“Kyah, kyaah……!”
A girl crashed into the floor with a loud thud and landed hard on her backside. The girl rubbing her forehead with tears welling up in her eyes was Okamine Mikie. With her small frame and brown hair leaving a strong impression, she was a second-year at Raizen High School this year, though she was actually a first-year by age and had skipped ahead.
“Owie, owie…. S-sorry!!”
A voice so loud it was hard to believe it came from such a small body. The apology rang through the hallway, startling me instead and making me miss my chance to say sorry first. Seeing her bowing in a panic while still sitting on the floor, I hurriedly held out my hand and told her it was fine. Mikie slowly opened her eyes, lifted her head, and looked at me.
“Um… sorry. Are you hurt anywhere?”
“I-I’m fine…. More importantly, I’m really sorry—huh?!”
And then, at that very moment. The moment Mikie looked up at me, her face suddenly went deathly pale, and her brown eyes, fixed on me, began shaking violently as if an earthquake had struck. Mikie froze in the exact pose of reaching for my hand, and the students passing by started whispering and looking at me strangely.
Under the stares pouring in from all around, I wondered, “Should I take my hand back…?” Just then, Mikie hurriedly grabbed my hand and stood up, then bowed at a ninety-degree angle with, “I’ve been terribly rude!” before quickly backing away from me as if she were fleeing.
That only made the students’ gazes around us even sharper. Somehow, whenever I got involved with Mikie, my reputation seemed to keep dropping.
“……That’s harsh. I was trying to save you, you know.”
I muttered the words quietly to myself, remembering what had happened last week.
Last week, in the park where Tohka had been rampaging, I had taken the risk of teleporting there myself in case Millie and Mikie might be there and needed saving. But it didn’t take long for me to realize that was a total waste of effort.
I never would have imagined that airheaded Mikie was actually an AST member. When I saw her in the middle of fighting Tohka, carrying Origami while wearing AST’s combat suit—her wiring suit—I was so shocked I almost took a direct hit from one of Tohka’s attacks.
And as for Millie, I found out later that she was an AST mechanic dispatched from DEM, and I was so shocked I actually spat out the drink I’d been sipping. A kid two years younger than me, and she had the title of engineer.
“……Well, if both of them are fine, I guess it doesn’t really matter.”
“What doesn’t matter?”
“Ah, Younghee.”
I pushed my body back into the classroom from the hallway and sat down at my desk. Maybe she heard the muttered words I’d said while sitting down, because Younghee, who was beside me, tilted her head with a puzzled look. I shook my head and told her it was nothing.
Anyway, thanks to Ratatoskr handling things separately, there was no need to worry about AST attacking us at school or in daily life.
After I said it was nothing, Younghee looked a little deflated and went back to chatting with the trio of girls in the classroom—Mai, Mii, and the others.
“Still, it’s already Monday~. I can’t believe that sweet weekend disappeared this fast~.”
“Ah, Tonomachi.”
“Good morning, Haneul~! What color are your panties today?”
“Why would you ask something like that?!”
A boy with a lively expression and waxed bangs, Tonomachi Hiroto, waved as he came into the classroom.
The atmosphere at school on Monday was especially noisy. Part of it was because the weekend had ended and a new week was beginning, but the biggest reason was that the school, which had been wrecked by Tohka’s manifestation, had finally been completely restored by the reconstruction team today.
Maybe because it had been a while since they’d come to school, everyone seemed full of energy. Had they been stocking up on it hard during the school closure? Seeing Tonomachi grinning with even more energy than usual, I let out a dry laugh and answered that it was pink.
“Eeeh~? Pink~?”
“Hey! What’s wrong with pink?! If you’re a man, of course you pick pink!”
I deliberately raised my voice and shouted that at Tonomachi, who was making a disgusted face. A moment later, both Tonomachi and I burst out laughing at the same time.
“Man~ this is something else. To think you’re leaving for Korea tomorrow. It was really fun having you around. Even the four kings of the Raizen High School cafeteria are super sad about it, you know?”
“Nah, I’m going to immigrate to Japan and live in Tengu City anyway.”
“Hahaha~ now that’s a good one.”
“It’s not a joke.”
I told him that while Tonomachi laughed it off as a joke, unable to easily believe I’d already decided to immigrate. But Tonomachi just laughed playfully and said, “Don’t joke around~.”
“I’m not joking, Tonomachi. Haneul really is immigrating to Japan.”
“……Huh, seriously?”
“Yeah.”
