In the manor, a few minutes before Aka's arrival:
In the study room, with quality furniture and interiors, an aged man sat at a clean and polished wooden desk, which had papers on them. He had old grey white hair tied up into a man bun, with the same colour reaching down to his beard. He wore fancy clothing with a blood red earring on the left ear, and around his eyes, he was starting to get wrinkles, but his eyes revealed a trace of wisdom, accumulated from his life experiences.
He was the mayor of Carina village.
Once upon a time, he was born with a powerful magic aptitude, moved to and raised in the capital city, and studied in the magic academy in his youth.
When he left the academy, he felt like he was unbeatable. Thanks to his aptitude, he blazed through the yearly requirements and hammered down his competition, often winning against everyone that went against him.
In this environment, he thrived. His confidence was so strong that it was no longer called confidence, but arrogance.
He joined the army and became a soldier that fought at the front lines against the monsters that plagued the world. "What could possibly harm me?", his young self had thought when he looked at how generous the payout was for the role.
How truly stupid.
He had severely underestimated how dangerous these monsters were. They came in all shapes and sizes, unending in variety and unpredictable. They may be fast and stealthy, slow and sturdy, intelligent and cunning, small but lethal...
When he thought he was covered in all aspects thanks to his magic, reality struck down on him: he was not fit at all. He felt like the strongest, but the academy and the frontline were two very different worlds. At the frontline, he was the weakest.
Even when working in teams of five, cooperating and covering the other teammates' weaknesses, the levels of fatality were too severe. On one day, you might have a friendly chat with a team member, and on the next, they die instantly from a monster's ambush, never to be seen again.
Scared out of his mind, he tried to resign from the position, but the contract he signed stated that he couldn't pull out until he contributed enough to the cause!
"I was scammed!", he had felt an intense rage as he clenched his fists. He couldn't go and illegally desert, he had personally witnessed what happened to the others who had tried.
With only one path in front of him, he continued to walk forward. Although there was a neverending bush of thorns that tore open his skin with every step he took, his skin healed and became tougher, gritting his teeth to deal with the pain. Under the constant threat of death, he grew and matured at speeds that made his time at the academy look like a joke.
His battle instincts were refined, his understanding of his magic powers deepended, his wits and body strengthened, and his luck was plenty in abundance.
Years later, the previous being of himself: his overconfident and 'frog-in-a-well' self, was nothing more than a shadow at this point. His final battle for the military was Operation Vehement, an attempt to annihilate the foundations of blood path monsters, ridding the world of such a malicious and insidious path.
After all, there has never been a mage who could use blood path magic.
If we, the humans, can't have it, then nobody can!
Although blood path monsters were a pain to deal with as their hiding and infecting ability is extremely troublesome, they were naturally weak physically, and only relied on their host to keep themselves alive. This gave humanity the grounds to try for an extermination.
In the end, Operation Vehement failed, despite the shortcomings of blood path monsters. As for why it failed, that was a story for another time.
"Blood path… Blood path…", the mayor repeated to himself. His current predicament reminded him of that day: that day where Operation Vehement was executed.
A week ago, the mages in Carina found traces of blood path monsters at the outskirts. Understanding the severity of this, they had investigated and followed them carefully, and found a beehive that was gargantuan, to the point where the hive occupied several trees.
Without hesitation, the mages razed it to the ground, not keeping a single insect alive in the vicinity. Just like they had suspected, when they picked up and took apart the queen bee's corpse, they had found a deceased blood path monster inside!
The blood path monster had infected the queen bee of the colony, forcing itself to produce as many eggs as possible. With some time, the colony grew to a size where the swarm could kill a small population of people easily.
Though the mages at the time were pleased that this swarm crisis was prevented, at the same, their faces were incredibly solemn.
In the eyes of human civilisation, this village was in the middle of nowhere, away from the conflicts of humanity and monsterdom. How the hell could there be blood path monsters here?
The mages had hoped that it was simply an outlier. Maybe it travelled downstream and ended up here? But to crush their hopes, a day later, more traces were found. The mages became frantic; there were more blood path monsters!
"Listen, more traces have been in the south west and north side. Rook, Nolan, Tela, you'll investigate the south west side. Reyna, Xi, and Sever, go to the north. The rest of you, remain in duty. Are we understood?", the mayor ordered the mages before him.
"Yes, lord mayor!", the mages bowed respectfully...
...apart from one, "Sorry, but I have a question.", a handsome black haired blue eyed man raised his voice.
