"Which one of you owns this place?"
Seeing us standing in the middle of the empty lot, one of the officially-dressed men suddenly asked.
"And you are?"
Hearing this, the innkeeper realized these people were likely important. He immediately left us and went over to greet them.
"We're from city's law enforcement and disaster assessment office. We came here specifically to investigate the situation firsthand..."
The official smoothly responded.
"After all, we received reports that your inn was the origin of the recent big fire. Although a prophet's predictions can't be changed, to prevent future incidents we still need to look into what caused it."
"There are rumors going around that this fire was started by an angel and demon fighting inside the inn. Can you confirm if this is true?"
After he finished, a woman accompanying him also asked.
"It was them!"
Hearing this, the innkeeper could no longer hold back. He immediately turned and pointed at us, selling me out.
"I don't know about the other two, but that girl with blue hair over there is definitely an angel! It was her that inexplicably fought with a lizardman last night, causing the fire!"
"This..."
We three stood far away, completely stunned seeing this.
We only came down to learn the situation, then out of human decency compensate the owner a bit of money. We didn't expect to run into city officials investigating. This was a bit tricky! What if they decide I'm responsible and take unfavorable action against me? I could even go to jail...
"See! I told you not to come down. Now there's big trouble!"
Seeing the situation, Nicola also felt it was thorny. She quietly complained next to me.
"Will you face consequences?"
As for Cyra, she was completely unsure of the situation. She could only suggest to me:
"But I think as long as you explain clearly, there shouldn't be a big problem. After all, it wasn't you who started the fire. And here we're still in the Astralrealm Kingdom's territory, they won't be too harsh on an angel!"
Who knows? Although what she said made sense, the Astralrealm Kingdom's friendly treatment of angels was mainly thanks to the True Church. But Makalan was just a border town. The church's influence clearly wasn't as strong as in the capital Norvale.
In fact, many people here had never even seen an angel...
"An angel? You're saying she's an angel?"
Sure enough, after the innkeeper spoke, the crowd exploded.
"But there aren't any wings at all behind her back!"
However, the official who first spoke couldn't help but raise doubts.
"That's right, the portraits in churches, everyone's seen them. Angels have at least several huge pairs of wings behind them! What's more, many eyewitnesses said the angel had at least six wings. Are you trying to say we've never seen an angel before?"
Another woman also joined in criticizing him.
"We understand you're very heartbroken to lose your inn business because of the fire. But you can't falsely accuse this young lady. Be careful or she could sue you for slander!"
"..."
Nicola, Cyra and I exchanged glances. We could only remain silent.
What could we say? Let them keep misunderstanding, it was pretty good. After all, this was a small town. It seemed like none of these people knew angel wings could be hidden. There probably wasn't even a light mage here. Otherwise, like Selene, they would have noticed something different about us.
"Just consider this money to help rebuild. Think of it as a token."
I didn't want to discuss compensation with the innkeeper further. I just wanted to hurry up and leave this place. So I directly took some gold coins from my storage ring and threw them to him.
"One of these coins is worth 10,000 silvers. Here are three, so 30,000 silvers. That should be about enough!"
Of course, for an inn this size, 30,000 silvers was definitely not enough to rebuild. But I wasn't primarily responsible for the fire, so it was completely sufficient. If he wasn't satisfied, he could try getting more out of the lizardman Kurnel! We'll see if he can.
"This is..."
The innkeeper had clearly seen coins like these before. After confirming they were real, he immediately clutched the coins tightly in his hand. As for the rest of the money, because there was no evidence to support his claims, and the investigating officials had scolded him, he naturally didn't dare ask us for more.
"You actually compensated him?"
Seeing this, Cyra was somewhat surprised.
"If it were me, I wouldn't have given him a single coin!"
Nicola coldly snorted, muttering in my ear.
"I still haven't settled scores about that demon hiding here and capturing me!"
"Forget it. The inn has become flat ground anyway. No need to kick him when he's down! After all, you haven't personally experienced this kind of thing. I saw the huge fire with my own eyes."
