In the Land of Leadale - Volume 4 - Chapter 3

Chapter 3 - A Demon, a Summons, a Tower, and a Project

After they returned to the rental house and finished eating dinner, Cayna stayed with the girls until bedtime. As she gazed at their happy, sleeping faces, she sensed Roxine calling for her. As their summoner, Cayna was able to communicate telepathically with Roxine and Roxilius even from a distance. She soundlessly left the bedroom and went downstairs, where Roxine was waiting in the small area they used as a dining room.

“What’s wrong, Cie?”

“I apologize for interrupting,” Roxine replied as she poured tea for the two of them. “There were a string of troubling occurrences today that I feel I must report to you.”

“‘Troubling occurrences’?”

While Cayna sat down, Roxine told her of the hoodlums she had run into that afternoon and how they seemed to have planned to put the girls in harm’s way.

“Still, the fact you’re safe and telling me about all this means you handled it, right?”

“Well, yes. I did not kill them, but the fate they suffered was likely worse than death.”

“Good point…”

Just to be safe, Cayna reached out to Roxilius and asked if anything odd had happened. “Nothing of note,” came his reply. Apparently, the village was safe. Since it was possible their foe had already set out for the village and simply not arrived yet, she urged him to be careful and keep her updated.

“Everything’s fine on Rox’s end.”

“That is because these ruffians tried to get rid of me and kidnap the girls. Perhaps they wanted to use them as leverage against you?”

“Against me? For what…?” Cayna hit upon the reason in no time at all. “I bet they’re after my wagon golem.”

“The men are likely subordinates of the butler who visited the other day. It’s not too late. If you give the order, I shall rip them limb from limb.”

“We should first find out which noble they work for.”

“Tch!”

Roxine clicked her tongue in extreme disappointment. At this point, it was likely she’d lash out at their enemy the moment they figured out who was pulling the strings.

“At any rate, it looks like you crushed their big guns. We should be safe for a while.”

“Lady Cayna, you are being soft. Too soft. These are your garden-variety thugs. I humbly suggest we eliminate all suspects tonight.”

“Vetoed. That’s not what we came here for.”

What in the world was putting Roxine on such a warpath? Cayna tilted her head and wondered if she’d always been this relentless. It was likely rooted in her concern for the children. However, no one was asking her to go on a search-and-destroy mission over it. Besides, if Roxine went all out, Cayna would basically have a level-550 monster on her hands. She was stronger than even Shining Saber, meaning no one in Felskeilo would be able to stop her.

“Being a maid is your real calling, so please just stick with that. Keep looking after Lu and Lytt like you did today. Use your combat abilities for protection only.”

“…Very well, then.”

Roxine looked disappointed, but she still agreed to Cayna’s terms. There didn’t seem to be any danger of her disobeying an order. Cayna regained some peace of mind, but she didn’t think that was the last they’d see of the people targeting them.

“Tomorrow I’m gonna check out the river per the Adventurers Guild’s request. I’ll have another summoning help guard the girls.”

Cayna couldn’t look after Lytt and Luka at this rate. She needed to get to the bottom of this strange phenomenon, or else the River Festival was doomed.

“Lady Cayna, won’t summoning a high-level creature leave you short-handed?” Roxine asked.

Summoning Magic was powerful, but a summoned creature’s level depended on the summoner’s maximum available resources. Even a Skill Master couldn’t bypass these restrictions.

“As far as I know, zwohms are the largest aquatic monsters out there, and those live in the ocean.”

A zwohm was a giant cnidarian with the body of a spotted garden eel and the head of a sea anemone. They stayed on the ocean floor like ancient sea lilies and were rarely seen except on the occasional fishing expedition; their meat was considered a delicacy. Zwohms grew to over one hundred meters long, and it was highly unlikely Cayna would find any in a river since they were ocean dwellers. Plus, zwohms couldn’t be summoned in the first place.

“We’ll solve this a lot faster if it’s indigenous to this world rather than something from the game. Native creatures are usually pretty low-level, so I doubt I’ll need a particularly powerful summoning.”

“I won’t stop you if you’re that insistent, but please cancel my summons and focus on yourself if you must,” Roxine advised after quietly listening to her master’s explanation.

Cayna finished her tea and put down her cup. “Yeah, I will. Thanks, Cie.”

“You’re welcome.”

Roxine nodded politely, and Cayna bade her good night before heading back up to the girls’ room. “Good night,” Roxine replied as she saw her off, then finished washing the dishes and returned to her own room. “I don’t want to be caught off guard later,” she murmured to herself as she scrupulously checked her equipment before going to bed.

Meanwhile, at the Parched Scorpions’ stronghold…

Their leader couldn’t hide his rage at how more than half of the members were now out of commission.

“What the hell happened?!” He grabbed the collar of one of the subordinates among them who was relatively uninjured and mercilessly took out his rage on him. The man cowered under his boss’s intense voice and face full of terrifying anger and gave a stilted report of what he saw.

“The maid…was crazy strong…and—!”

The moans of subordinates wrapped in bandages like mummies could be heard everywhere. There were some whose eyes focused on nothing, others who trembled as they hugged their knees, and others still who were so deranged they didn’t even notice their open wounds. It was like a field hospital. Beds were brought in from the ruined mansion above, but since there weren’t enough, straw was laid on the floor for some to sleep on.

The wounds of key members had been healed with potions, but each one of them kept silent. No one looked at the leader or met his gaze.

The slender, dagger-wielding man was trembling beneath a blanket. He could feel his boss’s chilling gaze on him and was too terrified to meet it.

The large man who had wanted to hear the children cry was hunched over and facing the wall, mumbling nonsense to himself. His superhuman strength hadn’t done anything for him. In fact, he’d been quickly incapacitated, and being tossed like scrap paper had destroyed his confidence.

The small kobold man had his tail between his legs (literally) and was shaking underneath a bed. He’d seen his life flash before his eyes the moment he met his boss’s dark glare. He was now terrified of maids. Even stray cats looked like assassins to him.

The arrogant pickpocket who prided himself on his everyman looks and expressionless face was now frozen in a horrified grimace. No matter how hard he tried to maintain an air of calm, he couldn’t dispel the terrifying feeling that he could die at any moment. Fright distorted his features, and ironically enough, that made him stand out even more.

“Beaten by a maid?! You sayin’ the Parched Scorpions were done in by a woman?!” the leader’s voice boomed through the basement of their organization’s stronghold.

No one dared object. It seemed that these men who lived by the creed that the weak deserved to be picked on had never expected themselves to be weak. Each one’s pride had been smashed with ease, and they had been turned into cowards with a phobia of both maids and werecats.

“Dammit!!” the leader shouted in pure frustration.

This was all because of that one noble’s messenger, who gave the organization this job, and the leader resented the two of them for it. He had heard that their targets were an adventurer and a maid, but no one had said they were this strong.

Did the noble and his messenger purposefully not mention that information? Or did they simply not know? The leader couldn’t be sure either way.

Just as he was thinking about his revenge against them for this lack of details, he suddenly picked up an unfamiliar smell. He stopped pacing and clicking his tongue; a terrifying silence filled the basement.

The henchmen cowered, thinking their leader was about to explode with rage.

But his murmuring halted their pitiful wails. They heard him say softly, “What’s this smell?”

“Smell?”

“Huh?”

“Hm? What’s…this…smell?”

Before they knew it, the henchmen were starting to get a faint whiff. The sour, rusty odor made their hearts skip a beat. It was both familiar and foreign at the same time. No one could quite place it.

The henchmen wracked their brains trying to identify the smell but found themselves at a loss. Instead, a third party provided the answer.

“That is the scent of magic.”

It sounded like a raspy old man—or maybe like the sonorous echoing heard in caves.

““What the—?!””

The two henchmen who turned toward the source of the voice froze from the shock. Following this odd behavior, the other men who looked over at their comrades did the very same.

Floating in midair at the basement entrance was a pure white skull tilted slightly askew. But it wasn’t white like bone—the skull looked as if it had been drenched in white paint.

The floating skull was plenty bizarre on its own, but something about its position was off as well. It was suspended at roughly the height of a grown man’s chest.

“Keh-keh-keh-keh. How unfortunate for you all.”

The skull’s chattering jaw left no doubt that it was the source of the voice. The men near the entrance lost their nerve and scampered further inside the basement.

““Eek?!””

“““Agh…!”””

““Wha—?!””

““Uwagh!””

The skull moved forward until its full form appeared from the darkness. The tough, fearless henchmen let out petrified shrieks.

It looked like a withered and twisted old tree that had been forced into a humanoid shape. The pure white skull floated in a cavity within its chest. Perhaps because it already had a skull there, no head or neck was to be found.

“A d-d-d-devil…”

That was really the only way to describe it. It looked human, yet it wasn’t. Although a composite of different forms, the closest description was indeed humanoid.

Everyone had heard the tales at least once at church as a child—of a being one must never face. Even the organization’s leader, who had never been frightened a day in his life, felt true terror and took a few steps back. No one questioned him.

“Uwagh…”

“A-aghh…”

“Why? Why us…?”

Everyone in the room drew ragged breaths, their eyes grew hollow, and they were unable to look away from the grotesque form before them.

“Keh-keh-keh. Even if you knew why, there is nothing you can do.”

Creaking and groaning, the ghastly old tree took a step forward. The fear and chaos that instantly gripped the room sapped the men of all their courage. The devil tree turned toward the bed of the delicate man who hid himself under rags and swung its left arm.

“Gyaaaaaagh?!”

A screech rang out.

The slim man dressed in rags began writhing. Flesh and fabric twisted together like water squeezed from a bundle of different-colored towels until he transformed into a long stick. His right eye had moved above his slitted mouth, and his arms were wrapped around his torso. What was once a 180-centimeter-tall man was now a three-meter-long stick.

He still appeared to be alive. He managed to let out a sputtering moan from his mouth with its warped teeth and tongue. The horrific sight alone was enough to drive a person mad. The basement instantly filled with wailing and screaming, crazed laughter, and people begging for their lives.

