A large field stretched itself over Hikaru’s vision. In front of him was a scene most men could only dream of, even most kings.

A pile of gold that stood several meters high was materialising itself from the ground as if rising up from hell itself.

He knew of course, that this was due to being teleported here by magic only possible by Yuri and her incredibly valuable small dagger. Yet it still awed him to see this much wealth appear from seemingly thin air.

Delem on the other hand. Was jumping around like a kid in a candy store, bustling with excitement, his large body almost knocking into some of the magicians who were still concentrating on keeping the teleport circle stable. They frowned at Delem’s distracting behaviour.

They were magicians hired by Delem at Yuri’s request, and were generously paid to keep their mouths shut and do their work.

“It seems Yuri was successful.”

Looking over at the pile of gold that materialised its last part of itself with a sudden pop, making Delem jump back in surprise. Hikaru squinted slightly.

“Huhuhu! With this, I have now reacquired all of the city’s treasures..hah, take that, queen!”

Delem yelled at the top of his lungs while taking a big dive into the pile of gold before him, Which would have earned him a comment about a certain duck had Yuri been there.

“…What’s taking this long..”

Starting to get anxious, Hikaru tapped his foot. They had previously discussed the plan, where as soon as the gold was teleported over, Yuri would jump back through the more stable smaller portal.

It has now been several minutes, making him worry.

“Delem. Check if the mages are keeping the portal active and aren’t slacking off.”

He ordered the fat blob jumping around in the gold.

“Ah geez, I’m rich why should I do such a thing..”

He still did as he was told, despite complaining loudly.

“Yep, the portal seems active, maybe Miss Yuri is stuck trying to find the relic perhaps..?”

“No. We agreed upon Yuri’s immediate return. Even if the relic was right in front of her. I made sure of that…”

He was getting really worried. What if she had been caught right after making the magic circle, or maybe she got injured and couldn’t make her way back to the circle. Many such thoughts filled Hikaru’s head. He was so busy fretting that an hour had passed.

“Maybe we should stop for today, the mages are exhausted and if Miss Yuri still hasn’t gotten back by now..I’m afraid it’s too late for her now..”

Delem said solemnly. Although he was greedy and perverted and generally a horrible human being. He still felt some sadness as he said this.

“NO!” Hikaru yelled.

“Keep that portal up until the mages faint for all I care!”

He was furious about Delem even suggesting something like that. After all Yuri could still be in the vault, and if she was just about to go through the portal when it suddenly disappears in front of her.

That was something Hikaru dreaded. So he kept true to his words and kept the mages working until they fainted one by one. Making the teleport circle slowly disappear.

“God damnit…GOD DAMNIT!”

Hikaru yelled out in frustration. Delem stumbled back in fear and fell over a familiar painting which caught his eye.

“That painting..”

Hikaru ripped paper off and found that the back of the painting contained the teleport circle that Yuri was supposed to use in order to get back.

“At least now we know what happened..”

Delem looked at the torn painting with the now lifeless magic circle.

“I need to go save Yuri…Delem!” Hikaru snapped at the fat man.

“Y-yes?”

Slightly shaken and taken aback by the aggressive attitude of the Hikaru who always seemed to composed, Delem stuttered slightly.

“I need information on whether Yuri was caught or not. If so I need to know where they are keeping her, I need to know who captured her, when the vault opens or has been opened. Just get me everything.”

–

“I have done all I could, but there is simply no information about anyone that matches Yuri’s description!”

A large stack of papers containing reports of eye witnesses, bribed guards, and information about the mysterious ghostly disappearance of all the wealth in the city, was sitting on a table in front of Delem.

Some believed the disappearance had to do with the god Tyrs reckoning, as they were too blinded with gold instead of honour. Others believed demons of fallen gods. Yet nothing even mentioned anything remotely close to Yuri.

“What does this mean!?”

Hikaru slammed his hands against the table in frustration. It has been several days since they had done the heist on the city’s vault and in that time it seems that Yuri had just vanished from existence.

“Well, considering the magnitude of what was stolen..it’s unlikely that they would keep it a secret, not to mention the news of someone stealing a godly relic. It’s always better to have a scapegoat, but they haven’t said anything, which means they are completely clueless, even more than us.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Delem strokes his oily beard.

“But at the same time..if Yuri managed to escape, she would have made it back by now..and the fact that I can’t find any information even though I used a part of the wealth from the vault to pay off almost everyone in the city..is even more mysterious..”

He was stumped, it was the first time that he wasn’t able to use his wealth to acquire what he wanted, other than the queens panties of course.

“This is all my fault..if I hadn’t let Yuri here in the first place, we could have started off somewhere else with a simpler to acquire relic..”

Wearing a painful expression, Hikaru muttered to himself.

“The only information I could get that was of any use was the guards reports..but they don’t really mention anything other than some scratching on the floor..which was probably the remains of the giant teleport circle..”

Delem held onto two papers, One of which contained a summarised report of every guard, while the other had a drawing of the scratched covering the inside of the vault.

Yet no one had come to the conclusion that it was a teleport circle, as it was something unimaginable.

“Hmm..that’s weird..” Delem muttered.

“What is it. More confusion over not being able to spend your new wealth.”

Hikaru said in a bitter manner that was very unbecoming of him.

