Chapter 702: Chapter 702

After arriving at Ratnatraya, Mira was able to meet with Alma and Esmeralda for a late dinner, after which they took a bath, in separate bathrooms obviously, and Mira was given a guest room where she promptly fell asleep.

The next morning, Mira woke up, took care of her usual business, and then left the room feeling refreshed.

Mira flinched and took a step back upon noticing a maid quietly standing next to the door. A maid in a palace was something that gave her flashbacks of her nemesis, Lily.

“Good morning, Lady Mira. I’ll show you to breakfast if you’re ready to go.”

The maid spoke with a polite and calm voice, which was not too different from how Lily spoke as well, except that this maid did not have the same looming darkness to her that Mira dreaded so much, instead looking almost resplendent. Follow current novᴇls on ⓝovelFire.net

“I’m ready, let’s go.”

Somehow, Mira’s preconception of maids being the same as Lily had been burned strong into her mind, but in reality, such maids were the exception rather than the norm.

Either way, Mira realized she could keep her guard down in this palace, so she happily followed after the maid to breakfast.

Mira muttered to herself after breakfast, which had been a buffet style meal. That was usually how the palace servants ate, while guests would be served carefully crafted course meals.

But Alma knew that Mira would prefer picking her own food instead of eating like nobles usually did. That decision had been perfect, as nothing could make Mira happier than being able to eat as much as she wanted of anything she wanted, which were mostly desserts.

When she was done eating, she followed the maid again and went to Alma’s room.

“Have a pleasant day.” The maid said before turning around to leave, and Mira thanked her for leading the way there.

“Good morning, Grandpa.”

After a brief greeting, Mira noticed the pile of documents on Alma’s desk, realizing that she also had a lot on her plate as empress.

Then Alma asked how Mira had slept, if she liked her breakfast, all the things they had learned thanks to Mira’s help the day before, about watching over the Oracle, and so on.

“Good morning, Mirako.”

Some time later, Esmeralda arrived as well, smiling radiantly as the tournament participation forms were ready for Mira to check them, just as promised the night before. Everything was gathered in a different room.

“I’ll go help too if I get some free time!”

As Mira and Esmeralda headed there, Alma saw them off with those words, and Mira hoped that it would happen soon.

Esmeralda took Mira to a large room filled with bookshelves, which she called the information bureau’s storage room.

It seemed to be at least three hundred meters long, and it was also incredibly tall, with four open levels stacked on top of each other visible from the entrance. That also went to show how much larger Nirvana was compared to Arkite, seeing how much space was needed to store all of the information gathered from across the country.

“Now this is another impressive place…”

“Every time I come here I can feel my sense of reality warping too.”

After Mira muttered her first impression, Esmeralda also concurred with an awkward voice. Esmeralda had lived most of her life amongst the common people, so sometimes she was also overwhelmed by life in the palace.

They walked across the room, into a separate one that was mostly used to review documents before storing them in the main shelves.

“There’s…so much stuff.”

There were many tables and chairs in that room, and Mira quickly spotted a tall pile of documents on a large table in a corner, just the sight of which made her feel exhausted. That was the pile with all of the tournament participation forms.

“Alright Mirako, I also have some work to do first before I can help…so good luck.”

Esmeralda had only been there to show Mira the way, and now had to go back to work.

Alma and Esmeralda had offered to help before, but as one was the empress and the other one of the Twelve Apostles, they had other important duties to take care of first.

“Well, I should be thankful that they took the time to organize it in the first place…”

She felt slightly abandoned, but with no time to waste, she reached for the first bundle of files.

The forms had been separated by the different tournament brackets, some being purely for spellcasters, or for warriors younger than eighty years old.

The forms themselves were organized by the time they were registered, so the earliest submissions came first.

Knowing Meilin’s personality, she was sure to register for the free-for-all tournament. And when accounting for the scale of the event, she would have rushed to register as soon as possible, so her form should be near the top.

“Now, let’s just hope I can find her…”

Wishing for things to go well, Mira began looking through the free-for-all forms.

It really struck her how convenient digital databases were, as one could simply input a few conditions and she would get everything sorted the way she wanted.

Simply being able to view all applications with Sage as the participant’s class would have made things a lot easier. As she continued thinking about such things, she went through the forms one after another, for more than half an hour.

“Ah…she actually did it.”

She had found a form with Martial Sage as the class. That was a term Meilin had come up with and gotten attached to, mostly known amongst their friend group. It signified her pride as a martial artist, as well as a sage.

Then she checked the name, which turned out to be Meimei.

The Sage Wiseman was called Meilin, which was a rather well known name. So it made sense that she was using a fake name, but knowing her, it seemed obvious that she would come up with such a similar name as well.

“Who would’ve thought that I’d be able to read her . Hmm… Maybe I’ve unlocked my abilities as a detective after my search for Fuzzy Dice!”

Mira grinned with satisfaction. She was convinced that this Meimei was actually Meilin. At the same time, she was a bit surprised by how quickly she had found it, considering the tall pile of forms nearby. She almost felt bad for everyone who had worked to bring them there, only for her to barely look through a fraction of them.

“Well, maybe I should just say I got lucky…”

As she thought of ways to explain it, she heard approaching footsteps and then the door opening.

“Grandpa, we’ve come to help!”

“How’s your search going?”

Alma and Esmeralda showed up. They had finished their official duties as fast as possible to come help, just like they had promised.

“Ohh, thank you for coming all the way here, though…”

It no longer was necessary, as she had already found it. Instead of saying with words, she just held up the form.

The two did not know what to make out of that, so they moved closer to check the form, and a short time later they exclaimed, “Ah…” at the same time.

“This has to be Meilin, right?”

“Yes, I’m sure it’s her.”

Both of them were also convinced that it had to be Meilin’s form. It was a weird feeling seeing that when they had come with every intention to dig through the mountain of forms, but they just laughed together realizing it had been done.

“Okay, and let’s see where she’s staying…”

Meilin had come to the tournament as they had expected. That was something Mira had been certain of before, and now came the next step, finding out the exact place she was staying at.

Part of the registration process involved writing down the name of the inn one was staying at, or the tent number of the provisionary camp. That piece of information would be a great help in finding the location of Meilin, who was always traveling around to train and improve her skills.

“It says…Adams Residence, where’s that?”

“Oh huh, where could that be?”

There was nothing there other than Adams Residence. They checked a register of all inns in Ratnatraya just in case, but there was no place called that. Which could only mean one thing.

“So this means she’s staying at some private residence…”

“I don’t know what else this could mean.”

All three were in agreement of that. Meilin was staying with someone related to the name Adams.

“Adams…who could that be?”