In the forest, nature ruled. Birds tweeted in the air. Squirrels hid away nuts. Ants ate the dead. All this despite the strange heap of metal that had appeared deep within several days ago. The forest had yet to come to terms with this small hill: it smelled too much of humans, so they avoided it. It had first appeared …

  Facing the nine remaining Mimics, Kira kicked the dead Bruin away from them. She whispered in a husky voice, “Diana, Save your turns. These things are probably too stupid to know how to conserve them.” Feeling a small flutter in her chest, Diana was so surprised that she unconsciously suppressed her retort that the Hersha herself hadn’t utilized her …

James cursed, throwing his third emptied Haste potion on the street. A few pedestrians suspiciously stared around them, suspecting that some [Thug] had thrown a broken bottle at them. James completely ignored them, his feet pounding on the pavement as he invisibly danced through crowds that thronged around the Church’s Quarters. He glanced at the watch on his wrist, a …

Kira jerked up, and Diana turned toward the Hersha, confused. Just as the [Knight] was about to ask whether Kira was okay, a voice hissed from beyond their moderately lit circle. “Foolish Hersha. This will be your only warning. Cease whatever it is that you’re doing.” Kira stoically ignored it and began struggling against her bonds with even greater vigor. …

James blankly stared at the four-member adventuring team in front of them. He turned to the [Baroness]. “This is really the only party you could find?” The [Baroness] scowled. “A new dungeon opened out in the Western Provinces, so any Adventuring party worth a damn has already gone there. This was the best Adventuring party I could find. They’re a …

“James! James! Are you alright? They’re missing!” James groggily sat up to find Howard shaking his shoulder. Howard stared at James, trying to ascertain whether the man was alright. “What happened? What’s going on?” asked James. Howard shrugged. “I dunno. You were lying this when I came in. As for who’s missing, why, Kira and Diana, of course. I’ve been …

Diana groaned as she opened her eyes to see a dim, vacant room. Carefully tilting her head, she found Kira watching her, completely still. The [Knight] croaked, “What’s going on? Did I fall unconscious again?” She suddenly felt that her arms were remarkably numb. Had she slept on them? Looking down, she realized that she had been stripped of her …

Kira quizzically followed Diana out of the house. Stopping before they could truly leave the premises, she asked, “Why are we sneaking around?” Diana considered the Hersha for a moment before waving the scroll in her hand. “We’re going on a Quest!” Kira looked a bit excited. “Oh, I’ve never done that before! I thought that normally, it’s just adventurers …

Diana hesitantly turned into a building adjacent to the Queen’s castle where she knew that her aunt had been staying for the past few months as a visiting diplomat. Diana was a bit excited: it wasn’t often she got to visit her aunt. While her aunt lived in the nation a couple of kingdoms west of her father’s dukedom, it was …

Clutching the wrapped up scroll detailing her mission, Diana ran with Kira back toward James’s home. From his seat on the porch, Howard glanced at them in surprise. Kira had completely ignored her papers, and it was unlike Diana to appear so panicked. He set down the novel he’d been reading. Rising up from his chair, he asked with a …