Leave a comment

The day after meeting with Viviana. Up until now, I would be doing sorcery experiments, or rather something like magic power training, but since Liessyl can now see me even when I’m incorporeal, I play with her occasionally.

What we can do is limited since we can’t converse, but I’m teaching her games from my past life like rock-paper-scissors and follow the finger. While doing so, it seems to have caught the interest of young spirits, as I’ve noticed a few playing rock-paper-scissors here and there. I’ve been thinking hard on how the non-humanoid spirits can play as well, but that aside, Liessyl and I occasionally have serious games of follow the finger.

We do rock-paper-scissors to match our rhythm and after a beat, the winner points to one of four directions. I could yell out the timing instead, but in that case it wouldn’t be fair when Liessyl wins rock-paper-scissors and it works surprisingly as is.

Having the R-P-S winner to win follow the finger consecutively, having to keep rhythm at high speeds, and so on. Our repertoire increased in weird ways. I still continue training while playing, though. And as we played today as well, Ciel began moving, so I stopped my hand and looked her way.

『Good Morning.』
「Morning Ai~n.」

Maybe recognizing this house as a place where she can relax, Ciel has loosen up a lot here, or specifically in this room. Greeting the morning with a yawn, half-asleep, without any care about the hair in her mouth is no unusual sight these days. And when that happens, it takes a long time for her to completely wake up, so I wait accordingly.

「Morning Ain!」
『Good morning to you too. What shall we be doing today?』

After our second morning greeting, I asked Ciel about today’s plans.

「What indeed? If I remember, there’s something called a den here in Central, right?」
『We were told so, yes. Do you want to go there?』
「It seems like it’s the only place to do hunter work, after all. Let’s try going there.」
『In that case, it might be good to visit the Hunter Guild first to see if there’s any suitable requests.』
「That’s true.」

And with that, today’s schedule is set, so we exited our room to have breakfast.

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

「And so we’ll try visiting the den.」
「Right, right. It might be best for you to have a quick look there. After all, I might come to ask you to cull the monsters there sometimes.」
「Come to think of it, you were tasked to manage it, right?」
「Yes, that’s right. I don’t imagine it being any dangerous for you two, so I won’t be giving unnecessary warnings now. However, keep track of when to go home, alright?」
「Understood.」

We had a conversation with mother after breakfast.
True, we’ll have to pay attention to the time. It’s not like there’s no clocks and watches in this world, but maybe because of how complex one is, it’s treated as a luxury item.
Perhaps it’s also produced with complicated sorcery. Then again, we do have a lot of money, so buying one would be easy. We should buy a watch first before delving into the den.

「But that’s right, you might not have the time to go there today, you know?」
「There’s something happening again?」
「Yes, yes. There’s been some development, you see. What to do about it, I’ll leave it all to you two.」
「What to do about it… we’ll think about it when it happens. But thanks for telling us.」
「Don’t mention it.」

So something is going to happen again today? In that case, buying a watch might be the only thing we get done today.
Rather, wouldn’t daily incidents continue happening from now on? Since this probably means that the faction opposing mother is making their move. I really hope things don’t get bothersome, though.

「Well then, take care.」
「See you later.」

While I was in my thoughts, mother Fii saw us off as Ciel left the mansion.

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

『I’d like to buy a timepiece, but could we first go to the Hunter Guild?』
『A timepiece? Why buy one?』

Seeing Ciel puzzled, I realized that I didn’t give proper context.

『If it goes as I imagine, we probably cannot tell time inside the den. After all, we’ll be entering a place the light of the sun can’t reach.』
『A place like that prison, I see. True, we wouldn’t be able to tell time. I only learned what day and night was after leaving there, after all.』

Ciel talks about it so casually, but it holds bitter memories for me. Memories of the times I failed to protect Ciel, memories of Ciel suffering every day.
Perhaps due to my sudden silence, Ciel peered into my eyes.

『Ain, it seems to bother you, but it doesn’t bother me at all. After all, it’s where I met you, Ain.』

Replying『I see.』to her beaming smile, we arrived at the Hunter Guild.

『Let’s go to the Hunter Guild first then.』
『It would be weird to turn back when we’re so close, after all.』

Inside the Hunter Guild is… just as usual.
We just came here yesterday, so it’d be more of a surprise if anything changed at all. Though if I had to point out something curious, it’s that Viviana is intently staring at the entrance.
And upon seeing Ciel, she looked relieved and approached us.

「I have been awaiting your arrival.」
「I’m a hunter right now.」
「…… Right, got it. I’m glad you came today.」

Ciel had Viviana correct her tone, but I really understand how weird it feels for Viviana to be so formal, so I’ll just let it pass. To begin with, Viviana is from a fairly well off family herself, so us speaking like friends shouldn’t be an issue.

「Did something happen?」
「That’s right. I want to talk about something we discussed yesterday.」
「Should we move?」

The two stand out, so there’s many people stealing glances at them.
Upon noticing this herself, Viviana replied 「Right.」 and exited the Hunter Guild.

Hiya~! More adorable AinCiel interactions, a good thing to start the chapter with if you ask me. As well as more of the forest spirit Liessyl and Viviana, very nice.

As always, it’s nice to see Ain having more interactions with outside of Ciel. Let’s be honest, they do need a healthy dose of “other people” interaction, so Ain playing games with the spirits is as adorable as it is healing. Ciel oversleeping is also great, as Ain says. The image of non-humanoid spirits making up equivalents for rock-paper-scissors is funny to me, though. Like, how will a tiny salamander spirit play rock paper scissors against, I don’t know, some bird-like spirit? Adorably, maybe.

Next, it seems like we’ll be having a dungeon tour soon but before that, it looks like Viviana is making her move. Understandable, considering last interlude. Very excited to see the fool of a brother, not gonna lie.

Now then, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please feel free to comment. Stay clean, stay safe, and have a nice day~!