The Missing Enchantress (English Version)

Chapter 11

In my struggle to free myself from the grasps of those men who held me, something fell from above suddenly. Everyone froze as that thing crashed on the floor with a loud thud. Dust smoked, the area around where it fell.

As the surrounding began to clear and the dust began to settle, I saw a figure in front of me. It was a silhouette of a man. I don’t know who he was, he’s not definitely Asleif and I don’t know what’s his deal, but I was kind of relieved for some reason. He was facing Richard at first but then, collected his gaze down to me.

“Woah! This girl is really something…” he said.

There was blood leaking out of Richard’s lips, as well as those bruises he sustained from my attacks earlier.

“Bastard!”

I brought my gaze to my back and saw a familiar man emerging from the door.

“Asleif!” I called him. I was teary when I saw him appear. He untied all the woman in the room and let them escape out of the room. They probably cleared and secured the way of the victims out of this ship.

“Blazing Fire!” the man in front of me exclaimed. He released a powerful fire magic. It scattered out from him hitting all Richard’s men who were surrounding us. They were thrown out as his magic blasted unto them.

“Fire Fist!” He raised his clenched fist and it glowed red and orange. It was like he was charging and concentrating his magic to his fist as it grew bigger and brighter. He then hopped towards Richard, and then drew a lopsided smile. With all his might, the fire guy threw his fist to Richard’s body. They collided towards the room’s wall, blasting a huge hole on it upon the fire magic’s explosion. It flashed really bright that made me cover my eyes. When I opened my eyes, only the huge hole was left on the rooms wall, all the way outside the ship. The hole edges were still a bit burning but it’s not that huge that would eventually burn the entire ship. He maintained the damages to minimal as well.

“What power and absolute control of his magic! He literally blasted the room’s wall piercing a hole in the ship but maintained the damages to minimal…” I couldn’t help but be amazed by his magical prowess.

Richard was lying face down on the floor, unconscious after that attack. I was surprised when it suddenly became freezing cold after that explosive fire attack. When I checked what’s going on, the two guys who were holding me earlier were frozen in ice.  After a minute, the ice magic was dispelled and the two guys dropped unconscious on the floor.

Really? These wizards had absolute control on their magic powers. I was still speechless to their amazing display of both power and control. The fire mage could choose to burn the entire ship but he did not.

“Sorry, I’m late Kiera… I just got an info earlier about them.” Asleif approached in front of me.

And I saw his cheeky smile that made me really annoyed. I just wonder how he could still smile, while here I am almost scared to death about what might happen.

His smile still never vanished. Now taste this!

I punched him with all the strength I still have left in me. He groaned and caressed his belly after that. I know I don’t have the strength right now, but at least that would have been painful for him.

“What was that for?!” he protested.

“Damn you! You still dare to smile like nothing after what happened, while I am here with my clothes ripped apart and didn’t really know if they would still let me live afterwards!” I said.

He fixed his posture and looked to me from head to toe and then brought his hand to his chin.

“I guess, they wouldn’t really do anything to you Kiera… while you really have the figure, I don’t think your s*x appeal would be that strong…” he said.

I felt like something ordered me to kick him hard and throw him away to the sea at this very moment but I was still trying to hold myself. I might kill him for real this time.

“I suppose you can stop your lovey-dovey moments right now…” the other guy inserted.

“We are not doing any lovey-dovey stuff here! Or do you want me to throw you with him out of this ship?” I retorted.

“Tough aye!” he laughed.

I could only sigh. “Okay, can we stop all this non sense chitchat right now… I want to dress up right now!”

“You have a healing spell, right?” Asleif inquired.

My brows twitched when I heard his question. “Yeah, I do have it… but that doesn’t mean I can fix clothes as well!”

“I suppose, I have seen crates outside that were about to be loaded in this ship that contains dresses for ladies… Let’s check it right now.” the fire guy said.

We immediately headed out from the cabin and went straight to where Asleif and this guy saw the crates. Upon reaching the destination, we saw the ladies who were also victims there. Well my appearance right now wasn’t that surprising for them, because first of all they were ladies as well and this kind of “two-piece” were a common thing here when taking a bath.

I threw away my ripped clothes and immediately changed with the dress I have found inside the crates. I was really glad when I found one here.

“Wait a minute, where’s Richard by the way?” I asked.

“Here,” someone replied.

What? Who replied to my question? I darted my eyes everywhere but I didn’t see anyone. What could possibly it? When I glanced above, I saw who was talking. It was a wolf? A flying or floating wolf?

I suppose it wasn’t flying since it doesn’t have wings but, it was definitely levitating. And what’s more, the wolf was really huge that one could ride on its back. It had fur as white as the snow, with blue highlights on the tip of its fit, tail and ears. It was a pretty wolf really!

It landed slowly while biting Richard’s clothes. Richard was hanging on its mouth. The wolf dropped him still unconscious on the ground.

With a ‘poof’ sound, the wolf disappeared in white smoke.

“W-whaaaat?”

“How cute!” the ladies screamed upon the sight of the wolf.

I mean its not a wolf right now to be exact. It shrunk smaller? It almost looked like a puppy, a very cute puppy right now. It was wagging its tail to us.

“W-wait? Who are you by the way?” I asked, the fire guy.

“The name’s Althalos, and this is Hako,” He lifted the puppy and caressed its head.

“Oh! And my name is Kiera… it seems like you are already an acquaintance with this leaf man here.” I said.

“Leaf… man?” Althalos raised his eyebrows, a bit confused on what I said.

“Asleif…” I replied.

