped her face and tried to continue.

"Sorry... I'm okay now. So, um, that sword means a lot to me. It's apparently a magic sword, but I don't really know what it does besides cutting very well."

Yilse seemed a bit hesitant to speak.

"Are you sure that you're in shape to answer more questions... I don't think I can handle much more of this."

She acquiesced, and the woman sighed.

"Fine, do you have any prior experience with mana?"

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"No. I know that it exists and is needed for special skill and magic things, but that's about it."

"Noted. What about the Chaoslands?"

"They're the places were explorers explore right? Natural laws don't work the same there, and that's were more of the enchanting reagents come from. I know the location of most of those in Middle Danalau by heart, and I've seen the basic things that can be found on the edge."

"Well, that's something, I guess. I'm not going you ask you to describe them to me now, but I expect you to be able to do it later. Now that covers the basic questions."

She turned to the guards and the two other people present in the room.

"The rest of this conversation will be classified, so I would request that all of you leave the room."

Once this was done, she turned her attention back to Adrea, and glanced at her sister, who was standing behind her.

"News of the demon invasion has now spread through the city, so there is not much hiding this fact, but thanks to the light beams, were able to contain the damage, and that includes avoiding widespread panic. As such, do not speak about the details of what you saw last night to anyone but myself and Vaahreid Marteryaan Vanheim... That's the captain."

"With that said, is there anything else you know about the demons."

"Not really. They seem to do everything to make their victims suffer, and they're really dangerous."

She felt herself begin to shake.

"I'd rather not talk about that anymore if that's okay..."

"Fine, but let me know when you're ready to continue this conversation. I need as much information as I can get, if I'm going to defend this city. Now, go get your stuff, we need to find you a proper place to stay. Now, please get your things in order - we are going to have lunch and hopefully find you a proper place to live for now."

Finding a place to live turned out to be a futile endeavor, much to Yilse's displeasure. As it turned out, a breach in the north-west of city occurred relatively early in the night, and the area in the immediate vicinity of the breach had been almost completely destroyed, resulting in a sudden increase in demand for housing. Finding a prospective master to study under also proved impossible, as most of the former explorers that Yilse had considered as appropriate candidates were currently busy helping with the defense of the city in any way they could.

As part of searching for a prospective master and living arrangements, Adrea and Naviya were treated to a guided tour of the city. They would still have to figure out where local services were located once they eventually moved in somewhere, of course, but at least Adrea felt that she would not get completely lost if left alone. In total, the city had suffered breaches at seven different locations, but besides the north-western one, the damage around them had been manageable, and reconstruction was already ongoing. Adrea was particularly impressed by the fact that in both of the cases that they passed along the way, the breach had already been half-filled.

Adrea had tried asking about the strategy that would be used to defend the city moving forward, but Yilse shot the question down, stating that this was not for her to know. After that, Adrea stuck to observing the city and asking occasional general questions.

One interesting aspect of Meunheil was that the heil was one of the highest in all of Danalau. This had earned the city its unusually short name, but more importantly for Adrea, meant that it could be used to know exactly where one was located within the city city, since it was visible from most places. According to Yilse, the fort itself was not particularly remarkable when compared to other forts in Danalau, but it was still the most impressive structure that Adrea had seen in her life. The city also boasted two separate, one for the western and eastern sides of the city, which helped with directions.

As with all meuns, the area upsteam of the confluence of the two rivers had been transformed into a swamp. This feature made fledgling meun-based towns very defensible against conventional opponents, but apparently presented a bit of blind spot against demons, since three of the seven breaches had actually happened on walls facing the swamp. This had peeked Adrea's interest since meuns had not been discussed very often as part of her schooling. Unfortunately, she did not get the opportunity see any of this, because Yilse considered these areas to be "the bad part of the city".

Beyond these, the city was actually lacking any sort of notable landmark. Places like guard towers, grain silos, and workshops were seamlessly integrated into the city, rather than having dedicated districts, and there were no straight roads to speak of. Because of this, by the end of the day, Adrea felt that she would have a hard time navigating the city regardless of how long she spent there. Her mood was not helped by the fact that as evening slowly came, she still had no idea where she was going to live or who was going to to tech her.

Eventually, they began heading back to the area near the wall where they had spent the night.

"Well, this has been a waste of day..."

Yilse was still as irritated as ever, and Adrea did not know what would be the right answer to her comment.

"Well whatever. Look you two, I don't have the time to look for a place where you can stay, but I can't just shirk my responsibilities and leave you alone. So here's the deal: if you agree to become my apprentice, we can arrange some accommodations from the city guard. This will be a temporary arrangement, but at least I'll be able to get back to work and you'll have a place to stay. Also, you'll have to follow my orders, and if you get in the way, I'll have done enough that it won't be my problem. So, is that a deal?"

"What about Naviya?"

"She can stay with you as long she doesn't get it the way."

"Then, that's perfect. You're alright with this, Naviya?"

"Yes."

"So that's settled. We'll have you fill in the paperwork tomorrow morning."

By this point, they were nearing close to the wall, and Adrea noticed that the area near the now mostly filled-in breach was surrounded by tents.

"Perfect, it looks like the repairs and temporary lodgings are almost set up. I'll show you to my tent, where you'll spend the night."

The tent was, unsurprisingly, completely empty with the exception of a large heap of straw, some cloth and rope. Adrea's first task for the evening was actually assemble these into something resembling a bed. This proved to be remarkably complicated, and Adrea only managed to produce something that would not fall apart late in the evening. Even then, the thing could barely be called bedding, but it was enough for her. Naviya had offered to help multiple times, and Adrea had a suspicion that the younger gild would actually be able to do what took her hours to achieve in minutes, however, she had refused help - after all this was supposed to be part of her training.

She still barely felt any hunger, but remembered to ask about dinner, only to be informed that it was already too late. With that, she found herself with nothing to do but go to sleep. She couldn't help feel anxious, considering yesterday's attack, but the lively conversations that she could her coming from outside the tent reassured her that it seemed that a second attack was not going to happen this night. She still had trouble falling asleep but eventually, she did.

Hopefully the coming days would bring some semblance of normalcy back to her life...