"You are..." She said, visibly confused.
"Need help?"
Arcsen reached out with his arm, waiting for her to either nod or grab his hand, the woman nodded.
"Alright, grab my hand, there's a village nearby, although it has been destroyed now, it should still have some houses left that can be used as a shelter."
"T- Thank you.."
Her tone of voice sounded bland and had a hint of coldness to it.
Arcsen saw that the woman is carrying a sword on her waist that is covered by her robe, so there was a high chance that she could be a warrior or an Adventurer.
After holding Arcsen's hand, the woman then was guided to Whisper's Den again, where they fortunately managed to find a small yet still functioning house that can keep them away from the rain.
***
"This building isn't the best, but this is the nearest one we can find." Arcsen said as he sat down with the woman behind the house wall.
The house that they currently reside in were at the edge of tearing apart, there are holes at one of the side that brought cold winds inside, some of the rain drops also went through the holes, making the floor inside of that house slightly wet and slippery, despite all of the house's flaws, it still served its purpose as a shelter.
"— This place is disgusting.." She said.
"Fire.."
< FIRE >
Arcsen calls out some fire from his palm, it wasn't much, the fire had the same size as his arm, but atleast it's enough to keep both of them warm.
"You're a mage?" The woman asked, her voice is still the same.
Arcsen stayed quite as if he didn't hear her question.
'She doesn't seem to recognize me, or maybe she just didn't care?' Arcsen thought.
The two of them stayed close to each other, feeling the warm of the fire and also their own body.
"I asked, are you a mage?"
"Huh? Did you say something?" Arcsen replied, still couldn't hear her.
Feeling frustrated because of his joke, the woman then raised her voice with the intend to hurt Arcsen's hearing, she spoke right at Arcsen's fluffy ears.
"ARE. YOU. A MAGE!?"
"O- Oh!! yes, yes i am, haha sorry– I think my hearing is a bit broken at the moment, so you'll have to speak louder if you want me to hear you."
"What? FINE!"
"What's your name?" Arcsen suddenly ask.
"Huh? Oh, right– I haven't told you my name, my name is Meiryn, MEIRYN FREDERICA!.."
"Oohh? Quite a nice name you have, mine's Arcsen Riela, you can call me Arcsen."
"Arcsen? oh– So i was correct, you're that demihuman who is a Celestial member."
At this point, Meiryn started to speak significantly louder, their conversation is mostly covered by the rain noises, so anyone that tries to eavesdropping them would probably not be able to hear them talking.
"Haha, so you do know me, i thought maybe you came from a remote place to not know me from my face.."
"I just never cared about it, whether its you or a demon, i would've taken anyone's hand at that time.."
Meiryn was talking about when she was previously stuck beneath the tree a few minutes ago, back then she had thought that she would definitely die there because of hypothermia, if it wasn't because of Arcsen, no one will be able to witness Meiryn's death until days or months later.
"I can see why–
"On the topic of demon, what's with the blood puddle that i saw on the way here, did somebody got killed?"
"Kind of, to tell you the truth, im actually sent here to investigate this village, and when i entered few hours ago, i was ambushed by assassins that uses black magic."
"Ooohh? You defeated them?"
"Well, i did bound them in place with my spell, but when i tried to interrogate them, they sacrificed themselves to summon a demon, that blood puddle you see came from that demon."
"Hmm, alright, that's interesting– But i don't see the demon corpse though?"
"Well, that's because that demon's body had already been completely crushed into pieces"
"Hooohh– If it's you, then it would be understandable, i heard you're a 7-Star mage."
"Here."
Arcsen gave Meiryn some of his food, it was a dried beef jerky, however since he had been walking out in the rain for so long, the beef got soaked in water and turned soggy.
"Ah, thanks.. Eugh, you don't have anything else?"
"No, chomp.."
Meiryn eventually had no choice but to eat, the jerky was their only food, to prevent from being starved, anything edible would do just fine, no time to think about taste.
'Hm? this is better than i thought' She thought.
By this point most of their body have all dried up, so Arcsen put out the fire from his palm, both Meiryn and Arcsen's clothing would provide enough warm for them to stay comfortable, after all they're not in the rain anymore.
Fsshh...
***
More than 10 minutes passed in silence, there was no conversation or words being spoken from the two of them, they're all too busy with themselves, that is until Arcsen decided to start the conversation himself.
"By the way, what are you doing before ending up beneath that tree? Did you get chased by monster?" Arcsen asked curiously while chewing his jerky, it was the last one that he has.
"Uhh, i work as an Adventurer, i wandered from one place to another, and a few days ago, i settled in Penrough, a nearby city from here, i took a quest from the Guild to kill a basilisk that was seen residing at the top of a cliff near the city, and when i tried to kill it, the basilisk ran away after realizing that it couldn't kill me, i chased after it but my running speed isn't that great so it took a long time for me to catch up, and when i was done killing that basilisk, the sky had already turned dark and cloud, i also forgot which way i was supposed to go, everything around me is just grass and trees.."
Hearing Meiryn's long explanation bored Arcsen a little bit, but nonetheless he held it in and listened to her until the very end.
"Is that so, Basilisk are known to be agile despite their big size, so you having a hard time catching up to it is quite understandable, that means the basilisk guided you to this place." Arcsen said.
"I know, that fucking lizard is tiring me out, i thought i would be able to kill it pretty easily but i guess luck isn't on my side, just when i was about to search for a way back, the rain started and it blocked my vision with thick fogs.."
Meiryn was visible angered by that particular basilisk, even though the monster had already been dead, it didn't change the fact that she almost died from cold just because she chased down that basilisk.
Both Arcsen and Meiryn have been talking for a while now, and before they knew it, the heavy rain that is pouring outside began to gradually subside, there's only small drop of water every now and then, the dark cloud that previously brought darkness to the land had also moved away and the sunlight prepares itself to show up once again.
"The rain stopped.." Arcsen said.
"Great, now we can leave this place, to be honest i can't stand this disgusting stench any longer, where did it come from anyway."
"Alright alright"
With a gentle push, Arcsen opened the wooden door, revealing the outside once again to them, although there's already a hole big enough in the walls for them to go through without using the door, they still chose the door just for the fun of it and also a dramatic opening to a warm light.
As soon as they stepped outside, they were blasted by the sun's warm radiance, it's about to go set and night will soon took over, the birds in the sky have started to chirp loudly, they are preparing to sleep at their nest, amidst the village destruction, the sound of crickets can still be heard like a constant alarm that told them to continue their journey.
"Why are you staring at the sun?" Meiryn asked, she felt weirded by Arcsen appreciating the sunset.
"The sun is most beautiful at sunset"
"Yeah yeah, it's going to be night time soon, don't you think we should go back to our home?"
"Okay."
They both then walked together on the sluggish and wet ground, their boots are all dirtied by mud, however for them, it's not a dirt, but rather a proof of their adventure.
***
"That's him?" Said a mysterious man wearing an all-black outfit with red symbols, next to him is another man that wore the same outfit.
They were standing at the top of a cliff that is quite far away from the village, from their perspective, Arcsen and Meiryn are all like ants, they are way too far for Arcsen to detect them, and for some reason, the two men was able to see exactly where Arcsen was without any help from a telescope or magnifying glass, it's as if their eyes have a special attribute that allows them to see a faraway object.
"Yes, there's no doubt about it, that's Arcsen Riela."