I lightly sighed. The matter was settled. I briskly walked toward our carriage waiting at the roadside.
"Please wait a moment!"
However, just as we were passing the investigators, the blind girl suddenly turned towards Nicola and called out to stop her.
"If I'm not mistaken, you are also a wind mage? From the moment you arrived, I sensed exceptionally strong wind elements coming from you. You must be an extremely powerful wind mage! May I ask your name?"
"A wind mage?"
Nicola frowned. This was still the first time someone called her that. Even if her identity had previously been exposed, it was only because of being an angel.
"Call me Nicola."
Even so, she graciously responded to the question.
"Did you need me for something?"
"That's right! Haven't you noticed? I'm actually a wind mage too!"
The girl's face showed the expression of finally meeting a kindred spirit. Very happily she said:
"Of course my mastery isn't as powerful as yours. With your level of skill, you've certainly managed to glimpse the secrets of time!"
"Glimpse time? Wind mage?"
Hearing this, I suddenly felt puzzled.
"Could it be you are..."
"This is the prophet who accurately predicted this Makalan City fire, Ms. Quintina!"
A maid-looking woman standing next to her heard me and immediately clarified the identity.
"A blind fortune teller?!"
Cyra couldn't help blurting out.
"Slap!"
I quickly slapped the back of her head. This girl's mouth really made trouble out of nothing! In this kind of situation, she had to come out saying the woman was blind. Be careful or she'd get angry!
"Stop talking nonsense!"
"It's fine. After all 'blind' is just stating the facts, it just doesn't sound very nice."
Fortunately Quintina didn't mind Cyra's rudeness at all. She then explained to us:
"Although I successfully prophesied this Makalan fire, my limited abilities restrict how far I can see into the future. I don't even know exactly how the fire started. So out of curiosity, I specifically came along with the fire investigation team to find out."
"So you were the one who prophesied it..."
Nicola seemed to have a complex expression. Using common sense, if Quintina hadn't prophesied this fire, there wouldn't have been so much extra trouble - our current location was very far from the city gates. Arriving so late at night by carriage, we absolutely wouldn't have stayed here and naturally Blanche wouldn't have discovered us, subsequently kidnapping us.
But the reality was nowhere near that simple. Nicola deeply knew fate was very hard to change, so she didn't blame the other party too much.
"Then why did you stop us? Was it just to indicate your identity?"
"That was only part of the reason. After all, wind mages that have reached your degree of mastery are still quite rare in this world. I couldn't bear to just pass up encountering you. But there was another, more important reason..."
Quintina's voice suddenly became heavy.
"When you passed by me earlier, the intense wind elemental aura you emitted influenced me. It resonated with my wind elemental magic power, spontaneously activating my scrying time magic that I normally use for predictions..."
"Scrying? But aren't you unable to see?"
Cyra didn't really understand. She directly asked outright. Fortunately she was sensible enough this time to avoid using sensitive vocabulary.
"Although Ms. Quintina's eyes can't see because of an accident, peering through time doesn't use eyesight at all, but spiritual power! So you don't need to worry about the authenticity of her predictions in the slightest!"
Apparently, even if the lady herself didn't mind Cyra's rudeness, her maid didn't think the same way. She retorted in annoyance:
"Anyway, because my magic power was insufficient, the glimpsed future content was extremely limited. In fact it was just a flash..."
Quintina raised a hand, stopping her attendant from speaking further, then continued recounting what she saw:
"But through magic I saw Nicola grief-stricken over losing a companion. That's why I hurriedly stopped all of you."
"Losing a companion? Does that mean one of us few will die?"
Hearing her words, I was suddenly shocked. I glanced at Nicola and immediately asked:
"Also, when will that happen?"
Nicola also quickly followed up with questions.
"Based on calculations, it should occur within three days from this very moment. At that time one of your companions will die. But I can't say for sure who..."
The girl shook her head answering.
"However, I also heard Nicola's grieving words at that time, able to make out some syllables that she sorrowfully shouted - Feliciana!"