Working at Harré, Part One

There’s an island floating in the blue sky above.

The view from here never changes.

Far beyond that floating island, I can see that another island of a different size is also floating in the sky.

That hasn’t changed either.

What I’ve wanted to become, ever since I was little—I still see that dream of mine, every time I close my eyes.

I’ve wanted to become one thing in this magical world for a long, long time.

I’ve wanted to become a receptionist lady at a place called Harré.

“Nanalie! You start work today at Harré’s Sorcerer’s Guild, don’t you? Hurry up and get down here!”

I pull my face away from the window and shut the curtains.

“Coming!”

Starting today, I will begin working at Harré. A few moments ago, I had been in the middle of finishing my preparations to live in Harré’s employee dormitory. Unlike when I was back at magic school, I’ll be living on my own now. I’ve learned how to cook some things, and I feel confident that I’ll somehow be able to feed myself with the skills I’ve acquired.

Still, I’d never thought I’d be living in another dormitory. These “skills” that I’ve got now are really just patchwork lessons I learned through trial and error here at home... But with my new cooking abilities, I was able to make bunny-bird soup without using magic.

My father, who’d been in charge of taste-testing my new creations, told me that my bunny-bird soup was “so good, it tastes like it could turn into a bunny-bird!” (Not that I had any idea what that meant.) I’d wanted to get some practical advice from him, but all of his opinions were too abstract, and after getting that particular “compliment,” I’d stopped asking for his opinion entirely. Perhaps I was just pouting, but I’d wanted to improve my cooking abilities, and with feedback like that I’d never get any better.

“Now then.”

I’m moving out again to start living in a dorm, so I pick up my luggage and take one last look around my room.

I’d thought about re-doing the walls of my room when I’d come home after graduation, but here I am, leaving my room again with the off-white walls looking slightly dirty as always. Over there in the corner is my rickety wooden bookcase that anyone would have a hard time calling “cute.” On top of my desk next to the window is a box that has all the textbooks that had taught me so many different things when I read them back in magic school.

Up until fairly recently I’d dreamed of sleeping on some elaborate princess-type canopy bed, so a long time ago my father had taken some rusty nails and hung some sheets from the ceiling that had draped around my bed. But I’d taken those down, and now all that is on my bed is a pillow and a comforter.

The stuffed bear that I’d begged my mom for as a child is safely tucked away inside my luggage. I’m not going to go off to Harré without it.

“This is it, then.”

I take my carefully packed luggage in hand and leave my room, shaking out the long sleeves on my light brown one-piece dress. My blue hair flows down past my shoulders.

With a little twirl, I glance back, trying to burn the image of this room, no longer my own, into my mind, and then I hurry outside.

Harré Mooren, the Sorcerer’s Guild of the Kingdom of Doran. The place where all sorcerers expert in the practice of exorcism get their work assignments.

The Guild is located just beyond the King’s floating island, on the northern side of the kingdom. If I ever got lost on my way to Harré, I’d be able to get back on the right track if I aimed for the King’s island. The Royal Isle, the symbol of our kingdom, had actually turned out to be a rather convenient landmark for me. It is reliable, in several senses of the word. Using it to navigate is certainly easier than trying to find the Evening Star on the horizon.

Harré has a long, long history of performing the role of mediator between sorcerers and their clients. “Harré Mooren” was actually the name of the person who had founded the Guild, and it seems she was a woman. As a woman myself, I am quite proud to go and work at a place with that sort of history.

Our age is still one in which men went around slamming their butts down in the seats of power, looking down on us from high above and manspreading all the while, but our society has progressed to the point where no fuss is made when a woman enters the Royal Knights, so perhaps the day when we women will be able to contend with men on equal footing isn’t actually that far off.

I summon Lala and climb on her back.

“Lala, to Harré, please.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

After three years of getting around on a familiar, I’d grown quite used to the whole affair. Ah, to think back on those days when I flew through the sky in that horse-drawn carriage. Feeding that horse those bits of paper had been interesting, and I’d grown to really like the horse as well. The horse and carriage were now solely used by my mother as her mode of transport for her own work.

My mother had taken a leave of absence from her labors as an archaeologist, with the intention of looking after me until I’d left home and become independent. She’d told me she wanted to treasure her time raising me, but she’d also had a big smile on her face when I left home, because she would be able to work again. My mother loves being outside, studying ancient ruins and unknown mysteries, and is always searching for new answers about the past. She’d been so excited at the prospect of working again that she seemed to have become a young woman again.

So now that I’ve been officially offered a job, it’s like she has sprouted wings, the way she flies all over from place to place. Since I am leaving home today, she’d come back to see me off, but normally she was basically never home, which had led my father to tell me he was feeling lonely. Just the other day he’d been so sad about the whole deal that he’d cried in front of me, his daughter, snot dripping from his nose. He’d been sobbing, and every time he sobbed, spit flew from his mouth. Nasty. Don’t let that touch me.

Even so, it wasn’t like this whole state of affairs was something new. Since the beginning of my sixth year, when I’d received my first, unofficial job offer at Harré, my mother had left the house more and more often, so it was coming on a full year that my father had been in his lonely situation.

I hadn’t known anything about what was going on at home while I was living in the school dorms, so I was pretty surprised upon arriving home. Being left alone will make anyone feel sad, especially Father. He loves Mother so much. Probably too much.

I’d been unable to just observe the whole situation with indifference. “Mother,” I’d said to her, “Father is so lonely, I think he might die.”

“Huh... Alright, whatever,” my mother had said.

I hadn’t necessarily told her out of any kindness I felt towards my father, but rather out of the simple desire that any child has: to see their parents get along well for the rest of their lives.

But once I’d had that conversation with her, I’d overheard her scolding my father. “I don’t remember falling in love with someone this pathetic.” She’d sent my father spinning with that verbal slap. After that, I pretended to have nothing to do with the matter.

I suppose there are many different types of relationships that fall under the category “husband-and-wife,” I’d thought.

“I’m heading out!”

“Safe travels, dear. Lala, take good care of her, okay?”

“She shall be safe with me.”

“Mother, be nice to Father, okay?”

“What are you going on about? I’m always nice.”

“I wonder about that,” I mutter under my breath, giving her a cheery smile as I wave to her. I decide to avoid any further discussion about the subject, urge Lala to take off, and all at once, we are up in the air. They seem like they have an okay relationship, for now. Perhaps they don’t need me to be worrying about their marriage anyway.

“Give my love to Father!” I shout down at her. Mother already looks so small beneath us.

“Be careful, Nanalie!”

The Royal Isle is directly ahead of us. We’re having some good weather today, no wind or chilly temperatures, perfect conditions for flying. Whenever the wind is cold, my skin actually hurts while we fly. I wish it could always be like this, I sigh.

Lala’s back is far more comfortable than it looks. Whenever I am flying with her, I feel as though I might fall asleep. It still strikes me as strange to know that her soft fur can turn into that hard crystal. There are a lot of different types of magical creatures, but I, from the bottom of my heart, am glad that Lala is my familiar. It’s reassuring to be with someone who can use Ice, same as me, and on top of that she’s a girl, which makes me happy because it feels like I have more girlfriends. Still, I do have to give Lala orders as her master, so I suppose there is no way that Lala is going to consider me her friend. After all, according to her, I am her “master,” no matter the time or place.

“What are your plans once we arrive at Harré?”

“There’s supposed to be a male employee waiting outside for us, so I’ll find him and talk to him, I suppose.”

Harré’s building is about three times the size of my house, and while it is large, it isn’t as big as the School of Magic had been. It’s more like a very large store. The brown and yellow outer walls were rough and sandy, but the interior is lined with wood and has a welcoming atmosphere. I’d visited it once again before graduation, and there hadn’t been any changes since that first visit all the way back when I’d been so little. My heart had literally pounded with excitement at the thought that I’d be working there. It felt like that time when I’d seen that receptionist lady as a kid.

I can see different parts of the kingdom below me as I fly through the sky. The food markets are bustling, likely because of the morning rush, and I hear the lively voices of the old men and women selling vegetables.

“This is a great buy!”

“We’ve got better deals over here!”

Fighting over their low prices again, aren’t they?

I feel like the last time I’d been to this market, they’d been fighting and throwing their goods at each other. The customers had run away screaming. Not sure what they’d gained by doing that.

“What are you talking about? I’ve got cheaper stuff over HERE!”

