“Um… Um…” Nicole kept repeating every few minutes as she hesitantly looked at Asteora, who was walking along with us to the Tainted Land.

After meeting with her at the entrance of the building, my old magic master decided to join me in whatever it is that I was planning to do. She didn’t even bother asking what I was doing as she simply said she was going to follow and watch.

It felt somewhat strange to have her looking over me like it had been a few years ago, and more so now that I knew that she had been working together with Salrak until the very end. But I realized that if in the end she was helping Salrak, then she was likely also thinking of what was best for the world… which wasn’t me.

Despite her age, Asteora was still a very attractive elf, and so, in these crowded roads and with all the people rushing and going this early in the morning, she was already attracting a lot of attention from people who would either stop to look at her, or hold the stare as their heads turned.

I was also someone who caused people to turn their eyes to look at me, but for some reason, Asteora seemed to be bringing in more attention than I did; much more than even in our old world, where she wasn’t this popular, which was unusual.

With a fugitive glance, I looked at her. She was leisurely walking along with us, not really paying attention to anyone—not even the shy Nicole who kept ‘umming’ without saying a single word to her.

Asteora didn’t look too different from how she looked back in our world, so I couldn’t understand why so many people in this world were stopping to look at her, or even why Nicole was this bashful with her.

“Um… Um…” Nicole repeated once more.

Finally, Asteora sighed and turned a soft smile to Nicole, who somewhat recoiled by that. “What is it that you want to say, child?”

“Um… Um!” Nicole repeated once more, before taking a breath and calming herself. “Um… A-are you… are you that Asteora?”

I couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow as I looked at Nicole, but her attention was placed solely on Asteora, who simply tilted her head slightly while carrying the same soft smile.

“That Asteora? What does that mean?” she asked.

“Y-y’know…” Nicole trailed off.

“I do…? I’m not sure,” Asteora replied, acting as if she couldn’t understand what the girl meant. However, I actually didn’t understand what Nicole was talking about.

“T-the SSS Rank Mage, Asteora…!” Nicole elaborated and I turned to look at Asteora to see what her reaction was.

“Ah…!” she exclaimed, poorly acting as if she just now realized what the girl meant. “That’s what you meant,” she threw a coy smile at Nicole. “What do you think?”

“W-w-well, I don’t know… you look super similar to her, a-and a few people are paying attention to you…” Nicole said, looking around the roads at the people who were also staring at Asteora.

“So… what do you think?” Asteora pressed, carrying the same soft smile.

“I-I-I… well…” Nicole’s eyes shifted from one place to another, her cheeks flushing slightly. “I-I think that you… might be?”

“I might be?” Asteora asked back, tilting her head slightly as she placed a finger on her chin. “I’m not really sure about what you’re trying to say if you don’t say it.”

Nicole took another couple of quick, deep breaths, and turned to look at Asteora with a hesitant smile. “I-I think that you are.”

Asteora widely smiled and nodded her head. “That I am indeed.”

Nicole gasped and nearly passed out, which prompted me to quickly move to try to catch her, but she recovered herself before I did anything. The girl looked wide eyed at Asteora for a moment, before a quiet screech came out of her.

Asteora didn’t seem all that bothered by her reaction as she simply chuckled and continued walking along with us.

I personally couldn’t quite understand what the fuss was all about. I had known Asteora for many years, and despite the deceit at the end of it all, her personality appeared to be the same, so for me, she was nothing more than just a normal woman with extraordinary power.

“I-I-I!” Nicole stuttered as she looked at me with extreme excitement. “I can’t believe your master is that Asteora! Why didn’t you say so before?!”

“Well…” I turned to look at the leisurely walking Asteora, who was looking at me with the same coy smile from before. “I didn’t think she would still be alive.”

“How?! She’s one of—if not the most—famous woman in the world! Anyone that does magic knows who she is!” Nicole continued, widely waving her arms around.

“Hm… I guess I never really paid attention…” I replied.

