"Aura, are you in there?"
As soon as the voice fell, hurried footsteps came from inside. The door was thrown open, revealing a pair of green braids and a pretty face.
"Yuna? Why are you here?"
Yuna was already about as tall as Nanoda. Compared to being a head shorter a year ago, her growth this year was quite significant. It was estimated that by the coming year, she would surpass Nanoda in height. Along with her height, the flower buds on Yuna's chest had also grown, already showing signs of blooming.
"I was asking Lady Aura about your whereabouts."
"Why ask about that?"
"Because Yuna also wants to go to the Central Lands together."
"Huh?"
"I heard the Continental Magic Association was just established. I want to take the exam for a Mage rank."
"Is that so? If you meet an Elf named Serie, you must be careful. She is a bad egg who hides her mana."
Hearing this, Yuna nodded obediently.
From inside the room came Aura's miserable voice.
"Nanoda, save me! I don't want to eat it!"
Then came two sets of rapid footsteps. Linie held a skewer of black mosaic in her hand, trying to stuff it into Aura's mouth. The two chased each other around the room, one fleeing and one pursuing.
"Enough, Linie, stop making things hard for Aura. I'm taking Aura on a trip to the Central Lands."
Seeing her savior arrive, Aura hurriedly ran over and hugged Nanoda's thigh. After all this time, this thigh still made a Demon feel at ease.
"Linie... wants to go too."
Linie stopped obediently and tilted her head.
"Taking Aura and Yuna is already enough people. We are infiltrating secretly, after all. How about this? I'll bring you back some recipes from the Central Lands. What do you think?"
"Okay."
Linie nodded, agreeing with an expressionless face.
The next day, with Baron Aaron's help, Nanoda and the others disguised themselves as a small merchant caravan. Aura and Nanoda hid under the carriage canopy, wearing cloaks. The carriage was also stuffed with some Gaderia specialties like cured meat and ores, while Yuna was responsible for driving the horse.
The group arrived at the checkpoint connecting the Northern and Central lands. This was also Nanoda's first time taking a normal route.
After passing the guard, the carriage drove the group toward a small town in the Central Lands called Nava. It was a place Gaderia's caravans often passed through and a transit station where caravans from all over frequently stopped. Information here was relatively well-circulated.
"Mmph..."
On the road, Yuna puffed up her cheeks angrily.
"What's wrong?" Nanoda's voice came from inside the carriage.
Sighing, Yuna explained the reason. "When we passed the checkpoint, I gave that guard a silver coin, but he actually demanded more money. It really pissed me off. He's practically a bandit. I really wanted to chop him up!"
Hearing Yuna's indignant voice, Nanoda felt a bit embarrassed. Why did it feel like this girl had become violent after going to the battlefield once?
"It's very strange. There seems to be magic inside this medicine... or perhaps the medicine is magic itself..."
Aura, having nothing to do, was playing with the potion Nanoda gave her. She was surprised to find traces of magic within it.
"Magic?"
Although Nanoda had created Severance Magic, her understanding of magical knowledge was still very superficial, stopping at what Aura had taught her.
Nanoda had also sought to learn from Qual, but unfortunately, Qual always spoke in words she couldn't understand. Perhaps this was why Qual was a genius; the thoughts of a genius were incomprehensible to ordinary people.
"I could understand magic that conjures potions, but how could there be a method to turn magic into a potion?"
Nanoda felt that what Aura said was contradictory. If true, it would overturn modern magical theory.
"Wagering my title as one of the Seven Sages of Destruction, a Great Demon of over five hundred years, and Aura the Guillotine, I am not mistaken."
Aura suddenly became serious. Experience told her that this thing was a type of magic.
"I think this matter might be related to our kin. This isn't magic that humans can cast. Also, if you say the potion's effects are real, I can tell you that potions with multiple effects do not exist. This thing isn't a potion at all."
Aura's words were filled with the confidence of experience.
"Unexpectedly, Aura is quite reliable today."
"Do you think I lived all these years for nothing?" Aura retorted grumpily. This Great Demon who claimed to be from the Mythical Era was actually less knowledgeable than herself.
The originally swaying carriage suddenly stopped, and Yuna's voice came from outside.
"We've arrived. The tavern that sells intelligence."
The three of them walked into the tavern, and a smell of alcohol and meat hit them in the face. Merchants, adventurers, travelers—all kinds of people crowded the seats, while waiters ran back and forth busily.
Following Baron Aaron's instructions, Yuna led Nanoda quietly to the back kitchen. Standing at the door was a chef wearing a tall hat and sunglasses. Leaning motionless against the doorframe, he looked out of place in this kitchen.
As soon as she entered, Yuna called out, "I came to the back kitchen to buy some special dishes."
The chef in sunglasses beside her suddenly chimed in, "Do you need the hidden menu?"
"Yes."
"If the upper beam is crooked." The sunglasses chef spoke the first half of the code.
"The house collapses," Yuna replied.
Hearing such an awkward code phrase from behind, Nanoda was speechless.
The sunglasses chef nodded and reached behind his back to press something. A secret door suddenly appeared on the floor, with faint light flashing from within.
Yuna led Nanoda and Aura inside. Seeing them enter, the sunglasses chef pressed the hidden switch again, and the secret door on the floor closed.
Inside the back kitchen, the chefs were bustling with activity. No one paid attention to Yuna's group entering the secret passage, or perhaps they deliberately ignored it.
There was a whole other world beneath the tavern. It was an underground bar, and the lively discussions from above could be faintly heard down here.
At the bar counter, a bald, one-eyed man wearing a black eyepatch was wiping a glass. The dim light illuminated his dark skin. Looking at this big bald head, Nanoda thought he looked like Aaron's long-lost brother.
"What can I get you?" The bald man spoke in a muffled voice.
"Intelligence on this item."
Nanoda placed the magic potion on the table. The bald man glanced at the potion, then at Nanoda and Aura in their black cloaks, as well as the young girl Yuna, and held up five fingers.
"Five gold coins?"
Nanoda couldn't help but exclaim that this intelligence was too expensive.
Just as she was about to take out her meager travel funds, the man spoke.
"It is fifty."
Swish. Yuna instantly drew her wrapped staff, the sharp tip resting directly against the bald man's neck.
The bald man didn't panic. He smashed the glass in his hand onto the floor, and four muscle-bound hulks walked out from behind the bar.
____
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