People had gathered at the center of the kingdom. The houses here are built in regular circles, spaced farther and farther out from the center. Doran was surrounded by a large forest, so we’re sometimes called the Kingdom in the Woods. I think it’s a rather mystical nickname. I love it.

But in those woods live demons, and the people living nearest to the forest’s edge are often caused no end of trouble by the demons and their mischief. Even if we try to put up some sort of magical barrier, it will eventually be broken through by something or other, so it isn’t that effective of a defense.

We humans, however, can use magic. We have what it takes to stop demons.

Even so, we still haven’t figured out how to completely root out a demon infestation. Furthermore, there are people who make their living by killing demons, so consigning all demons to oblivion might not actually be the right thing to do, or that’s at least what some people said... Adults can be idiots, sometimes.

That whole line of thinking basically followed from the idea that “if evil does not exist, good doesn’t either.” Some people’s whole way of life would lose meaning without something to fight against. Still, it’s clearly better for society for demons to be eradicated, rather than to protect their existence as some sort of jobs program. If the demon killers just looked for other jobs, they’d find plenty of them! It’s not like you can’t make a living in this world unless you go about killing things. I can’t understand that whole line of thinking at all. The fact that some people think we shouldn’t eradicate demons is proof enough, in my mind, that there truly are humans more terrifying than demons.

Speaking of demons, last year I read a report at school that had discussed research on demons. The title of the report had been:

“Lifeforms Full of Wickedness and Evil: Grotesque Beings Different from Magical Creatures.”

The author of the report had been an old man by the name of “Aristo Pyguri”:

First, an introduction: The creatures we call “demons” are true to their name—they are grotesque beings, existences that twist the very definition of what it means to be “alive.” They are monsters that threaten our way of life and cause disasters that endanger our very civilization. They are, truly, “Creatures of the Devil.” Thus, demons.

Distinguishing them from magical creatures may seem difficult at first, but it becomes easier by comparing parameters such as lethality, physical traits, and magical ability.

Classifying demons themselves into different types, however, is a futile pursuit. The one thing we know about them is this: demons live by consuming those with magical ability. That is why they attack and eat both humans and magical creatures. They do not consume grass or anything else that is not touched by magic.

The purpose of this research was to discover how, precisely, demons come into existence. To find the answer, I dissected the corpse of a demon.

The results of that dissection would have shocked anyone: the demon I cut open had formerly been a human.

It is not clear whether or not a sudden transformation had occurred to make a human into this demon. Upon first viewing the demon, I had believed there to be no possibility that the creature had once been a human, given that the structure of its body was clearly that of a four-legged beast. It had sharp fangs and a green and sticky hide.

But during the course of the autopsy, I observed that the internal organs and genitalia were those of a sort only seen in humans. In the judgment my team and I made, a male human had transformed to become the demon we were investigating.

The bones were unmistakably those of a human. The thing seemed to have forcibly altered the bone structure of the original human to make itself walk on all four legs.

We still do not know how this particular demon came to take on its grotesque form, but we do know this: it is no longer so strange an idea to think that the things we call ‘demons’ are actually creatures that we humans, wielders of magical powers, become.

Those last few paragraphs had been how the research paper concluded.

“Research report?” More like “major new discovery.” The old man had written rather disturbing things in that paper.

Sure, it’d made me rethink what I knew about demons, but wasn’t it a little farfetched to claim that humans could become demons?

One of the unique features of demons is that while they cannot reproduce, they do possess a supernatural ability to recover from their injuries. Further, while they may take on many different shapes and forms, it isn’t possible to classify them by saying that “those that look like this, act like that” or anything like that. They attacked and consumed anything and everything with magical ability. All of them, without exception. Why they existed, or what their existence meant, for that matter, is unclear.

But I suppose we humans are the same in that respect.

Humans know neither why they come into being nor for what purpose they exist. Perhaps that is why, as the author would say, it isn’t strange at all to imagine that a human had become a demon.

“Master, I have sighted our destination.”

“Oh! Look, it’s Harré!”

I squint my eyes a little as I look ahead. Harré is located a little ways beyond the area directly below the Royal Isle.

Now I’ll finally be able to take my second step towards becoming a receptionist lady!

The world around me seems so dazzling to me in this moment. I rub Lala’s back, smiling.

“Welcome, Ms. Hel. Allow me to re-introduce myself: I am Theodora Rocktiss, Director of Harré Mooren, the Sorcerer’s Guild of the Kingdom of Doran.”

We are in a room at Harré’s Sorcerer’s Guild.

A small wooden carving of a lynx stands on her desk. There are blue stones set into the areas where its eyes should be. Are those actually gems? They look expensive, so I think I’ll avoid touching them. I suppose I shouldn’t play with the lit candle next to it either.

The carpet on the floor is red and green. The colors match the wooden walls and floor rather nicely. The bookcase in the room is very large, quite different from the worn out thing I used to have at home, and the books are protected by a glass case apparently designed to prevent stray hands from pulling the books out at random. She must have at least ten times more books than I do.

In the middle of this room we are in, a tall, brown-haired woman is standing in front of me, smiling.

“Pleasure to meet you,” I say. “My name is Nanalie Hel. I look forward to beginning my work here today.”

Just a few moments ago, I’d dismounted from Lala upon our arrival at Harré. In front of the building there had been standing a male employee, who promptly led me inside. All of the employees had been wearing uniforms, the men in black and the women in white. But the exact design of the clothes had been unique to each person—some of the women were wearing dresses, others were wearing pants, and all of them had parts of their outfits that greatly differed from one another.

The man who’d shown me around had been wearing a loose black coat, and while just that detail hadn’t been enough to make him stand out from a crowd, he also had three vertical white lines embossed on his shoulder, which had instantly marked him out as a Harré employee.

That was one of the other rules that applied to the uniforms: not only were they all either black or white, they also all had three stripes on them. Each of the stripes had a special meaning, symbolizing the three articles of faith all Harré employees kept in mind while going about their sorcerous work:

First: Always be looking ahead.

Second: Do not overstep your bounds.

Third: Keep your heart pure and make your intentions clear.

“Take those lines and etch them onto your heart before you use magic,” Harré Mooren had taught. Supposedly.

Basically, Harré employees are supposed to predict what is going to happen before they use magic, make sure they don’t go beyond their predictions, and use their magic in the pursuit of justice and never resort to using any sort of unnatural power. Whatever that means. In other words, “don’t use magic for bad stuff.”

This had all been written in the materials that had been sent for me to read at school during my last year. I’d nodded to myself with an impressed “oho” when I’d read those lines.

“We’ll have you start working tomorrow, so for today, after you’ve dropped off your things in the dorm, I’ll be guiding you around the Sorcerer’s Guild, okay?”

“Yes, ma’am!”

I try to maintain perfect posture as the beautiful Director addresses me. I’m actually inside her office right now so I can meet her “officially” as a new employee. I’m not quite as nervous as I was when I first met her, but I am still far from relaxed.

“Alright then, excellent. Here’s the key to your dorm room. Don’t lose it, okay?”

“Understood.”

“Everyone’s always telling me that keys are so old-fashioned, and we should be switching to an incantation system to unlock our doors, but keys feel kinda good in their own way, don’t you think?”

Having said that, the Director takes out a small golden key attached to a red ribbon and hands it to me.

“Thank you very much, Director.”

Director Rocktiss.

I’ve met her three times. Including today, this is the fourth time.

The first time had been during the fifth-year tournament, the second time had been during the long break before my sixth year, and the third had been right after I’d graduated.

The very first time she’d met me, back when she’d seen me fighting in the tournaments, she’d held my hand and taken me aside to greet me personally. “If someone as amazing as you is interested in coming to work at Harré, I thought it best to meet you face to face!” It appeared that the only student who had formally declared their interest in working at Harré had been me, and now they had fewer people available to take care of the work than they’d had in the past. Almost all of the graduating students had been joining the Order of Knights. I remember that the Knight Commander, who’d been watching us from far off that day, had glared over at the Director with something like hatred on his face while we were meeting. It seemed like a lot had gone on between them.

Nikeh had also chosen the Order of Knights over Harré. I’d known that there were a lot of Order hopefuls among the other students, but to think that I was the only one to apply to Harré was rather shocking.

It seemed as though she’d heard from my teachers that I’d dreamed about becoming a receptionist. The first thing she’d said to me when we’d met was “Ahhhh, young lady, welcome to RECEPTION!”

No one could blame me for feeling like running away from the dread she’d inspired in me with those words.

