Finding the Rubery waterfall turned out to be significantly more challenging than Kai had anticipated.
"Just outside of town," he muttered for what felt like the hundredth time, pushing through another cluster of bushes that looked exactly like the dozen others he'd already investigated. "Can't miss it, the bard said. Only major water source in the area, he said."
The problem, as Kai was slowly discovering, was that "just outside of town" could mean a lot of different things depending on which direction you chose to explore. He'd already spent the better part of two hours wandering through forests, meadows, and rocky outcroppings that all looked frustratingly similar in the fading evening light.
*Maybe I should have asked for more specific directions,* he thought, wiping sweat from his forehead as he climbed over yet another fallen log. *Or maybe I should have waited until morning when I could actually see where I was going.*
But something about the urgency in Elias's voice had made waiting seem impossible. The mysterious woman with blue eyes and orange hair was supposedly at this waterfall, and after everything he'd been through to get this far, Kai wasn't about to delay the meeting any longer than necessary.
It was the sound that finally guided him in the right direction—a distant rumbling that grew steadily louder as he pushed deeper into the wilderness surrounding Rubery. Not quite thunder, but something rhythmic and powerful that seemed to call to him through the darkening forest.
*Water,* he realized with a surge of relief. *Finally.*
The trees began to thin as he approached the source of the sound, revealing glimpses of something that made him quicken his pace despite his exhaustion. Light seemed to be dancing between the branches ahead—not the steady glow of fire or mana crystals, but something fluid and ever-changing that painted shifting patterns across the forest floor.
When Kai finally emerged into the clearing that housed the Rubery waterfall, his breath caught in his throat.
It was beyond anything he could have imagined.
The waterfall itself was impressive enough—easily sixty feet of cascading water that crashed down from a rocky cliff face into a crystal-clear pool below. But what left Kai speechless wasn't the natural beauty of the scene. It was what someone was doing with all that water.
The entire waterfall was dancing.
Streams of water flowed upward in graceful spirals, defying gravity as they twisted and turned through the air like liquid ribbons. Droplets sparkled in mid-flight, forming complex patterns that shifted and evolved with each passing second. The sound of rushing water had been transformed into something resembling music—a symphony of splash and flow that created rhythms more beautiful than anything Kai had ever heard.
And at the center of it all, floating serenely in the air above the pool, was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen.
She appeared to be roughly his age, with a slender figure draped in an elegant green frock and white top that seemed to glow in the magical light surrounding her. Her orange hair was long and lustrous, braided at the top with loose strands framing a face that looked like it had been carved by artists who understood perfection. Her skin was pale and flawless, seeming to emit its own soft radiance.
But it was her eyes that truly captured Kai's attention. They were the most striking shade of blue he had ever encountered—not just blue, but somehow starry, as if tiny points of light were dancing within them like distant constellations.
*That's her,* Kai thought, his mind going completely blank as he stared at the impossible scene before him. *That's definitely her.*
The girl moved with the grace of someone who had been born to command the elements, her delicate hands weaving patterns in the air that the water followed with perfect obedience. She seemed completely absorbed in her performance, lost in the joy of creation as she painted masterpieces from liquid and light.
Kai stood transfixed, watching this divine display of magical artistry while his brain struggled to process what he was seeing. This wasn't just magic—this was magic elevated to the level of high art, performed by someone whose connection to her element was so complete that the boundary between caster and spell had essentially disappeared.
*She's incredible,* he thought, taking an unconscious step forward for a better view. *I've never seen anything so—*
His foot landed on a dry branch.
**CRACK.**
The sound echoed through the clearing like a gunshot, instantly shattering the serene atmosphere. The girl's concentration broke, her eyes snapping open with surprise as her perfect control over the dancing waters wavered.
"Oh no," Kai breathed, watching in horror as the intricate patterns of flowing water began to collapse.
What followed was chaos.
Without the girl's magical guidance, the levitating water fell back to earth all at once, creating a massive splash that soaked everything within fifty feet of the pool. The girl herself, no longer supported by her own magic, plummeted toward the rocky ground with a startled cry.
She hit the earth with a tremendous **THUMP** that made Kai wince in sympathy.
"Are you okay?" he called out, rushing toward where she had fallen while trying to avoid slipping on the now-wet rocks.
"I'm fine!" came the immediate response, though the voice was somewhat muffled by the fact that its owner was currently lying face-down in a patch of mud.
Before Kai could reach her, the girl had pushed herself upright and was already launching into what appeared to be a prepared speech delivered at machine-gun speed.
"Who-the-hell-are-you-and-what-are-you-doing-here-do-you-have-any-idea-how-long-I've-been-working-on-that-routine-you-can't-just-sneak-up-on-people-when-they're-practicing-complex-magic-what-if-I'd-been-doing-something-dangerous-you-could-have-gotten-us-both-killed-don't-you-have-any-sense-of-basic-courtesy-or—"
Kai's brain shut down somewhere around the fifteenth consecutive word. It wasn't that the girl was being rude—her tone, while rapid-fire, didn't carry any real malice. It was just that between her incredible beauty and the musical quality of her voice, he found himself completely unable to focus on the actual content of her complaints.
*She sounds like music,* he thought dreamily. *Even when she's angry, she sounds like the most beautiful song ever written.*
"—and furthermore you interrupted what was going to be the culminating sequence of my entire practice session which I've been building up to for weeks now so you better have a really good explanation for—"
"Um," Kai managed to interject when she paused to take a breath. "Are you the woman with blue eyes and orange hair?"
