Chat-Error/lightnovel-2048 · Datasets at Hugging Face

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"I... again, I..."
The sound of the organ couldn't be heard anymore.

Caterina was pale as she returned to her private chamber. When she got to her desk, she sighed deeply, ducking under the golden hair that hung over her face.
"How was the conference, Your Eminence? Any developments?" asked Sister Kate, the holographic nun with the mole under her eye.
"The perpetrator of the Barcelona incidents has been identified."
News of the destruction in Barcelona had reached Rome three days earlier. Caterina hadn't slept at all since then. Anyone other than the "Woman of Steel" would have passed out by now.
"Barrie was responsible for the crimes. He got his hands on lost technology somewhere, using it to eliminate any hindrances to the experiments carried out by his own company. Unfortunately, the technology ran amok, and he gratitude. Thank you."
Elliot also offered his thanks as he went around shaking everyone's hands. He eventually came to Reiji.
"In any event, I'm glad you're alright, Elliot."
"I'm in your debt. I will repay you properly and in full one day, so do call on me if you need anything."
"Haha, it was the other way around last time, so let's just call it even."
"That will not do! It would tarnish my honor if allowed my debts to go unpaid. Besides, the one who owes me for that is not you, but—"
Elliot stopped there and turned a grudging gaze towards Suimei.
"What? Don't I get a handshake?"
"What's that? You want to shake hands with me?"
"Yeah, you're right, I'll pass. Maybe if you were a cute girl..."
"Hmm? Despite looking like you have no immunity to women, you'd say such a thing? Could it be that you're forcing yourself?"
"Shut it! Sorry 'bout that!"
Elliot sneered a little, but Suimei shrugged his shoulders. Elliot then regained his composure and shook his head sullenly.
"But to think that you would be the one to save me... This must be the biggest blunder of my life."
"Sure is, pal. With this, we're even over that thing with Reiji, you hear?"
"You really do have an uncouth way of speaking."
"Shut it, prettyboy. Unlike you, I was raised normally."
There, Elliot and Suimei began trading insults. Elliot had more to say with his aloof attitude than Suimei did with his foul-mouthed sharp tongue, but judging that this would never come to an end on its own, Reiji intervened.
"Now, now, both of you, let's leave it at that and move on to the main event."
"You're right. I must say I'm quite curious about this."
"It is the reason we all gathered here today."
Elliot and Suimei both seemed amenable to the change in topic, and the group collectively walked over to the far end of the open space outside of Suimei's house. It was the same place where Felmenia had constructed the pool previously, but right now, rather than a large water tank, there was a large magicka circle on the ground. Graziella had only heard about Elliot's rescue so far, so she squatted down in front of the magicka circle and gazed at it with deep interest.
"This is... the magic circle to return you to your world, is it?"
She must have investigated similar formulas before, because she identified it almost immediately. Graziella read through the magickal inscriptions in the circle and reached out to touch it. The one to respond to her, naturally, was Suimei.
"Yup. So don't go taking advantage of the fact that I'll be away to tamper with it or erase it, you hear me?"
"You're the shrewd man who came up with this. You've already established a way to come and go, no?"
"Well, yeah."
When Suimei had completed the magicka circle of returning, he'd made a mental note of the coordinates so that he could come and go as he pleased. If he'd simply relied on the magicka circle remaining undisturbed even outdoors, he likely would have been stranded. And to prevent exactly that from happening, he had to set up several failsafes, some of which were quite troublesome.
"But I honestly never thought the pool would give me the last piece of the puzzle I needed..."
"We must thank Lady Felmenia for that."
"Yeah, but it's kinda ironic."
Felmenia was the one who summoned them to this world, and she'd also been the one to complete the picture for them to return home. Suimei didn't know quite what to say about it. But upon hearing Lefille say she deserved thanks, Felmenia...
"Suimei-dono! Please praise me!"
She wagged her tail and bounced up and down like an excited puppy. Suimei gave a fed-up sigh.
"Hey, I praised you plenty already, didn't I? Is it still not enough?"
"Heehee, I think once a day would be perfectly fine. Simple praise will cost you nothing—rather, it will yield you a profit."
Suimei didn't quite know what he'd be making a profit off of, but he was already quite sick of thanking her about ten times a day.
"Yeah, yeah, thanks a lot... As one would expect of the great White Flame Felmenia-sama..."
"Hmph, that is far too halfhearted!"
