After receiving the mission to hunt wild boars from Captain Yami, Brian's group of three immediately set out for Sosshi Village to perform the task they were assigned.
"If we had Finral's magic, we could have moved to the location much faster."
Magna said to Brian and Noelle as he walked toward the storage shed at the Black Bull base. "Since we don't have his help, we'll just have to fly there ourselves."
The Black Bull storage shed was located outside, and it didn't take much time for their group of three to reach it.
"You two surely know how to ride a broom, right?"
Magna asked Brian and Noelle as soon as the group arrived; his gaze lingered on Noelle.
"A-Ah, no. I can't use a flying broom."
Noelle answered somewhat hesitantly, "I can't control my magic, so I can't manage flying on a broom either…"
"What, you can't even use a flying broom?"
Magna looked at Noelle in disbelief; he then glanced at Brian. "As for you, you can probably use a flying broom, right?"
"Of course I can use it."
Brian replied to Magna; he also looked at Noelle, who was blushing as he gazed at her. "If you can't use a broom, I can give you a ride."
"Is—is that okay?"
"Of course it is."
Brian replied comfortably to Noelle, "I can control my mana very well, so it's no problem to carry an extra person behind me."
"T-Then I'll rely on you…"
Seeing that Brian had decided to carry Noelle, Magna didn't object. He opened the shed door and took out a flying broom with a bizarre shape. No matter how you looked at it, this was a broom that he had personally customized, which was why it had such a form.
"What is this?"
As soon as she saw Magna's flying broom, Noelle blurted out in surprise as if she had just seen something horrifying, "It looks gross!"
"What! I put a lot of heart and soul into creating this!"
Magna immediately reacted upon hearing Noelle criticize his broom; he turned to Brian to seek agreement. "Hey, Brian, you think my broom is cool too, right?"
"No, I don't think it's as cool as you say it is."
"You too?!"
Brian couldn't help but agree with Noelle that Magna's broom looked quite bad; Magna's street-delinquent style clearly didn't fit his aesthetic taste.
Ignoring Magna's strange broom for a moment, Brian went into the storage shed and found a standard broom available inside. He picked it up and tested it for a bit; after feeling that there were no issues, he felt assured enough to use it.
"Noelle, get on."
Brian sat on the broom, and he slowly flew close to Noelle at a moderate height so that she could sit on the broom behind him.
Although Noelle felt a bit embarrassed letting Brian carry her, there was no other way. She glanced at Magna's bizarre broom, then shook her head slightly before sitting on Brian's broom.
Clearly, if she had to choose between riding with Brian on a normal broom or riding with Magna on his ugly broom, she would obviously choose to go with Brian.
It wasn't that she wanted him to carry her more than Magna; it was just that Magna's broom was too ugly, Noelle consoled herself that way.
"Alright, you two follow me!"
After the whole group had prepared everything for departure, Magna immediately mounted his broom and flew off before Brian and Noelle could react.
"Try to keep up, you two rookies!"
From high above, Magna left behind such a statement and then accelerated immediately. He wasn't afraid that these two wouldn't be able to keep up with his speed, because the one traveling with him this time was Brian.
"Sit tight."
Brian gently warned Noelle before taking off; he slowly lifted the broom, then gradually accelerated to follow Magna.
"Yeah, y-you just go ahead and fly…"
Sitting behind Brian, Noelle reached out and held onto his shoulders. Since she was wearing a skirt, she was forced to sit side-saddle with both legs to one side; this posture made it difficult for her to sit steadily on Brian's broom.
"You can hug me if you want, it's fine."
Noticing Noelle's body occasionally tilting left and right as they flew, Brian proactively told her to hug him to maintain balance.
"If you flew properly, I wouldn't need to tilt like this…?"
"If we don't fly fast, we won't catch up to Magna."
Brian directed Noelle's attention to the tiny black dot in the distance; Magna had already flown quite a distance ahead of them.
"Just hug me; it's just to keep balance while flying, don't overcomplicate the matter."
Hearing Brian say that, Noelle felt embarrassed, but considering her actions were only to keep up with Magna while flying and that she didn't truly want to hug him, she finally agreed to hug him.
"A-alright, I'll just hug you then."
Brian felt Noelle's arms wrap around his waist; he flashed a satisfied smile. Noelle's personality was a Tsundere; getting her to hug him like this was not an easy feat, so he didn't do anything more out of line.
"Hold on tight."
Brian reminded Noelle before accelerating extremely fast; as he flew, he could feel her soft body behind him. Out of fear of falling, Noelle had no choice but to hug him very tightly, completely forgetting how intimately she was acting with him.
The two of them flew like that chasing Magna, and in no time, they would catch up to him.
"That's fast…"
Seeing Brian keeping up with him, Magna felt a spark of interest; he accelerated again, intending to race Brian.
In his mind, Magna also began to calculate; based on their current speed, the whole group would arrive at Sosshi Village in half an hour. With the current rate of mana consumption for flying, they would still be able to perform the mission upon arrival without any problems.
"Try to catch up to me, Brian!"
With that said, Magna continued to increase his flying speed; in no time, he widened the distance between himself and Brian and Noelle again.
"He is so childish."
Seeing Magna accelerate and fly away again, Noelle couldn't help but criticize him.
"I agree…"
Brian smiled and agreed with Noelle; he also quietly accelerated after Magna. His flying ability was completely superior to Magna's; if he wanted to, he could catch up to Magna at any moment.
The group of three continued to fly for a while, and exactly half an hour later, they reached Sosshi Village.
However, contrary to what they—or at least Brian—thought, their mission this time was not to hunt wild boars as originally planned.
From a distance, all three of them saw Sosshi Village enveloped in a thick layer of mist, making it impossible for outsiders to see what was happening inside.
"This isn't good."
Magna looked at the mist and felt uneasy; his intuition told him that something was happening inside the village.
"It looks like the village has run into trouble..."
Brian added as he landed on the ground. He let Noelle step off the broom and walked closer to the mist. "This is caused by someone's magic."
Reaching out his hand to touch the layer of mist, Brian immediately felt as if he were being obstructed by something, as if his skin were losing sensation. If one were not extremely sensitive to mana perception, it would be very difficult to sense the abnormality when touching this mist.
"What should we do...?"
Magna walked over to Brian, his voice clearly showing his anxiety. "Is there any way to break through this mist?"
As a Magic Knight, Magna had enough experience to assess the situation. This mist was formed by someone's magic; if they were careless and walked directly into it, it was highly likely the whole group would be in danger.
The best way for their group of three was to find a way to neutralize this mist before entering the village. Unfortunately, this was not within Magna's field of expertise; therefore, even if it was a bit embarrassing, he could only place his hopes on Brian, praying that he could do something.
"Hey, Brian, can you do anything about this mist?"