She Professed Herself The Pupil Of The Wiseman (WN) Chapter 23

Chapter 23 Mira eats chocolate cake!?

ED: Was on vacation for the last week. Forgive me for the delay. There was no internet :(

Actual t.i.tle: Common Sense

Mira was caught by surprise by the sudden request of the boy, but he was so frantic with it that Mira began to wonder what drove him to request it. And then, she thought to grant it if it was why he cried.

“What do thou mean? Tell me why.”

When Mira said that, the boy lifted his head and nodded with a serious face.

“At the deepest place of the Ancient Shrine there is a mirror to speak with dead people. Take me there please!”

“Speaking with the dead…thou say. Was there such a thing?”

In the game, Mira didn’t run through the Ancient Shrine so often. Usually those times were when the nine wis.e.m.e.n together did the trampling down that they call ‘adventure’, and those times she visited it for quests.

“Looks like he’s talking about the Mirror of the Dark Aid. I heard about it too, I remember my friend was glad he met his mother that died long ago.”

“Mirror of the Dark Aid, thou say?”

Looking up those words in her memory, Mira recalled one quest. A fatal disease that was prevalent in the past began to display its fury again, and this high-level quest was given to do something about it.
The way to deal with it was to travel around the continent and find that there were books about the medicine that were left in case the disease rises again. However because n.o.body knew where exactly they were, the quest required a player to call a king from the past and ask him for the books’ location.
There was a visit to the Ancient Shrine in the process of the quest and the Mirror of the Dark Aid at the fifth floor was introduced there.
Mira, musing about things which happened in the past, recalled this large antique mirror.
It was just an object for the event but now, when the game became reality, Mira updated her knowledge that the mirror could actually be used now.

“My father and mother were adventurers. But five years ago they got a mission and still haven’t returned. I waited for them at grandfather’s home.
But last week, people from the guild said that my missing in action father and mother are dead.”

Mira silently listened the story told by the crying and sniffling boy and gently wiped his tears. His explanation had a single point that did not make sense for her. Mira threw a glance to Emera who should know something about it.

“Well, you know, by the guild conventions when somebody breaks contact and goes missing during a mission, they are treated as dead after five years.”

“And that’s why they suddenly dropped this information on this lad that his parents died?”

While she was waiting for the boy who couldn’t speak due to his agitated feelings to calm down, Emera made this addition. Mira did not know how to comfort him and simply looked at the crying boy.

“You got the pa.s.s to the Ancient Shrine to go there, right? Please take me with you. Please.”

The boy shut his eyes and then opened them widely with determination and bowed his head.
Mira without thinking much placed her palm on his head and gently patted it.

“Yea, understood. If thou want to go there that much, I will bring thou with me.”

Mira nodded widely, beaming a smile. She genuinely wanted to let him meet his parents after he was suddenly told that they were dead.

“Thanks, big sis! My name is Takuto.”

“Yea. I’m Mira. Leave it to me.”

The boy’s smile shone as he clung to Mira and she embraced him. However, someone else here was really against it.

“No no no. Noooo way! It’s a rank C dungeon!? How are you going to bring an inexperienced boy inside?

Tearing the boy away from Mira, Emera was horizontally shaking her head. The rank C means that n.o.body but high-ranked adventurers were allowed to enter inside. There was no way to bring a child there without any knowledge. The boy jumped out of the warrior guild because he was consistently trying to beg the rank C Emera to go with him into the Ancient Shrine but she firmly refused each time.
Of course, her decision was not wrong. The task had the difficulty of a rank C dungeon. It was not a place to bring people who are unable to protect themselves.

“Why not? As long as he wouldn’t fight.”

Mira carelessly declared that. She actually imagined the path till the fifth floor and decided that a single child wouldn’t be a problem there.

“It’s not so sim….I have no idea how strong your group is, but the Ancient Shrine is out of the question. It’s way too dangerous.”

Emera warned with a serious face. However, an outrageous truth awaited her.

“Erm, I’m going to go solo.”

Silence descended on them. Emera completely froze, unable to comprehend the meaning of those words. Her mouth was twitching as if she was going to say something. And then, she burst into anger at Mira’s absurdly reckless and stupid words.

“No way, no way, no way, no way! It’s certainly not a place to go alone!
But it looks like you really registered in the guild today. How can you not know that! A rank C dungeon even if you avoid battles as long as possible, of course is not a place you want to go with just two members, with only one of them skilled!”

Emera raised her voice and frankly scolded Mira. People that were pa.s.sing by along the main street who looked at the source of the voice recognized the famous high-cla.s.s adventurer Emera and opened their eyes wide. She had the image of a bright and gentle big sister and they had never seen her in such mood before.

Mira, bearing the full brunt of her anger, was in anguish due to the loud voice right next to her. On the other hand, the boy, faced with the violent objection, started crying again.