Felmenia flailed her arms about wildly upon not getting her way. After Suimei's identity as a magician was revealed, it seemed she was no longer concerned about appearances in front of the others, and quite often let her inner child shine through in moments like this.
"Well, anyhoo... Hey, cheer up already, will you, Mizuki?"
Setting aside Felmenia for the moment, Suimei turned to Mizuki who was in a full-fledged pout. Her cheeks were puffed out as far as they could go.
"Hmph! Suimei-kun, you dummy! Idiot, moron, jerk! Just blow up a spell and drop dead already!"
Indeed, Anou Mizuki could hardly contain her resentment. Hearing it, however, Felmenia spoke up in a somewhat bitter tone.
"Mizuki-dono, that would be somewhat problematic... We are going along with him, after all."
"I don't care. I'm sure he can blow just himself up with pinpoint accuracy."
As Mizuki insisted that Suimei should meet a terrible fate, this time Lefille was the one to fold her arms and speak up in a troubled tone.
"But still, if that happens, we wouldn't be able to return anymore..."
"I still don't care! In fact, I don't even care what it is! I hope something horrible happens to him—and only him!"
Suimei let out a grand sigh upon realizing Mizuki's mood was showing no signs of improving. After the fight at Hadorious's mansion, the mysterious spirit hadn't returned and Mizuki was back to her usual self. Suimei had then had to confess he was a magician, and this was the result.
It was predictable, really. The day he'd told her, she naturally didn't listen to anything else he said on the carriage ride back. In fact, she'd only just started talking to him again a few hours ago. The fact that he'd kept being a magician a secret for so long... Or was she just angry that he'd rejected her chuuni heart all this time? He'd been monopolizing cool stuff and hiding it from her, and that was unacceptable. It was apparently an offense punishable by death, and for that, Suimei had been apologizing nonstop.
"That's why I said I'm sorry. Come on, forgive me already..."
"Shut it! Keep apologizing to me! Until you die! No, forever!"
"That's a little..."
"Ugh, you jerk! Meanie, scrooge, buttmunch!"
After disparaging him like a child, Mizuki once more went back to pouting. When she fell quiet, Elliot turned to Suimei again.
"So, are you going now?"
"Yeah. We're headed back to clear up some anxieties that have been building for a while."
"Yeah, like school..."
"And friends..."
"Mm, and our families..."
Hearing Suimei talk about building anxieties, the ones who reacted were none other than Reiji, Mizuki, and Hatsumi. There were things they were all worried about... Things they'd actually been trying not to think about until just now. What would await them back home? It was difficult to imagine. And while they were all contemplating this, Lefille spoke up.
"Sorry. We said that we would all go together, but I think I'll stay behind."
"So suddenly...? What's... wrong?"
Liliana opened her lone eye in surprise, but Lefille returned her a determined expression.
"Nothing. I was just thinking I should pick up on the training I've been missing out on."
"You're going to stay behind and train?"
"Yeah. If I'm going to take care of my own anxieties, I don't think there are any shortcuts. As a swordswoman, the only way for me to get stronger is swing my sword."
She had a very logical point, but Suimei disagreed.
"No, you should absolutely come along with us, Lefi."
"Why is that?"
"Nothing big. I just think you should meet with the instructor."
"Instructor?"
"My dad?"
Suimei nodded to both Lefille and Hatsumi in turn. The instructor Suimei was talking about was Hatsumi's father, and the head of the dojo that Suimei went to. He stood at the peak of the Hundred Swords of the Martial World, and was one of the Four Great Sages of the Arts—the Sword of Four, Kuchiba Kiyoshiro. If Lefille really wanted to achieve greatness with a sword, she definitely could stand to learn a thing or two from him.
"The instructor is one of the monsters from my father'sI get it. This quest is basically a trap that a ton of newbies fall into. But I have a Magic (Golem) Blade on my side, plus my Wearable Golem's assistance. I'll manage.
"...I believe I mentioned this when making your guild card, but failure to complete a request results in a fine and a punishment. Do you still wish to go through with this?"
"Yep, absolutely." Sorry, I wasn't really listening when you talked about the fine and stuff. Either way, I held out my guild card so she could register my quest application.
"...Application registered. Be careful. Oh, and regarding the delivery quest, please go behind the Guild Building. The staff member in charge of delivery quests will tell you more about the deliveries there."
"Thanks." The receptionist was kind of a prickly person at times, but she did her job and she always gave relevant, helpful advice. She's pretty good at her job. I'm glad she's always so upfront about things.
"Alright. Let's go, Niku."
"Yes, Master."
I left the counter with Niku, heading around the back to get started with the delivery quest.

