Chapter 236: Home Blade
———Lerim———
<3: 53 pm>
“These things sure are pretty…” Evari commented, seeing the multiple mage insignia I put on the table. It’s mostly made of beautiful and colorful crystals. Certainly look like something you wear to look like a rich elite.
“They’re probably not actually precious gemstones, or at least I wouldn’t count on it.” I only have the four on me, and three of them are from Built-ranked mages. Near the bottom of the barrel.
“So this secret mage society has been causing some trouble for a while, it seems.” Evari remarked while the others observed quietly. This isn’t an official announcement or anything, we’re really just talking to kill some time. They were all still quite shocked that I returned so soon.
“Yeah. From the looks of it, they really don’t like how people have been going around causing all sorts of chaos, since they’re the ones who want to do it.” Or something like that. I don’t know. I do think they’re getting sick of people wrecking stuff up just because of their low impulse control. “I would imagine that they have a lot of work going on in the background that got disrupted by the Eclipse. They are probably trying to take control so things can go back on schedule.”
“...But why there, though? I don’t think there’s anything there, right?” Evari asked. The area around the border certainly does sound like more trouble than it’s worth, especially with the possibility of alerting the government of such a massive nation. There is a somewhat good reason for it, though it’s not really common knowledge at the moment. I don’t even think the people stationed there even know it.
“It’s the leylines there. That’s the gold vein they were looking for.” It doesn’t look like they quite realize what it is, considering the reaction. It’s not like that word wasn’t thrown around before we all realize that magic is something that exists. “It’s an area abundant with mana, which will result in better spell casting for practice, healing, and so forth. It’s a particular favorite to gather a lot of people to perform what is called a ritual spell. Basically just magic with a bunch of people involved and way more elaborate.”
“So… I don’t know what’s the equivalent of that.” Evari said, not really sure of what to think.
“Don’t worry about it. Just think of it as a resource-rich land like it’s an oil field.” Not that most people would know how to utilize the area well enough to bring out a similar level of value. I certainly don’t know how to turn it into something invaluable.
That school had the right idea. The whole place is built on top of the leylines. No doubt that helped a lot during practice and such, and it might help fuel the energy needed to run that place. A place that big would’ve drained quite a lot of electricity, and I’m pretty sure the leylines are used to circumvent a bit of that.
“...So did you just leave after it was all said and done?” Evari asked, clearly confused as to why I’ll leave so early without making them cough up any rewards.
“Of course. I can just wait until someone contacts our boss about the compensation. Besides, the place is really depressing despite being quite an important location, I’d rather not stay there a second longer.” I’d rather be in the comfort of my hometown here than stay somewhere that is so lazily maintained. Something tells me something happened there, maybe a few years back, for things to look so bad. At least from a sanitary standpoint it’s not unbearable.
“That bad?” Evari asked.
“It’s just so unfitting for a place meant for people guarding the country. It’s like a cheap building not really worth living in.” I had higher expectations for it, but I probably don’t have to go back there, and certainly no longer staying overnight, so I don’t want to speak in detail about it. “Let’s move on from that. It’s just not interesting, not like military bases being depicted as dirty and badly maintained is a rare thing, right? At least from the movie clips I’ve seen.”
“Yeah? But none of us have been to one, right?” Evari said while looking around, and the others simply shrugged. “You got images?”
“…I probably shouldn’t share it, even if I have one. I don’t really have high hopes for them, but I don’t really feel like exposing anything.” It’s rather rude to just take a picture and do nothing but shame them afterwards. I know some people lack the self-control for it, which is rather ludicrous to think about, you’d think by default they won't immediately start recording the moment they’re somewhere new. “Not really something I have interest in doing, you know?”
“I see…” Evari said while inspecting the letters on the crystals. “So why are they different in designs? This one from the rest.”
“It’s all about ranking. This one here is two ranks above the other three. You need to hold quite a good deal of prestige to hold this rank, even if it’s technically in the middle of the seven ranks of Mage Remnants.” There isn’t much in terms of the specifics, so I can’t really yap about it.
“...By the way, how did you get back here so fast? You said it all happened three hours ago? I thought the travel time going there is at least like a few days?” She asked. It’s certainly something you really can’t avoid once the other party realizes the absurdity of it.
“I might have spent some potions and siphoned energy out of the leylines to overcharge myself. It lets me move much faster than normal.” I don’t want to get into the specifics of it, it’s actually more boring than it sounds. Just flying at full speed at very high altitude and hoping I don’t hit anything, and then hone in on the shinepoint I set up at home. “...Say, what have all of you been doing when I was gone? What in the world is that patch in the roof?”
“Uhh…” Evari gave an awkward reaction while the others don’t seem to be comfortable with the topic either. What in the fresh hell happened that this place is getting damaged?