Witnessing that the boy started to cry again, Mira scowled a little and glared at Emera again.

“It’s impossible only for thee.”

With that refutation Mira grabbed the boy’s hand, embraced him and started to walk away. Being told that, Emera couldn’t object anymore. It was true that for her it was hard to get to the fifth floor of the Ancient Shrine while protecting the boy. But, having said that, even if the girl in front of her said she could do it, Emera couldn’t believe it.
After having said all that, Mira carelessly did such a declaration. The fact she just registered in the guild yet had the rank C stuck in the corner of Emera’s head.

The strength of magicians can’t be judged by their appearances. It was common sense in this world but Emera couldn’t know how strong the girl walking away from her was. Or was she a fool overestimating her own strength instead? Emera couldn’t tell and Mira didn’t look like she was going to say it.
Emera rushed out to Mira and grasped her shoulder.

“Wait.”

“What? Do thou have something left to say?”

“I’m going with you!”

As an adventurer, she wondered how much strength Mira held if she didn’t seem to take the Ancient Shrine seriously. And if it was overestimation, she couldn’t leave her alone.
That’s why Emera decided to go together with them. In the worst case scenario, she was ready to let them escape using all her medicine and tools.

After Emera decided to go with them, they went to a cafe for a discussion about the details. The cafe was called “Cafe de Chocola”. This store was famous for its cocoa and chocolate cakes.

“Well, the first question to you, Mira. You look like a magician, but which cla.s.s are you?”

Emera started examining Mira’s strength. They were going to the Ancient Shrine Nebulapolis, which was filled with so many undead monsters, that it was commonly called ‘underground graveyard’. Considering the perks of that place, Mira being a high-ranked monk or an exorcist still could barely make Emera would agree with her self-confidence.

“I’m a summoner.”

Mira made this prompt answer while Emera stuffed her cheeks with the special dish, chocolate overload, she was treated with. The chocolate sponge cakes were interposed with chocolate mousse that had raw chocolate inside, and on top of the chocolate cream there was some bitter chocolate sauce. Being not too sweet, it still hid the potential to make any sweet-tooth moan; it was not bad for a special dish. The size was close to a whole cake, so they could eat it while sharing with Takuto who was sitting beside them. Sometimes Mira wiped the cream around his mouth with a napkin.
Emera was pleasantly watching the family-like scenery when the word ‘summoner’ made her sit still.
Summoners already were considered as an endangered species. She heard that due to the high threshold there were no new summoners.
That’s why Emera hasn’t had a party with summoners since she became an adventurer until now. The only summoners she saw were the elite serving at the Silver Towers. They couldn’t be a sample for comparison.

“Erm, I don’t know well, but… are summoners… strong?”

She was trying to get the grasp of the Mira’s strength yet became even more puzzled, so she asked an extremely simple question. And it itched the pride of Mira who had a thing for the summoning.
At this time, Mira recalled words of the elder subst.i.tute, Creos. And even Erena who considered herself a high-ranked adventurer,  spoke like she never saw summoners in battle. Mira asked the skies if the the depopulation of summoners progressed that much.
And then she began planning how to regain the dignity of summoners with her own hands.

“You will knew it when the time comes.”

Mira chuckled, giving a vague hint. Contrarily, Emera only became more uneasy because it would be too late to understand they can’t win.

Finis.h.i.+ng the preliminary talk, they left the cafe de chocola.

“Well, let’s go now. Thou should know the directions, so can’t thou lead us please?”

Squinting her eyes in the bright daylight, Mira looked up at Emera. The whereabouts of the Ancient Shrine were listed at the reverse side of the pa.s.s she had, but relying on somebody who knows the way would be faster. Thinking about that, Mira gazed at Emera like she was asking a natural thing.
Hearing that, Emera froze again. Then she held her head in anguish again. Takuto showed surprise together with her.

“Hey, you’re going to a rank C dungeon!? You aren’t going to enter without any preparations! At the very least, today we’re preparing!”

Emera told her the obvious thing. Of course you need to prepare before entering a dungeon. And preparations for a high-level dungeon could easily take a week. That’s why neither Emera nor even Takuto considered that they are going to go today.

“Well, as thou wish. Then we’ll go tomorrow.”

Mira was going to finish the task today, so it was troublesome, but she didn’t see anything bad in the preparations so she obeyed Emera.

And as a high-ranked adventurer, Emera was proficient in it. They circled around different stores to gather the necessary medicine and tools. Emera bought some expensive medicine just in case.
Mira completely fell into the sightseeing mood and barely bought anything barring the insect repellent.
Takuto learned how to use tools and medicine from Emera. It also was just in case.

“Mira, are you really going to be fine?”

“I’m fine. I was going to go there from the start so all the necessary things are already inside.”