Niku and I quickly finished the delivery quest by splitting the deliveries between us. Though... I couldn't move well due to muscle pain, and by the time I finished three of the deliveries, Niku had already finished the other seven. Although she got a lot of help from the Wearable Golem navigating for her, it was obvious how skilled she was. The way her tail wagged proudly as I rubbed her head was cute and healed my soul.
It only took us part of the morning to finish the deliveries. We still had plenty of time to go rabbit hunting. Wait, where can we even find rabbits? Crap. I have no idea. I decided to just go to the client and try asking him.
The client was indeed running a kebab stand. The nice smell of fatty meats being cooked wafted through the air. Saliva built up within my mouth, forcing me to gulp loudly.
"You're the adventurers who took the rabbit quest? Alright. Where's the meat? I don't see you two holding any."
"Oh, uh, we were just about to go get it."
"Huh. Well, I'm gonna be using the meat next week, so take all the time you need today. I'll be cooking meat here until the evening. So, what do you need with me?" Right after he said that, the cute sound of a stomach grumbling filled the air. Of course, it wasn't me. It was Niku. Oh yeah. We haven't had lunch yet.
"...We'd like two kebabs, please. And I'd also appreciate it if you told us where we could hunt some rabbits."
"Coming right up. That'll be five coppers each... so yeah, ten coppers total. As for the rabbits, you can find them outside of the town. You can find a lot of them out of the west gate, right up to the forest surrounding Tsia Mountain, but not fully inside of it. Oh, and don't worry about dissecting them. I'll take care of that."
"Nice, thanks. We'll go get started." I took the kebabs and handed one to Niku. She tried to hand me her five coppers to pay, but I didn't take them.

"I... again, I..."

The sound of the organ couldn't be heard anymore.

Caterina was pale as she returned to her private chamber. When she got to her desk, she sighed deeply, ducking under the golden hair that hung over her face.

"How was the conference, Your Eminence? Any developments?" asked Sister Kate, the holographic nun with the mole under her eye.

"The perpetrator of the Barcelona incidents has been identified."

News of the destruction in Barcelona had reached Rome three days earlier. Caterina hadn't slept at all since then. Anyone other than the "Woman of Steel" would have passed out by now.

"Barrie was responsible for the crimes. He got his hands on lost technology somewhere, using it to eliminate any hindrances to the experiments carried out by his own company. Unfortunately, the technology ran amok, and he gratitude. Thank you."

Elliot also offered his thanks as he went around shaking everyone's hands. He eventually came to Reiji.

"In any event, I'm glad you're alright, Elliot."

"I'm in your debt. I will repay you properly and in full one day, so do call on me if you need anything."

"Haha, it was the other way around last time, so let's just call it even."

"That will not do! It would tarnish my honor if allowed my debts to go unpaid. Besides, the one who owes me for that is not you, but—"

Elliot stopped there and turned a grudging gaze towards Suimei.

"What? Don't I get a handshake?"

"What's that? You want to shake hands with me?"

"Yeah, you're right, I'll pass. Maybe if you were a cute girl..."

"Hmm? Despite looking like you have no immunity to women, you'd say such a thing? Could it be that you're forcing yourself?"

"Shut it! Sorry 'bout that!"

Elliot sneered a little, but Suimei shrugged his shoulders. Elliot then regained his composure and shook his head sullenly.

"But to think that you would be the one to save me... This must be the biggest blunder of my life."

"Sure is, pal. With this, we're even over that thing with Reiji, you hear?"

"You really do have an uncouth way of speaking."

"Shut it, prettyboy. Unlike you, I was raised normally."

There, Elliot and Suimei began trading insults. Elliot had more to say with his aloof attitude than Suimei did with his foul-mouthed sharp tongue, but judging that this would never come to an end on its own, Reiji intervened.

