Next Morning.
Shortly after we woke up, Yerina gathered us in her office for some 'breakfast' – sharing with us some pastries and tea. After giving us everything, she herself left, to 'gather some essential things' she said. I won't lie, the tone she said it in and the slight smirk I could see tugging at her lips gave me the feeling that whatever she went to grab before we departed, was anything but 'essential'...
But, who am I to pry?
Overall, the breakfast wasn't bad. The snacks she had laid out were a little too sweet for my taste, however the tea was quite good. After we finished, Yerina returned, carrying what looked like a heavy, packed bag – strapped closed with some heavy duty straps.
"Has everyone eaten?" She asked with a wide smile across her face. "Enough to not feel hungry until lunch." I responded, while Rhys quickly stuffed another two pastries into her mouth. Yerina looked at Rhys before rolling her eyes, chuckling lightly. "Alright then, come on, we're heading out."
Then, Yerina turned around, moving out of the room once again. Shortly after her, me, Avy and Odale all got up from the couch and moved after her, while Rhys quickly grabbed a few more of the pastries on the table, tossing them into a small bag, before rushing past us, catching up with Yerina – moving beside her, while keeping her gaze averted.
"She's like some kind of cat…" Odale commented, sighing.
I chuckled lightly. "I suppose she can act like that sometimes…"
Avy remained silent, simply staring at Rhys for a bit, before looking away – looking a bit like she was lost in thought. I shed a slight sweat as I observed her from the side. "She has been quiet the entire morning… She didn't even tell me 'good morning' like usual. I wonder if everything is alright…"
I do not believe there is a need to worry Master.
Ancient One commented.
"..And why?"
…Nothing. No reply.
This will get annoying real fast… How he just comments and then refuses to elaborate on it. Taking in a deep breath, I exhaled before looking away from Avy again. "I'll ask her later if everything is alright. Right now, I don't want to bother her much… I know better than to bother someone who's lost in their thoughts."
Yerina led us through the facility, before entering into a room that had been locked via several heavy duty locks. Inside the room, there were many tubes, filled with strange blue liquid. "Ancient One?"
Give me a moment Master – 'Analysis' is taking a little longer than expected…
After a small bit of silence, the Ancient One spoke up again.
The blue liquid inside the containers appears to be a special mix of vegetation and monster cores – all of which has been combined with magical energy using transmutation, a speciality of Alchemists.
Overall, the purpose of the liquid seems to be as a clean source of power.
"Clean source of power? Not at all what I expected…"
A lot of people mistake it to be something that is used for biological experiments when in reality, it's simply used as a way to power things.
I see.
Interesting – I suppose.
Yerina moved deeper into the room, stopping by a whole panel, with levers, buttons and some glass screens on it – inside of which different things were displayed. "What is this place..?" Odale asked, looking around the entire room. Yerina began tinkering with the panel, before throwing a momentary look at us over her shoulder.
"The administrator room of the entire facility. This is where the entire building's security, energy and defensive systems are managed. It's essentially the place where I can oversee everything happening within the building or even inside the dome of the simulated environment I made outside." She explained, continuing to tinker with the panel, typing in some kind of sequence of numbers, before pulling a lever.
The entire facility shook lightly, before an old, rather distorted voice spoke through an aged metal speaker spoke – the audio coming from it booming across the entire room. "Security systems set to High Alert."
Yerina nodded, taking hold of a key in the panel, twisting it to the side - the key making a gentle click sound - before pulling it out of the panel, quickly sliding the key into her stuffed bag. "What did you just–?"
"Locked down the panel. Without the key, the panel cannot be operated." She responded, turning around to look at us, before smiling gently. "It's a safety precaution, in case anyone manages to somehow sneak past the security systems and find their way in here. It ensures they don't gain any access to the facility or its systems." She explained a little bit, before moving past us.
"Come on, let's head outside now."
Rhys followed after her almost instantly, while me, Avy and Odale were left standing there – a little bit speechless. "...This entire place is clashing with the overall medieval look the world has bolstered so far…"
Oh, you have no idea Master…
…What is that supposed to mean?
Before I could hear the Ancient One's response, Odale called out to me – causing me to quickly shake my head before catching up with him and the others, following closely after them.
After we made it outside, Yerina locked the front door before leading all of us to a completely different building, separate from the main one we had just come out of.
Gotta say, looking around and seeing just how lush, green and alive the environment within this dome looks, it was a little hard to believe that just beyond it, the rest of the area we were in was nothing but a wasteland, withering away and filled to the brim with special monsters, only found here. It was such a stark contrast. "These environmental simulators or whatever they were called, are nothing short of magic…"
Well, not entirely incorrect, but for the most part, it's science, not magic.
…I realise that, thank you.
Once we made it to the other building, Yerina stopped us. "Wait outside, I'll be back within a minute." She stated, before handing Odale her heavily strapped down bag. "Would you hold onto this for me, please?"
