Ethereal Ascendance: A Journey of Transformation(1-3VOL)

Nicola Has Things on Her Mind

Maybe it was just a coincidence, or maybe it wasn't.

Precisely because the whole square was so quiet now, lacking the usual noisy hustle and bustle, I could vaguely hear a girl's shrill voice coming from the lakeside across from the Adventurers' Guild.

What was going on here? Could some girl have had an accident? And that voice sounded a little familiar too.

"Ahhhhh!"

I hurried towards where the voice was coming from, and sure enough, in front of a bench by the lake, I saw a tall, shapely girl screaming at the lake surface all by herself.

"Nicola?"

I wasn't quite sure, so I slowly approached her while calling out her name, trying to get a clear look at her face in the dim light around us.

"Hmm...who are you?"

The other party had been drinking from an enormous wine bottle. Hearing my voice, she gave a start, hastily putting down the bottle in her hand and turning to look in my direction.

"Looking for me...what's up?"

It was her. I'd been looking for her all evening but hadn't been able to find her, yet here by chance, I'd run into her.

A huge weight instantly lifted from my chest. I hurried over to her side.

"How come you ran over here to drink alcohol? Do you know how long I was looking for you?"

The moment she saw it was me, she immediately went back to normal, not saying a word and just continuing to pour wine down her throat.

Only when I got close did I see that what she held in her hand was a very expensive red wine.

I'd gone to the town's tavern once before. That enormous bottle on the wine cabinet had been particularly eye-catching, and it even had an arrogant-sounding name:

"Ray of Light from Saint."

Of course the price was nothing to sneeze at either, a full 300 silvers.

"It hasn't even been that long, and you're randomly spending money again! And buying such expensive alcohol too,"

Seeing that she was still stuck in her old habits of being a prodigal young master, it looked like she just couldn't change the lifestyle she was used to. I really had no choice but to let it go.

"Just what is going on here? I went to the arcade to look for you, and they told me you left in the afternoon already. And you didn't even eat dinner?"

"......"

She ignored me, but I couldn't just leave like this. I could only sit down beside her first, and the two of us stared out at the royal castle erected in the center of the lake without saying a word to each other for the longest time.

"I...I got rejected."

Putting down the wine bottle, Nicola's first sentence gave me a huge shock.

"Huh? Rejected? Did you try confessing your love to some girl again?"

A series of confused questions in succession. Although she was a girl now, I certainly didn't believe she would have gone to confess to a guy. That lecherous attitude of hers from the beginning made it obvious.

"Not a confession of love! Just...just an ordinary chat-up attempt. But I got...got rejected..."

"A chat-up?"

I seemed to understand something now. I immediately recalled what I'd overheard that girl say this evening. Rumour has it there's recently been a female pervert going around...