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The next morning, Natalia keeps grumbling about never doing this again while she straightens her disheveled nightgown.

What happened?

“Just let me ask, but you really don’t remember anything, right? Was everyone fully asleep?”
“Why? What happened?”
“Woof?”
“…”
“After everything… Never mind, it’s best if you don’t remember, yes…”

Natalia keeps talking to herself in a low voice as she takes out the dress she’s been wearing often lately, and turns around to take off her nightgown.

Let’s gooo! I can finally watch Natalia’s sexy changing time!

“!!”

I silently raise my arms in celebration and Akane imitates me, but then a blue opaque barrier appears between us and Natalia.

“Ah! That’s not fair!”
“!!”
“How’s it not fair?! You shouldn’t even be watching in the first place!”

The barrier goes away and Natalia comes out wearing the dress.

“Aw…”
“Stop looking so disappointed and start changing yourself, Young Lady. Also, get off the bed Claire, you’re due for a brushing.”
“Woof.”

While Akane and I look disappointed, Clarissa barks as she jumps down to the floor.

“Hurry, Young Lady.”
“Urghhh…”

I push myself out of bed and change into the clothes Natalia prepared for me, tie up my hair, and then put on the necklace with the ring Natalia gifted me. At the same time Natalia brushes Clarissa’s fur and then wipes Akane’s body.

Breakfast arrives by the time all of that’s done, and we all start eating.

“So what shall we do now? We could stay here for a few days if you want.”

While eating, the conversation obviously focuses on what we’ll be doing now. We can’t go back to the Gardeland mansion, but going back home so soon after arriving at the capital doesn’t feel good either.

“Why don’t we do some sightseeing in the capital?”
“That’s a good idea. I’m sure there must be plenty of tourist spots and good food to try here.”
“Woof? Good food?”
“Yes. And even if it’s just ingredients I’m sure I can whip up something good with them.”
“Awoooo!”

Clarissa starts wagging her tail with excitement. It makes sense considering how good Natalia’s cooking is.

“We should also find a souvenir for Erika since she had to stay home.”
“…”

When Natalia brings up Erika’s name, Akane seems to get upset and stuffs her mouth with bread, I guess she still doesn’t get along with Erika.

“After that…hmm, I’d also like to visit shops selling materials.”
“Are you looking for something to keep building the thing from before?”
“There’s that too, but I’d also like to experiment with other things.”
“I guess this means we’ll go shopping while also sightseeing around the capital.”
“Yes.”
“Woof.”
“!”

Once we finish eating our breakfast, we buy a map and some pamphlets outside the hotel and head out to sightsee the capital.

We first visit a museum. There’s a lot I don’t understand since I’ve never been good at history or art, but there’s also displays of taxidermy specimens and monster skeletons.

“That’s so impressive.”
“It’s incredibly…big.”

Right now we’re looking at the skeleton of a Black Mountain Dragon, which was defeated by the army of the founding king. My gloves and boots were also made with materials harvested from one such monster, and as its name suggests, it’s big like a mountain.

“Black Mountain Dragons are the next evolution of Black Hill Dragons, and their scales are far more useful than the bones, so that’s why the skeleton was put up as a display instead.”
“Bones…”
“Claire, stay.”

While Natalia is reading the description next to the skeleton, Clarissa starts to drool wildly like she’s in front of food, and I pull firmly on her leash. Meanwhile Akane is on Natalia’s shoulder, looking at the displays in amazement.

“And this is the partisan they made with the scales.”

Nearby there’s another display, a black spear with its tip shaped like a cross. It was crafted two centuries ago, but it still looks really imposing.

“Hmm, the founding king gave this weapon to his general Francis Morrissey, who brandished it through countless battles. It seems that the founding king also liked to call his general ‘Muschas’, though no one knows how that nickname originated.”
“No one knows that?”
“It seems so. Francis was quite temperamental it seems, but the founding king had a soft spot for him.”
“Woof? Sniff sniff.”

But then Clarissa suddenly starts sniffing around as she finds an interesting scent.

“Familiar scent. Nearby.” Clarissa starts walking erratically as she searches for the source and we follow after her.

Can there really be a familiar scent for her in a place like this though?

“Scent from home.” Clarissa stops and points at something else on display, a transparent crystal the size of a fist with a purple hue.

“Artificial Mana Stone? A collection of high density mana that has crystalized and doesn’t disperse into the environment. It contains a tremendous amount of mana, but so far no one has been able to replicate it.”

Natalia continues reading through the description before staring at the Artificial Mana Stone with a distant look.

“What’s wrong?”

When I ask that, Natalia just points at the last part of the description. I move closer to read it and…

“Built by…Ophelia Gardeland.”
“What were you thinking, Mistress?”
“Hmmm, I should’ve guessed it was my mother’s.”
“But why would anyone do that… Lack of materials? But to what end? Mana Crystals are more than enough to store mana. Making something like this seems like way too much effort for too little… Or is it more compact..?”

Ah, Natalia’s researcher side has been activated. But Clarissa looks like she’s bored already, as she’s yawning and scratching her ears with her feet. I guess we have to keep going.

“Let’s go.”

I pick up Natalia and carry her on my shoulder, and Akane moves to her back to not fall off.

“Umm…Young Lady? I’m not so absorbed as to become unaware of my surroundings, would you mind letting me down?”

Carrying her like this also puts her butt next to my face. That’s even better.

“Stop rubbing your face against me!”

Because Natalia started screaming we ended up causing a scene and were given a warning by the museum’s staff. After that we went to look at an old cathedral, bought the local produce from a market, and then continued walking around the capital while trying out street food.

Eventually it’s time to go buy the materials Natalia wants for her magic devices, so we head to a pretty big store, but somehow the closer we get the less people we see around us.

By the time we’re in front of the store, there’s no one else around us in the street or inside the stores. Instead, there’s a pair of guards in full armor in front of the store, standing menacingly.

“They…don’t look like the store’s security.”
“Did something happen?”

The store’s sign reads Platiboros Company, and looks somewhat desolate with the lack of people nearby. Then the doors open and a group of guards come out. But then my eyes lock with one of them, who’s wearing a sorcerer’s robe.

“””Ah!”””

Me, Natalia, and Mathias raise our voices at the same time.