"Oh, of course – no problem Miss." Odale responded, taking the bag. Yerina winked at him before moving towards the door of the building, disappearing inside. After a small bit, the roof to the building opened – something that caught me, and seemingly both Odale and Avy, off guard. Once it was fully open, a massive silhouette flew out of the building, the roof closing after it.
The silhouette flew into the sky, before dashing back down towards the ground, landing behind us. And upon seeing it – I couldn't quite believe what I was seeing. "Is that…"
"..A Wyvern?" Odale finished my sentence, before laughing lightly. "Yeah… Yeah it is."
On its back was what looked like a saddle, on top of which sat Yerina, with a wide smile stretched across her face. Hopping off of the Wyvern, she patted it gently, before moving towards us. The monster before us was covered in pale, white scales, with some scars across its neck and over its eyes. The left part of its face looked like it had suffered some sort of injury in the past – looking a little like a burn maybe.
Walking up to Odale, Yerina took her bag back. "Thank you. Now, hop on – Aurora will take us back to Ordial in no time at all." She stated, before Rhys yawned. "I'll fly myself." She stated, before several light turquoise magic circles formed around her, making her body shine for a moment. Then, she flew up into the air herself, looking down at us. "I'll see you all on the road." She stated, before dashing up higher – disappearing from our sight once she left the dome.
I stood there, trying to process a little everything that just occurred within two minutes or so…
"Come on, we don't have all day!" Yerina called out to us, placing her bag onto the Wyverns back, before climbing on herself. After a quick exchange of gazes between me and Odale, the three of us moved towards the Wyvern as well. Odale got onto it first, before helping me get on. Lastly, I reached my hand out to help Avy get onto it, catching her quickly as she tripped a little bit – almost falling off.
She looked at me, before averting her gaze – her cheeks a little flushed.
"...Thanks."
I remained silent, before nodding. "No worries."
Once we settled down on the monster's back, getting in comfortable, Yerina brushed the Wyverns' neck gently. "Hold on tight everyone, the take off tends to be a little bit rough!" She stated, before turning her attention to the Wyvern. "Come on Aurora, take us to Ordial."
The Wyvern nodded, before letting out a loud roar and expanding its wings. Then, within two motions – the thing took off, dashing into the sky. Odale held on with ease, while I had to use 'Shadowlord' a little bit in order to 'latch' myself onto the Wyvern, while also holding onto Avy tightly, so that she didn't fall off either.
Once we were beyond the dome, the Wyvern flew up higher and higher, nearly touching the clouds before flying straight – soaring above the land below us. "Our next destination, Ordial!" Yerina announced happily with a joyous, rather childish tone. The Wyvern roared, before dashing across the sky – quickly catching up to Rhys who had been already quite the way in front of us.
Deactivating 'Shadowlord' I looked over the 'edge' of the wyverns back, seeing the ground below us. We were so high in the air… It felt a bit like I was on a plane again. "This is incredible…"
If you think that of the ground below, then I wonder what you'll say about the view around?
"View around..? What—?" I lifted my gaze up a bit, my eyes widening. Because of how high we were, I could see so, so much of the world in the distance. There were countless forests, small settlements and roads that sprawled all across the world towards the northern and eastern parts of the world.
"Incredible view isn't it?" Odale asked.
"..Yeah…."
"I remember seeing something similar back in the olden days, when I used to ride on the back of my own monster partner."
I looked at Odale. "Monster partner?"
"Did I not mention it? I had a wyvern similar to this one as a 'steed' back when I was alive." Odale stated, before looking away. "Though, he was a little bigger than this one…"
"It's because Aurora is a female wyvern. On average, ignoring Alpha Wyverns, female wyverns tend to be smaller than male ones." Odale looked at Yerina, who threw her gaze back at him over her right shoulder. "Plus, Aurora isn't a combat creature. She is meant purely for travel."
"Is there a reason for it?"
"Well, I suppose you could say there are two. The first one is because of her age. Aurora is already around twenty one years old." Odale looked a bit surprised. "That is a long time for a wyvern to live…"
"Right? Yet this old girl flies just as well as any other wyvern."
I raised an eyebrow. "Is it unusual for wyverns to live that long?"
Indeed it is.
Usually, the life expectancy for a wyvern is around twelve, sometimes fifteen years.
That low?...
That's a little… sad.
Indeed.
They're majestic creatures, however fate was not kind to them.
"The other reason is because of her nature. Aurora is quite a docile specimen among her kind."
"Ahh… That makes sense." Odale responded, before crossing his arms. "Most wyverns that are raised to be used as 'steeds' usually are docile by nature. Back in my days it was to avoid them potentially attacking the ones riding them – is it any different these days?"
Yerina shook her head.
"No, not really."