“Yes, yes. I am happy you are so pleased.”

A devil’s joy came from the negative emotions of living creatures. Since this place now overflowed with those emotions, it was no doubt a wonderland for the weathered tree devil. The devil then pierced the stick-man into the floorboard and looked for its next victim.

Of all the men, the only one to somehow maintain his sanity in spite of the heartwrenching scene was the leader. The moment he sensed the devil was looking away from him, he made his move. He threw his nearby subordinates who had lost their minds at the creature and ran to a corner of the room. There was an emergency exit here. He never told his followers, but it was a secret path that led to the sewers.

The leader was convinced that if he broke through the thin wall and made it to the path, he could escape this place. However, before he even had the chance, a thick, bluish-black arm and shoulder burst through the wall and grabbed his chest in a vise grip.

“Gwagh?!”

The boss wailed as the breath in his lungs was restricted and woven together with the air. It wasn’t only a right arm that broke through the wall to grab the leader. Three left arms broke new holes through the wall as well. The leader’s eyes widened as he realized what this meant.

Finally destroying the walls and ceiling of the underground room, a six-armed dragoid with bluish-black skin appeared. It was two heads taller than the standard dragoid.

“Igzdukyz. Our leader said to not let a single one escape,” the strange-looking dragoid rasped as it glared at the withered tree devil. Given their similar static-filled voices, the two creatures must have been in cahoots.

“Keh-keh-keh. Do forgive me for sating myself with their emotions. I have been slumbering for ages; I was so famished, I could not contain my arts.”

The dragoid tossed the gang leader with ease, sending him crashing into his trembling subordinates, some of whom suffered broken bones while others were laughing from insanity.

A bunch of city thugs didn’t stand a chance against two devils; this was a job for the heroes of legends and fairy tales.

“Finish quickly. We don’t have much time,” the dragoid spat.

“My arts are not immediate. This leader of ours doesn’t understand,” the tree argued.

The two otherworldly creatures exchanged brief banter as they left the area. The Parched Scorpions’ leader soon lost consciousness.

The last thing he heard was a high-pitched scream.

Word of the incident came early that morning before the sun had even risen. A guard on night duty at the nearby landmark had been on his way home when he noticed a strange sight.

Shining Saber and his knights wasted no time in hailing a dragonfly from the castle to the location in question.

The moment they arrived, the youngest knights threw up their breakfasts. None of the knights could keep themselves from grimacing. Many took one glance and then averted their eyes. Others turned pale and walked away. Some even fainted. Dragoids’ expressions were usually difficult to read, but Shining Saber instantly clapped his hands over his mouth.

Now that he’d seen it with his own eyes, Shining Saber understood what the guard who had made the report meant when he said the place was “some sort of bizarre facility.” He understood on a logical level, but psychologically speaking, this was unfathomable.

Shining Saber cast several Active Skills to boost his mental fortitude until he was finally able to look at the ghastly sight directly. Most of the knights with him watched with gritted teeth. Shining Saber asked a messenger to fetch a mage who could buff psychological endurance, then entered the scene of the crime.

“You okay?” he asked his co-captain, who looked clearly unwell. The co-captain mumbled, “Well, somehow,” through the handkerchief he had over his mouth.

Shining Saber remembered passing through the area numerous times while on his rounds. This specific residence appeared somewhat habitable, but most eye-catching of all were the grotesque objects neatly displayed throughout.

“A ‘bizarre facility,’ he said… That’s what you’d call this place?”

“Captain?”

“Bizarre” was certainly an understatement, considering this facility was not of this world.

An arched sign atop the entrance to the building read WELCOME TO THE PARCHED SCORPION HUMAN ZOO in big bubble letters. Cutesy cartoon animals Shining Saber recognized—giraffes, lions, elephants, hippos—decorated the walls.

“This is some sick joke…,” he muttered in spite of himself.

Inside the facility were enclosures typical of any normal zoo. However, the creatures on display were abhorrent and strange, even unnatural. It was enough to make a person sick to their stomach.

In the center was a slightly elevated rest area surrounded by benches—but these were no ordinary benches. These were men, their faces twisted in agonizing pain, their hands and feet seemingly welded into the ground. At their center was an inscription that read THE FOUNTAIN OF MIRACLES—and the man who had been the Parched Scorpions’ leader until just hours earlier. He was embedded in a gold-plated wall and pleading a tearful, “Help meee… Help meee…” Each of his tears turned into gold coins the moment they fell; there was already a large pile of them in front of the wall.

A man’s face appeared from a fleshy jar within the enclosure labeled SNAKES. One man’s body had been stretched thin like rope and coiled into the shape of a pot; another man whose body had been similarly elongated popped in and out of the human pot like a loaded spring.

One man’s lower half had been replaced with dozens of human arms; he was gripping his head and wailing, his face covered in sweat, tears, and snot. The sign on his enclosure read OCTOPUS.

The so-called “guide” was a crystal ball two meters in diameter with a man’s face set in the center. His mouth spewed explanations of all the displays like some sort of curse.

Dangling from another enclosure was a sign that read HORSE. It contained a creature that had a human face but whose body had been stretched into the shape of a horse. This man—or what was left of him—was nothing but skin and bones.

A two-meter-long red caterpillar was munching away at the bark of a tree that had yet another human embedded within. That caterpillar, too, was a creature-shaped human. The sign on its enclosure had nothing written on it.

The soldiers and knights who had rushed over to the site wanted to turn tail and flee the moment they laid eyes on such horrors. Their repulsion got the better of their sense of duty to keep the city safe. The mage who had been summoned to boost the knights’ mental fortitude urged them to step back and avert their eyes.

Shining Saber cleared the area and sent a notice to close the nearby castle landmark, since its highest tower provided an unobstructed view of this human zoo.

Their psyches now buffed, the knights got to work and wiped at the cold sweat on their bodies, mumbling “No way any humans did this,” and “A devil, maybe…?”

They set up a simple tent area, and Shining Saber and his subordinates went around talking to the grotesquely disfigured men to see if anyone might be able to provide leads. It was mentally agonizing work, but they finally got the savage perpetrator’s name from one of the men who had been turned into a bench.

“This appears to be the work of…Igzdukyz,” the co-captain said nervously. He glanced around; everyone began trembling, their faces stiff.

“Dear gods.”

“What is the meaning of this…?”

“Please protect us, O Lord.”

“What’s a big name like that doing all the way over here…?”

One knight after another offered prayers and raised the holy symbol of the church.

Except for Shining Saber, who had his arms crossed and a serious look on his face. Everyone stared at him, impressed by his reassuring candor, though Shining Saber himself hadn’t the slightest clue that he was the envy of all these men. He looked over at his subordinates and said, “Hey…”

“What is it, Captain?”

“Who’s this…Igzu or whatever person?”

Everyone fell forward.

“D-do you not know?” one knight asked.

“Nope,” Shining Saber replied. “He famous or somethin’?”

His fellow knights face-palmed in utter disbelief. Shining Saber felt humiliated.

The co-captain decided to intervene and offer a simple explanation:

The world was said to be split between the Sun God (Lord of Light) and the Dream God (Lord of Night). Igzdukyz was a minor deity who served the Dream God; he appeared in countless legends and fairy tales, most often as a sort of “artist” who used humans to create unusual sculptures.

In one tale he appeared as an elderly traveler who, after spending the night in a village, left the villagers a painting as thanks for their hospitality. Apparently, one look at the painting moved the villagers to tears as if their hearts had been cleansed. However, they became so obsessed with the painting that they lost their minds and wandered the land in search of an equally magnificent work of art. The elderly traveler also turned any bandits or rogues that attacked him into grotesque objects.

“Sounds more like a devil than a god, if you ask me,” said Shining Saber.

“That would make the story much simpler. You should visit the church if you want a more in-depth explanation,” the co-captain suggested.

Shining Saber frowned. In his eyes, any religious discussion was more trouble than it was worth. Besides, Skargo would be doing all the explaining in this case, and his very presence was a pain in the ass.

However, much more draining than any religious discussion was continuing to witness this atrocity firsthand. Shining Saber believed it was time to settle things; he didn’t feel great about it, but the knights couldn’t keep this area locked down forever. They decided to transport the victims to a training area outside the city before any nasty rumors could spread. After that, the decision to either quarantine them for research purposes or dispose of them wasn’t any concern for a knight captain…at least, not in Shining Saber’s mind.

“There should be a reason why that devil or god or whatever went after these guys, right? I doubt it was some old traveler though. Hear anything else?” Shining Saber asked a soldier who had the incident report in hand.

“Well, yes, a few things, but they’re rather inexplicable…,” the soldier replied as he flipped through the report and tracked down one item. “Apparently, this organization was trying to abduct children…”

“Children? As in, from noble families?”

“Specifically, the children of an adventurer who was accompanied by a maid.”

“The heck?”

Several men tilted their heads in confusion, and one knight raised his hand. “Ah, I saw an adventurer with a maid and two children on the sandbar yesterday. They visited the Academy.”

The other knights started asking questions. “So they’re real people?” “Are they…students?” “Why the Academy?”

But the knight wasn’t quite finished yet. “The, um, adventurer in question was…the captain’s fiancée, Lady Cayna.”

“““Whaaaaaat?!”””

“She had two more kids after Sir Skargo, Lady Mai-Mai, and Sir Kartatz?!”

That one knight’s utterance made it sound like Cayna had at least five kids. Suspicions that Shining Saber was having illicit relations with a widow were beginning to rise.

“I told ya, she ain’t my fiancée! Anyway, why were they after her kids?”

“That much is still uncertain.”

“So does this mean she was around here recently? Guess I gotta ask her myself.”

“Yes, yes, but let’s finish up here first, Captain.”

Just as Shining Saber looked ready to saunter off, his co-captain grabbed him by the collar and dragged him back to the crime scene.