"Now, now, both of you, let's leave it at that and move on to the main event."

"You're right. I must say I'm quite curious about this."

"It is the reason we all gathered here today."

Elliot and Suimei both seemed amenable to the change in topic, and the group collectively walked over to the far end of the open space outside of Suimei's house. It was the same place where Felmenia had constructed the pool previously, but right now, rather than a large water tank, there was a large magicka circle on the ground. Graziella had only heard about Elliot's rescue so far, so she squatted down in front of the magicka circle and gazed at it with deep interest.

"This is... the magic circle to return you to your world, is it?"

She must have investigated similar formulas before, because she identified it almost immediately. Graziella read through the magickal inscriptions in the circle and reached out to touch it. The one to respond to her, naturally, was Suimei.

"Yup. So don't go taking advantage of the fact that I'll be away to tamper with it or erase it, you hear me?"

"You're the shrewd man who came up with this. You've already established a way to come and go, no?"

"Well, yeah."

When Suimei had completed the magicka circle of returning, he'd made a mental note of the coordinates so that he could come and go as he pleased. If he'd simply relied on the magicka circle remaining undisturbed even outdoors, he likely would have been stranded. And to prevent exactly that from happening, he had to set up several failsafes, some of which were quite troublesome.

"But I honestly never thought the pool would give me the last piece of the puzzle I needed..."

"We must thank Lady Felmenia for that."

"Yeah, but it's kinda ironic."

Felmenia was the one who summoned them to this world, and she'd also been the one to complete the picture for them to return home. Suimei didn't know quite what to say about it. But upon hearing Lefille say she deserved thanks, Felmenia...

"Suimei-dono! Please praise me!"

She wagged her tail and bounced up and down like an excited puppy. Suimei gave a fed-up sigh.

"Hey, I praised you plenty already, didn't I? Is it still not enough?"

"Heehee, I think once a day would be perfectly fine. Simple praise will cost you nothing—rather, it will yield you a profit."

Suimei didn't quite know what he'd be making a profit off of, but he was already quite sick of thanking her about ten times a day.

"Yeah, yeah, thanks a lot... As one would expect of the great White Flame Felmenia-sama..."

"Hmph, that is far too halfhearted!"

Felmenia flailed her arms about wildly upon not getting her way. After Suimei's identity as a magician was revealed, it seemed she was no longer concerned about appearances in front of the others, and quite often let her inner child shine through in moments like this.

"Well, anyhoo... Hey, cheer up already, will you, Mizuki?"

Setting aside Felmenia for the moment, Suimei turned to Mizuki who was in a full-fledged pout. Her cheeks were puffed out as far as they could go.

"Hmph! Suimei-kun, you dummy! Idiot, moron, jerk! Just blow up a spell and drop dead already!"

Indeed, Anou Mizuki could hardly contain her resentment. Hearing it, however, Felmenia spoke up in a somewhat bitter tone.

"Mizuki-dono, that would be somewhat problematic... We are going along with him, after all."

"I don't care. I'm sure he can blow just himself up with pinpoint accuracy."

As Mizuki insisted that Suimei should meet a terrible fate, this time Lefille was the one to fold her arms and speak up in a troubled tone.

"But still, if that happens, we wouldn't be able to return anymore..."

"I still don't care! In fact, I don't even care what it is! I hope something horrible happens to him—and only him!"

Suimei let out a grand sigh upon realizing Mizuki's mood was showing no signs of improving. After the fight at Hadorious's mansion, the mysterious spirit hadn't returned and Mizuki was back to her usual self. Suimei had then had to confess he was a magician, and this was the result.

It was predictable, really. The day he'd told her, she naturally didn't listen to anything else he said on the carriage ride back. In fact, she'd only just started talking to him again a few hours ago. The fact that he'd kept being a magician a secret for so long... Or was she just angry that he'd rejected her chuuni heart all this time? He'd been monopolizing cool stuff and hiding it from her, and that was unacceptable. It was apparently an offense punishable by death, and for that, Suimei had been apologizing nonstop.

"That's why I said I'm sorry. Come on, forgive me already..."

"Shut it! Keep apologizing to me! Until you die! No, forever!"

"That's a little..."

"Ugh, you jerk! Meanie, scrooge, buttmunch!"

