A young woman hopped off the passenger wagon. She held onto her wide-brimmed hat as the breeze swept past. The sunlight kissed her pale skin as she extended her arm forward and handed her identification to the lady guard at the exit - a necessary formality, lest she be made to pay the rather significant tourist's fee.

"Miss Laeticia Ainsland of the Adventurer's Guild, correct?" said the guard, "Welcome back to Ealdton!"

The woman entered the Northeastern gate.

Given the rumors she had heard about the recent attack, she was surprised to see no visible scars on the outer walls, still as pristine as many months ago, when she last visited. Even behind its bastions, very little changed of the old stone town she'd known since childhood. It made her question, if only for a moment, if the rumors were true at all. But when she came to a large stone slab, erected in what used to be an empty lot, her fears were confirmed.

There used to be a large tree there, and in her childhood, when her grandma would force her out of the house, she would, in defiance, bring her books and read them under its shade, instead of playing with the kids her age, as she was told.

Though she was never caught, she still wondered, in occasion, whether it was a good idea for her to shun her grandmother's warnings.

But alas, the tree was gone. She thus gravitated towards the stone slab, perhaps from a sense of frustrated nostalgia or plain curiosity.

She muttered to herself the words carved upon it, "Let us forever remember the fallen heroes of Ealdton..."

The message was followed by a very long list of names; names she mostly didn't recognize, having not lived in the town for years.

Inevitably, she was saddened by the loss of life that the tragedy incurred, but more than that, she was now all the more anxious to see the person she came to visit.

Thus, she pressed on.

After a while, she came upon a group of young men in heavy, bronze plates. They formed a neat line as jogged up the street.

"Hup! Two! Hup! Two!" yelled the man in front, "Two laps left, guys! Give it your all!"

"Deen," another man said, "I swear - my legs are killing me!"

The man wobbled with every step as he wheezed in and out.

"No pain, no gain, Tom! Hup to it! You're a squad leader now! You need to be an example to your men! Now, Hup! Two! Hup! Two!"

"Oaaaaaagh!" he wailed, "I wish Cap would come back and be our commander instead...!"

"What's this?" The man behind him gave him a light jab on the shoulder. "Are you sayin' havin' Cap around'll make ya' finish yer' ten laps!?"

He was then jeered on by a flurry of hoots and whistles by the rest of the line.

"S-shut up, you morons!"

They all soon disappeared past the next corner, though their spirited laughter still reverberated against the high walls for a good while after.

Witnessing that scene brought the woman to a light chuckle, as it reminded her of a certain pair she knew.

She soon entered the market district. As always, the crowds were thick and streets are bustling with trade. Carts rolled back and forth, carrying goods, people, often both.

And there, she saw it - a wooden sign hung on an ornate steel frame. It swung every time a cart passed by, and doing in so, its hinges made a teensy squeak.

As it finally came to a halt, the young woman tilted her head upwards and read it out:

"Adrianne's Library." She said, with a tiny smile squared away at the corners of her mouth.

The lively ring of the door chime greeted her as she entered.

"Grandma...?" she said.

She closed the door behind her, careful not to bang it against the frame.

Soon an old woman she came out of the back room, and with a gasp, she said, "Laeticia, dear! You didn't say you were coming today, I hadn't prepared anything for you!"

She tilted her head sideways and radiated a warm smile.

Seeing that same old face, welcoming and gentle, ushering her in to the same old place, badly lit, yet cozy as ever; how it seemed nothing had changed since she last paid a visit - all her anxieties simply evaporated.

"It's okay," said the young woman, "it was... pretty hectic, these last few weeks. And I was in a hurry to see you, so..."

"Oh my, is that so? Well, come on in! Let's get that stuffy mantle off of you."

"Ah, mm."

And as its weight was lifted off of her shoulders, she bent down and gave her grandmother a peck on the cheek, saying, "I'm home."

The old lady smiled at her and replied, "Welcome back, dear."

That day, too, Adrianne's Library was closed.

The alluring scent of freshly ground tea leaves, grown right in their back garden, wafted into her nose.

With but a single sip, a shiver coursed through her body. The tea's warmth relaxed her chilled shoulders and fatigued back.

"Ahh..." she let out a pleasant sigh, "Grandma's tea is the best..."

"Laeticia, dear," her grandma said while rummaging through the kitchen cabinets, "would you like some scones to go with that?"

"Hm? No, I'm fine with just tea."

"Really?" she said in a disappointed tone, "I'd have asked you to buy some flour, too..."

She sighed.

I knew it. That's how grandma always roped me into doing chores...

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Then, she chuckled.

But I'm not a child anymore.

She replied, "I'll buy some later. Is there anything else you need?"

"No, just that. But if you want some scones for afternoon tea, you should buy some milk, too."

"Okay. I will."

