Dawn in Axel came sooner than the Crimson Demon Village or Arcanretia.

For all that it was a substantial city, Arcanretia had a sleepy feel to it. Days started slowly, especially for the tourists that made up much of the population, and life had a relaxed feel if you discounted the frenzied preachers of the Axis cult.

Meanwhile, Crimson Demons tended to stay up late, thanks to their perfect night vision, and generally abhorred waking up before noon, since there wasn't much going on in the Village early in the morning anyway.

In Axel by contrast, people seemed to move with a purpose. As soon as the sun cleared the distant horizon of a river floodplain the roosters in the fruit orchards and vegetable farms outside the walls began to crow, and the town stirred. The shutters covering the storefronts went up smartly, and meanwhile the various street carts jostled and bumped into position with catcalls and cursing from their owners.

The clatter outside awoke the sleeping archwizard in her room with a start, blinking her eyes as she peered around the still dim bedroom while wondering for a brief instant where she was. Then yesterday's events popped back into her still awakening mind, and she shot bolt upright in her temporary nest of blankets on the floor.

She was here! Axel! With Wiz!

Eyes glowing with such excitement they could've lit her way even if her night vision didn't rival Chomuske's, Yunyun of the Crimson Demon Clan tossed off the blankets protecting her from the late spring chill and sprang to the trunk holding most of her current worldly possessions with a staccato thumping of feet on the old floorboards.

Mere minutes later, magic makes even the most exacting morning routine simpler and Yunyun wasn't one to fuss too much, Axel's newest resident trotted down the stairs into the store proper, dressed in one of her few casual outfits of a pleated purple skirt and black blouse. There she found her mentor and now employer unlocking the front door, a mug of tea in her pale hands, already dressed for the day in her usual purple robes.

"Good morning! You must have been exhausted to sleep through first bell!" Wiz smiled brightly.

"I…I'm s-sorry! It w-won't…"

"None of that, you had a trying day yesterday. Now if you're ready for some breakfast, there are some biscuits and cheese on the counter."

As it happened, she was, and the gentle steam rising from the biscuits in the early morning chill meant they were fresh, as though Wiz had known she was going to sleep in. Cheeks coloring at the accuracy of that guess, Yunyun helped herself to a pair of them and a wedge of cheese before filling the mug beside her plate.

Wiz sipped at her tea while letting her student wolf down her first biscuit, then went on. "The stores here tend to revolve around the adventurers' schedules. We can be very busy in the early mornings before they depart, and in the later evenings when they return, but slow the rest of the day. So, for today I'll show you around the shop and have you help watch the counter until mid morning. Then we can close temporarily and I'll introduce you around town while we get you set up at the guild."

With that, Wiz took her new apprentice around the shop on a tour. It was a quick task, since the shop wasn't large. But it was even quicker that some obvious problems began to emerge, like rats from the woodwork.

"Miss Wiz, I didn't see a ledger book, is it in the back?" With her love of numbers and puzzles, her dad had introduced her to the clan records long before, even taking her along to the capital's Longest Night festival to deliver their due to the crown for the last three years. While, like all border domains, the Crimson Demon Clan paid only a light and almost symbolic tax on the understanding that the money not given to the crown would be reinvested in the local defenses. Even so, there were still records of what went on for the royal auditors when they visited periodically. And usually as briefly as they possibly could. So compared to those the shop ledgers should be nothing.

"Oh I've never needed one, I can see what's on the shelves after all! Besides, those cost money. The bag with this year's receipts is under the counter though."

"Y…year?"

Later on, Yunyun whispered to her boss. "Miss Wiz, that long haired man in the fur jacket o-only had some tea and crackers and left…"

"Oh it's fine. A lot of adventurers live in hard times, maybe next time he'll buy something!"

Like a hole with no bottom, every new discovery deepened Yunyun's questions not only about how Wiz expected to turn a profit, but how she was able to stock her shelves at all. The glance she'd given them last night had only granted her the tip of the iceberg of strangely expensive and questionably usable products.

"…and this is a chalice that provides clean water when you channel mana into it."

"B-by a non wizard?" Wizards of any kind were somewhat rare, only about half of the low level parties had one according to her reading. Having a reliable supply of water without needing someone to cast Create Water made perfect sense.