“No..it’s just this drawing..look.”

He put the drawing on the table in front of him.

“See these scratches here and there?” He pointed at some of the drawings of scratches that had a very large in between each of them.

“What about it..that’s Yuri’s teleport circle..”

“Correct, but look at these scratches..”

Delem pointed out a collection of scratches that were in very close proximity to each other and were outside the area of the other scratches.

“Hm..that’s weird..there should only be one magic circle..and this smaller one looks sloppy..”

Hikaru observed the sloppy almost random scratches.

“Exactly, why would Miss Yuri draw two magic circles.. wait let’s see..”

Delem fumbled around the pile of papers scattered around the room.

“Here it is, this is a more detailed drawing of the scratches, this one by an investigator rather than simple guards.”

He handed it to Hikaru.

“These ones are similar to the scratches of the big teleport circle..”

Things began to click in Hikarus head.

“This means..Yuri did teleport out. Because of her air headedness she forgot to take the painting out of the pile. Which got teleport back with the gold. Then Yuri having no way to teleport out. Was forced to try and draw a new magic circle. But doing something like that..she should know better than anybody that a teleport circle needs a connection to another circle..otherwise..who knows..that’s why they make all the letter teleport circles in the same place..so they are all connected to each other..but Yuri..if you didn’t teleport back to us..where the hell did you end up..”

–

Yuri slowly opened her eyes, and was met with a starry sky endowed with a large moon looking over her.

She slowly got up, rubbing her head and trying to remember what happened.

“Um…where am I…”

Looking around, she found out that she could see fairly well due to the light given off from the moon and the stars hanging above her.

She had a full view of the area around her. A plain field of long grass stretched around her without end. Near her was an old structure that looked like a stone door frame, covered in moss.

The middle of the stone frames had a small tree, that looked similar to an olive tree, although it bore golden fruits that Yuri recognised but couldn’t quite remember where she had seen.

“Hm..i am pretty hungry..i could try one of those..they seem tasty enough..”

She slowly made her way to the tree in a daze. Reaching out to grab one of the fruits.

Her hand was stopped by someone grabbing her shoulder.

Looking back she found Mako looking at her with a scary face.

“Yuri. Those fruits are for gods only..” She warned in a low voice.

“…Mako..?” Yuri recognised the woman before her, but other than her name, she couldn’t recall anything about her.

“Ooooh, you can recall my name. Impressive most people can’t even remember their own names, yet you remember mine. I’m so honoured ~”

Yuri was hugged by Mako in a way that felt familiar, although she couldn’t put her finger on why.

“Um..Mako..? where am I? And who are you..? no actually..who am I..?”

Yuri’s head was filled with confusion, she couldn’t remember anything. Not even herself.

“Homu~” Mako nodded.

“First of all, you are in..most people call it the god realm. We just call it the roots of Yggdrasil.”

She nodded towards the small tree behind her.

“Who I am? Well I’m Mako of course, your friend!” She softly patted Yuri on her head.

“And as for who You are..well that’s something you should answer yourself~”

She lightly pinched Yuri’s cheek.

“…So cryptic..ah it’s so hard to think…”

She found it hard to form coherent thoughts ever since she woke up. She felt sleepy enough that she could close her eyes at any moment.

“Yes, well mortals do find it hard to exist here..hey don’t fall asleep!”

She smacked Yuri on the head, making her open her eyes again.

“If you fall asleep here, I can guarantee that you will never ever find your way back.”

She smiled.

“Unless if course, you want to stay here with me forever~”

She giggled in a manner that made Yuri instinctively want to smack her on the head. Since she was taller than him, she resolved to smacking her on her large breasts.

“Hyaa~” She yelled out when Yuri smacked her “Geez such a naughty kid…”

She lifted up Yuri as if she was a child.

“Naughty children, are punished!”

She put Yuri’s petite body over her knee and gave her some punishment, which made Yuri apologise at the end.

“Hm. I hope you learned your lesson, young lady. “ Mako puffed up her cheeks.

“Yes..I’m not a lady though…i think..?” Yuri rubbed her pained behind.

“Now…for your way back..just walk through the stone frame over there..”

Mako pointed at a stone frame that was less mossy than the rest.

Making her way towards the stone frame, another one caught her eyes. In it were familiar floating images that Yuri recognised. A neon tower, a city bustling with night life, flashing lights and images.

She could not remember what any of them were, but she could knew they were familiar and that she was drawn to that stone frame.

As she was about to walk through the door frame with bustling light, that had more moss on its frame than the rest. She glanced over the one Mako had had showed her.

In it floated only a few images. A lot less than the bustling light one. But they were images she recognised, some were of Mako, some of some treasures, a few were about a funny looking fat man and a sadistic looking woman. And a lot of images of a raven haired man, that made her head hurt and throb.

“..H..Hikaru..?”

Yuri turned away from the frame that contained hundreds or even thousands of bright images, and turned towards the one that contained less images.

Although there were less images, each and every one was more detailed and colourful than all of the thousands bright ones combined that floated in the frame behind her.

She made her way to the frame that contained the image of the Raven haired man, and with uncertain steps walked through it. Feeling as though she as falling through liquid like shadows.

The last thing she heard was the voice of Mako screaming after her.

“Have fun! And take care of my knife~!”