As director, she is the leader of Harré’s Sorcerer’s Guild, an amazing person who truly is a fitting member of the “Top One Hundred Sublime Mages of the Modern Age.” To see her standing shoulder-to-shoulder with all of the other great heroes in the world made me admire her all the more.

“But before all that, we’ve got to make you your own uniform and magical device.”

She holds her head to one side, hand on chin, looks at me, and “hmmm”s to herself.

I thought that I’d set aside my luggage so that I could have someone guide me around, but it seems like we haven’t gotten to that point yet.

The flame of the candle next to me flickers in the air, silent.

“‘Uniform’ and ‘magical device,’ you say?”

“Yes, your own.”

Huh? Uniform?

While I had assumed they would supply me with a uniform, what did she mean by “making” me one? I know that all the employees have different uniform designs, but will they allow me to customize it? I allow myself to daydream a little. For me, I’d like something like this, and then I want that like this. If they are going to let me do that, Harré really is an amazing place. They really do go above and beyond for their employees here, don’t they? The amount I’d been quoted for the salary was pretty good as well, wasn’t it? That amount had just been something written in the study materials I’d been sent, but still.

What had she meant by “magical device?” What am I supposed to use it for? And for her to say that she would “make it” now... This whole part of the process hadn’t been written in the materials. It’s making me a little nervous.

No, it’s all good, it’s been my dream my whole life to be a receptionist lady, so stay calm Nanalie, stay calm. I need to become the type of person who can shrug off anything with a smile, no matter what happens.

“Ms. Hel. Please place both of your hands on this sphere.”

Director Rocktiss gives me a rather self-satisfied look, head still cocked to one side. She opens up the doors on a red cabinet standing in one corner of the room, right next to the bookshelf.

“Water?”

A sphere of water floats out of the cabinet into the center of the room. It grows larger and larger until it is as wide as I am tall. Boing, boing! The sphere makes sounds as it floats before me. It feels like I am looking into a fish tank, only there is no glass between me and the water.

“Touch it, okay?”

Trembling in fear, I stretch out one hand to touch the water’s surface.

The Director told me to touch it, but...

Without thinking, I look over at the person standing near the door. A man in his forties with glasses, he had been the one who’d brought me here. He notices me looking over at him and gestures with both hands towards the sphere. “Quickly now,” he says, smiling.

I turn to ask the Director a question.

“Um, is it really alright for me to touch this?”

“This is called the Gígnesthai Nero, the Water of Creation. It is something that was made by the first director, Harré Mooren. Any mage who I allow to touch this sphere shall be granted weapon and wear suited to them.”

“‘Weapon and wear,’ you say?”

“The ‘wear’ is the uniform everyone wears here. I hope you find the weapon useful in your work beyond the guild halls,” she says.

Employees that go around with weapons and dressed in what basically sounds like armor...?

Based on the description of the job, I knew that it involved some dangerous work, but to think this much preparation goes on behind the scenes is both impressive and concerning at the same time.

So those “uniforms” are armor after all.

I touch the sphere with both hands. It feels like normal, cool water. My hands feel like they are getting wet. When I look over at Director Rocktiss, I can see that she’s started to quietly chant something like an incantation.

“Something’s come out of it!” I say.

From inside the sphere—is that the edge of a staff?—something is poking out.

Wha-What’s that? I lean my head back, away from the sphere.

But the Director urges me to grab hold of the staff, so I remove my hands from the sphere and grab onto the edge of the staff, pulling it out of the water. Its surface feels as hard and cold as iron.

I’ve just pulled out something that is almost as tall as I am. A long, silver staff, one that looks a little expensive.

It’s a staff. Just a staff.

Upon looking at it closely, I can tell that it has a beautiful design etched on its surface, but no matter how I twist and turn it around, I can see that it was just a staff.

“Oh my, is that the Dare Rabdos (Cudgel of the Goddess)?”

“Cudgel?”

“It’s not just a cudgel, it’s the Cudgel of the Goddess.”

A cudgel. A kind of heavy stick, in other words.

It’s nice to have something from a goddess, but “cudgel” seems rather violent. The only image that pops into my head is of some woman running around swinging her big stick, spitting fire to terrify her enemies. She’s running pretty fast. Running around, fast, carrying her big stick. Excuse me, “cudgel.”

I have to use both hands to hold the thing, but I have no idea what I should do with it, so I hesitantly hold it out and offer it to the Director. She quickly tells me “That is now yours,” quite pointedly, and refuses to take it.

“That cudgel can absorb any magic circle that you have drawn. That way you don’t have to draw them by hand out in the field—just stick it in the ground and you’ll be able to use the desired magic circle, instantly.”

“It absorbs magic circles?”

Generally speaking, you can’t use magic without drawing the right magic circle on paper or on the ground, by hand. No incantation exists that will draw the circles for you, but there do exist incantations that will let you use magic without drawing magic circles. Perhaps that’s why most mages didn’t generally like using magic circles, and those that did use them tended to prepare the magic circles on paper, and then carry those papers around whenever they wished to use them.

But with the Cudgel of the Goddess, it sounds like I’ll be able to do away with those inconveniences. Maybe this isn’t such a bad tool after all.

“Other than that, hmmm, yes, the only other thing you can use it for is to give your enemies a good beating, I suppose.”

“It is a cudgel, after all.”

To think that “other than that,” that is all it was good for. Good God, why this? For me?

“It’s a good weapon, you know. Slash it, and it becomes a sword. Block with it, and it becomes a shield. Stab with it, and it becomes a spear. You should try practicing with it later,” she adds, but I am already looking back at the water sphere. It’s glowing, and to my surprise, so are my clothes. Their shapes and colors are shifting, even as I still wear them on my body. The light brown of my dress turns into white, and my sleeves and collar are, slowly but surely, transforming.

“Is this... my uniform?” I ask.

I am now wearing a knee-length, white one-piece dress that has a large hood attached. The sleeves are closely fitted around my arms, but the edges of the sleeves around my wrists billow about gracefully as I turn. The hems of the sleeves have blue lines embroidered into them. My shoes now extend up to just below my calves—they’ve become boots, in other words—and have turned white. I find that a light brown leather belt is now wrapped around my waist as well.

“Hmm? What’s this? Forgive me, I need to fix this.”

She apologizes to me, for what I didn’t yet understand, and then lightning begins to spark from her hands. She holds up her hands and poses there, facing me, almost as if she is about to attack me... Hold on, what?

“Di-Director? What are you doing with that lightning?!”

“It’s alright,” she says.

“What about this is ‘alright’?!”

Even though we’re in the middle of having a conversation, the Director suddenly sends a flash of lightning arcing towards me.

I can’t do this anymore. Maybe I’m not at Harré at all, but in the headquarters of some League of Evil. I must have been tricked into coming here. She’s going to do me in!

“Hmm, now I get it,” the Director says. “You’re wearing the Uden Vestitus (Dress of Nullification).” She’d been quiet, thinking to herself after she’d observed the lightning hitting my new uniform. Even a few moments after it hit, I’d felt no pain at all, only the sensation of being pushed by something, but that had been all.

I slowly look down to check my skin to see if I have suffered any burns. There are no traces of the lightning anywhere on my body, and my uniform shows not even the slightest hint of wear. My uniform must be what the Director had said it was: the “Uden Vestitus.”

Uden Vestitus?

By “Dress of Nullification,” does she mean that my uniform can nullify magic? In that case, it meant that my clothes had “nullified”—blocked—the Director’s lightning.

I pat my new uniform all over to see if it feels different than normal clothes, but it doesn’t feel special at all. I will admit that it is several degrees more comfortable than that dress I’d been wearing, however.

The “Dress of Nullification.”

Just hearing that name makes it feel as if the clothes weigh a little more heavily on my body.

“Um, does that water sphere thing assess my abilities as a mage and then decide what to give me?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what it does.”

“Well then doesn’t that mean that maybe I don’t have any abilities?”

“Why would you think that?”

“Well, if I had a lot of ability, wouldn’t it not put out this uniform that completely protects me? Does it think I need this because I can’t protect myself?”

If this really is the “Dress of Nullification,” on the one hand it feels like too big of a gift for someone like me. Not only was it adorably cute, but it was also imbued with a powerful defense capability.

But on the other hand, wasn’t it possible that this “Gígnesthai Nero” had judged me to be some weak little mage, and that’s why it gave me this?

