"Instead of asking that, you should look at what that guy over there is doing."
She points a tiny finger at Derek as she says that.
"And can't you see how my appearance has changed?"
She puffs her cheeks, folds her arms, and looks away.
"Hmph!"
I look her up and down.
She's wearing a nice red dress.
It is very bright.
So is her hair.
But that's not what catches my attention.
What does is the fact that her golden glow is gone.
'Little lass, what happened to your golden glow?'
"Hmph!!"
She hmphs even louder than earlier.
I wave my hand.
'Uh, be angry if you want, for as long as you want even, but just make sure when it is time to take me back, you bring out the golden bird.'
She doesn't say anything.
I look back at the sky and just keep quiet.
After some time passes, a sly smile suddenly creeps onto the little lass's face.
She turns back to me.
"If you want to use my golden bird, you would have to stand up right now and go where we dropped off here."
I hear what she says, but I don't stand up and just continue looking at the sky.
But unlike a few minutes earlier, it isn't night.
For some reason, I like the night sky more than the day sky.
The night sky can be looked upon without hindrance.
The night sky always makes me think and try to remember my past.
It also somehow makes me nostalgic.
But as for the day sky, it makes me feel... peaceful.
So I look at the blue sky to feel that peace.
But as I look at the sky, the sun's light blinds my eyes, making it impossible for me to look at it without my eyes hurting.
And also, unlike at night, where the winds blow a lot, the winds in the day, the winds of the day, are mostly soft and can barely even blow leaves on the ground.
So when it was night, I didn't hear Derek writing something on a piece of paper.
But now I can hear him writing clearly.
'Little lass, can you go there and read for me what he is writing?'
She eats the last remainder of her biscuit as she looks in that direction.
She looks there for a few seconds, then she shakes her head.
"I'm sorry, but I don't understand anything as long as it is not written in a very beautiful and heavenly handwriting."
She points in that direction.
"And you expect me to read that nonsense!"
I look past his body that is obstructing me and look at the paper he is writing on.
I don't pay attention to the words or whatever. I just look at his handwriting.
The lines are straight, curved, or bent where they're supposed to be. The writing is clear. They are not big, but not small either.
So to me, the handwriting is good enough.
'Little lass, I don't see why you say it is not good.'
'It is good enough to read at least.'
'So why are you objecting to reading for me?'
A red light starts glowing from the shoulder the little lass is on.
But it is very dim.
To the point I can even see its origin.
And it is her fist.
She is not raising her hand.
Oh, but she is definitely clenching it.
So I stop talking to her with my thoughts.
I stand up instead.
I stretch my body as it went stiff a while ago.
That's why I didn't want to stand up.
"I'm finally done!"
Suddenly Derek screams at the top of his lungs.
I stop my stretches and look at him.
He is holding a stack of papers close to his face while his face faces the sky.
I see him covered in sweat for some reason.
Even his clothes are drenched.
He is also breathing very heavily.
But the papers are protected by a barrier of some sort, so they don't get drenched in the sweat of his palm.
His eyes shift to me before he just stands up and walks to me.
He then pushes the papers forward, putting them right in front of my chest.
"Get them."
I get the papers from his hand.
He then turns around and walks back to his log.
He then sits back down.
He starts fanning himself with his hand.
"The first paper is a map that shows all the areas I have passed before."
"So that means you can see where you are in the forest as long as I have passed the region before."
"And you can also see the main city on the map."
I then look at the paper.
It has a very detailed map of the forest from a bird's-eye view.
I don't look at it for long before I shift my attention back to Derek.
When he sees my eyes on him, he talks again.
"Well, the other papers have all the information I know about the people who told us to look for a guy with silvery white hair and golden eyes."
I flip past a few papers with maps of different areas of the forest, but more detailed.
Then I stop on a paper with a name written in big capital letters.
And the name is...
Nivalis.
When I see that, I pause.
But just for a fraction of a second.
"Hahaha, he lied to you!"
The little lass laughs while pointing a finger at me.
But it doesn't faze me even a bit.
I look at Derek.
He looks to be sweating again.
And the fear that I see is a lot more than it had been.
A small smile comes on my face.
"I have a very small question for you."
A big smile comes on his face as he stands up.
"You can ask."
"Why did you say that you don't know much about this person, even though this paper right here..."
I lift the specific paper in my other hand so that he can see.
"...tells me that you know a lot."
He looks at the paper for a bit before nodding with the smile on his face.
"Oh, did I tell you how detailed the information in this paper is?"
He doesn't answer before sitting down.
"Just so you know, he isn't scared of you."
The little lass's words don't surprise me.
If he was scared of me, he wouldn't ask unnecessary questions.
And he also wouldn't want to waste time here no matter how exhausted he is.
'Sigh.'
I make a mental sigh.
'It doesn't matter if he is scared of me or not.'
'I have these papers, so I have all that I need from this useless thing.'
The little lass, who was looking at Derek, suddenly turns her head to me.
"Hey, your thoughts never called him useless earlier.
"Why call him useless now?"
I turn around and start walking to where this little lass brought me here, since she wants me to go there.
'So like, how much do you think I can see?'
The little lass is putting her hand on my cheek.
She doesn't even waste time thinking and just answers.
"Well, I think you can see anything as long as you have the strength and mental resilience to handle the truth of what you will see."
I nod.
'So then, what do you think I was looking at when staring at the sky?'
The little lass looks at me.
"I don't really know, since I have only ever met you when you were at a certain level of strength. I only know what you can see if you are at that strength and beyond."