“Uwaaagh, I don’t wanna goooo.”

Canya had been sulking since that morning and didn’t even try to hide her grumbling from Luka and Lytt. Roxine had explained to the girls at breakfast that Cayna would be away for a little while taking care of a mysterious matter, much to the girls’ disappointment. However, unless she did something about the shadow in the water, the festival could never get started. It might even get canceled at this rate. Cayna wanted Luka and Lytt to experience the excitement of a proper festival, and she herself wanted to see the boat race. Although she had a bad feeling about the whole thing, the scales tipped in the children’s favor, so she decided to prioritize her job as an adventurer.

Still, a bit of complaining never hurt anyone, right?

Cayna summoned a magical creature for Luka and Lytt while they were getting changed. Choosing something small enough for the girls to hold proved to be a challenge.

“Meow.”

“Wow…,” said Luka.

“Ooh, a kitty!” Lytt squealed. “What’s the kitty for, Miss Cayna?”

Cayna ended up going with a snow-white kitten that still had its innocent, angelic looks. Snug in Luka’s arms, the kitten narrowed its eyes and meowed. The girls smiled.

“It’s not meant to replace me, but I thought it would make a good companion. This kitty is pretty strong; it’ll help you out if anything happens.”

“It’s…strong?” Luka stared curiously at the kitten in her arms. Lytt patted the kitten’s head and gaped in fascination when it mewed at her. Roxine had apparently cast Search and held her head in her hands when she realized how formidable the kitten was.

“Lady Cayna, what is the meaning of this? Is this cat…stronger than me?”

“I mean, that depends. But you should be fine taking it around with you. Take it from here, cath palug.”

“Meooow.”

The cath palug kitten meowed adorably. She and the summoning could communicate telepathically; she heard it reply with a rascally, “You got it, kiddo!”

“It’s pretty powerful since it’s from the Heaven area,” Cayna explained. “And as an added bonus, heavily armored knights are its natural enemy.”

“That makes it sound like you want it to antagonize the knights…,” Roxine said with a sigh.

Cayna appeared to be enjoying this. She was essentially trying to say the kitten’s attacks could penetrate any defense, and knights were the first armor-wearing example that came to her mind. It was as simple as that.

“Where are you guys going today?” Cayna asked.

“That is up to the two girls to decide,” Roxine replied. “I believe they want to visit the shops in the residential district again.”

“You’re not gonna take them down the main road?” Cayna inquired.

“As you are aware, Lady Cayna, the main road is full of trash. It is far too dangerous for the girls.”

Crowds were no different from trash heaps, as far as Roxine was concerned. Cayna nodded in acquiescence. Might as well let Roxine go where she pleased if it meant she wasn’t going to flip out on someone.

“If you have the time, you ought to check out the market and do a bit of shopping. I bet you two would love that,” Cayna told the girls. “Definitely try all the different fruits they have, too.”

Lytt and Luka were petting the cath palug, which was now in Lytt’s arms; the girls’ eyes sparkled with overwhelming curiosity about what Cayna told them. The fruit in the remote village was mostly limited to the strawberries and grapes that grew naturally in the forest. Recently, Roxine had been saving the fruit little by little to make jams. She said she’d share the jams with the villagers once she’d collected enough fruit, so it was going to be a long way off before Lytt could get a taste. The process would go much more quickly if she bought more fruit for the jam from the market.

Cayna herself hadn’t seen everything the market had to offer, but she was sure the diverse lineup would be a treat for the girls’ eyes.

“’Kay, I’m off to the Adventurers Guild!”

“Take…care…”

“See you later, Miss Cayna!”

Cayna patted Luka, Lytt, and the cath palug on the head, set aside her frustrations, and left the rental house. Eager to get all unpleasantness over with as fast as possible, she headed for the Adventurers Guild at hyper speed and charged at Almana, who was sitting at the counter.

“Okay, I’m here, Almana! Tell me more details about what you said yesterday! C’mon, hurry up!”

“Eek?!”

Almana jumped up in shock when Cayna suddenly appeared with double the authoritative force. This was likely due to flickering light of Oscar—Roses Scatter with Beauty and the extra impact it added.

“Umm, well then, please come this way,” Almana said before leading Cayna to the same small room they had been in the day before. There, Cayna found a lineup of vague requests such as “Get rid of the problem so we can have the festival,” and “I can’t go fishing, so do something about it.”

“Hmm?”

“Have you noticed the requests?” Almana asked.

“Yeah. This shadow thing doesn’t exactly need to be defeated. Not that I necessarily could do it.”

None of Leadale’s quests involved a creature that big. Cayna herself didn’t know how destructive her biggest attack would be in this world. Testing this out wasn’t an option since she couldn’t just cast massive spells indiscriminately.

Plus, there was one more thing on her mind.

“The first shadow was much smaller than the more recent shadow, right?” Cayna said. “What’s that about?”

“We still don’t have any eyewitness accounts, but perhaps the smaller one grew fearful of the larger one and went away somewhere…”

“So basically, you can’t confirm anything since it’s underwater, right?”

“Yes…,” Almana replied, disheartened, but Cayna told her not to worry about it.

“I’ll go check out the river,” Cayna said. “We’ll just have to see what happens then.”

“I’m terribly sorry. The guild is looking into things as well, but we’ve never dealt with an underwater threat before.”

“I mean, that’s fair enough. People might end up getting eaten by a laigayanma nymph or something.”

Unfortunately, the Adventurers Guild didn’t have any further information about the shadow. Cayna gave up and figured it was time to bite the bullet.

“Fiiine. Guess I better get over there.”

Cayna hopped from roof to roof until she reached a house near the Ejidd River. She looked down at the water; the current was calm, and there wasn’t a single boat out of port. The river had a peacefulness disconnected from the tumult in town. The fishermen in their docked boats appeared to be staring at the river reproachfully as they silently repaired their nets. Others cast their lines or simply stared out at the water.

In short: lots of potential witnesses. Brazenly walking onto the water’s surface like it was nothing would be a rash move on Cayna’s part.

“Agh, I really don’t wanna do this.”

Just as Cayna resigned herself and was about to take action, Li’l Fairy suddenly began kicking up a fuss. Since she couldn’t talk, her way of causing a fuss was a little different from most. To get Cayna’s attention, she waved her hands wildly and used her whole body to try and gesture to Cayna. The fairy first pantomimed tugging at her pocket and taking something out of it. Then she pretended to put something on her finger, raised her hand, and drew a circle in the air.

“Something in my pocket? My finger? …Ummm, a ring? Ah, that’s it? …You want me to take a ring out of my Item Box?!”

Li’l Fairy nodded profusely once Cayna figured out what she wanted. Cayna hurriedly opened her Item Box and saw that one of her possessions was blinking.

“Huh? The heck—? A trial challenger at a time like this?!”

It was an alert from the Ninth Guardian Tower in Felskeilo’s Battle Arena. Cayna had no idea how Li’l Fairy knew a ring in her Item Box had been reacting to the alert. That likely had something to do with the game’s system.

Eager to find someplace out of the public eye, Cayna took advantage of the pre-festival hustle and bustle and soared high into the sky.

Once she was high enough that the crowds looked like tiny specks, Cayna lifted her ring and called out the password.

“One who protects in times of trouble! I beseech you to rescue this depraved world from chaos!”

Countless shining stars appeared in the shape of a cross beneath her feet before enveloping her. By the time they dissipated, she had vanished from the sky.

Cayna then found herself in a half-circle dome about fifty meters in diameter. Above her was a geocentric miniature model set with a plush sun revolving in the middle. At the center of the marble-tiled floor was a delicately sculpted white flowerpot. The maple tree growing in it was this space’s true form.

Smoke burst forth from the maple tree before coagulating into a human-shaped Guardian. The Guardian bowed its head at Cayna. She didn’t like how it kneeled before her the few times she’d come by to refill its MP, so she’d asked it to stop. Bowing its head seemed to be the very minimal amount of etiquette this Guardian could offer.

“Greetings, Lady Cayna. A fine welcome to you. I apologize for the sudden message.”

“Don’t worry about that. There’s a trial challenger here, right? I’m kind of busy, so if we could get this done quickly—”

“Forgive me—I did not contact you because of a challenger.”

“Huh?”

Apparently, the Guardian had contacted her for some other reason.

Cayna was impressed with how independent the Guardians had become. After all, they couldn’t leave their towers. She figured the least she could do as a Skill Master was provide them with a comfortable living environment. Not that a comfortable environment would be of much use in the Third Skill Master Guardian Tower, since its wall Guardian couldn’t even move around.

“Lady Cayna?”

“Ah, right, sorry. Please, go on.”

“I had you come today because I have a favor to ask regarding a nearby Guardian Tower.”

“Right, right, a Guardian Tower. A Guardian—THERE’S ANOTHERRRR?!”

Cayna had been nodding along with the Ninth Guardian’s casual statement when she yelled out in surprise. She’d never heard anything from the Guardian about another tower the last time she was in the area. If she was only getting the report now, the tower must have come from somewhere else. In other words…

“This one’s mobile?”

“Precisely.”

Cayna’s Guardian Tower was really the only one that fit the description of a tower. With the proper trappings, the other Guardian Towers were more like actual homes—thus, they were fixed in place.

Mobile towers, on the other hand, were not locked to one location and could freely wander. Just three of the thirteen Guardian Towers were of this type; the only one Cayna had visited was called the Floating Sky Garden, which looked like an old-fashioned Japanese-style house. She didn’t know anything about the other two mobile towers.

“You think it might be in the Ejidd River…?”

“Yes. The tower is currently underwater. I attempted to contact it since it is within my range of communication, but it seems to lack the MP needed to awaken. Could I ask you to remedy this?”

Cayna crouched down, hit by a sudden wave of exhaustion. Just a short while earlier, she’d foolishly thought she had no choice but to use her Silver Ring to take care of the river shadow problem. Fortunately, the Admins were smart enough to make objects of mystique such as Guardian Towers impervious to attacks by high-powered players like Cayna.

