178 Various Secondary Matters

Gasping for breath, Ais lay on the ground, smiling in satisfaction despite the physical and mental exhaustion that was assaulting her, almost giving her a headache. Invisible to anyone but herself and her beloved, in front of her eyes, there was a system window displaying the culmination of her efforts plain and simply.

[ Supreme Swordsman (G): Improves comprehension speed of sword related skills and abilities by 44%. Increases all stats by 22% when equipped with a sword. ]

Ever since she had surmounted the 'wall' that had been holding her back and had started to support her pure swordsmanship via expertly manipulated mana, causing it to break past the bounds of common sense, she had been diligently practicing multiple times per day, for hours on end.

She very clearly sensed the Development Ability's improved comprehension speed, as it felt as if she was deliberately being guided along a path, a strong tailwind pushing her forward. And yet, despite that, every single step of progress had been brutal. If her body hadn't been strengthened to a ridiculous degree, courtesy of her Divine Falna, if it had instead been a regular mortal one… it would have started to break down ages ago.

Millions upon millions of sword swings and stabs, in rapid succession, day after day. While she was practicing her swordsmanship, all of her energy was focused solely on it, and it alone. She was aware that she didn't have the mental computational capabilities of Isaac, who could avoid any mistakes pretty much immediately after having made them, causing his progress in polishing skills like these to be inhumanely rapid. However, her own instincts were good enough for her. She might end up repeating a slight error once or twice, reducing her efficiency a little, but she still improved at a nigh unfathomable rate.

Her respect for her late father had only strengthened over these days, as she didn't even dare to imagine how excruciatingly difficult it had to have been for him to advance his abilities to a height of mastery far more impressive than her own. As far as she was aware… her father hadn't been blessed with a Falna, because back then, the gods hadn't officially descended to the Lower World yet. She was sure that he had obtained some other opportunities which allowed him to surpass a mortal body, but it couldn't have been as simple as gaining excelia by slaying monsters.

Shaking her head to disperse the memories, she sat up and took a few more deep breaths. It had only taken her a few minutes to recover to her peak state from a pretty much empty battery - the Endurance stat be praised!

After dropping by the Twilight Manor and enjoying a quick shower, she dried her hair with warm gusts of wind, smiling brightly as she enjoyed the significantly stronger control over her own mana, which enabled her to do little tricks like these with nary a thought. All her hard work hadn't been in vain. Yesterday, late into the night, she had finally managed to break through the bottleneck that had kept her from adding the 10,000th drop to her mana flow.

[ Mana Cultivation - Foundation Establishment (G): Enables one to interact with their surroundings by using mana. Reduction in mana expenditure: 3% ]

This Development Ability's rise in grade had also contributed to her more accurate mana manipulation during her swordsmanship training, causing it to follow suit and improve. It was a virtuous cycle, one that she very much welcomed with open arms.

She had been circulating her drops of mana in her mental layer when Isaac had told her about Valenoa having been relocated to his private world. Originally, she had wanted to seek out the girl immediately, but she had eventually chosen to continue with her training first. This also served to give the lovestruck spy some time to gather herself again, which couldn't hurt. Her life had just taken a major turn, so it couldn't have been easy for her.

Because of this sort of reasoning, Ais had decided to contact Valenoa after a day - in other words, now that her afternoon swordsmanship practice had concluded.

It didn't take long for her to arrive in front of the two-storey house that the girl had been temporarily assigned to. Just like the other Book Seeker residences, it was primarily reminiscent of a modern Western family home from Isaac's past world, but he had incorporated a number of medieval-esque, fantastical design elements into it that he had observed in Orario. It could pretty much be considered to be the 'best of both worlds'.

Barca had been over the moon with joy when he had realized that a lot of unfamiliar architectural knowledge was contained within the blueprints that had been handed to him. This was also the main reason as to why he had 'only' finished five buildings on his first day of work - he had needed to familiarize himself with many things.

Shortly after having rung the doorbell, a bedhead-plagued Valenoa peeked outside, the dark circles under her reddened eyes extremely telling of the quality of her last night's rest. Because she hadn't been able to fall asleep until early in the morning, she had only just woken up half an hour ago.

"S-Sword Princess! What brings you here?"

Despite her muddled mental state, Valenoa instantly recognized the transcendental beauty who was silently standing on her porch, her expression too neutral to tell anything about her mood or thoughts.