If I have to describe what I am feeling at this moment, I would have to say that I am more frustrated than I am pleased. I’m not totally conceited, but I will admit that I do have a degree of confidence in my magical abilities. I thought I’d become strong enough to beat any man in a test of magical skill—no, I thought I’d become strong enough to beat anyone—but here I am again, doubting myself.

I can’t feel completely happy, being given something like this.

“That’s not true at all,” the Director says.

“Still—”

“You sometimes push yourself too hard, don’t you?”

“Push myself too hard?”

“During that tournament during your fifth year, Ms. Hel, you saved your friends at the cost of burning your own skin, did you not? Not only that, but you saved almost all of the trapped girls. Why, the Knight Commander and I had quite the argument when we both stood to declare ‘She’s mine!’ when we saw what you’d done.

“I rather like my memories of that day,” she says, smiling.

“Your uniform was made based on your personality as well. The Gígnesthai Nero takes into account not only your magic type and skill, but also your personality when it creates your equipment. The reason you were given the Cudgel of the Goddess and the Dress of Nullification is that it judged those pieces of equipment to be the best for you. That’s why I think the reason that it gave you the Uden Vestitus has less to do with the amount of power you wield as a mage, and more to do with the way you wield your power. It predicted that when you are faced with situations like that again, you’ll likely jump into action and push yourself too far again.”

“Push myself too far...”

“So it’s not like it thinks you’re some weak mage! Take pride in the power you wield.” She patted the top of my head lightly. “Also: Do not speak of the Gígnesthai Nero to anyone not employed by the Guild.”

“I can’t tell anyone about it?”

“I told you that it will grant equipment to any whom I deem worthy, but the truth of the matter is that it’s something that anyone could use if they knew the incantation. It’s a form of magic that can create one-of-a-kind, legendary weapons, so it’s quite valuable. We can’t allow it to be used by any unsavory parties, so I’ve ordered all Harré employees to keep silent on the subject.”

“Is—is that so?” I say. “I won’t say anything to anybody.” The Director smiles a bit at my flustered appearance and then sits down in her chair.

“Dare Rabdos is probably a bit awkward to carry around like that, so I’d suggest you use an incantation to shrink it and carry it around on your waist. I believe that’s the purpose of that belt.”

“‘Equipment suited to the mage,’ right?”

I use a shrinking spell on the cudgel and stick it through a loop on my belt. It fits in there perfectly, just like I’ve stuck a sword in its sheath.

“Now then, we’ve finally finished our preparations so that you can learn more about your job here at Harré. First, why don’t we get your luggage to your room? Like I said earlier, today we’ll just be showing you around and explaining different things about work here at Harré, but tomorrow’s the real deal. Prepare yourself, alright?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

I pick up my luggage again and slip the carrying strap over my shoulder.

I wonder what he, Nikeh, and everyone else are doing right now.

Benjamine and Satanás had become sorcerers, so I might see them around Harré sometime.

Once I’ve settled in a bit here, I think I’ll send some letters off to Miss Maris, Nikeh, and the others.

＊　＊　＊　＊

A four-legged table meant for food and conversation. Chairs around the table. A heavy iron door at the entrance. Papers stuck all over the notice board. Spinning ceiling fans made of black boards. A floor and walls made using a large amount of wood. The aroma and spice of grilled meat. The voices of sorcerers. The greetings and farewells of the employees.

“Um, Ms... Hel?”

“Yes, that’s me. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

This is where I am.

A man who’s come to make his first request for a sorcerer is sitting across the table from me. He’s holding a piece of paper, smiling at me.

“This is my first time making a request, so I hope you’ll do me well.”

It has been about two weeks since I started working at Harré.

Sitting at a reception desk meant for dealing with clients, I’m here learning from one of my senior colleagues about how to properly interact with clients. She’s sitting right here next to me, and offers me help whenever it looks like I’m confused about what to do.

All of the employees that work reception are women, so of course she’s a woman as well. Her name is Zozo Parasta. She’s cute, with dark brown skin, and a little shorter than me. I already feel like she’s my older sister. She’s been working here for about five years, so she’s twenty-three years old. She told me that she began working at Harré immediately after graduating from school.

“I need five klein flowers that grow in the mines. I’m a doctor, so I should be able to do this myself, but as you can see I’m missing a leg—lost it a long time ago. Even so, I was able to go there myself until recently, but it seems that a lot of people have been saying that demons are in all those mines now.”

“So you want us to go and get the flowers?”

“Yes.”

I look over several items written on the paper the man’s brought. He’s written quite a lot, ten dense lines of text, but basically he wants someone to go up to a certain mine and get these “klein flowers” for him.

I look away from the papers and back towards the man.

“If you’d just like the flowers, it might be a good idea to ask a skilled Earth-type sorcerer to take care of this for you.”

“Earth, you say? I have asked one of my Earth-type acquaintances in the past to make one grow for me, but they told me they couldn’t, so...”

“You can’t make them grow unless you are well versed in the subject, but sorcerers are able to make magical plants sprout, grow, and blossom by using their own innate powers. They do study that sort of thing in school, after all. There are of course differences, with different plants requiring different incantations, but in the text called the “Book of Earth,” I recall there being an incantation for klein flowers, so I believe that we’d be able to fulfill your request without having a sorcerer go into those mines. If we do that, we’ll be able to skip our preliminary survey of the assignment site, and the agency fee will be lower.”

“Is that so! Thank you very much.”

I quickly take out a request slip and have the happy man sign it. Perhaps because he’s so relieved, his signature extends to beyond the box marked for it, and he writes it quite quickly. I cast a spell to make a copy of the request slip, then take the copy over to the notice board and pin it up.

The man, who’d watched me go through the whole process from his seat at the counter, thanks me again before heading out the door.

“You’ve gotten rather used to this, haven’t you? You’re doing well.”

I’m taking a short breather after the man leaves, and that’s when Zozo flashes her brilliantly white teeth at me in a smile and “pats” me on the back so hard that I almost fall out of my seat from the force of the blow. Zozo’s “backpats” make me grunt every time she gives me one, but the other senior employees tell me they really are the “proof of her approval” for me and the work I’m doing, so I don’t mind them. Too much. She’s cute anyway, so it’s all good.

“It’s all thanks to you and the other receptionists who’ve taught me so well. Thank you so much.”

True, I have been sitting in the reception area for clients, but I can’t say that I’ve achieved my dream quite yet. What I really want to do is take care of the sorcerers who come in to receive their assignments, not continue sitting in the client area.

Those who are entitled to sit in those seats are the women who can do all the work done inside Harré. Zozo Parasta is, of course, one of the women entitled to sit in those seats. Over there, the receptionists have to manage all the information related to a request and the requestee, as well as verifying the contents of the work, which means fieldwork, and following that, negotiating the cost we charge for the job. But in the end, it’s only after you’d finally managed to match the right sorcerer to the right job that you’d be considered a full employee here at Harré. Being able to sit in those seats means being able to take care of all that and more.

Even now, I know that I was right to admire that lady who’d been sitting here that time, all the way back when I was so young. She was completely worthy of my respect. I clasp my hands together, nodding to myself at the memory.

“We’ll be switching out with the night shift here pretty soon. Let’s mix things up a bit and go out for dinner tonight!”

“Yes, ma’am!”

“Haha, that’s a good girl.”

Zozo takes the request papers and places them on the desk’s wooden shelves, then pulls out her coat from underneath the table. Shifts at Harré are split into daytime and nighttime, with the daytime shift starting in the morning and ending at dusk, while the nighttime shift starts at dusk and ends in the morning. I’ve only ever done the day shift. Zozo is responsible for me while I’m in my training period, so for the time being it seems like she won’t be working the night shift. I’d apologized for messing with her schedule, but she’d told me that she “hated the night shift” and was “actually grateful” to have me around. I’m happy to have such a kind mentor taking care of me.

“I’m going to go grab my purse, okay?”

“Alright.”

I still haven’t completely gotten over my on-the-job nerves yet, so I can’t just casually pack up and leave like Zozo is doing. I’m still technically “on the clock,” so I continue sitting in the reception area to take care of anything that might need doing. I think it’ll be awhile before I feel that relaxed at work.

“Ms. Hel, good evening.”

“Good evening.”

Just as I’ve gotten myself back into work mode, someone from the night shift taps me on the shoulder and bids good evening. It’s a young woman wearing glasses, hair up in a ponytail, wearing a white cap as part of her uniform (or should I say armor?). She sits down in the chair next to me.

