“Th-Thank you for letting me into your lovely home.”
“Right. Oh, take a seat over there. I’ll go make us some tea.” With that, Crumb immediately stepped away. I was hoping to hand over my teacakes, but I had lost the chance. Well, I guess I could just give them to her once she came back.
In order to keep things short, I thought through what I was going to say while I waited for Crumb to come back. Soon, she appeared carrying tea and teacakes.
“Sorry, I haven’t had many guests lately. This is all we’ve got...” she said as she placed a teacup in front of me and took a seat in the chair opposite of the table. “So? What’s the story behind you joining Yui and them’s party?” What a hard-hitting question.
“Um, well...”
“Oh, and I was meaning to ask you. What’s with the ‘ma’am’ stuff? I don’t care much for formalities, so just speak like you normally would.”
“R-Really? I’ll drop it then.” With that, I briefly explained the details of how I got acquainted with Yui’s party. “I used to belong to the Hero’s party, but they fired me. I had nowhere to go and was sitting on a bench in the town square. That’s when Yui suddenly approached me.” Yup, we were in the town square, right before a bronze statue that looked awfully like my old master.
“Sounds like Yui. But wait, you used to be with the Hero’s party?”
“Well, yeah, but... I was never of any help to them. I’m just your average white mage.”
“Huh, so that’s why they were so strong,” muttered Crumb.
“Hmm? Did you say something?” I couldn’t hear the last half of her words, so I asked her to repeat them.
“Oh, it’s nothing. What happened next?”
“She dragged me to the Adventurer’s Guild and...” I explained all that had happened after I met Yui and the others. I told her about how I was tested, and how we chatted at a pub. I also told her about how worried they were for her, which was what led them to look for a new white mage. Lastly, I told her about the battle to defend Ishtar. “That’s it, I think.”
“Wow. To think all that happened while I was on a break,” muttered Crumb.
I had ended up talking for quite a while. Thinking back on it, not even two weeks had passed, but so much had happened that it oddly didn’t feel like that at all.
We continued to chat. Once the conversation reached a lull, I decided to ask about what had been on my mind—Crumb’s little sister. “Um, we’ve been chatting for quite a while. Is your sister all right?”
“Hmm... Honestly? Not really.” Her expression suddenly darkened. Her sister must have been terribly sick. Once again, I questioned whether it was okay to chat for so long if her sister was so unwell.
“She’s sick...right?”
“Yeah, but she wasn’t always. Me and Sylvie used to live somewhere else, and we adventured together as our own party. She was the offense, while I was the healing and support. But one day, she was injured during an S-rank mission.”
An S-rank mission... That meant both Crumb and her sister, Sylvie, were S-rank adventurers. It was quite common for siblings to adventure together, but it was quite rare for both of them to be S-rank adventurers. But something about Crumb’s story had caught my attention.
“She was injured?” From what Yui had told me, Crumb’s sister was sick, but Crumb said she was injured. Why?
“Well, rather than an injury, it’s more like...a curse. Apparently, only high-level purification magic can fully cure her. I’ve done all I could, even found some of the best mages out there, but no one could heal her...”
A curse—that had to be ghost or dark magic. Ghost magic was the domain of shamans and ghost wranglers, and—in very rare cases—monsters could use it too. Some humans could use ghost magic, but it was demons who had high aptitude for the affinity.
Shamans and ghost wranglers were classes meant to counter holy maidens and monks, and while ghost magic wasn’t particularly strong, a few among them could cast very high-level spells.
But could a monster really be capable of such advanced ghost magic? At the very least, I had never heard of such a monster, or any cases of their victims—not even within the books I had read when I was still with the Hero’s party.
And just how advanced did this “high-level purification magic” have to be? I wasn’t well-versed with that affinity, so I had no idea. “High-level purification magic? Like what?”
“Well, I’ve never seen it myself, but a spell like Clear, I guess? It’s a purification spell that only the captain of the Holy Principality’s Holy Knights can manage these days.”
The captain of the Holy Knights... I had heard quite a bit about them when I was with the Hero’s party. They were the strongest knights within the Holy Principality, and their might rivaled Heroes’. I had never met one before, but they had to be pretty tough.
“Clear, huh? Wait a second.” I had heard of that spell before—actually, I had witnessed it. Lily, one of Master Merlin’s very few friends, could cast it. That was a high-level purification spell? Wait, no way...
“Clear? Is that the spell that heals all status effects within a certain area and purges those who inflicted them?” I asked.
“Yeah, exactly. So you know about it too. I guess it makes sense that the city’s savior would know his stuff.”
“Well, I’ve just seen it in action before...”
“Huh?”
“Huh?” I parroted.
Crumb gave me a dumbfounded look, as if she didn’t believe me. She almost seemed afraid to ask her next question. “Are you...for real?”
“Yeah, my old master’s friend Lily used it.” Once those words had slipped from my mouth, I realized my memories had to be faulty. I had never met the captain of the Holy Knights before, but there was no way someone who could use a spell unique to someone so amazing could be a friend of Master Merlin’s. I mean, this was Master Merlin, after all. I had a lot of respect for Lily, but I had a hard time believing that someone so amazing could be Master Merlin’s friend.