'Calm', 'Lively', and 'Happy' Memories

Colorful banners were hung over food stalls, each having its own beautiful patterns, slogans, and drawings. Streamers that were tied to the lamp posts in the middle of the street, were connected to the stalls. Pots filled with flowers of all kinds of colors surrounded stalls and decorated the street.

You could tell from a small glance that the volunteers worked hard to make everything look nice. Mira could even hear people playing music around some outdoor cafe stalls. Everywhere the atmosphere said 'lively, calm, happy.

Her eyes brightened looking around. The sweet flower scents, the music, the happily chatting people. It seemed that the Welcoming of Spring festival was even better than last year! Mira could even see some new stalls that had games you could play for a few gold.

In the Kingdom of Zinnia, their main currency was silver and gold coins, their kingdom was founded in an ore-rich area, and Vassilis was considered a very wealthy area. While paying a few gold in other towns for something as small as game and food stalls were considered a scam, The quality of prizes and food were always worth their price.

On the other hand, Beast cores were considered to be worth at least a hundred gold coins depending on what monster class they came from. Beast cores were a currency used all over the continent since ancient times. Beast cores could only be found in C rank beasts or higher, so normal civilians usually couldn't get one by themselves.

Mira dragged Annette to some of the stalls with games. Though the streets weren't very busy yet, the line for some of these stalls were pretty long. The game at this stall was one where you had to throw darts and pop balloons, some of the prizes were put on display for people to see. Mira saw a slime plush that looked big enough to hold with both her arms and decided to make use of her skills learned at the tower to win it.

When it was her turn, Mira turned to smile at Annette, "Watch! I'll show you that my classes at The Tower weren't for nothing" She boasted, picking up one of the darts.

Annette smiled at her laughing a little at how enthusiastic Mira looked. Not forgetting to pay the gold required.

Mira steadied her arm, locking her sights on a bright red balloon, breathing deeply, she spun her mana around the dart to give it a boost and threw.

Pop!

The balloon exploded, if one looked closely, they would have seen the balloon freeze over a bit before popping. But no one really paid attention to that. In many places where mages were abundant using mana wasn't considered cheating, as it was a part of almost every person.

Mira pumped her fist into the air, and grinned cheekily at Annette, her smile saying, 'see? I did a good job right?'. Annette thought Mira looked so happy that if she had a tail it would definitely be wagging right now. Annette patted Mira on the head.

Mira continued throwing darts until she was able to pop ten, then happily chose the slime plush as her reward. The slime plush was light turquoise green, with small white and light green floral patterns, and a pair of cute white eyes. Whoever made the plushes at this stall was very talented.

Annette used a tool to shrink the plush, and store it inside the bag she brought, they then continued going to game stalls. Mira caught some luminescent goldfish at one of the stalls, she was so excited that she and Annette talked for a while trying to find good names for them, and finally came up with Coral for the pink, gold, and white fish, and Marigold for the light yellow fish. Mira couldn't wait to buy the pair a nice fish tank they could be happy in.

They had to leave the fish at the stall though, Annette feared carrying them around would be too much stimulation, and the kind stall owner agreed to give it to them when they came back later.

As time swept past, Mira started getting a bit ahead of herself, after winning many small prizes from some stalls, they came to a stall where you had to shoot a ball into a hoop, the owners called it 'basketball'. Mira had seen that among the prizes, one of the prizes was a silver ring with a flame rune inscribed, and a few others she hadn't learned in class yet, on top. She instantly thought of Ignis, and went in line to try.

Mira tried to focus, concentrating hard, trying to aim for the hoop, she again used her mana to give the ball a boost, but after the given three tries, she still couldn't get it in. She stared at the ring dejectedly, missing Ignis a bit.

Annette couldn't help it and coaxed her a bit, "Hey, it's alright, you already got a bunch of stuff right? All that matters is that you had fun. Maybe if you were a bit taller it would be easier." she smiled and rubbed Mira's head.

"You're right but... I kinda wanted to get it for Iggy. She might have liked it, that's all." Mira mumbled back, frowning.