And right then, Younghee, who was sitting nearby, backed me up and testified to Tonomachi that what I said was true. Tonomachi, startled, asked if it was really true, and Younghee nodded and answered calmly.
“Um, what was it again…? He got noticed by some huge Asgard-affiliated company, and since Haneul’s dream is to work there, the conditions matched up somehow, so he’s going to settle in Japan. He’s starting work there right after graduation or something.”
“Th-that’s amazing! Asgard, as in Asgard Electronics?! That’s a huge multinational company in Northern Europe! I heard Raizen High School was connected to an Asgard-affiliated company for employment, but I never thought that was actually true…!”
“Ah, ahaha……. Y-yeah, something like that. Yeah, something like that.”
At Tonomachi’s amazed cry, I nodded, and the trio of girls—Mai, Mii, and the others—who had heard him also shouted that it was true and looked stunned. They were surprised that I was immigrating to Japan, but it seemed they were even more shocked by the reason for it.
It was the same reaction my friends, including Younghee, had shown when I’d shouted, “Guys! I’m immigrating to Japan!” Hearing the others keep saying “Sugoi—!” at the word Asgard, I muttered to myself that Asgard really was famous.
Ratatoskr was covering every part of the immigration process from start to finish. And since I needed a reason for immigrating, Ms. Reine was preparing things under the pretext of employment and support from Asgard Electronics, one of Ratatoskr’s parent organizations.
Thanks to that, the friends who had been shocked by, “Why are you immigrating to Japan?!” immediately changed to, “Then of course you should do it!” and started cheering me on once they heard the reason. Apparently Asgard Electronics was a giant company on par with DEM, if not enough to slap Google across the face.
“So when are you coming back to Japan?”
“Hmm…. If it’s quick, maybe about a week? If it takes longer, maybe two more weeks.”
“That’s soon~.”
Even though Ratatoskr was covering the immigration process, no matter how capable they were, finishing immigration paperwork overnight was a little difficult. They said it could take at least a week, but once it was done they’d contact me, so all I had to do was wait.
“Asgard Electronics really is an incredible company~. They’ve got shelters for avoiding Spacequakes, observation devices that detect the signs of Spacequakes, and they even run a foundation for people who’ve been harmed by Spacequakes. DEM is amazing too, but honestly, I’m more fond of Asgard Electronics~.”
“To catch the eye of such an amazing company. Haneul, you really were a talent, huh?”
“No, well…. It’s not really like that….”
But because of that one excuse, everyone around me kept looking at me with admiration. Asgard Electronics really is amazing! I muttered that while sweating nervously, and at that moment—
“Huaaah~!”
The back door of the closed classroom opened, and Shido came in from there. Maybe he hadn’t slept properly, because Shido was tearing up a little and yawning widely. Hearing that yawn, Tonomachi turned his head back, his face lighting up as he immediately waved at Shido.
“Hey, Itsuka~! Did you hear? Haneul here says he’s immigrating to Japan!”
“……Ah, you mean that?”
“What’s with that reaction? Don’t tell me you already knew?”
When Tonomachi asked that, Shido nodded and said, “Yeah.” Tonomachi seemed to have wanted to see Shido’s surprised reaction, so when Shido answered that he already knew, he looked deflated and made a strange sound like, “Eeeh~.”
“By the way, is it really okay for everyone to be doing this? Isn’t homeroom starting soon?”
“It’s fine, it’s fine. Tama’s always late anyway.”
“Hey… no matter what, don’t call our homeroom teacher by her first name.”
“Haha, what’s the big deal? The age gap is a little much, but she’s right in my strike zone.”
“Ah… then go ahead and propose to her. She’d probably accept on the spot.”
“What? What are you talking about?”
At Shido’s words, spoken from experience, Tonomachi tilted his head in confusion. And just then, the classroom door suddenly opened again and someone else came in.
This time it was the famous Tobiichi Origami. But she had bandages wrapped around her forehead, hands, and feet. Seeing how badly injured she looked, the students in the classroom began to stir. Younghee also looked at Origami with surprise, saying things like, “What happened to Tobiichi-san to get hurt that badly?”
Origami strode over to Shido. Shido was a little startled by Origami suddenly approaching him, and just as he said, “H-hey, Tobiichi. Glad you’re safe—,” Origami suddenly bowed deeply toward him.
“──It’s not something that can be fixed with an apology, but I still wanted to say this much. ……I’m truly sorry.”
