«Firil»

Just a girl? Well, I will believe her. To believe I would get to witness such an amazing magician, at such a young age too! I want to ask her⁠— interrogate her. But, this is just my trembling heart speaking. She doesn’t have the best personality, but now knowing she can do such a thing with mana. I think she is rather humble, some nobles would have a worse personality compared to the one they already have if they had such power. I look forward to seeing the academy report… Wait… She got a letter of recommendation, but does not have a mentor? I hope there is no problem with the registration. Well, just in case I think I should inform her.

My steps came to a stop in the main hallway. I turned around and saw Gerard with an extremely pale complexion, but I did not really understand. I just gave him a weird look and started backtracking. I had to inform her after-all, although I could've sent Gerard to do it. I my mood was amazing, so I did it myself.

“My lord…” he quietly called for me, prompting me to look at him with an even more confused face. Gerard started trembling and then did a deep bow.

“I beg for forgiveness!” I became rather confused.

“About?” I just looked at him slightly twitch and lift himself up again.

“I-I made you question that girl…” Question? The banquet? Ah.

“Don’t worry about it,” I dismissed Gerard with a faint smile and continued walking.

What he did was wrong, but it all worked out. I am surprised she did not do anything to Gerard when he mentioned pointing spears. I mean, depending on her attributes she could easily blow up this entire house. Seeing that manipulation correlates to how strong the spells you cast are. Now that I think about it, is she a high-level Archmage? That’s hard to digest. I continued walking while thinking about useless things.

‘Ah.’ A dumb sound escaped my mouth as I saw the girls exiting the dining hall. Aizen was the first one to notice me. It seemed like her senses were sharp as ever. She had tilted her head with a puzzled look as she questioningly glanced at me.

I coughed. “Aizen, if you run into a problem regarding the academy registration. Let me know and I will see what I can do,” I quietly informed her. However, she just tilted her head.

“Can’t I show up there and give them the letter?” What’s with that logic.

“No?” I gave her a confused look.

“Then, can I ask you to help me already?” So bold!

I just quietly nodded. She approached me and handed me a letter. It seemed like a normal recommendation letter; I took it from her hand and bid my farewells. Gerard parted my side and guided the girls to the guest rooms. I went into my office to get things ready. Besides, how could I sleep after being so excited? Better put the energy to use.

* * *

«Aizen»

Firil asked me about the magic academy thing and I gave him Dan’s letter he went somewhere up-stairs. And now we were left with a pale butler; I kind of just quietly looked at him. Gerard stood there while fidgeting with his glove, he seemed rather nervous but I just continued to look at him; he really wasn't talking. He breathed in and out and then looked at us fixedly.

“I will guide you to the guest rooms.”

“Umm…” Cecil quietly intervened. “Can’t they stay in my room?”

“... If that’s what you wish.”

Gerard seemed somewhat awkward but complied to Cecil's request and guided us to her room. A problem emerged as soon as we entered, we had noticed something — there was only one bed. But I looked around some more and, actually; there was no problem. I had forgotten the ground was carpeted, and it seemed to be high-quality fabric.

“I will bring another be⁠—“

“No need,” I interrupted Gerard.

He gave me a weird look, but I just shook my head. He stiffened and quietly left the room. Cecil looked at the door with concern. But that did not matter to me. I scanned her room which seemed to be lit by some type of crystal on the roof. Well, the room was pretty okay, a desk and a bed, a few bookshelves filled to the brim with books. Kuro noticed the bookshelves and quietly scanned them as she approached them, she seemed to be looking for a book.

“Cecil, do you have any general knowledge books?” she suddenly asked.

“No?” She paused. “All I have that would be considered ‘general knowledge’ would be a monster bo⁠—“ she paused yet again and looked at Fenri with sparkling eyes.

“Woof?” He tilted his head in reaction to the sudden atmosphere change.

Cecil approached the bookshelf next to Kuro and started looking for something. She grabbed a black leather book with brown stripes on its spine. It seemed to be rather new seeing the black leather seemed soft and bright. She placed it on her desk and then looked at all of us with a smile of anticipation. I approached to see what was the whole book thing about. It did not take long before everyone was next to her looking at said book.

