I entered a defensive posture, getting ready to protect the bath in earnest. In response, Mina looked around for an opening, but eventually descended to the ground in resignation.
“Hmph, very well. Considering there are some surprising newcomers today,” she said, turning to Zelos.
“Ah...” He froze up, like a frog being stared down by a snake. He looked like he could sense the gap in their strengths even more clearly.
“I’ve come all this way, Arata, so introduce me,” Mina said.
“Sure, but don’t bully him.”
“No promises.”
As always, she instantly replied to my request.
“This is Zelos Grinder,” I said. “You said before that you sensed an unfamiliar presence, right? He’s one of the people who arrived on this island at that time.”
“Oh, yeah, now that you mention it, that did happen.”
It had been rather recent, but she acted as if she didn’t remember it at all. In some way, that made me feel relieved, since back then she’d mumbled something like, “Uh-huh... That sounds quite useful.” I’d been preparing myself for her to inevitably make a mess of things, so hearing that she’d forgotten about it felt like a weight being lifted from my shoulders.
“Now then, you there,” Mina said to Zelos. Despite her casual tone, he was still frozen with terror. When she saw this, an incredibly satisfied smile appeared on her face. “See that, Arata? That’s it. That’s exactly how you humans should be acting around me. But you, for some reason...”
“I don’t know what to say. I’m just not afraid of you.”
She really is a typical bully. I mean, she’s acting just like Tailtiu.
“You can be a bit of a nuisance sometimes, but I think of you as a friend I can be casual with,” I added.
When she heard my honest opinion, she looked taken aback, then irritably averted her eyes. “Well, it might not be bad to have someone like that around.”
“Are you a bit embarrassed, by any chance?”
“Don’t get cocky!”
She shot a small magic flame at me in anger, so I knocked it away. Such a weak fireball wouldn’t actually hurt me, but I just did it on reflex.
“Uh... Arata? You all right, man?” Zelos asked, concerned.
“Huh? Oh, yeah, I’m fine. This is pretty typical for her,” I replied. A fireball like that was nothing to worry about for me, and Mina hadn’t been serious about it. We were basically just goofing around.
“That had enough mana packed in it that you shouldn’t be fine...” Mina said.
“That’s typical?” Zelos said. “But I’ve never seen such dense flames before...”
He looked at me with disbelief, but really, he was worrying too much. The fireball Mina had lobbed had been small—only around the size of my fingertip. It was roughly equivalent to the flames Suzaku had shot at me for fun once before, so it really wasn’t any harm in it. Mina probably knew all of that. And in fact, while she had an exasperated look on her face, she wasn’t actually surprised.
“Well, he’s always been a freak of nature,” she said.
“Excuse me, Mina, don’t you think that’s rude?” I said.
“Nope.”
Another instant reply. How cruel.
“But unlike you, he has more of a proper attitude,” Mina went on. “This looks like it’s going to get pretty interesting.”
“You’re thinking about something suspicious again.”
“I am not.”
She definitely was. I mean, she was looking at Zelos with a nasty expression on her face.
“Hey, you...” she said.
Zelos flinched. “Wh-What do you want?”
“Why don’t we properly introduce ourselves? My name is Wilhelmina Vermilion Vauheim. I’m a True Ancestor Vampire, the sovereign of the murky night.”
“I-I’m Zelos Grinder... Number Six in the continent’s Seven Celestial Archmages,” Zelos said. His voice was weaker than when he spoke with me, but he managed to squeeze out his self-introduction.
As far as I could tell, I didn’t get the impression that Mina was trying to overwhelm him. He was simply afraid of how much stronger she was, so I couldn’t criticize her, at least not this time.
When Zelos finished speaking, Mina spread her arms while nodding. “All right then, welcome to this empty island, Zelos. I’m glad to receive all you strangers. Although today, I only came here to kill time, so I didn’t bring any special presents...” Then, she produced a single mushroom from thin air. “This is a delectable mushroom you can find on this island. And of course, you can eat it raw, so...I give this to—”
“Hooooold it!” I snatched the mushroom from the demon’s small hands as she approached Zelos with a wicked look on her face.
“Hey, Arata... Why are you getting in my way?” Mina glared unhappily at me.
“A-Arata?” Zelos, meanwhile, nervously eyeballed the mushroom. I was in such a rush to stop him from taking it, so he was probably thinking it was poisonous.
“Just so you know, it isn’t poisonous,” Mina said to me. “It’s not only delicious, it’s also chock-full of nutrients and gives you energy. It’s a welcome present for this man, as a sign of my good intentions! So give it back!”
“Oh, come on! This is a horny mushroom!”
The moment I spoke, she turned her face away. “Tch, how did you know?”
“Aha! Elga warned me about this!”
His gravely serious words about watching out for these mushrooms were still fresh in my mind. Up until then, Elga had generally had the air of a dependable older brother—except when we were eating—but at that time, it was like he had transformed into a completely different person. That was just how traumatic eating it must have been.
“So it was him... Good grief, that ungrateful man should be giving me a medal. It’s thanks to me that he has a happy family.”
“Don’t you think he’s angry because your meddling forced him to skip the entire process of attaining that happiness?”
Mina paused. “That’s quite a good one.”
“Why, thank you.”
Not that I was trying to make a pun on “medal” and “meddle.”
While Elga may have ended up happy, how he got there was important. He didn’t seem like he regretted it, but he had said that, as a man, he wished he’d been able to follow the proper order of things. I could really empathize with that feeling. I would no doubt regret it just as much if I skipped past all the various steps.
“Then again, it’s not like Elga’s completely innocent,” I said. “It was insensitive of him to not notice Livia’s feelings for so long.”
“You have some nerve to say that with a straight face,” Mina said.
“Huh? What are you talking about?”
“Come on, I’m obviously talking about Rei—”
Mina’s voice cut off mid-sentence. At the same time, her body was sliced up by countless gusts of wind, and she dissolved into the darkness.
“Ahh!” Zelos exclaimed.
He widened his eyes in shock at this sudden turn of events. But this was an everyday occurrence for me, and I casually turned around to look in the direction from where the spell came. Standing there was Reina, fresh out of the bath and with her face flushed red like she had been in the hot water for too long.
“Jeez, why do you have to come every time at this exact moment and say such weird things?!” she said.
“It’s because the sight of you embarrassed is absolutely delicious!” Mina said, her voice emanating from midair.
“I’ll feed you something that tastes better than that, so just stop it already!”
“Your cooking certainly sounds good... But this is even better, so I can’t give it up!”
Mina’s voice gradually faded away as a frustrated Reina glared at the night sky. There, the expanse of stars stretched out above us.
“I’ll be back when it’s nighttime again, so look forward to that,” Mina said. “Ahh hah hah hah!”
Her loud cackle echoed throughout the surrounding area, then faded away completely.
“Hey, Arata?” Zelos said. “Do things like her show up all the time on this island?”
“Who knows? Mina seems to be an exception, but she said something once about there being plenty of others at her level.”
“Oh... I‘m not sure I’ll be able to live if I leave your side.”
I wasn’t exactly glad to hear this confession coming from a guy, but after everything that had just happened, maybe I just had to accept it. Regardless, Reina and Merlyn had come out of the bath, so it was our turn.
And so, it was another ordinary—but not that ordinary—night.