"How is it?"

"Woof."

"Do you like it?"

"Woof."

I was feeding little cloud the food I had in my magic bag. It was just sweet stuff. Gwyn was happily eating the candies while sitting in my lap. He was responding by barking happily when I ask him stuff.

"I'm glad you like it, little cloud."

"Why do you call him little cloud when you gave him a name?"

Meanwhile, Gwyn's mother was at the side nagging me about how I call him.

"Why can't I call him little cloud? Just look at him."

I held up Gwyn in front of Maple to show why he was a little cloud. White fur, a small body enough to fit in my hands. Extremely cute.

"What are you saying? Call him Gwyn!"

"No! I'll call him what I want."

"Grr."

Silas was standing on the side, not saying anything. He understood that this was not his place to talk. Why would he risk his life when two powerful beings are bickering? Though they wouldn't do anything to him even if he offended them somehow.

"..."

Maple was looking at me blankly after arguing and losing.

"...But what are you feeding my son?"

"Oh these?"

I held up a orange colored ball. It was the diameter of a thumb. There was a spiral pattern on the surface of it, going from the top to the bottom. It was hard except where the spiral pattern was. It was soft there, almost jelly like.

"Yes, what are they? They smell weird."

"Why don't you try one?"

"Sure, give it to me."

Maple took the small orange ball. It couldn't even be seen on her big paw. Then she threw it into her mouth.

At first there was no reaction, but then Maple's eyes opened wide.

"W-what is this? What is this flavor?"

"Hehe, that was an exploding orange. How is it?"

"It's good, it's delicious..."

Halfway through her sentence, Maple was staring at my magic bag. It's where I kept all my delicious stuff. her mouth was drooling a bit.

"Do you want more?"

"Yes!"

"I'll give it to you...on one request."

"W-what do you want?"

Maple was hesitant to accept.

"It's nothing crazy, just let me ride you."

"Ride me?! How dare you!"

Maple was angry at my request. It was understandable. To such a being, letting someone on their back, let alone giving a ride to them, is a big deal.

"In my whole life, there has only been one person who has been on my back. How can you ask me to let you do such a thing?"

Maple explained her anger. But I already understood this. All high rank beings had a thing like this, for example dragons never let anyone on their backs. They are the apex of beings of this planet. So unless literal gods ask them, they will never let anyone on their back.

"So it's a no?"

"...well..."

Maple was staring at my magic bag. Her mouth was drooling a ton.

"I see....I was gonna give you a lot in return."

I said the second part in a lower voice. But Maple's fluffy white ears perked up. Just as I

"Wait, I didn't say you couldn't."

"Oh, really?"

I pretended to be surprised at Maple's sudden decision.

"Of course, now hand over a lot of those!"

"Okay, okay. Here you go."

I took out a handful of the exploding oranges and gave them to Maple. Maple instantly put them in her mouth. Her expression was filled with joy.

"Yum, but you didn't answer me. What are these?"

"These are called exploding fruits. They don't really explode like bombs. But they do give an explosive feeling in the mouth."

"Right, right. It suddenly explodes in my mouth, and then there's a sweet and refreshing flavor."

"The one you're eating is an orange flavor."

"These must be really rare and expensive. Thank you for sharing your treasure with me."

"No, you have it wrong. These things grow on trees."

Maple had a blank face in response to my words. Exploding oranges are a sweet from the kingdom I was born in, Yurivia. They grow on vines that hang from trees. There's a bunch of flavors, like lemon, apple. There's even one that tastes like coffee. They are a popular food.

"Are you saying I sold my back for things that grow on trees?"

"That's right."

"What?! I take it back. I'm not giving you a ride."

"Oh, so the mighty white wolf goes back on their word?"

"No...that's not it."

Maple cares about her image a lot, so it's easy to fool her.

"Great, it would have been a big deal if people found out."

And I couldn't believe that someone like Maple, who has lived for a long time, had never had sweet things.

"Bark!"

Gwyn, still in my arms, asked for more exploding oranges.

"Yes, yes. Eat till you're full, little cloud."

It had been around 30 minutes after our conversation. The people inside the bone hound gang's base should have been dead by then.

"Alright, Silas. Everyone should be dead. Get ready to head in."

"Yes, Miss."

Silas stood up and was ready to head in when there was a sound from inside the building.

"What was that?"

Stolen story; please report.

I asked.

"It seems one person is still alive."

Maple answered me. Beings that train their bodies can develop aura, which is like mana but for body builders. They can't use it to do magic, but they can enhance their body with it. It heightens their senses, allowing them to feel their surroundings. They can even use it to feel the life force of other beings.

Though it takes a toll on the body to use it all the time, so they only activate it when needed. There are legends of people being able to use them at all times, but there is no proof of it.

"How could someone have lived?"

Silas questioned me.

"They could have a magical artifact. One that can protect against my magic."

