CH 70

Magical City Wisdom is located around the center of the continent, and like Marsfield, its outer borders are surrounded by high stone walls.

But this city differs from Marsfield in its purpose. Instead of serving as a shield for the capitol, the city was a place for so-called ‘magic guidance’ and fostering magicians. Experiments were carried out, and the residents were mostly magic-related persons or visiting merchants.

Also, because there were an abundant number of labyrinths in the area, there were many adventurers stationed there as well. As a matter of fact, most of the magic tools sold in Marsfield and Warren are said to have come from Wisdom labyrinths.

“Let’s complete our errands and head back quickly.”

Ellis wanted to get home in order to oversee the construction of Cross Town, so she tried to get everyone to scramble.

“Let’s stop by the hotel first.”

“Well, we should only need a night.”

“Let’s head over to the university and hand over the guild master’s letter as soon as possible.”

“I want to eat rice nya.”

Ellis decided to take things slow and let everyone stretch their legs a bit, so they started out by looking for an inn. It did not take them long.

“Now, let’s find out where the university is.”

Ellis headed down to the inn’s front desk in order to ask about the magic university. Because the day was still young, it would be possible to get all of their errands finished that day, so the five girls headed out immediately.

The clothes they were wearing consisted of dress boots and pants along with a matching brown jacket. This was the uniform worn by many of the students roaming around the city.

“Oh girls, you have already arrived!”

A voice called out to them from behind. It was Alphonse.

“You’re going out dressed like that?”

“Yes, at least until our business at the college is finished.”

“Well alright. Then how about I guide you around a bit; I was on my way there to submit an accident report anyway.”

He was an extremely cheerful old man.

He spent the entire time heading over to the university talking about his golem. Claire had started walking beside him, eyes sparkling once more. The two of them continued to say some outrageous and slightly creepy things as if it were a normal conversation. It seems that her fetishism for work outweighed her phobia for men.

Frau then broke in on the conversation from behind Alphonse’s shoulder.

“This is quite the lively city, isn’t it?”

The old man answered with a sneer and spoke with a tone as if he were talking about a bunch of idiots.

“These people dancing around are the sons and daughters of the rich. They’re students in name only.”

Serious students would be studying and not playing around in town. That’s why there is a cafeteria, simple clothing store, and a grocery store located on campus.

While Alphonse was ranting about the work ethic of those students they passed by, they reached the front gate of the university with ease.

“Weeellllll, we’re here girls.”

Greeting the gatekeeper with one hand, Alphonse passed through the gate without any problem.

Ellis, meanwhile, had to pass on the letter from the Warren Council to the gatekeeper and ask for a meeting with the principal.

“Please wait just one moment.”

One of the gatekeepers ran off somewhere, but he was back after only a moment had passed.

“I will guide you.”

This gatekeeper spoke to the girls in an overly respectable tone, and he carefully guided them to the principal’s office. Even here, the Warren Council’s name held meaning.

“Pardon me,” the gatekeeper said while knocking on the principal’s door to announce the arrival of visitors.

“Please come in.” The voice that came from inside the room was quiet and sounded very weary.

“Excuse us.”

Ellis’s group entered the room in a single file line.

Inside, sitting behind a desk, was a template magician. His skin was like paper wrapped around a skeleton–an old man who looked like he was going to die any second now.

“We are messengers sent over from the Warren Council. We are here to deliver a report on an attack from demons on Warren today.”

“I see, but first…..”

The principal motioned to some chairs positioned in front of his desk, so Ellis’s group took a seat sitting side by side each other.

“Excuse me, is this also good?” Claire handed over a letter from Lord Marsfield addressed to the principal.

“Hmm, this is Marsfield’s familial crest.: The principal scanned the outside of the envelope before opening it and easily identified Lord Marsfield’s crest with his encyclopedic memory.

“I’m sorry that the order is reversed, but I’m afraid a letter from Lord Marsfield takes priority,” the principal apologized while opening up the letter.

Although the principal had an awkward look on his face as he was forced to open this letter first, his eyes quickly opened wide in surprise as he looked back and forth between Claire and the letter alternatively. After taking a minute to allow reality to sink in, he leaned back against the chair, and a large smile spread across his leathery face.

“I see, so you’re the daughter of Ares and Izerina.”

The name of Claire’s parents was revealed.

“That’s right, let’s have Ares and Izerina talk about Warren.”

The principal motioned towards an aide he had on standby to go call for the two.

Claire was taken aback at the sudden mention of her parents’ names while the other four had trouble understanding the current situation.

It wasn’t long before the sound of hurried footsteps and erratic breathing was heard in the corridor outside the room.

And then the door burst open.

“Claire!”

