Chapter 28: I am a newcomer, not an enemy!
After finishing her simple lunch, Suna politely wiped her lips with a handkerchief and neatly packed away the paper bag and other trash.
The bard, who hadn’t disturbed her during the meal, praised Suna’s graceful manners.
“Saintess, with your beauty and strength, you must have a loyal knight, right? Is he off on your orders?”
Facing the talkative, socially adept bard, Suna gave her usual response.
“Sorry, I’m a wandering saintess, and my strength is rather modest…”
As she spoke, Suna instinctively sized up the bard.
Shoulder-length, wavy black-brown hair and emerald-green eyes gave her a natural charm.
Her vibrant pink dress was slightly flamboyant but carried no frivolous air.
Beneath this exterior, Suna noticed the bard’s seemingly slender arms were lined with toned muscles, and her palms bore subtle calluses.
Like Suna, she was clearly suppressing her aura, hiding her true strength.
[She calls herself a bard? What a joke. I bet she could take down a tin-can knight barehanded.]
Inwardly scoffing, Suna didn’t expose her secret, as the bard was only enthusiastically chatting without probing Suna’s oddities.
“As expected of a saintess, so humble! Oh, sorry, I’ve been talking so long and forgot to introduce myself. I’m Thekla Egway.”
“…I’m Suna Florist. But Miss Egway, why are you so interested in me? Even if you’re talkative, your words feel a bit forced.”
At Suna’s gentle nudge, Thekla gave an embarrassed, awkward chuckle, scratching her head.
“…Haha, sorry. I do have a motive. Yesterday, I did a small divination on my fortune, and it said connecting with strangers would bring unexpected gains and maybe fulfill a wish.”
Suna was momentarily speechless, not because Thekla trusted divination, but because a bard was seriously using divination magic.
“…Uh.”
Even through the veil, Thekla caught Suna’s subtle reaction and apologized.
“I knew it, Saintess Florist, you think it’s weird too. Sorry for bothering you.”
“It’s fine. I just think, aside from master seers with near-future-sight divination, regular divination magic only offers vague hints or directions for the future. If you trust and act on them, you’re likely to get good results.”
Hearing this, Thekla’s face lit up with gratitude.
“Wow, Saintess Florist, you’re so kind, comforting me like that! My friends just mock me for wasting time or call me a chatterbox. No wonder I don’t have close friends.”
After venting, Thekla paused before continuing.
“Forget it, no point dwelling on that. Let’s talk about something lighter, like my travel stories.”
In the time that followed, a more relaxed Thekla shared tales of her journeys, while Suna listened and occasionally shared carefully curated snippets of her own experiences, avoiding anything suspicious.
When they disembarked in Kormel, Thekla, despite their lively chat, didn’t exchange contact details with Suna.
“Saintess Florist, thank you for keeping me company so long. I’ll be working here to save up travel funds. Let’s meet again if fate allows.”
With that, Thekla waved enthusiastically goodbye.
Waving back, Suna strolled through Kormel, finding a secluded, old inn and renting a room for three days.
With the eastern intelligence outpost’s deadline approaching, Suna minimized outings, focusing on setting up a concealment barrier in her room with magic stones and inspecting the surroundings.
As a mining town, Kormel’s coal output had declined, but miners and their families still made up over a third of the population.
To support the large mining community, the town was filled with daily goods stores, magic tool shops, taverns, gear stores, and forges.
Across from Suna’s inn was a small tavern where she bought beer, noting that residents and renters were mostly non-miners—workers from the nearby coking plant and cash-strapped adventurers.
Confirming no high-risk individuals were nearby, only low-tier adventurers scraping by escorting miners against underground monsters, Suna began her preparations.
On the night of May 2nd, Suna activated a magic array hidden under her pillow, lay on the bed, and swiftly fell asleep.
As her consciousness crossed the boundary of dream and reality, her body grew translucent and vanished.
From her perspective, it was a blink, like passing through a tunnel, before arriving at her destination.
Before her stood a stark, gray-white geometric building on a floating island, five stories tall, windowless, with only a single door.
Knowing the key magic, Suna pushed the door open.
But as she entered the eastern intelligence outpost’s hall, the receptionist’s polite smile faltered.
Agents and staff froze, some gaping, others visibly tense.
“Level one alert! The outpost is under attack!”
Reacting, agents prepared wind and transformation magic to blast Suna out, but Suna, dressed as a veiled saintess, protested loudly.
“What are you doing?! I’m a newcomer, not an enemy!”