After leaving the magical-items shop, Lara found a quiet, deserted corner near the inn to practice her sword swings — that had been Uncle Wendell’s parting piece of advice before he set off.
Before leaving port, Uncle Wendell had passed on some of his experience to her.
Unfortunately, time had been short, and there was no way for Lara to make any real, substantive improvement.
Still, the real combat she’d been through during this period, along with the sparring with Wendell, Olla and the others, had left her able to keep a certain composure now whenever something unexpected came up.
Compared to magic — which she hadn’t even broken into yet — a sturdy body and a sharp longsword could quickly become reliable combat assets.
On the empty street, in a back alley the sunlight couldn’t reach, Lara kept swinging her sword while turning over Bordeaux’s parting words in her mind.
‘Master Eilan is a first-rank mage.’ Lara couldn’t quite remember exactly how many first-rank mages there were supposed to be in the original setting, but ‘powerful’ and ‘rare’ were undoubtedly their defining traits.
More importantly, this meant Eilan had met Serie — after all, in a certain sense every first-rank mage was a disciple of Serie’s.
That petite elf, whose tone and power were both anything but small, was Lara’s favorite character — and now the two of them happened to be in the same dimension, the same world.
There was a real possibility they might meet.
Faced with that reality, Lara couldn’t shake the feeling that her heart was beating faster than usual.
‘Two hundred fourteen, two hundred fifteen, two hundr—…’ She relied on swinging her sword to suppress the excitement in her chest, all while constantly admonishing herself inside her head.
‘Don’t get your hopes up too high!
Seeing someone in person is a totally different thing from seeing them through a screen — watch out, or your rose-tinted filter is going to shatter!’ It wasn’t until Lara had swung until both hands were too weak to grip that her mood finally settled.
It was already getting late.
To avoid being mistaken for someone suspicious, Lara put her longsword away and headed back to the inn.
Originally she had planned to get a little contact with someone who could use magic, to see whether she could self-teach using the 0083 Authority Permissions.
But now that she had a first-rank mage to instruct her, the plan had changed — it looked like she’d be holed up in this port for a while.
She collapsed onto the bed, and the fatigue of a busy day washed over her…
In her dreams, Lara saw Serie — and not just Serie.
Himmel, Frieren, Fern, Sense….
The sky was just beginning to brighten.
Lara arrived at the door of the shop, but the morning sunlight felt lazy and listless.
In front of her was a tightly shut shop door.
With a touch of resignation, Lara chose to sit down by the entrance and close her eyes to rest, waiting for someone to come open up.
Bored out of her mind, the memory of last night floated up before Lara’s eyes, and she couldn’t help humming softly.
Serie, Frieren, Aura, and Sense — every sort of girl crowded all around Lara, until she couldn’t hold back from breaking into full-throated song: ‘Gentlemen, I love magical girls!’ But the joyful mood was broken by Himmel — appearing out of nowhere, he carried Frieren off…
This infuriating pretty boy!
I’ll get the better of you one of these days!!
Happy times are always brief — even when they’re nothing more than a dream.
“Oi, time to get up.” Lara opened her eyes.
A hand was waving in front of her face.
At some point she had drifted off again.
Remembering that ridiculous dream from just a moment ago, Lara unconsciously scratched her cheek, a flush rising on her face.
“Good, you’re awake — you were blocking the door.” Bordeaux jingled the keys in his hand.
Lara, taking the hint, shifted out of the way.
“You took off too fast yesterday — I forgot to tell you.
Our shop opens a little later than the usual places, but if you get here before I do you can just knock.
Master lives upstairs, on the second floor.” As he said this, Bordeaux opened up the shop, fetched a small stool from the stairwell for Lara and set it beside the counter, then patted the stool to call her over — looking thoroughly eager for a gossip session.
“Come on over — let’s pick up where we left off yesterday.” Watching him like this, Lara couldn’t help thinking that he was the one who should have been a girl — reading romance novels and loving a good gossip.
She herself, normally, didn’t even like talking with other people.
It was a shut-in habit, or, to put it less kindly, a bit on the antisocial side.
Still, his enthusiasm was hard to refuse, so Lara had no choice but to take a seat next to him.
“Like I told you yesterday — Master is the only first-rank mage in this port.
