An unexpected flooding incident keeps Shiori and company from leaving Silveria Tower as easily as they’d hoped. But that's the least of their worries—they also find themselves helping two sick adventurers on the snowy path back to town. Along the way, they encounter magical beasts, the likes of which none have ever seen before. On top of all this, Shiori has to worry about her first-ever formal dinner party...and she doesn’t even have an outfit!
When Shiori and Alec venture into the Blue Forest for what should be a simple gathering request, they find that winter in the heart of the forest is as dangerous as it is beautiful. When Shiori and Alec venture into the Blue Forest for what should be a simple gathering request, they find that winter in the heart of the forest is as dangerous as it is beautiful. An encounter with a rare magical beast known as the snow wolf entangles the two adventurers in a life-threatening series of events—events that neither of them could have imagined. And what follows brings to light scars from the past that have yet to heal...
Shiori is an average Japanese office worker who was suddenly teleported to another world. Four years later, she’s managed to carve out a niche for herself—as a housekeeping mage. Alec is an A-class adventurer, just returned from a long-term assignment. When his friend Zack, the local Guild Master, tempts him into going on a manticore hunt by promising to bring in a mage with special skills, what Alec finds is the last thing he could have expected. On the outside, the two couldn’t be more different. Yet deep in their hearts, they each yearn for the same thing: a place to belong. In the face of old wounds, their dark pasts, and the everyday challenges any adventurer must overcome, will they find the courage to risk being hurt again?
Shiori’s been busy putting her magical abilities to use as a housekeeping mage, and she finds her services requested by a well-respected noblewoman from a famous family of artists who’s looking for protection on a special journey. Together with her lover Alec, her slime companion Rurii, and two A-rank adventurers, Shiori braves the frigid wilderness to reach the Tower of Silveria, where the noblewoman wishes to behold a vista only visible in the midst of winter. The trek there is treacherous, meaning preparation is paramount and any error could be fatal. Is there more to the noblewoman’s request than just art? And what of her relationship with her aides...?
When the herbalist Nils realizes that he’s completely out of mandrake root, he asks Shiori and Alec to accompany him on a gathering expedition in Hortensia Cavern. Upon arrival, however, the group of adventurers quickly realize that they’ll have to face a magical beast which feeds on the fears of its prey. And when this monster gets a hold of Alec, he is forced to confront not just his past, but a potential tragic future too...
When an Eastern merchant expresses a desire to meet Shiori because of all the soy sauce she’s bought, Shiori finds herself facing quite the dilemma—she’s let those around her believe that she hails from the East, and any contact with the real thing will almost certainly blow her cover! But there’s a small ray of hope for her too—what if the distant nation to the east is in fact a version of the Japan she calls home? Follow Shiori as she faces up to her past, and finds the courage to reconcile it with her future!
A crisis hits the Tris Cathedral the day before the much-anticipated Nativity Festival! When half of the orchestra for a famed songstress falls ill, Shiori is called in to help provide some much-needed backup with her illusion magic. However, the songstress soon reveals that a rival performer may be plotting her downfall, and more danger may yet be waiting around the corner. Will Shiori and Alec become targets themselves? And will Shiori’s illusion magic be enough to save the songstress’s performance?
In the aftermath of the snow wolf attack on Brovito Village, Shiori begins to come to terms with her past while she and her fellow adventurers help the villagers get back on their feet. She feels like she’s found a place where she belongs. Meanwhile, Alec decides that he wants to continue protecting the housekeeping mage, so he approaches Shiori with a request...but what might it be? And what truths will come to light when Zack reveals to Alec the connection he has to the horrible incident in Shiori’s past...?
Colonel Ridge Zirkander isn’t the model of military professionalism—he has a tendency to say exactly what’s on his mind, and his record has enough demerits to wallpaper the hull of an airship—but as the best fighter pilot in the Iskandian army, he’s used to a little leniency from his superiors. Until he punches the wrong diplomat in the nose and finds himself issued new orders: take command of a remote prison mine in the inhospitable Ice Blades Mountains. Ridge has never been in charge of anything larger than a flier squadron—what’s he supposed to do with a frozen fortress full of murderers and rapists? Not to mention the strange woman who shows up right before he arrives… Sardelle Terushan wakes from three hundred years in a mage stasis shelter, only to realize that she is the last of the Referatu, the sorcerers who once helped protect Iskandia from conquerors. Their subterranean mountain community was blown up in a treacherous sneak attack by soldiers who feared their power. Everyone Sardelle ever knew is dead, and the sentient soulblade she has been bonded to since her youth is buried in the core of the mountain. Further, what remains of her home has been infested by bloodthirsty miners commanded by the descendants of the very soldiers who destroyed her people. Sardelle needs help to reach her soulblade—her only link to her past and her last friend in the world. Her only hope is to pretend she’s one of the prisoners while trying to gain the commander’s trust. But lying isn’t her specialty, especially when the world has changed so much in the intervening centuries, and if Colonel Zirkander figures out who she truly is, he’ll be duty-bound to sentence her to the only acceptable punishment for sorcerers: death.
After much anxious planning, Shiori decides she’s finally ready to hold her highly anticipated housekeeping magic lecture. The turnout exceeds expectations, with adventurers, knights, nobles, and even former foes coming from far and wide to attend. Shiori’s magic offers them a chance to rediscover magic and all its possibilities, but when an avalanche hits a nearby village, the class quickly finds itself part of the search and rescue effort. To save the lives of those caught in the disaster, they’ll have to put their newfound magic to the test!
