Summary of the Previous Volume

On returning to Ninoritch following our battle with the Destruction Dragon, I wasted no time asking around about the mysterious Setting Sun guild, but almost as soon as I’d begun my investigations, my attention was drawn away from them by Celes and Dramom suddenly being struck down with some sort of ailment. Panicking and unsure what to do, I turned to my grandma for help. She examined my barely conscious friends before informing me they had been cursed by the Destruction Dragon, and the only way to save them was to find a master shaman to summon the sovereign of the land spirits who could lift the curse. She subsequently froze the pair to prevent their malediction from progressing, while I set out with the rest of my friends to look for a high elf, a clan of elves that specialize in shamanism, swearing that I would save my incapacitated allies.

On our travels, Aina stumbled across a little ghost girl who had lost her memories and whom we decided to name Kalmia (nickname: Mia). We quickly realized she was, in fact, a high elf—or rather, the spirit of one—and welcomed her into our little party in the hope that she might be able to help us later on.

Our search for the high elves led us to the magical nation of Bolinoak to see if our half-elf chum, Nesca, had any idea where we might find them. We ran into her and Raiya almost immediately, and she took us home to meet the parents, whom she believed would know more about the subject. But imagine our shock when we discovered that Nesca’s mother, Fana, actually hailed from the elven tribe that had been tasked with assisting the high elves. Despite some initial reluctance, Fana eventually agreed to take us to her home village of Vehar, where I set about gaining the trust of the elves by serving up a vegetarian feast. While all of that was going on, my best bud, Raiya, finally proposed to Nesca (who said yes), meaning the disgustingly adorable couple were now happily engaged.

After celebrating this news, we were finally allowed to go to the high elves’ village, where we were greeted by a slew of arrows drawn and aimed directly at us.

Chapter Twenty-One: A Lethal Misunderstanding

Around a hundred high elves stood with their arrows trained on us, with a woman dressed from head to toe in what appeared to be mourning attire at their head. I caught a glimpse of her jade-green eyes through a gap in the veil covering her face.

She planted her staff in the ground, rested both hands on the handle, and stared fixedly at us. “You’re from the Setting Sun, aren’t you?”

“Huh?” I said, confused by the sudden accusation.

“Don’t play the fool. You must be from the Setting Sun,” she declared, appearing to have no doubts in her mind about it.

As if in response to her words, the other high elves drew their arrows even tauter, all of them aimed at us. No, scratch that. For some reason, most were aimed specifically at me. And not only that, but the murderous vibes they were giving off were so tangible, even a regular human like myself could sense them. I was in a real bind here. My legs were on the verge of giving out from under me, but I somehow managed to force myself to stay upright through sheer determination alone, and I stepped in front of Aina and Shess to shield them.

“Sorry, could you repeat that? You think I’m from the Setting Sun?” I said, unable to believe my ears.

“I know you are, vile merchant.”

“Um, it seems like there’s been a bit of a mix-up here. You see, I’m not affiliated with the Setting Sun at all. Quite the opposite, in fact. We’re very much on hostile terms,” I declared.

I wasn’t quite sure whether the merchant guild viewed me as their enemy just yet, but we’d already had one epic battle, so I figured it probably wasn’t too much of a stretch to say that we were “hostile” toward each other. But who could really say? For all I knew, my animosity toward them might have been one-sided.

“You’re still trying to lie your way out of this? How comical,” the woman mocked me. “We shall see if you are still singing the same tune after all four of your limbs have been pierced by our arrows.”

“Huh? Hey, wai—”

She signaled with her eyes to a nearby warrior, who nodded and drew back his bowstring in preparation to shoot, but at the last second, Tisto rushed forward and positioned himself in the arrow’s path. “W-Wait!” he pleaded, arms outstretched.

The woman’s eyes narrowed. “You’re from Vehar, aren’t you?” she said, her gaze trained on Tisto.

“Yes, matriarch. I am Tisto, the chieftain of Vehar.” He dropped to his knees and bowed deeply to the woman he had addressed as “matriarch.” I surmised this woman must have been quite high-ranking among the high elves.

“If you’re the chieftain, why did you bring these people here? You are aware the land of the world tree is sacred, aren’t you?”

“I-I am. But I have news of the utmost urgency that I must report to you, esteemed ones.”

“Do you now? Then please proceed. What is your news?”

“Y-Yes, matriarch,” Tisto said with a nod before launching into an explanation for his actions, his head still bowed. “These people have found one of your kin, esteemed ones. They encountered the, um, ph-phantom of a little high elf girl.”

“What did you just say?” The wave of intensity exuding from the matriarch grew more oppressive, sending Tisto into a panic.

“A l-little... A little high elf...” he stammered, finding himself unable to form a coherent sentence.

I decided to bite the bullet and take over the explaining. “Might I continue in his—”

“Quiet. I refuse to listen to the likes of you.”

“Oh, uh, all right then.” And with that, I promptly shut up.

I was personally of the opinion that we were the ones best suited to explaining the situation to her, as we had originally found Mia, but with all of these arrows still trained on me, I had no choice but to hold my tongue, the matriarch’s gruesome threat of shooting arrows through all four of my limbs still fresh in my mind. I had stowed a bottle of Dramom’s miraculous healing potion in my inventory specifically for just such an occasion, but even so, having my limbs pierced by arrows sounded like it would hurt.

Kilpha sneakily sidled up beside me and whispered, “Don’t worry. I’ll protect you, meow,” before slapping me on the back a few times. I had to admit, it did make me feel a little better.

“Chieftain of Vehar. You may resume,” the woman said.

“Yes, matriarch. These people have found the phantom of a little h-h-high elf girl, and...”

Tisto did his best to resume his explanation as panic seemed to ooze from every pore of his body. He told the woman about Mia, our spectral high elf companion, and explained how we had found ourselves unable to abandon her after learning that she had lost her memories, which was what had brought us here. I noted he didn’t mention Dramom and Celes, nor the curse that had been cast on them, and figured he must have purposefully left those details out for the time being. After all, you didn’t exactly have to be a genius to imagine what might happen if we started making demands of the high elves while their arrows were pointing at us.

“I believed it was imperative to bring this matter to your attention without delay, which is why I took the liberty of guiding these people to your holy land,” Tisto concluded.

Behind her veil, the matriarch’s gaze settled on me once more. “You. Hume. Is what Vehar’s chieftain has just told me the truth?”

I nodded. “Yes, it is.”

“Is that so? Prove it, then.”

“Of course,” I replied confidently before turning to Aina. “Aina, where’s Mia right now?”

I was fairly sure the little high elf girl would be standing beside her friend, but I decided I should ask for confirmation all the same. However, something unforeseen had happened.

“Mia? Mia, where are you? Mia!” Aina called out. She was acting quite strangely, peering all around as if she couldn’t find Mia.

“Hey, what’s wrong, Aina? Don’t tell me Mia’s—”

“Mister Shiro, Mia’s disappeared!” the little girl exclaimed, confirming my worst fears before I even had the chance to voice them.

“What?! She’s really not there? Like, she’s gone completely?”

“Y-Yeah. I can’t see her anymore.”

“You can’t see her?!”

Aina confirmed this with a nod.

I couldn’t believe we’d hit such a snag at a time like this. I whirled around and locked eyes with Patty. “Boss! Do you have any idea where Mia is?”

To my dismay, the little fairy shook her head. “I-I can’t see her at the moment. Where in the world has she vanished to?!”

Aina, the only one in the group who could actually communicate with Mia, was saying the little high elf girl had disappeared, and Patty was backing up her claim. I was unable to hide my agitation at this turn of events, yet Tisto seemed completely oblivious to my inner turmoil.

“What are you doing, my friend? Hurry up and introduce the little girl to our esteemed hosts,” he urged me in hushed tones.

I was in real hot water this time. “Uh, so it seems like we might have run into a bit of an issue...” I mumbled just as quietly.

“The esteemed matriarch is an especially important figure, even among our esteemed hosts. It is unwise to make her wait. Show the little girl to her now.”

I noted he’d used the word “esteemed” twice in one sentence, perhaps reflecting his own panic. His agitation spoke volumes about the gulf in status between the matriarch and himself.

“Trust me, I want to, but...”

“What in the world is the matter, my friend?” Tisto pressed.

“Well, uh...” I paused. “I’ve been told that Mia has gone missing.”

“What?!” Tisto exclaimed, his eyes instantly widening. “She’s gone missing?! Here? Now?”

“Yeah. She just vanished without saying anything to anyone. Perhaps she went off to pick flowers?”

“Now is not the time for jests! We need to find her! Quickly!”

The matriarch’s voice interrupted us. “I told you to show me proof of your claims,” she pressed. As an elf (a high elf, no less), her hearing was sharper than most, so it was likely she had overheard our hushed conversation. I suspected that was the reason she was rushing us.

All right, quiz time: Who was in the bigger predicament here, at this particular moment in time? The answer was, of course, Tisto.

“What is the matter, chieftain of Vehar? Do you not hear me? Are those ears of yours merely for decoration? Show me this girl you speak of at once,” the president said, her intense gaze fixed firmly on Tisto.

The man turned as white as a sheet. “M-Matriarch. Um, how should I put this?”

I was suddenly reminded of my days as a corporate drone. One of my juniors tended to turn pale exactly like that whenever our nasty manager managed to corner him.

“M-My apologies, matriarch. It appears something unforeseen has arisen. The phantom girl has vanished,” he explained, his head hanging down in a low bow.

The matriarch didn’t reply, a blank look settling on her face, but after a moment, it seemed she couldn’t hold her mirth back anymore, and she burst out laughing. “How foolish of you, chieftain. You have allowed yourself to be deceived by a hume of all things,” she said.

“Deceived? Me?” Tisto echoed.

“Yes, you. You live in the outside world, yet you seem unaware of the true nature of humes. More than any other tribe, they excel at tricking, fooling, and deceiving people.”

Hey, aren’t you a little too prejudiced there, ma’am? I was just about to say exactly that, but all of the terrible things that humans had done throughout history suddenly sprang to mind and I found myself unable to deny her assertion, so I bit my tongue.

“What did he use on you? A potion? An illusion? A magic item, perhaps? Well, no matter. Chieftain of Vehar, this hume has tricked you into bringing him to our sacred land.” The woman turned to me and regarded me with a gaze that was full of contempt. “Isn’t that right?” she said knowingly.

Kilpha immediately refuted the woman’s accusations. “You’re wrong, meow! Shiro would never deceive anyone, meow!”

“K-Kilpha’s right!” Patty interjected. “We really did stumble across a high elf kid! I saw her with my own two eyes!”

I couldn’t help but be in awe of their guts. We still had some sharp-looking arrows pointed at us, yet they weren’t afraid to stand up to her. I had a thing or two to learn from them.

“Stop chittering. I am talking to the hume over there,” the matriarch said, pointing her staff at me. “Well? What trickery did you use to mislead Vehar’s chieftain, merchant of the Setting Sun? Speak, lest you find your body riddled with arrows.”

“I apologize for wasting your time and Mr. Tisto’s,” I said. “But it is true that we found Mia, a phantom high elf girl, and brought her here.”

Kilpha and Valeria, who were standing either side of me, nodded to confirm what I was saying was true.

“Do you really expect me to believe you when you cannot show me proof of your claims?” the woman retorted.

“It’s true!” Aina chimed in. “Mia was standing right next to me until just a few minutes ago!” The little girl’s eyes were wet with tears. Her friend vanishing into thin air must have really distressed her.

The matriarch chuckled again. “You have even brought a child with you to sell your deception. Humes truly are fearsome creatures.”

“We’re not lying! Mia... Mia has really pretty silver hair, and green eyes that sparkle like gemstones! She really was here!” Aina practically yelled. Maybe she hoped her voice would reach Mia if she just spoke loudly enough.

However, to my utter surprise, it was the matriarch who was first to react to her words. “Silver hair, you say?” she asked, staring at Aina, clearly caught off guard by this detail. “Child, did you just say this phantom girl of yours has silver hair?”

“Y-Yeah.”

The matriarch fell silent. She wasn’t alone. The high elf warriors around her seemed equally taken aback. I contemplated the situation, noting that all of them had beautiful blond hair. Was it possible that Mia’s silver locks were a rare and distinctive feature among high elves?

After a minute, the matriarch spoke again. “Yes, that makes sense. You’re from the Setting Sun, so it’s only natural you’d know about that,” she muttered, her gaze moving from Aina to me. “You brought a child with you in an attempt to sell your deception, correct? As expected of a hume, you like to play dirty. But if all you can do is lie, then fine. I would have preferred to avoid staining this sacred land with your blood, but it seems that is the only way to silence you. So die, hume.”

She raised a hand, and the high elf warriors around her pulled back the strings of their bows as far as they could go. I knew that the instant the matriarch brought down her hand, all of their arrows would be unleashed at once. The negotiations had broken down. No, scratch that. We hadn’t been afforded the opportunity to have a proper discussion in the first place.

“Kilpha, you protect Shiro! I’ll defend the little ones!” Valeria instructed.

“Gotcha, meow!”

The pair immediately entered combat mode.

“Princess! Grab Aina and get behind me!” Luza called out to her charge.

“B-But...” the little princess tried to protest, but her bodyguard was having none of it.

“Quickly!” she ordered frantically.

Were we seriously about to fight the high elves?

All of a sudden, a voice scythed through the tense atmosphere. “Now, now. Calm down, everyone,” it said in a relaxed manner.

The matriarch let out a quizzical hum, her hand still raised.

“You haven’t changed a bit, have you? Still looking down on the other races like always,” the voice continued.

Hold on, I thought. I know that voice.

“That’s not a monster. A familiar, then? Who are you?” the matriarch queried, staring at me. No, actually, she was specifically looking at my feet where Peace, the little black cat, was calmly sitting. The voice, it turned out, was coming from him.

“Me? Oh, I’m someone you high elves absolutely loathe. Tell you what: How about we turn this into a little game? Try to guess who I am.”

“Not many sorcerers in our land possess the skill to speak through their familiar.” The matriarch paused and stared at Peace for a moment. “You’re a witch, aren’t you?”

“Heh, heh. Bingo. I’m Arisugawa Mio, the witch you all hate so much,” said Peace—or rather, grandma.

“Alice Gawamio?!” one high elf exclaimed.

“Isn’t that the name of that one wretched witch?” asked another.

“What’s she doing here in our sacred land?”

“Is she after our venerable world tree?!”

The high elves all started whispering among themselves.

“Quiet, all of you.” One command from the matriarch was all it took for the high elves around her to fall silent. It seemed they were well disciplined.

“What brings you to our domain, witch?” the matriarch asked grandma.

“There’s no need to be so on edge. I’m the guardian of one of these people in front of you. In fact, I pretty much raised him, so to speak,” grandma replied.

“‘Guardian’? Do you take me for a fool?”

“Of course not. I’m telling you the truth. This hume here”—Peace rubbed its little body against my legs—“is my grandson, Shiro. It’s not that much of a stretch for me to call myself his ‘guardian,’ is it?”

Grandma’s words sparked another commotion among the high elves.

“H-He’s the grandson of that witch?!”

“Wait, the witch has descendants?!”

“Don’t take your eyes off him! Not even for an instant!”

“B-But captain! That hume is a relative of that wretched witch!”

“Exactly! Won’t she retaliate if we cause him harm?”

The high elves looked ready to bolt, which just went to show how much influence grandma had in this world. There was no way they would even be scared of me, because I was just some human beanpole who knew a few wrestling moves.

“Do not panic! Simmer down, all of you!” the matriarch commanded, raising her voice, though it did little to calm her people.

“B-But matriarch—”

“I told you to shut up.”

“Y-Yes, ma’am!”

They all reluctantly fell silent, though I could sense their hesitance at being seen to aim their bows at me again.

“I can’t believe the Setting Sun counts a relative of Alice Gawamio among its ranks,” the matriarch uttered. “What a shock.”

“I told you, I’m not part of the Setting Sun,” I insisted.

“My grandson’s telling you the truth,” grandma piped up again, confirming my story. “He’d never join such a shady organization.”

“Then, what are you doing here?” the matriarch asked after a pause.

“Exactly what Tisto said to you earlier. I’m here to bring Mia—the phantom high elf girl we found—to you. I also have a request. I’d like you to dispel a curse that has been cast on a couple of my friends,” I said.

“A curse?”

“Yes. Could you please at least hear me out? It won’t take long, I promise.”

I looked straight into the eyes of the matriarch. She held my gaze, then after a few seconds, she sighed. “Fine. Speak.”

“Thank you very much.”

She had finally agreed to listen to me, so I began my tale. First, I told her about Aina finding Mia wandering the forest in a state of confusion, explaining that we had temporarily given her the name “Kalmia” before bringing her along on our journey. Next, I moved on to the matter of the Destruction Dragon and the curse he had cast on two of my friends after they had fought him during an encounter with Jilvared of the Setting Sun. I told her we needed the help of a high elf shaman, since they could summon the ruler of the land spirits, who was apparently the only being who could lift the curse. But as soon as the words “Destruction Dragon” left my mouth, the high elf warriors started panicking en masse again.

“The dragon of calamities was following the orders of a hume?!”

“We’re talking about a dragon that can destroy the world here!”

“If this hume is telling the truth, the situation is very grave indeed.”

“Are we sure he’s not just spreading falsehoods?”

“Well, he’s a relative of that witch, so...”

From what I could make out of their whispering, it seemed they already knew about the Destruction Dragon, but I paid them no heed and waited for the matriarch to offer her thoughts.

“You claim the Setting Sun has the Destruction Dragon under its control?” she eventually said.

“The man I encountered, Jilvared, said they had an ‘agreement,’ although I can’t say I know the terms of it.”

She hummed pensively. “And you say you are the Immortal Dragon’s retainer?”

“I don’t think ‘retainer’ is quite the right word. I’m Dramom’s—sorry, the Immortal Dragon’s—friend,” I corrected her.

“You dare to call yourself a ‘friend’ to one of the Five Great Dragons?” She chuckled. “Either you jest, or I should be questioning your sanity.”

With that, she briefly raised her left hand, and the high elves immediately lowered their bows in response. They really were well trained.

“I understand your situation,” she continued. “For the time being, I shall trust that you are not part of the Setting Sun, out of consideration for that witch.”

You didn’t exactly care much about being“considerate” earlier, did you? I was about to retort, but I managed to swallow the words back at the last second.

“You stubborn mule. Can’t you just admit you were wrong and apologize?” grandma taunted.

“Quiet, witch. You’re the one who has come to me to beg for help. Know your place,” the matriarch shot back.

“Ooh, scary. In fact, I’m so scared, I’ll go quiet for a bit,” grandma said, before making Peace hop up onto Aina’s shoulder, which was her way of saying the rest was up to me.

“I shall allow you to temporarily sojourn in this sacred land. But let us change location. I will listen to your story in full elsewhere. Follow me.”

And with that, the matriarch spun on her heels and set off at a brisk pace, heading deeper into the forest with the high elf warriors trailing closely behind her.

“Well? What’s the plan, Shiro?” Valeria asked. Her voice hadn’t betrayed her true feelings on the situation, but I could see the uncertainty in her eyes. They seemed to ask: Are we really going to follow the high elves even though we’ve lost Mia? Is this truly wise?

Meanwhile, Aina and Patty had started scouring the forest for some sign of the little ghost girl. But while I wanted nothing more than to join them and make finding Mia again our priority, I knew we couldn’t simply ignore the matriarch’s orders. Hm, what to do, what to do?

“You don’t need to worry about that little girl,” grandma said through Peace. “She’s back where she belongs. She’ll eventually show up again.” I could tell there was some hidden meaning behind her words, but I didn’t have time to wonder what it could be.

“All righty, everyone. For now, we’ll do what the high elves say,” I announced.

And with that, we followed the matriarch’s lead.

Intermission

It all happened in the blink of an eye.

“I’m sorry, mother.”

Kalmia’s hand had been gripping Aina’s, but as soon as the little ghost girl whispered those words, she disappeared.

“Huh? Mia? Mia!”

Aina grasped for her friend but her hand squeezed nothing but air. Just like that, without any warning, Kalmia had vanished. Aina frantically looked around her, but her friend was nowhere to be found. Aina and Patty were the only ones in the group who could see the ghost girl, and the little girl whipped her head around to look at the fairy for guidance, but to her dismay, Patty simply shook her head. She couldn’t see Kalmia anymore either.

A moment later, Shiro asked Aina where Kalmia was. She told him the truth: She couldn’t see her anymore. Kalmia had disappeared.

Tensions escalated, and the high elves pointed their arrows straight at them, but that was the least of Aina’s worries at that moment. Kalmia—her dear, dear friend—was nowhere to be seen. The little girl had to look for her. She had to. She refused to leave Mia all alone again!

At some point, Peace started speaking in the voice of Shiro’s grandmother, somehow managing to de-escalate the situation. The cat jumped up onto Aina’s shoulder and said, “You don’t need to worry about that little girl. She’s back where she belongs. She’ll eventually show up again.”

Her eyes wide and brimming with confusion, Aina stared at Peace. Abnormally for him, there was a glimmer of intelligence in the black cat’s golden eyes.

“Don’t worry, you little cutie,” Peace said, peering at her. “She hasn’t really disappeared. She just went for a bit of a wander, that’s all.”

The cat’s gentle words and kind gaze helped to relieve some of Aina’s anxiety.

Chapter Twenty-Two: Conditions

We followed the matriarch farther into the forest, and for a moment, I thought she might be leading us to the high elves’ settlement, but it quickly became apparent that I was wrong in that assumption.

“We have arrived,” the matriarch announced as we stopped in front of a dome-shaped building. Although, actually, “building” was a bit of a stretch. Several tall trees formed a semicircle, and the “structure” was covered in vines that intertwined to create intricate patterns. The shape of the construction was somewhat similar to that of a yurt—circular tents used by nomadic tribes back in my own world—and I estimated it was about twenty meters across. The “roof” was made up of dense foliage that could protect anyone sheltering under it, even on the rainiest of days.

“Shiro, do ya think this is a high elven house, meow?” Kilpha whispered.

“I’m not sure,” I said, keeping my voice low. “It doesn’t really look like a house. I mean, it’s so, uh, leafy.”

“Even the windows have vines covering them,” Kilpha agreed. “It must be so dark inside, meow.”

Our hushed conversation reached the ears of Tisto, who was at the rear of our group. “My friend, this is where our esteemed hosts hold official talks with our delegations from Vehar,” he whispered to me.

He’d been clutching his stomach for a while, so I assumed he must be in pain. Admittedly, being yelled at by the matriarch and having to save me from being turned into a pincushion had likely caused him a great deal of stress. I’m sorry.

“Head warrior, I shall converse with these people. Take the others and return to the village,” the matriarch instructed.

“B-But matriarch, one of them is related to that witch,” argued the leader of the warriors. I could see a glimmer of fear in his eyes as he shot me furtive glances. Just how scared of my grandma was this guy?

“What of it? Are you suggesting that I’m weaker than the witch?” the matriarch said with an edge to her voice.

“O-Of course not!” he stammered quickly. “I would never—”

“Then hurry up and leave. If you are afraid of the witch, you should train until you’re strong enough to face her. We high elves don’t exactly lack for time, after all.”

“Y-Yes, matriarch,” the head warrior said meekly before turning to his squad. “Okay, all of you, we’re leaving! Back to the village!”

And with that, they disappeared off into the woods, leaving only the matriarch and her entourage behind. But the matriarch turned to these select few and said, “You too. Return to the village.”

“B-But we—” they immediately started protesting, but she cut them off.

“Do not make me repeat myself.”

“Y-Yes, matriarch! Well, everyone, you heard her. Let’s head home.” They quickly followed the warriors back to the settlement.

The matriarch made sure we were all alone, then approached the tree dome while chanting something I couldn’t quite make out. An instant later, rustling sounds filled the air as the vines and branches making up the structure retreated to form a hole big enough for a person to walk through. The dome’s entrance, I presumed.

The matriarch entered first, then announced, “I allow you to join me.”

“My deepest gratitude to you, matriarch,” Tisto replied, then turned to me. “Come, my friend. Let us go inside.”

“Oh, uh, right,” I said hesitantly with a couple of slight nods before making my way through the entrance to the dome, my friends following closely behind.

Stepping over the threshold, I was surprised to find that it was just as bright inside the dome as it was outside. In fact, it might even have been brighter than out in the forest with its thick canopy of leaves. My friends seemed just as surprised as me.

“Meow?! It’s so bright in here, meow!” Kilpha exclaimed.

“You said it. But how? Luza, do you know why it’s so bright in here?” Shess asked her bodyguard.

Luza chuckled self-importantly. “Princess, you should know by now that I’m not the person to ask about anything unless it’s related to swords or fighting.”

“R-Right.”

Kilpha seemed especially captivated by the ceiling and found herself unable to tear her eyes away from it. Ah, if only Nesca or Rolf had been here. I was sure they would have explained the logistics of the brightness of the room in no time flat.

“Kilpha, I think I know what’s going on. Look at that moss on the trees and the vines. I think it’s that stuff that’s making it so bright in here,” Valeria observed, extending her muscular right arm and poking at the moss that was clinging to a nearby tree.

Looking closer at the moss, I noticed it was emitting a soft glow, and it covered every inch of the tree walls and vine ceiling, explaining why it was so bright in here. How whimsical, I thought. In the center of the dome, there was an enormous mushroom, with a number of smaller ones around it. I presumed these were intended to be used as a table and chairs. Ah, yes, I see, I thought, nodding to myself. Just as Tisto had suggested, this place must have largely been used for formal discussions.

The matriarch immediately sat down on the head seat—uh, mushroom. “You may sit,” she said, and we did as we were told.

I was afraid the seats would be soft and flabby since they were, well, mushrooms, but to my surprise, they were quite firm with a little springiness to them. They were much more comfortable than I had been expecting. As for the seating order, going clockwise from the matriarch who was at the head of the mushroom-table, it went: Tisto, me, Aina, Shess, Luza, Kilpha, Valeria, and lastly, Patty riding Peace. The matriarch seemed uneasy with grandma sitting beside her and kept glancing across at the little black cat.

“All right. As promised, I shall hear you out,” she said, opening proceedings.

“Before we start, might we ask your name?” I said.

Tisto slammed his elbows down on the table and cast a horrified look in my direction, as if to tell me I was crazy for even asking that.

But the matriarch didn’t seem the slightest bit bothered by my question. “I am Lasulie, matriarch of the council of the high elves,” she replied.

“Matriarch of the council? Does that mean the high elves are led by a group, rather than one individual?” I inquired.

“Precisely. It’s much more logical than that foolish monarchy system you humes have, don’t you think?”

I chuckled evasively. “I don’t have much interest in politics, or who rules what,” I said, trying to be as vague as possible about my views on the subject. Shess was here, after all.

Besides, I couldn’t just blurt out something thoughtless like people do on social media, especially not with who was sitting right in front of me. If I agreed with Lasulie’s sentiment, Luza might accuse me of lèse-majesté, but equally, if I pointed out any shortcomings in the high elves’ system in comparison, I’d only make a poor impression on our host. Both here in Ruffaltio and back in Japan, we common folk were in a vulnerable position.

Lasulie harrumphed. “Politics must be too difficult a concept for a plebeian like yourself to grasp.”

“Humes hold differing views of their rulers, depending on their station,” I explained. “But regardless of what system is in place, commoners like me tend to only ever want one thing: peace.”

“Is that right? Well, color me surprised. Are the humes I know a different folk from the one you speak of? I recall them as being foolish, greedy, and bellicose. Always killing their own throughout the ages,” Lasulie said, her tone dripping with sarcasm.

She was trying to incite me, but I knew better than to take the bait. In this day and age, you couldn’t afford to let yourself get agitated at the merest provocation. Those who did often crashed and burned over relatively trivial matters.

“I won’t deny that. That’s why we blameless commoners generally wish for peace,” I replied calmly.

The matriarch let out a bored snort, likely disappointed that she hadn’t gotten a rise out of me.

From the seat beside her, grandma (speaking through Peace) chuckled. “My grandson has got you there.”

“Quiet, witch. Or I will run you out of our sacred land.”

“Oh, will you now? Are you sure that’s a good idea? You clearly have some business with us. With my grandson, specifically. Isn’t that right? That’s why you have allowed us to come here.”

“Business with a hume? Who, me?”

“You ordered your soldiers and your retinue to leave, yet you’re still denying it? Fine, let me reword it: You need Shiro’s help. That’s why you’ve brought him here.”

Lasulie threw a glare filled with venom at grandma (well, at Peace), who met it head-on. The situation was starting to get truly explosive. Grandma, could you stop teasing her? Tisto’s stress levels were almost at the point where he could take no more. He had gone as white as a sheet and appeared to be about to disgorge the contents of his stomach right there and then.

But despite my silent plea, grandma and Lasulie continued to glare at each other, and it was a good few seconds (or was it a few minutes?) before the matriarch spoke again, causing sweat to break out across Tisto’s brow.

“Fine. I admit it. I need your help. But you need mine too, don’t you?” Lasulie asked, as if to test us.

Chapter Twenty-Three: Deal

“Some time ago, my only daughter was abducted by a merchant from a guild calling itself the Setting Sun,” Lasulie explained.

Damn.She’s really throwing a heavy story at us right off the bat, huh? If I hadn’t mentally prepared myself beforehand, her words would have made me panic more than a little.

“The barrier wasn’t as strong back then, you see. Outsiders occasionally wandered in.”

She had claimed her daughter was abducted “some time ago,” but that was only from her perspective as a high elf. Tisto told me it had been thirty years since then already.

“I do not know exactly how people managed to slip through the barrier, but most of the trespassers were just lost. We would simply summon some of the Vehar elves and get them to escort the interlopers back out again.”

Lasulie paused, grimaced, and sighed.

“But on that fateful day, a man crossed the barrier and set foot in our sacred land,” she resumed, her voice lowering a few octaves.

“Was he that merchant from the Setting Sun you mentioned?” I asked.

“Indeed,” she confirmed, nodding. “He was a male hume, and he called himself a merchant. The fool said he wanted to harness the power of the world tree. He claimed to have come to our land to ‘make a deal’ with us.”

“The world tree? What did you say to that?” I asked.

“We high elves exist to protect the great world tree. As you can imagine, I immediately refused his nonsensical request. Some of my kin even started yelling that we should kill the man for his impudence,” she said, recalling the events of that day. “But this man from the Setting Sun immediately changed his target. To my daughter.”

I couldn’t quite discern Lasulie’s expression through the veil she was wearing. “So you’re saying your daughter was abducted by this merchant from the Setting Sun, Miss Lasulie?” I asked.

“Yes. My daughter was fascinated by the outside world, you see. I do not know what kind of cajolery they used on her, but the Setting Sun managed to trick my daughter into following them. How foolish of her.”

“Could they possibly have threatened her?” I suggested.

Lasulie shook her head. “No, they did not. Even back then, our barrier prevented others from forcing us to leave our land against our wishes. Yet my daughter left all the same. That means she followed the man willingly.”

I was at a complete loss for words. To summarize Lasulie’s tale, the special barrier surrounding the world tree was a little leakier than at present, and while outsiders (Lasulie’s word, not mine) strayed beyond it from time to time, they were quickly ushered out again without too much fuss. This merchant from the Setting Sun, however, slipped past the barrier on purpose, so naturally, the high elves were immediately wary of him.

Even so, this man impudently strolled up to them and said, “I want the power of the world tree. Would you like to do a deal with me?”

As Lasulie recalled, his smile made all of the high elves uneasy, and from one corner of my mind, I dredged up the memory of Jilvared offering his services to Galbady, the chieftain of the devils, in a similar manner. But thirty years has passed since Lasulie’s daughter had gone missing, so that surely meant Jilvared couldn’t have been her abductor.

“I was shocked,” Lasulie said. “To think a hume would want to get his hands on the power of the world tree...”

She was quick to point out that she was the matriarch of the high elves’ council rather than their ruler, but there was no need for her to discuss the matter with the other council members before refusing the man’s demand. The high elves had no intention of handing the power of the world tree over to anyone. Not when it had been the cause of so many past conflicts.

Lasulie rejected the merchant’s deal and ordered her warriors to train their arrows on him, just like she had done when we arrived. Finding himself outnumbered a hundred to one, the man pretended to retreat, although he didn’t leave alone. No one knew quite how he did it, but he managed to coax Lasulie’s daughter into following him outside the barrier.

Since that time, the elves had strengthened the barrier yet further to ensure that no outsider could ever wander inside again, cutting their sacred land off from the rest of the world completely. They subsequently changed the entry system so that only those with a special accessory from the high elves could make it past the barrier, and as a result, the only ones who ever ventured inside were the people of Vehar, the high elves’ servants. That’s what I call a big system update, I mused.

And thirty years later, here we were, the first guests the high elves had received since the abduction of Lasulie’s daughter. And not only that, but we weren’t alone, for we had grandma, the Immortal Witch (or at least, her familiar), with us.

“I have talked too much. Let us return to the topic at hand,” Lasulie said, her jade-green eyes staring at me through her veil.

I instinctively straightened my posture. After all, the lives of Celes and Dramom depended on this one conversation.

“I understand your request. From what you said earlier, I take it you wish for me to call upon the sovereign of the land spirits to gain the power to lift the curse of the Destruction Dragon that has been cast on your friends, correct?”

“What?! You can summon the sovereign of the land spirits?!” I exclaimed.

Kilpha had a similar reaction. “What, meow?! You can really do that, meow? Isn’t the sovereign, like, some super high-ranking spirit? And you can summon someone like that? That’s so cool, meow!”

