Extra: The Best Souvenir
One night, a few days before they received word of the Paladins’ defeat, something huge was about to arrive in Inglis’s makeshift dragonscale smithy on the outskirts of the encampment.
“Wow!”
“Wh-What is that thing?!”
“It’s huge!”
It was an all-white ball—that is, a snowball. But this was no ordinary snowball; it was many times the height of a person. The knights and civilians who saw it were simply overwhelmed by its presence.
“Heave-ho! Heave-ho!” Pushing it was, of course, Inglis. She rolled the snowball to the edge of the crater she’d created by striking Fufailbane’s scales and sighed in relief. The hole had been paved, somewhat crudely, with stones.
“Rani! Here it comes! No one’s inside, right?” The snowball was so big that she couldn’t see around it.
“Go right ahead! The coast’s clear!”
“All right!”
One more push.
Thump!
The huge snowball filled the pit, its upper half peeking out. With this, the preparations were complete.
“Perfect! Hurry up, Chris! I can’t wait to relax!”
“Okay, Rani.”
“Hold it, you two,” Leone interjected. “Isn’t this too much?”
But she was a moment too late to stop them. Inglis had already focused the mana she’d converted from aether and completed her spell. “Come forth! Open-air bath!”
Whooomph!
A pillar of flame pierced the center of the snowball. Inglis had come this far in the use of even flame magic, a category she hadn’t used much at all, thanks to her daily training. The rising flames swiftly melted the snowball.
“Wh—?!”
Splooosh!
Inglis and the others, near the edge of the pit, were swamped by a wave of warm water. They were unable to avoid it and ended up completely soaked.
“Did I overdo it a bit?” Inglis asked.
“Yeah, that was a bit much,” Leone answered.
“I’m drenched...” Liselotte complained.
“It’s okay, we can dry everything off while we’re relaxing! We know it’s nice and warm too! Let’s hurry up and take a bath!”
“Ah! Don’t undress yet, Rani! People are watching!” Inglis kept Rafinha from undressing as she cleared out the stragglers, and then it was time for the group to enjoy an open-air bath of their own making.
“Mmm, this feels great! ♪ It was a great use of that hole you made!” Rafinha exhaled in satisfaction as she sat in the warm water. She had been the one to suggest making a bath out of the crater Inglis had created while processing Fufailbane’s scales.
“Yeah, Rani. It’s nice to be able to look up at the stars as I bathe.”
“It’s really liberating, isn’t it?” Leone added.
“One stays toasty warm, yet the air is cool and refreshing,” Liselotte said.
“And look, everyone. You can see the reflection of the stars in the water. It’s beautiful!” Even Pullum glowed despite having been down in the dumps lately.
“You’re right—and there’s nothing like beautiful scenery to make food even more delicious!”
“Agreed, Rani.”
Inglis and Rafinha each held chunks of Fufailbane’s tail meat. Floating on a wooden plate in the bath were several more.
“Well, that rather spoils the scenery.” Liselotte pouted.
“Yeah,” Leone agreed.
“Nah, it’s fine. There are plenty of people who drink wine in outdoor baths. Isn’t eating meat a similar kind of enjoyment?” Inglis asked.
“Aha ha... Well, I guess so, though it does seem a bit crude,” Leone replied.
“Really? My family does it all the time. Even Rafael,” Rafinha replied.
“Huh?! Rafael?! I can’t believe it!”
“But he’s such a graceful, elegant man!” Liselotte said.
“It’s true! If anything, he’s more into it than we are,” Rafinha confirmed.
“I remember one day Rani suddenly said that she wanted to eat in the bath,” Inglis mused. “What an experience that was. When I asked her, she said she got the idea from Rafael... Anyway, she was insistent, so I went along with it, and she ended up spilling seafood stew all over. It was a huge mess. The water ended up filthy.”
“Aha ha, really? You have a great memory. How old were we then anyway?”
“Five. I remember it clearly.” To Inglis, whose perceptions were already those of an adult then, something only ten years ago was the recent past. “But you were so tiny then, Rani, and now you’re almost grown up. Time flies, doesn’t it?” She was practically teary-eyed thinking about how proud she was of Rafinha.
For some reason, Rafinha was displeased. “Grr. What are you talking about? I haven’t grown at all since then!”
“Huh? Are you sure?”
“Very! Nothing’s changed here!” Rafinha clapped a hand to her slender chest. “Must be nice for you, ‘growing up’ so much and leaving me behind! That’s the reason you get to talk like you’re such an adult!”
“W-Wait, that wasn’t what I meant by that! I meant, like, growing as a person...”
“That’s why I’m saying it’s not fair! Ahh, I’m so jealous, at least let me see what they feel like!”
“Aaah! That’s— Eek! S-Stop! I’ll drop the meat!”
“Bwa ha ha. You’d better not squirm, then! If you do, you’ll drop it!”
“Ugh! Sheesh!”
“Really, though, I wonder how Rafael’s doing. Now that we’re talking about him, I really do miss him. I want to feed him some of the dragon meat—he’d love it, wouldn’t he, Chris?”
“Y-Yeah. I think he would. Now could you take your hands off my chest?”
“Nooo waaay! ♪ Not until you’ve had time to think about what you said.”
“Rafael’s on the border with Venefic now, isn’t he...? I wonder how that front of the war is going,” Leone pondered, doing her best to ignore Inglis and Rafinha’s shenanigans.
“He’s with the Paladins, not to mention Lady Eris and Lady Ripple, so there’s little he’s unprepared for. Though, knowing that, Venefic may have also deployed a hieral menace and a knight with a special-class Rune to fight them...” Liselotte said.
“You’re probably right, Liselotte,” Rafinha said. “I don’t know much about it, but I suppose Venefic probably does have a hieral menace and a holy knight.”
“Yes, I believe that may be the case,” Liselotte replied. “Their General Rochefort—whose nom de guerre is ‘the Red Lion’—once met Rafael in a tournament while he was a student at the knights’ academy, and they seemed to be evenly matched. My father said that he too had a special-class Rune.”
“An even match for Rafael, huh...” Inglis said.
Karelia had been an enemy of Venefic for many years, with acts of aggression from Venefic being a constant even recently. Their willingness to attack showed they had something up their sleeves for standing up to Karelia. A knight with a special-class Rune and a hieral menace to match would put the countries on similar levels. And if the situation on the eastern border became a full-scale conflict, there would be a good chance that those would come to the forefront.
Quite an interesting battlefield that’d be. She laughed. “When the situation here is resolved, I’ve got something to look forward to. Once we deal with everything here, let’s go help him out. We can give him some of that dragon jerky as a souvenir. Imagine the smile on his face, Rani.”
“Yeah.” Rafinha giggled. “And that means I need to keep massaging you right here so he’ll be even happier to see you and how much bigger they’ve gotten! Some delicious meat, or an adorable Chris. I wonder which one Rafael will think is the best souvenir!”
“Knock it off, Rani! That’s absurd— Eek! S-Stop it! Stop it!”
Inglis’s shrieks echoed under the beautiful starry sky for quite some time...
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