"Oh no, a non wizard could never put enough mana in to give more than a trickle…" Hurriedly placing it back on the shelf, the shopkeeper took down another item. "Now this is a sunstone. When you place it in the light it glows, like so." And sure enough, the sunbeam Wiz set it in caused it to glow with a warm yellow light.

"Oh, it stores l-light for later? That would b-be useful in a dungeon if you didn't have to worry about torches or light spells."

"No…once you take it out of the light it stops…oh dear." Wiz trailed off awkwardly and gave the stone a mournful look. "Well! Enough of that for now, let's get you registered, yes?" she suggested, placing it back on the shelf and clapping her hands together.

"Miss Wiz…have y-you ever thought about selling your tea and baked goods too? They're really good, people would buy them…"

"Oh no dear, that's just a hobby! I could never charge people for those! Besides, there's plenty of restaurants in town, but only one magic shop!" Wiz puffed her chest impressively as she made her declaration.

Needless to say, there was a reason this was the case. Even the questionable items she stocked were hideously expensive by the standards of a newbie adventurer. Most of their few customers that morning had been more interested in watching Wiz bounce around the shop than buying anything.

"Now, we should be ok to close the shop for a bit and go to the guild. Do you have your card and coin?"

Yunyun nodded distractedly and let herself be led along as Wiz flipped the sign to 'closed' and locked up behind them, grabbing her black cape on the way out. Wiz of course bothered with no such thing no matter the temperature.


Axel in spring was a green and vibrant place, if in a different way than Yunyun's home village. Less overly wild, the signs of people's changes to the land to suit their purposes were much more obvious even though within its stone walls were a mix of houses not out of place in her home.

Arcanretia had been all lovingly crafted canals and beautiful stonework. By contrast Axel's river, which she realized she didn't know the name of yet, flowing through the middle of town was only lightly dredged and the banks reinforced only around the three bridges and where it passed through the river gate in each wall.

"Morning, Wiz!" One of the cart owners, a large pale man in a bandanna and vest, forearms dotted with grease burns from his fryer, called out. "And who's the lovely lass with you?"

"My apprentice, of course! I know I've told you about Yunyun before, Carl! She's staying with me for a while," the terrifyingly powerful lich chided him good naturedly.

"Ah hah! Well then, welcome to Axel!" A customer attracted his attention, and the pair moved on with a wave.

There were a few more encounters like that, a quick but friendly greeting in passing as they made their way downtown. Nothing out of the ordinary, just a typical routine anywhere in the kingdom. And yet, the tiny secret part of Yunyun that had still wondered, and worried, relaxed that much more with each one. More proof that Wiz lived her unlife here, that Axel was her home as much as her village was Yunyun's. That the nagging little fear that Wiz had been playing a role for everyone all these years was safe to let fade for good.

Their walk ended at the main square. The buildings here were solid and well made, though like the rest of the stonework also lacking the artistic flair of the Water City.

On arriving at the guildhall Wiz pushed open the double doors without breaking stride, revealing a large, open, stone floored hall broken up by a scattering of sturdy wooden tables and benches. The walls were a stone base with a wooden upper story, extending back to the white plastered far wall pierced by a set of windows separating the main hall from the warehouse and staff dorm behind it. Various vanquished monster trophies or even complete skeletons hung in display on the walls and from the rafters high above.

"Welcome! Hello, Wiz," the clerk, a slender brown eyed, brunette woman in a v-necked white blouse, greeted them after they walked past the handful of adventurers present. "Here for a quest?"

"Morning, Griselda. Yes, and to get my apprentice here registered and set up her account. Go ahead and introduce yourself," she nudged Yunyun.

Stressed already, at that word something clicked into place deep in Yunyun's psyche despite her having very deliberately buried it. She reflexively swept her cape back with a flourish leaving one arm outstretched, the other cocked on her hip near her holstered wand.

"Know that I am Yunyun! Archwizard of…". At that point her conscious mind caught up with her, and her introduction sputtered to a halt. The blood drained from Yunyun's face as her breathing seized up with a squeak, her eyes wide and glowing in mortification almost beyond words, her face red as her eyes.

After a short, painfully awkward pause, she presented her card for verification and money she wanted deposited. "S…sorry. I-I forgot w-where I w-was. My n-name is Yunyun, p-pleased to m-meet you…" she continued barely above a whisper.

