Cathedral of Light.
Leah stomped her foot in anger, and after her anger, she was filled with anxiety.
“What should we do, Zero? She detained her!”
If she’s detained now, after midnight, the word “detain” will lose its meaning!
“You need to calm down. She won’t be harmed.”
“Why?”
“Because there’s a size difference between Ella and Vina. She’s much bigger than her.”
Zero spoke calmly.
“As long as she doesn’t agree herself, it can’t happen.”
A pink-haired Big Thunder girl isn’t someone you can just detain at will.
The rumors on the streets of Light Cross Star City are unreliable; don’t really take her for a succubus.
Leah paused, thinking carefully, and realized her good sister’s words made sense.
That’s right, there’s a difference.
She’s not a little loli. It’s not so easy to detain someone just like that.
And the loli is over there.
“Mm…”
Come to think of it, Lala is even bigger than herself.
In theory, she could also refuse to join, but she agrees every time.
Does that mean Lala is willing in her heart?
Ah, it’s too embarrassing.
The Saintess’s pretty face flushed red, and she stammered that they should rest early, then turned and returned to her Sanctum to get ready for bed.
Zzzz
Small Town.
Celes faced her Master’s question, hesitating for a long time before slowly speaking.
“Actually, it’s not really love. We probably haven’t reached that level yet…”
The former Kingdom’s Chief Sword Saint nodded vigorously.
“Right, exactly. That’s what I thought back then too.”
“…………”
There’s no way to continue this conversation.
Maybe Master felt it too, and waved her hand.
“Of course, I’m not saying your outcome will be the same as mine. I don’t mean that. Although the direction looks similar, there should be some differences in the details. I’m not saying you’ll end up like me, but it really does sound similar.”
“…………”
It would have been better if she hadn’t said anything.
The more she spoke, the more anxious Celes felt.
Could she really be walking down a path of failure?
“Forget it. It’s getting late. I’ll go tidy up a guest room. You rest first. Think things through tonight as you sleep.”
Master stood up and headed for the second floor, while Celes sat in her chair for a long time before realizing—was she supposed to sleep or think?
However, an hour later, the girl lying on the bed found it wasn’t a problem.
Because she couldn’t sleep at all!
Every time she closed her eyes, she saw herself a few years later, crouching alone in the countryside, the cool autumn wind blowing through her hair like reeds, filling her with loneliness.
The more she thought, the more suffocated she felt, and the less she could sleep.
Finally, she turned over and instinctively tried to go outside.
Wait, this isn’t the Royal City or the Bonfire Camp.
Ella isn’t next door.
Standing by the window for a few minutes to calm herself, Celes returned to bed and buried her head in the pillow.
Sleep!
Zzzz
Finally, the Magic Court of the Royal City.
“If you dare fall asleep before me, I’ll detain you while you sleep.”
Ella, who had just closed her eyes, suddenly opened them wide.
Good grief, this was the first time in two lifetimes she’d heard such a threat.
“Are you having insomnia?”
“No, I just wanted to chat.”
Vina lay on the small bed nearby, her little feet swinging.
“If you don’t do something before sleeping, don’t you feel like there’s something missing today?”
Ella thought about it seriously.
“There used to be.”
To be precise, in her previous life, she had to play with her phone before sleeping, but now there’s no phone, and lying in bed with nothing to do isn’t entertaining.
She couldn’t start doing… other things, either.
“I just want to know one thing.”
Vina scooted closer, her peach-blossom eyes staring at her.
“What exactly did you do with Miss Leah and Zero to make them suddenly unite? Did you give them both at the same time?”
Ella’s little heart thumped, and she almost blurted out, “How did you know?”
“Why… are you saying such weird things? I don’t even understand. As for Miss Leah and Zero getting along, isn’t that normal? We’re companions to begin with.”
The pink-haired Big Thunder girl said as such.
“Fine then.”
The little witch raised her hands like little claws.
“We’re companions too, so let me detain you once.”
“…..There’s no such thing.”
It’s the ‘companion’s companion,’ not the ‘girl’s girl.’ If being companions meant detaining each other, Lala would’ve died on the bed long ago.
“Whether or not you know yourself, in short, you’re stingy.”
Vina snorted lightly.
“I clearly took such good care of you and gave you everyone’s intel, yet you treat me like this.”
Ella thought, your intel wasn’t that accurate anyway.
While Celes is indeed repressed, and Zero does have a hidden side, but as for Leah being a double-faced person—how is she double-faced?
“You look unconvinced. Let me ask, whose intel was inaccurate? Was it Miss Leah?”
Vina asked directly.
“Wasn’t she super cold at first?”
“Mm…”
If you put it that way, then yes, she could be considered double-faced, and from a certain perspective, being tsundere does fall under the traditional double-faced category.
“Heartless stingy ghost, I won’t talk to you anymore. Anyway, Miss Leah isn’t that stingy.”
Vina crawled back to her own bed, pulled up her little blanket, and left a final warning.
“Just wait. When I win the bet, I’ll detain you to death!”
“…………”
What a vicious threat.
A few minutes later, Ella quietly checked and found that Vina was truly asleep—not faking it—so she finally relaxed and went to sleep herself.
Zzzz
The next day, the Royal City woke to a chorus of noise, but the Magic Court was well-insulated.
No matter how loud it was outside, it couldn’t penetrate inside.
When Ella and Vina, the two lazybones, finally woke up, they saw an official descending the stairs with a worried face, shaking his head and sighing as he left.
“Who is that?”
The little witch rubbed her eyes.
“He looks familiar.”
“City Defense Commander of the Royal City.”
Ella replied.
“We’d occasionally see him when we went to the Royal Palace.”
“Seems like that’s right. Little Ai, your memory is amazing.”
Of course.
No joke—after finally entering the Royal City, she remembered all the generals and vermin of the Human Race Kingdom with perfect clarity.
As for the City Defense Commander, he was the top supervisor of the guards, responsible for the city’s internal security—excluding the inner palace, which was the Palace Guards’ duty.
“Why did he come here?”
Vina asked.
But even as she asked, she already had a guess in her heart, the same as Ella’s.
A security incident.
A few minutes later, the two girls pushed open the door, startling the Grand Sage, who was deep in thought.
“So early? I thought you’d sleep a bit longer…”
Who knows what misunderstanding led him to think getting up past ten in the morning was early.
“Forget it. You came at the right time. Captain Lide of City Defense just came over—something happened in the city.”
The Grand Sage lowered his voice.
“It’s related to us.”