CHAPTER 422: ARC 6, CHAPTER 38: ADVENTURE!

"Oh, never purchase items that claim to revive someone," Colwyn shook her head.

Asobi titled her head, "Why not?"

Clyde sloshed around his mug of ale, "Well, there’re lots of stories, even while we’ve been in the guild about people wanting to bring someone they love back or a dear friend. It does... technically bring you back to life..."

"If you consider being a vegetable or being akin to the victim of a lobotomy ’back to life’," Colwyn affirmed.

"Hmm," Asobi poked her wand under her chin, "If I was reincarnated as a radish, would it be so bad? Also what’s a low-bottomy?"

"Don’t worry about it," Fumeko’s eyes did not dart from the tome she was examining.

Hotaru’s thumbs wiped off the condensation on the mug she cupped in both hands, "So what made you two become adventurers?"

The elven brother’s mug landed on the table with a thud and he grinned. He unfurled one arm to his side and said, "Behold, my favourite seat in the guild."

What he was referring to was not the table they sat in at the guild, but the large glass cases, which displayed artefacts within.

"Thou art a collector of baubles and relics?" Tiffany surveyed the artefacts within.

"If only I could collect these," Clyde marvelled at the cases with glistening eyes the size of golf balls. "But no I would be arrested if I had these; or shot—or both. You lot don’t know what these are!?"

"Haven’t a clue," Hotaru replied. "Though I suppose they’re historic?"

"There were two other cases on the opposite end of the guild," Fumeko made mention, yet was still eyeing down the tome.

"Historic? Historic?" with shock and awe painted across his face he looked to his sister. Colwyn continued staring blankly till he turned back to them all, "These are of legend!

These are from the first adventuring party on record. This," he pointed to one of the display cases in which there were pure white angelic wings split into four pairs.

The upper half were connected to well-kept shoulder blade bones, while the lower two pairs lacked any connection other than the metal and cord they were attached by. "The wings of Carmin Melor, transfigurationist extraordinaire.

Legends say she soared the skies with her arms turned into the very blades of bone she struck with. A terror from above—the Winged Knight of Hevonyork.

And this!" he moved onto the other and fogged the glass with his breath as he simpered before it in nigh-worship. "The Warden of the Blood Hunt. The Sanguine Skirmisher."

A longbow sat in the case in a blood-red hue. Along its curve were patches of dark crimson and other patches of cherry red. The bow string itself appeared alive, like a bloodstream constantly running.

"HEY! We’ve given you enough warnings!" one of the guild staff yelled over. "Five metres away at all times for you!"

"Sorry," Clyde backed away with his arms up in the air. Everyone awkwardly waited while Clyde kept side-eyeing the staff till they walked off. He cleared his throat, "If I had to pick one to have, this would be the one.

They say it feels alive in your hands and you can hear the heartbeat of the bow. Even though it looks like crystal, it’s supposed to be flexible. It doesn’t even need arrows, it makes them when you just pull the string taut and poof!

It makes a beautiful crimson arrow that pierces and burst into blood-"

"We gave you a chance!" some of the staff walked over with bats and ropes.

It was not his fault that he was being drawn closer by its enchanting visage! "Wait, wait, wait! I’ll stay away, I’ll bugger off!" he raised his hands in surrender.

"I apologize for my brother, he won’t do it again," Colwyn stated and hooked Clyde with her staff and pulled him back. With a few minutes of stern talking and easing the staff down, they were able to subdue his penalty.

"While that’s all nice, it doesn’t really answer my question," Hotaru stated as the situation calmed down.

He looked to her a bit bewildered. "They’re the pioneers," his fingers curled like crab claws as he waved his arms around in his taletelling. "They cleared the way for Burnetrout anew and set in stone that a new world order will form."

"A new world order?" the raven-haired elf made a small globe of the world.

He smiled and put a foot up on the seat, "At the beginning of this millennium, when mana upsurged and nature reclaimed the lands of old that now rest in ruins—when the first war was won, crowning Kria as the City of New Beginnings and Hefaloss as the City of Jewels, there were soldiers, guards, forces of man that fended off the wilds.

But their strength and strategy was outmatched by mother nature and her evolutionary whiplash. Months would go by into years as they counted them on one hand, before some normal folk would raise their blades and bows to fight against these threats.

They would map ruins of old times, make strategies to defeat beasts and write it down in scrolls and tomes. They would fall one after another, but another would pick up their fallen blade and march forward, ever-moving against the tides.

With our mortal lives of flesh and soul, are we not a force of nature as well? So, they persevered and more would rally to their cause, some bringing new magics in the loss of the old.

