Eisole Forest was a beechwood, its trees scattered in an orderly fashion. Rose Month had arrived, and the original colors of the bark, roots, and leaves were gradually fading, all turning black. The forest, still in the midst of this transformation, was anything but peaceful. A messy trail, clearly trampled by some group of animals, ran through it, unmistakable.
The trail was almost becoming a road.
Beside it, a rabbit was still lively enough to leap about before stopping near a thicket. Its three-lobed mouth quivered as it reached into the grass in search of food not yet completely blackened by the darkness. As it moved, the blades rustled, and a few clung to its fur.
Suddenly, a hand reached out from the thicket into the silence. The rabbit bolted in fright and soon vanished into the forest.
The hand had prominent knuckles, wrapped in thick calluses and scars, with faint veins visible beneath the skin. It brushed the grass the rabbit had been standing beside. In the darkness, the air around the hand seemed to warp, though it was hard to see. But the blades of grass it touched instantly burned to ash.
Rustle...
Soon, a man pushed through the grass. He was powerfully built, and the smile that usually rested on his face had vanished. Now he looked more like a silent warrior. The air around his hands, within a few feet, twisted into shapes as gnarled as deadwood. But he was no warrior—he was an adventurer.
He wore an adventurer's outfit: old, somewhat tattered leather armor. His sleeves were rolled up, exposing his firm, taut muscles.
"Wickel, it's been a long time since I've seen you use that power." An old man slowly emerged beside him. His hair was white, and his face deeply wrinkled. He seemed to have trouble getting around, and he held a wooden staff that looked like it was meant to help him walk. In truth, he only seemed slow; he was far from infirm. He easily leaped over the difficult thicket. "It's been twenty years."
"It is a little nostalgic, Forresten. But you're just as old as you were back then." Wickel's expression shifted subtly at Forresten's words. When he spoke, his tone was almost casual. "Come on. Helise won't be able to hold out much longer."
They had been moving quickly through the forest all day, searching for the pack of wolves.
"You already know how this will end, don't you?" Forresten said without urgency. "The odds are against us."
As soon as he finished speaking, Wickel punched a beech tree. It looked like a casual blow, but as the seconds passed, his fist slowly "bored" its way into the wood.
Crackling sounds came from within, accompanied by an intense heat. The sight was terrifying.
"Not much has been able to make me anxious these past few years. Thinking about it, I haven't felt this way in twenty years. Isn't that right, Wickel?" Forresten paid the scene no mind. He walked on, tapping his staff against the ground. "Come on."
At that, Wickel pulled his fist free. In the pitch-black night, they couldn't see clearly; only the hot air rising from the beech tree gave them a sense of how terrible the blow had been. And its damage went beyond what they could see on the surface. Several minutes later, a sharp crack suddenly sounded inside the tree. Then the tree, at least ten feet in diameter, split down the middle and slowly toppled to one side, raising a cloud of dust. Its heavy fall sent a dull thud through the forest.
Wickel and Forresten paid it little attention. Their pursuit of the wolves had led them north from the swamp.
"Looks like the wolves are being controlled... Look at these tracks. An ordinary pack wouldn't do this." As they followed the messy but unmistakable trail, Forresten examined it carefully. "The wolves are still in a frenzied state... If our enemy is behind this, they're powerful."
"We've beaten powerful enemies before. Could this be the Beast Speaker? Does Fatenai have a history with the Beast Speaker? Helise and Hubert said she was an orphan, though she once had parents. Maybe there's a connection." Wickel frowned.
"My friend, calm down. There's only one Beast Speaker left, an old relic in the Starshine Kingdom. The rest of the Beast Speakers were wiped out long ago..." Forresten reminded him. "Of course, there could be a new Beast Speaker in the forest I've been watching."
Wickel fell silent. He knew what Forresten meant. Forresten smiled, his expression kind.
"Hubert! That's enough!" The two men walked on, but suddenly heard Helise's nearly hysterical scream behind them. If not for the unmistakable direction of her words, even Wickel might have thought they were in trouble.
Helise was determined to find Fatenai, but she clearly couldn't keep up. After all, she was a mage, not a warrior—and she hadn't even graduated yet. So she and Hubert had fallen a short distance behind the others.