The rapid-fire complaint stream came to an abrupt halt.
For several seconds, they stared at each other in silence. The girl's extraordinary blue eyes narrowed with suspicion while her mud-stained face shifted through a series of expressions that ranged from confusion to alarm.
"What kind of question is that?" she demanded, scrambling to her feet with considerably less grace than she'd displayed while floating in mid-air. "Are you some kind of kidnapper? Stalker? How do you even know what I look like?"
"What? No!" Kai protested, raising his hands in what he hoped was a peaceful gesture. "I'm not a kidnapper! I was sent here by someone!"
"Sent by who? And why are you asking about my appearance like you were given a description?" Her voice was rising with each question, and Kai noticed that the water in the pool behind her was beginning to bubble ominously. "Are you working for someone who's been watching me?"
"Look, this is all a big misunderstanding," Kai said quickly, trying to project calm and reasonableness despite the fact that his heart was hammering with panic. "Let me introduce myself properly. I'm Atsuya Kai, and I came from very far away to—"
He caught himself just before revealing too much, remembering Juno's warnings about keeping his origins secret.
"—to travel around and see the world," he finished awkwardly.
The girl's suspicious expression didn't change. "A traveler. Right. And you just happened to be looking for someone matching my exact description because...?"
"Because someone told me I should meet you?" Kai offered weakly.
Despite her obvious irritation, the girl seemed to decide that basic politeness required her to at least exchange names. "I'm Olivia Wolf," she said, though her tone suggested this was more of a temporary truce than actual friendliness.
*Olivia,* Kai repeated mentally, feeling his heart skip a beat. *Even her name is beautiful.*
"Olivia-chan," he said aloud, then immediately launched into what his panicking brain apparently thought was charming conversation. "You know, fate really works in mysterious ways, doesn't it? I mean, what are the odds that I'd be looking for the most beautiful girl in the world and then stumble across her practicing magic at a waterfall like some kind of divine water spirit?"
Olivia's cheeks flushed pink, though whether from embarrassment or anger was difficult to determine.
"Did you just... are you trying to flirt with me?" she asked, her voice carrying a note of disbelief. "I'm covered in mud, you're dressed like a homeless person, and we literally just met thirty seconds ago!"
"Sometimes love transcends physical circumstances," Kai replied with what he imagined was devastating romantic sincerity. "Besides, you look incredible even covered in mud. I can only imagine how gorgeous you must be when you're not, you know, falling out of the sky."
The pink flush deepened to red. "You're weird," Olivia announced, though she seemed more flustered than truly annoyed. "And you still haven't explained why you were asking about my appearance or who sent you to find me."
"Right, that," Kai said, his brief moment of romantic confidence evaporating as he remembered that he still needed to complete his actual mission. "Well, you see, I was told to look for someone with your exact description and—"
"And that doesn't sound creepy to you at all?" Olivia interrupted. "Some stranger sends you to find a girl based on her looks and you don't think there might be something wrong with that situation?"
Kai opened his mouth to respond, then realized she had a very good point.
"Okay, when you put it like that, it does sound pretty suspicious," he admitted. "But I promise it's not what you think! The person who sent me is completely trustworthy and—"
"Who?" Olivia demanded, her earlier fluster replaced by genuine concern. "Who exactly sent you to find me?"
Kai hesitated. Juno had warned him about revealing too much information, but how was he supposed to explain the situation without mentioning the person who'd actually given him directions?
"Also," Olivia continued, studying his appearance with new attention, "why are you dressed like that? Those pants are way too big for you, and that robe looks like you stole it from someone's laundry line."
"Well, uh..." Kai fumbled for an explanation that wouldn't make him sound even more suspicious. "The pants belonged to this guy who was helping me out, but they got a bit old and worn, so I guess they do look kind of homeless now..."
"What guy?" Olivia pressed.
Kai realized he was trapped. There was no way to explain his situation without mentioning Juno, and no way to avoid mentioning Juno without sounding like he was hiding something important.
"His name is Juno," he said finally. "Juno-san. He's the one who told me to look for you."
The change in Olivia's expression was immediate and dramatic.
The suspicious irritation vanished, replaced by shock so complete that she actually took a step backward. Her starry blue eyes went wide, and for a moment she seemed to forget how to breathe.
"Juno?" she repeated, her voice barely above a whisper. "You're talking about Juno? Which Juno exactly?"
"Well, he's this weird, crazy guy with purple eyes," Kai explained, relieved that she seemed to recognize the name. "He's a Lichtritter, whatever that means, and he's got this really sarcastic sense of humor and—"
Olivia's face had gone completely pale.
For several long seconds, she stared at Kai without speaking, her mind apparently racing through implications that he couldn't begin to guess at. When she finally spoke, her voice carried a strange intensity that made the hair on the back of his neck stand up.
"Aqua Vincula."
"What did you just say, Olivia-chan?" Kai asked, confused by the unfamiliar words. "Are you speaking in some kind of—"
The spell hit him like a cannonball to the stomach.
Kai had just enough time to register the rush of displaced air and the sensation of something incredibly powerful slamming into his midsection before consciousness abandoned him entirely. He flew backward through the air, his body ragdoll-limp, before crashing into the rocky ground with a sickening thud.
The last thing he saw before darkness claimed him was Olivia's face, her beautiful features twisted with what looked like a mixture of fear, determination, and something that might have been regret.
Then everything went black, and the sound of the waterfall faded into silence.