Luna’s elaborately decorated carriage thundered down the travel road, headed straight for the village of Rabbi. Inside it, Luna and Eagle sat across from each other, the latter looking out the window with narrowed eyes.
“Now that’s what I call a parade... Worthy of my homecoming,” Luna said.
“Apparently he’s put on other parades that were even more extravagant,” Eagle said.
“Without telling me... I’m going to make him pay when I get back.”
Originally, Luna had been making for Rabbi at a leisurely pace...until spectacular parades had broken out along the travel road behind her carriage. She’d jumped on the opportunity to make herself look like the star of the parade—naturally, everyone could only go along with the whim of this Holy Maiden.
While Luna grumbled about missing out on the bigger celebration, Eagle noticed something outside the window. “Luna, don’t freak out... There’s some sort of town that wasn’t there before.”
“What are you talking about? We’re coming into Rabbi—there’s nothing else out here.”
The dust cloud from the carriage prevented Luna from seeing what Eagle saw with her hawk-hybrid vision.
Eagle squinted again, trying to make sense of the Longhouses the Demon Lord had set up. “Homes like I’ve never seen before. And are those...chimneys?” She opened the carriage door and leaped out, spreading her wings and flying into the sky. In a breath, she was out of sight.
Luna snapped at her coachman. “You’re letting Eagle beat us! Go faster!”
“We can’t catch up with her...!”
“Shut up and go! I’m not going to lose! Not to her, not to anybody!” Luna demanded outrageously.
Regardless of how much pride and expectation she put on her carriage, designed and maintained for speed as well as flashiness, it was never going to catch up to the soaring Eagle.
By the time Luna made it to the doorstep of the mysterious new quarters of Rabbi, Eagle had already finished her assessment.
“Wh-What is this place...?” Luna asked.
“A cluster of houses. There are plazas and parks in there, and eight public baths,” Eagle answered.
“He built a town without telling me? How dare he do something cool while I’m away!”
Sagely, Eagle refrained from pointing out that her friend’s surprise and outrage was misguided, as usual.
Ren approached them. “Welcome home, Holy Maiden Luna. And you must be her servant, Eagle.”
“Wh-Who are you?!” Luna demanded.
Eagle remained silent, tensely watching Ren.
“My name is Ren. I serve as Master’s secretary. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
“Master? You mean the Demon Lord?! He’s got another woman under his thumb, like Yu isn’t enough...!” Luna bit out. One could only imagine the conniption when she eventually found out about Akane.
“Please come in. Allow me to give you a tour.” Ren led them into the Longhouses, unbothered by Luna’s reaction.
Luna whispered to Eagle as they followed behind, “D-Doesn’t she seem...dangerous? Even more than Queen?” She had noticed how Ren flawlessly carried herself—like a hardened warrior.
“Your sister is scary, but this girl is on another level. Don’t get on her bad side. Ever.” Eagle had lived through enough danger to recognize the dark depths of Ren’s power.
Luna imagined that Ren was a combination of Queen and White—two of the very few people in this world who could keep Luna in check. That didn’t stop the feisty Holy Maiden from puffing her nonexistent chest with unearned arrogance. “What is this place, anyway? I’ve never seen houses like these.”
“A very old settlement. Master used to particularly adore this Area,” Ren said.
“He adored...?!” Luna blurted, before attempting to regain her composure. “Mm, mm-hmm.”
“But now, he seems ashamed of it.”
“Why? It’s another thing he can brag about, with all these rarities,” Luna said.
“Because of someone called ‘the Paladin’ staying in the village. I’m afraid Master wanted to show off state-of-the-art facilities, rather than these,” Ren explained.
“The Paladin’s here?! He’s a puppet of the Tzardom!” Luna huffed.
“He’s different,” Eagle said. In his correspondence with Hummer, Weeb had frequently asked about Eagle’s welfare. “Even when I was drifting all over, I never once heard a bad word spoken about him.”
Luna huffed. “Fine... We’ll see what my verdict will be...”
“He’s not on trial, you know.”
“He’s from the Tzardom! No doubt he’s a pompous, self-righteous megalomaniac!” Luna exclaimed.
“Then you two would have a lot in common...” Eagle said.
“Except I deserve to be, because I’m the Holy Maiden!”
Ren ignored Luna’s lunacy and led the pair to one of the townhouses.
The Longhouses had been modeled after a suburban town with a population of five thousand—leaving room for three thousand more after the refugees from Euritheis moved in. Ren was in the middle of allocating those vacancies to orphans and widows. She took the pair into the townhouse and walked them through how to use each appliance. Just like Weeb had been, Luna and Eagle were thoroughly shocked and amazed by each display.
Once she’d gone through the appliances, Ren turned and started for another Area.
As she and Eagle followed, Luna whispered to her friend, “What does she mean that this town is old? It was filled with magical items I’ve never even heard of.”
“Those items can be new to us and old to them,” Eagle suggested.
“Well! That Paladin must have been slack-jawed! I win!”
“You haven’t done anything, Luna...”
“Nonsense! What’s in my village is mine! I’m the Golden Holy Maiden Princess! From this day on, you will address me as ‘Your Holy Golden Royal Highness’!”
“If I do, everyone’s going to think you’re stupid,” Eagle said ruthlessly. Now that her tormentor was gone, she seemed to be able to speak her mind again.
“You’re calling me stupid?!”
As the best friends bickered on, Ren walked ahead of them with the slightest curl on the corner of her lips, appreciating their pure friendship.
Naturally, Ren took them next to the Abandoned Mines. Luna and Eagle seemed to have run out of astonishment, because they gazed upon the Area with nothing but exasperation.
“This is called the Abandoned Mines,” Ren began. “It mainly produces coal—or blackstones, as they are called in this world.”
“Blackstone? There hasn’t been any of that mined in—”
“Nothing is impossible in the world of Master’s creation,” Ren declared, leaving no room for doubt.
Luna wasn’t particularly interested in blackstones, though, only things that directly made her life easier or gave her something to brag about. Then again, few women would have been very intrigued by an ancient fuel source they’d only ever read about.
“The one you were speaking about is working inside, despite my advice against it,” Ren said.
“The hero’s in there? All right, he’s about to get an audience with me!” Luna stomped into the mines, but Eagle didn’t follow—she had somewhere else to be.
“Are you not going?” Ren asked.
“I wanted to thank Miss Kirino first. It’s thanks to her that I have my wings again.”
“I see...” Ren said, showing a rare sign of hesitation. She and Yu still hadn’t seen each other, despite both being in this village. Clearly, they had been avoiding each other. “I hear Yu has been hard at work here.”
“Yes. I see so many people thanking her for healing them,” Eagle said.
“How wonderful. Please give her my regards,” Ren said.
“I will. Thank you for the tour.” Eagle began walking away.
Then, Ren muttered something so quietly that Eagle only heard because of her excellent hawk hearing. “Yu... One step out of line, and your head will leave your body.”
Somehow, Eagle restrained herself from showing any reaction as she left out of sight. Ren, too, returned her attention to the mines as if she hadn’t said anything at all.