“Evari…” Why are you giving me that look? Tell me what the hell happened already!
———Karra———
<7: 59 pm>
“It really doesn’t change much in terms of design.” I remarked, inspecting the knife more closely. It’s just slightly bigger with a glowing orange gem in its guard. “...I still didn’t expect to actually discover who actually created this knife in the first place. Did we seriously get teleported to Germany?”
“Naturally, since that’s where her workshop is stationed. I’d imagine she does have more than one of those, maybe one in Sweden and a few other European countries. Perhaps it’s not strictly Germany.” Wiina said. Where do elves actually originate from anyway?
“Do you know anything about her?” I asked, since it’s not like it’s no longer a secret as to who made it, we even know her name now. It does kinda sound like a nickname, but maybe that’s just my bias talking.
“Not really. I only learned about her recently, but I do notice some key details.” She said. So what are those key details? “First off, as you may expect, she has lived for an extremely long period of time, which does come with a lot of wisdom and power. Secondly, those pointy ears? I have seen elves with longer ears than that. Seems like she’s a mix, probably a human and an elf. Functionally speaking she’s still an elf, full-stop, but one with less pronounced ears.”
“That’s interesting… Was there another ancient race outside of elves?” I have read into it and I couldn’t find anything at all. Like the dwarves, I don’t see them mentioned anywhere.
“Depends… Would you consider demons to be in that camp? They showed up so often in history that they kinda act like it, even if there’s so much variance in shape and behavior.” …So is it seriously just elves? Nothing else at all?
“...Vampires? Fairies?” They’re not demons, right?
“They’re too mystical in nature to really be considered a race, if that makes sense. They’re both incarnated forces of nature, it’s just that the former is significantly more dangerous than the latter.” She elaborated… So those don't count either?
“So why is elf counted?” What even are elves anyway? In fairytales and stuff they’re considered… Are they related to fairies? I don’t think anyone is really sure what they’re meant to be aside from being a bunch of tree lovers with long ears… Eci isn’t like that at all, she fits more with dwarves now that I think about it. Not that she has beards.
“They’re basically a race of modified humans. From my knowledge, they are supposed to be elevated humans that try to match the power and potential of true ancestor vampires, but clearly something went awry, and all that’s left are humans with longer lifespans and long sharp ears. Just for reference, while vampires tend to have sharper ears than normal humans, sometimes it’s barely noticeable.” That’s… significantly more mundane and less fascinating than I would’ve expected. So they are effectively caricatures of something much grander than themselves. That’s certainly not the most appealing description one would want. Perhaps that’s why their origin is so muddied.
“...That’s going to make a lot of people look at them with way less prestige, I feel.” Being called a knockoff is quite an insult. “Guess that’s why they’re so associated with nature, literally trying to emulate their agents.”
“You got it.” Wiina said, looking disinterested as she lay down on her bed without a care in the world. “What are you looking at this time?”
“Seeing if there’s any articles about that whole fight Lrem went through. I only see pictures of the beam of light and nothing more. There doesn’t seem to be anyone nearby that could take the picture or even tell anyone what just happened." That kind of attack is hard to brush off once you witness it, so this seems to be a matter of a lack of bystanders…
“Considering the location, that’s only natural.” Wiina remarked. “I’d imagine that no one involved would want to tell the public what happened either. The panic that would spread is hard to imagine. Kenni’s handiwork is already causing a lot of paranoia as is.”
“Yeah. No need to remind me of that.” Maybe the initiative of everyone roaming around the US to get into trouble is a bad idea. Shocker, I know.
At least I wasn’t really involved with it. If I want to go somewhere I’ll have Wiina with me to make sure things deescalate quickly with no room for error.
“It’s still going to happen this weekend as well. Do you not have anything to say about that?” Wiina asked, as if rubbing salt in the wound.
“No. It’s too far gone at this point. It’s just one person causing massive trouble anyway. It’s Kenni for crying out loud. Even without that she’s going to cause trouble no matter what anyone does or says.” She’s not someone that would easily be convinced to stop doing something that she finds to be fun.
“That’s fair.” Wiina said. “But back on the topic of that friend of yours. She has certainly been put in quite a position, and considering her view on fame, she’s quite fortunate that the matter she dealt with is too big to be discussed openly. Not that I expect her to not at least speak of the events in broader terms. Perhaps being quite vague about what truly happened.”
“She hadn’t said anything at all about it in the group chat. Just vague statements that no one else in the group is going to understand.” There’s this weird pressure that comes with understanding the meaning of a sentence that seems innocuous at first glance. I feel like calling it out, but I really shouldn’t. It’s that sorta thing.
…Speaking of which, she also starts alluding to something else unrelated to today’s incident. I can’t say I get this one…