Arc 2 - Chapter 11: Introduction to the Adventure (2/2)

"Why?"

He knew that magic was not forbidden in Rolderhelm; if it were, many adventurers would be out of work and there would be no school called the Wizarding Academy.

Yurine had wind and light magic, and the only thing preventing her from using them was mana. Even though she said she had plenty of mana, the healing spell could deplete it quickly. She said this was because healing magic was an inefficient type of magic.

"You cannot use fire magic on living beings unless it is for protection. A few forward-thinking countries even consider its use on the battlefield a war crime. Although, if the side using the spell wins, there is no crime, but that's the way it is."

"Why is there such a thing?"

Yurine used wind magic and light magic to her heart's content. No one had ever told her it was a crime.

But unlike other types of magic, there was an understandable reason why fire magic was forbidden.

"Because burning to death is not a good thing," Yurine said. Her eyes misted slightly and she wiped them with her hand.

"She thought of Rie." It wasn't hard for Yu to understand. "But she didn't burn to death, so I hope..." it was horrible to think about.

"Other types of magic can kill a person in a short time, which is why they are legal to use in warfare, but fire magic, even if a powerful mage can turn someone to ash in an instant, will not kill them easily in most cases. In fact, it is not even certain whether it will kill or not. Even I am afraid of my magic," Lylphia said. 

Any form of death was unpleasant, but he couldn't get the Sigma Tower out of his mind. If they couldn't get out of the tower, they would burn to death. The concept of death was Yu's greatest fear, and burning to death only intensified it.

If he had to choose a way to commit suicide, he would put burning to death at the bottom of the list. He might even prefer living a miserable life to burning to death.

Another scary scenario was the possibility of not dying after being burned. Your whole body could burn and you could wish with all your heart to die, but the possibility of not dying would always exist. For Yu, having to live the rest of his life with burn wounds that would not heal, with a deformed body, was scarier than death.

Yurine sighed. "The only useful thing about her is her magic, and even then she has problems, she's a burden."

"Hey! I can still hear you!"

As Lylphia explained more about fire magic, the carriage began to slow down and finally stopped in front of the town hall. The driver got down and opened the door for the passengers. Yu got out after two girls had left and looked around, it was dark.

"Redchapel is even more depressing at night. Even the stars hide themselves."

Rain clouds blocked the stars and moonlight. The town, which already had a gray-dark atmosphere because it was built in the gothic style, was draining the life energy of the people when night fell on top of it.

"What do we do?" Yurine tugged Yu's arm.

"It's dangerous out at night, we'll find an inn, eat and then sleep. Tomorrow morning we will spend the whole day getting our work done."

What he meant by our work was the notation of the houses where the letters were to be delivered. Rolderhelm had the numbers of all the houses, which made it easier.

"Meanwhile, Lylphia starts to do research on Sony. We return to Rolderhelm in the morning of the next day."

"Why are you going? I feel like all the work is on me."

Lylphia's breasts jiggled as she spoke. If Lylphia kept shaking her breasts at him, Yu would vomit. Was this girl an exhibitionist?

"We have things to do," he said, turning his head away from Lylphia. "We'll stay in Rolderhelm for a few days, find something until we get back. When we get back, we'll continue our investigation based on the information you've gathered."

"How am I supposed to investigate on my own? I don't even know what I'm supposed to do, I thought I'd just do fighting part."

"Didn't Maron give you a grant? If there's an adventurers' guild or something, go there, ask them or talk to people, maybe they'll tell you something because of the uniform you're wearing, and if necessary you can bribe them with your allowance to get information." It was Yu who asked Maron to give her a grant and the reason for the grant was to help with the research. "Let's go, Yurine."

They stopped arguing with Lylphia and wandered the streets, starting at City Hall, looking for a place to stay. When they found an inn where they could spend the night, they took a room for two and settled in. It was the first time Yu would sleep separately from Yurine. Lylphia wanted to be close by, so she took the room opposite them, and after they had eaten, everyone retired to their rooms to sleep.

"Tell me what happened."

"As I told you, Maron Martin asked us to find Sony von Bishory and bring him to the Wizarding Academy."

The suffix 'von' was a title of nobility used in some countries of the Second World and all Bishorys had this title.

"Why?"

"Because we got off to a bad start with the current headmaster, we can no longer question him or ask his permission to enter the library. But if we find Sony and bring him to the academy, Maron said he will be the headmaster and he will give us what we want."

