—————————————————————————————————————————

  ***Rushka’s POV***

  “Haa... H-Heather I caaaaan’t!~”

  “You’re doing great Rushka, just put your back into it!”

  “How can you do that! How can you move sooo fast!~”

  “Rushka...”

  Heather got up from the floor and looked at my sweaty self ying on the ground.

  “Dear, you’ve only done 30 pushups, It’s an improvement but it can be better”

  “Don’t be ridiculous! 30 Is already a lot! How can you do so many without flinching and with one arm!”

  “Hey! I’ve gotten sloppy sitting at a desk. I used to be able to do several hundred of them without breaking a sweat! Slow and steady, try to give me another repetition of 10 and we move to something else!”

  “You’re gonna kill me Heather! My body still hurts from yesterday, and I slept like a log! I’m starting to think physical strength is not for me!”

  “Not with that attitude! Were you in the pace knights, you wouldn’t have received dinner given your performance you know!”

  “I’m not a fiiiiiiighter!~”

  I really hate throwing a tantrum, but I feel like my arms are gonna fall off!

  “Even Ellie is outperforming you, a child! Are you not ashamed?”

  “She’s outperforming you too! Thank Marisa for that, I’m seriously considering a race change at this point as well!”

  “Heh~ It’s true that Ellie is a hardworking girl, we inherited it from our father after all!”

  “Now is not the time for a ‘proud big sister’ moment! Sigh...”

  I guess Ellie could be more useful than me in a fight, and she does it with an ear to ear smile. She was having fun training with her sister these past couple of days, but right now she’s pying with her friends instead of being here with us.

  Me on the other hand, I’m just having a miserable time. And there hasn’t been any booze to boot!

  “Sigh... I wish Marisa could come back already...”

  “Do you miss her too, Rushka?”

  “Yeah...”

  We received letters that spontaneously appeared in Marisa’s room, they cim to be from her, but who knows. Celestial mentioned that they probably were, it was her hand writing, and she mentioned that Maldi never signs letters. I don’t know how trustworthy the source of information is to be honest.

  If they are legitimate, then Marisa is doing ok, but she might be gone for several days, I must admit my heart felt at ease when we received them, and Heather and I had a small discussion because we wanted to keep the letter, so we decided to leave them all in Marisa’s room for the time being.

  “I think I’ll call it a day for now, head back to the pace and continue with the prototypes”

  “If you think that’s for the better, go for it!”

  “Yeah, I will”

  Honestly the prototype advanced with leaps and bounds getting Adele and Celestial’s help, Adele might be shady, always covered like that, but she has a terrific knowledge of magical research, which is perfect given it’s always what gave me problems with the prototypes. And not only that, Celestial can efficiently etch the spells into the runes regardless of how mana extensive they may be, leave the prototype aside, we three could revolutionize the world!

  Although, production costs need to be taken into consideration for actual products, sure we three can make amazing things, but when we’re gone, it’s gonna be no different from all the constructs lost to time! I guess that comes ter. I want to help everyone, I guess I’ll take some time to think of marketable products to sell back home.

  “Those two are going at it huh?”

  “Yeah, I advise you to wait, or get hurt as colteral”

  “Oh well, I brought my notebook for this reason”

  Adele and Celestial are having a spar again, those two and Heather take turns to spar, usually ending on those two making a mess of the forest, it’s starting to look a little bare.

  “You don’t want to join those other two?”

  Heather mentioned, pointing at Az and Lassie, they’re having basic mana practice, sitting and holding hands. Mostly to teach Lassie proper magic, both Az and Adele think that her ability to go invisible is a spell, and that if she gets better at it, she might be able to extend it to other objects or people. At least properly, she can do so to some degree, but not perfectly like with herself.

  “I’m good, I had basic magic training back home, I’m average at it, doing the basic flow training will not help me in the slightest, I’d have to practice actual spells, and getting a staff would be expensive”

  “We can ask Adele to lend you hers”

  “She uses it better, plus, if I discharge it entirely by accident, she might need to get a new one. Although she has a very high quality staff, so I doubt I would be able to deplete it”

  “Hmm... problems, problems, we really need more funds... Wait! Didn’t Celestial keep a bunch of catalysts and the like with her?”

