As I had already beaten most of the monsters in the way and I used the same route, the trip back was much faster and easier than going in. Still, when you think about it, it's strange how quickly I got used to treating even incredibly strong monsters as nothing more than minor annoyances ever since I found out what my level was. Not long ago I would have been terrified of facing even a weak one.

"Ah, I'm finally back outside."

It feels nice to breathe some fresh air after the constant smell of sulfur in those caverns. Instead of monsters, I can see some birds flying in the sky, a rabbit is looking at me from a hole, and the skeleton of some large animal is running right at me.

*Chomp*

Mmm, I think that someone is moving this thing with 'corpse puppet', its jaws are big enough to fit my entire head inside. When the mouth opens again I see the one responsible.

"Xania! I was not expecting you to be waiting for me here. I shifted that leyline like I said I would."

"You really did it... thank you."

*Chomp*

"So, could you tell me what this thing is and why you're making it bite me?"

"It's the skeleton of a dragon, it's the only thing that I can use against you."

A dragon? Now that she mentions it, it does look a bit like a dragon... I didn't realize because it's missing the wings.

*Chomp*

"Xania! How could you do something so horrible!?"

"I'm sorry, I have no choice..."

As she says that, she winks at me and subtly points behind her. What is she trying to tell me?

"No choice? I know that he could be really annoying at times, but he was a good person deep down. I don't know what stupid thing he did, but you didn't need to go as far as killing him!"

*Chomp*

"Killing...? Wait, you think that this is your dragon? This is just a skeleton I found some time ago."

"Oh, don't' scare me like that. So why did you want to show it to me?" *Chomp* "And could you please stop making it bite my head? It doesn't hurt much and I can heal immediately, but it's still a bit annoying."

"Annoying? I'm trying to kill you!"

"Eh!?"

Kill me? That doesn't make any sense. Even if this thing was strong enough to kill me, which it clearly is not, I could just take control of her magic, she should know that by now.

She's pointing behind her again... looking in that direction, I think that I just saw a small head peeking from inside a rock. She said that she had no choice didn't she... could someone be forcing her to attack me?

Pushing the dragon skeleton aside, I walk to the rock, lift it above my head and start shaking. A fairy dressed in orange falls from the bottom, passing through solid matter, is that an earth fairy? It seems like the shaking made her all dizzy. As soon as I drop the rock she tries to fly away, but I catch her with my hands.

"Let me go!"

"Luna! Don't let her use a spell!" Xania yells at me, I don't know what she's afraid of, but I guess I'll use 'mana corrosion' to prevent this fairy from using magic.

"Xania, could you please explain what's going on?"

"I'm sorry to ask you for help again, but my master... Kalroth. He took Rax and threatened to kill me if I didn't kill you."

"Really? Even though you were so loyal to him, what an ungrateful boss you have. But you say that you're going to ask for my help again? Does that mean that you're going to take my side?"

"At this point, my only two choices are to either kill you or join your side. I think that I'd rather take the option that does not require me to do something impossible."

Xania tells me about what happened after Kalroth came back from the beastkin country. It seems like she was put in a difficult situation.

Well, regardless of her reasons, I'm glad that she finally decided to turn against that awful master of hers. Hurting and kidnapping a small boy, capturing people to turn into slaves... I'm getting angry just thinking about it, I'll have to teach him a lesson when I get my hands on him.

"I told you to let me go! Ouch!" The fairy just bit my finger, but it seems like she's the one who got hurt. "What are you going to do with me...?" And after looking at me in the eyes she suddenly got scared.

"I don't know. Xania, who exactly is this?"

"She was supposed to keep an eye on me. She has a spell that can send a message to a long distance."

Oh, so she told me to stop her magic so that she could not warn anybody. Well, I guess I'll have to think of a plan to rescue a hostage, I don't know if I'll be any good for something like that... but before that, there was a really loud noise somewhere nearby just now, and I can see a large dust cloud, I wonder what that was.

"You know, you're lucky that you fell so close to where I was. If I didn't heal you, you probably would have died."

It turns out that the loud noise what the dragon smashing into the ground. Now that I've confirmed that he's alive, I'll no longer need to be suspicious of Xania.

It seems like he tried to rescue Rax and got into a fight with that Kalroth guy. He got beaten up quite badly, and then he got sent flying a long distance. Most of his bones were broken when I found him.

"Mistress... to think that you were even able to calculate the area where I would land. You are even more amazing than I had imagined!"

"What are you talking about?"

Still, he put himself in danger to save that kid, I was not expecting such a noble act from him...

"I'm sorry mistress, I could not escape with the boy. He's still in danger as we speak."

"Don't worry Irvan, you did well enough."

"You said my name!"

I know that I decided to not use his name if he wasn't going to use mine, but I suppose that he's earned it just this once.

"Then, you said that my brother ran into an elf forest?" Xania joins the conversation after locking the defeated looking fairy in a cage.

"Yes, but some of the demons went after him. I'll take you there!"

"No, you're in no condition to fly. Even if I could heal your broken bones quickly, the internal damage you took will take some more time. That skill you used was quite dangerous."

"How are we going to find my brother in that magic forest? Anyone who's not an elf always gets lost in those places."

Why is she asking that?

"Uh, I think that you'll be fine if you go with me."

"Really mistress? I know that the elves can ask the trees to show them the way, but for anyone else, they will move around to block the way. Do you have a plan for that?"

Is he serious? I point at my ears and realization hits them. Did these two really forget that I was an elf?

"Oh, that's right," says Xania. "Normally, seeing an elf outside of a forest would be quite noteworthy. But in your case, the fact that you're an elf is not even in the top ten most noteworthy things about you so I forgot..."

I guess I can't blame them, I also forget that I'm an elf at times.

An elf forest... normally I would not want to set foot in such a detestable place, much less ask the trees there for help, but I need to find Rax before the demons. I'll just go in, find him, and get out as quickly as possible. I just hope that I won't run into any elves...

"Mistress, are you sure that you don't want me to carry you? Are you not in a hurry?"

"Don't worry, we can get there quickly enough by using this."

When we left the Agua kingdom, we took a small detour to find Ranna's car and I placed it in my storage. It seems like it might become useful now.

"What is this vehicle?" Xania seems to be interested.

"It's something called a 'car', it moves by using fire mana to create small explosions that cause those wheels to spin. It was made in a country from the north continent named 'Mekria'. According to Ranna, that place is known as 'the country of machines'. People there use almost no magic at all, instead, they use mana to power all kinds of contraptions."

"I had never heard of such a place..." She seems to be rather surprised. "I guess that makes sense, very few people know anything about the other continents."

I don't even know much about this continent so I won't say anything about that.

"But a vehicle that moves with explosions seems dangerous" Xania seems concerned. "Are you sure that you know how to control it?"

"Eh... don't worry. I'll figure it out as we go."

forli

As I said last chapter, I was busy this month. I could not write anything at all, so sorry about the break.

Now I'm free once again, so here's a chapter. I hope you liked it.