Chapter 99:
The Wonder Trio’s Homecoming
“All right! We’ve tried storing plants, dead animals and monsters, and live animals and monsters. All tests clear.”
“Judging by the amount of water left in this bottle, we can safely confirm that time does not pass inside!”
“There are no problems with Aureana extracting items that I’ve stored and vice versa.”
“And we’ve confirmed that it is possible to store even an entire fallen tree. We can put away items of at least that volume without any ill effects…”
“It’s just as Miss Adele explained!”
Along the road home, as they passed through uninhabited parts of the forest, the Wonder Trio carried out various experiments. Obviously, no matter how well they had understood Mile’s explanation, the three of them were not going to attempt to use any new magic without a bit of practice, or rather, a sufficient amount of testing. It was their M.O. in such cases to thoroughly explore every aspect of a technique and make sure that there were no unexpected failings or blind spots.
It was better to leave a few days between the letter they had sent to Morena and their arrival, so they planned to take the time to thoroughly practice the other new magics that Mile had taught them as well in order to truly make the spells their own. They would not be able to practice within the capital, under the eyes of so many others.
Now that they had confirmed a number of things about the “inventory” magic, one question lingered.
“Everything about her explanation was correct.”
“Yes, she’s good at teaching people things, and her explanations are always impeccable, which means…”
“There were no mistakes at all, but…”
“…Indeed.”
“There’s a big, big problem here!!!” the three cried.
“If you were to store a large amount of merchandise in this space—” Marcela began.
“The transportation system would collapse. It would be a critical blow to every facet of the economy—transportation firms, carriage houses, stables, the people employed in making wagons, drivers, bodyguard hunters, the shops that all those people spend their money at, and so forth!” Monika finished, grimacing.
Aureana’s expression was even more troubled. “That’s not all! Imagine if one of us were in a castle or fort that was under siege and another one of us was in a town with an abundance of food supplies. And if the one on the outside kept loading those into the inventory, while the one in the fort kept pulling them out…”
“They’d never run out of food or water, and the siege could drag on forever!”
Monika paled at Aureana’s words. Their kingdom would never ignore the existence of such a nuclear weapon, militarily speaking.
Yet that wasn’t all. Marcela pointed out something even more outrageous.
“Not just food! Imagine if you could put whole soldiers in there and draw them back out as reinforcements… An army that would never diminish, no matter how long you battled. You could fight and fight, with no sign of the soldiers within the fortress ever decreasing. Though of course, every time they fought, more and more soldiers would die… The attacking side would never be able to withstand such a siege! But the defending side would be at a huge advantage.”
Indeed. If such a thing were possible, and the kingdom was made aware…
The crown. The nobility. The military…
They would never keep this quiet.
“We cannot tell a single soul!!!”
Yes, if such a thing were to be known, the three of them would never have a day’s peace in their lives.
“Miss Adele has put a most volatile trigger into our hands! I mean, it’s a wonderful thing, of course! It’s wonderful that we can carry our things without trouble, and stay clean and well groomed. But this great big bomb is just far too dangerous!!” Marcela howled. The other two looked fully resigned.
“Well, that’s Miss Adele for you.”
“That’s our Adele…”
***
“Finally! Those three are far too undisciplined with correspondence. Not only did they rarely write, but also, when their letters finally arrived, they wrote only, ‘Nothing to report. Still on duty. Everyone is well.’ This one had better be different!” Princess Morena—or rather, Moren, the F-rank hunter and newest member of the Wonder Trio—muttered bitterly to herself. She had just collected the Wonder Trio’s letter from a clerk at the capital branch of the Hunters’ Guild.
“Anyway, let’s see this… If this is over in three lines again, I’m going to be quite cross. Now, let’s see, let’s see…” Breaking the seal, “Moren” ran her eyes over the contents of the note. “Let’s see here… What?! They’re coming back?! They’ll give a report on their return? What could that mean?”
Mor—Mo ren grumbled to herself as she trudged back to the palace, cursing the Trio’s letter and balling up the useless thing—which said neither the reason for their sudden return, nor anything of their results.
