They chatted for around one hour when a consul came with a large number of documents. That made Solomon’s face go from a bright and cheerful smile to a clouded and dull one in an instant.
「I guess it’s better if I excuse myself now then.」
Mira figured it would be bothersome if she remained there for longer so she stood up. Solomon shot a quick look at her.
「You’re not interested in a king’s work?」
「Does it look like I could do anything with it?」
「That’s true.」 Solomon hunched over. Mira did want to help if she could, but the paperwork had always been a weak point for her, so it was not just a matter of interest.
「We have so much to work off from to figure out where Soul Howl went, so we should have something in a few days, Suleyman is really efficient. About the onmyoji master…we don’t have anything at all, so I’ll contact you if anything new happens. I guess that’s everything for now?」
「Yes, sounds good.」
After a full review of the entire mission, Solomon reluctantly began going through the documents on his desk.
「You’ll be free for a few days, do you have any plans in mind?」
「I think I’ll go sightseeing now that I have the chance, then I’ll return to the tower.」
「I see, I see. I’m really proud of this city, so enjoy it to your heart’s content. And ah, I’d be glad if you could bring me any Magic Sealing Stones you might have stashed up.」
「Sure, if I remember.」
Solomon grinned saying that, while Mira shrugged playfully as she replied that. She had planned on doing that all along after all.
After a short good-bye, Mira left the office.
Mira then began walking left and right in the corridor, trying to remember the way to the exit. Shortly after, the door beside the office opened and Lily came from it. It was the maid that woke her up that time she stayed in the castle overnight.
「Ah…」
「Oh!」
Mira instinctively let out a high pitched sound while Lily’s face brightened up.
「It has been a while, Mira. Have you finished your business here?」
As a highly trained maid, Lily bowed respectfully to Mira, her face smiling happily as she lifted her face afterward.
「Yes, I’m about to go back.」
「Is that so. Then are you free at this moment? The combined efforts of us maids just produced our best masterpiece to date!」
「Well…I guess it’s fine.」
Mira had already guessed that would happen the moment she saw Lily. Unable to refuse a girl looking at her that way, Mira nodded instantly in an attempt to get over with it as soon as possible.
She guided Mira down the hallway and entered a room at the end of a corridor. After picking up the finished clothes, she went further inside the room.
That place was a sewing room, with many clothes hung around and balls of yarn filling the place. It was a room in one of the corners of the castle as a part of the production department. The sewing room was really quiet. Mira began feeling nervous as she glanced at the countless maid clothes hung on the wall. Those clothes were not all the same though, each had their own charms and were one-of-a-kind.
(The third one from the right on the second shelf…or no, better the one under the shelf and four to the left…)
Mira appraised those clothes with a serious look. In her mind, she had fun imagining Emela, or Fricca wearing the different clothes.
「Do you also have an interest in maid clothes?」
「Wha-?! Oh, err, well. I don’t dislike them.」
Mira’s body shook at that unexpected voice from behind, and in confusion, she confessed her thoughts.
「Then would you want to try wearing some?」
「No, there’s no need for that.」
After calming down a bit, Mira promptly rejected her. There was no point in it if she was the one wearing them.
「Is that so. If you ever wish to wear one please let me know. I’ll sew one with whichever design you like best.」
Lily looked somewhat disappointed, but there were no signs she would give up on the idea. Mira momentarily imagined herself wearing a maid costume, praising herself for how good it would be to look at.
「Now then, please direct your attention here. This is the robe set made exclusively for your use!」
When Mira saw the clothes Lily spread in front of her, she was lost for words. Her initial expectations of seeing clothes that strictly followed the Goth Loli Magical Girl trend had been dashed entirely, and in a good way.
「Hohh… Hoh hoh hoh!」
Mira’s eyes were fixated on the clothes, devouring them with her gaze, and she nodded multiple times.
The general design of the clothes still followed the Goth Loli pattern, but the striking frills and ribbons were removed, and instead there were embroidered shapes in key parts of the clothes. But more importantly, those cute and stylistic clothes resembled the Futuristic Magical Girl style she once held an interest for.