Origami’s apology to Shido was about how, because of a misfired shot, Shido had been hit instead of Tohka. Knowing why she was apologizing, I couldn’t help but feel solemn too. Origami was the one who had hit Shido, yes, but if I had stepped in at the right time, I could have stopped Shido from getting shot. Unlike me, who had gone quiet at that thought, the trio of girls—Mai, Mii, and the others—along with Younghee and Tonomachi, were whispering among themselves, having a suspicious conversation like, “What’s up with Tobiichi-san…?”
“What did Itsuka-kun do to Tobiichi-san?”
“No way. No matter what, Itsuka-kun isn’t the kind of bad kid who’d do something like that.”
“Maybe something happened over the weekend.”
“That’s so uncool~.”
“But───.”
Right then, Origami grabbed Shido’s tie and pulled him close, bringing her face right up to his with a cold expression.
“Cheating is not allowed.”
“…………Huh?”
And at those words, the atmosphere among the half of the class that had been watching Shido and Origami froze instantly. At the same time, the trio of girls—Mai, Mii, and the others—along with Younghee, began to add suspicion to the interest in their gazes toward Shido.
“Did you hear that? Cheating! Cheating!”
“Since when were Tobiichi-san and Itsuka-kun dating?!”
“Don’t tell me Tobiichi-san got hurt because… she got into a huge fight over Itsuka-kun cheating?”
“That’s so uncool~.”
“Hey, hey, hey. No, that’s not it. Nothing happened between Shido and Origami.”
Since I’d already experienced the misery of nasty rumors spreading, I hurriedly calmed the four of them down before the topic could spiral further and defended Shido instead. And at the word “Shido” coming from my mouth, Younghee tilted her head and looked at me.
“Hm?”
“What is it, Younghee?”
“No… just now, Haneul, you called Itsuka-kun Shido, didn’t you? Since when were you on a first-name basis with Itsuka-kun?”
“……Ah, that?”
The reason I started calling Shido “Shido” instead of “Itsuka-kun” was the very day he sealed Tohka’s spiritual power. I’d been in such a rush that I ended up calling him Shido, and somehow that just kept going until now. When I later tried to go back to calling him Itsuka-kun, Shido told me to just keep calling him Shido and gave me permission to use his first name.
“I’ve been using first names since last week. There was kind of a trigger between me and Shido.”
“A trigger…… So that’s why you and Itsuka-kun ranked so high in the school’s 『Best Couples Picked by Fujoshi』 list.”
“Why are you bringing that up all of a sudden?!”
Right then, the chime rang and the front door of the classroom opened. There stood Tama-sensei, holding the attendance book. At her appearance, Shido, who had been caught by Origami holding his tie, looked as if he’d seen a hand reaching down to save him, his face lighting up. At the instruction to take their seats, the classmates who had been watching the situation with great interest all returned to their desks with disappointed expressions.
Origami didn’t immediately return to her seat, but after hearing Tama-sensei ask, “……? Tobiichi-san? What are you doing there~?” she had no choice but to go back.
“Now then, everyone. You’re all in your seats, right? Today is the last class for our exchange students from Korea. Tomorrow you’ll all be going back to Korea, so please help everyone make good memories until the very end~.”
When Tama-sensei said that, the students in the classroom all answered in a loud chorus, “Yeees~!”
“Oh, right! For reference, since Chousokabe-sensei came down with a fever, first period’s physics class has suddenly been changed to home economics~. Please keep that in mind, and class rep, make sure everyone especially doesn’t forget~.”
Then Younghee and I both shouted happily, “Yes!” at the same time. Home economics at Raizen High School was the kind of class you’d see in Japanese anime, where all the students head to the home ec room and do cooking practice there. Korea does have a technology and home economics class too, but I’d never once done cooking practice at the school I attended.
Home economics, where you actually do cooking practice, was personally one of my favorite classes, right after swimming in gym class.
“You and Haneul really do like home economics~. Do you like cooking?”
“I do, to some extent. I’ve lived on my own, so I’m pretty confident in my cooking skills.”
“Hee~ Then can you make desserts like pancakes or pie too?”
“Nah, not that much. All I can really do is make a meal that fills you up. Stuff like bread or desserts, I don’t even know how to make…….”
“……Haneul? Why did you suddenly go quiet?”
While grinning as I answered, I suddenly remembered what had happened yesterday and fell silent. Sure enough, I only knew how to make rice and side dishes that could get you through a meal; as for sweets or bread that made people happy, I couldn’t make anything at all except for simple things like dalgona.