“If they come back here, there’s going to be a mass of people to keep them from ever running again—Father, Mother, my brothers, and so many others… I’ll need to try and find out exactly what everyone is planning.”
Indeed, there was much to think about.
***
“We’re finally home!”
The Wonder Trio had made it back to the capital of their home country of Brandel. They had sent a letter from a town they had stopped in three days prior, which should have arrived the day before, and should have been handed straight to Princess Morena. They had sent this letter not via the guild but by a passenger carriage headed toward the city. Barring an attack by bandits or other event, it was rare that such packages were not delivered. Furthermore, it was rare to see bandits active on the main highways so close to the city, where they would be swiftly dealt with. Following that same road themselves, the Trio had heard no reports of bandit activity, which meant that the letter had surely arrived with no delay.
“Now then, just as we arranged, we will take it easy today at the chosen inn until Her Highness can come to us in secret. Why don’t we have a nap until she arrives?” Marcela proposed.
“Yes, we did set out awfully early this morning,” Monika chimed.
“It’s been a while since we’ve had a nice rest,” Aureana agreed.
It would have been quite the bother for them to arrive at the inn they had indicated to Princess Morena, only to find all the rooms booked, and so the three had made haste to the capital, securing their room as soon as they arrived.
***
“A young lady has come asking for you.”
“Yes, that would be an acquaintance of ours. Please see her in.”
That evening, after dinner, Morena arrived, having slipped out of the palace. She may have been traveling incognito, but she still had a secret guard with her, and one could be sure that the perimeter of the inn was most secure.
“Everyone, I congratulate you on your hard work on this extended special assignment. What’s most important is that you are uninjured and in good health. Now, tell me everything!”
And so, the Wonder Trio spoke. They confirmed that Viscountess Adele von Ascham was still living and that she was leading a fairly happy life… However, they gave not one hint about her current whereabouts, the fact that she had assumed a different name, or that there was a possibility of her returning to the country in just a few years. Were they to so much as bring up the possibility of her returning soon, the princes might end up waiting, leaving the positions of first wives vacant, and if they spilled her whereabouts or her current name, then there was no doubting that specialized units would be dispatched for her retrieval.
“We have been forbidden from disclosing her whereabouts to anyone without her permission. If we were to violate those instructions, then the ‘you-know-who’ who dwells within her would…”
“Eep!”
Naturally, Morena could not argue with this.
“But did you let her know that all of her family’s affairs have been settled and that she is now the rightful successor to the Ascham estate?”
“Yes, we told her. But she said that there were other things she needed to do right now.”
“I see… Well, as long as she is safe and happy…”
The members of the Wonder Trio were relieved to see that Morena seemed to have no intention of dragging Adele back by force.
“You have given up on bringing her back to the kingdom? In that case, then from now on…”
“Yes, well, the fact is that we took an extended leave from our positions not long after our appointment—and while it may have been on Your Highness’s orders, we have also failed in our duties to you. In order to take responsibility for these failings, we would like to tender our resignation from the imperial guard.”
“What?!” Morena screamed as though Marcela had just dropped a bomb.
“Shh! Please keep it down!” Marcela frantically pressed a hand over the princess’s mouth. This was mildly disrespectful, but she hadn’t much choice. Besides, the princess was a good friend of theirs, so her actions should be forgivable.
At any rate, if one were to shout in a peaceful inn like this, it would be audible throughout the entire place. And in particular, the shout of a young lady…
“What’s going on?!”
Naturally, all of the staff and young male guests would come rushing in—with motives both noble and less so.
“Please forgive us,” said the four girls, bowing their heads to the assembled crowd.
“Sorry…” apologized Morena, a look of remorse upon her face.
At least it had not been the middle of the night.
“Really, Miss Marcela, this is your fault for saying something like that! This was a mission that I sent you on… Though you all were the ones who came up with it…”
This princess seemed to know, on some level, that the Trio had used her as an excuse to go after their friend. However, they had not deceived her. The scheme had served both their motives, and they had each played their own parts. Really, there was nothing wrong with this—they had acted both as business partners and as friends. Both sides were fully complicit in this conspiracy.
