Daybreak of Adventure Part 2: Like a Dance

“So, how far is it to the nearest town? I’m starving!” Solvaleu complained.

“Let’s see...” Thanks to our vantage point atop a mountain, I was able to see quite a ways into the distance. I spotted a town that we would be able to reach before sunset. “I think that one is the closest.”

“Eh? That one? It’s so far...” Solvaleu squinted as she looked in the direction that I pointed.

“Here, eat a cookie to hold you over. It looks like a good-sized town, so hopefully they have an inn where we can eat in the room.”

“Eh? Can we not go to a restaurant and get a nice hot meal?”

“Unfortunately, that town looks to be a summoner-only city. It will be safer if we enter it with you in your cat form.” I hadn’t entered a summoner city since Master Erda had taken me in. I wasn’t really sure what to expect. It could be nostalgic, or it could trigger bad memories.

“Ah right. Summoners and conjurers don’t get along, right? What will we do when we go to a conjurer-only city then?”

“You’ll just have to hide your wings and try to pass as human.”

“Hmm...I guess that could work... I’ll probably need to learn conjuration myself then.”

“Conjurers are a bit different to summoners in that regard. They don’t necessarily use magic everyday. You’ll probably be fine as long as you don’t cast spells with visible magic circles. That said, I’ll still teach you some helpful spells that I’ve learned.”

I finally had someone that I would be able to teach magic to! It was like the student had finally become the teacher. Sure, I wasn’t anywhere near as impressive as Master was, but I still had confidence in my abilities.

“Actually,” Solvaleu began, “Summoners can just passively learn spells from their familiars, right? I wonder if it also works in the other direction...”

“Well...I guess it’s worth a shot...” I felt a bit deflated at the idea that Solvaleu would be able to just pick up on my spells instantly. So much for being the teacher...

I concentrated on the way that Solvaleu had shared the Wind Resistance spell with me before. The circle had just appeared in my mind when she willed it. Conjuration magic had no such convenient circles. Sure, it had incantations you could memorize, but Master’s method required manipulating mana by understanding the underlying principles. Surely it would be more difficult to teach a conjuration spell to a familiar? Or at least, that’s what I thought. But when I tried to send the telepathy spell to Solvaleu...”

“Oh? Is it like this?” Solvaleu’s voice said inside my head.

“What? How did you cast it already?”

“When you sent the spell to me, the magic circle for it appeared in my mind. Then I just cast it like I normally would.”

“But that’s... Well, it still doesn’t let you cast it without using a magic circle!”

“Why are you getting so grumpy? You’re the one that wanted me to learn it.”

“I know, but... Whatever.” I sighed. “Anyway, let’s head out.”

We started our descent down the mountain towards the town. Thanks to the Wind Resistance magic Solvaleu taught me, we were able to move much faster than I had anticipated. Within the hour, we were already approaching the gates of the town. It didn’t look like they had any watchtowers, but I asked Solvaleu to transform early just in case. Holding her soft kitten body in my arms was enough to fill me with courage.

I had thought that the town had seemed small from a distance. It was a wonder, then, that it seemed to have a rather imposing wall surrounding it. I had encountered many walled and gated cities on my journey, but these walls seemed quite new. Walls of this grandeur were normally reserved for capitals or towns that were home to lords. Perhaps it was the home of a lord after all?

I found myself on the road leading up to the gate when a carriage passed me pulled by a horse. I had worried a bit that it might have been the one that Archangel had talked about, but that did not seem to be the case. I didn’t recognize the emblem on the side of the carriage, but it didn’t seem to pay me any mind. There was no reason for me to worry about it even if I did think they were a bit rude not to stop and let a girl walking along catch a ride with them. I was quite fond of walking actually, so I would have definitely turned them down had they offered.

By the time I arrived at the gate, the guard had already waved the carriage through. He signalled for me to stop as I approached.

“Hello there, miss. Mind if I see some identification?”

“Sorry, I don’t have any.”

This, of course, was a lie. I had a pocketwatch with my name, hometown, and status engraved into it. That pocketwatch unfortunately identified me as a conjurer. If I was going to pass as a summoner, identification that listed me as a conjurer wouldn’t work in the slightest! This man was a rather minor obstacle. But if I could manage to get past him, things could go a lot smoother.

“Is that so? Well, that just won’t do. I trust you’re willing to pay the entry fee then?”

“Of course. How much is the fee?”

“It just so happens to be two gold coins.”

“What? That’s outrageous! For a town like this in the middle of nowhere?”

“Hey now, miss. I don’t make the rules. We’re the only fortified town in the area, so of course people are coming here to get away from monsters. We can’t just let anyone in. Of course, if you can’t afford it, I’m sure we can find some...alternative payment methods.”