Cayna imagined that if she had, in fact, used her Silver Ring on this underwater tower, the only outcome would be a fully intact tower and a half-destroyed Felskeilo. At any rate, she was glad she figured this out sooner rather than later.

Cayna felt a semblance of relief before coming to another unpleasant realization.

She’d have to refill this new tower’s MP and take it far from Felskeilo. Plus, there was the added headache of explaining all of this to the Adventurers Guild, as well as putting the public at ease. The entire city would end up in a frenzy if she explained everything, and that would only limit her options.

“The public loves Skargo. He’d be perfect at a time like this… Oh, right. He’s out of town…”

The one person whose conversational eloquence and effects would help her come up with the perfect explanation for the citizens was away from the Felskeilo capital, and she had no time to wait for him to return. Feigning ignorance about the tower was one option, but it certainly wasn’t a permanent solution. Felskeilo might even experience a food shortage. Dissatisfaction with the ruling king would grow and possibly result in a coup d’état.

Cayna could calm the capital’s citizens from the shadows. She decided that was exactly what she had to do.

“…In any case, I’ll go and check out this new Guardian Tower and get an idea of what exactly I’m dealing with…”

Worrying wouldn’t get her anywhere, so she decided to see what the tower looked like. She might even be able to make it swim away from Felskeilo while everyone watched.

Moreover, Cayna couldn’t get inside the tower from here.

“Guess I gotta get near it first before I use my ring, huh?”

“Yes. It can transport you to either this tower or the Third Tower, as these are the only towers in the vicinity.”

Other than her own ring, Cayna possessed the rings of the Sixth, Ninth, and Thirteenth Skill Masters. Each ring reacted to their respective Guardian Tower. In order to go to a new tower, its Skill Master had to use their ring and let you in, or you could use your own ring while close to that tower.

It seemed that due to a safeguard feature, the new tower was normally impossible to perceive from above the water. That had to be the source of the large shadow that people were seeing.

The tower was now deep beneath the water and would appear if Cayna drew close. When that happened, according to the Ninth Guardian, the underwater tower would generate a massive wave to conceal Cayna while she used the password to enter. That seemed to be the extent of what this new tower was capable of right now.

The Ninth Guardian sent her outside quickly, to the outer edge of the Battle Arena’s audience seats. Fortunately, the soldiers on guard didn’t notice her sudden appearance. But now she had to somehow get over to the new Guardian Tower at the bottom of the river in the southern part of Felskeilo. To avoid looking suspicious, she made her way through northern Felskeilo’s royal castle and the aristocratic district to the riverbank and looked for a way to cross the river.

However, the dragonfly service here was for nobles only, and a gondola for transporting people hung from two laigayanma. Since she had no intention of visiting Felskeilo incessantly, she came to the firm decision that she’d have no choice but to deal with sticking out a bit.

Cayna used Water Walk to glide across the river as quickly as possible, not even sparing a glance at the startled townspeople as she made her way to the opposite shore. She cut through the sandbank and got the feeling she’d just passed some church officials or familiar royalty, but no one called out to her, so she kept on running.

Once she was back atop the river’s surface, she heard a commotion coming from the residential district.

“Ugh! I wish they’d stop getting worked up over every little thing!”

“You were well aware you would become a spectacle, yes?”

“Yeah, but it still makes me wanna complain!”

Cayna never slowed down as she mumbled and grumbled to Kee. She kept a close eye on her Guardian Ring, which would glow as soon as she got near the new tower.

Somewhere over the water between the sandbar and the residential district, the ring emitted a faint light, and she slammed on the brakes. She slid several meters across the river’s surface and came to a halt. The moment she looked up and murmured, “Did I pass it?” the water in front of her swelled, and a massive white body broke through the surface. It was so enormous that the wave it produced shook her up and down. She had to be careful not to step on the pieces of stirred-up driftwood that floated by. At around fifty meters in length, this creature was at least twice the size of the penguin monster. Its wide, smooth back sported a blowhole; this was clearly a blue whale, although the inhabitants of this world didn’t recognize it as such. Cayna could hear nearby onlookers shouting in awe.

The whale’s upper half stood almost completely straight, its round, black eyes looking down at Cayna, and it flopped over onto its back. The resulting tidal wave swallowed everything in its path—including the nearby onlookers.

The innocent bystanders on the sandbar and in the residential district stood frozen in shock, and immediately afterward the whale sank back into the river. The water’s surface was soon calm again, but one particular onlooker was now nowhere to be found.

“Ngh… I was a bit too late with the password.”

Cayna’s hair was dripping wet. Fortunately, she’d chanted the password before the tidal wave engulfed her, but she still ended up getting drenched just as she said the final “from chaos!” part.

She’d made it inside the Guardian Tower but was soaked from head to toe. No big deal, though; at least she could dry herself off with magic.

When Cayna took a look around, her surroundings weren’t inside the esophagus or stomach of some animal. The rocky walls were more reminiscent of a cave or grotto. She continued further down the path; it was too dark to see much with the naked eye, but not so bad that she’d need to use Night Vision. Nothing in a Guardian Tower was likely to pose a threat to a Skill Master, so Cayna walked along in high spirits.

However, within a little under thirty meters, she arrived at a small room.

There was no door, so she could see everything inside: a small, dilapidated table, a wooden puppet seated in a chair, and a clock so tall it looked ready to burst through the ceiling. The puppet’s clothes were shabby, and it was missing its left arm. The cuff of its left sleeve was raggedy, as if that part of the shirt had been torn off. The puppet was also missing its left leg from the knee down. On its head was a dusty tricorn hat, and in place of its eyes were crosses. Most notable of all was its exceptionally long nose.

The large clock at the back of the room had a pendulum in its lower half and a small door above the clockface; not exactly a masterpiece.

“Is the theme of this place fairy tales or something?”

Cayna looked between the puppet and the clock but couldn’t tell which was the tower’s core and which was the Guardian. If only they were both in the same place, like the wall Guardian in her tower. Seeing no other choice, she poured MP into both the clock and the puppet.

The changes were immediate. The wooden puppet began to shine brightly, and its missing arm and leg had now grown back. However, the table and chair (and the puppet itself) remained just as shabby as before.

“…So the clock is the Guardian?”

The large clock had started ticking, its pendulum swinging back to life.

Cayna was fully prepared for the clock to start talking. Then, the door above the clockface opened.

“Well met!” Ka-thunk. “This is the tower”—ka-thunk—“of the First”—ka-thunk—“Skill Master”—ka-thunk—“Marvelia!” Ka-thunk.

“……The heck…?”

When the door opened, a small yellow bird attached to a bellows appeared.

It would then pop back into the clock after every few words. Cayna was reasonably dumbfounded. “So Marvelia made this place?”

“Indeed”—ka-thunk—“she did.” Ka-thunk.

The Guardian’s quirk was so annoying that Cayna wished it wouldn’t answer.

The First Skill Master Marvelia had been a female werecat. She was the type of person who considered anything to be potential data, and she took statistics of everything. Basically, she was satisfied as long as she could test for something.

Marvelia herself admitted she became a Skill Master while searching for patterns in NPC dialogue. She’d even stalked Cayna for a brief period, claiming she was going to “uncover every last high-elf trait in existence.”

…Or rather, that was all part of one of Marvelia’s tests Cayna helped with.

In any case, it was accurate to say the stand-out players of every race weren’t crazy about Marvelia’s stalking or “quest for knowledge,” as it were.

“A place this bare-bones definitely suits her. And I get why there’s a wooden puppet inside the whale, but is the big clock supposed to be the puppet’s grandfather or something?”

“That is”—ka-thunk—“exactly right!” Ka-thunk. “Master Marvelia”—ka-thunk—“based this tower on”—ka-thunk—“his oldest memories”—ka-thunk—“but when she saw us”—ka-thunk—“she actually looked quite sad!”

It seemed this Guardian had some self-awareness.

However, the conversation wasn’t going to get anywhere this way. Cayna approached the clock and caught the bellows of the little yellow bird as it popped out to talk. “Gwaaaaaawk!” it wailed painfully.

“What are”—ka-thunk—“you doing?!” Ka-thunk. “This clock”—ka-thunk—“is my body!” Ka-thunk. “Grabbing me so”—ka-thunk—“suddenly is”—ka-thunk—“extremely rude!” Ka-thunk.

“Sorry. Curiosity got the better of me.”

“Harumph!” Clunk. This “harumph” was the bird’s way of expressing anger.

It then burst back out of the clock and tossed the ring in its mouth at Cayna. Although the color was different, there was no question it was a Guardian Ring. Being manhandled may have upset the Guardian, but it seemed that it had accepted Cayna.

“I’m the Third Skill Master, Cayna. Nice working with you.”

“Understood!” Ka-thunk. “You are my”—ka-thunk—“new master!” Ka-thunk. “I apologize for”—ka-thunk—“cutting to the chase”—ka-thunk—“but please”—ka-thunk—“give your next order.”

“Next order?”

Cayna didn’t know what the yellow Guardian bird was talking about, so she took the time to listen to it tell her about how to beat this Guardian Tower’s Skill Transfer Quest and where the tower was normally hidden. She also asked if Marvelia had left any message behind.

The First Skill Master’s special mobile Guardian Tower was in the shape of a blue whale. In order to obtain the tower’s skill, one had to fish the whale out of the water. However, Marvelia would change the kind of bait needed to catch the whale once a week, so the tower had only ever been caught a total of five times. According to Kee’s log, about three hundred players had met the requirements to pass the Skill Transfer Quest in Cayna’s tower. Compared to hers, Marvelia’s number was incredibly small.