“Naturally. I am the most powerful spiritmancer, even among my kin,” Lasulie replied, and she didn’t sound like she was showing off or putting on airs at all. No, she was just stating a fact.

From what grandma had told me, only top, top shamans could summon spirit sovereigns, and even then, they usually had to forfeit their lives in exchange for just a sliver of the sovereign’s powers. But apparently, high elven shamans—or spiritmancers, as Lasulie called herself—could draw on all of a sovereign’s powers without paying this high cost. I was shocked to learn Lasulie was the shaman we’d been searching for all this time. I had assumed her position as matriarch of the high elves’ council meant she was more disposed toward management and admin than powerful magic.

“Then, yes! We want you to help our friends, Celes and Dramom, meow!” Kilpha pleaded.

“Please, Miss Lasulie. Please save our dear friends,” I said, getting to my feet and bowing my head.

Lasulie chuckled. “Now, now. Don’t be so hasty. You’re a merchant, aren’t you, hume?”

“Huh? Oh, um, yeah. But what’s that got to do with...” I trailed off, taken aback by her question.

“You and I will do a deal, hume merchant. Your kind love deals, do you not?”

“A deal?”

“Yes, a deal. Surely you were not expecting me to grant your request without receiving something in exchange, were you?”

“O-Of course not,” I stammered, but that was a lie. I’d very much hoped she would. Sorry, ma’am.

“If you grant my wish, I will grant yours. What do you say, hume? Will you do a deal with me?” Lasulie asked. The implication in her tone was clear: She would only help us if we granted her request.

“Fine. As long as it’s within my power, I’ll do anything you want.” I actually already had an inkling of what her terms would be.

“That’s very noble of you. Now, listen closely. I want you—”

“To find your daughter and bring her back. Is that right?” I finished her sentence for her.

“Oh? You are rather perceptive for an ordinary hume. Yes, that’s right. No matter how foolish my daughter may have been, I still gave birth to her. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t concerned about her whereabouts.”

“Well, if you’re so worried, why don’t you go look for her yourself?” Valeria chimed in. “She is your beloved daughter, isn’t she?” she added, her tone thick with sarcasm. She was clearly angry. I could tell from the provocative way she was staring at Lasulie, her chin resting on her palm.

“M-My friend!” Tisto whisper-shouted to me. “Please stop that bearwoman before she...”

The stress must have gotten all too much for him, for he collapsed forward onto the table before finishing his sentence.

“Stay strong, Mr. Tisto!” I urged him. My instincts as a former corporate drone told me he had a bout of bloody urine to look forward to after this. Or maybe even a stomach ulcer. Though unfortunately, my friends weren’t done berating the matriarch yet.

“Valeria’s right! Why don’t you go look for her yourself? You’re her mother!”

“Yeah! You birthed her! You’ve gotta go search for her!”

Shess and Patty piled in with their own criticism to add to Valeria’s words of rebuke, pushing Tisto closer and closer to the edge.

“My friend...”

“Mr. Tisto! Hang in there!”

This was bad. I didn’t know what was happening to him, but I could see it was bad. Yet no one else seemed to be paying any attention to him as the conversation continued.

“You make it sound so very simple, beastwoman. As matriarch of the council, I cannot leave this land. We high elves aren’t supposed to step outside of the barrier in the first place,” Lasulie sniffed.

“Oh, please. You’re saying the ‘rules’ are more important than your own daughter?” Valeria sneered.

“Well, naturally. There can be no order without rules.”

Valeria paused. “I’ve seen my fair share of people suffer because of ‘rules.’ The same kind of rules you seem to love so much.”

“Suffering?” Lasulie scoffed. “Those people must have been fools.”

“What about your own daughter?” Valeria shot back. “Didn’t she leave because she was fed up with your damn rules all the time?!” She slammed her fist down on the mushroom table.

But Lasulie wasn’t budging one bit. “Perhaps she did. What of it?” she replied, sounding perfectly calm. “Normally, those tainted by the outside world are forbidden from approaching the world tree. Yet in my great indulgence, I am willing to welcome her back into our sacred land. In short, I will show her mercy. And as I am matriarch of the council, my kin won’t oppose my decision.”

“Mercy? You call that mercy?!” Valeria exclaimed, her shoulders trembling with anger.

“Of course. What else would you call it?”

Shess and Patty were similarly outraged at the words coming out of her mouth.

“What did you just say?! Did you just call your own daughter ‘tainted’?! Just because she wandered outside your land? Are you stupid or what?!” the little princess blurted out.

“S-Stop being so mean!” Patty chimed in. “You shouldn’t say bad things about your own daughter!”

Their anger was so intense, tears had welled up in their eyes. Shess had even gone as far as calling Lasulie “stupid,” which had caused Tisto to promptly lose consciousness next to me. Knowing Patty and Shess as I did, I could tell they had a lot of sympathy for Lasulie’s poor daughter.

“What if your daughter says she doesn’t want to come back?” Valeria asked quietly.

“Her consent is irrelevant to my demand. I have instructed you to bring her back to me. That is all you need to do,” Lasulie replied.

“I can see why your daughter chose to run away,” the bearwoman retorted.

“She left because she was weak, young, and foolish.”

“I don’t like you. I really don’t,” Valeria spat before turning away. It was clear that she cared so much about her own friends and family, her personality was never going to mesh well with Lasulie’s.

“I do not care about your feelings. Now...” Lasulie’s attention shifted to me. “Will you grant my request?”

“I will,” I said after a heavy pause.

Her daughter had broken the rules, and my mission was to bring her home. Based on Lasulie’s position as matriarch of the council and her abilities as a shaman (a spiritmancer?), she seemed to be a figure of some authority among the high elves. But wait just a minute... A thought occurred to me: If she couldn’t leave this “sacred land” of theirs, how exactly was she going to remove the curse from Dramom and Celes?

“I do have a question first, however. May I?”

“I’ll allow it.”

“Thank you very much. If you’re bound to this land because of these ‘rules’ of yours, can I ask how you intend to lift the curse on my friends?” The question was weighing too heavily on my mind not to ask it there and then.

“Oh, that is quite simple. I shall summon the sovereign of the land spirits, have him craft a curse-breaking crystal, then hand it to you,” she replied.

“A spirit crystal, huh? Extravagant. That’s quite generous of you,” grandma remarked through Peace.

In all honesty, I had no idea what this crystal thingy was supposed to be, but if grandma was impressed, it had to be pretty darn amazing. Plus, based on her reaction, it sounded like it would do the trick to save Dramom and Celes.

“It is no trouble to me,” Lasulie replied.

“Aw, don’t be so modest. You’re the first shaman I’ve met who—”

“Spiritmancer, witch. Do not place us high elves on the same rank as the masses.”

“Yes, yes. If that’s what you prefer to be called, O great spiritmancer.”

Having been interrupted mid-sentence, grandma simply shrugged—which was quite impressive considering she was still communicating through Peace—then curled up on her mushroom seat.

Well, anyway, we finally had a serious lead on how to save Celes and Dramom. All we needed to do was fulfill Lasulie’s request. But something was still bothering me.

“Miss Lasulie, if—ah, and this is only an ‘if,’ you understand? I’m just asking this in a hypothetical sense. So, uh, in the unlikely event that—”

“Stop hemming and hawing. Speak plainly,” Lasulie commanded.

“Oh, uh, right.” I mustered up all of my courage and came right out with it. “Is it possible that the Setting Sun might have killed your daughter?”

When we first got here and the high elf warriors had their bows trained on us, Aina had mentioned the color of Mia’s hair, and Lasulie had reacted to it. In other words, it was highly likely Mia was Lasulie’s daughter. But she was a phantom. Didn’t that mean she had lost her life at some point? Since the thought had crossed my mind, I figured it was best to voice it. But suddenly, an immense pressure radiated from Lasulie. Anger, I assumed.

“You claim my daughter is dead?” she asked coolly.

“I-It’s just a hypothesis! I mean, it’s been thirty years since she was taken, and—”

“She cannot be dead. She cannot have been killed!” Her grip on her staff tightened. “That man... The merchant from the Setting Sun... He was after the world tree’s power. He must have taken my daughter hostage in order to coerce me into accepting his demands. I... I...”

All sorts of emotions were churning in her voice, and it was then that I understood. Lasulie had been waiting for her daughter to come home. She was waiting—no, clinging to the hope that the Setting Sun would return with her daughter and try to use her as a bargaining chip. I was pretty sure my friends had reached the same conclusion. Even Valeria, who had been ready to pounce on the matriarch mere seconds ago, seemed to have been caught off guard by this new information. I exchanged a few glances with my friends, and we all nodded in agreement.

“We’ll look for your daughter,” I assured Lasulie. “But finding her will be nearly impossible without any leads. Do you know anything about the Setting Sun that could help us?”

“I don’t. However...” She paused and removed the glove from her right hand, then slipped off the jade-green ring that was on her finger and set it down on the mushroom table. “You may take this with you.”

“A ring?”

“It has an enchantment on it that indicates the location of its counterpart. And the owner of the other ring in the pair...”

“That would be your daughter, right?” I said, finishing her sentence.

“Yes,” she said, nodding. “I made it so that my daughter cannot remove her ring, so she should still be wearing it.”

“I see.”

I refrained from asking what would happen if someone had cut off her daughter’s finger. After all, healing magic was a thing in this world, and some of the more powerful spells even had the ability to regrow limbs. It wasn’t inconceivable that the Setting Sun might have severed her daughter’s finger, taken the ring, then magically regrown it.

“I’ll borrow this for now, then.”

I was just about to reach for the ring on the mushroom table when Kilpha’s ears started twitching.

“Mind if I join you in there?”

All of a sudden, a male high elf walked in through the dome structure’s entrance, with several people trailing behind him. His long blond hair cascaded down his back, and he was dressed in a green outfit. He regarded us with a mocking glance, then scoffed.

“Tukachi,” Lasulie addressed the man. “What are you doing here?”

“What am I doing here, you ask? As a council member, I was worried you were about to tell these outsiders about our greatest embarrassment, but...” He paused, glanced down at the ring on the mushroom table, and shook his head. “But it seems I was too late. Knowing how meddlesome you are, I suppose you couldn’t help asking them to look for that cursed child, could you?”

Lasulie hesitated before replying, “That is no concern of yours.”

“Of course it is. She might be cursed, but she’s still my daughter,” he said somberly. “Our poor Sonia. She inherited your jade-green eyes, but was born with that nasty silver hair.”

Jade-green eyes and silver hair. The description matched Mia perfectly.

Chapter Twenty-Four: The Newcomer

So it turned out that the man who had strolled into the dome while we were having our little chat with Lasulie was, in fact, her husband, Tukachi.

“Why don’t you finally give up on that cursed child?” he said to his wife, yet she didn’t reply. “Thirty years might be nothing to us high elves, but it’s quite a long time to those living in that filthy outside world. She’s likely already dead.”

“Shut up,” Lasulie said curtly.

“Don’t use such harsh language with me,” he sniffed. “I’m just giving you advice, as your husband.”

“And as matriarch of the council, I order you to shut up. If you continue to spout that nonsense, I’ll summon spirits to come and tear your limbs off.”

“What a gruesome prospect. For a beautiful, refined woman like you to say such things all because of that girl...” Tukachi sighed. “She truly is cursed.”

Lasulie struck the forest floor with her staff, and the earth behind her sprouted three humanoid figures.

“I will not repeat myself. Leave. Now,” Lasulie warned.

Tukachi’s retinue immediately rushed forward to shield him from any potential attack, but the man himself remained perfectly calm. “Cut that out, Lasulie. I haven’t come here to get in your way. Quite the opposite, actually.”

“The opposite?” she repeated skeptically.

“That’s what I said. I’m here to help you.” He turned his attention to us. “I see my wife has given you her ring. I take it that means you’re going to look for that cursed child—for our daughter, yes?”

I was a little taken aback by the way he was speaking about his own daughter, but I nodded all the same. “That’s our intention, yes.”

“Then, to make sure you return, I ask that one of you remains here until you’ve found her. Call it insurance.”

A gasp escaped my mouth. His request was insane!

“Wh-What are you saying all of a sudden, meow?!” Kilpha exclaimed.

“Yeah, we can’t do that! I refuse to leave one of my friends behind!” I added.

“So you want a hostage now, huh? You high elves truly are despicable,” Valeria sneered, reaching for her battle hammer.

However, Tukachi simply flashed us a scornful smile from behind his rank of bodyguards. “Humes cannot be trusted. I merely ask for some collateral to ensure you don’t break your promise.”

“B-But—” I started to argue, but he interrupted me.

“If you cannot accept our conditions, we will have no choice but to sentence you to death,” he declared, clearly trying to strong-arm us into agreeing to his terms.

Fortunately for us, Lasulie intervened to put a stop to her husband’s attempts at intimidation. “Do not make such decisions without first consulting me. Do you seriously think I’d let you take one of these people hostage?”

“Then, shall we hold a session of the council? They would likely sentence these interlopers to death for the mere act of entering our sacred forest.”

Lasulie’s retort died in her throat. It seemed her husband wasn’t bluffing.

“That fool from Vehar forgot his place and dared to bring these people to our land. Yet you plan to simply send them back unpunished, just like you did with that merchant from the Setting Sun? As a member of the council, I refuse to let them return to the outside world without at least some form of sanction being placed on them,” Tukachi added.

If the smirk on his face was anything to go by, he seemed to have the upper hand. All Lasulie could do was glare at him.

“The same goes for that fool from Vehar. I suggest razing his village to the ground for leading these humes to our land. After all, there is no shortage of elves who can take over the duties they perform for us.”

Even Tisto had gotten caught in the cross fire. Good thing he was still out cold.

“Well, humes, what will it be? Either you can leave one of your group behind, or you can die here together. I’ll allow you to choose which you prefer.”

“Do you really think I’d let you kill them?” grandma said through Peace. Her voice was a few octaves lower than usual, and she didn’t sound her usual carefree self at all.

“The witch, huh?” Tukachi sniffed. “And how do you plan to stop us with nothing but the powers of your familiar? Of course, with your abilities, I’m sure you’ll eventually manage to find your way here somehow, but it’ll be much too late by then. These people will be long dead.”

“Your response surprises me,” grandma retorted. “Are you trying to anger me? Is that it?”

“Don’t get me wrong, witch. I am simply asking for a guarantee that they’ll return. With my daughter, of course.” He turned to us. “And unlike my wife, I won’t make the unreasonable demand that you bring her back alive. That’s absurd. If you find anything of hers—even a single hair—that will suffice. I really don’t care what it is”—he glanced at Lasulie—“as long as it helps my wife accept that our daughter is dead.”

“You’re her father, Tukachi, yet you dare to claim that our Sonia is dead?” Lasulie spat.

“Pull yourself together, Lasulie. With the information we have, how am I supposed to believe she’s still alive?”

Lasulie didn’t reply to this, but tightened her grip on her staff as her whole body trembled in frustration. Tukachi cast a final glance at his wife before turning his attention back on us.

“So what will it be, hume? Will you leave someone behind as proof that you will do what you have promised? Just one of your group will suffice.”

“I...”

Leave one of your group behind. This sudden, unreasonable demand had left me lost for words.

Sensing my crisis of conscience, Shess piped up. “Amata, I’ll do it. I’ll stay here.”

To my shock, she was actually volunteering to remain in the high elves’ village. Her words had been softly spoken, yet the resolve in her tone had been unmistakable.

“Shess!” Aina exclaimed.

“Princess? You can’t! You absolutely can’t!” Luza said hurriedly.

The two of them were every bit as surprised as me at this sudden turn of events.

“You cannot stay here, princess!” the swordswoman insisted.

“Shut up, Luza,” the little princess retorted.

But her knight refused to back down. “No, I won’t shut up! Even if you cut my salary, I refuse to remain quiet!”

“Just shut up and listen to me!” Shess yelled. “Amata, Aina, and everyone else, hear me out before you say anything.”

Her eyes scanned all of our faces.

“I’m the most useless one here,” she continued. “It pains me to admit it, but it’s the truth. But if a burden like me can be of some help to all of you—especially you, Amata—by staying here, I’ll happily do it. No...” She shook her head and corrected herself. “No, I want to do it.”

“Shess...” Aina whimpered.

“Please, Amata. Let me do this. Let me stay behind. I want to be useful to you all.”

“Shess, I...”

I wanted to refuse her offer. The thought of taking her place even crossed my mind, but at the end of the day, I was the one who’d dragged my friends into this mess in the first place, so I could hardly tell them to just go deal with it while I stayed put here. That would be way too irresponsible. But I couldn’t bring myself to leave Shess behind here either. My thoughts spun in circles around my mind, unable to settle on what I should do.

“If that child chooses to remain here, I shall look after her myself in your absence,” Lasulie said to me. “I cannot assure you the others will be hospitable to her, but as matriarch of the council, I promise she will not want for anything.”

Shess herself seemed shocked by the statement, but she quickly recovered herself and flashed me a sunny grin. “See, Amata? I’ll be just fine.”

“Shess...” I murmured.

“Please, Amata,” Shess said. “Take Aina and the others and go find that poor girl.”

I remained hesitant, but Shess’s strength of will had touched me. “Okay,” I said with a nod. However, even as I said it, I knew there was a certain someone who wouldn’t be so easily convinced to leave the little princess behind.

“If you’re staying, then I am too!” Luza declared.

“Luza, you can’t. You have to go help Amata,” Shess pleaded.

“I’m sorry, princess, but I can’t obey your orders this time. I... I...” She stood up and thumped the left side of her chest with her right fist. “I’m your knight!”

I watched in awe as the scene in front of me unfolded. Here was a princess and the knight who had sworn to protect her.

Perhaps prompted by the passionate nature of Luza’s declaration, Lasulie interjected at that moment. “You may both remain here. I don’t mind.”

Shess let out a long sigh. “Fine. Luza, we’ll stay here and wait for Amata to return. You got that?”

“Yes, princess!” Luza replied, smiling the brightest she had all day. She then turned to me. “Hear that, Amata? The princess and I will graciously stay here on your behalf, so you’d better hurry back now!” she said to instigate me.

Shess addressed us next. “Amata. Aina. I’ll be fine, I promise. So...” A gentle smile curled her lips upward. “Please find that poor girl.”

“Shess...” Aina wrapped her arms around the little princess and said a temporary goodbye to her with tears streaming down her face. By contrast, her friend bravely held back her own tears and settled for gently stroking Aina’s hair.

◇◆◇◆◇

Per Tukachi’s demands, Shess and Luza would be staying in the high elves’ village until we returned with his (and Lasulie’s) daughter. Unsurprisingly, he seemed very satisfied with this arrangement, and he roared with laughter as he left the dome, his retinue following closely behind him. Lasulie told us she would make sure Shess and Luza wanted for nothing while they were there, and Tisto even volunteered to remain with them, although in his own words, this was only to ensure they wouldn’t unwittingly disrespect the high elves.

At last, the time came for us to depart.

“Bye, Shess. We’re off now,” I said.

“Good luck, Amata and Aina. And to everyone else too,” the little princess replied.

“If you don’t hurry back, I’ll hate you for the rest of your life! You got that, you dumb Amata?” Luza barked.

“Rest assured, my friend. I will look after them both while you’re away,” Tisto assured me.

After we had all said our goodbyes to the three of them, we returned to the outside world to search for Lasulie’s daughter.

Chapter Twenty-Five: Where Is Kalmia?

Thus, Shess and Luza were being held hostage—ahem, sojourning in the high elves’ village. At least Tisto was with them, which was somewhat reassuring. I could only hope that we would make it back there before the stress of it all caused his stomach to rupture, though. Our group returned to Vehar, where we reunited with Raiya, Nesca, and Nesca’s parents.

“Ah, you’re back, man! Hey, wait. Didn’t you leave with two little girls? Where’s the other one? The noisy knight’s nowhere to be seen either,” Raiya observed.

“What’s the story?” Nesca asked, sounding as lethargic as always.

“Oh dear. My father isn’t with you either. What’s happened to him?” asked Nesca’s mother, Fana.

Her husband, Latham, also seemed worried. “Did something go wrong in the high elves’ domain, Shiro?”

We relocated to Fana’s childhood home—Tisto’s house, in other words—where I explained the whole situation to them about how Lasulie had sent us to search for her missing daughter, and how Shess, Luza, and Tisto had stayed behind as de facto hostages to ensure we would return. Although I decided not to mention Tukachi’s threat to raze Vehar to the ground.

“Well, anyway, that’s the gist of it. We’re gonna be leaving again soon to look for the matriarch’s daughter,” I concluded.

All four listeners to my tale had grave expressions on their faces.

Raiya was the first to speak up. “Hey, man,” he said, seeming hesitant.

“What is it?”

“That, uh... What was it again?”—he searched for the word before landing on it—“That matriarch? Could her daughter be Mia?”

“I was thinking the same thing,” Nesca interjected. “From the description given, they have too much in common for it not to be her.”

“I agree,” I said.

Fana and Latham nodded too. They had all reached the same conclusion I had.

“Um, Mister Shiro?” Aina piped up, her voice faltering a little.

“What is it, Aina?” I asked gently.

“Um... Mia, she...”

“Yes?”

“She called that high elf lady ‘mother.’ ‘I’m sorry, mother’ is what she said.”

We all fell silent on hearing this sudden revelation. I hadn’t expected my theory to be confirmed so quickly.

“I’m sorry for not telling you before,” the little girl murmured, her shoulders drooping.

I stroked the top of her head and gave her a reassuring smile. “It’s all right. Thanks for letting us know, Aina.” She nodded feebly in response.

Mia had disappeared, and Shess was being held hostage by the high elves. With both of her friends gone, the poor mite must have been feeling quite lonely and anxious.

“‘Mother,’ huh? Well, guess that settles it, then,” Raiya said.

“It sure seems like it,” I agreed, nodding.

“The matriarch’s daughter was a phantom you found wandering around a forest. It’s very unlikely you’ll be able to carry out your mission,” Nesca pointed out.

Lasulie’s request had been for us to bring her daughter back alive, but seeing as how Mia was a phantom when we met her, the likelihood of her still being among the living somewhere was abysmally low. A gloomy atmosphere settled over the room.

In the midst of it all, Kilpha raised her hand. “Hey, Nesca. Why was Mia a ghost, meow?”

“What do you mean, ‘Why’?” Nesca said.

“Well, when people die, their souls rise up into the sky and become stars, right?”

“Y-Yeah! And at some point, they turn into shooting stars and come back down to us! Like Eren is going to!” Patty said, nodding vigorously.

That was what the people of this world believed happened to those who passed away, and it was in fact the truth, although it had never been confirmed until we took a trip to some ruins in the Gigheena Forest a few months back.

“Exactly, meow. So what was Mia’s phantom doing wandering around the forest?”

“There are theories about why certain souls remain in this world after death,” Nesca said.

“Well, tell us about them, meow!”

“I wanna know too! I’m all curious now,” Patty chimed in.

“These theories sound rather interesting, Nesca. Would you mind telling your dear old dad about them?” Latham added.

Being a court mage, he already had some knowledge on the topic, so when Nesca explained she had learned about these theories at the magic institute, Latham shook his head and informed her that they were out-of-date. He then proceeded to give us a short lecture on the most recent research centering around spirits and souls. It all sounded like pure gibberish to me, and if the blank expressions on their faces were anything to go by, Kilpha and Patty seemed to understand even less of what was said than I did, but that didn’t stop Nesca and her father from launching into a heated debate on the subject.

“Souls refuse to ascend into the sky if they have any strong regrets or lingering attachments,” Peace (grandma) spoke up all of a sudden, interrupting their animated discussion.

Fana and Latham stared at the little cat in bewilderment.

“Oh my. How strange. Kitty just spoke hume words,” Fana uttered.

“A talking cat? Shiro, is this little fellow someone’s familiar?” Latham asked me.

Oh, right. The two of them didn’t know Peace’s true identity.

“Yes, he is. This little guy is grandma— Oh, wait. I must apologize. I haven’t actually introduced her to you yet. But yes, this cat is my grandmother’s familiar.”

It seemed to me as if Peace had puffed out its little chest with pride at my words.

“How rare, having a cat as one’s familiar. Although I assume it must be easier to adapt to their vision than, say, a bird’s, for instance. Still, your grandmother must be an outstanding mage if she can make her familiar speak the hume tongue,” Latham remarked.

“Dad, Shiro’s grandmother is Alice the Immortal Witch. It’s only natural she’s able to pull off incredible tricks like this,” Nesca said.

“What?! Is this true, Nesca?” Latham exclaimed. His daughter simply nodded.

He turned back to Peace, but this time, his eyes were sparkling, like he was a young boy meeting his idol.

“Sorry I can’t be there in person. I’m Arisugawa Mio. You’ve been a great help to my grandson, Mr. Latham. I’m very grateful,” grandma said.

“Oh gosh! I can’t believe I’m talking to the witch of legend!”

“There’s no need to make such a big deal out of it. Although strangely enough, I don’t dislike that reaction,” grandma said, seeming quite pleased about being the subject of Latham’s admiration. I bet wherever she was in Ninoritch at that particular moment, she had a broad shit-eating grin on her face.

“Sorry to interrupt, grandma, but do you mind continuing your line of thought?” I said.

“About why you found that little girl wandering around as a phantom, you mean?”

“Yup, that one.”

“Well, I just told you, didn’t I? Souls refuse to ascend into the sky if they have any strong regrets or lingering attachments. Those things bind them to our plane of existence.”

Allow me to explain the concept she was trying to get across using my own words: Basically, whenever someone died while harboring deep regrets or possessing strong connections to someone or something on the mortal plane, their soul would fail to ascend to heaven. Or rather, up into the sky in this world. As a result, their soul would be left hovering between life and death. In most cases, they would remain close to the place where they died, or near to the person or object they were attached to. It was even said they might occasionally help people at first, while their memories and free will remained intact.

However, souls that lingered on the mortal plane long enough to forget their former selves were a different story. These tended to turn into evil spirits that would attempt to harm the living. The only way to save them once they reached that point was to forcibly make them ascend to heaven, either by using Holy Magic or by directly attacking the soul.

“So since Mia had lost almost all of her memories, that meant she was on the verge of turning into an evil spirit. Is that what you’re trying to get to?” I asked.

Aina gasped at this. She looked down at Peace on the verge of tears. “Is that true, granny? Is Mia really going to turn bad?”

“Well, I don’t know she will for sure. Besides, it sounds like her memories returned, based on what you told us earlier, little cutie. She seemed to recognize her mother, at least.”

“I see. Even Mia didn’t remember what she was doing here, after all,” I pointed out.

“She said she was looking for someone. Her mama, maybe?” Aina suggested.

“Maybe. Maybe not,” grandma said noncommittally. “Either way, it’s proof she’d retained something of herself. I don’t think she’ll turn into an evil spirit for quite some time.”

Aina and I were relieved to hear that. Good grief, grandma. Don’t scare us like that in the first place!

“Shiro’s grandma, ma’am? Can I ask a question, meow?” Kilpha chimed in.

“What is it, little cat-sìth lady? I don’t mind you marrying Shiro, if that’s what you want to ask me. I’d love to meet my first great-grandchild soon.”

“Really? Wow, thanks, meow! I’ll happily take you up on that offer...” Kilpha paused. “Wait! That’s not what I was asking, meow! When Mia disappeared, you said she was ‘back where she belongs,’ didn’t you, meow?”

“Ah, yeah, right. You did say that,” I recalled.

“Yup, I did,” grandma said, nodding (Or rather, Peace did).

“You don’t need to worry about that little girl. She’s back where she belongs.” Those were the exact words grandma had said to me after Mia had disappeared and we were all frantically looking for her. It was these words that had prompted us to follow Lasulie deeper into the forest.

“Does that mean you have some idea where Mia is, meow?” Kilpha asked, and based on what grandma had said at the time, that was a perfectly reasonable assumption.

Grandma (well, her cat) made a face that suggested she thought the answer to that question was obvious. “Well, I just told you, didn’t I? Souls that refuse to ascend into the sky remain tied to their own specific spots on the mortal plane. Her soul must have simply returned to the place it was bound to.”

I turned grandma’s explanation over in my mind. Souls that remained on the mortal plane were either tied to the place where they died, or to the person or object they were attached to. That could only mean one thing.

“So you think Mia is...”

“Yup. In all likelihood, she returned to the place where she died,” grandma said, confirming my theory.

“Well, in that case...”

I took the ring Lasulie had entrusted to us out of my inventory and stared at it. Apparently, it would help us find Mia.

“Does that mean she’ll be at the location indicated by this ring?”

Intermission

After Shiro and the others had left, Shessfelia offered up a silent prayer. Stay safe, Amata, Aina, and everyone else.

“I will show you where you will be staying. Follow me,” Lasulie said once Shessfelia’s friends had departed.

The little princess knew she and her bodyguard were uninvited guests in this “sacred land” or whatever the high elves called it, and she was under no illusions about the fact they were both being held hostage here.

“O-Okay,” she replied, her nerves causing her voice to come out unnaturally high-pitched. Oh, no! she fretted inwardly. She’ll realize I’m just putting on a brave front!

Yup, that’s right. Shessfelia even admitted to herself that she was only pretending to be strong. For Shiro and her best friend, she had acted like she wasn’t scared of anything, and she was determined to keep up the facade until her dear, dear friends returned for her.

“Let’s go, Luza,” she ordered. Yet despite the act she was putting on, she still felt uneasy about having been left behind in an unfamiliar place. She was scared.

“Don’t be anxious,” Lasulie said out of the blue. “As long as I’m here, no one will lay a finger on you.”

She had seen through the little princess’s brave front completely, and Shessfelia couldn’t help but be surprised by the gentleness in the matriarch’s tone.

◇◆◇◆◇

“We are here.”

Lasulie stopped in front of a structure that appeared to be made out of stones stacked on top of each other to form columns that intermingled with the large trees surrounding them. She ushered Shessfelia, Luza, and Tisto the elf inside.

“You may use these rooms,” she stated.

Shessfelia and Luza were to share a bedroom, but while Tisto was likewise offered his own room, when he learned this building was in fact Lasulie’s home, he firmly declined, declaring he would sleep outside instead. It seemed he felt more comfortable with the idea of camping out under the stars than the prospect of staying in the private abode of their “esteemed host.”

“Suit yourself” was all Lasulie said in response.

◇◆◇◆◇

Despite how huge her house was, Lasulie lived alone. As dinnertime approached, Shessfelia was taken aback to discover the matriarch had no servants and had to prepare dinner herself. The man who had previously introduced himself as her husband didn’t appear to reside there either.

“We high elves do not eat meat. I hope you find this palatable,” Lasulie said as she placed wooden bowls filled with mushroom and vegetable soup on the table in front of her two guests.

After a silent prayer—Shessfelia and Luza offering theirs to the gods, while Lasulie paid her respect to the world tree—they started eating.

“It’s good,” Shessfelia remarked, unable to hide her surprise.

Having received confirmation that the soup was acceptable to her guests’ tastes, Lasulie brought her own spoon up to her mouth. A heavy silence descended on the room, which lasted for several minutes until, unable to bear it any longer, Shessfelia opened her mouth to speak.

But before any words could pass her lips, Lasulie piped up first. “Your companions claimed they had seen the phantom of a high elf girl. Were they speaking the truth?” she asked, staring Shessfelia straight in the eye. “Did you two also see her?” Even through the matriarch’s veil, the little princess could see the seriousness of her gaze.

Shessfelia shook her head. “I’m sorry. We couldn’t see her. We, um... We were too scared to look,” she admitted.

Lasulie’s head dropped. She seemed disappointed. “I see.”

“But... But Aina saw her. And not just that! She talked to her as well. They even played tag together.”

“Really?” Lasulie said, raising her head slightly.

“Yes. She said the girl had silver hair and green eyes.”

“I see. Then it turns out the girl you brought here really was my daughter. She became a spirit and finally came home. Back to our sacred land.” Lasulie set her spoon down on the table and stood up. “So my daughter is a phantom now. That means she has already lost her life...” She sighed. “How foolish. How incredibly foolish.”

Shessfelia couldn’t hide her indignation at this remark. “You just called Mia ‘foolish’ again!” she exclaimed, anger oozing out of every pore of her small body.

“Mia?” Lasulie repeated, puzzled.

“That’s her name! She forgot her old one, so Amata decided to call her ‘Mia’!”

This woman was Mia’s mother, but here she was, speaking badly of her. Shessfelia wasn’t about to let that slide. She was furious.

“Are you angry on behalf of my daughter?” Lasulie asked.

“Of course I am!”

“You are, are you? I see. So there are still people who are willing to get angry on her behalf.” A self-deprecating smile played across Lasulie’s lips. “Do not misunderstand me. I wasn’t calling her foolish.”

“So who were you talking about?” Shessfelia asked.

“Myself.”

The regret visible in the matriarch’s eyes left the little princess lost for words.

Chapter Twenty-Six: Departure

At around sunset, my companions and I climbed aboard Zalboda the black dragon and we all flew out of Vehar. Our first stop was Palasua, the capital of Bolinoak, where we would drop Nesca and her family off at their home. By “family,” I was including Raiya in that, because he had just proposed to Nesca after all, and in my book, that meant he was already part of the family. Even though they were my friends, I couldn’t ask Raiya and Nesca to come with us when I didn’t really know what might be awaiting us on our mission, which is why, after Fana and Latham had climbed down from Zalboda, I urged them to do likewise. But to my surprise, they insisted on tagging along.

“Seriously? After everything we’ve been through, you’re just gonna leave us out of this? No way, man,” Raiya said.

“I agree with Raiya. Take us with you,” Nesca added.