"Go on, Marcus."
"What will we do if we find our people to be infected?"
...
The mayor heaved a sigh as he looked at the documents before him. Under normal circumstances, this would be a great piece of news, but now it was a difficult dilemma.
The document was the announcement by the One Rein caravan, stating that they will arrive soon to do business, within a week or two.
Carina village wasn't completely self-sufficient; gaining resources from the rest of the world was a necessity. Thanks to these caravans and the travelling merchants that travel all over the world, these resources from elsewhere can be purchased and obtained. Around the time where these caravans arrive is also where the economy booms for the year.
"But if this blood path matter gets out of hand, I'll have no choice but to…", the mayor's thoughts trailed off.
If he had to take extra measures against this problem, it could very well destroy this village, both economically and reputationally!
The mayor did not want to resort to that if possible.
He prayed that nobody was to be found infected by a blood path monster.
At this moment, a woman suddenly appeared out of thin air from the corner of the room. Her white robe decorated with pink flowers and blue butterflies had a hint of a 'flutter' as she made her presence known, "Still beating yourself up about those monsters, Edward?", her tone was nonchalant.
Edward, the mayor, didn't turn to look as he continued to stare down, "What is now, Reyna? Did you find more traces?"
The finding of traces were becoming more and more frequent, causing a larger and larger headache the more Edward heard it. At this point, he felt like he already knew what Reyna had to report.
Reyna cackled, walking around the desk as she did so, "Haha, not quite, although those pesky monsters are good, they will eventually lose in the end. You know that I'm developing a new wisdom path ability, there's no need to worry so hard over such a small thing. Go get some sleep, maybe you'll save some lifespan, hehe."
Even though Reyna's mocking words seemed arrogant and uncaring, Edward understood that she was trying to comfort him.
"Wisdom path, is it? Hopefully it will crack this problem wide open.", Edward closed his eyes as he remembered back to when he had wisdom path abilities in his youth. These types of abilities were very useful for deducing and thinking quickly, allowing him to sense danger the moment he felt something wrong.
Unfortunately, abilities decay over time, and with Edward halting his own magic progression for a more peaceful life, he lost those abilities.
"In any case, if it's not about the monsters, then what are you here for?", there was a hint of authority in Edward's tone.
Reyna was circling around the desk and stopped at the front of it when he spoke, her footsteps coming to an immediate halt. She grinned, "Oh, it's nothing much. One 'Akai Tamashi' is approaching the manor, and she hasn't reserved a meeting. Just wanted to let you know."
Edward instantly recognised the name and widened his eyes, "Ah, so it is Ao's sister. She is the future mayor's family, I must accommodate her!", he crossed his arms and nodded.
Reyna similarly crossed her arms and nodded in an exaggerated way, "Ah yes, the legendary Ao, the one who will cause chasms in her wake, shatter the sky with a roar, and break the heavens with her will, and-"
The creases on Edward's forehead became deeper the more he listened and halted her monologuing in its tracks, "Enough! Any more and I will cut your pay in half, even if you are an information path mage."
Reyna, however, was undeterred, "Ooo, my old man has a crush. Wait until the whole world hears this!"
"I am not your dad."
"So you don't deny that you have a crush? Wowee. Quite the way to admit your loooveee~"
Veins were bulging on Edward's face as he tried to suppress his annoyance with this gifted child. If this was coming from a normal mage, he would not tolerate this kind of talk. But Reyna was specialised in the rare path: information path.
There was a saying: 'knowing is half the battle'. Even if you have strength, if you do not 'know', you are simply too easy to defeat.
The essence of gathering facts and data and collating them into something usable and real. That is information path.
Pair this with wisdom path, the essence of finding truth and predicting the future, and suddenly a new path is born. Gathering information and using that information to deduce truths, what other path could it be called other than 'detective path'?
Reyna was specialised in information path, and also had wisdom path abilities. Officially, she was a B rank Star Constellation stage information path mage, but in more accurate terms, she had the capabilities of a super detective.
Without her, the traces of the blood path monsters would never have been found, and several calamities would've occured, one after the other.
When one was strong, they ought to be respected. This is why Edward had to give Reyna some leeway with her attitude, even if she didn't reciprocate.
Edward gave a short sigh, "If you have nothing else to report, then you should leave."
Chuckling, Reyna spread her arms wide, "Then I shall depart. Later, lovebird.", saying so, she quickly became increasingly transparent. In no time at all, she was gone.
At the same time, Edward heard faint knocking at the front door.