"Do you know this woman?"

Not bothering to beat around the bush, Ais grabbed Revis from within her inventory and held her by the neck. There were still two or three meters of distance separating her from Valenoa, so her captive shouldn't be able to hurt anyone - well, unless she stood by without doing anything.

"Huh?"

"Huh!?"

Both of the red-haired women reacted in almost the exact same way.

In Revis' case, this was because her environment had, all of a sudden, changed from the 59th floor of the dungeon to a place that she didn't recognize. What was that void surrounding this area? She could spy it even from in front of this… oddly-looking home? Puzzlement and fear were openly displayed in her gaze, her mind finding it extraordinarily difficult to come to terms with the unprecedented changes that she had just experienced.

Everything about her being had been effectively 'frozen' while she had been in the inventory, so in her eyes, she hadn't even blinked and the entire world had just become… different. It was no wonder that she was completely flabbergasted. Additionally, the strength of the hand that was grasping her had increased significantly. Had the Sword Princess become stronger somehow? How did that even make sense?!

On the other hand, Valenoa's surprised exclamation had a completely different cause at its core. The moment that her gaze had landed on Revis, the face of someone who she had thought to never be able to see again emerged from within the depths of her memories.

"Lita? It's you, isn't it?"

Right as she was about to walk closer to reach out to her captive, Ais stepped backwards, shaking her head. She didn't even need to explain her actions, as the unknowingly very cooperative Revis glared straight at Valenoa in annoyance.

"Who are you calling 'Lita'? I don't know you. Don't talk to me."

Shrinking back a bit when faced with her hostile tone, the red-haired spy experienced a turmoil of emotions. There was disbelief, anger, despair… but mostly, strong confusion. Why didn't her eldest cousin recognize her anymore?

If she had only been able to catch a very short glimpse of Revis, then she might have still been able to tell herself that she had merely mistaken the woman for someone else. But the more that she looked at her, aside from some obvious signs of aging and a few scars here and there, the more convinced she became. Revis looked like a carbon copy of Lita!

A certain idea eventually came to mind, causing her to sigh helplessly, before gazing at Revis with pity and regret.

"You lost your memories, didn't you?"

Upon hearing her speak, the woman was silent for a moment, then she scoffed at the notion and refused to talk to this nuisance any further. She had always been Revis, ever since she awoke in Knossos. It was easy for her to guess that her body might have lived a different life before she came to be - but why would she care about any of that?

Finally recalling the question that Ais had asked her, Valenoa hurriedly looked at the Sword Princess and gave the best response that she could.

"I'm certain that this is my aunt's eldest daughter, Lita. As you've seen, though, she doesn't appear to remember me. I suspect that she might have lost her memory back when she went missing. Just like me, she was trained to become a spy from a young age. Her particular mission was to infiltrate Evilus, so that we could have a better understanding of their exact movements and plans. Six years ago, during a massive battle between Evilus and most familias local to Orario, she vanished and was never seen again. We all suspected her to have died back then. But apparently… well, something else happened."

Conflicting emotions glimmering in her eyes, Valenoa's gaze once again fell upon Lita - or rather, Revis. Many of her family members had fallen in the line of duty. This was to be expected for those of their profession. However, her eldest cousin's 'death' had always been an especially painful thorn stabbing into her heart. The two of them had been very close when she grew up. Although there was a huge age difference separating the two - Valenoa was now 16 years old, while Lita had been 18 years old back when she disappeared, making her current age 24 - Lita had always taken care of the young Valenoa, just like a fantastic elder sister.

Studying the turbulent expression on the girl's face, Ais recalled all the information that she and Isaac had obtained so far. Judging that it would be a good idea to share some parts of it, she spoke up, snapping the younger of red-haired ladies out of her recollections.

"Her memory loss may be related to the fact that she is a 'Creature', a being that experienced a transformation after consuming a magic stone that was contaminated by the Demi Spirit Skill, 'Creature - Origin'. If you'd like to learn more about this topic, you can ask the two Filvis' about it. They're the black-haired Elves that should be living somewhere nearby. They might know more, seeing how they're also Creatures."

With a simple thought, Ais stored Revis back into her inventory.

"I'll keep her for now, to prevent her from doing something stupid. Thanks for the information. Have a nice evening."