But just yesterday. For reasons I couldn’t explain, a certain pie recipe had suddenly surfaced in my head. Along with a strange sensation like flames rising up, I’d suddenly remembered how to make a crust from flour to serve as the pie’s outer shell, and how to make the various fillings that would go inside it.
The filling included something called butterscotch, made by boiling butter and sugar, and cinnamon, which also goes by the name cinnamon, and they had to be carefully added in the proper way and in the proper amount. It was truly a mystery why a pie recipe had suddenly come to me like that when I’d never even made simple bread before, let alone pie.
Why had the recipe for a “Butterscotch Cinnamon Pie” suddenly appeared in my head, name and all? Wasn’t this the exact pie Toriel baked in Undertale?
“Hey~ Haneul! Why did you suddenly go quiet? Are you sick or something?”
“……Ah, sorry. Tonomachi. I just got lost in thought all of a sudden.”
Tonomachi had brought up pie, and that was what had triggered the thought. At Tonomachi’s call, snapping me out of my daze, I hurriedly came to my senses and shook my head hard as if to fling the thoughts away.
“You there~. We’ll be taking attendance soon, so stop chatting, everyone~.”
“Yikes, we got caught…!”
“Ugh! We were too loud…!”
Maybe because we’d been too loud, Tama-sensei, standing at the lectern, looked exactly in our direction and said that with a smile. Tonomachi and I hurriedly turned our heads and looked back at Tama-sensei. Only then did the teacher smile with satisfaction and clap her hands sharply, as if to focus everyone’s attention.
“Oh, that reminds me. Today, before attendance, I’m thinking of doing a little surprise event!─────Come in~!”
Tama-sensei said loudly while turning toward the classroom door. At the word “surprise,” some of the students wondered what was going on. Hearing her say “Come in~!” toward the door connected to the hallway, a few students reflexively muttered, “A transfer student?” and tilted their heads.
“Mm.”
A voice with a slightly low register, somehow carrying a strong, no-nonsense air. Just from the voice answering from beyond the door, it was obvious the owner was a woman. At that voice, Tonomachi made an expectant face and went, “Ooh…!”
Then, with a rattle, the closed classroom door opened, and Tohka walked in from there.
“……O-oh?!”
“She’s incredibly pretty…….”
At Tohka’s overwhelmingly beautiful appearance, Tonomachi’s eyes sparkled as he cheered loudly along with the other boys. Even Younghee, a girl herself, couldn’t take her eyes off Tohka’s almost violent beauty and let out an honest gasp of admiration. I turned my head to look at Shido and Origami. Both of them were wearing stunned expressions.
“──From today on, Yatogami Tohka will be studying in your class. Please take care of her.”
Origami’s sharp gaze shot toward Tohka like a glare. On the blackboard, Tohka had written her name in katakana as Yatogami Tohka. After Tohka looked satisfied with the neat name written on the board, she turned her head.
“Oh, Shido! I wanted to see you!”
And then she shouted that loudly toward Shido.
A huge bead of sweat began forming on Shido’s forehead, visible even from far away. At the same time, Origami’s gaze grew even sharper. And then there was the murmur, the classmates in the room all beginning to focus their attention on them.
The second-year Class 4 classroom at Raizen High School was thrown into a noisy uproar from the very start of the morning.
○○○
Today passed, and tomorrow arrived.
After boarding the plane bound for Korea and drifting off to sleep without meaning to, I slowly opened my eyes, pushing away my hazy consciousness along with the sensation of the seat shaking beneath me. And as if on cue, right at the moment I woke up, an announcement came over the speaker.
[We would like to thank all passengers for using Asiana Airlines. Our plane will be arriving at Gimhae International Airport shortly. All passengers, please follow the instructions of the cabin crew—.]
Apparently there were other friends who had fallen asleep besides me, because the moment the announcement came on, they used it as a wake-up call and one by one began to stir. One friend even stretched both arms high overhead and made a strange noise like, “Kiiyooooot~!” Did they really have to stretch like that? Letting out a dry laugh at the sound, which had now become more like a groan, I glanced out the window.
Beyond the window, a huge wing disappeared into the clouds. At the same time, the airplane window, which had been reflecting the bright blue sky, gradually filled with white and began making a crackling sound.
Raindrops were hitting the window. It was raining outside.
“Hey, it’s raining outside!”
“We’re screwed. What are we supposed to do going home? I don’t have an umbrella.”