That said, though they had not managed to achieve their goal, there was something rather treacherous in the Trio’s plan to abscond with Adele and leave the princess unaware of what had happened…
“There is no reason for you to give up your positions in my all-female personal guard. I have already been thoroughly scolded for this incident by my father and virtually every other member of the royal household, so that matter is already settled. I have received sufficient punishments—a decrease in allowance, being grounded, having my study hours increased… So many horrible, horrible, horrible punishments…” Morena grit her teeth, her eyes bloodshot.
The Wonder Trio took in the expression on her face with looks of terror.
“It is strange, though. For some reason, this whole incident seems to have given people a more favorable opinion of me…”
“Huh?”
Indeed, those around the princess had noticed her deftness at establishing the all-female imperial guard unit, and their interest had only grown at the discovery that even that had been nothing more than a front for a more secret mission. The fact that she had managed to see it through to the end with no one the wiser was proof of fearsome resourcefulness and admirable planning, and so, respect for the third princess had skyrocketed. In fact, unbeknownst to Morena, she was now being called the “Princess of Stratagems.”
“Anyway, that is where things currently stand, so the trial run of the all-female unit is going to continue. As you all have no marks against you, there is nothing wrong with having you return to your initial posts. Tomorrow, you may come back to the palace, having completed the task that I sent you out to do…”
Clearly, the princess wished for them to stay on as guards. However, for the Trio, this was rather inconvenient. Their plan this whole time had been to use Morena’s orders as their reason to exit the country legitimately and unimpeded, in order to search for Adele. Now that that was finished, they had no intention of continuing to work as soldiers. In truth, the three of them were not suited for such a job, hence their desire for a swift discharge. Morena, however, was not about to let that happen. Her dear, true friends, around whom she could always be herself, had finally returned to her side, and she had no intentions of losing them.
Furthermore, Morena still intended for Marcela to marry one of her brothers. This was something that both of the princes seemed to desire strongly as well, so it was not as though the idea was all that implausible. Morena merely was not taking Marcela’s wishes into account at all… This was not all that surprising. Morena could see that both her elder brother, Adalbert, and her younger brother, Vince, were both attractive young men, even in addition to the fact they were the crown and second princes. In Morena’s wildest imaginings, she could not suppose any young lady would object to a proposal from such gentlemen.
Yes, as far as Morena was concerned, this was the best way to achieve both her and her brothers’ wishes, and Marcela’s happiness.
And so, in the hopes of changing Marcela’s mind, she said it. Yes, she really went and said it .
“Both my elder and younger brother have hoped that you will come to reside in the palace… I believe that one or the other of them might start speaking of marriage soon. My father seems to be feeling out the possibility of you, Miss Monika, being wed into the family of a certain baron as well—and there’s a possibility of you, Miss Aureana, being welcomed into a noble family as an adoptive daughter. From there, I’m sure you’d find a wonderful partner…”
“Gy…”
“Gy?”
“Gyaaaaaah!!!”
Thankfully, this time, no inn staff or other guests came rushing in or violently shushing them. They were already used to hearing loud noises from this group.
***
After Princess Morena went back home, the Wonder Trio fell silent for some time.
“I still have no interest in allowing myself to end up as some concubine of the royal family…”
“Adopted daughter of a noble family sounds nice enough, but I know that I’m not worth that much myself. They just want us as bait to bring Adele back home. Plus, it’s easy to imagine how a common-born girl might be treated among a bunch of nobles. And even if they did treat me kindly on the surface, there’s no way that they would all truly welcome me into a life of leisure…”
“Same goes here!”
Marcela, Aureana, and Monika were all in agreement.
And so…
“Time to get out of here!!!”
***
The next day, Morena waited and waited for the Trio to arrive at the palace. Finally, her patience ran out, and she headed to the inn to find…
“Those girls left in a hurry in the middle of the night.”
“Wha…?”
Naturally, the innkeeper was in no position to be refusing a princess—even on the grounds of protecting a customer’s personal information. Especially because Morena had been in such a hurry that she had not bothered with her disguise, setting out as she was with a guard contingent in tow… As such, the innkeeper had not hesitated to share what he knew.
