3.11.
"Leticia."
It was after their evening meal. Everyone retired to their own room, Leticia, Nynim and Quora sharing one room, Daizo and Dorry sharing another.
"What is it?"
Each room had two beds. Due to the limitation, Leticia slept on the same bed as Nynim.
"I don't trust him. That guy named Procto," Nynim pouted.
"I don't think sharing the contents of a confidential quest would really cause any problems. I don't get why he keeps interjecting Sequencee," Quora commented.
Their day had mostly been ruined by the fact that Procto kept following them. It was like they were being watched by their parents– plain bothersome.
"Sequencee too. Can't he be more assertive when it comes to things like this? He's always being dragged around," Nynim muttered.
"Isn't that a good thing for Leticia then?"
"What has that got to do with me?
"He obviously listens to you, and cares about you. You're his biggest fulcrum to get him to act."
"Too late talking about that now. He's going off tomorrow morning," Nynim reached into her luggage to search for something.
"He's going to be fine.." Leticia drawled.
"Leticia, do you want to force our way in?" Nynim took out a cloak.
"Hm? What do you mean?"
"For quests like these, the commissioner should take into account the commissioned's party. I have a sense that something might happen."
"Yeah, you're right. Private quests usually involve an entire party, so why weren't we included in the discussion?"
"It could just be that Sequencee never considered us to be part of his party to begin with?" Leticia reasoned.
"I doubt that.."
Flash– Rumble–
When the brief flash of lightning ended, the three girls turned to the window, the dark sky. Lightning crackled across the clouds glowing in a subtle orange.
Knock. Knock.
"Hm?"
"Who is it I wonder?" Nynim opened the door.
"Are you free?" Sequencee who stood on the opposite side asked.
"Yes, quite free. Anything?" Nynim asked.
"I just wanted to tell you about the details of my mission."
"Finally," Quora punched her bed with a grin.
"I've already told Daizo and Dorry about it. I think you deserve to know what I'm going to do. It's just a reminder to tell you not to try anything stupid like tailing me," Seuqnecee eyed Nynim.
"I never said nothing," Nynim turned away and whistled.
"And so.. what is the quest?" Leticia asked, approaching Sequencee.
"Kill the cardinal of Savior's Cult."
===
The thunderous roars of raindrops covered the streets of the city deep into the night. By this time, most of the populace had settled into their bed–
Except, Leticia couldn't sleep. Nynim was already dead as a log beside her. With the cold temperature, she unconsciously stole most of the rights to the sole blanket, leaving Leticia lying exposed.
'Mind manipulation and shadow magic..'
Leticia's mind kept rewinding the day. The accident Sequencee faced in the dungeon, his true mercenary rank, and now this mission he was assigned to.
This was one of the rare few moments Leticia felt truly worried for someone; the ribbon of unexplainable guilt swirling inside her mind. She wanted to do something, but she didn't know what.
Slowly.. ever so slowly.. he was growing distant from her. Schwii's perfect figure came to mind, leading Leticia into a downward spiral of dejection.
Flash– Rumble–
Leticia sat up and hugged her knees.
"Something.. I have to be able to do something.."
'Why I'm I feeling this way?'
Fear? Anxiety? It was normal for someone to risk their life to earn a living. So why did it feel.. so abnormal?
Leticia got out of bed and went out of the room quietly. In her white, drapery night dress, she made her way down the hall.
Sequencee told her earlier that he had gotten permission to not use the suite provided, which meant that he was likely to be alone. And Leticia knew exactly which room he was in. For a moment she thought how similar her current actions were to when she first saw Schwii– alone, knocking on the doors of the halls–
'She's really brave.. compared to me I'm..'
Leticia stood in front of Sequencee's room. For the next few seconds, she calmed her breathing and mustered the courage to knock on the door.
"Who is it?"
But before she could do so, Sequencee's voice rang out.
'That's right.. he has spatial magic.'
"Leticia."
The door opened.
"What's wrong?"
Sequencee's room was a simple, one bedroom. He didn't have many items, everything remained neat and clean.
'What's wrong? What's wrong with me anyways?'
Leticia didn't know either. She looked away, embarrassed.
"Is there.. anything?" Sequencee asked again.
"N-Nothing. I just.. came to check to make sure that everything is alright.."
"Everything is.. fine."
'Of course. Sequencee is really strong after all.'
"About.. earlier. What exactly happened in the trainee dungeon? You were heavily injured.. weren't you? So how.."
"That's the truth. But I'm fine, really."
'Why.. how? Because of Her Highness' healing magic? What kind of injury did he suffer?'
The worry led Leticia to take out a small seed from one of the pockets in her dress. She always had some with her handy.
"About tomorrow's mission. Don't worry, I'll be fine. Even if something does happen, I have an insurance in place," Sequencee said.
"An insurance?"
"Iona, you know right?"
'R-Right.. it's always Schwii..'
"T-Then.. I'll give you my insurance too. If.. you ever find yourself in trouble, use this."
"???"
Sequencee looked at the almond-shaped kernel dubiously. Leticia didn't know how to really describe it except that it's a catalyst for plant-type spells using the user's mana.
"This is?"
"Code some mana into it. It'll grow into something depending on the kind of command you set it to."
"What?" Sequencee looked like he wasn't getting it.
"Um.."
"Like how.. exactly does this work?" Sequencee accepted the seed.
"You know how to program plants to act a certain way?"
"Yeah?"
"It's like that. The seed just makes it easier, you don't need a soil base to grow the plant from. It can come directly from the seed. Say for example.."
This was a spell Leticia developed for the sake of the examination. The trainee dungeon lacked a vector which the plants can grow from. The sandy dirt ground was alright, but it made the process difficult.
Hence, after some brainstorming, Leticia came up with the idea of creating her own vector.
Leticia created another seed. Explaining the programming function, she dropped it on the wooden floor. The seed trembled a moment before it spread out all around to create a field of ivy. From it, white lilies bloomed. Best part was, the inn's structure remained untouched.
"It um.. it's like an AOE spell but you have a remote location where it spreads from. If you try to use fire, it'll create flame plants that crawl everywhere.. something like that."
"So if I had a seed, I could throw it over to the end of the hall, and when it triggers, it'll explode into the plant spell coded into it?" Sequencee asked.
Leticia nodded and threw another seed further away. Another patch of lilies grew from the ground.
"That's really convenient.. but aren't we making a mess of the inn right now?" Sequencee said.
"I made it so it'll clean up itself," Leticia said.
Leticia bent down and picked the largest flower in the center of the field. In the next moment, the rest of the plant shriveled up into something like a tumbleweed. Leticia picked it up and threw it at Sequencee.
"Hey.."
Leticia said nothing and plucked a flower from the other patch of lilies, the same thing repeated.
"Convenient, right?" Leticia smiled.
"It is really convenient. Thanks for this," Sequencee looked at the seed in between his fingers.
'Alright!'
Leticia had a seed farm growing back at her dorm. She brought a few hundred of them for this trip. So for now at least, she had enough to spare Sequencee a few.
"You can take these. I have a bunch left."
"Y-You sure?"
"Yup."
To Leticia's bright smile, Sequencee couldn't bring himself to reject her.. even though he felt bad for taking advantage of her resources.
"Thanks Leticia. I think this'll help a lot."
"I'm glad I could be of help. Still. be careful."
– The seedling inside her quivered. Bright green leaves furled open as she felt a sense of pride.
'I'm useful.'