Wiz meanwhile was firmly biting her lip to prevent even the ghost of a smile, heaven forbid a laugh, from escaping as she placed a consoling hand on her shoulder while the check was carried out. After a few seconds, Griselda gave a polite nod to the card's owner and passed it back. With tightly maintained professionalism she went on, "It's an honor to have one of your clan here with us, Yunyun. Your stats are impressive, I know you'll do very well here. Welcome to the Axel branch."

"T…thank you…" With that, she shuffled back and let Wiz take her place.

"As for me, I'm here about the Beginner's Bane quest. I didn't see it on the board yesterday, did someone deal with it?"

Griselda closed her eyes and sighed. "No. The party that went after it came back that morning. If they hadn't been lucky enough to have a priest with them…" she shook her head of the memory. "Ugly even with one, especially since they say there's two of them now. The deputy guildmaster finally got permission to forbid any more quests against them."

Wiz smiled grimly. "Good for Luna, it's about time. If I happen to run across them while I'm out on some other quest…"

"I'm told the guild will be happy to work something out, as usual."

The two shook hands, leaving a puzzled Yunyun to follow her mentor back out into the street as they took their leave.

"Well! And there you have it, you're an official adventurer! Congratulations!"

Yunyun forced a smile, the memory of her accidental Crimson Demon style introduction still fresh. "T-thanks. What did she mean, about working something out?" The guild couldn't know about her, there was no way they'd let a lich live in town, right?

"I may have retired…a few years ago. But the Ice Witch still keeps her hand in! Not on the official quests, since the new blood need all of those they can get, but ever since I moved here I handle anything too dangerous for the local adventurers to deal with. Not officially, no sense in giving anyone foolish thoughts about taking them on themselves, but…well you get the idea."

Yunyun had the sense not to mention that most adventurers retired at fou….twice twenty, she'd made that mistake once before, for good reasons. But in Wiz's case she supposed that really didn't apply. Though that did raise the question of if there was still money coming in from big quests, where it was going…

Forcibly banishing that thought for fear of the answers it might lead to, Yunyun instead enjoyed the scenic walk back to the shop. They took a different path home this time, making a fresh series of greetings and encounters as they went.

Wiz led them to a shop with a stylized saw and hammer painted on its sign, the usual sounds of a carpenter's shop greeting the women as they entered.

"Welcome! What can I do for you ladies?" the clerk asked, probably an apprentice judging by the scars and calluses on his hands, and the slightly disheveled red hair as if he'd just changed shirts.

"Good morning, I'd like to order a bed frame and small wardrobe for my apprentice here," Wiz answered cheerfully, raising her usually soft voice to be heard over the din. "And perhaps a nightstand?" she asked Yunyun, who was already shaking her head vigorously. "I won't have you buying your own furniture to stay with me, it's absurd," Wiz chided her.

"I…I can't make you pay for that?!" Yunyun exclaimed. "I still have t-the carriage and inn fees I didn't need since you picked me up. I'll use those," her apprentice countered.

Wiz didn't look thrilled at that idea, but the sad truth was that her month's bottom line would look…less awful…if she didn't have to add some simple furniture to the total.

"Just the inn and carriage fees. I'll cover the remainder. As an adventurer you should always have a nest egg to fall back on," she reluctantly agreed, in a staggering display of 'do as I say, not as I do.'

"Alright then, a bed, wardrobe, and small nightstand. Will you need a mattress too? If you buy one from Anthony's across from us I can make it worth the while."

"Y-yes, please. Nothing e-extravagant, I really just want the bed. Maybe e-even just some plain wood boxes that slide underneath it for storage instead of the wardrobe?"

"Get both, you'll need a place for extra gear," Wiz advised, and the clerk nodded with a widening smile at the extra sale.

"Done! We'll bring the boxes over with the bed, which you'll be wanting first?"

Both women nodded, so he went on. "No problem. We can get started on that maybe two days from now, once that project finishes up and we have a free apprentice or two," he pointed a thumb behind him towards the sounds of carpentry in action. "By massday for certain."

Even Yunyun agreed she'd like a proper cornsilk stuffed mattress as soon as possible, so after bidding him farewell they went across to the cloth store and picked one up as instructed. Noon found them carrying the rolled up bedding between them through the shop's front door and up the stairs, Yunyun rolling it out and positioning it as she liked while Wiz made tea.