In a greater hurry now, Morena rushed to the guildhall, going straight for the reception area.
“Th-the Wonder Trio…”
The clerk was well trained enough to treat Morena the same as she would any F-rank hunter or member of the Wonder Trio—regardless of the fact that she was dressed as a princess and accompanied by her guard.
“They left a letter for you…”
Morena practically snatched the envelope from the woman, breaking the seal with shaking hands to extract the letter inside. She quickly scanned over the contents to read…
On your orders, we are returning to our mission of searching for Viscountess Adele von Ascham. Nothing to report. Still on duty. Everyone is well.
“They’ve done it agaiiiiiiin!!!”
***
“So, which way should we go? Should we head straight back to Adele?”
“We can’t go running right back to her—that would just be embarrassing!”
“Well then, why don’t we head west, in the opposite direction, to throw everyone off our trail? We can get stronger as hunters, strong enough that Adele can’t deny us. Then, after we’ve made a trip to the west, we’ll turn back around, sneak through Brandel, and head into Tils. True, Adele is the reason we first became hunters, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t become full-fledged hunters on our own. And imagine if we were going to continue as hunters, whether or not she was with us… She would no longer have any reason to refuse to travel with us, right?”
“That’s it!!!”
And so, the Wonder Trio headed westward. They passed through Mile’s home, the Ascham lands, and onward to the country to the west, which the Crimson Vow had once visited…
On their way back to the capital of Brandel, they had not accepted any jobs, heading straight back to their motherland. The whole way, all the magical practice they had done had been focused on verifying the support skills they had learned from Mile, so they had not yet let off any full-powered attack spells.
They neither knew that they now had a great number of nanomachines of exceptionally high affinity permanently surrounding their persons, nor did they have any idea what that would mean for them.
Once again, Mile had no idea what it was that she had wrought…
***
“By the way, about this inventory,” said Marcela, turning to her two companions with a serious look upon her face. “It is awfully convenient, so we can use it as much as we like when there’s no one else around to see us, but in front of other people I think it’s best that only one of us use it at a time. If nothing else, it’s going to cause a bit of a commotion if there three storage magic users all together…”
“That’s fair.”
The Wonder Trio understood the dangers of overdoing it. Those who were aware of their circumstances might be able to accept their newfound skills as a reward from the Goddess, but that didn’t mean that people wouldn’t try to take advantage of them, hanging around and hoping to reap their own benefits. Meanwhile, those who were not aware of their connection to the Goddess would never believe that a single party containing three storage magic users had come together by chance. The odds of such a thing were astronomically low, so it was only natural that they would assume the Trio was keeping some sort of secret.
They might think they had discovered some earth-shattering new method of learning storage magic. Or that they had some sort of special item, like a magic bag. Something inherited through their bloodlines. And so on and so forth…
There were more than a few nobles, royals, merchants, and criminals who would think nothing of ruining the life of some commoner to get their hands on such a secret. At the very least, they might think it a waste to have three storage-magic users all in one place and force the members of the Wonder Trio in different directions, directing one to the guild higher-ups, another to the Crown, and a third to the army.
“If we conceal it entirely, we won’t be able to use it for things like transporting the creatures we hunt. However, it should be fine if we make sure that it’s just one of us using it, even if the capacity may raise eyebrows. So then, as for which of us should be the one to do it…” Marcela continued. She took a breath and then calmly continued, “I think it should be me.”
“What?!” Monika and Aureana were stunned.
“No way! A child who can use storage magic would be far too appealing a target for bandits and traffickers—it’s much too dangerous! I will do it. It’s less unusual for me to be using it anyway, since I’m the daughter of a merchant and not a noble…”
“No, it should be me. I have the lowest standing of the three of us, so I should be the one to take on that danger.”
Hearing the counter arguments from the other two, Marcela rebutted in an unusually angry tone, “Any noble who would push danger onto a commoner is trash! You all are aware of the concept of noblesse oblige , are you not? Miss Monika, would you force me to brand myself a failure as a noble? Would you , Aureana?!” Her gaze darted between the both of them. “Status means nothing among us!”