She opened it, and it showed rather normal things. General monster knowledge and how to skin monsters, such as demon boars. Despite their name, they were probably the weakest of all monsters. She seemed to be looking for something until she let out an ‘ah’ sound as she found herself on a page. The title read ⁠— ‘Winter Wolf.’ It did not take me more than a second to realize what she was looking for.

Kuro quietly but with interest looked at the page and started reading. In spite of the incredibly well-drawn illustrations it just… it did not look like Fenri at all. How to put it? It’s like comparing a horned-dragon to a dragon that has wings. One is just a lizard and the other one is a flying lizard. Big difference. Anyways, the wolf in the page looked rather aggressive and savage. Meanwhile, Fenri normally had calm eyes and did not even growl. It was like comparing a dog to a wolf. Cecil seemed to have realized this and tilted her head.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Yami, how come Fenri doesn’t resemble his own species?”

“Now that I think about it, he really doesn’t” Ari added.

Kuro began scratching her face and looked at me, I shrugged. I had absolutely no idea about it, besides isn’t Fenri max level and winter wolves like level one to ten? There is no comparison.

“I don’t know…” she sheepishly said as she averted her gaze and stared at the ground. I kind of understood her feeling, not knowing about your partner can be embarrassing.

Cecil and Ari looked at her in disbelief. Fenri quietly started consoling his owner (Kuro) as he rubbed himself against her and tried to jump on her. Well, he didn’t try, he slightly raised his front legs. but decided not to. Seeing Kuro was still in an awkward position because of Cecil and Ari; they were looking at her with disappointment. Fenri stared fixedly at her with slight pity. Before ultimately reconsidering his decision and decided it was best to jump on her.

“Wai⁠— aah!” She let out a cute sound as she hit the ground.

She started being lovingly groomed by Fenri, at first she was trying to move Fenri away but ended up laughing to the awkward situation. It was a rather unexpected development. Both of the girls were petrified. But I just looked at Fenri, he continued doing it, and continued… I grew jealous and jumped at Kuro. She was also mine!

“Aizen!?”

I couldn’t care less about her being flustered, so I hugged her. Fenri started licking both of us, it was fun.

“Ari, is it always like this?”

“Well, yes but actually no… How do I put it? It’s strange…”

I heard a conversation in the background, but I did not catch on about what they were saying. I continued having fun with the weird wolf and Kuro. After a few minutes, it all ended and we were sitting together on Cecil’s bed.

“Did Fenri always look like that? He doesn’t really resemble the drawing,” Cecil quietly asked Yami. She scratched her cheek and looked at Fenri fixedly.

“Well, I don’t remember him looking different, aside from not having bracelets…”

“... Now that I think about it, why does he have bracelets?” Ari suddenly asked.

“That is… Well, they are important for Fenri,” she avoided the question and then quietly whispered a single word in Ari’s ear. Her eyes widened for a brief moment before returning to normal.

“So, that’s how it was…” Ari quietly murmured. Cecil did not pick up on it so, she thankfully did not ask more about it.

I slept next to Fenri on the ground. Cecil gave me an extremely weird look, but I just told her something along the lines of ⁠— ‘Do you not sleep on the ground?’ while tilting my head. She started fidgeting and did not ask about it. I knew no one really slept on the ground but it was funny seeing her reaction.

* * *

I was woken up by Kuro’s shaking. It became so common that I gave up on being annoyed about it. Everyone seemed to have woken up. Gerard with a now normal complexion and way more relaxed than before had entered the room.

“Breakfast is ready.” After saying those words he left. It was a pretty brief moment, I just tilted my head in confusion.

“It’s always like that,” Cecil quietly informed me seeing my reaction. I nodded in response, I did not really know noble stuff, but why not bring the breakfast to me? I mean, if you are already going into the room where I am, just to tell me that — breakfast is ready? Might as well just bring breakfast with you…

We went downstairs and we were guided into the dining room. I still thought that such a big table was overkill. We had some bread and butter and eggs for some reason. Well, it was okay. I had never had eggs before, I wouldn’t say they were bad but they weren’t great either. Just acceptable.

Firil was probably busy, seeing he was nowhere to be seen. As we were about to leave Gerard entered the room.

“Milady, may I ask you to come with me?” Cecil tilted her head.

“Why?”

“Well, you know… We kind of need to file in another report with you and such…” he quietly informed her and, she quietly accepted it; going to Gerard after giving us her farewell. Kuro was absentmindedly thinking about something until she realized Gerard was leaving.

