Sterne felt faint and in the haze, she saw silver strands float over her head. 

Though various Orders have come here, none of those individuals bore such pure crystal-like hair colour. Like ice and moonlight, she thought. The strands feel extremely unique and soft when they brushed her cheeks.

"Little girl...?"

"While I admit I am still little, there is no way I'll let you mistook me for a girl." The light cool voice of a boy said.

Royce who suddenly appeared in front of her comports himself excellently despite her failing. He looked calm and indifferent, not a crease on his brow or a hint of surprise in his angelic face— when in fact his arms were shaking. 

What happened to this girl dressing like a boy and fainting by the roadside?! 

"I, I'm sorry, I mistook you for someone." Sterne replied in a whisper. 

Strength is her leaving her body. 

Royce looked at her weakening state with confusion. When before her complexion can only be described as lily white, now it turned into ghostly white. 

"It shouldn't be this way. What is the matter?" 

He looked around and found the old man Sterne had a conversation with earlier about to leave.

"Elf." He murmured, "Solis, follow him."

After a gust of wind, his companion disappeared.  

"Milady!" Emilia was wide-eyed with horror when she saw her lady being held by a stranger.  She quickly moved in an attempt to retrieve her back when the boy holding her jumped a few steps back. 

Viktor was behind holding a short staff aimed on his head, "Unhand her."

"Her?" Royce had a mischievous glint in his eyes. 

There was an angry maid with a knife in front and a mage at the back but he wasn't fazed in the least.

He threw his arms on Sterne's shoulders and carried her effortlessly. "Whoever are you referring to, miss? My friend here said 'he' has something to speak to me with. Would you mind it if we talked a little?"

"Viktor…" Emilia desperately called.

"Lady Sterne is currently refining a skill. It's imperative we let her rest now." Viktor replied as he went to her side. 

"Skill? Right now?"

"I know this is unprecedented but her mana is currently surging. It seems she is about to advance her rank."

"Swordsmanship?"

"No," Viktor hesitated then whispered, "Magic." 

Emilia could not spare a second to rejoice. She felt even more worried than relieved.

Viktor looked at the boy holding their lady and felt no malice so he tried to reason with him, "Is the young master acquainted with our family's young master?"

"I cannot say we are acquainted." Royce smiled mischievously. "But we ought to be." 

Emilia frowned. Her hand on the dagger tightened. "What do you mean—"

"If you want to see your young master safe, tell me where you are currently staying."  

Wary and helpless to this turn of events, Emilia was forced to temporarily agree. Viktor signaled her to put the dagger away. With a last resentful look, she conceded. 

"Fine." As long as she could not feel hostile energy she would not act. 

Royce smiled thinly. "I mean her no harm, I promise." 

The next thing they knew, the boy scaled the walls and jumped over the roof. The two followed suit leaving the astonished crowd below. 

Back at the inn, Emilia tucked Sterne on the bed and closed the doors. 

"May I ask the young master's name?" 

Royce glanced at the stiff maid calmly. 

"If you will allow it," Emilia added reluctantly when she saw him not inclined to reply. 

"Royce."

"My name is Emilia and over there is Viktor."

"A pleasure." Royce tipped his head and resumed his quiet contemplation by the bay window. 

Emilia excused herself and went to ask the innkeeper to prepare for a light meal. The ones left in the room remained in total stillness. 

Their unwanted visitor did not mind the tepid atmosphere and seemed to have found entertainment by humming a light tone while looking outside the alleys. 

Viktor sat near the hearth watching him. He mentioned earlier that he and the lady were about to be introduced, at least that is what he hinted. Lady Sterne might have mentioned him before but he was too busy to pay attention. In any case, he and Emilia are here; he won't be making any funny moves with them watching.

A quarter of an hour later, Emilia returned along with a server holding a tray of warm food. 

"On the table," she instructed. "Thank you, you may leave."

After handing him a couple of silver coins, the waiter left smiling from ear to ear. 

Emilia took her lady's satchel and put out the ready made food they packed prior to traveling and arranged them on the table. Soon a sumptuous meal was presented before their eyes. 

"The meal is ready." She invited them.

Viktor stood as well as Royce. 

Emilia served the prepared food to Royce and did not touch the one from the inn. 

"You made careful consideration." Royce complimented as he filled his plate. 

They brought their own food but in order not to appear odd in the eyes of outsiders they bought a meal downstairs. As lunch progressed, Royce felt the gazes directed at him but ignored them entirely. His mind was on the other side of this room.  