Asteora looked at me with a raised eyebrow. “Hm? Does this child… not know about you and your past?”

I shook my head with a tight-lipped smile. “I don’t really like to say anything about that, especially right now when… I don’t have what I used to have.”

“Hm…” she replied, considering me with a thoughtful look, before shrugging. “Oh well, that’s up to you.”

“You should really tell me about it, Althea! I want to know who else you know!” Nicole exclaimed, giving me an excited look.

I thought about it for a moment as we took a few steps. It felt somewhat weird to think about the fact that I used to be the most powerful being in our world—second probably only to the Holy Gods themselves—so saying that I used that power to kill a God and doom our world… was something that only Asteora actually knew and that I wasn’t ready to disclose to anyone else.

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“Perhaps… later,” I dismissively said.

Nicole puffed her cheek and growled. “Okay… I’m going to be waiting, but don’t keep me waiting too long, okay?!”

“I can’t promise anything,” I said, avoiding her shining eyes.

“Come on!” Nicole exclaimed but didn’t press it any further as we kept walking.

Some distance later, I noticed something strange, even amongst the river of people that were opening up for us while staring in awe at Asteora.

Some of these people were taking their phones and pointing the back side to her. It was somewhat annoying, but after thinking about it, I remembered that they were likely taking one of those instant portraits of Asteora.

It was then that I noticed someone took out a weird artifact. I stopped and frowned as I looked at it, Asteora and Nicole stopping a step ahead to look at me with a confused expression.

I could understand Nicole not noticing it, but I didn’t know why Asteora wouldn’t, so I pointed it out with a finger. The two of them turned to look back at the man with the strange artifact, but it didn’t seem like they were bothered by it.

“What is it?” Nicole asked, unaware of what I was pointing out.

“Ah. A paparazzi,” Asteora said with a calm, yet annoyed tone of voice. “Those are indeed annoying, but you can ignore them.”

“A ‘paparazzi’? Are they dangerous? Should we do something about them?” I asked, and I readied myself to set up a barrier in case that the artifact in the man’s hand fired an arrow tip or something like that.

“No. Like I said, you should just ignore them. Doing something to them could be a bit of a headache,” Asteora said with a sigh. “We should hurry.”

I still wasn’t comfortable with the man aiming that artifact at us, but if Asteora didn’t worry about it, then I should try to ignore it and do as she says. Luckily, the Tainted Land wasn’t so far, so we should be able to reach it in a few minutes.

As we were walking, I could hear the murmurs of the people that were watching us. Some of them pointing their fingers, and others pulling a phone to do the same thing that other people have been doing. It got to the point where I saw some of them following us.

“Is it always like this?” I asked, my head half-turned to see behind us.

“I usually don’t walk on the streets, much less travel to other countries to do so,” Asteora said without turning to look at anyone else. “You should see how it gets in some other places of the world when people actually know that I’m there.”

“Yeah! I was going to ask you about that! How come your visit wasn’t announced on social media or on the news?” Nicole asked.

“Hmm…” she trailed off and glanced at me. “Because it was on official, important business that couldn’t be discussed—it’s classified, as some self-important fellows in this world say.”

“Huh?” Nicole replied, looking between me and Asteora. “Is there something important going on between the two of you?”

“You could say that, yes,” Asteora answered with a soft smile.

I didn’t elaborate on the implication behind her words and focused more on the building that was standing in front of us. “We’re finally here.”

“Come, lets—”

“E-e-excuse me!” a woman in armor and a spear on her back quickly approached us—Asteora in particular. “Y-you’re the SSS rank mage Asteora, right?”

Asteora didn’t reply to the woman as she simply glanced at her with an expressionless face.

The woman didn’t mind it and pulled out a piece of paper and a pen from who-knows-where. “C-can I have your autograph!?”

An Autograph? I didn’t see the reason for anyone to ask for my master’s signature on a piece of paper, but judging by the woman’s expression, it looked as if she was asking my master for the greatest thing ever.