Yet the other two argued right back.
“That’s a double standard! How can you say to Aureana that status means nothing, while using your own status as the whole justification for your argument?! That’s rather presumptuous of you!” shouted Monika.
“Allow me to offer a more logical approach,” Aureana cut in. “I have the least magical ability of the three of us. If I were using storage magic, then that would explain why I don’t have the energy to use many other spells. Magically speaking, I don’t have much to offer, so this would be a nice way for me to play a more effective role in the group. On the other hand, Miss Marcela, if you take this role, your value will rise far too high, and more and more people will be after you, including the royal family and other high-ranking nobles. A young noblewoman with no current marriage prospects, who can use attack spells, has the favor of the Goddess, and is, moreover, a storage magic user. You’d never be able to escape. Are you really all right with that?”
“Uh…”
Marcela was by no means a poor debater, but clearly she was out of her league when up against the joint forces of Monika, the merchant’s daughter, and Aureana, with her natural brains. She was unable to argue with their logic. However, everyone has certain things over which they will never back down. For Marcela, this was one of them.
Finally, Marcela unleashed a trump card.
“I have made my decision as party leader!”
“Guh!”
The was not a card that Marcela had ever played before. But they all knew the party leader’s ruling was law. A hunting party was not some kind of recreational club. If they sat around talking everything out until they were all in agreement, or at least reached a majority decision, they would quickly be wiped out. Should a party member ever disagree vehemently with the leader’s decisions, they would have to leave the party. These were the hard and fast rules of a hunting party.
The other two fell silent, unable to say anything. Then, after some moments of internal debate…
“Understood. Though, I wish I didn’t…”
“Same here.”
Apparently, they had decided to accept Marcela’s judgment…or rather, their party leader’s command.
“Now then, just in case, let’s go over the emergency evacuation spell I thought up last night,” Aureana suddenly proposed, her voice breaking through the tense atmosphere.
“Huh?”
“Well, you’re going to be shouldering all this new danger, so I’ve thought of a technique we can use should you be abducted or need to escape for some other reason…though I’ve only just come up with this and haven’t yet thoroughly investigated or tested the concept.”
Seeing that she had Monika and Marcela’s full attention, Aureana continued: “Whenever we’re operating separately, should one of us become endangered or captured…”
The two waited patiently for her to finish.
“…just put yourself into the inventory.”
“Whaaa??”
Her two fellow hunters looked utterly perplexed.
“No time passes inside of there. So, you shouldn’t need any food or water or even air. No matter how long you have to stay inside, you won’t have to worry about the pain or boredom of waiting either. So, if you’re in danger, just put yourself inside the inventory and wait for one of the other two to pull you back out! In fact, it’s not really even waiting, since it’ll only feel like a moment for whoever is inside… Anyway, whenever we’re operating separately, we all just need to accept the responsibility of checking once a day to make sure that no one is inside the inventory.”
“You’re a genius!!!” the other two shouted.
“Er, well,” Monika said, “obviously you’re a genius. You were able to pass the special scholarship entrance exam, which is super tough…”
“That’s very true…” added Marcela, as the girls both laughed.
“However, there is something that we have to pay careful attention to with this.”
“What’s that?”
“Well, if we all put ourselves in there, without realizing that the others were already inside, then…”
“Then?”
“Then there would be no one to take us back out, and we’d be stuck in there forever. And because time never passes inside, we wouldn’t be able to take ourselves back out either…” Aureana explained.
“………”
The other two paled.
“Okay, so unless we’re incredibly desperate, we should check inside before we go in ourselves,” Aureana added. At this thought, the other two seemed to recover slightly. However…
“Ah,” Marcela said softly.
“What is it, Lady Marcela?” Monika asked curiously.
“If one of us were to travel alone to a far-off land, and one of the others who had stayed behind went into the inventory, they could travel to another country in an instant…”
“Ah.”
“And then, when the job was done, both of them could get inside and travel back home…”
“…”
“……”
“………”
“This is that extradimensional teleportation magic from the stories!!!”
“Why would you even come up with that?! This is way too much!!!”
“Forgive me…”
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