“Wait.” Gerard turned around and gave her a weird look.

“If we want to leave the mansion and then enter? “

“Ah, I forgot.” Gerard came to us. “Have this.” He handed Yami some type of metal plate with a crest on it.

“You should have no problems as long as you carry that card,” Gerard informed Kuro; who currently happened to have a confused look as she analyzed the card, it did resemble a card much. Gerard and Cecil left, Cecil seemed slightly sad having momentarily leave our side. Kuro pocketed the card and looked at us.

“Well, we need to go to the adventurers guild now.” We nodded.

Ari and I just left the mansion with Kuro.

We encountered a few nobles along the way. Some looked at us, tilted their heads and started questioning their house guards. Normally — the guard quietly shook his head and the noble started shouting at him. It wasn’t like that for all the nobles, some of them quietly accepted the responses, but a lot of them seemed to have a short fuse.

“It’s a rather common behaviour…” Ari dejectedly informed us.

We reached the academy which actually had students now. I managed to see a sharp-gazed elf entering the building, although he did do something weird before entering. It was quite far away, thankfully I have really good eyesight. It must have been the elf Cecil talked about. He did seem rather interesting, mostly because I noticed he bumped into a student and then chanted something before entering the building. The student fell to the ground and a few seconds later stood up with a confused look. The elf did not seem like the friendly type.

‘Really interesting,’ I excitedly muttered.

“Aizen?” Kuro suddenly gave me a questioning look.

“I was looking at the elf Cecil talked about,” I nonchalantly mentioned. She looked at the school, but the elf was long gone ⁠— seeing there was no elf she awkwardly tilted her head.

We resumed our walk and eventually, we exited the noble district. I did not notice before, but there were guards at the entrance. They looked bewildered by us, yet they did not approach us. I guess we were new faces. Kuro, on the other hand, approached one of the guards.

“Umm excuse me, where is the adventurer’s guild?”

“Ah, it’s over there young missy.” Kuro stiffened but nodded to the indication.

I chuckled seeing her reaction. She just gave me a piercing look, but I did not flinch. The reason to why Kuro had asked for directions was mostly because there were no guilds to be seen. The guard directed us north. It seemed like a really big street brimming with miscellaneous businesses. And there it was; an adventurer guild with an adventurer’s shop next to it. The signboard said ‘adventurer’s shop’ so there was no doubt about it.

We quietly approached the guild and entered. No one really noticed us, and the ones that did just tilted their heads and went back to their conversation. It was rather nice not having people throw a tantrum in front of us every time we stepped into a guild. I also noticed people seemed slightly stronger, I could just tell by looking at them. We arrived in front of the receptionist.

“Hello, what can I do for you? Request, registration or would you like to place a request?” She quickly and professionally questioned Yami. She flinched slightly, I think it was because it was the most straight-forward receptionist we had seen so far.

“Umm… We would like to submit a quest completion.” The receptionist nodded and accepted Yami’s scroll. She opened it and started reading the contents until her eyes went wide.

“W-wait… So, you are telling me, you girls were the only survivors of this hell quest?!” She seemed rather flustered. We just nodded not knowing what to say.

“What makes it a hell quest?” Ari suddenly asked.

“... It wasn’t really a hell quest, but the merchant reported every single adventurer died in it; with only a single surviving group. He even reported that a gold-ranked adventurer died!” Hearing this, the entire guild fixed their gazes on us.

‘Not this again...’ I grumbled as I heard a chair screech and heavy steps.

“So you're tellin’ me ya girls are adven⁠—“ He froze. I could slightly sense his bloodlust. For some reason, it seemed to be some kind of trend to try to bully little girls. So I just did what I had to do before it got out of hand.

“Can we just get the quest completion?” Kuro suddenly asked.

“Ah, yes! Guild cards please…” The receptionist recovered and continued the process.

We gave her our cards as requested. She used some type of magic and that was all; we started leaving the guild. We could not be bothered with useless quarrels anymore. Although everyone was either looking at us or at the frozen adventurer that seemed to be extremely drunk. Well, his eyes were now trembling in fear, so I guess that was a better change ⁠— we left the guild without much problem.

“Wait!” Someone suddenly called for us as we were stepping into the main street.