The Wizard Community (3)
"Are you seriously missing a few screws or what?"
Yona had no answer to Alec's remark.
Granted, she had cut off every bit of context before and after, but she'd thought she'd hit the point dead-on with a perfect summary. Apparently, from the receptionist's perspective, that wasn't how it came across at all.
Yona replayed the moment again and again in her mind — the way the woman's smile had vanished in an instant — and shuddered from head to toe.
Sure, the customer-service smile had swept back over her face afterward, but that look she'd given, like she was staring at a lunatic, still stung badly.
"But I was getting straight to the point!"
"You can't just strip out everything and say only the point and expect anyone to understand you!"
"Oh, for—"
I'm afraid not. You appear to be a priest of the Heavenly God Church — you really shouldn't behave this way here.
That, delivered with a professional smile but eyes that weren't smiling in the slightest, was the last straw. Neither Yona nor Alec could bring themselves to open their mouths again, and they retreated with their tails between their legs.
Yona had tried to explain herself one more time, but the moment the receptionist called out "Next, please~" and motioned the person behind them forward, any chance of getting a word in evaporated.
"So what now?"
"...Hmm. I suppose we go back in and try talking to them again?"
"Maybe... or hey, what if we just pick someone out from over there instead?"
Alec turned around and pointed at something. Yona turned to look as well. Above the reception desk hung an enormous wooden board, covered with what appeared to be the names of the mages residing in the Wizard Tower — and beside each name, a list of words that looked like their specialties.
"So we find someone from there who seems like we could actually get through to, and go talk to them?"
"Exactly. So, for example — if what you want is to turn back into a man, what kind of magic would even be relevant to that?"
"Uh... transfiguration magic...?"
"Doesn't that just change your shape?"
"Body modification...?"
"You planning to sprout tentacles or turn into some monster, is that it?"
"Then maybe... uh..."
"......"
"......"
They had no idea.
Yona didn't know, and there was no reason Alec would either, so the two of them just stood there staring at each other in silence.
"Look, I'm starving. How about we grab some food first and figure this out after?"
Yona nodded at that.
"Choosing from a menu at an inn — now that's a novel experience."
Yona felt exactly the same way.
Back in Evian, the inns — which usually doubled as taverns — hadn't had anything you could call a menu. You walked in, told them how many people and whether you were eating now, and the Perpetual Stew arrived as a matter of course. Occasionally you could add a beer, or a barley roll or a sticky rice bun, and that was the extent of it.
"Well, it is where the Wizard Tower is. Figures it'd be different, right?"
Yona said it half-teasing, snapped the menu book shut, pushed it to the edge of the table, and glanced around.
The inn was packed, and the crowd was correspondingly thick. Curiously, hardly anyone looked like an adventurer — the place was dominated instead by men in matching leather armor, likely guards of some kind, and robed figures who could only be mages.
"Well, it was that expensive."
"Baldy, it's fine to spend this much. We're rich now, remember?"
"Then why am I the one paying?"
They'd taken two rooms. In keeping with Yona's absolute requirement of a bath, one of them came with a private washroom attached — which drove the bill up to roughly triple a normal stay. On top of that, Yona now needed to undergo the procedure itself, and since neither of them had any idea how much such a procedure would cost, saving money was the order of the day, so Alec had covered Yona's room too.
Not that either of them minded much — they each carried well over a hundred gold coins, wealthy enough that this kind of expense wasn't a burden at all.
"Here's your food~!"
At the server's cheerful voice, Yona's eyes lit up.
She'd been hungry anyway, and after living on field rations and whatever game she could hunt along the way, a proper meal like this was something she'd been longing for.
With every trip the server made, another dish filled out the table. Watching the spread accumulate on what had been a blank white canvas of a tabletop — steaming dishes stacking up one by one — was quite a sight in itself.
Two loaves of white bread baked from wheat flour, not barley.
A stew absolutely packed with meat.
A pot brimming with pure white milk, uncut with water.
And jam made from strawberries.
"Here, pass the stew."
"Mm."
