Chapter 23

23 A Peculiar Scent of Magica

One hour ago, while Vale steps inside the forest, he feels a certain kind of danger. His instinct never failed him even once, that was one of the reasons he is a high-rank Magi at such a young age. People around him suggest the thought that he got the promotion because of his best friend, the crown prince. It doesn’t matter to him, the malicious talking behind his back is the driving force for Vale to work much harder than everyone.

“Vale, should we go back? The mist will be thicker now.” Said one of the Magi.

“No, remember our job is to find the people who entered the forest on this full moon. It will be dangerous for a non-Magi on such a day.”

Another Magi, with wild eyes and a constant smirk, is walking around sniffing everything. Vale obliged to scold the Magi as his subordinate.

“Brom! What are you doing?”

Brom turns around to Vale and smiles at him, “I smell something un-usual, the aroma that I have never smelled before.”

“Oh, come on Brom, there you go again, could you stop being so creepy all the time?” Said the other Magi.

Brom turns his attention to the Magi, “I’m sorry then, but unlike you Martin, I do have the rare ability to smell magica, why do you think I got the three stars ahead of you?”

.....

The other Magi named Martin suddenly got flustered, “Why you fr*ak!”

“Martin! That’s enough!” Scolded Vale to his sub-ordinate, his eyes turn to Brom, “Brom, that’s extended to you as well! Both of you need to learn to work together, this is not the time for bickering!”

The two of them went silent and apologize to Val. He already has a headache when the office sends the two of them as his new subordinates, Martin is noble, which means he has a constant superior attitude, while Brom is one of the strange Magi officers. Vale asked Brom to use his ability once again.

“You said before, that you smell something unusual, right? I want you to find the source of the aroma for me.”

Confused by the request of his captain, Brom tries to find his reason by his request, “Yes, I could easily whiff the scent everywhere, it is so distinct, just like your scent.”

“My scent?”

“You have almost a hundred percent compatibility to magica, of course, your scent is unique.” Said, Brom.

Martin whistled towards his captain, “Wow, captain Vale, I have never heard someone has that high compatibility to magica before.”

Vale, ignoring Martin’s compliment, asks another question to Brom, “So, the person also has a high compatibility with magica?”

Brom, who’s in the middle sniffing around the area, only sends him a vague answer, “No, I never said that the person is similar to you, the smell is unique just like you.”

Before Vale could ask for more details, Brom’s finger pointed in a direction into one of the farthest pathways of the forest.

“Sir, I sense her scent, it goes farther away inside the forest.”

“A she? The unique scent is coming from a female?” Screamed Martin.

Brom tilted his head and smirked, “Oh, didn’t I mention about her gender, before?”

Vale cast a spell to light their way against the fog, “Never mind that we need to hurry, we don’t know if the woman could defend herself or not.”

The three of them walk further inside, knowing about the danger of this forest under the full moon. The fog makes it harder to see in a far distance, although Vale already cast a light for them to walk into. He isn’t afraid, for him, forest on the full moon is one of the most beautiful times for a person with a high magica like him. He is indeed worried about anyone who enters the forest without any knowledge of the forest.

The forest of the lost is the official name of the west forest. Not so many people know the official name, because of how dark and depressing the name is, that’s why the citizen just call it the west forest. Vale disagrees about their decision, for Vale, the name serves the purpose, for everyone to be alert all the time when they enter the forest. Deep inside the forest, they have become more nervous, their magica sense a peculiarity of something enormous. Training as Magi means they gain the ability to read magica to some extent.

After the long walk, a blood-curdling scream can be heard by the three of them, Vale, Brom, and Martin, who release their spell and are ready for battle, they run as quickly as they could towards the scream and they hope it will be not too late for a rescue.

Vale’s eyes begin to glow, a sign that his magica is on high alert and will be ready for him. They finally saw the source of the calamity, a Snaillog, a monster that nesting near the Wismushroom habitat. There are three people near the monster, two people inside a protection spell, and one trying to fight the monster, a person with distinct purple hair color.

“Anne!” Vale shouted her name, and without any hesitation, he run directly to the monster.

Brom and Martin couldn’t do anything besides shouting their captain’s name, they tried to keep their pace trying to follow Vale, but their captain is too fast to be followed.

“Sh*t! he fastens his movement using the time magic!” Shouted Martin desperately.

“Relax, we just need to catch up, besides our captain is strong, a mere Snaillog can do no harm to him.” Said Brom to Martin.

It is indeed the truth, Vale is a talented Magi, many people said his talent only appear in a hundred year or more. Gaining three stars rank when he passes the test at twelve years old and becomes a high-rank officer at the age of twenty, that’s how talented Vale is. Although this is the first time he lose his calm demeanor.

He saw Anne fight bravely with a small stick in her hand, but it doesn’t take long for the Snaillog to fight back, she falls to the ground, but before the Snaillog can do damage to the girl, Vale cast powerful protection magic and protect her body with his.

A sigh of relief adorns his face when he sees there is no harm done to Anne. He smiled at her, and asked, “Anne, are you okay?”