The place where they had stopped happened to be near a river that ran through the entire Navora Principality. It was famous for its turbulent currents that frequently caused flooding downstream, and for that reason the people of the Principality called it the Ares River.
It was precisely because of this that the Ares River had created fertile land throughout its basin and fed every person in the Principality. The prosperity of the Principality was inseparable from this river.
After Mia arrived at the riverside and activated her water magic, the river water continuously gathered at her fingertips. Yet at this moment her mind was completely filled with the scene from yesterday when Kate had hurriedly sought her out.
When she heard Kate say there was an especially important mission for her, she had been so excited she could hardly contain herself. She had thought Kate had finally recognized her strength and intended to bring her along to subjugate high-rank magical beasts.
In the end, what she received was Kate ordering her to serve as accompanying personnel for Eileen and Atia.
If Eileen and Atia truly possessed decent strength—B-rank or C-rank—she would have had nothing to complain about. But they just happened to be the lowest-tier E-rank adventurers in the Adventurer’s Guild.
To put it nicely they were called adventurers. To put it bluntly they were the bottom-tier consumables of the Adventurer’s Guild, doing the hardest work for the lowest pay.
People like that, and she, an Upper-rank Mage of the Duke’s Private Knight Order, was supposed to accompany them? On what grounds?
Just because that girl named Eileen had known Kate longer than she had, and because she was pretty?
In every single aspect she was inferior to her. Why was she still being taken care of by Kate to this extent?
It was exactly like that younger brother of hers whose life or death was currently unknown…
The water sphere at her fingertips grew heavier and heavier. The magic power became increasingly difficult to control. Only then did Mia snap back to her senses and intend to cut off the flow of magic.
But right at that moment, a snake-shaped magical beast resembling dry grass suddenly shot out from the grass by the riverbank.
“Kesero Snake?”
Mia was startled and subconsciously wanted to use magic to casually eliminate this E-rank magical beast.
Yet she failed to notice that in the brief moment she was distracted, the flow of magic power gathering the river water was instantly disrupted. The water sphere at her fingertips burst like a balloon, and the thin stream of water that had been absorbing the river water into the sphere like a tube was now like a rope, continuously dragged toward the river by the turbulent current.
She hurriedly cut off the magic power, but it was already too late.
The enormous inertia dragged her entire body straight into the water.
Mia struggled to surface, but the moment her head broke the water she was slapped back under by a wave.
Icy river water continuously poured into her mouth. Just like the name of this river, she was being dragged into hell by Ares, the god of war who embodied frenzy and slaughter.
Am I really going to die here?
“Can’t you, as the older sister, just give in a little to your younger brother?”
“What do you mean your toy? Can’t you see your younger brother wants to play with it?”
“So what if your magic grades are better? In the end you’ll just find a man and get married. Hurry up and drop out of school so you don’t waste money!”
“The Duke’s Private Knight Order accepted you? Quickly give the qualification to your younger brother!”
“You’re saying your younger brother doesn’t meet the standards? What do you mean by that? I think you just don’t want your younger brother to live a good life!”
“You still want to join the Duke’s Private Knight Order? Hurry up and find a man to marry. Stop messing around with this nonsense!”
“How pitiful, actually attacked by this kind of magical beast… What? You’re saying there’s still a survivor, and she’s holding our Knight Order’s acceptance letter in her arms?”
“So you’re the mage who was coming to join our Knight Order. My name is Kate. Please take care of me from now on.”
“Impressive, Mia. You can even handle such a complicated teleportation spell. Among all the mages I’ve met, you’re only the second one who has researched teleportation magic this thoroughly.”
…
Past memories flashed rapidly before her eyes like a revolving lantern.
Her life had been dull. So dull that even she would pity herself after looking through it once.
Yet within such a dull life, there had appeared someone who truly affirmed her and trusted her.
But now, she was about to let that trust down.
I’m sorry, Lady Kate…
Her consciousness gradually drifted away. Everything before her eyes was slowly swallowed by darkness. Only the muffled sound of flowing water remained in her ears, announcing the end of her life.
She didn’t know if it was an illusion, but just as her consciousness was about to disappear, a black silhouette appeared before her eyes.
