After finishing the meal, we began the search centered around the base. Though it looked like we were playing, Craft-sama’s true feelings were quite serious.
We carefully examined the walls and inspected the ceilings that had collapsed over time.
A map was quickly drafted. The parchment was layered, and areas were investigated one by one.
“Whoa! This sentence is!”
Pastel exclaimed in shock as she read the new sacred language.
“What does it say?”
“It says there’s a staircase upstairs ahead!”
An astonishing fact!
Alcior tilted her head and pointed to the front. The staircase was visible.
“The staircase is just visible from here.”
“Whoa, that’s true!”
A second surprise!
“The writings are quite helpful.”
“Not that it helps much.”
“Kindness is important, Bellamont.”
The ruins, presumably created by the gods, were as kind as Melisa said—if only one could read the sacred language.
Pastel read the sacred language inscribed on another wall.
“Whoa! This sentence is!”
She shouted in surprise.
“Golem ahead!”
When she quickly looked, unlike the staircase, the golem was not immediately visible. Just an empty corridor. Was it hiding?
“A golem?”
Melisa looked troubled.
“I don’t know how it performs, but dealing with it in a narrow space is tricky.”
“Is it tough for a magician to deal with a golem friend?”
It certainly seemed to have the impression of inflicting fatal wounds. While it’s easy to kill a person with an automatic rifle, breaking stone is another issue.
“Unless there’s enough distance or time, it’ll be troublesome in a place like this.”
“Heh.”
“I’ll take it down.”
Alcior stepped forward.
“Golems are very easy to deal with.”
The stone she held in her silver-haired hands crumbled easily. It was a level akin to a junior knight that significantly affected natural objects.
“If it’s at the junior knight level, breaking a golem would indeed be a breeze. I didn’t think I would have anything to envy about you, Bellamont, but that is enviable.”
While the two conversed, Pastel boldly walked forward. Having caught a terrorist, she was bursting with confidence.
“Golem friend! The great power of the Academy, Pastel, will face you!”
“I’ll handle it—”
Suddenly, an artificial crack appeared in the wall right in front of her. Lines were drawn across, splitting it into countless square rock fragments.
The fragments trembled and began to float around a black core. The shape of the golem started to form.
“Wow!”
Pastel’s mouth dropped open. The golem’s pupils gleamed red. Alcior rushed over.
“Craft! Back—!”
“Whoa!”
Pastel spun around in a panic. The white hem of her garment flared as she kicked the golem’s hand, which obscured the black core. A shockwave erupted.
The rocky hand exploded apart. The stone fragments swept away the black core and shattered it. The red pupils lost their light, and a pile of stones collapsed to the ground.
“Uh….”
Alcior stopped running and stared with a blank expression.
“UAAH.”
Pastel stepped backward, trembling.
“I-I didn’t mean to expect a sneak attack.”
Hiding behind the wall was too much!
She exhaled, trying to calm her startled heart.
“Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale.”
Huh.
She felt a sense of calm.
『How can you say inhale while talking? If you’re speaking, the inhale becomes an exhale.』
Whoa, that’s true.
Is the demon a genius or something?
Pastel followed what the demon lord had taught her.
“Exhale, exhale, exhale, exhale.”
Fixing the mistake made her feel even calmer.
『…Hmm.』
Alcior approached, looking blankly down at the golem remains, then kicked a rock aside and stared at Pastel’s unscathed foot.
“How did you break it?”
A confused expression, as if wondering how an ordinary person who hadn’t reached the junior knight level could do that.
Oh.
If I answer that it’s because I consumed magic stones and got stronger, it’ll lead to a complicated situation!
Instead, Pastel gave a thumbs up.
“The vision of the Craft clan!”
Since it’s a vision, it’s a secret.
Alcior nodded in understanding.
“Indeed. Concealing your abilities is part of the Craft clan’s vision.”
“Oh, was that what it was?”
Melisa also nodded in agreement.
“Compared to when I first met you, your improvement was so rapid that it was somewhat hard to comprehend. If you were to reveal your skills only after securing stable power, I could understand that well.”
“Previously, you must have had to consider the imperial gaze as well.”
“That’s right.”
The two warlords exchanged thoughts and reached a conclusion.
Silly silly Pastel was dumbfounded.
Why are they talking about me?
They moved on past the golem. The parchment continued to fill in with the map being drawn. Yet, there was no sign of the cult, let alone the Knight Corps.
“With this scale, the Knight Corps must be organizing the ruins while having set up a base similar to ours. Since there was a staircase to the second floor, wouldn’t they have already ascended?”
“Is that so? I think we’ve got a sense of the atmosphere of the ruins, so shall we pick up the pace and head to the second floor?”
“If there’s no hurry, let’s take a stable rest at the base and move tomorrow.”