  “Oh! I forget she hoards stuff! Although I feel bad just asking her for stuff...”

  “Honestly, me too, she already helps us out so much”

  Well, maybe once Marisa comes back, Celestial can be intimidating at times.

  ...

  ...

  “Sure, let me teleport you home”

  “Thanks Celestial, you’re a lifesaver!”

  And with a portal, we both headed to the courtyard of the pace, it’s the pce where we agree to teleport back home, since we all leave for extended periods of time, this way if there’s urgent news, the pace knights can inform us immediately once we get back, it hasn’t happened so far, until now.

  “Midies! Urgent news!”

  “Doe? What is it!”

  “It’s about the bakery of the faun woman! It was set abze moments ago! We managed to turn the fmes off, but the civilian in question is nowhere to be found!”

  “What!?”

  “Oh!... That doesn’t sound good...”

  “Every capable man is out looking for her as we speak!”

  “What do we do?”

  Eh!? Why are you asking ME Celestial!? Waa!! I AM the town lord’s wife, I guess giving order kinda falls onto me but!

  “L-let’s not panic! Celestial, We will go back and inform everyone! As for the knights, Deploy everyone capable of searching!”

  Ahh, things just went wrong! Why did we let Elizabeth waltz in and out without supervision!

  —————————————————————————————————————————

  ***Celestial’s POV***

  It seems that the little Faun woman is missing. I should be able to track her mana signature, if she left any, when was the st time she was in the castle? Yesterday? That girl is not very gifted mana wise, I feel like her remnants probably disappeared after just a couple of hours, I guess that’s not possible.

  “What do we do?”

  She might already be dead, but Rushka wants to look for her. I guess Marisa would be angry if she’s gone, we should at least look for her corpse. For now I took Rushka back to the skirt of my mountain.

  “E-Everyone! Elizabeth is gone!”

  “Gone!? What do you mean gone?”

  I didn’t close the portal, knowing them, they will probably all go look for her, or at least head back to town. Rushka gave them a quick summary, basically the building on fire and that she ordered the knights to look for her, they all stopped their training, and looked towards me.

  “The portal is ready, let’s go”

  “Right!”

  “Thanks Celestial!”

  Well, they seem to be rather united, this brings back some old memories to be honest.

  AnnouncementGiven that there’s so many character speaking, I put initials to differentiate this part

  R: “What do we do!?”

  H: “Ok, let’s calm down, is the town on fire again? Or just Elizabeth’s bakery?”

  R: “From what I was told, only her pce was attacked”

  Ad: “Then that narrows down the suspects to only one”

  H: “Right, Lassie, have you found out anything about the loan sharks?”

  The mute girl wrote in her notebook as always.

  L: ‘Nothing new that I haven’t already reported’

  She has been reporting to Heather it seems. Honestly, she’s always kinda just in the background.

  R: “I don’t get it, how can a moderately rge criminal organization hide so well across the town?”

  H: “Hmm...”

  Az: “We were informed of some shady people back when I worked at the church, but Father always chased them away...”

  Ad: “That doesn’t help Az”

  R: “I’ve been in town every now and then, but haven’t found anything suspicious, or a clue where their hideout might be”

  H: “Me neither, It’s almost like they crawl out of the cracks of the floor!”

  Ad: “Cracks on the floor... Ah!”

  H: “Do you have any idea, Adele?”

  Ad: “The sewers! Could it be that they made their base of operation down there?”

  R: “The sewers? Sounds unlikely, if there were people below the ground, Marisa would’ve caught that up ages ago with her senses, no?”

  H: “She can be oblivious sometimes”

  Ad: “I don’t think it’s that, this town was built on what used to be elven ruins, our sewer system is sandwiched between the town and the old elven sewer system!”

  H: “That’s the first time I’m hearing of this”

  Hmm... I guess the old aqueducts might still be there. They haven’t seen use in over 4000 years however, Although knowing how long elves live, I wouldn’t be surprised if they make it basically indestructible, a perk of dear Hestia’s family politics.

  C: “It’s a possibility, And why do you know of the old elven sewer system?”

  Ad: “I was tasked with investigating it 500 years ago, give or take. But it was nothing but tunnels without value, and to avoid risking a colpse, they were sealed and a new one was built atop of it, if this criminal organization found a way in, they could disappear when needed”

  H: “We have a lead! I should’ve asked you before!”

