The Unicorn Legion Vol 2 Chapter 3

Message that Transcended Time

The door opened by itself, a completely black cat came in, jumping lightly onto the Grand Mage’s shoulder.

“Mewlice,”(1) the Grand Mage petted the cat’s head absentmindedly, saying softly, “we have guests, I’ll play with you in a moment.”

Hearing the cat’s name, the elf lifted his eyes towards him.

“… Mr.Cavendish, does the Academy keep records of students after they have graduated?”

“Though we do keep records according to procedure, but some people don’t come back to report, so it’s not complete. Why?”

“I want to ask, about what happened to a mage called Anna Teal.”

The Grand Mage looked at him, then smiled slightly.

“I should have realized earlier, you must be Mr Dawntracker. – There is a letter here for you.”

He stood up, searching through the rows of books, then from inside a thick book, took out a well preserved parchment passing it over to the elf.

“It’s from my teacher… fifty years ago. If you had come a few years later, I fear this mission would be passed along to my apprentice.”

The elf took the paper looking down, and immediately had difficulty breathing.

There was no writing on the parchment, with simple childish drawing, on the middle of the parchment was a girl with a pair of animal ears on her head.

“Mr.Dawntracker?” the Grand Mage looked at him, asking in concern, “Do you need to rest? You don’t look so well.”

“It’s nothing,” the elf shook his head, “… Please excuse me for a moment.”

He walked out the door unsteadily. The knight stood up, nodding to the Grand Mage, and left following after the elf.

The Grand Mage took in his surroundings. Mewlice was already sitting on the siren’s lap, purring contentedly, under the attention of the youth’s petting fingers.

“Now then, Mr.Dwarf over there,” the Grand Mage suddenly said, “You have been staring at me since some time ago, did you want to say something?”

The dwarf pushed back the chair and stood up, spilling the cup of tea on the table.

“Ellen! Where are you going?”

The elf continued to walk forward, his head down, walking quickly – this is probably the first time he had ignored the knight’s call. The knight felt that this was even stranger, finally he could only widen his steps to catch up to the elf, reaching out he grabbed his shoulders.

“Ellen!”

As if he had just noticed the knight’s existence, the elf stopped, turning to look at him.

“Cain,” he said in an absentminded voice, “it’s Anna. – The letter was written by Anna. My… teammate in the past.”

He could feel the elf’s thin shoulder shaking slightly under his hand, noticing this, the knight’s heart clenched.

Please, God –

Even though the past can’t be changed, at least don’t let this letter be bad news.

Don’t add more burden onto him.

Even when he was a paladin, the knight had no memory of ever praying so desperately.

The elf took a deep breath, steadying his emotions, brushing his finger across the picture on the parchment, and chanted the incantation for a breeze spell.

Following his chant, ink on the parchment started to disperse, once it had disappeared, new words started to form.

“Ellen!!!! You big fat liar!!!!”

There was a lot of exclamation marks. The elf could imagine the golden haired girl standing in front of him, her face full of anger.

“But since you still remember to come to the Mage Academy to ask after me, I’ll forgive you, hmph.

In these two hundred years I’ve spent a lot of time researching on magical healing, about your situation, probably no one understands more than I.

In light of how you’ve always been so reckless, I think I should tell you this.

These words only appear once! Memorize it!

Physically, the loss of your stamina, sensitivity and so on is not permanent, you can probably regain your full power after training for a while. The decrease in magical power is more severe, but considering you’re not a mage, this part can be ignored.

All magical defense is also decreased by a certain percentage, that means the damage you take from magic will be higher than before, probably around twenty percent. Chaos magic could reach up to thirty percent. So don’t run around trying to fight mages by relying on your agility, if you get hit it’ll really hurt a lot. Please let the knight in your team know this.

Some additional information regarding resistance, Light Magic, meaning buffing and healing magic are exceptions.(2) When these two are cast on you, their effect would only be a little over half their original strength. The healing rate of your injury would also be significantly slower – tell your priest not to cry, it’s not his/her fault.

Also, about absorbing energy from the Spirit Stone of the Moon, all our plans have failed. In conclusion, other than through natural process, there is no other way to wake you up earlier. Sorry.

But don’t feel sorry for me, I haven’t wasted these two hundred years. Because Yang · Wolfin(3) is the ‘Werewolf Anna’, were you able to guess? I’m the Grand Mage. What, you don’t believe me? How could you?!

… Alright, I didn’t believe myself at first either.

Lastly, and most importantly, since you are reading this letter now, then one thing has been proven.”

The ink started to disappear and appear again, the words became even larger.

“Congratulations! You did it! In the battle against the ‘Death Dragon’, the curse didn’t take effect, all the members of the ‘Unicorn Legion’ are alive! A round of applause!”

The knight reached out an arm to circle around the elf’s waist, pulling his wavering body against his own.

“… Then I have no regrets,” the elf leaned his head against his shoulder, saying softly, “everything was worth it.”

“It’s not finished yet.” The knight watched as new words started appearing on the parchment again, replying.

“I can’t say more, I’m about to enter a long sleep.

A werewolf’s lifespan, could only take me to this point.

I feel a little dissatisfied, if I could live for a few decade more, than I could have seen you wake up.

But, that’s fine, because at this moment, someone must be standing by your side witnessing everything.

–Ellen’s future team mate, please take care of him in our place.

Because he is our important family member, the best comrade, and an idiot who doesn’t know how to take care of himself.”

“… I couldn’t agree more.” The knight said.

The elf didn’t argue, only turned his face as if to hide, and continued reading.

“Also: We have left something for you here, you have to go get it.

But in order not to let someone else take it, we might have added a bit too many traps.

So, for safety’s sake, wait till you’ve gathered six people before going.

Warning! This is no joke!

–It really is dangerous!”

The words disappeared, the ink gathered to form a new picture. After a few minutes, no new changes appeared. In the end the parchment settled into a map of the continent. At a far corner, was a small mark of a star.

–Anna Teal.

Joined in the second year of the formation of the ‘Unicorn Legion’, a fourteen year old mage apprentice.

Rather than say that she volunteered to join, it was better to say that she begged the legion to let her stay in order to cover up the changes caused by being bitten by a werewolf.

Her personality was too kind, it could almost be said to be weak.  She missed the Mage Academy, missed the kitten, Mewlice, that she took in, and would cry in her bed every night until she’s a mess.

The first time she witnessed someone killed, because of her sharpened senses, she threw up for the whole day. And couldn’t recover even after the Priestess Rita cast several soothing spells.

No one could blame her, after all she was just a fourteen year old child, to be able to hold on is already uncommonly brave.

But in this type of environment, she grew with astonishing speed. In the fifth year of the legion’s founding, she was already one of the main fighting forces in the team. Also, whether it was because of the change in environment, or the effect of werewolf blood, even her personality had changed to become more energetic and outgoing.

Even though she has a forthright appearance, she was especially keen on details and had sharp instincts.

The night before the battle against the ‘Death Dragon’, she had forced the elf to make all kinds of promises, that ‘everyone will survive’ must also include the elf himself.

–He almost didn’t get past her.

Of course, strictly speaking, the elf didn’t lie, just hid the fact that he would fall into a long sleep.

But to her, to everyone else in the ‘Unicorn Legion’, it was actually a lie.

He had completely spent up the ten years of trust from everyone, leaving behind a letter of farewell.

Other than detailing the ritual needed to awaken him, it was all full of apologies.

There was a large possibility, that they would live, he would as well, but with no chance of reunion.

It couldn’t be said they were separated by death, nor did they part ways in life.(4)

They were just, separated by three hundred years of time.

Chapter end