Once she was finished, that left Yunyun to wipe down the counter and generally straighten up what little needed to be done. The products on the shelves were barely jostled from the few customers, fortunately given the number of dangerous concoctions in the store. She really needed to talk Wiz into moving those behind the counter.

As if the thought summoned her, the lich came bustling from the little kitchen out back with their tea.

"Now then, the other thought I had for today is summoning your familiar."

Yunyun perked up. The Red Prison had covered how they were summoned, but familiars were uncommon among wizards, even in her clan. Megumin had Chomusuke, of course, but they were more or less pets. Curiosities, or companions, not any kind of essential part of a wizard's repertoire.

"In my trade, it's important to have a symbolic link to the other side." She touched the bat shaped brooch that Yunyun had always assumed was just a piece of jewelry. "In my case, to the night, the dark. In your case…well we'll see what you get."

She picked up her tea and beckoned Yunyun to follow her to the back room. She hadn't seen this place on the tour earlier, just assuming it was where all the old junk that had been in her current room had ended up. That was true, but only partially. There was a clear floor space in the middle, just big enough for the both of them.

Wiz crouched, and began quickly sketching a circle freehand on the smooth wood. No compass or calipers, or even a string, just strictly by eye and experience. She made it easy to forget, but the Ice Witch commanded respect in the wizard community even a generation after her official retirement, and it was she who spoke next once she finished, not the penniless shopkeeper.

"Done. You'll notice this circle is different from the one you were taught, and draws somewhat more mana. These four runes are added, and this one reversed to add the additional attunement needed."

Seeing Yunyun understood the alterations, she went on. "Now, place your hands on the circle, and when I give the word channel enough mana for a Wind Blade into it." Seeing her apprentice do so, Wiz stepped back behind Yunyun.

"Begin."

Yunyun did, and immediately the circle began to glow with a soft red light, moving up the color spectrum as one sigil after another activated until it stopped at a pale blue. She glanced at Wiz, who nodded after a quick glance to make sure all was well.

Pursing her lips, Yunyun fed in more mana, the glow steadily brightening as a shape began to form at the center. Then it ended, the light vanishing like a switch had been thrown, leaving only the mundane chalk lines on the wood.

And a raven. With its head cocked and turning its gaze, in the sudden way birds had, from one part of the room to another before settling on Yunyun.

"Ah, well done! Just a moment!" Wiz congratulated her, stepping from where she had been watching from behind her to the kitchen, swiftly returning with a piece of leftover biscuit and handing it to Yunyun.

The young archwizard offered the treat to her prospective familiar in her cupped hands. For a moment the bird cocked its head, eyeing the morsel, then hopped forward and halted out of arm's reach. It paused again, as if weighing up the situation, then in a burst of motion and scattered feathers seized the biscuit in its beak and launched itself airborne and away from her, coming to rest on the edge of a stack of crates and boxes in the far corner of the room. Still eyeing the pair with one golden eye, it began pecking its food.

"Let's leave him for a while and give him some time to adjust, " Wiz suggested, plucking a feather off her robes and gesturing Yunyun out, but leaving the door open. "Meanwhile you can think about a name."

"I didn't know you had a familiar," Yunyun whispered once they were in the store, glancing back fretfully into the storeroom over her shoulder as if her new companion might bolt at any moment.

"Nibbles is asleep during the day, and doesn't usually travel with me. He's in the attic right now, probably wondering what all the commotion is. I'll show you how to make the charm to firm up your connection later." Wiz neglected to mention that the connection should've formed immediately. The familiar should recognize who summoned it and be drawn to them, else they wouldn't have responded to the summoning at all. But years ago, Yunyun had told her mentor a story about a sunflower running away from her. At the time she had been certain the girl had been exaggerating, but now she wondered…

Still, there was nothing for it except to let things resolve as they would. Worst comes to worst, they could just turn the animal loose and try again, possibly with Wiz putting her metaphorical thumb on the scales this time.


After a hurried lunch of leftovers from breakfast, due to the time spent in town, there were another handful of customers once they opened back up for the afternoon but only one sale.

