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「The sun is shiningg, wake uppppp-」

A vague muffled voice sounded, but it gradually grew louder and clearer until it pierced inside Mira’s mind.

「Hngh… what is it?」

Mira had gotten less sleep than usual thanks to helping the spirits, so even as her eyes opened she was still sleepy, which prompted her to hug her blanket and curl into a ball.

「Hey now! It’s really bright outside already so it’s time to depart!」

Sasori was like the opposite of Mira, already full of energy as she shook Mira’s body to hurry her on her feet.

「Why so noisy early in the morning…」

Unable to keep sleeping in silence, Mira erected her upper body and turned to look at the modern Japanese style clock on the wall. It was already slightly past six in the morning. She then turned to look out of the window, daybreak had already passed, and the surface of the lake dazzled with bright spots reflecting the morning sun. That glittering scene made Mira squint her eyes, before she rubbed them with the back of her hands.

「Mm… it’s still too early.」

Muttering that Mira fell on her side again, but Sasori quickly shook her body while pleading 「Wake up, make us flyy.」 That was the main reason why Sasori was so desperate to wake Mira up. Without her, no one could summon Garuda to make them continue with their journey.

「Alright, alright.」

They were still a considerable distance away from their destination, so Mira figured that even if she was unable to continue sleeping now, she would be able to catch some more rest while they traveled, so she crawled out of her bed and stood up.

「How’s it going? Is the little lady awake yet?」

At the same time, Arlon peeked through the window.

「Ah… Sorry!」

He instantly turned around and fell on his knees, realizing he had made the gravest mistake of his life. His eyes had captured all of Mira’s alluring bare figure, only covered by a mere piece of black underwear. Hearing him, Sasori threw a pillow to his head. The soft blow made Arlon lose his balance, falling from the wagon face first onto the ground. Some time after that short bout, the four finished their morning preparations and took off towards the Mirage Maze.

Thanks to Garuda, there were no setbacks as the group headed there, until a few hours later when Garuda began calling out.

「Hm, what’s going on?」

Hearing that, Mira woke up and made her way through Sasori and the rest, opening the driver’s platform door. They were very high in the air, but thanks to Garuda’s power the wind felt calm, and it was easy to gaze into the distance.

「Huh, what’s that?」

Ahead of them, there was a giant tornado just in the path they were taking. Everywhere else the sky looked calm and beautiful, but that one spot ahead of them was covered by a raging storm threatening all life. It was clearly not a natural phenomenon.

「What is it?」

Arlon peeked from above Mira’s head, but he quickly saw what was ahead of them and asked a quizzical 「The heck is that?」

「Where did that come from?」
「Baffling.」

Sasori and Hebi also came after Arlon, wondering similar things as him. Though there was hardly anything else to say seeing something so bizarre.

「Wait, isn’t that exactly where the Mirage Maze is?」

There were grassy plains spreading far away below them, with a small river going through them. Following the river upstream, a white snowy mountain range could be seen. Arlon was able to identify that location, speaking as he looked at where the tornado hit the ground.

「Hm… you’re right. This place does look familiar.」

Mira also looked more carefully and agreed with Arlon’s assessment. The tornado was at the very entrance of the Mirage maze, or probably enshrouding the entire dungeon. At first glance, it was clear the violent tornado would be hard to get through, effectively sealing and blocking the Mirage Maze from the outside.

「Isn’t that really bad for us though?」

Sasori’s face clouded over the more she looked at the tornado. This bode very bad news for them if this was a sign of Chimera Clauzen being there. And considering they usually liked to cover all their movements and were always stealthy, it was easy to assume this time they purely wanted to keep people away from there. In other words, they had reached the point where they did not care if they attracted a lot of attention to themselves as long as they got to their target. They had to hurry, anyone could tell there was not much time seeing that.

「I heard Garuda has the power to control the wind, do you think that could help in any way?」

Arlon looked at Garuda flapping its wings above them as he spoke. Garuda did have a power like that, thanks to it the wagon did not sway under the wind and the trip was comfortable, but looking at the strong tornado ahead, Mira shook her head.

「There’s a limit to how much it can take. If we plunge inside there we’ll lose control.」

If it was a smaller, natural tornado, it would have been possible. But a man-made tornado of an undefined magnitude was beyond Mira and Garuda’s powers.

「Ah! Mira, land on that spot where the river makes a sharp turn.」

Sasori seemed to notice something, pointing at a certain spot on the river’s shore with her finger while telling Mira to land there.

「Hmm, alright.」

Mira looked in that direction and told Garuda to land on the spot Sasori had pointed at. As they got closer to the ground, the gusts from Garuda’s wings violently shook the grass below and created ripples on the river before the wagon stopped. When they touched the ground, Sasori jumped off the wagon and unsheathed a dagger, which she promptly struck into the ground. She then wrapped a yellow piece of cloth around the dagger’s handle, then ran into the forest nearby with her hands lifted up for a while before she lowered her right hand.

「What kind of ritual is that?」

Mira also jumped off the wagon after sending Garuda home, and seeing Sasori’s puzzling movements she asked Hebi while knitting her eyebrows.

「That’s a signal for our comrades. Saying this place is secure and we want to talk with them.」