Tatiana's Perspective
Part 1: Night (Forbidden Cave)
"Mother, this is the place where the magic residue came from." Aeris eagerly points the way, guiding us to the location. We arrive at the forbidden cave, passing through the wooden barrier at the entrance. It's dark inside, and Aeris seems eager to impress me.
"So, they're not here yet. What should we do?" I ask, surveying the dark cave without any light.
"We have time; we can check a few places," Blanc suggests, hands on her hips, indicating we should look around for useful items.
As Blanc examines documents and Aeris searches through a box, Lumina struggles to see in the darkness. "Let's find something while we have time," I say, beginning to explore the area.
The cave is filled with trash and bottles, indicating that someone spends a lot of time here. It's too dark to see anything clearly. I observe the surroundings, sensing that someone has recently been inside. What can we do in this darkness?
I know just the way.
"Lumi, can you please light this place up?" I turn to Lumina, asking her to use her magic to brighten the area.
"Kyupi!" Lumina happily obliges, casting a bright light that illuminates the cave completely.
"Well, at least the light bulb has its uses," Blanc mocks, but I can tell she's thankful in her own way.
"Big sister really is awesome," Aeris praises Lumina. It's a bit strange that Aeris refers to Lumina as an elder sister, but as long as Aeris is happy, I don't mind.
Lumina puffs her chest out in pride. She's really proud of her magic.
With the light, I find a box filled with monster costumes matching the witness reports. The colors match, providing more evidence. "What are you looking at, Aeris?" I ask, curious as she looks through a stockpile of boxes.
"This thing…" Aeris takes out a bottle of blue potions. "Big sister Media showed me once; this is mana potion. By the color and smell, I can figure it out, like she taught me."
"What was it again?" I can't quite figure it out, as I haven't learned much about alchemy.
"Big sister Media showed me once. This is a mana potion. By the color and smell, I can figure it out, like she taught me," Aeris explains. But really, Media, you're getting along too much with Aeris. I wouldn't mind some of that attention.
"So, that's what this bottle was for? An empty bottle from the used ones. Good job, Aeris. You're really helping today." I figure out that there's the same kind of bottle on the ground with Aeris and softly pet her head.
"Ehehe…" Aeris is happy to be helpful and leans more toward me.
I go and meet with Blanc, who's been looking through a lot of papers she picked up.
"So you finished looking around. I guess having a nice light and a person who can detect magic was helpful, although that could be you alone, the holy magic user." Blanc teases me without me saying anything.
*pout* I pout. Blanc can be so rude.
"Enough about me. So how are you seeing this? Did we get any evidence?" I ask, curious about Blanc's thoughts on all of this.
"Not much. While they were pretty reckless in their operations, they leave no trace of who they're working for." Blanc shrugs, throwing the papers on the ground as they don't seem to be of much use.
"What's that?" I notice that Blanc is holding a few papers in her hand, curious about them.
"These are receipts lying around, and these mana potions, as that elf said, could lead us to the maker of this and help us find out where it's from." Blanc recalls my conversation with Aeris, giving us hope.
"Isn't it a bit hard to find just by asking? Figuring out one potion from another could take time." I question, looking around to find which receipt, as we don't even know the place. It will take time.
"Might be, but I would like to think that most potion makers have their own style, so we still have to look around." Blanc reasons. Still, we have evidence and proof of these operations.
Part 2: Night (Forbidden Cave)
Tatiana's Perspective
"Who's there?!" The captain of the mob calls out to us, his face filled with surprise.
"It seems the prepritore have made their entrance," Blanc remarks, unfazed and delivering it casually, as if in an opera.
About seven guys, dressed as soldiers, all wearing light armor, stand before us. Fighting in this small area could be challenging.
"This is a prohibited area; you can't come in here," warns the captain, though we're already inside.
"Oh, we're just passersby finding a place to stay for the night," Blanc says, seemingly ignoring the warning, amused by the captain's demeanor.
"Wait, that woman was the rumored royal we've heard about, Princess Tatiana. What's she been doing?" one of the soldiers realizes, whispering among themselves.
The captain nods, signaling that he has a plan.
"I have to take all of you in, as you've trespassed in this area, starting now," the captain declares, about to come closer. I ready my sword for a fight.
"Sigh…, that uniform, so that's what this is about?" Blanc, seemingly uninterested, recognizes their uniforms.
"What are you trying to say?" The captain stops in his tracks, curious about Blanc's comment.
"It was dumb of me not to think of this earlier. All of you are from Sunaria, right?" Blanc asks, casually revealing her deduction. It leaves me wondering, why were Sunaria soldiers involved?
"So what if we are?" The captain, unamused, doesn't seem to care.
"Of course, the fact is all of this was planned from the start. Say, who are you working for?" Blanc casually questions their allegiance.
"Hehe, that's enough for introductions. Let's just burn them and feed them to the monsters," one of the men among them says, starting to cast a red magic spell, indicating fire.
"DIE!" The man casts a strong fireball toward us.
*Ching!* A forcefield instantly appears, translucent and barely visible to the naked eye. As the fireball touches the forcefield, it disintegrates.
"That wasn't very nice of you," Blanc remarks with a cold gaze, crossing her arms.
"What did you do?" The man who cast the fireball feels challenged.
"I was merely changing the temperature of the magic. With my 'Absolute Zero Shield,' no magic can penetrate through this," Blanc explains, showcasing her impressive skills. Each time she uses it, not even a second passes, and she doesn't seem tired at all.
"What is that magic?" Another soldier questions the existence of such magic in this world.
"Whatever, just fire it all," the man commands, and all of them follow suit, casting various spells.
*Bomb bomb om*
"I hate talking to these mongrels; they can't even understand," Blanc says, bored and finding it amusing.
"Blanc, that wasn't nice of you," I comment, sympathizing with the soldiers whose efforts seem meaningless against someone like Blanc.
Blanc just sits on her ice chair, enjoying the show.
"Are we done?" Blanc yawns out of boredom.
"Let's make a run for it!" One of the soldiers decides to retreat back to the exit.
"You can't run away from this; I've already sealed the whole cave." Blanc, with her magic, creates a thick ice wall, making it impossible to penetrate. We've reached a dead end.
"Let's just kill her, ACK!" Another soldier turns into an ice sculpture in mere seconds, falling down and breaking apart. The one called human is now merely a fragment of ice.
"Did he just die?" The captain witnesses the death of his men.
"Again, I've already told you to stand down!" Blanc, unable to stand their antics, uses her power to immobilize them completely.
"Where are we again? Ah yes, the part where I only wanted answers. Just answer my question, and if I hear nothing of the sort, the same thing will happen to you."
"Ugh…" The captain has nothing he can do; Blanc's power is out of this world.
"First, I want to know who you people are," Blanc asks, her gaze cold and unyielding. Witnessing her power earlier, they have no choice but to cooperate.
"We're from Sunaria's military forces," the captain proclaims their position, clearly scared.
"I guess all of you were kept secret about this operation?" Blanc, realizing that the real military isn't that foolish to conduct such operations, asks.
"Yes," the captain confesses.
"How did you carry out this operation?" Blanc wants to know the details of their method.
They explain that one of them would go to the house and blow it up with magic while others used long-range fire magic, hitting through the town and striking the said house.
"So now the question is, why did you do it?" Blanc wants to understand their motive.
The tense situation pauses for a moment...
-Chapter 49 End-