Ah, so that’s it... This guy was hitting on me. At some point in the past few years, I had apparently begun to gain some womanly charm. I was still of the opinion that I was cute and adorable, of course. But apparently men were starting to see me differently. Frankly, I wasn’t entirely sure how to deal with it. Usually they would ignore me once they saw I was with Master. But I wasn’t able to hide behind her anymore.

Solvaleu hissed at the man from my arms. I looked over at the guardhouse and saw what I assumed to be his familiar: it appeared to be a beast type similar to a dog. A summoner’s familiar tended to dictate what kinds of jobs they could take. A dog would be good for chasing down anyone that tried to escape. I was in a bit of a predicament.

“Want me to beat him up?” Solvaleu asked me telepathically.

“No, that would just get us thrown in jail.”

However, while I was contemplating what to do, a bell began to ring loudly. It seemed to be some kind of alarm.

“Monster incoming! Monster incoming! Everyone, to battle stations!” a guard nearby cried.

“Drat. Just hang tight, miss. Hell Hound, let’s go!” The man called out to his familiar and they took off towards the direction we had come from.

“It’s a good thing we flew. If we had walked the monster would have caught up with us,” Solvaleu said.

“I’m not so sure about that.” I pointed at the sky. There was a bird circling around something. But its plumage was too vibrant of a crimson for a normal carrion bird.

“What is that? A bird? A plane?”

“That’s a Great Phoenix. It probably circles the city to assist the watch. That’s why they didn’t have any guard towers... We’re going to have to proceed with caution.”

“That’s a divine beast right? You think it might have spotted us comin’ in?” Solvaleu asked.

“There’s always that possibility. We won’t know for certain unless we run into its summoner. If we sneak in now they’ll only find us more suspicious.”

I used enhancement magic to increase my vision. The guard we had talked to was engaged with a large bovine monster. Several other guards had joined him, probably from other posts. They seemed to be handling it fairly well.

“Well hello there, miss.” a voice called out to me. I turned around to see a tall woman with dark skin and red hair. She was wearing a very formal looking suit which contrasted with the large leather glove on her left hand. “Why don’t you come along with me? We have something important to discuss.”

“It doesn’t look like I have a choice...”

With kitty Solvaleu still in my arms. I followed the woman into town. Judging by her glove, she was likely the exact person we didn’t want to run into: the Great Phoenix’s summoner. I looked at the surroundings as we walked, and couldn’t help but feel a sense of déjà vu. Perhaps the architecture was just similar in summoner towns, but this place reminded me a lot of the town of Clintonia that I visited with my mother once.

“Is somethin’ the matter? You’re lookin’ around a lot.”

“This place just seems...familiar is all.”

After a short walk, we arrived at a building that I had been planning to visit soon anyway. It was none other than the Summoner’s Guild. Master had mentioned how some countries separated the Magi Guild by school. Her instructions had said to register as a summoner with a guild under a false name, but I had planned to spend the night coming up with one. If I had to register now, I would have to come up with something on the spot!

“Welcome back, guild master Roman,” a receptionist said as we walked inside. It seemed that our mysterious woman was in fact the boss around here.

“I’ll be seeing this guest up to my office. Don’t worry about bringing any tea, we shouldn’t be long.” The guild master, apparently named Roman, waved to the reception desk as she led me up a set of stairs. I gave a quick bow to the receptionist who was eyeing me with scrutiny before following.

The office itself was rather standard. I had accompanied Master Erda to meetings with guild masters on occasion at other branches. Perhaps there was some rule in their organization that offices had to all be arranged the same way. I would have preferred if there were flowers or something to liven the place up, though.

“Thank you for accompanying me. Please, have a seat.” The guild master motioned to the table and chairs in the corner of the room. I went over and sat down.

The woman went over to pull a book from the shelf before coming to sit down across from me. It appeared to be a compendium of familiars. She silently flipped through the pages, not speaking a word. Finally, she seemed satisfied with a page and turned the book around to show me the entry.

“Great Sphynx?” The entry described a holy beast that was like a winged lion with the face of a human.

“That’s my best guess as to what your familiar is there,” the guild master said.

“Sorry, as you can see this is just a kitten.” I held up Solvaleu who meowed cutely.

“I can see the wings on its back.”

“That’s just how her fur looks. Besides, she doesn’t have a human face, does she?”

“She might not now, but she did before, didn’t she?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. This is my little kitty.”

“Well that’s a shame. A normal cat familiar wouldn’t give you strong enough magic to register with the Summoner’s Guild.” The guild master pulled the book away.

“Wait! Um...okay maybe she isn’t a normal kitten. But she still doesn’t look anything like this Sphynx.”

“Lunar, you’re playin’ right into her hands! Calm down!”

“Ah! I mean...”