Suddenly, at the front door a person appeared.

"Where did he come from?"

He appeared in an instant, there was no sound or anything. He was wearing a white mask, a white shirt and a gold colored coat going down to his knees. He was wearing like 5 necklaces, bracelets on both his arms and rings on his hands. The gold coat might be made of real gold, because it was very shiny even at this time of the night.

"Miss Thea, that's him. The boss of the bone hound gang."

"That's him?"

A flash of anger flashed in Thea's eyes.

"Good that he survived, now I can kill him myself."

Silas was thinking how that didn't make sense, since she killed every other gang member herself.

We walked towards the man.

"Who are you?!"

The man asked.

"All you need to know is that today, you will die."

Thea answered the man.

"I am Lurana. How dare you show disrespect in front of me?!"

One of the rings on the man named Lurana shone. And suddenly, two long daggers appeared in his hands.

"Lurana?"

Silas whispered to himself. He felt like he had heard the name before.

"Come, I will show you despair."

Thea signaled to Lurana to attack first.

Lurana crouched down. He held the blades in front of him. And then. He disappeared.

"What?"

Silas was startled. He was just looking at him and now he had vanished. He turned towards Thea to asks. But he was shocked yet again.

Lurana had appeared behind Thea, and his daggers were heading straight towards Thea's head. All of this happened in a moment, there was no time for Silas to react. He couldn't react even if he tried. He was just an ordinary human.

The same went for Thea. She was a strong mage, but she was not a warrior. It was a well known weakness of mages that they would lose in close combat every single time. So they should keep their distance.

Right before the blades would have pierced through Thea's skull, something blocked the blades. It was the tip of Maple's paw. Her claw. She blocked it just before Thea was hurt.

"What?!"

Lurana shouted at the sudden block. And then he disappeared again.

Thea had just reacted to what had happened.

"What was that?"

"I just blocked him for you, that's what happened."

"No no, not that. Thank you though."

Maple blushed a bit.

"I mean, what did he just do? My went past my barrier somehow."

Whenever Thea fights, she enacts a few barriers around herself. These barriers are invisible to everyone else. What they do is block incoming dangers. For example, if an enemy mage had thrown a fireball, it would be nullified by one of the barriers.

One barrier blocks fast fighters from being able to damage Thea, since she doesn't have the reaction time. The barrier works by stopping anything moving at a fast pace from entering. It works even with arrows. So it was weird how Lurana was able to bypass it.

"How did you do that?"

Thea questioned Lurana, but she didn't expect an answer.

"Hmph, like I'll tell you."

Once again, Lurana disappeared and attacked Thea. But this time, she caught a clue.

'The ring glowed.'

A ring on his left hand glowed a purple light before he disappeared.

'A magic artifact.'

Magic artifacts are special tools with magic enhancements and magic circle engravings. Lurana was wearing a lot of things on his body. All of them are magic artifacts.

One has to know that magic artifacts are rare and expensive. It's why the water producing artifact that Thea made sold for so much. If you want one, you have to be ready to pay multiple times, since the chance of failure is high. And increasing difficult with the grade of the artifact.

Maple once again blocked Lurana's attack. And he vanished.

"Let me deal with him, Maple."

"Hmm, do you not want me to protect you then?"

"Yes."

Lurana reappeared in the trees.

"Haha, you think a puny mage like you can handle me alone? I was born with a strong body and I have trained since birth."

"Stop talking, I'm not here to entertain you."

"Hah, I haven't even shown you my full power."

As Lurana said that, the other rings on his fingers shone. A blue light, a brown light, another blue light and a white light.

"See how you survive now!"

Lurana disappeared again. But he was much faster this time in his attack. Before, there was a few seconds of difference from the ring shining and him reappearing. But this time, there was less than a second's worth.

He instantly appeared behind Thea and stabbed towards Thea's back. His stab was much faster and it hit Thea. This time, the dagger actually connected with Thea's clothes.

'Haha. Foolish mage-'

Having felt an impact against Thea, Lurana was about to talk when he felt a chilling sensation on his hand. He retracted his hands immediately. And teleported back to where he was before.

"W-what did you do?!"

Looking down, his whole hand was covered in frost. Frozen.

"Nothing much, just a little magic."

"You think a some magic will work on me? It has no effect on me, for I have this!"

Lurana put his non-frozen hand on his golden jacket.

"Is that another artifact?"

"Haha, at least your eyes can see the worth of this. That's right, this is a support type magic artifact. Any damage you do will be gone in seco-"

Lurana was flaunting his magic artifact when he stopped talking. He realized something, something that meant he was in danger.

The frozen hand still had not unfrozen.

"W-what did you do?"

"Rot in hell."

"Wha-"

As Lurana was about to question what Thea said. He felt pain in his legs. Ice spikes were stabbed through his feet. Seemingly appearing from the ground.

