“What’s the status of the other groups?”
“The Imperial Navy seems to be maintaining the status quo until their replacement ships arrive. The joint team of shipping companies and maritime merchants is focusing on establishing their foothold, aiming for self-sustaining profits and long-term operations without support from the homeland. The witch’s faction and their familiars secured a former noble’s capital residence slightly outside the city center and are watching for an opportunity to contact codename ‘K’...”
“Tch! The nerve...after we all agreed to respect K’s wishes and refrain from direct contact... I mean, I get it. Since the witch herself isn’t here, they can’t communicate with their familiars beyond prearranged basic signals, so they want to connect with K quickly for translation purposes. But that’s their problem. It’s certainly no reason to bother K or act in ways that may raise suspicion among the locals. Not that they’re the type to listen to reason...” the leaders of the Eyes of the Goddess expedition team said, then shrugged.
“All right, let’s start the Falsetto Review Meeting,” I said.
“Okay.”
“Got it!”
Falsetto had moved out of her previous inn and into ours.
I mean, obviously...
She’d taken the room next to mine and Reiko’s. Since we shared a room, Falsetto insisted on joining us, but we got her to back off by saying we had secret goddess duties to attend to. She’d argued that the request conditions said we’d share a room at the inn, but we’d told her that was only because it was rigged for Reiko. She seemed pretty dejected, mumbling something under her breath. Apparently, she’d thought the job was meant for her.
Well, tough luck...
I’d told her Francette used to stay in a separate room too, and she’d reluctantly agreed. Francette had shared her room with Roland, after all.
For today’s meeting, Kyoko was participating remotely via a communicator. It felt a bit lonely not seeing her face, so I thought it might be a good idea for us to add a holographic imaging feature for our remote meetings. I could’ve made one as a potion container, but Kyoko’s mothership should be able to handle it. I didn’t really want to rely too much on the “Goddess Workshop,” and I had to give Kyoko a chance to shine or she’d get sulky.
“Francette knew about my return and sent Falsetto to protect me. She’s a total fanatic, and it’ll be impossible to send her away. If we mess up, it could lead to some serious trouble. So, you get why we have to accept her, right?” I asked.
“Right,” Kyoko replied.
I’d told Reiko and Kyoko about my past associates many times, so no further explanation was needed.
“If she causes a commotion every time something happens or intervenes at the worst possible moment, it’ll be a headache. It’ll be much better to keep her under our control from the start. Plus...”
“Yeah?”
“Francette helped me a lot back then. I have a feeling Falsetto will help us too.”
Kyoko and Reiko said nothing, but they understood. I could give all kinds of logical and well-reasoned excuses for my decision, but they knew that ultimately this was what I really wanted. So...
“Approved!” they said in unison.