"Helise, you've had enough," Forresten and Wickel said as they turned back to see what was happening. Then Hubert's voice rang out. "These footprints show that she was taken by a Beast Speaker, but the Beast Speakers are nearly extinct. Since she's a Forest Hunter, she must have some of their abilities, or she couldn't survive in the forest. Don't you understand, Helise?"
"What am I supposed to understand? I know that she was badly injured saving me, and then the wolves carried her off. I also know that you keep complaining to me that this was all a scheme. How can you be so arrogant?!" Helise's face was streaked with tears, her eyes ringed with darkness. Her once lovely, confident face had lost its former radiance; now she looked distraught.
"She was just looking for protection. She wanted to use the fact that the headmaster was here to get us to take her to the academy—but she's a 'defective' with no mana!" Hubert had had enough of Helise's unreasonable behavior, and her words had angered him, too.
Helise was nearly at her breaking point. "Is that how you treat the person who saved my life? Would it have been better if I'd been killed by the boar?"
"But you were the one who—" Hubert began.
"You're right, I was foolish!" Helise cut him off. "But that doesn't mean I have to put up with you berating me, you arrogant jerk! Where were you at the time, Hubert? Everyone says you're unreasonable, and they're right. I don't know what I ever did to deserve you constantly mocking me. If you're so unhappy with me, go find yourself a better companion!"
With that, Helise turned and walked away, her resolve unmistakable.
Hubert frowned. "You'd better not lump two separate things together..."
But Helise didn't want to hear him out. She quickened her pace and passed Wickel and Forresten.
"Oh, child, what made you think that?" Forresten nodded to Wickel before walking over to Hubert. He placed a hand on Hubert's shoulder and could feel how tense it was. "Everything will be all right."
"It was the night we came to the tavern. Helise was already asleep, but I couldn't sleep. I noticed that girl was still awake. She'd seemed suspicious from the start, and there was also that mage who appeared out of nowhere..." Hubert's head felt as if it were splitting apart. His voice was dazed. "She was asking that mage about the Beast Speakers... I only heard bits and pieces, things like 'Beast Speaker' and 'summoning'... Later, she noticed me, and we chatted for a while. She told me she was an orphan... But we'd already guessed that. As she was talking, she fell asleep. I carried her to bed and heard her talking in her sleep..."
A glint flickered in Forresten's eyes.
Hubert walked ahead in a daze, his steps unsteady, yet somehow heavy.
"What did she say?" Forresten asked, raising his head to stare into the dark night sky.
"She said... 'Mom, I'll find a way to become a mage...'" Hubert's face turned pale.
Bang—! A muffled impact cut off their conversation. Forresten whipped around to look.
"Fatenai!" Helise's voice rang out.
Forresten swept his staff forward and hurried ahead. Each step seemed to leave a faint afterimage, and he carried the pale-faced Hubert along with him.
They finally saw a girl cornered against a boulder in a clearing ahead. Flames burned in the forest nearby, their red glow falling across her face.
By the firelight, they could see the blood on the girl's abdomen. Fatenai struggled to keep her eyes open. The blood loss threatened to make her pass out at any moment, but the thing before her kept her awake: a wolf as tall as a person, its mane shining with a luster all its own in the firelight. Its eyes fixed on Fatenai as if she were food.
"No... Don't..." Broken words came from Fatenai's lips. She tried to back away, but there was nowhere left to go. As she scrambled backward, she reopened her wound, and the pain left her unable to move.
"Damn it—!" The instant Forresten took in the scene, a word slipped through Wickel's clenched teeth, and he was already charging forward.
The wolf noticed Wickel but didn't turn around. Instead, it lunged at Fatenai. It was close enough to tear her apart before it had to deal with Wickel.
"No!" Helise screamed, then blacked out. Forresten moved behind her and caught her, preventing him from chanting right away.
Fatenai stared at the wolf, trembling, and screamed too, as if summoning every last bit of strength she had. She thrust out both hands.
Like a miracle, white light burst from her palms, dazzling and awe-inspiring.
"How is this possible..." Hubert murmured, deeply shaken. He stumbled backward.
"This girl was a mage all along?" Forresten was also startled, staring blankly at what was happening.
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