  Ad: “I know where we sealed the entrance, since the waste was disposed of via magic, it never connects to a river, let me go investigate!”

  H: “I’ll come with you as well, if there’s criminals, more fighters would come handy! Rushka, could I try to use the new prototype?”

  R: “Eh!? I mean, it’s finally portable with the backpack but, wouldn’t it be too risky?”

  Ad: “I can take care of myself Heather, don’t worry about it”

  C: “But I do!”

  The st thing we need to do right now is to send people alone to dangerous pces, lest we lose more people.

  C: “If not Heather, allow me to accompany you, they won’t pose a trouble with us both”

  H: “Celestial, sorry but we can’t leave a power vacuum! If they attack while we two are down the sewers, it would be bad, besides, can you attack without colpsing the town on top of us?”

  C: “...perhaps...”

  H: “Ok girls, let’s not fight and make 2 groups, one going to investigate while the other remains here, how does that sound?”

  Everyone agreed to miss knight’s proposition, she ended up making the groups, with the undead girl and I at separate parties.

  The final grouping is going to be Adele, Heather and the angel girl going to investigate the sewers, while Rushka, Lassie and I remain in the pace in case of an emergency. Rushka prepared Heather’s prosthesis and after I filled the catalysts on the backpack to power them, the three set out but Heather stopped at the entrance of the pace.

  H: “Ellie! She hasn’t come back!”

  R: “Ah! She went to that orphanage down south right? Let me go pick her up”

  C: “Rushka, what did we say about going alone!”

  R: “It should be fine, the knights are combing the town, plus it’s not a dangerous pce!”

  C: “Hmm... Alright, just be careful”

  R: “You three be more careful, You’re the one going to a shady pce!”

  And just like that, I was left alone with the samander girl.

  —————————————————————————————————————————

  ***Lassie’s POV***

  Ah, I should’ve accompanied Rushka! Staying with Celestial gives me goosebumps! She’s always with that poker face and light frown, is she angry or something? I know she doesn’t mean any harm, but even the kids at my orphanage told me they fear going anywhere near her!

  I looked at her, and then she looked at me, but neither one of us exchanged a word! M-maybe I should be the one to break the ice or something...

  ‘Now what?’

  Ah! I wrote it nervously! Wasn’t that a bit too dry? It almost sounds like I’m ordering her around or something! I quickly turned the notebook around and wrote as fast as I could but her cold voice caught me off guard.

  “We can continue training in the meantime, come”

  I! Ok! I just nodded my head, Celestial didn’t say anything more, simply started walking into the pace, so I followed behind her. She took me to one of the rooms with a bed, and simply sat down on top of it with her legs crossed.

  “Come, take a seat, we will continue with mana flow training”

  I nodded again and sat down as ordered but, ugh...

  It’s the same as these past couple of days, they simply take my hands and do something I don’t understand, they say I need to be able to feel the mana flowing within my body with this, but! It’s just nothing, we do nothing but sit down and hold hands for hours on end!

  I don’t even feel bashful about it at this point, mostly just bored! And I can’t even make idle talk since I need my hands to be able to write!

  Heather can meditate like this without a problem, but I seriously hate sitting while doing nothing for hours on end! In all honesty the idea of sitting down for extended periods of time always makes me feel uneasy! At least it’s not dark like in the basement...

  “Lassie, what’s wrong? I feel your restlessness, more so than before”

  Ah! It seems like Celestial caught up on it, in all honesty, the pace gives me a bit of anxiety, more so when Marisa is not around! For now I shook my head from side to side. Celestial is trying to help me with this, I should focus properly!

  “Are you worried about everyone perhaps?”

  Ah, well that too, in all honesty I know how capable everyone is. While I am concerned, I trust them to take care of themselves. Well, I still nodded in agreement, just to make some conversation.

  “Maybe we should leave training aside, at least until they all come back, you won’t make progress while shaken”

  Celestial let go of my hands. An opportunity I used to pick my notebook from the side of the bed, and start writing.

  ‘Why do we keep doing this, would it not be better to use actual spells?’

