Sweet, smooth, and creamy. With a bitter aftertaste that served to enhance the flavor, its pleasant aroma lingered in Celeste's mouth as she breathed in the morning air.

“What did she call it again?” Celeste whispered, she was staring up at the sky.

The sound of footsteps and wooden wheels rolling on the stone pavement was present in the surroundings as people and wagons passed her by.

Celeste left the house earlier on and was taking a stroll along the streets of Daerin, trying to walk off the meal she had just eaten for breakfast.

“Hot chocolate, that's what Elicia had called it.” She muttered. “She said she made it from some rare beans she'd ordered from the grocer.”

It tasted like heaven, she thought.

After trying the first cup, Celeste had gotten hooked. It was the first time she'd tasted a drink so unique, different from sweet milk and honeyed tea.

It was too bad that Elicia only made enough for everyone to have just two cups each. Apparently, the seeds that chocolate was made from were a rare commodity, only found inside of the forest of magic creatures, Arinndra's Forest. Some of the soldiers from the army would take some of what they found back to the city whenever they returned from an expedition.

Arinndra's Forest— To get there, they had to go up to the Erden wall, and then go further north to reach it.

“The wall...” Celeste was reminded. It was where she had first arrived, and where she had first met with the relatives of a certain ashen-haired boy— who by now would be considered a young man.

The old man that had brought her into the city years ago, Sacha Vinney, Celeste had taken to calling him grandpa. Three years back, Sacha had received orders to return to the wall. Four or five times a year, he would undoubtedly come back to visit the house. The past few months, however, there had been no news from him.

“He must have become busier.” Celeste thought, before a few more faces had come to her mind.

An unruly young man and his intelligent-looking elder brother. They had also come to visit a few times over the past four years. Although the presence of the unruly young man annoyed her a great deal, she put up with it, as him and his elder brother being present gave delight to her mother Rivelle.

There was only one person who did not come despite four years having passed. The person that Celeste could only remember as stern-looking but gentle.

“Why couldn't he at least visit?” Celeste wondered.

“A pleasant morning, young miss!”

Her train of thought was interrupted by somebody waving a greeting at her. It was a vendor of a small fruit stand by the side of the street she was on.

“Is the madame not with you today?” He asked.

“Good morning, mister.” Celeste greeted. “I'm by myself, mother won't be going out today.”

“Oh, is that so? That's too bad, it's always a pleasure seeing the two of you when you come by my store.” He reached for a ripe, vibrant red apple from his stand, and offered it to Celeste. “Here, young miss, have this on the road.”

“Thank you very much, mister. We'll come by and say hello when mother's with me.” Celeste walked away with a smile after receiving the vendor's gift.

She continued her stroll and passed by a shop, the smell of freshly baked bread wafting in the air prompted her to take a peek inside.

The shopkeep, a lovely old lady, caught sight of her red hair and greeted, “Good mornin' young miss!” She glanced towards Celeste's empty side and asked, “Is the madame not with you today?”

“Good morning, auntie.” Celeste greeted. “I'm by myself, mother won't be going out today.” She repeated a line from earlier.

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“Oh, that's too bad. I was looking forward to having the both of you try out my new pastry.”

'Pastry', After hearing the word, Celeste's eyes shined with anticipation.

“Of course, you can have some right now, young miss. I've just finished baking a fresh batch.” Seeing Celeste stare at her, the shopkeeper who was also the baker, offered her a pastry wrapped in a paper bag.

Celeste happily accepted and took the bag from the baker.

“Thank you, auntie.” Celeste said, and was about to leave before she paused as her gaze wandered to another shop on the other side of the street.

“A shame what happened to the old butcher's.” The baker commented, referring to the shop that Celeste was looking at. “It was a good thing the owner wasn't around when it appeared.”

The shop wasn't open for business. There were no windows left on the house, its walls were charred black, and its roof blown open. At the sight of it burned down, Celeste grimaced. It couldn't be opened for business.

“It wasn't your fault, young miss, you can only be at one place at a time.” The baker said when she saw Celeste's expression. “And besides, there're other people on the job, this—“ The baker shook her head. “—this was just one case that couldn't be avoided.”

Celeste replied with a soft smile. She understood what the baker was trying to say. She gave the baker a slight bow before leaving and returning to her stroll.

“Young miss! A fine mornin' to ya!” Another person waved from the side as she continued walking by the street, with the same greeting, and the same conversation.

This kept happening until Celeste reached a bench she was familiar with by the road and sat down. She felt it a bit tiring responding to all them. Almost everyone that had seen her red hair, not just the business owners, would wave hello. It couldn't be helped.

Over the past two years, Celeste had become a well known figure. Her fame—It started out with Rivelle bringing her out on regular strolls to get to know the locals. Rivelle had a bit of status and was already well known around the city, so her bringing along a red-haired child became news to the public. Although there was also the matter of the disappearance of her youngest child, it was quickly buried under the carpet, not to be mentioned casually.

But being brought around by Rivelle wasn't the main reason for Celeste's fame. An incident from two years back, one that would have resulted in the burning down of a large part of the city had it not have been handled properly, Celeste was in the middle of it. Her actions back then, along with a group of other people, had earned them a good deal of respect from the people of Daerin.

Celeste sighed. Before stopping at this bench, she saw a few more houses like the shop from earlier, charred black and burnt down. It was as the baker said, she couldn't be at multiple places at once. Although they weren't her responsibilities, she had taken it upon herself to do something about them.

Celeste looked down at her lap. In her hands, a paper bag full of various objects received from the people who had greeted her during her stroll. She placed the bag near her feet and took out the pastry she'd received from the bread shop.

“Delicious!” She exclaimed, after taking a bite.

Her thoughts derailed from the topic and got on a different track.

Strawberry sweet, slightly tangy, and enveloped in a soft crust. It was a flat pastry filled with jam and cream cheese. Although she had just eaten breakfast, there was still room in her stomach for the sugary treat.

“—Hmm?” She was just about to take another bite when a pair of yearning eyes caught her attention, they were staring at the pastry in her hands.

It was those of a child, around 3 or 4 years of age, with drool dripping down his mouth. Behind him was his mother, holding onto a few bags filled with fruits and grocery items. She was haggling with a vendor by the side of the road, trying to get a decent price for the wares he was selling.

Looking at the pastry in her hands, Celeste contemplated for a bit before breaking off the half she had bitten into and then stuffing it into her mouth. The other half, she offered to the boy looking at her hand with drool on his face.

The boy's eyes shined, and happily skipped over to her direction. His mother, who had noticed her son leaving her side, smiled at Celeste's gesture.

“Thank you very much, big sis!” The boy exclaimed and expressed delight at receiving the treat.

“Aris!!!” The mother let out a sudden shout. Her smiling expression from earlier had disappeared and was replaced with one of worry. Something had caught her eye.

“Stay here and eat.” Celeste instructed the boy, as she quickly stood up and sat him down on the bench.

She dashed towards the direction of the thing that had startled the boy's mother. It was a puddle of murky red light that had appeared out of nowhere, a few meters from their position.

Celeste ran towards it and pulled out the fastener holding her hair together, the wooden hairpin. Locks of red fell down and glided across her back. Her arms emitted mana in the form of a blue hue and started letting out cold white mist. Within her palms, the temperature dropped below zero, forming frost around the hairpin coated in her mana.

Appearing from the white mist, a pale blue spear, simple and unadorned, but held an aura of exquisiteness. No longer incorporated into a dance, a sense of ferocity accompanied it as she wielded it towards the ominous hand clad in murky red, emerging from the ground.