I looked at them both. “I mean, nothing would make me happier than to have you with us, but are you sure?” I asked. “After all, you just got engaged, which means the countdown to the big day has officially started. But you want to accompany us instead? No, wait!” I gasped theatrically. “Don’t tell me you’re planning to flirt and canoodle and be all lovey-dovey in front of me to utterly destroy my mental well-being, knowing that I don’t have a partner!”

“Persecution complex much?” Raiya fired back in response to my mischievous little joke, a look of exasperation on his face.

“Is it just me, or did Shiro sound kind of spiteful just then?” Nesca said.

“Sounded more like jealousy to me,” Valeria remarked.

“Shiro, did you want me to pat your head?” Kilpha offered.

“I’ll drink with you if you need to drown your sorrows!” Patty suggested.

“Oh, I don’t mind consoling you either, if there’s booze involved,” Valeria said.

“Mister Shiro...” Aina said, looking up at me with eyes full of pity.

As for grandma, she shook her head (well, Peace’s head) and sighed. “My grandson is so pathetic.”

I had only intended to lighten the mood with a little joke, but it seemed my companions had taken me seriously. Anyway, after this impromptu little skit had concluded, it was decided Raiya and Nesca would join us on our mission, and I had to admit, I was glad they were coming with us, especially Nesca. After all, having a mage around definitely wouldn’t hurt. So far, that slot had been filled by Patty, who was pretty terrible at controlling her powers. And the good news just kept on coming.

“Well, with the situation as it is... Here, Shiro. I want you to take these with you,” Latham said, offering me his Fairy Glasses.

“Huh? But aren’t these, like, super important to you? You said you’d spent years developing them,” I pointed out.

“It sounds like you might need them. Oh, but please don’t break them, all right? If you do, I’ll have no choice but to ask you for more pairs of glasses in exchange.” Before our run-in with the high elves, I’d promised to bring him a hundred pairs of regular glasses in exchange for a few pairs of his magical ones.

I chuckled. “In that case, as payment for lending me these, I’ll bring you double the amount I promised.”

“I look forward to it. Be safe on your travels, you hear?”

Latham’s Fairy Glasses allowed the wearer to see spirits and phantoms. They were his prized possession and the result of years of research, but he was kindly lending them to me so that I’d have an easier time finding Mia. Aina and Patty were able to see her without any additional aids, so we would have likely been fine either way, but I was glad I could also search for her without needing to knock back a slug of Fairy Mead each and every time. I thanked Latham, took the glasses from his hands, and stowed them away in my inventory.

“Nesca, Raiya, make sure you help Shiro out there, all right?” Fana said to the newly engaged couple.

“Don’t hesitate to stop by here when you’re done so that you can tell us all about your adventures,” Latham said.

They bade us goodbye, and at last, we embarked on our quest to find Mia.

◇◆◇◆◇

We departed from Bolinoak as the moons began their ascent into the darkening sky. The ring Lasulie had given to me would supposedly show us the location of its counterpart if the wearer recited a specific incantation while holding it out toward the moons.

“Nesca, do you mind putting the ring on?” I asked.

“I’m fine with it,” she replied. “But why me? It’s such an important ring, after all. Are you sure you want me to hold on to it?”

“Well, you see, it’s slightly too small for my fingers...”

“Oh, so that’s the reason. All right then.”

It turned out the ring was too small to fit on any of my fingers, and the same was true for Kilpha. On the other hand, it was much too big for Aina. Therefore, I had no choice but to ask Nesca, and fortunately, the ring appeared to fit her perfectly as she slipped it onto the ring finger of her right hand, the jade-green gem embedded in the center gleaming in the moonlight. Next, after making sure the moons were both fully visible, I got Nesca to thrust her hand out skyward and recite the incantation Lasulie had taught us.

What happened next, you ask? Well, believe it or not, a beam of light that looked just like a laser shot out from the gem embedded in the ring, which I took to mean the ring’s counterpart was waiting for us on the other end of that beam.

“So pretty, meow,” Kilpha commented.

“I wonder how this thing works,” Nesca mused.

“Shiro, give the ring to me! I think it’ll fit around my foot! In fact, I’m sure it will!” Patty insisted.

“Stop, Patty. We’re flying high in the sky right now. What if you dropped it all the way down to the ground?” Valeria said, admonishing the little fairy.

“Aw, man!”

Meanwhile, Aina was staring at the light in complete silence, a troubled look casting a shadow across her little face. Mia was likely on the other end of that beam. Seeing that look on her face, I renewed my resolve to find her friend as quickly as humanly possible.

“Zalboda, can you kick things up a notch?”

The black dragon let out a happy growl in response, then surged forward through the night sky, following the beam of light from the ring that stretched all the way to the horizon.

◇◆◇◆◇

We soared through the night sky, chasing that glimmering beam. The moons had almost sunk below the horizon when at last, the light began pointing downward.

“Look, everyone! The beam’s pointing right there!” I announced.

It was almost dawn, in that period of time that isn’t quite night and isn’t quite day, and Kilpha, Raiya, Patty, and Valeria were all fast asleep. Aina had equally been unable to resist Morpheus’s embrace any longer and had drifted off into dreamland a short while earlier. Nesca was the only person other than me who was still awake, although even she had been nodding in and out of consciousness. But the moment they heard me shout, the three adventurers plus Valeria jolted awake as one.

“It’s pointing to a city,” Nesca observed, staring intently at the beam of light.

“A city, huh? Not that I can see it yet. Can you, Kilpha?” Raiya asked.

The cat-sìth rubbed her bleary eyes and shook her head. “Meooow. Nope, I can’t see it either, meow.”

“So we must still be pretty far out. Nesca, do you know what city it is? Actually, do you have any idea where we are right now?” Raiya asked his fiancée.

“I’m not sure which nation we’re flying over, but I can assure you, this is definitely pointing to a city,” she replied.

Personally, I couldn’t see anything other than total darkness, and it seemed Raiya and Kilpha were in the same boat as me. I wasn’t sure if it was due to her elven blood or if she’d simply used a spell to help her see in the dark, but Nesca appeared to be able to see a city down there.

“I’ve more or less remembered where we are. Let’s keep going for a little bit, then start our descent,” she said.

I nodded. “Agreed. After all, people will freak out if they see Zalboda.”

After spending so much time around Dramom and the black dragon, I had somewhat forgotten that the people of this world were actually scared of dragons. A handful of adventurers and heroes had slain dragons in the past, but most people viewed the creatures in pretty much the same way as natural disasters in that they were utterly powerless against them. Needless to say, it would cause quite a panic if we flew into this city on the back of Zalboda. Thank goodness the sun isn’t up yet, I thought.

“Well, you heard the lady, Zalboda,” I said to the black dragon. “Can you take us down when we’re a little closer to this city?”

Zalboda growled in response. Under the cover of semidarkness, the black dragon flew a little farther, then began to descend. We landed in the middle of what turned out to be a deserted patch of land that had no vegetation in it whatsoever. There didn’t seem to be any kind of forest in view where Zalboda could go and hide either. As such, I asked the dragon to hide behind a nearby rock-covered mountain.

“Mister Shiro, Zalboda’s tail is poking out,” Aina observed.

“Yeah...” I said slowly.

I figured people wouldn’t notice the dragon’s presence unless they actually went near the mountain. Or at least, I hoped they wouldn’t.

◇◆◇◆◇

I instructed Zalboda to do everything possible not to be spotted, and if anyone did approach, there was to be no attacking them. After that, my companions and I took a much-needed three-hour relaxation break, then we set off toward the city Nesca had spotted. With the sun now up, I could finally see it too.

“Considering how large this city is, it looks quite run-down—ahem, I mean, most of the buildings have clearly seen better days,” I corrected myself.

“It’s a dump, meow,” Kilpha said.

“Aw, c’mon, Kilpha. I tried hard to be careful with my words. Don’t let my efforts go to waste like that,” I teased her.

The city looked to be around the same size as Mazela, which was the largest city near Ninoritch as well as being the feudal capital of that region, but that was where the similarities ended. The state of the ramparts caught my eye first. Not only were they seemingly quite low, but whole sections had crumbled away. They clearly weren’t fulfilling their intended purpose of protecting the city from outsiders. As for what lay beyond the city walls, what I could make out through the many gaps didn’t look any better, and I caught sight of several buildings in dire need of maintenance.

“You two are right. It’s pretty rare to come across a city this size that’s so dilapidated. Could be the result of a monster attack, I guess,” Raiya said bluntly. Even an adventurer who had seen his fair share of towns and cities over the years was seemingly surprised at how shabby this city looked despite its size.

Anyway, we could hardly stand around all day gawking at the sorry state of the city, so I asked Patty to hide herself in Aina’s bag before moving on to the next part of the plan.

“First things first, we have to get inside. You ready, Aina?” I asked the little girl.

“Yeah.”

We joined a line of people who were waiting to go through what I presumed was the city gate. There were fewer than ten people ahead of us, so it was soon our turn.

“Next,” the guard called out unenthusiastically.

We took that as our cue to walk up to the gate. In most cities, the gatekeeper would ask visitors to state the reason for their visit, but this man seemingly didn’t want to know anything.

“Six copper coins a head” was all he said to us. It appeared anyone could enter the city as long as they paid the entry fee.

“Copper coins, huh?” I repeated, then opened the leather pouch that served as my wallet and made a show of looking extremely embarrassed. “Um... Uh-oh. That’s not good.”

“What’s wrong? If you can’t pay, you can’t come in,” the gatekeeper said.

“Oh, no, that’s not the issue. I’ve just run out of this nation’s currency, that’s all,” I lied. “Hm, would it be possible to pay with coins from either Giruam, Orvil, or Bolinoak?”

“Y-You want to pay in another nation’s currency? Th-That’s fine,” he said, the pitch of his voice rising slightly. Judging by his reaction, the coins of the nations I’d reeled off all seemed to carry more value than those of whatever this nation was.

“Ah, thank you so much,” I said. “Which currency would you prefer me to use?”

“L-Let’s see...” the gatekeeper mused momentarily. “Um, Bolinoak’s, if you could. Their coins are used almost all over the continent.”

“Sure thing. Oh, but it looks like I don’t have any coppers on me. Do you mind if I pay using a silver coin? I know I’m asking a lot here, so you can keep the change.”

The gatekeeper gasped, his eyes widening. I handed him the silver coin, and with a bright smile splashed across his face, he opened the gate for us. “Welcome to Gallus, the royal capital, travelers!”

Hey, he’d even told us the name of the city! And it was the capital of whatever nation we were currently in? I could hardly believe my ears.

While I was glad we had managed to enter the city without too much trouble, I couldn’t help worrying about the total lack of questioning at the gate. Wouldn’t criminals and fugitives be able to easily sneak in undetected if all they had to do was pay the entry fee? This question weighed on my mind, but I decided I’d keep it to myself. After all, outsiders had no business questioning a nation’s policies. For the time being, we simply continued on our way into the city proper.

“Meooow. It’s so lifeless here, meow,” Kilpha remarked as she scanned our surroundings.

“It’s a poor nation. Just like I was told it was,” Nesca muttered.

Kilpha was right. This section of the city was incredibly bleak and quiet, where in other cities, the area nearest the gate was usually one of the liveliest parts of the city.

“Hm? Like you were ‘told’ it was? Are you saying you know where we are, Nesca?” Valeria queried.

The taciturn mage nodded, though I wasn’t too surprised by this, because she was incredibly knowledgeable. She must have worked out our location as soon as she heard the name of the capital.

“We’re in the Dezert Kingdom. It’s the homeland of our companion, Rolf,” she said.

Raiya was the first to react to this bit of information. “Wait, what?!”

“What?!” Kilpha and I exclaimed in unison, hot on his heels.

I had been to the Dezert Kingdom three times in the past: once to drop Rolf off at his hometown on the Dramom Express, once when I’d come to pick him up to save Kilpha (again, on the back of Dramom), and a third time to bring him home after we’d brought the situation in Orvil under control.

“So this is the royal capital of Rolf’s home nation, huh?” I muttered to no one in particular.

I recalled that Rolf’s hometown, while small, had been quiet and serene, which was in stark contrast to the run-down city we were presently in. I was having a hard time believing this was the royal capital of his homeland. In fact, I was struggling to process that we were even in the same nation. In the middle of the city stood the royal palace, which towered over its surroundings, and it looked just as grand and magnificent as any I had seen on my travels in this world. Unlike the rest of the city, it showed no sign of neglect whatsoever. In fact, it looked brand-new, and I surmised that it must have been built very recently. Based on the contrast between this pristine palace and the dilapidated city it sat in, I could easily imagine the kind of people who ruled over this place.

“Nesca, why is this place so—” I started, but Raiya interrupted me.

“Later, man. For now, let’s find an inn.”

“Ah, uh, right.”

I was incredibly curious about how and why this kingdom came to be so run-down, but first and foremost, we needed to find a place that would serve as our base of operations during our stay here. We’d just decided to ask a passerby to recommend us a good inn, when all of a sudden, a familiar voice called out from behind us.

“I was just thinking that a rather boisterous group had arrived in the city, but I didn’t expect it to be you, Mr. Shiro, sir, and everyone else.”

We all spun on our heels. Impossible!

“No way! Rolf?” I said.

“Mister Rolf!” Aina cried out.

“Rolf!” the other three members of his adventuring party called out in unison.

“Long time no see, friends. I’m glad to see you all in good health,” Rolf said, waving at us with a beaming smile on his face.

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Reunited With Rolf

After celebrating our frankly miraculous reunion with Rolf, we followed him to the inn where he was staying, which turned out to be a three-story building called the Wolf’s Melancholy. In spite of its rather sad-sounding name, it was far better maintained than the structures around it, so we unanimously agreed to use it as our base of operations for the duration of our stay. To top it off, it was quite cheap—perhaps due to a lack of customers—so we were able to rent the whole of the third floor to ourselves.

We headed straight to the largest room on our private floor and dumped everything we were carrying. In the room, there was a small table with two chairs—one either side—plus two beds. Considering this was an inn in the royal capital, it struck me as being rather modest and furnished with only the essentials. Valeria plonked herself down on the floor cross-legged, Rolf and I sat down in the chairs, Kilpha and Aina perched on the edge of one of the beds, and Raiya and Nesca made themselves comfortable on the other. Copying Peace—who had claimed Aina’s lap as his spot—Patty took a seat on my head. Did she have to sit on someone every time?

“I almost couldn’t believe my eyes when I caught sight of you. What brings you to Dezert, my friends?” Rolf asked us.

“That’s our line, dude. What are you doing here in the royal capital? Did your goddess tell you we’d be coming or something?” Raiya teased.

A sense of nostalgia bubbled up inside me as I sat there listening to their banter. “How about we exchange our latest news? That should get us all caught up with what each of us has been up to, right? You see, Rolf, we’re here to...”

And with that, I filled him in on everything that had happened to us over the past few months, starting with our trip to the village of the devils, where we had encountered the Setting Sun for the first time. I recounted how Celes and Dramom had fallen victim to the Destruction Dragon’s curse, and that in order to cure them, we needed the help of a high elf shaman. I told him all about our encounter with Mia, our trip to Vehar, and ended my tale with what happened in the high elves’ “sacred land.”

“Anyway, that’s about the long and short of it. We used this ring to help us search for Mia, and it led us here to Gallus,” I concluded. By the time I was done, a grave look had settled on Rolf’s face.

“A legendary dragon and a mysterious merchant guild, hm? I can hardly believe everything you’ve gone through in my absence,” he remarked.

I chuckled. “It was a lot, for sure. And that’s putting it mildly.”

Too much had happened since our last meeting. Heck, too much had happened in the past week. How many nations had we traveled to over the last few days?

“So you believe the ring belonging to this ‘Miss Kalmia’ is somewhere in this city?” he asked for confirmation.

“Probably. Our issue is we can only use the power of the ring when the moon is out, meaning we need to wait until nighttime to start our investigation,” I explained.

Rolf nodded. “I see.”

“Okay, your turn now,” Raiya said. “What are you doing here, Rolf? You’re not from the capital, are you?”

The battle priest sighed in response to the question. “I have come to ask the king for his benevolence,” he said, as if these words were difficult for him to utter.

“His benevolence?” we all repeated.

He nodded. “Yes. His benevolence. I feel I haven’t mentioned it to you before, Mr. Shiro, sir, but I was born a petty noble here in Dezert. Although I’m only the third son, which means I am not of much importance to my family.”

“Wow, really? I had no idea you were a noble,” I remarked. I had always thought he’d seemed refined, which I’d put down to him being a priest, but maybe it was actually his noble background that played a part in his demeanor.

“Well, I’m only a noble on paper, really. You have seen the state of the royal capital for yourself. Being poor nobles in a poor nation, my family struggles to even put food to the table. Commoners in other nations likely live better lives than we do.”

Rolf continued on with his explanation. Up until about forty years ago, Dezert had been ruled by a mediocre yet compassionate king. While the kingdom had never been considered rich, it was once peaceful and fairly prosperous. However, the king’s ambitious younger brother staged a coup, which plunged the kingdom into a bloody civil war as fierce battles between the two opposing factions raged across the nation. Young people lost their lives, towns burned to the ground, and farms and fields were trampled and ravaged. In the blink of an eye, this once-thriving nation was reduced to a run-down, poverty-stricken mess.

Ten years ago, the civil war finally came to an end. The king’s younger brother had won. Ignoring the woes of his people, who had been reduced to living in absolute poverty, the new king decided to increase taxes, although his intention wasn’t to invest the proceeds into rebuilding the kingdom. No, he simply wanted to live the lavish lifestyle of his dreams. He was basically the very definition of a dictator. While listening to this tale, I felt like I’d glimpsed the dark side of this world.

“My family received word from the king several days ago,” Rolf continued. “He wants to increase taxes even further. I have come to plead with him to reconsider this decision as my older brother’s proxy. As I am a priest, the king likely won’t execute me.”

Apparently, Rolf’s brother had blown his top on hearing the news. In an attempt to calm him down, Rolf had taken it upon himself to come and negotiate with the king. The current monarch had a tendency to execute any petty noble who dared to step out of line, but Rolf wasn’t just any noble, for he was also a priest of Florine, the Goddess of the Sky, who boasted countless believers across the whole continent. Therefore he had concluded that even this dictator of a king wouldn’t dare to sentence him to death.

I hummed. “From what you’ve told us, this king of yours seems like a total despot. If you ask me, you probably shouldn’t even ask for an audience with him,” I cautioned.

“He’s right, Rolf. You’re being too naive if you think he won’t kill you just because you’re a priest,” Raiya added.

Kilpha nodded in agreement. “Exactly, meow. You can’t ever, ever trust bad guys, meow!”

“I agree with both of them. You should reconsider your decision, Rolf,” Nesca concluded.

Rolf’s shoulders drooped at our words of warning. “The people are suffering. Some even talk of overthrowing the king.”

The king had maintained his oppressive rule for the last ten years and was planning on raising taxes again for the umpteenth time. Some nobles had reached their limit and had already started preparing for an armed uprising. According to Rolf, they had even formed a rebel army, which was to be led by the granddaughter of the previous king. Whispers had started circulating that the rebels had taken advantage of the royal capital’s lax entry policy to sneak into the city unnoticed. Even Rolf’s brother was talking of joining the rebellion. At the rate things were going, it was only a matter of time before the kingdom was plunged into civil war once more. The king must have sensed the growing danger, as he had started hiring tons of mercenaries, despite having his own private army. Yet it was always the commoners who suffered the most in wartime, and it was for that reason that Rolf wanted to appeal to the king’s compassion in an attempt to avoid the looming conflict. Now there’s a priest for you, I thought. Unlike scumbags like me who are only in it for the money, he has all these huge ideals and principles.

“However, I’ve been told I can’t have an audience with the king for at least the next two years,” Rolf said.

“In other words, he has no intention of meeting you and just wants you to go back home. Right?” I said, and my companions nodded in agreement.

“Is that truly what it means?” Rolf muttered dejectedly.

“How could it mean anything else, dude?” Raiya reasoned, dealing the final blow to Rolf’s spirit.

The battle priest’s head drooped. Since it was clear he wasn’t going to get his audience with the king for at least the next two years, Rolf decided he would help us with our present mission.

◇◆◇◆◇

Evening soon arrived, and we left the inn to see if we could use the moons to pick up the trail again, although unfortunately, thick clouds shrouded the sky, meaning we weren’t able to see anything. To kill some time while we waited for the clouds to dissipate, we decided to take a tour of the city. According to Rolf, Gallus had never been the safest of places, but things had been even worse in recent times due to the behavior of mercenaries hired by the king and ruffians who had infiltrated the city. I’d suggested to Aina that she should maybe stay behind and wait for us at the inn, but the little girl had categorically refused.

“I wanna come too, Mister Shiro!” she had told me, a determined look in her eye. She had decided she would do everything she could to find Mia, no matter what obstacles lay in her way.

So the eight of us—in other words, me, Aina, the Blue Flash crew, (my little boss) Patty, and Valeria—plus Peace the little black cat headed out of the inn. All the other cities I’d visited in this world had seemed almost magical at night, with lanterns hanging from buildings in lieu of streetlights and a warm glow spilling from the windows of nearby taverns and houses, but Gallus was different.

“It’s so dark out here, Mister Shiro,” Aina observed.

I nodded. “You said it. You wouldn’t think this is a royal capital, huh?”

There were no lanterns in sight, meaning the streets were almost completely pitch-black, and Nesca was forced to use magic to light up her staff just so we could see far enough in front of us to explore the city. We peered into taverns as we passed, but their only patrons seemed to be ruffians and women dressed in outfits that were far too revealing. And unsurprisingly, there were no merchants’ taverns—usually hot spots for merchants—like you might find in other big cities, because after all, there were only a small handful of merchant guilds here, despite it being the royal capital.

Foot traffic on the streets was almost nil, and the few unsavory characters who did walk past us were the kind that were identifiable at a glance. If it wasn’t for the presence of the Blue Flash crew and Valeria’s rather muscular physique, they definitely would have tried to pick a fight with us, calling out things like “Hey, ya hume beanpole! Jump a little!” to see if they could hear the sound of coins clinking in my pockets, like one of those old-school extortion scenes you’d see in manga.

“All the people we’re passing look like trouble,” I remarked.

“Regular people probably don’t roam the streets at this hour,” Raiya suggested.

“Yeah, you’re probably right there,” I agreed. “Aina, don’t let go of my hand, you hear?”

“’Kay!”

I’d taken the little girl’s hand in mine on leaving the inn and hadn’t let go of it since. In response to my warning, she tightened her grip on my fingers.

“It’s so sketchy here,” I mumbled before falling into deep thought.

Anyone could waltz into this city as long as they paid the entry fee, and this area was rough. Didn’t that make this the perfect place to hide for fugitives and underground organizations?

“Look, everyone. The blue moon has finally come out,” Valeria said.

We all gazed up into the night sky, and I saw one of the moons peeking through a gap in the thick cloud cover. Ruffaltio had two moons: one blue, one red. When we used the ring Lasulie had given us previously, it had seemingly only reacted to the light of the former.

“Nesca, could you do the you-know-what now?” I asked.

“Sure.” She pointed the ring finger on her right hand toward the blue moon and whispered the incantation. Just like last time, a thin beam of light shot out from the ring.

“Okay, let’s follow it, everyone,” I said, and so we did.

Whenever the moon disappeared behind the clouds again, the light vanished too, so we scurried along as fast as we could, slaloming our way around several corners, which got us yelled at by a band of thugs we almost collided with. It was fine though, because Valeria easily shut them up with her powerful arm muscles, and after repeating this process a handful more times, we at last reached our destination.

“Uh, Rolf?” I called out to the priest.

“What seems to be the trouble, Mr. Shiro, sir?”

“Forgive me if I’m wrong, but isn’t this”—I pointed to the structure directly ahead of us—“the royal palace?”

“Yes, sir,” he confirmed. “That is indeed the royal palace, home to the king of Dezert.”

“So, uh, why is the ring’s beam of light pointing to it?”

Rolf had no answer to that one. Yup, as crazy as it sounded, the beam of light from Lasulie’s ring seemed to end smack-dab in the middle of the royal palace. The large building was surrounded by a channel of water—what we would have called a “moat” in my world—and I couldn’t see any way to cross it other than the drawbridge leading to the main gate, but since that was presently raised due to it being the middle of the night, that wasn’t an option either.

“Maybe the royal palace is just in the way of the beam. Let’s keep going for a bit,” I said.

We tried going around the structure to see if the beam continued beyond it, but it was undeniably pointing to the palace itself. I also noticed the light beam seemed to curve downward a little, which suggested it likely ended in one of the subterranean floors.

“So Mia was abducted by the Setting Sun thirty years ago, and her ring ended up here in the royal palace of Dezert. This...” I forced myself to swallow, my throat suddenly feeling dry. “This can’t be a coincidence. Does that mean the current king has ties to the Setting Sun?”

My question floated away into the dark night, unanswered.

Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Ring’s Whereabouts

Mia’s ring was in Dezert’s royal palace. We were all flabbergasted by this revelation and decided to return to the Wolf’s Melancholy for the moment. A heavy silence descended on the group as we reconvened in the communal space on the floor we had rented out. When we had set out earlier that evening, none of us had imagined we would find the ring in the royal palace of all places.

“I believe it is as you said, Mr. Shiro, sir. This Setting Sun guild you spoke of likely has ties to Dezert, my home nation,” Rolf said. “My father once told me the civil war started in a rather peculiar way forty years ago.”

On the day the present king staged his coup, he and his faction suddenly seized control of the capital with an army. His brother, the former king, managed to escape in the nick of time, leading to a thirty-year-long civil war that plunged the kingdom into chaos.

“No one knows how the present king secured the funds to hire such a large force,” Rolf continued. “It’s said he had enough soldiers to rival the kingdom’s own army.”

Most of the present king’s men had been mercenaries, and to this day, no one had any idea where he had found the money to hire so many. But with everything we had just learned, I had an inkling as to who might have helped him.

I hummed in thought. “So you reckon the Setting Sun provided the current king with the funds he needed to hire all those mercs, do you? I mean, it would make sense,” I admitted.

“But in what way would it have benefited them, Mr. Shiro, sir?” Rolf asked.

“I don’t know. But I know one thing for sure: The current Setting Sun—or at least Jilvared, the merchant I met—wants a war. One between humes and demons.”

“They seem to really like wars, don’t they?” Raiya interjected.

“There are people who profit enormously during wartime,” Nesca pointed out. “If the Setting Sun is a collection of so-called ‘merchants of death,’ a significant payday is likely their motive for inciting all of these conflicts.”

“I cannot believe it...” Rolf uttered, words failing him. It must have been a huge shock for him to learn that a mysterious merchant organization had been involved in the civil war that had ravaged his nation. A glum mood enveloped the room.

“Well, we’re not gonna get anywhere by sitting here brooding,” I said, attempting to sound as cheerful as possible. “And whether we want to look for Mia’s ring or continue our investigations into the Setting Sun guild, we’ll need to find a way into the royal palace. We should try to come up with some kind of plan.”

“But how do you suggest we get in? Rolf’s a noble and a priest of the Goddess of the Sky, yet even he has to wait two years for an audience,” Raiya pointed out.

I hummed pensively. “Well, I’m technically a noble in Orvil, so maybe I could leverage my title to request an audience with the king. He might be a little more willing to host foreign nobles,” I suggested.

Even though I spent most of my time in this world in Ninoritch, I was officially a baronet in Orvil, a thriving commercial hub, and despite being only a first-generation noble, I might finally have found the moment to use my status to our advantage.

But Nesca shook her head. “I can’t say I approve of that idea. If the Setting Sun really does have ties to the king of Dezert, they might have already told him about you. Something along the lines of ‘Be careful of that merchant,’ I imagine.”

We knew the Setting Sun was doing business with Magath, the former prime minister of Orvil, until we brought about his downfall, but he could indeed have told them about me before that point.

I hummed again. “So we can’t use my title, huh?”

“Hey, Shiro, I have an idea,” Valeria said. “The king’s recruiting mercenaries, right? I could pretend to be one to infiltrate their ranks and sneak into the palace.”

Raiya applauded this suggestion. “That’s a great idea! I didn’t think of that. The four of us could do the same. Right, guys?” he said to his partymates.

“I don’t think the king would trust newly hired mercenaries to patrol inside the palace. Besides, what if he remembers Rolf’s face? I can’t say I approve of that idea either,” Nesca said, rejecting that suggestion as well, and causing Valeria’s shoulders to slump.

“If only Shess were here. We could’ve used her royal influence to get a meeting with the king,” I muttered.

“Mister Shiro, should I go back and swap places with Shess?” Aina suggested, raising her little hand into the air.

“If the king really does know about Shiro, he’ll know how deeply involved with the Giruam royal family he is, so I can’t imagine he would say yes to meeting with Shess. No, I can’t say I approve of that idea either,” Nesca said for a third time.

Aina and I both sank into silence.

“You keep shooting down everything, Nesca, meow,” Kilpha grumbled.

“I just don’t want my dear friends to go putting themselves in any unnecessary danger,” the taciturn mage replied sullenly.

“But if you keep rejecting everyone’s ideas, we’re never gonna make any progress, meow!” Kilpha retorted, sticking her tongue out at her partymate.

Great. They’ve started bickering now. We really are at an impasse here, aren’t we? Hm, what should we do? The place we needed to somehow get into was Dezert’s royal palace, the home of a literal dictator. We exchanged ideas back and forth for quite some time after that, but we were unable to settle on anything.

“Hey, listen, Shiro,” Patty suddenly called out to me from her seat atop my head, slapping my scalp to get my attention.

“Hm? What is it, boss?”

“Mia’s ring is in that castle, right?”

“Probably. Why?”

“So that means her soul is probably in there too, right?”

Grandma had said it was likely Mia’s soul was either tied to the place where she had died or to a particular object she felt deeply about. If she were attached to that ring, or if the palace really had been the place where she had met her end, her spirit might indeed be inside.

“Yeah, it’s possible,” I replied. “But our issue is we have no idea how to get into the palace.”

“Well, why don’t you all just keep discussing strategies...” She paused and flashed me a broad grin. “...while I sneak into the palace to look for the ring?”

“Huh? You? Wait. You want to sneak into the palace?” I repeated, bewildered by the suggestion.

Patty nodded, a smug look on her face. “I’m a fairy. It shouldn’t be too hard. Plus, I can see Mia, so if she’s in there, I’ll find her.”

All I could do was stare at her with my jaw on the floor.

“It’s a great idea, isn’t it?” she insisted.

As a fairy, Patty was only thirty centimeters tall, and she could fly. Due to her size and abilities, she could easily fly into the palace undetected as well as avoid being found by sticking to the ceiling or hiding behind pillars. Plus, unlike the rest of us (minus Aina), she could actually see Mia.

“Nesca, what do you think of Patty’s idea?” I asked, turning to the brains of the group.

The half-elf mage pondered the question for a few moments before eventually nodding. “Yes, it might just work.”

At last, after all the “nays,” we had our first “yay” of the evening.

◇◆◇◆◇

Now that we had formulated a plan, it was time to set it into motion. The following evening, we headed back to the palace and hid nearby. Poking my head out from behind the building that was shielding me from view, I peeked at the towering palace. From her perch on my shoulder, Patty did the same and stared intently at the building.

“I count four guards,” I said.

Due to the moat surrounding the royal palace, it was impossible to even get close to it on foot without crossing the drawbridge leading to the main gate. We watched on as three of the guards I’d counted operated the winch and raised the drawbridge, which was something I assumed they did every day at around sunset. And just like that, the only way to get into the palace was gone, so it was a good thing my little boss had wings and didn’t need the drawbridge.

“Boss, it looks like the ring might be somewhere in whatever passes for a basement in that place. Once you’re in, try to find a way to go down to them, all right? Oh, and remember: You absolutely, positively cannot let them see you,” I said.

“Be careful, Patty,” Aina added.

The pair of us were so nervous, we kept telling her over and over again to be careful and to make sure she didn’t get caught.

Patty sighed at length. “You two really are worrywarts, aren’t you? Just leave it to me, okay?”

Under normal circumstances, this would have been accompanied by her putting her hand on her hips and thrusting her chest out to show us all how confident she was, but that wasn’t really possible right at that minute. Why, you ask? Well, because she presently had both hands occupied with the action camera.

Action cameras were small, robust devices designed to take pictures and recordings of dynamic activities, like sporting pursuits or outdoor exploration. They were also known as wearable cameras, because due to them being waterproof and shock-resistant, they could be attached to helmets, bicycles, motorcycles, or even surfboards to capture super dynamic footage that would make the viewer feel like they were right there in the action.

Before putting our plan into action, I’d quickly returned to grandma’s house so I could swing by an electronics store to buy one for Patty. That way, we’d be able to review the footage afterward and see everything the little fairy had encountered inside the palace. I’d made sure to pick out a model that was made especially for low-light environments, and I wanted to believe it would do a good job of capturing every little detail. Yet despite that, I had still been a little hesitant to give the camera to Patty at first, because I was worried carrying it would make things even more dangerous for the little fairy, but she had simply smiled at me and reassured me it wouldn’t. What a reliable boss I had.

“Okey dokey! The sun’s fully set. Shiro, I’m off!” Patty announced.

“You can do it, boss!” I replied, cheering her on.

“Good luck, Patty!” Aina added.

With our words of encouragement spurring her on, she took off from my shoulder and zipped away toward the royal palace as the rest of us watched on from behind her.

“Patty, we’re counting on you to do what we in the Blue Flash can’t,” Raiya called after her.

“You can’t let anyone see you,” Nesca added.

Rolf brought his hands together in prayer. “Florine, Goddess of the Sky, please grant our friend your divine protection.”

