If someone told the "me" from the Last Cycle that I'd be happy to see Miranda, "that me" would have just twirled a finger at his temple, considering the person saying such a thing insane. Yet the current me is genuinely happy to see her. I have no idea how she ended up here, as I highly doubt she managed to amass enough gold for such a long Jump. Regardless, I'm still glad. It's heartening to see someone I left behind on Unudo alive and well, even if that someone is Miranda.

I did two spins with the girl on my neck, then gently set the sorceress down on the ground. I pushed her away at arm's length, examining her more closely before breaking into a broad smile. I wanted to compliment her - despite the recent training fight, she looked great - but I didn't get the chance. Seven earthlings burst into the yard at once. The four who had run off a minute earlier had brought three more for backup. So, I misjudged them, thinking they'd abandoned the girl to be bullied by the hooligans. They did everything right. Uncertain they could handle Molly Moon's gang themselves, they found help and immediately returned. Commendable; I should remember their faces and names, if possible.

"Anyone have any objections to this trio lying here to rest?" I asked, straightening up and addressing the late reinforcements with a light smirk.

"They should be moved out of the sun, or the poor things might overheat," Miranda frowned.

True to her word, the girl grabbed Molly by the ankle and dragged her into the shade. While pulling the unconscious body, she made sure that the one who had dared throw sand at her now had her face scraping against that same sand. Following Miranda's lead, I picked up Bushe George and Pyotr Grotter by their ankles and carried them head-down into the shade, laying one on top of the other with exaggerated care, like stacking wood. I then turned back to the earthlings who had been standing still, gazing at us in astonishment all this time.

"So, regarding the objections? Does anyone have any?"

All seven pairs of eyes were fixated on the Steel Sign of a tunneller on my chest. Finally, one of them, apparently the most quick-witted, stepped forward and raised his hands, showing two open palms.

"No objections at all. This trio has been a pain in everyone's liver for the past few days. By the way, my name is Serge Barclay."

I shook the extended hand and introduced myself in return.

"Raven from Seattle. I have a favor to ask, Serge." Wrapping an arm around the guy's shoulders, I turned him towards the unconscious bodies. "If these guys wake up full of righteous anger and vengeance, could you tell them I'll be dining at 'The Blue Butterfly'? It's just down the street to the south."

"I don't think they..." Serge began with a smile but, catching the cold look in my eyes and glancing again at the Steel Sign of a tunneller on my chest, he swallowed hard and quickly nodded. "Alright, I'll pass the message."

"By the way," I addressed the crowd, "if nothing extraordinary happens, I will conduct an open and free training session for everyone interested - right here, this evening." I extended my hand to Miranda, "Are you joining me? I'm starving."

"When have I ever turned down food?" She grinned, bypassing my palm and hooking her arm into my elbow.

As we stepped out onto the street, I overheard one of the earthlings whisper in awe, "Is he THAT Raven?!"

Miranda heard it, too, and instinctively ducked her head into her shoulders. But she quickly regained her composure and looked at me challengingly.

"All they talk about is Arien this, Arien that, Arien's so great," the mage grimaced. "It's annoying! So, I told them there are people far more impressive than their Arien."

"And you used me as an example..." I facepalmed.

"Well, who else?" Miranda feigned outrage. "I certainly wasn't going to bring up Ilona or, gods forbid, Flavius!"

"And what exactly did you tell them?"

"Oh, this and that. Just enough to get them off my back with their Arien."

"I've heard the list of all the 'great deeds of that Arien,' and it took the speaker half an hour just to list them. So, I find it hard to believe your 'this and that'."

"Look! I didn't know you'd show up here!" she defended herself, presenting her main argument. "So, I made up some stuff..."

Given my past memory, I knew the extent of her wild imagination and the rumors she could spread about a person if she wished to. I inwardly cringed at her 'I made up some stuff'.

"Don't worry!" She smiled with that unmatched spontaneity only truly gorgeous people possess. "In my stories, you're a real hero!"

I was about to reprimand her when our entrance into the tavern named "The Blue Butterfly," recommended by Gianni, saved her. The place boasted authentic kebabs, cooked following a recipe of one of the earthlings. We placed our order, and I closely observed Miranda, who, unembarrassed, did the same to me.

I must admit, the mage surprised, even shocked me. Not by the fact that we met here – that's a curious but trivial matter. What unsettled me was something else, specifically how this Miranda regarded Arien.

Miranda of the past idolized Arien, and she did so long before the latter even thought about ascending the Stairway of Divino. She was madly in love with the future Goddess of Spontaneous Magic. In love in every sense: from physical desire to the readiness to give her life for Arien without hesitation. However, the current Arien somehow infuriates Miranda. Not angers, but specifically irritates, probably with her success and the fact that everything she attempts, she accomplishes.