Furthermore, this tower hid in bodies of water such as rivers and oceans. It would reflect an enormous shadow on the surface, and the true body of the tower would be hidden deeper within that. The Guardian itself didn’t really understand the principle, but that seemed to be how the tower worked. And if even the Guardian didn’t know, then there was no way Cayna could, either. Most likely, the large shadow that had appeared in the Ejidd River was the tower’s method of hiding. And since it was just a shadow, you couldn’t poke it with a stick and find the actual tower that way.

There didn’t seem to be a message from Marvelia herself. The last time she visited, she said, “It’s been fun, you guys. Later,” and took off. The lid of the table was the tower’s storage, which was full of hastily scribbled notes.

“I’d expect nothing less of Marvelia. Always well-prepared, that one.”

It turned out that Cayna did have something to do with this tower’s appearance in Felskeilo. It had been lying off the coast at the bottom of the ocean when the Blue Dragon Cayna had sent to find the mermaid village happened to pass by. The tower then detected a player’s presence from the dragon. Furthermore, since the tower was right off the shore, it also detected a reaction from a Skill Master’s Guardian Ring. It then went down the southern coastline, following the ring’s signal before heading upstream from the mouth of the Ejidd River. Finally, it tried to pass through Felskeilo only to be contacted by another active Guardian Tower and decided to stop where it was.

“Hey, Nine! Why didn’t you tell me sooner?!”

“You appeared to be coming this way. The First still had some energy left in its tank, so I waited until you came closer.”

A circular screen had appeared on the cave wall. It showed the Ninth Guardian bowing its head.

This was the intra-Guardian communication network. It was a bit like a video conference between Guardian Towers, although they sometimes used it to exchange idle gossip.

Besides, the First Skill Master’s tower arrived in Felskeilo in the middle of Cayna’s journey to the royal capital. If the ninth tower had notified her then, she would’ve had to temporarily leave Luka and the others, something she knew she couldn’t do. Thus, Cayna had no issue with the Guardians’ judgment.

“Well then, master”—ka-thunk—“where should”—ka-thunk—“we go?” Ka-thunk.

“Hold on. It’s not quite that simple.” Cayna stopped the bird Guardian and thought things through. “Did you hear about what’s going on in the city?”

“I’ve already”—ka-thunk—“received word”—ka-thunk—“from the Ninth.”

“I explained the circumstances in detail.”

The Ninth Guardian had informed the other of the geography ahead of time, at least to a certain degree. It had also told the first tower to stay hidden at the bottom of the river.

“Yeah, your body casts a huge shadow and scares the townspeople,” said Cayna. “They think there’s some giant, unknown monster lurking in the river.”

“I see no need”—ka-thunk—“to pay those NPCs”—ka-thunk—“any mind.” Ka-thunk.

Cayna just barely managed to keep herself from screaming, “You’re an NPC too!” Fortunately, the Ninth Guardian spoke for her.

“You’d best refrain from upsetting our master, First. Your words are insulting, like calling a dwarf a mole.”

“R-right…” Ka-thunk. “I’m”—ka-thunk—“terribly sorry.” Ka-thunk. “Please”—ka-thunk—“forgive me.”

“I forgive you,” Cayna mumbled after taking a deep breath to quell her rising anger. The words came out extremely cold and stiff, but she shook her head and got a hold of herself. “A lot of people will still be anxious if you just up and leave. Even if you make a show of swimming somewhere else, they’ll think you might come back…”

“If I am not allowed here”—ka-thunk—“then I shall simply leave”—ka-thunk—“and never come back.”

“I can’t exactly explain you away with ‘Hey, blue whales aren’t real’!!”

The cave echoed with reverberations of the “-eal, -eal, -eal” Cayna had yelled in frustration. She became annoyed with herself for her sudden outburst. There weren’t many Guardians like her mural that she could crack jokes with. Just like Marvelia, this Guardian was bad at reading the room. The Ninth Guardian fell silent at Cayna’s menacing look.

“Understood, master.” Ka-thunk. “In other words”—ka-thunk—“I should leave”—ka-thunk—“in a way”—ka-thunk—“people can understand.” Ka-thunk.

The bird Guardian wasn’t especially bothered by Cayna’s indignation and spoke matter-of-factly.

“Still, this place is just as good as any other…”

If leaving the river was going to be a problem, then Cayna had to come up with a way to keep the tower here.

“You may be right. If someone acknowledges its presence, will the people agree to let it stay?”

“Is there not”—ka-thunk—“a leader”—ka-thunk—“who can bring”—ka-thunk—“the people together?” Ka-thunk. “Someone like”—ka-thunk—“a guild master?” Ka-thunk.

“A guild master, huh…?”

Of all the people she knew, Cayna’s son Skargo certainly had the gift of gab. His annoying special effects aside, he held great authority in this nation as its High Priest. That said, Cayna couldn’t help but feel those effects of his would ruin any image he had as someone of a “responsible position.”

“The king…? Royalty… Mye… Primo… Hmm. Maybe I should try talking to Mye? Plus, Shining Saber’s also a player, so I bet he’d help out, too.”

She settled on the Crown Princess, Myleene. Cayna remembered hearing that the monarch’s firstborn child inherited the throne, so Primo wasn’t next in line, but rather his older sister, Myleene, was.

“This role would also help solidify Princess Myleene’s future reign.”

“Oh, I see!” Cayna was impressed Kee had thought of it from that perspective.

“So”—ka-thunk—“what shall”—ka-thunk—“we do”—ka-thunk—“master?” Ka-thunk.

Cayna paused the bird Guardian for a moment to pay the Ninth Guardian her respects. “Thanks for your hard work. Sorry for calling you here like this.”

“Not at all. Please contact me at any time.” It then bowed its head.

“Time to go and see if I can get any help with this,” Cayna said upon deciding to head out. She had the bird Guardian show her a map of the city on the screen and pointed to a corner of the Academy grounds on the sandbar. It’d be a hassle explaining things to any eyewitnesses if she popped up in the middle of town somewhere.

“So anyway, just sit tight here at the bottom of the river, okay?”

“Understood.” Ka-thunk. “The rest is in”—ka-thunk—“your competent hands, master.” Ka-thunk.

“Don’t get your hopes up too much.”

With parting words that would make anyone nervous, Cayna gave in to the floating sensation that sent her back to the surface.

She reappeared in a corner of the Academy grounds, then looked around to make sure no one had spotted her. When she saw that the coast was clear, she breathed a heavy sigh.

“Okay—I’m doing this so Luka and Lytt can see the festival. You’ve got this, Cayna!”

She pumped her fist with determination, then made her way over to visit Mai-Mai.

“Mother?!”

When Cayna knocked at the Academy headmaster’s door and stepped in, Mai-Mai noisily rose from her chair and greeted her with a look of surprise.

“What are you making such a fuss for?” Cayna asked.

Mai-Mai rushed over and gave Cayna an unusually tight hug. Cayna was utterly confused.

“Ahh, thank goodness,” said Mai-Mai. “When I heard from Mye that you’d been swallowed up in a giant wave created by a strange fish, I was so worried!”

As Cayna suspected, she’d indeed passed by Myleene and Lonti on the sandbar. They must have seen the great rush she was in and thought something terrible had happened, then followed her—only to see the giant blue whale jump out of the river.

“I’m insulted, Mai-Mai. Did you really think some big ol’ wave would be enough to do me in?”

“Huh? Ummm,” Mai-Mai blustered as her eyes darted about. “Well, I know you’re a Skill Master, but, um…” She trailed off.

Cayna smirked and reached out to pat her head. “Okay, okay. Thanks for worrying about me.”

“…Mother!” Mai-Mai’s eyes teared up, and she once again hugged Cayna tight. Cayna surrendered herself to the comforting warmth and waited for her daughter to let go before asking about Myleene.

“Mye? Right… She was in a huge hurry, and…ah, come to think of it!” As Mai-Mai searched through her memories and hit upon something, she simultaneously struck a fist to her palm and shouted, “She said she was going to mobilize the knights to look for you and then promptly took off!”

“Huh?”

Cayna thought Mye was overreacting. The knights wouldn’t necessarily follow her orders, anyway. Besides, Shining Saber was captain of the knights. He knew Cayna would never die from something like this, and therefore he wouldn’t have his knights brazenly run off in search of her.

But Cayna soon had other concerns.

Within the knights, the rumor “Cayna is Shining Saber’s fiancée” had not yet been dispelled. It wasn’t necessarily untrue that the knights wouldn’t revolt and come rushing over…

Cayna grew increasingly worried. “I’m off to the castle,” she said and tried to leave the room, but a concerned-looking Mai-Mai stopped her.

“The castle…? Mother, don’t you hate places like that?”

“I mean, sometimes. It depends. But I’m in a bit of a rush right now. There’s something I want to discuss with Mye.”

Mai-Mai stared at her mother for a few moments, then after suddenly tidying up her desk, she took Cayna’s arm. “I’m going, too,” she said.

“Huh?”

“Besides, you can’t enter the castle on your own, right? You’ll be fine if I’m with you.”

Pulling her arm with a “Hurry, come on,” Cayna smiled and murmured, “Thank you.”

They rode a dragonfly gondola from the north end of the sandbar and headed for the aristocratic district. Since it was Mai-Mai’s return trip, Cayna paid nothing.

From there, they went down the main street and toward the castle. For a street wide enough for five carriages across, there were too few people. Other than a carriage occasionally passing by, they only spotted people in standard uniforms swiftly carrying luggage. Mai-Mai explained that these were the nobles’ servants and butlers.

“Come to think of it, Mai-Mai, do you use a carriage?”

“Ah, the Harvey estate is within walking distance of a dragonfly station.”

“Really? So can you go from the station to the castle without a carriage?”

“Ah-ha-ha, you care about the strangest things, Mother. Even back when I was with the Mage Corps, I walked unless I was in a hurry.”

The nobles in the stories Cayna read always rode in carriages. She realized this was yet another difference between games and real life.

The castle was at the end of the main street and was surrounded by walls of a different design than the ones around the city. The large door at the front entrance was closed. In terms of size, the level-990 White Dragon that her pendant called upon the other day could walk through it with room to spare.

