Aurora sat comfortably as Lyra poured tea into her cup. The aroma of the tea was relaxing and tempted her to drink it right away, but she had something to do first. She looked at the letter she held and opened it.

Lyra then poured tea into a ruby cup and then into Marina's cup.

"Is that about the sword from the other day?" Ruby asked, picking up a cookie and taking a bite.

Aurora nodded as she quickly read the letter. "It says the mission was a success. They found a sword stuck on a big rock, but no matter what they do, they can't pull it out," she said.

"Oh, so it's really legendary!" Ruby said, looking interested. "So, what are you going to do with it?"

Aurora was thinking in silence. The original plan was to send Finnick to retrieve the sword, as it would eliminate his weakness in using wind magic and hopefully reduce his dependence on Nova. However, this may no longer be necessary.

Finnick has great respect for his father, which is why he trains so hard to become a knight in the first place. If Nova ends up killing his father, indirectly or not, their relationship will be over.

If Finnick doesn't find out by himself soon, Aurora planned to ask the Information Guild to pass the information to him, indirectly of course.

However, because of this, the whole legendary sword has become meaningless.

"Should I send Rita there to try and pull it out?" Ruby offered. "She's been nagging me for a while. Since nothing has really happened, she's ended up doing some maid work and she doesn't like that. She says she wants to move her body and fight something. In that forest, there should be a lot of monsters she can fight, right?"

Aurora nodded. "That might not be a bad idea. What is her magic element again?"

"It's wind," Ruby said, "if I remember correctly."

Aurora can't help but smile. Isn't she lucky?

"Lyra," Aurora said. "It seems like I don't need to go in person, according to this letter. Could you handle it for me? Pay the adventurers for the previous request, and then go with Rita to post a new request for someone to accompany her back to the sword?"

"Of course, miss," Lyra replied.

As the conversation continued, Marina sat quietly, sipping her tea. She found the conversation interesting enough, so she wasn't bored. However, she struggled to join in and ask more about what they were talking about.

Noticing this, Aurora said, "Oh, I'm sorry. I got carried away and ended up talking about something else. This was supposed to be a celebration for you."

"It's fine," Marina said. "Can we talk about potions now?"

"Sure," Aurora said.

Marina then brought her bag to the table and pulled out two small bottles of potion. The color was transparent, almost exactly like normal water, but sometimes they could see something really small blinking in it.

"I was able to make three bottles," Marina said. "I drank one to test it. These are the remaining two."

She offered them to Aurora, who immediately picked it up. She passed one to Ruby and looked more closely at the one she was holding.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"So," Ruby said. "What kind of potion is this?"

"You can tell by the color of the potion," Aurora said. "It's an invisibility potion."

"What?" Ruby exclaimed in disbelief.

Aurora chuckled. "If you drink it, you'll disappear."

"Wha--really?" Ruby asked, looking at Marina. The white-haired girl nodded in confirmation.

"It's still not very effective though," Marina said. "One bottle only works for about a minute, it won't be enough for anything."

"No, no, no," Ruby said. "Before this, I didn't even know this kind of potion existed!"

"Of course not," Aurora said. "That's why Marina had a hard time creating it, right?"

"How come you guys are so calm?" Ruby asked, frustrated. "Don't you realize how dangerous this is?"

"That's why it's better that I'm the one who has it, right?" Aurora said.

"But what if information about this potion leaked...?" Ruby asked.

"Don't worry," Marina said. "I worked on it alone, secretly. I didn't even tell Oliver about it."

Oliver, one of the capture targets who is good at making potions. It seems he was the least affected by Nova, probably because he is still somewhat of a rival with Marina, despite Nova's attempts to get close to him.

"Anyway," Marina said, "I'll do my best to improve it."

Aurora was about to give her a compliment and reassure her that she didn't need to force herself too hard. But remembering what happened in the classroom, the words got stuck in her throat.

She shouldn't be too kind.

"Okay," Aurora said instead, "if you need more ingredients, just let Lyra know and she'll bring more."

Marina nodded in response.

Ruby noticed that, even though Aurora was smiling, she seemed a bit off. But she couldn't tell why.

"Anyway," Aurora said, looking at Ruby. "Do you want to try drinking it?"

"What?" Ruby replied. "Isn't that such a waste?"

"Fair enough," Aurora said. "I trust Marina, so we don't really need to test it anyway. Why don't you keep it? It might be useful for something."