“Good luck, Patty, meow!” Kilpha whisper-shouted.

While we were all busy cheering for the little fairy and praying for her safety, she eventually disappeared into the distance. Regardless of whether she ended up finding the ring (or Mia, for that matter) or not, she would be returning to the inn before the sun rose above the horizon again. That was the plan.

“Be careful out there, boss,” I whispered to the air before following my friends back to our lodgings.

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Patty’s Adventure

Patty flew off with her comrades cheering her on and praying for her, the action camera—or whatever Shiro had called it when he’d given it to her—firmly clutched in her arms. Her first mission was to circle the royal palace and look for an entry point. She spotted a few open windows.

“I should pick the one where I’m least likely to get caught,” she mumbled to herself.

The inner palace appeared brightly lit, as did the entire first floor. This was hardly surprising, since the sun had only just set, meaning most of the occupants would still be awake. In fact, if she strained her ears enough, she could just make out the sound of music and the soft buzz of voices. She wondered if the people inside the palace were having a banquet, like they sometimes did at the Fairy’s Blessing guild in Ninoritch.

“Hmm...” she pondered aloud. “This one.”

Patty flew toward a window in the watchtower at the back of the palace that was relatively close to the moat. Unlike the main building, there was barely any light inside the watchtower.

Sneaky, Patty, sneaky. Can’t let him see you. The sleepy-looking guard in the watchtower stifled a yawn. Since the tower overlooked the moat, he likely assumed no one would be coming from that direction, and wasn’t as alert as he should have been. Patty held her breath and made as little noise as possible as she slipped into the tower by taking advantage of the guard’s blind spot.

“Whew!”

She was in. But that didn’t mean she could relax just yet. Gathering herself together, she began searching for a way to get to the lower floors.

◇◆◇◆◇

Patty successfully made it down to the first floor, where she found a vaunted ceiling that was designed to let in as much sunlight as possible, coupled with high windows that lined the walls at equidistant intervals. The little fairy flew up to one of these windows and sat down on the ledge. It was quite a way from the ground, so she figured no one would spot her up there.

“Hm?”

Two people dressed like civil officials passed underneath her.

“His Majesty’s holding yet another banquet?” one said.

“It’s pretty much a daily occurrence by this point. Just ignore it,” the other replied.

“He’s wasting money again! Those people guzzle down all that expensive alcohol like it’s water, while some of our people can’t afford a single spoonful of soup.”

“But unlike those people, we get to share hot meals with the royal family. Isn’t that enough?”

“‘Isn’t that enough’? A carefree thing to say, considering the rumors that are brewing.”

“Stop that. If the king hears you mentioning those rumors, he’ll have your head.”

The two men walked past Patty without noticing her. Based on their conversation, she got the feeling that even the king’s own subordinates didn’t like him all that much.

“It’s just like Rolf said! He’s a bad king!”

Back in Ninoritch, Patty tended to spend a lot of her time at the Fairy’s Blessing’s drinking hall, where minstrels would often put on musical performances about hume tales she was unfamiliar with. Many recalled the deeds of heroes who put a stop to the machinations of evil rulers, and those stories were some of Patty’s favorites.

“Hup!” Once the men had disappeared out of sight again, the little fairy adjusted her grip on the action camera and hopped off the ledge.

She flew about the palace, sticking to the darkest, most deserted corners, before eventually spotting a staircase that appeared to lead to the lower levels. It looked for all the world like a normal staircase, yet for some reason, two soldiers were standing guard over the entrance. Something clicked in Patty’s mind.

“It has to be there!”

She sneaked in closer, trying to be as silent as possible. One of the two guards—a young, male cat-sìth—was fiddling with the dagger in his hand. His partner was a soldier with a scary face.

“Hey. Stop playing with that thing,” he grumbled at the cat-sìth.

The young man had started juggling his dagger, possibly out of boredom, and his total lack of focus clearly wasn’t sitting right with the scowling soldier.

“What the hell? Don’t give me orders,” the cat-sìth retorted.

“I-I’m just trying to perform my duties—”

“Damn, don’t you ever shut up? Want me to cut you? Is that it?” the cat-sìth threatened.

The other soldier appeared to be too intimidated to reply, but crucially, the attention of the two guards wasn’t on the staircase. Patty couldn’t let this chance slip by. Cat-sìths had sharp senses, but she managed to zip through the young man’s blind spot unnoticed. As for the other soldier, he was clearly too agitated by the confrontation with his colleague and wasn’t even looking in her direction.

Now! The little fairy zoomed down the spiral staircase and only stopped when she could no longer see the guards. Good. They didn’t see me, she thought to herself, plastering her body against the ceiling again. They definitely didn’t see me.

“You’re the one picking a fight here, so why— Huh?” started the cat-sìth before interrupting himself mid-sentence.

“Wh-What’s wrong?”

“Is it just me, or did something tiny just zoom down the stairs?”

Ah. So the cat-sìth had noticed her. Patty quickly pinched her nose and performed her best impression of a mouse. And her first, it should be noted. She had never attempted to mimic a rodent before.

The cat-sìth clicked his tongue. “Guess it must have just been a mouse.”

Thankfully, it seemed Patty’s ruse had been convincing enough, and she descended the rest of the staircase with a feeling of relief washing over her.

“Is this what humes call a ‘prison’?” she wondered, taking in the underground cells she found at the bottom. It would definitely explain why there were men guarding the staircase.

Patty peered into a cell, then stifled a cry. “Eek! Is that a skeleton?” She inspected the other cells. “They’re all dead?”

Only piles of bones occupied the cells. All of the prisoners must have been held there for so long, they had already passed away. But what’s the point of guarding empty cells? the little fairy wondered.

That question immediately lost its relevance when she spotted a hidden door that seemed to lead deeper into the underground prison. Part of the wall around the door had crumbled, allowing her to see beyond it to another staircase that also led downward. If it hadn’t been for the gap in the wall, she wouldn’t have noticed it.

She hummed pensively before reaching her decision. “Okay!”

She squeezed through the narrow opening and flew down this second staircase.

“What is this place?” she whispered to herself in amazement.

It looked just like a dungeon. The kind with monsters and whatever. Stone paths stretched out ahead of her, as well as left and right, and the walls were lined with torches that were evenly spaced. There were several doors here, and Patty presumed each one must lead to a different room. She flew across to the nearest one and pressed her ear against it.

“I was thinking of selling our next magic item to a noble in the Zok,” said a voice beyond the door.

“Good idea. Then, I will start selling Ostilto amulets in the Republic of Lucase,” replied another voice, although this one had more of an accent.

“You mean those amulets with that forbidden technique sealed away inside them? Bwa ha ha! How evil of you!”

Patty had absolutely no idea what any of these people were talking about, but she could tell they were up to no good. She approached all of the other doors, one after the other, and heard suspicious men having suspicious conversations behind practically every single one of them.

The little fairy took a deep breath and looked around her, still on high alert. This was the Setting Sun’s base of operations. She was sure of it. Should I head back now?

She had found the stronghold of that pesky merchant guild. That was more than good enough for one night’s work, and she should return to the inn before she got caught. But she still hadn’t located the ring. I might as well keep snooping for a little bit longer, right?

The very moment that thought crossed her mind, her eyes landed on yet another staircase leading down.

“Hmmm...”

She hesitated. She hesitated a lot. Her heart thumped in her chest, and her throat had tightened and gone dry. But...

“I’m... I’m Shiro’s boss!” she told herself.

It was practically in her job description to have to show off to her underlings at all times. No matter what happened, she had to act all proud and cool in front of them. She had to make them “admire” her, although she wasn’t totally sure what that word meant.

“Okay, let’s do this!”

Mustering up all of the courage she could, Patty flew down the next staircase.

◇◆◇◆◇

The basement of the basement of the basement. What do you even call that? Patty made a mental note to ask Shiro when she got back.

After leaving the stairwell, the little fairy found herself in a large room. “What’s going on here?” she mumbled to herself as she took in her surroundings.

It was a strange room. Magical lanterns hung from every wall, and there was a desk that had parchments scattered all across it. But most eye-catching of all was the water tank full of green liquid that was smack-dab in the middle of the room. There didn’t appear to be anyone else around, but Patty glanced to the right of her, and then to the left for good measure, before returning her focus directly ahead of her.

A gasp escaped her lips. “Mia?!”

Kalmia was standing in front of the water tank. She looked up at the little fairy, and her lips started moving.

“Mia! Hey, Mia! There you are! Come with me! Let’s go back to Shiro!” Patty called over to her.

Kalmia’s mouth continued opening and shutting, and from the desperate look on her face, she was clearly trying to tell Patty something, but no sound was coming out. Unfortunately, unlike Aina, Patty couldn’t hear spirits.

“What is it? What are you trying to tell me, Mia?!”

All of a sudden, Kalmia flinched and peered around the room in a panic. She pointed past Patty, and in the next instant...

“A fairy? Are you a new type of food?” a voice said, coming from the direction Kalmia had indicated. The voice was clearly that of a child.

Someone’s found me.

Not only had Patty been caught, but the owner of the voice seemed to think she was food. Sweat started pouring out of every pore on the little fairy’s body, though it wasn’t because of the comment the voice had just made, but the terrifying mana she could feel coming from behind her.

Something’s behind me. Something with insane mana!

“Well? Are you my new food? Can I eat you?” the voice asked calmly.

Fear rooted Patty in place, making her unable to move a single muscle.

The voice sighed. “What a pickle. If you don’t answer, how am I supposed to know if I can eat you or not?”

“I-I’m not food,” Patty managed to stutter. “And if I were you, I wouldn’t try to eat me, because I taste disgusting!”

“Oh. Is that so? I really can’t eat you?”

“O-Of course not!”

Patty’s intuition was screaming at her. Do not turn around, it kept telling her.

“Did you accidentally get lost down here, then? Ah, don’t answer that. Let me guess. Hmmm... Yes, I know! You must be one of those people’s wares. Did I get it right?” the voice asked, and the fairy heard its owner take a step forward.

Kalmia pointed at the staircase leading back up to the floor above and screamed something. Patty still couldn’t hear her voice, but this time, she understood exactly what the little phantom girl was trying to tell her.

Run!

The little fairy let out a frustrated groan. “We... We’ll come back to get you! I swear it to you, Mia!” she yelled before turning and retracing her route as fast as she could.

Fortunately for Patty, the thing with the crazy mana didn’t follow her. In fact, it didn’t even try to stop her. It simply remained silent as she left the room.

Chapter Thirty: The Undercover Footage

It was still the middle of the night when a sweat-drenched and panting Patty made it back to the inn. My companions and I cheered on her return before grilling her on what had gone down at the palace.

The little fairy told us the whole thing. “Anyway, that’s what happened,” she concluded. “So I ran away—ahem! I don’t mean ‘ran away.’ I, uh... What’s the word again? I re... I re-something’d.”

“‘Retreated,’” I offered.

“Yeah, that’s it!” she exclaimed, pointing a finger at me and fluttering her wings. “I retreated to safety!”

“Ah, a strategic retreat. I get you,” I said, nodding sagely.

“Exactly! I did a, uh, strategic retreat thingy and came back here!”

She had been wildly agitated while recounting her adventure in the palace, and even though her tale had concluded, her eyes were still wide. She must truly have been scared for her life.

“Still, I can’t believe there’s some sort of secret base under the palace,” I mused.

“The men in there were talking about selling, uh... What was it again? Amulets? Selling those to random nations,” Patty said.

“I had no idea such a facility existed beneath the palace,” Rolf said, visibly surprised by the news.

“Well, there’s no doubt about it now. Those Setting Sun bastards are clearly hiding down there,” Raiya said, turning to me.

“Sure seems like it,” I agreed.

The two of us nodded at each other. So the Setting Sun’s base of operations was located under the royal palace of Dezert. I was almost a hundred percent certain of that.

“O-Oh, and...” Patty spoke up again, seemingly having regained her composure. She let out a deep sigh. “Mia was down there.”

The instant those words left Patty’s mouth, Aina broke down in tears.

◇◆◇◆◇

Mia was somewhere in the lower levels of Dezert’s royal palace. We had found her at last. Tears of relief streamed down Aina’s cheeks at the news.

“Mister Shiro, Mia was there. Patty said Mia was there,” the little girl repeated.

“She did, didn’t she?” I replied. “We need to go get her. And the sooner, the better.”

We had finally taken a step in the right direction. And what a big step it was. Exactly as grandma had surmised, Mia’s soul had returned to the place it was bound to. Unfortunately, this also meant Mia had lost her life in the subterranean levels of Dezert’s royal palace.

“Shiro,” Patty called over to me to get my attention. She handed me the action camera I’d lent her. “Here.”

“Ah, thanks, boss. It was heavy, wasn’t it?” I said sympathetically.

“Nope! Not in the slightest!”

I took the camera from Patty, then produced a mobile projector and a small screen from my inventory, and immediately set them up. I turned off the light to make the room as dark as possible before turning on the projector. Once everything was all set up, it was time for the screening to start. The video Patty had risked her life to capture for us started playing on the screen. Valeria was flabbergasted by what she was witnessing—after all, she had never seen anything of the sort—but Team Ninoritch were used to watching movies on projectors by this point, so they didn’t even bat an eye.

“I was looking for somewhere dark so I could enter unseen,” Patty explained as we watched her fly in a circle around the palace. She hummed as she reviewed the footage on-screen. “Ah, there! That’s the window I sneaked in through!”

The bit that really interested us, however, was what lay beneath the palace. In other words, the Setting Sun’s stronghold. I couldn’t help feeling a bit bad for Patty, since she had clearly struggled the whole way, but I ended up fast-forwarding through the footage until it got to the part where she had descended the stairs to the underground lair. The video showed her flying out into the subbasement, the level below the palace’s cells.

“I cannot believe the palace has all of this beneath it...” a shocked Rolf whispered for a second time.

“I assume this part must have been built as a hidden tunnel so the royal family could escape in emergencies,” said Nesca, as calm and analytical as ever.

“Yup, no doubt about it. This is absolutely their hideout. And it’s huge,” Raiya observed.

“Perhaps this explains how they succeeded in keeping their existence a secret from the Fairy’s Blessing guild and the other nations. By hiding underground,” Rolf surmised.

“There is no better nation than one ravaged by civil war for an organization like the Setting Sun to set up shop and carry out their shady business from,” Nesca remarked.

In the video, Patty had reached the end of the passageway, and another downward staircase came into view, causing us all to fall silent. From what the fairy had told us, it was the next level down where she found Mia. The camera panned to the right, then the left, then back to the middle of the room, at which point, I inadvertently let out a cry of surprise. Believe it or not, we could actually see Mia in the video.

I reflexively paused the recording. “Wh-What the hell? Boss, why can we see Mia?!”

The little high elf girl in the video was translucent, and I could vaguely discern the shape of a water tank through her.

“Shiro, does the camera you gave to Patty have the ability to project spirits?” Nesca asked.

“No! And I’ve never heard of a camera that could do such a thing before!”

That said, photographs and videos of spirits were quite common back in my own world. Of course, most of them had been staged by TV stations or edited in order to trick people, but on very rare occasions, you stumbled on one that looked like it had to be real. Maybe this was one of those times? Another explanation could be that since Patty had been holding the camera, we could somehow see everything she had, although if that were the case, that made this video the result of a miraculous collaboration between science and fantasy. I pressed the play button to set the video going again.

“Mia...” Aina whispered, tears welling up in her eyes again as she gazed at her friend on the screen.

“Mia! Hey, Mia! There you are! Come with me! Let’s go back to Shiro!” exclaimed Patty in the video.

The little high elf girl’s lips started moving, but since she was still a phantom, no sound came out.

“What is it? What are you trying to tell me, Mia?!”

“Mia’s telling Patty to run away,” Aina said.

“You can hear her?” I asked, blinking in surprise.

“Yeah.”

The little girl’s mysterious ability had manifested once more, and it turned out she could even hear the phantom girl on a recording. We carried on watching the screen, and saw Mia flinch suddenly. Seeming agitated, she peered around, then said something we couldn’t hear to Patty and pointed at a spot behind the camera. Or in other words, behind the little fairy.

“A fairy? Are you a new type of food?” said a voice that sounded like it had come out of the mouth of a little girl.

The camera shook. Patty had told us she’d skedaddled from the palace after running into “something with insane mana,” and I surmised she had been talking about the owner of the voice we were presently hearing. The reason the camera had started shaking was because Patty had been trembling with fear at the time of the encounter.

“Well? Are you my new food? Can I eat you?” the voice asked.

Video Patty didn’t reply.

“What a pickle. If you don’t answer, how am I supposed to know if I can eat you or not?”

“I-I’m not food. And if I were you, I wouldn’t try to eat me, because I taste disgusting!”

“Oh. Is that so? I really can’t eat you?”

“O-Of course not!”

“Did you accidentally get lost down here, then? Ah, don’t answer that. Let me guess. Hmmm... Yes, I know! You must be one of those people’s wares. Did I get it right?”

Mia’s lips started moving again. She was frantically trying to tell Patty something.

“Aina, what’s Mia saying?” I asked.

“She keeps telling Patty to run away as fast as she can.”

“I see.”

The video continued.

“We... We’ll come back to get you! I swear it to you, Mia!”

And with that, Video Patty made her escape from the palace’s underground facility. The last glimpse we saw of Mia was of her watching the little fairy go, a sad smile on her translucent face.

“Mister Shiro,” Aina mumbled.

“Hm? What is it?”

“Mia said thank you. She said, ‘Thank you for looking for me.’ And...” The little girl paused as tears started cascading down her cheeks. “And she also said, ‘Don’t come back.’”

Silence descended on the room. I rubbed Aina’s back and patted her head until she stopped crying.

◇◆◇◆◇

Aina eventually drifted off to sleep in my arms. The poor mite had been up all night long, so it didn’t come as too much of a surprise. I carried her through to another room, tucked her into the bed there, then returned to my companions. They were discussing the secret base we had seen in the video, which was more than likely the Setting Sun’s hideout.

“Did Mia know who that voice belonged to?” Nesca wondered aloud.

“It would explain why she told Patty to make tracks, meow,” Kilpha pointed out.

“Patty has that seal, yet even she was scared of ’em. Whoever it was must be pretty darn strong,” Raiya added.

“I wasn’t scared! I’m never scared, you hear?!” Patty exclaimed indignantly.

Rolf gently chided her. “Miss Patty, ma’am, let us try to remain on topic, shall we?”

I returned to my seat so that I could join in with the conversation.

Kilpha turned to me. “What do you think, Shiro, meow?”

“About whether Mia knows the owner of the voice? Or about how strong that person is?”

“Both, meow.”

“Well...” I said, reflecting on what we had just seen. “Based on Mia’s reaction, I think she must know the person. How about we watch that part one more time?”

The good thing about having a video was we could watch it as many times as we liked.

“Good idea,” Nesca said.

“We’ll also have to infiltrate the palace at some point, right?” Valeria chimed in. “I suggest watching the video from the very beginning so we can learn the layout of the place as best we can.”

This seemed a reasonable suggestion, so we did just that. I searched through for the moment when Patty sneaked into the palace, then pressed play. As we watched the little fairy zip about on the screen, I started making a mental blueprint of the palace. At some point, we even overheard two civil officials complaining about the king. After that, the little fairy found the staircase leading down to the lower levels. Two men were standing guard there: a soldier and a cat-sìth who seemed to be a mercenary.

“Meow?”

“Huh?”

When the face of the mercenary came into view, Kilpha and I could do nothing to hide our shock.

“Meow, meow?! What’s Sajiri doing there, meow?!” Kilpha exclaimed.

Yup, that’s right. The cat-sìth who was guarding the staircase in the video was none other than Sajiri, Kilpha’s former fiancé.

Intermission

One day had passed since Shiro and the others had departed, and Shessfelia was incredibly nervous. Why, you might ask? Well, because Lasulie, matriarch of the high elves, had just asked her if she liked tea.

“I-I do,” the little princess replied meekly.

“Good. Follow me.”

The little girl exchanged looks of bewilderment with her knight, but obediently complied all the same. After traipsing through the forest for a time, the trio eventually reached a clearing with a carpet of beautiful flowers bathing in the bright sunshine.

An appreciative noise escaped Shessfelia’s lips. “So pretty...” she half whispered.

Lasulie nodded. “Indeed.”

Was it just a product of Shessfelia’s imagination, or did she detect a tinge of nostalgia in the matriarch’s voice?

“Are we having tea here?” the little princess asked.

“Yes, we shall.”

“But we’ll trample the flowers,” Shessfelia remarked. “And they’re so beautiful. Poor things.”

“Trample them?” Lasulie chuckled. “No, we won’t.”

The matriarch of the high elves started reciting an incantation while waving her staff sideways. An instant later, the flowers began moving as if they were alive, and parted left and right to create a path. It was almost as if the flowers in the middle of the clearing had granted permission for the space to be used.

“Incredible...” Shessfelia mumbled, awestruck.

Luza nodded in agreement with the little princess’s remark. The three of them sat down on the grass, surrounded by the beautiful flowers.

“I hope you will find this to your liking,” Lasulie said as she produced an earthenware teapot and matching cups from her inventory.

Steam was still curling from the spout, leading Shessfelia to assume the matriarch had prepared the tea in advance. Lasulie poured a cup out for the little princess and handed it to her. The tea had been made using pungent herbs in lieu of tea leaves, and for some reason, the strong, stimulating scent helped ease the tension in Shessfelia’s shoulders.

I think I will enjoy this tea. The little princess took a tentative sip, and found that her expectations were confirmed. Yes, I like it.

Luza, on the other hand, didn’t seem to be enjoying the experience so much. She brought her lips closer to Shessfelia’s ear and whispered, “This tea is a little difficult to drink, isn’t it, princess?”

Has my knight forgotten that high elves have superior hearing?

“You don’t like it?” Lasulie asked.

See? She heard you, Luza.

“W-W-We do! Right, princess? We do like it, don’t we?” the swordswoman stammered, winking repeatedly at Shessfelia to urge her to play along.

The little princess sighed. “I like it. But it appears Luza doesn’t.”

“P-Princess, what... I do! I do like it! I love it, even!” As if to prove her point, Luza attempted to down the contents of her cup in one, but only succeeded in burning her mouth. “Yowch! Hot!” she yelped.

Shessfelia let out another sigh at her knight’s antics. “I apologize for all the fuss,” she said to Lasulie.

“I do not mind. The flowers are also enjoying the spectacle.”

This gave Shessfelia pause. “You know what the flowers are feeling?”

An amused smile tugged the matriarch’s lips upward. “Perhaps I can. Perhaps I cannot.”

It took Shessfelia quite some time to realize that this was in fact Lasulie’s idea of a joke. When it finally dawned on her, she felt she had grown a little closer to the woman.

“Why did you invite us out here for tea?” the little princess asked. I mean, I’m your hostage. Why bother?

Lasulie glanced around at the field of flowers. “I simply felt like it.”

The little princess cocked her head in confusion.

“You remind me of my daughter,” the matriarch confessed. “She... She used to like drinking tea here.”

This left Shessfelia speechless.

“Like you, she also didn’t want to walk on the flowers.”

The matriarch of the high elves gazed at the little princess, her expression tinged with nostalgia and melancholy.

She’s seeing her daughter in me, Shessfelia realized.

Chapter Thirty-One: We Meet Again, Sajiri

Kilpha’s former fiancé, Sajiri. He had once ordered a pack of ogres to attack Kilpha’s village so that he could swoop in at the last minute and make himself look like a hero. When his scheming was uncovered, he was arrested by the other beastfolk, but he managed to escape from his prison cell and flee the Dura Forest. Needless to say, seeing him in the video had come as quite a shock to me, but hours after Patty had returned from her adventure, I was sitting opposite Sajiri at a table in a run-down tavern.

“What the hell? What are you doing here?” the cat-sìth asked, bewildered.

It had all started the night before (or well, earlier that morning, if you want to get technical), when Kilpha and I had spotted him in the video Patty had recorded. It seemed he had taken a job as a guard in Dezert’s royal palace, and not just any guard either. He was stationed at the staircase that led down to the Setting Sun’s secret base.

“We should just ask him for information, meow!” Kilpha had said, but Valeria had immediately shut down the proposition and urged her not to approach him ever again.

I, on the other hand, had found myself reflecting on the last conversation I’d had with Sajiri. At the time, it had felt to me like he had somewhat regained control of himself, as if the evil that had previously possessed him had loosened its grip, and his feelings for Kilpha, while warped, had proven undeniably genuine. In fact, at the very end of that whole mess, it had even seemed like he was hoping she would be happy with me. So why not give him a chance? He might have changed. Besides, Sajiri was a proud man. If we could prove to him that the organization that supported Orvil’s former prime minister was hiding in this city, he might prove willing to help us.

After discussing my idea with my companions, we decided our best bet was to try probing him a little before coming to a decision. Fortunately, there was only one way in and out of Dezert’s royal palace, and it was highly unlikely a mercenary would have been given a room within its walls, which meant all we had to do was hang about near the drawbridge and wait for him to emerge. Sure enough, Sajiri left the palace around noon and headed straight for a nearby tavern. Kilpha and I had been waiting for him, and we sneakily followed the cat-sìth inside, then joined him at his table.

“We should be the ones asking you what you’re doing here, Sajiri,” I said. “I heard you’d escaped the Dura Forest, but what in the world brought you here, of all places?”

“Grandma went into a panic when she saw you were gone, meow,” Kilpha added.

We had found him nursing a drink alone in one corner of the tavern. I’d immediately walked up to him with a bright smile on my face and a “Hey, long time no see!” on my lips, while a seemingly nervous Kilpha slipped into a seat at his table.

A look of shock crossed his features, though a sullen grimace immediately replaced it. “Don’t tell me you chased me all the way here?” he said, staring at us.

“Nah. We’re here in Dezert on personal business. We just happened to run into you in this tavern,” I said.

“Yeah, what Shiro said, meow.”

Sajiri clicked his tongue. “You seriously think I’m falling for that? You’re trying to set me up, aren’t you?”

He drained the last of his drink and slammed the wooden tankard down on the table. Judging by the way he kept glancing at Kilpha, it appeared he still had some lingering feelings for her. I quickly called a server over and placed a copper coin in his palm to get the same again for Sajiri.

“I never asked you to buy me a drink,” he said, glaring at me. Yet his eyes contained none of the anger and resentment that had darkened his gaze previously. I was willing to wager that he regretted everything he had done back in Orvil.

“It’s to celebrate our reunion,” I suggested.

“‘Celebrate our reunion’? You sure you don’t mean ‘lament my misfortune’?”

The server brought a fresh tankard to our table and set it down in front of Sajiri.

“Come on now. Don’t hold back. Enjoy your drink,” I urged.

This earned me yet another tongue click, but Sajiri still brought the fresh tankard up to his lips. For the time being, it didn’t seem like he was about to walk out on us.

“Well? What are you doing here?” he asked me. “The real reason, I mean. Knowing you, you must have some sort of goal in mind. I hate all this useless back-and-forth, so just hurry up and spill already. Otherwise, I’ll just head home.”

Kilpha and I exchanged nods, then turned back to him.

“Sajiri, have you ever heard of the Setting Sun?” I asked.

◇◆◇◆◇

Seeing how the name didn’t appear to ring a bell for him, I told Sajiri all about how the former prime minister of Orvil—the man who had used him for his own ends—had been in contact with this mysterious organization called the Setting Sun. I paused and waited for his reaction.

“So wait, are you saying those bastards from the Setting Sun—or whatever they’re called—tricked me into doing their bidding?”

“No, no.” I shook my head. “The prime minister, Magath, is the one who took advantage of you. The Setting Sun is just the guild that supplied him with the magic items he needed to do it, like that wand he gave you to control the ogres.”

“Tsk. Damn it.” He didn’t even attempt to hide his fury on hearing this, and judging from his reaction, he seemed to have absolutely no idea the staircase he was tasked with guarding led to the Setting Sun’s base.

“Kilpha and I are pursuing the Setting Sun, and the chase has led us here,” I explained. “Now it’s your turn to answer my question. What are you doing in Dezert?”

“Hold on a minute, Shiro. Why are you being so overly friendly with me?” he asked.

“It’s all good, isn’t it? After all, ‘Yesterday’s enemy is today’s friend.’ Isn’t that a saying where you’re from?” I said.

“Nope.”

“I’ve never heard it either, meow,” Kilpha chimed in.

“Really? Huh. Guess it’s just a thing in my country, then. Anyway, how’d you end up here? What have you been up to? You been well? Oh, are you hungry?” I called the server over again. “Excuse me! Could you bring us some food? Anything’s fine!”

Whenever Sajiri finished his drink, I ordered a new one in an attempt to close the distance between us. In fact, I might even have been a little too pushy.

“I’m not doing anything special,” Sajiri replied. “Just working to earn some money.”

“I see, I see. As a mercenary of some sort, yeah?” I said.

“Yep.”

“Seriously? That’s all? Just ‘Yep’? C’mon, we haven’t seen each other in ages! What have you been up to since you left the Dura Forest? Tell me everything,” I insisted.

Sajiri clicked his tongue at me yet again, but he still decided to answer my question. After fleeing from his village in the Dura Forest, he spent some time aimlessly wandering the continent, but he eventually ran out of money and put his mind to finding a job. One day, he randomly stopped by Dezert on his travels and heard the king was hiring mercenaries, so he applied. Because he was as strong as a gold-rank adventurer, he was put in charge of guarding what he had been told was an important facility.

“All I’ve been doing is standing watch. And in front of a jail, no less. I’m so bored with it, I think I’ve started losing my touch,” he grumbled.

Kilpha and I remained silent. He really seemed to have absolutely no idea the Setting Sun’s base was located under the very jail he had been tasked with guarding.

“It does sound boring, yeah,” I said eventually.

“Yeah. I’ve been bored out of my skull. So...” Sajiri paused, wiped his mouth, and thrust a finger toward me, his face flushed from all the alcohol. “Shiro, if you bow to me and beg, I’ll help you find the hideout of those bastards. That way...”

He glanced at Kilpha, then fixed his gaze on me again.

“You won’t have to drag Kilpha around everywhere while she’s pregnant with your kid. Stop putting her in danger by dragging her into your messes. You hear me?”

This exchange made me realize a few things: 1) Sajiri still believed Kilpha was pregnant with my child; 2) what he’d just said was so pure and innocent, neither Kilpha nor I knew what to say in response; and 3) I should have come in here with Valeria instead of Kilpha, but it was too late to change that.

After much hesitation, the best reply I could manage was a stiff, “G-Got it.” And those two words took everything out of me.

I eventually managed to compose myself again. “Still, guarding a jail doesn’t seem like the kind of thing you’d really enjoy doing. Actually, hold on a minute...” I feigned a pensive expression. “Does that mean you can go in and out of the palace freely? Or are you talking about some other jail somewhere else?”

I knew exactly where the jail was, of course, but I had to pretend I didn’t.

“The jail’s beneath the palace. But the only people who ever go down there are these real shady-looking guys. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a single prisoner being escorted down those steps—” He was interrupted by a gasp escaping his lips, as if he had just been hit by a sudden realization. “Hey, Shiro. Don’t tell me those bastards are hiding out in the jail I’ve been guarding. Are they?”

“Well...”

What to do, what to do. From everything I had seen and heard so far, it was highly unlikely Sajiri had any actual ties to the Setting Sun. No, it seemed to me they had simply hired him for his brawn. In fact, they probably didn’t even know he was the man Magath had manipulated into doing his bidding, since they had only ever had meetings with the former prime minister himself. Even so, I would need to choose my words carefully. My sixth sense was telling me this was a crucial juncture in our conversation.

But before I could say anything, Kilpha glanced across at me and said, “Yup, it’s there, meow.”

“K-Kilpha!” I exclaimed.

“Is that true, Kilpha?” Sajiri asked.

“Yup, meow. One of our friends sneaked into the palace last night and found it, meow.”

Sajiri clicked his tongue as if he had just reached a rather unpleasant conclusion.“So that’s what that was.”

Well, since Kilpha had spilled the beans, it seemed like there was no need to even bother with being discreet anymore, so I laid it all out to Sajiri, explaining how the environment and entry conditions of Gallus made it the perfect place for underground guilds to set up shop, and to some extent, that explained why the Setting Sun had their base under the royal palace.

“That’s all the info we have so far,” I said, before correcting myself. “Except part of what I just told you is purely speculation.”

Sajiri brought his hand up to his chin, seemingly deep in thought. “I’ve always wondered where this shithole of a nation could have found the money to hire me. I told myself the king was just desperate to protect himself from the rebellion that’s bound to happen, but...” He shook his head. “Tsk. I see how it is now. Dammit.”

Dezert had apparently been paying a small fortune for his services, and they had hired a lot of mercenaries. Even Sajiri couldn’t say where they were finding the money to do that before we helped to fill in the blanks for him.

“So that’s why those bastards inside the palace have been doing so well while the citizens have been struggling. This Setting Sun guild is backing them.”

“That’s probably it, yeah,” I said, nodding. “The king’s been taxing his people heavily, and the Setting Sun is likely supporting him as well.”

“Tsk.” Sajiri gritted his teeth. The realization that he had been working for the very people who had aided Magath, the former prime minister of Orvil who’d played him like a fiddle, must have really stung.

“This brings me to my main question: Sajiri, do you know a way we can sneak into the palace?” I asked.

“You’re a merchant, aren’t you? Why don’t you just ask for an audience with the king to sell him something random?” he suggested.

“Well, you see, I’m kinda struggling to find ‘something random’ that I can pitch to the king. Besides, I doubt I’d be allowed to meet him right off the bat. Not that I really need to see the king. Do you have any idea what someone—anyone—living inside the palace might want?”