"I see… Good to know then." Odale stated, before Rhys flew closer to us all, flying slightly above the wyvern. "We're not very far from Ordial now. I'll meet you in the Adventuring guild." She stated, looking at Yerina.
The elf nodded, before waving her a little 'bye'.
Then, the mage dashed down towards the ground.
"Wait, we're already close—?"
"Mhm! With someone like Aurora, the distance between Ordial and the Deadman's Graveyard is meaningless." Yerina stated, before holding on a little more tightly onto the wyverns neck. "Now, hold on tight, we'll now begin our descent."
Immediately after she said that, I used some shadows to 'latch' myself onto the wyvern, before looking at Avy – who had still remained silent the entire flight. "...You can hold onto me." I stated. She looked at me, before looking away again for a moment. Then, she smiled and nodded, shuffling closer to me, before wrapping her arms around my right arm.
I exhaled lightly.
"Not quite what I had meant, but it's fine…" Using 'Shadowlord', I also latched Avy's body onto the wyvern, ensuring she wouldn't fall down either. Once we had braced ourselves, Yerina patted the wyvern on the neck gently, the monster roaring before dashing down towards the ground.
Within moments, I spotted the walled off town – We really were already back…
That took no time at all… It was like a three or something day trip via carriage when we were heading to the graveyard.
Actually– I just remembered.
"We… left the carriage back in the graveyard…" I thought, before chuckling and then exhaling. Hopefully that won't get us into any trouble… I'm sure they have some method of bringing it back.
As the wyvern approached Ordial, guards stationed on the walls of the town quickly began rushing all around. Flying by, I managed to catch what one of them was shouting to the others. "Notify the stables crew! She's arrived..!"
"Stables? For a wyvern…?"
It's a special type of stables, not the type where you'd keep horses.
Okay… I was beginning to wonder.
The wyvern soared above the town with a slower pace than when we were flying up high in the sky, before eventually reaching the other side of the town, where we descended towards a large open ground – many guards located there. One guard lifted up a pole with a yellow flag on it, waving it around.
As soon as he did, the wyvern began to land onto the ground. Once it settled down, the guards approached it. "Alright, we're here." Yerina stated, before grabbing hold of her bag and hopping off of the wyvern, a guard walked up to her, bowing towards her. "It's good to see you again Professor."
Yerina eyed the guard, before seemingly recognising him, despite the armour that covered his entire body. "Theodore! It's been quite some time hasn't it? How is your wife and son?"
"They're doing very well, thank you Professor." The guard responded.
Me, Odale and Avy got off of the wyvern ourselves, making sure to not leave any of our stuff behind. Once we were off of it, the other guards surrounded the creature, placing a chain collar on it. "We'll take care of Aurora, Professor. You should immediately head to the Adventuring guild. Guildmaster Gidou is waiting for you."
"Alright, thank you Theodore. Pass on my regards to your wife and son!" She stated, before waving him a goodbye and turning towards us, walking past us. "Come on, let's head to the guild now. You three need to report back to Gidou as well."
"Right…" I responded, before eyeing the guard she had been talking to one last time. Then, me, Avy and Odale quickly moved after Yerina, catching up to her before following after her – making sure to stick close to her so that we don't get lost or, maybe even worse, get apprehended by the guards, since this area didn't look like the kind of place they let just anyone inside.
In a little while, we made it to the guild building.
Wasting no time, we headed inside – where a guild employee immediately rushed towards us. "Miss Nartha! It is good to see you once more. The Guildmaster is waiting for you…" The employee eyed the three of us. "..All in his office."
"Thank you, we'll head over immediately."
The employee bowed towards Yerina before moving away. Then, without saying anything else to anyone else, Yerina headed upstairs – the three of us following closely behind her. After quickly navigating across the guild's second floor, we made it to the guildmasters office.
Yerina stopped at the door, taking in a deep breath.
"...Is everything alright?" I asked.
"Everything is fine. I'm just… a little nervous. That's all." Yerina responded, before letting out an exhale and placing her hand onto the door handle. "Okay… Here we go." Then, she opened the door, before bouncing into the room. "Lawie my beloved! I have come at last! Did you miss me—"
Yerina went silent as she saw who was inside the room.
Peaking inside from behind her, I saw two other people also in the office already. One was someone me and Avy were familiar with – Harcone, the knight who had come to 'check' on Avy a while back now. And the other… Was a man I did not recognise.
Dressed in black robes, a black and gold walking stick next to him, white hair and a small, but noticeable moustache. A black hat on top of his head, from which a golden feather sprawled upwards. On his face was a small golden monocle shone - a pair of dark blue eyes behind it.
"Who is that..?"
You'll find out shortly.
I grew a little annoyed. "You useless…"
At his desk, sat Gidou, who looked at Yerina and us three. "Good to see that you all could make it – just in time as well. Please, take a seat," He gestured to the unoccupied couch. "There is much to be discussed."