“Go off and enjoy something to eat, alright?”

“Thank you, I will. Um, I’ll just leave you to it, then?”

“Understood.”

Zozo brought my coat as well. She waves to me as I stand up from the counter. Zozo’s uniform includes short pants, short boots, and a long-sleeved shirt. She’s the very image of a happy, cheerful girl. She doesn’t have anything like a hat or a cap on her head, so her beautiful, glossy black hair hangs freely down to her shoulders.

If only my hair hadn’t turned out like this... I pinch a bit of my hair and lift it up to look at. The color had been rather subtle. Even if it hadn’t been as pretty as Zozo’s hair, my hair had been a beautiful color before it turned into this... I’d thought about using magic to dye it dark brown, but I feel, in some weird way, that I’d be losing if I did that. How or to whom I’d be losing wasn’t clear, however. Anyway, I’d decided not to dye it.

“What’s up?” Zozo’s looking at me, puzzled at my silence.

“It’s nothing,” I say.

She’s come all the way back over to me and looks worried, likely because I have this dark look on my face as I stand there, silent.

Yikes, I’ve got to get a grip.

“What would you like to eat today?” I ask.

“I think I’d like to have a lotta vegetables rather than meat today,” she says.

“So would the Vegetarian Wolf be good then?”

“Let’s go!”

It’s also been two weeks since I’ve begun living in the employee dorms, and lately Zozo’s been going with me every time I go out to eat. With all this eating out, I’m a bit worried that I’ll lose all those cooking skills I spent so much time learning. Zozo herself didn’t seem like she cooked at all. “Making food for myself? It feels pointless to go to all that trouble for one person,” or so she’d said when I’d asked her about it.

“I saw another lovey-dovey couple at Harré today,” she growls, spitting on the floor without caring about the shocked glances her behavior draws. Zozo is pretty cute, but she can be a bit... coarse, at times.

“Coarse” is perhaps not the right word, but it’s close to describing her personality, although I’d never say that to her face. I must admit it is refreshing to have someone like her around, someone so open with her feelings.

We went to the Vegetarian Wolf restaurant, had dinner, and aimlessly wandered about the town a bit before I decided to head home to my dorm room. I still hadn’t gotten my first paycheck, so going to another store was out of the question.

The size of the dorm rooms can basically be described like this: if you had a bed made for one person, took eight of them, and put them in the room, there would still be space left over, so they are actually rather spacious. Certainly larger than my room at home had been.

The rent is taken out of my paycheck, but the room itself had come furnished with everything from kitchen appliances to a bed, so I think I’ve actually gotten a good deal to live in such luxury like this. The room also has an attached bathroom, with a small tub that I have all to myself. I’m quite glad to have a place to soak in and enjoy some nice hot water. For those times when I want to stretch out and enjoy a more spacious bath, the only option I have is heading to the public bathing house, but that’s better than nothing.

“Oh, I am full,” I say to myself, patting my belly.

Without bothering to change into my loungewear, I lay down on my bed and bury my face in my soft pillow. I rub my face around and around the pillow until it becomes difficult to breathe, then flip over onto my back, looking at the ceiling.

So what did I do today? I checked the contents of the requests the clients had made, and posted them up on the notice board. Check and post, check and post. Again and again.

This part of a receptionist’s job is mostly done by first-year newbies, and as the only newbie this year, it seems like there is no way I’m going to be doing anything other than this for at least until the end of my first year. My days will be filled with those tasks and with watching the more senior employees get to head out into the field, conduct consultations with sorcerers, or match them with appropriate assignments, all the while sitting on my own little, warm chair (always warm because I am always sitting on it).

That said, it doesn’t change the fact that what I am doing is important, and while it’s easy enough for a total newcomer to be able to do, there’s no mistaking the fact that it’s an important task. After all, if no one does it, no one will be able to give those assignments to sorcerers in the first place.

“That’s right,” I say to myself, reaching over to grab something off my desk. I open up a drawer with a small knob on it. I rustle around with my hand in the drawer, looking for something, and I quickly find what I want. I’d been searching for a letter that was inside a thin sky-blue envelope.

I lay back down and hold the letter out in front of me.

This letter is one that Benjamine had sent me. The dorm mother who’d handed me the letter had said something like “Oooh, I’ll need to keep my eyes on you” when she saw Benjamine’s name on the envelope, mistaking it for a boy’s name and believing her to be my lover.

“I’m afraid you’re quite mistaken,” I’d politely corrected her, “even other maidens call me ‘the little maiden.’” But she’d just taken my remark to have been made out of shyness, and we still haven’t cleared up the issue.

All of my and the other dorm residents’ deliveries are sent to the dorm mother’s room. The mail carriers also bring her our letters, and everything that arrives is handed to us directly by the dorm mother. “Safe and sound,” as she would say. It is possible for the sender to use a spell to have something sent directly to the addressee, but using that method, it is likely for the package or letter to get caught in a tree or taken out by the rain, so the surefire way to get something sent is to have a courier deliver it for you. Magic is convenient, but for things like this, a human being is more reliable.

“A letter from Benjamine,” I say to myself.

I still haven’t read it. I open up the envelope and spread out the pages.

“I need to start sending letters too.”

I’d kept thinking about sending letters to everyone, but before I could actually get myself to do so, a letter from Benjamine had arrived. It’s a good opportunity for me to both write her a response and send letters to everyone else.

On paper made from pressed flowers, in tiny, neat print, I read what Benjamine has written to me.

Dear Nanalie,

Geez, have you forgotten all about me? It’s been three weeks since we graduated, but you still haven’t sent me a single letter. It’s been quite exasperating... Just kidding. Joking with you, girl. I’m the exasperating one, writing this letter to you just three weeks after we graduated, right? I sent letters to Nikeh and Satanás as well, but I find myself worrying so much about all of you sometimes I can’t even breathe! After all, we were together all those years, and now we’re apart. It’s too lonely, don’t you think? Maybe we should go back for another six years? I’m surprised that I’m missing you all this much, you know. Maybe once I find love, I’ll be all clingy. Ugh, that’s too scary to think about. Oh, that’s right, would you believe this? I made this promise to Satanás before we graduated, because after all, he’s going to be a sorcerer like me, right? Anyway, I told him I felt sad about not being able to see anyone anymore after graduation, when all of a sudden he comes out with, “Well, in that case, why don’t we work together?” Goodness gracious, me oh my, I raised both hands to the heavens and said “yes!” These things don’t happen too often after all, right? Not at all! Satanás can be pretty hard to figure out sometimes, so if I hadn’t responded instantly I would have never gotten a hold of him again. We made promises to each other way before that graduation party dance, after all, so that I could have him to myself. He is, of course, excited about the whole thing. On the inside. That’s what I learned, more than anything else, during my six years there, how he’s feeling on the inside. But after that, he hasn’t been in touch with me at all. I thought I’d give in and send letters to you and the other girls all at the same time to ask your opinions about this whole situation, but—what do you think? Do you think things will be alright between Satanás and me?

“...”

In answer to my dear friend’s letter, the first I’ve received in a long time, I write:

“It’ll probably be alright, won’t it?”

And that was my reply.

＊　＊　＊　＊

It’s been three months since I came to Harré. I still sit in the same place. What I actually do on the job has also remained the same. I am smoothly and successfully taking care of all the work assigned to me, sitting in my assigned seat.

I haven’t made any spectacular mistakes in my work thus far. If I had to give an example of something I’ve screwed up, it’d have to be that time when I misspelled someone’s name. It happened just the other day, in fact. I made a mistake writing a client’s name on a job request form—I’d never seen nor heard the name “Doraminiamus Vestra Vi Salubaadagan”—and I’d ruined the entire form and had to use a new one. Even though I’d checked the spelling twice and had the client write his own name on a different piece of paper, I’d messed up the spelling on the actual form. I can’t forget the client’s bitter expression when he saw my mistake. I’ll never be able to forget that look on his face.

It’d been quite rude of me to make that mistake. I had decided to study the spelling conventions of names from across the world so it would never happen again.

But beyond that particular incident, there hasn’t been much else of note. Lately, there haven’t even been any requests that could genuinely be called “dangerous.” (For that matter, I’ve never actually had any client of mine make a request that I would consider “dangerous.”) The assignment board is filled with requests like:

“My dear lynx has run away. Would someone please find it for me?”

“My only daughter keeps saying she wants to go traveling by herself. Could someone secretly tail her and guard her from any dangers along the road? No limit on pay. Just stick with her until she gets bored and comes home.”