“So you basically just need a pretext to get in there, huh?”

“That’s exactly it.”

Another tongue click, followed by, “You know, now that you mention it, I remember all of those damn nobles complaining about how there’s no good booze in the palace.”

Despite all his grumbling and posturing, he still told me what I wanted to know. Is this what they call a “tsundere” back at home? I wondered.

Chapter Thirty-Two: The Great Infiltration Plan

According to Sajiri, nearly everyone in the palace was unsatisfied with the quality of the alcohol on offer there, and no sooner had I learned this nugget of information than I sprang into action. I got one of the city’s guilds to introduce me to the people in charge of the palace kitchens and gave them samples of the alcohol I usually brought over to this world from Japan while making sure to slip in that I had a wide range and a plentiful supply. I didn’t know if it was that last part that tipped it in my favor or if simply the taste of the alcohol had been enough to swing it for me, but I immediately received orders from the palace to bring every last bottle I had in stock forthwith, so the following evening, I made my way over there in a wagon fully loaded with casks.

“Hold it. Who are you?” a guard said, stopping me at the gate.

“Hello. I received an order for alcohol from the head chef, Mr. Ziz,” I said cheerfully.

Valeria—who was driving the cart—flashed an awkward smile at the guard, trying her hardest to look as pleasant as possible.

“Oh, the booze merchant! The head chef said he was expecting you. You may pass.”

“Thanks!” I replied cheerfully.

Having gotten the go-ahead to proceed, Valeria drove the wagon across the drawbridge. At no point did anyone stop us to check our cargo, and we managed to make it to the palace grounds without even a hint of trouble. Sajiri was right. Security here really is lax.

The wagon rattled its way across the courtyard until Valeria eventually pulled up right outside the kitchens. We greeted the head chef and asked him where he wanted us to unload our cargo.

“Well, blow me down with a feather. I can’t believe you actually managed to bring all the alcohol I asked for. If it’s not asking too much, could you take it all down to the basement storage room? I’d ask the guards to help out, but...” Mr. Ziz paused, eyed Valeria up and down, and shrugged. “They’re all pretty useless, to be honest with you. Your bearfolk lady will be done much faster than those deadweights.”

“Noted. We’ll do it ourselves,” I replied. “Might I ask where this basement storage room is?”

“I’ll get one of my apprentices to show you the way,” Mr. Ziz said before turning to shout into the kitchens. “Hey! Come over here—”

“Ah, uh, there’s no need for that!” I hurriedly interrupted him. “If you just tell us where it is, we can handle the rest.”

“A-Are you sure?”

“Positive! After all, you and the other cooks must be busy preparing dinner, right? I mean, you’re in charge of feeding everyone in the palace. That’s a big job.”

“Well, all right. If you insist,” the head chef said.

We already knew the location of the basement storage room, since we’d asked Sajiri about it beforehand, but we feigned ignorance until Mr. Ziz gave us the necessary directions to it. Valeria then grabbed the reins again, and we headed off to the area the head chef had indicated to us. The bearwoman then proceeded to carry the casks down the stairs to the storage room, and once every last one had been unloaded, we opened them all up.

“Are you okay, Aina?” I asked as the little girl emerged from one of the barrels.

“Yup! Patty and I were super quiet the whole time. Weren’t we, Patty?”

My friends all started jumping out of the barrels one after another.

“Yeah!” the little fairy said, nodding. “But Peace farted, and I got scared we were gonna be discovered!”

Meow!

“Whew!” Raiya exclaimed, stepping out of the second barrel. “It was stifling in that thing. I felt like I was gonna die. You okay, Nesca?”

“We made it inside,” the taciturn mage observed.

“So this is the booze storage room, meow?” Kilpha noted, following her comrades in exiting her barrel.

Aina turned to me. “It’s good no one found us, Mister Shiro,” she said.

“You said it. My heart was thumping like crazy the entire time,” I admitted.

The little girl chuckled. “Same here. I was super nervous!”

I had debated leaving her in the inn—in fact, I’d spent several hours turning it over in my mind—but Aina was the only one of our group who could actually communicate with Mia, meaning we wouldn’t be able to talk to the little phantom girl or find out if she’d regained her memories if we didn’t have her with us. The barrels that had surreptitiously conveyed my friends into the palace were then swiftly stowed away in my inventory to be replaced with the real deal.

“Okay, let’s go over the plan, everyone. We’re about to march into the Setting Sun’s HQ,” I said, surveying the faces of my friends. They all nodded in response. “Our goal is to find Mia and her ring. And it hurts me to say this, but...” I paused. “Well, their hideout is likely where she lost her life.”

A heavy silence descended over the group.

“So if her body is down there somewhere, I’d like to find it,” I continued. “For Lasulie’s sake. And more importantly, for Mia herself.”

I paused again. Aina appeared on the verge of tears.

“If we find Mia, we’ll take her back with us. Her spirit might be bound to this place, but she’s traveled with us in the past,” I said resolutely. “Anyway, we have to get her back. Come what may.”

I knew grandma had the power to bind spirits to items, because she’d once told me grandpa’s soul was in the pendant she wore on a daily basis. On recalling this conversation, I’d asked her if she could still do that spell using Peace as her stand-in, and she’d said it should be possible if she borrowed Patty’s mana for it. I decided in that moment I would ask her to perform that spell as a last resort if we couldn’t take Mia back with us any other way.

“We’ll grab Mia and come back here. Then, you guys will jump back in those barrels, and we’ll leave the palace the same way we came in. I already mentioned to the head chef that I’ll be taking the empty barrels back with me to prevent the storage room from getting too crowded, so we shouldn’t look too suspicious leaving with a bunch of them. Anyway, that’s it for the plan,” I concluded.

I had a lot of concerns about the plan, the biggest of which was that thing with “insane mana” Patty had mentioned, but if she could really sense its mana strongly, perhaps she would be able to guide us in such a way that we wouldn’t run into it. I hoped she could.

“Sajiri’s guarding the jail again today. We’ll wait for his signal, then go down the steps until we reach the Setting Sun’s base. Nesca’s gonna use her magic now to make us all invisible.”

“Once I’ve done this, we won’t be able to see each other, so be careful not to bump into one another,” Nesca warned. “Patty will act as a beacon for us.” She turned to the fairy. “Fly as slowly as you can to make sure we’re all following you.”

“G-Got it!” Patty replied with a firm nod. “You can count on me! It’ll be fine. Everything will be fine!”

We’d come up with this plan during a strategy meeting we had held before coming here. The idea was if we all managed to safely make it past the palace gates (which we had), Nesca would place an invisibility spell on us, which she had learned from her father while Blue Flash were on their break. As the name of the spell suggested, it would hide us from the world, but it came with a huge drawback in that we wouldn’t be able to see each other either. Therefore, to mitigate this, we planned to form a chain by holding hands to ensure we wouldn’t lose one another. Meanwhile, Patty would act as our guide, because due to her wings being made of magic, the invisibility spell wouldn’t work on her anyway. We’d decided to turn this slight problem into an advantage, using those very wings as a beacon to stop us all from getting lost.

“Hold hands, everyone,” Nesca said. She would lead the line of invisible people, followed by Raiya, Rolf, Kilpha, myself, Aina, and Valeria, who would bring up the rear. “I’m casting the spell now,” she announced.

She started reciting an incantation, and all of a sudden, my comrades vanished in front of my very eyes. Now that’s what I call fantasy! I marveled. I couldn’t even see Kilpha or Aina, who had been standing either side of me, and who I presumed still were, given that I could feel the warmth of their palms in mine.

“It’s your time to shine now, Patty,” Nesca said.

“G-Got it! Let’s go, everyone!” the little fairy called out. “Be sure to follow me!”

“Keep it down,” the taciturn mage chided her.

With everything now ready, we could finally set our Great Infiltration Plan into motion.

◇◆◇◆◇

Our undercover operation was going nice and smoothly. Patty was flying up ahead of us, and we all followed her fluttering wings, our fingers firmly interlocked. Terrified I might accidentally let go of Aina’s hand, I was holding it so tightly that my palm had grown incredibly sweaty. Sorry, Aina.

We eventually made it inside the palace proper. Our first obstacle was a group of civil officials in the hallway in front of us, and we had to alter course and plaster ourselves against the wall to make sure we didn’t run into them. After that, a contingent of soldiers appeared behind us, causing us to hug the wall again while we prayed for them to hurry up out of our way. We had several more similar encounters until at last, we reached the staircase leading to the jail.

Sajiri looked bored out of his mind standing guard at the top of them with the same soldier as last time. The hume soldier seemed on edge, clearly wary of his fellow guard. As we approached, something shifted in Sajiri’s expression, indicating he had noticed our presence. Cat-sìths had a very keen sense of smell, so I figured he must’ve picked up on either my scent or Kilpha’s.

“Ugh, this job’s such a snoozefest,” he complained, stretching theatrically before turning to the soldier. “Hey, you.”

“Wh-What do you want?”

“I’m bored outta my skull. Tell me something interesting.”

“Huh?!” the soldier exclaimed, surprised by Sajiri’s ridiculous sudden request.

“Are you deaf? I said tell me something interesting.”

“A-A-Are you crazy? We’re on watch duty!”

“Ah, watch duty, my foot. A mook like you wouldn’t stand a chance if someone actually tried getting in here. Now, hurry up and entertain me, will ya?”

This, ladies and gentlemen, was a prime example of workplace harassment, a rotten old tradition that plagued Japanese society. It reminded me of my time as a young corporate drone.

“I-I refuse!” the soldier said.

“Oh, do you now?” Sajiri said, his tone low. “That’s some nerve ya got there. Take this!”

The soldier shrieked as Sajiri grabbed him by the collar and slammed him against the wall, leaving the staircase totally unguarded.

“You wanna brawl, huh? Is that it?” Sajiri roared, sounding full of himself.

“Eek!” was all the soldier could manage.

I almost felt bad for the guy, although that thought quickly flew out of my mind when I saw that Sajiri’s left hand (the one that wasn’t pinning the guard to the wall), hidden behind his back, was pointing toward the staircase. He was telling us to descend.

Kilpha gave my hand a squeeze, and I did the same to Aina’s to signal that we were about to start moving again. With our hands still linked, we slipped past Sajiri and the teary-eyed guard and headed downward into the dungeon.

◇◆◇◆◇

The only occupants of the cells appeared to be skeletons. I was surprised to see no sign of life down here. There didn’t even seem to be a jailer to speak of. Was it possible that prisoners in Gallus were never given food, and they all simply starved to death underneath the palace? A muttered incantation snapped me out of my thoughts.

“I’ve just cast a noise-canceling spell, so we can talk now. But try to keep your voices down as much as possible still,” Nesca told us.

“Whew. Keeping my mouth shut that whole time was exhausting. We didn’t lose anyone on the way, did we?” Raiya quietly called out to the group.

We confirmed we were all still here.

“Kilpha, there’s a hidden door over here. Think you can open it?” Raiya asked.

“I’ll try, meow,” she replied.

The sound of her patting down the wall in question echoed around the jail. It was quite a weird experience, being unable to see your companions.

She hummed. “I think I can open it, meow,” she said eventually.

“Great. We’re going in. Nesca, can you recast the invisibility spell?” Raiya asked. As soon as he mentioned it, the rest of us noticed the effects had started wearing off.

“Sure,” the mage replied, and she cast her magic on us one more time.

“I’ll open the door now, meow,” Kilpha said, and she did just that to reveal a staircase leading even farther underground.

As Kilpha had taken Nesca’s spot at the head of the line, I found myself holding Rolf’s hand as we made our way down this second staircase.

“Mind your step, Mr. Shiro, sir,” he said.

“Will do.”

Thanks to his guidance, I safely made it down to the bottom of the staircase, where I was greeted by what I had always imagined the hideout of an evil organization to look like. Hallways extended out in front of us as well as off to the sides, with each wall lined with doors. I’d already gotten this impression while watching the footage Patty had captured, but despite being underground, this place was absolutely huge. If someone had told me the king of Gallus had built his palace on top of an underground labyrinth, I wouldn’t even have questioned it.

As before, we followed the fluttering of Patty’s wings, but slowly and carefully, making sure not to make a sound. Fortunately, we didn’t come across anyone as we shuffled around the secret hideout, and a little while later, we reached yet another staircase leading down.

Mia is down these steps, I thought to myself.

My friends must have had the same realization, since they all showed some slight hesitation before we collectively gathered ourselves and continued our descent.

Chapter Thirty-Three: Our Reunion With Mia, Plus...

We had barely reached the bottom of the steps when grandma piped up through Peace. “Well, that’s not a good sign. Something’s interfering with my magic.”

“Mine too,” Nesca said, her shock evident in her voice despite it retaining its usual monotone quality. “My spells are being repelled.”

An instant later, the invisibility spell keeping us hidden completely dissipated.

Raiya immediately pulled out his sword and scanned our surroundings. “There’s no one here,” he concluded as he returned his weapon to its scabbard.

Just like in the dungeon a couple of floors above, it seemed there was no living soul on this whole level.

“Shiro. Be...ful...” Grandma’s voice cut off, and Peace let out a meow. The little cat’s connection to grandma had been severed, and he was back to being his normal feline self.

“This room must have been designed to nullify all magic,” Nesca surmised.

According to her, someone wasn’t directly interfering with their spells at all, and it was the nature of the place itself that caused all magic to be neutralized within it. Thankfully, that meant we hadn’t been spotted yet. A wave of relief washed over me, because for one excruciatingly long moment, I had feared someone had noticed our presence and preemptively nullified Nesca’s magic.

“Mister Shiro, is Mia here?” Aina asked.

“I’m not sure. But she was here in Patty’s video, so it’d be great if we found her.”

“Yeah.”

The two of us peered around the room. It was quite spacious—much larger than your average underground food hall like you might find under a department store in Japan—and a capsule-shaped water tank with several tubes coming out stood in the middle of it. There also appeared to be a desk covered in documents that had mysterious diagrams scrawled across them. By the looks of it, this seemed to be some sort of research room. Glass-manufacturing technology didn’t exist in this world at present, so I could only imagine how expensive it must have been to fashion a tank that big. The liquid inside was a deep green color, and from where we were standing, it was impossible to see what lay beneath the surface.

“Well, Aina? Is Mia here?” I asked the little girl.

She shook her head. “I can’t see her.”

“I see. What about you, boss? Any luck?”

“Nope, I can’t see her either. I figured she’d just appear out of the blue like she did last time, but nope,” Patty said, looking all around the room.

“Knowing Mia, she could be sitting in a corner, hugging her knees. I’ll help you two look for her,” I said as I grabbed the Fairy Glasses Latham had lent me from my inventory and put them on.

These glasses allowed the wearer to see spirits and phantoms, making me an official member of the “Search for Mia” team. As previously mentioned, the room was really big, so it was indeed possible for Mia to be hiding in one corner of it out of sight, or in the shadow of a bookcase.

As the three of us began searching the room, Valeria’s voice drifted over to my ears. “I wonder what’s in there,” she said, staring at the water tank.

“Perhaps the owner of this place is conducting research on monsters. Or trying to resuscitate one. Either way, we should stay well away from that thing,” Nesca warned while inspecting the documents scattered across the desk.

I wholeheartedly agreed with her on that particular point. In horror movies and disaster films, whenever a character approached a water tank like the one in this room, a monster tended to jump out. I don’t think I’ll be able to stop myself from screaming if that happens.

“Since we can’t see Mia, we’ll look for her ring,” Raiya suggested. “Kilpha, can you start over there? I’ll search this area. Rolf, you take that shelf.”

“Got it, meow!”

“Understood, Mr. Raiya, sir.”

Under Raiya’s guidance, the “Search for Mia’s Ring” team was formed. Both search teams scoured the room while Nesca scrutinized the documents for information and Valeria stood guard at the bottom of the stairs. It was a rather effective division of roles, if I did say so myself.

“Mia, please come out,” Aina begged.

“Heeey, Miaaa!” Patty whisper-shouted. “Come out, come out, wherever you are!”

But to our dismay, there was no sign of the little high elf girl at all. Does she only appear under certain conditions? I wondered. Seeing as how the two girls had gone off to search the rightmost corner of the room, I decided to take the left side.

“This place clearly hasn’t been cleaned in a while,” I muttered, raising my foot to step over one of the tubes that was lying on the ground.

“Uh-oh.” My back foot got caught on the tube, and I fell forward. I just about managed to stop myself from landing on my face at the last second, but the special glasses I was wearing slipped from my nose and landed at the foot of the water tank.

“Crap. I hope they’re not broken.”

I hurriedly picked up the spectacles and was relieved to see they were completely intact, without the slightest sign of a crack in them.

“Thank goodness,” I said, sighing with relief as I put them back on.

I raised my head, and my eyes landed on the water tank. Or to be precise, what lay inside it.

“Huh?”

There was a child in the water.

“What the...”

Just how long had the child been in there? The poor thing was basically skin and bone by this point. I caught sight of some hair drifting in the water. It looked silver.

“Mia?” I murmured, vigorously rubbing my eyes.

I looked at the tank again. The child in the water was wearing a ring on her right hand, and it was the exact size and shape as the one Lasulie had given to us. This pretty much confirmed to me that it was Mia in the tank.

“What the hell? Who’d do something so cruel?”

The capsule-shaped tank was filled to the brim with liquid, and Mia’s unrecognizable body was floating around within it. The first thing that sprang to mind was that someone had been experimenting on the little girl. The second was they had been preserving her body in formalin. I’d more or less guessed this was a research lab of sorts, but I would never have dreamed the subject of that research could be Mia. I know one thing for sure, though: I couldn’t let Aina see her friend looking like this.

“I’ll get you out of there right now, Mia,” I mumbled.

But how? I inspected the tank once more, but at that moment, Mia’s eyes blinked open. I let out a gasp as the little high elf girl’s mouth started moving, her jade-green eyes trained on me.

“A... A... A... Guys!” I exclaimed hurriedly. “Come! Come here! Mia’s... Mia’s in here!”

Aina was the first to react. “Huh? Where? Mister Shiro, where’s Mia?”

“Inside! She’s inside the tank!”

The little girl pressed her face up against the tank and had to cover her mouth with her hand as she gasped at her friend’s barely recognizable appearance. “Mia...” she breathed. Tears of joy started streaming down her face the moment she realized Mia was still alive.

Valeria was the next to reach us. “What did you just say, Shiro? Mia’s in the tank?!”

Like Aina, she brought her face close to the water to peer at what lay beneath the surface.

“Step back,” she said. “I’m going to break this thing.”

“Got it. Come on, Aina.” I peeled the little girl away from the tank and led her farther back so she would be out of harm’s way.

All four members of Blue Flash rushed to our side. When we were about five steps back from the tank, I nodded at Valeria to signal her to proceed. She nodded back, grabbed her prized war hammer, and prepared to swing it at the tank, when all of a sudden, his voice reached my ears.

“I wouldn’t break that if I were you. The girl inside will die.”

I reflexively spun on my heels to find a man dressed in merchant garb standing behind me. And it wasn’t just any man. No, it was none other than Jilvared from the Setting Sun.

“Oh? Do my eyes betray me, or is that Mr. Shiro I see? It has been a while. I admit, I did not expect our next meeting to be here, of all places,” he said, a smirk curling the corners of his lips upward.

He was flanked by two people. One was Mr. Nozeer, Celes’s uncle and a former general to the demon king. The other was a little girl I’d never seen before.

Patty gasped, landed on my shoulder, and pointed at the girl. “Shiro! It’s her! The thing with insane mana!”

The little girl was watching us, her face expressionless. She looked no older than ten, but based on Patty’s reaction, it wasn’t an impossibility that she was much older than she appeared. After all, with two horns sprouting out of her forehead and bat-like wings sprouting from her back, it was clear she wasn’t a hume.

“What’s this? Liezlise, do you know this fairy?” Jilvared asked.

“She was in here before,” the girl replied. “I wanted to eat her, but I thought she might belong to one of you guys as part of your wares or something, so I didn’t.”

“I see. Thank you for holding back on our account. But hold on a minute. That means this fairy has sneaked down here at some point in the past. In that case, I applaud your courage, little fairy. And yours too, Mr. Shiro and friends,” Jilvared said, accompanied by a few exaggerated claps.

We were all so on edge, none of us dared to open our mouths, and the sound of his clapping hands echoed around the vast room for a few moments.

“Now that we have all of the pleasantries out of the way, I would like to know what exactly you’re doing down here, Mr. Shiro. Would you be so kind as to tell me?” he said.

“Sure, I don’t mind. But why don’t we take this discussion somewhere a little more pleasant? Like a tavern, perhaps? I found one that serves pretty good food the other day,” I half joked.

I glanced across at my companions and saw that both the Blue Flash crew and Valeria had readied their weapons, with Raiya the first to draw his sword. They likely believed we needed to fight our way out of here.

“Ah, what a shame. I’d love to take you up on that offer, but I’ve just eaten, you see,” Jilvared said.

“Aw, too bad. Oh, by the way, Jilvared, why do you have a little girl in this water tank? What’s your goal here?”

“Oh, come, come. That won’t do, Mr. Shiro. I’m the one asking the questions here.”

The two of us wordlessly stared at each other.

Eventually, Nozeer’s voice broke the silence. “The old man is not with them this time. Jilvared, shall I kill them? I can be done in no time.”

The “old man” he was referring to was Eldos, one of the Sixteen Heroes. Without him to protect us, the demon was basically saying we were easy targets.

The statement triggered an immediate response from Raiya. “Kill us? Yeah, sure. Give it a try if you think you can. You really believe you can defeat Blue Flash so easily?”

“Let me in on the fun, Raiya,” Valeria piped up, glaring at Nozeer.

“Thanks, Valeria. You can cover for Nesca, since she can’t use her powers at the moment.”

“Sounds good.”

Since Nesca and Patty weren’t able to use magic in this room, they retreated to the rear of the group, while Aina picked up Peace and held him protectively in her arms.

“Ready to go, team? Rolf, Kilpha, you guys good with this?” Raiya asked his partymates.

“Meow!”

“I shall fight to the best of my abilities.”

Raiya and the rest of Blue Flash (minus Nesca) held their weapons at the ready, as did Valeria. Opposite them, Nozeer went to step forward, but was stopped by the little girl with horns.

“No need, Nozeer. I’ll handle them,” she said before turning to our group. “Ready?”

No sooner had these words left her mouth than she disappeared into thin air. An instant later, a choked cry of pain escaped Valeria’s mouth as she was sent flying backward, the little girl flashing back into sight before disappearing again. Raiya went down next, then Kilpha, then Rolf, all in the blink of an eye.

“Liezlise, please tell me you didn’t kill them. Did you?” Jilvared asked.

“I didn’t. I was careful not to break anything this time,” the girl replied. She glanced down at my comrades, who were groaning in anguish on the floor, and a triumphant look appeared on her face. “Look, Jilvared. I’ve become much better at holding back, haven’t I?”

“Your progress is impressive, Liezlise,” the man agreed, nodding. “As a reward, I shall treat you to a nice meal that I have carefully selected myself.”

“I’m looking forward to it. My usual has started running out of mana. I was beginning to get bored with it.”

The girl fell back into position beside Jilvared, who then took a step forward. “What do you think, Mr. Shiro? My companions are a force to be reckoned with, are they not?”

“What in the world is that girl?” I asked stiffly.

“Her name is Liezlise. I have been looking after her. She’s a demon. More or less. Although she is still a child.”

So this girl with the horns is a demon? That news didn’t actually come as a huge shock to me, considering Jilvared’s other bodyguard, Mr. Nozeer, was also one. I was, however, a little confused about the “more or less” part of that explanation.

“You’ve been ‘looking after’ her? A creature with this much mana?” Nesca said, her voice barely audible, and it was clear from her words the little girl was no ordinary demon.

That explains why Patty’s so scared, she’s shivering with fear at the back of the group at present, and how she managed to defeat Raiya and the others so effortlessly.

“Yes, I have been looking after her,” Jilvared repeated. “But preparing her meals is always such a struggle. Finding good food for her is quite a challenge, you see.” He paused as his gaze shifted to the water tank. “I have been feeding her this little high elf girl’s mana for the past few decades, but it seems her life is nearing its end, as her mana has been running rather thin in recent years. Liezlise keeps complaining about it. I give her another six months, but after that, I will need to find another source of sustenance for Liezlise. It is quite the predicament, as you can see.”

Someone in the room let out a confused, “What?” but I didn’t immediately know who it was.

“‘Another source of sustenance’? Jilvared, did you just call Mia food?” I suddenly realized I was the person speaking, and furthermore, my voice was shaking, not from fear, but because I was furious.

Jilvared had been using Mia as food for this little girl.

“Mia? Was that her name? I must admit, I could not care less about what she is called, so I must have forgotten it at some point,” he sniffed.

“You...”

I was starting to see red, but I knew I couldn’t succumb to my anger. After all, if I let my emotions get the better of me, who would protect Aina? I bit down on my lip hard and used the pain to help me regain my composure.

“Well now, Mr. Shiro. Do you mind telling me what you are doing here?”

“What if I refuse?” I retorted. “Will you order that girl to hurt me?”

Shielding Aina with my body, I frantically racked my brain for a way out of this room.

“No, of course not. It does not seem like combat is your forte. Much like myself, in fact. What if she were to use too much strength and accidentally kill you? No, that wouldn’t do.”

“Hey, Jilvared. I know how to hold back now,” the little girl piped up sullenly.

“I am aware of that, Liezlise. But better safe than sorry, I always say.”

The girl huffed. “Fine, I guess.”

Jilvared turned back to me. “I have so many questions for you, Mr. Shiro. Such as: Why are you able to perform the lost art of teleportation magic? How did the Immortal Dragon come to be under your control? Oh, and what about that little devil girl? Is she still alive?” He flashed me a smug grin before continuing. “There are ever so many things I wish to ask you. Yes, I would love to have a long, long conversation with you.”

“Can’t say it’s mutual. I absolutely do not want to talk to you.”

“Oh, please do not say that. Come now, Mr. Shiro. This pains me deeply, believe me, but I will have to put you in jail for the time being. Please use the time to unwind a little. Perhaps you will feel like talking to me afterward.”

And with that, Jilvared locked us up in the underground prison.

Chapter Thirty-Four: Jail Time

“I have readied a magic-blocking cell especially for you, Mr. Shiro,” Jilvared said, leading us to a different underground jail to the one we had passed through on our way in before locking us in a cell.

He must have remembered how I’d used the portal to grandma’s house during our last encounter, and was keen to prevent me from doing the same again. From what he had said, the cell we were in blocked anyone from using magic within it, and I could only assume this meant it was the same setup as in his research lab. Grandma still hadn’t managed to reconnect to Peace, so the cell’s magic-blocking capabilities hadn’t been overstated. To make matters worse, the cell door appeared to be made from woven wire mesh, meaning neither Peace nor Patty could escape. Jilvared had truly been prepared for every eventuality, huh? There were even guards watching our door. Two, to be exact. They were dressed the same as the soldiers guarding the palace, making it abundantly clear that Dezert was in cahoots with the Setting Sun.

“I’m terribly sorry, but I cannot give you anything to eat until you’ve agreed to converse with me,” Jilvared said. “And believe me when I say I do not wish to see a child die of starvation. But alas...”

He said I should call the guards if I decided I felt like talking at any point, then disappeared off to who-knows-where. In other words, while he wasn’t about to resort to violence with us, he had absolutely no qualms with letting us starve to death if we refused to answer his questions. As a threat, it was simple yet terribly efficient. Healing spells could patch up wounds and fix almost any injury in the blink of an eye, but they could do nothing about hunger. There was no way to magically fill someone’s stomach, after all. If nothing else, at least I was now positive the skeletons we had seen in the other subterranean jail were prisoners who had died of starvation.

“Ow, ow, ow. Are you all okay?” Raiya asked the group as he tried to sit up, clutching his side.

Nesca supported his upper torso. “Don’t overdo it, Raiya.”

“I’m fine. Don’t give me that look.”

The cell was about eighteen square meters in total, and we had been locked in it for about an hour before everyone started coming round. My only consolation was that Jilvared hadn’t separated us, although maybe he only had one of these special cells and it was more out of necessity than an act of kindness.

“Can everyone move?” Raiya asked the others who had tried to fight Liezlise.

“My left arm hurts, meow,” Kilpha whined.

“I think I’ve got a few broken ribs,” Valeria winced.

Rolf tried to cast a healing spell, but nothing happened. “I can just about move, but this cell is blocking my holy magic,” he said, looking down at his hand. As it turned out, the cell didn’t just block offensive magic but holy magic as well.

“I can’t believe how easily that monster just flattened us. She looked like a little girl, so I let my guard down. What in the world is she?” Raiya mused aloud.

“She’s a demon! That’s what that Jil-whatever guy said!” Patty piped up.

“I thought she looked like a demon, but man, she really is one? We couldn’t even lift a finger against her.”

Raiya must have lost consciousness after Liezlise’s first attack, which explained why he didn’t know she was a demon, and why this information was such a shock to him.

“Mister Shiro, what will happen to Mia?” Aina asked me, tears pooling in her eyes. “What did that man mean when he called her ‘food’? And why was she in that weird glass thing?”

Jilvared had indeed said Mia was Liezlise’s “food,” as well as saying she was likely going to die within the next six months. I’d nearly lost it when those words left his mouth.

But here in this cell, I decided it was best to feign ignorance. “Sorry, Aina. I don’t really know either. But now we know she’s alive. Mia’s alive. And we have to save her.”

The little girl nodded in agreement. “Yeah.”

Even though we were in a jail cell with no prospect of escape, Aina’s primary worry was for her friend. That just showed what a kind girl she was. In that moment, I swore I would do everything in my power to get her out of here. And Mia too, of course. We now knew she wasn’t dead, so our only option was to rescue her. Trouble was, there were rather a lot of hurdles standing in our way. First things first, we needed to get out of here. But how?

“How’s it looking, Kilpha? Any luck with that lock?” Raiya asked.

Paying no heed to the soldiers who were standing guard in front of our cell, Kilpha was fiddling around with the lock on the door. Unfortunately, she couldn’t manage to get her hand through the wire mesh in order to reach the keyhole on the other side.

“Nope. I’m not getting anywhere, meow,” she replied.

“Yup, thought as much. What if we hurl ourselves at the door? Think it’ll open then?”

Valeria shook her head. “I wouldn’t, Raiya. I tried giving it a shake earlier, and I couldn’t get it to budge even using all my strength. You’ll just end up hurting yourself for no reason.”

If the door couldn’t be opened by even the strongest member of our group, there truly was no way for us to escape this cell. Jilvared had confiscated our belongings (including weapons, naturally), our fighters were all injured, and our mages were unable to use their powers. And to top it all off, Jilvared wasn’t going to give us any food until I agreed to talk to him. We really were at an impasse. Seeing our puzzlement at the situation we were in, the two soldiers standing guard sneered at us.

“Morons. Stop trying to escape. You’re wasting your time,” one said.

“Yeah, just accept your fate. You’re all gonna die here,” the other added.

Their smug faces really irked me.

“Damn it all! What’s going to happen to us?” Patty exclaimed.

“Calm down, Patty,” Nesca admonished her.

The little fairy let out a frustrated groan. “How can you be so calm, Nesca?”

“Because panicking isn’t going to help us,” Nesca said. “We need to use our brains if we want to find a way to escape.”

Patty groaned again and stamped her feet on the stone floor. My shoulder usually bore the brunt of her temper tantrums, but because the anti-magic cell was preventing her from using her wings, she couldn’t actually fly up to it.

I hummed in thought. “Well, since we can’t use magic, I guess that means we can’t simply escape to grandma’s house, huh?” I mumbled quietly to myself.

Just to be sure, I headed over to the far corner of the cell and attempted to summon the portal.

“Wait. What?”

It had worked. I instinctively turned around to check if anyone had seen me.

“When did Dezert start having dealings with the Setting Sun guild? Please tell me!” Rolf begged the guards.

“And who the hell are you supposed to be?” one asked.

“My name is Rolf. I am a priest of Florine the Sky Goddess, and a born-and-bred Dezertian. That is why I need to know what lurks in the shadows of this nation. Who was that man who locked us up in here? I beg you, please answer my question.”

“Idiot. Why would we do something like that?” the other guard said.

“You are also Dezertians, yes? So why—”

“It’s exactly because we’re Dezertians that we’re doing all this. We were born in this nation, so naturally, we’re just obeying whoever’s the strongest people around.”

Rolf was speechless at this remark. “Do you have no sense of justice?”

The guard scoffed. “Justice? Does that even exist in our world?”

The attention of the guards was fully on Rolf. This was my chance.

“All righty,” I murmured before sliding the closet door open. As always, on the other side lay the room with grandma’s altar. “I can actually go home,” I whispered to myself with a discreet pump of the fist.

So even in this magic-blocking cell, I could still return to grandma’s house whenever I wanted. In other words, I’d secured an escape route for us that was ready to be used when the time was ripe. All I had to do was get my friends to follow me through the portal, then wait for Shiori or Saori to go to Ninoritch (or come back from there, if they were presently in Ruffaltio) and log back in with them, so to speak. It would mean a bit of a detour, but I’d at least be able to escape with all of my friends without the need to leave anyone behind. Sure, I was still hoping to find another, less convoluted way out of this place, but at least this was an option as a last resort.

“Now that I have a trump card, I can see what the rest of my hand turns up.”