The girl sleeping soundly on the bed didn't look the least bit burdened. In fact, he could hear her light snore. He nibbled on a roast beef sandwich as he watched the wisps of mana moving rhythmically in the air. He could sense her body slowly adjusting to a foreign force circling around before absorbing them.

No specific magic attribute and her mana appears insufficient but why is it that she has acquired several sets of skills and already advanced her professional rank? This is not something a delicate little lady of twelve summers usually has. 

What a puzzling existence Sterne Eloise Nachtwald is.

 

Outside the feast is at its full swing. Visitors have come down for food and wine along with the city lord's people. On the long table where they currently sat, there are faces familiar to Sterne if only she was awake and saw them for herself. There is Karion Ziege, his niece Monique sitting on the city lord's right, the left side occupied by the foul-mouthed boy from earlier along with people from well-known guilds.

Emilia stood by the window watching every soul coming and going at the square. Adventurers were present and other private organizations from other kingdoms. What caught her notice was the sudden absence of the knights from Chivalric Order, the clerics from Heraldic Order, mages of Magic Bureau and even several students of Royal Academy they saw earlier. 

Another worth noting was that, despite this large of a crowd, the locals are not keen on participating. The longer Emilia looked the deeper the furrow in her eyebrows became. Could there be some hidden activity they know nothing about?  

Someone knocked on the door. 

"I lost the elf." Solis told Royce as soon as he came into the room.

Royce waved his hand, sat back on the table and reached for another sandwich. "Never mind. They are always hard to find lot. It's just surprising to see one still in Aurum." His gaze went to Sterne's room. "He must have specifically shown up to give a gift to someone."  

It was eight in the evening when Sterne finally awoke and the first thing she saw was a boy in silk and satin eating away her snacks! 

(ー∀ー；)... this level of shamelessness amazes me. 

Emilia walked in with a pitcher of water, seeing that her young lady opened her eyes albeit looking very confused she felt glad.

"Do you feel any discomfort, milady?" She asked, completely ignoring the presence happily devouring everything on the table.

Sterne shook her head, "Where is that grandpa now?"

"He left right after Viktor treated him. I'm sorry, milady. We shouldn't have let the person go."

He left just like that? Emilia thought Sterne wouldn't talk any more when she lifted a shaky finger towards the starving guests. 

"Em-Emi, can you tell me why there is a stranger in our room, eating our snacks?"

Emilia leaned closer and whispered about how she was saved by that boy when she fainted. As for the following circumstances, Emilia wanted to explain but she did not know how to address it plainly. This boy suddenly latched himself to her lady, came to their room, ate their dinner like it's the most natural thing to do, then somehow made himself comfortable at the corner and became a part of the group.

Sterne did not get to have an answer until Dorn materialized out of nowhere.

"Milady, I've got news!"

About time! The last vestige of dizziness from sleep faded away. She jumped down from the bed to the sitting room and urged Dorn to speak.

"Suspicious individuals are looking for the person from Aster."

"Which one?" Her eyes lit up. "Motive?"

"Some from the Heraldic Order then the Magic Bureau and a man named Karion." 

With a gathering of the crowd as huge as this, the enemy will inevitably show itself, especially if one has to carefully lay some trap. The issue of Aster Town from three years ago will be dug up whether they like it or not since the current events have called too much attention. She had been waiting for this opportunity, she needed to find the root cause of why Kyrios lost the top spot to someone like Karion Ziege.

Dorn revealed the information he gathered for this whole day making them gasp with the discovery. No wonder!

"According to the report, a person named Karion Ziege and his colleague Weevil had been hunting survivors of Aster for years under the Magic Bureau's command."

Astonishment flashed within Sterne's eyes. That's it! 

Karion Ziege is involved in such a treacherous and despicable conspiracy. Kyrios might have stumbled upon this secret. Knowing her elder brother, he must have gone deeper to investigate and aimed to bring it to light. Unfortunately, circumstances were not in his favor, once he got caught he had no means of fighting back. He cannot fight against the bureau alone. Their family had been in tatters and there was no one there to support him!    

Her poor brother… 

Sterne felt a heart rending pain as flashes of images of what supposed to have happened appeared in his consciousness. 

Kryios was expelled from the academy for failing to protect his squad within Aster. When he presented the report of his discovery about the unusual deaths of both knights and adventurers, the council accused him of perjuring his way out of his punishment by stealing Karion's record. He was then sued and sentenced to imprisonment.

Sterne covered her mouth and turned her head away hiding the despair in her eyes. 

"Are you alright?" The first to notice her strangeness was Royce.  

He stepped forward handing her a kerchief. 

"I, I'm fine. Thank you." 

"Milady?" Emilia asked worriedly. 

She gave a small laugh and waved it off. "About Karion Ziege…?"