Before Valenoa could even digest everything that the uncharacteristically talkative Sword Princess had just said, Ais had already disappeared from her field of view, leaving her to her own thoughts. For a long time, she merely stood there in silence.

"You seem lost. Would you like a cup of tea to calm yourself down?"

An odd, almost eerie voice that seemed as if a whole chorus of people was speaking at once, somehow resulting in a somewhat sweet, girlish tone, sounded from next to her, causing her to instinctively nod and show a grateful smile.

"Thank you, that'd be lovely."

As she turned to face the one who had called out to her, she froze up for a second or two, before hastily extinguishing the embers of terror that had flared up within her heart. She had already seen Titania and Gugalanna yesterday, while making her way to her new residence. However, she had never personally interacted with them, so she hadn't yet grown used to talking to these odd, monster-esque beings.

The elder one of the plant sisters didn't take Valenoa's reaction to heart, because she was well aware of how unusual her outward appearance was, at least when compared to everyone else. Even if she did care about it a little in the beginning, she had long since grown numb to reactions like these, especially when they weren't that extreme.

A certain youngster who had submitted to her lord just yesterday was far more of a nuisance in this regard, though. He never even approached within a kilometer of her or Gugalanna, the caution on his face displayed as clear as day. Many exasperated sighs had escaped her lips due to his behaviour.

While gulping down generous mouthfuls of freshly-made tea, Valenoa eventually came to terms with all that had been revealed to her just now. Well, more or less at least.

'The Filvis', eh? I guess I'd better seek them out sometime soon.'

-----

Around the same time, at a different spot within the private world, Angrboda was reclining on a sofa with her daughter, looking up and staring out into the endless void beyond this plane's boundaries, a blank look on her face. Gone was her smile, only astonishment remained.

Initially, when she had first set foot in here, her reaction had been somewhat similar to that of Hel. She had clearly felt herself cut off from her Divine Energy in Heaven, as well as from her Divinity itself. Her Arcanums, some of which she had still had access to when she had been in the Lower World, were also unusable.

Because her Divine Soul was here with her, in this mortal vessel, if she was killed… she would well and truly disappear. Something like that, according to her understanding, could have never occurred back in Heaven or the Lower World. It was an entirely foreign sensation, but one whose reliability she was 100 percent sure of.

Genuine, existential fear had sprouted in her heart for the first time since she had come into being. A desire to run away, to leave, had threatened to overwhelm her. This frightened emotional state had been sufficient to tell her that her daughter hadn't been exaggerating at all - even she couldn't remotely comprehend what kind of being might be able to eradicate gods and create completely independent worlds. One thing was for sure: It was definitely not a deity.

Fortunately, Hel was here with her. Her daughter grabbing her hand was what had awakened her from her dread-induced stupor. Very quickly, she had succeeded in stabilizing her mind to a degree, allowing herself to take part in the sight-seeing trip that her little goddess of the underworld had prepared for her.

There wasn't all too much to take note of yet, but many things caused her to raise an eyebrow in surprise. Unfamiliar beings introduced as Demi Spirits, an architect who was muttering to himself and giving off a 'mad scientist'-vibe, a god who had been demoted to a mere well-treated prisoner, many embryonic forms of buildings, Isaac's research area, an expanse of blackness that wrapped around the whole world…

Out of all of these, only the last one didn't leave her mind. It fascinated her, but the mere thought of touching or entering it made her heartbeat's cadence turn panicked and erratic.

Ripping away her gaze from the black void with difficulty, Angrboda closed her eyes and leaned to the right, resting her cheek on Hel's head. Wrapping her arms around her daughter allowed her to slowly regain control over her emotions.

"Are you o-okay, mom?"

The worry in Hel's quivering voice caused a doting smile to blossom on the motherly goddess' gorgeous facial features.

"More or less. You certainly weren't kidding when you said that he was unfathomable."

Sighing helplessly, she opened her eyes again, only to notice that underneath her daughter's concern, a smug look that seemed to be shouting the words 'See? I told you so.' was making a mockery of her. A bit annoyed, she tightened her hug and snuggled up to her some more in a teasing, overly-affectionate manner.