The old lady give her a meek smile. "Thank you, Laeticia, dear. I'd pick them up myself, but these old bones aren't what they used to be."

Laeticia. Grandma's probably the last person who still calls me by that name... Ever since I left for the capitol, I've always gone by a nickname...

Soon, her grandmother joined her at the table.

With a sip from her cup, the old lady quickly moved to conversation, "You said you were in a hurry to see me? Is something wrong, dear?"

"A-ah..." She jerked in her seat. "That's right, I heard that Ealdton was attacked recently... and I was worried!"

"Recently? Dear, that was at least a month or two ago..."

She averted her gaze. "W-well... I, um... Don't really hear the news that often..."

"Oh my... have you been locking yourself in your room, even at work?"

She flinched.

"Dear, oh dear..."

"W-well...! Um..." She struggled to wrap her mind around what she was going to say in her defense. "Uh... well, my work is just... like that...?"

But no matter what excuse she conjured, her grandmother held to an unconvinced expression.

"A-anyway...!" Well aware that she had no chance of persuading her grandmother, she decided to change the topic instead. "I heard the Legendary Heroine was the one who saved the town... is that true?"

The old lady suddenly glimmered with excitement. "Ah! Yes, she did! She visited this store that very day!"

Startled, she stammered, "E-e-eh!? S-so you met her!?"

"I did! And she came with Mr. Alphonso!"

"Alpho... eh?" Her eyes widened. "With... Master...?"

"Yes! You still remember him?"

"Of course!" She pegged her hands onto the table. "H-how could I forget!?"

Realizing that she was getting too worked up over the subject, she shrank back into her seat and muttered, "A-and I... haven't really thanked him properly..."

The old lady smiled, perhaps knowingly, or maybe in jest - it mattered little. All the same, it just made the young woman all the more embarrassed.

"Don't worry yourself, dear. I'm sure you'll be able to thank him someday."

Looking away with her cheeks flushed red, she simply nodded. "M-mm..."

They then spent the next few moments in a peaceful interlude, sipping warm tea in silence.

After she had calmed down, the young woman finally spoke up, "Actually... I met the heroine, too..."

"Oh? Did you, really?"

"Mm. She joined the guild a few weeks ago."

"That certainly fits the hero character, but will she be alright? A young girl like that..."

"Yes! Yes! She was this tiny, precocious little girl! I couldn't believe it when they passed me her application..."

"She was a nice girl wasn't she?"

She winced. "N-nice...? Er... maybe, sometimes... though she's made a habit of teasing me..."

Her grandmother giggled.

"I-it's not funny...! I'm supposed to be her Master and..."

"Oh, my." The old lady placed her hand over her cheek. "And you took her in as your apprentice?"

"Hm? Mm..."

"How wonderful!"

"It makes it worse!"

Her grandmother laughed.

Just like that, their light conversation continued until the tea went dry.

Afterwards, the old lady said, "You must be tired from your journey, dear. I'll clean this all up. You go ahead and rest."

"It's okay, grandma, I can at least-"

"Oh, don't you worry. It'll be a few more years before I'll need any help in the kitchen!"

"A-ah..."

I guess no matter how old I get, grandma will still treat me like a child...

She sighed.

A few more years, huh...?

And so, the young woman then went up to her room, connected to the kitchen by a narrow flight of stairs.

The moment she opened her door, a wave of longing nostalgia came flooding back.

Immediately, she flicked open her old books; the ones Alphonso recommended her to read while she was still learning magic.

"Master..." she muttered to herself, "I wonder if can I meet you again..."

As she thought this, she caught a gaze of her reflection from her mirror.

If he sees me as I am now... what will he say?

Her brows furled.

No... I can't meet him yet. I've wasted too much time feeling sorry for myself.

She stood up.

But now... I think, I know what I need to do.

Changing out of her heavy travel dress, she then sat at her desk and pulled a book out of her drawer. But she did so not with the intent to read; but to write.

It was a hard-bound book with a cover that matched the rest of her library. 'Details of a Magical Atelier, by Sir Robert Ingram,' the title read. But when she flipped through its contents, it contained no information about magic or ateliers, but page after page of personal logs - in short, it was her diary.

She once thought herself as being clever, to disguise her private diary as one of her textbooks. But despite her aim of hiding it from prying eyes, namely that of her grandmother, she once lost it, herself, within her large collection, only to be returned by the very same person she hid it from.

After having already taken the pains of tearing out the pages of her old textbook and replacing it with a new bind of blank sheets, however, she never bothered again to change it.

And so, after noting the date, she went on to write:

'A few weeks ago, a couple of girls joined the adventurer guild.'

She paused for a moment as she collected her thoughts on what to write next. And after a few minutes, she settled thus:

'I didn't expect, when I took them in as apprentices, that they'd bring me along to an adventure I'd never forget in my entire life...'