He burst into laughter. “Oh… yes, yes… we know each other…”

I checked the surrounding and confirmed that we were still not that far from the port. We can still go back right away; all we need to do is run this ship and make it head back to the port.

“I wonder who can run this ship and dock it to the port?”  I inquired.

“I’ll do it…” Althalos walked to the ship’s helm and steered the wheel. Good thing, the ship changed its course to the port and eventually reached it. We secured its docking and laid down the pathway down to the port. All the ladies who were victims of Richard’s crimes went out of the ship immediately. They were met with the doctors in this place. Soldiers came aboard the ship to apprehend Richard and bring him to their custody.

After we talked and shared the rewards on this quest, we went to a tavern as they wanted to have a bit of drink to celebrate the completion of the quest. Well, I was really tired and exhausted so I rested my head to my arms and closed my eyes for a bit. I casted a healing magic to myself earlier when we got out of the ship so I am doing fine right now.

ASLEIF POV

“So, is she the one they were talking about?” Althalos asked.

I just nodded my head on his question and then took a sip on my drink.

“Why does it seem like, she doesn’t know anything at all?” He took a sip on his drink as well.

“Well, only because she doesn’t really know anything at all at this moment.” I leaned to the table.

Althalos sighed. “Looks like we will be having a hard time bringing her along. It seems like, this one’s a tough nut to c***k…”

“Well just like you said, she’s one…” I chuckled. “I guess it is better for her to know nothing, so the enemies won’t find her immediately.”

“Wait, where’s your familiar? I forgot its name really…” Althalos darted his eyes at random.

“Oh… Zeva? Zeva’s left there…” I replied.

“Left there? That’s new… As what I have known, the proprietor and the familiar does not get apart from each other.” Althalos said.

“Well, this is just for now…” I chuckled, gripping my glass of wine.

“Why? She doesn’t know you have a familiar?” Althalos asked.

“Yeah, she doesn’t know yet… well, she didn’t see my familiar yet.” I replied.

“Are you hiding it from her?” he, leaned closer to me.

“No, no… it’s not like that. It’s just I didn’t had a chance to meet them with each other.” I replied, sipping my drink again.

“You know what, Kiera… she’s not that strong… her magic was average and her physical combat strength was below average on what I see right now…” he commented.

“I know… but she’s actually making a good progress and improvement because, ever since she came here, she doesn’t even know anything about magic. She started with nothing literally…”  I replied.

“I suppose that’s actually impressive… so how long has she been in here?” Althalos asked, taking another sip on his drink.

“One year…” I retorted.

“ONE YEAR?!” Althalos almost threw up his drink and shot up from his seat. The people on the tavern looked on our way. I was surprised on his reaction as well so I just apologized to them for creating unnecessary noise.  He did so as well.

“Yes, one year… a year has passed while she’s studying under the tutelage of Lady Sherilo about magic.” I said.

“Oh? So, she’s under Lady Sherilo’s care…” He set down his drink and crossed his hand. “While that’s reassuring… and magic is all we need, but if she’s weak in terms of physical strength and combat without magic well… they will still eventually get her at that rate.” he added, caressing his chin.

“Althalos is right, it’s not like we are always there by her side all the time to protect her. What if we’ll get driven to a corner and we’ll be in a tight spot? It’s important that she can protect herself as well.” Haku suddenly emerged out of nowhere.

I sighed and took another sip from my drink. “That’s why Lady Sherilo has been taking care of Kiera’s magical and physical improvement…”

“Well, in just one year she improved her magical ability into average… I suppose we can safely call it as a good improvement given the fact that not all people can improve that fast.” Althalos said.

“But her magical affinity is all about healing… that means, she really needs to strengthen her physical fundamentals. She might need some weapons or learn some swordsmanship in that case.” Haku said, l*****g one of his paws.

“Nice suggestion Haku!” Althalos collided his hands with Haku’s paws. “I suggest, you should go rest to the inn we have secured for you… I suppose it’s big enough and it has three beds as well all for you.”

“Okay, that would be a good thing we only had one bed to the room we rented… then I shall carry Kiera in my back as we head there.” I said.

We stood up and started heading out. Althalos lifted Kiera and gently rested her to my back.

“Good thing, she got there at your place first…” Althalos said.

I shook my head to disagree. “No… she came first from Knavesmine.”

“Knavesmine? If I remember correctly, Sigurd and Theron are both there, right?” He brought his hand to his chin and caressed it.

“Yes, that’s true… but I don’t think they saw each other already or something, since I once knew that she was hiding the whole time and the army of Knavesmine were looking for her everywhere.” I replied.

“Hiding? Why?” Althalos asked.

I looked up to the sky trying to remember the reason. “Well, I am not really sure but I once heard from Kiera that she doesn’t want to return there because she said, she’s not welcome in that place… or something along those lines.”

Althalos could only do a facepalm. Haku could only shook his head, while floating beside his proprietor, Althalos. Familiars do really become super cute when they transform to their mini version. I miss Zeva, really when I look at them.

“I suppose, it was probably Theron’s doing…” Althalos commented.

“I wonder when will Theron change? Good thing, Hiryuu didn’t take it after his proprietor or maybe infected him.” Haku sighed.

“Hiryuu? Theron’s familiar?” I asked.

“Yes, I guess it has been a long time since the seven of us met again.” Althalos smiled.

I could only grin with the memories we had together. “Oh right, I wonder how those stupid guys are doing right now.”

“Why? Aren’t you one of them?” Althalos narrowed his eyes into slits.

We could only laugh to our hearts content reminiscing those days we were still going to school. We were taught with magic and physical combat at the same time in that school. That was necessary for pillars like us.