"What if Sony is already dead?"

"That would be bad, I hope he's not dead."

"But what if he's dead?"

"Our plan to bring your mother back will have problems if he is dead."

Yurine swallowed and lay down on her own bed, pulling the blanket over her head. It bothered her to see that her job depended on luck.

"Are you sure you don't want to sleep next to me? There's no one there to cuddle with if you have bad dreams and get scared."

"Sleep, stupid human."

Yurine coldly dismissed Yu's provocation and said nothing more. After extinguishing the kerosene lamp, Yu settled into his own bed and fell asleep, wrapped in his blanket once more after a long time.

***

"Hairy..."

That was the word he chose to describe the long, soft object he felt in his palm. The silky hair felt nice in his hand. He opened his eyes to see a sweet girl with cat ears lying next to him.

Yurine came to sleep with a big smile on her face. It was also the first time Yurine was lying facing Yu, but something was bothering his in this beautiful moment.

"Why is the bed wet?"

He got out of bed and looked at the wetness on himself. Yurine's clothes were different from the ones she had put on the night before, but still wet.

"Yurine... Did you pee in your sleep? I'm telling you, wake up."

When she lifted her eyelids, Yurine's red eyes met Yu's violet ones.

"Did you pee in your sleep?"

She quickly sat up in bed and pulled the covers over her to hide her soaked bottom from Yu. She turned her head to hide her flushed face and began to cry. It was the first time Yu had seen Yurine acting so childish, today was a day of many firsts.

"STUPID! IT'S BECAUSE OF YOU! BECAUSE YOU SAID YOU'D HAVE BAD DREAMS! IT HASN'T HAPPENED FOR WEEKS! STUPID! DISGUSTING! FILTH!"

"All of a sudden... Whatever. You said it hasn't been happening for weeks? I mean, before..."

"SHUT YOUR MOUTH!"

Even though it was something to be angry about, Yu reminded himself again that Yurine was a child. It was understandable for a child to wet herself.

"But why is that bed wet?"

This is where the strange part started. First she wet her own bed, then she changed her clothes and came to Yu's side because she couldn't sleep on a wet bed, but she wet the bed again.

Yu was disappointed to learn that Yurine had come to him out of obligation and not out of love, but he had to calm the crying Yurine.

"That's enough, don't cry."

How could he calm crying children? Because of his upbringing, he interacted with a lot of children, but he never found the answer.

He would have liked to use his own experiences, when he cried as a child it was enough for his older sisters to hold him to calm him down, but Yurine would almost certainly not allow it.

He sat on the dry side of the bed to calm her down.

"Did you have a bad dream?"

"No."

"Huh? Then why did you blame it on me?"

Yurine shrugged and continued to sit quietly.

"Listen, it's not that big a deal. I peed my pants until I was eight or nine."

And many times he had been beaten for peeing his pants at night. As if a beating would stop him from peeing herself. Yu would be nicer to Yurine.

"It's because you're a stupid person, I'm not going to shit myself until I'm that age."

"Okay then, think that there are others worse off than you and relax." The sunlight filled the room. "Hurry up, we have a lot of work today."

Knowing that there were worse than oneself helped some people to relax. Knowing this reduced the damage to their egos and made them grateful. The jackal was a way for the rulers to herd the sheep.

Yurine's tears had stopped. Even though Yu had revealed an embarrassing secret for this, it was worth it if it would stop her crying.

"Remember, it's a secret. You can't tell anyone."

"Hmmhmm... Just don't do anything like pee your pants while I'm in bed," Yurine got up from the bed. "Stupid."

"That was the sweetest stupid I've ever had."

They had taken a room without a bathtub, thinking it wouldn't be necessary. As much as Yu hated it, they had to use the communal bathroom, fortunately the sun was just rising when Yu noticed the wetness. He took the opportunity to use the bathroom while it was still not full of people.

At least that was the case for the men's bathroom, he didn't know how the side where Lylphia accompanied Yurine was doing.

After their breakfast, they left Lylphia. Lylphia went to find an adventurer's guild to start her research, and Yu and Yurine took notes and started walking around the town, picking suitable spots to distribute the letters.

It took them a day to visit the whole town with plenty of stops, and the next morning they returned to the capital, leaving Lylphia at the inn.