"Ah, yes." Dorn said unnaturally then he cleared his throat to continue, "Uhm, those, those I've mentioned appear to be dependents of a nobleman from the capital named Ravencroft and currently students of Royal Academy. It is said that Karion Ziege is aiming to attract the Grand Commander's notice in order to win a post of a palace knight right after graduation. He volunteered to come here with the guise of investigating the ruins. But we all know what he truly came for."

It is easy to tell that they came to ascertain if there are still remnants of Aster under the guise of volunteering.

"Once they find the person…" Sterne said.

"They must eliminate him." 

She bit her lower lip out of habit, "Dorn, you must withdraw. Let's abandon the plan and think of another way."

"No, milady." Dorn disagreed. "I just had a bright idea." 

"But this is turning out to be dangerous."

"We can handle this." Dorn said confidently. "Milady, need not worry."

 

After toasting and talking with the people joining the exploration tomorrow, Karion and Weevil did not return to the inn they were staying at but instead went straight to a small dilapidated inn not far from the square where the said person from Aster currently resides. It was a good thing they did not drink that special wine city lord served else they would be walking in criss-cross by now.

"I've been feeling rather strange since this afternoon. Have you noticed the arrival of people from other Orders?" Weevil asked, looking around the decrepit neighborhood warily. 

"Yes, I've seen it."Karion replied impatiently. 

"Did the bureau say anything more? It's unlike them to send us here where we are at risk of being exposed." 

Karion's jaw tightened. The Magic Bureau? He hadn't heard of them but he accidentally saw the elite mages in another inn earlier. Why send those people? Do they not trust them?

"We're here." Weevil elbowed him. 

After a few knocks, the creaky door opened. 

Karion and Weevil took out their blades but words from the person made them halt.

"You are the second of my guests." 

Karion frowned at the person, seemingly lost. Coming here, they expected to see a frightened middle-aged man but what greeted them was a youth in shabby clothing. Like a beggar.

"Does Sir Knight also want to know about the secret passage?"

Passage? What passage?! 

The youth, seemingly unafraid, let them in. "With the right price, I can direct you to it."

The two grew puzzled. 

When everyone else had fallen into slumber the light on his lamp still burned and despite receiving late night visitors, he appeared too calm about it. Instead of making them at ease it made Weevil and Karion raise their guard unknowingly. Weevil, in particular, gripped the dagger hidden inside his robe.

"We know about the passage to the ruin."

The youth paused then murmured audibly. "I was not talking about that—" 

The next second he found himself being kicked to the wall with a knife on his throat. 

"I hate being put in suspense. Tell me the full details about the people you speak of. Now!" Karion threatened. 

The youth coughed painfully and staggered to get up but Karion pressed him again. 

"Who else came to ask you?" He asked forcefully. 

The youth registered a shocked look. "People wearing blue and silver robes, are they not with you?"   

Observing him for quite a while, they knew he wasn't lying nor trying to trick them, his eyes and movements were natural. He moved away from the youth and stood to the side. 

Damn, blue robes. It's from the Chivalric Order's secret corps.  What did they mean by coming here?  

Karion's expression was sinking. His suspicion is growing while the gears on Weevil's head churned fast. Their orders were clear; should there be a survivor appearing, clean it up immediately. But along with the arrival of this youth is a piece of information they did know of or it is much better to say, hidden from them. 

Weevil, listening to his revelation, had his fist clenched tightly under the table. Chivalric Order. Those are special robes of the Grand Commander's lackeys. Those people are no strangers to them, of course, they were the same. They were ordered to kill everyone who came from Aster Town by none other than the Magic Bureau itself and they have been doing it for the past three years with no miss. Oftentimes they join forces with the blue robes to chase after those survivors hiding in the farthest corner of the kingdom. 

But why did they leave this sad and pathetic youth alive? For what?

"Passage," Karion's eyes sharpened. "You mentioned that it wasn't the ruins everyone was talking about then what is?"

The following words of the youth made their expressions entirely dark.

"I didn't mean to hide it from you, sir. I thought you knew that what everyone is searching for inside my old town is not a ruin but the way to Leise Mountain where a sacred beast rests. Since the adventurers do not know and only people of our kingdom have knowledge of it... I thought you also..." 

Ah, so that's it. A sacred beast! And no one even bothered to tell them about it? 

Now wonder the blue robes are here. 

No wonder the elite mages hid from them.

"Karion," Weevil's eyes shone with a fierce light. "This is incredible!"

"Haha, indeed… I dare not think of the impossible but I am tempted."

"A sacred beast. Imagine if we caught it ourselves." 

