A giant shadow swept past the bright sky above Devil’s Water.
It was Swan, who was traveling swiftly using a pair of feather wings that were originally her arms.
“Miss Swan? Can-can we do this in another way? You can hold me with a rope or something,” Helen spoke while sitting on top of Swan’s back, blushing.
“What, it’s not comfy up there? And call me Swan. Don’t let me remind you again.”
“It’s nice. Just...”
This is too embarrassing! Helen thought.
“Quiet now. We have arrived.”
Helen looked below and saw they were flying above a colorful island full of flowers and simple structures that blended in with nature quite well.
During her years working on The Limpet, she never went too far inside Summerdew Ridge to see such a sight.
“Here we are, Summerdew Ridge.” Swan slowly descended and gently dropped Helen at the edge of the island where a small port was built. “I’ll take you to Lady Payne for a talent test in a while. Remember, be polite and obedient to everyone you see on the island, especially Lady Payne and Miss Summerdew.”
“I understand.” Helen nodded.
They soon saw a group of people approaching them, led by a tall woman in an elegant black dress. She looked rather fierce because her cheeks were full of scars.
Swan quickly went down on one knee while telling Helen to do the same. “Good afternoon, Lady Payne.”
Payne glanced at both of them and nodded. “This is the talent you mentioned?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“I see you like her. You gave her the bottle of Potion of Austere Night you received from Master, didn’t you?” Lady Payne’s nose twitched when she sensed the smell of magic potion coming from Helen.
“Helen once saved me. I’m repaying the kindness.”
Payne then turned away and headed to somewhere else at the port while the group of apprentices she brought all followed behind her.
Swan showed a confused look and dragged an apprentice to her. “What’s going on today? Why is Lady Payne out here?”
“I think the island is expecting someone important in a moment. Lady Payne asked us all to come and present a good welcome.”
“Someone important? Who is it?”
“Dunno. But I heard that it should be a guest from the Valley of Hurricane.”
Swan frowned. There should currently be someone from that place visiting the island. Why was there another guest?
She suddenly felt a gust of wind beside her and quickly saw one additional person who just showed up next to Lady Payne. It seemed the “first guest” she just thought about also came.
Next, everybody saw a small dot in the sky approaching them. It was probably the second guest they were expecting.
“How time changes people...” Lady Payne spoke to the flying woman who just landed in front of her. “You look way more hard-working than before.”
“Lady Payne.” The red-haired woman spoke from behind her strange mask, “I’m afraid I can’t say the same. You look exactly the same as a hundred years ago.”
“Heh heh.” Payne covered her mouth using a hand fan. “Did you not see this horrible face of mine? I used to look more charming than this, Irisa.”
“I never judge someone by their looks.”
“Tsk. That mask... Are you still acting like a man?”
“Being a man or woman makes no difference to me.” Irisa didn’t seem interested in this subject. “Besides, I think you have more than one way to mend those injuries and find your old glory within a day, Lady Payne.”
Payne wanted to offer Irisa a room to stay in, but Irisa rejected it.
“There’s no need. I have other matters to tend to later. I’m only here to tell something to Red. I’ll be on my way soon.”
Payne looked between Irisa and the other guest on the island, which was a red-haired man with an unfriendly look.
“Alright. I’ll leave you to your own business.”
Payne then took everyone away so that only Irisa and “Red” remained behind.
“Come with me,” the man said as he dragged Irisa into a narrow pocket dimension.
Irisa didn’t seem bothered when she was inside the strange space full of chaotic elements. She simply found a chair from somewhere and relaxed on it by crossing her legs, allowing her white thighs to get fully exposed.
The man showed an impatient look. “Have you forgotten all the manners you learned before, Irisa? A woman should behave like a woman.”
Irisa rolled her eyes even though no one could see her doing so. “I thought you’d get more open-minded after living with Eureka for some time. Why are you still so stubborn?”
“I’m not living with Eureka. We’re temporarily working on the same goal, and that is all.”
“And you think I’ll buy it?” Irisa scoffed. “You aren’t supposed to adjust your necktie and look around randomly when telling a lie.”
“Say what you will. Whether you believe me or not makes no difference.”
“Actually, I believe part of your relationship. You like her, but she didn’t know it, right? Don’t deny it. This is why you asked me to help you throw all those fake crowns here and there.” Irisa chuckled. “Just think, if people know that THE famous Thewis betrayed Goman King and sided with someone he was tasked to kill, the magazines will create so many stories out of you that they won’t worry about not finding enough materials for their readers until the next year.”
The red-haired man was Thewis, a wizard from the Valley of Hurricane, and Irisa’s older brother.
The matter Thewis was dealing with was more complicated than what Irisa surmised. Although he wasn’t going to explain as doing so wouldn’t help with anything.
“What’s Goman King’s situation right now?” asked Thewis.
Irisa put up a serious look as she explained, “He isn’t doing anything in particular yet. But as you might have guessed, having the Crimson Crown missing has caused countless troubles in the southern wizarding region. I think Goman King is suspicious of you now. He already sent another wizard to the Marginalized Island. I suggest you take caution.”
Thewis took a moment to think over what he just heard.
“Who did he send?”
“I don’t know about that.” Irisa shrugged before she moved closer to whisper into Thewis’ ear. “But I know another clue you may need.”
“What clue?”
“I learned this one by accident. It seems the Crimson Crown is enchanted with a magic array called ‘Bloodline Retrack’. It allows the original owner of the crown to use his blood he left on the crown to tell its location no matter where it is taken to. That’s probably why Goman King can find where Eureka is every time.
“However, this magic array has a great risk to use, that when the item is damaged or destroyed, the owner of the bloodline will suffer from a powerful backfire. Judging from Goman King’s character, I’d say that he did not use his own bloodline on the crown.”
“What does this mean to us?” Thewis frowned.
“Maybe we can come up with a nice plan to divert his attention...” Irisa revealed two items in her hands, a Crimson Crown replica and a vial of blood.
Thewis took the items and checked with a surprised look. “This... is the best duplicate I’ve ever seen. But why are you showing me this?”
“As I said, you want me to pass fake crowns around random people to confuse Goman King, but this is useless because he can always use that magic array to tell where the real crown is.”
“Your point?”
“Now listen, the crown you’re holding is different than the other ones we had before. It has the same ‘Bloodline Retrack’ effect on it. The bottle I gave you contains the bloodline of a royal member I found in the Goman Kingdom. If Goman King truly used the bloodline of someone close to him to locate the crown, then we might use this to fool him.” Irisa suddenly showed a disappointed look. “When I got this crown, I thought about applying a Mystery property to it so that it would look exactly like the real deal. But then I found it impossible to do such a thing.”
Thewis quickly made up a plan in his mind.
“Are you absolutely sure about the magic array you described?”
“I am. The alchemist who helped me isn’t a master yet, but when it comes to enchantment alchemy, I can say he’s already better than many masters.”
“Since we now know the secret on the crown, can we do something to erase it?”
“Huh? Oh goddammit. I forgot to ask!”
Thewis gave Irisa a “really?” look and sighed. “Alright, I’ll keep these and try something out with them once I get back to the Old Earth. In the meantime, you should return to that alchemist and ask him about that question. Now that I think about it, you rarely spoke so highly of people before. Which alchemist are we talking about?”