“But I’m tooootally watching youuu!” Lord Aldora exclaimed.
“What’re you doing, Harumi...?”
Lord Aldora sat on her luxurious sofa in her room, which was located in the maintenance area of the Aldora Labyrinth. There was a crystal ball standing on the table in front of her.
Marinnie, the arachne, was also there, but she was sitting on the floor across from her. They were both looking into the crystal ball, which currently displayed Harumi’s exploits.
“Hmmm, Pekora was a good kid, though. Maybe there was a misunderstanding somewhere? I should’ve told her to help Harumi out...” Lord Aldora mumbled.
“Isn’t that an impossible request? I’m just going off my gut feeling here, but I could sense a certain mettle in her, like she was going to get into the EliMon Center instead.”
“Well, to be honest, if I was going to recommend someone, it would’ve been Pekora. I just wanted her to think she wasn’t chosen in the end.”
“You did tell her to play subordinate to a level 15 monster from the first floor. Wouldn’t she have figured it out...?”
“I didn’t mean anything by it, though.”
“So, what do we do? About Harumi, I mean.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Isn’t this a bit of a, like, problem? On paper, Pekora was her subordinate. There might’ve been some situation where Harumi would need to sacrifice her, but that totally wasn’t the case here! Wasn’t this just Harumi killing her out of spite or something? At least, that’s how they might see it.”
“Yeahhh... As a member of an organization, this would be a problem, wouldn’t it? But those who want to go to EliMon probably don’t have to worry about things like that. It’s fine to let them act as they please. That’s my opinion, anyway.”
“If that’s what you think, then...”
As they talked, the image of Harumi on the crystal ball suddenly disappeared. Pekora had been sent (without her knowledge) to observe the mimic and relay the images. Harumi had put the flask with Pekora’s spirit into storage.
“What now? We can’t watch over Harumi anymore,” Marinnie said.
“Hmmm... It’s a bit worrying to just leave her to her own devices like this, isn’t it?”
Lord Aldora snapped her fingers. When she did, a black shadow, vaguely human-shaped but incredibly flat, appeared beside Marinnie.
“You called, Lord Aldora?” the black something asked.
“There’s a child named Harumi, you see. She’s heading to the EliMon Center, and her watcher is gone now. Could you go take the watcher’s place?”
“Understood.” The shadow immediately disappeared.
“Uhhh, that was...?” Marinnie seemed perplexed.
“I guess I’d consider him a friend from the great war? He comes over every once in a while, so I just use him when I can.”
“That shouldn’t be how you treat a friend, though...”
“It’s a little dodgy leaving Harumi by herself, sooo...”
It shouldn’t have been difficult to reach the EliMon Center in good time. All someone had to do was avoid anything unnecessary, or any needless conflict. However, the “someone” in this case was Harumi, and Marinnie felt doubtful that the mimic would do that.
“Oh, right,” Marinnie spoke up. “I received a summons from the Aldora Labyrinth council. I’m planning to report that we chased Harumi out, since it’s technically true. Could we also return their silver-ranked adventurers’ spirits?”
She figured that she should bring gifts to the council since she was going to meet them anyway.
“Good idea. We’ve made more than enough with the hero anyway, so why not return them?”
“So...that means Mackenzie, the Dirty Thief; George, the Severing Sword; Norton, the Polar Star; and Holcomb, the Lightly Armored, correct? There’s a possibility they’ll go off to mess with Harumi if they’re resurrected, though.”
“That’s fine, isn’t it? Harumi needs to grow a lot more, after all!” Lord Aldora said cheerfully.
It seemed that Harumi was in for a stormy future.