Described briefly, it looked like the clothes the young leader of a spellcaster group would wear. A black and white sleeveless dress and a black coat with a purple stripe on it.
「Is it to your liking?」
「Yes, this isn’t bad at all.」
The clothes were just in line with Mira’s tastes. The unexpected reveal and her thoughts on how this was one level above the other clothes she wore before filled her mind, so she forgot those clothes were meant for her and she replied honestly.
「I’m glad that is the case. That night I gave you the prototype, his Majesty Solomon told me of your tastes.」
「So that happened.」
If Solomon was involved, then it made sense that it was made according to her tastes. Not only that, but it was together with him that they explored the world of Futuristic Magical Girls. And when Mira thought about it a bit more, she realized that those clothes resembled a lot those worn by a character Solomon had recommended to her.
「That guy…he even mixed in some of his own tastes…」
After looking at the white leather belt merged with the dress, Mira shifted her attention to the coat, which was shorter on the front side, so even when it was closed, her legs would show. That was entirely based on Solomon’s tastes.
「Well then, let’s get you changed right away.」
Saying so, Lily took Mira to a corner of the sewing room that was covered by a curtain and handed her the clothes.
「Do you require any help with it?」
「No, there’s no need for that.」
Lily offered her help with a bright smile, but Mira refused as she took the clothes and walked into the curtains. That space was used as a changing room, it had a large mirror in the main wall, with shelves on the sides and multiple hangers.
Mira took off her clothes and put them on the shelf, then took the new robe and slid her hand into its arms.
「It fits you splendidly!」
「I-is that so?」
When Mira was done changing and showed herself, Lily complimented her excitedly. Mira was also nowhere nearly as annoyed as she made it seem as she moved her limbs while looking at herself. The army of highly trained maids had worked hard making it, so it fit perfectly to her body and there were no hindrances to her movements.
「I’ll brief you on its functionality then.」
Saying that, Lily dragged Mira in front of a table with a lot of pieces of paper on it.
「First things first, these are the names of everyone who worked to make your personal magic robe set.」
「There’s a lot of them…」
As she said that, Lily showed Mira a piece of paper with many names, starting with Solomon and Luminaria. There were so many Mira gave up on reading them all and just skimmed ahead, spotting the name of Thomas, the developer of the Accord Cannon somewhere in there as well.
「Next is this one. As the title suggests, your clothes were developed with magic engineering, so this details its functions.」
「Magic Engineering…? Isn’t that dangerous?」
When Mira heard the word ‘engineering’, she instantly pictured a large cannon as she looked down at her clothes. Lily replied that there was nothing to worry about as she proudly shook her head.
「Don’t worry. Rather, we worked so hard to make this so the least you can do to return the favor would be to become our dress-up…err, try out some clothing for us.」
「Hm…? Did you say dress-up something?」
「I said no such thing?」
Mira glared doubtfully at Lily trying to amend her words flusteredly. She just looked away and feigned ignorance. Mira was not really interested in pressing the matter further, so she just let it go as she returned her gaze to the paper.
「Anyway, I’ll explain a bit more. First, the most important thing. There’s a small box in the belt of the dress, you can store Magic Stones and Magic Sealing Stones of any element in there.」
As she said that, Lily opened Mira’s coat slightly, then reached for the black buckle of the white belt and opened it. After that, a small opening, large enough for stones to go through, appeared there.
「Hohohh. Now that’s something fancy.」
Mira playfully opened and closed the buckle multiple times as she muttered that.
「That device is the origin of all the magic used by the robe set. Using the magic power stored in the stones as fuel, it can produce many different effects!」
Lily proudly began explaining to Mira, though she had only helped with selecting and judging the fabric, so all the magic-related knowledge was relayed by Thomas through her. She normally never touched any topics related to magic, so in preparation for this day, she had asked Thomas day after day to teach her and be her master.