“I’m in some deep trouble with these monstrous bugs that have shown up near my house.”

“On the other side of a nearby mountain—”

Most of the requests are for things like finding a lost child or guarding the daughter of some VIP—odd jobs, really. But from what I understand, there are “seasons” when those types of requests come in more often, and right now we are in the Peaceful Season. While no one has said to me that this is merely the “calm before the storm,” they have warned me that after a period of time when we got requests like these, there would be another wave of tough requests that would come flying in. That’s why right now, before that happens, is the absolute best time for a newcomer like me to get used to the whole situation.

Of all the recent requests, there had been two related to trouble with demons. Those two requests had been for exorcism of demons, and with excellent pay at that, so they’d caught the eyes of the sorcerers and been taken care of in just a couple of days.

Among the sorcerers, there are many who seemed to be rather bloodthirsty. They are all just itching to do anything related to exorcisms. It’s a little vulgar to see how they react when a new request for demon exorcism comes in, but I suppose I can understand their excitement. It’s how they make their living, after all.

“The sign of the sun, and then a reverse sign of the sea,” I say to myself.

Anyhow, getting back to the present.

“Draw a circle... and then another ancient character?”

I’m sitting on my bed, holding the book I’m reading in my left hand while drawing magic circles with my right. Just as my stomach feels like it’s about to rumble, I glance over at the clock and see that it’s already noon.

“Oh! I almost forgot. I need to eat lunch.”

I push my bangs back behind my ears. I set aside my pen and pull up my hair back into a tighter ponytail, then head over to the kitchen table to make lunch.

“Vegetables? Meat? Hmm...”

This whole month, on my days off, I’ve been using the Dare Labdos (Cudgel of the Goddess) that I received from the Director on my first day and making it absorb many different kinds of magic circles. I haven’t had as many chances to use magic in my work as I’d thought, so this trial-and-error magic circle work doubles as a sort of strength training regimen to keep my skills sharp. Plus, once I’ve had the Cudgel of the Goddess absorb a magic circle, I can use the relevant spell as many times as I want after that. For now, my goal is to make it absorb at least one hundred magic circles.

Every time I want Dare Labdos to absorb a circle, I place its tip at the center, and it’s actually a fascinating process to watch. The lines of the circle rustle as the stick pulls them in, looking almost as if the stick is unweaving a spider’s web one thread at a time.

I still have to draw those circles by hand, however, so it’s kind of a pain. Last weekend, I drew five circles with complicated designs that I had seen in “Ancient Signs and Seals,” a text on magic circles that I’d gotten from my mom. I can draw around twenty magic circles in a day if their structures are simple, but even someone of my ability needs a full half-day to draw just one of the complicated old magic circles, what with their ancient characters and weird designs and all. But the effects of those five circles merit their difficulty:

Twist Space-time (I can go to any place or time I wish to in the past.)

Teleportation (I can go anywhere I want, no matter the distance from my current location.)

Complete Cure (A healing spell which only works on those who are on the brink of death.)

Invocation of the Dead (I can speak with any deceased person, just once.)

Spell for a Speaker (Effective against those who refuse to talk. A.K.A. the Truth Spell.)

All those spells had effects that were quite difficult to replicate using incantation magic. I had spent over two days drawing those magic circles in order to have the Dare Labdos absorb them for future use.

I had been drawing all of the magic circles in the book in order, just as a test of my own abilities. I had no idea if they would be of much help when I actually tried using them, but since I was getting better at drawing magic circles by going through the book, I didn’t mind if they didn’t actually work. Today, however, I had gone through the book more carefully, picked out some interesting ones, and drawn those, just to change things up.

“Vegetables, and... vegetables. Is that all I have?”

I’m trying to figure out something to cook, but when I look into my pantry, all I see are vegetables.

Well, I guess I did use the last of the bunny-bird yesterday for dinner. That was the last of my meat! It’s a bit late to be realizing this just now... I not only have no rice or bread, I also have no meat, which means I have to go shopping. I really wish there was a spell that would make some meat for me right now. It’s rather unfortunate that no such spell exists.

While there were, of course, spells that could materialize fire or ice out of thin air, there were no spells that could create neatly cut and sliced animal meat from nothing. Even if there were such a spell, it’d be amazingly complicated. It was possible to use spells to discreetly have some meat magically appear on your plate, fresh from your local butcher, but most stores had anti-theft charms placed on them, so in reality that wasn’t an option either.

Time to head on over to the market. It’s a bit far from my dorm, so I decide to summon Lala for the trip. I change out of my thin loungewear and put on what I normally wear when I have to go out.

“Summon Magical Beast: Karomagia Zohon.”

She appears with a familiar fwump.

“Master,” she says, greeting me.

“Not ‘Master.’ ‘Nanalie.’”

A white wolf is bowing its head before me. I kneel down before it, meet its gaze with my own eyes, and try to have it call me by my name. She lets out a small whine at my persistence.

“Lady... Nanalie.”

“Just ‘Nanalie.’”

“...My lady Nanalie.”

Lala’s been calling me “Master” ever since I first made her my familiar, but I wanted to change that after arriving at Harré, so I’ve been trying to have her call me by name. It feels rather distant of her to insist on calling me “Master” all the time. To Lala, it seems like I am trying to push her to do something she’d really rather not. Even so, I’ll keep trying until she finally gives in.

Lala calls me “Master” because of some habit she had back when she was part of a lynx pack. She’d apparently called the leader of the pack “my lord.” And so since I rank above her in her mind, she told me the very first time I summoned her that she would “insist” on calling me “Master.” Back then I hadn’t really minded, but everyone else’s familiar was so, well, familiar with the way they referred to their summoners, calling them by their first names. I’d heard that friendly back-and-forth between mage and familiar several times and thought, “Huh? What’s different about my situation?” When I’d asked Nikeh, Benjamine, and Miss Maris about it, they’d said, respectively:

“Oh, it’s just a difference of personality.”

“Wow, I’m so jealous! My familiar started calling me by my first name without even asking...”

“I force my familiar to refer to me as ‘Goddess,’ you know.”

Well, besides that last example from Maris, everyone else had told me how nice it must be to be referred to as “Master.” It made me realize how very different my worldview was from my noble classmates.

We step out of the room and I say, “Lala, let’s go shopping over at the market.”

“And what might we be buying today?”

“Meat. I only have vegetables right now. After that, maybe we can go for a walk.”

“Have you already completed your work with the absorption of the magic circles?”

“Mmmm... Well no, but with you here I kinda feel like going for a walk anyway.”

“Perhaps it would be a good idea to take a break.”

“Yeah! Let’s go.”

Perhaps it won’t make my growling stomach feel very happy, but today I’m going to just have a light meal for lunch while we’re on our walk. It doesn’t change the fact that my goal is to buy some meat, but once I saw Lala my mood had changed.

It’s a holiday, after all. Rather than working on magic circles, I ought to work on Lala’s and my relationship.

As I’m walking down the dorm hallway with Lala following closely behind, I bump into Zozo. She’s carrying a shoulder bag and wearing a hat.

“What’s this? Going out?”

“You too, Miss Zozo?”

“Yeah. I’m going to meet a friend from a neighboring kingdom.”

Zozo has almost exactly the same days off of work that I do, so we’re nearly always on the same schedule. I’m the one shadowing her for work, so the Director has arranged for us to normally be on duty together.

Still, heading off to a “neighboring kingdom”? That’s a little worrying, isn’t it?

“It looks like we’re going to have good weather today, so it’s the perfect chance to go have some fun!” she says.

“That’s right! But still, be careful, okay? I hear that the woods at Doran’s borders can be rather dangerous, and the Order has had to increase their patrols there recently.”

“Relax, we’re not weak enough to be concerned about that, right?”

“S...sure.”

She gives me a bright and confident grin. I can only offer a halfhearted smile in return.

While we may not have received any dangerous requests recently, that doesn’t mean the demons have disappeared from the forest. There haven’t been any victims yet, but reports of demon sightings near the forest have been growing more numerous, and I’ve been told that the King has ordered the Knights to survey the area to find the cause of the increase in sightings.

Nikeh is one of the knights in the Order, so I’m a bit worried about that. I hope she’s not being forced to do anything risky. Also, while women are allowed into the Order nowadays, it’s still mostly made up of men. That’s worrisome in a whole different sense. What’s she gonna do if some creepy guy latches onto her?