Yona held the stew pot out toward Alec. While he ladled the stew into two bowls and picked the bell peppers and carrots out of Yona's portion, Yona poured milk into two cups, split a loaf of white bread, spread strawberry jam on it, pressed the halves together into sandwiches, and divided them onto the plates.
The jam was red and thick.
Unquestionably loaded with sugar.
Wonderfully sweet.
Yona's brain, deprived of sugar for so long, ignited a ferocious appetite the moment it laid eyes on it.
"Let's eat!"
The instant Yona opened her mouth to bite into her sandwich, Alec stopped her.
"Hey, hold on."
Alec picked up his own strawberry jam sandwich and transferred it to Yona's plate. Then he took the sandwich in her hand — already bearing one bite mark — and set it down in front of himself.
"You take the one with more jam. I'm not big on sweet things."
"Eeeeh? (Really?)"
The grin spreading across Yona's whole face made her look utterly blissful.
Every adventurer needs sugar on hand, Alec included, so of course he'd wanted that jam-stuffed sandwich too. But then, this was the same Yona who, when the craving hit, would pluck wildflowers off the roadside and eat them — swapping sandwiches for her sake felt only right. And watching her this happy, the gesture felt worthwhile after all.
"Good?"
"So good. Hey, try the milk too. It's rich — on a whole different level from Evian's, seriously. Hey hey, does the Wizard Tower not have an adventurer's guild branch? Maybe we should just register here."
"Weren't you going to become a holy knight once you're a man again?"
"Is there no cathedral here?"
"Where would one be? You know mages and clergy don't get along."
"Fair point, but..."
And just as quickly, she deflated again.
Her moods shifted so vividly, and she was so honest about every one of them.
It was genuinely impossible to dislike her.
"Well, whatever — we're rich now. Somewhere other than Evian, somewhere decent. Head south a ways and it should be pretty livable, right?"
"Mm, well, yeah, I suppose."
"And while we're at it, maybe we could, uh, get, get marr—"
"Hm?"
Yona, who had just shoved the last scrap of her sandwich into her mouth and was scooping up stew broth, looked up at Alec.
It had simmered down to a deep red and tasted plenty good on its own — a completely different animal from the stew back in Evian — so the broth was going down smooth as anything.
"...Nothing. But the food here really is great."
Alec forced the conversation aside.
He'd wanted to say wouldn't it be better if they just became husband and wife — but the words refused to come out.
"Your taste buds just came back to you, that's all. For adventurer standards, this is a royal feast."
"Maybe that's it. Anyway, so what do we do now?"
She tore off another piece of white bread in a long, slow pull — baked with fine flour, evidently, because it ripped clean along the grain, which made it all the more endearing. She dunked the torn piece deep into the stew broth, swished it around until it was thoroughly soaked through, then ate it, and the way the flavor of the stew mingled with the soft, soaked texture of the bread — the aroma blooming across her whole mouth — was simply exquisite.
"What do we do? Tomorrow we go back and explain everything, nice and slow, from beginning to end. That's what."
"I guess that's the only way, huh?"
"Yeah. Except this time I'll do the explaining. You just sit there and keep quiet."
"You, Baldy? You think you can handle that?"
Alec found it absurd, the way Yona looked up at him with eyes absolutely brimming with doubt.
"I'd do better than you, at least. 'A man became a woman like this, so please introduce us to a mage who specializes in something related' — see? It's that simple. How do you fail at that?"
"But that's basically the same thing I sa—"
How is that any different from what I said? — Yona's retort was abruptly cut off by none other than a third party.
"I heard someone was here going on about turning back into a man, and I thought I'd see for myself — and good heavens. If it isn't our pretty one, of all people."
A languid, unhurried voice.
Sunny blond hair and square-framed spectacles.
And those strange eyes — drooping as if drowsy, somehow slack, yet decadent all the same.
"A-Alevian...?"
When Yona looked up at him with a stricken expression, Alevian answered with a deep, knowing smile and gave a little wave.
"Our pretty one, been keeping well? And our baldy's here too. Sounds like you two have been doing alright. Here — mind if I sit?"