「Now, about the different effects. First of all, the robe set received a fire and ice resistance treatment. Though if subjected to extreme temperatures the effect will degrade so be careful.」
「Though when used in conjunction with magic stones the effect is reinforced. The fire resistance apparently is strong enough to ward off the flames from a Hellfire Bird. It also has self-repairing capabilities, though there’s also a limit to that, if it tears up too much, it won’t be able to recover」
「If you use Magic Sealing Stones, their elements will also affect the type of offensive and defensive effects of the robe set.」
She was able to explain everything without messing up. When she was done, she turned an expecting look at Mira, who was just acting as usual in a Mira-like way; stroking the clothes in a deeply interested manner.
「Hohoh. There’s a lot to them.」
Mira was truly amazed, her expectations had been vastly exceeded with the functionality of the clothes. There were some points she was still confused about, but it had quite an assortment of interesting functions. Her Sage’s Robe also had extra functionality built into it, but the Magic Robe Set was also made to a high standard. From what she had seen so far, it was possible that the Magic Robe Set with all its effects activated would have higher defensive attributes than the Sage’s Robe.
But when it came to an actual battle, the Sage’s Robe would turn the tides towards victory, and more importantly, it was well designed. Though the Magic Robe Set had a charm of its own.
As Mira repeated the different functions of it in her head, she started gaining a liking for them as well, so she figured she could just switch between these and her old clothes from time to time.
(I’m really curious about the effects of different Magic Sealing Stones, as well as the fire and cold resistance.)
「Still, something like this sounds really expensive, is it really okay for me to take it?」
Equipment that was overloaded with so many functions normally went for quite expensive prices. Realizing that, Mira turned a questioning look towards Lily.
「Of course. Luminaria covered all the costs herself. It was built under the orders of her and His Majesty Solomon, so it’s yours.」
「Is that so…」
Neither of those two had told her anything about that. Mira forced a smile as she realized that all the fuss she had gone through was caused by her two good friends, but then she broke into a happier smile.
「I’ll have to thank them later.」
They had organized all of that in secret, so it would be boring to thank them directly. Instead, she reaffirmed her determination while deciding to buy them some nice presents when she had the chance.
(Though well, today is for sightseeing. I’ll think about that tomorrow.)
Vowing to work harder from the next day onwards, she left the sewing room together with Lily.
After that, she was brought to the maids’ chambers, where the other maids had been waiting to unload all their affection on her. Everyone there had been involved with manufacturing her clothes, so she had no excuse to refuse them as they played with her hair, trying different styles on her. At the same time, Mira was fully entranced by the maids’ specially crafted sweets, so overlooking the noise around her, she enjoyed a fulfilling snack time.
It was already noon, slightly past lunchtime, but because of all the sweets she ate, Mira’s stomach was full.
Once released from the maids’ chambers, Mira exchanged a short greeting with the gatekeeper of the castle and headed out into castletown to sightsee. The people from the castle had been briefed by Solomon as to Mira’s identity, so she was free to go basically anywhere.
Thinking where to go first, Mira recalled the academy building she had seen from Solomon’s office. The imposing building had piqued Mira’s curiosity, even though she saw it from a long distance, so she decided to head there first as she began looking around her.
「Where was it again…」
Since the city was so large, she was unable to find any clues from the homogenous buildings around her, so she began walking while constantly looking around. Soon after, she spotted a guard patrolling the city just in front of her.
When the guard saw that cute girl with long silver hair parted around her shoulders, his heart leaped. But he soon realized she was the wiseman’s pupil that had been welcomed with so much fanfare a week earlier, so he hurried to greet her politely.
「Could you please tell me the way to the academy?」
With a short run, Mira approached the guard that appeared there like a miracle to save her and she asked while looking up at him.
「Lady Mira, of course. Just cross the bridge behind that corner, then follow the main street and you should see it to the left-hand side.」
「Ohh I see. Thank you.」
Mira turned her body to the direction the guard pointed, then turned her head back to express her gratitude before breaking into a short run towards the academy. The guard praised himself for dealing calmly with the situation as he watched her and the dangling twin tails behind her fade into the distance, a relaxed smile on his lips.