Most likely, this difference is due to the discrepancy in starting positions in the Cycles. In the past, Miranda belonged to the same group as Arien and immediately fell under the roller of the future goddess' charisma. This time, they met when Miranda had already settled in the new world and accomplished something on her own. Moreover, everything Miranda achieved was earned with sweat, blood, and pain. Against this backdrop, she encounters Arien, who seems like a real darling of fate. And if you remember Miranda's not-so-easy character, instead of love, irritation and even anger have developed this time.

This is bad! Very much so. No matter how I related to the "past Miranda," she was incredibly useful and was among the top five earthling mages in power. If she parts ways with Arien in this Cycle, it will be a catastrophe. Like me, she needs a ritual to unlock her potential, the one that the future goddess found in the abandoned temple of Magevra. Moreover, Miranda often pulled Arien out of various troubles and was the right hand of the future goddess. The two of them worked excellently together, and if they do not come together in this Cycle, it will ultimately result in a significant loss for all earthlings.

"Spill it!" Having taken a sip of young wine, the sorceress was the first to break the silence.

"Well, no." I shake my head in response, "You first."

"At least tell me - how did you end up here? So far away from the Archipelago!" Miranda insists.

I decided to give in to her on this trifle:

"It's simple in my case. Saved up some money, and with all the gold I had, I Leapt towards Pentapolis."

"Leapt?" The girl didn't understand me.

"Went through Sundbad's Gates; you must have heard of them."

"I've heard, yes, but as I understood, to pay for such a transition, you'd need to part with kilograms of gold!" She was either exaggerating or, more likely, didn't know the real prices for Leaps.

"As they say in Haifa: 'If a problem can be solved with money, then it's not a problem, but an expense'." I shrugged and immediately asked a question, "Judging by your surprise, you got to these parts some other way?"

"Is that really what they say in Haifa?" She tried to change the subject, but seeing my look, she winced and, waving her hand, began to speak. "Yes. In short, we were made fools of." These words come hard to her. "We, all of us: me, Ilona, Flavius - we always stuck together. We completed the Rank Elevation task. Then, we also found an Affinity for each of us together. It, by the way, was not that difficult; there are islands of all Elements in the Archipelago, and if there you... well, anyway... it doesn't matter." She waved it off. "Everything was going well for us, but Ilona got obsessed with one thing." The girl looked into my eyes and said with a bit of bitterness. "She got it into her head that we had to find you. And since you said you would be waiting for us in Pentapolis, we started looking for ways to get there." She finished off her wine in one gulp and filled her glass to the brim again. "I suggested the easiest thing. Just to sail west on passing ships, leveling up on the way and during stops. Besides, for such a long journey, we would have gathered many unique Achievements! Come on, it's a sensible plan, isn't it!"

"Sensible." I agreed with this, but I didn't believe that it was she who made such a suggestion.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Most likely, it was the other way around, and it was Ilona who suggested a leisurely voyage, while Miranda wanted to find a faster way. But I kept these thoughts to myself, only giving the girl an encouraging look over my glass, inviting her to continue the story.

"One time, Flavius overheard a story about some Portal Island in a seedy port tavern. Turns out, the island wasn't a fairy tale but a real place. On it, you can find wandering Portals that can send you to any point in Ain," Miranda smiled. "There's just one catch - it's random. It might take you to the central square of Deytran or drop you in the middle of the ocean or into the maw of an active volcano. A lottery, as you can understand. We were sensible enough not to take the risk. That was until we met a Sapphire mage who heard us discussing the Portal Island and 'volunteered to help' us. Not for free, of course. On that island live extremely rare mirror crabs. In exchange for these creatures, the mage promised to teach us a special ritual to control the Portals at will, meaning we could set the Transition point ourselves. Sadly, we were too naive and believed him. As you've probably guessed," she winked at me, "the mage knew no such secret. He simply used us to obtain the rare crabs he needed. When one of the Portals started following me, I began performing the 'ritual' the fraudster mage 'taught' us, but instead of Deytran, I found myself almost naked and without equipment, splashing in the water. I immediately realized we'd been duped and was preparing to drown when I accidentally took a gulp of water and realized it was fresh." She gestured somewhere northeast. "I didn't end up here, but near the city of Balkar, about thirty kilometers north of Katiyer. I was lucky that I'd clutched onto one of the mirror crabs we'd caught on the island so tightly out of fear that I didn't let it go until I made it, almost in the state I was born, to the shore. I sold that crab for over a hundred gold and restocked everything anew. Then, three days ago, I heard about this strange exam and rushed here, hoping to find Ilona or Flavius. Alas... I don't know where they are. Maybe they, like me, were thrown somewhere by a wandering Portal? Or maybe they managed to avoid them, collected enough mirror crabs, and struck it rich? I don't know." The girl spread her arms in frustration.

