kscans

Chapter 177 - Winter Break Is a Nice Phrase

After parting ways with Harry and Claire, I went straight back to my apartment.

"I'm home."

I opened the front door and started taking off my shoes. Then, I heard the pitter-patter of footsteps from deeper inside, and Kaede-chan came out to greet me.

"Ah, Kaede-chan, I'm home."

"Welcome back! Are you okay!?"

It seems she was quite worried.

"I'm fine, I'm fine. Everything went well."

"I see... Um, I got a call a little while ago. Satsuki-san and Yoshino-san are on their way over."

Ah, right, I haven't explained things to them yet.

"Got it. I'll explain it all at once when they get here. Kaede-chan, come here."

I took off my shoes, stepped inside, and opened my arms. As requested, Kaede-chan came in for a hug.

"Kaede-chan, you're so warm."

"You're so cold, Senpai."

"It's cold outside."

And in that cold, I got completely naked in an alley. December is too harsh.

"Senpai, I'll make you some cocoa, so please go warm up in the living room."

I'd rather warm up just like this, though.

"Okay."

We parted, and I headed to the living room. As I was warming up with the cocoa Kaede-chan made for me, Satsuki-san and Yoshino-san arrived.

"We meet again."

Kaede-chan, who had gone to greet them, returned to the living room with the two of them.

"Oh, you're back to being Okita-kun," Yoshino-san said as she took off her coat.

"Of course I am. There's no one here today to complain about it."

I'm talking about Nanapon. She's at university attending a lecture right now. Just a little while ago, I got a message from her saying how boring it was.

"I find it easier to talk to you this way."

It seems she prefers the man over the woman. That sounds a little suggestive.

"I'll go make some coffee, so please have a seat."

Kaede-chan gestured for Satsuki-san and Yoshino-san to sit at the table. They sat down next to each other, so I got up from the sofa with my mug of cocoa and moved over to the table as well.

"Did you come by car?"

"Yeah. Yoshino drove."

I thought so.

"You guys should just buy a car."

There was a time when I thought that too.

"It's been almost ten years since I got my license, and I haven't driven once in all that time. It's terrifying."

"Same here."

In Tokyo, you don't really need a car.

"Driving is pretty fun, you know? Why don't you take Kaede out for a drive?"

"Kaede-chaan, wanna go for a drive?"

Taking Yoshino-san's suggestion, I called out to Kaede-chan in the kitchen.

"Senpai, I have a feeling you'd get mad at someone for road rage, so no thanks!"

I wouldn't do that.

"It's better if you don't drive, Okita-kun."

Hey, your opinion did a complete 180.

"You look like you'd be an aggressive driver."

That's a harsh assumption.

"It's fine. I'll just use taxis and public transport."

Worst case, I'll hire Yoshino-san as my driver.

"Sorry to keep you waiting."

Kaede-chan brought the coffee for Satsuki-san and Yoshino-san, placed it on the table, and then sat down next to me.

"Let's get to the point. What did you do during the interrogation with the Frontier people? I heard earlier that you said you'd cut them down..."

As Satsuki-san said that, Kaede-chan, sitting beside me, shot me a glare.

"I'll explain from the beginning. First, when I went through the Gate, I was in a small room, about four and a half tatami mats. And just like in that underground ruin from before, the walls were glowing."

"That Sparkling Paint stuff? We can assume that's how they light things in Frontier."

That stuff is nice and bright. I want some for my place.

"I think so. Anyway, a kid from Frontier was waiting there alone."

To be precise, there were two people.

"A kid? It was a child?"

"It was. When I asked his age, he said he was thirteen. That was a double score shock for me."

The expression of Yoshino-san, who is the same age as me, darkened.

"Why would a child be conducting an interrogation? Not an adult?"

"This is where I learned something incredible. Apparently, that kid is royalty. And royalty can use something called teleportation magic. They probably had a royal kid do the interrogation because they needed to teleport me."

"Teleportation... royalty... wait, you told a royal you were going to cut them down?"

Yoshino-san is trying to make me the bad guy.

"Let me finish. Because he was royalty, he had a guard. That guard had drunk a transparency potion and was invisible. But thanks to the Presence Detection you taught me, I knew right away."

It was a small room, so I noticed the moment I arrived.

"Oh. You said it was a maid, right?"