“Yes, yes! Let’s do that!”
They returned to the secret space with natural spring water.
Pastel looked strangely at the jerky soup she received again.
It tastes good, but…
『If you’re dissatisfied, you can make it yourself.』
Ew.
It’s not that I was that dissatisfied.
It’s just that I have a very minor wish (yes, yes!) that someone would prepare a feast that makes my belly full and my tongue happy.
『Your expression shows exactly what you’re thinking. I don’t know how you became such a greedy child. Hmm. Did I do something wrong?』
Heh.
It’s a bit scary when you suddenly make comments like a guardian in self-reflection.
You’re not thinking about making unnecessary vows to change your teaching style, are you?
No way!
Absolutely not!
Firmly opposed!
Melisa approached.
“Would you like some more?”
“Ah. Yes!”
Pastel drank two cups of the jerky soup. A fullness bloated within her. A warm heat filled her body.
Warm soup in the cool autumn.
Hoo-hah.
“It would have been better if it were winter.”
“It slowed down the investigation with us having to deal with the bloodsucking bats along the way. If it were winter, the bats might have been hibernating.”
That’s not quite what I meant.
She enjoyed the feeling of fullness, spacing out.
“Hey, Pastel.”
“Yes?”
Melisa seemed a bit hesitant.
Please don’t tell me my impolite thoughts about the jerky soup have been revealed.
That’s not it, it was another reason.
“You have many friends, right?”
“Eh?”
Pastel was taken aback.
“Do I look like I’m lacking in popularity enough to get that question?”
It felt like she was living life wrong.
Should I start a project to make 100 friends?
“You, being beautiful and cute, could never be.”
Melisa quickly waved her hands.
“That’s not it.”
She twisted her finger around her golden hair.
“I was just curious about the secret to making friends.”
Oh?
The friend antenna buzzed.
This meant she wanted to be friends with someone but was hesitant to approach them alone and sought help from a popular person.
Whoa, this sounds so fun!
Pastel observed Melisa with sharpened eyes. Melisa seemed to glance at someone. The silver-haired girl had already entered her sleeping bag alone.
A completely different hesitation compared to how she looked at rival warlords.
This, this!
A relationship formed through fighting!
“Just trust me!”
Pastel hooked arms with Melisa and jumped up. Melisa was caught off guard and stood up.
“What? About what?”
“Friends, friends!”
She strided forward.
When they reached the sleeping bag, Alcior’s face peeked out, looking dazed. Her silver eyes were dim from slumber.
It seemed Alcior, who normally showed little enthusiasm, was just sleepy.
“Alcior! Alcior! Are you already asleep?”
Is that so?
Alcior mumbled.
“Yes….”
“You’re not sleeping!”
Good!
Pastel smiled brightly and pulled Melisa’s arm. Melisa, flustered, couldn’t maintain her strength and fell out behind her.
“Hey, hey! Melisa wants to be friends with you!”
Pastel cupped her cheeks.
“Shy Melisa, who wanted to say it but didn’t!”
Melisa looked shocked, her lips quivering.
“Y-You….”
I know your feelings well!
It’s natural to want to be friends upon seeing peers from a similar clan!
But until now, due to the clan’s customs, we’ve only been enemies, and after seeing the popular Pastel, you decided to be honest!
Melisa twisted her body instead.
“Shy.”
Melisa’s face turned beet red instantly. Her blue eyes trembled and seemed to well up slightly.
Melisa quickly looked down at Alcior.
“Th-There’s been a misunderstanding. Please ignore what I just said. The grudges tied to our clans aren’t so light that we can be friends.”
Her finger pointed at Alcior accusatorily.
“I clearly remember how you betrayed us by falling for Craft’s schemes 70 years ago. If you hadn’t betrayed us, the landscape of the Empire would be distinctly different by now. In this situation, we cannot be friends.”
Whoa.
Such a deep grudge.
But isn’t Craft, who caused the division, the worst?
Pastel rolled her eyes, thinking.
Since Melisa just told me to ignore it, I’ll choose to ignore it.
Ew.
Instead, she looked down at Alcior.
Alcior in the sleeping bag had a shocked expression. Her silver eyes trembled delicately.
“Aren’t we already friends…?”
After living in the northern mountains without a single peer friend, she had only thought Melisa, from a similar clan, was her only best friend, and now she realized she had no friends.
“What?”
Melisa was dumbfounded.
“How could that possibly be friendship?”
Whoa.
A declaration of zero friends.
“I see….”
Alcior looked blankly up at the ceiling.
Her face reflected a sense of regret for a life where she faced assassination threats from her clan and had no friends, and then she fainted.
Thud.
“Alcior…!”
A scream escaped.
Alcior was socially dead!
Aaaah!
Bad Melisa!