Next to this was a small door with knights stationed on either side. Even though it was considerably smaller, the width and length were such that a carriage could pass through with ease.

“Hellooo!” Mai-Mai called out, arm-in-arm with Cayna. One of the two human guards grimaced.

“Again, Mrs. Harvey?” he said. “How many times have we asked you to please come in a carriage when you visit the castle?”

Apparently, Mai-Mai’s ideas of social etiquette weren’t typical of this world. She looked like a child who’d been caught playing a prank.

“We have a message for the princess,” said Mai-Mai. “May we come in?”

“You may indeed, but do you intend on bringing that commoner with you?”

The knights eyeballed Cayna. Since she looked like an adventurer, he no doubt determined she was unfit to enter.

“Is there some sort of problem?” Mai-Mai asked.

“I’m not so sure she should be allowed in the castle. She may be involved with some kind of unseemly organization.”

It was better that Mai-Mai’s clinginess didn’t get them through the gate. Even Cayna understood the guards’ wariness all too well. After all, they weren’t wrong for treating someone like her, who had more battle prowess than anyone else in this world, as a threat.

“I guarantee that this person—”

“““AHHHH!!”””

Just as Mai-Mai puffed up at their insolence and tried to ask them to allow Cayna through, piercing screams arose from inside the gate. When the guards turned around, they saw three female knights. Joyous, they passed through the side gate further over that was made for personal use and surged through like an avalanche.

“Lady Cayna! It’s been so long!”

“Thank you so much for the other day! Everyone owes so much to you!”

“What are you visiting for today? I bet you’re here to see the captain!”

“Ah, right. Nice to see you all,” said Cayna.

The women’s excessive energy shocked not only Cayna, but Mai-Mai as well. These were the female knights who Cayna had accompanied while they were on their campaign. They were a big help and had given her a bed to sleep in while the forces camped outside, and they taught her march etiquette.

The guards at the gate were just as surprised. In an attempt to get a word in, they questioned the knights.

“Do you know this person?”

“Hm? Well, yes… Hey, what are you doing?!” one of the female knights shouted at the guards. The three female knights looked at each other, reviewed the situation, then saw Cayna and Mai-Mai waiting at the gate.

““P-pardon?!””

The women apparently outranked the gate guards, who straightened up and began sweating buckets.

“She is High Priest Skargo and Lady Mai-Mai’s mother. To think you would treat her as suspicious. Have you no shame?!” shouted another female knight.

““U-understood! W-we apologize!”” The guards nearly fell over from bowing so much.

Cayna once again felt her own children’s magnificence. One of them was still unfortunate, however.

“I wonder what Sir Kartatz would say if he heard such a thing… I trust you two are prepared to learn that for yourselves?” said the third female knight.

For some reason, the guards trembled at the mention of Kartatz’s name. He had nothing to do with the knights, so what could they possibly fear of him?

When Cayna tilted her head questioningly, Mai-Mai whispered, “Kartatz always baptizes the new knights.”

By “baptize,” she meant the new recruits were shuttled over to Kartatz’s workshop, where their less desirable traits were beaten out of them. Basically, they got screamed at and occasionally smacked until they were whipped into shape.

“Sounds more like boot camp…,” Cayna muttered to Mai-Mai.

“?”

The female knights ushered Cayna and Mai-Mai through the gate, past the trembling guards. From there, they would take the pair to either Myleene or Shining Saber. It seemed that these lady knights were usually escorts for female royalty.

“What perfect timing,” said one female knight.

“Her Highness just went to see the captain,” said another.

“She’s been persuading him this whole time that we need to rescue Cayna.”

“But isn’t that Cayna right there?”

“Perhaps Her Highness was going to rescue someone else?”

Cayna was mortified when she heard this exchange. All her frantic running around town had stressed Mye out. She put her face in her hands, and Mai-Mai dragged her by the arm toward their destination.

They were headed to a knight station located about a quarter lap along the western route on the castle’s outer wall. A large dragoid and a petite girl were going back and forth about something in front of it, and the conversation could be heard from a distance.

“I told you before, did I not?! Someone was swallowed up by a wave!”

“There’s no need to bring out the entire knight corps for one person! Besides, it’s Cayna! She doesn’t need any saving!”

“Are you not worried about her?! I heard she’s your good friend, Captain.”

“I’m saying that has nothing to do with my duties! We knights don’t go on personal errands. We act only under the king’s command!”

Mai-Mai smiled wryly when Cayna suddenly hid behind her. After all, she heard their argument and realized the situation. Mai-Mai herself hadn’t been there to see the bizarre fish appear, so it had all been word of mouth. It was only natural that anyone who saw someone they knew swallowed up by a wave would start panicking.

Thus, Mai-Mai took the initiative and called out to Myleene. “Your Highness!”

“Huh?! Y-yes, ma’am!”

Myleene instinctively stood at attention. It was a reaction to the appearance of the Academy professor who valued discipline and conditioned her students through reprimand.

When Myleene turned toward them, Mai-Mai pushed Cayna out from behind her. “My mother is safe.”

“Hey, hold on, Mai-Mai!”

“Lady Cayna!!” Myleene flew forward as Cayna was bewilderedly shoved in front of the dragoid and princess. The panicked Cayna hurriedly caught her.

“L-Lady Cayna, you’re safe! I’m so glad! Wh-when I saw the scene…I thought—I thought you…”

Overcome with emotion, Myleene began to sob, and Cayna embraced her. Across from them, the dumbfounded Shining Saber grumbled, “See, I told you.”

“Gasp! Wait, is this considered insulting the crown?!”

“Bit late for that, don’t you think?”

Cayna had returned to her senses as she comforted Myleene. Shining Saber’s exasperated answer made the nearby knights burst into laughter.

Cayna gently patted Myleene’s back until she calmed down.

“Wow, how maternal of you,” Shining Saber joked.

“Huh? Don’t you see my big daughter right there?”

“Mother… ‘Big’ is rather harsh.” Mai-Mai pretended to break down in tears.

Shining Saber looked shocked at her reaction. Apparently, he hadn’t anticipated Mai-Mai joining in their banter.

“Something the matter?” Mai-Mai asked him.

“Oh, uh, I just wasn’t expecting you to react like that. I didn’t mean nothin’ by it. Sorry if I hurt your feelings.”

“There’s no need to take things so seriously with my mother here.”

“That’s how this works?”

“Indeed it is.”

Shining Saber had apparently only seen Mai-Mai’s strict, professorial side. Seeing her be so casual was truly a rare sight.

Myleene had stopped crying, and Cayna said, “Come now, blow that nose,” in a very parent-child interaction.

“Man, I wonder if I should be doing this sort of thing when the queen’s still around,” Cayna mused.

“……Mother……” Mai-Mai was exasperated. Cayna had only realized this now.

“P-Professor! Please don’t tell my mother about this!” Myleene begged.

“Huh? Mai-Mai, you know the queen?” Cayna asked.

“Well, sort of.”

Cayna wondered why Myleene had pleaded with Mai-Mai. Apparently, the queen invited Mai-Mai for tea on occasion.

“How’d you two get so close?” Cayna asked her daughter.

“The current queen was a former student of mine.”

“Oh.”

Cayna had thought the queen would be older than her daughter, so Cayna was a bit curious to know how others might be perceiving Her Majesty.

“Oh yeah, didn’t you just move to that village? What’d you’d suddenly come to the castle for?” Shining Saber asked, cutting their idle chit-chat short.

“Ah, right, right! Thanks for the reminder.” Cayna clapped her hands in remembrance of what she came there for. “Mye, Shining Saber, I’d like to ask you two something in secret.”

“Me, you say?”

“And me?”

The crown princess and knight captain looked at one another. “What for?” Shining Saber demanded.

Cayna glanced around. Since it was a guard station, they were surrounded by knights. Most were busy training, but many were listening in curiously on their conversation. Cayna scowled and skirted the question. “Mm, not here.”

Myleene realized something was up, and answered, “Right this way, then.” She led the three of them to a back door of sorts that went through the kitchens. The castle cooks were shocked to see such an odd group of people. Myleene and the others continued down the hallways, climbed the stairs, then went down another hallway before entering a room.

“Umm, where are we?” Cayna asked.

“I sometimes use it for dance practice, but it is currently unoccupied,” Myleene replied with a bright smile. “Will this location do?”

Cayna eyed her surroundings. This place was about as wide as an Academy classroom. Other than rug on the floor, there were only shelves. There were no windows, so it was ideal for secret conversations. Cayna further cast Isolation Barrier. With this, there was no chance of their voices carrying outside.

“So?” Shining Saber prodded.

“You sure are hasty,” Cayna retorted.

“I’m a knight captain, y’know. I got work to do. Let’s make this quick.”

“Okay, okay,” Cayna replied as she thought about where she should start. “Um, the giant shadow in the river is the strange white fish Mye saw.”

“What? Is that true?!” Myleene cried in shock. Cayna’s point-blank revelation took her by surprise. Shining Saber frowned with incomprehension.

“Isn’t the size of that fish much different from what we heard about the shadow?” Myleene asked.

“The shadow makes it look bigger than it actually is. The real thing is only one hundred meters long.”

“Hold it, hold it, hold it! Quit chatting with her Highness and tell me exactly what’s goin’ on!” Shining Saber thrust himself in front of Cayna, effectively cutting off her explanation as well as her view of Mye.

“You said to make it short,” Cayna told him.

“I was sayin’ make it short enough for me to understand. Don’t leave me outta your little two-way conversation.”

“But then Mye won’t be able to keep up,” Cayna grumbled, her arms crossed.

Shining Saber heaved the deepest of sighs. “Okay, I get it, I get it,” he said. “Take as long as you need, so just start from the beginning. I’ll decide whether to help out once I hear the full story.”

“Ooh, nice. If I have your help, Shining Saber, this plan will be rock solid.”