I slid the door closed again and rejoined my friends. The human brain works in mysterious ways: As soon as we calm down, our field of vision expands. With a viable escape route secured, I wanted to squeeze as much intel out of this situation as I could before departing. For the time being, I decided I’d join Rolf’s conversation with the guards to see if negotiating with them was a possibility. But before I could even open my mouth, a familiar voice interrupted their discussion.

“Heya. Hope you don’t mind me intruding.”

I instinctively turned in the direction of the newcomer.

“What are you doing here?” one of the guards said. “You’re in charge of guarding the staircase.”

The other nodded. “Yeah, what he said. This is our—”

“Ah, who the hell cares what I’m doing here? I heard some morons sneaked into the palace and got themselves caught. I was freakin’ bored up there, so I figured I’d come and take a look at their sorry faces,” said the newcomer, a young male cat-sìth with mean eyes and a foul mouth.

Yes, it was, of course, none other than Sajiri.

“Meow, meow?! Saji—”

“Oop!” I blurted out. Kilpha had just been on the cusp of instinctively calling out his name, so I’d hurriedly put both of my hands over her mouth to stop her. I brought my lips close to her ear and whispered a quick “Shh!” which received an understanding nod from the cat-sìth.

“This is a special jail cell. A merc like you isn’t welcome down here,” one of the guards said.

“Oh, can it, will ya? Get off my case. I’m only here to have a look at ’em, then I’ll be on my way.” Sajiri stopped in front of the cell. “So these are the morons who got caught, huh? They look every bit as stupid as I was told.”

He smirked before continuing his theatrics.

“I mean, look at the doofus with the black hair. He seems like a real half-wit, that one. I bet he’s got sticky fingers too. I can tell. He’s good at stealing things that belong to others. It’s written all over his face. Sneaking into the palace... You’ve stolen something, haven’t you? Well? What was it? C’mon, out with it, half-wit.”

It was pretty obvious Sajiri was taking advantage of the situation in order to diss me. He was clearly still mad about me having “stolen” Kilpha from him. I wondered what he’d do to me if I admitted to him that she and I weren’t in a relationship, and that she had asked me to pretend to be her lover. Nothing good, I was sure of that.

Sajiri clicked his tongue. “You’re boring me. C’mon, say something, half-wit!” On realizing that I wasn’t going to rise to the bait, he turned to the guards. “Hey, you two.”

“Wh-What?”

“Be especially watchful of that one. Don’t let him out of your sight, you hear? You never know when he might slip out from right under your noses.”

“We already know. The captain gave us strict orders to watch them at all times,” one of the guards retorted.

Sajiri scoffed. “Good to hear. Make sure you keep a close eye on ’em. And I know you’ve probably been told this already, but don’t get too close to their cell. You might lower your guard ’cause they’re behind bars, but you never know what they might do. Then again, with how slow you two oafs are, they might’ve stolen the key from you already.”

“Stop mocking us just because you’ve got a bit of muscle. They haven’t stolen the key! Look.” Spurred on by Sajiri’s provocations, the guard fumbled around in his chest area and pulled out a key that was dangling from his neck. The key to the door of our cell, no doubt.

“See? It’s right here. Told you they hadn’t stolen it!” the guard sneered.

“Guess they haven’t. My bad.”

With a smirk curling his lips upward, Sajiri turned around and punched the guard brandishing the key square in the face. The man folded to the floor, unconscious.

“What the...” the other guard blurted out with a start. “You bastard. What did you—”

“Go join your friend for a nap.”

The second guard managed to gasp a quick “Ah!” before Sajiri used his other hand to deliver a karate chop to the back of his neck. Like his partner, he collapsed on the spot.

“Since we once considered each other colleagues, I’ll be merciful and let you carry on living,” Sajiri said to the two unconscious men as he bent down to grab the key from the neck of his first victim.

He opened the cell door, shot Kilpha a meaningful glance, then glowered at me.

“Damn you, Shiro. What the hell do you think you’re doing, dragging Kilpha into your mess? I should give you a good tongue-lashing, but this isn’t really the time or place. We need to get all of you out of here, pronto. Follow me.”

Without waiting for an answer, he spun on his heels and dashed out of the room. I exchanged nods with my comrades, and we all quickly followed.

“Hell’s bells. You’d better not expect me to clean up your mess again, that’s all I can say,” he grumbled.

Listening to him complaining at length as we made our escape, I nodded inwardly. Yup, he’s a true tsundere, all right.

Intermission

After their little tea party in the forest, Lasulie started inviting Shessfelia on outings almost every single day.

“Shessfelia, would you like to go look at the flowers?”

“Shessfelia, come with me. I will show you the lake we have here in our sacred land.”

“Shessfelia, do you like fruit? It’s rigabel season.”

The little princess always accepted the matriarch’s invitations, going flower-viewing, admiring the high elves’ gorgeous lake, and eating her fill of delicious fruit, and seeing her gasp in awe at the forest’s beauty or react with delight after sinking her teeth into the local delicacies always brought a smile to Lasulie’s face. On this day also, Lasulie had invited Shessfelia to accompany her on a walk, and along with Luza, the princess’s bodyguard, the trio strolled up a gentle hill that lay beyond the forest.

“We have arrived, Shessfelia. I wanted to show you the sunset from this vantage point,” Lasulie said once they reached the top.

The sun was just about to set behind a mountain range that was visible from the forest. It was a beautiful sight, even rivaling the sunset Shessfelia had once seen while atop a dragon mid-flight. But something was weighing heavy on the little princess’s mind.

“What do you think, Shessfelia? Isn’t it beautiful?” Lasulie said.

Shessfelia didn’t reply.

“Is something the matter? Do you not like this place?”

“Lasulie.”

I have to say it, Shessfelia told herself. She clutched the hem of her dress as tightly as she could and raised her head so she was looking up into the face of the high elf matriarch. Lasulie’s jade-green eyes stared back at the little girl.

“Lasulie, I...” she began hesitantly. “I’m not your daughter.”

Lasulie’s eyes widened in shock at this, and it was then that she was hit by a realization: She had been seeing her daughter in Shessfelia.

“Oh. Indeed. You are quite correct,” she said stiffly.

“I’m sorry,” Shessfelia uttered.

“Don’t be. I’m the one who should be apologizing to you. It’s just that your... Well, your stature is very similar to my daughter’s, you see.”

Lasulie shifted her attention to the descending sun as it disappeared below the horizon. Beside her, Shessfelia did likewise. It was a magnificent sight.

“Shessfelia,” Lasulie eventually said after a long silence. “Would you mind listening to me talk for a minute?”

“Of course not,” the little girl said.

“Thank you. Well, where should I start? Which of my stories might interest you?”

“I would love to hear about Mia. About your daughter.”

“Sonia? I have no issue with it, but I can’t say it’ll make for a thrilling tale.”

“I don’t mind. We’re just standing watching the sunset anyway.”

Lasulie chuckled. “You make a good point.”

She began recalling past events involving her daughter, the girl Shiro and the others knew as Mia.

“There is a legend among the high elves that anyone born with silver hair will visit calamity upon our kind.”

Lasulie was born into a family of priestesses who were tasked with the duty of conveying the will of the world tree. Needless to say, the expectation was that she would bear a daughter who would follow in her footsteps and those of her ancestors, so to that end, she was wed to a man she had no particular affection for and soon fell pregnant. But to everyone’s dismay, her daughter was born with silver hair, the very color that symbolized the downfall of her kind. Her husband promptly left the familial home, and Lasulie was forced to raise Kalmia—Sonia—alone. She couldn’t even trust anyone else to take care of her daughter, because after all, who knew what they might do to her?

“I was always stern with her,” Lasulie continued. “I wanted her to grow up strong and resilient, so that she wouldn’t feel constrained by the burden of her silver hair. But...” She paused. “Seeing how she left me, I suppose that wasn’t what she wanted.”

Her eyes took in the sunset as a look of loneliness settled on her face. All of a sudden, everything clicked into place in Shessfelia’s mind. The flowers, the beautiful lake, the delicious fruit, the sunset... They were all things Lasulie had wanted Kalmia to experience.

“Lasulie, you...” the little princess began.

“What is it?”

“You really did love Mia, didn’t you?”

The little princess’s remark left Lasulie totally speechless. She stared down at her hands with a dumbfounded look on her face.

“Oh. I...” she uttered disjointedly. “I suppose I did. I did love her. Sonia.”

“What’s with that reaction?” Shessfelia said. “You’re her mother, yet you didn’t know you loved her?”

Lasulie chuckled. “You may mock me. I’ll allow it. But it’s just as you say. Until this very moment, I didn’t realize I loved her. It’s so utterly foolish of me.”

“Mother once told me she was strict with me out of love. So it’s fine. I’m sure Mia... Sonia? Whatever she’s called. I’m sure your feelings will reach your daughter.”

A sad smile rested on Lasulie’s lips. “You are kind, Shessfelia. But when you say ‘will,’ how is that possible? She has already lost her life.”

“So? I traveled with her, remember?”

Lasulie couldn’t find any response to that observation.

“So I’m sure your feelings will reach her,” Shessfelia continued. “I’m sure you’ll be able to convey your love to her. Amata and Aina have gone looking for her, after all. They’ll find her and bring her back here. I’m sure of it. So Lasulie...”

The little princess paused and grabbed the matriarch’s hand.

“When she gets back, you must tell her you love her. You have to, okay?”

Lasulie felt a heat behind her eyes, and quickly turned her face to one side. But Shessfelia had spoken so honestly to her and gotten everything off her chest, so it would have been remiss of her not to reply to her earnest appeal.

“Yes. I shall do as you say, Shessfelia.”

Chapter Thirty-Five: A Strategy Meeting

As soon as we were out of the cell, there was nothing stopping my friends from using their magic. Nesca immediately cast an invisibility spell on us, and like earlier, we all held hands and formed a line that followed Sajiri up to the first floor. I would have loved to go get our belongings back, but for the moment, our priority was to just get out of this wretched place.

“Let’s leave the palace before they notice we’ve gone,” I said, and my friends all nodded in agreement at the suggestion.

Hand in hand, we sneakily crossed the drawbridge, all of us holding our breaths as we passed the guards so we wouldn’t get caught. It was pretty thrilling, I had to admit. Once we were out of the palace grounds, we quickly hid in the shadow of a nearby building, just as the invisibility spell wore off. Talk about good timing. Blessed with the ability to see each other again, we decided to stop for a minute to catch our breaths. If I strained my ears, I could just about hear a commotion inside the palace, which suggested they must have realized we had escaped. Should we stay in the capital or leave for the time being? I wondered.

Sajiri’s voice snapped me out of my thoughts. “Don’t idle around. This way,” he said, urging us to follow him.

After a short walk, we eventually made it to a tavern in the district of the royal capital that was likely referred to as the slums.

“Come in. Hurry.”

The place looked incredibly shady. In other circumstances, I would’ve refused point-blank to go inside with Aina in tow, but we didn’t exactly have a whole lot of choice at the moment. Steeling my nerve, I told Patty to hide herself in Aina’s backpack, then crossed the threshold. As I’d anticipated from the look of the building from the outside, this was the kind of dive where thugs and outlaws gathered. Here, a mercenary with a mean look on his face gambling with a shady-looking adventurer. There, a lionman locked in a screaming match with a high cat-sìth. Meanwhile, at the next table over, a group with the kind of demeanor that set them out as criminals conversed in hushed voices. This definitely isn’t the kind of place you should bring children, I thought.

“Welcome!” a waitress called over to us. Her attire was so scandalous, I instinctively covered Aina’s eyes.

“Mister Shiro?” the little girl said in confusion.

“Sorry, Aina, but could you keep your eyes closed for a bit?”

“Huh? O-Okay.”

It seemed she hadn’t seen the waitress’s thoroughly indecent outfit. Thank goodness. It had been close, though. Children were innocent creatures, often asking questions that made adults squirm. “Mister Shiro, why’s that lady dressed like that?” If Aina had asked me that while gazing up at me, her little eyes full of innocence, I likely would’ve stumbled over my words before eventually mumbling something about how she must have just been very hot.

“Can I take your order?” asked the woman in the scandalous outfit.

I almost blurted out “Please put some clothes on!” but I managed to stop myself right at the last minute. This was a tavern, so I figured we might need to order drinks to make sure we didn’t arouse suspicion, but before I could reply, Sajiri placed his own order without even asking the rest of us what we wanted.

“A sand scorpion and horned bat soup. Piping hot.”

It sounded so disgusting, my friends and I made faces in unison, but the waitress in the scandalous outfit simply smiled in reply. “Got it. I’ll take you to the special seats at the back. This way,” she said in a singsong voice, leading us deeper into the tavern. Next, she unlocked a door at the back of the main hall. It seemed to open out onto a private room.

“We’re going through,” Sajiri told us, and we all followed him inside.

“I’ll get your soup now. Gimme just a minute, okay?” said the waitress in the scandalous outfit before closing the door behind us.

Phew, I don’t have to shield Aina’s eyes any longer, I thought in relief.

But all of a sudden, part of the wall opposite us rotated, and a man I had never seen before appeared from the other side. A hidden door! Needless to say, we were all stunned.

The man was seemingly just as shocked and eyed us with suspicion. “Sajiri, who are these people?” he said.

“Oh, don’t be so on edge,” the cat-sìth replied. “They aren’t our enemies.”

“You sure? Well, I guess if you’re the one saying that, they must be on the up-and-up. Although from the way you just said that, it doesn’t sound like they’re part of our cause either.”

“They’re not. But I’m pretty damn sure they’ll be more useful than that bunch of jokers,” Sajiri said, thrusting his chin out toward the hidden door.

“Oh?” The man raised an eyebrow. “Well, that’s good to hear.”

“And also... I’m sorry, man. I messed up. I can’t go inside the palace anymore.”

“What? What in the world are you— Hmm?” The man’s eyes landed on Rolf, and a bright smile broke out across his face. “Excuse me, sir, but are you Mr. Rolf?”

“That is indeed my name,” the battle priest said tentatively. “But who, may I ask, are you?”

“Oh, my apologies. I’m a friend of Ralf, your brother. My name is Zeog. You and I met once before, but it was more than ten years ago now, so it’s only natural you don’t remember me.”

“I indeed do not recall your name or face, I regret to say,” Rolf said truthfully.

“It’s fine, really. I only really recognized you due to your resemblance to your brother.”

The man who had introduced himself as Zeog extended a hand toward Rolf, which he shook.

But then, realization seemed to suddenly strike him. “Wait. If you are a friend of my brother’s, that must mean...” he stammered. “Th-This place is...”

Zeog nodded. “Correct you are, Mr. Rolf. This is the base of operations for those who seek to restore justice to this kingdom.”

“My word!” Rolf breathed, his jaw on the floor.

I couldn’t believe my ears either. The place Sajiri had brought us to turned out to be the resistance’s secret hideout.

◇◆◇◆◇

“I see. I had no idea an organization like that had its headquarters under the palace,” Zeog said once we’d finally finished recounting our adventures. “Sajiri, Mr. Rolf, and all of you have risked your lives in bringing us this information. You have my thanks.”

He rose from his seat, said he was going to share the information with the “others” (whoever they were), then disappeared beyond the hidden door again. I assumed the rebel army’s base of operations must have been behind there, which suggested the weird order Sajiri had reeled off to the waitress earlier was actually the password to get in.

I sighed at length and fell forward onto the table. “I can’t believe you’ve thrown your lot in with a group of rebels, Sajiri. That’s a twist I didn’t see coming.”

“Hey, Shiro. Don’t use that word around here. These guys insist they’re the army of the rightful king, not rebels,” Sajiri warned me.

“Got it. I’ll be careful.”

Yup, Sajiri was part of the rebels—ahem, of an organization that wished to see justice restored to Dezert. From what Rolf had told us, it sounded like their leader was the previous king’s granddaughter, and just as he had predicted, they already had a foothold in the capital. They even had people on the inside, so to speak. In fact, it was because of them that Sajiri had been hired to work in the palace.

“Why are you involved in this nation’s affairs and working with these people, meow?” Kilpha asked.

I could understand her confusion. After all, the Sajiri she knew—the one she had been betrothed to until only recently—would never have gotten involved in something like this, let alone chosen to side with an organization that stood so little chance of success in achieving its goal.

“C’mon, tell me, meow!” she insisted.

Sajiri clicked his tongue. “Leave me alone, will ya? It’s ’cause of something some idiot once said to me. ‘To atone for your sins, you must save at least as many people as you currently have regrets over. Think of all the lives that were lost because of you, and endeavor to help countless more to make up for it.’”

Those were the exact words I’d said to him the last time I saw him.

“When I arrived in this nation, I stumbled across some starving kids. Then I realized it wasn’t just one or two, but hundreds—hell, thousands of kids who have no access to food here.”

“Meow? Hold on. So you mean...” Kilpha began, but Sajiri interrupted her.

“I just figured I should give that no-good king a knuckle sandwich. You got a problem with that?” he said sullenly.

Smiles broke out on all of our faces.

“You’ve turned into a good guy, dude!” Raiya laughed.

Although as you might imagine, Sajiri immediately rejected the very idea.

◇◆◇◆◇

So we now knew Sajiri had joined the faction that was seeking to put the former royal family back on the throne. Cool. But what exactly were we supposed to do? I was about to suggest a strategy meeting to my companions when Sajiri turned to me.

“Shiro, I’ve got a bone to pick with you,” he said, glaring at me.

“What is it, Mr. Reformed?” I asked.

“Why, you little...” he seethed. “D-Don’t you dare poke fun at me!” He grabbed me by my lapels, his face red as a tomato.

I chuckled. “Sorry, sorry. Anyway, what was it you wanted to say?”

Sajiri let go of me and clicked his tongue. Then, he glared at me again, as if starting his performance over from the beginning. “I told you before, didn’t I? Stop dragging Kilpha into your messes and putting her in danger when you know she’s pregnant. Remember me saying that?”

The three other members of Blue Flash all turned to look at Kilpha at the same time, their jaws gaping. She hadn’t anticipated this turn of events and jerked in shock at the words spilling from Sajiri’s mouth.

“You damn half-wit! Do you even realize you’re going to be a freakin’ father? You do know that if something bad happens to Kilpha, the baby will probably die, right?”

This time, Raiya and the rest of the gang (minus Kilpha) turned to look at me.

“You’re, uh, gonna be a dad?” Raiya mumbled.

Ugh. Stop talking, Sajiri. Please, just shush.

Raiya and Nesca—heck, even levelheaded Rolf—were so shocked by this news, they looked like those terracotta haniwa figurines. Was this retribution for all the lies I’d told? Kilpha’s panicked reaction wasn’t helping anything either, since it lent more credibility to Sajiri’s claims. The eyes of Raiya and the others kept darting between the pair of us. They totally believe it’s true, don’t they?

“Well? Let’s see if you can talk your way out of this one, Shiro.”

There was, of course, no baby in Kilpha’s belly, though Sajiri’s anger was very real, which was understandable, given the two of them had once been betrothed, and he had truly loved her. All of a sudden, a chuckle echoed around the room and shattered the tense atmosphere. Valeria, who knew the truth, had both hands pressed firmly over her mouth as she fought hard to contain her laughter.

“What the hell are you laughing at?” Sajiri snapped, glaring at her.

Valeria finally reached breaking point. Unable to hold it in any longer, she burst out laughing. “Ow, ow, ow,” she winced as she clutched her broken ribs, though even the pain didn’t silence her laughter. She eventually managed to regain control of her body, and as she wiped away a few tears from her eyes, she turned to the disgruntled cat-sìth. “Sajiri, there’s no baby in Kilpha’s belly. It was all a lie to get you to back off.”

Total silence, followed by a “Wait, what?” from Sajiri.

He, too, now looked like a haniwa figurine.

◇◆◇◆◇

“Oh, come on, Sajiri. Stop sulking,” I said, trying to lift his mood.

He turned away in a huff. “Can it. Just leave me the hell alone, you schlub.”

The revelation that Kilpha wasn’t actually pregnant appeared to have hit him quite hard. Sorry, Sajiri.

“I shouldn’t have lied to you. But I’m not gonna apologize, meow,” Kilpha said, mirroring Sajiri’s huffy gesture. In other words, her hate for him at the time had been so strong, she did not regret that she’d lied to him. This realization made Sajiri even glummer than before, turning the atmosphere in the room incredibly awkward.

As I sat there, trying to find some way to ease the tension, Peace meowed. I instantly noticed the glint of human intelligence in the little cat’s eyes. “Grandma?” I ventured.

“Ah, I finally managed to reconnect. Shiro, are you all right?” she said through Peace.

I noticed Sajiri eyeing the talking cat in shock, but I paid him no heed. My conversation with grandma took precedence at this particular moment in time.

“More or less,” I replied. “We’re all safe and sound, at least.”

“That’s good to hear. Did you find the girl?”

By “the girl,” she meant Mia. “It’s a long story,” I said. “Basically...”

I recounted the events that took place in the palace’s subterranean levels, from me finding Mia in the water tank to Jilvared making an appearance, accompanied by his two subordinates—Nozeer, one of the demon king’s former lieutenants, and the little girl who had managed to floor Raiya and the others in just one hit.

“I can hardly believe all of that happened to you. I knew they must have had a strong sorcerer with them, since they managed to cut off my connection to Peace, but I thought that would be the extent of it.” She hummed. “A little girl, you say?”

“Do you have any idea who she might have been? She had horns like this”—I replicated the shape of her horns with my fingers—“And wings. Like, bat wings,” I explained.

“Based on that description, it sounds like she’s a demon. But plenty of them have those features.”

“Really?” I said dejectedly.

“I’m sorry I can’t be of more help. Still, what matters right now is that Mia’s alive.”

“Yeah.”

The vision of her emaciated body floating in the water tank flashed up in my mind. I remembered her lips moving in a desperate attempt to tell us something. But what?

“It means the Mia you ran into in the forest wasn’t her ghost. It was a projection.” grandma continued.

“A projection? You mean like an astral projection? Where your soul can leave your body even though you’re still alive?”

“Yes, exactly. Her strong desire to see her mother again must have pushed her soul right out of her body. To think I couldn’t tell the difference...” she said, shaking her head. “I still have much to learn.”

I stayed silent for a bit, then reiterated the point. “Grandma. Mia’s alive.”

“Shiro...”

“She’s alive. That means I have to save her. For Lasulie’s sake, because she waited for so long for her to return, but most importantly of all, for the sake of Mia herself. I need to rescue her.”

Kilpha, Raiya, Nesca, Rolf, and Valeria all nodded in agreement with this. But then, all of a sudden, the gazes of both Aina and Patty were drawn to a spot where there was seemingly nothing of interest.

“Mia?” Aina whispered.

“Wha?! Mia! Shiro, Mia’s here!” Patty exclaimed.

Chapter Thirty-Six: Mia Appears

Mia. That was what Mia and Patty had said while staring into empty space.

“Wait, what? Did you say Mia? Hold on, Aina. Is Mia here right now?” I asked.

The little girl nodded. “Yeah, she is. She’s over there,” she said, pointing at a spot in front of her, but all I could see was a wall.

I hurriedly took the fairy glasses out of my inventory and put them on. Aina was right. Mia was floating right there in midair with a sad, apologetic expression on her face.

“Boss, give everyone your mead.”

“Got it!”

The little fairy produced some fairy mead she’d made herself from her own inventory, while I took a handful of shot glasses out of mine, and my friends downed their drinks as soon as they were handed to them. Well, all apart from Sajiri, who had to have his drink shoved down his throat by Valeria, because he didn’t have a clue what was going on.

“What the hell?! Wh-Who’s that kid?!” he exclaimed.

Ignoring his frightened yelps entirely, Aina forcefully shook her head. “No, I won’t go home! Not without you, Mia!”

It appeared she was having a conversation with the little high elf girl. I could see Mia’s lips moving, but likely always, I had no idea what she was saying.

“No, I won’t do it. I won’t!” Aina exclaimed.

From her tone, it was clear the pair were arguing. Even though the rest of us couldn’t hear Mia, the look on Aina’s face told us their conversation was getting quite heated.

“Aina, what’s Mia saying?”

“Mister Shiro, Mia’s...”

The little girl was on the verge of tears. In fact, her eyes were already wet, but she was trying her hardest not to break down completely.

“She keeps saying we should go home. She’s telling us to run away because it’s dangerous,” she said, her little body shaking.

“Dangerous? Is she talking about the demon girl, perhaps?” Rolf asked, to which Mia nodded.

“Stop telling us to leave, Mia,” I said gently. “We’ve come all this way to get you. Your mother’s been waiting for your return for such a long time.”

A look of surprise crossed the little phantom girl’s face, but she hurriedly shook her head and pointed to the door.

“What’s she saying now?” I asked Aina.

“The same things as before. ‘Go home.’ ‘Run.’ Stuff like that.”

“I see.”

I thought back to the demon girl. She had pounded Raiya and the others into the dust without them even managing to react.

“Thank you for worrying about us, Mia. But we’ve already decided we’re not leaving until we get you back. And that’s not just my idea. All of my comrades here have agreed to rescue you too.”

Everyone in the room nodded. Well, save for one person.

“Hey, Shiro, you schlub. Since when did I become your ‘comrade’?” Sajiri bawled.

“Well, you’re pretty much part of the crew now, aren’t you?” I said.

This earned me a tongue click. “This is why I hate you.” And despite his grumbling, he dropped the subject.

“No! I’m not going home!”

Meanwhile, the argument between Aina and Mia appeared to be getting more and more heated. Mia eventually realized they were getting nowhere like this and seemed to suggest a change of approach.

“Huh? You want to, uh, enter my body?” Aina repeated.

Mia’s lips moved in response.

“O-Okay. I don’t mind, but uh...” the little girl hesitated. “What should I do?”

The high elf girl had made some sort of request.

“Okay,” Aina said with a nod. She turned to me, her face betraying her uncertainty. “Um, Mister Shiro...” she started slowly. “Mia said...”

“Yeah?”

“Mia said she wants to borrow my body so she can talk to you and the others directly. Is that okay?” the little girl asked.

“Hold on. What? She wants to enter your body?!” I exclaimed.

Beside me, grandma (well, Peace) seemed impressed. “Ooh. She’s suggesting doing a séance, is she? She will indeed be able to communicate with the rest of us that way.”

“What does it entail exactly, grandma?”

“During a séance, the host temporarily allows a spirit to possess their body. Under normal circumstances, we’d need to do some kind of ritual, but since the little girlie can already see and communicate with Mia without any outside assistance, she probably doesn’t need to make any offerings.”

“Offerings? Wait, are you sure Aina’s gonna be fine?”

“Don’t you worry your little head, Shiro. While it’s true that evil spirits have, on occasion, been known to take control of people’s bodies, this is Mia we’re talking about. The girlie will be just fine,” grandma pronounced.

I was surprised by how lighthearted her tone was, but maybe she really did mean it when she said there was absolutely nothing to worry about.

“Mia probably has something very important to tell you if she’s willing to go as far as possessing Aina’s body just to communicate it to you,” grandma added.

I gazed at Mia’s translucent form floating in front of the wall. Her eyes were fixed on us. “Okay. Fine,” I said eventually. “Mia, you can enter Aina’s body.”

Aina spread her arms wide as if indicating for Mia to come toward her, and I watched on as her little body all but swallowed up the phantom girl. A little “Ah” escaped Aina’s lips as she winced, then grunted. She closed her eyes as if she were being forced to endure something, although I couldn’t tell what it might be. When she opened her eyes again, her mismatched irises—one blue, one purple—had turned jade-green like Mia’s.

“Shiro. Everyone,” she said.

“You’re, um, Mia, right?” I asked tentatively, and Mia (in Aina’s body) nodded.

How peculiar, I thought. Aside from the change to her eye color, the little girl’s appearance remained otherwise unaltered, yet the expression on her face was unmistakably Mia’s. Any trace of Aina’s usual smile had gone.

“You have to escape from here, I beg of you. The girl you met beneath the palace...” She paused, balled her little hands into tiny fists, then resumed. “She’s the demon king.”

Chapter Thirty-Seven: The Demon King Fragment

“The demon king?!” Raiya, Valeria, and I (and for some reason, Sajiri too) exclaimed in unison.

We obviously knew this Liezlise girl had been strong, but the thought that she might have been the demon king had evidently never even crossed our minds.

Grandma’s reaction, however, was very different from ours. “The demon king, you say? That’s strange. The demon king I know looks nothing like the description Shiro gave me of that girl. What does it mean?” she wondered aloud.

“Jilvared said she will be the next demon king,” Mia replied.

“The next demon king? That little girl?” grandma said.

“Yes. ‘Liezlise will be the next demon king.’ Those were his exact words.”

“Liezlise?” grandma repeated, before gasping. “Hold on. Demon King Liz? Goodness. I can’t believe there are still fragments of her around,” she said, and I detected a tinge of what sounded like panic in her tone. Quite clearly, this whole business was no trivial matter.

“Grandma. Hey, grandma,” I called over to her to get her attention. “Who’s this ‘Demon King Liz’? And what do you mean by ‘fragments’ exactly?”

“Liz was the former demon king. She was a pitiful thing, infamous for being the most wicked of all demon kings and launching war after war on humankind. What we call ‘fragments’ are clones she made of herself: individual entities split from her main body, each carrying some of her powers.”

Uh, what the hell? The demon king can split into multiple versions of themselves? Like a paramecium? The revelation that Liezlise was the former demon king had shaken our entire group to its very core.

“I can’t believe that girl was the demon king...” Nesca whispered, her face white as a sheet and her shoulders shaking. Perhaps she was thinking of everything that could have gone wrong during our last encounter with her.

We were all still reeling from the shock of this revelation when Mia spoke again. “Shiro, the Setting Sun took me in order to feed me to Liezlise.”

Her statement left me utterly speechless.

Ignoring my stunned reaction, she continued, “They put me in that tank and submerged me in a strange liquid that constantly drains me of my mana. Then, Liezlise drinks the liquid saturated with my mana. This cycle has repeated over and over, ever since I was abducted.”

So the water tank was some sort of device that was able to extract Mia’s mana from her body. Grandma gritted her teeth, which indicated to me that she was as furious as the rest of us.

“No matter where I run, Liezlise will follow me.”

“Mia...”

That explained why she had been so desperate for us to run away, and why she kept on insisting that we should leave her behind.

“Besides, I will die soon,” she added.

“Don’t say that. You can’t give up, Mia!”

“Thank you, Shiro. But I can tell. My body is almost entirely drained of mana.”

I gritted my teeth.

“I can’t leave the water tank. If I do, I’ll die on the spot.”

She’d die if she got out of the tank. Jilvared had said exactly the same thing. “I wouldn’t break that if I were you. The girl inside will die.” It seemed he had been telling the truth.

“Shiro, I’d like you to pass on a message to Aina for me.” Mia smiled. “Could you tell her, ‘Thank you for finding me when I was wandering lost and alone and without my memories’?”

I didn’t say anything.

“And add, ‘Thank you for being my friend.’ Please, Shiro. Tell her,” Mia insisted.

“Mia...” I breathed. “No. I’m begging you. Don’t give up.”

“Again, I thank you for your concern. But it’s already too late,” she said, shaking her head then grabbing my hand and locking eyes with me. “I want to thank you too. Traveling with you was incredible. You gave me a wonderful name and took me to see some really beautiful sights. For the first time in my life, I actually felt like I was having fun.”

“Your mother has been waiting for you to come home for years, Mia,” I said.

An uneasy look crossed her face. “You’re lying. I was a bad daughter. I’ve done nothing but cause her trouble.”

“That’s not true.”

She shook her head. “I was born with silver hair, and because of it, I couldn’t be the child my mother wanted me to be. I just caused her trouble time and time again,” she repeated.

Once again, I found myself unable to respond.

“I figured if I disappeared, she’d have no more problems, so when Jilvared invited me to come and see the outside world, I followed him.”

I could feel her love for her mother in every word that passed her lips.

“Everyone used to respect my mother before. But I caused her so much suffering. And that’s why I—”

“You left for Lasulie’s sake. Is that what you’re saying?” I finished in her stead.

She had left the high elves’ sacred land and broken the most important of their rules for the sake of her mother’s happiness. Her eyes widened slightly at my assertion, but she nodded, conceding that it was indeed the case.

“And what about what you want? You wanted to see your mother, didn’t you? That’s why you went looking for her. Even after you’d forgotten your past and lost all of your memories, you kept wandering the world, trying to find your way back to her.”

All this time, Mia had wanted to be reunited with her mother, to the point where her soul had even left her body in order to look for her. So why would she give up now?

“Shiro.”

“Yes?”

I looked at the little girl. She was smiling. “I’ve seen her now. Aina found me when I was lost and wandering, and you and the others reunited me with my mother.”

“That wasn’t a reunion. Lasulie couldn’t see you. She didn’t even notice you were there. You can’t call that a reunion!” I said desperately.

“It’s fine. It’s better she didn’t see me anyway. If she had...” A sad look settled on her face. “I would have caused trouble for her again.”

Her resolve was strong, and it seemed like there was nothing I could say that would change her mind.

“Thank you, Shiro. And thanks to all of you as well. And please say ‘thank you’ to Shess and Luza on my behalf when you see them next.”

“Mia...” I murmured.

“I have to go back now. Goodbye, Shiro.”

And with that, Mia’s soul vacated Aina’s body.

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Who Is Going to Rescue Mia?

In the same moment that Mia said goodbye to us, Aina’s body began swaying violently, and I rushed over to catch her in my arms. The little girl groaned but didn’t immediately appear to regain consciousness, perhaps due to the exertions of the séance. Grandma assured me she’d be fine, so I sat her down on my lap and let her sleep for the time being.