They knew Grand Commander's people have ideas of their own, everyone has greed in them, they understand that but for the bureau to completely disregard them like this, isn't it treating them as fools? To think that they have painstakingly rendered such unrelenting service to the Magic Bureau, still, it wasn't enough to get inside their sphere. 

How painful. How pathetic of them. Those elites must have a good laugh. 

Weevil laughed without humor, he and Karion were orphans fostered by aristocrats as expendables, people to help them establish a connection and do their dirty jobs. They will not become full-fledged gentry unless they prove their worth. The same reason why they often receive numerous ridicule. 

"Tomorrow those blue robes will come and take me..." The youth added looking at the two of them.

"About this sacred beast, how certain are you?" Karion inquired smilingly. 

"It was a tale within our folks. Once the mountain became restless, it is said that the sacred beast pays a visit to drink water from the Mirror Lake." 

The said event already happened. The beast is in that mountain as of this moment and everyone was secretly making plans of capturing it!  

"Do you really know where that passage is?" Weevil prodded with a sinister flash in his eyes.

Since they wanted to hog all the credit for themselves, they will come steal it.  

"I remember it."

 

When his visitors left, the youth shook his head. A tinge of a sly smile on his face. He took off the wig he was wearing and wiped the brown powder off. Minutes passed, two shadows appeared from the dark corner of the room.

"The person is settled well and safe." One of them reported. 

"Very well." The youth sighed, took one seat and threw himself in it. "Who else knew of the sacred beast on that mountain?"

"Captain, people from the three Orders, some private individuals and the city lord himself."

He clicked his tongue. This whole ruin exploration was an idea proposed by Chivalric Order for cover. As soon as they enter Aster tomorrow, the groups will split up to find the path to the mountain. He fiddled with the dirty white towel on his hand.

"Milady just uncovered a conspiracy. I wonder what His Grace will say about this later?"

The shadows shrugged.  

Three years ago they made it appear that Aster Town is cursed, what the people outside did not know is that those people are only victims of someone else's carelessness.  Every person they caught were forced to ingest Blood Grass throwing those poor souls into a hopeless frenzy. In order to continue the lie, rumours were spread until it took root on everyone's heart. That by just hearing about the massacre even a grown man will tremble. He had no idea that it was their very own Magic Bureau who would do such abominable things. Too many lives lost and can never return.

Sterne listened to Dorn's final report with a heavy heart. Connecting this to the future incident, she concluded that Kyrios indeed touched something that was beyond his power. He discovered about the problem in Aster as well as the several Orders that conspired to spin this lie in order to cover up the hunt for a sacred beast. It was a well-crafted plan, Kyrios intended to reveal the truth and reported it, unaware of the Magic Bureau lurking in the dark. 

He was caught off guard. They called him a delusional liar. Karion took this chance to usurp his position in the academy and with further twisting of the facts and events, all the credits eventually fell in Karion's favor. Easily so because he is one of their people!  

As for the sacred beast… Sterne tapped her fingers on top of the table. 

This is an entirely different thing. Who knew Leise Mountain had something amazing? The very thought of it makes one shudder with excitement but it was a pity the likes of such creatures was something they cannot touch. 

"How was my acting?" Dorn grinned so proud of himself. 

Emilia glared at him. "It must have been excellent but alas, we saw nothing."

Poor Dorn felt so sad he deposited himself on the chair and began chalking up his despair with a plate of cookies and tarts. 

"I want to continue the mission." He solemnly declared, startling everyone in the room. 

"Dorn, you cannot be serious!" Emilia disapproved.

"Tomorrow is a good chance to get closer and get as much information as we can. I have inquired about the passage and knew where to lead them."

Viktor looked at him sternly, "And if you get caught?" 

"I will not." He replied with confidence then grabbed the satchel with half of their ration. 

Lady's Sterne's spatial bag is filled with so many treats he won't go hungry for the following days. Heaven knows how hard it was for him to walk on foot for a whole day and sleep in a place with cockroaches and mice feasting. To make this trap believable, they have to set a good lure (which is himself huhuhu) and it would be a waste not to see through the task completely.  

Among the various individuals, they now know that it was those from the Magic Bureau and Chivalric Order that had something to do with the tragedy of Aster three years ago. Karion Ziege and his partner Weevil served as their liaison and personally acted as executioner. 

And if they wanted stronger evidence of their vices, the mission must not be suspended. 

Karion and his cohorts must be put down! 

Sterne went silent for a while before coming to a decision, "Since Dorn is determined to go, I will allow it." 

Several pairs of astonished eyes looked at her, particularly Royce and Solis. 

"We are also joining the exploration tomorrow.