All the while she spoke, I observed her facial expressions and hand movements closely, looking for signs of deceit but found none, except for the moment when she portrayed Ilona as seeking faster paths. I could see the difficulty Miranda had in telling this story. Admitting her miscalculations was something she definitely despised in the Last Cycle. Here, I could see she was shaking with anger, yet she was acknowledging her mistakes. This contrasted so strongly with the Miranda I "remembered" that I needed time to adapt to this change. To adapt and accept that the current Miranda wasn't equivalent to her previous self. It's highly probable that part of her transformation is, so to speak, on my conscience. And this change likely applies to all those I "remember." Realizing this simple speculative assumption, mildly put, unsettles me. Perhaps the current Arien is nothing like the one I "remembered."

"Well, don't make that face," Miranda took my emerging emotions personally. "I'm sure you've messed up too."

"Oh, you have no idea!" I laughed, recalling my encounters in the Wicked Woods.

While we waited for our meat, I asked the girl about Flavius and Ilona. However, I only learned that everything was fine with them until the journey to Portal Island. The former florist even underwent a special ritual and became a wandering priestess of Ishii. The guy, known to me for his assertiveness and straightforwardness, found himself an axe-wielding teacher and learned three basic techniques of this combat school. Miranda was silent about her own successes, to my mild surprise. Apparently, she feared comparing her achievements with what Arien had pulled off. Nevertheless, I was sure that the Affinity she managed to obtain was not the most impressive of her achievements. Because, no matter how much she had changed, she remained herself at the core, just as persistent and driven.

"The meat is truly delicious here," the mage said with a mouth full of kebab.

"Yes, Gianni didn't lie," I too appreciated the chef's preparation.

"So, Armani directed you here?" The girl smiled. "That Gianni is a real gem, although, in my opinion, he chose an overly audacious name for himself! He's the only one I've met in this damn world who makes decent, comfortable underwear! Locals don't understand a damn thing about it," she confidently stated. "Once I get some money, I'll immediately buy two, no three, no, four sets from him! In addition to the ones I already bought from him. This guy will become a local millionaire just on earthling girls! I'm sure of it, and I even offered to invest in his shop on a partnership basis. But he refused for now."

"Yes, an intriguing person," I agreed with her emotion-filled speech. "Just like Arien, right?" Lifting her gaze above the plate, Miranda pretended not to understand my question. "You've met her already."

"Well, yes," the girl shrugged. "I even passed her damn test. I combined two spells and cracked the block at the very top of that damn tower." Oh, so it was her, not Arien, who managed that. She's strong, really strong.

"So you're in Ainuminati?" I clarified. "But I don't see the Guild's Sign on your clothes."

"No-o-o-o," the girl waved off as if from an annoying fly. "I refused her. And I took the test not for her but to prove to myself that I could," she saluted herself with the kebab, "and I managed! And her guild… I said I'd think about it, but I will likely turn it down."

"You'll regret that," I responded. It would be bad if the paths of these two people diverged in this Cycle. "From everything I've heard, this Arien can be very useful."

"Raven, can I tell you once, and we close this topic?" Putting down her food, Miranda intertwined her fingers and looked me in the eyes.

"Alright."

"Arien," Miranda smiled but winced at the same time. "Everything they say about her is, I think, true. She's magnificent. Without exaggeration - magnificent. And I usually have two conflicting reactions to such people." The girl sighed heavily, "I either fall madly in love with them, or they begin to irritate me to the point of grinding my teeth. And this first reaction stays with me; this impression is unchangeable. Believe me, on Earth, I worked on this with a psychologist - to no effect. And as you've guessed, I didn't fall for Arien's magnificence." She laughed softly. "I can't put into words how infuriated I am by this bit... this very talented woman! Everything she touches turns to gold. If she spits in a corner, a rose will bloom there; if she goes to the bathroom, she'll find a pot of gold." The girl rolled her eyes. "I would strangle her with my bare hands!!!" Then she corrected herself immediately, "No, I'm not serious about the 'strangling' part. But oh, how she annoys me!"

"Here, drink some wine." I filled her glass and placed it directly in her hand. "And breathe deeply."

"Ha! She's not even here, and I'm still furious." Miranda chuckled at herself. "Let's change the topic, or I'll down a couple more glasses and go punch her mu... face."

"Well, since you asked to change the subject," I folded my hands and rested my chin on them. "Spill it - what have you been telling them about me?"

"Oh, nothing much," she pretended to be engrossed in her food, but I didn't buy it. "Seriously, nothing much!"