“I’ll help, too, Mother.” Mai-Mai, who had remained silent thus far, expressed her willingness to participate. And even though Cayna hadn’t even gotten into the details yet, Myleene threw her hat into the ring, too, nodding and exclaiming, “I as well!”

Prefacing with “I’ll explain all the details, so just think about what we should do,” Cayna began sharing what she knew about the current situation. “Umm, so the big shadow that appeared in the Ejidd River the other day was a Guardian Tower.”

“Bwagh?!”

“Oh, was it?”

“A Guardian…what?”

Once she disclosed information regarding the foundations of the world itself, the three others had three separate reactions. Shining Saber did a spit take, Mai-Mai nodded in admiration, and Myleene tilted her head at the vocabulary she’d never heard before.

“Heeeey!” Shining Saber hissed. “You think you can just tell the princess somethin’ like thaaaaaat?!” He grabbed Cayna by the shoulders and dragged her to a corner of the room. He darted his eyes about and leaned in close when he admonished her.

“It doesn’t really hurt me in any way, and it’s not like Mye will tell anyone, right?” said Cayna.

“Even if it doesn’t reach the public, she’ll tell people—like the king!” retorted Shining Saber.

“I mean, it’s kinda late to be worrying about that. Skargo, Mai-Mai, and Kartatz already know I’m a Skill Master. They’ve probably told the king by now.”

“…That’s true, but still.”

Suddenly feeling drained, Shining Saber let go of Cayna, who returned to Mai-Mai and Mye. The two of them looked concerned.

“May I ask something, Lady Cayna?” Mye said.

“Oh, about the Guardian Towers? So you know that both me and Mai-Mai can use ancient arts, right, Mye?”

“Ah, yes. I do.”

“A Guardian Tower is a place where you can undergo a trial. If you pass it, you receive a single ancient art. I’m in charge of one of these places.”

“Huh? Wh-whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!” Myleene shouted with such surprise it was as if she’d squeezed every ounce of air from her lungs. The shock was so great that she forgot to take a breath and soon had a coughing fit. Mai-Mai stroked her back, and Myleene calmed down once her breath feebly returned.

After waiting for the princess to compose herself, this time Shining Saber asked a question of his own. “You said before that you’re looking for towers that have stopped operating, right? From what I’m hearing, that’s not the case for this one, right?”

“It was on the very edge. It’s got plenty of energy to swim around now,” Cayna told him. “You have my word.”

“Don’t promise stuff like that!”

Cayna ignored his comment with a smile and continued on. “Anyway, the topic of this conversation is that Guardian Tower. I’d like to keep it here in Felskeilo and was wondering what I should do.”

“And that’s what you wanted to ask us about?”

Shining Saber put a hand to his mouth in thought. Myleene remained silent with the same gesture.

“In other words, Mother, are you asking for someone to hide it so it doesn’t bother anyone?” said Mai-Mai.

“No, I don’t even really mind if you make it a spectacle. I’m hoping it can stay in the river.” Since one of the quest’s conditions was fishing it out, her thought was that no one would think to fish for something that was already on display. “Depending on the situation, it could be a new tourist attraction.”

Cayna thought it could be something that drew people to the tower, like the castle she’d made from scrap materials. Something that, when all was said and done, would be called part of the urban cityscape. Adding one or two more famous sites wasn’t going to change that.

“You’ve got one teeny, tiny problem there,” Shining Saber said dubiously.

“Yes, the captain is right,” Mai-Mai agreed. “The tower has already made a very poor first impression.”

Unsurprisingly, the initial “large shadow” that caused such a ruckus was the biggest obstacle in Cayna’s plan. Since the tower had a poor image among anyone in the fishing business, she highly doubted they’d change their tune if she just insisted that everything was fine.

“Isn’t trying to force our way past that a good idea?” said Cayna.

“Don’t be ridiculous. I’m just a knight captain; what am I supposed to do about a giant thing like that?” Shining Saber retorted.

“I’m not asking you to lift it. Besides, what if I give you two skills as a reward?”

“…Hmph.”

Shining Saber fell silent as Cayna held up two fingers and looked at him suggestively. He was no doubt mentally weighing the pros and cons. Thinking she could get him to see things her way, Cayna grinned happily and held up three fingers.

“Three skills. Those might come in pretty handy, wouldn’t you say?” she pressed.

“Okay, fine. I’ll help. Happy now?”

“Yesss, all right!” Cayna pumped her fist, to which Mai-Mai replied, “Mother, that’s improper.”

“So then, can we communicate with this strange fish?” Myleene asked.

“You can talk to it if you go inside, but that kind of ruins the whole spectacle.”

“The heck?”

It was undeniable that having a conversation with a Guardian that popped in and out of a door with almost every word was more than exhausting; it was a full-on shock to the system.

“If we catch it and get it to tell people it has no intent on attacking them, that should do the trick,” said Shining Saber.

“How’s the whale supposed to answer if it can’t talk?” asked Cayna.

“That’s the thing. You’re the one taking care of all this. How about you act as its representative or somethin’?”

“Oh, I get it now. In that case, if I put on some shining treasures, I bet it’ll give me some majesty.”

“You plannin’ on being a messenger of the gods or something…?”

“That’s it!” Myleene cut into the pair’s increasingly ridiculous conversation. She beamed at Shining Saber.

“Which part is ‘that’?” he asked.

“What you said just now, Captain. Let’s make Lady Cayna a divine messenger!”

“Huh?” Cayna’s mouth fell open at the role she was suddenly pushed into.

“I see. If Mother pretends to speak for the gods and says the whale seeks a peaceful life here in this city, Mye can can offer it refuge here, or something to that effect.”

“Professor! What a fine suggestion. That’s just what we’ll do!”

Mai-Mai and Myleene’s discussion moved along quickly, leaving Cayna and Shining Saber in the dust.

“Hmm.”

“What’s up?” Shining Saber asked Cayna.

“I feel like I should give Mye some kind of reward for this, too.”

“Yeah, go for it. Two or three skills, maybe.”

“Doesn’t seem like average citizens can learn skills. After all, they don’t have Item Boxes.”

“Mm? Ah, I get it. So it’s gotta be a real object.”

“Something real… I wonder if a poison- or paralysis-resistant necklace would be good.”

“That’d practically be a national treasure in this world. Granted, she is next in line for the throne, so I guess it works.”

“Now just hold on! Mother! Captain! Don’t whisper amongst yourselves over there. Please come over here and properly contribute to our discussion!” The pair’s talk of reward had angered Mai-Mai.

““’Kaaaaay.””

“The correct response is Coming!”

““Comiiiing.””

After that, they discussed several ideas before eventually settling on going fishing for the tower. The plan would begin from there.

“Okay, so me and the knights are gonna fish out the tower,” said Shining Saber. “We got a pole or something we can use?”

“I’ll ask Kartatz. His workshop is temporarily closed, so I’m certain he’ll be happy to assist,” Mai-Mai answered. She had become the facilitator of this plan and wanted to attend to every last detail. “Her Highness will wait upon the specially prepared stage, and when the tower is caught, she will ask it to identify itself.”

“‘What’re you doing here?’ ‘Why’d you go and upset all these townspeople?’ …Does that sound all right? Do I seem impressive?”

“Mye, you’re the next queen. You don’t seem impressive, you are impressive,” Cayna insisted.

“Next comes your entrance, Mother. Please appear in a ball of light atop the tower.”

“A ball of light—got it. So kinda sparkly like this?”

“Gah, you’re doin’ that here?!” Shining Saber exclaimed.

“Lady Cayna, that’s a bit too bright. I can’t look at you directly.”

“She’ll be a bit farther away on the actual day, so she’ll need to be bright enough to astonish the townspeople.”

“And now my knockout blow, Seven-Color Halo.”

“That’s an obnoxious neon! You ain’t a pachinko sign!”

Shining Saber let quite a few dangerous words fly, but since Mai-Mai went on giving orders and confirming the plan, no one commented on this.

“Then, Mother, you will say, ‘I apologize for the disturbance. I am in search of a peaceful abode.’”

“Um…like, ‘I apologize for the disturbance’?”

Canya gave Kee a command and tried out one of several eerie, hair-raising samples that sounded as if they belonged in horror movies. This was, of course, the Voice Change skill, but they’d need it to accomplish their objective. The goal was to surprise everyone in the area enough that they turned around.

“What the heck’s with that voice? Where’d that come from?” Shining Saber demanded.

“You sound like a villain, Mother.”

“I got the chills,” Myleene remarked. “Do you think the townspeople will listen to such a voice?”

“Mother, can you sound a bit more like you came from the heavens?”

“How am I supposed to do that?!” Cayna cried.

No matter how grand a Skill Master she was, there was no way she could pull off a perfect, omnipotent voice. Such a request was too big for her to handle. Since people interpreted voices in different ways, they decided she would write in the sky.

“Should I write in the local language rather than hiragana?”

“Why not write it mixed with kanji first and switch it to the local language later?”

“Hmm, maybe I will.”

There seemed to be some lasting influences from the game that caused the writings of Felskeilo to be in katakana and hiragana. The local language Cayna and the others now spoke used a unique, morphed alphabet. It was a style with alphabet letters that looked like they’d been written with an oversaturated ink pen and then dripped sideways. The reason most players could read this with ease was because of the Word Translator skill they received in character creation.

“Next, Your Highness should then say that you are willing to give the creature refuge,” said Mai-Mai.

“‘How about you stay here? Think you can watch over this land and its people for generations to come?’ How does that sound?” asked Myleene.

“Is that really gonna convince people?” Shining Saber wondered aloud. “I feel like some folks might have doubts…”

“That is why we are crafting a plan,” Mai-Mai replied. “If we cut corners, some people may take advantage of the situation. This is a very serious matter, Sir Knight Captain.”

“As soon as I answer, ‘Very well. I am in your care,’ should I get into position upstream of the sandbar?”

“Yes. Please be sure to stay serious, Mother.”