“We can go about this the easy way or the hard way, kid. Whenever a new divine beast summoner comes to the guild’s attention, we’re supposed to report it to the upper crust. Unfortunately, the Grand Magi all happen to be called into a council right now. So it may take some time for my correspondence to get through. That is, of course, unless you’d like me to expedite it?”

I shook my head vigorously.

“I thought that might be the case. Why don’t you have your friend transform?”

“I guess we don’t have a choice...Solvaleu?”

“On it!” Solvaleu hopped into the seat next to me and undid her kitty transformation.

“A-Archangel?” the guild master said as she widened her eyes.

“See, it isn’t just me,” I said.

“Do I really look that hot? A mirror! Do you have a mirror?!”

I handed Solvaleu a pocket mirror from my bag. She happily took it and began to stare at her own reflection with sparkles in her eyes. If I was to give her looks a grade, they’d probably be a seven out of ten. It wasn’t that she was bad looking or anything. It was just that I knew I was prettier than her, and I was only an eight. Why consider myself an eight and not a ten? Because I’m humble. In fact, I’m probably the most humble person I know.

“Well now that both of you have stupid smiles on your faces, I can feel pretty confident that you’re not spies or assassins.” The guild master sighed. “But if I could have your attention again for a moment, I’d still like to know what your intentions are in my city.”

“Ah, I almost forgot.” I cleared my throat, leading Solvaleu to sit down in the chair beside me. “I came to register as a Magi with the Summoner’s Guild. Just a normal girl and her black cat familiar. We then planned to get a room somewhere for the night and head for the closest capital in the morning.”

“And why did you pick my town of all places to register?”

“It just happened to be the closest town we saw from the mountaintops.”

“You were in the mountains? Did you run into any monsters?”

“Just a few wyverns, but I took care of them!” Solvaleu proudly declared.

“W-Wyverns? We’ll need to dispatch adventurers to take care of them.”

“Both of you please calm down!” I said. “Miss Roman, my familiar has already dispatched the wyverns. I had intended not to even mention it because the problem had already been taken care of!” I snatched the mirror away from Solvaleu and stuck it back in my bag. Her pouty face wasn’t going to win me over any time soon.

We were already being interrogated here. It wouldn’t do us any good to just freely give up information when we didn’t even know if the other party could be trusted. Master always said interrogations were like a dance. Ideally both parties would gain more information from the other until the victor was the one that had all the information they needed. For the unfortunate, they wouldn’t be able to gather any intel. The guild master on the other hand purposefully divulged information without us even asking. She was probably trying to get us to let our guards down and divulge too much. I had to do my best to maintain the flow of information.

“Your familiar dispatched the wyverns you say? Do you have any proof?”

“Ah... We do not... They disintegrated...” When taking monster extermination missions through the Magi’s Guild, you were supposed to claim spoils from the defeated monsters as proof of your conquest. Without that, the guild master had no reason to take us at our word.

“Eh?! Your familiar has enough magic to blast through a Wyvern’s magic resistance and disintegrate it?”

“No, she used a qi based attack.”

“Qi? That’s impossible. Qi is just that thing to use in place of bodystrengthening magic, right? I’ve never heard of it having any offensive abilities.”

“That’s what I thought too, but it’s what happened.” It seemed like the guild master also didn’t know what to make of Solvaleu’s technique.

“Would you be willing to demonstrate it?” the guild master asked.

“Nah, I don’t wanna,” Solvaleu said.

“Solvaleu!” I tried to scold her.

“That attack took too much out of me. I passed out afterward, remember?”

“And?”

“And, I still ain’t fully recovered! Who knows how long I’d be zonked this time.”

“Then lead with that! Geez!”

“Are you two done with your comedy routine?” the guild master asked.

“This is not comedy! I have to discipline her as her summoner!”

“Regardless, let me get to the point of why I called you here. Were you two the ones responsible for the beams of light in the west?”

“The beams of light?”

“Yes, some scouts reported seeing a rainbow colored light descending from the sky this morning. I wasn’t able to send Great Phoenix far enough away to find the source. But then you two happen to travel from that direction a few hours later with no identification.”

“Ah, those beams of light...” We hadn’t quite come up with a cover story for those yet, so I wasn’t sure what to say. A normal summoning ceremony would not have produced nearly as much light as mine had. There would have been a pillar of light still, but not nearly as shimmering as that one was. Solvaleu was truly a unique summon.

“I’ll take that as a yes. So is your claim that those beams were from your conflict with the wyverns?”

“Yes! That’s right.” It wasn’t an outright fib. Really one of the beams had been to attack the wyverns. Solvaleu was the one to fire that beam, so if you really think about it, the beam that summoned her was also related to the defeat of the wyverns.

“Right. And you are powerful enough to defeat wyverns, yet you’re not registered with the guild?”