The bell over the door tinkled a bit before their usual closing time at the fifth bell. A young wizard stood in the doorway, looking around the shop for a moment before spotting Yunyun behind the counter and striding over. She looked a few years older than the Crimson Demon, a little taller though more slender. Her light equipment of an unbuttoned green jacket over a shirt and black shorts marked her as a wizard as surely as the wand at her belt did.

"H-hello, are you l-looking for something i-in particular?" the newly minted shopgirl asked.

"Oh! A Crimson Demon? I didn't know any were even out here in the sticks," the wizard noted curiously. "Anyway, I'm looking for a flammable potion."

Yunyun frowned. That…really didn't narrow things down much. They had a very wide selection of very flammable things in the shop, which someone without her background would probably have found very alarming.

"We have a few potions like that," she replied, somewhat understating the point. "Were you looking for one in particular?"

"Nah, not really. I don't want to waste any points getting Basic Magic if I can help it, so if you've got something fairly cheap that's better than plain lamp oil that's all I need."

'More flammable than lamp oil is no problem, as for cheap…' Yunyun thought for a second, then went over to the rack of bottles and ran a finger down the labels. After a moment she hesitated, then picked one and held it out.

"T-this might do. It's the cheapest, and it's definitely more flammable than lamp oil and burns even if the wood is soaking wet. But you must be careful with it, dropping the bottle will set it off like a Fireball," her stutter faded as the conversation shifted to familiar ground. She'd always been good with potions, they worked on a set of clear rules and rewarded precision and care. Though somehow never as good as her best rival, who was famous for neither…

The wizard girl flinched back, showing excellent sense. "That's…good to know but maybe something a little more…stable?"

"Ah, in that case you want this," Yunyun immediately exchanged that bottle for another. "This one is a little more expensive, but unlikely to burn if you mishandle it. It does need dry fuel though, is that ok?"

"That sounds perfect, I'll take two."

With that, the sale was completed and the customer left happy, judging by the swishing of her brown ponytail and a raccoon-like tail, that Yunyun hadn't realized she had, on the way out.

And that was what was important.

Earlier that morning Wiz had put together a stew of toad brisket and potato dumplings in what locals called a dutch oven, despite there being no Dutch for light years to anyone's knowledge, and buried it in the banked embers of the hearth to cook throughout the day.

With the day finally finished, Wiz sent Yunyun out for fresh bread, then closed up shop and dug the oven back out, setting the stew out on the table in the tiny kitchen. Tiny enough the table folded down from one wall in fact, the chairs stacking in a corner when not in use.

Soon enough, her apprentice returned from her first errand, and her purchase, along with some cider, made a worthy feast to celebrate Yunyun's first day on the job.

"Have you thought of what you're going to name him?" Wiz asked as they ate .

"N-no…not yet," the young archwizard replied sadly, pointedly not looking at the storeroom even though she'd been sneaking glances at the door every chance she got all afternoon.

Yunyun looked back down at her admittedly very good stew and bread, and tried to enjoy them. But her heart wasn't in it. It felt like despite everything, a new place, new people, new life, history was repeating itself.

And as the only thing that stayed the same, who else could she blame for it but herself?

She spooned up her dinner mechanically, not really tasting it, as quickly as she could.

"If I'm g-going to be up at first bell I should probably get ready for bed," she said softly as soon as she finished. Sunset had been less than an hour ago, and even at that time of year the first bell was at least ten hours away, easily putting the lie to the idea.

But Wiz nodded, and wished her goodnight.


That night, Yunyun's fitful slumber was interrupted by a tapping at her door. Groggily blinking, she didn't notice it seemed to be originating at around ankle level until she had already opened up.

In a flutter of wings, the raven flew inside, alighting on the closed trunk in the corner to regard her critically, head cocked. After a moment, it seemed satisfied, and hopped down onto the pile of her worn clothes she'd folded beside the trunk, shifting and rustling itself into the folds of the shift on top until it decided it was satisfied, then closed its eyes and settled into its new nest.

"Y-you'd better not stain that, it's new," Yunyun whispered chidingly, the brilliant smile gave her new companion belying the complaint.

Crawling back into her blankets, she too rustled around until she was comfortable, even the mattress on the bare floor a big improvement over the few blankets from the night before.

As she drifted off, she picked up her musing again from earlier that day.

'Stain…black…Maybe I'll call him Ink…'