But even mages have their own factions within the Association.” Bordeaux’s face was a study in mystery, as if he were just waiting for Lara to ask.
Lara more or less already knew the reason.
In the original setting, Serie was a war hawk, but a sizeable portion of mages belonged to the peace faction — the most typical example being her grand-disciple Frieren.
Still, to indulge Bordeaux’s personal hobby, Lara gave him plenty of respect — though enthusiasm was not something she could fake.
“And then?” Lara’s flatness took the wind out of Bordeaux’s sails a little.
“What do you mean, ‘and then’?
This is a huge secret that ordinary people don’t even know!
If I weren’t Master’s nephew, you wouldn’t be hearing any of this at all!” “Word is the Association has now split into two factions based on their views on combat.
One is the combat faction, which puts strength above all else; the other is the research faction, which prizes knowledge above all.” Apparently no one usually had time to keep this little guy company in conversation.
Now that he’d finally found an outlet, Bordeaux’s words came pouring out unchecked.
“The combat faction is the standard-bearer for pragmatism — and Master Eilan is one of the combat faction’s leaders!” This was a little different from what Lara had imagined.
With this new piece of information, Lara nodded slightly and sank into thought.
Seeing how focused Lara had become, Bordeaux felt thoroughly pleased with himself.
“Compared to those flashy types in the research faction, with Master Eilan’s guidance I’m sure it won’t be long before you make a real name for yourself.” The radical wing among the first-rank mages — they focused on the application of magic rather than innovations in magic itself.
Just like Wendell, they were the practical-combat type.
Lara mused to herself.
Just as Bordeaux was about to spill every last thing he knew, Eilan walked in from outside.
Bordeaux jumped, snapped bolt upright, flipped open the Chronicles and pretended to be hard at work studying.
Eilan paid it no mind.
He went to call Lara over to him — only to realize he had never even asked her name.
After a moment’s hesitation, he chose instead to crouch down in front of Lara and produced, from beneath his cloak, a very Harry Potter–style magic wand.
The shaft of the wand was meticulously carved from sandalwood, dark red overall, ornamented along its length with several finely wrought silver rings.
At the base of the staff, a green gemstone roughly the size of a soybean was set in place.
Taking the staff in hand, Lara found herself a little nervous — the elegant wand was probably the most expensive thing she’d seen since arriving in this world.
“Thank you, Master.” Lara expressed her gratitude sincerely, but Eilan didn’t stand back up.
He had the look of someone trying to speak and not quite managing it.
‘What is this?
An introvert running into another introvert — neither one of them can manage to get out a single sentence?’ Lara recognized this kind of behavior all too well.
Eilan wasn’t aloof in the slightest — this was just full-blown social anxiety.
To keep Eilan from continuing to crouch in front of her, Lara took the initiative to break the awkward silence: “Master, was there something else you wanted to say?” “Could you tell me your name?” With that, Eilan lifted back his hood and looked at Lara, a little embarrassed — he’d even handed over a gift, and yet still didn’t know her name.
Only then did Lara finally react.
Her toes were curling so hard into the floor she was practically digging out a three-bedroom apartment underneath herself.
Clutching the wand, she hastily rose to her feet and bowed in apology: “I’m sorry, Master!
I forgot to mention it yesterday — my name is Lara.” “It’s all right, no need to be so stiff with me.” Eilan steadied Lara as she rose, and once that issue was settled, he turned and gave Bordeaux some instructions as well.
“Bordeaux, mind the shop.
Today I’ll be taking Lara out to get some preparations done.
Starting tomorrow, you’ll be coming out with us too.” With that, he walked out of the shop.
Lara stowed the wand away and followed Eilan out.
Before leaving, she turned back to say goodbye to Bordeaux — only to see him hurriedly duck behind the Chronicles.
He looked like he was crying.
Lara decided to leave him alone for a moment.
Without saying goodbye, she hurried out after Eilan, and under his lead they eventually arrived at the testing grounds of the Mercenary Guild.
In order to gauge Lara’s current level, he had applied for a relatively large field to run the test on.
Eilan asked her to describe her own situation in her own words.
Lara made the following statement: “Master, I can’t sense mana yet.” “….” Eilan’s face went utterly blank with shock.
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