On a quiet night, in the middle of the forest, deep within a small village, a little girl slept soundly
It was strange, the girl was slept in a room, too big for her
The room she slept in was far too large for a child
Almost like a storage room, or perhaps… it truly was one
But the room is empty, no furniture, no decorations, no window
It was only the girl curled beneath a thin blanket in the darkness, not a single source of light
The silent night kept her sleep, until a sound came
A scream echoed outside
The girl slowly opened her eyes, rubbing her eyes, trying regained her vision in a dark room
"Mama…"
More scream followed, footsteps, shouting, panic
Still half asleep, she slowly stood up walked toward the door
The girl tried to opened the door but it was locked not even budged, locked
Then warmth touched her skin, not comforting warmth, heat
The screams outside grew louder
"Mama…" fear crept into her voice as she began banging on the door, trying to opened it
Nothings worked, then suddenly
Crash!
Something slammed through the wall beside her
A burning trunk collapsed into the room, scattering the debris everywhere
The girl froze
Through the opening created by the fallen tree, she could finally see something and tried to crawled outside
She was outside and looked around
Fire, the village was burning
Houses collapsed into flames while smoke covered the night sky. Bodies lay across the ground, unmoving, stained in red
"Mama…" The girl stumbled outside and began running through the village, trying to find her mother
Desperately searching, then
A man ran pass right in front of her
Another figure followed behind him
Slash!
A blade cut through the man's back right in front of the little girl
A bandit? A Guard? She couldn't recognize him
The killer slowly turned toward her
The girl immediately ran away toward the forest
"Hey, come back here!"
Heavy footsteps chased after her
But suddenly, he stopped his movement, confused
A white magical circle lit up beneath the man's feet
He looked back
In the middle of the burning village stood an old man
His body was covered in strange markings
The magic circle kept getting bigger and bigger across the ground
Then the old man suddenly collapsed on his knees
"Arghhh!"
He screamed in agony while clutching his chest
"Hey, what is this magical circle?" one of the men shouted
"I… I don't know"
"Tch… Kill that man, he must be the one who cast the incantation, stop him"
One of them raised his sword
Slash!
Clean cut, the old man's head fell to the ground
But the magical circle didn't stop, it kept growing, bigger and bigger
Expanding, larger, wider, slowly covering the village
"W-why is it not stop growing?"
"Argh… Everyone runs"
"But sir, are we going to left the body?"
"We have enough just run"
The men scattered in panic
On the other hand, the girl kept running into the forest
The magical circle kept getting bigger behind her
Until even the forest floor was covered in white light
The old's man severed head on the ground moved, its mouth slowly opened
"Star… Fall…"
Silent filled the air
Then a light descended from the sky, followed by a high-pitch unsettling shriek
The moment it touched the ground; the world exploded in white
The light was expanding at an impossible speed
The girl kept on running without daring to look back
Finally, it stopped expanding, creating a pillar of light pierced the heavens, slowly faded away in the night
The village became quiet, no sound at all
No screams, no footsteps, nothing
The village was there
But every living being gone, nowhere to be found
Villagers, even the group which attacked the village, everyone vanished without a trace
Not a single sign where they gone into
Realizing the light pillar faded, the girl stopped running, she wandered through the forest aimlessly
Not aware of her steps, then
Slip!
She lost her footing and struck her head against a stone
Darkness swallowed her vision
Morning came quietly
Erin woke up on her bed, rubbing her eyes
Sunlight seeped through the window of her small room
She sat up in silence before walking to the bathroom to wash her face
After changing into her usual clothes, she stepped outside and headed toward the guild bar
The guild bar was load as always
Adventures laughed loudly while mugs slammed against wooden tables
Somethings never changed
She ordered her favorite salad plate and quietly ate breakfast alone
After finishing her meal, she stood up and went outside the guild bar
She went straight toward the city library
The library was much calmer
People sat quietly between shelves while flipping through books.