After disparaging him like a child, Mizuki once more went back to pouting. When she fell quiet, Elliot turned to Suimei again.

"So, are you going now?"

"Yeah. We're headed back to clear up some anxieties that have been building for a while."

"Yeah, like school..."

"And friends..."

"Mm, and our families..."

Hearing Suimei talk about building anxieties, the ones who reacted were none other than Reiji, Mizuki, and Hatsumi. There were things they were all worried about... Things they'd actually been trying not to think about until just now. What would await them back home? It was difficult to imagine. And while they were all contemplating this, Lefille spoke up.

"Sorry. We said that we would all go together, but I think I'll stay behind."

"So suddenly...? What's... wrong?"

Liliana opened her lone eye in surprise, but Lefille returned her a determined expression.

"Nothing. I was just thinking I should pick up on the training I've been missing out on."

"You're going to stay behind and train?"

"Yeah. If I'm going to take care of my own anxieties, I don't think there are any shortcuts. As a swordswoman, the only way for me to get stronger is swing my sword."

She had a very logical point, but Suimei disagreed.

"No, you should absolutely come along with us, Lefi."

"Why is that?"

"Nothing big. I just think you should meet with the instructor."

"Instructor?"

"My dad?"

Suimei nodded to both Lefille and Hatsumi in turn. The instructor Suimei was talking about was Hatsumi's father, and the head of the dojo that Suimei went to. He stood at the peak of the Hundred Swords of the Martial World, and was one of the Four Great Sages of the Arts—the Sword of Four, Kuchiba Kiyoshiro. If Lefille really wanted to achieve greatness with a sword, she definitely could stand to learn a thing or two from him.

"The instructor is one of the monsters from my father'sI get it. This quest is basically a trap that a ton of newbies fall into. But I have a Magic (Golem) Blade on my side, plus my Wearable Golem's assistance. I'll manage.

"...I believe I mentioned this when making your guild card, but failure to complete a request results in a fine and a punishment. Do you still wish to go through with this?"

"Yep, absolutely." Sorry, I wasn't really listening when you talked about the fine and stuff. Either way, I held out my guild card so she could register my quest application.

"...Application registered. Be careful. Oh, and regarding the delivery quest, please go behind the Guild Building. The staff member in charge of delivery quests will tell you more about the deliveries there."

"Thanks." The receptionist was kind of a prickly person at times, but she did her job and she always gave relevant, helpful advice. She's pretty good at her job. I'm glad she's always so upfront about things.

"Alright. Let's go, Niku."

"Yes, Master."

I left the counter with Niku, heading around the back to get started with the delivery quest.

Niku and I quickly finished the delivery quest by splitting the deliveries between us. Though... I couldn't move well due to muscle pain, and by the time I finished three of the deliveries, Niku had already finished the other seven. Although she got a lot of help from the Wearable Golem navigating for her, it was obvious how skilled she was. The way her tail wagged proudly as I rubbed her head was cute and healed my soul.

It only took us part of the morning to finish the deliveries. We still had plenty of time to go rabbit hunting. Wait, where can we even find rabbits? Crap. I have no idea. I decided to just go to the client and try asking him.

The client was indeed running a kebab stand. The nice smell of fatty meats being cooked wafted through the air. Saliva built up within my mouth, forcing me to gulp loudly.

"You're the adventurers who took the rabbit quest? Alright. Where's the meat? I don't see you two holding any."

"Oh, uh, we were just about to go get it."

"Huh. Well, I'm gonna be using the meat next week, so take all the time you need today. I'll be cooking meat here until the evening. So, what do you need with me?" Right after he said that, the cute sound of a stomach grumbling filled the air. Of course, it wasn't me. It was Niku. Oh yeah. We haven't had lunch yet.

"...We'd like two kebabs, please. And I'd also appreciate it if you told us where we could hunt some rabbits."

"Coming right up. That'll be five coppers each... so yeah, ten coppers total. As for the rabbits, you can find them outside of the town. You can find a lot of them out of the west gate, right up to the forest surrounding Tsia Mountain, but not fully inside of it. Oh, and don't worry about dissecting them. I'll take care of that."

"Nice, thanks. We'll go get started." I took the kebabs and handed one to Niku. She tried to hand me her five coppers to pay, but I didn't take them.