"Yeah..." Vir looked very furious. "I don't know about the Middle Lands, but the conditions in the Four Great Lands are just as deplorable. I think it's time for someone to come forward to bring about a change for the better."
"Hey, give it a rest!" Daisy smiled. "There's nothing you can do about it, Vir. Unless you have a large, I mean, very large following, then you can make the changes you want."
Vir took a long look at the young widow. So did Aira.
"You said you admired—who was it again? Ah, Magnius the Mighty, didn't you?"
"So what?" Daisy asked back. "There's nothing wrong with liking someone, right?"
"No, I mean..." Vir took a deep breath. "Just now you sounded like—you know! Hating the Central Empire, perhaps?"
Daisy smiled with a slight nod of her head.
Well, that was the same question Aira had in her head about Daisy's words earlier.
"You know the rules, don't you?" Daisy asked Vir. "The slightest bad thing gets to the ears of the soldiers or even the riders, and it could cost you your life."
"I know," Vir confirmed Daisy's words. "I just want to make sure of one thing, Daisy. We've known each other for a long time, and let's just say, I haven't found out what you really think about the emperor's absolute power over this world. That's all."
"I think you've guessed that well." Daisy rose from her seat. She cleared her plate. "I'm just a woman, Vir. A widow who has no one. You know what my worries would be if something bad happened to me, don't you?"
Vir just nodded weakly.
"That's why I prefer not to think about the negative things out there even though I really don't like what has happened and is happening to this world."
Vir glanced at Aira to his right.
At least, Daisy's words just now had convinced Vir and Aira that the young widow was just like them.
The man intended to tell her about his encounter with the strangers in the middle of the Southeast Forest this afternoon. After all, Vir felt he could trust Daisy more, who had been so kind to him.
"You know—"
However, when Vir was about to say something about it, Aira touched him furtively.
As she glanced at the little girl, she realized that the nine-year-old girl didn't want Vir to tell Daisy anything that he was currently thinking about.
Either this was a coincidence or Aira had used her unique ability to forbid him from telling Daisy about these things. Vir could only guess.
Daisy frowned at Vir who was silent for two or three seconds.
"I mean..." Vir cleared his throat. "I'm going to look further into that forest tomorrow morning. Maybe those damn fish inhabit hidden little rivers, right?"
Daisy widened her eyes, then giggled with a flushed face.
"Oh, my God!"
"What?" Vir winced, pretending to be an innocent man. "Was I wrong?"
"Are you still thinking about that?" Daisy asked, holding back her laughter. "Gosh, Vir! Aira's right, you're childish."
***
"So, you knew that, huh?" said Vir in a low voice to Aira when they were already in their room. "Did you read my mind?"
"I'm not saying that I read your mind," Aira replied. "But I don't think you should tell Daisy anything you did."
Vir glanced at the little girl beside him who sat with her knees bent up and leaning against the wall, on the bed.
He then rested his back against the bed with his arms folded up to cushion his head.
"I just want someone to listen to what I'm thinking," Vir said, again. "But if you're going to say what you just said, then maybe I'd better keep it to myself."
"Daisy... she's so nice," Aira said as if to herself. "I like her a lot. If you tell her some or all of the things about yourself, then I'm afraid they'll be bad for her."
Vir glanced back at the little girl. He felt that Aira actually knew everything about him. And she seemed more mature than her actual age.
"Yeah..." Vir let out a long sigh. "You're right. I don't want to see her being hurt by anyone. I wouldn't stand for that."
The little girl smiled, then she said, "What did you encounter in that forest this afternoon?"
Vir frowned. Well, she already knows about this, he thought.
"You know I'm an Asurry," Aira said. "And you do realize that I will not let you out of my eyesight, don't you?"
The man chuckled with a shake of his head. "You speak as if I were a prisoner, a criminal who must be watched at all times. Gosh... what were you thinking, huh? You little brat!"
Aira just shrugged her shoulders, then she grabbed a large, thick book from the low table beside the bed.
The man shook his head again. That little girl is really adorable. You have to have a lot of patience to deal with her.
"I don't know," Vir said later. "They're not from the Eastern Lands, I guess."
"They?" repeated Aira. "So it's not just one person, huh?"
"Dozens," Vir replied. "Their clothes indicate that."
"I see..." Aira nodded as she opened the thick book on her lap.
"I've never seen the same way those people dressed before."
"Did they threaten you?"
Vir shrugged his shoulders, then moved his hand to his chest.
"More or less," he replied. "They took me to someone, who I think was their leader."
"A leader, huh?" Aira grinned subtly. "Could it be that they're building a force there secretly?"
"That's what I thought," Vir said. "And I guess they are because their leader asked me to join them."
"I'm not surprised by that."
"Damn it!" Vir chuckled at Aira's sarcasm. "Hey, their leader is a former rider."
Aira frowned, giving Vir a longer look.
"I'm serious," the man said. "Even he has a wyvern that I don't recognize at all."
"A wyvern you don't know?"
"Exactly!" Vir got up and sat back on the edge of the bed. "I've never seen that kind of wyvern. It's about the size of an elephant, I think."
"Can you describe to me what the physical characteristics of a wyvern look like?"
Vir shrugged his shoulders again, then his hands rested on the surface of the bed to support his body.
"Let me recall," Vir said as he re-imagined the dragon's figure in his head. "That Wyvern had one broad horn on its head, like a big axe, from its nose to its forehead.
"Wide horns, huh?" muttered Aira as she opened the pages of the thick book on her lap.
"Also at the tip of the tail," Vir continued. "That's it and there are no other horns on its body. Hmm, there's a strange pattern on its wings. You know, the wyvern is like a sheepdog watching over the cattle grazing in the wide fields."
"You said strange pattern?" Aira repeated.
Vir nodded. "I think it's similar to the markings on a moth's wings. You know, to scare off their larger enemies, or the predators that hunt them."
Aira smiled as she opened the next page of her thick book, then showed Vir the picture on the page.
"Hey!" Vir widened his eyes. "That's it! How did you know?"
"I'm an Asurry, remember?"
Vir chuckled. "Damn it!" he said. "You're so arrogant, girl!"
"Diaboli Securis," Aira said.
"Huh?" Vir frowned. "What kind of name is that anyway?"
"Or... the Demon Axe," the little girl continued. "It's a type of wyvern that has become rare and can only be found in the Northwest Lands."
Vir was silent. "Northwest Dead Country, huh?" he said then. "Hey, do you think the leader of those freaks is from there too?"
The little girl shrugged. "It's quite possible, isn't it?"
"We're talking about a former rider here, Aira, in case you forgot what I told you earlier."
"I know," Aira replied. "And why are you even surprised?"
"Of course!" replied Vir. "And if that's the case, considering that he's more than half a century old, then that means he also participated in the massacre of his own people. Is that not too much?"
"I told you, didn't I?" said Aira. "Why should you be surprised?"