Silence descended on the room. No one dared to speak. We had already known about Mia’s abduction by the Setting Sun and how they had trapped her in their base under Dezert’s royal palace, but a new challenger had appeared in Liezlise, a fragment of the former demon king. Although I wasn’t from this world, even I knew a demon king’s might wasn’t to be underestimated. I was also acutely aware that without Celes and Dramom, we had no hope of defeating her.

“A fragment of the former demon king? Who could have known such a powerful being would be found lurking under our royal palace?” Rolf muttered to himself, his face dark.

Sajiri seemed equally as anxious. With Liezlise around, there was no way the rebels—ahem, the organization that wished to see justice restored—could win. If they were to go through with their uprising, Sajiri would lose friends and Rolf would be left mourning his brother. I pondered over what our next move should be. I thought and thought and thought some more, until an idea finally popped into my head.

“Hey, grandma?”

Peace looked up from where he was sitting on Kilpha’s lap.

“Hm? What is it, Shiro?” came the reply.

“Could you handle Liezlise?” I asked.

My friends all turned to grandma (Peace) and looked at the little cat with eyes full of hope.

“Of course. She’s still an incomplete version of a demon king, after all. But you do realize I’m stuck here in Ninoritch, right? I have to stay here to keep the curse the Destruction Dragon cast on your friends under control.”

“Yeah, I know,” I said. “In that case, I have another question.”

“Shoot.”

“Remember how Lasulie said something like, ‘Are you suggesting that I’m weaker than the witch?’ that one time? Well, how strong is she really? Is she as powerful as you?”

“Hm? Now, that’s an interesting question.” It seemed grandma had figured out what I was driving at. “I suppose if she truly can harness the power of a spirit sovereign, then yes, even I would struggle against her.”

“Uh-huh. So what do you think would happen if she fought that baby demon king? Since she’s still a... What was it again? An ‘incomplete version’?”

“Well, demon king though she might be, she’s still just a child. She wouldn’t last two seconds against a spirit sovereign.”

“Noted. Okay, it’s settled,” I said with a smirk, and grandma (Peace) smiled back at me.

“Hold on a minute, Shiro...” Valeria chimed in, visibly taken aback. “Don’t tell me you’re planning to bring Mia’s mother here?”

“That’s exactly what I’m intending to do, yes.”

“But you heard what she said when we were there. She’s all about the rules and stuff like that. I can’t see her breaking them to come and get Mia.”

“Sorry, Shiro, but I’m with Valeria on this one. I don’t think she’ll come, meow,” Kilpha added.

From the impression they had both gotten of Lasulie during our discussion in the realm of the high elves, they both seemed to believe she would never, ever break the rules of their sacred land by leaving it.

“Well, you heard the ladies, Shiro. What are you going to do?” grandma said, as if testing me.

“Hey, grandma. Do you remember taking me to the park back when I was a kid?”

“Oh, gosh. That was ever so long ago now.”

“I’d always throw a tantrum when it was time to go, crying about how I didn’t want to go home and I wanted to stay to play some more.”

She nodded. “Yup, you did.”

Kilpha, Valeria, and the rest of my comrades all listened to the story from my childhood with keen interest.

“But mom always came to get me whenever I was out late,” I continued. “The darker the park got after the sun had set, the more scared I’d get. But my worries always evaporated completely the moment my mom arrived. I simply wasn’t scared anymore. Then, the three of us would head on home, hand in hand.”

I glanced at my friends, studying the looks on their faces one at a time.

“I’m sure the same must be true for Mia,” I concluded. “She’ll change her mind when she sees her mother has come for her.”

“Now, hold on a sec, man,” Raiya piped up. “I thought Mia said she couldn’t survive outside that tank?”

Nesca was the one who replied to his remark. “She would probably prefer to die in the arms of a loved one than alone in a tank full of dark water. At least, I would in that situation.”

“Nesca...”

“Agreed,” Valeria said. “I’d also like to be with family when I die. There’s nothing sadder than the prospect of spending your final moments alone.”

“Me too!” Kilpha added. “I want to be holding the hand of someone I love when I cross over to the other side, meow.”

It appeared all the women in our group were in agreement over not wanting to face their final moments alone.

“All right, Shiro, you win,” Valeria conceded. “Let’s go convince that pigheaded high elf to come with us.”

“Valeria!” I exclaimed in relief, glad to have her on board with my plan.

“And don’t worry. If she refuses, I’ll knock her out cold and we can carry her all the way here,” the bearwoman assured me with a daring smile.

“Everything will be just fine, Shiro,” grandma chimed in. “Children all secretly want their mothers to come and get them whenever they’re alone. I’m sure Mia feels the same way.”

“Yeah. I don’t doubt it, grandma.”

Whenever Mia smiled, there was always a lonely air about her demeanor. I was determined to bring Lasulie to her so that her melancholic expressions would transform into genuine grins.

My resolve renewed, I finally noticed something out of place. “Uh, boss?”

“Hm? What is it, Shiro?” Patty said.

“Why are you holding the action camera?” I asked, looking at the device she was clutching in her hands. The LED was on, which meant she had recorded our discussion.

“This thing? Ah, well, Mia was here, wasn’t she? I wanted to show her to her ma, so I recorded her!” the little fairy declared proudly, still cradling the camera in her arms.

Chapter Thirty-Nine: Persuasion

With the help of Sajiri’s friends—the Defenders of Justice, as they were known—we were able to sneak out of the city of Gallus. Having learned that Liezlise was in fact a fragment of the former demon king, Sajiri chose to stay behind to prevent his brothers-in-arms from carrying out their plans to unseat the king. Apparently, everything was already in place, and it was only a matter of days until they intended to launch their attack. But no matter how great their numbers might have been, they would’ve been no match for Liezlise. The information we had gathered by snooping around the levels beneath the palace had saved their lives at the last minute.

We met back up with Zalboda, then flew all the way to Vehar, where we borrowed Nesca’s mother’s necklace, which was the key to entering the sacred land of the high elves. The sight of the world tree seemed to excite Nesca, while Raiya and Rolf admired it with great interest. I shouldn’t be too surprised by their reactions though, since it was considered a legend, and adventurers loved legends. The guards eventually showed up like before, and we informed them we had come to see Lasulie. After a short wait, she finally came into view.

“You are back,” she said simply.

This time, she wasn’t accompanied by her usual retinue, but by Shess and Luza. It had only been a few days since we bade them goodbye, but a wave of relief washed over me when I saw they were safe.

“Aina! Amata!” the little princess called out to us.

“Shess!” Aina exclaimed as she ran up to her friend and threw herself into her arms. I watched on as Team Little Ones thoroughly checked each other out to make sure they were both unscathed.

Lasulie offered to lead the way to the “room” with the mushroom table, but I politely declined. She must have understood from my refusal that we were in a hurry, since she wasted no time in asking, “Did you find the ring? What about...” She hesitated. “What about my daughter?”

In stark contrast to the firm, resolute attitude that had been on display the first time we met, her voice shook as she asked after her daughter. Every inch of her screamed she was a mother who had lost her child.

Seeing my puzzlement at the matriarch’s total change of demeanor, Shess chimed in. “Don’t worry about Lasulie,” she prompted. “Just tell her what you’ve learned about her daughter.”

I noticed the princess had grabbed the matriarch’s hand, as if trying to support her. Had the two of them become friends while we were away? Shess was always very forthright about what was on her mind, and I figured she must have made it crystal clear to Lasulie that Mia had been a ghost when we first found her. Judging from the look on the matriarch’s face, she must have accepted that uncontestable fact and already started mourning her daughter.

“You, the witch’s grandson. Is my daughter...” She paused again. “Is she dead? Do you have her soul with you?”

Yup, Shess must have explained everything to her. Lasulie desperately wanted to see her daughter again, even if she was dead. She didn’t have to say it out loud. I could tell just from the look in her jade-green eyes.

“Lasulie, Mia is...” I hesitated.

“Continue. I have long been ready to hear the truth.”

Aina and I glanced at each other, then exchanged nods.

“Mia—your daughter—is alive,” I said.

Lasulie’s eyes widened in disbelief. She had clearly been expecting me to come bearing bad news and had steeled herself for the worst.

“Is this true? Is Sonia really alive?” she asked.

“She is. But she doesn’t have much time left.”

“What do you mean? Explain yourself.”

“I will.”

I gave her a concise overview of everything we had found out while in Dezert, from the location of the Setting Sun’s base of operations to the existence of Liezlise, a fragment of the former demon king to whom Jilvared had been feeding Mia’s mana.

“A fragment of a demon king? They abducted my daughter to feed that child?” Lasulie said, her voice almost failing her.

“Yes,” I confirmed, though it pained me to do so. Lasulie had been waiting for her daughter to return for so long, it felt incredibly cruel to reveal the harsh truth to her.

“They turned Sonia into food for that girl?”

Anger was radiating from her every pore to the extent that even I could feel it as a tangible force. And understandably so, for I—no, all of us here—felt the same fury toward Jilvared that she did.

“It’s all because I was far too strict with her. That’s why it has turned out this way,” she muttered under her breath.

“What do you mean when you say you were too ‘strict,’ meow?” Kilpha asked. She must have heard her mumbles thanks to her superhuman hearing.

But the matriarch wasn’t the one who replied to the question. Shess jumped in before her. “Lasulie told me she was always stern with Mia so the other high elves wouldn’t make fun of her hair,” she explained.

Because of her unusual hair color, Mia didn’t look like the other high elves. Lasulie had apparently been very strict with her education in an attempt to shield her from mockery. The idea was to stop the others from looking down on her at any point in her life. A number of different expressions flashed across Valeria’s face at this revelation.

“Lasulie regrets what she did. She said it was foolish of her,” Shess added.

In other words, Lasulie believed Mia had left the sacred lands because she had been too strict with her child, and she deeply regretted that. She let out a humorless chuckle. “You may laugh at me. At my foolishness.”

“I don’t think you were foolish,” I said. “Besides, it’s all just one big misunderstanding.”

“A misunderstanding, you say?” she repeated.

“Yup, a misunderstanding,” I said with a nod as I produced my phone from my pocket.

I pulled up the video Patty had recorded a few days before, when Mia had possessed Aina’s body. I’d preemptively transferred it to my phone in order to show it to Lasulie.

“Watch this,” I said, handing it to her and pressing play.

“Shiro. Everyone.”

In the video, Mia (in Aina’s body) started speaking, and Lasulie gasped on seeing the jade-green hue of her eyes. The video carried on for a bit while we established who exactly our new enemy was until we reached the next standout line from the possessed girl.

“Shiro, the Setting Sun took me in order to feed me to Liezlise.” The little possessed girl went on to explain the process in detail, before adding, “No matter where I run, Liezlise will follow me.”

Lasulie’s eyes were fixated on the small screen.

“Besides, I will die soon.”

“Don’t say that. You can’t give up, Mia!”

“Thank you, Shiro. But I can tell. My body is almost entirely drained of mana. I can’t leave the water tank. If I do, I’ll die on the spot.”

The video wasn’t quite over yet though.

“Your mother has been waiting for you to come home for years, Mia,” said past me.

Lasulie’s whole body flinched at this. She hadn’t expected to be brought up in the video, I assumed.

“You’re lying. I was a bad daughter. I’ve done nothing but cause her trouble.”

“That’s not true.”

“I was born with silver hair, and because of it, I couldn’t be the child my mother wanted me to be. I just caused her trouble time and time again.”

Lasulie shook her head sadly. “That’s just not true, Sonia. You never caused me a moment’s trouble.”

She had finally voiced her feelings out loud, but from where she was at the present time, viewing these past events, her words wouldn’t reach Mia.

“I figured if I disappeared, she’d have no more problems, so when Jilvared invited me to come and see the outside world, I followed him. Everyone used to respect my mother before. But I caused her so much suffering. And that’s why I—”

“You left for Lasulie’s sake. Is that what you’re saying?”

The Mia in the video (in Aina’s body) nodded. It was only then that I noticed tears had started crawling down Lasulie’s cheeks at some point.

“And what about what you want? You wanted to see your mother, didn’t you? That’s why you went looking for her. Even after you’d forgotten your past and lost all of your memories, you kept wandering the world, trying to find your way back to her.”

“Shiro.”

“Yes?”

“I’ve seen her now.”

Lasulie’s grip on my phone tightened and she managed to whimper the word “Sonia,” before her legs gave way from under her. Shess rushed over to try to help her back up, but Lasulie wouldn’t budge. Her full, undivided attention was on the video.

“Aina found me when I was lost and wandering, and you and the others reunited me with my mother.”

“That wasn’t a reunion. Lasulie couldn’t see you. She didn’t even notice you were there. You can’t call that a reunion!”

“It’s fine. It’s better she didn’t see me anyway. If she had...” The possessed girl in the video paused briefly. “I would have caused trouble for her again.”

I could only wonder what was going on in Lasulie’s head as she listened to her daughter’s words.

“I have to go back now. Goodbye, Shiro.”

I turned off the video. Lasulie didn’t say anything. She simply remained kneeling on the ground in a daze with tears flowing in rivulets down her cheeks. She had finally learned what Mia’s intentions had been when she had crossed the barrier and left the high elves’ sacred land. It had all been for Lasulie’s sake.

“Miss Lasulie, I have a request,” I said.

“How could a fool like me possibly help you?” she said miserably.

“Would you please come with us to rescue Mia—to rescue your daughter?” I asked gently.

“Me?”

“Yes. I understand that the high elves’ rules forbid you from leaving the sacred land. And yet... And yet!” I locked eyes with her. “Please go get your daughter. For her sake. She loves you so very, very much.”

A speechless Lasulie stared at me, so I continued.

“You can summon a spirit sovereign. My grandma told me that means you’re very powerful.” I held my hand out toward her. “We’re no match for Liezlise, that girl the Setting Sun refers to as the future demon king. As a matter of fact, we didn’t manage to land a single hit on her last time. So please, please, Lasulie, I’m begging you. Lend us your power. Come and rescue Mia with us!”

Lasulie still didn’t utter a single word, but after some hesitation, she eventually extended her right hand toward mine and was just about to grasp it when all of a sudden...

“Don’t, Lasulie.”

...he appeared. Tukachi—Lasulie’s husband—came up to us, flanked by a squad of high elf warriors.

“Despicable hume,” he said, glaring at me. “Was my daughter not enough for you? Now you wish to lure my wife away from this land as well?”

“Shiro isn’t like those villains in the Setting Sun, meow!” Kilpha interjected.

“Yeah! Mister Shiro wants to help Mia!” Aina added.

“If you desire to whisk away one of my kin—superior beings compared to your lowly ilk—that makes you the same as them,” he spat before turning to his wife. “Lasulie, has that filthy hume managed to sway you? You’re smart. You know that as a priestess who can communicate with the world tree, you cannot leave this sacred land. We simply won’t allow it.”

“But Tukachi, Sonia’s alive,” Lasulie protested.

He scoffed. “Who cares about that? She is a cursed child, whereas you, as a priestess, are a special individual. You’re worth far more than she is.”

He turned back to us.

“This is all your fault. I sent you to look for that thing’s body, yet here you are, returning with news that she’s still alive. You baseborn humes should have held your tongues.”

His response caused Shess to lose her temper. “How dare you say that?! You’re Mia’s father!”

“Mia? Oh, you mean Sonia? Yes, I am her father. Unfortunately. It’s all because of that thing that people have been talking about me behind my back, saying I fathered a cursed child. My pride has taken a significant hit.”

“Why, you...” A seething Shess began marching toward Tukachi, but Luza quickly grabbed her.

“Don’t, princess!” the swordswoman warned.

“Let go! Let go of me, Luza!”

“Absolutely not!”

No one knew when the high elf warriors might decide to start taking potshots at the princess with their arrows, after all. Good job, Luza.

Tukachi snorted at their antics. “You humes sure are a noisy bunch. Anyway, Lasulie...”

“What do you want?”

“I overheard your little conversation. That cursed child is going to die soon, isn’t she?” A cruel smirk tugged his lips upward. “Well, don’t you see? This is a golden opportunity. You’ll finally be able to forget about that thing, and we can try for another child. You went through a lot of hardship raising that one, didn’t you? So you should just forget about that cursed monstrosity and give motherhood another chance. I would even be willing to give you my seed again. This time, we shall make a beautiful blond-haired baby.”

But he didn’t stop there.

“You didn’t love that child either, did you, Lasulie?”

My friends and I were all on the verge of snapping. Valeria and Raiya had started cracking their knuckles, while Kilpha had flicked out her claws. As for me, I was peering through my inventory, looking for something that was preferably hard and sharp.

“You didn’t. Right, Lasulie?” Tukachi insisted. It wasn’t so much of a question as it was an affirmation.

“I... I...”

Lasulie seemed unable to either refute or confirm his assertion. She hesitated, her voice faltering, but eventually, she fell silent.

Chapter Forty: Retrospection and Remorse

“You didn’t love that child either, did you, Lasulie?”

While Tukachi might have only been Lasulie’s husband for form’s sake, his words pierced a giant hole straight through her heart.

“I... I...”

I love her, Lasulie thought, but she couldn’t bring herself to say the words. Her daughter had left the sacred land of the high elves, led by a hume who subsequently fed her to a fragment of a demon king, draining her of her life force. She had almost no time left. Lasulie never wanted to marry Tukachi. This union between a priestess of the world tree and a young member of the council had borne no love at any point, and she had only entered into it out of a sense of duty to pass on her priestess lineage to the next generation.

“May you be happy, Lasulie,” her mother had said to her before disappearing from the sacred land.

Lasulie knew why her mother vanished. It was because she had lost her ability to hear the voice of the world tree, an innate ability that is inherited by all high elven priestesses. After Lasulie had inherited the power, her mother was basically useless to the rest of the tribe, and the fact that nobody on the council even considered bringing up the idea of going to look for her in her absence was proof of that. Lasulie’s mother had always been an articulate, influential woman, and she realized that must have rustled some feathers. Perhaps her kin had actually gone as far as exiling her. Perhaps they had even killed her. Despite Lasulie presently holding the position of matriarch of the council, she still had no idea what had become of her mother.

“Lasulie, from today onward, you and I shall be husband and wife.” Tukachi’s words tumbled out of her memory and echoed around her head.

Their wedding ceremony had taken place suddenly. Lasulie was still puzzling over her mother’s disappearance when Tukachi announced he would marry her. The council approved of their union, and the two were wed almost immediately. Out of their loveless marriage, a child was born: Sonia, a girl with silver hair. But Tukachi left the family home the instant he caught sight of her, calling her a cursed child as he departed. Lasulie thought she had to protect her baby girl, and resolved that she would raise her to be strong so that she could hold her head high, regardless of her unusual hair color. After all, with Lasulie’s mother gone, her baby only had her to rely on, since even her own father refused to see her. In short, Lasulie was all the little girl had left in the whole wide world. Fortunately, the girl was blessed with a great mana pool from birth, which meant if she could learn how to wield her powers properly, she would likely surpass even her mother as a spiritmancer.

“Don’t you worry, little Sonia. I will raise you by myself,” Lasulie whispered to the baby clasped to her bosom. The baby girl’s lips curled upward into a smile, and Lasulie felt hot tears running down her cheeks. In that moment, she resolved to spend her life by her daughter’s side.

Years passed.

“Like this, mother?”

“No, Sonia. You must listen to the voices of the spirits. Open your heart and call out to them.”

“Okay.”

Lasulie’s daughter eventually learned how to talk to the spirits and even how to manipulate their power. While her technique still left some room for improvement, the fact she could actually summon spirits at such a young age highlighted her tremendous potential. She will be a splendid spiritmancer, and no one will dare to mock her because of her hair, Lasulie thought contentedly.

More time passed. Lasulie remained strict with her daughter and tried to pass on everything she knew, including things like how to manipulate spirits, and which techniques you could combine. It was around this time that her daughter seemingly lost the ability to express her own emotions. Yet Lasulie didn’t stop her relentless training. Or rather, she couldn’t stop. She had promised herself she would keep helping her daughter to hone her skills until she was a fully-fledged spiritmancer who would be approved of by their kin.

“No, you did it wrong again. How many times do I have to show it to you before it goes in?” Lasulie said shortly.

“I’m sorry, mother.”

“Let’s start again from the beginning, shall we?”

“Yes, mother.”

At some point, Lasulie realized she had stopped hearing the voice of the world tree altogether.

Even more time passed. In her ongoing quest to protect her daughter, Lasulie became matriarch of the council. As the most talented spiritmancer of their tribe as well as a priestess of the world tree, she was bestowed with the title without any objections. Finally, others stopped referring to her daughter as “Silver-hair” and “the cursed child.” It was perfect. Everything was going exactly to plan. Everything she had done up until that point was for her daughter.

But an incident soon shook the high elves’ sacred land to its very core, when a merchant from an organization called the Setting Sun arrived in their domain and abducted Lasulie’s daughter. The matriarch’s kin were outraged, although not because the girl was taken, but due to the blow to their pride. Lasulie seemed to be the only one who was actually worried about her daughter, to the point where she wanted to actively go look for her. She even brought up the idea of sending out a search party for the girl at one of their council meetings. Yet no one agreed with her proposal.

“Sonia...”

Should she go and rescue her alone? But she knew she couldn’t. She didn’t have the slightest idea about the outside world. Instead, she prayed for that foolish Setting Sun merchant who had sought to acquire the power of the world tree to bring her daughter back.

Decades went by. Lasulie’s heart skipped a beat when she learned that a group of humes had come to the high elves’ sacred land. My daughter has returned, she thought, and in a way, she was right. But not entirely.

After negotiations with the Immortal Witch’s grandson, he promised Lasulie he would go look for her daughter. Several days later, he returned again, bearing news that she struggled to believe. The Setting Sun had been using her daughter as a food source for a fragment of a demon king. The immense talent Lasulie had believed would help her daughter to achieve great things had instead made her a target for some very dangerous people. Remorse assaulted her once more. Why didn’t I go look for Sonia back then? she lamented.

Her regrets just kept piling up. She shouldn’t have been so stern with her daughter. She should have gone to look for her the moment she vanished. But she never mustered up the resolve to do so. How could she claim she “loved” her? She surely didn’t have the right to utter that word. And yet... And yet...

“Lasulie!” Shessfelia yelled.

The matriarch turned around reflexively. Behind her, Shessfelia had her hands on her hips and her gaze firmly fixed on the high elf.

“Lasulie! You’d better... You’d better say you love Mia!” she demanded.

Love. Shessfelia was telling her to say she loved her daughter.

The little hume girl continued. “Mia loved you. No, she loves you. Present tense. You saw that video, didn’t you?”

“Shessfelia...”

“Do you love her? What are you so afraid of?” the little girl scowled, gazing down at Lasulie, who was still on her knees. “Stop cowering! If you love her, just say it! You’re Mia’s mother!”

Her words were like a jolt of electricity through Lasulie. High elves were immortal, which meant to them, the lifespan of a hume was a mere blink of the eye. Yet this little girl who had barely even begun to experience life was standing there, trying to motivate her into being honest about her feelings, and putting those raw emotions into words.

“Shessfelia, I...”

“Yes, I know. I really do know how you feel. But you have to say it out loud. For Mia’s sake.”

Lasulie felt a weight lifting from her chest in response to the little hume girl’s words. The emotions she had been bottling up for all these years were on the verge of overflowing.

“You. The witch’s son. You said your name was Shiro, correct?”

“Um, yup,” the hume replied.

“Help me up.”

“Of course.”

Taking Shiro’s outstretched hand, Lasulie got to her feet, then fixed her gaze on her estranged husband. “Tukachi, I...” She looked this embodiment of her shameful past straight in the eye and declared, “I love Sonia. I love her more than anyone else in this world.”

The man gasped. “What?! That’s ridiculous, Lasulie! Do you even hear yourself right now?”

But Lasulie wasn’t afraid anymore. Shessfelia had taught her there was a powerful force within words. “I do. And I am hereby declaring that I am going off to rescue my daughter, so do not stand in my way,” she announced.

“I won’t allow such nonsense! Warriors, stop the matriarch!” Tukachi ordered the men who were standing behind him.

They hesitated slightly, but still raised their swords and arrows and trained them on Lasulie.

“As if nobodies like you could stop me,” she scoffed.

She planted her staff firmly in the ground, and earth began to rise to form life-sized hume-like figures. Tukachi groaned, but didn’t tell his warriors to lower their weapons. In fact, he was just about to give them the signal to restrain Lasulie, when all of a sudden, a voice echoed around the matriarch’s head.

Go.

It was the world tree. How many decades had it been since she’d last heard its voice?

“Lord World Tree?” she whispered, looking up at the towering tree that meant so much to her people.

In the next instant, a glowing twig drifted down from high in the tree and floated across to Lasulie.

“Lord World Tree, what is this?” she asked.

This time, the world tree didn’t speak to her alone. Its voice was heard by everyone present, be they high elf, hume, bearfolk, or fairy.

Go. Go, my daughter.

Everyone understood that the glowing twig was a farewell gift from the world tree to its priestess.

“Thank you, my lord,” Lasulie said, accepting it.

The twig was overflowing with tremendous power, and clutching it firmly in her hand, Lasulie turned to Shiro. “Let us go now. Take me to my daughter.”

The hume quickly recovered from his shock at what he had just witnessed and nodded. “Yes, ma’am!”

This time, no one tried to stop her from leaving.

Chapter Forty-One: Lasulie’s Charge

We returned to Gallus with Lasulie in tow, and the rebels—ahem, the organization seeking to restore justice to the kingdom—helped us to sneak back into the city. In total, we had twelve people in our group (plus one kitty): Aina and I, of course; the Blue Flash crew; Shess and her bodyguard, Luza; Valeria, who was cracking her knuckles with her usual goading smile playing on her lips; Sajiri, who we had regrouped with on reentering Gallus, and who was idly playing with his dagger; the aforementioned Peace, who was sitting on my shoulder, still possessed by grandma; Patty, who was standing on my head, her hands on her hips; and last but not least, Lasulie, who was peering out beneath the night sky at the royal palace that was illuminated by the twin blue and red moons.

“And you say my daughter is in there?” she asked.

“Yes. Mia—oh, sorry.” I paused briefly as I rummaged through my memories for Mia’s real name. “It’s Sonia, right? Sonia is being held captive under that large building.”

Lasulie chuckled. “You may call her Mia. Her father was the one who chose to name her Sonia. She has always seemingly disliked it, perhaps because she never had much of a relationship with him.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. Besides, she said she liked the name you gave her,” she added.

I assumed she must have remembered Mia saying that in the video.

“Okay then. Shall we go?” she asked lightly, as if we were just about to head off for a little stroll.

“Hold on a minute. Apparently, they’ve increased security at the palace since we broke out of jail the last time.”

When we entered the city for the second time, one of Sajiri’s comrades named Zeog had told us in no uncertain terms to steer clear of the palace for the time being. It was more heavily guarded than before, and people were getting arrested for simply wandering too close to the building.

“First, we need to figure out a way to sneak into the palace,” I said.

But Lasulie dismissed the idea. “I’m here to retrieve my daughter. Why should I have to conceal myself like some thief?”

My only reply to that was a confused “Huh?”

“I do not owe an explanation to anyone, except for my daughter.” And with that, Lasulie began marching toward the palace.

“Ah, wait!”

“Stop right there, Lasulie!” Shess ordered.

“C’mon, man. Ya gotta stop Mia’s mom!” Raiya pressed me.

“You think I don’t know that?!” I exclaimed.

The palace was on high alert, meaning they wouldn’t hesitate to shoot at us if we looked too suspicious. Shess and I tried to call Lasulie back, but before we could get to her, a trio of guards patrolling the area spotted her.

“Hm? You. The woman over there. Halt!” one called out. He had seen Lasulie before we could get her to turn back.

“Do not stand in my way,” the matriarch said, rapping the ground with her staff.

Just like in the high elves’ sacred land, the ground around her bulged and formed hume-shaped masses, but this time, there were several dozen of them, and their numbers kept growing and growing.

“Wh-Wh-What are those— Aaargh!”

“Gyaaaah!”

“Eeeep! Save us please—”

The screams of the soldiers were cut off as they were smothered by the army of earth figures.

“Bleh. This is why I can’t stand shaman,” groaned Peace (or rather, grandma) on my shoulder. “You think you’re up against just one person, and the next minute, they’ve summoned a whole army.”

“Spiritmancer, grandma, not shaman. Lasulie will yell at you again,” I warned.

“Oh, right. That girl’s as finicky as her mother. Yeah, I should be more careful.”

“Her mother? Wait, you know Lasulie’s mother?” I said.

“Who can say? Maybe I do, maybe I don’t,” grandma replied cryptically.

“Oh, c’mon now. Why do you always have to play dumb after dropping a major bombshell like that? Gimme a break already,” I grumbled.

As the two of us chitchatted away on the sidelines, more soldiers emerged from the palace. However...

“Waaah!”

“I-I’ll call for reinforce—”

“H-Help me—”

Just like the patrolling guards before them, they were immediately swallowed up by Lasulie’s army. What the hell? When did she spawn so many of her earthen figure thingies? There’s like a thousand of them now!

I couldn’t help feeling a little sorry for the Blue Flash crew. They had been extremely worried about the upcoming battle, but as we advanced with hardly any resistance, they resembled Haniwa clay figurines again, like that time back in that shady bar.

“We’re going inside now, so follow me,” Lasulie ordered.

“O-Okay! Let’s go, everyone,” I shouted over my shoulder.

“Yeah!” my friends replied in unison.

And with that, we charged toward the palace, Lasulie’s army trampling anyone and everyone who stood in our way. The number of soldiers in our path grew the closer we got to the palace, but so did Lasulie’s army, and at much greater speed, meaning we reached the palace with ease. The soldiers at the gate hurriedly raised the drawbridge.

“Is that supposed to stop me?” the spiritmancer scoffed. “I could make thousands of bridges if I had to.”

But as it turned out, this minor setback was nothing a little bit of spirit magic couldn’t fix. The earth around the moat began to bulge, and an instant later, an impressive stone bridge spanned the gap.

“Go, my spirits.”

The earth figures crossed the bridge and surged into the palace courtyard. There were plenty of waiting soldiers and mercenaries who tried to stop them, but the spirits ignored them and basically steamrollered them, their numbers alone enough to overwhelm any resistance they met. The earthen army swept into the palace and were just about to head down to the underground levels when they ran into a certain trio.

“Are you the cause of all this ruckus?” asked Liezlise. She was standing in the middle of the hallway, flanked by Nozeer—Celes’s uncle—and Jilvared.

“You again, Mr. Shiro?” the merchant said with a sigh.

“Yup, me again. Surprised to see me?” I raised my hand and waved at the man.

Lasulie’s gaze fixed itself on Liezlise. “Are you the demon king fragment?” she asked.

“Fragment? How dare you disrespect me, the future demon king!”

“Do not engage her, Liezlise. This high elf is strong. We should retreat for now,” Nozeer advised the girl.

“You’re just as rude as her, Nozeer. Are you implying I would lose?”

“Yes, that is exactly what I am saying.”

Liezlise pursed her lips. “Well, we can’t know that unless I fight her, can we?”

“I said no. Cut it out.”

“Nozeer, if you even attempt to stand in my way, I’ll kill you first,” the girl warned.

Nozeer was silent for a moment, then he conceded. “Fine. I will do what I can to help you. But do not do anything rash.”

“Don’t order me around.”

Liezlise seemed to have made up her mind: She was going to fight Lasulie. The girl and Nozeer turned back toward us and assumed fighting stances. As for Jilvared, he moved back to a safer distance, likely intending to watch the fight from afar.

“But can you stop them, O great matriarch of the high elves?” grandma asked teasingly.

Lasulie snorted. “Can I stop them? Don’t be so ridiculous, witch. I shall crush this seed of calamity right here and now.”

She threw her staff to the floor, and from her pocket, she produced the twig from the world tree. Jilvared’s face fell when he set eyes on the glowing piece of wood.

“That twig...”

“Long time no see, Setting Sun merchant. This is a gift that our lord, the world tree, has bestowed upon me. You remember, yes? It is the power you have been coveting for all this time.”

Ignoring the grimace that had appeared on the man’s face, Lasulie lightly waved the twig in the air. “Come forth, spirit sovereigns!”

These words seemed to act like a trigger. In an instant, the sound of ripping howled through the hallway as four tears in the fabric of reality formed in midair. Everyone could immediately feel the immense power that lay beyond these cracks.

Lasulie’s voice echoed as she called out to her summons. “Sovereign of the water spirits.”

“I heed your call.”

“Sovereign of the land spirits.”

“I will lend you my power, Lasulie.”

“Sovereign of the wind spirits.”

“Ha ha ha! You need my help?”

“Sovereign of the fire spirits.”

“You even call for my power? I, who burn everything in my path? What an interesting girlie you are.”

From the cracks emerged, in turn: a woman who looked queenlike but was made entirely of water, a colossal earthen figure, a boy wrapped in what appeared to be wind currents, and what could only be described as a flaming beast. They all took up positions around Lasulie.

“I-Impossible!” Nozeer exclaimed. “You summoned all four spirit sovereigns?!”

“This much surprises you, devil? I could have done that with my eyes closed,” Lasulie boasted.

Nozeer paled, his thoughts written all over his face. This is bad. Catastrophically bad, they said. Liezlise appeared to share his feelings on the matter, and she had to grit her teeth in frustration to stop herself from crumpling under the weight of the spirit sovereigns’ overwhelming presence.

“Shessfelia. Shiro. I shall take on this foe myself. Stand back,” Lasulie ordered.

“O-Okay,” Shess said.

“Well, you heard the lady, you guys. Fall back!” I hollered before grabbing Aina’s hand and dashing back toward the entrance of the palace.