  “Well, can you cast any? The only one you can do is the one you were born with the ability to use, closer to muscle memory than a conscious spell, you need to be aware of the mana in your body to begin with, which is what we’re doing”

  ‘Did you do this as well when you were learning magic?’

  “Hmm... not really, magic was already within my innate abilities. This training is useful however! Although Marisa did it for 15 minutes and quit... she’s just a bit different than everybody, is all”

  I continued writing down, but a knight interrupted us by knocking on the door.

  “Midies! We have located Elizabeth!”

  “Oh! Where is she?”

  “H-hi...”

  Celestial got up and opened the door. What greeted us was one of the knights, and next to him, there she was, Elizabeth with a somewhat worried face, and holding what seemed to be a small box...

  —————————————————————————————————————————

  ***Ellie’s POV***

  “Are you sure Ellie? You don’t have to if you don’t want to!”

  “Un! I’m sure let’s go!”

  Anna was gonna head back home because she needed to take care of the sheep in her home! If I help her, she can finish faster and we can py longer!

  Much like me, Anna is not an orphan, but we get together to py with the other kids! It’s fun!

  “I live rather far away though”

  “It can’t be that far! Besides, I don't get tired!”

  “Ha! You city kids don’t have the power of working on a farm! I bet I have more energy than you”

  “Oh! I bet you don’t!”

  “Then let’s race back home!”

  “You’re on!”

  And so we both ran across the street! Anna is slow, I can’t even see her in the distance anymore!

  No way Anna can beat me in a race! Big sister has been training with me so I can become a knight as well! Anna is a dummy for betting against me!

  Hmm...

  Where does Anna live? I should’ve asked before running away.

  Well I see her going towards me in the distance! I will ask her when she reaches me!

  “Ellie! *pant* Y-you’re super fast!”

  “Hehe! I am! But you’re already looking tired, are you ok?”

  “Y-yeah! This much is nothing!”

  “Then let’s continue! Where do you live?”

  “Ah! Just outside! In a small barn outside the border!”

  “O-outside town?”

  I have never gone outside the town. Big sister is gonna get mad at me if I just run away...

  “Let’s go, it’s not that far!”

  “Anna, I don’t think my sister will let me go outside of town...”

  “But my house it’s still part of the town! Just, on the very edge, does that not count?”

  “Then it’s still in town?”

  “Un!”

  “Then it should be fine!”

  Anna took me outside into the forest, and after walking through a dirt road, I saw an old and ugly house!

  “Do you live here?”

  “Un! You’re always welcomed Ellie!”

  “Thanks!”

  I won’t say anything to not sound rude, but the orphanages look better than this ugly wood house...

  “DADDY, I’M HOME!!”

  Anna screamed while running to the door holding my hand, and an old man opened the door.

  “Anna, sweetheart! Welcome home!”

  She let go of my hand, and hugged the man, he must be Anna’s father! They look alike and so different at the same time!

  “Oh my, who’s your friend baby?”

  “Daddy, this is my friend Ellie! Ellie, my dad!”

  “A-A pleasure to meet you!”

  Big sister told me to be ‘cortius’ with my elders!

  “Ellie, I’m Lucas, the pleasure is mine”

  “Daddy, Ellie is gonna help me with the sheep!”

  “Anna, what did I tell you about dragging people into doing your chores!”

  “I...”

  “I-It’s ok! I asked Anna to let me help her!”

  “Ellie, you’re a good girl, but won’t your parents worry, if you come all the way out here!”

  “Daddy! Ellie doesn’t-”

  “Ah! Sorry dear, it’s-”

  “It’s ok! I don’t remember mom or dad! My sister has always taken care of me”

  “Ah, I see! Your sister then, did she let you come all the way here?”

  “T-that’s...”

  “That’s not good Ellie, you need to tell her these things before going to a stranger’s home! Let’s take you back”

  “It should be fine, my sister is outside, and probably won’t come back until it’s night”

  She’s been spending so much time with everyone. It's fun to hang around them but I get bored after a while, I guess it is better than before.

  “Hmm... even still, ask permission next time, ok?”

  “Ok!”

  “Good girl, can I offer you something to drink perhaps?”

  “Daddy, we’re gonna go take the sheep to graze!”

  Anna’s father simply scratched his head, and let out a sigh.