“It’s not even a downpour, so why is it coming down this hard? The Korea Meteorological Administration definitely said it wouldn’t rain.”
“You trust the weather bureau’s lies?”
Watching the rain pour down hard, some of the friends seated around me started complaining. Sure enough, the Korea Meteorological Administration had directly reported that today’s weather in Korea would be clear, but this wasn’t clear at all—it was just a downpour.
The damp-looking weather outside made my own mood feel strangely unpleasant too.
Still, if I used teleportation, I could go straight home without a single drop of rain getting on my clothes. Compared to the other friends who didn’t have umbrellas, I was in a much better position.
“But time really flies. I had so much fun when we were in Japan.”
“I want to go again~. Next time, should we all get together during vacation and go to Japan?”
“Nice! By then Haneul will be living in Japan too, so let’s ask Haneul to be our guide!”
“Hey, wait! What did you just say…?”
At the friends’ conversation, which suddenly tried to hire me as a guide without warning, I made a flustered face. But as Younghee had said, the time we spent in Japan really had been a lot of fun. Of course, I’d also had my share of trouble because things kept going wrong here and there. I’d nearly died several times too.
Still, saying I hadn’t enjoyed it would have been a lie. Saying it hadn’t been hard would have been a lie too.
“I’m really sorry! My apology is very late! I had so many misunderstandings about you! I’m truly sorry for attacking you first! And for not believing you when you said Shido was alive, and trying to kill you!”
Still, thanks to the misunderstandings finally being cleared up, I’d gotten an apology like that from Tohka. Because of that, I no longer had to worry about being split in half and killed by Tohka.
“Yeah. Do whatever you want. If that time comes, I’ll do everything, whether it’s being a guide or whatever.”
“Awesome! Then it’s a promise, okay? Right? Right?”
“First actually come to Japan before saying stuff like that.”
With a lazy wave of my hand, I turned my head back toward the window. Outside, a huge amount of rain was still falling nonstop to the ground. And in the sky packed with dark clouds, lightning flashed again and again, making thunder rumble loudly.
Why had the Korea Meteorological Administration reported, “Today’s weather is expected to be clear”? In Korea, where they could happily shoot up artificial satellites using Realizers, did they somehow not have the spare capacity to make weather satellites?
“………Hm?”
I stared blankly at the raindrops pounding endlessly against the window.
And then, at that very moment. Something strange caught my eye at the edge of my vision. My gaze was drawn to the rooftop of the control tower inside Gimhae Airport beyond the window.
In a place no ordinary person could ever set foot in, a girl was standing there.
The clothes the girl was wearing were far too unusual to mistake her for an airport employee.
A head dress covering her hair. A corset cinching her waist. A skirt with far too many frills and lace. The outfit was made of black that evoked deep darkness, and a membrane of blood-red color.
Rather than something an airport worker would wear, it looked more like something people cosplaying at Comic World would put on.
“………That’s…”
Seeing the girl in the unusual outfit, I blinked in surprise and muttered without thinking. Looking back at the control tower again, the girl who had just been standing there was gone, as if she had vanished somewhere.
Had I seen wrong? But it was hard to dismiss it as a mistake, because the outfit I’d just seen looked so much like something else I knew. A red-and-black dress I’d seen in the anime too. The girl wearing that outfit was definitely…….
“Tokisaki Kurumi…? Why is she in Korea…?”
The third Spirit to appear after Yoshino.
What I had just seen was definitely Tokisaki Kurumi.
○○○
“Commander.”
Flashing long blond hair that fell slightly below his shoulders, a handsome man who looked as if he had been drawn by hand entered the bridge. His name was Kyouhei Kannazuki. He was the vice-captain of the aerial battleship Fraxinus.
“As expected, one platoon’s worth of SSPT and a large number of agents from the National Intelligence Service have been confirmed at Gimhae International Airport. There are also disguised police special forces standing by around the airport. Their target is, as expected…….”
“They’re after him, aren’t they?”
The one who reacted to Kannazuki’s trailing words was Kotori, draped in a crimson military uniform over her shoulders. She took a Chupa Chups candy from her pocket, put it in her mouth, and listened to Kannazuki’s report.
“Yes. Based on intercepted SSPT communications, it seems they’re waiting for the moment when all the students get off the plane. The agents currently dispatched to Gimhae Airport are carrying out the ‘Hey, security guard! There are suspicious people gathered over there~!’ operation, but in the worst case, we may have to prepare for the possibility that the Duraþror unit we dispatched as backup will clash with SSPT.”