"All the more reason I want to hear it." I winked, "Now I have to live up to public opinion!"

"Live up to?!" Miranda asked and then burst into delightful laughter. "I'd like to see you trying to live up to the stories I told about you!" Tears of laughter appeared in the corners of her beautiful eyes. "Dreamer!"

"Let's not get hysterical."

"Live up to..." The girl snorted with laughter, wiped her face with her palms, and, blushing like a lobster, looked at me. "Alright. Listen. Firstly, I didn't mean anything bad. Secondly, I just wanted to counter those Arien worshippers with something. Your name popped up in my memory accidentally, I swear! Initially, I wanted to bring up Flavius, but I couldn't utter his name in the context of praise and heroics." She giggled again.

"But you could utter mine." Tilting my head, I flashed one of my less-kind smiles.

"That's your own fault." Her mood switched instantly; she became serious, leaned back in her chair, and folded her arms across her chest. "Breaking people's bones during a regular training session - I had never even imagined such a thing in my life until I met you. By the way, potions are potions, but it hurt as if I had regular fractures and bruises."

"You all seemed too relaxed to me back then." I shrugged, making it clear that I didn't regret what I had done on Unudo.

"Yeah. Now I understand you were right. But it doesn't cancel the fact that it hurt back then. Anyway, for the role of someone who could hypothetically outdo Arien, your image fit best. And you picked a cool name. Raven. People tend to believe stories about someone called like that."

"Don't you think your backstory is dragging on a bit?" I clicked my tongue, hinting.

"Fine," Miranda yielded and began to count on her fingers. "First, after they told me that Arien has three Affinities with the Elements, it seemed petty to say something like, 'Raven has four affinities!' Agree, it would sound childish." She waited for my nod of agreement and continued, "So, I stated that anyone can have an Affinity with the Elements and showed mine as proof. Then I said that you, supposedly, have an affinity with one of the Primordial Powers - without specifying which one. Then, responding to their stories of Arien's 'feats,' I said that you, unlike her, have real feats, not just workplace achievements! Knowing from one of the captains that you passed the qualifying round at the Great Tournament in Tries... well, I exaggerated a little," the girl showed the tip of her pinkie, "and said that you won that Tournament, defeating all the local champions. Don't look at me like that. I know it's silly because, unlike us, the local champions are gods with weapons! But understand, I got carried away, and well... I didn't mean any harm. Then they said Arien would soon receive a noble title, to which I responded... 'Raven already has one!' Could I have said anything else? If I started lying, I had to go all the way, no backing down! Goebbels, although a fascist and a scumbag, was right in many ways when he said the more grandiose the lie, the more eagerly people believe it. Anyway, I couldn't hold my tongue. When they mentioned Arien's three Adamantium Achievements, I claimed you had five! I admit, I could have been more modest and said four, but I was out of control! My tongue led me, not the other way around! When they said Arien was the first among the local earthlings to reach Steel, I said you were long past Steel and probably already Wootz. Stop! Raven! Don't look at me like that! I didn't mean any harm!"

"Actually, I... want to ask... Have you ever noticed you have a talent for clairvoyance?"

"What?!" Miranda didn't get me.

"First, Affinity with a Primordial Power." A dim, warm Light ignited above my palm. "Second, I indeed won the Grand Tournament under the auspices of the Great Alchemists' Guild, even defeating the local champions, as you narrated. Third, the noble title," I placed the Noble's Brooch on the table between us. "Fourth, about the five Adamantium Achievements. Visualize." I spread my fingers, revealing a Sign of an Adamantium Achievement floating above each. "Fifth, about my rank. Since I haven't made my mark in the Guild yet, my Tunneller's Sign is a bit deceptive. It's lagging behind, so to speak. Visualize."

"You're... Wootz?!!" Miranda whispered, covering her mouth with both hands, her voice escalating into a hoarse shout.

"So, did you have any witches in your ancestry by any chance?"

"Raven?! Raven!! I was just joking!" Noticing that I was leaning towards her across the table, the girl started babbling in Aun's manner. "I was spouting nonsense! Raven, don't!!" She squeezed her eyes shut, but all I did was wipe away a smear of sauce from the corner of her mouth with the pad of my thumb.

"Chill out!" I laughed with a hint of sadness in my tone. "I'm not going to hurt you."

"Are you joking now?" Her gaze flitted between my hands and my face. "You started learning Illusion magic in Unudo, right? You're just messing with me to teach me a lesson about keeping my mouth shut! This was all a hallucination and illusion, right? Right?"

Instead of responding, I flicked a Nobility Brooch into her palm with a snap of my fingers.

"Hic!.. It's real. Hic!.."