With those words, Mira rolled up her left sleeve. There on her arm was the operator terminal, which was called the operator bracelet here.

“Well, it should be fine then…”

Not persuaded yet, Emera anxiously bought more medicine and tools just in case.
Mira without any intention to buy any drugs followed her. She already had the excuse of completing the preparations and she actually got different medicine and tools inside the item box so it wasn’t a lie.

After they bought consumables, three of them went to the town market to buy food.
Stores serving food were up lined at a corner of the main street. Emera straightly went there.

“Oh, Eme? Welcome here. Going out again?”

Emera went to her favorite adventurer’s food store. She used to buy food here every time she was going to go somewhere. This shop with a portly older woman as the shopkeeper had a good a.s.sortment of processed food and seasoning.
Emera lightly smiled when the women gathered goods with a cheerful smile.

“Yes, to the Ancient Shrine tomorrow.”

“Huh. Going after big fish this time? Considering your guild, I shouldn’t worry much but take care about yourself.

“Thank you.”

Emera kept silent that she’s going to bring that couple with her in order to not bring unnecessary worry. But, of course, the woman looked at them with a great interest.

“Are they your children?”

“Of course not!”

Emera with a red face denied that teasing. Keeping half an eye at this home drama scene, Mira examined the goods with a great attention.

At the end, Emera stocked up here with smoked meat and canned freeze-dried vegetables and fruits and put it in her item box.

Then they went to the armory store. Metal weapons lined inside, several customers took it in hands to check the conditions.

“By the way, Mira, it seems you don’t carry any weapon; what weapon do summoners use at all?”

Emera thought that Mira possibly put her weapon into the item box but usually weapons are carried close to hands so they could be quickly used in need.

“I don’t have any. Summoning itself is a weapon.”

“Eh, so that’s the reason.”

Mira was not wrong, but she was far unlike the usual summoners so she couldn’t speak for everyone. A lot of summoners had canes to improve the MP pool and restoration speed.
However, Mira was a Xian Expert as a second cla.s.s. The bare hands fight is the basics of Xian. It means that canes get in the way with the second cla.s.s, so she went without them.
Erena had no idea about those circ.u.mstances and the summoner cla.s.s but was fine with that explanation.

In the store, they mainly checked Emera’s equipment and chose armor for Takuto. It was a rank C dungeon. Even if he wasn’t going to fight, it was bad to leave him with a casual outfit.
By the way, Emera still was covering all expenses. She wasn’t going to make children pay and that amount wasn’t much for her so she didn’t care much.

“Hmm. This should work. Well, I’d prefer to take more time for preparations.”

Finally done with the shopping, Emera sat down on a stone fence that surrounded a square with a large requiem monument. The sun had already set and street lights illuminated people who were returning from their work.

“About the plans for tomorrow, are you fine with gathering at 10 AM in front of the union?”

“Yea.”

“Yes! Thank you!”

With those words, Mira sat next to Emera; Takuto bowed before them.

Emera still was anxious but she was going to do something about it at the place.

“Then, it’s late already so let’s call it today. Mira, Takuto, where are you staying?”

“My dad’s home is at the side street with the union.”

“I am… how was it called…”

After Emera mentioned that, Mira recalled that she hasn’t heard the name of her hotel-like inn and remembered what Garret said her about the case if she would get lost.

“If I remember correctly, it’s the best inn in the city or something like that.”

Mira vaguely answered with fingers at her chin.
Hearing this, Emera was surprised and with a completely astonished face placed her hand to her forehead. She compared the two people in front of her. Takuto covered both cheeks with his hands and stood still.

“Wait… there?”

Emera with a sigh pointed her eyes to a  large building colored with street lights. The calmly illuminated inn ‘Summer Lantern’ showed yet another magnificence.

“Oh, was it there? I haven’t thought it was so close.”

Following her sight, Mira found the inn that changed atmosphere but had the familiar form and nodded.

“Enough… I’m not surprised. Yeah, you will not surprise me anymore.”

With her gaze wandering around, Emera stood up and hold the Takuto’s hand.

“Well, then I’ll go with Takuto so go straight home, Mira. Do you understand?”

Warning Mira, Emera approached her face and looked straight into her eyes.

“Ye..yea. I’ve gotten hungry so I’m going to return home now.”

With those words, Mira stood up and backed out to open distance with Emera. She still couldn’t hide her trembling after a beautiful woman suddenly approached her.

“So? Then good. Well, see you tomorrow then.”

“Yeah, see you tomorrow. Takuto, see you tomorrow too and sleep well today.

“Yeah, thanks, big sis. See you tomorrow. I’m counting on you.”

“Yea.”

Answered with Takuto’s smile after exchanging greetings, Mira started to walk towards the inn. Emera without moving right away carefully watched Mira till she entered the Summer Lantern and then began to proceed to the union direction with Takuto.