"Right, right. Since she was hiding, I told her to come out. Or else I'd cut her down."

See, I'm not the bad guy.

"Hm? So you did end up saying you'd cut her down?"

Yoshino-san asked for confirmation.

"That's right."

"Huh? That's not much of an excuse, is it? You still tried to cut her down."

"I didn't say it to the royal..."

Hm? Maybe I did say something like that...

"You, what were you thinking?"

Yoshino-san is completely exasperated. Kaede-chan is too. Satsuki-san, however, has an amused look on her face.

"Come on, there was some unknown person hiding there. That's scary, right? It was just like that time when Nanapon got kidnapped."

I really did cut someone that time.

"Sigh... so what did you do?"

"I gave her a transparency potion and made her undo her invisibility."

"You're lucky they didn't get angry."

"He wasn't angry. He was taken aback, though."

Calling me a murderer was just rude.

"Of course he was. That's too barbaric."

But I think Satsuki-san, with that happy look on her face, would do something similar.

"It's fine, isn't it? We broke the ice that way, and we were finally able to talk."

"...I'm not going to question it anymore. So what did you talk about?"

Please question it.

"They said they wanted to confirm if I was from Frontier or from Feire."

"A Feire person? You mean us?"

"Yep. Apparently, we're Feire people."

"Hmm. Well, whatever. How do they confirm it?"

Yoshino-san doesn't seem too interested in what we're called.

"Apparently, they can tell by the Status Card. Our Status Cards are black, right? But the Status Cards of people from Frontier were white."

"The color is different... What even are Status Cards, really?"

"Who knows? I didn't ask about that. Anyway, since my, or rather, Eleanor-san's Status Card was black, I was determined to be a Feire person, and the suspicion was cleared."

"I see. It went surprisingly smoothly, then."

If you ignore the part about cutting someone down.

"Pretty much. And that was the end of it."

"It's not the end. What about that response from the Frontier side?"

That response?

"Hm? You know about the response?"

"Yeah, right after you left, the Prime Minister's secretary came to tell us that a response had come in."

"Isn't that fast? What did it say?"

"It was fast. Let's see, the response was, they were unable to prove that Eleanor Ocean is a person of Frontier. Therefore, they will not demand her extradition. However, she is without a doubt an entity of unknown origin, and there is a high probability that she is a genuine witch, so it would be wise to exercise caution. That was it."

Hmm, it certainly creates a sense of mystery, but isn't it a bit too mysterious? I'm basically being treated like a monster.

"Well, that's more or less the response I asked for. A little over the top, though."

"So you were the one who told them to say that?"

"Of course. It'd be bad if they just said I'm not from Frontier, right? The effectiveness of my threat to close the Gates would diminish."

At worst, I could get arrested. After all, I don't have a family register.

"It's surprising Frontier accepted that request. The other party was royalty, right? Violence? Bribery?"

I feel like Yoshino-san's opinion of me is pretty low.

"Bribery. I was able to buy them off with ten transparency potions and one Level 2 Healing Potion."

"That's it? That feels like a small amount."

"I thought so too. From their reaction, it seemed like both transparency potions and healing potions are valuable."

"Hmm, I thought Frontier would be well-stocked with things like that."

I thought so too. I imagined it was a fantasy world overflowing with such mysterious items.

"I couldn't get a good grasp of what kind of world it is, but doing business there seems impossible. Frontier seems to be quite isolationist."

"That's probably true. After all, our worlds have been connected for thirty years, and there's been barely any contact."

Are they exclusionary? From what I saw of Arc and Mia, they didn't seem that way...

"Well, I don't really get it, so let's just forget about Frontier. Anyway, things are peaceful now."

"Putting aside whether it's peaceful, it is a relief."

"Exactly. I'm going to lay low for a while. Satsuki-san, when will the guild reopen?"

I don't plan on going on any adventures, but I'll ask anyway.

"Who knows? It depends on what kind of announcement the government makes. If they make a clumsy announcement, our guild will be flooded with inquiries. Maybe I'll just make it an early winter break..."

Don't talk like it's your own shop... Well, if it means Kaede-chan will be home on break, that's fine with me.

"I'll start my winter break too."

"You do that. I'm going to take a break too, as soon as I finish the auction transaction."

This has been a good year.