Usually, Ella is gentle and obedient, speaking in a soft and warm voice that makes people want to get closer to her.
Occasionally, Ella is cool and enigmatic, a bit wicked—so wicked, in fact, that she’s as mesmerizing and mysterious as the ravine beneath her collar, making people a little afraid, yet unable to resist wanting to explore her depths.
Just now, Ella was… a rascal.
She was so shameless!
Meeting someone for the first time and immediately ordering them around, acting so righteously about it.
Then, after being startled, she hurriedly put on airs and kept bossing people around, pretending everything was under control.
Faced with this kind of Ella, I can’t help but want to do something a little excessive to her, just to see how she’d react—to watch her desperately try to maintain her dignity, only to gradually lose control in a cute way.
How bad!
How can I have such thoughts…
But I just can’t help it, the more I think about it, the harder it is to stop.
In the end, Zero didn’t let her imagination go any further and forcibly stopped her daydreams.
Not because she had self-control, but because she had manners.
“No need to be sad, and no need to take it to heart,” said the young lady, Kagasha-senpai’s great-granddaughter.
“Great-grandma always said she should have left decades ago, but there was something she hadn’t finished. Now that her wish is fulfilled and she can return to the Yellow Springs to reunite with old friends, it’s a happy thing for her.”
Zero learned that her name was Lisa.
Just now, it was Lisa who led people in to tidy up and restore great-grandma’s body.
Since all those years of suffering and deprivation suddenly caught up with her, her body turned straight into a dried corpse, which actually saved the descendants a lot of trouble.
Facing what could be considered a funeral, Zero naturally put away her fantasies and treated the matter with solemnity and respect.
The funeral was very simple.
The moments of silent tribute and bowing had already been done outside.
After entering, they placed Kagasha’s body into the wooden coffin that had long been prepared.
“Great-grandma said to bury her only after everything was over,” Lisa turned back and said to the girl.
“There are a little over thirty of us, all with varying levels of training, and we’re here to lend you a hand.”
Zero thought for a moment and asked tentatively, “What do you mean by varying levels of training?”
“At the very least, like that day when you first discovered us.”
Assassinating someone in broad daylight—indeed impressive.
No one around had reacted at the time, not even her own teammates, and even she herself only sensed the killing intent a split second before it happened.
Maybe their head-on combat abilities weren’t great, but they certainly had their uses. For example… what did Ella say last time?
Zero remembered: “I have a companion who’s very smart. During our actions in Harbor City, we basically followed her plans. She said we need to meet with Governor Kelu tomorrow.”
“Governor? Of the Lanai Family?”
Lisa’s expression changed slightly.
“Great-grandma said they’re dangerous people and always warned us not to confront them directly.”
Dangerous?
Zero tensed up for a moment, but quickly realized that danger is relative.
If it came to a direct confrontation, the Hero Squad shouldn’t be weaker than the other side.
They’d even been holding back for Ella’s sake before.
“If possible, could you keep watch over the Governor’s Mansion, as long as it’s safe?”
This task wasn’t difficult, and Lisa readily agreed.
After bidding farewell to the cloaked assassins, Zero left the alley and returned to the inn, quietly climbing back in through the window.
Next door was Ella’s room.
She went over to take a look—the pink-haired thunder girl had already returned ahead of her, lying on the bed fast asleep, breathing deeply and peacefully.
Just looking at her pretty, adorable face and the way her big “mochi” rose and fell with her breathing, that earlier fantasy sprouted like wild grass in spring, growing wildly in her mind.
“Mmm… I’m amazing… hee hee.”
Even the way she talked in her sleep was adorable.
‘…’
In the end, Zero held back, because it was already too late tonight.
Zzzz
The next morning arrived.
Ella didn’t wake up early—in fact, she was even a bit late. It was mainly because, after returning, she had a wonderful dream: she dreamt she drew a bunch of SSR Demon Souls from the Yellow Springs pool, each one as strong as a Hero Squad member.
Then she was on top of the world, leading her invincible Undead Minor Catastrophe south and north, almost conquering the world.
How did she fail in the end? It was because a reproachful voice sounded in her ear—
“Wake up, you lazybones! Everyone’s downstairs waiting for you—they’ve been waiting a long time!”
The Demon King’s evil dream of world domination was righteously interrupted by the Saintess.
Ella lazily rolled over, humming with her eyes closed, “Got it, I’m coming.” That “coming” took ten minutes.
When the pink-haired thunder girl finally made it to the first floor hall, her Hero Squad companions were all looking at her.
Celes even asked with concern: “Didn’t sleep well last night? Is something on your mind?”
Ella mumbled an “Mmm,” cutely tilted her head, and replied in a soft, sweet voice, “I’m fine, I just kept thinking about what we should do, and before I knew it, I couldn’t sleep. But I’m feeling okay now—don’t worry.”
“I see,” Celes breathed a sigh of relief.
“That’s good, then.”
Zero, the only one who knew the truth, hesitated to speak, feeling conflicted.
She really is a rascal—lying without even blushing, and acting so well-behaved on top of it.
I’d love to see her cute reaction if she ever gets exposed.
Taking the tea Celes handed her, Ella finished it in one go, patted her pretty little face, and snapped fully awake, entering “wise mode”:
“The Ritual seems to be on the night of the seventh day. That means, at most, we have two and a half days left. During this time, it’s best if we figure out what will happen at the Ritual. If we can’t, it doesn’t matter—either way, it can’t be anything good, so we have to stop it.”
So how should they stop the Ritual?
There was no need to ask—the way the girls looked at her made it clear.
To this, Ella waved her little hand, “We need to visit Governor Kelu first. Depending on how today’s visit goes, we’ll decide whether to use a more conservative approach or take more aggressive action.”
Celes stood up, her already-donned armor clanking softly.
“No time to waste—let’s move.”
Before leaving, she once again arranged the Hero Squad’s tactics—
“If anything changes, Vina will use Wide-Area Magic to create confusion, and then we’ll form the ‘Anti-Demon King Formation.’”
Hearing those last few words, Ella’s eyelid twitched.
It was true: warrior in the front, healer giving buffs, magician controlling the field, and an assassin roaming freely for surprise attacks—no one could withstand that.
But this traditional formation was missing a certain someone.
When everyone looked her way, Ella quickly put on a sweet smile, “I’ll go with Vina—I can use a little Magic too.”
“Alright, then let’s go.”
On the morning of the fifth day, the five best members of the Hero Squad once again set out for the Governor’s Mansion.