"M-Mom! Stop it already. It's embarrassing…"

Hel wouldn't have minded this behaviour at all if the two of them had been alone together, but the sofa that they were sitting on was pretty much only a stone's throw from where Isaac was engrossed in his research. Although she knew that he would be able to perceive their actions even if they were separated by many walls, that still felt different from getting pampered out in the open.

Speaking of, she probably shouldn't tell her mother about the exact extent of Isaac's perception capabilities for now… else she would no longer be able to take a bath or visit the restroom for other purposes in peace.

Despite Isaac assuring her that he consciously stopped paying attention to her and others during such private moments, it had taken her a fair bit of time until the paranoia and deep embarrassment had faded. Her mother was already overwhelmed right now, so she didn't need to add more worries to the pile.

"Fine, fine~"

Giggling amusedly, Angrboda ruffled Hel's hair, unabashedly enjoying the opportunity to shower her with love in front of others.

"I have to say, you've really chanced upon an encounter that I could have never imagined. I guess there is no way to get off this ship now that you've brought me aboard, huh?"

Avoiding her gaze and smiling sheepishly, Hel feigned innocence.

"I don't know what you're talking about~"

Of course, it had always been her intention to make her mother a part of this, ever since she had decided to become Isaac's first goddess follower slash friend. Outside of the oddly comforting big brother aura that he seemed to exude, logical reasoning had told her that joining his side was the best choice that she could have made.

-----

"Thank you so much, Syr! I can't tell you how grateful I am that you're covering for me this evening!!"

Bowing appreciatively to her friend while standing just outside of the Hostess of Fertility's back door, Ryuu had already changed into her adventuring outfit. Originally, she should have been serving the customers today, but a certain grey-haired young woman had agreed to take over her shift, even though it had originally been her day off.

"Geez, I get it already! Go on and hurry off, I have to get started."

Playfully displeased, Syr shooed the way too earnest Elf away into the deserted alleyway, hastily closing the door and rushing along the tavern's halls as if her life depended on it.

Rolling her eyes at this exaggerated act, Ryuu's lips betrayed a small smile as she set out. Soon after, however, she grew tense and serious as she recalled her plans for tonight.

'I hope he'll receive me…'

If this thought had been made known to her friends, they would surely have poked fun at her again, even though she really didn't mean it in the way that they would claim.

Ever since her foray into Knossos alongside the Loki Familia, she had had many questions regarding Evilus on her mind. None of them had been answered to her satisfaction yet! As the one with the most documents belonging to and about that organization in his hands, Isaac was the only one she could contact about this. By now, he should have gotten plenty of intel from his contacts at the Guild as well.

With a glimmer of hope within her heart, but also feeling dread at what she might uncover, Ryuu hurried towards the Twilight Manor at her fastest speed.

Considering that he could already monitor all of Orario easily, Isaac had long since known about the Elven waitress' intentions. The night before, he had devoted a bit of time to interrogating his Black Blade and Evilus captives. After that, he browsed through all pieces of evidence in his possession. Via Yolanda, he had also been made aware of the results of Thanatos' questioning.

A mere thought later, he had pulled out the most recently caught Black Blade member as well as a stack of orderly notes from his inventory. The papers had already been placed in the black-robed young woman's hands before she even knew what was happening.

"An Elf by the name of Ryuu Lion is about to arrive. Give her this, entertain her well and answer all of her questions to the best of your ability."

There wasn't any emotion in his voice as he stated his orders without even looking at her. It was clear as day that he didn't have the slightest morsel of affection for her and had only kept her around for this express purpose. At least that was the impression that she had gotten.

Not daring to distract him, because he appeared to be extremely focused on the few magic stones lying on the desk in front of him, the woman nodded. As if she was walking on pins and needles, she carefully made her way over to a table accompanied by a set of chairs which was part of the relaxation area nearby.

Whilst she was waiting for the guest to arrive, she did her very best to suppress the ghastly memories of her companions' deaths and the painful surgical removal of the mechanism that had once made her into a humanoid bomb. They were still all too fresh in her mind. She was afraid that if she slipped up, she would be disposed of.

Searching for something to distract herself with, she looked at the only other people here, a pair of women who were snuggling with each other on one of the sofas. The older one of the two shot her a warm smile and waved at her, whereas the younger one hurriedly looked away and hid her face in the older one's hair - in a 'If I can't see her, she can't see me.' kind of way.

Speechless, the black-robed woman waved back, ever so slightly amused.