Even as he asked, Alevian didn't wait for an answer.
"...You were going to sit down anyway, Alevian, answer or not."
"Correct."
He took the seat at the center of the table, between Alec and Yona, laced his fingers together, and rested his chin on them. Those sharp, glinting eyes turned toward Yona, and in that same languid drawl he spoke.
"So then, our pretty one. Have you found your answer here?"
"What answer?"
"I don't like asking questions I already know the answer to — but I suppose you get a pass, our pretty one."
The corners of his eyes curved into soft crescents.
That smile-heavy gaze was gentle enough — and that was exactly why Yona's stomach began to twist with unease.
"The answer. To how you go back to being a man."
"Heading straight to Evian — are you certain you shouldn't rest first, even briefly?"
One day after their arrival at Carpatia Port, Ludwig, Vigrind, and Scarlet stood before the ship bound for Evian. Ceres, who had come to see him off, could not stop worrying.
Ludwig might be fine, but Vigrind was surely still worn down from her labors — Ceres fretted that they were forcing a punishing march on her against her better judgment.
At her words, Ludwig turned first to look at Vigrind. He studied her complexion for a moment, then nodded with his easy, hearty smile.
"We're fine. The Saintess seems well too, and as for Sir Scarlet — she's a Crusade Knight. A journey like this is nothing to her. Besides, I want to reach Evian as quickly as we can and begin investigating whether something has actually happened there."
"Truly worthy of the name of Hero, chosen and guided by the Heavenly God. Checking on the Saintess's condition first — how considerate of you."
"It's the bare minimum. She is my closest comrade, after all."
At those words, the tips of Vigrind's ears flushed red in an instant.
She remembered — those words they'd exchanged while walking together that night in Semek.
She couldn't imagine what state of mind she'd been in when she'd babbled all that, but yes, she had said it, and it had been the truth, too. So why was it that whenever Ludwig repeated it like this, it made her blush so helplessly?
"...I'd also like to pay our respects at the Evian parish. It is not exactly a short journey."
"I see. In that case, there's nothing to be done. The cargo loading is nearly finished, so you'll be able to depart soon."
The moment Ceres had heard Ludwig's departure date, she'd given orders to prepare a ship immediately. Thanks to that, a cathedral vessel had been readied without delay, and now here they were at the harbor, able to hold this modest little farewell.
"I don't know what may be happening, but with the Hero and the Saintess on the case, my heart is at ease. We're counting on you, Hero. And you as well, Saintess."
"Yes. Worry no further. With this Hero's Pilgrimage as our beginning, we will crush the demons so thoroughly that they won't dare raise their heads again."
"...And I as well."
Ceres laughed, a soft hohoho. Her gentle smile turned toward Vigrind.
"Next time we meet, I do hope our Saintess will be someone a little more spirited."
"I... I'll do my best."
She'd almost snapped back with why would I need to? — but then it felt as though someone's voice were drifting in from somewhere: keep that up and you can forget about being friends with anyone at all—
"All hands, we are ready to depart—!!"
The captain's voice rang out across the harbor.
"Then, thank you for everything you've done for us, Regent."
"Think nothing of it. You'll be coming through Carpatia Port often enough — greeting me properly every single time would wear you out. So don't stand on ceremony. Just be at ease. You too, Saintess."
"Haha, then we shall. As soon as the Evian investigation concludes, we'll send word."
"Do."
Standing on the deck, Ludwig and Vigrind waved to Ceres down at the harbor.
Ludwig stretched his arm out fully and waved with vigor; Vigrind raised her hand only slightly, waving with quiet reserve. Still, the farewell reached Ceres well enough, and she waved back just as vigorously to see them off.
With the sound of waves parting at the bow, the ship began to glide slowly forward.
Little by little the harbor fell away behind them, shrinking and shrinking until it became a single dot — and just around the time it finally vanished from view, it truly hit Vigrind.
This was it. The Hero's Pilgrimage was beginning.
At the fear of what unknown things might unfold from here on, she gave a small shiver.