She strolled in the library searching for someone, searching shelf after shelf
She searched quietly but then someone pushed her from behind
"BAAA"
"KYAA"
Erin jumped in surprised before quickly covering her own mouth
Laura stood behind her trying not to laugh
Everyone inside the library immediately turned toward them
Erin's face turned bright red
"H-Hey, please don't do that" She whispered while pouted
"Hehe, I'm sorry" Laura replied "quick follow me"
They walked toward the receptionist table
Laura stepped behind the counter and picked up a book
"Here, this is the book that you asked me, right?" she handled Erin a book
Erin carefully checked the cover and content of the book
"Yes, you are right, thank you"
Laura crossed her hand proudly "You better thank me properly, because it's kinda hard to find that specific book that you want"
"I-I'm sorry"
"I'm joking" Laura leaned slightly over the desk "so do you need anything else?"
"I don't think I need anything else" Erin replied softly "But what about you, did the city library accepted Loran's books?"
"Well, they accepted some of his book, but most of them were not"
"They still need to send the books to academies for inspection first. Those old scholars want to verify whether the research is valid or not"
"I see… but at least there is hope that Loran's books could be put into the library, right?"
"Yeah, you are right" Laura sighed "but it's going to take forever, those old man always taking weeks just to check a single book"
She groaned dramatically
"Just thinking about it make my head hurt, let's change the topic"
Laura suddenly smirked
"How's your adventure going, you said you just ranked up to iron, right?"
"Y-yeah, but nothing's changed, we just took care of bandits and that's it"
"Hmm not fun" Laura leaned closer "what about the boy you brought when we first met?"
"You mean Auel?"
"Of course," She grinned wider "you liked him, right?"
"N-no!" Ein immediately protested "I-I just see him just like my brother, that's it"
Her face turned red almost instantly
Laura laughed quietly
"You don't need to lie, I know you liked him"
"No, it's not like that" Her voice became louder than intended
Everyone in the library looked at them again
Erin froze
"I'm sorry" She bowed repeatedly toward the surrounding readers before turning back to Laura with burning cheeks
"Can you please stop doing that…"
"Hehe, I'm sorry" Laura rested her chin on her hand "by the way where is he right now?"
"I don't know, I think he said he wanted to train together with Rikka"
"Rikka?"
On the other place, at the same field where Erin once trained Laura, two figures clashed repeatedly beneath the sun
Rikka aggressively pressed forward, swinging his sword without pause
Auel calmly deflected every strike before jumping backward to create distance
The moment the gap opened, Rikka ignited his blade and slashed forward, flaming arcs flew through the air
Auel easily blocked them with his blade, sheathed his blade, and a slash followed
Another arc cut through the air
Rikka tried to use the same technique that Auel used but
But the flame destabilized
BOOM!
The attack exploded in front of him instead
He fell on the ground, flame burned on his chest
"Auch… hot, hot"
He tried to put it down his hands
Auel rushed towards him, pulled a water bottle and poured it onto him
Steam rose into the air
"Dammit" Rikka groaned while lying on the ground "why does this keep failing"
"You just need to keep more practice"
"Aww come on, I can copy your arc attack in a first try but why I can't use this technique"
"That's mean you are lucky, and this time you need more time to use it"
Rikka clicked his tongue
"Tch… I'm sick of training, let's get back to the guild bar and take another quest"
Auel sighed "Fine"
Both of them went to the guild bar and stood in front of the quest board
Rikka scanned through the quest papers
"Hey, where is the bandit quest?" Rikka asked
"I don't know, I mean already took a lot of them"
"Well, that's sucks" He muttered "you just ranked up to silver, right? So why don't we take a silver quest for now?"
"Fine, why don't you pick?"
Rikka more carefully scanned through the quest board and then picked one of the quest papers
"Hmm… what about this an investigation quest?"
Auel glanced at the paper
"An investigation quest, are you sure?"
"Yeah, what's the problem?"
"Investigation quest usually asked us to find out about a new species of monster"
"So where is the problem? We just need to find this thing takes some notes and then done"
"The problem is we didn't have any information of this creature"
"Aww… Come one" Rikka rolled his eyes and read at the quest description aloud "look the quest said that the creature has white skins, and it has a long body maybe 5 meter long, this must be an albino snake or something" He shrugged
"And what if it's not an albino snake like what happen to our first quest"
"Hey, you're thinking too much, come follow me"
Rikka brought the paper to the guild receptionist while holding the paper proudly
Auel stared at him for a moment before sighing once more and following behind