The lake shaped like a crescent moon was the main landmark of Arkite Kingdom. The inner area surrounded by the lake was home to the high-class districts of the city, with bridges connecting to the common districts. Mira was swiftly crossing through one of those bridges. The bridge was around ten meters wide, built of orange stone slabs arranged into a straight plane. Street lamps sculpted in refined shapes were placed in regular intervals along it, fully realizing the appearance proper of a bridge connecting to a high-class district.
The lake was rather wide, so it took Mira around twenty minutes to cross to the other side, reaching at the entrance of the common district.
「Aren’t you Lady Mira? Do you have any business here in the common district?」
A guard spoke to her. He was guarding the gate between the district and the bridge. The gate itself was not large, only wide enough for a single carriage to pass through at a time. There was also a small booth to the side for the guard.
「Yes, I just want to sightsee a bit.」
「Oh, I see. It is a very beautiful city after all. I’ll open the gate then, so stand back a bit.」
Saying that, the guard entered the booth and the gate slowly began to open. The scenery behind the gradually growing gap had a clearly distinct air to the cityscape of the high-class district. It was more crowded and looked much livelier, clearly showing it was the capital of the kingdom.
Mira waved at the guard while crossing the gate, entering into the eastern district of the capital of Arkite Kingdom, Lunatic Lake.
A large street went straight out in front of her. According to the guard’s directions, if she continued straight through it she would find the academy, so she took him on his word and walked forward following the street.
Like any other large street, it was lined with varied shops selling a multitude of wares. Since it was close to the academy, there were lots of stationery stores, as well as other miscellaneous stores. But what struck her the most was the overwhelming amount of stores specializing in magic wares. No matter where she looked, she saw at least one of them.
The term magic wares covered a wide spectrum of products, but it mostly referred to tools used together with spells. Things like canes that could be used as weapons, catalysts that helped spellcasters use certain types of magic, charms for onmyoji masters, holy stones for saints, or holy water for exorcists. They also sold Magic Sealing Stones or different types of medicines, or manufacturing tools and materials. Anything that had any sort of magical property was considered a magic ware.
The stores along the main street held countless items like that.
Mira waltzed forward, curiously looking at the items on display from the stores, happily fulfilling her plan of sightseeing and taking her time before moving forward.
Many of the items were known to her, but every now and then she would spot something new and entertaining. She would always ask the shopkeeper what those unknown items were, some of them would reply smiling, others would be nervous, and others would explain with a kind voice.
After taking her sweet time window shopping, Mira finally arrived at her main destination.
「It’s so large…」
She said without thinking. Just like she had said, Arkite Academy occupied a large area of around the same size as an average airport. There were three large buildings color coded for the different faculties arranged like a square with an open side. There were other multiple buildings, way smaller compared to the three big ones, strewn around the area as well.
Since Mira had originally been a grown adult, her conscience made her feel like she was doing something wrong by staring at the academy openly, so she walked closer to the gates and peeked her head around the corner to observe that way. Although she was oblivious to the fact that doing that made her look all the more suspicious.
In the front courtyard, Mira saw students practicing some form of martial arts. Some were practicing in pairs while others ran around the courtyard. There were around thirty students of around ten to twenty years in age, wearing plain shirts and short pants that were easy to move in and one adult that was presumably the instructor. They were in the middle of a physical education and hand-to-hand combat class. Further away there was another class, this one with two instructors, a male and a female one, standing in front of a formation of sixty students in robes. The entire courtyard was so large that even with that many students on it, they looked like a small number of people.
Mira looked at them with a pleasant smile. The place was stupidly large for an education facility, but it was clear it was an academy.
「That’s youth for you.」
It had been six years since he graduated from college, so seeing this made Mira mutter absentmindedly while filled with nostalgia.
「Are you interested in the academy?」
Hearing that sudden voice from her blind spot, Mira’s body instinctively jolted as the shady feeling that inundated her consciousness earlier was reactivated at full force. With stuttery movements like a rusty mechanism, Mira fearfully turned around. A woman with cat ears and a large bag hanging on her shoulder was there, her back slightly bent as she looked down towards Mira with a gentle smile.
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