“Oh, Claire!”

It was Claire’s parents, Ares and Izerina.

“Father, Mother!”

Everything that Claire had been thinking about from the moment she heard they were heading towards Wisdom was blown away in an instant. Without thinking, without pause, she flew out of her chair and wrapped her arms around their wastes. Claire began to cry, loudly, and so her two parents wrapped their arms around her in turn. It was a long awaited family reunion.

When Claire’s cries started to cease, the principal started to explain the situation to the other four girls.

It was three years ago that Ares and Izerina were summoned by the kingdom as masters of magic. The Magicians’ Guild Master had publicly ordered the summoning. The purpose of this gathering was to develop kingdom-wide defense magic.

From records discovered about the previous Demon/God war, the royal family was able to predict a level of the danger and fell into semi-hysteria. They forced Ares, Izerina, and numerous other professional magicians to Wisdom to start researching counter methods.

For each magician, a veiled threat against their families was delivered to assure compliance.

However, a few months ago the Hero suddenly appeared before the king. The royal family had obtained a monster big enough to completely alter their previous policies, and the research expenses that were being poured into Wisdom were redirected to the Brave Party.

Meanwhile, the neverending research of Wisdom had started producing some results. Representative examples of these were the [Magic Boundary] magic produced mainly by Ares and the [Magic Grafting] developed with Izerina at its center.

The former is a wide range barrier spell capable of covering the royal castle to prevent the invasion of any demons. It would also serve as a warning bell in case someone tried to force their way through.

The latter was a technique that allowed a person to produce magic tools that could previously only be found in labyrinths–within a certain level of course. If it was a low level spell though, it would be possible to synthesize them in the future.

With these achievements, plus the rise in military strength, the kingdom was considering releasing the captive magicians. Or at the very least, loosening their reins.

This was the contents of the letter sent by Lord Marsfield to the principal.

“Soon, the news of their release shall reach the ears of our magicians.”

The old principal sat back in his oversized chair with a small smile spread across his lips, but Ares made a face like he had suddenly remembered something.

“By the way, where’s Dulles at?”

Claire went rigid, and Ellis reacted almost completely on instinct.

“Frau, explain!”

Ellis called on Frau, the person who knew the most about it of anyone here. Meanwhile, Claire had started spasming.

“Claire, what’s wrong!?”

“Claire, what’s wrong!?”

Although Ares and Izerina’s continued to call out Claire’s name, she was unable to hear their words, and her body would not stop trembling.

“I’m sorry…….I’m sorry………I’m sorry……….I’m sorry……..I’m sorry………I’m sorry……..I’m sorry…….”

Claire kept messily repeating the same words, her face pale from a lack of blood.

Ellis was at her side in a second, standing between Claire and her parents, hugging her tightly.

“It’s alright. Everything’s alright Claire!”

And then Ellis turned her head to the side and barked out her orders once again, louder than before.

“Frau, explain things already! Claire can’t!”

Seeing no other way, Ellis used Sleep on Claire before she gave herself a heart attack. Like a doll whose strings had been cut, Claire collapsed into Ellis’s hands.

Meanwhile Frau had finally gotten up out of her seat and started to explain things to the bewildered parents. Dulles was Ares’s younger brother–the source of Claire’s trauma and fear of men. Frau told them everything.

Dulles had hit Claire, and then, he tried to do more.

In self defense, Claire had used {Explosion} and became covered in the blood of her dead uncle.

The Adventurer’s Guild protected Claire, and then, she was taken in by the Workshop Guild.

Now, she was living with Ellis having established a successful business in Warren.

“That bastard!”

Ares began trembling with anger, and his face boiled red–a stark contrast to Claires earlier state–but Ellis grabbed his arm and tried to calm him down.

“It’s done and over with, so calm down!”

“It’s best if we just don’t return to the issue again. Claire has moved on and is happy now.”

Ellis was greatly appreciative of Reeve’s assist.

“Something like that was going on for three years……”

Izerina looked like she was about to cry as she took both Claire and Ellis into a deep embrace.

“Please forget about Claire’s past. Later, I’ll tell you about all the fun things we’ve done since she moved in with us.”

Frau continued the efforts to calm Ares down.

“It’s almost time nya. Ellis, Claire is about to wake up nya.”

Noticing what Katie was saying was true, Ellis urged Ares and Izerina to quickly take a seat as she helped the slowly waking Claire to her feet.

“It’s alright, we explained everything. You don’t have to worry about anything anymore, Claire.”

Claire still had tears silently running down her cheeks, so Ellis wiped them away with her finger before guiding Claire’s hand over to an empty chair.

“Well then, we will explain everything that has happened in Warren then.”