"Are you sure?" Ruby asked.

Aurora smiled and nodded. But again, Ruby felt something was off about her.

***

That night, Aurora walked to the library with a heavy heart. She didn't look too happy as she opened the library door. She wasn't in the mood to come here, or to do anything for that matter, but she forced herself to do it. She needed to talk about James with Sera as soon as possible.

As usual, Sera was there. When she saw Aurora, Sera's expression brightened up, which made Aurora feel a little better and she smiled.

"Hey," Aurora said.

"I've been waiting for you," Sera said. "I-I mean..."

"What are you reading?" Aurora asked, getting closer and looking at the book Sera was holding.

"Oh, this is a new novel that just arrived," Sera said.

"Is it another mystery book?" Aurora asked.

Sera blushed a little and shook her head. "Romance," she whispered.

Aurora smiled. "Why are you embarrassed just because you're reading romance?"

"I-I mean it's not my usual read..." Sera stammered.

"What's wrong with that?" Aurora asked. "It's good to read a variety of books."

Sera nodded, but she still looked nervous.

"But why the sudden interest in romance?" Aurora asked. "Don't tell me you've just fallen in love?" Aurora teased, but when she saw Sera's face redden, she knew her guess was right.

"O-oh, there's nothing wrong with that," Aurora said, feeling a little panicked. "I mean, it's normal. I mean..."

Aurora wasn't sure what she should say. She knew what she wanted to ask. "Who is it? Why?" But Aurora wasn't sure she should pry about something like that.

Still, one nagging question was bothering her.

"It's not James, right?" Aurora asked, worried.

It would be a disaster if she still ended up falling for him. He's a criminal now after all, Aurora thought.

"No, no, no," Sera said. "Of course not! Please believe me!"

"Okay," Aurora said, relieved. Looking at how desperate Sera was, Aurora felt she could trust her. Hopefully, Sera was disillusioned with him after what had happened.

"Talking about that," Aurora said, "can I ask you something?"

"Ye-yes?" Sera said, looking nervous.

"Can you tell me more about that forest James wants to enter? The Molten Forest or something?" Aurora asked.

"Oh, about that," Sera said, looking disappointed.

"What? You want to talk more about love?" Aurora asked.

"No, no, let's talk about that forest," Sera said, panicked.

Aurora giggled, "Okay, but if you want to talk about love, just tell me."

Sera shook her head. "Forest good. Let's talk about that."

"Alright," Aurora said. "So what can you tell me about it? Like, what kind of trees grow there?"

"I believe most of the forest contains corrupted trees," Sera said. "Do you know that tree? It's twisted and crooked, with no leaves or fruit. Normal animals have a hard time living there, but it's full of mana, so many monsters make their homes there instead."

"I see," Aurora said. "What kind of monsters usually live there?"

"The most dangerous ones are mostly things like giant wolves or bears with four arms," Sera said.

"And they won't attack you?" Aurora asked.

Sera nodded. "Since we own the land, for some reason the monsters don't attack us. I'm not sure why, though. And if you think it's a good place to hide, that might not be entirely true."

"Why?"

"As I said, most of the trees in the forest are corrupted tree, right?" Sera said

"So it's impossible to find food. Sure, it will protect us from outside attacks, but if we don't have a way to find food, we won't last a week there."

"That makes sense," Aurora said.

But does that mean James or Nova's goal was not to use it as a hiding place? Aurora thought. Then why do they want to enter it?

"Is there anything special about it?" Aurora asked. "Compared to other forests. Anything is fine."

Sera thought for a moment. "Well, there is a unique monster that only lives there," Sera said. "But I'm not really sure about that."

"What is it?" Aurora asked eagerly.

"It's called the Crystal Muncher," Sera said. "It's a weird snail-like creature with really sharp teeth. It can hurt you, but it's slow, so it's mostly not dangerous. But it has a special ability."

"And what is that?" Aurora asked.

"It can eat magic crystals and become stronger and faster," Sera said. "Although, even if it eats some crystals from other monsters' dead bodies, it is still an easy prey. Usually it never becomes strong enough to be a predator."

Aurora nodded. Some ideas are starting to form in her mind.

"So... is that what you wanted to know?" Sera asked. "Or do you want to know something else?"

"I'm not sure yet," Aurora said. "Is there anything else you can tell me?"

***