The Duraþror unit Kannazuki mentioned referred to one of the four Wizard units belonging to Fraxinus, the aerial battleship in charge of Tengu City. They were named Dainn, Dvalinn, Duneyrr, and Duraþror, and all four units were equipped with CR-Units packed with Ratatoskr’s latest Realizer technology, giving them a level of strength far beyond the ordinary anti-Spirit units operated by the state.
Of course, that level of strength also had to take into account that the combat Realizers and CR-Units operated by the state were, unlike those actually used by Ratatoskr or DEM, downgraded by one or two steps in performance.
Even so, the Wizard units belonging to Ratatoskr possessed combat power several times greater than ordinary anti-Spirit units. And because of Ratatoskr’s purpose and special nature, all equipment issued to its Wizards was designed to counter Wizards. In terms of compatibility, they also had the advantage over those whose weapons were all designed with the purpose of killing Spirits.
To be honest, even if South Korea’s anti-Spirit unit SSPT had come in company strength instead of platoon strength, the Duraþror unit, dispatched in small numbers to Gimhae Airport, would have been more than enough to subdue them all. The police special forces were armed only with live ammunition, not Realizers to begin with, so they wouldn’t have been able to scratch Duraþror, who were equipped with Territory.
“But if SSPT and the Duraþror unit actually got into a fight, the fallout would end up hitting the civilians at the airport. Duraþror was sent literally for the worst of the worst-case scenarios. It wasn’t sent to pick a fight with Korea, was it?”
“Commander. If you give the order, I can run to Korea myself.”
“……No, it’s fine. If I sent you, I feel like we’d end up making one innocent country our enemy for no reason. And you and SSPT have quite the bad history, don’t you, Kannazuki? Sending you would just be needlessly provoking the Korean military.”
When Kotori declined with a face that clearly said she was serious, Kannazuki clicked his tongue with a disappointed look. But the crew below the bridge were genuinely relieved after hearing Kotori’s words. In such an important situation, what good would it do to send someone like Kannazuki, who had such hopelessly specific tastes? It would only look like a provocation to Korea.
“Anyway, all we have to do is buy time. Even if we stop the soldiers who were given orders, unless the people above them change their minds, the same thing will just happen again.”
“But Commander. Since there’s still no response from Korea, isn’t it possible they have no intention of negotiating with us after all?”
“If the President of the Republic of Korea isn’t an idiot, they won’t be able to ignore our proposal. And Lord Woodman is quite capable, isn’t he? I’m sure he’ll bring us good news soon enough, so all we have to do is trust and wait.”
It was, in a sense, a tense situation that could have exploded at any moment. Yet the commander directing it all looked so relaxed that, if put badly, she almost seemed to have given up entirely. But in her eyes, which remained calm to the end, there was also a glimpse of absolute trust in the man she had just mentioned: “Lord Woodman.”
With practiced ease, she reached into her inner pocket and took out a lollipop. She tossed away the stick from the candy she’d finished, and just as she was about to peel the wrapper off a new one and eat it—
A pop-up window suddenly flashed on the personal monitor in Kotori’s captain’s seat. Kotori, who had been about to unwrap the candy with a carefree posture, touched the screen with her finger as if she had been waiting for this all along.
For a while, Kotori said nothing. Kyouhei Kannazuki, standing beside her, called out, “Commander…?” but when Kotori still gave no response, he muttered something strange like, “Ahh…! Being ignored is pretty…!” with a sultry expression.
A little later, Kotori, still silently looking at her personal monitor, murmured, “As expected…!” and smiled at the corner of her mouth. Murasame Reine, the analyst aboard Fraxinus, approached at that smile and asked what it was about.
Still smiling, Kotori looked at her and spoke.
“Situation over. Lord Woodman has successfully finished negotiations with the President of the Republic of Korea.”
That also meant the Korean anti-Spirit unit SSPT confirmed at the airport would withdraw.
When Kotori said that, everyone on the bridge let out a deep sigh. It was a sigh of relief. They had almost ended up in a Wizard battle that would have dragged civilians at the airport into it, and just as the two sides were about to collide, this good news arrived. It could only be called a close call.
Wiping away the sweat they’d broken out in with their sleeves, all the crew members muttered that the timing had been perfect.
“Phew~ Well, we do need to show that much sincerity if we want him to trust us.”
And the captain of Fraxinus, Itsuka Kotori, who was in command of them all, unwrapped the still-sealed candy and put it in her mouth.
The candy tasted like sour grape.
Good