“Well then, let’s both enjoy our day off.”

“Yes! See you later,” says Zozo, dashing away down the hallway. She certainly has quite a lot of energy, I think, impressed. I begin making my way to the dorm entrance as well.

Far off, I can hear the dorm mother yelling “YOU AIN’T RUNNING IN HERE, GIRL!” I’m still up here on the third floor and I can hear that.

The dorm mother’s room is on the first floor, so she’d probably seen Zozo dashing by and felt a flash of rage that compelled her to raise her voice.

It seems that everyone has a lot of energy today.

I arrive at the market, all the food stalls bustling with the lunchtime crowd. I get off of Lala’s back and set my feet on the ground—but the moment I do so, I realize just how much hotter the air is here near the ground as opposed to up in the sky. My body itself feels like it’s radiating much more heat than normal.

With Curio Anemos (Cool Breeze), I make the air around my body cooler.

“Lala, your paw,” I say, holding out my hand.

“Thank you,” she says as I shrink her down small enough to fit in the palm of my hand, then place her on my shoulder. As a Blanc Lykos, who’d spent her whole life living in a cold climate, she wasn’t good with heat. If she crystallized then it wouldn’t bother her at all, but according to her, “crystallization makes it difficult to move around.” So as long as we didn’t need that defensive capability in a fight, she wasn’t going to crystallize.

“Lala.”

“Yes?”

I check on Lala as she rides on my shoulder. She’s adorable as she sits there wagging her tail back and forth. Without thinking, I rub my face against hers. “Gahh you’re so cute! Don’t fall down, okay?”

“Yes.”

The market is rather lively today. Watching the hustle and bustle of the crowds is kinda fun. I smell something... It smells heavenly... Oops, gotta watch the drooling in public. Don’t want to get my clothes all dirty and look like a mess. That’s right, just keep my mouth shut, no drooling, no mess.

“How would you like some freshly picked, sweet Portokali oranges?”

A crowd of people surrounds a fruit stall. The lady who owns the stall is offering samples to passersby, and she seems to be doing well. Oranges sound good, but perhaps there’s a more filling, cheaper meal nearby here somewhere... I sniff the air, searching. Payday is tomorrow, so today I need to refrain from going overboard. If I taste one of her samples, I am definitely going to buy one of her fruits. Stay focused. I suck in my cheeks, biting the insides to distract myself.

It’s not like I don’t have any money, but I am trying to save half of my salary, so I have to resist the temptation.

I reach down to grab the small purse attached to my belt. I hear a small clink as the coins inside slip against each other. If I spend three pegalo on meat for one meal, I’ll have two pegalo left. Twenty pegalo is the average amount it costs to feed one person for a day, but with two pegalo, the only thing I can buy is a small side dish or a light snack to eat while walking around the market.

If someone were to ask me right now, “Excuse me Miss, are you poor?” I would reply, with confidence: “Oh yes, I am unmistakably poor.” Perhaps that isn’t something one should say with “confidence,” but if I maintained that way of thinking instead of going about believing myself to be a rich person, I’d save a lot more money in the end.

What, exactly, I am saving this money up for isn’t something I’ve decided yet, however. It’s fun to think about what I’ll buy though, from time to time.

“Hmm. Maybe I need to come up with a magic circle that’ll materialize meat.”

“Is that possible?”

“Nah, I can’t do that. But I wish I could. Still, even if I could make one up, I’d only use it on the down-low. If I went out and told everyone about it, the butchers in the marketplace would be out of business, right?”

“I suppose that is true.”

The fragrant aroma of the meat sears its way into my nostrils every time I so much as take a step forward. This smells amazing—I can’t hold myself back for much longer. I hold one hand up to cover my nose so I can’t smell anymore, as if in self-defense. “Master,” Lala whispers in my ear, “is that really necessary...?” She looks at me, eyes filled with pity.

Stop it. Don’t look at me like that.

“Haha, ron’d sall be wasker, sall be hahahie,” I mumbled through my hand. (Translation: Lala, don’t call me “Master,” call me “Nanalie.”)

“Y-yes, Lady Nanalie.”

“Ms. Hel! So good to see you again.”

As Lala and I are talking, someone calls out to me from the other side of the street.

Hm? I stop walking and look around. I feel like someone just said my name...? “Hel” isn’t a common name; I’ve never heard of anyone else besides my mother and father who had it.

“I guess I imagined it.”

“Ms. Hel!”

“Gah!”

The instant I’m about to start walking again, someone taps my unoccupied shoulder, the one without Lala. I jump, startled at the sudden touch.

Whew, that was dangerous. I felt like my heart was going to leap out of my chest there for a moment.

“Don’t you recognize me? I’m the doctor.”

“That’s right! Doctor Petros!”

When I turn around, wondering who in the world could be trying to talk to me, it turns out to be Doctor Petros, the client who had come to Harré to make a request for klein flowers the other day.

“With that beautiful blue hair, I instantly knew it was you, Ms. Hel. I apologize for startling you.”

“Not at all.”

I rub the back of my neck with one hand, bashful as I give him a slight bow. I wave away his apology, grimacing on the inside.

Dammit. I really stand out with this hair, don’t I?

I pinch my bangs a little in frustration.

“With the help of the klein flowers, I was able to make the medicine without any trouble at all. I am grateful to the Earth sorcerer who took on the job. There are certain injuries and diseases that not even magic can heal. It’s quite difficult to make the medicines necessary for those situations.”

“The only antidotes for poisons from magical plants are those made that special way, right?”

The Doctor’s false leg extends down from just below his knee. He’d told me he lost it a long time ago. Petros knew better than most about the kinds of injuries that not even healing magic could heal.

“Yes, that’s right. So I’ll be continuing in my work to produce more of those antidotes,” he says, smiling and raising a fist in the air.

“Yo, Petros! Well well, look who you’ve got here. Pretty little lady, isn’t she?”

“Hey, Marco.”

“This is the little lady from Harré you told me about last time, right?”

A large man wearing a cloth covering over his head comes up from behind Petros and slings one arm around his shoulder, looking over at me.

“Excuse me?” I say.

Ugh. I’ve been cornered by some hoodlum, it seems. I recoil a bit at the sight of this random man complimenting my appearance, but from what I can understand of their conversation, it seems like he’s an acquaintance of Petros’s. His eyes are positively gleaming with admiration as he looks at me.

“The little lady from Harré.” That could only be referring to me, right?

I look back at Petros, blushing as I nod my head at this newcomer.

“After I came into Harré to make my request, I crossed paths with one of my patients. We spoke of you a bit on our way home together,” Petros says. “He’s a friend.”

“Petros really took good care of me. I couldn’t have made a klein flower grow myself. Seems like you also managed to push down the request fee, so thanks for that.”

“Oh, not at all. It is all thanks to the sorcerers. The Earth ones, especially.”

“You got that right!” Marco lets out a hearty laugh. His smile brings out the wrinkles on his face, making it look rather lovable. Even a hoodlum has his charm.

He’s wearing a tight, sleeveless shirt and loose-fitting pants. He looks quite strong, with the definition of the muscles on his chest creating a visible outline on his shirt. I suppose when people use the word “brawny,” they’re thinking of someone like this guy.

“Harré and the sorcerers there have taken care of so much, you know?”

It seems like another of Petros’s acquaintances has decided to join our conversation. An old lady carrying a shopping bag totters up next to him, smiling. They must know Petros because he’s a doctor.

“Praise be for both Harré and the Royal Order of Knights,” she says.

Then an old man who looks like he’s from the neighborhood, possibly a friend or acquaintance of the old lady, walks up to me from behind her and asks me for a handshake. I shake his hand, wondering, Who on earth is this guy?

There are no distinctions of class or profession or anything else when you’re at the market. I suppose that’s a good thing.

“There’s nothing that the knights and those sorcerers over at Harré can’t take care of.”

“The knights go around doing their investigations of the mischief done by those darn demons, and they protect us from other invading countries at the same time. Meanwhile, the sorcerers take the time to help us out, the little people, with our own private problems. They’re such a big help when it comes time to get rid of some demons.”

At some point, everyone around me had suddenly joined in on our conversation, with the topic of sorcerers and knights spreading out from our little group like a wave. The lively clamor of the market just got livelier.

“Well lookee here, speak and they shall appear! There’s some knights up in the sky,” Marco says, pointing up above the market. Everyone else looks up to where he is pointing.