“Looks like we’ve got a lot to do. For now, I’ll leave a Wind Spirit with Mye so it can amplify her voice. I’ll be wrapping myself in Additional White Light Level 9 and writing in the sky… In that case, I’ll get a Light Spirit to give me a hand.”

Cayna confirmed the steps of their plan as she counted on her fingers. Since she wouldn’t be able to hear Myleene in the Guardian Tower, Cayna would explain what was going on and have the tower check the screen that showed the events going on outside. That was the only way to get the tower to move. Just to be safe, she was thinking she’d also cooperate with the Ninth and have the two towers stay in contact while coordinating with the outside. Even so, the core of the plan was nothing more than a matter of catching the blue whale tower, keeping it still, and then moving it.

“I heard that flowers make good bait. Do you think that will work?” Myleene asked.

“They’ll be easy to throw, plus I’ll explain everything to the Guardian Tower. A whole cow or something would be a waste.”

“Well then, um… Would it be all right if I told my father about our plan?”

“True, Your Highness doesn’t have the authority to mobilize the knight corps,” said Shining Saber. “Don’t worry—I’ll ask to come along.”

That was the final remaining concern. No matter how carefully they planned, if the king refused, nothing would move forward.

“We’re causing a scene just to fix the issue, after all,” said Cayna. “It’ll all come to down to whether we get the king’s approval.”

“It will fine,” said Myleene. “Sir Skargo spoke about Lady Cayna so much during our most recent meeting. I’m certain Father will understand!”

“…Why was he talking about me during a meeting…?”

It was an extremely reasonable question, but Myleene was in no position to address it. It wasn’t like a princess could breezily discuss the internal details of a government meeting. If the king did understand their situation, Shining Saber could contact Cayna through a Friend Message.

Just as Shining Saber was about to accompany Myleene, he said, “Ah, shoot,” and returned to Cayna.

“What’s up?” she said.

“There’s something I wanna ask. Do you know about the Parched Scorpions?”

“What’s that, some guild name?”

“You don’t know? It’s a mafia-type organization. It looks like they were targeting those kids who are with you.”

Cayna’s eyes glinted dangerously before she slapped her forehead in realization. “Ah, Cie said she knocked some guys into next week. It was probably them.”

“‘Cie’?”

“The maid I summoned. She takes care of the house and kids.”

“Right, one of those cash servants.”

“Cash servant” was a derogatory term for summonings like butlers and maids. Since they were possessed by hardcore gamers, they were a target of envy in Leadale.

“You’ve really got nothin’ to do with it, then? You sure?” Shining Saber asked.

“You’re a stubborn one,” Cayna replied. “What happened?”

Shining Saber was pointing at her. He must have thought it was something only players could know.

“Some god or devil or whatever named Igzdukyz appeared and made a big mess of ’em. Thinking about it now still gives me the chills…”

“‘Igzdukyz’? Isn’t that boss in the Underworld area? Maybe it went rogue.”

Igzdukyz was the name of a scheming devil who commanded an army of grotesque underlings. Fairly weak for a boss character, but plenty annoying nonetheless since it made frequent use of traps. Cayna grew weary just thinking about this creature wandering around somewhere like the Terror Skeleton.

“You know what that thing is? Can you summon stuff like that?!”

“Of course I can’t! Only demons can summon devils…”

As soon as she said it, Cayna realized something. Back in the game, demon players really were the only ones who could summon devils. If Igzdukyz had been summoned, it was proof there was a high-level demon player still out there.

“Hey, you’ve got a creepy smile on your face. You okay?” Shining Saber asked Cayna.

“Yeah, you gave me some good intel. So thanks for that.”

“S-sure.”

He’d just wanted to check that she was all right. With that out of the way, Shining Saber joined Myleene to go prepare for their audience with the king. Mai-Mai quickly wrote down the crux of the plan and handed it to the princess.

“Shouldn’t you go with them to explain?” Cayna asked Mai-Mai.

“No one would be here to accompany you back outside the castle, Mother. Still, I think the guards know your face by this point, so I doubt you’d have any issues coming and going.”

“Can’t say that makes me particularly happy.”

The mother-daughter pair made their way out of the castle, receiving odd stares from the various staff members. Upon exiting, they found Shining Saber’s co-captain and several other knights waiting for them.

“Oh, what’s this now?” Mai-Mai asked.

The knights apparently received word from Shining Saber earlier and would be accompanying them to the dragonfly station.

“There was also the incident this morning, after all. We will be part of Lady Cayna’s escort,” the co-captain said.

“Doesn’t seem necessary for just a regular adventurer,” Cayna retorted.

“No, you are the captain’s fiancée. It is entirely necessary.”

“Mother? What in the world is this talk about a fiancée?”

It sounded like a storm was rolling in; a dark aura enveloped Mai-Mai. The knights all took a step back, pale-faced and twitching at her eerie expression.

Cayna patted Mai-Mai’s back to calm her down, said, “It’s just a misunderstanding, no need to worry,” and started walking off. “Hold on, Mother! I will not simply let this pass!” Mai-Mai shouted as Cayna dragged her away.

“Sorry about the fuss, folks!”

“Listen to me, Mother!”

The co-captain had watched them go off with shock and fear, but when he returned to his senses, he sent his knights off with an order of, “Two or three of you, act as escorts.” The three female knights from earlier immediately followed Cayna and Mai-Mai.

“““Please waiiiit!””” they called.

“Huh? You guys need something?” Cayna asked.

“We…”

“…will escort you…”

“…to the station.”

They caught up to Cayna, who clearly didn’t seem to care either way. “Why, thank you!” Mai-Mai brightly replied.

“““Yes, ma’am!””” the women said heartily, then split up, with two knights in front of the pair and one behind. Mai-Mai squeezed Cayna’s arm tightly.

“You should just accept this, Mother,” she admonished. Cayna nodded firmly. The two knights in front of them observed the pair’s interaction pleasantly while the third at the rear had a dead look in her eyes.

“Umm, what’s wrong with her? Is she okay?” Cayna asked.

“Ah. She’s not getting along with her family at the moment,” the knight on the right-hand side in front of Cayna replied. The two in front were commoners, while the one in the back was apparently the daughter of a viscount.

“Please, pay me no mind… I am no longer of such high standing.”

From what Cayna heard, the knight’s parents were pressing her into marriage, and she received demanding letters daily. Even speaking of it had reignited the woman’s anger. Her fist raised in front of her face trembled with rage, and from her furious mouth came the sound of gnashing teeth. From the looks of her, no one would ever guess she was the daughter of a noble family.

“Why not…get married?” Mai-Mai proposed with an incredibly cheery smile.

“Huh?”

“““What?”””

Cayna looked at her blankly, and the knights gaped in shock.

“There’s nothing wrong with at least giving it a try,” Mai-Mai added.

“Is that the sort of thing you should be suggesting so casually? Marriage is a huge commitment,” said Cayna.

“Well, if you and your partner are compatible, you’ll stay together for a long time. And if you’re not, you just have to get divorced.”

As if seeing where she was coming from, the three women nodded. Cayna didn’t know how she herself felt about marriage since she’d sort of stopped making big plans following her accident.

That was likely why she seemed so detached as she listened to the conversation.

“Being divorced and never being married aren’t all that different, wouldn’t you say?” Mai-Mai said.

“Huh?” A question mark appeared over Cayna’s head—a type of skill, of course.

“Ah, well, yes. I suppose you’re right,” the viscount’s daughter murmured in understanding. “In high society, divorce can damage your reputation. And yet, remaining single is rather embarrassing. You lose face among your noble peers.”

“So why not give marriage a try? Even getting engaged might give you a change of heart.”

The other two knights sighed in admiration, and even the noble knight nodded, convinced.

“You have given me much to think about, headmaster,” she said. “I will return home and talk this over with my parents.”

“That’s certainly a fine method. Parents want their children to be happy, after all,” Mai-Mai replied, and her gaze turned to Cayna, who realized what her daughter was getting at. She awkwardly looked away and Mai-Mai stifled a laugh.

“Uhhh, sorry, Mai-Mai…”

“Not at all, Mother. I’m not bothered in the slightest.”

Cayna felt like she had been a terrible mother for submitting her own children to the Foster System and disappearing.

I can’t make excuses for myself. I’ve got to make up for my mistakes…

Mai-Mai seemed relieved when she felt Cayna’s arm relax and saw a gentle smile appear on her face.

The three knights escorted the two of them all the way to the dragonfly station. Cayna was happy to learn various tidbits from them, such as a popular store hidden in the aristocratic district that even commoners could enter.

After Mai-Mai and Cayna returned to the sandbar, they visited Kartatz’s workshop, which was quiet save for the sounds of several employees at work. Kartatz was sitting in a chair by the entrance and absorbed in carving a piece of wood.

“Heya, Kartatz! Looks like you’ve got some time on your hands,” Cayna called to her son with a wave.

“Mum! And Mai-Mai, it’s rare to see you here. Something happen?” Kartatz got to his feet and walked over to greet them.

“Well, something’s about to happen anyway,” Cayna said.

“What are you up to…?”

“Oh, you know. All sorts of things. Mother is involved as well, so I’m sure that explains quite a bit.”

“Mum, too? Whatever it is you’ve gotten yourselves into, it can’t be good.”

He must have gotten a bad feeling about this from the way Cayna was smiling. Mai-Mai stepped forward and placed her order.

“Kartatz, I need you to make a fishing pole as soon as possible. One big enough for about ten people to use.”

“Sheesh, might as well be asking me for a million bucks. Sure, we got plenty of materials now that there’s all this free time, but what exactly are you gonna do with something like that?”

This was the only part of their plan that required money. As leader of this plan, Cayna was going to pay for the pole. Mobilizing the knights also incurred a fee, but it looked like Myleene was taking care of that.

“At any rate, we’ll need it by tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?!” Kartatz’s wild yell echoed across the quiet river.

This was probably the most outrageous part of the plan.