They were the first adventurers of this era and wouldn’t be the last. Centuries went by as the cities were reclaimed and order was established to the world proper once more...

The adventurers dwindled and dwindled, for the safety away from their hazardous occupation. But we will live on, staking our names in those lands yet to be rediscovered and fighting for the cause that is nearing a thousand years old.

That’s why," Clyde proclaimed after he loudly spun the story. He hopped down from the table he walked onto and sat in his seat with a nimble speed, "That story alone is enough, isn’t it?

The glory, the feats, the legends. We’re continuing a tradition that’s nearly last a millennium and have the experiences that no one, not even people in the war would see.

We’re explorers and discoverers to the highest degree. We inspire everyone around us, never giving up and facing every challenge with a smile."

"Maybe not all of us can embody that," Colwyn replied. "It’s merely romanticism."

Tiffany, who was watching the brother in rapture, turned to the sister and raised a brow, "Then why, pray tell, did thou elect this profession? I share in that romanticism though I deem it not as ludicrous."

"My brother wanted to. And it makes a living," Colwyn responded with no expression.

"Oh," Tiffany cocked her head to one side.

Hotaru had her chin propped up in her palm with a faint smile at the grandeur of the tale. Then she peered over to Fumeko who was still scanning through a tome, upon which Hotaru’s lips faltered into a slight frown.

Looking at that book trough her brilliant blue eyes—that pile of tomes... Adventure awaited at every avenue, yet this path seemed... Her crimson ears fell and she took a deep breath.

Oh to be an adventurer on quests of daring dos from the tales she would overhear while she quietly sipped tea in Kria. Her mind wandered, as if replaying the past itself while she sat.

Respect, awe, new experiences and a world only limited by your imagination—and travel costs. "It’s not like this isn’t an adventure," she hushed to herself with a gulp.

Though she still could not quite complete that sentence even in her own mind. Where was the ’but’ to that statement? It seemed that she felt it more than she comprehended it, while her face continued changing in expressions.

_

With her eyes closed, she swirled her staff gently around her while she turned. As the crook of her staff touched the ground, it was as if the staff was scratching against liquid.

Trickles of shimmering turquoise water formed quickly, "Tide Order," she softly spoke a spell. She flicked her staff up and water rose up into a wave that shimmered in turquoise to blue gradient and surged forth.

"Woash! Splash!" It crashed against the training dummy. She then flicked her staff back, to which the wave stopped as if there was an invisible wall before reversing its motion, crashing back against the dummy and pulling the dummy to the ground, face first.

The water continued to travel till it simply flooded around the floor and around the hem of Colwyn’s dress as colourless water.

"Wooo!" Asobi clapped and cheered with tiny illusory fireworks.

"You better be rid of that before we get fined again," Clyde stated.

"Or thrown out, you needn’t remind me," Colwyn held a sweet smile towards Asobi’s praise then waved her staff around. "Globulate," the water regained its bluish-turquoise gradient and trickled upwards drop by drop.

Soon the trickles turned into several streams of gradient liquid Colwyn formed into a large sphere that she held aloft above her. The water bubble wobbled while she kept her staff steady below it, sending any drips of water back into the sphere.

"Summoning and manipulation. What level caster are you again?" Hotaru remarked.

"Master last I checked. If you would excuse me, I will tend to watering some grass outside," Colwyn moved the bubble with her.

"Hold on," Fumeko approached.

Colwyn paused the bubble the size of herself and looked at the brunette.

"Surface Step," Fumeko watched her own shoes be licked by purplish-black shadows up until her ankles. "Woosh." She blinked on top of and landed on the large bubble of water.

The sphere wobbled and several large drops splashed onto the floor of the training chamber. Colwyn let out a squeak through closed lips as her arm holding her staff got pushed down.

Fumeko on the other hand, balanced herself on the sphere of water. "Looks like my spell works. I would’ve fallen into this bubble normally, right?"

"I suppose," Colwyn’s voice strained just a little. She lifted her staff higher and rotated it ninety degrees, "Suggestum," the sphere unravelled layer by layer and formed into a flat platform of shimmering water.

Colwyn sighed and held her staff in the same position while Fumeko was held aloft on the flat surface. "I’m fortunate that you aren’t heavy, however, do inform me next time you wish for me to carry you," the twin sister stated.

Fumeko blinked back onto the floor. The flaxen-haired elf twisted her staff back and reformed the sphere.

"Absconded twilight has, foreshowing midnight’s approach. Mine spellwork task has been accomplished. Shall all that art present retire into the realm of slumber?"