Far above, I can see some knights dressed in their black uniforms, riding pegasi, their winged horses, in formation. Those holy horses have pure white wings that flash in the brilliance of the sunlight.

All of the people in the marketplace wave up at them. “Hey—!” they shout.

It’s almost as if they’re the most popular people in the kingdom... No, not “almost as if.” They truly are the most adored people in the entire kingdom.

The black uniforms of the knights create a sharp contrast with the white of the pegasi. It sets my mind at ease, seeing them up there.

While I’m standing there squinting up at the knights, I catch sight of a familiar face flying in the formation. It’s a young woman, her pretty blond hair fluttering behind her in the wind.

“Nikeh!” I yell up at my friend. I’m worried about what I’m going to do if it isn’t actually Nikeh up there, but it’s a little late to be thinking about that now, after I’ve already shouted. If I’m wrong, and it turns out she’s a total stranger, I’ll run away to the other side of the marketplace. Who knows if she actually heard me, anyway?

But right after I shout, the group halts in midair. One of the pegasi separates from the others and dives down towards the market. Its rider is the same person I’d called out to earlier—and it looks like I’d been right. It is Nikeh.

“Nanalie!” She waves to me from atop her horse.

“Nikeh! Good to see you.”

I run over to where she is dismounting from her horse. It’s still in the market area, but there are no stalls here at this end of the road. It seemed like she had chosen this spot to land because it’s a great deal less crowded than where I had been standing just a few moments ago.

The wings on her horse carry her to her destination faster than I can run to meet her. Once her horse’s hooves are on the ground, she takes a deep breath before stepping down from her saddle.

“I’ve missed you so much!”

She gives the pegasus she’d been riding a quick pat on the head, then comes running over to me, arms spread wide. I dive right into her embrace and give her a tight hug. Her uniform is rough to the touch, so it’s not that comfortable, but I’m so happy to see her again that I pay it no mind.

“Your hair color kinda stands out, so I was able to see it from even up in the sky! I knew it was you, instantly.”

“Re-really?”

My hair suddenly feels heavy, weighing down the excitement I’d felt upon meeting Nikeh. It is a dark, close, claustrophobic curtain, one that I am certain I will never be rid of. For my hair to have marked me out in a crowd again makes me want to grind my teeth in frustration, but Nikeh seems happy to have found me so easily, so I let it slide.

“Anyway, sorry about that,” I say, “shouting your name up at you while you’re working.”

“Don’t worry about it. We’re just out on a routine patrol, so it’s not like we’re actually in any rush to get somewhere.”

“Is that so?”

I’m not the right one to be asking this question, having called her down out of the sky and all, but was it really alright for her to just leave her unit so easily to come down and meet with me? “Are you sure you don’t need to go back up now?” I ask.

“Yeah, it’s all good, Nanalie.” She sounds confident enough that I decide not to pursue the subject further. We release each other from our embrace and take a step back to get a good look at one another.

“Besides, the company that I’m in, it’s full of all these people that are so much stronger than me that it’s a little depressing.”

“Stronger?”

She points her finger up at the sky. I look up and concentrate my gaze on the knights maintaining formation up there. All of them are wearing the same knightly uniforms, so they all look strong to me. They probably are all strong. Nikeh herself just told me so, after all.

At the head of the formation is a man significantly larger than the rest. Is that...? It’s the Knight Commander. The man that the Director always talks about with such a hard, fierce look in her eyes. “Next time you run into Beardface,” she’d told me, “throw some salt over your shoulder as you pass him by. It’ll keep away the evil spirits that follow him around.” With him right above me, however, I have neither the courage nor the salt to do such a thing, so I block the Director’s words from my mind. Sorry, Director. I had no salt on me.

But there, behind the Knight Commander, was a young man with black hair...

Could that be...?

“Wait, is that Prince Zenon?”

“Yeah. We’re in the same unit.”

Well, this is a surprise. To think that the Prince and Nikeh are in the same unit! She hadn’t written a single thing about that in her letters, so I’m rather shocked. I am her friend, but he is the Prince, so perhaps she had wanted to avoid mentioning it to me.

He isn’t wearing his usual military outfit, so at first glance I don’t recognize him. He’s dressed in the knight’s uniform, just like the others, but something about that princely aura of nobility he gives off definitively marks him as different from the rest.

The Prince, from atop his pegasus above me, lifts a hand in greeting. I wave back, and Prince Zenon’s horse bows its head. I find it a bit strange that such a regal and proud horse should bend its neck to one like me, but perhaps the horse bows its head because its master cannot. That particular horse he’s riding has one horn coming out from its forehead, like a unicorn. Perhaps it’s a different species.

I casually ask Nikeh about it, and it seems that it’s the only one of its kind, born from a pegasus and a unicorn. I get it, it’s half and half, then.

Most of the knights ride pegasi, not their familiars, when they’re on duty. From what I know about other kingdoms, it seems like most of their knights use familiars to get around, but the Knights of Doran are quite proud to have the pegasus as a symbol of the kingdom and its strength.

Still, to think that Nikeh is a member of this unit. In the same one as both the Knight Commander and Prince Zenon. She’s done quite well for herself.

I wonder where...?

“He’s not up there, is he?”

“Nanalie? Who are you talking about?”

Huh, he’s not. I thought for sure he’d be in this unit too.

He’d always been with the Prince back at school, so I figured they’d be put into the same unit in the Knights as well. I’m not disappointed, but I feel something akin to disappointment.

“Oh, it’s nothing.”

“Rockmann’s the captain of another unit, you know.”

“No, I don’t... What?”

“No, I don’t really care about him,” is what I’d meant to say, but can I believe my ears? What on earth has she just said?

Nikeh’s giving me an awkward look for some reason. Wait, it’s because my mouth has been hanging wide open for the past several seconds.

“There was an opening for captain of the smallest unit,” she says. “Rockmann was selected to fill that role.”

I am totally unable to close my mouth. Nikeh’s voice seems to be coming from farther and farther away.

“Caap-taan?”

Here I am, quietly and carefully taking care of my basic tasks as a newcomer at Harré, day in, day out.

And there he is, just three months after graduation, having become the captain of a unit of knights. What’s this world coming to? Sure, he’s skilled as a mage, and he’s not stupid. He’s actually rather intelligent. He got better grades than I did (unfortunately).

The difference between his situation and my own is as great as the divide between heaven and earth.

Up there flies Rockmann, a Knight of the Royal Order, dashing across the sky on his winged horse. Down here I crawl around on the earth, on hands and knees, watching him from far, far below.

“Isn’t it way too early for him to be a captain?!”

To be “fast-tracked” in your career—that must mean doing what Rockmann had done.

“Maybe, but he’s very talented, and he comes from a good family. He’s already been placed into the role, and it’s all under the Commander’s orders, so there’s no going back now.”

Nikeh looks up at the sky and lets out a small sigh. I look up as well and realize that I can see something that appears to be a different unit of pegasi-mounted knights heading this way.

“Prince Zenon will, one day, be appointed Vice Commander. It’s not like Rockmann’s ever being appointed to the top job as Commander of the Order, so it’s really nothing to worry about, you know.”

“I’m not—anyway, I’m not sure how I feel about the whole thing. It’s strange.”

“What about it?”

I’d been shocked when I first heard that he’d been appointed captain, but now that I think about it some more, I’m not exactly sure how I feel about this. For Nikeh to go and say that Rockmann would never be “appointed to the top job...” Something about those words doesn’t sit right with me. We had competed for the top spot all those years in school (or rather, I had attempted to compete with him for it), so to hear her say that made me feel... confused, I guess. I’m not sure how I feel, but whatever it is, it’s not simple.

“Looks like the units have met up, so I’ll be heading back up now.”

“Met up?”

“We were waiting on another unit. That’s why the Commander allowed me to come down here and talk to you for a while.”

“Oh, was that why?”

“I’ll be sure to write you another letter. We don’t often get a chance to see each other, but if we both manage to get the same day off, let’s go have fun somewhere. Invite Benjamine and Maris as well.”

“Yeah. I’ll write to you too. Catch you later.”

“Bye, Nanalie. Love you!”

We wave at each other, and then Nikeh takes off to head back up into the sky, while I go back to buying meat. Petros had seen us talking, and came up to ask me if I had a friend in the Order. The entire market had been chattering about Nikeh and me the whole time, apparently.

Well, I was able to go out to buy some meat, walk around with Lala, and meet up with a friend. All in all, a fulfilling day off.