“Well…” Technically I was registered with the guild. Albeit as a conjurer. There was no way I could tell her that though.

The guild master sighed. “All right, I’ll tell you what, kid. I want the least amount of trouble around here as possible. The sooner I get you out of my hair, the better. You don’t seem to have ill intent, so I’ll have to just assume you’re an idiot.”

“An idiot!!!” I will admit, I had not thought everything through before coming here. But I also hadn’t expected so many things to go awry. First Master Erda got separated from us, and then we were spotted even before entering town. But still, I had studied far too much to be called an idiot.

“Ha ha! She got you there!”

“Solvalue, shut up!”

“So if you’re not an idiot, tell me how the events of today make sense. I’m easily paid off, so it’s in your best interest to work with me here.”

“Are…are you sure you should be admitting that?” Solveleu asked.

“Money, huh? This is a problem I can fix.”

It turned out that Master Erda was an impulsive spender. As such, she had me be the one in charge of her purse. As her personal treasurer, I was well equipped when negotiations turned to monetary exchange.

I dug around in my, er...Master’s purse and found a platinum coin. Each of these was worth a hundred gold coins, so it was no small sum. But it would be well worth the price if we could get out of this situation without having to compromise too much.

The guild master looked at the coin that I placed on the table. She then smiled at me and held up three fingers. Three platinum coins was an incredibly large sum of money... But this was where my haggling skills would come into play. I made a look like I was struggling to count coins, and placed another twenty gold on the table. It wasn’t nearly what she was asking, but it was important to set the bar low.

‘Two and seventy-five,” the guild master said. That was good. That meant she was truly open to haggling.

“One and fifty,” I countered.

Our haggling continued, and we managed to agree on a price of two platinum coins and ten gold. It was more than I would have liked, but it was well worth it for the peace of mind.

“Just fill out the paperwork here and I’ll get you signed up with the guild,” the guildmaster said. “I don’t think I caught your name, by the way.

“Oh, um... Lulu is fine.” In all the confusion, I had once again forgotten to come up with a proper alias. As such, I said the first thing that came to mind: A nickname a childhood friend gave me. I wondered if she still remembered me after all these years...

“That’s fine. Now, as for your familiar...”

“Didn’t you say I was a Great Sphynx? Should we just go with that?”

“You wanted to not gain attention, right? Then here’s what I suggest instead. You’ll have to stay in your kitty form, though.” The guild master flipped through the book of familiars again and landed on one that had a picture of a black cat.

“A catsi?”

“Right. It’s a monster type familiar that is a kind of fairy,” the guild master explained. They’re definitely not as powerful as your familiar is, but they are typically black cats that have a wide-range of magical abilities.”

“Monster type? Isn’t that a downgrade?” Solvaleu complained.

“Oh hush, it’ll be easier to keep you under the radar if we classify you as a monster type. Be lucky there is such a convenient familiar.”

I filled out the application for joining the guild, leaving my family name and hometown blank once again. The guild master looked over the paperwork and nodded.

“All right, Miss Lulu, here’s your pocketwatch. You’ll have to start your way at the bottom at Iron rank. I’d let you take the test for Bronze, but it won’t be until next month and I’d prefer you leave as soon as possible.”

“That’s fine. We were planning to find an inn for the night and head out at first light.”

“That would be great for me, honestly. The Grand Magi are busy, but I can come up with an excuse for the beams if it’s just a normal investigation. As far as inns go, I recommend The Strawberry Corner. They’re an inn and restaurant well known for their strawberry pies and cakes.”

“Huh? Did you say The Strawberry Corner?” I’d heard the name before... Rather, I remembered my father bringing us a pie once from a restaurant with that exact name...”

“That’s right. They’re probably my favorite restaurant in all of Clintonia.”

“Clintonia?! Wait, but that means...”

If this place really was Clintonia, then I had a pretty good idea of the area we were in. I ran over to the window and could see the sun hanging low in the sky. The mountain that we came from was in the distance. That means that the ruins on the other side of it had to be...

Urrrrk. I covered my mouth. I felt like I was going to throw up. Solvaleu came to place a hand on my shoulder, but I batted her away. I was sure that if I lost my composure, I wouldn’t be able to get the next question out of my mouth.

“Tell me, guild master...” I struggled to choke out the words. “The town across the mountains from here... Do you know of a village guarded by a Great Dragon?”

“Ah, that place. I’m afraid it happened before I got here and most of the information is classified. There’s not much I can really tell you.”

“‘It’ happened? What happened?!” I grabbed onto the guild master’s shirt. She was strong enough to pull me away, but I stayed staring into her eyes.

“That village... It was annihilated in a single night.”

I thought that I was going to burst into tears at those words.

But instead…

I couldn’t stop laughing.