"All of you are done?" Clyde fired off his last arrow at the target, hitting it right in the centre.

"We might be back tomorrow," Hotaru prevented a yawn. "We have other things to do too."

"The cult?" Colwyn asked, to which the redhead nodded.

The twins looked at one another for a moment with an expression of concern or pondering perhaps. "Well, good luck," Clyde wished.

_

The next morning came about and it started, oddly similar to the previous one. At least for the wolf-girl and the detective up ’early’ in the morning.

This time, instead of plates stacked in front of her on the table, it was tomes and notes written in Fumeko’s handwriting.

"Figured something out?" Hotaru piled more tomes right next to the old ones.

"Something. The writer clearly lived in the castle and seemed to frequent a few rooms in particular. I’m thinking there might be some connection, but I still need more," the brunette answered without looking up.

"Did you get any sleep?"

"I don’t need a lot."

"I doubt that," Hotaru sat next to her.

"I got enough," Fumeko glanced to her side, then furrowed her brows. "What’s that?"

The redhead handed her a mug with steaming hot coffee, "Thought you might like some."

Fumeko gazed at it, then into Hotaru’s eyes. She turned away, back to her work, "I already had one, I’ll have it later. I don’t mind it warm."

"It’s Cravoltan chocolate coffee I made for you—from Tamara Palace."

...

Fumeko slowly reached her hand out and took the mug from Hotaru and sipped it, letting out a sigh afterwards. "I’m surprised you haven’t finished it yourself."

"Mmh, coffee in my chocolate I can live without. Coffee’s not my cup of tea anyway."

"Then why d’you pack it?"

"Cause you like it, that should be obvious," she said with a flicker of her ears.

"Hm, good choice," she drank the coffee with delight. "Did you have time to learn that spell?"

"I’m not too keen on learning it at the moment. If I’m addicted to Rejuvenate, I worry what’ll happen with Calm," Hotaru pursed her lips.

"Fair enough. You’ve been panicking lately?" Fumeko glanced at her notes over the rim of the mug.

"I can’t say I haven’t been worried about Jotou not coming back last night. Daiyu was Daiyu, but this friend, I don’t know. He doesn’t sit right with me," she admitted.

"Eh, there’s been weirder weirdos. We’ve only known him for a day so," Fumeko shrugged. "I can send Jotou a letter if you’d like. ’Hey, if it’s an emergency just blast your Thundering Strike across the country and we’ll hear it’."

"Let’s not do that."

"It’s clear you wanna talk about something, so let’s hear it," Fumeko presumed.

The wolf-woman sighed.

"Let me take a wild guess."

"Yes, it’s Jotou. I don’t know if I really want to talk about it per say, but it’s eating away at me is all," she slumped.

"I’m sorry that my advice would be to talk to her about it—directly. Worked for me," Fumeko finished the coffee.

With a long drawn out breath, Hotaru gradually fell over and laid her head across Fumeko’s lap.

Fumeko raised a brow and looked down.

"So, what exactly happened with you and Tiffany—why did you break up with her?"

Fumeko’s lips went to the side, "I don’t know... After the Lune Rose Floraison and the night I had with her, I just, didn’t feel like I wanted to be in a relationship with her? Romantically I mean.

I don’t know if it was anxiety or something else. The fact that I don’t have a more logical explanation for it pisses me off, but... that’s all I have to go off of."

"Sometimes a feeling is enough of a reason. Especially when it comes to relationships—that’s mostly what they’re made of," Hotaru chuckled.

"Hmm. Still feel guilty though. It feels like I used her and moved on. And that night..." her eyes closed softly. "The way she-" she then abruptly stared down.

The redhead had a smirk, "You won’t forget your first~"

"Get off my lap."

"It’s comfy here though; I expected you to be bony," Hotaru’s ears bent up and down.

"I don’t know if it’s Jotou or Sobi that’s possessing you at the moment, but either way it’s uncanny."

"I’ve just been," Hotaru’s eyes shied away and faced Fumeko’s stomach. "A bit lonely is all..." her ears folded as she confessed with a pout.

"She’s been gone for a single day," the brunette stated. She then exhaled and replied, "But I get it; I’m here for you. You’ve still got me and you’ve still got Sobi. You have Tiff too if she warms up to you more."

"It’s gone on for longer than a day." Hotaru made a small peep and pushed her head against Fumeko’s torso, "Sorry."

"You don’t have to apologize, it’s fine."

"I think you’re enough for now. Thanks."

The brunette rested a hand on Hotaru’s head and continued glancing through the tomes. "Don’t mention it. Also, we’re in public wolfy."