"ARGH! Wh-wh"

"You didn't think I would let you teleport again, did you?"

Thea was still standing at the same spot as before.

"I cast a wide range magic that would activate wherever you reappeared. Now..."

Thea lifted her arm. Her fingers pointed towards Lurana.

"W-wait! My father! He'll kill you!"

Lurana shouted.

"I don't care. If I were your father, I would kill you myself."

"Now die."

Mana left my arm and circled around Lurana who was stuck to the ground.

"Flame tornado."

"Nooooo!"

Starting from the bottom, flames appeared in a circle around him. The ice in his feet melted. Flames circled around Lurana as they slowly rose up into the sky. In the end, only ashes remained and the boss of the bone hound gang was dealt with.

"Oh wow."

The cylindrical flame tower settled down and embers of fire fell down.

"You could've killed him easily, why did you let him live for so long?"

Maple asked me.

"Well, I had to save the equipment."

I pointed towards where Lurana had just been standing. Although the body had been reduced to ashes, the clothes he had were fine. Not a single scorch mark.

"I was secretly casting protective spells on them so they would burn under my fire magic."

"So that's why. Did you even need my help at the start?"

Maple's head drooped down, she thought she was unnecessarily intervening.

"I did need your assistance. That was dangerous for me, so thank you."

'Normally there would be someone to protect me. My best friend, but I haven't heard from her in a while.'

Thea looked a bit sad thinking about her friend.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

Maple thought something was strange, but she didn't ask any further.

"So what are these items?"

"They are magic artifacts."

"But Miss Thea, you can buy magic artifacts from us, the silver wolf merchants. But I've never seen these type of artifacts."

Silas chimed in.

"Indeed you sell them, but these are different."

"Different?"

"Well, first of all. You don't sell teleportation magic artifacts. There is no one in the world right now who knows how to make these."

"It's a lost magic, right?"

"That's right, teleportation magic is a lost magic. Only the empires have functioning teleportation circles that they don't even know how they work."

"I remember that a kingdom to the west tried to research it but it broke in the process. And nobody could fix it. So all research has been banned on it since then."

"I asked to research one but I was denied."

Thea looked a bit sulky, the empire laughed at Thea's suggestion at that time. And she still remembers it.

"Anyways, the more important thing about these artifacts is.....they are from the ruined magic empire."

"Do you mean....?"

"That's right, these are from the era of the Dwakos Empire."

The Dwakos Empire. Known as the ruined magic empire. 140 years ago, it stood at the peak of the world's magic research. They created the teleportation circles in the current empires, which still stand till today.

They kept their knowledge a secret from others. And they didn't sell anything magic related to the outside world. So the few magic artifacts from that place are all illegal exports or thefts.

There were a few gifted to various empires which are kept as heirlooms.

So what happened to the Dwakos Empire? Nobody knows for certain, but there are records about it. On the day of it's ruin, there was a huge explosion. And the whole empire was wiped away from the map.

From what I learned at the academy, there were over half a million people living in the capital of the empire, Rainwyth. It had to be something like a nuclear bomb that killed all of them.

The empire was in the middle of the ocean, an island. The remains of it were found later on to confirm it's destruction.

"These items will be worth researching."

The Dwakos Empire had over 600 years worth of history. Just thinking about how much I could learn from these few items, it made me so excited.

I put the items into my magic bag. Speaking of which, my magic bag was also one of these artifacts. Someone gave it to me a long time ago.

I wanted to research it also. But I was scared if something might happen and I use it too much to be able to handle a mess up.

"Alright, everything here is done. Can you check, Maple? Is anyone still alive inside?"

"I don't sense anything. But there are people all around us."

"Those must be your people, Silas."

"Yes, Miss Thea. I'll stay behind and deal with this place."

"Ok. Good work, Silas."

I turned towards Maple.

"What...why are you looking at me like that?"

"You didn't forget your promise, right?"

"Tssk. I was hoping you would forget."

"Haha, how could I? Where did Gwyn go?"

At the mention of his name, Gwyn peeked out from behind Maple.

"Woof."

"Come here, little cloud."

Gwyn ran into my arms happily.

"Let's go, Maple."

I floated up to sit on Maple's back. Her back was very big as Maple was huge. I was worried about falling off.

"You won't fall off."

"Really?"

"Let's go."

Maple didn't wait for me and ran. For some reason, I was able to stay on top of her without falling. And there wasn't a strong wind like one would expect when moving fast. In fact, there was a cool and stable wind. It was very refreshing.

And much faster than when I fly. Strangely, I didn't feel dizzy and exhausted like when I do when I fly fast. So it was wonderful.

The whole ride was a wonderful experience.

Maple dropped me off at the orphanage. It was already midnight, but I didn't want to sleep. I went into my work room to study the artifacts I had just acquired. I felt so excited to research.