Is it Lady Kate?
No. That must be the god of death coming to harvest her, right?
…
“Hasn’t Lady Mia returned yet?”
Declan poked the copper pot hanging over the fire with a stick in boredom.
More than ten minutes had already passed since Mia went to fetch water, yet there was still no sign of her.
For an ordinary person, this amount of time might only have been enough to just reach the riverside.
But who was Mia?
She was the only Upper-rank Mage in the Duke’s Private Knight Order who specialized in teleportation magic. A journey of more than ten minutes was nothing more than the blink of an eye for her.
Even if she couldn’t use teleportation magic at the same time as water magic, she should have returned by now.
“Could Miss Mia have run into some kind of danger?”
Atia’s face was full of worry.
After more than ten minutes of rest, her complexion had improved a great deal. She had even helped start the fire and cook. Now they were just waiting for Mia to bring the water back.
Yet the moment her words fell, Declan and Lucen directly burst out laughing.
“Are you joking? That’s Lady Mia, the only Upper-rank Mage in our Knight Order. Even if she truly ran into something she couldn’t handle, couldn’t she just escape with a single teleportation spell?”
“Exactly. No wonder people say E-rank adventurers have limited horizons. Only someone who’s never even seen teleportation magic could say something like that.”
The two of them made no attempt to hide their contempt for Eileen and Atia.
They had already been annoyed at being forcibly dragged over to work following two E-rank adventurers around. Now they had finally found a chance to mock them.
“Ugh…”
Realizing she had misspoken, Atia lowered her head. Facing the two men’s mockery, she didn’t dare utter even half a sentence.
After all, these two were members of the Duke’s Private Knight Order. They were truly not people she could afford to offend…
But while Atia didn’t dare speak, Eileen had no intention of indulging them.
“Atia was only expressing concern for Mia. What kind of attitude is this from the two of you? Are you saying you don’t even care about the personal safety of an Upper-rank Mage of the Knight Order? What are your true intentions? Are you undercover agents sent by an enemy nation?”
With that single accusation slapped on them, the two men immediately stopped laughing.
“No, we were just stating facts. Lady Mia is an Upper-rank Mage. Even if an A-rank magical beast came, there couldn’t possibly be any danger…”
“Heh, stating facts?”
Eileen gave a cold laugh and spoke unhurriedly. “An A-rank magical beast couldn’t harm her. Then what about an S-rank one?
What if someone wanted to harm her in secret?
What if Mia was targeted by an assassin from an enemy nation?
I believe the two of you are very clear about how important she is to the Principality.”
The two men’s faces turned a shade paler. They were just about to open their mouths when Eileen raised a hand and cut them off.
“Do the two of you feel that an Upper-rank Mage should be invulnerable to blades and immune to all poisons?
Do you feel that as long as she isn’t dead, it doesn’t count as something being wrong?
Very well. Once this commission is over I will tell Kate and His Grace the Duke that the two of you believe the safety of an Upper-rank Mage is not worth prioritizing, since she won’t die anyway.”
“We didn’t mean that…”
“Didn’t mean that? Then what did you mean?”
Eileen tilted her head slightly and gave a soft hum. “Do you feel Atia was making a mountain out of a molehill?
Or do you feel Mia doesn’t deserve focused protection?
Or perhaps…
You simply don’t care whether the backbone forces of the Principality remain intact?”
One accusation after another was slapped down, and the two men were completely left speechless.
If they contradicted even a single sentence, wouldn’t they immediately be labeled as traitors and spies?
Seeing the two of them thoroughly shut down, Eileen didn’t continue speaking further, afraid that if she went on she might actually talk them into depression.
Wanting to argue with her, a former “keyboard warrior” who had debated countless people online? They were still far too green.
[Nearby side quest discovered. Automatically added to quest log.]
Right at that moment, a line of text appeared before Eileen’s eyes.
Side quest?
She curiously took a look, yet she would never have known if she hadn’t looked. One glance nearly scared her out of her wits.
[Side Quest: Rescue the drowning Mia. Countdown: five minutes. Failure to complete within the countdown will result in quest failure.]
Hold on. I was just talking casually. Did you actually fall in the water?!