Setting out

Cheers greeted them as they returned to the castle. Soldiers and residents alike were celebrating their hard-won victory. Exactly how things had come to this was Edgar's problem, not Zhao Si's or his companions'. Edgar took possession of the Grafted Greatsword. Zhao Si had no designs on Castle Morne's greatest treasure-there was no need.

Zhao Si was in no mood for the victory feast. He hurriedly washed off the blood, changed into clean clothes, and went to find Irina once he had settled his nerves.

He eagerly shared his insights into the Flowing Sword with her. Swordsmanship honed on the battlefield was precious indeed.

Deflecting force, dissipating power, turning an opponent's strength against them-the more Zhao Si talked, the more he felt he ought to start talking about the "Lightning Five-Hit Whip." The absurd thing was that, having experienced the Flowing Sword for himself, that really was how it felt.

It was water, after all. What else could it be like?

Irina committed everything to memory and promised she would practice diligently.

Zhao Si stroked Irina's head and said gently, "You have to become a truly great swordswoman."

Irina sensed something behind his words. "Master, are you leaving?"

"Yes. I can't stay here forever," Zhao Si said with a smile.

"Then where are you going?" Irina asked.

Zhao Si thought for a moment. "There are plenty of places I want to go. I'll probably travel through pretty much all of the Lands Between."

"Why do you have to travel everywhere? Isn't it nice living here?" Irina was still sweet and innocent, and the little girl's thoughts were simple.

"Of course it's nice living here, but I have more important things to do," Zhao Si said. "Some people have wind in their blood. They're destined never to stay."

He felt rather embarrassed delivering what he considered a cool line to a little girl. It hardly sounded like something he would say. If nothing else needed doing at Castle Morne, he had decided to set out for Caria right away.

Where he had once wanted to go sightseeing, he now had a more important reason-to make new weapons.

He had the beginnings of a new weapon design in his head and wanted a proper discussion with those research-minded sorcerers. He had thought it through carefully, too. An ordinary sorcerer would probably be too arrogant to give him the time of day, so he would be better off seeking out someone relatively "familiar," such as Thops or Sellen.

Well, Sellen might be researching primeval sorcery with the two primeval master sorcerers around this time, so he might not be able to find her. As an ordinary student, Thops should be easier to track down.

Besides, Caria was home to an important figure in the Night of the Black Knives-Ranni. Zhao Si had absolutely no idea how to approach her.

Ranni was a genuine princess, and she should have taken over the administration of Caria after Rennala lost her mind. Both the royal family and the Academy of Magic ought to have been under Ranni's authority. But the academy apparently had an agenda of its own.

Put simply, the academy and the Carian Royal Family were not of one mind.

The royal family had the Carian Knights, who counted as the Full Moon Queen Rennala's troops. The academy, meanwhile, had Cuckoo Knights and maintained its own private soldiers. Anyone would feel uneasy having an armed force like that within their territory.

He wondered how Ranni balanced the relationship between Caria and the academy.

Then Zhao Si thought it should not be that complicated. Couldn't Ranni just make a call and bring in backup? She could summon Radahn, have him surround the Academy of Magic with his troops, crush anyone who dared make trouble, and send Redmane Knights to protect the mentally broken Rennala. Thinking it over, that ought to work.

"How could a few 'bookworms' push you around when you control an army?" Zhao Si tapped his forehead. He thought the relationship between Caria and the academy might offer him a way to meet Ranni.

Irina was not going to the victory feast, so Zhao Si decided to keep her company. He had no interest in attending anyway. Alberich, on the other hand, went to join the fun, while Blaidd? rested alone in his room.

He had exhausted himself considerably. Even after Helena had restored him, he still felt mentally drained.

Alberich drank herself silly at the victory feast, swaying and staggering about as she completely let herself go.

The feast was not merely a celebration of victory; it was also a time to mourn the dead. They would be taken to the catacombs beneath the Minor Erdtree for burial. Their bodies would become nourishment, and their souls would return to the Erdtree, completing their return to the tree.

"Let me teach you another guiding principle of the Flowing Sword." Zhao Si passed on another saying from his memory to Irina as an overarching principle: stagnation led to sediment, and sediment invited corruption-remember to keep flowing in all you did, and never linger.

The Flowing Sword flowed like water, pressing ever onward without stopping.

Irina took it to heart and nodded firmly toward the sound of Zhao Si's voice. The course of the little girl's life was bound to change dramatically.

The night passed uneventfully. Early the next morning, Zhao Si got up and stretched to ease the soreness left by yesterday's battle.

He changed into blue clothing paired with leather armor and tied a blue headscarf around his head, looking like a nomadic swordsman.

Blue clothes-the attire of the Blind Swordsman. Apart from not being blind, he was thoroughly cosplaying the legendary swordsman who had sealed away Scarlet Rot.

He even happened to know a little of the Flowing Sword. What could complete mastery of it accomplish? Sealing away the goddess of Scarlet Rot-physically.

After breakfast, the four of them set out from Castle Morne. Edgar, the lord of the castle, came outside to see them off and even prepared a generous cash gift to thank them.

He had observed all the proper courtesies in both welcoming them and seeing them off, showing the Two Fingers every respect.

Blaidd? and Alberich did not want to go to the Academy of Magic.

Blaidd? had no interest in sorcery, while Alberich's background had put her at odds with the academy.

The two therefore decided to part ways with Zhao Si and return to Roundtable Hold to report on their mission. Helena would accompany Zhao Si so they could stay in contact.

Helena, known as the "walking prayer communications terminal," was the ideal companion for travel, murder, and robbery.

The Academy of Magic's full name was the Caria Royal Academy of Magic. It was ridiculously long, so people shortened it to the Academy of Magic, or simply the academy.

There was only one academy in all the Lands Between anyway. No one would mistake it for another.

The academy stood within Liurnia Lake, with a bustling little town outside its gates.

Although called a lake, Liurnia Lake was really more like a wetland. The buildings within it looked rather like the watery city of Venice.

Perhaps its designers had known how damp the lake would be. The buildings all had exceptionally high foundations, and bridges had been built specifically to connect them to other stretches of land.

The academy stood atop an isolated mountain in the lake, with bridges leading to both its eastern and southern gates.

Interestingly, there was no road from the academy to the Carian Royal Family's heartland-the manor.

Judging by the scale of the academy's castle, it looked more like the "royal seat." What an overreach. Had geography not constrained them, those sorcerers might have been ambitious enough to build the academy as large as Leyndell itself.

Blaidd? and Zhao Si parted ways on the great bridge before the gate.

Watching Blaidd? and Alberich recede into the distance, Zhao Si realized this was his first truly independent venture since coming to the Lands Between... well... Helena was still with him.

All right, given that Helena hardly ever offered an opinion and did whatever Zhao Si said, it counted as a semi-independent venture.

The two rode along the great bridge before the gate. Quite a few people were coming and going, and they even saw Troll caravans hauling freight wagons.

The academy's private soldiers guarded the bridgehead, and fully armed Cuckoo Knights stood at key positions.

The cuckoo feathers adorning their helmets and the cuckoo emblems on the left breast of their red-and-blue armor proclaimed their distinct identity.

From knights to foot soldiers, all the academy's private troops belonged to the "Cuckoo" faction. Cuckoos with their eyes on glintstone.

The symbolism of the cuckoo was rather interesting.