A thunderous roar filled the air as Liezlise collided with the spirit sovereigns.

“Rolf, it’s probably best if you put up a Shield Barrier,” Nesca suggested.

The battle priest nodded in agreement. “Yes, ma’am.”

He brought his hands together in a prayer and a translucent dome formed around us. A Shield Barrier, apparently.

“Well, anyway, I’m gonna go have some fun with the old man over there,” Sajiri said, gesturing at Nozeer. He seemed to have decided on his target, and holding his daggers in an underhand grip, he lowered his center of gravity and firmly planted his feet.

“Sounds like fun. I’ll give you a hand,” Valeria said.

“Don’t get in my way, bearwoman.”

“Playing the tough guy now, huh? I’ve beaten you before, remember?”

“Oh, shut up already,” Sajiri scoffed. Then all of a sudden, he pounced, shouting, “Let’s go!”

Kilpha turned to the leader of her party. “Raiya! Let’s join the fight too, meow!”

“Hell yeah. I mean, it’s literally why we’re here, after all. Whaddaya say, Rolf? Ready to rumble?”

“Always.”

“I’ll support you from back here,” Nesca said.

While Lasulie was handling Liezlise, Sajiri, Valeria, and the Blue Flash crew figured they would take on Nozeer. The devil was too busy trying to catch Lasulie off guard to pay any attention to us, so Sajiri and Valeria were able to launch a surprise attack on him.

“Eat this!” Sajiri shouted.

“And this!” Valeria chimed in. “Come play with us!”

Immediately after their initial attacks, the Blue Flash crew joined in too.

“Don’t ignore us!” Raiya yelled out.

“I will deliver divine judgment unto you!” Rolf proclaimed, while Kilpha let out a booming yowl.

“Flame Lance,” Nesca said, completing her spell that was directed at Nozeer.

The devil clicked his tongue and retreated in order to put some distance between him and my comrades, but that didn’t stop Patty from firing a long-distance spell at him.

“Boooom!” she whooped as her magic exploded, causing huge chunks of nearby walls and ceiling to crumble away.

Nozeer had clearly taken some damage from our initial onslaught. “Bah. You have really done it now!” he seethed.

“Pah! I’d never fought a devil before, so I had pretty high hopes for this little tussle, but turns out, you’re pretty damn weak!” Sajiri sneered.

“Don’t let your guard down, Sajiri,” Valeria warned him.

“I thought I already told you to stop ordering me around, damn bearwoman!”

“Hoo boy. Now I get why Kilpha didn’t want to marry you.”

“Sh-Shut your trap!”

Contrary to my expectations before engaging him in battle, my friends had managed to get the upper hand on Nozeer. He was definitely stronger than them, but their combined attacks seemed to have given them the clear edge. Meanwhile, Lasulie’s showdown with Liezlise was also nearing its climax.

“Argh, how annoying! Stop getting in my way!” the girl moaned.

“It is futile, child. You’re no match for the spirit sovereigns.”

“Stop making fun of me! Take this!”

“I told you it is futile.”

“Aaargh!”

Their fight was turning out to be so one-sided, it wasn’t even funny. The four spirit sovereigns were attacking the demon girl relentlessly. The flaming beast snapped at her right arm before the colossal earth titan delivered a powerful punch to her midriff. Next, the ice queen encased her legs in frost, and the boy wrapped in wind currents sent a sudden gale to buffet her. Liezlise was in a sorry state by this point, with open wounds covering her entire body.

“Damn it. Damn it!” she cursed.

“Let us go, Liezlise. You too, Jilvared,” Nozeer said.

The merchant was silent.

“Jilvared?”

Still no response came.

“Jilvared! Stop gawking and get going!” Nozeer barked, finally managing to snap Jilvared out of his daze.

“My apologies, Lord Nozeer,” the merchant replied.

“Do not tell me you have given up on our ambitions already?”

Once again, Jilvared remained silent.

“It seems you have. And all because your base of operations is about to be destroyed. How disappointing. In the end, this is all you have amounted to.”

“It appears so. I cannot apologize enough.”

“Stop. I do not care for your excuses,” Nozeer stated. “But I will not let you quit on us yet. You will see this through to the end.”

“I understand. Let’s start over, shall we?” Jilvared turned to Liezlise. “Hear that, Liezlise? We’re leaving. We’re abandoning the base.”

“No!” the girl protested. “I haven’t lost yet!”

“Liezlise. Be reasonable,” Jilvared insisted.

The little girl gritted her teeth. “Hey, you!” she hollered, pointing at Lasulie. “I’ll kill you one day! I swear I will!”

“You do not even know the extent of your strength. That is why you are nothing but a child. Dreaming of something impossible will only make you more miserable in the future,” Lasulie said.

Ooh, she’s fanning the flames. And it was working, for Liezlise’s face had gone tomato-red with fury. It was a good thing social media didn’t exist in this world, because she was the type of hothead who really shouldn’t go anywhere near combative environments like that.

She growled. “Jilvared! Nozeer! Grab a hold of me!” she barked, and the two men wrapped themselves around her small frame. “Let’s go!”

Her wings unfurled and she lifted off toward one of the holes in the ceiling that Patty had previously opened on one of her forays inside the palace.

“Hey, Jilvared,” I called out to the merchant from down on the ground.

“What is it, Mr. Shiro?”

“Why are you doing all this? Why do you enjoy making others suffer?”

When I’d asked him a question similar to that before, in the village of the devils, he had replied that it was only a matter of making some profit. This time, however, his response was a little different.

“I have no particular reason. I was born out of a union between a hume and a half-demon, you see, and neither race truly accepted me. I simply want to see all of them die. That’s all there is to it.”

“Jilvared, you...”

“Anyway, I shall take my leave. Now that I’ve lost my base of operations, I will need to start over from scratch. As you have the lifespan of a regular hume, we likely won’t meet again, Mr. Shiro.”

I chuckled. “Sorry to burst your bubble, Jilvared, but I have several long-lived friends among my companions, starting with my little boss right here. So no matter how many conspiracies you end up planning, they’re going to stop you every single time. Isn’t that right, boss?” I said, handing the baton over to Patty.

“Huh? Who, me?” she blurted out all flustered. She clearly hadn’t expected me to drag her into the conversation like this, but she quickly composed herself and assumed her usual smug persona again. “Y-Yeah, that’s right! As long as I’m here, no bad guy is gonna get away scot-free!”

Patty really can handle anything I throw her way, no matter how crazy it is. That’s my boss for you.

“Well, in that case, I look forward to it,” Jilvared said magnanimously before disappearing off into the night sky along with Liezlise and Nozeer.

In the end, we had managed to beat the demon king fragment, and it was all thanks to Lasulie.

◇◆◇◆◇

Taking charge of the situation, Sajiri led the way to the subterranean levels of the palace. Because of that huge blast of magic Patty had fired at Nozeer, parts of the walls had crumbled away, and as I watched little chunks of stone dislodging themselves from above us, I couldn’t help worrying about the ceiling potentially collapsing on us. Do they make the buildings earthquake resistant in this world? I really hope they do.

We continued on down the corridor, my heart thumping in my chest at the sight of every falling pebble, until we eventually reached the staircase leading down to the Setting Sun’s base of operations.

“Wh-What the hell is going on?!”

“Has the rebel army finally made its move?”

“What are the mercenaries we hired even doing?!”

“Out of my way! I’m leaving!”

It was pure chaos down there. Men (and women) in shifty-looking merchant garb were trembling in fear at the sudden disturbance.

“Scram! You’re in our way! Hurry up and clear a path!” Sajiri said, almost literally kicking his way through the throngs of merchants who were running around like headless chickens. “What are you waiting for, Shiro, you schlub?”

“Right behind you!”

We pressed on and eventually caught sight of our weapons and personal belongings that Jilvared had confiscated from us when we were caught on our previous venture down here. We quickly collected them, and one final flight of stairs later, we found ourselves in the lowest level of the building. A water tank stood in the middle of the dimly lit room.

“Sonia...” Lasulie whispered, her heels click-clacking on the stone floor as she strode toward it. “Shiro, my daughter is in this water tank, isn’t she?”

I hesitated for a moment, then nodded. “Yes, she is.”

“I see.” Lasulie’s eyes were firmly fixed on the water tank.

I put on Latham’s fairy glasses and peered around, but I could see no trace of Mia’s spirit form. For some reason, I immediately realized this was because she felt her end was near.

“You. The beargirl. Could you please smash this water tank for me?” Lasulie said to Valeria as she ran her fingers over the glass.

I interjected before Valeria could respond to the request. “Hold on a minute, Lasulie. Mia will die if she leaves that tank. Are you...” I paused, the gravity of what I was asking fully clear to me. “Are you sure you want to go through with this?”

“I am. If the alternative is leaving her in this contraption and letting it drain her of her mana until she dies, I would much prefer for her final moments to be in my arms.”

“I understand,” I said after a solemn pause.

“Forgive me. Consider it the last whim of a desperate mother.” Lasulie turned to Valeria again. “Please smash this tank for me.”

“All right,” the bearwoman said. “Stand back, everyone.”

Valeria raised her war hammer, having retrieved it mere minutes ago, and with a groan of effort, swung it down on the water tank where Mia lay trapped.

Chapter Forty-Two: One Last Time

“...a! ...nia!”

A voice was calling her name. A name she hadn’t heard in a very, very long time. Kalmia—the high elf girl who had once been named Sonia—slowly opened her eyes to find a familiar face and familiar jade-green eyes staring down at her.

“Mo-ther?” she mumbled.

“Yes, Sonia. It is I, your mother.”

Sonia realized she was in her mother’s arms. “It’s really you, mother.”

The ancient magical contraption that she had been trapped in for the past thirty years had altered her body completely, reducing her to nothing more than a source for mana. Without the tank to keep her alive, she likely had mere moments before leaving this mortal coil altogether. In fact, the only reason she was able to regain consciousness at all was due to Shiro making her drink a supreme healing potion.

“Sonia!” her mother exclaimed.

Sadly, even the superstrong healing potion hadn’t managed to restore her body to its original state. The threads of life keeping her alive had been on the cusp of snapping, and all the potion had really done was to strengthen them temporarily.

But it was fine.

“Mother...” the high elf girl breathed. “I was able to see you again.”

“Sonia...”

She had missed her mother so much, yet she was able to finally see and embrace her again. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, mother. I...”

“No, it’s all right, Sonia. I should be the one apologizing. All this time, I did nothing but hurt you. Please forgive your foolish mother, Sonia.”

Lasulie’s tears fell onto Sonia’s cheeks. They were warm. The little girl had never seen her mother cry before.

“Sonia.”

“Yes?”

“I love you. I love you, Sonia.”

The girl felt her chest swell with joy. “I love you too, mother.”

“Sonia...”

Her life force was about to run dry, and she had to tell her mother what she wanted to say to her before it was too late. “Mother, I traveled a lot. My soul left my body, and I went on a trip.”

Sonia looked up at the sky, for they seemed to all be outside. She couldn’t see very well because her vision was blurry, but she knew the twin moons were shining brightly above her.

“Aina showed me all kinds of pretty things,” she continued.

“What did you see? Tell me all about it,” Lasulie murmured, gently encouraging her.

“I saw a beautiful temple...” the girl recalled. “And the sunset.”

“The sunset?”

“Yes, mother. I saw the sunset while riding on the back of a dragon. It was so beautiful,” she breathed. “I wish I could have shown it to you.”

Her body was growing weaker and weaker. She knew she didn’t have much time left.

“Mother.”

“What is it?”

“You’re holding me in your arms.”

Lasulie’s breath hitched in her throat, then she nodded. “Yes. Yes, I am. I am indeed holding you, my precious daughter.”

“I’m so happy.”

“Sonia, do you remember that time?”

The girl made a faint quizzical noise.

“When you were born, you were as small as a rigabel fruit, and I spent the whole night cradling you in my arms.”

“Like you’re doing right now?” the girl asked.

“Yes. Just like I’m doing right now.”

“I’m so happy.”

Lasulie held her daughter’s frail body close to her chest. It was much lighter than she remembered.

“Mother?” Sonia piped up again.

“Yes? What is it?”

“I’m...” she said hesitantly. “I’m going to die soon. Can you keep holding me until I go?”

Lasulie could also tell that these would be her daughter’s final moments. “Of course. I will never let go of you again.”

“I’m so happy,” Sonia repeated for a third time.

There was one last thing she needed to tell her mother.

“Mother.”

“Yes?”

The girl brought a frail hand up to her mother’s cheek and started stroking it softly. “May you be happy too, mother.”

The high elf girl’s final words were to wish for happiness for her mother, and with everything she’d needed to say now said, she felt her soul begin to ascend into the night sky.

Intermission

Sonia’s body felt light. Her soul had broken free from its useless vessel at last. The constant pain she had been in up until mere moments before had vanished so abruptly, Sonia couldn’t help wondering if it had even been there in the first place. Looking back at the ground below, she saw her mother break down in tears.

“Take care, mother.”

Goodbyes were sad, and Sonia didn’t like having to bid farewell to her mother, because it made her feel lonely. But she had no other choice. She had to go up into the sky. She was going to join the other stars and watch over her mother below. Her body felt so light, she felt she could almost touch the twin moons. She peered down one more time, and saw Shess and Shiro propping up her mother’s body while she continued weeping. Meanwhile, her best friend, Aina, was staring up at her, and Sonia immediately knew her friend could see her. After all, why wouldn’t she be able to? She was her first friend, after all.

“Thank you, Aina,” Sonia called out, waving to the little girl who was watching her with tears streaming down her cheeks. Her one and only best friend.

Aina made a noise in reply, then resolutely wiped away her tears and waved back while forcing the corner of her lips to curl upward. Sonia was happy to see her friend smiling at her as she departed.

She glanced at her mother one final time. She still had many, many regrets, but she was glad she at least got to say goodbye to her mother. Sonia had always been a failure, but at last, in her final moments, she had managed to do something right.

“Goodbye, everyone.”

Patty had once told her the souls of the dead ascended up into the sky, transformed into shooting stars, then returned to the earth once more. Perhaps that meant she would get to see her mother again. No, not “perhaps.” She would definitely see her again.

“Please wait for me, mother.”

Who knew how long it would take? But high elves were immortal beings, so the two of them would undoubtedly cross paths again. Sonia was sure of it.

Her soul continued its ascent into the sky, soaring through the thick barrier of cloud.

Upward, upward, ever upward.

The ground dropped farther and farther away as the sun peeked out above the horizon.

Upward, upward, ever upward.

Where the world had once been, Sonia could merely see a sphere floating in the sky. She couldn’t believe she had once stood on that sphere herself.

Upward, upward, ever upward.

Eventually, she reached the sky and its sea of countless stars.

At last...

Final Chapter: A Home for a Mother and Her Daughter

The sun began climbing the sky in the east. After retrieving Mia’s body from the water tank, we had all hurried out of the palace and into the open air. None of us had wanted the high elf girl’s final moments to be in that dark, dingy room. We felt that she should at least be able to look up at the stars. As Mia drew her last breath, Lasulie broke down in tears, and I had to prop her up while Shess comforted her, the distraught mother still cradling her daughter’s tiny body, pressed against her chest.

“My apologies,” she eventually managed to say. “That was a rather unsightly side of me I just showed you.”

“No one here thinks you looked unsightly,” I reassured her.

“No?”

“Not in the slightest.”

She paused, then said, “I shall take your word on that.”

She made a move to stand, and since her hands were full, I offered to hold Mia for her, but she politely declined. She must have wanted to keep her in her arms for at least a little while longer.

“I would like to bury my daughter, but I am unfamiliar with the outside world,” Lasulie said. “Shess, do you know of a place that would be suitable? Somewhere with flowers would be nice.”

Her departure from the high elves’ sacred land meant she was forbidden from ever returning, although that didn’t seem to bother her at all, and in truth, she likely had no intention of going back there anyway.

“I know a great place,” Shess replied.

“Oh? Where?”

A bright grin lit up the little princess’s tear-streaked face. “Ninoritch. It’s winter right now, but I hear, in spring, there are tons of beautiful flowers everywhere!”

Looking as disheveled as Shess, Aina nodded. The poor mite had just lost a very good friend, after all. “Yeah. There are lots and lots of pretty flowers in Ninoritch. I’m sure... I’m sure Mia would like them.”

“Is this ‘Ninoritch’—or whatever it is called—where you all live?”

“Yeah,” Aina said.

“I see. Then I’m sure Sonia—no, Mia—will be happy to be with all of her friends,” Lasulie said, before leaning in closer to her daughter and whispering, “You would like that, wouldn’t you? Aina is your friend, after all. I’m sure you wish to be close to her.”

Naturally, Mia didn’t respond, but her feelings must have somehow reached her mother.

“Shessfelia, Aina, Shiro. Would you please take me to Ninoritch so that I may bury my daughter there?” she asked, her eyes unwavering as they met mine.

“Do you remember our deal?” I said. “You promised you would help my cursed friends.”

“I did indeed.”

“Well, those two friends just so happen to be in Ninoritch, so...” I paused and met her gaze with a smile on my face. “Come with us, Lasulie. And you can stay as long as you like. Stay until you’re sick of it. We’ll happily welcome you and Mia to our little burg.”

“So you’ll let me bury my daughter there?” Lasulie asked, just to make sure.

“Of course. And we’ll all work together to make her a beautiful headstone.”

At this, Lasulie closed her eyes and turned her face up toward the sky.

“Thank you for your kindness,” she said, her voice trembling.

Epilogue

A lot happened the day after Mia left us. First, Patty went on a rampage with her magic in the Setting Sun’s base of operations, destroying everything in sight without a care in the world. Eventually, the roof caved in and the underground facility was reduced to rubble, leaving the palace looking somewhat tilted, although I personally thought it added a little charm to the place. Still, I really hoped no one tried to bill us for the repairs later.

◇◆◇◆◇

Now, you might be wondering what else happened in the Kingdom of Dezert. Well, a number of people must have seen Lasulie’s army of earthen figures storming the palace, since the rebel army—ahem, the... What were they again? The Defenders of Justice? Ah, whatever the group led by the granddaughter of the former king ended up calling itself—took advantage of the opening to make their move. Lasulie had already dealt with most of the soldiers and mercenaries guarding the palace, so as soon as they arrived on the scene, they were able to seize control with ease.

Zeog was all smiles when we saw him again later on. He thanked us profusely, repeatedly saying that they would never have managed to take control without our help. According to him, as soon as the former king’s granddaughter was officially installed on the throne, Dezert would once again be at peace. Rolf was relieved to hear the new queen wasn’t planning to proceed with the eye-watering tax increase the former king had suggested.

As for Sajiri, he told us he would be staying in Dezert until there wasn’t a single starving child left in the entire kingdom, and he would assist the queen to that end. But of course, being the tsundere he was, he had to add that he would be “keeping an eye on her to ensure she didn’t do anything untoward.”

◇◆◇◆◇

The day after all of this, my friends and I climbed aboard Zalboda and returned to Ninoritch. For some reason, Valeria decided to tag along with us, claiming it sounded “fun.”

A few weeks had passed since our departure from Ninoritch, and when we arrived, the entire town was blanketed in snow. I got Zalboda to land outside of the town, then promptly led Lasulie directly to the Fairy’s Blessing infirmary.

“Ah, we finally meet in person,” grandma said as the former matriarch stepped into the room. She had been monitoring the conditions of Dramom and Celes this whole time.

“You’re the witch, I take it?” Lasulie asked.

“In the flesh. Thank you for looking after my grandson.”

“Pah. It’s the other way around. He’s the one who ended up helping me.”

Grandma chuckled. “A hume helping a high elf? That’s unexpected. Now...” Her gaze shifted to Dramom and Celes, who were still encased in ice.

“Are these the women who have been cursed?” Lasulie inquired.

I nodded. “Yes. They’re my dear, dear friends. Could you please dispel the curse that’s been cast on them?”

“Leave it to me.”

She produced the twig the world tree had given her and waved it in the air once. Just like the previous time, there was a ripping sound, and the sovereign of the land spirits made his entrance. I noticed he was much smaller than during our previous encounter with him, but perhaps that was because the ceiling of this room was significantly lower than the one in the palace. But even if he wasn’t quite as physically impressive as before, a spirit sovereign was still, after all, a spirit sovereign, and the adventurers who happened to be observing the scene from a distance could only stare with their jaws firmly on the floor.

“What is it that you need of me, Lasulie?” he asked.

“Sovereign of the land spirits, I ask you to lift the curse that is plaguing these women.”

“A simple task.”

The not-so-gigantic earthen giant held a still-quite-large hand out above my friends, and some sort of black mist suddenly oozed from their bodies. I assumed this mist was the curse leaving them.

“I have dispelled the curse, Lasulie.”

“You have my gratitude.”

With his mission fulfilled, the spirit sovereign returned to his own realm.

“Okey-doke. It’s time for these two to wake up. Let me just melt this ice...” grandma said, and that was what she did.

Free from their frozen prisons, Dramom and Celes opened their eyes.

“Master?”

“Shiro?”

“Ma-ma!”

Suama immediately ran up to her mother, who scooped her up in her arms. Both she and Celes glanced around the room, their eyes darting this way and that as they tried to process what had just happened.

“You have my sincerest thanks, master,” Dramom said once she had finished piecing it all together.

“I am much obliged to you, Shiro,” Celes added. The pair had broad grins on their faces.

Aina, Shess, Shiori, Saori, Valeria, the Blue Flash crew, and the other adventurers who had been observing the scene from afar all chose that moment to rush into the infirmary to celebrate their recovery. Meanwhile, Lasulie stood in one corner of the room and allowed a quiet smile to play across her lips as she watched the joyous reunion.

◇◆◇◆◇

Three days had passed since Dramom and Celes had awoken, and the pair appeared to be in perfect health. It was almost as if they had never been hit by that curse in the first place. After a quick trip to Bolinoak to return the fairy glasses to Latham, we were back in Ninoritch again and right in the middle of an intense snowball fight against Team Little Ones.

“Let’s go, Aina!” Shess exclaimed before launching a snowball toward my team. “Take this!”

“Where are you aiming, Mister Shiro? I’m over here!” Aina taunted me with a giggle.

“And this!”

“Ow!”

My team consisted of four members: Kilpha, Luza, Emille, and me.

“Kilpha, Shess is coming your way!” I warned my feline friend.

“Got it! I won’t let her escape, meow!”

There was an ominous chuckle from behind her. “Kilpha, if you hit my pri—ahem, my lady with that snowball, I will have no choice but to slice you open.”

“Whose side are you on, Luza, meow?!”

“What a stupid question. I’m on my lady’s side, of course!”

“Hey, I know! How about I go and bump into that cheeky brat?” Emille suggested.

“Go ahead and try. I’ll kill you before you get near her,” Luza retorted.

“Oh, yeah? Well, do it then, if you think you can, you flat-chested ho!”

“Why, you... This again? Your chest is flatter than mine!”

Yeah, uh... Despite purportedly being a team full of grown adults, most of our members were a tad on the immature side. Meanwhile, across from us on the battlefield was Shess, Aina...

“Aina, I’ll act as a decoy! You two go after Amata!”

“Okay! Let’s go, Mia!”

“I’ll do my best.”

...and Mia.

Yup, that’s right. Mia.

But how in the world is that possible? I hear you ask. Well, it all happened after Dramom awoke from her icy slumber. She had approached Lasulie to thank her for lifting the curse, and realized the former high elf matriarch was still cradling the body of her deceased daughter to her chest. The sight must have struck a chord.

“Oh, poor thing. Would you like her to at least look like herself when you send her off?” Dramom had offered.

Using her mysterious Immortal Dragon powers, she then restored Mia’s frail and emaciated body to its natural appearance.

“High elf. Let us all go and bury her together, shall we?” Dramom had said next.

But grandma had stopped the pair of them before they could go anywhere. “I figured you’d likely do something like that, so I grabbed the little girl’s soul. Peace?”

Meow.

“Here, Mia. Have your body back.”

One short incantation later, grandma retrieved a beautiful sphere of pure light from the little cat’s body, which was then absorbed by Mia’s body, and with many awestruck eyes watching on, the high elf girl woke up.

“Mother?” was the first thing to come out of her mouth.

Lasulie exclaimed that it was a miracle and tears started flooding down her cheeks. She cried and cried and cried, still clinging to her daughter and refusing to let go for even a moment. However, there was one teensy-weensy issue with the present setup. You see, grandma hadn’t technically resurrected Mia.

When Nesca asked how she had done it, grandma explained she had basically treated Mia’s newly restored body as if it were a flesh golem, forcibly anchoring her soul inside it. Her explanation sounded like total gibberish to me, and for their part, Kilpha and Patty seemed to understand it even less than I did. But judging by the looks of awe on the faces of Nesca and the other mages in the room, it must have been one hell of an impressive ritual.

Of course, the issue with this new version of Mia was that since she was technically a golem, she didn’t have the ability to cry. According to grandma, she would eventually regain this particular bit of functionality once her soul had fully integrated into her body. The catch to it was the process could take between a hundred and two hundred years.

But like grandma said, “High elves are immortal, so I’m sure Lasulie won’t mind waiting a couple of centuries.”

That was how Lasulie came to be reunited with her beloved daughter, who was presently going by the name, Kalmia (Mia for friends), after casting aside the name her heartless father had bestowed upon her.

And there you go. That was basically the gist of it.

“Take this.”

Mia made a snowball and hurled it at me with all of her might. The resulting blazing fastball brushed my cheek, and I felt something hot trickle down from where it had touched my skin. Blood.

“Huh? Wait. Mia?”

She had somehow managed to cut my cheek just by grazing me with a snowball.

“Aw, I missed. I won’t next time,” she called over to me.

I started panicking. “Hold on! Stop, Mia! Isn’t there something wrong with your strength?”

“Mia, your mother is rooting for you,” Lasulie called out from the sidelines.

“Thanks. Watch me, mother.”

Lasulie chuckled. “I am watching you. Always.”

Spurred on by her mother’s cheering, the high elf girl took a deep breath and fired herself up. Uh-oh. I’m a human beanpole, which means a snowball traveling at that kind of speed could kill me!

“Retreat!” I yelled at the top of my lungs. “Team Adults! Retreat!”

“Now, Aina!” Shess exclaimed. “Throw all of your snowballs at Shiro! Focus your fire on him!”

The little girl did as her friend instructed.

“You too, Mia! Keep it up!”

“Okay. I’ll keep throwing snowballs at Shiro.”

“Stooooooop!” I cried out.

“This way, Shiro, meow!” Kilpha called to me from her hiding spot. “Come hide over here, meow!”

Meanwhile, Luza and Emille were still arguing away.

“Let’s settle this once and for all, you flat-chested ho!” Emille yelled.

“You’ve got some nerve, you flat-chested rabbit! This field of snow shall be your grave!”

Snow continued to fall. Ninoritch had welcomed a new family into the fold, and despite the arrival of winter, the town was filled with laughter, just as it always was.

Afterword

Thank you for purchasing the twelfth volume of Peddler in Another World: I Can Go Back to My World Whenever I Want! I’m the author, Hiiro Shimotsuki.

This volume continued the storyline I started in the previous installment, although while volume 11 largely focused on Mia, this one was mostly centered around Lasulie. I wanted to write the story of this mother-daughter pair in two parts, and I had a lot of fun writing this volume, where I also brought back characters we hadn’t seen for a long time. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

I’m limited on how many pages I can use for this afterword, so let’s move straight on to the usual acknowledgments:

To the illustrator, Takashi Iwasaki-sensei, thank you as always for your amazing illustrations! I especially like the way you draw Patty’s smug smile!

To Shizuku Akechi-sensei, who is responsible for the manga adaptation of this series, I love watching your Youtube channel. Your cats are so cute! Everyone reading this afterword must go check out @nekotubemangaka on Youtube.

To my editor and the whole editorial department of HJ Bunko, thank you so much for helping me publish yet another volume in this series and for your continued support.

To my family, my friends, and my dogs, it’s thanks to you that my life is always so full of joy. I’m so very thankful for you all. I truly am.

And as always, the biggest, fattest thank you of all goes to you, the reader, for reading up to this point! Thank you as always!

Lastly, I will be donating part of the royalties from this book to children in need. So by purchasing this book, you are helping these children. Thank you all so much.

See you all in volume 13!

Hiiro Shimotsuki

Bonus Short Story: Snow and Roasted Sweet Potatoes

On the eastern side of the Giruam Kingdom lay the small town of Ninoritch, often mocked for its remoteness in relation to all of the big cities that were more central. This year, just like any other, winter had arrived in this tiny settlement. These few months were usually a time for survival for the townsfolk, since they were forced to rely exclusively on their food stockpiles they had set aside throughout the year until spring finally rolled around. Every year, there were people who ran out of supplies altogether and died of starvation before the warm season could return, and as such, winter was the period of the year when death felt at its closest for the people of Ninoritch. But this winter was turning out very differently. Why, you might ask? Well, because Shiro was in town.

“Hi there! Welcome, everyone! I managed to get my hands on some sweet potatoes so they’re available today. They’re sweet and delicious!”

Even as the snow fell, Shiro and Aina were hard at work once more, calling out to potential customers as they walked past the pair’s makeshift stall. The special that day was a batch of Japanese sweet potatoes (known as “satsuma imo” in their native land) that Shiro had gotten cheap at his local supermarket. He’d brought them to Ninoritch in order to sell them in front of his shop, claiming they were “on sale.” Sweet potatoes were full of nutrients, high in carbs and fiber, and jam-packed with vitamins. The townsfolk didn’t seem to care all that much for them, however, which was perhaps unsurprising, because they’d likely never seen anything like them before. Most of the passersby simply glanced down at them momentarily before continuing on their way.

“Mister Shiro, these sweet potatoes aren’t selling well at all,” Aina remarked.

“They really aren’t.”

“That’s a shame. They’re so sweet and yummy,” the little girl said, sounding dejected.

Shiro hummed pensively. “All righty. Looks like we don’t have a choice. Change of plan. Aina, we’re gonna bring out the you-know-what.”

“The you-know-what? Oh! Okay!”

Between them, the pair plonked down a portable gas stove on the stall (which was really just a table, truth be told) and placed a frying pan on top of it. Next, Shiro spread some little stones—which he had washed beforehand—across the pan.

“Okey dokey. We’re all set. Aina, could you place some sweet potatoes over those stones?”

“Okay!”

The little girl rolled up her sleeves as her breathing quickened in excitement, then began arranging the tubers on top of the stones, one at a time.

“I did it, Mister Shiro!”

“Thanks, Aina. Now, we just have to heat ’em up.”

“Okay!”

Shiro covered the pan containing the sweet potatoes with a lid and turned the burner to medium heat. Around fifteen minutes later, Aina piped up, “Mister Shiro, they smell so good.”

“Don’t they just? Think we should turn ’em over soon?”

“Yeah. Can I do it?”

“Of course you can. But be careful. We don’t want you to go burning yourself, now do we?”

“’Kay!”

The sweet aroma of roasted sweet potatoes tickled their nostrils as soon as Aina lifted the lid, and the little girl’s stomach rumbled adorably. Giggling to hide her embarrassment, she put on some cotton work gloves and turned over all the hot tubers. After that was done, she covered the sweet potatoes again, and the pair waited another fifteen minutes.

“Okay, we should be good now,” Shiro said, removing the lid and leaving it off this time.

The skin of the sweet potatoes had split to allow golden flesh to peek through, and their sweet scent wafted up into the air, causing passersby in a rush to get home to shelter from the snow to stop in their tracks.

“Aina, where’s that sweet smell coming from?” a woman asked the little girl after being lured over to our table by the enticing scent.

“From these sweet potatoes!” Aina replied. “They’re really sweet and yummy.”

“Sweet, you say?”

“Yeah! They’re super sweet! Hold on a minute.” The little girl picked up one of the roasted potatoes, split it down the middle, then handed one half to the woman. “Here. Give it a try!”

“Thank you.” The woman turned to Shiro. “Can I really eat this?”

“Of course. Go right ahead. Consider it a free sample.”

“Well, thank you. I’ll take you up on your offer.” The woman took a small bite out of roasted potato, and a look of bliss instantly spread across her face. “Gosh, it’s sweet. And delicious.”

Shiro and Aina high-fived each other.

“Would you like to buy one? They’re tubers, so they keep,” Shiro said.

“Okay, I’ll take five.”

“Thank you very much. That’ll be five coppers.”

Shiro put five uncooked sweet potatoes into a bag and gave it to the woman, then pocketed the coins she had dropped into his hand. This first transaction acted as some sort of trigger.

“May I have a bite?” one man asked.

“I’d love to try some too!” said a woman.

“And me!”

All of those who had been watching the exchange with the first woman were now asking to try the roasted sweet potatoes for themselves. Their surprise at how delicious the potatoes were led them to also buy several tubers. A little crowd soon formed in front of the table as more and more passersby wandered up to see what was going on. In the blink of an eye, the sweet potatoes had sold out.

“Damn, these were a huge hit. I’ll have to stock more of them in the future.”

“Everyone was really happy, Mister Shiro,” Aina chirped.

“They really were, weren’t they?”

“It’s winter, but they will all get to eat to their heart’s content now,” the little girl added.

“Aina...”

“Having a full tummy always makes me happy!” The little girl grinned, and Shiro smiled back at her.

“Me too,” he said.

“Mister Shiro, thank you for making the people of Ninoritch happy.”

“Don’t mention it. Besides, it’s more the opposite, really. It’s this town that makes me happy.”

Winter was the period of the year when death felt at its closest for the people of Ninoritch. But this time, Shiro was in town, and as a result, no one died of starvation that year.