The Virtues' Magecraft

Page 28: The Hunters of Midgard

The air smelled different.

Different from what it did yesterday. That was the first surprise. The second surprise came as Alexander's eyes burst open. Beams of light cascaded down and pierced his sleepy eyes, leading him to quickly shut his eyelids once again.

A single second had passed before he sat upward. Alexander rushed his still-tired brain to remember everything. After training with Hjálmarr, Grisha had let them stay at the house. Confusingly, the edifice was about four times larger on the inside than it was on the outside. Also confusingly, everything there was readied and perfected for people to visit, down to a multitude of beds and rooms.

Whether Grisha was some powerful magician or some descendent of the Vanir, Alexander didn't know. Neither of those options, or anything else he had thought of, made enough sense, anyway.

Even so, now all Alexander was surrounded by was trees and grass.

Compared to the shock induced by other things Alexander had witnessed, this wasn't much. Still, none of this made sense.

Just as a precaution, he slept in his normal clothes. In case of any attack, incident, or... any situation just like this one. Anastasia also slept in her hoodie, which was reasonable for the cold nights of Vanaheim.

Still... 'What the hell?'

He quickly got up. Nothing was the same as yesterday. They hadn't moved a matter of meters or even kilometers. The trees, the smell, even the softness of the ground. It was all different.

Their location was completely different.

His jacket was still hanging on the bed frame. His shoes, bag, and sword were still laying on the ground.

As confused as he was, there wasn't exactly time to waste.

Alexander shook Anastasia awake. "You gotta get up."

With her eyes still shut, she slapped Alexander's hands off of her. "What?" she mumbled.

"We've moved."

"Huh?" she asked, sitting upright. Her eyes were still shut.

Alexander spat out a sigh and shook her once again. "Just get up, please," he said, before letting her go.

He quickly moved and woke up Hjálmarr. As soon as Alexander explained the situation, Hjálmarr's face lit up. "Well, it seems that it's a good thing I took a whole bunch of food from Grisha's home."

"...Huh?"

"I know I'm not supposed to steal, my liege, but... He had a lot of food. So I just took a lot of it," he said, reaching for the bag beside the bed. He opened it with a smile, unveiling all kinds of food and other stolen objects.

Alexander took in a silent breath. "Well... At least we won't starve to death, I guess."

"Exactly right, my liege!"

"Wait, you didn't even have a bag yesterday. Where'd you get it from?"

"Oh, I stole that too, my liege."

"..."

"...I'm sorry."

Anastasia finally got up with Hjálmarr's emphatic shouts.

"So the house... disappeared?" Anastasia asked, her eyes now just barely opened, still squinting under the morning sun.

"Yep."

"Damn," she muttered.

"Morgana," Alexander mumbled, remembering the Demon-Born girl they had met. "Have you guys seen Morgana?" he asked, turning to them.