Annette's expression softened, sighing in her heart that Ignis really was too lucky to have such a sweet adopted daughter. She again smiled at Mira, "Well, If it really means a lot to you, I'll try to get it for you. Don't worry!"

Annette's smile succeeded in comforting Mira, her heart warmed. Mira nodded her head and gave Annette a thumbs up.

When Annette got to the front of the line again, she positioned herself properly. She gripped the ball in her hand and made the basket. This continued twice more, and when she finally succeeded, Annette gave the ring to Mira in a paper bag.

They continued on their way, eating snacks and enjoying the magic performances around the streets.

The day quickly turned to night, as another dusk once again came to Vassilis. The lanterns decorated, with flowers on them, shined brightly. The street was illuminated in a festive glow.

Annette led Mira over to Primrose Center.

Primrose Center was decorated nicely, too. The fountain in the middle was tall and graceful. A man was carved in the middle of the fountain, a book in one hand, and a glass beaker in the other, some water coming out of it. On his shoulders was a dazzlingly carved dragon, blue gems in its eyes. On a plaque near the fountain, it told the story of Vassilis, and that the statue was a tribute to Kristof Vassilis.

Mira looked closely, the details were amazing. Even the dragon's eyes were made out of rare mana gems.

The stage was behind the fountain, and there was a crowd of people listening to the various music playing. As she and Annette walked closer, they could see some restaurants with outdoor tables nearby.

They settled down near a restaurant called 'The Lucky Robin', looking over what they won, and even some of the pictures they took.

Mira glanced at the sky, sipping on some lemonade, wondering how Ignis was doing.

~~~

On Ignis's side, things at Florir Village were quite disturbing.

When Ignis had arrived at the village this morning, the situation had already become more serious than stated in the reports.

After some small investigation around the missing peoples' homes, it became not just a beast problem, but also a Verdis problem. Around some of the homes, shriveled vines covered the walls, coming in and out of cracks, some having scratch marks from their victims' struggle for life. Bloody streaks from the inside of a house through the windows and into the woods was seen, too.

Verdis are a classification of plant monsters. To be classified as Verdis, a plant usually would have some consciousness and start attacking living beings they think are prey, then sucking the mana out of them. Verdis are a class A problem. The reason is, after absorbing a large amount of mana, they will spread their seeds and die. The seeds they spread are almost guaranteed to be Verdis, themselves. As they have semi-consciousness, they can also block attacks to their cores, and harden their roots and stems at will, making it impossible for a mage or hunter to attack it alone.

Thankfully, plants living long enough or absorbing enough mana to become Verdis, are very rare.

She rubbed the bridge of her nose. It had been a long time since she had dealt with a Verdis. She had still been a small disciple at the time and barely made it out alive. That time she had her master protect her.

This time it was different.

Ordinary fire wouldn't work. So she would have to use ... that again.

Ignis looked at her communication scroll. It wouldn't hurt to call some backup just in case. She knew her limits.

She wrote a small message to Eugene, asking for about three people with dark attributes to assist. Ignis wrote a small report on what she found as well, clearly stating it was an A class emergency.

Watching the words on the scroll fade, she hoped Eugene could read the words by tomorrow. They had to stop the Verdis from spreading its seeds and the seeds from germinating.

Ignis stretched her arms and made sure her dagger was at her side.

The dagger was made and refined by her master, Xenos Hart.

Xenos was a swordsman and a mage, his attributes were weak, so he used his sword as a medium. Weapons making was also his hobby.

This dagger specifically was made for her in mind. They went on a mission to kill an Inferno Wolf-beast that had gotten too powerful and was starting to attack people.

They managed to kill it and he made her the dagger out of one of the Inferno Wolf canine teeth.

After it was made that day, she had only ever gotten to use it once, and by that time it was too late.

It was the last weapon her master had ever made.

That day was the first time Ignis Verasia had ever seen the vicious creature known as a Verdis.

Ignis looked out at the full moon.

Ah... she was in a lousy mood. It wouldn't hurt to take care of the beast problem before the backup came.

Firey eyes glinted in the darkness.