Chapter 28
“THANK YOU VERY MUCH, Master!”
“What’re you talking about? It was all thanks to your cooking.”
After eating, Mira and Floedina held a secret meeting to celebrate their operation being a huge success. Floedina would now slowly start incorporating tomatoes into their meals, while keeping an eye on Alfina to see if she might be able to completely cure her of her dislike of them.
And so, after cleaning up from breakfast, they went about their day as usual. Contrary to Christina’s hopes, Mira told them to go about their normal business, and so the sisters began their usual training.
“All right. It should just about be time.”
Meanwhile, Mira went back down to the surface for a moment after leaving Bruce with one of her ashen knights so he could train with it.
Mira’s objective now was to hand the remaining fragments of the Monster-Ruling God’s sword over to Wallenstein.
At the moment, Mira was waiting on the wooden platform where Lunanlied and Fontiné had been playing a chess-like game. Idly enjoying a chocolat au lait, she took in the scenery.
On that note, now that they knew the Spirit King could indeed see them, the two spirits in charge of overseeing the area were rigorously patrolling it.
A ray of sun shone down through the great hole at the summit of the mountain onto a grassy field within. In the center of this field was a lake, and in the center of this lake sat a field of flowers. Once again taking in this view from the wooden platform beside the lake, Mira felt it was so spectacular that it might be considered a wonder of the natural world.
At last, she thought, she could kick back and really relax. As she waited, the moment she’d been waiting for finally came…
Beside Mira, a magic circle appeared. It slowly began to glow and, when it was fully formed, Wallenstein appeared from within it.
“Good morning. Did everything work out?”
“Hrm, morning. It worked out perfectly.”
Quickly greeting each other, the two immediately got down to business. After her confident reply to Wallenstein’s question, Mira handed over a bag that’d been sitting on the table. Inside it were all of the other fragments they’d gathered, which she’d then sealed. And with these, Wallenstein would have every last fragment of the Monster-Ruling God’s sword.
“So, how’s that girl… Etoto? After everything that happened, I hope she managed to get some rest.”
“Yes, well, perhaps because she’s with her mother again, she seems to have settled down quite a bit. Not only that, her mother is quite forward. When I got back, I found her sleeping there as if she owned the place. And she got up this morning, said she was going to help out, and started running around working.”
Liliella and the others had been tasked with protecting Etoto and her mother. According to Wallenstein’s report, things were going almost too well on that front.
Wallenstein had thought ahead quite a bit and considered how long it’d take to convince the pair, as well as how they’d need to find personnel to guard them.
However, all Etoto had to say was “Don’t worry,” and the girl’s mother readily agreed with Liliella and her companions’ proposition.
And now, today, unable to bear just sitting around being protected, her mother had begun helping out around the base.
Meanwhile, Etoto had apparently just met the other children there, who’d also come from circumstances like hers. Having learned of the hardship Etoto had been through, the other children wanted to make friends with her. Or so Wallenstein declared confidently.
“Hrmm, I see. Well, that’s a relief.”
It seemed Mira could safely say that the whole situation had settled down for the time being.
If they hadn’t ever noticed anything, then Etoto would’ve ended up the biggest victim. One could very well say that rescuing the girl, who had grown up a kind-hearted soul despite all the hardship she’d been through, had been the most important achievement of their current mission.
Hearing that this same girl was enjoying herself at their base, Mira felt a sense of relief from the very bottom of her heart.
“…By the way, there was something I was hoping to ask you,” Mira then began.
With curiosity, hope, and desire written across her face, she gently put her arm around Wallenstein and leaned toward him.
“Ya know, there might be another situation, like this last one, where my talents might be useful, don’t you think? There are plenty of ways I might be able to help, like getting advice from the Spirit King and whatnot. In that case, don’t you think that if you were to teach me how to warp, I could be more prepared if some situation comes up where it’d come in handy? So, Wallenstein. What do you say?” Mira whispered to Wallenstein after tightening her arm around him and pulling him closer, so as not to allow him to escape.
She was proposing that he teach her how to warp, so that if something came up on Wallenstein’s end, she could help out by lending them her fighting skills and know-how.
Indeed, Mira still hadn’t given up on learning to warp.
Previously, Wallenstein had said quite firmly that he’d been sworn to secrecy, and so he couldn’t talk about it. Therefore, Mira had given up for the time being. But after seeing once more just how useful it was with her own eyes, Mira couldn’t bear not to ask.
She had no idea who’d taught him nor who’d sworn him to secrecy. And so, Mira resorted to playing dirty, pressuring him by bringing the Spirit King into it. This was because the Spirit King’s name carried quite a bit of weight.
The Spirit King was someone whom no one could simply ignore, and so her plan was to use his authority for the sake of her own interests.
“…Ah, I thought you might bring that up,” Wallenstein sighed in answer to Mira, who wore an expression which seemed to say she was dangling both carrot and stick. And yet, having expected her to do so, he looked less fed up and more relieved to hear her finally bring it up.
He then continued, “And so, I went ahead and asked just how much I could tell you.”
He himself was one of the Nine Wise Men, and so he knew very well just how thirsty for knowledge one could be when it came to unfamiliar new spells. Or perhaps he simply had found it annoying that she’d bother him about it every time they met up.
Considering it was Mira, surely he should be allowed to talk about it. Predicting as much, he’d gone ahead and spoken with this mysterious personage.