  “Let’s go all three of us, I don’t want Ellie to get hurt”

  “Oh! Ok!”

  ...

  ...

  “It smells gross!”

  “That’s what sheep smell like Ellie”

  “Heh, you have the same disgusted face that Marisa had when she visited!”

  “Sister Marisa came here before?”

  “Sister? Is Marisa your sister Ellie?”

  “Not my sister, sister! But she’s close to my real sister, so I call her sister as well!”

  “Ah, I see, I just thought that, since you’re a demon and all of that”

  “I am, but my sister is not!”

  “Then who’s your sister, baby?”

  “Heather!”

  “Heather as in, the captain of the pace knights?”

  “Un! But she isn’t captain anymore”

  “Right, this... you really need to tell your sister where you go off to!”

  “Sorry...”

  Anna’s dad just ruffled my hair.

  “It’s ok, now let’s go take the sheep to eat”

  ““Ok!””

  ...

  ...

  Sheep eat grass, that’s weird! I tasted grass once but it was really bad, at least they seem to enjoy it!

  “.........ie......”

  “Hm?”

  “What’s the matter Ellie?”

  “I just heard someone call my name!”

  Both Anna and her dad looked at each other.

  “I didn’t hear anything”

  “Me neither baby, you must be hearing things”

  “!! No, it’s there again, I recognize this voice!”

  I ran towards the entrance of Anna’s home, and there she was!

  “Sister Rusha!”

  “Ellie! Where the hell have you been! You have any idea how worried I was when you disappeared from town!”

  “Ah! S-Sorry...”

  “Don’t ‘sorry’ me, you had me and your sister worried!”

  Wawawa! Sister Rusha is gonna scold me!...

  —————————————————————————————————————————

  ***Heather’s POV***

  Rushka’s fake arm and leg have improved a whole lot! It almost feels like my real arm and leg.

  This will definitely help me go back into the swing of things, now just the hefty backpack adding the extra weight, I really need to increase my skills in magic to be able to run it myself.

  “A-Are you sure you know where we’re going?”

  “Of course, it’s on the outskirts if memory serves me right”

  “Just lead the way Adele, Az doesn’t have a say to doubt you”

  “Harsh!”

  “Yeah, Marisa is still angry at you, you know”

  “Sorry! I swear I didn’t really know anything about the church!”

  “We know, Marisa can tell when people lie, that doesn’t change the fact you helped”

  “Yeah...”

  “Also you two, a bit unfair I’m the only one running!”

  Adele is levitating off the floor, and Az is flying above us to keep pace. I’m not really mad, I simply said it to get Az out of her gloomy mood, if we’re to work as a team, we need everyone to have proper morale.

  “Pff! I can float you as well, would you want that?”

  “Not really, it’s a good jog!”

  “Then why bring it up...”

  “Because I felt like retorting”

  Hey, at least it worked somewhat, I hope.

  We arrived at the outskirts, and after continuing a bit through the road to the next town, Adele made a sharp turn to the middle of nowhere, where a rather rge sign that says ‘entrance forbidden’ with the town lord’s stamp on it, tells me we hit our destination.

  “Do the signs stop people?”

  “Nope, which is why the entrance was bricked off, we’re gonna have to bust our way in”

  “Wait, would this not count as trespassing?”

  “Heather, aren’t you the town lord’s wife? If we get in troubles with guards, just use your title”

  ...my title, right...

  I must admit I don’t like the idea of funting my authority like that, even if it’s the truth of the situation.

  “Here we are”

  “It really is bricked off!”

  “You two sit back, I will burst it open”

  “Wait Adele! Allow me, you might colpse the pce with an explosion”

  “What’s your pn Heather?”

  Good thing I brought a sword with me, I simply pced my hand on the handle, it might be iffy since it’s my real hand, and my non dominant one, but I have been training nonstop!

  I took a deep breath, and after keeping both of my feet firmly grounded, I made three consecutive sshes on the brick wall, carving a clean triangle hole.

  “*whistle* As expected of the ex-captain of the pace knights...”

  “Y-you two have some monstrous strength!”

  “Even I’m impressed, it looks pretty good!”

  It’s a dark tunnel without a single light inside, I guess it’s time to go and save Elizabeth, I just hope she’s ok!

  Joanne_carper