Asteora, on the other hand, remained expressionless without taking either the pen nor the paper. The woman’s expression faltered slightly, but after a few seconds, Asteora swiped her hand in the air, and her name appeared on the piece of paper.

The woman’s face brightened, turning a bright smile to my master. “T-thank you!”

Saying that, the woman quickly stored the piece of paper and took a few steps back to watch from afar with another group of people who appeared just as excited as she was about her getting Asteora’s name on a piece of paper.

“What was that?” I asked, still unable to understand why these people were acting this way.

“Just a little something that people like to collect,” Asteora replied, still looking at the woman who was excitedly talking to the other group of people. “She could sell that little piece of paper with my name on it for a good deal of money.”

I raised my eyebrows and looked surprised at the woman. “Really? Then, do you do that?”

Asteora mockingly laughed, shaking her head. “Of course not. It only has value because there’s not too many of them—Besides, I’m not in need of money, so there’s no point in doing something like that.”

I lowered my face slightly and thought about the possibility of doing such a thing for money instead of going to the Tainted Land, but I felt Asteora and Nicole’s gazes on me, so I turned my face to look at them.

“Don’t even bother thinking about it,” Asteora said with a smirk. “Your name’s worth nothing in this world, and less for some—rather, you should focus on what you came here to do.”

I felt somewhat embarrassed about the idea that floated in my mind for a moment, so I nodded and quickly walked past them to go inside the building. Not only to leave that idea behind, but also because there were more people gathering at the entrance of the building.

Once inside the building, the few people that usually worked on a few desks turned to look at me, Nicole, and Asteora walking in. Some of them appeared to be confused about the commotion, but most of them quickly realized who my master was, their expressions turning to complete surprise, just like some of the people outside.

Not wasting any time to get to us, the woman that had greeted me last time quickly rushed over to me while keeping her eyes on Asteora. “Hello! And welcome to the Capital Magic Labyrinth! To what do we owe this surprise visit?”

“Me? I’m just watching… don’t mind me,” Asteora dismissively replied.

“Oh? That wouldn’t do at all! Please, whatever you need, don’t hesitate to say it—in fact, I shall accompany you for anything that you’re looking for,” the woman quickly replied with a smile, turning to gesture to the rest of the building with her hand. “From the entrance to the Magic Red Zone, to the resting areas, and even the executive offices; anything that you need, I’ll take you there.”

Asteora didn’t pay her any mind as she just looked around the building. There were still people gathering outside the building, but the few guards by the entrance were keeping anyone that didn’t have an ID, or gear, from coming in. However, even then, there were plenty of people taking portraits with their phones from the windows and even a couple of them demanding to be let in.

“H-how about we go to see Bo’guth?” Nicole suggested, looking somewhat shy about the whole ordeal by now.

“If it’s the Director’s office, then please follow me. He should still be having some time to get ready for the day, so it shouldn’t be a problem for him—not that there would be for someone like you, Lady Asteora.”

I was surprised to see that even this woman knew my master by name despite not being introduced to her.

Regardless, with a nod, we followed her, just like last time we were here.

As we were passing by a few of the other people working on the desks and the handful of people that appeared to be ready to go to war, I noticed that just as everyone else outside, they were all focused on my master; but some of them were leering daggers at the woman leading us, who ignored them all.

With the same turns as the last time we were here, we quickly reached Bo’guth’s office, and similar to last time, the woman quickly knocked a couple of times, before opening the door. “Director, there’s an important guest that—”

As soon as she opened the door, we were met with the demon sitting on the floor with the same elegant black clothes and his torso stretched forward as he tried to reach the tip of his goat-like legs.

“O-oh… Sorry, I didn’t know you were in the middle of your stretches… but…” the woman that led us here said with a wry smile, before gesturing to Asteora. “There’s a very, very, very important guest here.”

“Ahem,” Bo’guth replied, quickly standing up and arranging his clothes as he put up a forced smile. “Welcome!”